This paper provides a comparative review of digital and human (face-to-face) innovation platforms and their roles in promoting innovation and sustainability. These platforms are particularly significant in advancing sustainability objectives as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 17, (SDG17) which emphasizes the importance of knowledge and technology partnerships to address sustainability challenges, foster innovation, and enhance scientific collaboration. Through a systematic literature review of organizational and management research over the past decade, the study identifies key features, benefits, and limitations of each platform type. Digital platforms offer scalability, asynchronous collaboration, and data-driven innovation, yet face challenges such as trust deficits, cybersecurity risks, and digital inequality. In contrast, human (face-to-face) platforms facilitate trust, emotional communication, and spontaneous idea generation, but are limited in scalability and resource efficiency. By categorizing insights into thematic tables and evaluating implications for organizations, the paper highlights how the integration of both platform types can optimize innovation outcomes. The authors argue that hybrid models—combining the scalability and efficiency of digital platforms with the relational depth of human (face-to-face) platforms—offer a promising path toward sustainable innovation ecosystems. The paper concludes with a call for future empirical research on platform integration strategies and sector-specific applications.

Organizing sustainability through innovation-driven ecosystem platforms is the core focus of this study. We aim to explore the attributes, practices, and participatory architecture of innovation-driven platforms designed to address grand challenges in sustainable development. A longitudinal study of an innovation platform’s organization enables us to capture major developments in the evolution of these platforms. Employing a comparative analysis of innovation-driven platforms managed by the Israel Innovation Institute (III), we review their activities in three main platform areas: Climate-related challenges, unmet mobility needs, and agricultural technology. The research questions guiding this study are: What specific attributes define each innovation-driven platform, and how can the strategies implemented by the III inform innovation practices across different domains? Further, we observe recent strategic changes and characterize the “nexus” concept to explore the novel integration of critical infrastructure components of innovation-driven platforms into a new institutional model. This model is designed to innovate while addressing higher-order societal challenges such as climate change. We introduce this model as a framework that may inform approaches to advancing sustainability across different regional or ecosystem contexts.

This study aims to develop and broaden the understanding of religious domestic violence (RDV) as an entrenched phenomenon, especially in religious communities that affect women and men. Centered on a case study of the Jewish Haredi community – an insular enclave society with internal mechanisms of religious–social control and minimal state intervention – the study focuses on the role of formal and informal religious institutions in interpreting theological texts and enforcing these interpretations in their communities. We delineate a comprehensive array of RDV practices, distinguish between those targeting women and men and elucidate the social conditions enabling such violence despite broader social and legal condemnations.,The study utilizes a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 34 Haredi men and women whose divorces were attributed to incidents of RDV.,(1) The containment of RDV hinges on the interplay between theology and hierarchical social dynamics rooted in perceived theological expertise and the social standing of extended family networks in the community. (2) Key RDV practices include the exploitation of husbands’ purported superior theological knowledge, religious rhetoric and gender norms to enforce behaviors and administer various forms of punishment. (3) Religious institutions not only legitimize RDV practices but sometimes also perpetrate them.,The study focuses on a single community and is based on qualitative interviews. Future research should examine the issue of religious violence in additional communities.,Intervention strategies should engage religious authorities and reinterpret religious texts and prevailing norms to promote nonviolent familial relations.,Suggestions regarding potential measures that can be applied to reduce RDV are provided.,The study offers a broader, more nuanced definition of RDV, affording more comparative and in-depth future research in this field. We systematically examine the relationship among the objectification of gender relations, characteristics of major religions and patterns of RDV in specific religious contexts. A deeper understanding of how RDV is embedded in specific features of religious institutions and theology may inform public policies aimed at reducing such violence.

Many invasive non-native species gradually become embedded within local cultures. Such species can increasingly be perceived by society as familiar or even native elements of the social-ecological system and become an integral part of local cultures. Here, we explore this phenomenon and refer to it as the cultural integration of invasive species. Although culturally integrated species can positively contribute to people’s lives and well-being, and provide new or lost ecosystem services, their acceptance can also hinder the ability of conservation managers to successfully manage invasive species by reducing public support for their management. Cultural integration can infringe upon social values and cultural identities, and contribute to the erosion and homogenization of biocultural diversity. It can also modify or displace the cultural uses and values of native species, and may disrupt social-ecological legacies and dynamics. We present the main mechanisms of cultural integration, its drivers and major implications, and provide key recommendations for the management and conservation of biological and cultural diversity.

Background The clinical trials used to approve COVID-19 vaccines excluded pregnant women, and existing safety assessments of COVID-19 vaccination, particularly during early stages of pregnancy, are limited to observational studies prone to various types of potential bias, including healthy vaccinee bias. Methods The study includes pregnancies in Israel with last menstruation period (LMP) between March 1, 2016 and February 28, 2022. The main analysis presents observed-to-expected comparisons of the number of eventual fetal losses among pregnant women exposed to mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (almost all Pfizer) during gestational weeks 8-13 and 14-27, respectively. Women vaccinated for influenza during gestational weeks 8-27, as well as women vaccinated prior to pregnancy for COVID-19 or influenza, were used as comparative controls. Cohort-specific expected number of fetal losses are established based on estimates from a regression model trained on historical data from 2016-2018 that incorporates individual-level risk factors and gestational week of each pregnant woman included in the cohort. Results Analysis of 226,395 singleton pregnancies in Israel from 2016 to 2022 indicates that COVID-19 vaccination with dose 1 during weeks 8-13 was associated with higher-than-expected observed number of fetal losses of approximately 13 versus 9 expected for every 100 exposed pregnancies, i.e., nearly 3.9 (95% CI: [2.55-5.14]) additional fetal losses above expected per 100 pregnancies Most of the excess fetal losses occurred after gestational week 20 and nearly half occurred after gestational week 25. Similarly, women vaccinated with dose 3 during weeks 8-13 exhibited a higher-than-expected number of fetal losses with nearly 1.9 (95% CI: 0.39-3.42]) additional fetal losses above expected per 100 pregnancies. In contrast, pregnant women vaccinated for influenza during weeks 8-27 exhibited a consistently lower-than-expected observed number of fetal losses, likely the result of healthy vaccinee bias. Women vaccinated for COVID-19 or influenza prior to pregnancy exhibited according-to-expected or lower-than-expected numbers of fetal losses. Conclusion The results provide evidence for a substantially higher-than-expected number of eventual fetal losses associated with COVID-19 vaccination during gestational weeks 8-13.

This study explores the influence of personal values and collective victimhood on ethical decision-making (EDM) during wartime. While value-EDM associations have been extensively examined in stable contexts, the dynamics of war present unique challenges, including a heightened sense of collective victimhood. Using Schwartz’s value theory, the research analyzes the impact of personal values on war-related ethical decision-making (WEDM), and the moderating role of collective victimhood. Based on a field experimental design with survey vignettes, the study sampled 262 working adults in Israel during the Israel-Hamas conflict of 2023-2024. Findings reveal that Self-transcendence and openness to change values enhanced WEDM, while self-enhancement and conservation values reduced it. Collective victimhood moderated value-WEDM associations, by prioritizing ingroup loyalty over universal ethical principles. However, it had no effect on EDM in stable contexts. These results show that the mechanism behind EDM shifts in wartime, highlighting how crises can alter value-driven ethical decisions. The findings emphasize the need for strategies that mitigate collective victimhood and promote values fostering inclusivity and shared responsibility. This study contributes to understanding ethical challenges in conflict zones and offers insights for organizations navigating ethical dilemmas in extreme contexts.

Both personal and professional values are influenced by the standards to which a society accords significance and events and developments therein. This study examines changes in the values and perceptions of managers and business owners in Israel in light of the political and public developments that occurred in Israel during the years 2019‒2024. This short period was characterized by various significant, each of which individually, and together as a cluster, contributed to changes in perceptions of society and therefore affected values. The research found that during this period the attitudes of managers and business owners changed significantly, as is also reflected in how they manage the teams for which they are responsible and to what extent they feel that they can depend upon the state or their superiors. Likewise, it appears that these events affected the way they perceive Israeli society, of which they are a part, which in turn also affected the change in values.

Computing and data science have permeated diverse fields of knowledge in recent decades. In biology the change has been especially noticeable, as very large data sets are revising how science is done. How do interdisciplinary scientists understand and manage the interweaving of computation and biology? What interpretations do they draw about changes to their professional identities and positions, and how do they negotiate these identities and positions in practice? Uncertain identity is a persistent professional struggle that scientists negotiate in a complex professional, institutional, and epistemic landscape. Disciplinary identities are becoming more hybrid, and affective and relational practices are becoming more central. A common career strategy for computational biologists is to develop a distinct ecological ‘niche’ that is valuable to others; this does not resolve indeterminacy about professional identity, but it anchors a reworking of the professional values of ‘good science’ in the direction of more collaboration and mutuality. Thus, in place of the common ‘spectrum’ metaphor, computational biology is better likened to a swamp – a rich and fluid site with many adaptations – and in which scientists are developing more amphibious identities and modes of doing science, at least in this historical phase of the field.

Henry Mintzberg's seminal work (Management Science 26(3):322-341, 1980) defined "professional bureaucracy" in organizations, highlighting its reliance on the expertise of the profession intrinsic to its operations, such as the professoriate in universities. However, the pervasive influence of managerialism has increasingly infiltrated university governance, challenging Mintzberg's model in two significant ways. Firstly, managerialization introduces professional managers into leadership roles traditionally held by academics, encroaching on the professional authority and autonomy of the professoriate as envisioned by Mintzberg. Secondly, managerialization provokes academics to acquire administrative skills, blurring the boundaries between academic and administrative roles throrgh professionalization. This study offers an empirical investigation into the professionalization of university leadership by focusing on leadership training programs in Israel. These programs underscore nuanced differences in curriculum and pedagogy tailored to the participant composition—academics versus administrators—reflecting evolving roles and expectations from leadership within universities. Importantly, our findings reveal a trend towards "hybrid expertise," combining academic vision with managerial proficiency, therefore reshaping conventional notions of academic leadership. Through an examination of these training initiatives, our aim is to explore how managerial practices intersect with academic culture, thereby redefining Mintzberg's conceptualization of professional bureaucracy. This empirical approach contributes to broader discussions on the restructuring of university leadership roles amidst increasing managerial influence, offering insights for future research and practical implications in higher education governance.

The time devoted to unpaid work in the domestic sphere reduces time devoted to paid work, and this time loss is higher for women than for men. The consumption of domestic services may serve as a mechanism to reduce the burden of unpaid work and to increase the labor force participation rates of men and women. This study takes a longitudinal couple-level approach and analyzes whether the likelihood of working and the number of work hours of male and female partners in households that employed a domestic worker increased after employing the domestic worker, and whether these changes translate into reduced gender inequality in labor force participation within households. Using an analytic sample of 85,282 married heterosexual non-Haredi Jewish couples aged 25–64 from the harmonized panel database of the Israeli Labor Force Survey for the years 2000–2017, and by employing an instrumental variable approach with fixed-effects two-stage least squares models, we find that outsourcing positively affects the likelihood of working and the number of weekly working hours, but only among highly educated women. The increase in highly educated women’s likelihood of working and the increase in their weekly work hours are translated into a reduced gender gap in employment and in work hours, no matter their partner’s level of education.