Books

Šilenskytė, A., Fletcher, M., Smith, A., Butkevičienė, J., & Jayton, C. (Editors) (2026). Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Small and Medium Enterprises: Concepts, Cases, and Managerial Perspectives. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 978 1 03536 123 6.

This book advances the central thesis that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are integral to the strategic management and everyday realities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), even if managers and employees may not explicitly use DEI terminology. Addressing long-standing critiques of DEI scholarship, the book explains why conventional DEI frameworks often feel inaccessible, irrelevant, or overly complex for resource-constrained SMEs.

In response, the authors reconceptualize DEI management for the SME context and introduce a framework and a set of best practices grounded in the lived realities of SMEs and insights from international surveys, interviews, workshops, and real-world cases from Europe. The book offers teaching cases along with online teaching notes and managerial reflections to equip current and future entrepreneurs and SME managers with the competencies needed to leverage social sustainability, in particular DEI, for a firm’s growth, strategy implementation, regulatory compliance, and conflict resolution. The book deepens understanding of intersectionality in SMEs and demonstrates how DEI contributes to advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

In this book there are 14 chapters, in five I have contributed as an author:

  • Chapter 1. Šilenskytė, A., Fletcher, M., Smith, A., Butkevičienė, J., & Jayton, C. “Rethinking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in European Smaller Businesses”
  • Chapter 3. Kiverä, A., Šilenskytė, A.,  Delecour, T. “Diversity Management in European Companies: Intersectionality and Individual Experiences of Bias at Work”
  • Chapter 5.  Šilenskytė, A., Hill, TL, Sellin, J. “Finvacon: Creating strategic advantage internationally through social sustainability”
  • Chapter 7. Šilenskytė, A., Boey, A., Diduc, S. “Foamit Group: Creating Compliant and Functional Social Sustainability Infrastructure in an International SME”
  • Chapter 13. Kekäle, T., Šilenskytė, A., Fletcher, M. “Merinova: Reconsidering Employee Age in European Businesses”

 

Šilenskytė, A., Cordova, M., Schmitz, M.A., Toh, S. M. (Editors) (2024) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Sustainability in Business Education. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-3-031-50167-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50168-5.

First book on embedding the UN’s SDGs into the business curriculum, emphasizing social sustainability.

This book provides a holistic conceptualization of social sustainability, going beyond the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and showcases how the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasizing social sustainability can be integrated into business studies’ curricula in different parts of the world. A unique collection of literature comprising educational principles, content, activities, and cases will guide educators, managers of business study programs, and higher education leaders in developing engaging, high-impact educational experiences that enable students to solve grand societal challenges and grow as ethical, inclusive leaders.

This handbook features a wide-range of tested teaching innovations. These cover education models addressing newest trends, such as utilizing artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies in education about-and-for socially sustainable business or skill development for enabling circular economy and sustainable production and consumption patterns. The classical, impactful yet underutilized in business studies instructional techniques such as storytelling and theatre are also discussed comprehensively.

A cross-disciplinary approach of the handbook speaks to scholars aiming to research and implement business education, which connects social, environmental, and economic dimensions in quality education that promotes sustainable development.

In this handbook there are 29 chapters, in six I have contributed as an author:

 

Šilenskytė, A. (2020), “Corporate strategy implementation. How strategic plans become individual strategic actions across organizational levels of the MNC”, Acta Wasaensia 446. Doctoral Dissertation. University of Vaasa. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-476-919-8

Managers often cite strategy implementation as the number one challenge in strategic management. Nevertheless, the topic has attracted relatively little attention, and particularly so from the perspective of how individual strategic behaviors emerge that result in successful implementation. Addressing the need to bring in the individual to improve our understanding of these processes, this dissertation aimed to examine how the corporate strategy of a loosely coupled MNC becomes (or otherwise) strategic behaviors of its managers and non-management employees across different levels of the organization.

 

Book chapters in edited volumes