World, Volume 7, Issue 5 (May 2026) – 18 articles

Global crises often force a pivotal choice between protecting human legacy and ensuring financial survival, yet the psychological drivers behind these trade-offs remain poorly understood. While family firms are traditionally viewed as inherently resilient, the unique emotional attachments of their owners may constrain their ability to adapt to unprecedented shocks. This study examines the behavioral underpinnings of crisis management across 11 European nations during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging the traditional stewardship paradigm. Findings reveal a significant tension between preserving socioemotional wealth and economic survival. While family-managed firms prioritized personnel retention and financial autonomy, thus avoiding the psychological stigma of government aid, these non-financial priorities often proved detrimental to liquidity and business survival. This suggests that high emotional endowment can induce behavioral rigidity and an escalation of commitment, hindering strategic pivots. Furthermore, the results highlight a trend toward mimetic isomorphism, where extreme uncertainty forced a convergence of crisis responses across diverse organizational structures. Overall, the contribution of this study is to challenge the resilience myth, illustrating that acute shocks often override the distinctive behavioral archetype of family firms, forcing a shift toward institutional conformity and standardized mandates. Full article

As digital consumption increasingly unfolds in hybrid phygital environments, algorithmic systems play a growing role in shaping user choices, perceptions of fairness, and sustainability-related behaviour. Prior research has examined sustainable consumption, digital nudging, platform trust, and consumer behaviour in digital settings, but has rarely integrated perceived algorithmic fairness, digital resilience, and algorithmic responsibility perception within a single user-centered framework. Addressing this gap, this study develops and tests a multidimensional model of sustainable platform behavior (SPB). Using a triangulated design that combines bibliometric support analysis, PLS-SEM modelling, multi-group analysis, and cluster-based user segmentation, the study identifies three distinct user types and examines the relationships among the focal constructs. The results show that perceived fairness significantly predicts ARP (β = 0.493, p < 0.001), while both ARP (β = 0.427, p < 0.001) and digital resilience (β = 0.263, p < 0.001) independently contribute to SPB. The findings indicate that sustainable platform behavior is shaped not only by intention, but also by fairness perceptions, adaptive user capacity, and responsibility-based evaluations of platform systems. The study offers a user-centered framework with practical implications for designing more responsible, transparent, and sustainability-oriented digital platforms. Full article

Rural industrial integration is widely recognized as a pivotal strategy for rural revitalization and sustainable development. However, despite its potential to foster economic growth, its actual impact on the livelihood resilience of individual farm households remains a complex issue that requires empirical validation. Drawing upon the Sustainable Livelihood Analysis (SLA) framework and micro-level data from the China Land Economic Survey (CLES) (2020–2022), this study employs propensity score matching (PSM) and the conditional mixed process (CMP) method to systematically examine the impact of rural industrial integration on household livelihood resilience, its transmission mechanisms, and its heterogeneous effects. The empirical results demonstrate that rural industrial integration significantly enhances farmers’ livelihood resilience, with an estimated net impact of 17.1%. Specifically, the positive influence on learning capacity is found to be more pronounced than that on buffering and self-organizing capacities. Mechanism analysis suggests that livelihood resilience is bolstered through the dual pathways of “external push” and “endogenous pull.” Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that models involving vertical industrial chain extension and technology diffusion models yield more substantial impacts among various integration forms. Notably, compared to leading enterprises, participation in cooperatives is found to exert a more significant influence on farmers’ resilience. Consequently, to promote sustainable livelihoods, policy interventions should prioritize the integrated development of rural industries by balancing external resource mobilization with the activation of internal drivers, while remaining vigilant against potential development imbalances arising from different organizational structures. Full article

Housing inequalities remain a major challenge for contemporary urban governance, as they combine economic, social, spatial, and demographic dynamics that are difficult to capture through single indicators. This paper develops a data-driven assessment of housing inequalities in Portugal between 2015 and 2025, drawing on official national and European statistics and applying a Business Intelligence (BI) and urban analytics framework oriented towards policy monitoring. Official data from Statistics Portugal and Eurostat are integrated through an analytical pipeline including automated extraction via public APIs, data enrichment, and visual analytics. The workflow follows a CRISP-DM-inspired structure, creating a set of normalized indicators to capture different dimensions of housing conditions. The results point to a structurally polarized housing market. Housing valuations increased across all regions, but at uneven rates, reinforcing territorial disparities rather than convergence. Metropolitan and tourism-oriented regions experienced faster appreciation and indirect effects, while year-over-year growth in completed dwellings slowed after 2021–2022, indicating an uneven supply response. Beyond its empirical findings, the primary contribution of this study lies in demonstrating how BI and data science methodologies can be operationalized to monitor housing inequalities using official statistics. The proposed framework is replicable and can be adapted to other territorial and policy contexts. Full article

Manufacturing productivity in ASEAN has become increasingly important as the region joins global value chains and recovers from COVID-19 disruptions. However, it remains uncertain whether output growth results from true productivity improvements or from changes in factor utilization. This study analyses the efficiency and productivity trends in six ASEAN countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, from 2000 to 2022. It employs an input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) under both constant and variable returns to scale to assess technical, pure technical, and scale efficiency, while the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) decomposes total factor productivity into efficiency and technological change. Results show significant variation among countries and over time. Singapore and Malaysia consistently stay near the regional production frontier, whereas Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam lag in efficiency despite strong output and investment growth. Productivity shifts mainly stem from technological advances rather than efficiency gains, especially slowing during the pandemic. Scale inefficiency remains a key performance issue, particularly for Indonesia and Singapore, worsening after 2020. These insights indicate that ASEAN manufacturing competitiveness hinges not only on capital investment but also on converting inputs into productivity improvements. This study offers a comparative analysis of ASEAN manufacturing efficiency and productivity performance. Full article

The transition from sustainable human resource management (S-HRM) toward common good human resource management (CG-HRM) has introduced new research challenges for the academic community. This study examines the nexus among CG-HRM, employee resilience, and sustainable corporate performance, as assessed through the triple-bottom-line framework. First, the study evaluates the relationship between CG-HRM and sustainable corporate performance, followed by an examination of whether employee resilience moderates these relationships. The study also examines the moderated mediation effect of employee resilience via social performance on the relationship between CG-HRM and both economic and environmental performance. The research was conducted with 370 respondents from companies in the Republic of Serbia, using the PLS-SEM methodology. The results suggest that CG-HRM is directly related to environmental and economic performance, but not to social performance. Moreover, social performance showed a positive relationship with environmental and economic performance. The results also suggest that CG-HRM is indirectly associated with environmental and economic performance through the mediating effect of social performance, with employee resilience moderating the first segment of these indirect relationships. Thus, the study enhances the understanding of the mechanisms connecting CG-HRM, employee resilience, and sustainable corporate performance. Furthermore, the findings provide useful implications for managers seeking to integrate sustainability into HRM systems and improve sustainable business outcomes. Full article

Does civil society mobilization supplement or entirely supplant the state during crises? This distinction remains theoretically significant yet empirically underdeveloped. An empirical framework based on the State-in-Society theory is applied in this study to analyze state–civil society relations in Israel following the 7 October 2023 attacks. Using qualitative interviews with 19 civil society leaders from 12 organizations conducted in January 2024, we examine the comprehensive substitution of state functions by non-state actors across security, welfare, and logistics domains. Findings reveal that protest organizations rapidly transformed into primary service providers, creating hybrid governance structures that persisted for months. Unlike government failure (dysfunction within intact institutions) or chronic state failure (gradual erosion in fragile contexts), Israel experienced “localized state failure”—a rapid, geographically constrained yet comprehensive collapse of core state functions in a high-income democracy, with immediate substitution by organized domestic civil society rather than international actors. This mobilization, based on a preexisting protest movement, demonstrates how robust civic infrastructure, even when mobilized against the government, creates latent governance capacity that can be activated during crises. The study advances the state-in-society theory, hybrid governance, and institutional resilience, offering a new perspective for distinguishing temporary dysfunction from fundamental collapse in democratic contexts. Full article

Interpersonal and institutional distrust have become central concerns in debates on institutional legitimacy, particularly in contexts where education functions as a foundational arena of civic socialization. This systematic review examines how the Social Distrust Framework (IDS) articulates interpersonal distrust, institutional distrust, and structural conditions within educational systems. A total of 20 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025 were analyzed across primary, secondary, and higher education. Searches were conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines across Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, PsycINFO, Dialnet, and SciELO. Findings indicate that interpersonal distrust is associated with lower levels of perceived support, sense of belonging, and self-efficacy, while institutional distrust is linked to weaker perceptions of procedural justice, normative coherence, and school legitimacy. Structural conditions—particularly inequality and school segregation—are consistently associated with intensified distrust dynamics across contexts. The synthesis further identifies key mediating mechanisms, including academic motivation, perceived support, institutional credibility, sense of belonging, and perceived fairness (procedural justice), which translate multilevel distrust dynamics into differentiated outcomes such as academic achievement, school dropout, behavioral outcomes, student engagement, and civic participation. The Social Distrust Framework (IDS) is conceptualized as an analytical framework that explains how micro-level relational experiences are transformed into macro-level evaluations of institutional reliability. By integrating relational, institutional, and structural dimensions, the framework contributes to interdisciplinary debates on institutional legitimacy, governance, inequality, and social cohesion. Full article

Groundwater systems in semi-arid and industrial regions are increasingly affected by climate-driven non-stationarity and anthropogenic pressure, challenging conventional forecasting approaches. This study develops and evaluates an integrated artificial intelligence framework designed to minimize piezometric head residual dispersion under non-stationary hydroclimatic conditions. The proposed methodology combines Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (ICEEMDAN) and Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) with a Slime Mould Algorithm–optimized Long Short-Term Memory (SMA–LSTM) model and a CNN–LSTM architecture, which are dynamically fused using an Adaptive Weighting Model (AWM). The framework was applied to long-term groundwater level (1994–2024), groundwater quality (2017–2023), and meteorological datasets to evaluate the predictive robustness across climatic variability regimes. The proposed ensemble achieved a mean absolute error of 0.267 m, root mean square error of 0.429 m, coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.948, and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.938, representing substantial residual reduction compared to baseline deep learning models. Residual diagnostics confirmed minimized peak deviations and stable performance under non-stationary conditions. Scenario-based simulations driven by CMIP6 climate projections indicate increasing groundwater stress under future warming trajectories, with amplified variability and declining recharge signals. These findings demonstrate that multi-stage signal decomposition coupled with metaheuristic optimization and adaptive ensemble learning significantly enhances predictive stability and residual minimization in climate-sensitive aquifer systems. The proposed framework provides a transferable, climate-resilient decision-support tool for sustainable groundwater management in industrial and semi-arid regions. Full article

Volunteering is a practice that has gained significant recognition, offering a range of benefits to both society as a whole and the individuals who participate in it. In the context of people with functional diversity, the practice of volunteering activities has been found to have particular benefits, such as reducing stigma and stereotypes. Despite this recognition, the level of inclusive volunteering remains low. In light of this paradox, the objective of this study is to analyse the main perceived barriers to inclusive volunteering and the extent to which these barriers may affect its practice. To that end, a mixed methodology was employed in this study. The qualitative methodology entailed the conduction of two focus groups, comprising a diverse range of stakeholders from the field of disability in Portugal. The quantitative method involved a questionnaire targeted towards two distinct groups: (i) people with functional diversity (PwFD), and (ii) organisations working with PwFD. This approach is of particular significance given the paucity of studies focusing on the perspectives of people with functional diversity. A variety of techniques were used to analyse the data. These included content analysis for qualitative data and descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses for quantitative data. The content analysis revealed significant barriers relating to institutional and cultural factors, as well as personal and family factors. Subsequently, the presence of these barriers was evaluated from the perspectives of PwFD and organisations, with both groups perceiving the barriers as significant. Finally, studying the relationship between perceived barriers and volunteering revealed that organisations’ intentions towards volunteering are not constrained by the level of barriers they perceive to exist. From the perspective of PwFD, it can be seen that, although it is possible to observe the influence of some specific constraints, perceived barriers do not influence current volunteering practices or future intentions. Full article

This conceptual framework paper critically evaluates the economic, regulatory, and accounting significance of transparent reporting on investments in employee happiness, emphasizing its potential to reduce information asymmetry in capital markets. We define employee-happiness investments as deliberate organisational expenditures and management practices designed to enhance employees’ overall life satisfaction. Information asymmetry, a condition that occurs when managers possess better information than investors, poses substantial risks including market inefficiencies, misallocation of capital, and increased costs of capital. Empirical evidence consistently illustrates that employee happiness is positively correlated with enhanced firm productivity, lower risk, and improved financial performance. Despite these clear linkages, current international accounting and regulatory frameworks do not adequately capture investments in employee happiness, with International Accounting Standard 38 mandating immediate expensing rather than balance sheet recognition due to identifiability and control constraints. This treatment could exacerbate informational disparities and may potentially hinder effective investor decision-making by obscuring strategic resource allocation patterns within aggregated expense line items. Drawing on recent studies and real-world financial outcomes, the paper argues for complementary disclosure reforms mandating standardized reporting of employee-happiness investments and outcomes as a crucial step toward more informed market assessments and sustainable corporate practices. Full article

Interest in child health and well-being is growing, and both are multidimensional. Composite indicators (CIs) are useful tools for analyzing their relationships. This study examines the correlation between the CI of child well-being and that of public health system performance and proposes a weighting scheme for constructing CIs. Among schemes, entropy weighting yielded the strongest correlation. Uncertainty analysis revealed that country rankings with entropy weighting are the most stable, demonstrating robust CI. Strong explanatory power indicates that the CIs correlate with GDP, validating their compatibility with a key reference variable. High discriminant power confirms that CIs provide informational diversity, helping decision-makers distinguish between countries. The analysis shows that better health system performance is associated with higher child well-being, reinforcing the role of public health systems in promoting sustainable development and child well-being. Full article

Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s, introduced in December 2025, made it the first country worldwide to implement a nationwide prohibition on major platforms for adolescents. This narrative literature review compares Australia’s age-based restriction with international approaches to protecting young people from online risks. The review synthesized 26 academic studies and 15 grey literature sources (policy documents, legislation, and official reports published between 2015 and 2025). It employed Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory to examine effects across family, platform, institutional, and broader socio-legal contexts. Three key themes emerged: (A) Empirical findings on age-threshold policies remain inconclusive and context-dependent. While unregulated use relates to psychological vulnerabilities, structured and intentional engagement can promote social connection, identity exploration, and support access, especially for marginalized youth. (B) Global responses vary, favoring alternatives like parental consent, platform duty-of-care obligations, and screen-time control measures. (C) Balanced, sustainable harm reduction depends on combining parental involvement, platform accountability, and digital literacy education. Overall, while Australia’s precautionary approach addresses legitimate developmental and public health concerns, its effectiveness seems limited by enforcement challenges, risks of digital exclusion, and potential human rights issues. Bronfenbrenner’s framework underscores the need for coordinated governance across interconnected systems to lessen online harm. Full article

Mountain pastoralism in the Pyrenees has undergone profound transformations in recent decades, driven by socio-economic change, rural depopulation, and the adoption of new technologies. This study examines the evolution of shepherding practices in the Jacetania region of the Western Spanish Pyrenees, with a focus on the interplay between technological innovation and the preservation of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), which includes a detailed understanding of pasture dynamics, animal behavior, and environmental conditions that guide grazing management. Drawing on interviews with experienced shepherds, and participant observation, we compared historical management of the Collarada mountain pasture—previously under continuous human supervision—with its current use under free-grazing conditions monitored via GPS. The results show a shift from continuous human oversight to technology-assisted management, with reduced labor demands, while traditional ecological knowledge remains essential for effective grazing decisions and adaptation to environmental conditions. We argue that combining modern technologies with the experiential knowledge of pastoralists offers the best pathway toward sustaining both the ecological integrity of high-altitude landscapes and the cultural continuity of pastoral traditions. These findings have the potential to generate broader impacts beyond the study area, contributing to improved ecosystem management, supporting rural livelihoods, and informing policy frameworks aimed at sustaining mountain pastoral systems. Full article

Climate change poses a significant threat to water resources and agricultural sustainability, particularly in semi-arid and socio-economically vulnerable regions such as South Africa. This review synthesizes empirical, modelling, and policy-based evidence on the impacts of climate change on water availability, crop production, and adaptation strategies in the country, drawing on approximately 162 peer-reviewed studies and institutional reports published between 2010 and 2025. The findings indicate that rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and an increasing frequency of extreme events, such as droughts and floods, are intensifying water stress and disrupting agricultural systems. Hydrological models consistently project declines in runoff, soil moisture, and streamflow, while crop simulation models predict reductions in the yields of major staple crops, including maize, wheat, and sorghum, particularly under high-emission scenarios. Although localized improvements in water availability and crop productivity may occur, these tend to be limited and highly context-specific. In response, South Africa has implemented a range of adaptation strategies, including climate-smart agriculture, water-efficient irrigation, ecosystem-based approaches, and policy-driven interventions. However, their effectiveness remains constrained by institutional fragmentation, limited financial capacity, and persistent socio-economic inequalities, particularly among smallholder farmers. The review underscores the need for integrated, inclusive, and context-specific adaptation strategies that strengthen governance, enhance the science–policy interface, and improve access to climate finance. The insights provided offer valuable guidance for advancing climate resilience in South Africa and other vulnerable regions across the Global South. Full article

This study examines the relationship between AI leadership, human-centered independence, and organizational innovation processes and outcomes, challenging the prevailing assumption that leadership-driven AI adoption is inherently associated with improved performance. The research draws on a dual-structured model of AI leadership—AI-driven innovation leadership (Sun) and reflective AI governance leadership (Moon)—to examine whether these approaches are associated with human capability development and innovation performance. Data were collected from 2754 respondents across diverse organizational contexts using a structured survey. The measurement model was validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicate that none of the proposed positive relationships are empirically supported. Neither leadership dimension shows a statistically significant relationship with human-centered independence or innovation performance, while the only statistically significant relationship is negative, indicating that human-centered independence, when not integrated with AI, is associated with lower levels of innovation outcomes. The absence of mediation and negligible explained variance further indicate the lack of an integrated structural relationship among the examined constructs. These findings challenge linear models of AI leadership by showing that the coexistence of AI-oriented leadership and human-centered capabilities does not ensure their integration. The study proposes the AI-Human Misalignment Framework as an interpretative lens, suggesting that innovation outcomes may depend on alignment rather than the mere presence of capabilities. Full article

The increasing competition for land between agriculture and electricity generation has driven the implementation agrivoltaic systems (AVSs) as a strategy aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13. This study systematically analyzes how AVS design influences agricultural yield (AY), energy yield (EY), and overall sustainability. A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA protocol, complemented by bibliometric analysis and an exploratory correlation analysis of design variables, productivity indicators, and environmental and economic metrics. From an initial set of 243 records, 79 studies published between 2018 and 2025 were included. The results identify general trends across heterogeneous studies, although these patterns should not be interpreted as universally applicable. Intermediate ground cover ratios (GCRs) (≈30–40%) are commonly associated with favorable trade-offs between AY and EY, often resulting in land equivalent ratios above 1.5 under specific conditions. Reported outcomes indicate that AVS can achieve increases in EY, improvements in water-use efficiency, reductions in CO₂ emissions, and competitive economic performance, although these results vary depending on crop type, climate, system configuration, and PV technology. Overall, the analysis highlights GCR as a key design parameter and underscores that AVS performance depends on multivariable and context-specific design rather than universally applicable thresholds, reinforcing its potential as a sustainable agri-energy solution. Full article

Security and stability constitute fundamental preconditions for long-term sustainable development. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the return of high-intensity interstate warfare to Europe have profoundly transformed the European security environment and challenged long-standing assumptions underpinning European integration and economic development. This article analyses the ongoing transformation of European security with particular attention to industrial resilience, the evolution of the defence technological and industrial base, and the expanding institutional role of the European Union in strengthening strategic autonomy. Using a qualitative analytical approach based on the examination of strategic documents, policy initiatives, and academic literature, the study identifies structural weaknesses in Europe’s defence-industrial system and evaluates recent institutional and financial responses aimed at enhancing resilience and sustainability. The findings demonstrate that security, industrial capacity, and institutional adaptation are increasingly interconnected, and that strengthening resilience and reducing strategic dependencies are essential conditions for Europe’s long-term sustainable development in an unstable geopolitical environment. Full article