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Focusing on the specific context of two European old industrial regions – South Yorkshire (UK) and North Region of Portugal – this paper aims to identify and conceptualise a set of relational capabilities that business leaders perceive to play a key role in industrial rejuvenation.

A qualitative research design operationalised via case studies was followed for the empirical analysis. Data collection was developed through in-depth interviews with managing directors in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) belonging to the metal and engineering industry and the textile and footwear sectors in the two old industrial regions. Data analysis followed the techniques of data categorisation, within case-analysis and cross-case analysis.

The study identifies relational capabilities that firms use to identify, access and leverage new knowledge: frequent meetings with customers; frequent meetings with suppliers; dialogue with government to influence policy that encourages research and technology transfer; partnership actions for the commercialisation of products and services; active membership with sector associations; immersion in science and technological parks; intentionally establishing links with entrepreneurship-supporting entities; human resources development by technical training institutions; and systematic links with the University. The relational capabilities identified require structured communication processes and alliance management practices to enable and support absorptive capacity and learning in inter-organisational networks.

The relational capabilities identified can help position regions in specific markets and value chains, contribute to improving regions’ internal and external connections and assist in combining regions’ strengths to create industrial capability in high-growth-potential areas.

This paper highlights the role of relational capabilities as a way to secure access to knowledge and competencies needed for firms’ innovation and avoidance of competency traps. This is particularly relevant in the context of European smart specialisation policy, where key regional stakeholders collectively engage in the identification of areas of competitive strength, enhanced coordination and strategic alignment of resources. The study is not without limitations, as findings are based on case studies of SMEs operating in the manufacturing industry and the analysis of relational capabilities is focused on knowledge novelty.

This paper aims to examine how academics enact trust in e-learning through an inductive identification of perceived risks and enablers involved in e-learning adoption, in the context of higher education institutions (HEIs).

Grounded Theory was the methodology used to systematically analyse data collected in semi-structured interviews with 62 academics. Data analysis followed the constant comparative method and its three-staged coding approach: open, axial and selective coding.

The resulting trajectory of trust factors is presented in a Grounded Theory narrative where individual change and integration through shared collective understanding and institutionalisation are discussed as stages leading to the overcoming of e-learning adoption barriers.

The paper proposes that the interplay between institutionalism and individualism has implications in the success or failure of strategies for the adoption of e-learning in HEIs, as perceived by academics. In practical terms, this points to the need for close attention to contextually sensitive trust-building mechanisms that promote the balance between academics’ commitments, values and sense of self-worth and centrally planned policy, rules, resources and exhortations that enable action.

This paper aims to identify and conceptualize a set of relational capabilities that school libraries in the Alentejo region of Portugal develop for acquiring new knowledge that exists externally in the wider community.

A qualitative research design operationalized via case studies was followed for the empirical analysis. Empirical findings are based on the analysis of the 84 narrative reports submitted by school libraries as part of a national performance evaluation exercise that took place between 2010 and 2012. Data analysis followed the techniques of inductive data categorization, within case-analysis, and cross-case analysis.

The exploration of the relational capabilities that school libraries in the Alentejo region of Portugal develop for acquiring new knowledge that exists externally in the community resulted in the identification of relationships that school libraries in the region have established to acquire new knowledge: connecting with and supporting organizations committed to civic engagement; facilitating discussions about challenging issues through strategic partnerships; convening community conversations to identify shared concerns and solutions; and embracing local culture to foster endogenous development.

The ability to seek and recognize the value of new and external knowledge, assimilate it and apply it to organizational ends has been traditionally linked to the concept of absorptive capacity. While absorptive capacity literature in business settings is prolific, literature that focuses on school libraries’ ability to identify and explore external knowledge and applying it to improve their performance is scarce. Focusing on the specific context of the Alentejo region of Portugal as an archetypical rural area, this paper identifies how knowledge existing externally in the community is absorbed by rural school libraries through specific relational capabilities that reflect school libraries’ community orientation and engagement in participatory processes that develop social resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an exploratory study that investigates Portuguese academics’ conceptions concerning the temporal properties of e-learning, in the context of traditional Higher Education Institutions.

Grounded Theory methodology was used to systematically analyse data collected in semi-structured interviews with 62 academics. Data analysis followed the constant comparative method and its three-staged coding approach: open, axial and selective coding. Data collection and analysis developed until theoretical saturation was reached.

Emergent academics’ conceptions concerning the temporal properties of e-learning indicate the existence of unregulated and unaccounted for dynamics, which are a direct consequence of transitioning from campus-based lecturing to teaching online using the affordances of virtual learning environments. This transition produces disruptions to established workload metrics and work patterns, as well as conflicts with dominant modes of instructional delivery that are not synchronised with the demands of online interaction and immediacy.

This paper is valuable to e-learning strategists and administrators. An understanding of the temporal properties of e-learning as perceived by academics provides actionable knowledge that is directly applicable to the design of suitable work arrangements, normative frameworks and e-learning practices that address perceived time-related barriers. To mitigate the time-related conflicts and disruptions identified in the study the authors suggest the establishment of university-wide norms of virtual presence and the implementation of temporal protocols to sustain the productive engagement between instructors and learners.

The study aims to identify the key advantages/enablers and disadvantages/barriers of augmented reality (AR) implementation in education through existing reviews. It also examines whether these factors differ across educational domains.

This study conducted a systematic review of reviews to synthesize evidence on the barriers and enablers influencing AR adoption in education. Searches were performed across five databases, with 27 reviews meeting the inclusion criteria. Data extraction and quality assessment were completed. Content analysis was conducted using the AR adoption factor model and consolidated framework for implementation research.

The findings reveal several enablers such as pedagogical benefits, skill development and engagement. Equally, multiple barriers were identified, including high costs, technical issues, curriculum design challenges and negative attitudes. Interestingly, duality emerged, whereby some factors served as both barriers and enablers depending on the educational context.

This review contributes a novel synthesis of the complex individual, organizational and technological factors influencing AR adoption in education across diverse domains. The identification of duality factors provides nuanced understanding of the multifaceted dynamics shaping AR integration over time. The findings can assist educators in tailoring context-sensitive AR implementation strategies to maximize benefits and minimize drawbacks. Further research should explore duality factors and their interrelationships in AR adoption.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the relationship between student assessment method and e-learning satisfaction. Which e-learning assessment method do students prefer? The assessment method is an additional determinant of the effectiveness and quality that affects user satisfaction with online courses.

The study employs data from 1,114 students. The first set of data was obtained from a questionnaire on the online platform. The second set of information was obtained from the external assessment reports by e-learning specialists. The satisfaction revealed by the students in their responses to the questionnaire is the dependent variable in the multivariate technique. In order to estimate the influence of the independent variables on the global satisfaction, we use the ordinary least squares technic. This method is the most appropriate for dependent discrete variables whose categories are ordered but have multiple categories, as is the case for the dependent variable.

The method influences e-learning satisfaction, even though only slightly. The students are reluctant to be assessed by a final exam. Students prefer systems that award more importance to the assessment of coursework as part of the final mark.

Knowing the level of student satisfaction and the factors that influence it is helpful to the teachers for improving their courses.

In online education, student satisfaction is an indicator of the quality of the education system. Although previous research has analyzed the factors that influence e-student satisfaction, to the best of authors’ knowledge, no previous research has specifically analyzed the relationship between assessment systems and general student satisfaction with the course.

The aim of this research is to analyze the success of digital transformation (DT) in the management and performance of organizations. To do so, the role of IT and its ability to integrate in organizations that provide professional services with high added value for their clients are investigated. These services require highly developed skills as they solve complex problems for the clients and this means that success depends on gathering knowledge from different sources (customers, public administrations and competitors). This study analyses the decisive and complementary role of IT in this process.

The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative methods. After questioning managers of Spanish KIBS companies about certain components of DT, the gathered data are subsequently processed with PLS-SEM to establish causal relationships.

The results show that digital capability is the determinant of DT. It has a positive effect on the digital resources integrated in KIBS companies and on their organizational performances.

Future research should continue to analyze other components of TD that drive the organizational performance of KIBS firms, such as technological culture or government policies that encourage digital transactions. The present study analyzes data from companies that are part of a single economic sector in Spain which may limit the conclusions drawn. It would be particularly useful to confirm the applicability of the results in companies operating in different markets to explore the direct relationship between digital capability and organizational performance.

This research has implications for managers of KIBS companies, as it shows the high potential of the ability of IT to implement and manage a TD process. Managers can benefit from IT management practices using the appropriate tools (ERP, CRM and management software) to gain more knowledge of customer behavior with the possibility of easily codifying and analyzing the data, which significantly influences innovation activities. The objective is to develop a strong internal capability to absorb knowledge from day-to-day interactions with customers by using IT effectively. This process leads to an improvement in the organizational performance of KIBS companies, as they become more effective in decision making with improved internal communication, generate greater employee satisfaction and reach new customers. Following strategies aimed at the implementation and use of the technological resources studied creates more agile firms and helps to close the production gap between SMEs and large companies.

The results obtained can help create sustainable businesses through cloud-based technology tools. It can provide insights for policy makers to implement economic policies that help SMEs to become more competitive and sustainable.

The development of digital technologies and the ability to manage them is one of the decisive factors that conceptualizes DT and improves organizational performance. This research contributes to the understanding of the need for managers of KIBS companies to follow strategies oriented towards the digitization of their organizations and for the collaborators to have a high level of IT training, especially in the use of cloud technology.

Because of the anisotropy of the process and the variability in the quality of printed parts, finite element analysis is not directly applicable to recycled materials manufactured using fused filament fabrication. The purpose of this study is to investigate the numerical-experimental mechanical behavior modeling of the recycled polymer, that is, recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), manufactured by a deposition FFF process under compressive stresses for new sustainable designs.

In all, 42 test specimens were manufactured and analyzed according to the ASTM D695-15 standards. Eight numerical analyzes were performed on a real design manufactured with rPET using Young's compression modulus from the experimental tests. Finally, eight additional experimental tests under uniaxial compression loads were performed on the real sustainable design for validating its mechanical behavior versus computational numerical tests.

As a result of the experimental tests, rPET behaves linearly until it reaches the elastic limit, along each manufacturing axis. The results of this study confirmed the design's structural safety by the load scenario and operating boundary conditions. Experimental and numerical results show a difference of 0.001–0.024 mm, allowing for the rPET to be configured as isotropic in numerical simulation software without having to modify its material modeling equations.

The results obtained are of great help to industry, designers and researchers because they validate the use of recycled rPET for the ecological production of real-sustainable products using MEX technology under compressive stress and its configuration for numerical simulations. Major design companies are now using recycled plastic materials in their high-end designs.

Validation results have been presented on test specimens and real items, comparing experimental material configuration values with numerical results. Specifically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no industrial or scientific work has been conducted with rPET subjected to uniaxial compression loads for characterizing experimentally and numerically the material using these results for validating a real case of a sustainable industrial product.

Regulatory initiatives and related technological shifts have been imposing restrictions on data-driven marketing (DDM) practices. This paper aims to find the main restrictions for DDM and the key management theories applied to investigate the consequences of these restrictions.

The authors conducted a unified bibliometric analysis with 104 publications retrieved from both Scopus and Web of Science, followed by a qualitative, in-depth systematic literature review to identify the management theories in literature and inform a research agenda.

The fragmentation of the research outcomes was overcome by the identification of 3 main clusters and 11 management theories that structured 18 questions for future research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper sets for the first time a frontier between almost three decades where DDM evolved with no significative restrictions, grounded on innovations and market autoregulation, and an era where data privacy, anti-trust and competition and data sovereignty regulations converge to impose structural changes, requiring scholars and practitioners to rethink the roles of data at the strategic level of the firm.

This research investigates the effect of accessibility to points of tourist interest (buffer) and direct and indirect spatial spillover effects of agglomeration economies on tourism industry revenues in Spain.

Data were collected from the Bureau van Dijk's (BvD) Orbis global database. The data were analysed using a spatial econometric model and the Cobb–Douglas production function.

This study reveals that hotels located inside the buffer zone of points of tourist interest achieve better economic outcomes than hotels located outside the buffer. Furthermore, the results show that there is a direct and indirect spatial spillover effect in the hotel industry.

The results provide valuable information for identifying areas where the agglomeration of hotels will produce a spillover effect on hotel revenue and the area of influence of location characteristics. This information is relevant for hotels already established in a destination or when seeking a location for a new hotel.

The results of this study can help city planners in influencing the distribution of hotels to fit desired patterns and improve an area's spatial beauty.

The paper provides insights into how investment, structural characteristics, reputation and location affect hotel revenue.