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The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a crisis that has hit the European economy and the currently existing systems. To cope with the crisis, Europe has started an investment aiming the energy transition and crisis. Portugal, Spain and Greece have received the approval of their National Recovery Plans from the European Commission, with a definition of spending up to 2026 through the European Union (EU) Next Generation Found. The study investigates whether the Green Deal policies are relaunched by the plans financed and whether the pandemic has changed and conditioned the priorities of the energy transaction. The study uses the lens of corporate social responsability (CSR) and relapse measurable across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Green Deal policies supported by new European investments in the three countries were analyzed through a content analysis (CA) technique to investigate the associated practical and theoretical elements.

The energy theme has a relevance compared to other issues in the investment plans envisaged in Greece, Portugal and Spain. The analysis highlights energy efficiency, sustainable energy and reduction of consumption among the main themes. Energetically, sustainable building plays a central role. The study highlights the relationship between Green Deal policies, CSR, SDGs and management tools adopted.

The study strengthens the relationship between the Green Deal, CSR and SDGs by identifying policies that have already been implemented and theoretical and practical gaps on which politicians and scholars will have to investigate and support in the process of development and continuity of the identified pillars.

Scholarly interest in the business effects of organised crime (OC) has recently increased. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) on the conditions under which OC could pose a threat to or take control of firms within a particular context.

We use narrative synthesis and thematic analysis, with a sample of 46 theoretical and empirical studies published over the past 30 years on the relationship between OC and firms within the disciplines of Business, Management and Accounting (BMA).

SLR and thematic analysis show that scholarly interest has focused on four key domains: OC as a firm, the impact of OC on firms, firms’ efforts to counter OC’s influence and governmental interventions. Using medical metaphors, we also develop a diagram depicting the interplay between OC and firms within the BMA literature.

This study contributes to the literature shaping an agenda to steer future research towards these four key themes. The effectiveness of anti-OC tools and measures depends on a thorough understanding of local norms, behaviours and business practices. In addition to measurement and methodological challenges, several grey areas remain, including the distinction between criminal enterprises and legitimate businesses. Ambiguities also surround the circumstances under which the OC preys upon firms or employs them to establish dominance over a territory.

This book chapter briefly discusses the historical and cultural context of ethnography and evaluation as positioned in the United States and the opportunities made possible by merging techniques and methodology. By merging, methodological pluralism and increased responsiveness to cultural contexts are leveraged, and the critical relevance of engaging communities in evaluation processes is underlined. However, engaging with communities with marginalized backgrounds can present complicated power dynamics in practice that require the evaluator to rethink their role. Equity-centered research practices from the Equity-Centered Research Framework are linked to expound on the need for transforming the evaluator's role to shift and share power with communities throughout engagement. We expand on how transformative work also requires ongoing examinations of positionality in the evaluator role through the lens of relationships. Borrowing from ethnographic concepts, relational dimensions of positionality are conceptualized as alignment, temporality, and place. Each component is illustrated with details on how power dynamics may occur throughout community engagement as well as ways to manage and mitigate power differentials between the roles of the evaluator and community partners. We then offer three broad evaluator practices to support transformation: (a) identify positionality, (b) embed into everyday practice, and (c) negotiate in collaborations with communities. With these practices, we reflect on critical questions and position communities as critical learning partners to promote actions to mitigate and manage ongoing power dynamics. We close this chapter with our experiences interrogating positionality to illustrate distinct burdens and insights as evaluators of color.

This study aims to examine the effects of Internet of Things (IoT) technology on efficiency and patient care in Italian and Israeli intensive care units (ICUs). The goal is to study how IoT might improve care settings by controlling health dynamics and responding to life-threatening circumstances.

This survey-based research explores IoT use, challenges and adaptability in ICUs in both countries. Interviews and surveys of ICU health-care workers are used to get both quantitative and qualitative data on integrating experiences and perspectives.

The research found significant variations between Italy and Israel due to technology infrastructures and health-care practices. Israel shows a more concentrated deployment in a major medical centre with advanced but limited uptake, whereas Italy shows application throughout ICUs highlighting regional health-care system disparities. Interoperability, data security and IoT training are common difficulties.

This research has limitations. One drawback is the geographical dispersion of study sites, with a bigger sample size in Italy than in Israel. This discrepancy may affect findings applicability. However, these preliminary findings provide a foundation for further research into the complexities of deploying IoT in various health-care settings.

This study compares IoT integration in two national health-care systems, adding to health-care technology literature. Regional variations affect technology adoption, but IoT may enhance ICU operations and patient care, according to one research. This study helps health-care practitioners, academics and policymakers understand the pros and cons of IoT in health care.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) and business performance (BP) in a knowledge-intensive industry and further investigate, heretofore neglected, a mediating effect of intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage in the relationship between KOL and BP.

A quantitative approach was adopted to conduct the present study. Data were collected from the full-service branches of private banks in Tehran, Iran. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the validity and reliability of the observed items, and a structural equation model was employed for testing the proposed hypotheses.

The findings revealed that both intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage fully mediate the influence of KOL on branch performance.

The study was conducted in the banking sector in Iran. Therefore, our conclusions may not be applicable to other countries. Future studies should be carried out with samples from other contexts. Moreover, as the study was cross-sectional, the causal relationships could not be inferred directly.

In this study, we found that knowledge-oriented leaders should increase their investment in intellectual capital to gain competitive advantage and improve branch performance.

This study contributes to advanced research on KOL by trying to explain how intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage can influence the relationship between KOL and BP in a knowledge-intensive service industry.