Search Results (507)

This empirical study examines how FinTech innovation is adopted, scaled, and sustained in a small and highly regulated market, such as Latvia. The triangulated analytical framework is applied in this study, integrating Rogers’ Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), De Meyer’s Innovation Ecosystem framework, and Value Chain Theory. This framework analyses the relationship between innovation characteristics, ecosystem relationships, and restructuring in the value chain. The data was collected from FinTech leaders, conventional financial institutions (banks), regulators, and associations, and was analysed thematically. Based on interviews with stakeholders, the relative advantage of Latvian FinTech lies in its flexibility, speed, and trialability; however, barriers to adoption result in complex regulation, an uneven distribution of technology in infrastructure, and differences in institutional readiness. The authors found strong collaboration among the ecosystem’s players but limited proactive regulatory engagement. This research provides a replicable model for cross-border or cross-sector analysis to assess the progress of innovation in regulatory and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration. Full article

Global urbanization has long been hampered by the “metrocentric priority” paradigm, with small towns—core hubs for urban–rural integration—severely undervalued in practical value. Amid China’s transition to high-quality urban–rural integration, unbalanced small town development has become a critical bottleneck for county-level factor flows, demanding systematic research to unlock their strategic value and resolve urban–rural dual predicaments. Existing studies suffer from scientific gaps including unidirectional linear cognition, insufficient complex system thinking, and weak interpretation of regional heterogeneity, remaining at the stage of static correlation description and failing to reveal the two-way reciprocal feedback logic between small towns and urban–rural integration. Meanwhile, the application of complex system theory in urban–rural research is still confined to theoretical narratives, which hinders the advancement of research from descriptive analysis to mechanism interpretation. Taking Henan Province (a typical agricultural and populous province reflecting China’s urban–rural development) as a case, this study builds a “local emergence–global synergy” framework based on complex system theory, establishes a dual indicator system for small towns’ multidimensional performance and county-level urban–rural integration, and integrates spatial statistical analysis, bidirectional regression and coupling coordination models to explore their cross-scale spatiotemporal evolution and reciprocal feedback during 2019–2023. Findings show the following: (1) The multidimensional performance of small towns presents a pattern characterized by polarized expansion of high-value regions and overall improvement of low-value regions, while county-level urban–rural integration evolves into a polycentric structure featured by central dominance and southern growth. (2) There is a significant two-way asymmetric relationship between small towns’ multidimensional performance and county-level urban–rural integration: the positive effect is significantly stronger than the reverse effect, and both direct impacts are significantly weakened after introducing economic variables, indicating that economic development serves as a key transmission channel. (3) The coupling mechanism presents three evolutionary paths with pronounced core–periphery spatial heterogeneity. Grounded in complex system theory, this study constructs a systemic analytical framework of “local emergence of small-town subsystems and global synergy of county-level systems”, verifies the core proposition of two-way interactions between subsystems and the overall system in the urban–rural complex giant system, and enriches the localized application of complex system theory and the urban–rural continuum theory in traditional agricultural regions of China. This study provides a foundational empirical paradigm for the in-depth exploration of nonlinear characteristics and threshold effects in future research. It offers theoretical support for policy formulation of county-level urban–rural integration in traditional agricultural regions of China, and it provides Chinese experiences for the Global South with similar contexts to explore inclusive urbanization pathways, promoting cross-cultural dialogue and practical transformation of urban–rural integration theory. Full article

This article focuses on the origin of “Wenqi Theory”—a core domain of ancient Chinese literary theory—specifically Cao Pi’s proposition that “literature is governed by qi”. It situates this concept within the 21st-century context of cultural globalization to engage in dialogue with Western aesthetics, aiming to revitalize the theory through mutual learning between Chinese and Western civilizations and integrate it into the system of modern transformation for classical literary theory. From the perspective of contemporary theoretical reconstruction, the paper analyzes the modern discourse paradigm of “Wenqi Theory”, traces its philosophical roots, and points out that the “clearness” or “murkiness” of “Wenqi” directly influences the aesthetic value of writing and the evaluation of objects. The study reveals that “Wenqi Theory” possesses rich connotations and unifies multiple dialectical relationships such as author and text, macrocosm and microcosm, personal temperament and acquired cultivation, content and form, fully embodying the distinctive integration of Chinese cultural tradition. Furthermore, the paper studies the lineage of life aesthetics from “Qi-Theory” in philosophy and science to “Wenqi Theory” in literary criticism, and its importance in constructing modern discourse paradigms. Meanwhile, by utilizing the categories of “the sublime” and “the beautiful” in Western aesthetics, it reactivates the contemporary aesthetic implications of “Wenqi Theory” within the context of globalization and cross-cultural exchange. The article endeavours to place this seemingly esoteric concept of classical Chinese literary theory within a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary philosophical horizon for systematic and theoretical interpretation, revealing its universal aesthetic value that transcends specific cultural backgrounds, thereby providing a possible paradigm for the modernization of traditional Chinese literary theory and its participation in international academic dialogue. Full article

Homestay tourism is increasingly recognised as a pathway to sustainable tourism development, especially in community-based destinations. This study examines the roles of local community attitudes and environmental sustainability in shaping perceived value and tourist satisfaction within Nigerian homestay tourism. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 386 homestay tourists across south-western Nigeria and analysed with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that local community attitude significantly boosts tourists’ perceived value, while environmental sustainability positively influences both perceived value and tourist satisfaction. However, perceived value does not strongly predict tourist satisfaction, and the moderating effect of community attitude on the relationship between value and satisfaction appears weak. This study contributes to the literature by integrating and extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) beyond behavioural intention, demonstrating its relevance to understanding the formation of value–satisfaction in community-based tourism. It also challenges dominant tourism assumptions by showing that perceived value may serve as a supporting rather than primary determinant of satisfaction in rural homestay settings. In practice, the findings suggest that homestay operators and policymakers should focus on environmental sustainability practices and on enhancing experiential service quality, rather than relying solely on value-for-money propositions. By providing context-specific evidence from sub-Saharan Africa, this study advances sustainable tourism scholarship and offers strategic insights for inclusive rural tourism development. Full article

Cryptocurrencies are widely recognised for catalysing distributed ledger technologies and tokenisation, innovations that are transforming payment systems globally. However, their role as money is often contested and the subject of intense academic and policy debate. Nevertheless, new taxonomies of money allocate a unique place for cryptocurrencies. Described based upon a few high-level features, cryptocurrencies, except for stablecoins, are assumed to be a uniform group that can indeed be studied and categorised as such. Moreover, the logic of their creation is often looked at from a broad decentralisation and disintermediation perspective and remains ambiguous and questionable at best. This paper reports the findings of a clinical investigation into the top 30 cryptocurrencies representing 95.5% of the total crypto market capitalisation. This study is primarily concerned with their logic of creation, and how they compare with that of fiat money and central bank digital currencies. The findings reveal that, unlike fiat money, and CBDCs, crypto mechanics depict a diverse assortment of logics. The evidence suggests that despite widespread technical innovations, the crypto ambition to provide an alternative to centrally controlled debt-based fiat money has managed to add a combination of transaction validation, mathematical guesswork, pseudo-randomness, and size dependent probability as alternative logics of creation and allocation. While centrally managed bank-controlled debt-based fiat money leaves a lot to be desired, protocol-managed, code-controlled, size-dependent probabilistic money does not seem like much of an upgrade. This paper addresses the limits of tokenisation as a transformational tool and argues that cryptocurrencies may have helped trigger improvements in the technology of money, but not in its logic of creation. Indeed, to compete in the emerging monetary landscape it has helped create, i.e., the ubiquitous tokenisation of debt and debt-based fiat money, the crypto revolution will have to extend its value proposition beyond technology and pseudo-randomness. Full article

Supply Chain Resilience (SCRES) is increasingly recognized as important for building sustainable operations; however, critical gaps remain in both research and practical application. First, there is a limited understanding of how actionable practices across supply chains can effectively foster SCRES. Second, a more comprehensive and dynamic model of SCRES is required to address today’s volatile environments. Third, the role of resilient cultures in achieving SCRES has not been sufficiently emphasized. To address these critical gaps, this study aims to develop a conceptual theory of SCRES by integrating fragmented literature into a cohesive framework. Grounded in General Systems Theory (GST), the proposed theory identifies inputs, such as human resources, socio-cultural values, institutional settings, and stakeholder requirements, leading to sustainability assumptions, value and belief subsystems, resilience mindset, sustainability practices, and ultimately SCRES as outputs. These dynamic elements are integrated into the model and elaborated through propositions. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed to guide future research and to encourage practitioners to enhance SCRES. Full article

Early adolescent sport dropout is commonly explained through individual psychological factors such as declining motivation, burnout, or identity conflict. While valuable, these accounts often assume parental logistical and financial support as a stable background condition. This conceptual article introduces the Utilitarian Shift as a novel, family-level structural mechanism that helps explain why sport dropout peaks during early adolescence. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory, sociological perspectives on family investment, and developmental psychology, the framework conceptualizes dropout as emerging from a developmentally timed recalibration of parental investment. During childhood, parental support is largely sustained by custodial and broad developmental incentives; however, as adolescents gain functional independence and perceived developmental returns decline, continued investment becomes conditional rather than assumed. At the same time, sport system demands intensify through specialization pressures, rising costs, and selection mechanisms such as the Relative Age Effect. The convergence of declining perceived returns and escalating costs prompts rational parental withdrawal of logistical and financial support, thereby dismantling the material infrastructure required for sustained participation. Importantly, this withdrawal precedes and reshapes adolescents’ capacity to enact motivation, agency, and resilience, rather than merely responding to disengagement. The article situates early adolescent sport dropout as a relational and structurally mediated process, shifting analytic attention away from athlete-centered deficit models toward dynamic parental decision-making within marketized youth sport systems. Practically, the framework highlights the need for sport organizations and governing bodies to redesign participation pathways and value propositions that sustain parental engagement during early adolescence, even in the absence of elite performance trajectories. Full article

The scientific activity and outputs of the neurosciences are fascinating and, for the most part, uncontroversial. However, there have been sustained claims that neuroscientific findings represent a powerful challenge to historic, orthodox Christian teaching concerning human ontology. While philosophers had long debated the “mind/brain” problem, the rise of “eliminative materialism” (in the specific form of “neurophilosophy”) in the last quarter of the 20th century evoked various responses to the proposition that a mature neuroscience would forever banish familiar “folk science” entities like beliefs and desires as well as immaterial souls or minds. These would all be shown to play no role in a thoroughly materialistic, mature, neuroscientific understanding of ourselves. One aspect of the response to such claims within Christian scholarship was a turn to non-reductive physicalism and theological monism prompting a reassessment of biblical teaching concerning human ontology, seeking a position that would be consistent both with neuroscience (or its alleged implications) and Christian teaching. The aim of this paper is to review neuroscientific, philosophical and theological developments in order to establish where theological anthropology currently stands. In part this requires an assessment of contemporary neuroscience (including the subfield of “consciousness studies”) because while the science continues to generate intriguing hypotheses and data, it has fallen some way short of the eliminative materialists’ hopes of forty years ago. Additionally, important methodological criticisms of the science have emerged concerning such issues as reproducibility and participant selection. This may have contributed to the twenty-first century resurgence of interest in the sort of dualism long a key component of theological orthodoxy, as well as highlighting the need for a reassertion of theological values, methods and perspectives. The apparent non-elimination of theology indicates a need to rebalance theological and neuroscientific perspectives in developing our understanding of the person. Full article

This article describes a problem-based learning (PBL) intervention enhanced by a smart classroom environment, which supported online interactions and class activities. The academic experience was centered on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Multidisciplinary teams of first-year students worked with private companies on briefs explicitly mapped to the SDGs, where instruction combined coaching sessions, peer feedback, and short videos that scaffolded problem analysis, value proposition design, business-model development, and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) prototyping. Once the student teams completed the activity, a qualitative survey using the Bipolar Laddering (BLA) tool was administered to analyze the suitability of the PBL methodology for the activity. BLA elicits respondent-generated positive and negative poles and associated justifications through open questions; unlike structured questionnaires, it does not condition answers and foregrounds the students’ own categories of meaning. Findings are reported as observed patterns across teams and briefs rather than as claims of impact. The analysis attends to the role of technological scaffolds for first-year university students. The contribution of this research is twofold: (1) providing a replicable course design that situates sustainability and the SDGs in a real-world context, positioning early-stage undergraduates to practice design thinking and entrepreneurial action within an active learning approach; and (2) preserving students’ voices through the BLA tool in an activity that links PBL implementation to SDG-oriented outcomes. Full article

Global employee work engagement remains critically low, with only 21% of employees engaged worldwide in 2024 and Switzerland ranking near the bottom in Europe at 8%. Existing theories and models that explain employee engagement (Reinforcement Theory, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, Equity Theory, Social Exchange Theory, Expectancy Theory, the Job Characteristics Model, Social Identity Theory, Self-Determination Theory, Conservation of Resource Theory, Psychological Empowerment Theory, Affective Events Theory, and the Job Demands–Resources Model) have been criticized for oversimplifying engagement processes, neglecting cultural and individual differences, and overemphasizing either intrinsic or extrinsic motivators. Addressing these gaps, this study proposes new principles for work engagement that integrate intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, cognitive and environmental variables, and dual employee–organization responsibilities. The framework emphasizes employee contributions (sincere effort, striving for excellence, ownership of meaningful tasks), organizational practices (fair treatment, participation, recognition, meaningful work), and effort–reward alignment as a central mediating mechanism. Moderating factors, including a culture of excellence and shared responsibility, ensure adaptability across diverse employee values, personalities, and motivational orientations. Ten propositions and associated measurement instruments are developed, grounded in established theories while operationalized for the Swiss organizational context, bridging theory and practice. The proposed framework offers a holistic, culturally sensitive, and actionable approach to enhancing engagement, providing both conceptual rigor and practical relevance for scholars and managers aiming to improve employee motivation and performance in complex, knowledge-based workplaces. Full article

The global swine industry suffers persistent economic losses and health challenges due to major viral pathogens such as African swine fever virus (ASFV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), classical swine fever virus (CSFV), and porcine circovirus (PCV). Traditional diagnostic methods, including virus isolation, serology, and quantitative PCR (qPCR), are limited by time, equipment requirements, and field applicability. Recent advances in CRISPR-based diagnostics, particularly those leveraging the collateral cleavage activity of Cas12a and Cas13a, have enabled rapid, sensitive, and field-deployable nucleic acid detection. This review outlines the principles of CRISPR-Cas12a/13a systems, their integration with isothermal amplification techniques, and their application in detecting major swine viruses. Cas12a-based platforms (e.g., DETECTR) and Cas13a-based systems (e.g., SHERLOCK) achieve detection limits as low as single-copy/μL within 25–60 min at 37 °C, offering high specificity and compatibility with visual readouts. Applications include ASFV, PRRSV, CSFV, PCV, foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), porcine rotavirus (PoRV), and porcine parvovirus 7 (PPV7). Despite significant advances, challenges remain, notably the reliance on nucleic acid extraction and the need for fully integrated “sample-in, result-out” systems. Ongoing innovations in extraction-free methods, lyophilized reagents, and multiplex detection will strengthen the role of CRISPR diagnostics in swine disease surveillance and control. From an application standpoint, the technology offers a low-capital, field-adaptable alternative to qPCR, with its value proposition rooted in early outbreak containment and loss prevention. Its adoption pathway is expected to vary across production systems—serving as a sentinel tool in intensive settings, a leapfrogging solution in rapidly intensifying regions, and through shared-service models in resource-limited contexts. However, translation to routine use still requires overcoming standardization hurdles, regulatory validation, and workflow integration. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to analyze recent publications in scientific journals on the circular economy and energy through a systematic review using the PRISMA method and to propose a framework. In recent years, the circular economy has been widely recognized as a viable solution to address environmental and economic challenges. The transition to renewable sources, such as solar, wind, and biomass, is essential for a clean and balanced energy market. The methodology adopted was a systematic review of the scientific literature using the PRISMA method, which aims to categorize published research, evaluating it in terms of its objectives, methodologies, results, and conclusions. To this end, full articles published in scientific journals between 2021 and 2025 on the subject were identified. The analysis of the selected studies reveals an intrinsic relationship between the circular economy and sustainable energy, particularly in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7 and 12. The results highlight that circular economy practices, such as waste recovery, bioenergy generation, and gasification, not only demonstrate their ability to create sustainable value chains but also contribute to reducing environmental impacts, promoting energy efficiency, and present a proposed framework for analysis and proposition. Full article

Entrepreneurship aims to contribute significantly to economic development, a trend that has been progressively growing over time. Nonetheless, female entrepreneurs continue to face substantial challenges, including limited access to financial resources and sociocultural barriers. The influence of Entrepreneurial Coaching (EC) offers a valuable perspective for analysing entrepreneurial self-efficacy and business growth. Grounded in Systems Theory, the research examines how EC interventions can bolster the confidence of women entrepreneurs and facilitate adaptive responses to business challenges. Utilising a quantitative, explanatory research design, the study employed convenience and snowball sampling to recruit 257 women entrepreneurs who received coaching. The relationships among EC, the six dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and business growth outcomes were analysed utilising Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Although seven hypotheses were proposed, only four were supported, whereas three were refuted. The findings show a positive correlation between EC and business growth. The supported hypothesis concerning coping with unexpected challenges, investor relations, and core purpose (value proposition) was accepted. Conversely, hypotheses regarding new product and market development, innovative environments, and the development of critical human resources were not supported. This research extends the existing literature on Entrepreneurial Coaching by demonstrating that the capacity to navigate unforeseen challenges, manage investor relations, and adhere to core purposes is correlated with business growth among women entrepreneurs. Thus, the significance of the study lies in the integration of Entrepreneurial Coaching, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, and Business Growth. Full article

This study explores the factors that influence Gen Z consumers’ green purchasing behavior, addressing a gap in current research by combining the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Theory of Consumption Values, and Generational Theory, and applying them to the touristic accommodation context. Based on a quantitative survey of Gen Z tourists from Spain, Norway, and Lithuania, the study examined traditional constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior alongside subjective knowledge, environmental consciousness, perceived value, and green trust. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the results indicate a significant role for price-based functional value and emotional value in shaping Gen Z’s attitudes toward sustainable accommodation. Furthermore, subjective knowledge and environmental consciousness strengthen green trust, which in turn contributes to a more positive attitude toward sustainable touristic options. Attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly predict behavioral intention, while both perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention directly influence actual purchasing behavior. The findings suggest that tourism marketers should focus on enhancing price-related and emotionally meaningful value propositions, while also fostering trust through clear communication of environmental performance. Overall, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of the drivers behind Gen Z’s sustainable accommodation choices and provides practical implications for promoting environmentally responsible tourism. Full article

The increasing penetration of wind energy has led to reduced system inertia and heightened sensitivity to dynamic disturbances in modern power systems. This paper proposes a Newton–Raphson-Based Optimizer (NRBO) for tuning proportional, integral, and feedforward gains of a grid-forming converter applied to a wind energy conversion system operating in a low-inertia environment. The study considers an aggregated wind farm modeled as a single equivalent DFIG-based wind turbine connected to an infinite bus, with detailed dynamic representations of the converter control loops, synchronous generator dynamics, and network interactions formulated in the dq reference frame. The grid-forming converter operates in a grid-connected mode, regulating voltage and active–reactive power exchange. The NRBO algorithm is employed to optimize a composite objective function defined in terms of voltage deviation and active–reactive power mismatches. Performance is evaluated under two representative scenarios: small-signal disturbances induced by wind torque variations and short-duration symmetrical voltage disturbances of 20 ms. Comparative results demonstrate that NRBO achieves lower objective values, faster transient recovery, and reduced oscillatory behavior compared with Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization, Philosophical Proposition Optimizer, and Exponential Distribution Optimization. Statistical analyses over multiple independent runs confirm the robustness and consistency of NRBO through significantly reduced performance dispersion. The findings indicate that the proposed optimization framework provides an effective simulation-based approach for enhancing the transient performance of grid-forming wind energy converters in low-inertia systems, with potential relevance for supporting stable operation under increased renewable penetration. Improving the reliability and controllability of wind-dominated power grids enhances the delivery of cost-effective, cleaner, and more resilient energy systems, aiding in expanding sustainable electricity access in alignment with SDG7. Full article