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Digital servitization concerns how manufacturers utilize digital technologies to enhance their provision of services. Although digital servitization requires that manufacturers possess new capabilities, in contrast to strategic (or dynamic) capabilities, little is known about how they develop the required operational capabilities. The paper investigates the mechanisms for developing operational capabilities in digital servitization.

This paper presents an exploratory study based on 15 large manufacturers operating in Europe engaged in digital servitization.

Three operational capability development mechanisms are set out that manufacturers use to facilitate digital servitization: learning (developing capabilities in-house), building (bringing the requisite capabilities into the manufacturer), and acquiring (utilizing the capabilities of other actors). These mechanisms emphasize exploitation and exploration efforts within manufacturers and in collaborations with upstream and downstream partners. The findings demonstrate the need to combine these mechanisms for digital servitization according to combinations that match each manufacturer’s traditional servitization phase: (1) initial phase - building and acquiring, (2) middle phase - learning, building and acquiring, and (3) advanced phase - learning and building.

This study reveals three operational capability development mechanisms, highlighting the parallel use of these mechanisms for digital servitization. It provides a holistic understanding of operational capability development mechanisms used by manufacturers by combining three theoretical perspectives (organizational learning, absorptive capacity, and network perspectives). The paper demonstrates that digital servitization requires the significant application of building and acquiring mechanisms to develop the requisite operational capabilities.

Business model (BM) canvases have been used in educational institutions and business incubators for over a decade to assist students and start-up entrepreneurs in developing their business projects. Given the urgency of tackling sustainability challenges, several tools have emerged to stimulate sustainable business modeling (SBM). However, these tools are often too complex for nonexperts in business modeling or sustainability, and thus insufficiently user-friendly for educational contexts. This study aims to address this pedagogical gap by describing the design process of the responsible business model canvas (RBMC).

The authors relied on a design science research methodology involving the active participation of end users, entrepreneurship educators, business coaches and external partners. The authors proposed four criteria and ten subcriteria to analyze existing SBM canvases based on their user-friendliness and to design the initial prototype of the RBMC. The RBMC was subsequently tested in various settings, including classroom assignments and business incubation programs, with over 1,000 university students. The tool was refined and assessed throughout the development process, incorporating feedback from focus groups with start-up entrepreneurs.

Through the development process, the authors created a user-friendly tool to help novice student and start-up entrepreneurs integrate sustainability into their BMs: the RBMC. The canvas consists of 14 building blocks grouped into four areas: consistency (mission, vision, values), desirability (value propositions, customer segments, users and beneficiaries, customer relationships and channels), feasibility (key activities, key resources, key partners and stakeholders and governance) and viability (cost structure, revenues streams, negative impacts and positive impacts).

The research methods and user-friendliness criteria in this study can be applied in other contexts to design tools to support sustainable entrepreneurship education. While the RBMC is currently being used in several educational institutions throughout the world, its impacts in different pedagogical and cultural settings require further validation.

The RBMC is a user-friendly tool to introduce students and start-up entrepreneurs to SBM. It helps raise users’ awareness about sustainability concerns, challenging them to consider issues they might have otherwise overlooked. Some participants even shifted their outlook and were motivated to develop a long-term vision integrating compensatory, mitigative or corrective actions into their BMs.

The RBMC is the outcome of a balanced approach that combines both pragmatic (i.e. user-friendliness) and normative (i.e. sustainability) perspectives. It provides users with a systematic approach for integrating and applying sustainability issues in their business projects.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are forming a blueprint for attaining the prosperity and peace for the entire world as it is an accomplishing goal of the UN agenda of 2030. SDGs focus on ending poverty and creating new life in a better way. These goals give a clear vision to achieve the optimum growth in a sustainable manner. Corporates are now mandated by law in India to contribute a certain percentage of profits to the cause of social development, ultimately helping the nation develop. The main aim of business is to earn money, and all the related decisions affect the board of directors, associated stakeholders, customers, etc.; all these practices also affect the internal employees in an ethical way. In order to prevent the companies to do any unethical practices, government has mandated some laws; all the corporates need to spend and utilize their corporate social responsibility (CSR) contribution in a particular time frame. All the prescribed activities need to be accomplished in a particular time frame. Along with profit maximization, the business is shifting their attention toward the conservation of natural resources. In this study, the researcher has provided a linkage between CSR and SDGs. Through this research, the objective is to attain the mapping between schedule seven of companies act 2013, section 135 and 17 goals of SDGs.

This study aims to evaluate the potential of using the components of the quadruple helix and quintuple helix models, which are extensions of the triple helix university-private sector-public sector cooperation model. Thus, the triple helix model shaped by university-private-public sector cooperation has transformed into a quadruple helix innovation model with the inclusion of the media and culture-oriented public helix. In this context, while the triple helix emphasizes tripartite networks and hybrid organizations, the quadruple helix system focuses on intertwined collaborations, coevolution, and specialization within the framework of firms, institutions, and stakeholders. In the quadruple helix innovation system, the coevolution of art and innovation has assumed a central role in knowledge generation and innovation. In the quintuple helix innovation model, the natural environment of society is added to the quadruple helix. This study consists of three parts. In the first part, the literature on triple helix, quadruple helix, and quintuple helix models is reviewed. In the second part, digital transformation and technological innovations from Industrial Revolution 1.0 to Industry 5.0 are analyzed. In the third section, the contribution of the quintuple helix model to Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0 is explained.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (KS) in linking the relationship between knowledge-based HRM practices and innovation competence of firms. This study also explores the potential moderating role of market turbulence in fostering the influence of KS behaviors on two forms of innovation competence namely radical innovation and incremental innovation.

The paper applied the quantitative approach and structural equation modeling to examine the correlation among the latent constructs based on the survey data collected from 293 participants in 115 firms.

The empirical findings of this study support the mediating role of KS behaviors in the relationship between knowledge-based HRM practices and aspects of innovation competence. It highlights the important role of market turbulence in stimulating the influence of KS behaviors on innovation capabilities.

Future research should investigate the impact of knowledge-based HRM practices on innovation capability via the mediating effects of knowledge management processes to bring better understanding of the importance of knowledge resources in organizations.

The paper significantly contributes to increasing knowledge and insights into the antecedent role of knowledge-based HRM practices, the mediating role of KS behaviors as well as the moderating role of market turbulence in fostering radical and incremental innovation, thereby advancing the body of comprehension of knowledge-based resources and innovation theory.

Generative pretrained transformers (GPTs), soaring to one million users at lightning speed, outpaced social media giants (15 times faster) (Buchholz, 2023). Despite this, scant research explored GPT’s impact on the digital entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) of students and tech-savvy generations. This study aims to pioneer a fusion of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), bridging the gap in research.

In this bold quantitative quest, business administration students became fearless participants, engaging in a survey of profound significance. Guided by the mighty powers of G*Power and Stata’s structural equation modeling builder, the intricate relationships within a robust sample of (n = 400) were unraveled.

The mediating power of GPT usefulness and GPT ease of use part of the TAM emerges, paving the way for a future brimming with digital entrepreneurship (DE) boundless possibilities. Predictably, the study found that TPB constructs also affect the EI of students.

This groundbreaking study brings together the powerful combination of TAM and TPB, while pioneering the exploration of GPT models’ mediating role. Its findings offer invaluable contributions to the field of DE and policymakers.

Although scholars have been studying human resource management (HRM) and open innovation (OI), yet there is less attention to this relationship in the context of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This paper aims to bring some insights about the human side of inbound open innovation (INOI) in SMEs. The goal is to better understand the role of organizational trust (OT) and developmental culture (DC) in the interactions between commitment-based HRM (C-HRM) and INOI.

The present study employs partial least squares-structural equation modeling to investigate the interrelationships among constructs, utilizing data gathered from a sample of 206 SMEs.

The study's empirical results indicate that the presence of OT serves as a complementary factor in mediating the relation between C-HRM and INOI. Furthermore, the analysis shows that there exists a moderating influence of DC in the relationship between C-HRM and INOI.

The role of HRM practices is important in developing OT and consequently foster INOI in SMEs. To achieve INOI, SMEs need a DC that induces C-HRM toward an OI approach.

This study adds to the understanding of the interactions between C-HRM practices and INOI in SMEs. The comprehension of the mediating function of OT and the moderating effect of DC serve to enhance the scholarly understanding of the human dimension of OI research.

The purpose of this study is to identify the process of virtual influencer stickiness in the age of influencer marketing, which has received little attention in the literature. This is essential because the research creates a theoretical model of follower loyalty/stickiness to virtual influencer techniques from the standpoint of influencer marketing, which has a substantial effect on the evolution of the global marketing world.

In 2022, 302 people who currently follow an Instafamous virtual influencer took part in an Instagram self-administered online survey.

The findings show that both expertise and trustworthiness have a positive and significant influence on parasocial interaction, which in turn has a significant influence on virtual engagement and stickiness.

This research will specifically assist international readers in understanding how to harness and increase the efficiency and efficacy of interactive marketing strategies and methods to engage and retain followers of Instafamous virtual influencer. Moreover, the findings will be beneficial to opinion leaders, brand managers, company investors, entrepreneurs and service designers.

1. The study pioneers a holistic virtual follower stickiness mechanism that comprises the role of source credibility, parasocial interaction, informational influence and virtual follower’s engagement and their interrelationship to each other.

2. This study is based on parasocial interaction theory and source credibility theory to understand the relationship between virtual followers and influencers stickiness process at social media platforms.

3. In addition, the study examined the subsequent effects of sources of credibility components on parasocial interaction; as well as, on virtual follower engagement and stickiness.

4. This study also categorized and examined the moderating effects exerted by the genres of informative influence of virtual influencer.

The study pioneers a holistic virtual follower stickiness mechanism that comprises the role of source credibility, parasocial interaction, informational influence and virtual follower’s engagement and their interrelationship to each other.

This study is based on parasocial interaction theory and source credibility theory to understand the relationship between virtual followers and influencers stickiness process at social media platforms.

In addition, the study examined the subsequent effects of sources of credibility components on parasocial interaction; as well as, on virtual follower engagement and stickiness.

This study also categorized and examined the moderating effects exerted by the genres of informative influence of virtual influencer.