Search Results (411)

This study ground in the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), explores the value of digital twin technology in cross-border logistics risk management. Using structural equation modeling, it examines how five innovation characteristics of digital twins—relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability—influence risk management capabilities, specifically robustness and resilience, within cross-border logistics systems. The findings reveal that relative advantage, compatibility, trialability, and observability significantly enhance both robustness and resilience, while complexity does not show a significant negative impact. Furthermore, the study confirms that improvements in risk management capabilities contribute positively to competitive performance. This research not only enriches the theoretical understanding of digital twin applications in cross-border logistics but also offers valuable insights for practical implementation by enterprises. Full article

The study examines economic and non-economic endeavors to explore the association between family involvement and financial decisions within family firms. The non-economic factors of a family drive the need to analyze the impact of socioemotional factors on the financial policies of the family firms. The study explores the impact of family ownership, family management, and family control drawn from agency theory and socioemotional wealth perspectives on the financial decisions of family firms. Our findings in support of the socioemotional wealth perspective show a positive relationship between family ownership and debt financing with a desire to finance growth and avoid control dilution, with an increase in the level of debt. However, the involvement of family members in management and the top management team leads to an adverse relationship between family ownership and debt level, exhibiting the risk-averse behavior of a firm, which drives firms to reduce debt levels. Overall, our findings suggest that the perceptions of the socioemotional wealth theoretical paradigm are important in determining capital structure decisions in family enterprises. The results are resilient to potential endogeneity and heterogeneity difficulties, which may assist scholars and practitioners in assessing capital structure decisions in emerging economies. Full article

This study synthesizes the rapidly expanding evidence on how digital technologies reshape international trade, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Guided by two research questions—(RQ1) How do digital tools influence the volume and composition of cross-border trade? and (RQ2) How do these effects vary by countries’ development level and firm size?—we conducted a PRISMA-compliant systematic literature review covering 2010–2024. Searches across eight major databases yielded 1857 records; after duplicate removal, title/abstract screening, full-text assessment, and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT 2018) quality checks, 86 peer-reviewed English-language studies were retained. Findings reveal three dominant technology clusters: (1) e-commerce platforms and cloud services, (2) IoT-enabled supply chain solutions, and (3) emerging AI analytics. E-commerce and cloud adoption consistently raise export intensity—doubling it for digitally mature SMEs—while AI applications are the fastest-growing research strand, particularly in East Asia and Northern Europe. However, benefits are uneven: firms in low-infrastructure settings face higher fixed digital costs, and cybersecurity and regulatory fragmentation remain pervasive obstacles. By integrating trade economics with development and SME internationalization studies, this review offers the first holistic framework that links national digital infrastructure and policy support to firm-level export performance. It shows that the trade-enhancing effects of digitalization are contingent on robust broadband penetration, affordable cloud access, and harmonized data-governance regimes. Policymakers should, therefore, prioritize inclusive digital-readiness programs, while business leaders should invest in complementary capabilities—data analytics, cyber-risk management, and cross-border e-logistics—to fully capture digital trade gains. This balanced perspective advances theory and practice on building resilient, equitable digital trade ecosystems. Full article

Public–private partnership (PPP) logistics infrastructure projects have become increasingly prevalent globally. Consequently, the effective management of these projects as their concession periods expire presents a crucial challenge for governments, vital for the sustainable management of PPP logistics infrastructure. This study addresses this challenge by focusing on the pivotal post-concession decision: whether the government should self-operate the mature logistics infrastructure or re-delegate its management to a private entity. Our theoretical model, built on a principal–agent framework, first establishes a social welfare baseline under government self-operation and then analyzes delegated operation under symmetric information, identifying efficiency frontiers. Under symmetric information, we find that government self-operation is more advantageous when its own operational efficiency is sufficiently high, irrespective of the private enterprise’s efficiency; conversely, delegating to an efficient private enterprise is optimal only when government operational efficiency is low. We also demonstrate that if the government can directly specify the demand quantity and service level and delegates operation via a fixed fee, the enterprise can be incentivized to align with the social optimum. However, under asymmetric information, potential welfare gains from delegation are inevitably offset by informational rent and output distortion. We further uncover non-monotonic impacts of parameters like the proportion of low-cost firms on social welfare loss and demonstrate how information asymmetry can indirectly compromise the long-term resilience of the infrastructure. Ultimately, our work asserts that delegation is only superior if its potential efficiency gains sufficiently offset the inherent losses stemming from information asymmetry. Full article

In the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), organizational resilience has emerged as a critical capability for navigating dynamic and turbulent environments. The ability of firms to sustain their performance despite external disruptions, particularly those arising from market and technological change, is paramount for achieving long-term sustainability. This study offers a novel contribution by examining how two key dimensions of environmental turbulence—market turbulence and technological turbulence—moderate the relationship between organizational resilience capacity and sustainability performance. Our empirical findings, based on data from 423 SMEs, demonstrate that while organizational resilience positively correlates with sustainability performance, this relationship is significantly weakened under high levels of market and technological turbulence, indicating a negative moderating effect. These results advance resource-based and dynamic capabilities theory by highlighting the contingent nature of resilience in unstable contexts. Furthermore, this study provides practical guidance. SMEs should strategically invest in resilience-building efforts and continuously adapt their strategies in response to environmental fluctuations. Targeted approaches to managing different forms of turbulence and forming resilience-oriented collaborations can enhance sustainability outcomes. This research makes significant contributions to theory and practice; however, there are limitations that future research should take into account in order to appropriately utilize this study’s findings. Full article

Private 5G networks offer exclusive, secure wireless communication with full control deployments for many clients, such as enterprises and campuses. In these networks, edge computing plays a critical role by hosting both application services and the User Plane Functions (UPFs) as containerized workloads close to end devices, reducing latency and ensuring stringent Quality of Service (QoS). However, edge environments often face resource constraints and unpredictable failures such as network disruptions or hardware malfunctions, which can severely affect the reliability of the network. In addition, existing redundancy-based UPF resilience strategies, which maintain standby instances, incur substantial overheads and degrade resource efficiency and scalability for the applications. To address this issue, this study introduces a novel design that enables quick detection of UPF failures and two failover mechanisms to restore failed UPF instances either within the cluster hosting the failed UPF or across multiple clusters, depending on that cluster’s resource availability and health. We implemented and evaluated our proposed approach on a Kubernetes-based testbed, and the results demonstrate that our approach reduces UPF redeployment time by up to 37% compared to baseline methods and lowers system cost by up to 50% under high-reliability requirements compared to traditional redundancy-based failover methods. These findings demonstrate that our design can serve as a complementary solution alongside traditional resilience strategies, offering a particularly cost-effective and resource-efficient alternative for edge computing and other constrained environments. Full article

In the current era of a dynamic environment, organizations need to continuously innovate and transform to remain competitive. Digital transformation is an essential driver across organizations, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), reshaping organizational agility. This research examines the interconnection among knowledge sharing, digital transformation, open innovation, organizational agility, and transformational leadership. A quantitative research design was employed, using an online survey with data collected from 543 participants selected through a stratified random sampling from SMEs in China. Data were analyzed by utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results include a significant impact of knowledge sharing on digital transformation, digital transformation on open innovation, and open innovation on organizational agility. Additionally, digital transformation and open innovation were found to significantly mediate the relationship between knowledge sharing and open innovation and organizational agility. Moreover, transformational leadership significantly moderated the impact of digital transformation on open innovation. The model explained 67.7% of the variation in organizational agility. The research provides a holistic model for SMEs aiming to leverage information sharing, technological integration, and leadership practice to improve flexible and innovative systems, contributing to theoretical understanding and practical solutions to sustainable resilience. Full article

Background: Selecting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for complex port environments is a significant challenge. This study addresses a key research gap by identifying and prioritizing the critical factors for ERP selection within the strategic context of United Arab Emirates (UAE) ports, which function as vital hubs in global trade. Methods: A hybrid methodology was employed, first using the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) to validate thirteen challenges with five industry experts. Subsequently, the Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank these challenges based on survey data from 48 UAE port professionals. Results: The analysis revealed “Cybersecurity concerns” as the highest-ranked challenge (RII = 0.896), followed by “Engagement with external stakeholders” (RII = 0.842), and both “Process optimization” and “Technical capabilities” (RII = 0.808). Notably, factors traditionally seen as critical in other sectors, such as “Organizational readiness” (RII = 0.746), were ranked significantly lower. Conclusions: The findings indicate a strategic shift in ERP selection priorities toward digital resilience and external integration rather than internal organizational factors. This research provides a sector-specific decision-support framework and offers actionable insights for port authorities, vendors, and policymakers to enhance ERP implementation in the maritime industry. Full article

Enterprise architecture (EA) provides a strategic foundation for aligning business processes, IT infrastructure, and organizational strategy, enabling firms to navigate uncertainty and complexity. In developing economies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face significant challenges in maintaining financial resilience and sustainable growth amidst frequent disruptions. This study investigates how EA-driven change events affect SME financial performance by activating three key adaptive mechanisms: improvisational capability, flexible IT systems, and organizational culture. A novel classification of EA change triggers is proposed to guide adaptive responses. Using survey data from 291 Pakistani SMEs collected during the COVID-19 crisis, the study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate the conceptual model. The results indicate that improvisational capability and flexible IT systems significantly enhance financial performance, while the mediating role of organizational culture is statistically insignificant. This study contributes to EA and sustainability literature by integrating a typology of EA triggers with adaptive capabilities theory and testing their effects in a real-world crisis context. Full article

As digital transformation accelerates across Europe, cloud computing plays an increasingly central role in modernizing public services and private enterprises. Yet adoption rates vary markedly among EU member states, reflecting deeper structural differences in digital capacity. This study employs explainable machine learning to uncover the drivers of national cloud adoption across 27 EU countries using harmonized panel datasets spanning 2014–2021 and 2014–2024. A methodological pipeline combining Random Forests (RF), XGBoost, Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Elastic Net regression is implemented, with model tuning conducted via nested cross-validation. Among individual models, Elastic Net and SVM delivered superior predictive performance, while a stacked ensemble achieved the best overall accuracy (MAE = 0.214, R² = 0.948). The most interpretable model, a standardized RF with country fixed effects, attained MAE = 0.321, and R² = 0.864, making it well-suited for policy analysis. Variable importance analysis reveals that the density of ICT specialists is the strongest predictor of adoption, followed by broadband access and higher education. Fixed-effect modeling confirms significant national heterogeneity, with countries like Finland and Luxembourg consistently leading adoption, while Bulgaria and Romania exhibit structural barriers. Partial dependence and SHAP analyses reveal nonlinear complementarities between digital skills and infrastructure. A hierarchical clustering of countries reveals three distinct digital maturity profiles, offering tailored policy pathways. These results directly support the EU Digital Decade’s strategic targets and provide actionable insights for advancing inclusive and resilient digital transformation across the Union. Full article

This study investigates the impact of geopolitical risk, firm characteristics, and macroeconomic variables on the performance of non-financial firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. The study analyzes a panel dataset consisting of 182 Egyptian firms over the period 2014–2023. Using the panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regression technique, the study examines the effect of geopolitical risk on the return on assets. This study controls for firm characteristics such as liquidity, leverage, and growth opportunities and controls for macroeconomic variables such as inflation and GDP. This empirical evidence investigates the moderating role of FinTech on such relationship. The results reveal a significant and negative relationship between geopolitical risk and firms’ performance. Liquidity, growth opportunities, and inflation show positive and significant impacts. In contrast, leverage and GDP demonstrate significant negative relationships. Remarkably, FinTech moderates the relationship significantly and positively. Therefore, investors ought to proceed with prudence when positioning cash within elevated political volatility. The significant positive moderating effect of FinTech on this connection provides a vital strategic insight: enterprises with enhanced FinTech integration may demonstrate increased resilience to geopolitical shocks. Full article

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face dynamic and competitive environments where resilience and data-driven decision-making are critical. Despite the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and optimization techniques, SMEs often struggle to adopt these tools due to high costs, limited training, and restricted hardware access. This study reviews how SMEs can employ heuristics, metaheuristics, ML, and hybrid approaches to support strategic decisions under uncertainty and resource constraints. Using bibliometric mapping with UMAP and BERTopic, 82 key works are identified and clustered into 11 thematic areas. From this, the study develops a practical framework for implementing and evaluating optimization strategies tailored to SMEs’ limitations. The results highlight critical application areas, adoption barriers, and success factors, showing that heuristics and hybrid methods are especially effective for multi-objective optimization with lower computational demands. The study also outlines research gaps and proposes future directions to foster digital transformation in SMEs. Unlike prior reviews focused on specific industries or methods, this work offers a cross-sectoral perspective, emphasizing how these technologies can strengthen SME resilience and strategic planning. Full article

To promote the deepening of reform and the effective implementation of policies, the State Council launched the special supervision of the liquidation of local governments’ arrears in project funds in 2016, which supports the optimization of the government debt structure. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the special supervision action, in this study, we use the difference-in-difference (DID) method to investigate the effect and mechanism of the optimization of the government debt structure on the financing constraints of private enterprises. This research is particularly relevant for private enterprises, which face acute financing challenges and are critical for promoting inclusive economic growth, employment, and innovation—key pillars of sustainable development. The results are as follows. Firstly, the special supervision significantly reduces the financing constraints of private enterprises. Secondly, it has heterogeneous effects on the financing constraints of different types of enterprises, and the alleviating effect is particularly significant for enterprises that rely on the funding support of local governments. This highlights the importance of institutional reforms in fostering equitable access to financial resources for vulnerable enterprise groups such as private enterprises. Thirdly, the optimization of the government debt structure eases enterprises’ financing constraints by improving their capital turnover and trade credit. By enhancing liquidity and creditworthiness, these changes create a more resilient financial environment for private enterprises, supporting their long-term development and contribution to sustainable economic systems. Full article

Amid the escalating global climate crisis, the transition to sustainable energy systems has become imperative. As the world’s largest energy producer and consumer, China has established ambitious dual carbon targets, which present formidable challenges to urban energy systems that remain heavily reliant on conventional energy sources and exhibit inadequate renewable energy development. Drawing on complex adaptive systems theory, this study investigates the extent to which digital finance enhances urban energy resilience, examining both the underlying mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Employing a multi-period difference-in-differences model with digital finance policies as a quasi-natural experiment, our analysis of panel data from 31 Chinese provinces (2016–2023) demonstrates that digital finance significantly enhances the resilience of urban energy systems and their three constituent subsystems. A mediation analysis reveals the pivotal role of innovative organizations, while machine learning techniques uncover nonlinear relationships moderated by marketization levels, fiscal energy allocations, and initial digital finance development. These findings provide critical insights for policymakers, financial institutions, and energy enterprises seeking to advance sustainable energy governance and foster financial innovation in the energy transition. Full article

The scientific measurement of corporate resilience is a prerequisite for identifying risk vulnerabilities, formulating targeted support policies, and enhancing the stability of the economic system. This paper utilizes data from 2054 listed companies on China’s A-share market from 2007 to 2023 to construct a corporate resilience evaluation system integrating three dimensions: risk resistance, adaptive adjustment, and recovery growth. Using a multi-level dynamic factor analysis, it depicts the multi-dimensional structure of resilience while introducing time series dynamic changes. This study found that corporate resilience has shown a steady upward trend overall, with phased fluctuations before and after major crisis events, which is highly consistent with macro- and microeconomic indicators. And fluctuations are primarily concentrated among low-resilience enterprises. The further analysis of low-resilience enterprises revealed the following: At the industrial level, compared with the primary industry, the secondary and tertiary industries have a higher proportion of low-resilience enterprises. At the regional level, the proportion of low-resilience enterprises in eastern and central regions decreased during shocks, while western regions showed a significant divergence, and northeastern regions consistently underperformed. This study offers empirical evidence and management insights for strengthening corporate resilience and enhancing the resilience of China’s economy. It also offers valuable insights for other countries in addressing external uncertainties and building economic resilience. Full article