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Polyurethane (PUR) foam parts are traditionally manufactured using metallic molds, an unsuitable approach for prototyping purposes. Thus, rapid tooling of disposable molds using fused filament fabrication (FFF) with polylactic acid (PLA) and glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) is proposed as an economical, simpler and faster solution compared to traditional metallic molds or three-dimensional (3D) printing with other difficult-to-print thermoplastics, which are prone to shrinkage and delamination (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polypropilene-PP) or high-cost due to both material and printing equipment expenses (PEEK, polyamides or polycarbonate-PC). The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the ease of release of PUR foam on these materials in combination with release agents to facilitate the mulding/demoulding process.

PETG, PLA and hardenable polylactic acid (PLA 3D870) have been evaluated as mold materials in combination with aqueous and solvent-based release agents within a full design of experiments by three consecutive molding/demolding cycles.

PLA 3D870 has shown the best demoldability. A mold expressly designed to manufacture a foam cushion has been printed and the prototyping has been successfully achieved. The demolding of the part has been easier using a solvent-based release agent, meanwhile the quality has been better when using a water-based one.

The combination of PLA 3D870 and FFF, along with solvent-free water-based release agents, presents a compelling low-cost and eco-friendly alternative to traditional metallic molds and other 3D printing thermoplastics. This innovative approach serves as a viable option for rapid tooling in PUR foam molding.

This paper seeks to understand how a new elite, known as the cork aristocracy, emerged in the Bordeaux wine field, France, between 1850 and 1929 as wine merchants replaced aristocrats. Classic class and status perspectives, and their distinctive social closure dynamics, are mobilized to illuminate the individual and organizational transformations that affected elite wineries grouped in an emerging classification of the Bordeaux best wines. We build on a wealth of archives and historical ethnography techniques to surface complex status and organizational dynamics that reveal how financiers and industrialists intermediated this transition and how organizations are deeply interwoven into social change.

This paper aims to discuss recent criticism related to partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Using a combination of literature reviews, empirical examples, and simulation evidence, this research demonstrates that critical accounts of PLS-SEM paint an overly negative picture of PLS-SEM’s capabilities.

Criticisms of PLS-SEM often generalize from boundary conditions with little practical relevance to the method’s general performance, and disregard the metrics and analyses (e.g., Type I error assessment) that are important when assessing the method’s efficacy.

We believe the alleged “fallacies” and “untold facts” have already been addressed in prior research and that the discussion should shift toward constructive avenues by exploring future research areas that are relevant to PLS-SEM applications.

All statistical methods, including PLS-SEM, have strengths and weaknesses. Researchers need to consider established guidelines and recent advancements when using the method, especially given the fast pace of developments in the field.

This research addresses criticisms of PLS-SEM and offers researchers, reviewers, and journal editors a more constructive view of its capabilities.

This paper investigates how two characteristics of language, abstractness vs concreteness and narrativity, influence user engagement in communication exercises on innovation targeted to the general audience. The proposed conceptual model suggests that innovation fits well with more abstract language because of the association of innovation with imagination and distal construal. Moreover, communication of innovation may benefit from greater adherence to the narrativity arc, that is, early staging, increasing plot progression and climax optimal point. These effects are moderated by content variety and emotional tone, respectively.

Based on a Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) application on a sample of 3225 TED Talks transcripts, the authors identify 287 TED Talks on innovation, and then applied econometric analyses to test the hypotheses on the effects of abstractness vs concreteness and narrativity on engagement, and on the moderation effects of content variety and emotional tone.

The authors found that abstractness (vs concreteness) and narrativity have positive effects on engagement. These two effects are stronger with higher content variety and more positive emotional tone, respectively.

This paper extends the literature on communication of innovation, linguistics and text analysis by evaluating the roles of abstractness vs concreteness and narrativity in shaping appreciation of innovation.

This paper reports conceptual and empirical analyses on innovation dissemination through a popular medium – TED Talks – and applies modern text analysis algorithms to test hypotheses on the effects of two pivotal dimensions of language on user engagement.

This survey explores the application of real options theory to the field of health economics. The integration of options theory offers a valuable framework to address these challenges, providing insights into healthcare investments, policy analysis and patient care pathways.

This research employs the real options theory, a financial concept, to delve into health economics challenges. Through a systematic approach, three distinct models rooted in this theory are crafted and analyzed. Firstly, the study examines the value of investing in emerging health technology, factoring in future advantages, associated costs and unpredictability. The second model is patient-centric, evaluating the choice between immediate treatment switch and waiting for more clarity, while also weighing the associated risks. Lastly, the research assesses pandemic-related government policies, emphasizing the importance of delaying decisions in the face of uncertainties, thereby promoting data-driven policymaking.

Three different real options models are presented in this study to illustrate their applicability and value in aiding decision-makers. (1) The first evaluates investments in new technology, analyzing future benefits, discount rates and benefit volatility to determine investment value. (2) In the second model, a patient has the option of switching treatments now or waiting for more information before optimally switching treatments. However, waiting has its risks, such as disease progression. By modeling the potential benefits and risks of both options, and factoring in the time value, this model aids doctors and patients in making informed decisions based on a quantified assessment of potential outcomes. (3) The third model concerns pandemic policy: governments can end or prolong lockdowns. While awaiting more data on the virus might lead to economic and societal strain, the model emphasizes the economic value of deferring decisions under uncertainty.

This research provides a quantified perspective on various decisions in healthcare, from investments in new technology to treatment choices for patients to government decisions regarding pandemics. By applying real options theory, stakeholders can make more evidence-driven decisions.

Decisions about patient care pathways and pandemic policies have direct societal implications. For instance, choices regarding the prolongation or ending of lockdowns can lead to economic and societal strain.

The originality of this study lies in its application of real options theory, a concept from finance, to the realm of health economics, offering novel insights and analytical tools for decision-makers in the healthcare sector.

This study explores the impact of transformational leadership on work engagement within remote work settings. More specifically, we investigate whether supervisor’s perceived digital communication skills moderate the relationship between perceived supervisor support and work engagement.

Moderated mediation model has been tested using a sample of 410 consultants in Italy who worked within a fully remote work setting during Covid-19 pandemic.

Drawing on construal level theory and social presence theory, our study provides insights into the dynamics of leadership and work engagement in remote work settings. We demonstrate that, despite the challenges posed by physical distance, transformational leaders can effectively stimulate the work engagement of remote collaborators. Moreover, our findings suggest that the perceived digital communication skills of supervisors play a crucial role in moderating the relationship between perceived supervisor support and work engagement. This underscores the importance of supervisors' adept use of digital tools in conveying psychological presence and fostering employee engagement in remote work environments.

Our study highlights the importance of developing supervisors' digital communication skills to support and stimulate employee engagement in remote work settings.

This study contributes to the literature by providing one of the first empirical tests of the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived supervisor support, supervisor’s digital communication skills and work engagement within a remote work setting. By challenging prior assumptions and offering novel insights, our research enhances understanding of leadership dynamics and provides practical guidance for organizations navigating the challenges of remote work.

The purpose is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurs’ exit strategies and modes of entry. The topic of exit strategies in the context of approaching retirement warrants further attention.

We apply logistic regression to analyse 1,192 responses to an online survey of firms with entrepreneurs aged over 55.

Family successors are more likely to choose family succession and buyers to choose to sell, but the association between founding and exit mode cannot be confirmed. Firm size is also significant. Our findings suggest that entry and exit via a business transfer are linked. Entrepreneurs might be influenced by their form of entry when choosing their exit strategy.

The data were collected from a single European country, limiting generalisation. Future research should incorporate intervening variables not controlled for here, such as, entrepreneurial experience. Future studies should also seek to test the existence of imprinting directly, as it is implied rather than verified here.

If the entry mode has a lasting effect on the entrepreneur as our results suggest, thus influencing the exit strategy selected, entrepreneurs could benefit from greater awareness of the imprinting mechanism. Increasing awareness of imprinted biases could unlock the benefits of exit strategies previously overlooked.

The study is the first to consider sale, family succession and liquidation as exit strategies in relation to the original entry mode of ageing owners. It contributes to the understanding of exit strategies of ageing entrepreneurs and proposes using entrepreneurial learning and imprinting as lenses to clarify the phenomenon.

This study investigates the impact of internal expectations, such as fantasy of success and fear of failure and external factors, such as social environment and past experiences, on entrepreneurial choice.

Based on achievement motivation and social cognitive theories, the authors construct hypotheses and use secondary data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database and Economic Freedom Index report to empirically test the hypotheses. The authors also use propensity score matching to solve the endogeneity issue and test the robustness.

Internal expectations (fantasy of success and fear of failure) on business outcomes inversely affect entrepreneurial choices, with a vibrant business environment amplifying and past failure experience mitigating these effects.

Due to the economic recession, governments encourage small businesses. Thus, the complexity of individual entrepreneurial motivations and influencing factors necessitate deeper exploration. This study is one of the first research offering insights into entrepreneurial motivations from combined dimensions and providing theoretical support for strategies promoting public entrepreneurship.

This study aims to bring together the available scattered knowledge about teaching and learning in Living Labs within higher education, and to explore their potential for supporting students’ sustainability-oriented transformative learning.

A literature review was conducted, applying a realist approach. A sample of 35 articles was analyzed qualitatively, mapping the data according to the realist constructs “context,” “intervention,” “mechanism” and “outcome” and using the constant comparison method for data analysis.

This study identified multiple characteristics of teaching and learning in sustainability-oriented Living Labs, namely, two socio-physical teaching and learning contexts, two pedagogical approaches as interventions therein, four learning processes as (potential) mechanisms and six sustainability-related learning outcomes. Two main challenges were also identified.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that brings together the scattered results from previous studies into a comprehensive description of characteristics and challenges of teaching and learning in Living Labs as sustainability-oriented learning spaces in higher education. The findings can support educators in making scientifically grounded informed choices for teaching and learning in Living Labs and inform future empirical studies to examine when, how and why certain characteristics of teaching and learning in Living Labs, as identified in this study, can support sustainability-oriented transformative learning in higher education.

This study aims to examine the challenges in the implementation of energy management systems in residential buildings to lower the running cost and achieve a better energy-efficient building.

This study adopted a mixed research method. Quantitative data was gathered by issuing a research questionnaire to 20 Delphi experts, while qualitative data was acquired through a Systematic Literature Review. Data received was analyzed using the descriptive analysis method.

The findings revealed that the main barriers to incorporating energy management systems (EMSs) in residential buildings consist of a lack of awareness of energy management systems, lack of management commitment to energy management, lack of knowledge about energy management systems, lack of funds for energy management systems, resistance to energy management technology by the property owners and property managers, distrust and resistance to energy management technology by the property owners, high initial cost of energy management technologies, shortage of technicians for energy management technologies, the nonexistence of local manufacturers of energy management equipment, lack of incentives for efficient energy management and high repair costs of energy management technologies.

The specific focus on residential buildings may limit the applicability of findings to commercial or industrial sectors. Further research is warranted to accommodate other energy-consuming sectors.

People’s perceptions, either wrong or correct, affect their ability to make an informed decision to adopt energy management systems, denying them the opportunity to reap the associated benefits. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the residential industry stakeholders and the government to increase educational opportunities for property owners, managers and property tenants on the importance of energy management systems.

This research presents the potential obstacles and problematic areas that residents may encounter while using these energy management systems. Consequently, they will be able to make a well-informed choice when installing energy management systems. Moreover, the research elucidates the identification of novel perspectives and also unexamined obstacles that impede the widespread use of energy management systems in residential buildings.