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The United Nations has demonstrated a commitment to preserving the ecosystem through its 2030 sustainable development goals agenda. One crucial objective of these goals is to promote a healthy ecosystem and discourage practices that harm it. Building materials production significantly contributes to the emissions of greenhouse gases. This poses a threat to the ecosystem and prompts a growing demand for sustainable building materials (SBMs). The purpose of this study is to investigate SBMs to determine their utilization in construction operations and the potential impact their application could have on construction productivity.

A systematic review of the existing literature in the field of SBMs was conducted for the study. The search strings used were “sustainable” AND (“building” OR “construction”) AND “materials” AND “productivity”. A total of 146 articles were obtained from the Scopus database and reviewed.

Bio-based, cementitious and phase change materials were the main categories of SBMs. Materials in these categories have the potential to substantially contribute to sustainability in the construction sector. However, challenges such as availability, cost, expertise, awareness, social acceptance and resistance to innovation must be addressed to promote the increased utilization of SBMs and enhance construction productivity.

Many studies have explored SBMs, but there is a dearth of studies that address productivity in the context of SBMs, which leaves a gap in understanding. This study addresses this gap by drawing on existing studies to determine the potential implications that using SBMs could have on construction productivity.

The paper aims at studying the effect of management practices on the extensive and intensive export margins of Egyptian manufacturing firms.

The study relies on the 2020/2021 Egyptian Industrial Firm Behavior Survey (EIFBS) which comprises 2,383 manufacturing firms representing small, medium, and large sized firms located in different regions of Egypt: Urban Governorates, Lower Egypt, and Upper Egypt. It constructs an overall management z score for each firm to estimate its effect on a firm’s probability of exporting and value of exports using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions.

Results indicate that good management is associated with a higher probability of firm exporting as well as higher export revenues conditional on exporting, robust to controlling for the level of domestic sales. These effects do not differ by firm ownership or type of sector, but rather by firm size, with managerial competence raising the probability of exporting more for large-sized firms. Additionally, good management is associated with higher firm productivity, innovation and worker training propensities which gives evidence that it is both an efficiency and a quality enhancer. Moreover, monitoring and targeting practices have significant positive effects on both margins, while incentives are only significant for the extensive margin.

Firms that aim at enhancing their export prospects and revenues should devote resources to review and upgrade their management systems to boost their product quality and production efficiency. Policy-wise, the government should create a competitive market environment that is open to both domestic and foreign firms’ entry to stimulate the adoption of better management practices.

The paper is the first to explore the link between firm management practices and export outcomes for a MENA country (Egypt). It makes use of a recent survey, the 2020/2021 Egyptian Industrial Firm Behavior Survey (EIFBS). The findings shed light on the importance of different management components (monitoring, targeting and incentives) in driving a manufacturing firm’s export performance.

Our study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance decision-making processes to promote circular economy practices within the utility sector.

A unique case study of Alia Servizi Ambientali Spa, an Italian multi-utility company using AI for waste management, is analyzed using the Gioia method and semi-structured interviews.

Our study discovers the proactive role of the user in waste management processes, the importance of economic incentives to increase the usefulness of the technology and the role of AI in waste management transformation processes (e.g. glass waste).

The present study enhances the circular economy model (transformation, distribution and recovery), uncovering AI’s role in waste management. Finally, we inspire managers with algorithms used for data-driven decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate if, given personal, supply-related features, and labour demand-related variables, there is a difference in the share of women finding more stable jobs with respect to men, in an eight-year time span.

Fragmentation leads to a lower probability of transitioning into more certain, full-time work positions. The authors analyse a rich cohort of dependent workers in Emilia-Romagna to investigate whether part-time jobs lead to full-time jobs in a “stepping-stone” fashion and whether this happens with the same probability for men and women. The focus is on the cost of part-time jobs rather than the contrast between permanent and temporary jobs, as often observed in the literature. The authors also evaluate the transition between part-time job formulae and open-ended work arrangements to determine whether women's transition to full-fledged, stable work positions is slightly rarer than their male counterparts. Even if the authors allow for the fact that part-time contracts can be a choice and not an obligation, these contracts generate more flexibility in managing the equilibrium between private and work life and create more uncertainty than full-time contracts because of the fragmentation associated with these arrangements.

The authors find that women have a more fragmented working career than men, in that they hold more contracts than men in the same time span; moreover, the authors find that part-time jobs act more as bottlenecks for women than for men.

The authors use a large administrative dataset with over 600,000 workers observed in the 2008–2015 time span, in Emilia Romagna, Italy. The authors can disentangle the number of contracts per worker and observe individual, anonymise personal features, that the authors consider in the authors' propensity score estimate. The authors ran a robustness check of the PSM estimates through coarsened exact matching (CEM).

This study aims to systematise the links between firms’ strategies (corporate and business) and the cluster dynamics (through the cluster life cycle [CLC] perspective) and propose an integrative framework bridging firms’ strategic behaviour and cluster dynamics (CLC).

The methodology used is an integrative literature review, which provides a distinctive form of research.

The study identifies several links between firms’ strategies (corporate and business) and the cluster dynamics (CLC), namely: (1) firms’ strategies as a triggering factor of cluster evolution; (2) firms’ strategies and path's decline; (3) firms’ strategies and cluster’s renewal; (4) resilience strategies and the cluster life cycle; and (5) cluster’s features and firms’ strategies.

This study contributes to developing strategic management theory and cluster theory by bridging firms' strategies and cluster dynamics (CLC). It proposes a new conceptualisation of the impact of cluster dynamics on firms' strategic choices – firstly, it proposes a specific approach to identify the CLC; and secondly, it develops an integrative framework model that relates firms' strategies and each stage of the CLC. These are theoretical tools relevant for further advancements in this area of research, as they can be applied in studies of different clusters for validation, something that was not done.

The integrative framework is expected to be helpful to company managers, allowing them to design better strategies that account for dynamic cluster environments.

This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by systematising the links between firms' strategies (corporate and business) and the cluster dynamics (CLC).

This study aims to produce textile-like surfaces using fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printers and create a garment collection.

Experiments were conducted using different types of materials in FDM 3D printers until the sufficient flexibility was achieved to create textile-like structures. During the research, properties of polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) were observed. Geometrical patterns were printed and each of them gave a different result depending on the pattern. Based on the information obtained from the experiments, a garment collection with four total looks was designed inspired by Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”.

Among the materials used, TPU, a flexible filament, yielded the best results. Because of the rigid properties of PLA and ABS, chain-like structures were printed to create relatively flexible surfaces, but the results were still not successful enough to create a clothing material. Therefore, TPU was preferred for the garment material selection.

In this study, combinations of 3D printed flexible structures and different types of fabrics were used to create a garment collection. It was concluded that, with the right material selection, 3D printing can be used as an alternative method to create a new aesthetic language in fashion design.

This paper aims to determine the adaptability of China’s legal system in recognizing and enforcing foreign judgements in China.

Academic articles, case law and books are examined as are relevant reports by various regulatory authorities and organizations.

Historically, Chinese courts have strictly adhered to “de facto reciprocity”, which made it difficult for foreign judgements to be recognized and enforced in China. Fortunately, Chinese courts have since abandoned their rigid adherence to de facto reciprocity, and have instead, used flexible tests of reciprocity such as de jure reciprocity, reciprocal commitment and reciprocal understand/consensus. Accordingly, this would facilitate the recovery of stolen assets, as there is a lower threshold for the recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgement.

There are limited data available in relation to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements pertaining to the recovery of stolen assets. Any discussions within this paper are based on the impressionistic observations of this author, which may not reflect the true state of affairs within the Belt and Road Initiative.

Those who are interested in examining the viability in recognizing and enforcing foreign judgements relating to stolen assets will have an interest in this topic.

The value of the paper is to demonstrate the difficulties in recognizing and enforcing foreign judgements in China in relation to stolen assets.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the construction of a structural measurement model utilizing structural equation modelling (SEM) to confirm the link between Industry 4.0 technologies, sustainable manufacturing practices and organizational sustainable performance. Relationship among the paradigm has yet to be fully investigated, necessitating a more conceptual and empirical examination on what impact they have on organizational sustainable performance when used together.

Industry 4.0 and sustainable production practices aim to progress a company's business competitiveness, forming sustainable development that benefits manufacturing companies. The aim of the study is to analyze the relationship between constructs that lead to operational excellence in firms that use Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainable manufacturing techniques. Experts from diverse automotive industries, who are applying both Industry 4.0 and sustainable manufacturing practices, provided data for the study.

Statistical estimations (hypotheses) are created to substantiate the measurement model that has been developed. The structural model was analysed, and the findings were discussed. The statistical estimate is either approved or rejected based on the findings. According to the conclusions of this study, strong link exists between Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainable manufacturing practices that affect organizational sustainable performance environmentally, economically and socially.

The research was conducted in the framework of automobile component manufacturing companies in India. The outcomes of the study are practically feasible.

The authors' novel contribution is the construction of a structural model with Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainable manufacturing practices into account.

Government incentives are critical for successful indigenous innovation commercialisation, yet there are concerns about the efficacy of these incentives. Therefore, this study examines the effectiveness of government incentives on successful indigenous innovation commercialisation in the context of low-income economies by testing the effects of demand and supply-side incentives on firm performance in the small-scale industry in Ghana.

The theoretical framework for this study is built on the below-the-radar theory of innovation (Kaplinsky et al., 2009). Using a sample of 557 firms engaged in commercialising various indigenous innovations in the small-scale industry in Ghana, PLS-SEM was deployed to assess 11 hypothesised paths based on a validated questionnaire.

The model results, at a 5% significance level, indicate that supply-side incentives are statistically insignificant on sales and profitability but have significant positive effects on employment. The direct and moderating influence of supply-side incentives and market factors on overall firm performance is also insignificant, while demand-side incentives to buyers have significant positive effects on all the performance metrics and positively moderate the effects of market factors.

The research focused on commercialising indigenous innovation in the context of low-income economies. Few studies, if any, have separately explored the effect of demand and supply-side government incentives on indigenous innovation in the context of low-income economies. The findings suggest that innovation support should focus more on the demand side of the innovation value chain.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the most recurrent variables characterizing the collaborative relationships of industrial symbiosis (IS) (hereinafter also referred to as “anatomic” variables) established in the attempt to adopt circular economy (CE) by collecting evidence from a rich empirical set of implementation cases in Italy.

The current literature on IS was reviewed, and a content analysis was performed to identify and define the “anatomic” variables affecting its adoption in the circular economy. We followed a multiple-case study methodology investigating 50 cases of IS in Italy and performed a content analysis of the “anatomic” variables characterizing each case.

This research proposes the “anatomic” variables (i.e. industrial sectors involved, public actors involvement, governmental support, facilitator involvement and geographical proximity) explaining the cases of IS in the circular economy. Each “anatomic” variable is discussed at length based on the empirical evidence collected, with a particular reference to the impact on the different development strategies (i.e. “bottom-up” and “top-down”) in the cases observed.

Current literature on IS focuses on a sub-set of variables characterizing collaboration in IS. This research builds on extant literature to define a new framework of five purposeful “anatomic” variables defining IS in the circular economy. Moreover, we also collect and discuss a broad variety of empirical evidence in what is a still under-investigated context (i.e. Italy).