Search Results (3,790)

This study examines the role of strategic flexibility (SF) in supporting sustainable growth among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in an emerging economy context. Specifically, it investigates the relationships between SF, business model innovation (BMI), competitive advantage (CA), and firm performance (FP) in Iranian SMEs. Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT), the study empirically examines a capability–innovation–performance model and contributes by extending existing theoretical relationships to the context of SMEs in an emerging economy. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), data were collected through 391 validated questionnaires from SMEs across different sectors in Iran. The findings reveal that SF has a direct and significant effect on both BMI and CA, while BMI positively influences CA and FP. However, CA does not show a significant direct effect on FP, suggesting that competitive positioning alone may be insufficient to generate performance outcomes in uncertain and resource-constrained environments. The results indicate that adaptive and innovation-oriented capabilities play a central role in enhancing long-term organizational resilience and sustainable performance among SMEs operating under institutional and market volatility. Full article

This study analyzes how the integration of native maize cultivation, cultural identity, and technological innovation can promote sustainable and experiential tourism in rural Mexico. The research was conducted in the community of Llano de Guadalupe, Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca. The participatory Action Research process progressed through institutional coordination, participatory diagnosis, biofertilization training, monitoring activities, and community dissemination phases conducted between 3 March 2025 to 25 May 2026. The methodological process included institutional coordination, participatory diagnosis, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, field observations, and the implementation of agroecological practices based on biofertilization. An AI-assisted illustrated field notebook was co-designed to support intercultural education, knowledge exchange, and community participation. The study also incorporated collaborative storytelling, seed preservation practices, and the co-design of sustainable tourism routes grounded in local gastronomy, biodiversity, and agricultural traditions. Preliminary impact indicators showed the expansion of participation from two pilot producers to 54 local producers after community dissemination activities. Findings indicate that the integration of traditional ecological knowledge with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can strengthen community empowerment, intergenerational learning, and sustainable livelihoods while preserving biocultural heritage. The proposed circular framework connects ecological, social, cultural, and economic subsystems by transforming agroecological practices into educational and tourism assets. The results suggest that Indigenous and rural communities can lead sustainable destination development when supported through participatory governance, inclusive education, and context-sensitive technological innovation. The Tlaxiaco case offers a transferable framework for sustainable rural development that contributes to food sovereignty, biodiversity conservation, environmental stewardship, and local economic resilience. Full article

Smart cities have emerged as a strategic approach to enhancing urban sustainability through the integration of digital technologies, intelligent infrastructure, and data-driven governance. However, limited research has comprehensively examined how technological, institutional, governance, and contextual factors interact to influence sustainability outcomes in industrial-city settings, particularly in Saudi Arabia. This study develops an integrated conceptual framework for sustainable smart industrial cities through a qualitative research design based on a systematic screening and synthesis of the literature, complemented by a contextual analysis of the Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA) as an illustrative urban-industrial case under Saudi Vision 2030. A total of 86 articles, reports, and website materials were identified and screened, of which 49 sources met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized to develop the proposed framework. The analysis examined five interrelated components: smart-city applications, institutional governance, implementation conditions, contextual barriers and opportunities, and sustainability outcomes across three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of smart-city applications depends not only on technological innovation but also on institutional governance, digital readiness, stakeholder participation, integrated planning, and supportive regulatory environments. The study further identifies fragmented governance, limited institutional coordination, cybersecurity risks, and high infrastructure costs as key implementation barriers, while highlighting opportunities associated with Saudi Vision 2030, digital-transformation initiatives, and circular-economy principles. The principal contribution of the study is the development of an integrated conceptual framework that explains the interactions among these five components and provides a theoretical foundation for future empirical validation, as well as conceptually informed guidance for policy development and planning in Saudi Arabia and comparable industrial-city contexts. Full article

Background: Tuberculosis remains a major public health challenge in Latin America, where social inequalities, fragmented health systems, and barriers to care continue to undermine disease control. Although effective treatment is available, treatment abandonment and loss to follow-up remain persistent obstacles to successful outcomes. Methods: A structured critical analysis of the contemporary literature on tuberculosis treatment abandonment and retention in care was conducted using a narrative evidence synthesis approach. Forty scientific documents published between 2018 and 2026 were included. Of these, 23 Latin American studies informed the results synthesis, while 13 international studies supported the comparative critical reflection. Results: Findings were organised into five domains: social vulnerability, clinical complexity, health system barriers, priority populations, and protective factors and innovation. The evidence indicates that treatment abandonment is not an isolated individual behaviour, but a phenomenon associated with the convergence of social, clinical, and institutional determinants across the care trajectory. Poverty, migration, drug resistance, incarceration, weak follow-up systems, and fragmented care were repeatedly associated with discontinuity, whereas social support, active follow-up, digital tools, and economic measures were linked to improved adherence and retention in care. Conclusions: From a biopsychosocial perspective, treatment abandonment should be understood as a systemic and preventable failure across the tuberculosis care continuum. The proposed Latin American Integrated Model for Retention in Tuberculosis Care (MILERTB) offers an anticipatory, equity-oriented, and person-centred framework to strengthen retention in care and guide future implementation research. Full article

Dual University Education is presented as a recent and innovative model in curriculum design, with strong foundations in dual vocational training. The purpose of this study is to examine the image of this educational model as projected by the universities themselves. To this end, a documentary analysis was conducted based on news articles published on the digital press portals of Spanish universities from 2021 to 2025. Following the guidelines of a documentary research approach, a total of 344 items were identified and coded. The results indicate that institutional discourses focus on highlighting the relevance and impact of dual education, presenting arguments both for and against this model regarding the four key stakeholders: students, universities, companies, and society. It is concluded that discourses on Dual University Education portray the coordination between institutions as complex but strategically significant, with notable benefits for these groups. Full article

Innovation ecosystems are recognized as drivers of regional development and technological transformation, yet empirical studies remain concentrated in metropolitan areas, limiting the understanding of emerging agroindustrial territories. This study examines the innovation ecosystem of Rio Verde (Brazil), highlighting how structural configurations and functional asymmetries influence collaboration and distributed innovation outcomes. Grounded in the Regional Innovation System perspective and the Six-Helix model, an exploratory survey was conducted with 41 actors through a digital mapping platform. Results reveal institutional diversity and strong willingness to collaborate, but innovation capabilities and outputs remain concentrated in a few central organizations, while funding and coordination mechanisms are weak. The study refines the concept of the collaboration paradox—high engagement without broad diffusion of results—and demonstrates the methodological value of combining digital ecosystem mapping with the Six-Helix framework. Practically, it suggests that regional policies should move beyond stimulating collaboration to prioritize funding, institutional coordination, and the diffusion of innovation capabilities across emerging agroindustrial ecosystems. Full article

Precision agriculture (PA) has emerged as a transformative approach for improving agricultural productivity, resource-use efficiency, and environmental sustainability through the integration of digital technologies, including Global Positioning Systems (GPSs), Geographic Information Systems (GISs), remote sensing, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and autonomous systems. Although previous reviews have primarily emphasized technological innovation, adoption trends, or environmental outcomes, they have provided limited synthesis of the economic mechanisms linking technology adoption, resource allocation, production efficiency, investment performance, and long-term sustainability. A structured narrative–systematic review was conducted using peer-reviewed research retrieved from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, covering studies published between 2004 and 2026. An integrated analytical framework combining technology adoption theory, resource economics, and production-efficiency models was employed to explain how digital technologies generate economic value while identifying methodological limitations, geographical bias, unresolved research questions, and future research priorities. The review demonstrates that GPS-guided machinery, variable-rate technologies, smart irrigation systems, AI-driven decision-support tools, and integrated digital platforms improve water- and nutrient-use efficiency, labor productivity, production efficiency, and farm profitability. However, economic performance remains highly context-dependent, varying according to farm size, crop type, climatic conditions, institutional support, digital infrastructure, resource scarcity, and policy environments. Methodological inconsistencies in return on investment (ROI), net present value (NPV), lifecycle costing, ecosystem-service valuation, and environmental externality assessment reduce comparability among studies and complicate evidence-based policymaking. The review further identifies a pronounced geographical concentration of evidence in North America, Europe, and Australia, with comparatively limited understanding of PA economics in China, India, Brazil, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. Persistent challenges include high capital costs, unequal access among smallholder farmers, data governance concerns, interoperability limitations, uncertainty in long-term investment performance, and limited integration of agricultural insurance, climate-risk management, and digital finance. By integrating economic theory, methodological comparison, geographical analysis, sustainability valuation, and policy perspectives within a unified conceptual framework, this review highlights the need for standardized economic evaluation methodologies, broader geographical representation, and interdisciplinary research to support evidence-based policy and the sustainable digital transformation of global agriculture. Full article

This study investigates how community engagement and outreach programs can serve as a vehicle for knowledge co-production between higher educational institutions (HEIs) and industry in developing economies. Despite growing calls for collaboration between HEIs and industry, the existing literature remains policy-driven and largely instrumental, offering a limited understanding of how engagement practices are socially constructed, negotiated, and experienced by diverse stakeholders. There is limited qualitative research on how community voices are integrated into co-creation processes and how these interactions shape sustainable development in emerging economies. The research methodology for the study was developed using the research onion, and an interpretivist research philosophy was adopted. The study employed an inductive research approach to explore actors’ lived experiences and the meanings attached to engagement practices and collected data through in-depth interviews. Participants in the study included representatives from HEIs, industry, and community stakeholders across selected sectors of the economy, and the data were analysed thematically to capture patterns of interactions, power relations, and knowledge and exchange processes underpinning co-production. The study revealed that effective community engagement goes beyond formal partnerships to encompass building lasting relationships which are characterised by trust, mutual learning, and context adaptation. Further, the study also showed that power asymmetries, institutional pressures, and resource constraints have restricted real co-production, resulting in symbolic rather than real engagement. Nevertheless, the use of inclusive and reflective approaches has been shown to foster locally acceptable and essential innovative interventions that can improve sustainable development. The study therefore recommends embedding participatory frameworks within HEIs and industry collaborations to strengthen institutional support for inclusive engagement and to reorient policies towards community-centred knowledge systems. This study, therefore, contributes to the body of knowledge by enhancing theoretical and practical understanding of sustainable higher education–industry collaboration in developing economies by promoting an understanding of engagement as a co-production process. Full article

To advance environmental sustainability, China proposed the Beautiful China Goals (BCGs) as its localized strategy, with urban agglomerations serving as the key implementation scale. To address the limitations of difficulty in identifying key tasks and insufficient regional applicability, this study develops a multi-goal evaluation system comprising 21 goals and 52 indicators rooted in the policy framework. Methodologically, a three-tiered assessment framework—goal, city, and region—is constructed for urban agglomerations, integrating spatial-temporal analysis, city-level two-dimensional diagnostics, and regional synergy quantification. The framework is applied to the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA), a national-level pilot area for the BCGs, over the period 2015–2023. Results indicate that: (1) progress toward the BCGs in the YRDUA increased by 5.7%, but full achievement by 2035 remains unlikely. Significant structural imbalances exist among the 21 goals, with infrastructure-related goals scoring higher than those related to institutional development, innovation, and carbon neutrality. Spatially, BCGs’ performance follows a “high southeast, low northwest” pattern, although distribution varied by goal, and regional equity has improved. (2) Fewer than half of the 41 cities had achieved “double high” states in both development magnitude and evenness by 2023, with cities following four distinct development pathways that reflect differing priorities and strategies for goal attainment. (3) Intercity cooperation in advancing the BCGs remains limited. Synergistic effects are relatively stronger for green production goals but weaker for ecological, technological, and institutional goals, with Ningbo, Suzhou, and Shaoxing emerging as key contributors to regional synergy. This framework offers a replicable tool for regional environmental planning and provides evidence for BCGs implementation strategies in China and beyond. 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

This study asks whether, and through which firm-level channels, the green data center (GDC) pilot improves corporate sustainability, and it aims to quantify the policy effect and identify its transmission pathways. Under the dual shift in digital transformation and low-carbon transition, the energy demand and emissions generated by data centers have become important constraints on the sustainability performance of firms. This study regards the 2015 “National Green Data Center Pilot Work Plan” as a quasi-experimental policy shock. In terms of methods, using panel observations of Chinese A-share companies listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen during 2010–2024, a difference-in-differences (DID) strategy is employed to estimate the effect of GDC policy and to identify its transmission pathways for corporate sustainability. In terms of results, the empirical estimates indicate that the GDC pilot improves corporate sustainability, and the effect is robust to fixed-effects specifications, an instrumental-variable strategy, propensity-score matching, and a placebo test. Mechanism tests show that the pilot works through three channels: greater green innovation output and technical value, reduced financing frictions, and enhanced green governance capacity. Heterogeneity tests further show that the effect is stronger among firms with a higher level of digital transformation, a larger share of skilled technical personnel, stronger internal control, and greater executive green awareness, and that it is clearer where regional environmental regulation is stricter and market competition is more intense. In terms of conclusions, by integrating institutional pressure theory with the resource-based view, this study explains how the GDC pilot is translated into a firm-level sustainability advantage, and it offers evidence for refining GDC policy design and advancing the coordinated digital and green transformation of enterprises. The novelty of the study lies in providing firm-level causal evidence within a unified “pressure-to-capability” framework, in opening the three transmission channels, and in specifying the technological, organizational, and environmental conditions under which the effect is stronger. Full article

Background/Objectives: Advancing clinical competence within contemporary healthcare systems requires innovative educational approaches that bridge professional silos. While Interprofessional Education (IPE) is globally recognized as a mechanism to enhance teamwork, its implementation within resource-constrained public health systems marked by historical and structural inequalities remains poorly understood. This study explored the perspectives and experiences of healthcare professionals and clinical educators regarding how interprofessional education (IPE) may contribute to clinical competence in selected South African public hospitals. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 purposively selected healthcare professionals and clinical educators from nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, and social work. Interviews were conducted at selected hospitals following approval from hospital Chief Executive Officers. Data were collected by the researcher and co-researcher who is not part of this manuscript, audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Ethical clearance and institutional permissions were obtained, and informed consent was secured from all participants. Trustworthiness was ensured through credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability. Findings: The thematic analysis yielded two primary patterns: (1) the perceived capacity of IPE to enhance clinical decision-making, communication, and collaborative practices; (2) systemic and structural constraints, including rigid professional hierarchies, severe time constraints, and a lack of formally institutionalized opportunities. Conclusions: IPE is perceived as an important contributor to collaborative clinical competence, but its sustainability depends on explicit institutional mandates. These findings imply that hospital managers and curriculum developers must transition from ad hoc interactions to structured, short-duration interdisciplinary platforms to overcome operational bottlenecks. Full article

The global energy system is undergoing a structural transformation as countries pursue decarbonization while safeguarding energy security and economic resilience. However, renewable energy transition performance remains difficult to assess because existing evidence is often fragmented across single indicators, capacity-based measures, or isolated policy dimensions, while transition outcomes are shaped by multiple environmental, economic, institutional, technological, and cost-related factors. This study addresses this gap by benchmarking renewable energy transition performance across G7 economies through an integrated multi-criteria decision-making framework. The proposed methodology combines distance-based CRITIC (D-CRITIC) for objective criteria weighting and COBRA for compromise-based ranking to translate heterogeneous transition indicators into transparent cross-country comparisons. Using a secondary dataset covering fourteen indicators and seven G7 economies, the framework first derives objective criterion weights from cross-country dispersion and distance-based inter-criteria dependence, and then ranks countries by measuring their compromise distances from positive ideal, negative ideal, and average solutions. Using fourteen indicators spanning renewable energy penetration, environmental pressure, economic conditions, governance capacity, technology cost feasibility, and innovation capability, the D-CRITIC results identify CO₂ emissions per capita as the most informative criterion, followed by the share of electricity generated by bioenergy, the share of primary energy consumption from renewable sources, and solar LCOE. The COBRA-based assessment ranks Canada first, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United States, and France. Robustness and sensitivity analyses show broad consistency in ranking patterns across alternative MCDM methods, while weight perturbation tests confirm that the ranking remains unchanged under ±5% and ±10% relative changes in criterion weights. These findings indicate that stronger renewable energy transition performance is associated with balanced progress across emissions reduction, renewable energy penetration, technology cost feasibility, institutional capacity, and innovation-related conditions, rather than superiority in a single indicator. The proposed framework offers a transparent and replicable tool for renewable energy transition benchmarking and evidence-based policy learning, while the results should be interpreted as cross-sectional comparative performance under the selected dataset and criteria rather than as a causal evaluation of specific policy instruments. Full article

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of green supply chain management on organizational sustainability, where technology innovation and environmental performance are taken as mediating factors. The focus of this study was on the increasing need for better protection of the environment and the increasing demands of the sustainable development of industries, especially in developing countries, where there are limited empirical data available on sustainability activities. The collected sample comprised 387 managers and technologists from Libyan manufacturing companies using a survey instrument and a stratified random sampling technique. Validity scales were used, and the measurements were done using the five-point Likert scale. The data analysis involved the use of PLS-SEM, where SmartPLS 4.0 was used. It entailed the analysis of the measurement model as well as the structural model, with the bootstrapping being done for 5000 samples. The findings show that GSCM significantly affects the OS. Specifically, it has a positive impact on environmental performance (EP) and technological innovation (TI), which, in turn, enhance the OS. Among the mediating factors, the EP was found to be the strongest predictor and mediator of the OS, followed by TI. The developed model proved to have a high explanatory power, with a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.660. Thus, the integration of GSCM with innovation and environmental activities can lead to the successful achievement of sustainability objectives among manufacturing enterprises. The study’s limitations are associated with its cross-sectional design and its focus on managers. Future research could employ longitudinal designs and examine other contexts, such as digital transformation, the institutional environment, and the organizational culture. Full article

The concept of Smart Campus has emerged as a strategic approach for the digital transformation of higher education institutions through the integration of intelligent technologies and data-driven systems. This study presents a systematic literature review aimed at analyzing Smart Campus initiatives in Higher Education, focusing on technological infrastructures, architectural frameworks, sustainability dimensions, and educational implications. The review was conducted following a structured protocol across IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and SpringerLink, resulting in a final corpus of 45 peer-reviewed open-access articles published between 2015 and 2026. The findings reveal that Smart Campus ecosystems are primarily supported by Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, Big Data, and distributed computing architectures, enabling real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and improved institutional decision-making. While environmental sustainability is widely addressed through energy management systems, smart grids, intelligent tutoring systems and digital twins, social, governance, and cultural dimensions remain less developed. Additionally, challenges related to interoperability, data governance, and system integration persist across the literature. Based on these results, this study proposes the Smart Sustainable University City (SSUC) model as an integrative conceptual framework that reconceptualizes the university as a sustainable and intelligent micro-city ecosystem. The SSUC model integrates technological infrastructures, multidimensional sustainability, and educational innovation, providing a holistic approach to Smart Campus development. This research contributes to the advancement of Smart Campus studies by identifying key trends, gaps, and future directions for the design of scalable and sustainable intelligent educational environments. Full article