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Calculating an organization's carbon footprint is crucial for assessing and implementing emission reductions. Although Finnish higher education institutions (HEIs) aim for carbon neutrality by 2030, limited research exists on plans to reach a similar target in any country. This paper aims to address the shared and individual challenges Finnish HEIs have with carbon footprint calculations, reductions, resources and offsetting.

A survey was targeted to sustainability experts in all 38 HEIs in Finland to identify key patterns and trends in the focus fields of the study. SWOT analysis was used to classify main strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats, based on which a series of policy recommendations was drafted.

Finnish HEIs are committed to carbon footprint tracking (97%, annually by 87%). The lack of standardization and the number of external stakeholders complicate accounting indirect emissions, impeding comparability and reliability. Only 39% had set separate emission reduction targets, suggesting a preference for carbon footprint over other environmental impact indicators. Insufficient monetary and human resources emerged in 23% of institutions, especially those smaller in size. Only 52% had clear offsetting plans, with shared concerns over trust and responsibility.

By including both research universities and universities of applied sciences, the findings provide an unprecedented outlook into the entire Finnish HEI sector. The policy recommendations guide HEIs both locally and globally on how to improve their transparency and scientific integrity, reflect on core successes and weaknesses and how they complete their objectives of education, research and social impact while promoting stronger sustainability.

This paper comprehensively investigates the lack of youth involvement in the intricate tapestry of urban policymaking in the Jordanian context. It attempts to present and illustrate the obstacles, challenges, hindrances and complexities facing engaging youth in urban planning in Jordan. Participants aged 18–24 were the primary focus of the investigation, as Jordan's population is predominantly youthful, with approximately 70% of the population under the age of 30.

The research methodology adopted in this study is a mixed-methods approach, which integrates both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analytical techniques to provide a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the research problem.

Youth involvement in Jordan's urban policymaking is limited and inconsistent. Most notably, the prevalence of adultism emerges as the predominant and most substantive impediment, exerting a considerable influence on constraining the agency of young Jordanians in shaping urban policy.

Detailed examples can be developed to offer discerning elucidations relevant to each frame of reference.

A total of 12 discernible barriers emerged from a systematic deductive thematic analysis of primary data.

This comprehensive inquiry highlights the pervasive gaps in support for youth participation in urban policymaking within the administrative framework and across Jordanian society. Subsequent quantitative analysis was employed to strengthen the external validity of the research findings, thereby enhancing the generalizability of the qualitative insights. By employing Jordan as a case study, this paper significantly contributes to the expanding corpus of scholarly work on planning processes and practices within the Global South and the Arab world.

Although intellectual capital (IC) and human dynamic capabilities (HDCs) play a significant role in decarbonization processes, their measurement and reporting is under-researched. Hence, this study aims to identify the link between HDCs, carbon accounting and integrated reporting (IR) in the transition processes, investigating IC and HDCs in decarbonization processes to achieve net-zero business models (n-ZBMs).

A systematic literature review with a concise bibliometric analysis is conducted on 229 articles, published from 1990 to 2023 in Scopus database and Google Scholar. Reviewing data on publications, journals, authors and citations and analysing the article content, this study identifies the main search trends, providing a new conceptual model and future research propositions.

The results reveal that the literature has rarely focussed on carbon accounting in terms of IC and HDCs. Additionally, firms face pressure from institutions and stakeholders regarding legitimacy and transparency, necessitating a response considering IR and requiring n-ZBMs to be developed through IC and HDCs to meet social and environmental requirements.

Not only does this study link IC with HDCs to address carbon emissions through decarbonization practices, which has never been addressed in the literature to date, but also provides novel recommendations and propositions through which firms can sustainably transition to being net-zero emission firms, thereby gaining competitive advantage and contributing to the nation’s sustainability goals.

Vietnam has repositioned itself from a war-torn country to a popular tourist destination. Although research on Vietnam tourism has grown in number, a macro analysis of national tourism governance and policies has largely been missing.

This synthesis paper offers a systemic analysis of Vietnam’s tourism accommodating intensified government intervention and dramatic market changes in recent decades. The authors offer a chronological analysis of tourism development along with the major political and economic turns of the country.

The patterns of tourism development reflect a compromise between centralization and decentralization of the governance system and a trade-off between economic and social objectives of development. Balancing these opposites, the internal strength of the domestic market and the resilience of communities and businesses become key assets for growth in circumstances where the socialist market economy continues to inform the current and future development of the industry.

Although the case of Vietnam is unique, the adaptive mechanism of the tourism industry highlighted in this paper offers a useful lesson for other developing countries. The research addresses tourism in the political economy in developing countries, which is valuable for researchers, policy analysts as well as practitioners in tourism.

The practical contribution of the study is derived from authors’ academic and industrial backgrounds. Findings from the study serve as a useful reference for those who embark on the study of tourism governance and policy-making in developing countries and problems associated with the economic transitional process. Those problems of the disparity between centralization and decentralization of the political system might not be only significant in Vietnam, but also prevail in developing countries. Thus, this study offers a point of departure for future empirical and comparative research on the kindship of tourism and political economy in a full scale.

The transitional economy as viewed through the tourism industry is prominently presented in the “evolutionary” approach to the transitional economy, which exhibits several unique features: the transition from a centrally planned (command) economy to a market economy and the manifestations of a socialist orientation in the modern economic management system (Vuong et al., 2019). While data from this study is mainly illustrative of the first point, the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, the second characteristic, the manifestation of a social orientation has only slightly been addressed and will need further elaboration in a future study. While Vietnam’s tourism positions itself in a socialist market-oriented economy might set a unique case, the study highlights the politics of tourism is shaped by the politico-economic system. The authors conclude that the adaptation of Vietnam tourism to a socialist market-orientated economy is better perceived as a social evolution achievement rather than a feature of capitalism.

The latest study on tourism governance (Bui et al., 2022) has outlined the evolution of the tourism administrative system and markets in the country; however, linkages of tourism to the broader political economic system have yet to be addressed. Addressing this gap, the authors carry out analysis of policies and governance from the insider’s viewpoint, when team members have been involved in numerous tourism planning and development projects, both on international and national scales. The practical experience along with thorough review of literature and statistical data contributes to shaping a fresh understanding of tourism in a transitional economy.

这篇综述对越南旅游业进行了系统分析, 包括近几十年来不断增强的政府干预以及巨大的市场变化。作者根据时间顺序分析了旅游业的发展以及该国的主要政治及经济的转变。此外, 政策文件的内容分析及旅游市场分析进一步说明了政治经济体系对旅游治理及政策的影响。

越南已将自己从一个饱受战争的国家重新定位成备受欢迎的旅游目的地。尽管对越南旅游业的研究不断增多, 但对国家旅游治理和政策的宏观分析却被之前的探究所忽略。此研究通过展示越南转型经济中的旅游治理模式连接了两个学科, 并且丰富了政治经济学和旅游学的文献。

旅游政策和市场分析反应了治理体系集权与分权之间的折中以及经济和社会发展目标之间的权衡。国内市场的内在优势以及社区及企业的韧性可以成为成长的关键资产来平衡这些对立面, 同时社会主义市场经济将继续影响产业的当前及未来的发展。因此我们的结论是, 越南旅游业适应社会主义市场经济应该被视为社会进化的成就, 而不是资本主义的特征。

考虑到一篇文章所能解决的问题有限, 作者无法就转型经济与中国进行比较研究。我们的研究为未来亚洲旅游与政治经济之间联系的实证和比较研究提供了一个出发点。

研究结果为发展中国家旅游治理和政策制定研究提供了有益的参考。

研究结果对于发展中国家旅游治理及政策制定研究具有重要参考意义。这项研究的成果对于发展中国家的旅游政策分析师, 特别是亚洲的研究人员来说很有价值。

当前的研究弥补了政治经济学中的一个研究不足, 即马克思主义学说及其与旅游业的对话。知识转移是本研究的一个亮点, 它源自对国家政治经济议程中的旅游治理的批判性分析。

Vietnam ha pasado de ser un país devastado por la guerra a convertirse en un popular destino turístico. Aunque la investigación sobre el turismo en Vietnam ha crecido en número, ha faltado en gran medida un macroanálisis de la gobernanza y las políticas turísticas nacionales. Nuestra investigación ha enriquecido la literatura tanto de la economía política como del turismo tendiendo un puente entre ambas disciplinas al presentar las pautas de la gobernanza del turismo en la economía de transición de Vietnam.

Este documento de síntesis ofrece un análisis sistemático del turismo de Vietnam que abarca la intensificación de la intervención gubernamental y los drásticos cambios del mercado en las últimas décadas. Los autores ofrecen un análisis cronológico del desarrollo del turismo junto con los principales giros políticos y económicos del país. Además, el análisis del contenido de los documentos políticos y el análisis del mercado turístico ilustran mejor las repercusiones de los sistemas político-económicos en la gobernanza y las políticas turísticas.

Las políticas turísticas y el análisis del mercado revelan un compromiso entre la centralización y la descentralización del sistema de gobernanza y un compromiso entre los objetivos económicos y sociales del desarrollo. Al equilibrar estos opuestos, la fuerza interna del mercado nacional y la resistencia de las comunidades y las empresas se convierten en activos clave para el crecimiento en unas circunstancias en las que la economía de mercado socialista sigue informando el desarrollo actual y futuro de la industria. Concluimos que la adaptación del turismo vietnamita a una economía socialista orientada al mercado se percibe mejor como un logro de la evolución social que como una característica del capitalismo.

Dentro del limitado abanico de cuestiones que podrían abordarse en un solo artículo, los autores no pueden establecer un estudio comparativo con China, en lo que respecta a la economía de transición. Nuestro estudio ofrece un punto de partida para futuras investigaciones empíricas y comparativas sobre la conexión entre turismo y economía política en Asia.

Las conclusiones del estudio sirven de referencia útil para quienes se embarcan en el estudio de la gobernanza y la formulación de políticas turísticas en los países en desarrollo.

Los resultados de la investigación son valiosos para los investigadores del sudeste asiático en particular y para los analistas de la política turística del mundo en desarrollo en general.

La presente investigación contribuye a un área poco investigada de la economía política, a saber, la doctrina marxista y su diálogo con el turismo. La transferencia de conocimientos es un aspecto destacado de esta investigación, que se ha derivado de un análisis crítico de la gobernanza del turismo en la agenda económica política nacional.

This chapter discusses how the real options theory can be useful for understanding the adoption of human resources management (HRM) practices. The authors review how the real options theory has provided insights into the processes through which firms manage uncertainties involved in the adoption of HRM practices. The authors offer propositions for future HRM research from the real options perspective. The authors contend that analyzing HRM practice adoptions through the lens of real options theory can enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which firms choose which HRM practices to adopt and how they adjust the timing, scale, and methods of investment in these practices. Specifically, the authors suggest that differences in information relevant to valuation of HRM options are the source of distinct choices of HRM options across firms. Finally, the authors propose advancing knowledge on HRM practice adoptions by using a portfolio of options approach, as well as considering factors like competitors, path dependence, and switching options.

Organizational scholars studying compensation often place an emphasis on certain employee groups (e.g., executives). Missing from this discussion is research on the compensation systems for low-wage jobs. In this review, the authors argue that workers in low-wage jobs represent a unique employment group in their understanding of rent allocation in organizations. The authors address the design of compensation strategies in organizations that lead to different outcomes for workers in low-wage jobs versus other workers. Drawing on and integrating human resource management (HRM), inequality, and worker literatures with compensation literature, the authors describe and explain compensation systems for low-wage work. The authors start by examining workers in low-wage work to identify aspects of these workers’ jobs and lives that can influence their health, performance, and other organizationally relevant outcomes. Next, the authors explore the compensation systems common for this type of work, building on the compensation literature, by identifying the low-wage work compensation designs, proposing the likely explanations for why organizations craft these designs, and describing the worker and organizational outcomes of these designs. The authors conclude with suggestions for future research in this growing field and explore how organizations may benefit by rethinking their approach to compensation for low-wage work. In sum, the authors hope that this review will be a foundational work for those interested in investigating organizational compensation issues at the intersection of inequality and worker and organizational outcomes.

Limiting the use of antibiotics in food animals is a cornerstone of contemporary EU policy. Despite that marketing of antibiotics for growth promotion and nutrition has been banned since 2006, the use is still high and varied. This paper aims to investigate the forces behind the different usage patterns in Italy, with one of the EU’s most extensive use of antibiotics in animals, versus Sweden, with the union’s most restricted use, including how these usage patterns are related to EU and national policies.

The industrial network approach/the 4R resources interaction model is adopted to investigate the major forces behind the different antibiotic usage patterns. Furthermore, the study relies on the notion of three main characteristics related to the use of a resource activated in several user settings (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2008, pp. 20–22). The paper investigates the Swedish and the Italian using settings, with a minimised, respectively, extensive usage of antibiotics. The study is exploratory in nature and based on qualitative data collected through a combination of primary and secondary sources.

The paper underlines the importance of integrating forces for policy to succeed in attempts to reduce the use of a particular resource. It reveals that Sweden’s radically reduced use was based on great awareness, close interactions between animal-based food producers and policy – and that integrating forces were supported by an era of state-protected food production, with promising ability to distribute the cost of change. The Italian characteristics hindering the integration of forces mounting for reduced use were restricted awareness, top-down business and policy interactions – and a great awareness about the difficulties of distributing the cost of change.

The study deals with the analysis of forces affecting the different usage of antibiotics within two EU settings. The investigation, based on the industrial network approach’s notion of connectivity of economic resources, that is, of exchange having a content and substance beyond discrete transactions, reveals how indirect related contextual forces, neglected by policy, have an important influence on the ability to achieve change, in this case of antibiotics usage patterns.

The aim of this study is to explore employees’ perceptions of the role of human resources (HR) departments in Jordanian organisations and the reasons behind these perceptions.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 employees who work at different organisations in various industrial sectors in Jordan.

Employees perceive HR roles as: providing transactional services (traditional); working as business partners to facilitate other departments’ roles (limited). Perceptions of HR professionals and the role of HR departments were generally negative, due to: societal-cultural norms and stereotypes of HR departments and HR professionals; the role of Wasta (a localised form of favouritism) in affecting HR practices; employees’ personal experiences with HR departments and HR professionals at their workplace; and the non-availability of human resources management (HRM) degrees in Jordan.

Limited research has explored varying perceptions about HR departments and their impacts on business contexts in emerging markets, including Jordan. This research is unique as it identifies the reasons behind common misconceptions of HR roles in Jordanian organisations. It extends beyond existing literature by integrating employees’ perceptions of the role of the HR departments to understand the consequences for HR practices’ operational effectiveness. It also pioneers consideration of societal culture in shaping these perceptions, which helps us build theories for future testing and generalisation purposes in other contexts with cultural commonalities. This study also highlights the current state of HRM development in Jordan, which helps in setting the agenda for future research in the country and the Middle East and North Africa region.

There does not exist any precise definition of ‘development’. In view of the indispensability of an interpretation of this concept a degree of speculation seems to exist in a development process. This is the reason this chapter has been included in this work. No scholar has precisely defined ‘development’ and ‘developing’ countries. It is believed that indigenous people know best what would be most suitable for them for development of their country. However, any discussion of these topics becomes incomplete, controversial, etc. in the absence of any precise definition. This chapter is no exception to this although an attempt has been made to outline development.

This study aims to work toward understanding the entrepreneurship ecosystem of agricultural social enterprises in the Philippines by exploring the interactions between policy, culture, supports and human capital domains.

The authors considered using an exploratory single-embedded case study approach, involving methodological triangulation of document analysis, semistructured interviews and participant observation. The authors analyzed the data using a narrative approach to map the ecosystem.

Through the research, the authors discovered that while each domain functions effectively individually, disconnects exist when interacting collectively as an ecosystem. The authors come to know that there is no policy consensus on social enterprise definitions, which limits specialized policy support. Although support services like incubators are available, the authors observed that awareness and accessibility vary based on location and business maturity. The authors also noted that human capital helps translate concepts into frameworks, but research tailored to agriculture and social entrepreneurship is limited. The authors come to the conclusion that collaboration and openness across domains are needed to strengthen connections and synergies.

The study was geographically limited to Luzon Island, and the authors did not include the finance and markets domains of the ecosystem model in the analysis.

Based on the findings, the authors identify strategies to reinforce connections, such as increasing awareness of support services, developing tailored policies for social enterprises, conducting specialized research and promoting collaboration across domains. The authors are convinced that implementing these strategies can further develop the agricultural social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The study provides unique empirical insights into the agricultural social entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Philippines. The authors captured the narratives and experiences of key ecosystem stakeholders along the process. The authors have confidence that what the authors found can strategically guide policymakers and support organizations, educational institutions and social entrepreneurs to accelerate ecosystem development for greater social impact.