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The surge of digital technologies and information communication technologies poses a challenge to traditional placemaking, influencing how people live, communicate and connect with their environments. In response, placemaking practices are integrating emerging digital technologies, giving rise to digital placemaking. This digital approach aims to present new opportunities for establishing a sense of place, encouraging unique interactions and adding value to communities in social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects.

This paper aims to examine the current landscape of digital tools and apps that facilitate digital placemaking. Conducting an extensive literature review, the research evaluates these tools based on their positive contributions to placemaking, categorizing them according to the aspects they enhance in the placemaking process. These aspects include social dynamics, cultural influences, environmental considerations, artistic qualities, heritage preservation, support for human well-being, urban development and opportunities for digital collaboration among citizens. Additionally, the paper explores digital pedagogy for placemaking, analyzing various tools for their educational approach, knowledge production methods and learning outcomes.

The findings indicate a growing trend in utilizing digital tools for placemaking, driven by technological advancements like augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and the internet of things. Similar to traditional placemaking, digital practices are collaborative and context-dependent, requiring engagement from multiple stakeholders for optimal success. Notably, successful digital placemaking apps often incorporate interactivity and multimodality. Digital collaborative platforms can significantly impact placemaking and sustainable urban design, serving as effective tools for both bottom-up and top-down knowledge production and learning related to placemaking.

The findings of this study must be seen considering certain limitations. The scoping review utilized analysis of most relevant bibliometric databases, however, in the domain of digital placemaking there are undertakings by private companies, nongovernmental as well as governmental organizations which are not cited in the scientific databases. This limitation was tackled by using conventional search engines like Google and Bing to identify and study such projects. Also, it must be noted that the digital domain is rapidly developing and being integrated in digital placemaking. Even more, the artificial intelligence technology, which is being applied across all disciplines, with so far unforeseen possibilities, should be further examined how it is being adopted and implemented in the domain of digital placemaking and which are its impacts in the placemaking processes and outcomes.

Despite these advancements, many digital tools lack a comprehensive approach to address the various aspects of sustainability in placemaking. Consequently, further research is needed to develop digital tools that adopt a holistic approach, ensuring justifiability and feasibility in social, environmental and economic terms. Furthermore, in alignment with the goals of the EU Green Deal, incorporating Circular Economy principles into the development of new digital placemaking methods and tools is crucial.

While Digitalisation is gaining momentum among practitioners and the scientific world, there is still a struggle to embark on the digitalisation journey successfully. The struggles are more significant for SMEs compared to large companies. Such transformation could face internal resistance, which evokes the need to put it into a socio-technical perspective such as lean. This paper investigates how SMEs could implement digital tools and technologies in their operations.

We relied on a multiple case study design in three SME manufacturing companies in Italy. Based on the experience of those companies, the struggles in the implementation and the lessons learned, we formulate an implementation model of digital tools driven by lean thinking.

Companies tend to implement first digital tools that help with real-time data collection and stress that introducing digital tools becomes challenging without reducing waste in production. The model stresses top management commitment, middle-line involvement and operator training to resist change. All these factors coincide with socio-technical lean bundles developed by seminal works. In addition, the study highlights that financial incentives are not necessarily the common barrier to digital tools implementation in SMEs but rather the cultural aspect.

Our paper enriches the extant body of knowledge by deriving knowledge around digitalisation implementation through lessons learned and corrective actions. It allows managers to benchmark and compare the current state of the implementation process with that of other companies and the one proposed to make corrective actions when necessary.

To support digital humanities research more effectively and efficiently, this study develops a novel Knowledge Graph Analysis Tool of People and Organizations (KGAT-PO) for the Digital Humanities Research Platform for Biographies of Chinese Malaysian Personalities (DHRP-BCMP) based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology that would not only allow humanities scholars to look at the relationships between people but also has the potential for aiding digital humanities research by identifying latent relationships between people via relationships between people and organizations.

To verify the effectiveness of KGAT-PO, a counterbalanced design was applied to compare research participants in two groups using DHRP-BCMP with and without KGAT-PO, respectively, to perform people relationship inquiry and to see if there were significant differences in the effectiveness and efficiency of exploring relationships between people, and the use of technology acceptance between the two groups. Interviews and Lag Sequential Analysis were also used to observe research participants’ perceptions and behaviors.

The results show that the DHRP-BCMP with KGAT-PO could help research participants improve the effectiveness of exploring relationships between people, and the research participants showed high technology acceptance towards using DHRP-BCMP with KGAT-PO. Moreover, the research participants who used DHRP-BCMP with KGAT-PO could identify helpful textual patterns to explore people’s relationships more quickly than DHRP-BCMP without KGAT-PO. The interviews revealed that most research participants agreed that the KGAT-PO is a good starting point for exploring relationships between people and improves the effectiveness and efficiency of exploring people’s relationship networks.

The research’s limitations encompass challenges related to data quality, complex people relationships, and privacy and ethics concerns. Currently, the KGAT-PO is limited to recognizing eight types of person-to-person relationships, including couple, sibling, parent-child, friend, teacher-student, relative, work, and others. These factors should be carefully considered to ensure the tool’s accuracy, usability, and ethical application in enhancing digital humanities research.

The study’s practical implications encompass enhanced research efficiency, aiding humanities scholars in uncovering latent interpersonal relationships within historical texts with high technology acceptance. Additionally, the tool’s applications can extend to social sciences, business and marketing, educational settings, and innovative research directions, ultimately contributing to data-driven insights in the field of digital humanities.

The research’s originality lies in creating a Knowledge Graph Analysis Tool of People and Organizations (KGAT-PO) using AI, bridging the gap between digital humanities research and AI technology. Its value is evident in its potential to efficiently uncover hidden people relationships, aiding digital humanities scholars in gaining new insights and perspectives, ultimately enhancing the depth and effectiveness of their research.

This study aims to develop an associative text analyzer (ATA) to support users in quickly grasping and interpreting the content of large amounts of text through text association recommendations, facilitating the identification of the contextual relationships between people, events, organization and locations for digital humanities. Additionally, by providing text summaries, the tool allows users to link between distant and close readings, thereby enabling more efficient exploration of related texts.

To verify the effectiveness of this tool in supporting exploration of historical texts, this study uses a counterbalanced design to compare the use of the digital humanities platform for Mr. Lo Chia-Lun’s Writings (DHP-LCLW) with and without the ATA to assist in exploring different aspects of text. The study investigated whether there were significant differences in effectiveness for exploring textual contexts and technological acceptance as well as used semi-structured in-depth interviews to understand the research participants’ viewpoints and experiences with the ATA.

The results of the experiment revealed that the effectiveness of text exploration using the DHP-LCLW with and without the ATA varied significantly depending on the topic of the text being explored. The DHP-LCLW with the ATA was found to be more suitable for exploring historical texts, while the DHP-LCLW without the ATA was more suitable for exploring educational texts. The DHP-LCLW with the DHP-LCLW was found to be significantly more useful in terms of perceived usefulness than the DHP-LCLW without the ATA, indicating that the research participants believed the ATA was more effective in helping them efficiently grasp the related texts and topics during text exploration.

The study’s practical implications lie in the development of an ATA for digital humanities, offering a valuable tool for efficiently exploring historical texts. The ATA enhances users’ ability to grasp and interpret large volumes of text, facilitating contextual relationship identification. Its practical utility is evident in the improved effectiveness of text exploration, particularly for historical content, as indicated by users’ perceived usefulness.

This study proposes an ATA for digital humanities, enhancing text exploration by offering association recommendations and efficient linking between distant and close readings. The study contributes by providing a specialized tool and demonstrating its perceived usefulness in facilitating efficient exploration of related texts in digital humanities.

In the era of digital intelligence, individuals are increasingly interacting with digital information in their daily lives and work, and a growing phenomenon known as digital hoarding is becoming more prevalent. Prior research suggests that humanities researchers have unique and longstanding information interaction and management practices in the digital scholarship context. This study therefore aims to understand how digital hoarding manifests in humanities researchers’ behavior, identify the influencing factors associated with it, and explore how they perceive and respond to digital hoarding behavior.

Qualitative research methods enable us to acquire a rich insight and nuanced understanding of digital hoarding practices. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 humanities researchers who were pre-screened for a high propensity for digital hoarding. Thematic analyses were then used to analyze the interview data.

Three main characteristics of digital hoarding were identified. Further, the research paradigm, digital affordance, and personality traits and habits, collectively influencing the emergence and development of digital hoarding behaviors, were examined. The subtle influence of traditional Chinese culture was encountered. Interestingly, this study found that humanists perceive digital hoarding as a positive expectation (associated with inspiration, aesthetic pursuit, and uncertainty avoidance). Meanwhile, humanists' problematic perception of this behavior is more widely observed — they experience what we conceptualize as an “expectation-perception” gap. Three specific information behaviors related to avoidance were identified as aggravating factors for digital hoarding.

The findings deepen the understanding of digital hoarding behaviors and personal information management among humanities researchers within the LIS field, and implications for humanities researchers, digital scholarship service providers, and digital tool developers are discussed.

This paper seeks to analyze how local media in Serbia, North Macedonia and Bulgaria have integrated digital technologies and tools into their work and corporate communication during the pandemic.

The methodology used in the research is based on a qualitative approach reflected in the use of semi-structured interviews with 26 media professionals. The research questions were: (1) In terms of their use of digital technologies, what are the differences and similarities between Serbia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia? (2) How did the local media digitize their work and internal communication during the state of emergency in the target countries? (3) Is there a digital divide between local and national media?

The results show changes in the work conditions for local media during the pandemic, both regarding the needs of the public and media professionals, along with a greater call for the integration of digital technologies and tools relative to the pre-pandemic period. The integration of digital technologies into local media’s daily work and the mechanisms in which they can change the way of reporting, production and work environment in this part of the world has been underresearched.

This research is limited by the number of interviewed media professionals as well as the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results can be the basis for broader research on local media in Balkan countries that have not been the focus of academics so far.

The study looks at how digital technologies are integrated into media production processes as well as into internal strategic communication and work organization under the influence and conditions of the pandemic. This type of analysis has not yet been carried out in any of the three countries, and it is especially pertinent because it compares data from nations that are culturally similar yet have distinct political, social, and digital development and features. In addition to that, the study focuses on the impact of local media and thus contributes to theory further, as the impact of local media has been underresearched internationally despite its large influence on public opinion formation.

Due to the critical importance of digital transformation in enhancing industrial growth and competitiveness, especially in heavy construction, this study introduces a tailored capability assessment model and self-appraisal tool for firms in this sector. These resources enable them to gauge their readiness for adopting digital technology effectively.

Utilizing the Technology—Organization—Environment (TOE) and Natural Resource Dependence Theory (NRDT) frameworks, 22 markers were identified to structure a questionnaire distributed to construction professionals. Descriptive analysis and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) were used to develop the capability assessment model. A validation survey assessed the validity of both the model and the self-appraisal instrument.

The study identified the top five significant markers: (1) leadership commitment to digital transformation, (2) workforce readiness for technology integration, (3) potential ROI through efficiency gains, (4) technology maturity for construction applications and (5) complexity of integrating new technologies with existing workflows. Through FSE, the most critical factors were technology-related, organizational and resource optimization markers.

By employing the TOE and NRDT frameworks, the study identifies the most critical factors influencing digital adoption in heavy construction. Also, the user-friendly self-appraisal instrument developed in this study can be considered a valuable contribution, as it provides heavy construction firms with a practical tool for ongoing monitoring and improvement of their digital transformation efforts.

New service businesses carry opportunities for industrial companies. The different cost management and management control implications of those service businesses deserve attention, which is a widely under-researched area in management accounting and control literature. Digital twins could hold potential in unveiling and supporting those new service business opportunities, as a unique approach of this paper. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility and potential for creating a digital twin of a service, especially to unveil the management accounting and control implications of the digital twin in developing new service businesses.

This paper investigates the potential of a digital twin in unveiling cost and control implications of new service businesses by examining the characteristics of a digital twin in the service business development context. The paper use an in-depth interventionist case study, where the designed animations illustrate the possibilities of a digital twin of a service. The animations showing the service process characteristics were first used as a communication tool and eventually those animations were actively used in customer cases for different purposes. This motivated the idea for examining the implications of such animations representing a digital twin of a service.

The paper provides empirical insights regarding the potential for developing and using a digital twin of a service for different cost management and management control purposes. The digital twin of a service may include all main details of a new service offering, simulating the functionality of a service, hence making the performance and the implications of the new service concept clear for all the stakeholders. The digital twin of the service enables defining the processes, setting targets and helps communication about the value generation. Thus, they represent a significant toolkit for the management accounting and control function of the manufacturers.

This paper is among the first attempts to understand the digital twin of the service. The paper is unique in providing financial and control implications of digital twins also in the context of service business development. The in-depth interventionist approach enabled an exceptional exploration process on the subject. The article paves the way toward further research on managing the digital twins of services in the future.

This paper explores the orchestration of digital innovation in Industry 4.0 organisations.

The study applies the activity theory to explorative multiple case studies. Observations of innovation activities in five business cases take place at two large international organisations.

The results underline five logics of action that drive digital innovation: (1) digital transformation, (2) technology translation, (3) catalyst agents, (4) digital thread and (5) empowerment. Further, the case study organisations highlight the importance of developing a sustainable culture capable of continuously adopting new technologies, processes and infrastructure that will allow the management of digital innovations.

The study empirically shows the motivations and challenges in orchestrating digital innovation in Industry 4.0 organisations.

This study aims to understand and explain factors that influence how, when and under which conditions local governments adopt digital technologies for citizen collaboration. It discusses what these findings mean for city digital twin adoption.

This research uses the systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) process to collect and evaluate evidence needed to answer the research questions. It uses the technology–organisation–environment (TOE) framework and proposes an additional dimension: “stakeholders” as the analytical framework.

Critical influential factors identified include the technology dimension: security and privacy; organisation dimension: top management support; environment dimension: political influence; and stakeholders’ dimension: technological experience.

This research extends the TOE framework and comprehensively analyses those factors which relate to citizens but significantly impact local government’s decision to adopt digital tools for collaboration purposes. This research posits that in the context of local government technology adoption for collaboration, both the organisation and stakeholders’ dimensions are critical.

This research contributes to the government-citizen discourse and provides a constructive understanding of technological transformation in collaborative planning. The findings are helpful for local governments, researchers and geospatial industries as they offer a critical understanding of digital technology adoption, particularly city digital twins, for collaborative planning.

This study extends the TOE framework to include aspects relating to citizens. It provides a nuanced understanding of the influential factors and intricacies of technology adoption by local governments for citizen collaboration. It also discusses relevant issues of city digital twins’ adoption by local governments for citizen participation.