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Extant studies in entrepreneurship have explored factors that influence the birth and growth of start-up firms; however, there appears to be a dearth of studies examining the influence of founders' ambidextrous orientation on start-ups' success, especially their speed of attaining the coveted status of a “unicorn start-up” – which is considered a mega success in practice. This study examines whether and how founding teams’ collective ambidextrous orientation influences their respective start-ups’ pace of becoming a “unicorn”.

This study empirically analyses 220 interviews by the founders of 83 Indian unicorns in examining the influence of the founding teams’ collective exploration-exploitation capability on their firms' speed to achieve the “unicorn” status. The Cox Hazard model was used to test the hypothesized relationships, and linear ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to test the robustness of the results.

The authors find a strong positive relationship between founding teams’ ambidextrous skills and the speed of becoming a unicorn. The study results suggest that the founding teams’ collective exploratory skills may be more influential in their start-up’s speed to unicorn status vis-à-vis their exploitative skills.

This study finds that the founding teams’ ambidextrous orientation and exploratory skills accelerate their start-up’s speed to becoming a unicorn, contributing to the academic discourse on the “unicorn” phenomenon, which is widely acknowledged as a grand success status for start-ups—especially technology and venture capital funded start-ups—among the practitioners. This study contributes to the academic discourse on firm capabilities and founding-team-related antecedents of start-up success by raising a new dimension of the founding team’s ambidextrous orientation.

The concept of smart cities, driven by advancements in innovative information and communication technologies (ICTs), has gained significant attention in recent years. Smart cities aim to improve the quality of life for citizens by leveraging ICT to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of urban services and infrastructure. One critical aspect of smart cities development is advanced innovations in water management, which play a vital role in achieving sustainability, prosperity of community and ensuring the availability of clean water resources. This chapter explores the relationship between advanced water management and smart cities development and highlights the synergies and benefits that arise from their integration. The chapter develops a framework for adopting innovative ICTs that support the gradual transformation toward next generation smart cities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Such transformation aligns with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the maintenance of various social, economic, and environmental developments. The chapter begins by discussing the fundamental principles of smart cities and the role of advanced sensing technologies in enabling efficient and automated processes within urban environments. It then delves into the concept of water-sensitive cities, the importance of urban water mass balance analysis in designing sustainable water management strategies, and the emerging trends in water management. Furthermore, the chapter explores the integration of smart program management and the role of citizen engagement in the design and development of smart cities in the GCC countries and finally challenges and concerns facing these programs.

Nanotechnology (NT) advancements in personal protective textiles (PPT) or personal protective equipment (PPE) have alleviated spread and transmission of this highly contagious viral disease, and enabled enhancement of PPE, thereby fortifying antiviral behavior.

Review of a series of state of the art research papers on the subject matter.

This paper expounds on novel nanotechnological advancements in polymeric textile composites, emerging applications and fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

As a panacea to “public droplet prevention,” textiles have proven to be potentially effective as environmental droplet barriers (EDBs).

PPT in form of healthcare materials including surgical face masks (SFMs), gloves, goggles, respirators, gowns, uniforms, scrub-suits and other apparels play critical role in hindering the spreading of COVID-19 and other “oral-respiratory droplet contamination” both within and outside hospitals.

When used as double-layers, textiles display effectiveness as SFMs or surgical-fabrics, which reduces droplet transmission to <10 cm, within circumference of ∼0.3%.

NT advancements in textiles through nanoparticles, and sensor integration within textile materials have enhanced versatile sensory capabilities, robotics, flame retardancy, self-cleaning, electrical conductivity, flexibility and comfort, thereby availing it for health, medical, sporting, advanced engineering, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, military, automobile, food and agricultural applications, and more. Therefore, this paper expounds on recently emerging trends in nanotechnological influence in textiles for engineering and fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that influence Japanese consumer purchase intention toward products bearing animal welfare (AW) certification labels.

A conceptual model was developed with the constructs of informativeness, trust, consumer perception, health consciousness, moral norms and purchase intention and tested using a sample of 513 Japanese consumers. Data were collected using an online panel with the direct effects analyzed using regression while the mediation analysis was performed using Hayes PROCESS macro.

The findings have confirmed that informativeness, consumer perception and trust contribute to consumer purchase intention of products with AW certification labels. Moral norm has a significant indirect effect on the relationship between consumer perception and intention to purchase. However, health consciousness did not demonstrate any indirect effect on the relationship between consumer perception and intention to purchase.

This study contributes significantly to our understanding of Japanese consumers' perception toward AW certification labels, especially considering the limited discussion surrounding this topic in Japan. By highlighting the importance of informativeness, it sheds light on how enhancing consumer knowledge can potentially boost the demand for AW foods. Moreover, it challenges the conventional belief in the impact of health consciousness and consumer behavioral intention, thereby expanding the discourse on the role of health consciousness in consumer choices. Through this exploration, the study not only enhances consistency in discussing consumer behavior but also strengthens the coherence and argumentation of the research findings.

With recent advances in artificial intelligence, the hospitality industry has introduced the concept of unmanned smart hotels staffed by service robots instead of human employees. Research is needed to understand consumers’ receptivity to such an innovation. This paper examines factors associated with consumers’ potential resistance to using automated service hotels via two sequential studies. Given that younger generations of consumers are typically early adopters of advanced technology and innovative services, our sampling approach focused on this consumer group.

Two studies were conducted. Study 1 proposed and empirically tested a theoretical model. Results revealed that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control each positively influenced individuals’ intentions to use unmanned smart hotels. In Study 2, we further investigated aspects informing perceived security, a key variable in the use of unmanned smart hotels.

Findings showed how people’s beliefs about unmanned smart hotels and security control assurances led to perceived security. These perceptions were shaped by perceived physical risks, privacy concerns, website design and hotel reputation. Overall, this research provides theoretical and practical implications for various stakeholders associated with unmanned smart hotels.

Findings of this study suggested that managers of unmanned smart hotels should design user-friendly, secure processes and offer comprehensive support resources to enhance customer experience and usage.

The findings provide a holistic understanding of consumers’ receptivity to unmanned smart hotels.

In the UK signposting services can be developed as enhanced support for people with health and social care needs or service diversion to help primary and urgent care services manage their workload. This review considers these two conflicting purposes.

The review used a realist approach, initial searches to identify theory; we then selected 22 publications and extracted programme theories, from which we developed questions from three viewpoints: the service user, the front-line service provider and the commissioner. A rich sample of studies were found from purposive searching. To optimise the applicability of synthesis findings predominantly UK studies were included.

Users value signposting service that understand their needs, suggest a range of options and summarise potential actions. People with complex health and social care needs generally require extended time/input from signposting services. Front-line providers require initial and ongoing training, support/supervision, good knowledge of available services/resources and the ability to match users to them and a flexible response. Commissioned signposting services in England are diverse making evaluation difficult.

Meaningful evaluation of signposting services requires greater clarity around roles and service expectations. Signposting services alone fulfil the needs of a small number of users due to the unreconciled tension between efficient (transactional) service provision and effective (relational) service provision. This is underpinned by competing narratives of whether signposting represents diversion of inappropriate demand from primary care and other urgent care services or improved quality of care through a joined-up response encompassing health, social care and community/voluntary services.

There is growing evidence that several social determinants influence mental health outcomes, but whether or not community-based prevention strategies are effective in intervening on these social determinants to improve mental health is unclear. The purpose of this study was to synthesise the state of knowledge on this topic in the UK context, by conducting an umbrella review of the relevant systematic review literature.

The authors searched five electronic databases for systematic reviews of community-based interventions that addressed any social determinant of mental health (SDOMH) in the UK, provided that mental health outcomes were measured. They also reported the results according to PRISMA guidelines and synthesised narratively.

The search yielded 1,101 citations, of which 10 systematic reviews met inclusion criteria. These reviews included 285 original studies, of which 147 (51.6%) were from the UK. Two reviews focussed on children and young people, with the remainder based on working-age adult populations. The authors identified five categories of SDMOH, where financial insecurity and welfare advice interventions were addressed by the largest number of reviews (n = 4), followed by reviews of interventions around social isolation and support (n = 3) and housing regeneration initiatives (n = 2). Results across all social determinants and mental health outcomes were highly heterogenous, but evidence most consistently supported the effectiveness of interventions addressing financial and welfare support on mental health outcomes.

This review highlights the paucity of high quality, causal evidence from the UK and beyond on the effectiveness of interventions on the social determinants of mental health; severe methodological heterogeneity hampers progress to identify scalable interventions to improve population mental health.

The “chiralisation” of Euclidean polygonal tessellations is a novel, recent method which has been used to design new auxetic metamaterials with complex topologies and improved geometric versatility over traditional chiral honeycombs. This paper aims to design and manufacture chiral honeycombs representative of four distinct classes of 2D Euclidean tessellations with hexagonal rotational symmetry using fused-deposition additive manufacturing and experimentally analysed the mechanical properties and failure modes of these metamaterials.

Finite Element simulations were also used to study the high-strain compressive performance of these systems under both periodic boundary conditions and realistic, finite conditions. Experimental uniaxial compressive loading tests were applied to additively manufactured prototypes and digital image correlation was used to measure the Poisson’s ratio and analyse the deformation behaviour of these systems.

The results obtained demonstrate that these systems have the ability to exhibit a wide range of Poisson’s ratios (positive, quasi-zero and negative values) and stiffnesses as well as unusual failure modes characterised by a sequential layer-by-layer collapse of specific, non-adjacent ligaments. These findings provide useful insights on the mechanical properties and deformation behaviours of this new class of metamaterials and indicate that these chiral honeycombs could potentially possess anomalous characteristics which are not commonly found in traditional chiral metamaterials based on regular monohedral tilings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors have analysed for the first time the high strain behaviour and failure modes of chiral metamaterials based on Euclidean multi-polygonal tessellations.

This study explores the factors influencing the investment intentions of potential home buyers among paraprofessionals in sustainable housing within urban construction. By combining the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the extended model of goal-directed behavior (EMGB), the research seeks to understand how technological perceptions, personal motivations and behavioral intentions intersect to shape these investment decisions.

A quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive research design was employed in this study. The study surveyed 641 paraprofessionals as potential home buyers in various Indian cities using a multi-stage stratified sampling technique. It incorporated variables from the TAM and EMGB, modifying some aspects to include financial self-efficacy, hedonic motivation and anticipated regret, alongside adding location as a new factor to examine its impact. For data analysis, partial least squares structural equation modeling was utilized. The analysis focused on hypothesis testing to examine the relationships between the constructs of interest. Bootstrap t-values and effect sizes were used to assess these relationships’ significance and magnitude.

The study found that perceived usefulness and ease of use significantly enhance attitudes toward sustainable homes, while subjective norms have a minimal effect on such investments in India, emphasizing personal rather than societal influences. Financial self-efficacy, anticipated regret and hedonic motivation are key drivers, indicating that economic capacity and the pursuit of a satisfying lifestyle are crucial for investment intentions. Additionally, the importance of location is highlighted, with infrastructural aspects notably affecting sustainable housing appeal. These insights reveal unique dynamics in India’s sustainable housing sector, diverging from trends in developed countries.

The study lies in its unique fusion of the TAM and EMGB specifically tailored to the Indian urban construction context. It introduces financial self-efficacy, hedonic motivation and anticipated regret as novel variables within these frameworks, alongside emphasizing the significant role of location in sustainable housing decisions. This approach offers new insights into the psychological and socioeconomic factors driving sustainable housing investments in developing countries.

This paper aims to discuss recent criticism related to partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Using a combination of literature reviews, empirical examples, and simulation evidence, this research demonstrates that critical accounts of PLS-SEM paint an overly negative picture of PLS-SEM’s capabilities.

Criticisms of PLS-SEM often generalize from boundary conditions with little practical relevance to the method’s general performance, and disregard the metrics and analyses (e.g., Type I error assessment) that are important when assessing the method’s efficacy.

We believe the alleged “fallacies” and “untold facts” have already been addressed in prior research and that the discussion should shift toward constructive avenues by exploring future research areas that are relevant to PLS-SEM applications.

All statistical methods, including PLS-SEM, have strengths and weaknesses. Researchers need to consider established guidelines and recent advancements when using the method, especially given the fast pace of developments in the field.

This research addresses criticisms of PLS-SEM and offers researchers, reviewers, and journal editors a more constructive view of its capabilities.