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Prefabricated construction has proven to be superior in terms of affordability and sustainability over the years. As a result of sustainable production, prefabricated housebuilding has evolved into a distinct industry reliant on supplier companies acting as supply chains (SCs) for housing projects. These companies' performance is critical to the successful implementation of prefabricated housebuilding technologies. However, in comparison to those choosing manufacturing as a strategy in other industries, the life span of these companies, providing innovative housing solutions, is relatively short. This is due to critical factors influencing the performance, but the inter-relationship of the performance dimensions is more significant. This study establishes the inter-relationship of the companies involved in house building with steel prefabricated housebuilding technologies.

The most recent factors were extracted from the literature. The relationships were developed using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method with the input from industry experts, and the driving factors were determined using the Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) technique.

Critical performance factors were classified according to performance dimensions, ranked and classified based on driving and dependence power. The inter-relationships among the performance dimensions of time, quality, cost, delivery, features and innovation were determined. Key performance strategies were proposed for prefabricated housebuilding companies involved in manufacturing and/or assembly of steel products.

This study established the interrelationship of performance dimensions for prefabricated house building (PHB) companies to develop strategies against critical challenges to remain competitive in the housing market. Previous research had not looked into interrelationship among the performance dimensions. The proposed performance strategies are applicable to supplier organizations using steel prefabricated technologies in similar markets around the world.

Government incentives are critical for successful indigenous innovation commercialisation, yet there are concerns about the efficacy of these incentives. Therefore, this study examines the effectiveness of government incentives on successful indigenous innovation commercialisation in the context of low-income economies by testing the effects of demand and supply-side incentives on firm performance in the small-scale industry in Ghana.

The theoretical framework for this study is built on the below-the-radar theory of innovation (Kaplinsky et al., 2009). Using a sample of 557 firms engaged in commercialising various indigenous innovations in the small-scale industry in Ghana, PLS-SEM was deployed to assess 11 hypothesised paths based on a validated questionnaire.

The model results, at a 5% significance level, indicate that supply-side incentives are statistically insignificant on sales and profitability but have significant positive effects on employment. The direct and moderating influence of supply-side incentives and market factors on overall firm performance is also insignificant, while demand-side incentives to buyers have significant positive effects on all the performance metrics and positively moderate the effects of market factors.

The research focused on commercialising indigenous innovation in the context of low-income economies. Few studies, if any, have separately explored the effect of demand and supply-side government incentives on indigenous innovation in the context of low-income economies. The findings suggest that innovation support should focus more on the demand side of the innovation value chain.

Despite growing emphasis on green skills, innovation, and sustainable livelihoods, research remains limited in the informal economy, particularly in developing countries. This study investigates gaps in green skills training, innovations and livelihoods among informal metal fabricators, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities within this sector. Specifically, the study critically assesses the potential for upskilling informal metal fabricators through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and university innovation hubs.

Employing a qualitative interpretive methodology, we conducted 40 key informant interviews with small-scale informal metal fabricators operating in Magaba and Gaza home industries, two of Harare’s largest home industries in Zimbabwe. Subsequent key informant interviews were held with TVET educators and innovation hub lecturers. Observations were carried out over a period of three months to comprehensively explore the issues under investigation.

Gender disparities persist within informal innovation spaces, with women making strides in the traditionally male-dominated field of metal fabrication. However, challenges such as prejudices, stigma, ridicule and abuse hinder women’s full participation in manufacturing processes, often relegating them to less physically demanding roles like customer engagement and product marketing. Inequities in support for green skills training were evident, with the innovation hub model primarily catering to formally educated youth in universities, neglecting the active involvement of notable informal innovators with limited formal education. While a gradual shift toward renewable energy sources is observable in the informal economy, government-owned TVET institutions show minimal or no adjustments in course content to incorporate essential green skills. In light of the findings, the study proposes measures to ensure equitable green skills training, innovation and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods in the informal metal fabrication sector.

The findings of this study represent a novel contribution the gaps in green skills training in the informal economy and how these inform reforms for vocational learning and training practices and the incubation of innovations.

The choice of a sales channel for fresh vegetables is an important decision a farmer can make. Typically, the farmers rely on their personal experience in directing the produce to a sales channel. This study examines how sales forecasting of fresh vegetables along multiple channels enables marginal and small-scale farmers to maximize their revenue by proportionately allocating the produce considering their short shelf life.

Machine learning models, namely long short-term memory (LSTM), convolution neural network (CNN) and traditional methods such as autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and weighted moving average (WMA) are developed and tested for demand forecasting of vegetables through three different channels, namely direct (Jaivasree), regulated (World market) and cooperative (Horticorp).

The results show that machine learning methods (LSTM/CNN) provide better forecasts for regulated (World market) and cooperative (Horticorp) channels, while traditional moving average yields a better result for direct (Jaivasree) channel where the sales volume is less as compared to the remaining two channels.

The price of vegetables is not considered as the government sets the base price for the vegetables.

The existing literature lacks models and approaches to predict the sales of fresh vegetables for marginal and small-scale farmers of developing economies like India. In this research, the authors forecast the sales of commonly used fresh vegetables for small-scale farmers of Kerala in India based on a set of 130 weekly time series data obtained from the Kerala Horticorp.

The present study aims to identify significant barriers to adopting prefabricated construction (PFC) in developing economies using a study in Sri Lanka and develop an integrated strategy framework to mitigate and overcome the obstacles.

The research process included a comprehensive literature review, a pilot study, a questionnaire survey for data collection, statistical analysis and a qualitative content analysis.

Ranking method revealed that all 23 barriers were significant. Top significant barriers include challenges in prefabricated component transportation, high capital investment costs and lack of awareness of the benefits of PFC among owners/developers. Factor analysis clustered six barrier categories (BCs) that fit the barrier factors, explaining 71.22% of the cumulative variance. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation revealed that all BCs significantly influence PFC adoption in Sri Lanka. Finally, the proposed mitigation strategies were mapped with barriers to complete the integrated framework.

The study outcomes are relevant to construction industry stakeholders of Sri Lanka, who are keen to enhance construction efficiencies. The implications can also benefit construction industry stakeholders and policymakers to formulate policies and regulations and identify mitigation solutions.

The study provides deeper insights into the challenges to adopting prefabrication in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the integrated framework is a novel contribution that can be used to derive actions to mitigate barriers in developing economies.

The paper sets out to understand the key issues that the various functions and optimal allocation of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in the circular economy that provide public services depend not only on external quantities or densities but also on their internal size of human resources.

The paper uses different data samples and models to study the influence mechanism of optimal NGO size of human resources and its differentiated effects on governance quality of entrepreneurship.

The authors find that a reduction in transaction costs and an increase in the aggregation degree of public demand lead to increased human capital and lower financial capital intensity. In addition, the authors find that NGO size of human resources has a relationship that is approximately U-shaped (or inverse U-shaped) with the governance quality of entrepreneurship.

The paper discusses the implications for programs that encourage NGOs to optimally determine their internal size of human resources and further improve the governance quality of entrepreneurship in the circular economy.

The paper reveals the significant nonmonotonic relationship between local governance quality and NGO financial size, even after controlling for other NGO, city and provincial characteristics.

This paper aims to examine the mechanism of how circular economy practices (CEP) and circular economy entrepreneurship (CEE) promote sustainable supply chain management (SCM) and facilitate sustainable performance (SP) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food value chain in emerging economy. In this context, this mechanism involves the mediating role of sustainable SCM in the relationship between CEP and SP. Simultaneously, it involves the moderating role of CEE in the link between CEP and sustainable SCM.

The paper follows a quantitative approach. Based on systematic literature review on the field, the nexus amongst the constructs were proposed. The Smart partial least square (PLS) version 3.3.2 was employed to analyze structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationships between constructs and latent variables. There were 457 valid responses obtained from the survey participants, those are managers at senior and middle levels. The data collected was then used for quantitative analysis and assessment.

The main finding of this study is twofold. First, it sheds light on how CEE associates in strengthening the influence of CEP on sustainable SCM. By this way, the better the CEE, the stronger the impact of the CEP on the sustainable SCM, leading to long-term sustainability. Second, it reveals how sustainable SCM mediates the link between CEP and SP. By this way, the better the CEP, the more the SCM is sustainable, ultimately leading to SP. This contribution is paramount because experimental research on this mechanism has not been intensively explored in the current literature.

The originality of this study is the provision of scientific knowledge and practical mechanisms for the introduction and application of CEP to business behaviors and practices in a real-world context that exists as a research gap in the current literature. In this respect, this study contributes to expanding the existing literature in the field by providing empirical evidence for the mechanism as stated. Furthermore, it provides a practical mechanism for SMEs in given context to enable them apply efficiently the circular economy perspective to their businesses to help them achieve SP. These contributions may be of interest to business practitioners, business leaders, academics and policymakers in the areas that are of their concerns.

The business landscapes in Asia and Africa are predominantly characterized by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) facing significant resource constraints. Understanding the capability dynamics of these enterprises in such contexts carries significant implications for theory and practice. This paper aims to addresses a crucial question of whether increasing customer involvement capability consistently yields the necessary rent for enterprises operating under resource constraints in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. By investigating this question, the paper offers SMEs a more nuanced approach to capability development, enabling them to achieve better returns on their investments.

To ensure the robustness of the findings, data were collected from SME service firms operating in two emerging economies: India (Asia) and Ghana (Africa). Data were collected in two waves to allow for catering to specific environmental conditions not accounted for in the study. Two-stage data analysis was then conducted to test the hypothesized relationships across the two countries.

The findings reveal that customer involvement capability does not always lead to an increase in firm-level competitiveness, and the effect follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. However, the nature of this relationship varies under different market conditions in both contexts. Specifically, in periods of low customer demand and intense competition, the relationship is linear and positive. On the other hand, in periods of high demand and competition, the relationship becomes inverted U-shaped, returning to a direct relationship with firm-level competitiveness.

This paper provides a resolution to the critical issue of whether customer involvement capability consistently delivers firm performance benefits, particularly for resource-constrained SMEs in emerging markets. By explaining how SMEs in emerging markets can fully capitalize on their capability development to optimize their resources, this paper makes a distinctive contribution. Moreover, it sheds light on the importance of aligning involvement capabilities with prevailing market conditions for SMEs to reap the maximum benefits.

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

This study investigates how role overload in the sharing economy leads to emotional exhaustion, which restricts value co-creation activity, and also investigates the moderating effect of perceived platform support.

Two experimental investigations and field research questionnaires were given to respondents with shared mobility industry expertise.

First, role overload detrimentally affects service providers' value co-creation behavior; second, emotional exhaustion acts as a mediator between role overload and value co-creation behavior; and finally, perceived platform support moderates the adverse effect of role overload on emotional exhaustion.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to explore the antecedents of value co-creation behavior from the service provider's perspective, extending the application of COR theory in a sharing economy context.

First, alternative mediators between role overload and emotional exhaustion were not identified. Second, other dimensions of role overload and their impacts were not examined. Lastly, this study did not explore broader perspectives beyond algorithms.

This study recommends that managers reduce role overload ex ante in terms of clarifying responsibilities and obligations, providing substantive resource support and rationalizing order allocation, respectively.