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Resiliency is essential for achieving the necessary level of performance and ensuring the survival of a new business during difficult times. However, neither this characteristic nor its antecedents have been exhaustively studied. Using a configuration approach, this study aims to analyze the neuropsychological and business-related characteristics of entrepreneurs that may explain their resilience during the business development process.

Using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the authors investigated distinct characteristics of Costa Rican agro-entrepreneurs with high levels of entrepreneurial resilience. The fsQCA methodology identifies combinations of causal measures that result in the outcome.

From the mixture of configurations, the authors found four combinations of individual’s characteristics that explain the profile of a resilient agro-entrepreneur.

This work contributes to the literature on agricultural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial resilience. This study identifies four distinct combinations of entrepreneurs’ characteristics that produce entrepreneurial resilience in the agricultural industry. Moreover, it incorporates individuals’ business-related attributes into examining characteristics combinations that affect resilience. Also, this research offers agro-entrepreneurs’ stakeholders, valuable insights to develop more resilient entrepreneurs.

La resiliencia es esencial para lograr el nivel de rendimiento necesario y garantizar la supervivencia de un nuevo negocio en tiempos difíciles. Sin embargo, ni esta característica ni sus antecedentes han sido exhaustivamente estudiados. Empleando un enfoque de configuración, este estudio busca analizar las características neuropsicológicas y empresariales de los emprendedores que pueden explicar su resiliencia durante el proceso de desarrollo empresarial.

Utilizando el análisis cualitativo comparativo de conjuntos difusos (fsQCA, por sus siglas en inglés), investigamos distintas características de los agroemprendedores costarricenses con altos niveles de resiliencia emprendedora. La metodología fsQCA identifica combinaciones de medidas causales que originan un fenómeno o resultado.

A partir de la mezcla de configuraciones, encontramos cuatro combinaciones de características del individuo que explican el perfil de un agroemprendedor resiliente.

Nuestro trabajo contribuye a la literatura sobre emprendimiento agrícola y resiliencia emprendedora. Este estudio identifica cuatro combinaciones distintas de las características de los emprendedores que producen resiliencia emprendedora en la industria agrícola. Además, incorpora las características empresariaes de los individuos al examinar las combinaciones de características que afectan la resiliencia. También, nuestra investigación ofrece a los públicos de interés información valiosa para desarrollar emprendedores más resilientes.

A resiliência é essencial para alcançar o nível de desempenho necessário e garantir a sobrevivência de um novo negócio em tempos difíceis. Porém, nem esta característica nem seus antecedentes foram exaustivamente estudados. Empregando uma abordagem de configuração, este estudo busca analisar as características neuropsicológicas e empresariais de empreendedores que podem explicar sua resiliência no processo de desenvolvimento de negócios.

Usando a análise comparativa qualitativa do conjunto difuso (fsQCA), investigamos características distintas de agroempreendedores costarriquenhos com altos níveis de resiliência empreendedora. A metodologia fsQCA identifica combinações de medidas causais que causam um fenômeno ou resultado.

A partir da mistura de configurações, encontramos quatro combinações de características individuais que explicam o perfil de um agroempreendedor resiliente.

Nosso trabalho contribui para a literatura sobre empreendedorismo agrícola e resiliência empreendedora. Este estudo identifica quatro combinações distintas de características dos empreendedores que produzem resiliência empreendedora na indústria agrícola. Além disso, incorpora as características de negócios dos indivíduos ao examinar as combinações de características que afetam a resiliência. Adicionalmente, nossa pesquisa oferece às partes interessadas dos agroempreendedores insights valiosos para desenvolver empreendedores mais resilientes.

This study provides new insights into antecedents and outcomes of reverse logistics practices by examining green customer salience as the driver of reverse logistics practices and examining environmental performance and green firm reputation as the outcomes of reverse logistics practices.

A research model examining the proposed relationships was developed and tested using data from beverage manufacturers in Ghana. The model was analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This study confirmed that green customer salience drives reverse logistics practices. It was also revealed that reverse logistics directly enhances environmental performance, but not green firm reputation. Additionally, the effect of reverse logistics on green firm reputation was fully mediated through environmental performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have empirically examined the relationship between green customer salience, reverse logistics, environmental performance and green firm reputation.

The study examines the intricate interplay between supplier relationship management (SRM), procurement performance, supply chain responsiveness (SCR) and competitive advantage. Additionally, the study examines the mediating role of procurement performance and SCR in the link between SRM and competitive advantage.

A research model grounded in the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory (DCT) was developed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Data were obtained from 122 firms in Ghana.

The study revealed that SRM has a positive and significant effect on procurement performance, SCR and competitive advantage. Additionally, SCR has a positive and significant effect on competitive advantage; however, procurement performance has a negative and insignificant effect on competitive advantage. It was also revealed that SCR partially mediates the relationship between SRM and competitive advantage but fully mediates the relationship between procurement performance and competitive advantage. Also, it was also revealed that procurement performance does not mediate the relationship between SRM and competitive advantage.

The study contributes to literature by highlighting the mediating role of SCR in influencing the effect of SRM and procurement performance on competitive advantage.

Practically, the study findings highlight the need for firms to seek, build and manage meaningful relationships with their suppliers in order to enhance their competency and capability to influence their competitive position in the marketplace.

To the best of the researchers' knowledge, no prior study has examined the effect of SRM on procurement performance and SCR. Additionally, no previous study has examined the mediating role of procurement performance and SCR on the link between SRM and competitive advantage.

This paper examines the nexus between supply chain social capital (relational social capital and structural social capital), supply chain responsiveness (operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness) and firm performance. Additionally, the study examines the mediating role of supply chain responsiveness on the relationship between supply chain social capital and firm performance.

The authors test their hypotheses on a sample of 120 firms operating in Ghana. The measurement model and hypothesized paths were assessed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings revealed that structural social capital had a significant direct effect on firm performance, but relational social capital did not. It was also revealed that both relational and structural social capital have significant effects on operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness. Additionally, operations system responsiveness fully mediated the effect of relational social capital on firm performance and partially mediated the effect of structural social capital on firm performance. Supplier network responsiveness, on the other hand, partially mediated the effect of both relational and structural social capital on firm performance.

This study contributes to the limited literature on supply chain social capital by unearthing the mechanisms through which supply chain social capital enhances firm performance. Specifically, the study demonstrates the intervening role of operations system responsiveness and supplier network responsiveness in the supply chain social capital–firm performance link.

This study aimed to examine the impact of learning organization (LO) on job satisfaction and individual performance in Vietnamese enterprises. The study further explores the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between learning organization and employee performance.

Data were collected from 653 employees from various types of organizations in Vietnam. Structural equation modeling was implemented to test the hypotheses.

The results revealed that the proposed research model was supported. Results indicated that LOs positively influenced employees’ job satisfaction and the broader range of their individual performance. In addition, employees’ job satisfaction motivated them to achieve higher performance levels. The study also found a mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between LO and employee performance. The results underscore the importance of implementing an LO culture for individual outcomes such as job satisfaction and employee performance in the Vietnamese cultural context, which is based on socialism and Confucianism.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationships among LO, job satisfaction and individual employee performance in the Vietnamese context. The results offer a deeper understanding of the LO concept in the Vietnamese cultural context and highlight the cultural impact on the LO concept and its effects. The results suggest how the LO concept is applied in the Vietnamese context.

This study aims to analyze the perceptions of smallholder farmers on climate change and events and further explores climate change adaptation strategies and associated challenges. The findings provide useful information for enhancing the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to adjust to climate-related hazards and improve their resilience and disaster preparedness in northern Ghana.

This study uses a multistage sampling procedure and sample size of 150 farmers, the Binary Probit Model (BPM), to identify and examine the determinants of climate change adaptation strategies adopted by smallholder farmers. Also, the constraints of adaptation were analyzed using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance.

The results from the BPM and statistics of Kendall’s coefficient revealed that the farm risk level, ability to adapt, farmer’s income, age, farming experience, climate change awareness and extension visits were factors that significantly influenced the adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers (in order of importance). The majority (60%) of the farmers ranked farm risk level as the major constraint to adopting climate change strategies.

The findings of this study enhance understanding on access to relevant and timely climate change adaptation information such as an early warning to farmers during the start of the farming/rainy season to support their adaptive responses to climate change.

This study examines green absorptive capacity as an important intervening variable that elucidates the relationship between green supply chain management (GSCM) practices (specifically, green purchasing, customer cooperation and investment recovery) and firm performance.

Drawing from the theoretical underpinnings of the natural-resource-based view theory and information processing theory, a research model is developed and tested using data obtained from 368 manufacturing firms in Ghana. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that green purchasing, customer cooperation and investment recovery have a direct positive and significant effect on firm performance. Additionally, green purchasing and customer cooperation have a positive and significant effect on green absorptive capacity but investment recovery does not. Further, the results show that the paths from green purchasing and customer cooperation to firm performance are positively mediated by green absorptive capacity.

The study reveals to supply chain managers that green absorptive capacity is an important conduit through which firms can achieve enhanced firm performance from GSCM initiatives.

This study makes a contribution by integrating the absorptive capacity literature and green management literature and establishes green absorptive capacity as a mechanism through which GSCM practices enhance firm performance.

The construction business is widely recognised for its inherent complexity and dynamic nature, which stems from the nature of the job involved. The industry is often regarded as one of the most challenging industries globally in terms of implementing environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices. However, in the absence of EHS, the construction industry cannot be considered sustainable. Therefore, this study aims to identify the trends, knowledge gaps and implications of EHS research to enhance construction activities and knowledge.

The study adopted a science mapping approach involving bibliometric and scientometric analysis of 407 construction EHS publications from the Scopus database with the VOSviewer software. The study is based on journal articles from the Scopus database without restriction to any time range.

The main focus of construction EHS research identified in the study includes sustainability-related studies, risk-related, environmental issues, EHS management, integrated management systems studies, health and safety related and EHS in the construction process. Some emerging areas also identified include productivity, design, culture, social sustainability and machine learning. The most influential and productive publication sources, countries/regions and EHS publications with the highest impact were also determined.

Documents published in the Scopus database were considered for analysis because of the wider coverage of the database. Journal articles written in English language represent the inclusion criteria, whereas other documents were excluded from the analysis. The study also limited the search to articles with the engineering subject area.

The research findings will enlighten stakeholders and practitioners on the focal knowledge areas in the EHS research domain, which are vital for enhancing EHS in the industry.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this review-based study is the first attempt to internationally conduct a science mapping on extant literature in the EHS research domain through bibliometric and scientometric assessments.

Benford's Law is an empirical observation about the frequency of digits in a variety of naturally occurring data sets. Auditors and forensic scientists have used Benford's Law to detect erroneous data in accounting and legal usage. One well-known limitation is that Benford's Law fails when data have clear minimum and maximum values. Many kinds of education data, including assessment scores, typically include hard maximums and therefore do not meet the parametric assumptions of Benford's Law. This paper implements a transformation procedure which allows for assessment data to be compared to Benford's Law. As a case study, a data quality assessment of oral language scores from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten (ECLS-K) study is used and higher risk data segments detected. The same method could be used to evaluate other concerns, such as test fraud, or other bounded datasets.

The purpose of this article is to meet Professor Paul T.P. Wong, PhD, CPscyh, who is based at the Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Wong represents an interesting case of how a racial/cultural minority could achieve success in a hostile environment consisting of the systemic biases of injustice, discrimination and marginalization. His life also epitomizes how one can experience the paradoxical truth of healing and flourishing in an upside-down world through the positive suffering mindset (PSM).

This case study is presented in two sections: a positive autoethnography written by Wong, followed by his answers to ten questions. The core methodology of positive autoethnography allows people to understand how Wong’s life experience of being a war baby in China, a constant outsider and a lone voice in Western culture, has shaped a very different vision of meaning, positive mental health and global flourishing.

Wong reveals how to live a life of meaning and happiness for all the suffering people in a difficult world. He has researched the positive psychology of suffering for 60 years, from effective coping with stress and searching for meaning to successful aging and positive death. According to Wong’s suffering hypothesis and the emerging paradigm of existential positive psychology (Wong, 2021), cultivating a PSM is essential for healing and flourishing in all seasons of life.

An expanding literature has been developed to illustrate why the missing link in well-being research is how to transcend and transform suffering into triumph. Wong reveals how this emerging area of research is still not fully embraced by mainstream psychology dominated by the individualistic Euro-American culture, and thus why, in an adversarial milieu, existential positive psychology is limited by its inability to attract more researchers to test out Wong’s suffering hypothesis.

The wisdom and helpful tools presented here may enable people to achieve mature happiness and existential well-being even when they have a very painful past, a very difficult present and a bleak future.

This autoethnographic case study offers new grounds for hope for all those who are injured by life, marginalized by systemic biases or tormented by chronic illnesses and disorders. It also provides a road map for a better world with more decent human beings who dare to stand up for justice, integrity and compassion.

Meaning as reflected in suffering is according to Wong the most powerful force to bring out either the worst or the best in people. The new science of suffering shows us how the authors can achieve positive transformation through cultivating a PSM, no matter how harsh one’s fate may be.