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The study aims to build upon the Resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) to perform a meta-analysis on the eco-innovation/SMEs’ sustainable performance relationship.

Employing a psychometric meta-analytic approach with a random-effects model, the study examines a sample of 134,841 SMEs covering 99 studies and 233 study effects. Subgroup and meta-regression analysis were used to test the study`s hypotheses in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) statistical software.

Results unveil that the average impact of eco-innovation on SMEs` sustainable performance is positively significant but moderate. Moreover, it was found that eco-process, eco-product, eco-organizational, and eco-marketing innovations positively influence SMEs’ sustainable performance, but the impact of eco-organizational innovation is the strongest. Findings further reveal that eco-innovation positively influences economic, social, and environmental performance, but its effect on social performance is the largest. Moreover, our findings reveal that contextual factors, including industry type, culture, industry intensity, global sustainable competitive index, and human development index, moderate the eco-innovation/SMEs’ sustainable performance relationship. Lastly, methodological factors, namely sampling technique, study type, and publication status, account for study-study variance.

Our findings imply that investing in eco-innovation is worthwhile for SMEs. Therefore, CEOs/managers of SMEs must adopt eco-innovation initiatives by establishing a sustainability vision, developing employee environmental development and training, building a stakeholder management system, and promoting employee engagement in sustainability activities.

The study develops a holistic conceptual framework to consolidate the distinct types of eco-innovation and their association with the sustainable performance of SMEs for the first time in this research stream, thereby resolving the anecdotal results and synthesizing the fragmented literature across culture, discipline, and contexts.

The fear of the pandemic, confinement at home and the need to work created a unique situation. The pandemic catalyzed work-from-anywhere practice by adopting information and communication technologies (ICT) across all industries. While ICT saved organizations, it increased technostress among the workforce. A better understanding of the adverse effects of ICT usage might enable organizations to manage the mental well-being of the workforce. While technostress is gaining increasing interest, scholarly work investigating the dimensions of technostress and its impact on creating stress across various employee demographics and industry types is missing. Contrary to the prevalent assumptions, the authors theorized and tested the adverse moderation effect of the home-work interface on the linkage between technostress dimensions and stress. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

The study captures dimensions of technostress and the resulting stress at work using a survey-based analysis of 881 working employees in India, representing multiple industries and functions.

The study indicates that techno-overload, techno-complexity and techno-invasion significantly impact employees during the pandemic. The authors further found that the home-work-interface is a powerful factor in understanding the complex linkage between dimensions of technostress and its outcomes.

Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory and the Job-Demand-Resources model, this study highlights the adverse impact of this trend on employee well-being. However, the study suffers from a cross-sectional research design. The technostress research has focused primarily on static, at-premise environments and mostly on high ICT usage industries. Due to the pandemic, it has neglected the impact of various technostress dimensions across employee cohorts subjected to rapid technology-enabled working. Further, most studies focus on the voluntary choice of remote work. Employees struggle with the unexpected and involuntary shift to technology-enabled remote work. This study contributes to the literature by examining the consequences of technostress in the context of non-voluntary remote work. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, this study highlights the adverse effect of organizational home-work interface in influencing ICT-created stress.

The increasing use of ICT enables telecommuting across the workforce while increasing organizational productivity. Due to the pandemic, these trends will likely change the future of work permanently. To minimize employee stress, practitioners need to reconsider the dimensions of technostress. Further, the study cautions against the prevalent interventions used by practitioners. While practitioners facilitate a home-work interface, it could have adverse consequences. Practitioners may consider the adverse consequences of home-work interface while designing organizational policies.

This study during the pandemic is crucial as research forecasts the likelihood of other cataclysmic events, such as future pandemics and political or climate change events, which may sustain technology-driven remote work practices and remain a feature of the future workplace. Hence understanding the implications of the dimensions of technostress would help organizations and policymakers to implement necessary interventions to minimize employee stress.

The present study examines the dimensions of technostress across multiple industries and job functions in an emerging market marked by a high economic growth rate and an Eastern cultural context. This study presents the dark side of excessive ICT adoption and indicates how organizations and HRM practices can help mitigate some of these effects.

This paper aims to examine the consequences of board diversity (BD) in Kuwait. In particular, it examines the impact of BD (gender, age and nationality) on earnings management (EM).

The research uses data from 103 non-financial Kuwaiti-listed companies from 2010 to 2017. The data is collected from the companies’ data from secondary sources such as their annual reports. The data analysis methods are correlation, multi-regression and robust regression. EM is measured using the modified Jones model (1995) and Kothari et al. (2005).

The findings show a negative association between gender diversity (GD) and EM. It also found a positive relationship between age diversity (AD) and EM and no relationship between national diversity (ND) and EM.

This study’s results have significant implications for investors. The practical empirical findings indicate that GD on the board did not impact on EM. Also, it is more important to have senior directors on the board than AD to reduce EM. There is no need to employ any foreigners because they do not affect EM.

It contributes to the growing body of literature on BD by investigating its effect on EM. Furthermore, building on the broader literature on gender, age and ND by highlighting the critical role that women, young people and foreign directors play in improving boards' monitoring role on EM. More specifically, it contributes to existing knowledge, provides a theoretical contribution and makes a methodological contribution.

This paper takes the manufacturing cluster supply chain as the research object and explores the evaluation and enhancement strategy of manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy. The purpose of this study was to (1) analyze the mechanism of manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy; (2) construct manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy evaluation model; (3) algorithm realization of manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy evaluation and (4) propose manufacturing cluster-based supply chain synergy enhancement strategy.

Breaking through the limitations of traditional manufacturing cluster supply chain synergy evaluation, we take horizontal synergy and vertical synergy as coupled synergy subsystems, use the complex system synergy model to explore the horizontal synergy between core enterprises and cluster enterprises and the vertical synergy of supply chain enterprises and use the coupling coordination model to construct the coupled synergy evaluation model of manufacturing cluster supply chain, which is an innovation of the evaluation perspective of previous cluster supply chain synergy and also an enrichment and supplementation of the evaluation methodology. This is not only the innovation of the evaluation perspective but also the enrichment and supplementation of the evaluation method.

Using Python software to conduct empirical analysis on the evaluation model, the research shows that the horizontal and vertical synergies of the manufacturing cluster supply chain interact with each other and jointly affect the coupling synergy. On this basis, targeted strategies are proposed to enhance the synergy of the manufacturing cluster supply chain.

This study takes manufacturers, suppliers and sellers in the three-level supply chain as the research object and does not consider the synergistic evaluation between distributors and consumers in the supply chain, which can be further explored in this direction in the future.

Advanced manufacturing clusters, as the main force of manufacturing development, and the synergistic development of supply chain are one of the important driving forces for the high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry. As a new type of network organization coupling industrial clusters and supply chains, cluster supply chain is conducive not only to improving the competitiveness of cluster supply chains but also to upgrading cluster supply chains through horizontal synergy within the cluster and vertical synergy in the supply chain.

Research can help accelerate the transformation and upgrading of clustered supply chains in the manufacturing industry, promote high-quality development of the manufacturing industry and accelerate the rise of the global value chain position of the manufacturing industry.

(1) Innovation of research perspective. Starting from two perspectives of horizontal synergy and vertical synergy, we take a core enterprise in the cluster supply chain as the starting point, horizontally explore the main enterprises of the cluster as the research object of horizontal synergy, vertically explore the upstream and downstream enterprises of the supply chain as the research object of vertical synergy and explore the coupling synergy of cluster supply chain as two subsystems, which provides new perspectives of evaluation of the degree of synergy and synergy evaluation. (2) Innovation of research content. Nine manufacturing clusters are selected as research samples, and through data collection and model analysis, it is verified that the evaluation model and implementation algorithm designed in this paper have strong practicability, which not only provides methodological reference for the evaluation of manufacturing cluster-type supply chain synergy but also reduces the loss caused by the instability of clusters and supply chains and then provides a theoretical basis for improving the overall performance of cluster-type supply chains.

Ocean transportation is not only the cheapest and the best mode of bulk transport but also the most polluting form of transportation. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set strict targets to cut down carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, following which several initiatives have been taken by the shipping industry to embrace new technologies that can make the industry greener. Significant investments have been made into research and development (R&D) to develop alternative marine fuels. This chapter explores the feasibility of setting up a Biomass Recycling Facility (BRF) in the Tirupur–Tuticorin region in Tamil Nadu. The region was chosen because Tirupur being a textile valley generates tonnes of textile wastes every year. It can become good feedstock for biofuel generation, and it is also near Tuticorin Port, which is one of the major ports in Tamil Nadu. On an average, every year 1,000 vessels of medium and large size call at this port. There is a high probability that a BRF established in the vicinity can generate and supply bioethanol for the ships calling at Tuticorin Port. It is apparent from the findings of the study that the feedstock generated by textile industry alone may not be sufficient to meet the huge volumes of biofuel requirements of vessels, more over considerable investments into infrastructure and technology are required. But the study points out that still it could become a viable option because of the government support and favourable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies. The growing demand for biofuel and the increasing price in the world market can become an added advantage.

How does business model design play a role in enabling manufacturing firms’ services? This study aims to investigate the impact of two distinct types of business model design, namely, efficiency-centered business model design (EBMD) and novelty-centered business model design (NBMD), and their effects in balanced and imbalanced configurations, on two types of services: product- and customer-oriented services.

Using matched survey data of 390 top managers and objective performance data of 195 Chinese manufacturing firms, this study uses hierarchical regression, polynomial regression and response surface analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results show that while EBMD positively affects product-oriented services, NBMD positively affects customer-oriented services. Both types of services exert a significant influence on firm performance. Furthermore, the degree of product- and customer-oriented services increases with an increasing effort level with a balance between EBMD and NBMD. Asymmetrical, imbalanced configuration effects reveal that the degree of product-oriented services is higher when the EBMD effort exceeds the NBMD effort, and the degree of customer-oriented services is higher when the NBMD effort exceeds the EBMD effort.

This study enriches the understanding of designing business models to facilitate service growth in manufacturing firms, ultimately benefiting firm performance. In addition, exploring balanced and imbalanced configurations of EBMD and NBMD offers new insights into business model dual design research.

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.

It's no longer a secret that a hassle-free life and better human development index are only possible in smart cities with appropriate and efficient deployment of artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies where the best results of data analysis are being used. Technology is becoming more productive using circular economy while employing all the dimensions of AI where integration of results is being incorporated as an outcome of data analysis received from different segments i.e., Traffic Management, Public Safety, and Movement, Security and surveillance, Waste Management Systems, or the Energy Management, etc. This chapter specifically talks about areas where AI is facing challenges in the implementation and administration of smart cities while covering the intrinsic challenges faced in specialized domains such as Public Sanitation, Virtual Parking Management, Traffic Congestion, Security Surveillance, and many more discussed as case study relating to the functioning of the circular economy. In the last, we have summarized the impact of AI on the CE and its future scope where AI can play a better role in increased productivity, increased efficiency, robust safety and finally economic benefit for long-term stable economic stability, development and inclusive growth.

This paper analyses and assesses the effect of firm-specific determinants (FSDs) on supply-chain performance (SCP) and export performance (EP). It examines SCP’s influence on EP and its mediating effect on the relationship between FSD and EP.

This paper develops a theoretical framework based on the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic-capability theory to understand SCP’s role in the FSD-EP link while empirically validating using the Indian automobile industry segments (IAIS) data. The sample frame comprises all listed firms in IAIS between the financial year 2010-11 and 2021–22, with continuous data availability throughout the considered timeline. The paper employs factor analysis for dimension reduction, a panel-data-fixed-effect model to analyze the relationships, bootstrap to test the mediation effect and focus-group discussion for validating the results obtained through statistical analyses.

FSD directly influences SCP’s efficiency aspect and EP. Distribution efficiency and inventory efficiency characteristics of SCP directly impact EP and completely mediate the relationship between FSD and EP.

This study provides significant insights into how firms can increase EP by focusing on firm-specific and SCP-related factors. To improve EP, firms should concentrate on enhancing distribution and inventory efficiencies. Firms must focus on critical firm-level factors like age, size and raw-material import capability to increase their ability to solve SC-specific barriers and improve SCP, resulting in enhanced exports.

This study investigates the impacts of FSD on SCP and EP and examines the mediating effect of SCP on the relationship between FSD and EP. Such a mediating role of SCP has rarely been probed in the literature.

The evolution of digital construction within Industrial Revolution 5.0 emphasises the harmonious integration of humans and technology, value-driven technology implementation, adaptive leadership and user-centric design solutions. This shift necessitates architects to enhance their soft skills to navigate the transition effectively. Failure to demonstrate these skills may confine architects to passive roles as technology consumers rather than innovative leaders. While existing research predominantly focuses on the technical aspects of digital construction, this study investigates how architects effectively manifest their soft skills within such dynamic contexts, addressing a critical gap in the current literature.

Employing an interpretive phenomenological approach, the research engaged 14 individual architects practicing in architectural consultancy practices (ACPs) in Malaysia through semi-structured interviews and written exercises to unveil their experiences.

Thematic analysis revealed six primary themes: “analytical and critical thinking,” “digital communication,” “diversity in leadership styles,” “emotional intelligence,” “ethics and professionalism,” and “curiosity and agility.”

Furthermore, the developed thematic map serves as a foundational resource for human resource practices aiming to design upskilling and reskilling programs that focus on nurturing soft skills. Emphasising soft skills, these programs are designed to thrive in the digital construction era and beyond.

These shared experiences significantly contribute to the theoretical understanding of soft skills within the digital construction context, providing novel insights into their practical application when addressing real-world implications.