Purpose: – Despite the claim that internal corporate social responsibility plays an important role, the understanding of this phenomenon has been neglected. This paper intends to contribute to fill this gap by looking into the relation between CSR and employee engagement.Design/methodology/approach: – A survey research was conducted and three different groups of respondents were faced with three different CSR scenarios (general, internal, external) and respondents' employee engagement was measured.Findings: – The results show that there are no statistically significant differences in levels of engagement between employees exposed to external and internal CSR practices. Nevertheless, employees exposed to internal CSR are more engaged than those exposed only to external CSR practices.Research limitations/implications: – The use of scenarios, although a grounded approach, involves risks, including the difficulty of participants to put themselves in a fictional situation. Also, the scale used to measure employee engagement puts the emphasis on work rather than on the organisation.Practical implications: – Although this study is not conclusive it raises the need for companies to look at their CSR strategy in a holistic approach, i.e. internal and external.Originality/value: – This paper represents a contribution to understand CSR strategic status and the need to enlighten the impact that social responsible practices can have on employees' engagement.

Purpose: This study explores how employees experience digital reskilling initiatives in the context of AI-driven workplace transformation, foregrounding reskilling as a form of identity work rather than solely a response to skill gaps or automation risks. It examines how workers reinterpret professional identities, navigate changes in perceived competence and value and construct career narratives amid technological disruption. The research aims to understand the interplay between identity work, learning processes and organizational capability development in sustaining employability and adaptability in AI-mediated environments. By focusing on how employees actively re-author their professional selves, the study moves beyond accounts centered on automation anxiety, job insecurity or employability perceptions alone. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on adult learning theory, career construction theory and dynamic capabilities theory, the study adopts a qualitative narrative inquiry design. Data were collected from 30 employees across finance, retail and public service sectors participating in digital reskilling programs. Analysis of life-history interviews, reflective journals and HR documentation was conducted to trace how individuals engage in “reskilling identity work” as they negotiate the transition between legacy expertise and emerging digital roles. Findings: The study identifies “reskilling identity work” as a key process through which employees reconcile tensions between existing skill repertoires and new digital expectations. Three patterned responses to AI-driven reskilling emerged – preservation, bridging and transformation – each reflecting distinct ways employees protect, translate or reconfigure professional selves, going beyond accounts focused solely on fear of redundancy or perceived job insecurity. The results suggest that career adaptability and a supportive, power-sensitive learning culture are critical in determining whether reskilling initiatives foster identity renewal or defensive resistance, thereby influencing organizational effectiveness and capability evolution. Practical implications: Findings highlight the need for organizations to design reskilling initiatives that go beyond technical skill training to support identity transitions, career reflection and psychological empowerment. Building a culture of continuous learning and adaptability, which recognizes legacy expertise while creating space for hybrid AI-ready identities, can help align employee identity reconstruction with broader organizational capability goals in the face of AI transformation. Originality/value: This study contributes by integrating identity theory, adult learning and dynamic capabilities perspectives to conceptualize “reskilling identity work” as a dynamic, interpretive process within workforce transformation. It advances debates on automation anxiety, job insecurity and identity threats by specifying a meso-level construct that links individual identity work in formal reskilling programs to organizational capability-building and HRM practices in AI-mediated workplaces. In doing so, it offers a nuanced understanding of how employees remake their professional selves during digital transitions, providing both theoretical insight and actionable guidance for sustaining human capability in AI-mediated workplaces.

This study examines how older adults engage with digital technologies, with a particular focus on social media and online communities, and how these experiences reflect and shape their Digital Maturity. Moving beyond deficit-based views of ageing and technology, it explores how older adults perceive and navigate their digital engagement, the strategies they use to overcome challenges and leverage opportunities, and how cognitive, emotional, and social dimensions intersect in their digital lives. Drawing on in-depth narrative interviews with 17 participants aged 55–75, the study analyses personal accounts of digital meaning-making, barriers and enablers, and online socialisation through the Digital Maturity framework. The findings reveal the heterogeneous nature of older adults’ digital trajectories, highlighting individual agency, emotional resilience, and the role of digital platforms in sustaining social connectivity in later life. By articulating how Digital Maturity manifests in everyday digital practices, the study contributes to debates in social gerontology and digital inclusion, and offers person-centred insights for policymakers, practitioners, and technology designers seeking to foster equitable, age-inclusive digital environments. These results also point towards future research on technology adoption and digital well-being across the life course, calling for more nuanced, context-sensitive approaches to understanding digital engagement among diverse older populations.

Purpose: This paper examines how women entrepreneurs in developing countries establish sustainable and environmentally friendly businesses while navigating complex entrepreneurial ecosystems, rather than designing them. It investigates how these women define sustainability and sustainable leadership, and examines the barriers and enabling conditions that shape their entrepreneurial journeys within these existing ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design was employed, utilizing in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs across various sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, and digital innovation. Data were thematically analyzed to capture participants' lived experiences and interpretations of sustainability in practice. Findings: The study reveals that family support, informal networks, and community associations serve as critical enablers of green business development, while systemic gendered constraints - including restricted access to finance, patriarchal cultural norms, and limited institutional support - pose significant barriers. The findings further connect these experiences to cross-cultural models of sustainability leadership, highlighting pathways for strengthening women-led entrepreneurial ecosystems. Originality/value: By foregrounding women's voices in sustainability-focused entrepreneurship, this research contributes new, context-sensitive insights into the intersection of leadership, gender, and sustainable economic transformation in the Global South. The study offers actionable recommendations for policymakers, support organizations, and ecosystem builders seeking to create more inclusive and equitable environments for women-led sustainable ventures.

Purpose: This study aims to explore the leadership development journeys of women entrepreneurs across South Asia, Africa and Latin America, focusing on how socio-cultural and financial constraints shape their leadership development, adaptive leadership strategies, business outcomes and community impact. It examines region-specific challenges and the relationships between leadership development trajectories, enterprise performance and broader social transformation. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative, multi-case study design was employed, drawing on retrospective, in-depth interviews and thematic analysis to capture the temporal evolution of leadership development. The study examines women entrepreneurs across three distinct regions of the Global South, offering cross-regional insights into how socio-cultural and financial constraints shape adaptive leadership strategies and development pathways within diverse cultural and socio-economic contexts. Findings: The analysis highlights how gender, culture and contextual dynamics intersect to shape women's leadership development trajectories and practices. Women entrepreneurs adopt adaptive, relational and transformative leadership strategies to navigate socio-cultural and financial constraints, progressively strengthening their leadership over time. Leadership development at the individual level is closely interlinked with enterprise-level outcomes such as business sustainability and innovation and with community-level effects including role modeling, social inclusion and collective empowerment, underscoring the reciprocal relationship between entrepreneurial leadership capacity and community change. A contextual, multi-level model of women's entrepreneurial leadership development is proposed, linking constraints, development processes and impacts across the individual, enterprise and community spheres. Originality/value: This research contributes to the scarce literature on women's entrepreneurial leadership development in the Global South by offering a contextualized, temporally informed understanding of how leadership evolves under socio-cultural and financial constraints. It advances scholarship beyond Western-centric leadership and entrepreneurship models by integrating critical perspectives on intersectionality, gendered institutions and post/decolonial critiques of entrepreneurship to illuminate how power, context, and identity shape leadership development pathways. The study underscores the need for gender-responsive, regionally tailored leadership development programs that integrate mentorship, financial literacy, digital empowerment and inclusive networking. The insights have practical value for policymakers, support organizations and development practitioners seeking to promote sustainable women-led enterprises and advance inclusive economic development in emerging economies.