Citation
Aránega, A.Y. (2025), "Guest editorial: Digitizing and greening in an uncertain world", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-02-2025-236
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited
Society is characterized by a strong current of digitalization and technological advancement (Charfeddine and Umlai, 2023). Since the last few years, it has gained great importance and the exponential increase of studies on the impact of business digitalization has been enormous (Daraojimba et al., 2023). However, in this new stream, sustainability is also considered important to consider (Ogutu et al., 2023). When it comes to sustainability, different areas are covered, from environmental sustainability to sustainability in business management. There is a high volatility in the environment that invites green economies to be variable across territories when taking into account changes in global sustainability (Gunay et al., 2023). On the other hand, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a focus for managers in organizations (Uduji and Okolo-Obasi, 2022). CSR is a key factor in defining new business strategies (Yuan et al., 2020).
Given the social and practical importance of digitalization and sustainability in business, the last decade has witnessed a significant increase in academic publications on these topics (Chauhan et al., 2022). Therefore, this special issue aims to capture the essence of technological development and business awareness of sustainability in all its domains, to broaden the framework of the literature on the implementation of digital technologies. Thanks to the contributions that make up this special issue “Digitizing and Greening in an Uncertain World,” an extensive detailed analysis of the literature based on digitization and sustainability issues has been addressed with the aim of illuminating the path of implementation of digital technologies and green contribution in the uncertain society. This Special Issue aims to provide a series of reviews of the state of the art along the main lines of study of the journal. That is, focusing on firms’ growth, emerging economy, entrepreneurship, business strategy, corporate governance, financial model, sustainable economics, human resource management, technology systems, innovation management, organization and risk management. Through a rigorous double-blind peer-review process, composed of experts from different parts of the world, papers were selected for publication in this special issue dedicated to reviewing the state of the art in a society dominated by high digitization and sustainability in businesses.
Contributors
Marcin Bielicki investigates diverse approaches to selection criteria in business preincubation, drawing upon data gathered from 49 programs located worldwide. The author demonstrates that the objectives of preincubation programs are multifaceted, extending beyond the creation of new companies to encompass the development of students’ competencies, the establishment of new firms or the attainment of goals by the corporate sponsor. The selection criteria used in pre-incubators correspond with these objectives and can be classified into three levels. The initial level, the entry criteria, determines eligibility for the program, ranging from programs that are accessible to all to those that only accept applicants affiliated with a specific university. The second level of criteria typically considers the potential of the individual or team and may also include the potential of submitted idea. The third level of criteria is specific to a particular cohort and may give preference to ideas from a certain sector. The author also examines the egalitarian and utilitarian motivations underlying the selection criteria. The first aims to ensure equal access to preincubation programs, while the second seeks to identify those individuals and teams with the highest likelihood of achieving ultimate success.
The research conducted by Arturo Orea, Ma Teresa del Val and Carmelo García investigates how the business model influenced performance during the Great Recession (2007–2016) within the industrial sector of the Corredor del Henares in Guadalajara. This region has emerged as a significant economic hub in Spain due to its strategic location, robust infrastructure, extensive communications network, skilled workforce and high level of business activity. The study encompasses a broad spectrum of industries, analyzing data from 75 manufacturing firms using a partial least squares (PLS) model. Here, the business model is treated as the independent variable, while business performance, measured through sales performance and integrated customer management, is the dependent variable. The PLS analysis reveals strong indicators for both the measurement and structural models. It confirms the reliability and validity of each indicator and construct, as well as the convergent and discriminant validity of the model. The structural model’s test results support the hypotheses, highlighting the positive impact of the business model on performance. Talent management, driven by a solid value proposition and technological integration, significantly enhances business performance, explaining 36.6% of the variance in results within the analyzed sample and period, indicating the model’s strong predictive capability. Their study underscores the critical role of top management in leading transformative efforts, integrating talent within organizations and managing key partners and suppliers. It also emphasizes the importance of CSR, sustainability, security and transparency. Overall, their paper contributes valuable insights for both research and practical application, with its conclusions being broadly applicable due to the diverse sectors and regions represented in the sample.
The paper by Irina de la Flor, Maria Sarabia, Fernando J. Crecente Romero and Ma Teresa del Val is related to knowledge management. In the newly emerged global economy, companies and organizations are aware that they no longer rely exclusively on financial and physical resources. Knowledge and information have been lately described as the most significant resources that companies have in order to produce value. As the demand for knowledge rises, organizations are increasingly focused on exploring new ways to expand it to improve decision-making, and to be more efficient. In this line, knowledge management has been a successful tool for companies to create sustainable prosperity ensuring constant adaptability to an increasingly complex world. Inner knowledge management (IKM) is a very innovative model created for decision-makers that help them simplify their work and allow them to make decisions quickly and efficiently. Inner knowledge creation has allowed individuals and companies to diminish tensions and paradoxes, generating social benefit and profit simultaneously and emotional intelligence has allowed individuals to deepen self-knowledge and to increase their ability to identify, communicate and manage emotions. IKM has opened a new door to identify, manage and transform limiting beliefs that were at the bottom of unbalanced emotions and inefficient behaviors. This innovative model has proved that emotions, beliefs and behavior are not elements that can be managed in isolation. Their study has proved that it is possible to create models that allow individuals, companies and organizations to undercover, understand and change inefficient behavior. While observing that one can act with anger is one thing, but to deeply understand why we feel anger, in which circumstances, and to be able to connect with certain unconscious experiences that were linked to a judgment, a rejection or an identification, allows individuals to free themselves and to transform unbalanced emotions such as anger into compassion. Their study is based in neuroscientific literature that explains that the activity that allows individuals to create new connections between neurons or to modify existing ones when creating new ideas or new behaviors implies a conscious endeavor. This is the first data-based study using an IKM model. The importance of this study opens the door to further exploration of the effects on IKM on productivity, motivation and the general well-being of workers. The methodology of their study is empirical research, analyzing multiple cases qualitatively and using the T-test statistical model to analyze the hypotheses. Their study tested the relation between different limiting beliefs and negative emotions that influence decision-making processes. This study shows that there are nine limiting base beliefs that are negatively related to the productivity, motivation and well-being of workers. Their results indicate that there is a lot of potential to be explored applying IKM in companies and organizations. Their results have strong implications for how companies and organizations can create great value for themselves and their workers.
The next paper, by José M. Ponzoa, Andrés Gómez and Ramón Arilla, delves into how nonprofit institutions, specifically Business Interest Associations (BIAs), have developed their internet presence by applying essential digital marketing techniques, the research proposes and develops an indicator of the digital presence of the institutions: the Digital Presence Index (DPI). Using big data tools, the study analyzes the following by internet users of 102 BIAs, with their respective Web pages, in 36 countries in Europe and the USA. In addition, the presence and activity of the institutions included in the study on social networks is considered. Their research serves as a basis for establishing a debate on the current gap between the social reality and the digitalization of institutions. In this sense, conclusions are drawn on the importance of management profiles in decision-making on digitization and the necessary knowledge that, together with web and social network managers, they must have to articulate the means and techniques that enhance the Internet presence of the organizations they manage. Their results conclude that the analysis of digital presence identifies a loss of relevance of BIAs. The BIAs must take up with greater interest and better techniques the challenge of the digital transformation of society and of the companies they represent. They also need to address the role of BIAs in the digital environment, and the implementation and use of their websites and social media accounts to represent and defend the interests of the new generations of entrepreneurs. In this sense, it is concluded that the scope of the implications of the digital revolution has reached all social actors and the institutions that represent them, also that nonprofit institutions have taken for granted their role in society without considering the generational change when using the internet. Similarly, the results of the research allow us to affirm that technological and generational factors go hand in hand, as already announced in the literature and corroborated by their study, and that the different actors: companies, individuals and institutions must adopt digitalization to have a new meeting place and exchange ideas and interests. The challenge of digitalization implies a new system of economic and social interaction, which is why the presence on the web and in social networks, and in general in direct and interactive channels, are two milestones facing the managers of nonprofit institutions. These types of institutions should articulate or develop a model that contemplates a mixture of classic action with the necessary avant-garde elements that allow them to respond to the challenges of technological change. A change in how information is analyzed on the internet and, consequently, in how this analysis influences organizations’ communication and marketing plans in general and of BIAs. As we have seen from the research design, the methodology applied and the conclusions are drawn in this article, research-based on Big Data solutions is crucial in making decisions regarding how the marketing effort and its expression in the different relational actions. In this sense, identifying how digital marketing techniques affect the attraction of target audiences to interactive channels (Web and social networks, as channels with greater traffic and interaction with users), the interaction experience and user satisfaction is of great interest to disseminate messages from BIAs, in line with their corporate objectives and influence on the economic, social and political environments that identify the so-called collective action that characterizes them.
The paper, by Alexandre Clément, Élisabeth Robinot and Léo Trespeuch, analyses the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores in academic literature. Their study finds that there is a lack of consensus among academics regarding the definition of ESG scores and how to measure them. The article identified five different thematic definitions for ESG scores, including sustainability, CSR, finance, disclosure and analysis of ESG. The study suggests that using ESG scores as a metric requires caution as they can represent different issues and cannot track specific underlying problems. Their study also found that the methodology and documentation provided by ESG rating agencies are generally accepted by the community, but other definitions, such as the measure of CSR and sustainability, raise specific issues of representativity. The review identified 4.145 articles, of which 342 were retained from influential peer-reviewed journals. Their study analyzed only top-ranked journals and used only the key terms “ESG Score” and “ESG Scores” to gather research papers. Their article also identifies the limitations of ESG scores as a holistic measure of a company’s ESG performance. ESG scores are influenced by various factors such as the industry, the territory in which they operate, the size of the firm, board composition and the influence of the sustainability agency that produces the score. ESG scores represent something broader than specific elements and are influenced by the organization, as many metrics are disclosed on a voluntary basis, and the implication level of the business in its ESG assessment leads to better ESG scores. Their article analyzes the different definitions of ESG scores in academic literature and finds that ESG scores can act as a proxy for CSR or sustainability, but it is problematic to use ESG scores interchangeably with CSR or sustainability. Their study also identifies the limitations of ESG scores as a holistic measure of a company’s ESG performance and suggests that researchers develop specific methodologies to improve the accuracy of environmental or social issues measurements. For example, Clément et al. (2022) propose a new perspective on improving ESG scores with sustainability concepts. Overall, the study highlights the importance of caution when using ESG scores as a metric and suggests that using the underlying variables composing the ESG scores could improve the quality of the representation of environmental or social issues when evaluating organizations since variables that compose each pillar of ESG scores are great sources of information regarding specific issues. Using them would improve the quality of the representation of environmental or social issues when evaluating organizations.
The paper, by Aelita Skarzauskiene, Monika Maciuliene, Sabine Wildevuur, Maya van den Berg, Thomas Bakratsas, Artemis Psaltoglou, Efstratios Stylianidis, Ioannis Tavantzis and Kostas Karatzas, is related to INCENTIVE project. INCENTIVE is an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project (GA. 101005330) that addresses the lack of upstream citizen participation in research and innovation (R&I). Their project strives to achieve its objective by institutionalizing Citizen Science in four European universities (University of Twente, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University), as a participatory and inclusive paradigm of scientific inquiry. The formal integration of Citizen Science in the project’s participating universities is pursued through the design and operationalization of four so-called Citizen Science Hubs: spaces within the universities’ premises where citizens and local stakeholders can connect with researchers and scientists and become empowered to identify societal challenges and co-define solutions through Citizen Science. The expected impact of the INCENTIVE project is to ground the principles of Responsible Research and Innovation within the R&I ecosystem of the regions where each university is located. Their project kicked off in February 2021, rallying nine institutions from seven European countries. During the first two years, the partnership has accomplished the following objectives, among other things:
mapping thoroughly the institutional profile and needs of each participating university, as well as of key stakeholders who represent quadruple helix in the regional R&I ecosystem;
performing co-creation workshops with local stakeholders to collectively agree on the structure, values and activities of the Hubs; and
identifying tools to incentivize citizens to participate in the hub’s activities, as well as defining these activities.
Their project currently enters the phase in which the universities are setting the operation of the Hubs. A customized monitoring and evaluation framework has been designed to capture the impact that the project’s activities deliver at societal, scientific, economic and environmental level. Part of the mapping phase was to unpack the range and types of factors that motivate or discourage key stakeholders and the wider public in Citizen Science activities. The mixed-methods research reveals a current overview of the perceptions, attitudes, concerns and motivations with regard to development and sustainability of Citizen Science ecosystem in four countries: Greece, Lithuania, The Netherlands and Spain. Their research provides both conceptual insights on how structural, organizational and behavioral factors condition the potential and limitations of Citizen Science in four different European countries, while it also gives fresh evidence on the wider public’s perceptions and preferences vis-à-vis participatory science; a knowledge that is leveraged by the pilot universities to tailor the profile of their Hub and select accordingly their core activities.
The last contribution, by Alba Yela Aránega, Rafael Castaño Sánchez and Samuel Ribeiro Soriano, aims to enhance the resilience of health professionals in residential care settings to foster sustainable intrapreneurial growth among workers. By providing training focused on developing emotional competencies and implementing mindfulness techniques, their program seeks to help individuals understand their roles better, manage their emotions and reduce stress and anxiety. Their program spans eight weeks, incorporating mindfulness sessions every four days and includes daily 10-min feedback sessions with supervisors at the beginning and end of the workday to review the day’s events and set new goals. A control group that does not receive the training is also included. The sample consists of 91 residential care health professionals. Using a validated 25-item resilience questionnaire, the study measures participants’ resilience before and after the training to assess the program’s impact. Their findings indicate a 3.93% improvement in overall resilience among the participants and a reduction in the resilience gap between professionals over 45 years old and their younger counterparts, although age remains a significant factor. This approach presents an innovative and sustainable method for promoting entrepreneurship by enhancing organizational commitment through mindfulness and resilience management.
References
Charfeddine, L. and Umlai, M. (2023), “ICT sector, digitization and environmental sustainability: a systematic review of the literature from 2000 to 2022”, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 184, p. 113482, doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2023.113482.
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Clément, A., Robinot, É. and Trespeuch, L. (2022), “Improving ESG scores with sustainability concepts”, Sustainability, Vol. 14 No. 20, p. 13154, doi: 10.3390/su142013154.
Daraojimba, C., Abioye, K.M., Bakare, A.D., Mhlongo, N.Z., Onunka, O. and Daraojimba, D.O. (2023), “Technology and innovation to growth of entrepreneurship and financial boost: a decade in review (2013-2023)”, International Journal of Management and Entrepreneurship Research, Vol. 5 No. 10, pp. 769-792, doi: 10.51594/ijmer.v5i10.593.
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Uduji, J.I. and Okolo-Obasi, E.N. (2022), “Empowerment of rural young people in informal farm entrepreneurship: the role of corporate social responsibility in Nigeria’s oil producing communities”, Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 924-947, doi: 10.1108/JEC-04-2021-0054.
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About the author
Alba Yela Aránega has a PhD in Economics and Business Management at the University of Alcalá. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Business Organisation and Management at the University of Alcalá. She is a reviewer of some international reviews and handing editor in international journals in SSCI-ranked journals. She has published widely on topics such as mindfulness for intraentreprenurship, management, human resources and training.