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This study examines innovation configurations (i.e. sets of product/service, social and business model innovations) and configuration linkages (i.e. factors that help to combine innovations) across six organizations as contingent upon organizational structure.

Using semi-structured interviews and available public information, qualitative data were collected and examined using content analysis to characterize innovation configurations and linkages in three local/private organizations and three foreign-led/public-private partnerships in Repiblik Ayiti (Haiti).

Organizations tend to combine product/service, social, and business model innovations simultaneously in locally founded private organizations and sequentially in foreign-based public-private partnerships. Linkages for simultaneous combination include limited external support, determined autonomy and shifting from a “beneficiary mindset,” and financial need identification. Sequential combination linkages include social need identification, community connections and flexibility.

The generalizability of our findings for this qualitative study is subject to additional quantitative studies to empirically test the suggested factors and to examine other health care organizations and countries.

Locally led private organizations in low- and middle-income settings may benefit from considering how their innovations are in service to one another as they may have limited resources. Foreign based public-private partnerships may benefit from pacing their efforts alongside a broader set of stakeholders and ecosystem partners.

This study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine how organizations combine sets of innovations, i.e. innovation configurations, in a healthcare setting and the first of any setting to examine innovation configuration linkages.

As global warming intensifies, climatic conditions are changing dramatically, potentially affecting specific businesses and cities’ livability. The temperature increase in cities significantly affects urban residents whose percentage is to reach about 70% by 2050. This paper aimed at highlighting the climate change risks in cities, particularly focusing on the threats to people’s health due to a continuous temperature increase.

This study was conducted in three main steps. First, the literature review on the effects of climate change, particularly on the continuous temperature rise in cities, was conducted based on the publications retrieved from PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar and Research Gate. Second, the survey was conducted for the sample cities for one month. Third, the questionnaire was used to assess possible climate change threats to the livability of cities.

The findings showed that urban areas are usually warmer than the surrounding rural areas, mainly due to the urban heat island effect, causing more hot days in metropolitan areas compared to rural areas. This paper outlines some mitigation and adaptation measures, which can be implemented to improve the livability in cities, their sustainability and the well-being of their populations.

This study reports on the climate change impacts on the health and livability of 15 cities, in industrialized and developing countries. It examines the average and maximum temperature and relative humidity of each city and its correlation with their livability. It was complemented by a survey focused on 109 cities from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania.

This study investigates the moderating effects of consumers’ occupations on their purchase intentions (PIs) for food takeout services using a modified unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. It evaluates how different occupations influence the relationships between social influence (SI), expectation confirmation (EC), facilitating conditions (FC) and PI.

The study collected data from individuals in various occupations, including technical/associate professionals, executives/professionals, administrative/service workers and manual/operative workers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, while hierarchical analysis assessed how occupation moderated the relationships between latent variables (SI, EC and FC) and PI.

Different occupations have a certain moderating effect on the relationships between SI/EC/FC and PI. For the technical and associate professionals and manual and operative occupations, the moderating effect of FC on PI is stronger than that of EC and SI. For executives and professionals and administrative and service occupations, the moderating effect of EC on PI is stronger than that of SI and FC.

This study provides new insights into how occupational differences influence consumer behavior in the context of online food ordering services. The results expand the application of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model and the understanding of the influence of occupation on consumer’ behavior.

This practice piece aims to review an occupational therapy led pilot programme – social farming as an intervention option in an adult community mental health setting in Ireland. It will also reflect on the practical implications of delivering the natural surroundings based programme through the COVID-19 pandemic and plans for the future development of such programmes in adult mental health services.

The Occupational Circumstances Assessment Interview Rating Scale (OCAIRS) was used to measure occupational participation (Forsyth, 2005). This was administered with participants’ pre and post their participation in the 10-week programme. An internal questionnaire was developed to further capture both the participant and farmer experiences of the social farming programme.

Whilst improvements were noted in a number of OCAIRS domains, it was difficult to identify small changes over a short period of time. The main domains of change were habits, roles, interests and personal causation. The success of the social farming placements was also reflected in the internal questionnaire. The pilot programme has resulted in the further development of the social farming programme and securing of funding for placements for five years.

It would be beneficial to consider other standardised assessments that assess quality of life and occupation for future placements. It is also beneficial to consider practical implications in delivering a social farming programme, particularly to those with barriers to transport. It is hoped this paper will contribute to the growing knowledge of social farming as a meaningful therapeutic intervention in mental health occupational therapy practice.

Background: The prevalence of obesity in English adults and children has reached critical levels. Obesity is determined by a wide range of factors including the environment and actions to reduce obesity prevalence requires a whole systems approach. The spatial planning system empowers local authorities to manage land use and development decisions to tackle obesogenic environments.

Methods: This research aimed to better understand what and how planning powers are being utilised by local authorities to help tackle population obesity. It reviewed literature on the six planning healthy weight environments themes. It identified what powers exist within the planning system to address these themes. It collated professionals’ perspectives on the barriers and opportunities through focus groups within local authorities and semi-structured interviews with national stakeholders.

Results: The research complements current research on the association between the environment and obesity outcomes, though methods employed by researchers in the literature were inconsistent. It identified three categories of planning powers available to both require and encourage those with responsibilities for and involvement in planning healthy weight environments. Through direct engagement with practitioners, it highlighted challenges in promoting healthy weight environments, including wider systems barriers such as conflicting policy priorities, lack of policy prescription and alignment at local levels, and impact from reduced professional and institutional capacity in local government.

Conclusions: The conclusions support a small but increasing body of research which suggests that policy makers need to ensure barriers are removed before planning powers can be effectively used to promote healthy weight environments as part of a whole systems approach. The research is timely with continuing policy and guidance focus on tackling obesity prevalence from national government departments and their agencies. This research was conducted as part of a Master of Research at Leeds Beckett University associated with a national whole-systems to obesity programme.

This paper aims to explain the student-led environmental management system (EMS) based on ISO14001 which Chiba University has continued for 15 years. It describes its structure “Chiba University Method”, the students’ activities and their collaboration with companies. It also analyzes the advantages and the issues. Readers can reconsider these mechanisms and results to examine whether they could introduce the student-led EMS in their own university.

Four critical points are explained concerning the “Chiba University Method”. The advantages are analyzed by the data and the questionnaire survey.

It has been found that student-led EMS has an effect of practical education on the students and an improvement of social evaluation on the university, as well as a reduction of environmental burdens. For students, in addition to the direct merit of obtaining credits, they receive a sense of accomplishment through gaining practical experience, thereby realizing improvements in business skills and making friends through activities. These are good incentives to participating in various activities. However, there are also problems that occur due to student-led EMS, and it is necessary for faculties to be aware and correspond with them.

This paper is based on the experience of one Japanese University.

As this case falls under the practical case of active learning, it is expected that other universities could also introduce this system.

It is rare that the students manage the EMS based on ISO14001 with educational effects included in the results. At Chiba University, moreover, students are making environmental contributions to local communities through collaboration with companies.

Critical infrastructure (CI) plays an essential role in reading, reacting and responding while dealing with natural disasters. This study address food supply chain resilience by proposing an FSC resilience model that explains the food product and transport flow via production, processing, distribution and retailing in circumstances of (CI) collapses post a natural disaster.

A combination of qualitative methods was conducted to obtain a comprehensive overview of the food and beverage sector in Puerto Rico. The full dataset comprised of seven focus groups for a total of 52 participants and 12 in-depth interviews.

FSC resilience is seen in this study through the managerial actions taken by members of the Chain: innovating, transforming, adapting, and flexibilising business models and operations.

This study is the first to address FSC resilience from the perspective of net food importer economy in the context of natural disasters and prolonged Critical infrastructure (CI) breakdown, and the first one in proposing an FSC resilience model that explains the food product and transport flow via production, processing, distribution and retailing in circumstances of CI collapses post a natural disaster.

This paper aims to explore the role of social and cultural sustainability in shaping smart urban development in the Arab Region, focusing on three cities, i.e. Sharjah Sustainable City (UAE), Lusail Smart City (Qatar) and SEKEM (Egypt). The research looks into how cultural aspects are integrated into the United Nations 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their relationship in the achievement of SDGs and sustainable city pillars.

By following a mainly qualitative research approach and methodology of interviewing experts about the cities and carrying out an intensive literature review and case studies, this research analyzes the key cultural elements essential for the evolution of smart and/or sustainable cities. It highlights the importance of preserving cultural heritage, enhancing social cohesion and promoting inclusivity, all within the framework of the established sustainability standards.

By following a detailed approach to case studies and rigorous research methods, this study provides valuable insights for architects, urban planners, policymakers and researchers. The research highlighted the importance of engaging the communities and local population in the urban planning processes to ensure that the voices of potential residents are heard and that development projects meet the needs of the local population. The research also concluded that the formation of a social and sustainability index is crucial in the Arab Region.

The study’s utilization of secondary data and expert interviews may introduce biases, hence constraining the extent of analysis. Moreover, the concentration on a restricted set of towns may not adequately depict the variety of urban growth throughout the Arab region. Future studies would be enhanced by expanding their scope to include a wider range of case studies and utilizing mixed approaches to gain a more nuanced comprehension of sustainable strategies.

The findings offer a foundation for thoughtful and sustainable urban planning in Arab cities. The research emphasizes the vital connection between cultural preservation and sustainability goals and the importance of the inclusion of cultural dimensions in sustainability frameworks to create more inclusive and resilient smart cities.

The study illustrates that incorporating cultural values into urban planning promotes social cohesiveness and inclusivity, hence enhancing the sustainability and resilience of communities. This method guarantees that urban development is both ecologically sustainable and culturally considerate, promoting the conservation of local identities and customs.

This study deepens the understanding of how cultural preservation and sustainability intersect in urban development. It provides important insights that can guide the development of smart cities, particularly in the Arab region, by ensuring that cultural values are integral to sustainable urban growth.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to design and build a wild animal pest repellent device with combination of passive infrared (PIR) sensor and ultrasonic signal based on microcontroller as system controller. The PIR sensor is used to detect the presence of wild animal objects and ultrasonic signals to interfere with the hearing.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The design of the system is built based on microcontroller as the system controller. The system as a whole includes hardware and software. The design of hardware consists of the system design on the transmitter side and the system design on the receiver side, while the software in the of system are algorithms using C language programming.

Findings – The resulting repellent device can detect animals approaching up to a distance of 5 m and may interfere with its hearing with a 40 kHz ultrasonic frequency up to a distance of 20 m. The system also uses remote monitoring devices using 433 MHz radio frequency up to a distance of 60 m.

Research Limitations/Implications – Each animal has different hearing frequencies, as well as some wild animals, but the hearing frequencies of wild animals are generally at ultrasonic frequencies. The frequency of animal hearing may vary from audio frequency to ultrasonic frequency, so ultrasonic wave emission testing with varying frequencies is required.

Practical Implications – This research combines systems on transmitters and receivers, with real-time monitoring of wild animal positions, and it can be possible to monitor the position of more detailed animals by installing more types of sensors as well as increasing the number of sensors.

Originality/Value – This paper may provide additional insight into the hearing frequencies of animals and may also serve as comparable papers for similar studies.