Search Results (1,660)

Background/Objectives: This report examines the future of academic studies involving investigational therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals within the framework of Regulation (EU) No. 536/2014. It discusses the impact of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements (EudraLex-Volume 4-Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines) on the development of radiopharmaceuticals, based on local experience and analysis. Methods: The report was drafted by analysing multiple factors, including the European regulatory context regarding EMA guidance for investigational medicinal products (IMPs) and GMP requirements for radiopharmaceuticals, as well as position papers from various scientific associations. An analysis of all the relevant changes was conducted by a multidisciplinary team comprising radiopharmacists, nuclear medicine physicians, research experts and technology transfer specialists. They conducted a literature review to examine the clinical implications of the regulatory change and assess the impact of Regulation 536/2014 on academic clinical trials. Results: IRST has around 20 years’ experience in radiopharmaceutical clinical research. From 2008 to 2025, it conducted 16 clinical trials with radiopharmaceuticals under the Directive, and it is currently promoting five studies under the Regulation. During this time, more than 1000 patients were enrolled. The transition was based on staff training in quality documentation, the constitution of a contract research organisation (CRO) to ensure data quality and transfer, careful budget planning, the evaluation of innovative business models and the role of a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO). These integrated approaches enabled IRST to transform regulatory constraints into an opportunity to enhance its organisational model, improve data reliability, and strengthen its position as a centre of excellence for radiopharmaceutical research and production. Conclusions: The implementation of EU Regulation 536/2014 has significantly impacted academic research centres, especially those specialising in radiopharmaceuticals. Adhering to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals requires a considerable investment in infrastructure and personnel. However, the regulation also presents opportunities for research centres to enhance their capabilities. Meeting GMP standards can help institutions improve the quality and reliability of their clinical trials, potentially making them more competitive in the international research arena. Full article

This study investigates the determinants of household borrowing choices in Thailand, with a focus on the risks associated with formal and informal credit markets. Using cross-sectional survey data from 6949 respondents across 77 provinces collected in September 2021, we employ multinomial regression models to analyze how demographic, occupational, and income factors shape debt outcomes. The results indicate that younger and lower-income individuals in Bangkok are more likely to remain debt-free, while older, higher-income, and farming households are strongly associated with formal borrowing. In contrast, unemployed individuals, retirees, business owners, and freelancers disproportionately rely on informal credit channels, exposing them to high interest rates, repayment difficulties, and heightened financial risk. Regional disparities further underscore structural inequalities: households in the north and northeast are more likely to access formal finance, whereas those in Bangkok and the south tend to turn to informal lenders. These findings highlight the risks of financial exclusion and the persistence of informal lending in emerging economies. Policy measures that expand access to regulated credit, promote microfinance, and strengthen consumer protection frameworks are essential to mitigate household financial vulnerability and reduce exposure to debt traps. Full article

The adoption of Product-Service Systems (PSSs) is an important strategy for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), although they face challenges connected to the scarcity of financial, human, and technological resources. Thus, this article seeks to propose a framework that integrates the barriers, drivers, innovation process, and business model elements associated with the adoption of PSSs in Brazilian industrial SMEs to offer guidelines for improvements to the strategies and practices adopted by such enterprises. The research adopted the Fuzzy Delphi method, applied to a panel of ten executives and managers of Brazilian industrial SMEs. This approach was employed to consensually validate a set of variables obtained from recent scientific literature. The results indicate that the adoption of PSSs by Brazilian industrial SMEs is influenced by structural, cultural, and technological barriers, yet driven by factors such as sustainability, customer relations, and competitiveness. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of innovation, the processes remain little structured, with value proposition, the human factor, and stakeholder relations standing out as central elements in the business models. Through this study proposes specific strategic guidelines for four critical categories: provider enterprise, consumers, PSSs, and environmental aspects. Such guidelines can support managers in formulating practical actions for adopting PSSs, in addition to being replicable by other SMEs with similar characteristics. This research contributes to the literature originally by expanding the knowledge about the reality of PSS adoption by SMEs in emerging economies, thereby bridging a literature gap that still addresses their specificities generically. Full article

Digital or Technology strategies are the first step of the Digital Transformation. The main risk is that information and assessments not included in the strategy and left to be confirmed and managed at later stages have the potential to negatively affect the successful implementation of the Digital Transformation, therefore negating sought-after business benefits. To mitigate this risk, this article proposes DigStratCon, a Digital or Technology strategy framework that generalises the Digital Transformation, detaching it from its specific functional application, such as marketing, products, Information Technology (IT), and Operational Technology (OT). Therefore, DigStratCon applies to any area within a government, organisation or infrastructure, including Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). DigStratCon defines seven components within a Digital or Technology strategy, specifically (1) market research, (2) target state, (3) current state, (4) roadmap, (5) risks, (6) supply chain, and finally (7) enablers. A qualitative analysis of several United Kingdom (UK) government digital strategies assesses their completeness against the DigStratCon model. On average, UK digital strategies score 6/7 with an innovative and ambitious vision; however, they generally lack a common or standardised structure and wider international benchmark and alignment. Full article

Advanced and Urban Air Mobility (AAM and UAM) represent emerging transportation concepts that involve the use of novel aircraft technologies to transport passengers and cargo within urban, regional, and intra-regional environments. These systems may include Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are being considered for a range of applications including passenger transport, cargo delivery, and other specialized operations. This study introduced a state-specific analytical framework that integrates different methodologies and data to enable a more precise evaluation of AAM viability in the State of Illinois, compared to generic national or global assessments, capturing the state’s unique mobility patterns, infrastructure constraints, and demographic distributions. One of the main goals is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the potential implications—both challenges and opportunities—associated with AAM and UAM operations. The analysis examines potential impacts on mobility, infrastructure, economic development, and public services, with particular emphasis on identifying key considerations for policy development. The research framework categorizes use cases into two broad types: AAM for the transportation of people and cargo, and AAM for functional applications such as emergency response, agriculture, and infrastructure monitoring. The study provides a detailed quantitative assessment of passenger air taxi services, including demand estimation, business model feasibility analysis, integration effects on existing transportation systems, and infrastructure requirements. For other AAM applications, the analysis identifies operational considerations, regulatory implications, and potential barriers to implementation, establishing a foundation for future detailed evaluation. Full article

Electrical and electronic installations (EEIs) are essential to modern building functionality, yet they remain insufficiently addressed in circular economy (CE) strategies and sustainability frameworks. This study examines how CE principles are understood and applied to EEI in the Flemish construction sector, utilising a national survey of 32 professionals and, among them, five expert interviews. Results confirm that energy-efficient technologies, such as LED lighting and the integration of renewable energy, are widely adopted. In contrast, circular practices, including reuse, modularity, and design for disassembly, remain relatively rare. Respondents acknowledged the importance of lifecycle thinking but reported limited access to practical tools, clear guidelines, and market or regulatory incentives to support its implementation. Circular business models, such as leasing and take-back schemes, are recognised in theory but not widely adopted in practice. At the same time, stakeholder engagement often occurs too late to influence circular outcomes. Overall, the findings suggest that strengthening interdisciplinary cooperation, improving knowledge exchange, and defining clearer project requirements could help translate circular principles into everyday professional practice. This study provides an initial evidence base for improving professional awareness and integrating circular principles into EEI design and procurement, contributing to more circular and sustainable EEI within the construction sector. Full article

Rankings drive consequential decisions in science, sports, medicine, and business. Conventional evaluation methods typically analyze rank concordance, dispersion, and extremeness in isolation, inviting biased inference when these properties co-move. We introduce the Concordance–Dispersion–Extremeness Framework (CDEF), a copula-based audit that treats dependence among these properties as the object of interest. The CDEF automatically detects forced versus non-forced ranking regimes, then screens dispersion mechanics via ${\chi }^2$ tests that distinguish independent multinomial structures from without-replacement structures and, for forced dependent data, compares Mallows structures against appropriate baselines. The framework estimates upper-tail agreement between raters by fitting pairwise Gumbel copulas to mid-rank pseudo-observations, summarizing tail co-movement alongside Kendall’s W and mutual information, then reports likelihood-based summaries and decision rules that distinguish genuine from phantom agreement. Applied to pre-season college football rankings, the CDEF reinterprets apparently high concordance by revealing heterogeneity in pairwise tail dependence and dispersion patterns that inflate agreement under univariate analyses. In simulation, traditional Kendall’s W fails to distinguish scenarios, whereas the CDEF clearly separates Phantom from Genuine and Clustered agreement settings, clarifying when agreement stems from shared tail dependence rather than stable consensus. Rather than claiming probabilities from a monolithic trivariate model, the CDEF provides a transparent, regime-aware diagnosis that improves reliability assessment, surfaces bias, and supports sound decisions in settings where rankings carry real stakes. Full article

While community energy initiatives and pilot projects have demonstrated technical feasibility and economic benefits, their site-specific nature limits transferability to systematic, scalable investment models. This study addresses this gap by proposing a modular framework for Renewable Energy Valleys (REVs), developed from real-world Community Energy Lab (CEL) demonstrations in Crete, Greece, which is an island with pronounced seasonal demand fluctuation, strong renewable potential, and ongoing hydrogen valley initiatives. Four modular business schemes are defined, each representing different sectoral contexts by combining a baseline of 50 residential units with one representative large consumer (hotel, rural households with thermal loads, municipal swimming pool, or hydrogen bus). For each scheme, a mixed-integer linear programming model is applied to optimally size and operate integrated solar PV, wind, battery (BAT) energy storage, and hydrogen systems across three renewable energy penetration (REP) targets: 90%, 95%, and 99.9%. The framework incorporates stochastic demand modeling, sector coupling, and hierarchical dispatch schemes. Results highlight optimal technology configurations that minimize dependency on external sources and curtailment while enhancing reliability and sustainability under Mediterranean conditions. Results demonstrate significant variation in optimal configurations across sectors and targets, with PV capacity ranging from 217 kW to 2840 kW, battery storage from 624 kWh to 2822 kWh, and hydrogen systems scaling from 65.2 kg to 192 kg storage capacity. The modular design of the framework enables replication beyond the specific context of Crete, supporting the scalable development of Renewable Energy Valleys that can adapt to diverse sectoral mixes and regional conditions. Full article

Technology is causing unprecedented disruption that requires organisations to implement digital transformation processes. These processes are aimed at integrating technologies, redesigning their business models and, at the same time, adapting the skills of their employees and incorporating sustainability into their processes. This research aims to conceptualise a methodology for implementing Sustainable Digital Transformation (SDT) processes based on the “Working with People” (WWP) model. The model integrates three key dimensions and aligns with project management and organisational change approaches. For the purpose of this article, empirical experiences of technology adoption implemented in five large Spanish companies with an international presence are analysed. The companies were selected because they were undergoing a strategic digital transformation process aimed at implementing a digital and sustainable culture. The results show that the WWP model, aligned with IPMA project management and ADKAR organisational change approaches, is a useful tool for articulating the implementation of a Sustainable Digital Transformation, highlighting the importance of people. The model is replicable for other companies, facilitating sustainable success in digital transformation from a practical perspective of holistic and sustainable digital transformation based on the WWP model. This study addresses a key research gap in the field of digital transformation: the lack of integrative methodologies that combine technological innovation, human development, and sustainability. The proposed Working with People-based Sustainable Digital Transformation (WWP–SDT) model provides companies with a practical framework to align digital adoption with cultural change and long-term sustainable impact. Full article

Integrating recommendation systems with dynamic pricing strategies is essential for enhancing product sales and optimizing revenue in modern business. This study proposes a novel product recommendation model that uses Reinforcement Learning to tailor pricing strategies to customer purchase intentions. While traditional recommendation systems focus on identifying products customers prefer, they often neglect the critical factor of pricing. To improve effectiveness and increase conversion, it is crucial to personalize product prices according to the customer’s willingness to pay (WTP). Businesses often use fixed-budget promotions to boost sales, emphasizing the importance of strategic pricing. Designing intelligent promotions requires recommending products aligned with customer preferences and setting prices reflecting their WTP, thus increasing the likelihood of purchase. This research advances existing recommendation systems by integrating dynamic pricing into the system’s output, offering a significant innovation in business practice. However, this integration introduces technical complexities, which are addressed through a Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework and solved using Reinforcement Learning. Empirical evaluation using the Dunnhumby dataset shows promising results. Due to the lack of direct comparisons between combined product recommendation and pricing models, the outputs were simplified into two categories: purchase and non-purchase. This approach revealed significant improvements over comparable methods, demonstrating the model’s efficacy. Full article

In inventory management, business organizations gradually face challenges due to the complexities of managing perishable goods whose value diminishes over time. In such circumstances, interval’s bounds estimated business policy can be adopted to study a non-deterministic inventory model incorporating decay, preservation technology, and financial incentives, viz. advanced payments and fixed discounts. This study explores an interval Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model incorporating advanced payment with discount options under preservation technology framework in interval environment. In this model, the demand rate is expressed as a convex combination of linear and power patterns of the selling price. The present model is formulated mathematically using interval differential equations and interval mathematics. Then, the corresponding interval-valued average profit of the model is obtained. In order to optimize the corresponding interval optimization problem, C-U optimization technique is developed. Employing the C-U optimization technique, the said interval optimization problem is converted into crisp optimization problems. Then, these problems are solved numerically by Wolfrom MATHEMATICA-11.0 software and validated with the help of two numerical examples. Finally, sensitivity analyses have been performed to study the impact of known inventory parameters on optimal policy. Full article

Sustainable practices are increasingly recognized as critical drivers of business performance in contemporary markets. This study examines the influence of Circular Economy (CE), Eco-Innovation (EI), and Sustainable Marketing (SM) on Business Performance (BP) among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) located in Aguascalientes, Mexico, a representative emerging-economy context within Latin America. The relationships among these constructs were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4.0. Results show that CE significantly drives both EI and SM, and that EI positively influences BP. However, the direct effect of SM on BP was marginal, indicating that its contribution to business performance is weaker than that of circular and eco-innovative practices in the analyzed sample. Among CE dimensions, enablers were the strongest driver of circular adoption, while in EI, adoption incentives exerted the greatest influence. This research contributes to the sustainability and management literature by rigorously analyzing and comparing the relative impact of different sustainability-oriented strategies—circular, innovative, and marketing-based—on business performance. By examining how these strategies interact and differ in their effects, the study offers evidence-based guidance for MSMEs with limited resources to prioritize initiatives with greater potential to enhance competitiveness. The proposed integrated CE–EI–SM–BP framework, validated through a predictive PLS-SEM approach (PLSpredict), provides robust empirical evidence from an underexplored emerging-economy context. The results also open avenues for future research to examine contextual or temporal factors influencing the effectiveness of sustainability-based strategies. Full article

This research examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping business and labor structures through a sustainability lens. Drawing on survey data from 127 organizations and 14 case studies, we quantify workforce impacts while exposing methodological limitations in current projections. Our analysis reveals implementation variations of 37% across industries and 41% higher user adoption rates for hybrid governance approaches versus centralized models. The evidence supports a three-dimensional strategic framework for sustainable organizational development: comprehensive upskilling fostering behavioral change (2.7× higher implementation success), distributed innovation enabling cross-functional ideation (3.1× more identified use cases), and strategic integration aligning systems across departments (explaining 31% of implementation success variance). Organizations deploying all three dimensions achieved a 74% AI initiative success rate versus 12% for those using none. Implementation barriers include regulatory uncertainty, organizational resistance, and ethical considerations, with data infrastructure maturity (β = 0.32), executive sponsorship (β = 0.29), and change readiness (β = 0.26) explaining 58% of implementation success variance. Our findings indicate that sustainable adaptation capacity—not merely technological investment—determines which organizations successfully navigate this transformation while maintaining long-term organizational viability, workforce resilience, and contribution to broader sustainable development goals. Full article

The increasing demand for halal-certified food has intensified the need for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adopt performance frameworks that capture both operational efficiency and halal compliance. Although previous studies have applied Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to evaluate supply chain (SC) performance, the incorporation of halal compliance into this framework has not been examined, especially in the context of MSMEs. In this study, we developed and tested a BSC-based framework that embeds halal principles to assess SC performance. The research involved 130 MSMEs and 130 consumers engaged in the fried chicken sector in Indonesia. An exploratory mixed-methods design was applied, combining qualitative interviews with quantitative analysis using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings revealed customer perspective (CP) as the strongest driver in SC performance (β = 0.496, p < 0.001), whereas financial, business process, and growth perspectives demonstrated comparatively weaker or statistically insignificant effects. Furthermore, the findings underscore that consumer trust and halal adherence represent strategic assets for MSMEs, enabling stronger competitiveness and sustainable operations. By incorporating halal compliance with performance measurement theory, this study provides novel insights and practical guidelines for MSMEs and policymakers to strengthen halal food supply chains in emerging markets. Full article

In this study, we incorporate heterogeneity in technology into a micro-founded monetary search framework to explain the recent trend in observed money demand, assuming technological heterogeneity so as to formalize the rise in high-tech innovations in the U.S. business sector that occurred in the second half of the 1990s. The results show that this incorporation of technological heterogeneity allows the model to better fit the dynamics of the U.S. money demand curve. Full article