Search results

In an urban environment, different types of actors (individuals, households, community groups, institutions, governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), community-based organizations (CBO) and public and private organizations, etc.) play critical roles in enhancing urban resilience to adapt to the impacts of climate change. To identify and prioritize aspects of climate resilience planning, this study aims to examine the potential impacts of climate change on diverse urban systems and evaluate the capacities of various actors to adapt to climatic stress.

This research selects Mongla, a coastal as well as port town in south-western Bangladesh that faces climate risks including frequent cyclones, storm surges and salinity intrusion due to sea-level and temperature rise, as reported in the National Climate Vulnerability Index 2018. This research uses the methodology proposed by ICLEI South Asia’s Climate Resilient Cities Action Plan and accesses different urban actors’ adaptive capacity for contributing to enhancing climate resilience based on three broad characteristics: the capacity to organize and respond, availability of resources and access to information. The cumulative scores of these characteristics aid in determining the climate adaptive capacity of each urban actor.

The identified 53 actors are grouped into four categories: government (local and national); international/local NGOs, CBOs and associations; community representatives and private sectors and groups and individuals. The group of NGOs, CBOs and associations has a higher overall adaptive potential than all other actor groups, according to the study. When it comes to practicing adaptive capacity, government institutions are in the second-highest position. But, the Khulna development authority, the government agency that is in charge of overseeing all forms of urban development, scored poorly on all fragile urban systems. However, the performance of the fourth group of urban actors is very subpar when it comes to adapting to climatic stress, which emphasizes the need for focused interventions.

Variations in adaptive capacities to climate change across different actors are particularly useful for targeting actors with lower levels of climate adaptive capacities in Mongla town.

This paper particularly addresses the research gap in assessing the adapting capacity of urban actors in Mongla port-town. Policymakers and practitioners can create and carry out targeted interventions that address the particular needs and concerns of vulnerable actors by making use of the insights obtained from this kind of study, thereby assisting in the development of climate resilience in any urban area.

This article focusses on the hybrid strategy, a simultaneous combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategy. The study aims to examine the impact of hybrid strategy on firm performance through its anticipated positive effects on process and product innovation. In addition, we study the moderating role of adaptive capacity in the direct relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation.

Structural equation modelling was used to analyse 1,842 Spanish firms with fewer than 250 employees. We randomly selected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Spain from the Spanish Central Business Directory (2021) database. The overall sample design was based on stratified sampling.

We found that hybrid strategy is positively related to firm performance and to process and product innovation. Additionally, in firms implementing hybrid strategies, process innovation fostered firm performance. Finally, adaptive capacity strengthened the relationships of hybrid strategy with process and product innovation. This sheds light on how and when hybrid strategy is most effective in fostering SME performance.

We highlight that SMEs need to establish strategies that use diverse resources and capabilities and not just generate competitive advantage using one strategy (cost leadership or differentiation strategy). This requires an agile and flexible systems and structures.

Our research provides novel results by proposing the adoption of hybrid strategies instead of pure strategies (cost leadership and differentiation strategy) as a way for SMEs to survive during crises. Unlike “stuck in the middle” strategies, our study demonstrates the importance of hybrid strategies in a comprehensive model that links them to innovation and firm performance, with adaptive capacity being a determining factor.

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent disruptive events are affecting firms’ operations and supply chain networks on a large scale, causing disturbances in supply, demand, production and logistics activities. Although supply chain resilience (SCR) research has received large attention in recent years, the purpose of this paper is to offer an original contribution by exploring how complex configurations and interactions between SCR strategies and capacities can lead to resilience.

This study investigates the configurations of SCR strategies and capacities using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

First, the findings reveal different SCR strategy configurations through the lens of absorptive, reactive and restorative capacities to achieve resilience. Second, this study applies the contingent resource-based view (CRBV) perspective to interpret how organizations can achieve resilience before, during and after a disruptive event. Third, it offers an analysis of different groups of organizations, based on the adoption of different SCR strategies and capacities.

This study identifies a set of equifinal SCR strategies and capacity configurations that can be implemented to cope with a disruptive event and lead to resilience. It also enriches the research addressing the consecutive phases of SCR investments, developing the CRBV perspective. In our results, five solutions describe organizations that invest in absorptive capacities, representing an ex ante readiness.

The Agents of Change program is a two-year, project-based learning program to develop Extension Professionals’ capacity to engage in Adaptive and Transformative Leadership. Its primary goal is to develop the capacity of Extension Professionals to engage in leadership to create more diverse, equitable, inclusive and just Extension programs and community change initiatives. This manuscript describes the program and an initial evaluation and results.

Results of an evaluation of the first year of the program indicate that regular training sessions and support are appropriate for leadership development and that Extension Professionals are using the learning, awareness and tools from this program to address challenges with Adaptive and Transformative Leadership elements. Also, Extension professionals demonstrated commitment to personal growth, community engagement and understanding of their multifaceted roles as change agents.

Participants are sharing resources from the program with colleagues, leading meetings differently, questioning the status quo and pushing others to try new ways forward.

Although the international education sector is one of the significant contributors to the Australian economy, international students continue to experience various forms of social inequalities. This paper aims to focus on overseas doctoral researchers (ODRs) – candidates and graduates – and capture their experiences.

Drawing on the adaptive capacity framework, an exploratory qualitative study was carried out based on interviews with doctoral candidates (n = 6), doctoral graduates (n = 5) and supervisors (n = 4) in various Business Schools in Australian universities. Given this study’s exploratory and interpretive nature, the research question was deliberately broad: what insights can be generated for key stakeholders by capturing the experiences of ODRs in Australia through the lens of adaptive capacity?

Findings indicate that financial pressure, social exclusion and cultural bias were the three main challenges ODRs had to overcome; female ODRs perceived that supervisors and faculties often overlooked the mental health aspects; and better pedagogy of research supervision, institutional support and national policies are needed to develop adaptive ODRs.

If ODRs are to become an integral part of the knowledge economy, key stakeholders need to focus on support mechanisms for these researchers. That way, Australian universities can not only improve their image of treating international students only as a part of the revenue flow but also enhance the educational experiences of ODRs and set them up for future success.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it demonstrates the utility of the adaptive capacity lens to capture the experiences of ODRs. Second, it discusses research implications for the three key stakeholders: supervisors, higher education institutions and the government.

The authors examine the factors affecting households' resilience capacities and the impacts of these capacities on household consumption and crop commercialization.

The authors use panel data of 1,648 households from Thailand collected in three years, 2010, 2013 and 2016. The authors employ an econometric model with an instrumental variable approach to address endogenous issues.

The study results show that the experience of shocks in previous years positively correlates with households' savings per capita and income diversification. Further, a better absorptive capacity in the form of better savings and a better adaptive capacity in the form of higher income diversification have a significant and positive influence on household expenditure per capita and crop commercialization.

Development policies and programs aiming to improve income, increase savings and provide income diversification opportunities are strongly recommended.

The authors provide empirical evidence on the determinants of resilience strategies and their impacts on local food commercialization from a country in the middle-income group.

This study aims to explain the existing adaptation practices in an urbanized sub-region in the lower Chao Phraya River basin (CPRB) across different scales and dimensions. It offers an overview of water hazards in urban areas along the river basin to discover ways to deal with and recover from hazards via understanding the implications of existing and potential practice for the mitigation of hydrological hazards.

First, this study collected current adaptation strategies and measures from interview, focus group discussion, workshop organization, etc. to get the current adaptation strategies/measures for the whole CPRB and each specific area. Second, this study identified a set of criteria for evaluation from review of current publications and official reports. Then, the current adaptation strategies/measures were examined through a set of criteria to obtain the current situation of existing practices. Finally, analysis of key challenges and opportunities was done to propose supporting guidelines to reduce hydrological risks and incorporate further adaptation measures needed to boost resilience in the area.

Adaptation methods should focus on mixed adaptation, which integrates structural, social, organizational and natural adaptation, and to develop multi-dimensional collaboration. The adaption strategy has restricted the usage of some technologies and technical know-how, particularly in the area of climate change. As a result, intentional adaptation to become more inventive is required, to reduce hazards and improve disaster-response capacity. The various adaptation measures should be more integrated or more adaptive and to achieve greater cohesion and mutual benefit of individual measures, such as community-based adaptation or community-driven slum upgrading.

Hydrological risks are wreaking havoc on social, economic and environmental elements, particularly river flood, flash flood and drought in the Asia-Pacific region. Twenty-two existing adaptation options were evaluated with evaluation criteria such as scales of risks/impacts reduction, benefits of environmental and socio-economic and institutional aspects. The findings highlight the current situation of existing practices, key challenges and opportunities, which emphasized on natural-based solutions, raising knowledge and awareness and lessons learned on adaptation of hydrological risks. The existing adaptation measures will be suggested as supporting guidelines and master plans to minimize the hydrological risks.

The purpose of this study is to identify the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia and help decision-makers in developing and prioritising effective adaptive strategies and actions.

A multi-scale analytical tool and hazard-generic socio-economic indicators were developed to identify and prioritise the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia. Categorical principal component analysis with 36 indicators was used to develop weights for different indicators and construct a household intrinsic vulnerability index. Data were collected through key information interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey with 1,602 randomly selected households in three districts of Northwest Ethiopia.

Drawing on intrinsic vulnerability index computation, this study highlights that low levels of education, low access to climate information and credit services, long distance travelled to fetch water and frequent food shortages are the dominant factors contributing to high levels of intrinsic vulnerability at district level, while lack of livelihood support and income diversification are the key drivers of vulnerability at household level. The findings of this study further show that the majority of households (78.01%) falls within the very high to moderately high vulnerable category. Disaggregating the data according to agro-climatic zones highlights that the prevalence of high intrinsic vulnerability is most widespread in the lowland agro-climatic zone (82.64%), followed by the highland (81.97%) and midland zones (69.40%).

From a policy intervention vantage point, addressing the drivers of vulnerability provides a reliable approach to reduce the current vulnerability level and manage potential climate change-induced risks of a system. Specifically, reliable information on inherent vulnerability will assist policymakers in developing policies and prioritising actions aimed at reducing vulnerability and assisting in the rational distribution of resources among households at a local level.

This study contributes to the existing vulnerability literature by showing how hazard-generic socio-economic indicators in the vulnerability assessment adopted by the IPCC (2014) are important to identify drives of vulnerability which ultimately may feed into a more fundamental treatment of vulnerability.

Being resilient is often equated with the capability to return to a state of normalcy after individuals and organisations face unprecedented challenges. This chapter questions the notion of ‘normalcy’ in complex and ongoing turbulence as experienced variously in diverse cultural and sectoral contexts. In theorising organisational resilience and associated transformation, it draws on insights provided by a microfinance institution (MFI) operating in the Philippines. The chapter details its efforts to transform business in light of experience gained in frequent and overlapping emergency conditions (including COVID-19) to create a new level of resilience in its clients and itself. For clients, the goal is often to self-manage loss associated with socio-economic development and for the organisation, to stabilise and cordon the investment needed to support clients survive and move on from the relatively constant adverse impacts of disasters. Published accounts of such experience and insights provided by board members and the President illustrate the nature of transformational resiliency strategies planned, including changes to the business model around provision of micro-insurance services and strategic adaptation of digital services aligned with the organisation's mission. A model of ‘practical resiliency in emergency conditions’ details the culture of resiliency adopted, demonstrating how stakeholders gain confidence and opportunity to practice resilient behaviours in emergency contexts. It highlights the significance of cultural consistency across purpose, values and capability to create an adequate level of trust and certainty across stakeholders to support transformational resiliency behaviours in shifting and dynamic ecosystems.

This paper aims to minimize the mean-risk cost of sustainable and resilient supplier selection, order allocation and production scheduling (SS,OA&PS) problem under uncertainty of disruptions. The authors use conditional value at risk (CVaR) as a risk measure in optimizing the combined objective function of the total expected value and CVaR cost. A sustainable supply chain can create significant competitive advantages for companies through social justice, human rights and environmental progress. To control disruptions, the authors applied (proactive and reactive) resilient strategies. In this study, the authors combine resilience and social responsibility issues that lead to synergy in supply chain activities.

The present paper proposes a risk-averse two-stage mixed-integer stochastic programming model for sustainable and resilient SS,OA&PS problem under supply disruptions. In this decision-making process, determining the primary supplier portfolio according to the minimum sustainable-resilient score establishes the first-stage decisions. The recourse or second-stage decisions are: determining the amount of order allocation and scheduling of parts by each supplier, determining the reactive risk management strategies, determining the amount of order allocation and scheduling by each of reaction strategies and determining the number of products and scheduling of products on the planning time horizon. Uncertain parameters of this study are the start time of disruption, remaining capacity rate of suppliers and lead times associated with each reactive strategy.

In this paper, several numerical examples along with different sensitivity analyses (on risk parameters, minimum sustainable-resilience score of suppliers and shortage costs) were presented to evaluate the applicability of the proposed model. The results showed that the two-stage risk-averse stochastic mixed-integer programming model for designing the SS,OA&PS problem by considering economic and social aspects and resilience strategies is an effective and flexible tool and leads to optimal decisions with the least cost. In addition, the managerial insights obtained from this study are extracted and stated in Section 4.6.

This work proposes a risk-averse stochastic programming approach for a new multi-product sustainable and resilient SS,OA&PS problem. The planning horizon includes three periods before the disruption, during the disruption period and the recovery period. Other contributions of this work are: selecting the main supply portfolio based on the minimum score of sustainable-resilient criteria of suppliers, allocating and scheduling suppliers orders before and after disruptions, considering the balance constraint in receiving parts and using proactive and reactive risk management strategies simultaneously. Also, the scheduling of reactive strategies in different investment modes is applied to this problem.