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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the most recurrent variables characterizing the collaborative relationships of industrial symbiosis (IS) (hereinafter also referred to as “anatomic” variables) established in the attempt to adopt circular economy (CE) by collecting evidence from a rich empirical set of implementation cases in Italy.

The current literature on IS was reviewed, and a content analysis was performed to identify and define the “anatomic” variables affecting its adoption in the circular economy. We followed a multiple-case study methodology investigating 50 cases of IS in Italy and performed a content analysis of the “anatomic” variables characterizing each case.

This research proposes the “anatomic” variables (i.e. industrial sectors involved, public actors involvement, governmental support, facilitator involvement and geographical proximity) explaining the cases of IS in the circular economy. Each “anatomic” variable is discussed at length based on the empirical evidence collected, with a particular reference to the impact on the different development strategies (i.e. “bottom-up” and “top-down”) in the cases observed.

Current literature on IS focuses on a sub-set of variables characterizing collaboration in IS. This research builds on extant literature to define a new framework of five purposeful “anatomic” variables defining IS in the circular economy. Moreover, we also collect and discuss a broad variety of empirical evidence in what is a still under-investigated context (i.e. Italy).

This beginning chapter offers a comprehensive overview of community development, tracing its historical roots and societal implications. It underscores community development’s role in fostering social cohesion and positive change. Beginning with its foundational principles of collective action, participation, and empowerment, the chapter delves into its evolution in response to industrialization and urbanization. It explores diverse scales, contexts, tools, and strategies used in community development and its broader societal impact. The chapter advocates for inclusivity and active engagement of community members, emphasizing tailored solutions that address unique challenges. It acknowledges complexities like ethical dilemmas, power imbalances, and cultural sensitivities, underscoring the importance of integrity and local context understanding in community development.

Seekers who visit professional virtual communities (PVCs) are usually motivated by knowledge-seeking, which is a complex cognitive process. How do seekers search for knowledge, and how is their search linked to prior knowledge or PVC situation factors? From the cognitive process and interactional psychology perspectives, this study investigated the three-way interactions between seekers’ expertise, task complexity, and perceptions of PVC features (i.e. knowledge quality and system quality) on knowledge-seeking strategies and resultant outcomes.

A field experiment was conducted with 119 seekers in a PVC using a 2 × 2 factorial design of seekers’ expertise (i.e. expert versus novice) and task complexity (i.e. low versus high).

The study reveals three significant insights: (1) For a high-complexity task, experts adopt an ask-directed searching strategy compared to novices, whereas novices adopt a browsing strategy; (2) For a high-complexity task, experts who perceive a high system quality are more likely than novices to adopt an ask-directed searching strategy; and (3) Task completion time and task quality are associated with the adoption of ask-directed searching strategies, whereas knowledge seekers’ satisfaction is more associated with the adoption of browsing strategy.

We draw on the perspectives of cognitive process and interactional psychology to explore potential two- and three-way interactions of seekers’ expertise, task complexity, and PVC features on the adoption of knowledge-seeking strategies in a PVC context. Our findings provide deep insights into seekers’ behavior in a PVC, given the popularity of the search for knowledge in PVCs.

As part of a national plan to govern professional and organizational development in Norwegian specialist healthcare, the country’s hospital clinics are tasked with constructing development plans. Using the development plan as a case, the paper analyzes how managers navigate and legitimize the planning process among central actors and deals with the contingency of decisions in such strategy work.

This study applies a qualitative research design using a case study method. The material consists of public documents, observations and single interviews, covering the process of constructing a development plan at the clinical level.

The findings suggest that the development plan was shaped through a multilevel translation process consisting of different contending rationalities. At the clinical level, the management had difficulties in legitimizing the process. The underlying tension between top-down and bottom-up steering challenged involvement and made it difficult to manage the contingency of decisions.

The findings are relevant to public sector managers working on strategy documents and policymakers identifying challenges that might hinder the fulfillment of political intentions.

This paper draws on a case from Norway; however, the findings are of general interest. The study contributes to the academic discussion on how to consider both the health authorities’ perspective and the organizational perspective to understand the manager’s role in handling the contingency of decisions and managing paradoxes in the decision-making process.

This study aims to adapt and validate the Job Crafting Scale (JCS), a measure based on the conceptualization of job crafting of the job demands–resources theory, for a sample of Portuguese workers and to test its psychometric properties regarding validity (factor, convergent, discriminant, and criterion) and reliability.

Two subsamples (n1 = 315 and n2 = 329) of Portuguese workers aged 18 years old and over participated in this research. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to assess the factor structure.

The results indicated that the Portuguese version of the JCS, with 18 items, has a factor structure composed of four-correlated factors. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the existence of factor, discriminant, and criterion validity, as well as reliability.

This study provides a job crafting measure adapted to the Portuguese language that can serve as a diagnostic tool for workers and organizations.

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo adaptar y validar la Job Crafting Scale (JCS), una medida basada en la conceptualización de job crafting de la Teoría de Demandas-Recursos, para una muestra de trabajadores portugueses y probar sus propiedades psicométricas en cuanto a validez (factor, convergente, discriminante y de criterio) y confiabilidad.

En esta investigación participaron dos submuestras (n1 = 315 y n2 = 329) de trabajadores portugueses de 18 años o más. Se utilizó un análisis factorial exploratorio y un análisis factorial confirmatorio para evaluar la estructura factorial.

Los resultados indicaron que la versión portuguesa del JCS, con 18 ítems, tiene una estructura factorial compuesta por cuatro factores correlacionados. Además, los resultados demostraron la existencia de validez factorial, discriminante y de criterio, así como confiabilidad.

Este estudio proporciona una medida de job crafting adaptada a la lengua portuguesa que puede servir como herramienta de diagnóstico para trabajadores y organizaciones.

Este estudo teve como objetivo adaptar e validar a Job Crafting Scale (JCS), uma medida baseada na conceptualização de job crafting da Teoria das Exigências-Recursos, numa amostra de trabalhadores portugueses e testar as suas propriedades psicométricas quanto à validade (fatorial, convergente, discriminante e de critério) e fiabilidade.

Duas subamostras (n1 = 315 e n2 = 329) compostas por trabalhadores portugueses com 18 ou mais anos foram recolhidas. Foram utilizadas uma análise fatorial exploratória e uma análise fatorial confirmatória para analisar a estrutura fatorial.

Os resultados obtidos indicaram que a versão portuguesa da JCS, composta por 18 itens, possui uma estrutura fatorial composta por quatro fatores correlacionados. Além disso, os resultados demonstraram a existência de validade fatorial, discriminante e de critério, bem como de fiabilidade.

Este estudo fornece uma medida de job crafting adaptada para a língua portuguesa que pode servir como ferramenta de diagnóstico para trabalhadores e organizações.

This study aims to explore and understand the challenges and opportunities presented by the rising demand for organic products in the context of toddy consumption and marketing.

This research examines consumer behaviour and decision-making patterns using decision tree analysis. A survey questionnaire based on established theories was distributed to individuals above the legal drinking age of 23 in Kerala, India, using purposive and random sampling.

The study found that people's fondness for toddy shop food plays a crucial role in their food choices. When the fondness is low, subjective norms can override personal preferences. But when the fondness is high, individual perceptions take precedence.

Using machine learning techniques, we created a compass to guide marketing strategies and cultural preservation efforts in toddy shops by considering the complex factors that influence consumer decisions.

This article introduces the special issue of Learning and Development in Highly-Dynamic VUCA Contexts. The issue reviews the concept of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), highlights its implications for the learning and development function and argues that learning and development play a critical role in helping organisations, people and the societal context in which they operate to work within and navigate VUCA contexts.

The contributions to this special issue propose a novel learning and development framework that will inform L&D as the provision of training, learning and development activities in organisations within highly dynamic VUCA contexts and ensuring a strong external focus including organisational, people, community, economic and societal sustainability.

We, the authors, propose seven features of a strategic sustainability L&D function and L&D professional role that are a fit with highly dynamic VUCA contexts.

The proposed framework has important implications for the way in which L&D is structured, its key priorities and plans and the competencies of L&D professionals to add value to all stakeholders. We also emphasise that the work on the L&D function in highly dynamic VUCA contexts needs to be broader and move beyond a performance orientation.

The proposed strategic sustainability role for the L&D function expands theoretically our understanding of how L&D can have impacts at the nexus of the organisation and highly dynamic VUCA contexts, in addition to broadening the constellation of stakeholders that it potentially enhances.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently relaunched Nigeria’s cashless policy initiative which seeks to reduce financial crime and tax avoidance, decrease cash dependency, advance the adoption of digital financial services (DFS), decrease the risks to the payment system and foster financial inclusion. This study aims to identify the unique challenges of going cashless in Nigeria, particularly in terms of infrastructural, exclusionary and cost implications of the policy on the average citizens.

The author applies a doctrinal research methodology to identify and reflect on key challenges of the cashless policy from the economic, regulatory and transactional perspectives.

The cashless policy initiative in Nigeria heralds value for financial integrity, financial policy regulation and user convenience. The mode of introduction, however, ushers in significant challenges and hardly considers Nigeria’s inadequate payment infrastructure, persistent financial exclusion, low levels of financial and digital literacy and capability, high cost of using DFS and pervasive proclivity for cash. As Nigerians adjust albeit inconveniently to the policy, the CBN can ameliorate the hardship by strengthening the payment infrastructure, particularly for digital payments, fostering consumer trust by safeguarding user funds and enabling consumer preferences.

Research materials include the national regulator’s policy documents and newspaper articles that have not been published in formal reports but non-the-less adequately mirror the policy intention of the CBN and the lived experiences of Nigerians.

This study identifies the practical steps and regulatory measures that the CBN can take to improve acceptance and meaningful and sustainable adoption of the cashless policy by the majority of Nigerians.

The recommendations that are proffered provide some rich insights to inform regulatory direction for the CBN to seamlessly phase-in the cashless policy and consequently drive down financial exclusion in Nigeria.

This study contributes to the policy discussion around the introduction of the cashless Nigeria project. The doctrinal research method highlights the policy intentions of the regulator in juxtaposition with lived experiences of Nigerians. This study offers recommendations to bolster financial inclusion, stability and integrity.

Common availability of digital technologies encouraged companies in almost all industries to focus on exploring various ways of benefiting from their adoption and thus taking steps toward their digital transformation. This paper aims to describe the digital transformation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a challenging opportunity and identify ways in which companies from the food industry address it.

The paper presents empirical evidence based on a case study of the Polish freeze-drying market and companies operating on it. This study adopted a single case study research method to describe the digital transformation journey of SMEs. The sample constitutes a single sectoral case study with more than one unit of analysis – sixteen companies. The undertaken approach follows an embedded case study design and allows for an extensive and multidimensional analysis of rich empirical data.

The results of this analysis allowed to identify four significant trends describing human resources involvement in the digital transformation of freeze-drying companies in Poland (i.e. visionary top-down, cooperative task-oriented, persuasive bottom-up, chaotic), a detailed catalog of outcomes of digital transformation from the perspective of food industry companies grouped in seven categories and a list of main barriers to digital transformation.

This paper contributes to expanding knowledge on the practices of food industry companies in addressing challenges posed by the development of information technology and the dynamically changing environment after the COVID-19 pandemic. It contributes further to the discussion related to context-, industry- and country-specific barriers to digital transformation, identifying time-related constraints as an essential barrier to digital transformation.

This study aims to explore how sustainable business models (SBM) can be developed within agri-innovation systems (AIS) and emphasize an integration of the two with a systemic understanding for reducing food loss and value loss in postharvest agri-food supply chain.

This study conducted longitudinal qualitative research in a developing country with food loss challenges in the postharvest supply chain. This study collected data through multiple rounds of fieldwork, interviews and focus groups over four years. Thematic analysis and “sensemaking” were used for inductive data analysis to generate rich contextual knowledge by drawing upon the lived realities of the agri-food supply chain actors.

First, this study finds that the value losses are varied in the supply chain, encompassing production value, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, market value, institutional value and future food value. This happens through two cumulative effects including multiplier losses, where losses in one model cascade into others, amplifying their impact and stacking losses, where the absence of data stacks or infrastructure pools hampers the realisation of food value. Thereafter, this study proposes four strategies for moving from the loss-incurring current business model to a networked SBM for mitigating losses. This emphasises the need to redefine ownership as stewardship, enable formal and informal beneficiary identification, strengthen value addition and build capacities for empowering communities to benefit from networked SBM with AIS initiatives. Finally, this study puts forth ten propositions for future research in aligning AIS with networked SBM.

This study contributes to understanding the interplay between AIS and SBM; emphasising the integration of the two to effectively address food loss challenges in the early stages of agri-food supply chains. The identified strategies and research propositions provide implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to accelerate sustainable practices for reducing food loss and waste in agri-food supply chains.