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In this case study, we examine how a citrus peel valorising company based in the Netherlands was able to adopt a circular business model while navigating regulatory, managerial, and supply chain-related barriers.

In-depth, semi-structured interviews with key personnel in the company, notes from field observations, photographs of the production process, and documents from a legal judgement served as data for this single, qualitative case study. Data were coded inductively using the in vivo technique and were further developed into four themes and a case description.

Results from our study indicate that the regulatory and political contexts in the Netherlands were critical to the company’s success. Like in the case of most fruitful industrial symbioses, partnerships founded on mutual trust and economically appealing value propositions played a crucial role in ensuring commercial viability. Collaborating with larger corporations and maintaining transparent communication with stakeholders were also significant contributing factors. Lastly, employees’ outlook towards circularity combined with their willingness to learn new skills were important driving factors as well.

In addition to expanding the scholarship on the adoption of circular business models, this research offers novel insights to policymakers and practitioners. It provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of public awareness, adaptable legislation, and harmonised policy goals for supporting sustainable entrepreneurship in the circular economy.

The primary aim of this paper is to illuminate the critical issue of the degree awarding gap in the UK, which significantly impacts students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups. By conducting a systematic review of existing literature following the PRISMA protocol, this study seeks to uncover the complex web of explanatory factors that mediate the relationship between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and degree awarding disparities. Addressing this gap is vital for promoting social justice, enhancing the economy, safeguarding the reputation of UK universities, and adhering to legal responsibilities. This paper endeavours to provide a comprehensive understanding of the underlying causes of degree awarding gaps and offer evidence-based recommendations for the higher education sector to mitigate these disparities.

This study employs a systematic review design, adhering to the PRISMA protocol, to meticulously analyse the existing body of literature concerning the degree awarding gap in UK higher education. By systematically gathering, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant studies, the review aims to identify and understand the multifaceted factors mediating the link between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and the disparities observed in degree awarding. This methodological approach ensures a rigorous and transparent examination of the literature, enabling the identification of both the breadth and depth of research on the topic. Through this design, the paper aspires to uncover nuanced insights into the mechanisms driving degree awarding gaps.

The review’s findings reveal that degree awarding gaps in UK universities are influenced by a constellation of factors, highlighting the complexity of this issue. Key among these are unconscious bias, limited student engagement opportunities with academic staff, institutional racism, inadequate support systems, and a scarcity of social and cultural capital. These factors collectively contribute to significant disparities in degree outcomes, disproportionately disadvantaging students from lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups. The evidence suggests that institutional practices and culture play a pivotal role in either exacerbating or alleviating these disparities, indicating the need for targeted interventions to address the root causes of degree awarding gaps.

One strength of conducting a systematic review is its rigorous and meticulous nature, which ensures that the process is carefully planned and executed. This comprehensive approach allows for the elimination of biases, as the review systematically gathers and analyses existing literature on the topic. By adhering to a structured methodology, the systematic review enhances the validity and reliability of the findings, providing a robust and unbiased synthesis of the available evidence. This strength lends credibility to the research and reinforces the confidence in the conclusions drawn from the review.

The practical implications arising from this information indicate that universities need to address the identified issues directly by implementing supportive strategies and interventions. By doing so, they can create a learning environment that is more inclusive and equitable, allowing all students to unlock their full potential. This may involve measures such as raising awareness about unconscious bias, promoting engagement between academic staff and students, implementing anti-racist policies, establishing comprehensive support systems, and actively fostering social and cultural capital. Such practical actions will contribute to reducing the degree awarding gaps and promoting equal opportunities for all students, ultimately leading to a more equitable and successful educational experience.

The social implications derived from this information are significant. By implementing supportive strategies and interventions to address the identified issues, universities can contribute to creating a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This has the potential to have a transformative impact on society by providing equal opportunities for all students to unlock their full potential. By raising awareness about unconscious bias and implementing anti-racist policies, universities can foster a more diverse and inclusive community. Promoting engagement between academic staff and students and establishing comprehensive support systems can enhance social cohesion and create a sense of belonging. Ultimately, these efforts can lead to reduced degree awarding gaps and contribute to a more equitable and successful educational experience, positively influencing broader social equality and cohesion.

This paper contributes significantly to the literature by offering a comprehensive, systematic review of the factors contributing to the degree awarding gap in UK higher education, highlighting its originality and value. By focusing on the interplay between contextual indicators, institutional culture, and degree awarding disparities, the study provides novel insights into how these dynamics contribute to educational inequities. Furthermore, the evidence-based recommendations for institutional interventions presented in this paper furnish the higher education sector with actionable strategies to foster a more inclusive and equitable learning environment. This work not only advances academic understanding of degree awarding gaps but also offers practical value to policymakers and educational institutions aiming to enhance social justice in higher education.

This paper aims to identify and empirically analyze useful and applicable metrics for measuring and managing the sustainability performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

To achieve the objective of the paper, potential metrics were adopted from previous research related to industrial sustainability and an empirical analysis was carried to assess the applicability of the metrics by collecting empirical data from Italian footwear SMEs using a structured questionnaire. The SMEs were selected using a convenience sampling method.

The results of the within-case analysis and the cross-case analysis indicate that the majority of the metrics were found to be useful and applicable to each of the SMEs and across the SMEs, respectively. These metrics emphasized measuring industrial sustainability performance related to financial benefits, costs and market competitiveness for the economic sustainability dimension; resources for the environmental sustainability dimension; and customers, employees and the community for the social sustainability dimension.

Apart from the within-case analysis and cross-case analysis, it was not possible to conduct statistical analysis since a small number of SMEs were accessible to collect empirical data.

The findings of the paper have considerable academic, managerial and policy implications and will provide a theoretical basis for future research on measuring and managing industrial sustainability performance. By providing a set of empirically supported metrics based on the triple bottom line approach (i.e. economic, environmental and social metrics), this paper contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of industrial sustainability performance measurement.

This study aims to present a state-of-the-art review of building information modelling (BIM) in the Swedish construction practice with a focus on wood construction. It focuses on examining the extent, maturity and actual practices of BIM in the Swedish wood construction industry, by analysing practitioners’ perspectives on the current state of BIM and its perceived benefits.

A qualitative approach was selected, given the study’s exploratory character. Initially, an extensive review was undertaken to examine the current state of BIM utilisation and its associated advantages within the construction industry. Subsequently, empirical data were acquired through semi-structured interviews featuring open-ended questions, aimed at comprehensively assessing the prevailing extent of BIM integration within the Swedish wood construction sector.

The research concluded that the wood construction industry in Sweden is shifting towards BIM on different levels, where in some cases, the level of implementation is still modest. It should be emphasised that the wood construction industry in Sweden is not realising the full potential of BIM. The industry is still using a combination of BIM and traditional methods, thus, limiting the benefits that full BIM implementation could offer the industry.

This study provided empirical evidence on the current perceptions and state of practice of the Swedish wood construction industry regarding BIM maturity.

This paper aims to investigate the process by which performative technologies (PTs), in this case accreditation work in a business school, take form and how humans engage in making up such practices. It studies how academics come to accept and even identify with the quantitative representations of themselves in a translation process.

The research involved a longitudinal, self-ethnographic case study that followed the accreditation process of one Nordic business school from 2015 to 2021.

The findings show how the PT pushed for different engagements in various phases of the translation process. Early in the translation process, the PT promoted engagement because of self-realization and the ability for academics to proactively influence the prospective competitive milieu. However, as academic qualities became fabricated into numbers, the PT was able to request compliance, but also to induce self-reflection and self-discipline by forcing academics to compare themselves to set qualities and measures.

The paper advances the field by linking five phases of the translation process, problematization, fabrication, materialization, commensuration and stabilization, to a discussion of why academics come to accept and identify with the quantitative representations of themselves. The results highlight that the materialization phase appears to be the critical point at which calculative practices become persuasive and start influencing academics’ thoughts and actions.

Halal certification is an acknowledgment of the halalness of a product or service issued by a halal regulator based on Islamic law. This study aims to investigate the intentions of consumers and regulators toward blockchain-based halal certification. Blockchain is useful for storing and verifying halal certificates, thereby increasing trust in products or services because the public cannot change or access data once it is stored.

This study uses a triangulation approach by distributing online questionnaires to consumers as a research instrument of a quantitative approach processed with smart partial least squares. Meanwhile, the qualitative approach is carried out through observation, in-depth interviews with the Ministry of Religion’s Halal Product Assurance Organizing Agency (BPJPH) and Halal Examination Agency (LPH), and forum group discussions (FGDs) with several related parties.

The observation results show that most consumers expect the government to provide an easy-to-use application to check halal food products and restaurants. Consumers’ intention to use this technology is influenced directly by attitudes and indirectly by their beliefs. Furthermore, the results of interviews and FGDs reported that LPH was not ready to apply blockchain technology, while BPJPH strongly supported adopting blockchain technology in the certification process.

This finding recommends that the Indonesian government apply blockchain technology to gain transparency and accountability regarding the halal product process.

This study fills the research gap by observing three perspectives from different stakeholders and using a triangulation approach to analyze the need for adoption of blockchain-based halal certification of halal food products.

This article focuses on the assessment of entrepreneurship competence by selected vocational teachers in Italy. The exploratory research question addresses the extent to which entrepreneurship assessments are competence based, and the research seeks to identify fully fledged assessment programmes with both a formative and summative component, and the use of assessment rubrics. It also explores the extent to which entrepreneurship competence is referred to in school documentation and later assessed, and the tools and strategies used for such assessment.

This case study is part of a larger European research project promoted by Cedefop; in Italy it focused on six selected vocational IVET and CVET programmes and apprenticeship schemes. It used a wide range of instruments to ensure triangulation and multiple perspectives: analysed policy documents and undertook online interviews with experts and policy makers. At VET providers' premises it deployed: analysis of school documents; observations of learning environments; interviews and focus groups with (in schools) teachers, directors and vice directors, learners and alumni (in companies) instructors, company tutors and employers, apprentices and alumni.

Assessment tasks were rarely embedded within fully fledged assessment programmes involving both formative and summative tasks, and assessment rubric for grading. Most of the time, entrepreneurship programmes lacked self-assessment, peer assessment and structured feedback and did not involve learners in the assessment process. Some instructors coached the students, but undertook no clear formative assessment. These findings suggest institutions have a testing culture with regard to assessment, at the level of both policy and practice. In most cases, entrepreneurship competence was not directly assessed, and learning outcomes were only loosely related to entrepreneurship.

One limitation concerned the selection of the VET providers: these were chosen not on a casual basis, but because they ran programmes that were relevant to the development of entrepreneurship competence.

At the policy level, there is a need for new guidelines on competence development and assessment in VET, guidelines that are more aligned with educational research on competence development. To ensure the development of entrepreneurship competence, educators need in-service training and a community of practice.

So far, the literature has concentrated on entrepreneurship education at the tertiary level. Little is known about how VET instructors assess entrepreneurship competence. This study updates the picture of policy and practice in Italy, illustrating how entrepreneurship competence is developed in selected IVET and CVET programmes and apprenticeships.

Prefabricated products are continually entering the building construction market; yet, the decision to use prefabricated products in a construction project is based mostly on personal preferences and the evaluation of direct costs. Researchers and practitioners have debated appropriate measurement systems for evaluating the impacts of prefabricated products and for comparing them with conventional on-site construction practices. The more advanced, cost–benefit approach to evaluating prefabricated products often inspires controversy because it may generate inaccurate results when converting non-monetary effects into costs. As prefabrication may affect multiple organisations and product subsystems, the method used to decide on production methods should consider multiple direct and indirect impacts, including nonmonetary ones. Thus, this study aims to develop a multi-criteria method to evaluate both the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabrication solutions to facilitate decision-making on whether to use prefabricated products.

Drawing upon a literature review, this research suggests a multi-criteria method that combines the choosing-by-advantage approach with a cost–benefit analysis. The method was presented for validation in focus group discussions and tested in a case involving a prefabricated bathroom.

The analysis indicates that the method helps a project’s stakeholders communicate about the relative merits of prefabrication and conventional construction while facilitating the final decision of whether to use prefabrication.

This research contributes a method of evaluating the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabricated products. The research underlines the need to evaluate the diverse benefits and sacrifices that stakeholder face when considering production methods in construction.

This study is exploratory in nature and designed to address poorly documented issues in the literature. The dimensions of regional distribution or spatial organisation of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), including the potential role of clusters, have only recently been addressed, with most available studies focusing on advanced, mainly Western European countries. Although developing fast, the literature on I4.0 in other countries, such as the Central and Eastern European or post-transition economies like Poland, needs to pay more attention to the spatial distribution or geographical and organisational aspects. In response to the identified knowledge gap, this paper aims to identify the role of clusters in the transformation towards I4.0. This explains why clusters may matter for advancing the fourth digital transformation, how advanced in implementing I4.0 solutions are the residents of Polish clusters and how they perceive the advantages of cluster membership for such implementation. Finally, it seeks to formulate policy recommendations based on the evidence gathered.

The methodology used in this study combines quantitative analysis of secondary data from a cluster benchmarking survey with a case study approach. The benchmarking survey, conducted by the polish agency for enterprise development in 2021, gathered responses from 435 cluster members and 41 cluster managers, representing an estimated 57% of the current clusters in Poland. In addition to quantitative analysis, a case study approach was used, incorporating primary sources such as interview with cluster managers and surveys of cluster members, as well as secondary sources like company documents and information from cluster organisation websites. Statistical analysis involved assessing the relationship between technology implementation and the adoption of management systems, as well as exploring potential correlations between technology use and company characteristics such as revenue, export revenue share and number of employees using Pearson correlation coefficient.

In Poland, implementing I4.0 technologies by cluster companies is still modest. The cluster has influenced the use of I4.0 technologies in 23% of surveyed companies. Every second surveyed company declared a positive impact of a cluster on technological advancement. The use of I4.0 technologies is not correlated with the revenue of clustered companies. A rather bleak picture emerges from the results, revealing a need for more interest among cluster members in advancing I4.0 technologies. This may be due to a comfortable situation in which firms still enjoy alternative competitive advantages that do not force them to seek new advanced advantages brought about by I4.0. It also reflects the sober approach and awareness of associated high costs and necessary investments, which are paramount and prevent successful I4.0 implementation.

The limitations inherent in this study reflect the scarcity of the available data. This paper draws on the elementary survey administered centrally and is confined by the type of questions asked. The empirical section focuses on an important, though only one selected sector of the economy – the automotive industry. Nevertheless, the diagnosis of the Polish cluster’s role in advancing I4.0 should complement the existing literature.

The exploratory study concludes with policy recommendations and sets the stage for more detailed studies. Amidst the research’s limitations, this study pioneers a path for future comprehensive investigations, enabling a deeper understanding of Polish clusters’ maturity in I4.0 adoption. By comparing the authors’ analysis of the Polish Automotive Group (PGM) cluster with existing literature, the authors uncover a distinct disparity between the theoretical prominence of cluster catalysis and the current Polish reality. Future detailed dedicated enquiries will address these constraints and provide a more comprehensive map of Polish clusters’ I4.0 maturity.

This study identifies patterns of I4.0 implementation and diagnoses the role of clusters in the transformation towards I4.0. It investigates how advanced is the adoption of I4.0 solutions among the residents of Polish clusters and how they perceive the advantages of cluster membership for such transformation. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the automotive sector. Comparing the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the Polish PGM cluster in this case study to those from the literature on the subject, it becomes clear that the catalytic role of clusters in the implementation of I4.0 technologies by enterprises, as emphasised in the literature, is not yet fully reflected in the Polish reality.

Consumer perception of corporate brand equity has primarily focused on product brand dimensions, neglecting considerations at the firm analysis level. Assessing corporate brands requires different criteria relevant to the competitiveness of companies, such as their prominence, management and meeting society’s demands. In this sense, this study aims to develop and validate a scale of corporate brand equity founded on consumer perceptions, transcending industry boundaries and comparing its relationship with companies' market share.

The authors used an integrative approach to clarify the construct’s domain, building on previous measures. They took several steps to select appropriate items, refine the measure, validate it through reliability tests and convergent and discriminant analyses, test the validity of the second-order formative structure of corporate brand equity and assess associations between first-order factors, the second-order factor and market share.

The model identifies three first-order dimensions of corporate brands (presence, outstanding management and responsible) that shape the second-order factor (corporate brand equity). They are directly related, but not proportionally, to market share, contributing to the general and joint assessment of the company’s competitive performance considering the consumer.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive measurement model of corporate brand equity that considers the firm level of analysis, combines metrics from previous research on corporate brand evaluation criteria and includes consumer perceptions of the company’s competitiveness, unifying branding theory with the theory of the marketing firm.