Session 1. 20.

Games and experimental games are valuable research tools in studying the common pool resources. Researchers can choose from a variety of existing designs. Still, some investigations may require creating new experimental procedures or modifying existing ones by changing parameters and adding new elements. Such modifications require calibration, which can become more difficult as the complexity of the games increases.

The presentation showcases the current version of the tool designed to aid in the calibration of the experimental designs. The approach, based on the Bellman equation, does not depend on the model type or payoff function. Therefore, the method can be easily adapted for a wide range of experimental procedures and provide information about the socially optimal use of the resource as well as the Nash equilibrium. The design of the tool supports the easy addition of new models.

The presented sample results of the analysis are based on experimental designs already established in the field. They outline the potential of the tool as they demonstrate its use in the calibration and sensitivity analysis of the procedures.

Finally, the presentation outlines the potential additions and extensions to the tool that broaden its usefulness for various mechanisms used in experimental designs available for the researchers.

Forest conservation plays an important role in mitigating climate change. When experiencing negative income shocks, however, local forest users may resort to unsustainable forest management practices to compensate for their financial losses. Using an interactive dynamic resource extraction game, we investigate the role of social norms for collaborative forest management under an exogenous income shock, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an incentivized lab-in-the-field experiment with 162 smallholder farmers in rural Ethiopia, farmers individually decide how many trees to harvest from a community forest, where harvested trees generate private income while unharvested trees provide group benefits. They do so under different experimental conditions — either with or without i) a negative income shock and ii) a previous activation of social norms — allowing us to causally explore potential drivers of sustainable forest management. We find that negative income shocks induce higher levels of resource exploitation. In the short run, the activation of social norms helps to mitigate this effect. In the long run, it only helps in the absence of an income shock, suggesting that further institutional mechanisms are needed to increase the resilience of forests in times of crisis.

Studies highlighted the importance of leadership for sustaining social enterprises (SE) social and economic mission pursuit, but very little is known about specific leadership behaviours as necessary for SE social and economic goal pursuit. Moreover, scholars recognise the depth of research on leaders and leadership in the Western and Asian contexts, but the study of leadership in Africa remains nascent. Drawing from theoretical underpinnings and examples from multiple case studies, this qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring how twelve healthcare SEs in Ghana adopt various leadership behaviours to exercise a particular leadership style when aligning employees with seemingly inconsistent social and economic missions. The findings reveal various leadership behaviours linked to transformational, participatory, servant and authentic leadership styles as effective in this process. Moreover, the findings suggest that Ghana's context could influence the adoption of these behaviours. This study discusses theoretical and practical implications for the wider SE literature.

Over the past four decades, the decline in groundwater levels has accelerated in 30% of the world's regional aquifers, resulting in over-exploitation and threatening billions of people's health and well-being. Good groundwater governance is becoming more widely recognized as a prerequisite for addressing aquifer depletion. Despite advocacy for inclusive governance and the involvement of community-based institutions and market mechanisms, governance modes have mainly relied on state-run strategies to control groundwater (over)abstraction. Nevertheless, existing research indicates that state-centered groundwater governance is predominantly ineffective. In addition to existing "in the shadow of hierarchy," the growing complexity of problems necessitates a shift towards polycentric governance. However, none of the ideal types of governance mode has proven to result in sustainable groundwater use. A holistic and interconnected view of the entire agri-food water system is crucial for addressing water resource limitations, reducing poverty, building local socio-economic system adaptive capacity, and capturing market opportunities. An integrated value chain diagnostic approach can facilitate such analysis. This study aims to develop a framework for bridging the gap between the value chain (VC) approach and groundwater governance, using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD) as a lens. The framework addresses the VC selection, measuring VC performance, understanding the root causes of underperformance, and improving the VC. The framework is applied empirically to the Najaf-Abad aquifer in Iran. The findings indicate that despite several value-chain analysis tools, economic considerations continue to be prioritized over environmental impacts. The conceptual frameworks of these guides cover various aspects, including VC upgrading (process, product, function, chain), VC governance (market, modular, relational, captive, hierarchy), market context and power dynamics, as well as synergy, efficiency, and competitiveness. Diagnosing VC governance can reveal various institutional arrangements that facilitate coordination processes, assess vulnerabilities and hotspots within the VC, and identify leverage points for interventions.  However, the improvement of VC alone is insufficient to address the ineffectiveness of state-centered groundwater governance, which arises from a lack of political will and state capacity. Consequently, a synergistic interplay of governance modes is of the utmost importance.