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This chapter explores the methods developed to improve STEM success for students at two public urban institutions, a project whose aim is to improve academic outcomes for undergraduate students, especially for those most vulnerable and least likely to succeed in this student population. The theory of change that underpins the project – including its activities and its evaluation plan – posits that three interlocked activities (course redesign, peer mentors and articulation) will lead to improvements in academic outcomes and ultimately contribute to the overarching goal of increasing the number of students from underserved backgrounds who graduate with baccalaureate STEM degrees. The project focusses on the first courses students take in STEM, where they are also most likely to fail. We describe the methodology developed for faculty development and the organizational structure of the peer mentoring component for these courses. Both of these components constitute safe spaces where faculty and peer mentors learn to support students using evidence-based and inclusive instructional practices. Courses redesigned by faculty were offered following a cluster-level randomized control trial design, where sections were assigned to treatment (with or without a peer) or control. These interventions have a positive impact on cumulative GPA, according to preliminary analyses. The project also has a positive effect on faculty participants and on peer mentors, both groups now better prepared to jointly deliver STEM curricula in more effective ways. Among the reasons why this works, instructor empathy surfaces as playing a leading role in academic outcomes for undergraduate students.

This chapter introduces the purpose and structure of this edited volume, including why safe spaces are needed in educational settings, how to think about what makes a space safe for different individuals or groups, and aspects to consider in creating and maintaining safe spaces. It describes the two broad sections, the first of which comprises chapters that introduce the problem, context, need for safe spaces (Chapter 2), the broad conceptual frames supporting them (Chapter 3), and detail and deconstruct examples of various safe spaces created in diverse educational settings (Chapter 4). Chapters in Section II include aspects of the conceptual foundations and details about the purpose, development, and implementation processes, and outcomes of various efforts to create and/or maintain a safe space for education.

The purpose of this paper is to find out whether governance mechanisms approximated by the board of directors' characteristics, auditors' quality, ownership structure and compensation mix, can help bridge the gap between economic value added (EVA) and market values approximated by created shareholder value (CSV).

Based on a sample of US firms and using available data for EVA, discriminant analysis and stepwise regression are used to test whether governance characteristics explain the differences between the results provided by the two measures of performance.

The results show that governance characteristics are important in explaining the differences between the results provided by CSV and EVA and that board independence, the auditors' expertise and reputation, the ownership structure and the stock‐options contribute significantly in explaining these differences.

The results are very relevant to academicians and practitioners concerned with performance measurement. They basically underline the importance of including governance characteristics in any evaluation formula.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a common strategy implemented by companies due to social, ethical and policy pressures to reduce its impact on society, economy and environment. However, whether CSR adds or decreases firms’ value remains little explored. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the impact of CSR adoption on companies’ economic value added (EVA). The authors also tested a mechanism of environmental innovation and the moderation role of a firm’s size.

The authors performed a regression analysis and a mediation process analysis using dataset from 4,287 largest companies worldwide to investigate this issue. The a dataset was collected from Eikon, a Thomson Reuters platform.

The results revealed four main findings. Companies with high CSR indexes decreased EVA; environmental innovation mediated the effect of CSR on EVA; the firm size positively moderated the effect of CSR on EVA and firm size positively moderated the effect of CSR on environmental innovation.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research is the first endeavor to analyze CSR’s effect on EVA and the mediation role of environmental innovation using the most prominent firms worldwide. Furthermore, the results highlight exciting implications for literature, managers and policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the creation of shareholder value (SHV) created by non‐depository financial institutions and, especially, by leasing and factoring (L&F) companies.

The cost of capital of both L&F companies is estimated using an accounting procedure and, next, the economic value added (EVA) created by Italian L&F companies over the period 2002‐2004 is estimated.

L&F companies display high profitability and EVA levels over the period analysed: a very large part of leasing and factoring companies achieved a positive EVA and the lowest median level of EVA created is at least 11 per cent of capital invested in the company, while at least 50 per cent of leasing companies achieved a positive EVA and the lowest median level of EVA created is almost 2 per cent of capital invested in the company.

Future research may try to investigate other markets. The paper's focus on Italy for data collection for L&F is problematic and data are collected from a unique data base.

SHV creation is the main strategic objective of L&F companies so the paper is of interest to both academics and practitioners.

This is the first study focusing on SHV creation by non‐depository financial institutions and, especially, L&F companies.

The main aim of this study is to characterise and identify specific chemo-sensory profiles of ciders from the Canary Islands (Spain).

Commercial samples of Canary ciders were compared to ciders from the Basque Country and Asturias. In total, 18 samples were studied, six for each region. The analysis comprised their sensory profiling and chemical characterisation of their polyphenolic profile, volatile composition, conventional chemical parameters and CIELAB colour coordinates. In parallel, the sensory profile of the samples from the Canary Islands was first compared with their Basque and Asturian counterparts by labelled sorting task. Then, their specific aroma profile was characterised by flash profile. Further quantification of sensory-active compounds was performed by GC–MS and GC-FID to identify the volatile compounds involved in their aroma profile.

Results show that Canary ciders present a specific chemical profile characterised by higher levels of ethanol, and hydroxycinnamic acids, mainly t-ferulic, t-coumaric and neochologenic acids, and lower levels of volatile and total acidity than their Asturian and Basque counterparts. They also present a specific aroma profile characterised by fruity aroma, mainly fruit in syrup and confectionary, and sweet flavours related to their highest levels of vinylphenols formed by transformation of hydroxycinnamic acids.

An integrated strategy to explore the typicity of the currently existing Canary ciders in the market was developed. The results are important in that they will help other regions to identify specific typical chemo-sensory profiles and to promote the creation of certifications supporting regional typicity.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of the research published on financial inclusion (FI) and financial exclusion (FE) in developed countries using key terms and strict inclusion and exclusion criteria.

In total, 52 papers were deemed to be relevant to the analysis. These works were critiqued using a framework that addressed geographical contexts, topics, methodologies and theoretical frameworks.

This review highlights the uneven level of development of the academic debate between North America, the UK and continental Europe, and identifies the different theoretical frameworks that construe the body of literature in each region. In addition, the findings show the scant offer of work on the impact that the digital economy has on FE, as well as the reduced number of studies which have focused on certain vulnerable groups and the access to some financial services.

The studies reviewed have not analyzed the specific needs of vulnerable groups while considering the different contexts and pathways to exclusion. The evaluation of solutions and strategies to achieve inclusion is one of the least addressed aspects in the literature.

The paper synthesizes the main contributions of the top literature on the redefinition of FI/FE in developed countries, the role of fringe services and new determinants of exclusion. The proliferation of studies regarding FI in low- and middle-income countries has generated a great amount of meta-analysis and systematized reviews of asymmetric results. However, no systematized literature review on the broad scope of FI/FE in developed countries has been published in the last decade. This work sheds light over poorly analyzed areas of research that refer to notable social problems.

The objective of the paper is to present a model for the environmental value analysis (EVA) and its usefulness as tool towards environmental improvement analysis. A new concept called EVA, which focuses on integrating environmental issues with value analysis, is proposed in this paper. The mathematical model of environmental value index (EVI), which is derived from EVA analysis, aims to define the relationship between the importance of the environmental functions and the cost of the functions. The development of EVI provides the basis for generating feasible alternatives, which are performed simultaneously. By determining the EVIs, this approach ensures prioritisation, and thereby predicts a better set of environmental improvement alternatives. Three case studies are used to illustrate the implementation of EVA methodology.

This study aims to explore value creation through intangibles in corporations, taking into consideration the endogenous nature of managerial decisions. It is stated that intangibles bring extra information asymmetry into a company and make managers and investors’ goals less aligned.

A theoretical model is elaborated and empirically tested on the assumption that managers, while investing in intangibles, simultaneously make a company competitive and attractive to investors. The authors use a conceptual model of endogenous value creation to test how intangibles affect outperforming of a company and provoke the expectations of investors. The research is carried out on a sample of more than 1,650 European companies covering the period from 2004 to 2011. Structural equation modelling is applied for the purposes of empirical analysis.

The authors reveal a diverse impact of intangibles on outperforming of a company measured by economic value added and its ability to create market value. The study discovers that managers are prone to indicate positive signals to investors rather than create sustainable competitive advantages.

This research emphasizes on the particular importance of awareness of policymakers, namely, companies’ top managers, about the outcomes of their decisions. Decision-making in public companies should involve as much deliberation as possible about the potential impact of what is decided.

This work contributes primarily to the field of corporate finance in companies that use intangibles. The endogenous process of value creation is modelled and tested. As a result, a number of essential problems in agent relationships in intangible-intensive corporations are discovered.