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The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for categorizing and evaluating stakeholders that addresses the key five constraints of The Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience (TSIS), including (1) binary attributes, (2) heterogeneous stakeholders in each category, (3) ignoring stakeholder-organization relationship, (4) ignoring stakeholders' communication frequency and (5) ignoring fringe stakeholders.

In the first step, a set of solutions for the limitations and constraints of TSIS was extracted by holding three rounds of the Delphi method with the participation of 42 senior and middle Iranian managers in various organizations and based on it, “Basic Analysis for Stakeholder Evaluation and Classification” (BASEClass) was developed as an enhanced theoretical and empirical framework for stakeholder analysis. In the second Step BASEClass is validated by conducting an empirical study in an organization with the participation of 46 managers, experts and specialists.

BASEClass is an enhanced theoretical and methodological framework for classifying stakeholders based on the three primary attributes of legitimacy, power and urgency, and also the communication quantity as a complementary attribute in a 3D cubical schema, prioritizing stakeholders in several cubes based on one of the multi-criteria group decision-making methods.

BASEClass effectively reduces the mentioned limitations and constraints of TSIS and as a result can improve the effectiveness of strategies for dealing with different stakeholders.

A sense of collective free-thinking with tangible goals makes co-creation an enlightening experience. Yet despite the freedom and organic flow of the methodology, there remain barriers to deploying co-creation in the real-world context. The aim was to understand the barriers and solutions to co-creation, reflect on applying co-creation in practice and co-create an applicable framework for co-creation.

These reflections and conceptual developments were completed using a Participatory Action Research Approach through the co-creation of the Erasmus+ funded Co-creating Welfare course.

Results presented are centric to the experiences in the United Kingdom but led to application at an international level. Problem formulation led to solutions devised about who should co-create, what co-creation aims to achieve, how to receive management buy-in, co-creating beyond the local face to face context and evaluation.

The Three Co’s Framework is proposed using the outline of: Co-Define, Co-Design and Co-Refine. Those who take part in co-creation processes are recommended to be called co-creators, with less focus on “empowerment” and more about facilitating people to harness the power they already have. Utilising online and hybrid delivery methods can be more inclusive, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of co-creation needs to be evaluated more moving forwards, as well as the output co-created.

This study aims to explore to what extent stakeholder engagement affects the sustainability reporting (SR) process and if it succeeds in facilitating the encounter between demand and supply of accountability, as well as the main challenges of this practice, by focusing on a crucial and under-investigated public sector area, the judicial system.

The study adopts an action research (AR) approach. Specifically, it focuses on a specific phase (i.e. stakeholder engagement) of the broader project that was carried on from 2019 in an Italian Public Prosecutor’s Office. Data were collected from multiple sources, i.e. written notes and reports gathered during meetings, the survey administered to stakeholders and the published sustainability reports.

Stakeholder engagement may be a valuable and effective tool for improving the level of accountability, as it increases the responsiveness of SR to the informative needs of stakeholders. However, the study also highlights some critical points that must be addressed to exploit this fully. Among these is the need to act upstream of the process by working on an accounting system that goes beyond the economic dynamics and can effectively answer the accountability demand.

The study contributes to theoretical and empirical knowledge by exploring a topic and a public sphere still limited investigated, i.e. the stakeholder engagement in sustainability in the judicial sector. The AR approach also presents some originality points, as it is low widespread in management and accounting literature.

The objective of the present work is to present the design optimization of composite cylindrical shell subjected to an axial compressive load and lateral pressure.

A novel optimization method is developed to predict the optimal fiber orientation in composite cylindrical shell. The optimization is carried out by coupling analytical and finite element (FE) results with a genetic algorithm (GA)-based optimization scheme developed in MATLAB. Linear eigenvalue were performed to evaluate the buckling behaviour of composite cylinders. In analytical part, besides the buckling analysis, Tsai-Wu failure criteria are employed to analyse the failure of the composite structure.

The optimal result obtained through this study is compared with traditionally used laminates with 0, 90, ±45 orientation. The results suggest that the application of this novel optimization algorithm leads to an increase of 94% in buckling strength.

The proposed optimal fiber orientation can provide a practical and efficient way for the designers to evaluate the buckling pressure of the composite shells in the design stage.

This paper aims to analyse the implications in terms of economic promotion and local development that ensue from the implementation of a strategy of agrarian branding in five municipalities in the Baixa Tordera region (Catalonia, Spain).

The research follows a case study logic. First, five focus groups were designed and distributed by sectors of activity. Second, six in-depth interviews were scheduled with opinion leaders from the region. Finally, a survey open to all inhabitants was set up on the town councils’ websites.

The brand understood as a device removed from the connotations of indiscriminate marketing should guarantee the following elements in its deployment and implementation: knowledge, recognition, complicity, development and denomination of origin.

This research contributes to improve the management models of agrarian spaces, but it also helps expand the research background on studies on agrarian branding.

The place brand must become something close to a denomination of origin that, informally, invites us to define the future of this agrarian area. It therefore also affects the complexity of the planning and development of this area which, from now on, must necessarily be supramunicipal. In this way, the brand needs to offer a holistic vision of the region to all the agents that work in the strategic and urban planning of the five municipalities under study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the post-buckling analysis of functionally graded columns by using three analytical, approximate and numerical methods. A pre-defined function as an initial assumption for the post-buckling path is introduced to solve the differential equation. The finite difference method is used to approximate the lateral deflection of the column based on the differential equation. Moreover, the finite element method is used to derive the tangent stiffness matrix of the column.

The non-linear buckling analysis of functionally graded materials is carried out by using three analytical, finite difference and finite element methods. The elastic deformation and Euler-Bernoulli beam theory are considered to establish the constitutive and kinematics relations, respectively. The governing differential equation of the post-buckling problem is derived through the energy method and the calculus variation.

An incremental iterative solution and the perturbation of the displacement vector at the critical buckling point are performed to determine the post-buckling path. The convergence of the finite element results and the effects of geometric and material characteristics on the post-buckling path are investigated.

The key point of the research is to compare three methods and to detect error sources by considering the derivation process of relations. This comparison shows that a non-incremental solution in the analytical and finite difference methods and an initial assumption in the analytical method lead to an error in results. However, the post-buckling path in the finite element method is traced by the updated tangent stiffness matrix in each load step without any initial limitation.

This study aims to optimize the structural design of reinforced concrete columns with variable hollow circular sections.

The columns were optimized according to the criteria of instability (buckling) and mechanical strength (compression and/or tensile strength). To perform the optimizations, routines are developed in Python using the penalty and sequential linearization programming (SLP) function methods to optimize the elements satisfying the buckling and stress criteria.

At the end of the optimization process, the optimal section is obtained for the example of a circular column with a variable section, this section has an average radius of 5% smaller than that initially defined.

The theoretical basis for column optimization and the structuring of an algorithm in Python language for the computational resolution of these problems are presented in a didactic way, as well as the comparative efficiency of the methods.

Climate change requires the reduction of direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a task that seems to clash with increasing supply chain complexity. This study aims to analyse the upstream supply chain complexity dimensions suggesting the importance of understanding the information processing that these may entail. Reducing equivocality can be an issue in some dimensions, requiring the introduction of written guidelines to moderate the effects of supply chain complexity dimensions on GHG emissions at the firm and supply chain level.

A three-year panel data was built with information obtained from Bloomberg, Trucost and Compustat. Hypotheses were tested using random effect regressions with robust standard errors on a sample of 394 SP500 companies, addressing endogeneity through the control function approach.

Horizontal complexity reduces GHG emissions at the firm level, whereas vertical and spatial complexity dimensions increase GHG emissions at the firm and supply chain level. Although the introduction of written guidelines neutralises the negative effects of vertical complexity on firm and supply chain GHG emissions, it is not sufficient in the presence of spatial complexity.

This paper offers novel insights by suggesting that managers need to reconcile the potential trade-off effects on GHG emissions that horizontally complex supply chain structures can present. Their priority in vertically and spatially complex supply chain structures should be to reduce equivocality.

The authors examine network features such as connectivity, centrality, adjacency matrices, closeness and betweenness measures through a variety of indicators. The results of the study indicate that over time there is a tendency for markets to integrate and segment due to various factors such as pandemics, financial crises, global trade relations and international investments.

This paper employs a visualized network technique to study the dynamics of integration and comovements in global equity markets of emerging economies. Daily closing prices of stock market indices of 24 countries from January 2013 to July 2020 are used to construct a minimum spanning tree network (MSTN) and graph network (GN).

The authors identify India and China as global power hubs and clusters among the emerging economies. India and Bangladesh serve as bridging countries connecting to various other clusters. Bosnia serves as a center in the European region owing to Bosnia's trade relations with neighboring countries. Although Brazil has witnessed the worst recession in the early years of the decade, Brazil has risen to be a central cluster among the Latin American countries. Finally, the authors find that African countries tend to form links with the rest of the world rather than with economies within the Africa continent.

This is the pioneering study that uses network models such as MSTN and GN supplemented with measures of centrality and connectivity to study financial market integration in emerging countries. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to work on a network visualization strategy to examine global stock market integration. The authors also try to use graphs and the spanning trees instead of the correlation models to understand the association between the markets, avoiding the downsides of the existing models. The authors' approach tries to visualize the network integration to examine the interconnectedness in the global stock market.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the influence of relative density (RD) and strain rates on failure mechanism and specific energy absorption (SEA) of polyamide lattices ranging from bending to stretch-dominated structures using selective laser sintering (SLS).

Three bending and two stretch-dominated unit cells were selected based on the Maxwell stability criterion. Lattices were designed with three RD and fabricated by SLS technique using PA12 material. Quasi-static compression tests with three strain rates were carried out using Taguchi's L9 experiments. The lattice compressive behaviour was verified with the Gibson–Ashby analytical model.

It has been observed that RD and strain rates played a vital role in lattice compressive properties by controlling failure mechanisms, resulting in distinct post-yielding responses as fluctuating and stable hardening in the plateau region. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) displayed the significant impact of RD and emphasised dissimilar influences of strain rate that vary to cell topology. Bending-dominated lattices showed better compressive properties than stretch-dominated lattices. The interesting observation is that stretch-dominated lattices with over-stiff topology exhibited less compressive properties contrary to the Maxwell stability criterion, whereas strain rate has less influence on the SEA of face-centered and body-centered cubic unit cells with vertical and horizontal struts (FBCCXYZ).

This comparative study is expected to provide new prospects for designing end-user parts that undergo various impact conditions like automotive bumpers and evolving techniques like hybrid and functionally graded lattices.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first work that relates the strain rate with compressive properties and also highlights the lattice behaviour transformation from ductile to brittle while the increase of RD and strain rate analytically using the Gibson–Ashby analytical model.