Search Results (505)

Climate change is a global pressing concern that has affected all sectors, including the operations of Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs) in developing countries, including Malawi. This has negatively affected their economies of scale and exacerbated the SMEs’ growth constraints. Nonetheless, renewable efficient energy (REE) systems, including solar and biogas, could help in building resilience to sustain their performance. In line with this, the study examined the factors that enhance the adoption of renewable efficient energies and constructed their resilience indices. Our study was grounded in the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. These theories contextualised the study and guided the selection of variables to estimate an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) econometric model, alongside estimating the absorptive, adaptive and transformative individual indices for 699 SMEs, using the 2019 Malawi Household Integrated Survey data. The results initially suggests that factors such as access to credit, being male, access to education, access to capital sources, a large profit share, bridging social capital and location among others, have a positive effect in influencing the adoption of renewable efficient systems. We simulated the adoption results and found that SMEs that adopts REE increase their resilience with an Average Treatment Effect of 0.117 and through the subsidy policy effect vulnerable SMEs that later adopt REE would shift their resilience by 0.169. Furthermore, the study found that transformative capacity plays the most important role in building long-term resilience for the SMEs. The study calls for policies, including establishing urban centres where SMEs can access information regarding REE and improving access to formal safety nets and capital sources beyond loan provisions. Full article

The increasing integration of multimodal technologies, including augmented and virtual reality and interactive digital systems, has shifted the focus of innovation from technological capability to user experience and interaction. In organizational settings, leadership structures play a key role in shaping how these technologies are designed and experienced. This study examines how leadership control orientation influences innovation outcomes through multimodal experience design and cognitive burden. Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 3017 employees who actively use multimodal systems, the study develops a process-based model linking leadership, multimodal experience design, cognitive burden, and innovation. The findings suggest that control-oriented leadership is negatively associated with multimodal experience design and positively associated with cognitive burden, whereas well-structured multimodal systems are associated with lower levels of cognitive burden. Multimodal design emerges as a central driver of perceived innovation, whereas cognitive overload negatively affects innovation outcomes. The results further reveal a sequential mediation process involving multimodal experience design and cognitive burden. Multi-group analysis confirms that these relationships remain stable across different levels of environmental control. The study contributes by integrating leadership, human–technology interaction, and experience design into a unified framework, offering a process-oriented explanation of innovation in multimodal environments. Full article

Feeding and Eating Disorders (FED) require integrated, recovery-oriented care models that extend beyond clinical treatment and incorporate supportive environments capable of enhancing psychosocial well-being. Within this perspective, nature-based and socio-agricultural practices represent promising yet underexplored therapeutic resources, particularly when integrated into spatial planning frameworks. This study develops and tests a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based Decision Support System (DSS) that matches the specific therapeutic needs of individuals undergoing treatment for FED with the spatial distribution and characteristics of green and agricultural environments. The research is based on a case study involving the FED care center “Il Pellicano” in Perugia, Italy. Supply-side data were collected from 65 facilities, including 58 social farms, 6 community gardens, and the center’s private garden. Demand-side data were obtained through a questionnaire administered to patients by healthcare professionals, while supply-side attributes were collected through structured interviews with facility managers. The spatial matching process was implemented in a GIS environment using a non-compensatory multi-criteria approach that integrated thematic activities, spatial and/or organizational accessibility, confidentiality, spatial capacity, and environmental settings. The results reveal a substantial mismatch between demand and supply, with the current territorial system satisfying only 37.67% of expressed therapeutic needs. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the main constraints relate to the limited availability of medium-sized, low-attendance, and freely accessible environments. Beyond the local case study, the proposed DSS provides a transferable planning-support tool for designing personalized therapeutic pathways and strengthening the integration between green infrastructure, social farming, and healthcare systems. The study highlights the strategic role of spatial planning in promoting health equity, social inclusion, and community well-being. Full article

This article examines the process of the European Union’s geopolitisation within the context of intensifying geopolitical competition and uncertainty in a shifting global order. It focuses on how this process reshapes the EU’s character as a political actor and identifies the structural constraints that limit its geopolitical agency. The study employs a conceptually oriented qualitative research design based on interpretative analysis and the triangulation of theoretical frameworks, policy documents, and selected empirical cases. The findings demonstrate that the EU’s geopolitical turn does not represent a transformation into a traditional state-centric power; rather, it constitutes a process of strategic adaptation within a complex multi-level governance system. Furthermore, geopolitisation manifests unevenly across policy domains, with the most pronounced impacts identified in enlargement, geoeconomics, and external border management. Despite rising ambitions, the EU’s capacity to act remains constrained by internal fragmentation, dependence on member states, and challenges regarding political legitimacy. The primary contribution of this article lies in its conceptualisation of EU geopolitisation as a hybrid and multidimensional process—one that is not a linear transformation towards a traditional geopolitical power, but an outcome of the interaction between regulatory, market, and strategic logics. These findings contribute to the ongoing academic debate by highlighting the necessity of theoretical pluralism when examining the EU in a geopolitical context. Full article

Business schools, implementing the Responsible Management Education (RME), have their graduates employed by organizations, which are often characterized by contested governance. Its structural conditions reward documented procedure over substantive responsibility. We apply the adaptive compliance framework to this setting and ask what happens to managerial responsibility when business schools operate under the same pressures. We argue that contested governance pushes responsibility toward procedural proof, narrow managerial agency, and understanding of ethical concerns as a private matter. RME cannot dissolve these pressures fully, but it can keep alive the professional language that managers need to resist them. The paper develops a conceptual model and sets out propositions and indicators for further empirical research. Full article

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 remains highly uneven across countries, while the structural factors associated with this heterogeneity are still insufficiently understood. This study aims to classify 154 countries according to their full 17-dimensional SDG achievement profiles and to identify the structural indicators statistically associated with the observed typological differences. A two-stage analytical approach was applied. First, k-means cluster analysis based on the scores of all 17 SDGs was used to identify homogeneous groups of countries. Second, canonical discriminant analysis was performed for 64 countries with complete data for 17 indicators selected from international sources according to the “one indicator–one goal” principle. The cluster analysis identified three typologically homogeneous groups of countries that broadly correspond to differences in development level but are not reducible to them. The discriminant model achieved apparent classification accuracy of 90.63% (p < 0.0001), while the first canonical function explained 90.3% of the between-group variation. LOO cross-validation yielded an accuracy of 71.43%, confirming that the model retains meaningful discriminatory power beyond the estimation sample, while the difference between apparent and cross-validated accuracy reflects the constraints of a small sample relative to the number of predictors. The strongest differentiating indicators were the proportion of the urban population living in slums, the Global Peace Index, access to sanitation, and poverty. Overall, the results show that SDG achievement profiles constitute an independent analytical characteristic of countries and that typological differences are primarily associated with basic human development and institutional stability. Full article

Healthcare organizations face emerging challenges that threaten the safety of professionals and patients, as well as the performance and long-term sustainability of healthcare systems. Health problems such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders are highly prevalent among nurses, not only due to the physical demands but also because of significant psychosocial stressors and mental health challenges inherent in healthcare environments. This study investigates the influence of psychosocial risks at work (PSRs) on the occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) in nurses. A cross-sectional study was conducted, using a snowball recruitment method, from October 2025 to March 2026, among 266 nurses. Data were collected using the Psychosocial Risk Factors scale (INSAT_ERPS) and The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 Items (DASS-21), to examine relationships among PSRs, mental health and WRMSDs using descriptive and inferential statistics. Key psychosocial determinants of WRMSDs include high psychological strain—manifesting as anxiety—compounded by psychosocial stressors such as work intensity, employment relations, and emotional demands. The results highlight the importance of addressing PSR and mental health, to reduce the incidence of WRMSDs among nurses. Interventions focused on improving working conditions and promoting mental health may be effective in preventing WRMSDs. Full article

Contemporary organizations continue to face major challenges in implementing digital transformation initiatives effectively. This study examines how digital leadership contributes to transformation processes through interconnected organizational mechanisms involving innovation climate, capability development, and technology integration. Drawing on the leadership theory, innovation climate research, and the dynamic capabilities perspective, the study develops and tests a process-based structural model linking leadership, organizational climate, organizational capabilities, technology integration, and digital transformation outcomes. Data collected from 2901 respondents across digitally active organizations were analyzed using a split-sample validation procedure combining exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that Digital Vision Leadership positively influences both Innovation Climate and Digital Capability Development, while Innovation Climate further strengthens capability development and technology integration processes. Digital Capability Development exerts significant effects on both Technology Integration and Digital Transformation Outcomes, whereas Technology Integration emerges as a central mechanism contributing to transformation performance. Mediation analyses further support the sequential and interdependent nature of organizational transformation processes. The study contributes to the digital transformation literature by proposing and empirically validating a process-oriented organizational model in which leadership, innovation-supportive environments, and organizational capabilities jointly shape transformation outcomes through interconnected implementation mechanisms. Full article

This study examines tourist perceptions of experiences offered on Airbnb, a sharing economy platform in Türkiye, through qualitative content analysis within the context of e-WOM. The study employs qualitative content analysis to examine 32,666 user reviews collected from Airbnb experiences offered across Türkiye within an experiential value framework. In the study, which analyzed a total of 32,666 user reviews, service excellence, aesthetics, and client return on investment emerged as the most prominent experiential values, while guided experiences were the highest-rated category. The findings revealed that experiential value dimensions vary by city and that hosts’ ratings also influence experiential value. Drawing on these findings, practical recommendations are offered to enhance host visibility and align experience offerings with tourist expectations. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating how experiential value is created through the co-creation of experiences within the context of digital interaction, local context, and the sharing economy. Full article

This conceptual and analytical study examines how digitalization may reduce the cost and complexity of ESG and circular economy reporting for women-led SMEs within the evolving EU sustainability reporting framework. Particular attention is given to selected contextual examples from the Danube Region. Using a conceptual accounting approach grounded in EU regulatory documents, the academic literature, and prior bibliometric research, it identifies four key challenge domains: measurement, valuation, disclosure, and professional judgment. The analysis is complemented by an exploratory public data illustration based on publicly available documents and illustrative cases of women-led SMEs from the Danube Region. The empirical illustration is intended solely to contextualize and demonstrate the practical visibility of the proposed accounting domains rather than to validate the conceptual framework statistically. It develops an accounting-oriented problem matrix linking these challenges to digital enablers such as data platforms, automation tools, and traceability technologies. The findings suggest that digital accounting capabilities may support more efficient, reliable, comparable, and scalable ESG reporting. A conceptual framework is proposed, connecting regulatory drivers, digital accounting capabilities, and reporting outcomes, including enhanced assurance readiness and potentially improved access to finance. The study also outlines practical recommendations, including minimum viable ESG datasets and a staged digital adoption approach, alongside policy implications related to harmonized data requests and targeted capacity-building for SMEs. The study contributes to the literature by integrating ESG reporting, circular economy, digitalization, and gender-related constraints affecting women-led SMEs within an explicitly accounting-centered analytical framework. Full article

While the “model minority” stereotype has been extensively studied in relation to Asian Americans, there is limited research that distinguishes these experiences by specific national origins. This paper explores the stereotypes faced by India-born scientists and engineers in the United States. They represent a significant segment of the foreign-born workforce in the U.S., accounting for one-third of this population and comprising the largest group of H-1B visa holders. Through qualitative data gathered from 40 India-born scientists and engineers employed in U.S. high-tech firms, this study examines how these individuals perceive and navigate the cultural stereotypes that shape their professional and personal lives. The paper delves into the intersections of ethnicity, nationality, and gender in shaping their experiences, challenging the characterization of Indians as “model immigrants”. Full article

This study revisits the debate surrounding the impact of Official Development Assistance (ODA), also known as foreign aid, on two macro-indicators: economic growth and child mortality. Unlike previous studies, which assessed the interaction of aid with composite indicators of recipient countries, this study examines the impacts of individual recipient factors, such as corruption, democracy, income, wars and exports. To overcome the issue of an inverse causal relationship potentially existing between the amount of aid received and macro-performance, a model of donor aid allocation is specified within an instrumental variables framework. The results show that ODA is more likely to be positively associated with economic growth in countries with lower levels of corruption. This positive association is evident when the level of corruption is at least one standard deviation lower than the recipient’s average. The interaction of ODA with recipients’ levels of democracy, income, wars or exports does not show a significant association with growth. The association between ODA and child mortality appears to be generally more significant, with a positive sign, than that obtained for economic growth, although the magnitude is relatively modest. Full article

Despite accounting for less than 0.03% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) face existential threats to their environment, livelihoods, and regional stability due to their heavy dependence on imported fossil fuels and disproportionate climate vulnerability. To address this “Justice Paradox,” this study utilises a Nexus Mapping framework to qualitatively synthesise the non-linear causal pathways between climate stressors and energy system vulnerabilities. Through an integrative thematic synthesis of literature and regional policy documents, the research identifies systemic bottlenecks, including the “fiscal trap” of post-disaster reconstruction, the “demand-utility paradox” of rising temperatures, and the logistical premiums of archipelagic energy distribution. The analysis suggests that energy decarbonisation represents a strategic opportunity to strengthen climate security across four dimensions: human, national, international, and ecological. To facilitate a secure transition, the study proposes a comprehensive “policy mix” of regulatory standards (sticks), economic de-risking through mechanisms such as Sovereign Green Bonds (carrots), and the institutionalisation of local technical sovereignty (sermons). This research offers an interpretive analytical framework for Pacific policymakers, arguing that decentralised, modular renewables may serve as a strategic shield against climatic instability and support the preservation of regional statehood. Full article

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