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This paper aims to identify challenges and opportunities for social enterprises (SE) in civil engineering in Brazil.

Starting from the transformative social innovation theory and inspired by grounded theory principles, this paper conducts three-stage exploratory research. First, this paper mapped the Brazilian SE civil engineering ecosystem. Next, this paper classified the SE initiatives along with an organizing framework. Finally, this paper conducted 11 interviews with key ecosystem actors and analyzed data through iterative, parallel and interrelated content analysis procedures.

The 37 SE found were classified along “Sustainability,” “Housing,” “Transportation” and “Sanitation” pillars, which are aligned with the United Nations’ social development goals. This paper found 50 challenges and opportunities, which were aggregated along seven dimensions. Three elements are particularly relevant as opportunities: opportunities for SE with ecosystem supporters, specialized investors and partnership with major companies; while government and early investment are the most relevant challenges.

Research findings and conclusions cannot be extended to other sectors and countries. Usual limitations associated with exploratory qualitative research must also be highlighted.

The government should offer financial and technical support for civil engineering in working in partnership with ecosystem supporters. Academy could use SE content and ecosystem for its students and should offer diverse resources for network creation.

Focusing on civil engineering SE in Brazil, this study sheds light on a high-impact sector that has not been studied yet.

This study aims to analyse value co-creation in innovative firms within innovation environments (IEs) in the south region of Brazil from a processual and dynamic perspective, including its antecedents, initiatives and its outcomes in the multiple facets of the firms’ performance.

A qualitative and quantitative multi-method study was carried out with the management and support teams of these IEs, as well as with a sample of 91 companies installed.

The results helped clarify the value co-creation process in IEs of an emerging economy, suggesting under which conditions and how value co-creation practices are performed and its significant role in specific performance dimensions of companies.

The study contributes to companies and IEs within emerging economies to prioritize practices related to the co-creation of value to enhance their results.

In emerging countries, IEs struggle to apply their scarce resources to the development of hosted firms. Having value co-creation as a concept that presupposes the involvement of the beneficiary and other actors to improve the companies’ value proposition, its practice may constitute a valuable ally in this effort. However, the dynamics of value co-creation in such environments, its antecedents and specific outcomes are still unclear.

The objective is to develop an empirical model estimating the relationship and interaction amongst the factors affecting and enhancing green finance (GF) in developing economies like India.

Around nine growth-accelerating enablers of green financing were found through literature and unstructured interviews and analysed using the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) method. The hierarchical link between each factor is established using TISM, and further to evaluate the driver-dependent relationship the Matriced’ Impacts Croises Appliquee Aaun Classement (MICMAC) approach is utilised.

The findings demonstrate an interrelationship between growth-accelerating factors, where the political environment and information and communication technology (ICT), have minimal dependency but a strong driving force. Political environment and ICT are found as strategic-level factors lying at the bottom of the model driving towards the dependent variables. The government should focus on enacting effective policies such as the green credit guarantee scheme and carbon credit and establishing a regulatory framework to enhance green financing.

This study examines the literature to generalise the findings and focus on the primary motivators for developing green financing. To increase green financial activity, practitioners must concentrate on aspects with significant driving forces. Furthermore, it makes organisations more profitable, efficient and competitive and promotes long-term growth.

The study is the first in the literature which identifies the growth-accelerating factors of green financing using the TISM and MICMAC-based hierarchical models.

Documentation plays a key role in navigating the costs of construction projects. Traditional document management systems (TDMS) used in developing countries, however, hinder the achievement of expected cost targets. Although the electronic document management system (EDMS) has been implemented to improve documentation, the Sri Lankan construction industry has failed to effectively adapt to it. Hence, this study aims to provide strategies for the effective application of EDMS to the cost management of Sri Lankan mega construction projects.

This study uses a qualitative approach followed by 12 semi-structured expert interviews. Quantity surveying experts were selected through judgemental sampling. Manual content analysis was used to analyse the data.

The EDMS is more suitable for megaprojects than traditional methods of documentation in terms of functionality, neutrality, interoperability, space, reversibility and delivery speed. However, there are contradictory views about cost and security. Furthermore, five transitional challenges of EDMS have been identified under the three key themes of cost, stakeholder perception and technical difficulties. Four reasons were also identified as causing these five challenges. Seven suggestions were made to deal with these transitional challenges and three key feasible solutions for the Sri Lankan construction industry regarding the EDMS were identified. Development of Sri Lankan software with low initial cost was highlighted as the most feasible solution.

This is a novel study to investigate the applicability of EDMS to cost management mechanisms of megaprojects in Sri Lanka. The findings reveal transitional challenges and appropriate feasible solutions for EDMS adaptation. This can be applied to the cost management of megaprojects in other developing countries as well.

It is broadly recognized in China that funding risks due to a lack of sufficient financial support from banks are the most crucial constraints that prevent the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In developed economies, such as Japan and European countries, the relationship banking business model is commonly used to help support SMEs to deal with funding risks. In this chapter, we investigate whether the relationship banking business model can be applied in China. This chapter uses the results of a unique survey study that was conducted by Professor Hiroyuki Kato of Kobe University and Professor Tang Cheng of Chuo University. They studied 183 SMEs in Zhejiang Province in China. After cleaning the data, the final sample size for this study was 100 firms. Using this data, we estimated the ordered logistic and OLS models to examine several hypotheses regarding relationship banking. We found evidence suggesting that relationship banking can mitigate funding risks for SMEs in China. Our study suggests that, although Chinese banks are still underdeveloped in terms of providing relationship lending, promoting the relationship banking model may be a significant way to resolve the financial difficulties of Chinese SMEs. It is generally very difficult to test hypotheses regarding relationship banking in China because of a lack of relevant data about Chinese SMEs. Due to our unique data set, which contains relevant information directly provided by Chinese SMEs, we can examine these hypotheses.

The purpose of this paper is to distinguish different types of sustainable digital entrepreneurs (SDEs) and explore their approaches toward enhancing organizational resilience.

Investigation of entrepreneur characteristics using Grounded Theory methodology; 12 semi-structured telephone interviews with (owner-)managers of digital-resilient small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups in Germany; adaptation of a sustainability-digitalization-matrix for initial clustering; investigation of reoccurring patterns (within and between clusters) through variable-oriented content analysis; application of the capability-based conceptualization of organizational resilience for synthesis and extension.

First, the authors present a new typology of SDEs, including descriptions of the four main types (Process-Oriented System Thinker, Unconventional Strategist, Dynamic Visionary and Success-Oriented Opportunist). Second, the authors propose a conceptual framework with six success factors of organizational resilience. The framework accentuates the influence of SDEs on organizational culture and the macro-environment.

Digital sustainability and resilience are emerging management principles. The insights gained will allow (future) entrepreneurs to perform a self-assessment and replicate approaches toward enhancing SME resilience; for example, governing the co-creation of an organizational culture with a strong integrative view on sustainability and digitalization.

SMEs are characterized by high vulnerability and a reactive response to the disruptions caused by sustainability crises and digitalization. Blending sustainable and digital entrepreneurship at a micro-level, the authors identified the success factors underpinning organizational resilience that are associated with the characteristics of four types of SDEs.

Sleep disturbances, present in more than 90% of major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, are moderated by sex in adult MDD. In particular, slow-wave electroencephalographic activity (SWA; 0.5-4 Hz) accumulation is low and dissipation impaired. This SWA abnormality in depressed adult males does not change with age, suggesting that SWA abnormality appears at early ages. The present study evaluated sex differences in SWA in adolescents with MDD compared to healthy controls. We evaluated regularized sleep-wake schedules at home for 5-7 days, followed by two consecutive nights of sleep EEG recording. The study included 104 participants, 52 symptomatic and depressed subjects (MDD: 20 males and 32 females) and 52 healthy controls (HC: 20 males and 32 females), aged 13-18 years. SWA power and dissipation, and duration and latencies to each Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep period were calculated for each group. Results showed that SWA accumulation in the first NREM period was lower and its dissipation across the night more irregular in MDD males compared to HC males (P<0.009). By contrast, SWA was equivalent in MDD and HC females. In conclusion, as reported in adult MDD, the accumulation and dissipation of SWA was abnormal in depressed adolescents, but only in males. SWA abnormalities in adolescent MDD may relate to different depressive symptoms in females and males. These results underscore the need to develop sex-specific therapies to enhance and restore SWA in depressed adolescents.

This study aims to obtained the failure probability distributions of subsystems for industrial robot and filtrate its fault data considering the complicated influencing factors of failure rate for industrial robot and numerous epistemic uncertainties.

A fault data screening method and failure rate prediction framework are proposed to investigate industrial robot. First, the failure rate model of the industrial robot with different subsystems is established and then the surrogate model is used to fit bathtub curve of the original industrial robot to obtain the early fault time point. Furthermore, the distribution parameters of the original industrial robot are solved by maximum-likelihood function. Second, the influencing factors of the new industrial robot are quantified, and the epistemic uncertainties are refined using interval analytic hierarchy process method to obtain the correction coefficient of the failure rate.

The failure rate and mean time between failure (MTBF) of predicted new industrial robot are obtained, and the MTBF of predicted new industrial robot is improved compared with that of the original industrial robot.

Failure data of industrial robots is the basis of this prediction method, but it cannot be used for new or similar products, which is the limitation of this method. At the same time, based on the series characteristics of the industrial robot, it is not suitable for parallel or series-parallel systems.

This investigation has important guiding significance to maintenance strategy and spare parts quantity of industrial robot. In addition, this study is of great help to engineers and of great significance to increase the service life and reliability of industrial robots.

This investigation can improve MTBF and extend the service life of industrial robots; furthermore, this method can be applied to predict other mechanical products.

This method can complete the process of fitting, screening and refitting the fault data of the industrial robot, which provides a theoretic basis for reliability growth of the predicted new industrial robot. This investigation has significance to maintenance strategy and spare parts quantity of the industrial robot. Moreover, this method can also be applied to the prediction of other mechanical products.

Reflecting, reliving and reforming experiences enhance longer-term effects of travel and tourism, and have been highlighted as an important aspect in determining loyalty, re-visitation and post-consumption satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to develop new methodological approaches to investigate emotion, memory creation and the resulting psychosocial effects.

The paper proposes a unique combination of physiological measures and photoelicitation-based discussions within a longitudinal design. A physiological measuring instrument (electrodermal activity [EDA] tracking technology through Empatica E4 wristbands) is utilised to capture the “unadulterated” emotional response both during the experience and in reliving or remembering it. This is combined with post-experience narrative discussion groups using photos and other artefacts to give further understanding of the process of collective memory creation.

EDA tracking can enhance qualitative research methodologies in three ways: through use as an “artefact” to prompt reflection on feelings, through identifying peaks of emotional response and through highlighting changes in emotional response over time. Empirical evidence from studies into participatory arts events and the potential well-being effects upon women over the age of 70 is presented to illustrate the method.

The artificial environment created using experimental approaches to measure emotions and memory (common in many fields of psychology) has serious limitations. This paper proposes new and more “natural” methods for use in tourism, hospitality and events research, which have the potential to better capture participants’ feelings, behaviours and the meanings they place upon them.

IN covering British activities in the inertial guidance field, it is appropriate to include a brief picture of developments in the historical sense so that British achievements can be seen in perspective especially with regard to the state‐of‐the‐art in the United States. We will also deal with the application of inertial navigation systems to the civil field for, although at the moment every production inertial quality system in service is being operated in a military rôle, civil aviation is on the threshold of adopting inertial techniques.