PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the conceptual lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR), business and civil society can be used to explore “less popular causes” (in this case, a community‐based public sector empirical study of initiatives with offenders) and, in particular, respond to the question used by Walzer “In which society can lives be best led?”Design/methodology/approachThis is a formative and summative evaluation study of a National Offender Management “community payback” offender scheme based in the UK using a mixed method, predominantly qualitative approach that integrates theory and practice.FindingsThe paper finds that citizenship actions of front‐line public sector employees, working in partnership with other agencies in the community, embody the essence of Walzer's notion of CSR and civil society by going beyond the call of duty to provide additional training and moral support for the community offenders.Originality/valueThe paper contributes towards an understanding of how CSR and civil society debates can inform wider aspects of public policy and business through its application to areas of society that are perceived to be “challenging” and “undeserving”.
Nanotechnology is considered by many to be a harbinger of the next 'Schumpeterian' economic wave. These Schumpeterian waves drive industry wide 'creative' destruction. The authors of this work seek to identify technology bundles within the nanotechnology that offer discontinuities and provide the basis of the core disruptive and enabling aspect of the nanotechnology base. We seek to contribute to the literature by investigating these questions based on the responses of 42 worldwide nano competence and infrastructure centres from 14 countries to a questionnaire. We provide value by presenting the technological portfolio of these 'nanocentres' in order to provide the current base of nanotechnological bundles that may comprise the above mentioned core of nanotechnology as a disruptive technology. We investigate the importance of nanotechnology bundles which hold the potential to significantly alter the way miniaturised structures, components and systems are fabricated in future across many industrial settings.
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