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Public procurement frameworks in developed and developing countries alike are recognised as being characterised by an unstable tension between the public expectations of transparency and accountability, and of efficiency and effectiveness of resource management. This conformance - performance tension, manifest throughout a complex procurement environment, is further destabilised by conflicting stakeholder interests at the political, business, community and management levels and exacerbated by competing claims between executives, lawyers, technologists and politicians for lead roles in this arena. The application of new technology in this discipline offers a qualified potential to substantially resolve these tensions. However, the application of technology is itself at risk from a lack of understanding about the nature of its impact and the wider political dimensions of professionalism in public procurement.

Public procurement in many countries is one of the most important factors in governance and is a priority target of reform. In many humanitarian situations however, service delivery cannot wait for procurement reform. The needs of many of the Millennium Development Goals are immediate, while procurement reform may take years to institutionalize. Under these circumstances, international organisations such as the United Nations have both implementation and capacity-building roles, often placing them in high-risk situations. This has led to the development of procurement risk assessment and management tools, designed to provide objectivity in country procurement risk monitoring and review, as well as assist capacity building. The procurement risk assessment methodology that follows uses established risk modeling to provide procurement risk ratings in 60 HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria programs in 26 countries, and is successfully promoting procurement strengthening within high-risk country offices.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of publications in the Journal of Public Procurement (JoPP) from 2001 to 2021. The study provides insights into trends in publications, prominent publication themes, influential authors, institutions and countries that have prominently been associated with the journal’s journey.

The study used a bibliometric and content analysis approach using the VOSviewer software to develop insights into the trends, structures and patterns in publications in the journal. Data for the study was extracted from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases.

The study established that there has been consistent growth in the number of papers published by the journal within the last two decades. Yearly average publication by the journal stood at 14 papers between 2002 and 2009, with the annual average rising to approximately 18 papers between 2010 and 2021. The trend in publication has been established and identified the influential citations and contributors to the journal. The study has also clustered out the thematic structures in journal’s publications. The prominent and emerging research issues in the public procurement environment needing immediate research attention have been highlighted.

The study is a one-journal bibliometric analysis and subsequently ignores publications on public procurement from other journals.

The findings of this study highlight to the research community the contributions of JoPP to the public procurement discourse and present important avenues for future research agenda.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first bibliometric study for the JoPP, providing detailed bibliometric indexes of the 21-year period of the journal’s publications. The study comprehensively analyses the contributions in the JoPP to assess the trend and scope in publications in the field of public procurement and draws attention to emerging concerns and critical issues of neglect requiring research attention in the journal.

Based on the Natural resource-based view (NRBV), this study aims to analyze the association between the Sustainable Development Goals related to Gender Equality, Decent Work, Innovation, and Climatic Action in the Food Industry.

A quantitative study is adopted based on the 2019 World Bank Enterprise Survey microdata. The database includes 1,242 food enterprises from 16 European Union countries. We applied logistic regression with cluster robust standard errors.

Despite global efforts to promote decent work and gender equity, the anticipated results have not yet been achieved, suggesting varying performance in different contexts. Food firms, characterized by significant environmental impacts and seasonal tasks, employ diverse Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies based on whether they pursue innovation or environmental objectives. Grounded in the NRBV, our findings underscore the importance of investing in qualified workers and offering attractive wages to meet environmental goals, as well as providing stable contracts for female workers. The NRBV framework also highlights the crucial role of product and process innovations, whether green or not, in achieving climate action objectives.

European policies must be adapted to the human resources characteristics in the food industry, providing specific training on environmental and innovation issues and contributing to more work stability and gender equality.

Our study applies the NRBV to analyze how human resources and product/process innovations can boost environmental preservation in an industry characterized by strong environmental impacts, seasonal tasks, and financial constraints.

The impacts of institutions on entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as the effects of technological development, have been subject to various research studies. While this theme inherently remains a focus for political decision-makers, there is very little knowledge on the combined role of institutions, entrepreneurial orientations and innovation capabilities on the technological development of countries. In this study, we examine the impacts of entrepreneurial orientation and the innovative capacity of countries through considering the moderating effect of technological development.

The data used in this study has been collected from various sources, including the World Economic Forum United Nations (UN), World Bank (WB), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and Scimago. The study focuses on 86 countries that are either at stage 2 or stage 3 of development or in the transition from stage 2 to stage 3.

We have found that corporate governance, property rights and security institutions have a positive influence on a country’s entrepreneurial mindset and its ability to innovate. Additionally, we have noted that technological advancements also play a role in moderating this relationship. These findings have important implications for the theory, practice and public policies in this area.

This study emphasizes the substantial impact of institutional quality on the entrepreneurial mindset and innovation capabilities of businesses. It shows that perceiving institutions as more stable can have a positive effect on both entrepreneurial orientation and innovative capabilities, ultimately improving companies' competitiveness.

This study aims to understand in what way international cooperation between universities and/or firms can be seen as a vehicle in the transfer of knowledge and innovation for implementation of environmentally sustainable practices.

To do so, a qualitative approach was adopted, resorting to the case study method: the EdgeWise project. Data were obtained from interviews, documentation provided by partners and observation, and the content analysis technique was also used.

The results lead to the conclusion that this type of international cooperation is supported by solid dimensions, such as knowledge transfer and appropriate choice of partners. In addition, the dimension related to organisational culture is not considered a barrier in the cooperation process studied here, but rather as a form of learning among partners.

The empirical evidence suggests that it will add value to the understanding of the various issues surrounding resources (water and energy) that differ from country to country. However, the administrative-bureaucratic dimension is identified as a barrier to this type of cooperation/project, with its analysis being suggested for future studies.

This innovative study shows that the literature and the case study made identified various dimensions; motivations, barriers and drivers, of knowledge transfer, choice of partners and organisational culture. In addition, this study contributes for international universities-firms cooperation in sustainability area.