Search Results (4,673)

Growing global challenges have made it imperative to evaluate economic activities not only in terms of economic growth but also from the perspectives of environmental and social well-being. Within this context, Women’s Production and Business Cooperatives have emerged as critical collective initiatives that support local development. In this study, “Women’s Production and Business Cooperatives” refer to cooperatives established and predominantly managed by women to collectively engage in the production and commercialization of goods and services, generate income and employment opportunities for their members, and promote women’s economic and social empowerment. Hereafter, these organizations are referred to as “women’s cooperatives.” However, studies that comprehensively examine the sustainability practices of women’s cooperatives through the framework of Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line (economic, social, and environmental sustainability) remain limited. From the perspective of Stakeholder Theory, cooperatives are regarded as organizations that extend beyond the pursuit of economic profit by creating value for both internal and external stakeholders, including women, local communities, the environment, consumers, and public institutions. Accordingly, this study aims to provide an in-depth examination of the sustainability practices adopted by women’s cooperatives within these three dimensions, as well as to identify the challenges they encounter. This study adopted a qualitative research design, utilizing in-depth interviews with seven presidents and managers representing women’s cooperatives. The findings suggest that zero-waste practices, the adoption of circular economy principles, and the transition toward green agriculture constitute the primary sustainability initiatives, whereas high technology and packaging costs, together with insufficient institutional collaboration, represent the major challenges to the environmental sustainability. Within the economic sustainability dimension, the findings indicate that the participating cooperatives have increasingly shifted toward industrial production standards, value-added by-products, and business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategies. Nevertheless, rising input and logistics costs, together with unfair competition, continue to pose significant challenges. As relates to social sustainability, the findings highlight intergenerational transmission of cultural heritage, psychosocial recovery, efforts to challenge social prejudice, inter-cooperative solidarity, and the allocation of resources for social benefit, including scholarship support. Overall, the findings reveal that these cooperatives make meaningful contributions to multidimensional sustainability and stakeholder well-being, thereby providing valuable empirical insights into the sustainability literature. Full article

Planetary health recognizes that human health, well-being, and sustainable development depend fundamentally on the integrity of natural ecosystems that regulate climate, maintain biodiversity, secure food and water resources, and protect populations from environmental risks. As environmental degradation increasingly threatens this life-support system, there is a growing need for economic indicators that explicitly recognize the value of natural capital alongside conventional measures of development. Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) has emerged as comprehensive metric for quantifying the monetary value of ecosystem services and informing evidence-based policy. This study estimates India’s GEP for the period 2011–2012 to 2020–2021 using an ecosystem accounting framework aligned with the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA). The analysis integrates provisioning services (timber, non-timber forest products, fuelwood, and fisheries), regulating services (carbon sequestration), and cultural services (nature-based tourism) using market price, replacement cost, and benefit transfer methods based on secondary data from national and published sources. India’s total GEP is estimated at US$207.05 billion, highlighting the substantial but under-recognized contribution of ecosystems to the national economy and societal well-being. Regulating services dominate GDP, with carbon sequestration alone accounting for US$166.73 billion, followed by provisioning services, while cultural services contribute a relatively smaller share. These findings reveal a significant gap between ecosystem contributions and their representation in conventional metrics such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), underscoring the limitations of growth-centric development frameworks. By integrating ecosystem values into national accounting, GEP provides a practical tool for advancing planetary health, strengthening climate resilience, conserving biodiversity, supporting ecosystem-based management, and guiding policies that align economic development with ecological sustainability and long-term human well-being. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the hospitality industry at an unprecedented pace. However, existing hospitality research has overwhelmingly concentrated on customer-facing applications, including service robots, chatbots, personalization, and revenue management, while largely overlooking the internal operational systems that sustain hotel performance. As a result, the concept of AI maturity within back-of-house hotel operations remains theoretically undefined, fragmented across functional domains, and lacks an integrated framework for assessment. This study addresses this critical gap by asking a fundamental research question: What does AI maturity actually mean for hotel back-of-house operations? Drawing upon a systematic literature review following the PRISMA protocol, this study synthesizes evidence from 18 studies spanning the interdisciplinary fields of hospitality management, operations management, information systems, and artificial intelligence to examine how AI is transforming core internal hotel functions. The review identifies current applications, implementation patterns, organizational enablers, barriers to adoption, and emerging trends across human resource management, procurement, finance and accounting, inventory management, housekeeping planning, maintenance, energy management, and managerial decision support. Building on these findings, the study develops the Artificial Intelligence Maturity in Back-of-House Operations (AIM-BoH) Framework, a domain-specific conceptual framework designed to conceptualize AI maturity across hotel back-of-house functions. The framework conceptualizes AI maturity as a multidimensional organizational capability encompassing technological adoption, process automation, decision intelligence, data readiness, human–AI collaboration, governance and ethical preparedness, and measurable operational outcomes. By moving beyond technology-centric perspectives, the framework provides a comprehensive model for understanding how AI creates organizational value through the integration of internal hotel processes. The proposed framework advances hospitality literature by establishing a common theoretical foundation for understanding AI maturity in internal hotel operations while offering hotel executives a structured conceptual lens for considering organizational capability development in the planning of digital transformation initiatives. The article concludes by proposing a research agenda for the empirical validation, refinement, and cross-cultural application of the AIM-BoH Framework, positioning it as a reference model for future hospitality AI research and practice. Full article

Background: Patient complaints provide critical insights into healthcare quality and patient experience, serving as a direct feedback mechanism for service improvement. Objective: This study aimed to characterize major complaint categories, departmental distribution, personnel attribution, and resolution effectiveness of patient complaints at a large Chinese tertiary hospital using empirical data from 2022 to 2024. Methods: A retrospective observational design was conducted on complaint records (2022: n = 187; 2023: n = 192; 2024: n = 201) at Xiangya Hospital. All data presented are empirically observed records from the hospital’s internal complaint management system; no hypothetical projections or modelled data are included. Complaints were independently categorized into six themes by two researchers (Cohen’s κ = 0.84). Resolution effectiveness was coded by the hospital’s complaints office. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were performed using R software. A complementary SWOT analysis was conducted to assess institutional complaint management capacity. Results: Service attitude (25.1% in 2022, 23.4% in 2023, 21.9% in 2024) and communication (20.3%, 18.8%, 17.2%) constituted the largest complaint categories, both showing significant declining trends (χ²_trend = 6.54, df = 2, p = 0.038 for communication; χ²_trend = 5.98, df = 2, p = 0.045 for service attitude). The top three departments with the highest complaint volumes were General Surgery (16.6% in 2022), Gastroenterology (12.8%), and Otolaryngology (9.6%). Seasonal analysis revealed that the third quarter (July–September) was the peak complaint period (29.4% in 2022). The overall effective resolution rate improved from 62.3% in 2022 to 67.7% in 2023 and 71.5% in 2024 (χ²_trend = 8.12, df = 2, p = 0.017). Treatment outcome complaints showed a relative increase from 18.2% in 2022 to 20.1% in 2024, while billing/administrative complaints increased from 15.0% to 17.4%. Conclusion: Systematic analysis of patient complaints effectively identifies recurrent issues and informs quality improvement strategies. A balanced focus on both “soft skills” (e.g., communication, empathy) and “hard system” factors (e.g., processes, resources) is essential. Continuous monitoring and responsive feedback mechanisms are crucial for sustaining improvements in patient safety and satisfaction. Full article

Tourism is a major driver of the global economy, accounting for approximately 10% of global GDP; however, the literature highlights that unsustainable tourism growth can lead to economic volatility and overdependence, making sustainable approaches essential for ensuring long-term stability and resilience. This paper presents the development of a nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) framework that incorporates key state variables, such as the number of tourists and average spending per tourist, along with control variables including investment in facilities and services and human capital development, in addition to the formulation of the cost function and system dynamics. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed MPC framework effectively manages the complex interactions inherent in tourism systems, achieving sustained growth in tourist arrivals, spending, and employment without instability, stabilizing experience quality despite congestion effects, maintaining a controlled decline in affordability within feasible bounds, and producing smooth, interpretable policy trajectories consistent with institutional constraints. To evaluate the robustness of the framework and identify the most critical governing parameters, a sensitivity analysis was conducted using the Morris screening method. Full article

The textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industry generates significant environmental burdens across its entire supply chain. As the global textile recycling market expands, a systematic framework for classifying exhibitors and assessing their sustainability-related characteristics is increasingly needed. This study analyzes exhibitors at the 2026 Textiles Recycling Expo USA, the first specialized textile recycling exhibition in North America, to develop an exploratory sustainability assessment framework. Using qualitative content analysis, 78 exhibiting companies were categorized into four functional groups: (1) Hard-tech Infrastructure, (2) Chemical & Material Innovation, (3) Logistics & Waste Management, and (4) Knowledge & Support Services. Based on a review of sustainability assessment literature in the TAF industry, a four-dimensional framework was developed, encompassing Material Renewability, Process Sustainability, End-of-Life Options, and Technical & Digital Attributes. For a preliminary pilot application, 11 companies were purposively selected and evaluated by eight experts using defined key performance indicators (KPIs). The total scores ranged from 10.3 to 16.3 out of 20, with ESO RECYCLING Società Benefit receiving the highest overall score (16.3), followed by MARGASA (15.8). Across the evaluated companies, Technical & Digital Attributes generally showed relatively lower scores than the other dimensions, indicating comparatively limited publicly evidenced digital traceability capabilities. These findings demonstrate the preliminary applicability of the proposed framework for characterizing heterogeneous exhibitors while highlighting the need for further refinement and validation using larger and more diverse samples. Full article

Climate-related production variability and increasing market uncertainty pose significant challenges for Mediterranean olive systems. This study examines the long-term production dynamics, market vulnerability, and ecological functions of Mediterranean olive systems under climate change through an integrated assessment combining statistical production analysis, descriptive economic analysis, and a structured ecological literature synthesis. Olive and olive oil production trends were analyzed for Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal using FAOSTAT data (1960–2020), together with European Commission statistics (2010/11–2021/22) on production, prices, and trade. The results reveal significant long-term production trends, with greater year-to-year fluctuations observed in several countries, particularly after 2010. These fluctuations may reflect the combined influence of climatic variability and structural changes affecting Mediterranean agricultural systems, although their relative contribution was beyond the scope of the present study. Despite maintaining a leading position in global olive oil production and trade, the European Union recorded a 52% increase in export volume and a 125% increase in export value, highlighting both market expansion and increasing exposure to international market dynamics. The ecological synthesis indicates that traditional and low-input olive groves provide important ecosystem functions, including biodiversity conservation, soil protection, water regulation, and soil-carbon maintenance, supporting the long-term sustainability of Mediterranean olive systems. Overall, the findings highlight the need for integrated adaptation strategies combining environmentally sound land management, value-chain coordination, and policy support to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Mediterranean olive systems. Full article

Regional ecological security patterns provide a spatial basis for coordinating ecosystem conservation, restoration, and sustainable land management in ecologically fragile basins. However, the joint consideration of ecosystem multifunctionality, landscape connectivity, and existing protected areas remains limited in many ecological security pattern studies. Taking the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River Basin (IMYRB) as the study area, this study assessed nine provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services using the 2020 land-use map and other spatial datasets. Ecological sources were identified through multi-service hotspot analysis, while ecological corridors and pinch points were delineated using the minimum cumulative resistance model and circuit theory; the identified sources were further compared spatially with existing nature reserves. The analysis identified 33 ecological sources covering 34,264.28 km² (23.47% of the basin) and 80 ecological corridors. A pronounced east–west contrast was evident: ecological sources in the east were generally larger and more aggregated, whereas those in the west were smaller and more fragmented. Key pinch points were concentrated in narrow linkage zones between adjacent ecological sources in the eastern IMYRB, indicating critical connectivity bottlenecks. Only 9.7% of the ecological source area overlapped with existing nature reserves, revealing a substantial conservation gap. These findings highlight the need to prioritize the protection of uncovered ecological sources and maintain critical connectivity zones, providing a spatial basis for protected-area optimization and ecological restoration planning in the IMYRB. Full article

Agroforestry integrates environmental, climatic, productive, and socioeconomic dimensions. The position of rural livelihoods within its scientific structure remains still characterized. This study evaluated the temporal evolution, conceptual organization, domain representation, and geographical and economic distribution of global agroforestry research using 5711 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 1979 and 2025. Scientific production increased markedly, with 4133 articles published during 2013 to 2025, accounting for 72.37% of the corpus. Thematic evolution showed a shift from early agronomic topics toward biodiversity, ecosystem services, carbon sequestration, and climate change. Multiple Correspondence Analysis of harmonized Author Keywords identified five clusters, with the first two dimensions explaining 39.76% of total inertia. Livelihood-related terms were embedded within the central agroforestry and sustainability cluster under the analytical configuration applied, and this pattern was maintained after excluding corpus-defining search-anchor terms. Production, silvopastoral, and agronomic management had the highest proportional contribution (57.92%), whereas environmental and biodiversity (43.88%), livelihoods and socioeconomic (43.81%), and climate, carbon and soil dimensions (42.50%) occurred at comparable proportions. Fractional affiliation analysis indicated that all domains occurred across regions and income groups, with livelihoods and socioeconomic research showing larger fractional contributions from Africa and lower-middle-income countries. Full article

The Portuguese agricultural sector has suffered a profound transformation over recent decades, evolving from traditional to increasingly technology-driven systems. Throughout this transition, climate and meteorological conditions have remained key drivers of agricultural productivity. Today, Portuguese agriculture faces growing challenges associated with climate change, including more frequent and intense heatwaves, droughts, and floods. Consequently, reliable climate information and decision-support tools are essential for strengthening resilience and promoting sustainable management. To address these needs, the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) developed two complementary climate service platforms for mainland Portugal: AgroClima and DataClima. The first provides observations from IPMA’s meteorological network, ECMWF forecasts, and agroclimatic indicators such as temperature, precipitation, soil water, and so-called agroclimatic warnings. The second offers historical climate information including WRFv4.2 simulations dynamically downscaled from ERA5 (1981–present), in situ observations (1941–present), and climate normals. Evaluation of the WRFv4.2 regionalization against IPMA observations shows a systematic underestimation of precipitation and air temperature, while mean wind speed is generally overestimated. Despite these biases, the downscaled WRFv4.2 dataset demonstrates sufficient accuracy to support operational climate services, providing valuable help for environmental monitoring, climate adaptation, and decision-making in agriculture and water resource management across Portugal. Full article

Community forestry is widely promoted as a mechanism for improving rural livelihoods while strengthening sustainable forest management. However, empirical evidence on the income effects of community forestry remains limited in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between Community Forestry Associations (CFAs) and household income from the chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) value chain in Ahmad Aba District, Paktia Province, Afghanistan. Using survey data from 365 forest-dependent households, the study applied descriptive statistics, reliability assessment, exploratory principal component analysis, Chi-square tests, Spearman correlations, and OLS regression with HC3 heteroscedasticity-robust standard errors. CFA-enabled market access and CFA-supported training were positively and statistically significantly associated with annual pine-nut income, whereas meeting participation and perceived fair pricing were not statistically significant. Households reporting CFA-enabled market access had approximately 88% higher expected income, while households receiving training had approximately 50% higher expected income, controlling for demographic characteristics. The findings demonstrate that community forestry institutions in fragile and market-constrained settings are more likely to generate measurable livelihood benefits when participatory governance is combined with direct market and capacity-building services. Full article

The evolution of land-use types in mining cities is critical for balancing resource exploitation and ecological sustainability. Taking Jungar Banner as a case study, this study uses remote sensing imagery and auxiliary data (2010–2025) to examine spatiotemporal land-use changes, applies the OPGD model to detect driving factors, and integrates a Markov chain with an optimized NEGM-MOP-PLUS model to project 2030 land-use patterns under multiple scenarios. Results show that grassland shrank markedly, while cropland and built-up land expanded—the latter reaching 395.75 km² by 2025. After 2020, core mining areas became more contiguous, while peripheral zones showed increased fragmentation, with built-up land expansion becoming the dominant trend. Driving forces shifted from natural constraints to anthropogenic dominance: natural factors prevailed in 2010, mining impacts took the lead by 2015, and a mining–precipitation dual-core structure emerged by 2020. Future projections indicate continued grassland and bare land reduction, alongside water and built-up land expansion across all scenarios. Among them, the CDS, which balances economic and ecological objectives, is identified as the optimal spatial planning direction based on ecosystem service value (ESV) assessment. These findings offer practical guidance for managing land-use transitions in arid and semi-arid resource-based mining regions. Full article

Walking tourism is increasingly supported by a wide range of digital technologies that are crucial for mitigating environmental impacts and promoting sustainable territorial development, yet their adoption remains fragmented and rarely interpreted within a unified infrastructure perspective. While systemic infrastructure perspectives are well-established in smart city and transport literature, existing studies on walking trails still tend to focus on individual tools or user-oriented applications. Drawing upon broader smart mobility concepts, this paper proposes a system-level framework, the SmartTrail Framework (STF), for the classification, functional interpretation and integration assessment of digital technologies in walking trail infrastructures. The framework is conceived as a transferable analytical and operational instrument applicable both to academic literature and to real-world trail systems, supporting infrastructure assessment, planning and digital maturity evaluation. Following an initial bibliometric analysis of a broader Scopus dataset comprising 1697 records, a structured literature review of 253 publications was conducted to operationalise and illustrate the framework through the systematic classification of digital technologies, the mapping of functional requirements, and the assessment of Integration Levels (IL). The STF integrates three analytical dimensions: a technology domain taxonomy (six categories), a functional requirement model (five infrastructure functions) and an IL scheme (IL0–IL3) that characterises the degree of systemic coherence among digital components. The results reveal a critical functional imbalance in current digitalisation: while user-oriented navigation and information services are widely adopted, backend infrastructure functions, particularly safety and operational logistics, remain severely underdeveloped, keeping most trail systems trapped in low-integration configurations. Applied to real-world trail systems, the framework enables the identification of architectural gaps, the prioritisation of integration investments and the definition of development pathways towards intelligent trail ecosystems. The paper aims to contribute to field research by providing a structured interpretative framework for understanding digital technologies as infrastructural components of walking trails. This supports a shift from tool-based thinking to system-based infrastructure design and offers practical implications for planners, managers and policymakers involved in the development of smart, resilient and environmentally sustainable trail infrastructures. Full article

The integration of Artificial Intelligence is transforming luxury hospitality, forcing hotels to balance advanced technology with human-centered management to sustain service excellence. Yet how Human-Centered Leadership shapes Sustained Service Performance through employees’ AI readiness and engagement remains largely unexamined. This study develops and tests an integrated framework addressing that gap. Survey data were collected from 500 employees of four- and five-star luxury hotels in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Lebanon, and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Human-Centered Leadership was positively associated with both Sustained Service Performance and AI readiness. AI readiness predicted employee engagement, which in turn predicted Sustained Service Performance. AI readiness and employee engagement sequentially mediated the link between Human-Centered Leadership and Sustained Service Performance (β = 0.160, p < 0.001). Digital Organizational Support significantly strengthened the Human-Centered Leadership–AI readiness relationship (β = 0.137, p = 0.004). The study advances hospitality leadership research by establishing Human-Centered Leadership as a driver of Sustained Service Performance in AI-enabled settings, and by revealing the sequential psychological mechanism, AI readiness followed by engagement, through which it operates. The findings help luxury hotel managers combine Human-Centered Leadership with digital support to sustain service excellence during AI-driven transformation. Full article

Floodplains sustain fisheries, water supply, and climate regulation, and their services depend on the water regime—the extent, depth, frequency, duration, and connectivity of inundation—which dams, drought, and land-use change are altering. Remote sensing and GIS can supply evidence for managing these systems sustainably, yet the methods remain dispersed, and their fit to management needs has not been assessed. Following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and a publicly posted protocol, we retrieved peer-reviewed studies from Dimensions and OpenAlex (2004–2026), searched on 13 July 2026 and updated on 14 August 2026, and screened them in two stages with two reviewers. We charted data by study area, sensors, methods, variables, and drivers, then mapped them onto the decisions and Sustainable Development Goal targets they inform. Of 137 studies, 53% appeared since 2021; 2026 is only partially covered. Inundation extent dominates (83%), mapped mainly with Landsat (36%) and radar, whereas water level (28%), connectivity (21%), inundation frequency (14%), storage (13%), hydroperiod (12%), and depth (8%) remain scarce, as does evidence from data-scarce transboundary basins, including Central Asia. The attributes most needed for environmental-flow, allocation, and restoration decisions thus appear to be the least observed—a decision–observation mismatch that shapes monitoring priorities. Full article