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To provide an overview of how blue bonds can have a transformative impact on the blue- and ocean-based economies.

This article provides an overview of what a blue bond is, the process for issuing a blue bond, the transformative effects blue bonds can have on ocean economies, and the areas ocean economies should focus on to attract investors and catalyze investment into their ocean economies.

This article concludes blue bonds present an opportunity to not only achieve strong financial returns but to also contribute to a meaningful environmental and social impact on ocean economies. As the public and private sectors develop initiatives to catalyze investment into ocean initiatives, it is likely the investment community will eagerly adopt blue bonds into the suite of sustainable finance products, driving greater investment into ocean economies and supporting the health of our oceans.

One of the key constraints for blue-bond growth is the lack of familiarity to this product among market participants. Unlike its other ESG-labeled counterparts, blue bonds are not regulated by a set of principles such as those prescribed by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA). Clarifying the alignment of globally recognized standards such as the ICMA principles and its correlation to blue financing may help ocean industries to achieve greater recognition within the sustainable bond market framework and can make the market aware of important characteristics of ocean industries, including differing risks and opportunities.

Practical guidance from experienced lawyers in ESG bonds and blue economy initiatives.

The “Blue Economy” is a recent topic of study that spans those economic activities which depend on ecosystem services, thereby including such sectors as tourism, maritime transport, energy, water, fishing, among others. However, there is only limited research approaching the added value produced by marine activities connected with these sectors. This research contributes to the literature by providing interpretations of blue economy factors in terms of their added economic value. The authors deployed secondary data from 2009 to 2020 from the European Union Economy Database to analyze six sectors involving maritime activities: coastal tourism, living marine resources, non-living marine resources, port activities, shipbuilding and repair, and maritime transport. This study highlights how the sustainability of countries depends on the ability to manage their natural resources, especially maritime resources. Furthermore, sustainability depends on the economic interpretation of countries and sectors over time with regard to creating value and managing the activities derived from ecosystem services.

The blue and green firms are notable contributors to sustainable development. Similar to other businesses in circular economies, blue and green firms also face financing constraints. This paper aims to assess whether blue and green lending help in optimizing the interest rate spreads and the likelihood of default.

This analysis is based on an unbalanced panel of banks from 20 eurozone countries for eleven years between 2012 and 2022. The key indicators of banking include interest rate spread and a market-based probability of default. The paper assesses how these indicators are influenced by exposure to green and blue firms after controlling for several exogenous factors.

The results show a positive relationship between green and blue lending and spread, while there is a negative link with the probability of default. This confirms that the blue and green exposure positively supports the credit portfolio both in terms of profitability and risk management.

The banking system is among the key contributors to corporate finance and to enable continuous access to sustainable finance, the banking firms must be incentivized. While many studies analyze the impact of green lending, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the very few that extend this analysis to blue economy firms.

This study aims to examine the influence of the blue economy factors on the economic growth of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.

Secondary data from 1995 to 2018 have been used for the analysis of eight countries. The contributing factors that measure the fishing production are total aquaculture production, total fisheries production and agriculture, forestry and fishing. Trade and the rate of inflation are used as control variables. Using the feasible generalized least square technique.

It was found that the blue economy factors play a statistically significant role in the economic growth of SAARC countries and contribute to the achievement of Goal 14 of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals: to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

This study highlights the fact that proper management and utilization of water resources may assist the stimulation of economic growth and meet the challenges of food insecurity by improving the supply of seafood in developing South Asian countries. The study proposes that the sustainable management of water resources requires an alliance across nation states. The alliance will be useful in understanding the concept of the blue economy and the role it plays in ensuring economic growth in developing nations throughout the world.

The paper provides a contribution of systematisation to the literature on the blue economy and aquaculture as challenging issues for achieving sustainable growth and a circular economy. The growing scientific interest in recent years and the increased attention in political agendas make the blue economy and aquaculture as promising fields for scientific investigation. The latter has been confirmed during a particular period too as the pandemic times. To identify those areas of specialisation emerging from the intersection of such topics, the paper embraces a systematic literature review for inspiring future research.

The study covers a period of 20 years by including 85 papers extracted from the Scopus database. Through the adoption of VOSviewer, the investigation explores the main descriptive statistics, while content analysis has been embraced to identify thematic areas.

The main results of this study are about statistics (i.e. publication trends, geographic distribution, most frequent keywords and most influential authors, etc.). Three main thematic areas have been identified in this study: SDGs and policies for sustainable development, food and energy, business models and managerial issues.

Practical implications arise both for firms and policymakers. About the firsts, interesting insights can be derived in terms of business model innovation, collaborative approaches and technological exploration. About policymakers, inspiration in terms of renewal of strategic guidelines, creation of enabling contextual conditions and evidences for new regulations can be noted.

Elements of original contributions can be identified in the adoption of an SLR to verify the advancement of the debate till the recent pandemic.

The Rolex Middlesea sailing event takes place in Malta on an annual basis. The race forms part of a number of new tourism initiatives supported by the Maltese Government. These aim to diversify the Maltese tourism economy from reliance on mass tourism to more niche or specialist forms based, for example, upon the “Blue Economy”. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact and future of sailing events using the Rolex Middlesea sailing event as a specific case. In turn it evaluates current and future contributions to both the Maltese tourist economy and broader experiences and lessons of such events for other regional destinations. Consideration is given to the overall impact of the Rolex race for Maltese tourism; how the event can be improved to enhance its contribution to Maltese tourism; and what challenges the event faces in promoting Malta as an “alternative” tourism destination. Conclusions assess the benefits and barriers for developing maritime events and for sailing and yachting sectors as an alternative tourism option for Malta. In turn, it provides a specific and unique case that reviews implications for such events and, at a broader policy context, lessons for developing niche event markets for tourism destinations generally.

This research focusses upon an inductive approach using qualitative and case study research methodologies. Secondary data for events management, sports tourism sailing and yachting and niche market development provide a contextual framework. Primary research is used to collect qualitative data which are based on purposeful sample selection of interviews from professionals associated with Maltese maritime industries and key stakeholder groups. The data are analysed through discourse analysis techniques utilising grid matrices to evaluate and ascertain common themes and responses that occur from the discussions and questions asked.

Results point to lessons learnt and future policy directions for the Blue economy and sailing and yachting as drivers for change. Results show that the RMSR can clearly create opportunities for the establishment of new innovative tourism markets. In turn, it is also recognised that this can lead to a stronger sailing and yachting tourism industry not only within Malta but also help regenerate or sustain interest in maritime traditions and stimulate new opportunities for maritime tourism and broader opportunities for the growth of the “blue economy” agenda across the region and further afield.

This single case study can be best described as an “exploratory” study. It deals with how an event is structured, functions and performs particularly within the different inter-organisational partnerships. In this context, the research deals with the case study of a real-life event and therefore its academic value may tend to be rather specific and industry focussed. The empirical value of the enquiry, nonetheless, can provide a platform to draw more general assertions regarding the hosting of sailing and yachting events and consequences more broadly for events management theory and practice.

Evidence from the research also suggests that sailing and yachting has the capability of lending itself to many different areas of investment and new business development opportunities such as overwintering for yachts and corporate business event sponsorships linked to a growing MICE market. The need to engage with local communities at a local level is also recognised as a potential for building recognition and skill capacity. This, in turn, can assist local host communities to familiarise themselves with the discipline of sailing as a life skill simultaneously strengthening and encouraging maritime tradition and opening opportunities for social development, business and employment growth.

The RMSR demonstrates that such an event can assist local host communities to familiarise themselves with the discipline of sailing as a life skill simultaneously strengthening and encouraging maritime tradition and opening opportunities for social development, business and employment growth. The growth potential of the RMSR is thus broad and, in many ways, may continue to assist Malta in diversifying its traditional tourism markets, capitalising assets, developing opportunity for its local communities, encouraging business opportunity and assisting in developing a higher quality tourism focus for the Islands.

Detailed and insightful research on sailing and yachting in Malta remains fairly limited and there is little hard evidence to prove the value of such events since there is little available data on differential spending patterns and little cost/benefit analysis undertaken. The RMSR case provide unique research which sets out to explore the role of the RMSR to Malta’s tourism product, identify and evaluate factors for success, evaluate key contemporary issues and challenges in hosting the event, evaluate the future potential of such events for Malta’s tourism economy and draw broader benefits and lessons for hosting events of this nature.

This study aimed to identify the potential for economic activities related to the ocean economy in Brazil to become blue economy (BE) activities, in which the concept of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is central.

To achieve the aim, the authors collected information on the SDGs and estimated data from the ocean economy sectors for the 256 Brazilian coastal cities. The authors predicted the indices for potential development of territories and sectors in the BE using two parameters: employed persons (EP) and sectoral added value (AV).

The results show that the capitals of coastal states present the highest potential indices for the BE, especially Rio de Janeiro, which accounted for 83.3% of sectoral added value in the Brazilian ocean economy with potential for sustainable development and generated 107,800 active formal jobs (26.9% of the country's total). In addition, restaurants, hotels and similar establishments are, on the Brazilian coast, the most frequent on the coastal zone and have the highest potential for BE activities.

Regarding its contributions, this research innovates by developing an indicator that can help stakeholders understand the similarities and differences between cities and regions, whether through a social, economic, or environmental lens. Therefore, by following this methodological path for measuring the BE, viewing the distinct patterns of sustainable development by area is possible, thereby supporting action plans for the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda and the implementation of a marine spatial planning process for the country in the context of the Ocean Decade (2021–2030).

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0112

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to substantiate the idea that clusters will cope with the challenges of Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0 and remain one of the drivers for the development of the local economy.

For the preparation of this paper, the author reviewed the literature on Cluster 4.0, Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, green and blue recovery, as well as the future of jobs and systems. Data, reports and surveys (UN, OECD, World Economic Forum, McKinsey Global Institute, D2L, etc.) were analysed in detail, in order to create a clear picture related to the research topic. The opinions expressed in the article are depicted graphically, and were developed by the author.

First, predictions on Industry 4.0 challenges are outlined, and the reasons as to why clusters are expected to succeed in the digital era are substantiated; second, the direction of development in the digital era is depicted in a two-dimensional plane; and third, the direction of development in digital era within the clusters is graphically presented as a system.

For this purpose, the author has developed a new approach to connect clusters and digitalisation with the self-designed graphical images.

The authors posit that one of the key enablers of the circular economy will be the digital transformation – in other words, “digitalization.” In this study, the authors examine and visualize the interaction of the circular economy and digitalization by using scientific publications. They explore possible synergies and future research avenues at this junction.

The authors first apply bibliometrics to explore and visualize the relationships between the circular economy and digitalization in the academic literature. Following the clustering of topics, they define key emerging factors for each cluster. Based on this analysis, they suggest future research avenues.

The authors find that there are four main clusters at the junction of circular economy and digitalization, including (1) sharing economy, (2) additive manufacturing, (3) business models and (4) industrial ecology and remanufacturing. They then dig deeper into these topics to better understand what factors would shape the future of the clusters. They conclude that sharing economy perspective and additive manufacturing may be enhanced by regulation-based and behavioral change-based approaches. Circular business models should be developed to maintain circularity in industry. Finally, digital manufacturing should be implemented within the framework of industrial ecology and remanufacturing principles to increase efficiency, productivity and traceability in the circular economy.

Digitalization offers significant potentials toward breakthrough sustainability by creating a circular economy. Hence, understanding the relationship between circular economy and digitalization is important to achieve sustainable development goals.