Search Results (1,102)

The 1st International Online Conference on Risks (IOCR 2026) was held online from 6–7 July 2026. At a time characterised by intensifying market volatility, rapidly evolving regulatory landscapes, and a proliferation of emerging threats—ranging from climate-related disruptions to cyber vulnerabilities—this conference aims to be a pivotal forum for interdisciplinary dialogue. In a world where risks intertwine and impact every aspect of business, society, and the global economy, the need for collaborative and innovative approaches to risk management has never been more pressing. Full article

The compatibility between economic profitability and environmental commitment remains key in sustainable entrepreneurship research. This study presents a 20-year longitudinal case (2006–2026) of INAMSOS, S.A., a small Spanish environmental enterprise (31 shareholders; initial valuation of €262,500, i.e., the total nominal share capital contributed by shareholders between 2006 and 2009) promoted by an ecological restoration NGO (FIRE) and linked to the University of Alcalá (UAH). The aim is to assess whether a sustainability-inspired business model can simultaneously generate economic, social, and environmental value over time. Data include corporate records, shareholder information, project documentation, and institutional linkages. Economic performance is measured through valuation changes, inflation-adjusted returns, and total shareholder return (TSR). Social and environmental dimensions are assessed via stakeholder engagement, agroecological product distribution, and support for ecological restoration. Results show an accumulated revaluation of 41.4%, above cumulative inflation (~35%), indicating a positive real return. TSR reached 59.5% nominally. Additionally, shareholders received agroecological products valued at €37,495.25 and supported €9812.5 for ecological restoration via FIRE. The case suggests that such hybrid firms can strengthen interactions among the private sector, civil society, and academia, although academic links were weaker than expected. Findings suggest that small hybrid enterprises can create multiple value forms beyond financial metrics and support sustainability transitions. Diversified investments may enhance long-term financial resilience. Evidence supports the feasibility of sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship aligned with European and global ecological restoration targets. Full article

The Mediterranean region faces severe water scarcity exacerbated by climate change. The reuse of treated industrial wastewater for industrial processes or agricultural irrigation offers a sustainable mitigation strategy, yet its implementation is hindered by low social acceptance and institutional fragmentation. This study aims to enhance treated wastewater reuse (TWWR) uptake within the textile and pharmaceutical sectors in Türkiye and Tunisia through structured stakeholder engagement, hydrological modelling, simulation, and co-design of preferred strategies. Data were collected from regional water authorities, industries, farmers, and civil society, chosen based on their influence, interest, and capacity regarding integrated water management. A Participatory Adaptive Planning framework was applied across three co-designed workshops per site, and interviews. Data were charted using the Natural Assurance Schemes Business Canvas and a conceptual visual support framework. Stakeholders identified key barriers, including legislative gaps in Türkiye and financial capabilities and farmer reluctance in Tunisia. Through the conceptual visual support framework, holistic strategies combining TWWR, water savings, urban treated wastewater quality improvement by tertiary treatment, desalination, and Managed Aquifer Recharge were co-created, simulated and ranked. Technological innovation in wastewater treatment is insufficient without robust “social readiness”. Participatory governance effectively aligns environmental engineering solutions with societal needs, establishing a foundation for resilient and integrated water management action plans. Full article

Background: Neonatal mortality remains uneven across Indian states, while prediction studies using survey data are often limited by class imbalance, data leakage, inadequate calibration, and insufficient consideration of complex survey design. This study developed and rigorously evaluated survey-aware machine-learning models for neonatal mortality risk prediction using NFHS-5 data. Methods: Data from 33,338 children in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand were analysed. Household-grouped development/test splitting, repeated grouped nested cross-validation, DHS sampling weights, fold-contained preprocessing, socioeconomic clustering, particle swarm optimisation, resampling, and out-of-fold feature augmentation were applied. Logistic regression, random forest, histogram gradient boosting (HGB), and artificial neural networks were compared using PR-AUC as the primary metric. Calibration, household-bootstrap confidence intervals, decision-curve analysis, prediction timepoint analysis, and leave-one-state-out validation were performed. Results: HGB achieved the highest repeated cross-validation PR-AUC (0.189) and ROC-AUC (0.778). On the untouched test set, ROC-AUC was 0.755 (95% CI 0.718–0.796), and PR-AUC was 0.202 (0.138–0.267), with sensitivity 0.813, specificity 0.517, PPV 0.063, and NPV 0.989. Clustering, PSO, SMOTE, and augmentation added little value. Antenatal performance was weaker, and state-wise transportability varied. Conclusions: Survey-weighted HGB provided the strongest predictive performance, but low PPV and heterogeneous state-level results restrict its use to low-cost screening. Prospective validation is required before deployment. Full article

Digital transformation is increasingly recognized as an important enabler of sustainable development and competitiveness in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, evidence on how different dimensions of digital transformation relate to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains limited. This study explores the relationship between digital transformation and selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, in which quantitative findings informed the subsequent qualitative exploration and interpretation of managerial perspectives. The quantitative phase combined data from Eurostat’s ICT Usage Survey (2020–2024), including 60 sustainability-related indicators, with an analysis of the relationship between the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and selected SDG indicators across 27 EU member states using Spearman’s rank correlation. The quantitative analysis suggests that Slovenia performs close to the EU average in overall digitalization, while significant associations were identified between digitalization and SDG 9. The qualitative phase consisted of semi-structured interviews with managers from ten Slovenian SMEs from different sectors. The findings indicate that managers perceive digital technologies, process digitalization, data-driven decision-making, and employee digital competencies as important contributors to sustainability-related outcomes, particularly in relation to SDG 8, SDG 9, SDG 12, and SDG 13. The study contributes to the literature on sustainability-oriented digital transformation in SMEs by integrating quantitative benchmarking with managerial perspectives. The findings highlight the importance of organizational capabilities, digital competencies, and strategic alignment in translating digital transformation initiatives into sustainability-related outcomes. The results provide practical implications for SMEs and policymakers seeking to support sustainable and digitally enabled business development. Full article

Small rural businesses face significant challenges due to geographical constraints, transportation costs, small market size, and low population density. On top of that, the energy crisis that arose after the start of the 2022 Russia–Ukraine war and the sanctions imposed by the EU and the US have created a stifling energy environment. The latter has exposed the businesses to the risk of energy poverty. The current study examines energy poverty within three business sectors that are prominent in the Greek countryside. These are entities firstly involved in the processing, manufacturing, and standardization of agricultural products; secondly, involved in the trade of agricultural products; and lastly, certain businesses operating in the tourist area. More specifically, this research examines the energy needs and energy obligations of these businesses as well as the energy efficiency of their facilities by simultaneously exploring the impact of European and national energy policies on addressing energy poverty in rural micro-businesses. To detect the opinions, experiences, perceptions, estimations, and expectations of entrepreneurs who maintain these businesses in rural areas, a qualitative approach was adopted utilizing personal in-depth interviews. Overall, fifteen micro-entrepreneurs were interviewed. Findings revealed that energy costs for rural businesses are becoming a major issue for their survival. Moreover, they have a substantial effect on their operational costs, exceeding other expenses and leading to an increase in energy poverty. These findings have also been confirmed by statistical data. Energy costs for small businesses range from 15% to 35% depending on the business, and during peak periods or crises, they exceed 40%. In addition, fees and taxes account for over 40% of electricity bills. Full article

Nowadays, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are deployed worldwide to monitor movements of humans and other objects to improve the efficiency and safety of societies. Therefore, their proper placement is crucial for achieving effective surveillance coverage. Additionally, their proper placement is significantly important for maximizing visual coverage while reducing installation/management costs. For this task, digital twin is a useful technology, since it can simulate coverage and blind spots while freely changing camera locations. To implement digital twin, 3D modelling of a structure including a complex room is a key issue. In this paper, we propose a 3D indoor modelling method using 360° panoramic images and show its application to a CCTV camera placement optimization. This method constructs a structured 3D model of a target room from captured 360° panoramic images using a 3D Gaussian Splatting reconstruction method based on a visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) framework. The Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is used together to improve the camera position estimation accuracy. The model construction is anchored using a GNSS/GPS reference to establish global spatial coordinates. As an application of the generated 3D model, optimal locations of a given number of CCTV cameras are determined by combining ray-casting visibility analysis and a greedy optimization algorithm in the virtual environment, maximizing visual coverage while minimizing blind spots and avoiding excessive overlap between camera views. For evaluations, we applied the proposed method to three rooms in Okayama University, Japan, and seven rooms in the Indonesian Institute of Business and Technology, Indonesia. After optimizing camera locations in the virtual environment, the cameras were actually installed in the rooms according to the recommended positions. The performance was evaluated using visibility coverage, blind spot reduction, and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) between the estimated and actual camera positions, where promising results were achieved. Full article

Climate change, depleting fossil fuel reserves, and instability in petroleum prices are driving developing economies to explore cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable energy sources such as hydropower. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the relevance, suitability, and impact of mega-dams. Much of the existing research on mega-dams examines this debate through the lens of development theories. However, mega-dams impact a wide range of stakeholders at local, national, regional, and global levels, necessitating exploration of their role from a socioeconomic perspective. This interdisciplinary case study draws knowledge from management, sociology, and economics and provides a comprehensive account of multi-stakeholder perspectives on the impact of a mega-dam and addresses the research question: How do stakeholders perceive the impact of the Merowe Dam on agricultural livelihoods, and how do they interpret the role of governance processes? Participants included farmers, a focus group with 10 members from the affected communities, and 32 key informant interviews from non-governmental organizations, political actors, academics, businessmen and leaders in the catchment areas of the Merowe Dam, Sudan. The findings suggest that despite some concerns about motivations and processes of mega-dam commissioning, these projects are perceived as beneficial for long-term and sustainable socioeconomic growth and gaining support for renewable energy use in developing economies. The participants reported that modernization of agriculture, following the establishment of the dam, increased crop yields, e.g., wheat production has increased per hectare. Farmers’ income and irrigated land have increased substantially per family due to an increase in land sizes allocated to relocated communities, leading to an overall increase in land size. Therefore, with improved processes in both pre- and post-commissioning stages, transparency, accountability, and deeper stakeholder engagement, mega-dams can facilitate a smoother transition from fossil fuels to large-scale hydropower on one hand and livelihood enhancement through agriculture and other income generating activities on the other. Full article

National risks constitute an important but still underexplored dimension of sustainable development, particularly in countries exposed to institutional fragility, demographic decline, and geopolitical uncertainty. This study identifies and prioritizes the ten most significant risks facing Bulgaria’s development over the next decade, with particular attention to their fiscal and macro-financial transmission channels. The analysis is based on a structured expert survey conducted among 82 specialists from academia, business, research institutions, civil society, and public practice. Respondents assessed 32 potential risks according to likelihood and impact using a five-point scale. A combined priority index was constructed as the product of mean likelihood and mean impact scores. The results show that the most significant risks are concentrated around institutional and systemic vulnerabilities, especially distrust in the rule of law, ineffective healthcare, disinformation, corruption, crisis of statehood, demographic decline, and deterioration in education and infrastructure. The findings indicate that these risks affect Bulgaria’s long-term development through five main fiscal and macro-financial channels: higher sovereign risk premia, expenditure pressure, weaker revenue capacity and investment efficiency, labor market deterioration, and broader financial fragility. The study contributes to the literature on sustainability governance, sovereign resilience, and fiscal sustainability by showing that national resilience depends not only on the management of external shocks, but also on the institutional capacity of the state to absorb long-term structural pressures. The practical applicability of the study lies in the possibility and necessity of conducting a content analysis of the main strategic documents for the country’s development in order to establish the extent to which the identified main risks are reflected in them, as conclusions about the situation and as countermeasure policies. Full article

Waste management has become a critical issue in industry due to its environmental and economic impact. This urges societies to move towards circular economy and sustainability in managing wastes to achieve economic, social and environmental benefits that cannot be achieved by using traditional disposal methods. Artificial intelligence technologies can play an effective role in developing systems and applications that help in realizing circular economy approaches. This research explores using circular economy in the carpet industry with a focus on being eco-friendly and achieving operational excellence. Circular economy aims to use resources efficiently within a reduce, reuse, recycle paradigm. Critical literature review was performed to address the concepts of waste management, circular economy and how artificial intelligence can be applied in this area to make a business more sustainable. A conceptual framework (AICE Framework) is proposed to integrate artificial intelligence and circular economy to develop a smart and sustainable waste management system for industrial applications. Full article

Under wartime conditions, conceptual approaches to organizing the education system are changing, and the means of achieving goals are being modified. All of this affects the development of infrastructural provision for the educational network and simultaneously requires adequate management. The state, as the main subject of social management, employs management theory and practice of competent (professional) business leadership. This approach not only allows it to survive but also to develop in the objectively existing competitive environment. It has been determined that the main elements of educational management (EM) organization include the quality of intellectual resources, analysis of internal and external environments, analysis, selection and implementation of educational system (ES) development strategies and evaluation and control of their execution. Attention is focused on forming an ecologically oriented society through the lens of knowledge transfer, with a focus on the irrational use of natural resources across various spheres of human activity, energy resource deficits, and sustainable development tasks in Ukraine. A central place in this process is assigned to organizing project activities and to forming an ecologically oriented worldview among future specialists trained by educational institutions at various levels and forms of ownership. The analysis of educational management (EM) models shows that the project-investment model remains relevant. Trends in quantitative indicators of EM and ecological projects in Eastern European countries have been analyzed, based on which conclusions have been formulated that reflect the current state of ecological education development and demonstrate existing changes, challenges, and prospects. A visualized flowchart of optimizing the organization of higher education through the prism of an environmentally friendly society has been developed, with four blocks highlighted: methodological, organizational, analytical, and resultant. It has been determined that knowledge transfer from universities to communities should become a priority in the state’s post-war reconstruction, ensuring the socio-economic development of regions, including strengthening Ukraine’s energy independence. The practical significance of the obtained results lies in developing recommendations for implementing the integration of educational management (new functions) and project activities in educational institutions, which can be used when forming their development strategies, establishing international partnerships in the educational sphere, as well as for developing state programs to support the development of Ukraine’s economic, ecological, and social policy. Full article

Background: Informal Street food vending plays a vital role in urban food systems by supporting livelihoods and improving access to affordable meals. Despite this contribution, persistent food hygiene and safety challenges continue to threaten public health and business sustainability. Existing research largely frames hygiene as a regulatory compliance issue, with limited empirical attention to how hygiene practices are associated with enterprise performance. Guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), this study examined the relationship between food hygiene and safety practices, behavioural compliance, and business sustainability among informal food vendors. Methods: A cross-sectional mixed-methods design was used, combining vendor interviews (n = 30) and structured stall observations (n = 30). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. Results: Only 50% of vendors held a valid Certificate of Acceptability (COA), despite 83% reporting prior inspections. Vendors operating for over seven years were significantly more likely to be certified (χ² = 8.23, p = 0.005), and certification was strongly associated with regulatory awareness (χ² = 16.12, p < 0.001). Although 70% reported awareness and 77% prior hygiene training, gaps persisted in sanitation, pest control, and consistent hygiene practices. Compliance was significantly associated with gender and education level (p < 0.05), as well as business duration and inspection history. Female vendors and those with at least secondary education were more likely to practice good hygiene, including the use of protective gear (χ² = 13.89, p = 0.008) and regular handwashing. Hygiene practices were also significantly linked to sustainability indicators aligned with Balanced Scorecard domains, including staffing levels, income categories, and operational duration (p < 0.05). Vendors employing more staff reported higher income, and visibly hygienic practices were associated with customer loyalty and repeat purchases, highlighting hygiene as both a public health requirement and a driver of business sustainability. Conclusions: The findings indicate that hygiene functions not only as a public health requirement but also as a strategic business asset. Integrating behavioural drivers with performance metrics offers a practical framework for designing interventions that strengthen both public health protection and the sustainability of informal enterprises. Full article

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in the interface between business, government and society, including serving as a link between diverse stakeholders, amplifying public visibility, and serving as a watch dog. This research seeks to understand the involvement and experience of environmental NGO (ENGO) staff members in the environmental planning of utility-scale wind and solar projects. We conducted 19 one-hour interviews with individuals representing 13 ENGOs which were located in or had projects within North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. We found that, overall, engagement with the renewable energy industry was mixed, with some organizations being very involved and others having limited to no engagement. Participants also shared positive as well as more challenging engagement experiences they have had. Overall, ENGOs see a number of potential opportunities to engage more in renewable energy planning, particularly in collaboration with renewable energy developers, to move renewable energy deployment forward while balancing land use and environmental concerns. Full article

This study examines how digitalization and institutional quality jointly influence the size and dynamics of the shadow economy across EU member states. It adopts an integrated framework in which digital capacity is treated as an operational extension of state capacity that can either complement strong institutions or compensate for institutional weaknesses. The empirical analysis is based on a two-dataset panel covering 27 EU countries over the periods 2013–2022 and 2017–2022. Institutional quality is measured using the Worldwide Governance Indicators, while digitalization is captured through detailed indicators from the Digital Economy and Society Index. Fixed-Effects models with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors are employed, alongside interaction and nonlinear specifications. Results show that institutional quality is consistently associated with lower levels of the shadow economy, but its effect exhibits diminishing returns at higher levels of governance, indicating institutional saturation. Digitalization effects are domain-specific. In isolation, both citizen- and business-oriented digital services show a positive association with the shadow economy, a finding termed the Digitalization Paradox, reflecting a phase where technological facilitation of informal activity outpaces regulatory adaptation. However, their interaction with institutional quality reveals divergent mechanisms. Citizen-oriented services tend to substitute for weaker governance, while business-oriented services complement strong institutional frameworks. The findings indicate that digitalization serves as an institutional amplifier whose final impact on the shadow economy, whether formalizing or facilitating, is dictated by the maturity of the host institution. Full article

Electric vehicles (EVs) are promoted to decarbonise road transport, yet uptake remains slow in many emerging markets. This study examines consumer resistance to EV adoption in Sri Lanka by modelling status quo bias (SQB) using a Prospect Theory lens. An online survey of urban vehicle owners and near-term buyers yielded 157 responses; after screening and removing influential outliers, 151 cases were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The model tests five Prospect Theory-aligned antecedents, namely, loss aversion, reference dependence, risk perception, framing effects, and uncertainty aversion, and evaluates environmental concern as a moderator. Results indicate that loss aversion has a significant positive effect on SQB (β = 0.216, p = 0.005) and uncertainty aversion is the strongest predictor (β = 0.453, p < 0.001), while reference dependence, risk perception, and framing effects show positive but statistically non-significant direct effects. Moderation tests show that environmental concern significantly moderates the effects of reference dependence (β = 0.181, p = 0.039) and framing effects (β = 0.179, p = 0.037) on SQB, but does not significantly moderate the loss aversion, risk perception, or uncertainty aversion paths. Overall, perceived losses and—especially—ambiguity surrounding EV ownership appear to sustain reliance on internal combustion vehicles in this developing-country context, underscoring the need for interventions that reduce uncertainty (credible infrastructure signals, stable policy, service capability) and mitigate perceived losses (warranties, resale assurances) alongside carefully framed communications. Full article