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The aim of this chapter is to investigate the immigrant women entrepreneurship phenomenon by analysing management academic literature on the issue. Stemming from the most current data on immigration and from the awareness that entrepreneurship is a viable instrument of immigrant (women) integration and inclusion, this chapter analyses the most updated management results on the issue. The analysis is mainly centred on works published after 2019, and some interesting insights emerge. Among them, we can refer to the awareness that research on immigrant women entrepreneurship is still in its infancy. Although, indeed, immigrant entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs have been analysed considerably by researchers, it has been mainly in isolation. Therefore, room for investigating still exists, and this chapter uncovers some possible future research avenues. Moreover, by reviewing the selected papers, it clearly emerges that not all immigrant women entrepreneurs are alike; different targets (that is, different ethnicities) must be addressed differently by policy makers when policy measurements are identified. In other words, generic programmes aimed at increasing entrepreneurship among immigrant women cannot necessarily be successful.

This purpose of this study was to assess dietary diversity among women of reproductive age (WRA) and the associations between consumption of a diversified diet and overweight/obesity statuses in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Cross-sectional study of 207 WRA from six local government areas in Ekiti State, Nigeria, was done. A validated interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, dietary intake and anthropometry. Dietary intake was assessed with 24-h dietary recall to calculate the Minimum Dietary Diversity Score for Women (MDD-W). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman rank correlation and Chi square test at α_0.05.

Majority of the participants (65.2%) were aged between 19 and 34 years, 58.5% were married and 49.8% had high school as their highest level of education. Mean MDD-W and body mass index (BMI) were 3.8 ± 0.9 and 25.46 ± 6.4 kg/m², respectively. All participants (100%) consumed foods from the “grains, white roots and tubers” group and majority also from the “meat and poultry” group (79.7%) but ranked low in the consumption of foods from other food groups. Many were overweight (34.8%), obese (14.0%) and a few (1.9%) had morbid obesity. MDD-W was significantly associated with marital status (X² = 7.7, P = 0.022) and BMI (X² = 11.4, P = 0.023) and had a weak positive correlation with BMI (r = 0.189, P = 0.007).

Study shows that both undernutrition and overweight/obesity coexist in the population, indicating a case of double burden of malnutrition (DBM) at a population level. However, further studies may be needed to investigate the extent of DBM at individual levels. Although there was a positive correlation between MDD-W and BMI, it cannot be used to predict causality. Study further reveals that the micronutrient intake of the WRA population in Ekiti is inadequate. Considering the importance of the 10 food groups highlighted in MDD_W to nutrition and health, the promotion of the consumption of foods from these food groups with more attention to the micronutrient-rich ones needs to be heightened.

Diet of participants was not diverse enough, indicating micronutrient inadequacy. Promotion of the consumption of a diverse diet, particularly from the food groups rich in micronutrient, needs to be heightened, while food groups high in calorie should be minimally consumed to forestall DBM.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to present a rigorous bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review of the critical success factors (CSFs) for Building information modelling (BIM)-based digital transformation; second, to identify the relationship between the dimensions in favour of BIM implementation.

This study adopts a two-step approach to combine bibliometric and systematic literature review to explore the research topic of BIM and CSFs. Bibliometric tools such as Biblioshiny in R language and Ucinet software were applied to this study.

Besides identifying the two most influential authors (e.g. Bryde and Antwi-Afari), the key journal for disseminating articles, and the most influential countries in this discourse (e.g. Hong Kong and Australia), the study also identifies four pivotal research themes derived from the co-occurrence analysis of keywords: the fusion of sustainability and technology with BIM; practical application and its integration within construction management; innovation and engineering paradigms; and the advent of emerging technologies (e.g. Blockchain) within developing nations. Additionally, the paper introduces a comprehensive framework for selecting CSFs pertinent to BIM-centred digital transformation as viewed through the lens of dynamic capabilities.

This paper establishes a link between dynamic capabilities theory, CSFs, and BIM dimensions, presenting a multifaceted framework guiding future paths and offering practical insights for managerial and political decision-makers engaged in digital transformation endeavours. The study positions dynamic capabilities as pivotal, aligning digital technologies with continuous business performance, and advocates for a strategic focus on digital transformation.

This study aims to review the status quo, current state of research, research hot themes and research gaps in sustainable facilities management (SFM) in the built environment (BE) through an extant literature review.

To map and analyze knowledge paths in the context of SFM research, a sequential explanatory mixed-method review involving bibliometric and content analysis was used to help identify current research trends, research hot themes and knowledge gaps. The Scopus search engine was used to find 169 relevant articles. For a better understanding of the literature accumulated, a bibliometric analysis was carried out by using VOSviewer to reveal current research themes, the status quo and current state of research as well as research gaps.

Through the literature review and content analysis, the current research themes on SFM revealed from the study include green building technologies, assessment methods of SFM, smart buildings and building information modeling. The research hot themes in SFM include smart buildings and green building technologies, green buildings (GB), architectural and building designs in the university sector, assessment methods in buildings and decision-making and the adoption of asset and facility management in the university sector. Indoor air pollution, intelligent buildings, climate change, maintenance, environmental management, facilities, historic preservation, environmental performance, energy management, etc. are the research gaps identified from the study, and these serve as potential areas for future research studies under SFM. It was recognized that facilities managers are increasingly involved with sustainability policies within their organizations and are developing sustainability agendas to keep up with the changing nature of the facilities management (FM) profession.

The findings of this study hold relevance to the FM practice, as the integration of SFM by facilities managers can lead to waste reduction, decreased operating expenses and reduced energy consumption. In addition, occupants of sustainable buildings experience improved conditions that contribute to better health and productivity, thus boosting their overall well-being. Consistent with the themes of smart buildings and green technologies, revealed to be the hot themes in the SFM research scope, properties with sustainable features can command higher rental rates and property values, appealing to a broader range of stakeholders. SFM practices in universities can aid in saving money from reduced facility operational costs and improve the image of institutions while creating better indoor environments for students and staff. The analyses of countries involved in research can open doors for the establishment of research groups and the development of collaboration between universities in different countries researching similar topics of interest.

The geographical scope of this study is not limited and, therefore, encourages broad applicability of the findings to the global sustainable BE.

To endure and cope in the rapidly changing environment, it is required of firms to gain a deeper acquisition of knowledge on market dynamics and subsequently concentrate on corporations' capacity to create, restructure and integrate their internal and external competences. Hence, the objective of this study is to investigate the influence of eco-dynamic capability (EDC) on the sustainability performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Structured questionnaires were used to obtain primary data. The data were solicited from 500 employees and owner-managers of SMEs. The study’s hypotheses were tested using standard multiple regression through IBM SPSS Statistics (version 24).

The study revealed that EDC has a substantial positive effect on the economic, social and environmental sustainability performance dimensions.

The focus of this study is on EDC. Thus, although dynamic capability has been the subject of substantial study, little is known regarding the effect of EDC on the economic sustainability performance (ESP) (financial), environmental sustainability performance (ENSP) and social sustainability performance (SSP) of SMEs, predominantly amongst SMEs in emerging economies.

While scholars have researched the impact of specific total quality management (TQM) aspects on innovation performance (INP), empirical evidence on how the former, as a composite construct, influences the latter is rare. To add, empirical evidence on the mechanism through which TQM passes to affect innovative behaviour (INB) and, then, INP is limited. Essentially, scholars have requested that future research look at the boundary conditions that support the adoption of TQM activities in businesses. Although the banking sector has experienced a number of transformations, there is still a need to raise the standard of service provided to bank customers. This research sheds more light on this subject.

This research tests the hypotheses in Ahinful et al.’s (2023) conceptual model using responses from 260 top- and middle-level bank managers by applying Smart PLS. Organisational support and team member exchange were used as potential control variables for the mediator, while slack resources and bank size were applied to the target endogenous latent construct. Mediation and moderation effects were estimated using the variance accounted for (VAF) and product indicator approaches, respectively. Sig. level was set at 5%.

This study found that TQM and INP had a positive and significant connection (ß = 0.303, p = 0.000), and INB partially mediated this connection (VAF = 40.92%). However, government regulation (GOV; ß = 0.055, p = 0.365), market dynamism (MKD; ß = 0.063, p = 0.434), competitive intensity (CMP; ß = 0.069, p = 0.297) and technological turbulence (TUR; ß = 0.011, p = 0.865) all failed to moderate the TQM–INB connection, although the expected positive directions of these moderation relationships were established.

This research provides empirical evidence on the TQM–INP connection, how this connection may be mediated and how the TQM–INB connection may be activated. It also sheds light on novel ways in which service quality in the banking sector may be improved. Upcoming research may explore other control variables in their research. Since the moderating relationships were unsupported, this avenue is open for further research, particularly in other banking settings across the globe.

Practical lessons for bank consultants, regulators, customers, employees and managers are deliberated.

This research is novel. It is the first to test the hypotheses in Ahinful et al.’s (2023) conceptual model. This study advances the theoretical frameworks and existing knowledge within the TQM, innovation and performance management fields.

This study aims to explore the smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its adaptation options (changing crop variety; improved crop and livestock; soil and water conservation [SWC]; and irrigation practices) and drought indices in the Dire Dawa Administration Zone, Eastern Ethiopia.

A cross-sectional household survey was used. A structured interview schedule for respondent households for key informants and focus group discussions were used. This study used both descriptive statistics and an econometric model. The model was used to compute the determinants of climate adaptation options in the study area. Drought characterization was carried out by DrinC software.

The results revealed households adapted to selected adaptation options. The model results confirmed that education level, farm size, tropical livestock units (TLUs) and access to agricultural extension services have positive and significant impacts on changing crop variety by 0.0014%, 0.045%, 0.032% and 0.035%, respectively. The likelihood of farmers’ decisions to use adaptation strategies (family size, TLU, agricultural extension service and distance from the market) has positive and significant impacts on SWC. The reconnaissance drought index (RDI6) of ONDJFM and AMJJAS showed extreme and severe drought index values of −2.88 and −1.96, respectively.

This study used a locally adopted climate change adaptation intervention for smallholder farmers, revealing the importance of drought characterization indices both seasonally and annually.

This paper aims to explore the intellectual structure shaping the circular economy (CE) discourse within the built environment in Africa.

The study adopted a bibliometric analysis approach to explore the intellectual structure of CE in the built environment in Africa. The authors collected 31 papers published between 2005 and 2021 from the Scopus database and used VOSviewer for data analysis.

The findings show that there are six clusters shaping the intellectual structure: demolition, material recovery and reuse; waste as a resource; cellulose and agro-based materials; resilience and low-carbon footprint; recycling materials; and the fourth industrial revolution. The two most cited scholars had three publications each, while the top journal was Resources, Conservation and Recycling. The dominant concepts included CE, sustainability, alternative materials, waste management, lifecycle, demolition and climate change. The study concludes that there is low CE research output in Africa, which implies that the concept is either novel or facing resistance.

The data were drawn from one database, Scopus; hence, adoption of alternative databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Dimensions could potentially have yielded a higher number of articles for analysis which potentially would result in different conclusions on the subject understudy.

This study made a significant contribution by articulating the CE intellectual structure in the built environment, identified prominent scholars and academic platforms responsible for promoting circularity in Africa.

Recently, there has been a shift toward the embodied energy assessment of buildings. However, the impact of material service life on the life-cycle embodied energy has received little attention. We aimed to address this knowledge gap, particularly in the context of the UAE and investigated the embodied energy associated with the use of concrete and other materials commonly used in residential buildings in the hot desert climate of the UAE.

Using input–output based hybrid analysis, we quantified the life-cycle embodied energy of a villa in the UAE with over 50 years of building life using the average, minimum, and maximum material service life values. Mathematical calculations were performed using MS Excel, and a detailed bill of quantities with >170 building materials and components of the villa were used for investigation.

For the base case, the initial embodied energy was 57% (7390.5 GJ), whereas the recurrent embodied energy was 43% (5,690 GJ) of the life-cycle embodied energy based on average material service life values. The proportion of the recurrent embodied energy with minimum material service life values was increased to 68% of the life-cycle embodied energy, while it dropped to 15% with maximum material service life values.

The findings provide new data to guide building construction in the UAE and show that recurrent embodied energy contributes significantly to life-cycle energy demand. Further, the study of material service life variations provides deeper insights into future building material specifications and management considerations for building maintenance.

This study clarifies the intricate nature of globalization's impact on unemployment rates in South Africa. Given the heterogeneous views on globalization's effect on economic development, this study aims to offer a nuanced perspective. Furthermore, it aims to explore the mediating role of entrepreneurial development in shaping the complex relationship between globalization and unemployment.

The study employs four key indicators to measure entrepreneurial development, globalization and unemployment rates in South Africa. Hierarchical regression is used to evaluate the relationship between globalization and unemployment rates, and how entrepreneurial development mediates this relationship. Additionally, both the Sobel test and bootstrapping analyses were employed to verify and validate the mediating relationship.

The study demonstrates that globalization constitutes a crucial determinant of (un)employment rates in South Africa. The study shows that entrepreneurial development, specifically in the context of established business ownership, but not total early-stage entrepreneurial activity, exhibits an inverse relationship with unemployment rates. Moreover, it was observed that the positive impact of globalization on entrepreneurial development in South Africa becomes evident as SMEs advance to the established stage.

The study's concentration on South Africa constrains the applicability of the results to other nations.

Based on the findings of this study, it is essential for emerging economies, such as South Africa, to take measures to foster a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem that can aid in the growth and international competitiveness of young SMEs.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first endeavor to analyze the potential impact of entrepreneurial development, as measured by both nascent and mature SMEs, on the correlation between globalization and unemployment.