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This exploratory study aims to identify and prioritize key sustainable innovation challenges faced by family-owned businesses in the wine ecosystem. It also explores whether the criticality of these challenges differed pre- and post-COVID-19 by comparing the prioritization of these challenges at these two times.

Three methodologies were used. First, a systematic literature review identified the key sustainable innovation challenges in the wine ecosystem, which were then summarized into macro-categories (macro-challenges). Second, a panel of experts validated these challenges. Finally, the best-worst method was used using 40 qualitative interviews to prioritize the most critical challenges in two alternative scenarios to explore potential changes in challenge criticality following COVID-19.

This study provides evidence that the primary challenge to sustainable innovation (i.e. constraints on businesses because of limited financial resources) was the same pre- and post-COVID-19. In contrast, although the challenge associated with knowledge sharing was identified as a key strategy of wine ecosystem actors, particularly in recent years, it was the least critical factor at both times.

This exploratory study extends the conceptual boundaries of sustainable innovation by introducing it to the wine ecosystem. It establishes a practical agenda for small and medium-sized enterprises to enable managers who are constrained by limited resources to prioritize challenges. This agenda outlines a path to identifying competitive strategies. This path can also be followed by a range of stakeholders within this ecosystem to achieve resilience and define medium-to-long-term strategies. Furthermore, policymakers and governments can follow this path to formulate more targeted investment management plans and policies, thereby supporting sustainable economic growth in this key sector for many countries.

Drawing an inference from institutional theory and dynamic capabilities view, this study empirically examined the impact of three institutional dimensions (regulative, normative and cognitive) and green entrepreneurial orientation (GEO) on a business firm’s performance. In addition, the moderating effect of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between GEO and firm performance was also explored.

The data were collected from 527 information technology (IT) firms in Pakistan using paper–pencil questionnaires, and the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The findings showed that the regulative and normative institutional dimensions enhance GEO and firm performance in the selected developing country. However, the cognitive institutional dimension fails to report any substantial influence on GEO and firm performance. The findings raised concerns about lower individual accountability as well as the promotion of green practices and firm performance. In addition, dynamic capabilities positively moderate the GEO influence on firm performance.

With the interplay of institutional dimensions, GEO (as mediator) and dynamic capabilities (as moderator), this study developed and tested a unique framework to understand their influence on firm performance. Specifically, we extended the literature by giving evidence that among the three institutional dimensions, only regulative and normative are considered more important because of their direct and indirect (through GEO) positive effect on firm performance. In contrast, the cognitive institutional dimension failed to report any significant direct or indirect impact on firm performance in our study.

This study investigates the implementation of a sustainable circular business model from an accounting perspective. Its goal is to understand if and how decision- makers use management accounting systems, and what changes are needed if these systems are to support the transition toward a circular economy.

Dialogic accounting theory frames the case study of six companies that built a value network to develop and implement an innovative packaging solution consistent with circular economy principles. Content analysis was utilised to investigate the accounting tools used.

The findings indicate that circular solutions generate new organisational configurations based on value networks. Interestingly, managers’ decision-making process largely bypassed the accounting function; they relied on informal accounting and life cycle analysis, which stimulated a multi-stakeholder dialogue in a life cycle perspective.

The research provides theoretical and practical insights into the capability of management accounting systems to support companies seeking circular solutions.

The authors offer implications for accounting practice, chief financial officers (CFOs) and accounting educators, suggesting that a dialogic approach may support value retention of resources, materials and products, as required by the circular economy.

The research contributes to the debate about the role of accounting in sustainability, specifically the need for connecting for resource efficiency at the corporate level with the rationalisation of resource use within planetary boundaries.

The study contributes to the limited research into the role of management accounting in a company’s transition to circular business models. Dialogic accounting theory frames exploration of how accounting may evolve to help businesses become accountable to all stakeholders, including the environment.

Following Agenda 2030, the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into banking strategies has become essential for promoting global sustainability and responsible financial practices. This study aims to examine how the financial characteristics of banks influence their efforts towards achieving the SDGs.

A fixed-effect panel regression is used to analyse a sample of 646 publicly listed banks across 61 countries, observed from 2018 to 2023. The data are sourced from the Refinitiv Eikon database, with the dependent variable pertaining to the SDGs calculated as a composite score.

Empirical results show that larger and less profitable banks reach better performance in terms of contribution to the SDGs. Instead, the level of leverage does not appear to be a significant influential factor in fostering the support of the SDGs.

Theoretically, this work enriches the academic literature on SDG performance and confirms the relevance of stakeholder theory. Managerially, this study provides valuable insights for banks integrating the SDGs into their business models and for policymakers identifying strategies to encourage sustainable practices.

Open social innovation has become a critical practice for firms competing in volatile markets. Simultaneously, the rise of digital technologies has opened opportunities across sectors, making digital transformation a key driver of corporate change. This study examines the impact of internal and external factors, such as social capital, absorptive capacity and government support, in facilitating open social innovation and digital transformation activities, which may ultimately enhance business performance.

Data were collected through a questionnaire survey distributed to management members across various enterprises in a wide range of industries in Vietnam. A total of 289 valid responses were obtained, and the research hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

First, open social innovation positively influences digital transformation, with absorptive capacity mediating this relationship. Second, social capital directly affects open social innovation and indirectly impacts digital transformation through open social innovation. Third, digital transformation directly enhances business performance, while absorptive capacity indirectly influences business performance through digital transformation. Finally, government support directly impacts business performance and indirectly influences digital transformation via open social innovation.

By integrating social capital theory and the resource-based view, this research significantly advances the understanding of the complex relationships among government support, social capital, open social innovation, digital transformation, absorptive capacity and business performance.

This research was initiated by motivation from a real business problem that delves into lean management practices in dairy farm operations. It investigates how lean management practices can be applied as an improvement strategy in the dairy business to evaluate its impact on performance, where profitability is a decisive factor.

Based on the qualitative design, a 5-phase action research methodology was used in this study, where multiple data collection sources were used, including focus group discussions, on-site observation or Gemba walks and process mapping. The impact is evaluated by comparing the key performance measures with the same period before and after research.

The research revealed that lean management practices can significantly improve dairy business performance. It explained vital aspects of lean management practices and their sequence with examples of first-hand applications. It explained, how lean management practices were applied in dairy farm operations. Furthermore, the research resulted in significant benefits, in terms of quality, cost and profitability.

This research was conducted in a real business setting in the field environment, to improve dairy business performance. It was a distinctive application of lean management practices to solve a national problem. This could be used as a road map to bring continuous improvement at the national level to improve the performance of food value chains.

This research is unique because it addresses the methodological, population and empirical gaps in dairy farm operations. It adds value to the existing knowledge base by sharing best practices, developed and implemented for the first time to the best of our knowledge, like high-level process mapping and performance measures at different levels. Furthermore, the solutions can be simulated in related farm operations to bring breakthrough improvements in dairy business performance.

This paper seeks to understand users' perceptions of their experiences in mobile applications (apps) with gamified loyalty programs (GLPs) that use rewards as the primary engagement vehicle. The research focuses particularly on the motivations to further interact with GLPs and the motivational changes occurring after successive interactions.

The authors conducted weekly open qualitative interviews over a month (four rounds of interviews) with five Portuguese active users of the mobile app Yorn Shake It, from Vodafone, which is a relevant case study to illustrate GLPs in mobile apps.

Participants' motivations to interact with the mentioned GLP are shaped by the reward incentive and users' perceptions of the gamified interactive experience. Motivational changes occur regardless of the presence of external contingencies and depend on contextual changes or perceived results of the gamified experience. This means that rewards also satisfy intrinsic needs, but users may remain connected to the system as long as fun experiences are provided without exhausting perceptions. Also, motivation may turn to reward contingencies when the challenge becomes boring.

This is the first qualitative study explaining the perceptions of gamified experiences after continued participation, extending knowledge about the importance of a fair balance between the value and achievement of rewards and the entertainment of the challenge provided after continued exposure. The findings provide insights to GLP marketing managers and developers to better engage target audiences according to their needs and past experience, creating levels of challenges and fair rewards to maintain motivation and prevent abandonment after continued exposure.

Recently, mHealth apps for COVID-19 have emerged as a new research area due to the diverse efforts to control the COVID-19 epidemic. Although there are many bibliometric studies on mHealth and its applications, no bibliometric study sheds light on mHealth apps for COVID-19 as a new research area. To address the above-mentioned research gap, the current study conducts a bibliometric analysis of research in mHealth apps for COVID-19. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the new area and its directions.

The study uses a bibliometric approach to provide an analysis of the overall status of research in mHealth apps for COVID-19. The Scopus database provided by Elsevier was used to extract the analyzed data in this study. SciVal was used to perform the analyses, while VOSviewer was used for scientific mapping.

A total of 457 publications were published between 2020 and 2021 (until Tuesday, June 1) and cited 3,559 times. Publications were written by 2,375 authors, with an average of 5.20 authors per publication. Articles play a pivotal role in the literature on mHealth apps for COVID-19 in terms of production and impact. The research area of mHealth apps for COVID-19 is multidisciplinary. The United States made the largest contribution to this area, while the UK was the most influential. This study reveals the most productive and influential sources, institutions and authors. It also reveals the research hotspots and major thematic clusters in mHealth apps for COVID-19, highly cited publications and the international collaboration network.

mHealth apps for COVID-19 are gaining more and more importance due to their influential role in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic. Using bibliometric analysis, the study contributes to defining the knowledge structure of global research in mHealth apps for COVID-19 as a new, interdisciplinary area of research that has not previously been studied. Therefore, the study results and the comprehensive picture obtained about research in mHealth apps for COVID-19, especially at the level of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence applications, make it an effective supplement to the expert evaluation in the field.

In this paper, we address the need to study automatic propaganda detection to establish a course of action when faced with such a complex task. Although many isolated tasks have been proposed, a roadmap on how to best approach a new task from the perspective of text formality or the leverage of existing resources has not been explored yet.

We present a comprehensive study using several datasets on textual propaganda and different techniques to tackle it. We explore diverse collections with varied characteristics and analyze methodologies, from classic machine learning algorithms, to multi-task learning to utilize the available data in such models.

Our results show that transformer-based approaches are the best option with high-quality collections, and emotionally enriched inputs improve the results for Twitter content. Additionally, MTL achieves the best results in two of the five scenarios we analyzed. Notably, in one of the scenarios, the model achieves an F1 score of 0.78, significantly surpassing the transformer baseline model’s F1 score of 0.68.

After finding a positive impact when leveraging propaganda’s emotional content, we propose further research into exploiting other complex dimensions, such as moral issues or logical reasoning.

Based on our findings, we provide a roadmap for tackling propaganda-related tasks, depending on the types of training data available and the task to solve. This includes the application of MTL, which has yet to be fully exploited in propaganda detection.

The paper presents the findings of a study assessing the progress of implementing the European Green Deal (EGD) strategy goals across the EU-27 countries. The research aimed to evaluate individual countries' implementation of the strategy, considering its multidimensional nature.

A research methodology was devised, incorporating 18 indicators that characterize various dimensions pertinent to the EGD strategy. Evaluation of the strategy’s goals relied on the European Green Deal Index (EGDI), determined using the combined compromise solution (CoCoSo) method and a hybrid approach to weigh the indicators. Three analytical methods – criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC), statistical variance, equal weights – and the Laplace criterion were utilized to ascertain the final weights of these indicators. The EGDI values for the years under scrutiny (2019–2021) served as the basis for assessing the EU-27 countries' progress towards the goals of the EGD.

The survey results indicate that from 2019 to 2021, the highest EGDI values – exceeding 2 – were achieved by Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Austria also recorded very strong results. In contrast, the “new EU-13” countries generally exhibited lower levels of implementation of the EGD, as reflected in their EGDI values. Bulgaria and Cyprus, in particular, had the weakest results over the study period, with EGDI values below 1.5. Consequently, the “old EU-14” countries performed significantly better in implementing the EGD compared to the “new EU-13” countries. Among the “old EU-14” countries, Ireland recorded the weakest performance.

The originality of the research is highlighted by several key factors. Firstly, it addresses a significant research gap by assessing the initial positions and efforts of EU countries toward the EGD goals, providing a benchmark for effectiveness and strategy development. Secondly, it pioneers an authoritative and universal multi-criteria evaluation approach through the Green Deal Index (GDI), offering a robust methodology for assessing EGD implementation. Lastly, the study’s holistic approach incorporates energy, environmental and socioeconomic dimensions, significantly expanding knowledge and contributing to informed decision-making and policy formulation.