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Despite city authorities in Bangladesh being concerned about urban sustainability, they often face difficulties in addressing predominant urban challenges threatening urban sustainability, due to limited relevant literature. To reduce this gap, this study aims to address the predominant urban challenges and assess their severity levels in four city corporations of Bangladesh, e.g. Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barishal, and Gazipur.

Using a mixed-method approach, this study rigorously analyzed field-level data obtained from 1,200 residents across selected cities using diverse statistical techniques. The quantitative analysis included descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and chi-square tests, whereas qualitative insights were derived through thematic analysis.

The study uncovered nine predominant urban challenges under two crucial factors “Feeble Urban Management” and “Illicit Activities” that collectively explain 62.20% variance. “Feeble Urban Management” explains 44.17% variance, whereas “Illicit Activities” accounts for 18.13%. Within these challenges, uncontrolled urban sprawl, inadequate disaster management, congested roads, and shabby drainage and waste management pose significant threats to urban sustainability. Illicit activities, manifested by encroachment on water sources, grabbing roadside, destruction of natural properties, and activities undermining social security, compound the urban sustainability issue. Severity analysis reveals Sylhet (54.5%), Rajshahi (46.4%), and Barishal (31.2%) as highly impacted, whereas Gazipur exhibits moderate severity (66.7%).

The findings of this study reveal intrinsic insights into urban challenges in Bangladesh that will provide valuable guidance to city authorities, equipping them to implement integrated and effective initiatives and programs that overcome these predominant urban challenges, with a specific focus on Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Barishal city corporations.

Blockchain technology, renowned for its decentralization, security, reliability, and data integrity, has the potential to revolutionize businesses globally. However, its full potential remains unrealized due to adoption barriers, necessitating further studies to address these challenges. Identifying these barriers is crucial for businesses and practitioners to effectively tackle them. This systematic review analyzed 70 eligible studies out of 1944 gathered from various databases to understand and identify common blockchain adoption barriers. The Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework was the most popular theory used in these studies. Despite differences in variable definitions, financial constraints, lack of stakeholder collaboration and coordination, and social influences like resistance to change and negative perceptions emerged as the top three barriers. The supply chain domain had the highest number of studies on blockchain adoption. Notably, there was a significant increase in studies addressing blockchain adoption in 2023, comprising 34.2% of the total reviewed studies. This review provides a comprehensive overview of identified barriers, serving as a valuable foundation for future research. Understanding these challenges allows researchers to design targeted studies aimed at developing solutions, strategies, and innovations to overcome obstacles hindering blockchain adoption.

This chapter explores the present state of the worldwide tourism sector and its complex phenomenological interconnection with climate change. This analysis emphasizes the significant environmental consequences resulting from the rise of tourism, which can be attributed to the exponential growth facilitated by enhanced connectivity and the concurrent increase in disposable incomes. It thoroughly analyses the primary factors that contribute to the environmental impact of the sector, which encompasses emissions from transportation, infrastructure development, waste generation, and resource usage. Furthermore, this analysis sheds light on the obstacles encountered in the process of shifting toward sustainability, including limited knowledge and understanding, deficiencies in policy implementation, and reluctance to embrace transformation within the sector. However, it also provides insights into numerous activities and solutions currently in progress to alleviate the environmental impact of the industry. The aforementioned approaches encompass the implementation of sustainable tourism practices, legislation revisions, and advancements in technology. This chapter concludes by highlighting the imperative need for a collaborative initiative including governmental bodies, industrial participants, and tourists to establish a harmonious equilibrium between the pursuit of economic expansion and the protection of the environment. The future trajectory of global tourism is contingent upon the adoption of sustainable practices, which are crucial for fostering a healthy coexistence between the tourism industry and the environment.

India’s construction sector faces substantial challenges with project delays and cost overruns. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, an astounding 431 out of 1,820 projects reported cost overruns, whereas 848 projects experienced delays in 2023. These delays and overruns often push costs 30%–40% beyond initial estimates. Blockchain technology (BCT) offers a promising solution by enhancing transparency, streamlining processes through automation and optimising supply chains in the construction industry. This study aims to explore the adoption landscape of BCT within the construction sector, the drivers behind its acceptance and future directions for its implementation.

This study uses a mixed-methods’ research design that combines both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques to investigate the current use of blockchain, the perceived rationale and the future direction of blockchain in construction. A survey of construction professionals with substantial blockchain experience was conducted. In addition, an exhaustive literature review and content analysis were conducted using reputable electronic databases such as Scopus, Web of Science and IEEE Xplore, reinforcing the study’s empirical foundation. The survey data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics to determine relative importance items using MS-Excel and SPSS.

Despite regulatory challenges, blockchain adoption is on the rise, with 90% of respondents expressing strong interest. Stakeholders see improved transparency and accountability as key drivers for adoption, emphasising blockchain’s capacity to support veracity and trust in construction projects. Notable benefits include enhanced communication, cost reduction, supply chain management and precise execution and monitoring. Overcoming regulatory constraints and bridging knowledge gaps will be essential to fully realising blockchain’s benefits for all players in the construction industry.

The study’s findings provide valuable insights for construction professionals, researchers and policymakers interested in adopting BCT. By clarifying the transformative potential of blockchain within the construction sector, this research study emphasises the imperatives of further study, innovation and collaborative endeavours aimed at addressing construction industry challenges and facilitating digital integration.

This study aims to dissect and understand the latent themes of Islamic work ethic (IWE) and explore the driving factors of IWE research.

Structural topic modeling (STM), a sophisticated machine learning technique, was used to analyze a corpus of 205 articles sourced from the Scopus database. These articles cover the 36 years of research on IWE, from 1988 to 2024. Moreover, negative binomial regression was applied to examine the driving factors of IWE research.

The STM analysis unfolds ten topics in conjunction with IWE including individual success, workplace dynamics, organizational work ethics, knowledge management, employee citizenship behavior, financial ethics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance enhancement and leadership. The further STM outputs included word clouds, prevalence proportions, correlation matrix, heatmap, relationship of topics with metadata, topic prominence in the publishing journals and, finally, illustrating trends and future prospects of research on IWE. The results of negative binomial regression reveal that number of authors, article age, journal indexing, authors from multiple countries and number of references are strong drivers of fostering research in IWE, by having significant positive impacts on total citations.

The insights from this study provide valuable guidance for businesses and organizations looking to integrate IWE principles into their operations. By promoting values such as fairness, hard work and ethical behavior, organizations can foster a more inclusive and morally grounded workplace culture. This, in turn, may lead to enhanced employee satisfaction, greater organizational commitment and improved overall performance. Additionally, the emphasis on ethical practices can contribute to broader societal benefits, such as increased trust in business practices and a stronger alignment with social responsibility initiatives.

This is a unique study that explores the latent themes and characteristics of the IWE literature through STM and provides insights on the future research directions. In addition, this study also examines the driving factors of IWE research.

There is controversy over whether foreign direct investment (FDI) increases or reduces environmental degradation in host countries resulting in pollution havens or pollution halos. Based on the concept of scale, technology and composition effects, this paper aims to examine the causal relationship between FDI and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in India.

This paper analyzes panel data of the three most polluting industries between 2005 and 2021 by conducting a Granger causality test.

The results provide evidence of pollution havens in the manufacturing and transportation industry, and in the metallurgy and chemical sectors within the manufacturing industry.

FDI inflows and CO₂ emissions are characterized by large regional variations in India. Hence, future studies of the pollution haven vs pollution halo effect in India could therefore use state-level or even district-level data to test for regional variations.

This paper provides policy recommendations such as increasing the absorptive capacity of local firms to strengthen the technique effect, which would help India combat climate change.

Increasing the absorptive capacity of local firms through incentives such as subsidies and environmental requirements in public contracts can lead to job creation in the green technology sector. This can provide new employment opportunities, especially in R&D and sustainable technology fields, boosting the local economy.

The study adds to the understanding of the endogenous relationship between FDI and environmental degradation, the importance of lagged feedback responses and the impact of industry- and sector-specific influences on this relationship.

Although much research has examined sustainable consumption, one key factor that has been rediscovered is religion. This study aims to include religiosity as a background variable to extend the theory of planned behavior in measuring the Pakistani youth’s green purchase intentions (GPI) and green purchase behavior (GPB) of energy-efficient home appliances.

Built on a positivist research philosophy and a deductive approach of a quantitative design, a convenience sample of 317 participants was approached via online forms. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze both the measurement model and the structural model.

The results suggest that religiosity impacts consumers’ beliefs to maintain control over green behavior and perceived behavioral control (PBC), followed by sustainable attitudes (SA), beliefs that significant others endorse green behavior subjective norms (SN) and GPI. Besides, PBC, SN and SA impact GPI. Furthermore, GPI and PBC impact GPB. Finally, PBC, SN and SA mediate the religiosity and GPI link. However, the moderation effect of PBC on the link of GPI with GPB was not supported.

The model developed is specific to the Muslim population in Pakistan. Therefore, the model might only be able to be generalized to nations that have a similar culture to the Muslims in Pakistan or in other developing countries.

The current research advances the knowledge on the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goal (SDGs) (Goal-12) by clarifying the mechanisms whereby religiosity impacts factors of sustainable consumption including SA, PBC and SN.

This study examines the implementation and performance of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practices in the Pokhara Regional International Airport Project (PRIAP), a key public infrastructure initiative in Nepal. Given airports' significance to Nepal’s economy, particularly for tourism and trade, the research highlights the unique safety challenges in airport construction, addressing gaps in OHS management in developing countries.

A case study methodology focused on the PRIAP enabled a thorough analysis of safety practices. Data were gathered using structured questionnaires from various stakeholders. The Cronbach’s alpha and relative importance index (RII) were used to assess response reliability and ranked factors affecting safety performance.

The study identifies both strengths and weaknesses in the project’s OHS practices. While plant and equipment handling and financial aspects, such as budget allocation for safety measures and accident compensation, were deemed satisfactory, significant deficiencies were found in hazard identification and the investigation of near misses. These results suggest that improvements are needed in proactive safety management, particularly in worker-management communication.

This study provides valuable insights but is limited by its single-site focus and use of descriptive statistics. Future research should employ advanced statistical methods, like ANOVA, and include multiple construction sites to capture a broader range of OHS challenges. Evaluating the long-term effectiveness of proposed interventions is also essential. Addressing these limitations will enhance the development of comprehensive safety management strategies tailored to the specific needs of construction projects in developing countries.

This study provides practical recommendations for improving OHS practices in airport construction and similar large-scale projects in developing countries. Enhanced hazard identification and improved communication among stakeholders can help reduce accidents and boost project efficiency.

Improving safety regulations and culture can reduce workplace injuries, enhancing workers' well-being and quality of life. This research supports stronger public policies, helping lower economic burdens from accidents, promoting social stability and increasing public trust in regulatory bodies.

This research contributes to the limited literature on OHS in airport construction projects in developing countries, particularly in Nepal. The case study methodology provides a detailed examination of safety practices and offers a framework for improving OHS in similar projects.

This research investigation aims to explore the factors that affect purchasing behaviour among consumers in India in the context of green electronic products with the aid of the extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) by incorporating two additional constructs, namely environmental concern and ethical obligation.

The current research adopted a quantitative methodology, utilising a survey (questionnaire) to gather data from respondents residing in Delhi-NCR, India. A convenience sampling technique was used to select these respondents. Both online and offline modes were used to collect the data. Moreover, to evaluate the theoretical foundation of the investigation, the researchers employed PLS-SEM (partial least square structural equation modelling) on 346 useable samples.

The outcome reveals that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control (PBC) are significant predictors, supplementary constructs such as environmental concern are not significant predictors, whereas ethical obligation is a substantial predictor of purchase intention. Consumer purchase behaviour, in turn, is influenced by consumer purchase intention.

The outcome of this research could help the country’s legislators formulate policies and programs related to current environmental problems faced by our planet. Marketers could understand the factors that drive consumers' purchasing behaviour towards green electronic products and design effective marketing strategies accordingly. Thus, by enhancing the company’s green image, marketers of green products may potentially increase future purchases, all of which contribute to solving worldwide environmental problems.

This research confirms the usefulness of TPB in understanding Indian consumers' purchasing intention and behaviour towards green electronic products. It further extends the TPB by showing that new components, environmental concerns and ethical obligations influence Indian consumers' purchasing intentions and behaviour. Moreover, prior studies mostly used both additional constructs for green products. Current research used specific types of green products, i.e. green electronic products, as very few studies are available on these products that apply TPB, which makes this study novel. In contrast to previous research that primarily examined purchase intention, this study takes a further step by investigating the connection between intentions and consumers' purchase behaviour. It establishes intention as a precursor to behaviour, specifically towards green electronic products. Additionally, this study introduces new constructs and explores the Indian context, significantly contributing to the existing literature.

This study aims to examine the impact of urbanization and renewable energy productivity on sustainable development in developing Asia economies. Moreover, it investigates the potential of sustainable urbanization in these economies through the lens of renewable energy productivity.

Using a balanced panel data set of 20 developing Asian economies from 2000 to 2020, this study uses the sustainable development goals score as the dependent variable. Principal explanatory variables include urban population and renewable energy productivity, with globalization and government expenditure as control variables in sustainable development function. This study uses diagnostic tests such as cross-sectional dependence, unit-root test and cointegration to ensure robustness. For the empirical analysis, the pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag estimation technique is used for both long- and short-run dynamics, supplemented by the panel-corrected standard errors and feasible generalized least squares methods for the robustness check.

The long-run results indicate that urbanization and renewable energy productivity significantly enhance sustainable development. This study also identifies globalization and government expenditure as significant drivers of sustainable development. The long-run results further identify the potential moderating role of renewable energy productivity, thereby helping urbanization in stimulating sustainable development. This study recommends developing policies that promote sustainable urban infrastructure, such as energy-efficient buildings and smart cities, while investing in renewable energy technologies and systems to enhance their integration into urban development plans and maintain sustainable development.

This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the nuanced impact of renewable energy productivity on sustainable development in the context of urbanization. It underscores the synergistic benefits of aligning urban growth with renewable energy initiatives, suggesting strategic fiscal policies and international cooperation as essential components for advancing sustainable development in developing Asian economies.