Search Results (95)

The diversification of rural development actors in China has promoted a shift from state-centered governance toward collaborative approaches, with rural operation emerging as an important pathway for resource mobilization and value creation. While existing studies have examined multi-actor participation, less attention has been paid to the institutional and socio-economic mechanisms through which polycentric governance shapes rural operation, particularly regarding market rationalities, contractual arrangements, and local capacity formation. This study develops an analytical framework conceptualizing rural polycentric governance as the interaction of institutional support, market embedding, and local agency, and examines rural operation transformation through changes in actors, rights relations, and industrial structures. Drawing on a case study of Huashu Village in Nanjing, this study explores how polycentric governance reshapes rural operation over time. The findings reveal a transition from traditional collective operation to government-led project-based operation, and ultimately to market-embedded polycentric collaborative operation. Specifically, institutional support, through property-rights reforms, policy incentives, and normative arrangements, provides foundations for multi-actor collaboration. Market embedding, through external capital, market-oriented management rationalities, and contractual norms, reshapes resource allocation and cooperative relationships. Local agency, through grassroots organization building, local resource activation, and actor capacity development, transforms external resources into endogenous development capabilities. Through continuous interaction and feedback, these dimensions jointly promote diversified actors, clarified rights arrangements, and integrated industrial development. This study expands the theoretical boundaries of rural polycentric governance by incorporating implicit governance dimensions, refining theoretical explanations of how polycentric governance enables rural operation, and providing empirical evidence on its complexity and dynamics for policy formulation. Full article

How SME development affects poverty reduction and income inequality remains a contested issue, particularly in transition economies characterized by structural and regional disparities. Existing studies often treat SMEs as a homogeneous phenomenon. As a result, evidence on the relationship between SME development, multidimensional poverty, and income inequality remains limited. This study examines the relationship between SME development, multidimensional poverty, and income inequality across 15 regions of Kazakhstan during 2005–2024 using panel data and Driscoll–Kraay estimators. Poverty is assessed using incidence, depth, and severity. SME development is measured using indicators capturing quantitative expansion and qualitative contribution. The findings identify unemployment and income inequality as the most robust drivers of poverty. Income growth reduces poverty depth and severity but is also associated with higher income inequality. SME development exhibits heterogeneous socioeconomic effects. Indicators reflecting SME value added are associated with lower poverty and inequality, whereas increases in the number of enterprises or SME output do not necessarily improve social outcomes and may be linked to higher poverty intensity. The results indicate that the developmental impact of SMEs depends on productivity, value creation, and structural transformation rather than enterprise quantity, highlighting the importance of quality-oriented SME policies for inclusive growth. Full article

Mushrooms, forest fruits and game meat represent three major categories of forest foods in Czechia. This study compares their acquisition mechanisms, market visibility and value-chain positions and provides reference-year, category-specific physical estimates and stage-specific indicative economic values. The analysis integrates pooled national survey data on mushrooms and forest fruits from 2021 to 2025 (N = 5025), a 2022 survey extension on game meat (N = 1000), qualitative interviews with 12 stakeholders in the Czech game-meat value chain conducted by the research team between 2023 and 2024, and official hunting statistics. In the 2024 reference year, mushrooms and forest fruits were estimated through household-collected quantities, whereas game meat was estimated as gross carcass-weight equivalent at the primary procurement stage. The three categories together represented an indicative stage-specific economic value of approximately EUR 324.3 million, but their physical quantities are interpreted as product-specific estimates rather than as directly equivalent units of provisioning value. Mushrooms showed the strongest household-collection profile: 70.4% of respondents reported collection and 20.1% reported purchase. Forest fruits displayed a more mixed acquisition pattern, with particularly high purchase shares for blueberries and raspberries. Collection and purchase were largely independent for mushrooms, whereas complementary relationships prevailed among forest fruits. Game meat had an indicative primary procurement value of EUR 33.57 million and reflected a regulated hunting-based value chain. The findings identify a differentiated forest-food system in which socio-economic significance is shaped by product-specific relationships among household acquisition, market access, value-chain organisation and stage-specific value creation. Full article

Industry 5.0, deploying artificial intelligence (AI) at its core, reframes industrial evolution from a predominantly technology- and efficiency-driven innovation model toward a virtuously human-centric, sustainable, and resilient model of value creation by organizations. This review paper, based on an interdisciplinary literature review, explores how AI, within the Industry 5.0 paradigm, reshapes economic logics, the understanding of information asymmetry, and sustainability trajectories, and the implications for entrepreneurial strategy and business model innovation, which demand the development of a new form of organizational intelligence. While the literature suggests that AI, when deployed within a mature Industry 5.0 framework, could generate synergistic economic and sustainability values through circular, human-centered, and digitally augmented systems, human–AI co-intelligence gains are contingent on insights that address systems quality, reskilling, ethics, and reorienting resources from overly short-term profit maximization toward wisdom for long-term socio-ecological, climate resilience, and ESG performance. This study introduces a framework for tackling organizational sustainability dynamics, anticipating the emergence of new industries and the retransformation of enduring ones amid creative destruction in the AI era. Future studies to fill knowledge gaps and implications for human competencies that will enhance organizational intelligence are articulated. Full article

This research analysed how circular economy practices in the cacao value chain foster socio-economic empowerment and create sustainable employment for Awajún women in Imaza, Amazonas. The overall objective was to determine the association of circular practices with the empowerment and economic benefits of women producers. A quantitative approach was used, employing a non-experimental cross-sectional design and a sample of 55 women, who were administered a structured questionnaire; the data were processed using Spearman’s correlations and multiple linear regression models with robust standard errors. The main results showed a positive and significant correlation between circular economy practices and income and employment generation (rho = 0.702; p < 0.001). Furthermore, the econometric models confirmed that these practices are positively associated with socio-economic empowerment and economic benefits. It is concluded that the circular economy constitutes a viable strategy for improving the living conditions of Awajún women, although its scale up requires overcoming financial, technical and time-related barriers. Full article

This study aims to identify the defining characteristics of pocket parks and evaluate their ecological and socio-economic significance by analyzing their contribution to sustainable development, in alignment with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This research highlights the benefits of green spaces and pocket parks in relation to the three core pillars of sustainability, mapping them directly onto specific SDG Targets and indicators. This framework informs the creation of a streamlined, early design indicators toolkit. The toolkit’s practical utility is then evaluated and validated through its application to four real-world case studies, where the performance of pocket parks is assessed regarding their contributions to urban sustainability. The selected case studies represent diverse morphological typologies and operational attributes. To embed sustainability benefits into the active planning process, their spatial design criteria were cross-examined to identify structural interconnections, which were subsequently translated into a parametric model. Each design parameter is analyzed with emphasis on the relationships among spatial elements rather than on their absolute metric values. The study develops a procedural design sequence that, when applied to any site boundary, generates the essential spatial characteristics defining a pocket park. The results demonstrate that this parametric approach establishes the adaptability and effectiveness of pocket parks as versatile urban green spaces, regardless of available plot size or geometric configuration. Full article

Sustainable regional development requires understanding how entrepreneurship and unemployment co-evolve. This study investigates this relationship across Türkiye’s 26 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 regions over the 2007–2024 period, testing the Schumpeter (pull) and Refugee (push) effects with controls for regional economic and financial determinants. Using the Dynamic Common Correlated Effects estimator, which accounts for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity across regions, the analysis provides evidence supporting both effects, while revealing that neither effect emerges instantaneously. The Schumpeter effect operates with an approximately one-year lag, reflecting the time new ventures require to complete organizational formation and generate net labor demand, with a creative destruction dynamic appearing from the second year onward. The Refugee effect materializes within one to two years, as unemployed individuals exhaust formal job search alternatives before turning to necessity entrepreneurship. Critically, the findings identify banking sector intermediation efficiency, rather than aggregate credit volume, as a more consistent financial channel for sustainable labor market outcomes, and document a pattern consistent with jobless growth, in which regional output expansion has not systematically translated into unemployment reduction. These results call for employment- and entrepreneurship-linked policy instruments that are timed to the lag structure of both effects and targeted at transforming necessity-driven activities into sustainable, high-value-added structures, rather than merely incentivizing firm entry. Aligning regional financial intermediation with employment creation can foster long-term socio-economic sustainability and promote sustainable regional development. Full article

The transition toward Circular Economy (CE) models has become a central challenge for organizations seeking to enhance sustainability performance and long-term value creation. While existing research has extensively examined technological, regulatory, and operational drivers of CE adoption, limited attention has been paid to the internal organizational orientations that enable firms to implement circular practices in a coherent and sustained manner. Addressing this gap, this study examines the role of Sustainable Marketing Orientation (SMO) as an organizational driver of CE adoption. Drawing on survey data collected from 368 micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises operating in environmentally relevant sectors in an emerging economy context, the study employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a hierarchical model in which SMO is conceptualized as a multidimensional organizational orientation composed of ethical capabilities, social commitment, and strategic integration. The results demonstrate that SMO significantly and positively influences CE adoption, explaining 41.5% of the variance. Among the dimensions of SMO, social commitment and strategic integration emerge as particularly influential in supporting circular economy practices. The findings contribute to the literature by empirically validating SMO as a higher-order organizational orientation and by identifying it as a key antecedent of CE adoption. Beyond theoretical contributions, the study offers practical insights for managers and policymakers, highlighting the importance of integrating sustainability into organizational strategy, stakeholder relationships, and performance measurement systems to facilitate circular economy transitions. Overall, the results position sustainable marketing orientation as a critical organizational mechanism supporting systemic sustainability and socio-economic transitions. Full article

The present article examines the pioneering case of blockchain adoption in local government by the City of Lugano and discusses how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) may support institutional innovation beyond pilot experimentation. The Swiss municipality of Lugano has developed an integrated strategy that combines permissioned blockchain infrastructure (SwissLedger), a municipal payment token (LVGA), digital literacy and payment innovation initiatives (Plan ₿), and the issuance of fully digital municipal bonds. By adopting a case study methodology, the analysis draws on quantitative indicators of platform usage, operational data, and a sentiment analysis of media coverage to document technological developments and socio-economic patterns correlated with the initiative. SwissLedger has been adopted as an infrastructural experiment for secure document notarization, public administration digital services, open-finance interoperability with optional compliance tools, and sector-specific applications. Furthermore, the Plan ₿ initiative emerges as a communication catalyst, generating international visibility and positive sentiment, alongside descriptive statistics consistent with local economic activity. Lugano’s digital bond issuances also attracted attention to the potential of how DLT could support settlement processes and transparency in public finance. Overall, the evidence gathered suggests that DLT adoption in local government is not merely a technological upgrade, but rather part of a broader organizational transformation process. The case findings also outline a set of potentially transferable elements for municipalities seeking to align innovation with public value creation. Full article

Culinary micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a critical role in socio-economic sustainability, yet operate under heightened risks related to product quality, food safety, and business reputation. Although research on collaboration and co-creation often portrays openness as a desirable organizational orientation, limited attention has been paid to how MSMEs strategically regulate openness across their value-chain activities. This study explores how culinary MSMEs organize collaboration and negotiate boundaries between openness and closure. Using a qualitative multi-case approach, the findings show that openness is not uniformly applied but governed by a logic of selective openness shaped by risk exposure, accountability demands, and organizational capacity constraints. Core production activities function as protected zones characterized by strong closure, whereas market-facing functions allow more curated forms of external involvement. By reframing openness as a risk-based governance practice rather than a default collaboration strategy, this study provides a process-level explanation of how MSMEs sustain collaboration without compromising quality control, accountability, and organizational viability. The findings contribute to theorizing boundary governance in small enterprises and offer practical insights for designing collaborative strategies under conditions of risk and constraint. Full article

Value is the result of the combined, conscious, and creative actions of caring, which promote sustainable prosperity. Despite its centrality in marketing theory, value is treated in the literature as a self-evident, abstract term denoting concepts as diverse as the desire to acquire goods or enjoy services, the benefits derived from using a product, the price of an object, or a customer’s contribution to business profits. This approach leads to amoral marketing decision-making focused on extracting value from stakeholders and accumulating it in the form of shareholder wealth. In this framework, the negative consequences of marketing actions for society and the natural environment are simply dismissed as externalities. This is not sustainable as it degrades the environment and increases wealth and human welfare disparities between individuals, groups, and societies. Drawing on conceptualisations of value from the fields of philosophy, semiotics, and economics, value is here defined as the result of the combined, conscious, and creative actions of caring which promote sustainable prosperity. As such, value is understood to be co-created by the interactions of various stakeholders and positioned as the link between individuals, companies, markets, society, and the natural environment. Marketing theory has traditionally viewed value creation and exchange as the result of dyadic interactions. The socioeconomic and technological milieu of the 21st century, however, creates a business ecosystem characterised by digitalisation, interconnectivity, and decentralisation which means that, the number of participants in value co-creation networks is increasing and potentially tending towards infinity. Consequently, marketing is reconceptualised as the values-driven mechanism for value formation, valuation, symbolism, exchange facilitation, and integration of the resources required for value co-creation and distribution aiming at contributing to sustainable prosperity. Virtuous marketers and mindful marketing practice can ensure the optimal use of resources and the maximisation and equitable distribution of welfare in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to continue to generate and enjoy value. Thus, by placing value at the centre of the business ecosystem, marketing contributes to sustainable prosperity. Full article

The economic and legal framework is transforming with the change in the globalization paradigm, accompanied by structural and quantitative changes in intellectual property assessment. This study aims to justify commercialization and analyze the innovation management of intellectual property as a fundamental socio-economic institution and improve theoretical perspectives on its current development processes. This study surveyed 100 companies to identify the factors determining intellectual property use and its commercialization. The analysis of the structure of intellectual property revealed a 14% decrease in trademark applications and a 2% increase in patent applications. This research highlights the specifics of intellectual property generation through machine learning: mass creation of new objects, reduction in innovation product development cycles, increased accuracy of market demand forecasting, and adaptive problem solving. An analysis of budget expenditures on intellectual property in the EU based on the specific value of patent activity identified five classification groups (ranging from 0.17 to 0.23% to 1.23–2.26% of GDP), each exhibiting different economic activities and innovation intensity. Full article

This study uses the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a quantitative approach, with interval regression and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models to assess the non-use values of the Zhongjieshan and Liuheng Marine Ranches. The aim of the study is to quantify the monetary value of non-market benefits, examine socioeconomic influences on stakeholders’ Willingness to Pay (WTP), and provide a basis for ecological compensation mechanisms. Zhongjieshan’s annual non-use value is estimated at 28.99–30.81 million CNY (Chinese Yuan) (median WTP 74.33–78.99 CNY per person), while Liuheng’s value is higher at 108–111 million CNY (median WTP 150.20–153.89 CNY per person), suggesting greater ecological and recreational potential at Liuheng. The results show robust model performance, with minimal WTP differences. WTP for Liuheng is primarily influenced by income and environmental awareness, while Zhongjieshan shows a distance-decay effect. Visitor profiles reveal that Zhongjieshan attracts younger, moderately educated visitors, while Liuheng draws more highly educated, economically diverse groups. These findings suggest that Zhongjieshan should prioritize community-based co-management, while Liuheng should focus on high-quality, technology-driven ecological leisure development. The study also emphasizes the need for targeted awareness campaigns and supports the creation of diversified ecological compensation mechanisms beyond government funding. Full article

This study systematically examines the policy and technological pathways for the sustainable development of China’s 3D printing industry under the “Dual Carbon” goals. A three-dimensional sustainability framework is developed, integrating resource efficiency, environmental performance, and socio-economic value. Based on this framework, the study conducts a full-process analysis covering design, material preparation, manufacturing, post-processing, use, and recycling stages. The analysis identifies key carbon-reduction mechanisms of 3D printing, including material savings, reduced energy consumption, lightweight-enabled emission reduction, and distributed manufacturing. A comparative analysis of China, the European Union, and the United States reveals major constraints in China’s 3D printing sector, particularly in top-level policy design, standardization systems, legal frameworks, industrial coordination, and low-carbon core technologies. Based on these findings, the study proposes a dual-driven development pathway integrating policy optimization and technological innovation. From an institutional perspective, this pathway emphasizes green policy incentives, including strategic planning, standard setting, green finance, and collaborative governance. From a technological perspective, it highlights the importance of low-carbon material development, refined energy-efficiency management, life-cycle carbon accounting platforms, and value creation across the product life cycle. Overall, the study demonstrates that effective policy–technology synergy is essential for transforming theoretical carbon-reduction potential into scalable and practical outcomes, providing a systematic analytical framework for academic research and actionable guidance for policymakers and industry stakeholders. Full article

Cultural heritage digitization (CHD) has become a strategic priority in European cultural and digital policies, driving efforts to enhance accessibility, preservation, and economic engagement. As digital technologies reshape the cultural sector, CHD increasingly intersects with the digital economy, fostering new forms of value creation. Despite this, empirical research on the socioeconomic drivers of CHD remains limited, with existing studies focused mainly on conceptual discussions, expert-based assessments, or institutional case studies. This study systematically analyzes the socioeconomic drivers shaping CHD across Europe using large-scale data from ENUMERATE and Eurostat. An econometric approach combining Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) is employed to capture both linear and non-linear relationships. The findings show that CHD is shaped by a complex interplay of economic capacity, digital infrastructure, institutional strategy, and societal demand, rather than by targeted funding initiatives alone. By bridging conceptual discussions and systematic econometric analysis, the study provides a robust empirical framework for understanding the external conditions that influence CHD and offers evidence-based insights to support more targeted digital transformation strategies in the European cultural sector. Full article