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The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in calls for change. Commentators suggested that co-operatives, in particular credit unions, could provide accountability and sustainability through their open governance and mutual status. However, such suggestions assumed that co-operative principles and practice continued to underpin the efficacy of co-operative banking, and that credit unions, one of the most prevalent forms of co-operative banking, could offer a viable financial alternative. Instead, in the case of Cyprus, the financial crisis and the associated aftershocks triggered the nationalisation and demutualisation of credit unions. This prompted the researchers to question both the viability of a co-operative banking future and the extent to which co-operative principles were shaping decision making, governance, accountability and sustainability. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A case study approach was adopted to explore the degree to which co-operative principles still shaped credit union thinking and stakeholder relationships.

As is the case elsewhere within the co-operative movement, the findings point the fact that governance is weaken by the low membership participation and that the principles are no longer universally applied. Credit unions, if not co-operative banking, may not offer the financial assurances that commentators have called for. Moreover, the guiding principles may no longer be embedded within the fabric of the movement.

Findings are important for practitioners/supervisory body as they highlight possible impacts on co-operative’ future and especially on their governance model and level of autonomy and independence in case of state intervention.

The research undertaken is original as it is the first time credit unions in Cyprus were examined for adherence to co-operative principles.

The purpose of this research was to understand the lived experience of mentoring to provide insight for those who manage and experience mentoring at work.

Semi-structured interviews with a cohort of 43 mentors and their mentees plus key informants were conducted. It is a longitudinal qualitative study undertaken with a year's cohort of mentors (referred to as “devilmasters”) and mentees (“devils”) in the profession of law, amongst Scottish barristers, advocates.

The meanings of mentoring differed widely between individuals. Mentoring relationships differed in their depth, quality and benefits the mentees received. The research findings reveal the inconsistencies and inequalities that are a fundamental part of the experience of mentoring that, as yet, the research literature has missed. The research also revealed how mentoring alone was not enough and that structured training was required to supplement mentoring. Further, there is a dependency to be found in mentoring. The mentoring process is power laden.

Researchers may need to provide a definition of mentoring to those they research. Power needs to be fore-grounded in research.

As almost all previous research on mentoring is survey based, this is one of the few studies of the lived experience of mentoring, socialization and cognitive apprenticeship.

The purpose of the article is to show, through a case study, that the reasons motivating members and non‐members of a quality circle to improve quality are not limited to those formulated in the literature. We thereby concur with Fiona Wilson who, in an article published in a recent issue of Employee Relations, showed that the psychological reward is not enough. In the workshops under study, members and non‐members obtained better working conditions – for example lay‐offs have stopped, transfer of employees from one workshop to another or from one job station to another is a thing of the past – by improving quality through the direct impact that their action was having on the organisation′s position in the market and, consequently, on the increase of production volumes.

This paper describes work with patients/service users, students and educators, resulting in the identification of key issues to be addressed when planning patient/service user participation in interprofessional student learning. Preparation, communication, support and debriefing for both students and lay participants were revealed as essential for successful patient/service user involvement in education.

This chapter discusses how one bank, committed to social innovation and investment in low-income communities, evolved into a model of socially responsible banking and exemplary community development financial institution. The authors draw lessons from this experience and propose ways to apply those lessons to other financial institutions.

The chapter is based on an in-depth case study of ShoreBank. It includes extensive interviews with two of the bank’s cofounders, who served as the bank’s leaders for more than 37 years.

The case study has identified six key enabling factors for social innovation: (1) a social purpose that is deeply, and effectively, embedded in the organization’s mission, strategy, and operations; (2) an ownership structure to support the social mission and a structure (e.g., bank holding company) that facilitates social innovation; (3) capital capacity – that is, ability to create credit through leverage; (4) a deep level of knowledge about the business, the clientele, and the operating environment; (5) talented people who bring both skill and passion for the mission to the institution-building process; and (6) the discipline to continuously innovate, at a scale appropriate to the problem, with resources that are adequate to the challenge.

This work has several limitations including a focus on one U.S. bank holding company, and based on interviews with that bank’s cofounders.

The chapter provides a rich description of how social innovation through social investment created a meaningful social impact. Important lessons and useful recommendations are drawn for social enterprises that are committed to social innovation in the financial services industry.

The chapter provides insights into the ShoreBank case based on a unique set of data. It offers useful recommendations for social enterprises.

The modernisation agenda in health and social care is concerned with providing an integrated service for patients/clients and their carers. This paper focuses on the nature of practice‐based learning environments that support the development of students as effective interprofessional practitioners for the modernised health and social care services.

The argument in this article is put from the standpoint that employers continually need to exercise control in order to realise the capacity of employees at work. One technique for achieving this is the quality circle, a mechanism which is often celebrated in much of the managerial literature. Based on research in a US‐owned company in the vehicle industry, a number of the assumptions which underpin the activity of quality circles are unearthed; in particular, whether employees will automatically be willing to contribute their ideas in the context of inequality in the employment relationship is questioned.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons behind the significant gender gaps observed in entrepreneurial interest among adolescents. Specifically, the authors aim to test multiple models that analyze direct and indirect relationships between work and leadership experience, presence of a parental role model, self‐efficacy, and interest by teens in becoming entrepreneurs.

A sample of over 5,000 middle and high school students participated in the larger study from which the data were drawn. Participants completed measures of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial intentions, work and leadership experience, and parental entrepreneurial role model. The authors analyzed the data using structural equation modeling.

While the study confirmed previous empirical findings regarding the antecedents of entrepreneurial self‐efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions, significant differences across gender emerged. First, while boys and girls hold jobs outside of school in comparable numbers, this work experience is much more powerful in generating self‐efficacy among boys. Additionally, the findings indicated that self‐efficacy seemed to have a stronger effect on entrepreneurial interest for girls than for boys, and that having an entrepreneurial mother or father had a significant and positive effect on girls' (but not boys') levels of the entrepreneurial interest.

Common method variance and other typical limitations of cross‐sectional self‐report surveys are acknowledged. Future research should use longitudinal and multi‐method approaches to overcome such limitations.

Findings suggest that feeling like they are able to succeed as entrepreneurs might count more for girls than for boys when considering career options, and demonstrate the value of entrepreneurial role models for young girls, especially those who already have the confidence and perceived skills to launch their own future ventures.

The paper documents research that represents one of the few large‐scale studies of US teens examining entrepreneurial intentions and antecedents across gender.