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This chapter considers the challenges of applying engineering practices to knowledge. Knowledge cannot be managed like other forms of capital because it is tacit and intangible. Research has identified economic properties and behaviors that set it apart from physical and financial capital. The authors translate the economic typology of human, structural, and relational capital to Blackler’s four forms of characterizations: embrained, embodied, embedded, and encultured. Knowledge elicitation techniques are discussed, and aligned with Blakely’s four forms of characterizations.

This study aims to propose a framework for constructing a sustainable higher education institution (HEI) from the perspective of transformative learning.

This literature review focused on the construction framework, using themes of transformative learning approach and learning cycles and transitions approach.

This study reviews the articulation between the levels of transformative learning (instrumental, conventional, green and sustainable HEIs) and learning cycles (single-loop, double-loop and deutero-learning). The study explores how the maturity of HEI, process until it achieves higher levels of sustainability. However, positioning a HEI on a macroscale level is utopian as it represents an ideal type, using Max Weber’s terminology, which can only be overcome through deep institutional changes driven by sustainable concerns.

The limitations of the framework, links to the limited number of studies that applied the I3E model – acronym for inform, engage, empower and embed – (Cebrián, 2016) and the lack of deepening of the four elements proposed to understand the process of sustainable management. The article expands on the literature by proposing ways for HEIs to engage toward a paradigm shift and a critical-based sustainable transformation.

This article provides an integrated approach for incorporating sustainable practice concerns into education, management, research and university–society relations. In addition, the results provide policymakers in HEIs with an understanding that transformative learning guides protocols to address challenging sustainability issues, in addition to new perspectives, approaches and understandings that bring the maturity levels of HEIs closer to an ideal sustainability model.

The study opens space for new research to be conducted, investigating how progress occurs in the face of sustainability and how it can be improved, in addition to serving for HEIs as a guide to actually becoming spaces where there is greater awareness, social justice, ethics and critical thinking. By using the transition to sustainability approach, it is possible to view how HEIs move toward a transition, understanding how it is managed and can be improved.

This study aims to examine publishing patterns regarding the incorporation of organizational learning in philanthropic organizations.

This study conducts a quantitative bibliometric analysis using Scopus database data from 1997 to 2024. The search terms “organizational learning” combined with “philanthropy,” “non-profit,” “nonprofit,” “charity,” “humanitarian” or “endowment” yielded 162 articles. The data were processed in RStudio using the Bibliometrix R package, specifically the Biblioshiny component.

The results of the bibliometric analysis indicate a significant increase in research interest in the theme of organizational learning within philanthropic organizations from 1997 to 2024. This analysis also elucidates the relationships among the most prolific authors based on the country of their affiliated universities, the collaborations that have taken place, the most cited documents, keywords and the scientific knowledge used.

A comprehensive literature review will be valuable for future researchers aiming to build a robust conceptual framework. This study’s science mapping is limited to the Scopus database and languages.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to describe research patterns focusing on organizational learning in philanthropic organizations.

Being open-minded means listening to others’ proposals, even if they go against our criteria. Although having an open mindset is the key to “open innovation,” we find that many managers are reluctant to make sustainable changes, either because they prefer to stick to what they know and prefer to stay in their comfort zone or just because they are embarrassed to assume errors or ignorance in certain issues of an environmental nature. The study aims to examine the role of green skills in overcoming defensive rigidity and defensive embarrassment barriers that hinder open innovation.

A questionnaire-based survey was administered to 208 SMEs in the Spanish textile industry. The data collected were processed and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM) and SmartPLS 4.

The study reveals that green skills significantly contribute to the development of open innovation and the mitigation of defensive routines among managers. This indicates that equipping managers with green skills can reduce their defensive rigidity and embarrassment, thereby fostering a more open and innovative organizational culture.

This research is original in its focus on the Spanish textile industry and its exploration of the specific psychological barriers that managers face in adopting sustainable innovations. By highlighting the importance of green skills, it provides a novel perspective on overcoming defensive routines to promote open innovation.

Despite the well-documented relationship between innovativeness and performance, the roles of strategic orientation and strategic learning within this relationship remain underexplored. This study aims to contribute to bridging this gap by leveraging organizational learning theory and the resource-based view. We explore how strategic orientation and strategic learning interact with innovativeness to enhance firm performance, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of these complex interrelations.

We conducted a mixed-method field study, beginning by collecting survey responses from senior managers at 165 four- and five-star hotels across four Gulf Cooperation Council countries. After analyzing this data, we conducted five in-depth interviews with managers to further explore specific research questions that our initial deductive analysis did not address.

The study results, including a post hoc analysis of in-depth interviews, show that strategic learning and innovativeness are critical success factors for hotels. Unexpectedly, strategic orientation did not play a significant role in this study, and it seems that hotels facing hostile market conditions, such as pandemics and political crises, become more oriented to focus on short-term initiatives to help them survive.

In the post-COVID-19 era, hotels are recognizing the significance of embracing innovations like biometric technology to ensure seamless and safe customer experiences. Managers need to cultivate an innovative culture through strategic learning, supported by evidence of its positive impact on service performance. Enhancing innovativeness in hospitality requires understanding key drivers and fostering organizational contexts conducive to innovation. Incorporating strategic orientation with strategic learning is essential for successful innovation and improved hotel performance, presenting a challenge for both scholars and managers.

This study underscores the importance of strategic learning in enhancing hotel performance through innovativeness, emphasizing its role as a critical mediator in the hospitality industry’s dynamic landscape.

In a typical problem of allocating a fixed resource across a set of decision-making units (DMUs), the decision maker will decide how much resource to allocate to each DMU. Real-world decision-making contexts frequently pose challenges in precisely assessing each DMU’s performance on distinct parameters and in ascertaining the relative importance of these parameters, since resource allocation often precedes the decision-making process. Conventional decision-making approaches fall short in effectively addressing such complexities. In this paper, the authors propose a stochastic multi-attribute acceptability analysis (SMAA)-based model that can deal with the resource allocation problem with uncertain attribute values and unknown attribute weights.

The SMAA-based model first regards the resource to be allocated as an evaluation attribute and then proposes a fair resource allocation solution that minimizes the gap between the holistic acceptability of each DMU. To address the optimization of the SMAA-based model, two heuristic strategies were devised: a modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach and an adaptive algorithm, both designed to yield acceptable outcomes within a constrained time frame.

The resource allocation model based on SMAA can provide an effective analytical framework for the resource allocation problem of different DMUs in uncertain environments. Meanwhile, the PSO algorithm and adjustment algorithm proposed in this paper can help decision-makers quickly find a fair resource allocation plan.

Primarily, this study introduces a novel approach rooted in SMAA for tackling resource allocation dilemmas where attribute values are uncertain and weight information is absent. Secondly, a fairness-centric strategy that minimizes the disparity in overall acceptability among various DMUs is presented. Thirdly, two heuristic algorithms, namely, PSO algorithm and adjustment algorithm, are developed to solve the problem.

The process of talent development (TD) is one of the current trends in HRM and human resource development (HRD). Although scientific literature addressing the topic emphasizes that through development of talents, organizations can increase their productivity, performance and competitiveness, little is known so far concerning the development of this research field as a whole and particularly concerning theories prevailing in the area. While research into the field has been ongoing for two decades, the area has not yet been systematized based on key theories used as starting points for the research. The purpose of this paper is to focus on which theories in HRD are used in TD.

Concerning the topicality of TD, the present article provides a systematic review of literature summarizing current theories in TD based on the currently used typology of theories in HRD, adding the fourth pillar to the existing three, i.e. theories concerning adult learning and education, to increase the stability of the typology.

The paper argues that the area of TD prevalently uses sociological, psychological and ethical theories, which may be attributed to trends in HRD. The insufficient representation of theories of learning in TD, particularly in view of the fact that adult learning and development is the essence of TD, is an important finding. This finding is particularly important for science concerning adult learning and education.

The benefit of the presented analysis lies in a systematization of the individual theories and a comprehensive overview of the current theoretical framework of TD, as well as suggestions for future research making use of adult learning and education theories.

This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on adopting artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI, in knowledge management (KM) processes and its impact on organisational decision-making. Specifically, the study addresses three key research questions: RQ1: How is (generative) AI adopted within KM processes in organisations? RQ2: What factors influence the adoption of AI in these processes, either facilitating or inhibiting it? RQ3: How does AI adoption in KM processes affect organisational decision-making?

An explorative investigation has been conducted through semi-structured interviews with KM and AI experts from a worldwide sample of 52 mostly private, large and for-profit organisations. Interviews have been analysed through a mixed thematic analysis.

The study provides an original framework in which the three investigated concepts are interconnected according to a dual relationship: linear and retroactive and 20 factors affecting AI adoption within KM processes.

The provided model guides managers in improving their organisational decision-making through AI adoption in KM processes. Moreover, according to the rational decision-making model, the authors propose a six-step systematic procedure for managers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that simultaneously addresses AI, KM and decision-making and provides an integrated framework showing the relationships between them, allowing organisations to better and practically understand how to ameliorate their decision-making through AI adoption in KM processes.

The consideration of the substitution phenomenon in the project portfolio selection problem can improve the robustness of project portfolio selection and help enterprises better achieve their strategic objectives. However, the existence of inter-project risk propagation will have a negative impact on project substitution. This paper proposes a new framework for project portfolio selection and constructs a risk propagation model based on strategic objectives to study the impact of risk propagation on substitution in the project portfolio.

The authors first construct a risk propagation model based on strategic objectives to describe the risk propagation between projects. Then the project substitution phenomenon based on risk propagation is put forward, and the calculation method of substitution loss is given. Finally, a robust project portfolio selection framework based on strategic objectives considering risk propagation is constructed.

The analysis of a case study demonstrates that (1) With the increase of risk intensity, the strategic loss of the same project portfolio increases linearly, and under the same risk intensity, the more projects in the portfolio, the stronger the robustness. (2) Considering risk propagation, the effect of project substitution is significantly weakened, and the strategic loss rate of the project portfolio is significantly increased compared with that of a direct attack.

This study is the first to take the project substitution into account in the project portfolio selection process. Moreover, the authors describe inter-project risk propagation and analyze the impact of risk propagation on the project substitution phenomenon. Finally, the authors extend the evaluation index of robustness. This paper puts forward a new way to solve the problem of project portfolio selection.