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Computing seepage discharge in earth dams involves inherent complexities and challenges that require the use of probabilistic algorithms to accurately capture their uncertain characteristics and identify optimal solutions. This study aims to investigate the impact of uncertainty in seepage flow estimation using a novel hybrid approach, combining the analysis of Laplacian equations with the probabilistic finite element method (PFEM) and a metaheuristic algorithm.

To achieve this purpose, a finite element-based FORTRAN program was developed to model the problem using the Galerkin finite element method, which was validated using laboratory findings. Subsequently, Monte Carlo loops were incorporated into each model, consisting of 2000 iterations and the probability distribution function and cumulative distribution function were computed for each sub-model. A total of 138 earth dams were analysed to investigate the influence of different characteristics on seepage, including variations in dam geometry, soil permeability and water levels (both downstream and upstream). Effective seepage flow (ESF), was introduced in both deterministic and probabilistic models.

The findings indicated that the downstream slope has a more significant impact on ESF than the upstream slope, with a difference of 1.29%. Additionally, the ratio of dam height to bottom width (H/B) directly affects the ESF, resulting in a 20% increase in ESF for every 16% increase in H/B.

This study introduces a novel hybrid approach for estimating seepage flow in earth dams by integrating the Unlike traditional deterministic models, which often overlook the inherent .PFEM with a metaheuristic algorithman advanced uncertainties in seepage characteristics, this research effectively captures these uncertainties throughprobabilistic framework.

This review investigates the effects of temporal aggregation and systematic sampling on time-series analysis, focusing on their influence on data accuracy, interpretability and statistical properties. The purpose of the study is to synthesise existing literature on the topic and offer insights into the trade-offs between these data reduction techniques.

The research methodology is based on an extensive review of theoretical and empirical studies covering univariate and multivariate time series models, focusing on unit roots, ARIMA, GARCH, cointegration properties and Granger Causality.

The key findings reveal that while temporal aggregation simplifies data by emphasising long-term trends, it can obscure short-term fluctuations, potentially leading to biases in analysis. Similarly, systematic sampling enhances computational efficiency but risks information loss, especially in non-stationary data, and may result in biased samples if sampling intervals coincide with data periodicity. The review highlights the complexities and trade-offs involved in applying these methods, particularly in fields like economic forecasting, climate modelling and financial analysis.

The originality and value of this study lie in its comprehensive synthesis of the impacts of these techniques across various time series properties. It underscores the importance of context-specific applications to preserve data integrity, offering recommendations for best practices in the use of temporal aggregation and systematic sampling in time-series analysis.

As the warehouse is increasingly viewed as a strategic component, retailers’ willingness to invest in automated warehouse systems (AWS) has increased. These investment decisions are influenced by well-known operational factors, but strategic factors, which have received limited attention in warehousing literature, also play a pivotal role. Addressing this gap, this study investigates how strategic factors influence AWS investment decisions in retail.

Based on a theoretical foundation of technology adoption, strategic intent, and automation strategy, an abductive multiple case study is conducted with eight purposefully selected retailers that had implemented or were in the process of implementing a large AWS.

The study ranks 10 competitive priorities and 21 AWS evaluation aspects and shows how the firm’s strategic intent and the AWS investment decisions can be connected via the formulation of a warehouse automation strategy. The findings reveal the content for such a strategy – including 7 categories and 17 considerations – related to, for example, technology innovativeness, efficiency versus adaptiveness, technology-supplier relationships, control and ownership, and risk exposure. The study empirically shows how manager characteristics and owner strategies influence retailers’ AWS investment decisions. Four strategic intent profiles are abductively developed: reliability and delivery service; profitable deliveries; scalable logistics for volume growth; and platform building for logistics services. The study also provides evidence of a reciprocal relationship between strategic intent and AWS investment decisions.

The study is conducted with a limited number of Swedish retailers, indicating a need for additional studies to test the findings across different contexts.

The study offers a framework for formulating a warehouse automation strategy. As a foundation for developing the framework, the study shares empirical insights from retailers in the forefront of AWS implementation.

The study contributes as a conversation changer by showing the importance of shifting from a tactical-operational focus to a strategic perspective on warehouse configuration in general and on AWS investment decisions in retail in particular.

This study aims to examine Africa’s environment, social and governance (ESG) research through a systematic literature review (SLR). The authors aim to identify and discuss influential aspects of ESG accounting in Africa, focusing on prominent themes, authors and journals in published articles using Africa’s setting. It also constructs agendas for future research to advance the literature and contribute to the ESG accounting practices in Africa.

This study uses an SLR approach, where accounting research journal articles are collated and compiled according to pre-determined criteria and analysed using bibliometric techniques. After carefully reviewing 1,387 articles, the authors selected and examined 246 academic articles published from 2006 to 2024 in 32 accounting journals indexed in the Web of Science.

The authors identify four main streams of ESG accounting research in Africa, namely, ESG disclosure in primary-based economies; corporate governance dynamics in Africa; internal mechanisms in ESG reporting; and external mechanisms in ESG disclosure. According to the analysis, the authors propose future research agendas to discuss institutional perspective of ESG reporting standards implementation and enforcement; value creation impact on sustainability performance; ESG reporting effect on conflict resolution; and ESG reporting quality and environmental sustainability.

This study assists policymakers, academics, managers, accounting professionals and investors in comprehensively understanding the current state and projecting future actions to develop ESG accounting in Africa.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is perhaps the first to examine Africa’s ESG research through an SLR. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a comprehensive analysis of the existing ESG accounting landscape and tailoring future research agendas based on the distinctive characteristics of Africa.

This study aims to develop a maturity model to assess manufacturing companies’ adoption of digital technologies for energy efficiency and to formulate strategies to facilitate progress toward higher maturity levels. To achieve this goal, the study will identify and analyze the challenges inherent in the adoption and implementation of digital technologies for energy efficiency.

This study used a mixed methodology, combining analysis of the literature for building a maturity model and a questionnaire for validating the model and developing strategies for advancing maturity. The questionnaire was answered by 101 Swedish manufacturing companies.

The findings reveal that the aluminum industries and iron and steel industries exhibit higher maturity levels in adopting digital technologies. Most companies are intermediate adopters utilizing core technologies such as the Internet of things, cloud and big data for energy use monitoring, analysis and reporting. A smaller subset of companies, identified as leading adopters, reached the highest maturity level, integrating artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and machine learning into their energy management systems to optimize both production and energy use. A key challenge identified is the “lack of knowledge” regarding the adoption and implementation of these technologies.

It is essential to emphasize that the developed maturity model does not prioritize the adoption of multiple types of digital technologies. From a maturity standpoint, what truly matters is how effectively the information obtained from digital technologies is utilized in energy efficiency and energy management work to create knowledge and, thus, add value to the organization.

The maturity model and the strategies for advancing maturity related to the adoption of digital technology for energy efficiency are designed to be applicable to all types of manufacturing industries regardless of what sector or country the company is active in. The model can also be used by academia or other actors interested in evaluating the maturity level for the adoption of digital technologies for energy efficiency in companies in the manufacturing industry. The developed strategies offer guidance on determining which activities to undertake within the organization based on its current level of maturity.

This study’s main contributions are: (1) the maturity model to assess digital technology adoption for energy efficiency, (2) a set of strategies to advance maturity in adoption and (3) empirical investigation of maturity levels in the adoption of digital technologies for energy efficiency in 101 Swedish manufacturing companies.

The circular economy (CE) has been endorsed as representing a model that is able to achieve environmental protection through decreased use of raw materials, together with changing economic values and social inclusion thanks to its demand for a wide variety of skill profiles. This has motivated many policy initiatives to support the implementation of the CE. The purpose of this study is to follow such policy initiatives in three geographically anchored industry-specific networks.

The study contributes to the research debate on the CE through a spatial approach with a focus on how the implementation of the CE is conditioned by spatial and regional contexts. The authors investigate three different networks in Sweden for CE with different locations and industrial profiles.

The findings reveal the difficulty that exist in relation to the implementation of the CE. The network and support functions in combination with private industry are vital. The risk of sustaining an uneven regional economic development is evident.

Although research on the development of the CE has proliferated, geographical approaches to this development are comparably rare to date. The authors seek to contextualise the strategy development and policy implementation of a CE policy.

The article aims to measure the effect of innovation obstacles on the probability of patenting by using an integrative framework that considers a variety of financial and non-financial obstacles and emphasizes the role of firm ownership in moderating the effect of obstacles on innovation.

The empirical analysis exploits a sample of 6,772 European manufacturing firms from the period 2007–2011, integrating data from the EFIGE survey with the Orbis Intellectual Property (Orbis IP) dataset from Bureau van Dijk. In terms of methodology, we carry out the analysis by applying a logistic regression with standard errors clustered at country level.

Results indicate that financial and non-financial obstacles negatively impact innovation. We also find that family firms have a lower probability of applying for a patent compared to non-family firms. Moreover, when considering the effect of each obstacle, the evidence varies depending on the firm’s ownership. The negative effect is more pronounced for non-FFs regarding market and regulation obstacles and organizational rigidities. However, it is weakly significant for lack of qualified personnel and information on technology. The perception of economic risks and the lack of suitable financial resources consistently impact businesses, regardless of ownership.

We contribute to the existing literature in a twofold way. First, by considering firm patenting activity as an innovation profile, we provide new insights into the obstacles that hinder the patent process, while previous research instead focused on product and process innovation or broader innovation activities. Second, we evaluate whether the influence of innovation obstacles is dependent upon the firm’s ownership structure. No previous research has provided evidence on this issue.

This paper aims to further our understanding of policy–practice gaps in organizations from an organizational learning perspective. The authors conceptualize and analyze policy–practice gaps in terms of what they label the dual challenge of organizational learning, i.e. the organizational tasks of both adapting ongoing practices to prescribed policy demands and adapting the policy itself to the needs of practice. Specifically, the authors address how this dual challenge can be understood in terms of organizational learning and how an organization can be managed to successfully resolve the dual learning challenge and, thereby, bridge policy–practice gaps in organizations.

This paper draws on existing literature to explore the gap between policy and practice. Through a synthesis of theories and an illustrative practical example, this paper highlights key conceptual underpinnings.

In the analysis of the dual challenge of organizational learning, this study provides a conceptual framework that emphasizes the important role of tensions and contradictions between policy and practice and their role as drivers of organizational learning. To bridge policy–practice gaps in organizations, this paper proposes five key principles that aim to resolve the dual challenge and accommodate both deployment and discovery in organizations.

Because this is a conceptual study, empirical research is called for to explore further and test the findings and conclusions of the study. Several avenues of possible future research are proposed.

This paper primarily contributes by introducing and elaborating on a conceptual framework that offers novel perspectives on the dual challenges of facilitating both discovery and deployment processes within organizations.

To avoid indecisiveness and a lack of direction in making a successful career transition, it may be necessary to modify the career transition process through career mentorship (CM). The study aims to investigate career adaptability as pathways through which CM is related to trainees’ career transition.

A three times cross-sectional data were collected from 480 national industrial skills development program (NISDP) trainees among five industrial training fund (ITF) trainees in Southeastern Nigeria.

The analysis revealed that CM positively associated with the trainees’ career transition behaviors. CM is also positively associated with the trainees’ career adaptability. Also, career adaptability is positively associated with trainees’ career transition behaviors. Likewise, career adaptability mediated the link between CM and career transition behaviors.

Conducting the study in a previously neglected context extended our understanding of the indirect relationship between CM and trainees’ career transition behavior.

This paper analyses Rwandan farmers’ perceptions of historical drivers of landscape vulnerability (past), current livelihood assets (present) and existing or potential capacities (future) to increase resilience to drought. The specific focus is on linking experiences from the past and present with ideas for a drought-resilient future. It explores how farmers' perceptions of past droughts and future visioning can contribute to rural development policy and multi-level collaborations.

This study was conducted in Bugesera, a drought-prone district in south-eastern Rwanda. Empirical data was collected through participatory observation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The analytical points of departure are based on sustainable landscapes and livelihood approaches, combining spatial and temporal perspectives on challenges and opportunities identified by farmers’ communities in addressing droughts.

All respondents had a high awareness of the impact of droughts. Perceived drivers of landscape change include historical climate events, such as droughts and floods, immigration and agricultural expansion, which have led to demographic pressure on land, deforestation and infringement on natural resources. Factors enhancing resilience capacities include access to diversified sources of livelihood, knowledge of appropriate irrigation techniques and availability of safety nets and credits. Furthermore, farmers identified collaborative opportunities as important for resilience capacity, including peer learning, and sharing best practices through knowledge exchange and on-field training. In addition, farmers brought up the need for innovative institutions that can facilitate access to markets and enable collaboration between different agricultural sectors.

This study analyses farmers’ perceptions of resilience capacities to droughts through a spatiotemporal lens of past droughts, present capital and future challenges by linking scales, knowledge and human–environment nexus. This paper contributes to the knowledge of climate adaptation in Rwanda and to discussions about smallholder farming in the literature on climate change adaptation.

This paper aims to analyze and compare consumers’ acceptance and valuation of brown, colored and low glycemic index rice and identify the factors that influence their willingness to pay (WTP).

A stated-preference survey was conducted among 600 middle-class urban consumers in the Philippines, using a contingent valuation approach with a between-subjects design. The data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple linear regression.

Consumers accepted healthier rice types, but they discounted them relative to premium white rice, despite receiving product-specific information on health benefits. Consumers’ household income, attitude toward healthy eating and their diet quality had significant effects on WTP. Snack occasions could serve as entry points for healthier rice rather than targeting the substitution of white rice during main eating occasions. Generic information on nutritional benefits of healthier rice products was insufficient to nudge consumers’ intentions toward integrating these products into their diets.

The empirical contribution provides insights for breeding programs on the design of rice target product profiles that incorporate nutritional attributes.

The current study addresses the gap in consumer preference studies by evaluating nutrition-related attributes of rice. Measures of attitude toward food-based dietary guidelines and indicators of diet quality were included in the set of predictors that may influence WTP. The results provide insights for designing nutrition education programs to promote healthier rice in the context of healthy eating habits and to enhance the health benefits of consumers’ current diets. Future studies should further explore different types of nutrition nudges that encourage consumers to eat healthier rice-based dishes and test nutrition communication strategies that move from a narrow product focus to a broader emphasis on dietary diversity by promoting healthier dishes based on healthier rice products.

This study begins by explaining the co-venture between the Stanford University and Sun Labs: Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe or LOCKSS. It aims at assisting libraries in maintaining, owning and preserving digital journals through decentralized digital repositories. Based on this technique of preservation, this study aims at illuminating how illicit repositories for literature, so-called shadow libraries, leverage similar methods to sustain their existence. The study does so by viewing the web of shadow libraries as an ecology, examining their interrelations and their sustainability in the digital realm.

This study is inspired by webometric approaches, but it instead focuses on link structures rather than number of links, emphasizing the existence of connections rather than their weight. The data were collected using Hyphe, a user-centric Web Crawler, which maps the connections between a predetermined set of web addresses. This approach is informed by theoretical understandings from both platform and infrastructure studies with the intention of providing insights the mechanisms of decentralization and centralization which constitute the proposed shadow library ecology.

LOCKSS inspired methodology is found to play a crucial role in sustaining shadow libraries over extended periods. By creating multiple copies and creating avenues for the possibility of users to create multiple copies, shadow libraries seemingly secure their existence by leveraging the fundamental aspects of piracy itself: copies.

This study uses digital methods to unpack the dynamic of shadow libraries, showing how they infuse technology with their ideology to ensure digital preservation and broader access to knowledge.

This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the interdisciplinary literature on drones in last-mile delivery (LMD) to extrapolate pertinent insights from and into the logistics management field.

Rooting their analytical categories in the LMD literature, the authors performed a deductive, theory refinement SLR on 307 interdisciplinary journal articles published during 2015–2022 to integrate this emergent phenomenon into the field.

The authors derived the potentials, challenges and solutions of drone deliveries in relation to 12 LMD criteria dispersed across four stakeholder groups: senders, receivers, regulators and societies. Relationships between these criteria were also identified.

This review contributes to logistics management by offering a current, nuanced and multifaceted discussion of drones' potential to improve the LMD process together with the challenges and solutions involved.

The authors provide logistics managers with a holistic roadmap to help them make informed decisions about adopting drones in their delivery systems. Regulators and society members also gain insights into the prospects, requirements and repercussions of drone deliveries.

This is one of the first SLRs on drone applications in LMD from a logistics management perspective.

Dual design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) takes into account both the opportunities and constraints of AM simultaneously, which research shows is more effective than considering them separately. Unlike existing reviews, this paper aims to map DfAM research within the engineering design process, focusing solely on studies adopting dual DfAM. Additionally, it aims to suggest future research directions by analysing prominent research themes and their inter-relationships. Special emphasis is on theme inter-relationships concerning the conceptual, embodiment and detail design phases.

The study is based on a systematic literature review of 148 publications from January 2000 to February 2024. After screening, prominent research themes were identified and systematically analysed. Theme inter-relationships were explored using quantitative analysis and chord diagrams.

The findings reveal that studies either span the entire design process, the early design phases or the later design phases. Most research focuses on the later design phases, particularly within themes of design optimisation, design evaluation and AM-specific manufacturing constraints. The most frequent theme inter-relationship occurs between design optimisation and AM-specific manufacturing constraints. Overall, the findings suggest future research directions to advance dual DfAM research, such as development of design rules and guidelines for cellular structures.

This review proposes a model by mapping prominent themes of dual DfAM research in relation to the engineering design process. Another original contribution lies in analysing theme inter-relationships and visualising them using chord diagrams – a novel approach that did not exist before.

This study aims to explore a specific case of the alleged mismatch between higher education and employability by investigating long-term work life outcomes for graduates from a small university college in Sweden, and the associations between these outcomes and the graduates’ social background, academic achievements and study approach in terms of labour market orientation and agency in studying.

The study is based on longitudinal data from initially 2,072 students from bachelor’s degree programmes in 2007–2012. They were surveyed continuously throughout the programmes and then in 2020. Classification and regression tree (CRT) analyses were conducted to identify which subgroups within the population based on the independent variables (e.g. students’ background and study orientation) that were associated with the dependent variables (work life outcomes).

Neither graduates’ social background nor their academic achievement and study approach was associated with employment rate or income. Some dimensions of high labour market orientation and agency in studying were positively associated with holding a senior position at work. Several aspects of high levels of agency and labour market orientation were positively associated with subjective work life outcomes, such as for example perceived mastery of work.

This study contributes to further understanding of alleged mismatches between higher education and employability by using longitudinal data from a university college in a country with low graduate unemployment rates and low earnings dispersions.

In additive manufacturing (AM), “complexity for free” is often cited as a major technological benefit. This generalized view has been found inaccurate by several authors dealing with the evaluation of part complexity. However, the term “complexity” is not defined uniformly. The reasons for this are the various AM processes and different evaluation factors used by the respective authors. This is critical because build time heavily depends on the impact of complexity on the additive process through the processing tool (point-to-point-, line- and mask-based) defining competitiveness. This study aims to define appropriate complexity indicators and evaluate the impact on productivity of PBF-LB/P (laser sintering).

An assessment methodology for geometric complexity is developed for point-to-point-based processes using the PBF-LB/P process. First, an overview of part characteristics and their interrelationships with the generation process is provided. In this way, relevant factors, e.g. part volume and perimeter length, are identified. Subsequently, these are used to create a metric to select and manufacture test samples to quantify the impact on build time.

The results indicate a strong impact of geometrical complexity on build time and build-up rate. Consequently, optimizing the geometry in the early design stage and adjusting process parameters during production planning allow to influence the build-up rate.

This paper demonstrates the effects of geometric complexity using manufacturing jobs. As a result, the suitability of existing methods and KPIs is shown to be insufficient. Hence, meaningful indicators for laser sintering, such as contour length vs hatch length, contour length vs part volume and number of hatches vs part volume, are defined and verified.

Entrepreneurial experimentation is often studied in the context of tech, retail and high-growth startups. Current interpretations lean on limited empirical data and suggest structured and deliberate approaches. Our empirical observations in the food and beverage industry expand these perspectives by revealing emergent and impulsive experimentation practices.

A qualitative multiple case study of 20 small food and beverage ventures examined experimentation within non-tech and “everyday” contexts. Applying an abductive research design, the authors investigate experimentation practices through the conceptual lenses of transformation, social learning model, play, improvisation and entrepreneurial hustle.

The study reveals three forms of experimentation in the food and beverage sector: informative decision-making, transformative learning and improvisational exploring. These forms vary in their deliberateness and differ from those seen in the context of tech, retail and high-growth start-ups. In the food and beverage sector, not all uncertainties and opportunities can be rationally validated, but they require transformational social interactions with stakeholders, and swiftly changing situations need to be addressed in ways other than rationally pre-planned experiments.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by extending the dominant rational view of experimentation. By refining deliberateness in entrepreneurial actions and synthesizing and categorizing experimentation in three forms, this study constructs a more nuanced picture of what entrepreneurial experimentation consists of in the work of “everyday” ventures.

The interaction between urban development and climate change significantly impacts local public health services. Unfortunately, cities and involved institutions often fail to prioritize and integrate spatial planning when dealing with these unprecedented future challenges. This study aims to offer Health Integrative Climate Resilience and Adaptation Future (HICRAF), an innovative planning framework that systematically operationalizes future climate risks and their impact on local public health services.

HICRAF is developed based on the intermix of explorative and normative scenario planning approaches. Mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative techniques were applied to develop and operationalize the local climate adaptation scenarios through stakeholder participation. The framework demonstrates how different methods and scales (spatial and temporal) can be linked to exhibit climate risk outcomes of different future pathways.

The practicality of HICRAF was demonstrated in Khon Kaen city, where it bridged the gaps between global climate trajectories and local climate adaptation scenarios. It also highlights the need to consider intertwining spatial and systemic risks in local infrastructure operations. Although HICRAF has gained political buy-in and fostered the establishment of stakeholder discourse on climate-resilient futures, further research is needed to enhance its robustness and replicability.

This paper proposes a novel planning framework, HICRAF, that can systematically operationalize the future challenges of unprecedented climate change and urban development changes for the local public health service. The demonstration of HICRAF in Khon Kaen city provides empirical evidence of its implementability and upscaling potential.

We compare human intelligence to artificial intelligence (AI) in the choice of appropriate Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes for research papers in economics.

We compare the JEL code choices related to articles published in the recent issues of the Journal of Economic Literature and the American Economic Review and compare these to the original JEL code choices of the authors in earlier working paper versions and JEL codes recommended by various generative AI systems (OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini) based on the abstracts of the articles.

There are significant discrepancies and often limited overlap between authors’ choices of JEL codes, editors’ choices as well as the choices by contemporary widely used AI systems. However, the observations suggest that generative AI can augment human intelligence in the micro-task of choosing the JEL codes and, thus, save researchers time.

Rapid development of AI systems makes the findings quickly obsolete.

AI systems may economize on classification costs and (semi-)automate the choice of JEL codes by recommending the most appropriate ones. Future studies may apply the presented approach to analyze whether the JEL code choices between authors, editors and AI systems converge and become more consistent as humans increasingly interact with AI systems.

We assume that the choice of JEL codes is a micro-task in which boundedly rational decision-makers rather satisfice than optimize. This exploratory experiment is among the first to compare human intelligence and generative AI in choosing and justifying the choice of optimal JEL codes.

This purpose of this study is to explore how the public client, the engineering consultant and the sub-consultant perceive and address innovation outcomes and processes in the planning and design phase of infrastructure projects.

An explorative single-case study of a public infrastructure project was carried out. A multi-dimensional innovation framework, including innovation outcomes and processes, was applied.

Innovation outcomes in terms of products and processes from the engineering consultant’s work in the planning and design phase hold untapped potential for enhancing innovation in construction projects. Additionally, findings indicate that sub-consultants from outside the construction industry (i.e. external knowledge resources) play a crucial role in introducing more radical innovations based on adaptation.

The findings provide an empirical illustration of a further developed innovation framework that can be used by both scholars and practitioners to analyze and discuss the multi-dimensional concept of innovation in the construction context. Additionally, the findings highlight the importance of capturing perceptions of various actors regarding innovation outcomes and processes to facilitate innovation in an inter-organizational context.

This study examine how provider- and customer-related factors interact to influence servitization success. It adopts the transaction cost theory along with a configurational approach and hypothesizes that different configurations of five key conditions—service offering, specific investments, perceived customer opportunism, willingness for integration and demand uncertainty—can lead to servitization success or failure.

The study applies fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to a sample of 143 German manufacturers, addressing the complex causalities involved in servitization success.

The analysis identifies six sufficient configurations for servitization success and five for servitization failure. The findings reveal that servitization can succeed through various types of service offerings. While opportunism does not hinder success, the decision to offer an extensive service portfolio is influenced by anticipated opportunism and complex customer needs. Specific investments function primarily as drivers for success, particularly when combined with a limited service offering and complex customer needs. However, these investments can increase transaction costs when linked to an extensive service portfolio. Though not essential, customer integration emerges as a relevant success factor, acting as a safeguard against opportunism.

Servitization can be successful even with opportunism. Developing methods to assess customers’ readiness for integration can mitigate opportunistic behavior and foster successful servitization.

This study advances servitization research by addressing the often-overlooked interplay between provider- and customer-related factors. Applying the transaction cost theory and a cutting-edge fsQCA, it contributes to the theoretical and methodological plurality of the field.

The purposes of this paper are to explore accounting talk events and to contribute to the literature by presenting a model of accounting talk genres.

In the qualitative tradition, interviews were conducted with accountants in both private and public sector. The pandemic provided a natural experiment, as the implemented restrictions gave rise to a situation in which accountants had to prepare and communicate numbers while working remotely. Using sociolinguistics, the paper analyzes the interactions between accountants and other organizational members when remotely preparing and communicating reports.

This study develops a conceptual model that illustrates the significant influence of accounting small talk on the production and presentation of financial information. The analysis reveals various genres of accounting talk in the everyday practice of management accountants. In so doing, the study makes three contributions. First, it provides a conceptual model of accounting talk. Second, it highlights the role of accounting small talk in creating a less risky environment for reflection, which facilitates the exchange of thoughts and ideas. Third, it offers an explanation of why even so-called bean counters can benefit from accounting small talk. It suggests that such informal communication can not only enhance efficiency by helping to ensure accurate accounts but also improve quality by aligning the numbers with more realistic forecasts.

We encourage future studies of accounting discourse in settings that are more similar to everyday work environments. Additional insights could also be gained by drawing upon other methods, such as conversation analysis and ethnographic studies. This paper may help controllers to be more aware of how they use talk in addition to numbers. The knowledge provided here is also important for the education of future controllers.

The paper provides a conceptual model of how organizational members talk about accounting, which may enable a more detailed analysis of accounting talk. The study also highlights the importance of accounting small talk, which has been largely overlooked in accounting literature.

This study aims to test the validity of the Rajan theory in South Africa and other selected emerging markets (Chile, Peru and Brazil) during the period 1975–2019.

In this study, the researchers used time-series data to estimate a Bayesian Vector Autoregression (BVAR) model with hierarchical priors. The BVAR technique has the advantage of being able to accommodate a wide cross-section of variables without running out of degrees of freedom. It is also able to deal with dense parameterization by imposing structure on model coefficients via prior information and optimal choice of the degree of formativeness.

The results for all countries except Peru confirmed the Rajan hypotheses, indicating that inequality contributes to high indebtedness, resulting in financial fragility. However, for Peru, this study finds it contradicts the theory. This study controlled for monetary policy shock and found the results differing country-specific.

The findings suggest that an escalating level of inequality leads to financial fragility, which implies that policymakers ought to be cautious of excessive inequality when endeavouring to contain the risk of financial fragility, by implementing sound structural reform policies that aim to attract investments consistent with job creation, development and growth in these countries. Policymakers should also be cautious when implementing policy tools (redistributive policies, a sound monetary policy), as they seem to increase the risk of excessive credit growth and financial fragility, and they need to treat income inequality as an important factor relevant to macroeconomic aggregates and financial fragility.

The study aims to explore how healthcare workers (HCWs) navigate and experience time when caring for older cancer patients living with other illnesses.

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of how HCWs conceptualise and navigate the temporal aspects of delivering personalised care to older people living with multimorbidity. Building on research from organisation studies and the sociology of time, we interviewed 19 UK HCWs about their experiences of delivering care to this patient group.

Our findings illustrate how the delivery of personalised care contradicts contemporary models for healthcare delivery defined by efficiency and standardisation. We found that HCWs engage with time as both a valuable commodity to be rationed and prioritised within a constrained context and as a malleable resource for managing workload and overcoming “turbulence” in the system. However, participants in this study also shared how the simultaneous multiplicity and lack of time had a profoundly personal impact on them through the emotional toll associated with “time debt” and “lost” time.

This research presents a unique analysis of how time is conceptualised and navigated in contemporary healthcare, offering valuable insights for policy improvement. We conclude that personalised models of healthcare are incompatible with many current temporal structures of treatment trajectories and work-practices, by nature of being centred around the person and not the system of delivery.

This study aims to investigate the tensile strength and compressive behaviour of two thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filaments produced via material extrusion (ME): TPU 95A and Reciflex (recycled).

Tensile strength and compressive behaviour are assessed. The influence of extrusion temperature and infill pattern on these properties is examined, supported by thermal characterization, surface morphology analyses and a comprehensive comparison with existing literature. An analytical method is presented for estimating the solid ratio of ME parts, using an ellipse model to describe the material bead geometry.

Reciflex is generally stiffer than TPU 95A in both tensile and compressive tests. Specimens loaded orthogonally in compression tests exhibited stiffer behaviour than those loaded parallelly, and higher tensile properties were typically observed when material beads were deposited parallel to the load direction. Unlike TPU 95A, Reciflex is sensitive to extrusion temperature variations.

By comparing recycled and virgin TPU filaments, this research addresses waste management concerns and advocates for environmentally sustainable production practices in the broadly used filament/based ME technique.

This study provides an extensive comparison of computed values with existing literature, offering insights into how different materials may behave under similar processing conditions. Given ongoing challenges in controlling melt flow during extrusion, these results may offer insights for optimizing the production of ME parts made with thermoplastic elastomers.

Based on the well-known risks associated with deviating from established routines in primary healthcare and the positive consequences of upholding them, the purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the role of meaningfulness in the enactment of organizational routines.

The study is based on 24 semi-structured interviews with three different professional categories in primary healthcare in Sweden. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis on a latent level, combined with a two-factor model as sensitizing concepts.

Differences are identified between factors that reduce meaninglessness (called “sufficiency factors”) and those that enable meaningfulness (called “meaningfulness factors”). Nine sufficiency factors and six meaningfulness factors explain what makes organizational routines perceived as meaningful by the different professional groups. A two-factor matrix is developed that highlights the intricate challenges associated with routine enactment based on these factors.

The study is unique in that it is the first to integrate research on organizational routines and meaningfulness. However, understanding meaningful organizational routines is not only essential because it is an overlooked area in both of these two streams of research but also because of its clear, practical relevance in the primary healthcare setting.

The present study aims to analyse the presumed relationship between VLC use and students’ grades.

The research strategy unfolds as a case study (Yin, 1994), framed by how undergraduate students of pharmaceutical sciences used video lecture capture (VLC) and the impact of VLC on pedagogic differentiation. Looking at the course of Mechanistic Toxicology (MecTox), the objective is to describe this case of pharmaceutical sciences in depth.

The findings reveal that over 90% of students engaged with VLC videos, with the average viewing time exceeding the total available video minutes, indicating strong student engagement. The study particularly highlights VLC’s positive impact on students with lower academic performance (grades D and E), suggesting that VLC can help reduce the performance gap and support a more inclusive educational environment.

The findings may have limited generalisability beyond the specific context and sample used. However, this study allows the research findings to be compared with previous research (Remião et al., 2022), contributing to the debate on how pedagogic research can promote evidence-based decisions regarding innovative strategies. The meaning of educational inclusion processes and diversity is, thus, contingent on the institutionalisation of research as a practice of teaching and learning.

The results of this study thus provide interesting insights for the design of strategic action, considering the diversity of students as seen in parents’ academic qualifications and students’ conditions (e.g. student-workers, living away from home, holding a grant of economic and social support).

The implications of research findings for society bring the issue of equity in education to the fore. By addressing the diverse needs of students, HEIs can contribute to greater educational equity.

Using VLC as a differentiated pedagogic device might give diversity “real” content insofar as institutional and national policies can mitigate the possible negative effects of parents’ low academic qualifications and the students’ conditions of living away from their residence area and holding a grant of economic and social support.

Organizational pursuit of sustainability in multi-tier supply chain systems operating in unpredictable environments is often associated with the emergence of paradoxical tensions. This study aims to summarize and synthesize existing literature on managing various paradoxical tensions in supply chains (i.e. sourcing, making, delivering and reverse logistics) as organizations pursue sustainability transformation. It also strives to motivate new academic research inquiry into developing responses to sustainability paradoxes.

The study draws on a systematic literature review of 73 papers from the Web of Science database selected at the intersection of paradox, sustainability and logistics/ supply chain management (SCM). Applying paradox theory as a guiding lens, we investigate organizational strategies, practices and capabilities described in the literature to navigate sustainability paradoxes in supply chains.

The results assert that the success of sustainability transformation will depend on an organizational ability to recognize, accept and navigate paradoxical tensions in one's supply chain. This requires developing the dynamic capabilities of paradoxical leadership, strategic agility, innovativeness, collaboration with contextualization and governance. Successful sustainability transformation is not reliant on finding an optimal, final design but rather the continuous balancing of tensions inherent within or across the organizations that make up one's supply chain.

The research offers an integrative conceptual framework to guide organizations in navigating sustainability paradoxes in supply chains, embracing strategic, practice and capability levels. It also outlines opportunities for future research inquiries connected to this framework that are needed to build additional insight for addressing paradoxical tensions related to the pursuit of sustainable supply chain management.

This study takes a dynamic capabilities approach to navigating paradoxical tensions in pursuit of sustainable supply chain management.

Coordination of digital transformation within globally dispersed factories belonging to international manufacturing networks (IMNs) is essential for competitiveness. This paper explores how digital transformation necessitates changes in the coordination of IMNs.

A case study is conducted with three Swedish manufacturing companies, thus adding to the limited empirical research covering the examined research field. Data analysis uses the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework.

The results highlight 15 digital transformation attributes linked by intermediate themes to 13 changes in the coordination of IMNs and provide concrete industry examples. Four major themes emerged as significant in the coordination of IMNs: increased speed of technology development and rollout, amplified emphasis on a global mindset, increased need to adapt the organizational structures to enable collaboration and a higher degree of uncertainty.

Although coordination of IMNs is acknowledged as directly related to competitive advantage, the ways digital transformation necessitates changes in the coordination of IMNs have been missing in contemporary research. This research decreases this omission.

The use of perceptual and objective measures in information systems is an ongoing discussion in IS research, primarily due to different conceptions about objective measures. This research, therefore, empirically tests truly objective measures along with perceptual measures to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role of perceptual and objective independent variables as predictors of user satisfaction and continuance intention.

This paper developed an integrated research model that examines perceptual and objective measures as predictors of satisfaction and continuance intention. The approach was then empirically tested with survey-based perceptual variables and corresponding objective variables in the context of a mobile network operator (n = 998). Specifically, we used serial mediation analysis with PROCESS to test our hypotheses.

The results showed that the different objective variables show insignificance as predictors of satisfaction and continuance intention, contrasting with previous research calling for objective measures.

Our results contribute to IS literature by indicating that perceptual measures are superior to objective measures in predictive relevance. Hence the “silent acceptance” of potential conceptual weaknesses is indeed justified by the results of this research.

Vibrations are transmitted through the ground surface to building foundations, causing distress to structures and their occupants. Installing a wave barrier between the vibration source and buildings is a suitable method to mitigate ground vibration. However, the complexity arises in selecting the right trench design due to various influencing parameters. This paper aims to present a novel method to predict the efficiency of a geofoam-filled trench in mitigating ground vibrations within layered soil using an artificial neural network (ANN).

This study extends a parametric investigation conducted by Naghizadeh (Naghizadehrokni, 2022), where they identified key parameters influencing the trench’s efficiency. A multilayered feedforward neural network using the back-propagation training method was developed for the prediction task. The ANN model comprises input variables, including location, depth, width of the trench, thickness and shear wave velocity of the first layer as well as geofoam type. With a total of 18,750 data points from the parametric study, the network was trained and validated.

The accuracy of the trained model was evaluated using separate training, validation and testing data sets. Different neural network configurations were evaluated by comparing the coefficient of determination (

After studying previous research, the author identified a need for a prediction model to evaluate the efficiency of geofoam-filled trenches. To meet this requirement, an ANN model was developed using data collected from Naghizadeh (Naghizadehrokni, 2022) to precisely predict the performance of these trenches.

A common design driver for pipe-jacking projects is the jacking force required to advance the tunnel boring machine and pipe string. Empirical methods are popular in industry but are well known to lack accuracy, while there is a strong desire to supplement such approaches with robust data-driven techniques, typically small construction datasets present significant challenges.

To address this challenge, this paper develops a physics-constrained neural network predictive model for pipe-jacking forces. Information used as input into the model includes principal design information and soil type.

The physics constrained model was found to predict jacking force to a higher accuracy than current industry practice and better discern meaningful patterns in data than a purely data-driven artificial neural network. The results reveal promising performance for this initial dataset such that there is motivation, as a longer-term objective, to train the present approach on a more comprehensive drive database for more reliable and cost effective solutions for new projects.

Novel contributions include (a) a bespoke framework to constrain a neural network using a pipe-jacking mechanistic model which includes stoppage-induced friction increases, (b) built-in model uncertainty for greater confidence in model outputs, (c) new historical drive data for model training and (d) one-hot encoding of soil type as a model input. The model is calibrated and validated against 14 tunnel drives across four different sites with four distinctive ground types.

This study aims to examine how the legitimacy of internal auditing is reconstructed during enterprise resource planning (ERP)-driven technological change.

The study is based on the comparative analysis of internal auditing and its transformation due to ERP implementations at two case firms operating in the food sector in Egypt – one a major Egyptian multinational corporation (MNC) and the other a major domestic company (DC).

Internal auditors (IAs) at MNC saw ERP implementation as an opportunity to reconstruct the legitimacy of internal auditing work by engaging and partnering with actors involved with the ERP change. In doing so, the IAs acquired system certifications and provided line functions and external auditors with data-driven business insights. The “practical coping mechanism” adopted by the IAs led to the acceptance (and legitimacy) of their work. In contrast, IAs at DC adopted a purposeful strategy of disengaging, blaming and rejecting since they were skeptical of the top management team's (TMT's) sincerity. The “disinterestedness” led to the loss of legitimacy in the eyes of the stakeholders.

The article offers two contributions. First, it extends the literature by highlighting a spectrum of behavior displayed by IAs (coping with impending issues vs strategic purposefulness) during ERP-driven technological change. Second, the article contributes to the literature on legitimacy by highlighting four intertwined micro-processes – participating, socializing, learning and role-forging – that contribute to reconstructing the legitimacy of internal auditing.

The purpose of this paper is to examine community based, trauma informed to support refugee mental health and wellbeing, recognising that refugee status is met through forced displacement in which refugees have experience of personal human rights abuses and have survived atrocities in which family and community have been lost.

A co-production approach was taken to review existing literature and policy to produce a position statement on how to better meet the needs of people who experience mental distress who are refugees. The co-production was between refugee and mental health researchers and refugee representatives.

Understanding the mental health needs of refugees has conventionally focused on incidence of mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. If mental health and illness are understood as a continuum, diagnosis of mental illness indicates a significant problem, and furthermore access to services is predicated on risks associated with mental illness. When accessing mental health services, refugees have an added issue in a lack of communication availability and recognition of the trauma that they have survived.

In this paper, a different position is advocated, that understanding the mental health of refugees can be framed more effectively as a process of recovery from trauma that emerges during resettlement, and over a long period of time before people are able to talk about the trauma they experienced. Community-based responses that enable recovery from trauma are more readily able to meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of refugee communities.

This paper proposes a new intra-layer partition adaptive slicing algorithm for FDM 3D printing, aiming to further improve forming efficiency based on the adaptive slicing algorithm while preserving the surface finish quality of the formed model.

This method initially applies a large layer thickness for primary slicing, then refines layer thickness in layer height ranges with significant cross-sectional contour changes. Refined layers are partitioned: the internal region uses the large layer thickness for efficiency, while the external region uses a smaller layer thickness for surface quality. A thickness ratio and transition zone between regions prevent overlaps and gaps in printing paths.

The experimental results show that, compared to traditional adaptive slicing algorithms, the intra-layer partition adaptive slicing algorithm can effectively improve forming efficiency for most models while ensuring the model’s surface finish, with minimal impact on the bonding strength of the model.

The intra-layer partition adaptive slicing algorithm is a novel algorithm improved upon the traditional adaptive slicing algorithm, enabling models to achieve higher printing efficiency while maintaining the surface finish provided by the conventional adaptive slicing algorithm. This algorithm is of significant importance to vendors and individual users who provide printing services for large-sized fused deposition modeling models, as it can greatly enhance their production efficiency.

Local health systems form the basis for health system resilience. Leaders’ standpoints are crucial in advancing resilience capacities and change. This study analysed how local health system leaders’ approaches to change reflect health system resilience capacities. Furthermore, we explored what triggers and hinders change during a crisis.

The data consist of purposively sampled interviews with 14 local Finnish health system leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using abductive content analysis, examples of resisting, absorbing, adapting and transforming were identified. Contextual triggers and hindrances for the initiation of change processes were analysed to support understanding of health system resilience capacities at the local level.

Resilience capacities were manifested by doing standard things faster (absorption), engaging in collaborative reflections (adaptation) and reforming organisational boundaries and services (transforming). “Resisting” leaned on varied levels of reflection, with mixed responses. Triggers and hindrances varied situationally and highlighted the roles of a changing operational environment, existing practices and the social dimension (e.g. building a shared understanding).

Leaders’ standpoints and their approaches to change are rarely the focus of attention in system-centred conceptualisations of health system resilience. Leaders’ awareness of their approaches to change can affect organisational responses and health system resilience. This should be more clearly acknowledged in theoretical frameworks, leadership training, preparedness planning and crisis governance. Health system resilience capacities form intertwined, nonlinear processes that are reshaped throughout a crisis. Analysis of resistance can enrich the understanding of local-level processes.

This paper aims to investigate how the build orientation simultaneously affects the tensile properties, geometrical measurements and surface roughness in material extrusion (MEX) produced parts.

An extensive experimental campaign was designed and carried out to elucidate the relationship between the rotation angles (input), defining the part orientation within the build volume, and the (output) variables measured by using 3D models reconstruction, roughness tester and tensile testing machine. Response surface methodology is used to capture the trend of each output relative to the input, while principal component analysis is used to identify relationships among outputs, providing a holistic understanding of how build orientation simultaneously influences mechanical properties, geometrical measurements and surface characteristics.

The study reveals that build orientation significantly affects nearly all output variables, with a pronounced dependency on the out-of-plane rotation angle. A key finding is the inverse correlation between mechanical strength and both geometrical measurements and surface roughness. This indicates that optimizing build orientation can enhance mechanical strength while minimizing geometrical defects.

This research, a newer addition to the existing literature, contributes to the field of additive manufacturing (AM) by offering an innovative analysis of the interaction between mechanical properties, geometric precision and surface roughness in relation to build orientation. It enhances the understanding of MEX processes and provides valuable insights into optimizing build orientation, thereby improving the competitiveness of AM over traditional production methods.

Social media communities contain like-minded members who disclose opinions about various topics that are important to them. These communities often function as echo chambers, filter bubbles or separate spaces for users to share conforming opinions and discredit others deliberately. In extreme cases, they build their alternative reality with limited information that can lead to real-world action, as seen in the storming of the capitol. Therefore, we need to better understand the mechanisms of opinion disclosure in such communities.

We base our research on the spiral of silence theory to understand both trait-based and state-based fear of isolation as the mechanism that prevents opposing opinions in three scenarios focusing on topics dominating the mainstream US media landscape at that time: immigration, presidential election and COVID-19. We recruited 164 participants from an online research platform and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling.

Our results reveal empirical evidence that state-based fear of isolation prompts community members to express agreement and support for the community’s opinion, regardless of their views. We show that hot-button issues impose an even greater danger of establishing an environment in online communities that becomes an echo chamber of filter bubbles.

The spiral of silence theory provides a fine-grained understanding of the concept of fear of isolation, which was either used as a trait or as a state. Furthermore, we go beyond the initial hypotheses of the spiral of silence and show that within online communities, members stay silent and start to argue against their own opinions.

This paper aims to analyse sustainability reporting practices and the influences of local and global norms for sustainability reporting in the Indo-Pacific region. A comprehensive sustainability reporting index is developed to benchmark company reporting against major global reporting frameworks and local frameworks.

The content analysis was conducted on 2019/20 and 2020/21 sustainability and annual reports produced by the top 50 listed companies in four distinctive countries in the Indo-Pacific region: Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. A total of 249 reports were collected and analysed.

Through the lens of Integrative Social Contract Theory (ISCT), this study reveals that issues garnering global attention, which are also included in the local standards, are most likely to be reported, especially in the social dimensions related to employee health and well-being, as well as diversity and equity. While companies are keeping up with the global standards related to sustainability issues, the presence and comprehensiveness of key local frameworks significantly influence the extent of sustainability reporting in emerging Indo-Pacific economies. However, certain aspects of reporting, such as the implementation and training of the OHS system, gender diversity in leadership and renewable energy use, are not covered by the local frameworks but receive considerable attention in corporate reporting practice. These aspects have been integrated into the ethical principles that companies consider as crucial ethical norms, or hypernorms, irrespective of local influences.

The substantial impact of local expectations also suggests that global sustainability reporting guidelines may need to better incorporate the nuanced complexities of local or country-specific situations and challenges faced by companies. In addition, while Indo-Pacific companies are actively engaging with critical hypernorms related to workplace safety, equal leadership opportunities for women and clean energy, more attention and support are needed for equally important areas, such as age diversity and the circular economy, as companies embrace the global momentum.

Previous research on sustainability reporting in the Indo-Pacific region is patchy in both volume and scope, which is symptomatic of limited access to data and the slower uptake of the practice in developing countries. However, the growing economic and geopolitical importance of this region means that it is an important context to explore. This research takes a cross-country approach to examining sustainability reporting in the region, aiming to benchmark company practices against global and local frameworks. It reveals an integrative approach that companies in this region have adopted to harmonise global standards with the diverse array of local reporting norms and standards.

The transition to green growth goals requires the concerted efforts of the whole society. Enterprises, as important players in the market, play a key role in promoting green and sustainable development. The rise of the concept of sustainable development has enabled more enterprises to disclose environmental, social and governance (ESG) information, and ESG behaviour is regarded as a positive strategic behaviour to implement the new development concept. This paper aims to explore the influence of ESG performance on enterprise green innovation.

This study applies a fixed effect model and the regulation effect of empirical analysis to explore the influence of ESG performance on enterprise green innovation. The object of investigation is 2014–2021 Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies.

The results of an empirical analysis outline the following conclusions: (1) ESG performance has a significant effect on enterprise green innovation, mainly by easing the pressure of the financing enterprise, fitting stakeholders’ environmental protection concept and obtaining employee organizational identity that influences enterprise green innovation. (2) Government regulation positively regulates the role of ESG performance in promoting the green innovation of enterprises. (3) Heterogeneity analysis found that the strengthening role of ESG performance on the green innovation of enterprises is stronger in green invention patents, state-owned enterprises and nonheavily polluting industries.

Despite the valuable findings, this study has a few limitations. Thus, it is necessary to extend the object of investigation by adding other Asian countries, which allows for comparison analysis and allocating best practices for promoting green innovation. Besides, innovation and ESG performance depend on the quality of institutions. In this case, the future study should incorporate the indicators that reveal the quality of institutions (corruption, transparency, digitalisation, voice, accountability, etc.).

According to the above conclusions, this paper proposes suggestions at the level of enterprises, government and investors. At the enterprise level, ESG responsibility should be strengthened, ESG information should be consciously disclosed and the quality of ESG disclosure should be improved. Government departments should play the role of supervisors, improve the construction of ESG information disclosure systems and promote the formation of ESG systems. At the social level, investors should improve the ESG information status and pay more attention to the ESG performance of enterprises.

This study fills the scientific gaps in the analysis impact of ESG performance on the green innovation of enterprises. This paper contributes to the theoretical landscape of ESG efficiency by developing approaches based on two empirical models: testing the impact of enterprise ESG performance on green innovation and testing whether government regulation plays a regulatory role in the relationship between ESG performance and green innovation. Besides, this study analysed the ESG performance and green innovation within the following categories: heavy and nonheavy polluter industries; state and nonstate-owned enterprise groups.

The purpose of this study is to examine the probable role of geographic information systems (GIS) in sustainable tourism, rural community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and inclusive community development and participation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa naturally and many rural areas elsewhere abroad.

The study uses narrative literature and document reviews to assess African and global environmental and rural tourism resource management procedures. The data analysis was done manually from the narrative and general literature reviews of the older and latest research. It links CBNRM, GIS and conjoining tools to sustainable tourism, public leadership, subsistence and local community empowerment applications.

This examination displays a possible association between tourism and rural and agricultural enterprises that GIS, its associative procedures and tools, and the concept of CBNRM can strengthen while enhancing public leadership and sustainability and spurring livelihoods, especially in remote areas. Therefore, it underscores the need for a reputable and myriad tourism strategy to develop and empower the relevant environs in many rural and marginalized areas within the continent.

Numerous remote rural neighborhoods in Sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa and Africa usually live in low-income areas with meager socioeconomic programs. However, such localities thrive on natural biodiversity, including tourism destination sites. Information systems and information technology, such as GIS and remote sensing, with sustainable tourism, CBNRM and inclusive public leadership can synergize local community development schemes within their settings.

Companies must no longer just report on corporate sustainability (CS) performance but also demonstrate that they are aligning their strategies with sustainability. However, suitable management control systems (MCS) are required to implement a sustainability strategy. Thereby, sustainability reporting (SR) can also be employed for control purposes. On the other hand, existing MCS can be used to develop SR that goes beyond accountability. Accordingly, this paper explores how this interplay can be designed.

For the study, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with persons from ATX and DAX companies. Since the interplay should be examined from a holistic control perspective, the authors used the MCS package of Malmi and Brown as an analysis framework.

Nowadays, merely focusing on reporting is too narrow a view. It is therefore not surprising that the investigation was able to reveal various possible linkages between MCS and SR that span the full range of the MCS package of Malmi and Brown.

Future research should also consider non-listed companies to investigate potential differences and take a closer look at the proposed reciprocal nature of the interplay.

The findings expand the knowledge of how companies can use SR for control purposes and how existing MCS can help develop a reporting that goes beyond accountability.

The study contributes by highlighting the potential of SR to control CS performance from a holistic MCS perspective and likewise the impact of existing MCS on reporting. In addition, different theoretical perspectives are used to explain why the interplay can be designed differently in practice.

The article highlights the significance of the centre-(semi-)peripheries dynamics in the co-construction of global public goods and the limits of openness in global knowledge production. Challenging the assumption of global public good is not to discount the benefits of openness, but rather to initiate a conversation about the political economy, regionalism and internationalism of global knowledge production.

By examining “information/knowledge as a public good” and historical incidents where information flows were expedited and prohibited, this article shows that the public good justification for openness demands further examination.

First, although intangible information is inherently a public good, publicly funded research outputs are tangible information and they are not necessarily qualified as public goods. Second, intellectual property rights and private ownership can be conducive to the creation of public goods. Third, openness can become a convenient slogan for commercial interests or national priorities without regard to common or public good. Furthermore, national borders, international relations and geopolitical tensions can slow and stop transnational information flows because not every kinds of information are permitted to be global public goods.

The paper considers some assumptions of openness that have been overlooked or understudied in the context of global knowledge production.

This paper explores the phenomenon of organizational maverickism, proposing that mavericks, alongside innovators and entrepreneurs, play a crucial role in driving transformational change. While the actions of innovators and entrepreneurs as change agents are well understood, this paper focuses predominantly on how the practices of mavericks also provide significant contributions to achieving game-changing organizational outcomes.

A literature review and conceptual paper highlighting the beneficial nature of maverickism to organizational change efforts, positioning maverickism as a valid change agent role alongside entrepreneurship and innovation.

The positively deviant nature of mavericks has high potential for creating radical organizational change strategies. Organizational change is more likely to be successful when the entrepreneurial, innovator and maverick mindsets are used to their optimum advantage.

From this conceptual paper and its arguments, new research directions to guide theory building and organizational practice are identified.

When organizational managers and leaders more fully understand the beneficial practices of mavericks, they are more likely to actively employ them in more meaningful roles as organizational change agents, together with innovators and entrepreneurs.

This paper closes the knowledge gap in understanding maverickism that is an under-researched and under-theorized phenomenon. The arguments in this paper identify a number of areas for future research.

The new era of supply chain management is characterised by key change drivers, e.g. Industry 4.0, and post-COVID-19 VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) business environment, in addition to the rising requirements for sustainability, responsiveness and customer centrism. An important and topical question in this context is what supply chain managerial competence logistics managers need to possess in order to enhance their individual performance in the new era. This question is addressed in this paper, which also explores the nexus of supply chain managerial competence expectation and possession upon which human resource development strategies are proposed accordingly.

The survey research design is adopted to empirically examine logistics managers’ supply chain managerial competence in the new era, and the forward-backward translation process was strictly followed. Data were collected through a survey conducted with owners or managers of Vietnamese firms whose business is in the logistics and related business areas, and 269 valid responses were used for analysis.

Results indicated that the proposed profile of four groups (foundation, core, specialist and technology-IT) and 38 competencies are valid and important to the individual performance of logistics managers in the context of Vietnam, which supports the tenet that logistics managers in the new era need to have a well-rounded profile of competencies, including those derived from contemporary change drivers. It was also found that the foundation competency group is perceived as more important than others, which is context specific given the current logistics development in Vietnam. Besides, it was also revealed that respondents in this research currently possess those competencies at a level which is lower than their perceived importance. An Importance-Possession (IPM) Matrix of Competency Development was mapped accordingly.

The generalisation of this study would require further empirical examination from similar studies in other contexts, i.e. in other manufacturing and service sectors as well as in other developing and developed countries where logistics development is at different stages.

This research provides insights into the current competency profile of logistics managers in Vietnam, which can assist senior management with human resources development in their firms. Specifically, it is essential that Vietnamese logistics firms focus on providing education and training opportunities, both internally and externally, to enhance the level of possession of all competencies whose gaps between perceived importance and possession are the largest across the groups, especially those in the Maintaining Sustainably and Growing quadrants of the IPM.

Firstly, this research introduces an improvised framework of logistics managers’ supply chain managerial competence adopting the contingency approach, contributing to expanding the body of knowledge on how the competency profile of logistics managers should be developed. Secondly, the IPM matrix of competencies introduced in this research can be used as both the conceptual and managerial tool to classify and prioritise competencies for various purposes, e.g. education, training and policy implementation based on the nexus of supply chain competence expectation and possession.

The Q method is an inherently mixed-method approach suitable for tackling issues regarding theory, conceptualization and operationalization in the social sciences. Nevertheless, the application of this method in organizational behavior (OB) studies is still limited. This paper aims to delineate to what extent, regarding what topics, and in what ways the Q method has been applied in OB studies. Moreover, it aims to systematically explore the strengths and weaknesses of this method for the OB field.

We present a systematic literature review of 47 studies employing the Q method in OB research.

There is an upward trend in the application of Q in OB research. The studies in our sample address the following OB topics: Human resource management (HRM) (14), leadership (10), group decision-making (6), collaboration (4), culture (9) and organizational change and development (4). We describe how Q is used in a wide variety of ways.

This study shows how performance-oriented organizations can benefit from the Q method as a managerial diagnostic and intervention tool in organizational change and development and in human resources management.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic literature review on the Q method that spans the field of organizational behavior across topics and research levels, including the individual, team and organizational levels.

Leadership has been identified as a crucial driver of efficient deployment of any Operations Management (OM) paradigm. Our work focuses on digitalisation, a recent OM paradigm, and analyses the mediating effect of digital transformation (DT) on the relationship between task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership styles (LSs) and operational performance (OP) improvements in the manufacturing context.

The authors employed survey data from Hungarian manufacturing firms. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling.

Task-oriented and relationship-oriented LSs exert distinct influences on DT and OP improvements. The results indicated that task-oriented LS drives OP improvements through its impact on DT. The relationship-oriented LS does not influence DT. Regarding the implications for OP improvements, we revealed a leadership paradox as the indirect positive impact of task-oriented LS may be offset by the direct negative influence of relationship-oriented LS.

The results are most pertinent to manufacturing firms that have already started their digital journey. Further studies must clarify how managers’ cultural embeddedness (i.e. general perceptions about efficient leadership in their country or region, national culture) could influence findings. Finally, to learn about the effective long-term behaviours of leaders might require different empirical methods.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents one of the first survey-based examinations of CEOs on the ways how LSs drive the effective deployment of DT in manufacturing firms. Our findings demonstrate a leadership paradox at the nascent stages of DT in manufacturing firms.

A fundamental research question is what leads some organizations, but not others, to be sustainable in their procurement operations. Extant theoretical frameworks, while valuable, do not fully reflect the nuances of decision-making in procurement operations. We aim to illuminate the role of individual attitudes, capabilities, and behavioral intentions in actualizing sustainable procurement.

We develop a framework by adapting the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to the context of sustainable procurement. We test the framework with a sample of 465 procurement professionals based in the EU through partial least squares structural equation modeling.

We find that sustainable purchasing behavior is predominantly shaped by behavioral intention, that is, willingness to pay for sustainability. This behavioral intention is significantly influenced by individual attitudes and capabilities in addition to awareness of consequences and perceived corporate social responsibility engagement but, interestingly, not by individual subjective norms.

The TPB is one of the most influential models for predicting behavior. However, the application of the theory in operations management is hitherto limited. The present study contributes to understanding individual-level antecedents of operations management practices and offers suggestions to practitioners engaged in fostering sustainable procurement.

The aim of this study is to investigate how educational researchers work together with practitioners in practical research projects.

Mixed-method.

Our findings suggest that researchers recognize their own limitations as well as those of practitioners and policy makers and learn from collaboration, but that they lack ideas on what activities they can undertake to overcome limitations. Furthermore, educational researchers emphasize the importance of continuous and systematic organized exchange with educational practitioners. We discuss the needs and challenges of educational researchers interacting with educational practitioners during their research.

We believe that sustainable research and practice partnerships (RPPs) provide a more effective platform for collaboration between researchers and practitioners. This is because long-term engagement in cross-boundary work within these partnerships promotes the development of new knowledge, routines and methods, thereby improving educational practice. Unfortunately, there are few RPPs in Germany (the context of the researchers interviewed). Consequently, it is critical that funding policies, particularly outside the United States, provide greater support for RPPs and the necessary resources for these partnerships. Even if funding for RPPs is not always possible, our research suggests that short-term collaborative agreements in research-practice projects are preferable to relying on informal transfer channels.

This paper aims to predict Dogecoin price by using artificial intelligence (AI) methods and comparing the results with the econometrics models.

An artificial neural network (ANN) was applied as a prediction method without any optimization techniques. Additionally, the genetic algorithm (GA) is used to select the most appropriate input variables. Additionally, based on the literature review and the relationships between crypto-price and global indices, 20 economic indicators, such as Coinbase Bitcoin, Coinbase Litecoin and US dollars, along with main global stock indices such as FTSE100 and NIFTY50, are identified as input variables for the model. Lichtenberg algorithm (LA) and aquila optimization (AO) algorithm are used to make the ANN more robust. To validate our algorithms, they have been implemented on daily data for the last three years. To demonstrate the superiority of the models over traditional methods such as econometrics, regression analysis and curve fitting techniques are used. The effectiveness of these models is then evaluated and compared using criteria such as recall, accuracy and precision.

The results indicate that AI-based algorithms not only enhance the accuracy, recall and precision of calculations but also expedite the process without requiring the numerous and restrictive assumptions associated with time series and econometric models.

The main contribution of this paper is the application of novel approaches such as AO and LA to improve the predictive capabilities of the ANN method for various cryptocurrencies’ prices. It demonstrates the superiority of the proposed algorithms over traditional econometric models using real-life data.