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The aim of this study is to (1) construct a standard framework for assessing the capability of bioenergy enterprises' digital green innovation partners; (2) quantify the choice of partners for digital green innovation by bioenergy enterprises; (3) propose based on a dual combination empowerment niche digital green innovation field model.

Fuzzy set theory is combined into field theory to investigate resource complementarity. The successful application of the model to a real case illustrates how the model can be used to address the problem of digital green innovation partner selection. Finally, the standard framework and digital green innovation field model can be applied to the practical partner selection of bioenergy enterprises.

Digital green innovation technology of superposition of complementarity, mutual trust and resources makes the digital green innovation knowledge from partners to biofuels in the enterprise. The index rating system included eight target layers: digital technology innovation level, bioenergy technology innovation level, bioenergy green level, aggregated digital green innovation resource level, bioenergy technology market development ability, co-operation mutual trust and cooperation aggregation degree.

This study helps to (1) construct the evaluation standard framework of digital green innovation capability based on the dual combination empowerment theory; (2) develop a new digital green innovation domain model for bioenergy enterprises to select digital green innovation partners; (3) assist bioenergy enterprises in implementing digital green innovation practices.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of two dimensions of technological relatedness, namely technological similarity and complementarity, on collaborative performance, plus the mediating role of collaboration network stickiness and the moderating role of partner expertise and geographical distance in interfirm collaboration contexts.

This study takes Chinese Scientific and Technological Achievements (STA) of inter-firm collaboration in five high-tech fields in 2010–2020 as the sample and uses OLS regression to test the hypothesis.

Technological similarity and complementarity positively affect collaborative performance. Partner expertise negatively moderates the relationship between similarity, complementarity and collaborative performance. Geographical distance positively moderates the relationship between similarity and collaborative performance while negatively moderates that between complementarity and collaborative performance. Collaboration network stickiness partly mediates the relationship between similarity and collaborative performance.

This study expands literature on inter-firm collaboration, especially research on the antecedents of collaborative performance. Moreover, this study not only compensates for lack of empirical analysis in partner selection research, but also utilizes second-hand data to enhance the objectivity of analysis. Additionally, we enrich the research on the moderating role of partner expertise and geographical distance as well as the mediating role of collaboration network stickiness.

Within the context of an open innovation business environment, the frequent interaction and coordination activities among heterogeneous partners have a significant impact on enterprises' business model. Nevertheless, fewer empirical research has been made to explore how to match external partners and update organizational dynamic capabilities at an ecosystem level. Therefore, this paper attempts not only to investigate the direct impact of partner match on different business model innovation (BMI) themes (efficiency-centered BMI and novelty-centered BMI) but only to shed light on the pivotal mediating role of interfirm dynamic capabilities.

This paper utilized the methodology of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the impact of diverse partner selection criteria and interfirm dynamic capabilities on two distinctive themes of BMI. More than 20 industry clusters with multiple industries were selected as representatives of the creative ecosystem, predominantly from the Yangtze River Delta region. Valid data were collected from 254 managers by both online questionnaires and offline interviews.

The findings of the study show that different partner match criteria have distinct direct impacts on BMI themes. Partner complementary and partner synergy, deriving from the “task-related criteria”, are significantly correlated with both EBMI and NBMI. Conversely, partner compatibility, deriving from “Partnering-related Criteria”, shows a positive correlation with EBMI but not NBMI. Furthermore, compare the indirect effect on EBMI, the paper’ results demonstrate interfirm dynamic capabilities as mediator can more maximize external benefits to promote NBMI.

The study findings effectively help enterprises implement different BMI themes. From a management perspective, whether pursuing EBMI or NBMI, enterprises should consciously seek partners who can provide complementary support or share mutual goals across diverse industries. This strategic approach can significantly enhance the opportunities for sustainable and innovative business development. Furthermore, to successfully accomplish NBMI, enterprises must cultivate interfirm dynamic capabilities encompassing a comprehensive range of cross-organizational innovation capacities, such as bolstering organizational learning capability, establishing interactive network platforms to enhance coordination capabilities and engaging in integrative activities to foster a collective mindset.

This paper contributes to the match theory by introducing three critical matching criteria, enabling enterprises to discern partners based on diverse organizational characteristics. Additionally, this paper broadens the scope of the dynamic capability literature by adopting a network perspective to strengthen interaction and relationship mechanisms. The authors primarily elucidate the concept of interfirm dynamic capabilities as a formative higher-order model formed by three sub-capabilities (absorptive capacity, coordination capability and collective mind). Finally, this paper combines matching theory with dynamic capacity theory to the field of BMI, which adds depth and complexity to the existing ecosystem innovation research.

This study analyses the link between product/service innovation, partnerships and Managerial Control System (MCS). Particularly, it aims to analyse empirically the role of MCS in supporting the innovation partnership successful functioning and management.

The sample of this study consists of 106 Italian manufacturing firms belonging to the sectors of the Italian economy with the largest number of registered patents according to the European trend chart on innovation.

The results show that MCS may play a key role in reducing risks and lowering the likelihood of failure of innovation partnerships. Particularly, the authors found a positive correlation between the use of informal control mechanisms and a partnership’s successful performance. Moreover, among informal control, the findings show that trust is the only true informal mechanism that can guarantee a successful collaboration. The results of this study may offer relevant implications for practitioners. With regard to the control of the partnership’s activities, the initiatives and creativity of those who are actively involved in the innovation process should not be inhibited; therefore, stifling them with strict rules and procedures would be ineffective but if a firm is not willing to give up formal control mechanisms altogether because it does not believe that a trust-based coordination is sufficiently reassuring, it should opt for “weak”, albeit formal, control mechanisms based on a shared production and management of plans and reports, thus ensuring a perfect information symmetry among different partners.

Notwithstanding the different opportunities provided by partnerships and strategic alliances to support there is a growing body of evidence of a high failure rate in such organisational forms. One of the causes cited in the literature is the high level of risk associated with alliances as compared to internal development of innovation. The risks mainly arise from the difficulties to obtain cooperation with partners that might have different objectives, and from the potential opportunistic behaviour of some of the partners. This is particularly true in innovation networks where the uncertainty of producing an interesting result is very high and the investments that the partners make are considerable. In this context, MCS could play a relevant role in reducing the risks and decreasing the likelihood of failure.

This paper identifies the critical success factors (CSFs) of virtual hotel operator (VHO) in using hotel management system partnerships with small- and medium-sized hotels (SMSHs).

This study uses a qualitative approach, with 25 semi-structured interviews with hotel owners and VHO management. Thematic analysis is used to determine themes to evaluate hotel owners and operators' perceptions.

CSFs for VHO partnership with SMSHs include marketing and promotion strategies, client relationships, training and human resources development, hotel operation management, innovation strategies, capital expenditures and property management systems (PMSs). VHOs also have a symbolic impact on the mutualistic relationship with SMSHs by increasing service and enhancing product competitiveness and profitability.

Findings are beneficial for VHO in determining the most significant CSFs, thereby establishing additional metrics in business performance and increasing resilience in the accommodation sector. Further studies can measure the digital technology factors from VHO, including PMSs and mobile applications.

This study first identifies CSFs for VHO companies from the perspectives of hotel owners and management. This contribution adds to the literature on CSFs in the context of digital technology implementation in SMSHs. Moreover, implications are beneficial for VHO management in determining the most significant CSFs for companies to measure the business performance of the companies and increase resilience in the accommodation sector.

This paper examines how different configurations of societal impact are pursued by purpose-driven organizations (PDOs) and how these configurations align with the application of varying supply chain design (SCD) practices.

This multi-method study uses quantitative data from 1588 B Corps and qualitative data from 316 B Corps to examine how PDOs align SCD with the pursuit of diverse types of societal impact. The authors first conduct a cluster analysis to group organizations based on the impact they create. Second, qualitative content analysis connects impact with enabling SCD elements.

The analysis of the five identified clusters provides detailed empirical insights on influencers, design decisions and building blocks adopted by PDOs to drive a range of societal impacts. Specifically, the nature of the impact pursued affects (1) whether a PDO will be more influenced by a need in the political environment or an opportunity in the industry environment, (2) the relative importance of the design of social flows versus material flows and (3) the need to develop new relational resources with beneficiaries versus leveraging existing capabilities to manage inter-firm processes.

This study responds to calls to disaggregate different dimensions of societal impact and examines the relationship between SCD and a breadth of sustainability impacts for different stakeholders. In doing so, the authors identify four SCD pathways organizations can follow to achieve specific societal impacts. This study is also the first to employ a supply chain perspective in the study of certified B Corps.

Influenced by factors such as fluctuations in market supply and demand and the rapid development of new technologies, manufacturing companies are facing greater challenges to transform and upgrade. The existing relevant studies about sustainable innovation capabilities mostly focus on classification of innovation or from a static resource-based view and less on quantitative measurement from a dynamic perspective and inter-organizational relationships. This paper takes a dynamic capabilities and social capital theory, explore the concept and dimensions of sustainable innovation capabilities and then makes development of a new scale.

This paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to develop a measure of sustainable innovation capabilities in two studies. Grounded theory methodology is used to explore the concept definition and dimensions of sustainable innovation capabilities. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are conducted to refine and validate the factor structure, and then the authors developed the sustainable innovation capabilities scale.

The results show that sustainable innovation capabilities composed of ideation capabilities, opportunity capture capabilities, agile learning, creative inheritance and networking capabilities. The sustainable innovation capabilities that firms should possess are reflected at the firm level and inter-organizational relationship level, and the culture-specific dimension of creative inheritance reflects the influence of national and organizational culture.

The research reveals the internal driving force of the manufacturer's sustainable innovation capabilities, as well as the role and uniqueness embodied in the specific culture, providing a new perspective for improving the manufacturer's sustainable innovation capabilities.

As the foundation of social and economic development, infrastructure development projects are characterized by large initial investment, high technical requirements and thus generally delivered through complex contractor–subcontractor collaboration chains. This study aims to characterize the complexity of collaborative networks between contractors and subcontractors for infrastructure development through comparing the structural characteristics and the formation mechanisms of contractor–subcontractor collaborative networks for the following two different types of infrastructure: public works (PWCN) owned and operated by government agencies, and public utilities (PUCN) owned and operated by nongovernment agencies.

Based on the method of stochastic actor-oriented models and the longitudinal dataset of National Quality Award Projects in China during 2001–2020, this study compares how the structural characteristics of project-based collaborative networks between contractors and subcontractors for the two types of projects are different and how related micro-mechanisms, including both structure-based endogenous network effects and attribute-based exogenous homophily effects (institutional, organizational and geographical homophily), collectively underpin the formation of the networks.

The empirical results provide evidence that while the two networks are both characterized by relatively low levels of network density, PWCN is more globally connected around a minority of superconnected contractors as compared with PUCN. The results further reveal that compared with PUCN, the formation of PWCN is more significantly related to the structure-based anti in-isolates effect, suggesting that PWCN is more open for new entrant subcontractors. With regard to the attribute-based homophily effects, the results provide evidence that while both significantly and positively related to the effects of organizational (same company group) and geographical homophily (same location), the formation of PWCN and PUCN is oppositely driven by the institutional homophily effect (same ownership type).

As an exploratory effort of using network perspective to investigate the formation mechanisms of contractor–subcontractor relationships in the infrastructure development domain, this study contributes to a network and self-organizing system view of how contractors select subcontractors in different types of infrastructure projects. The study also provides insights into how contractor–subcontractor collaborative relationships can be better manipulated to promote the development of complex infrastructure in different contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritise supply chain finance (SCF) adoption enablers and develop a novel comprehensive framework to select supplier firms based on their SCF adoption capability.

The study deploys a three-phase method to identify and prioritise SCF adoption enablers, followed by developing a model to select suppliers according to their SCF adoption capability. An extensive literature review, followed by a Delphi approach-based expert interview, has been used to finalise the enablers. Using the Best Worst Method and the VIsekriterijumsko KOmpromisno Rangiranje technique, a supplier selection model has been developed in the context of a case company.

The financial health and technological advancement variables received the top priority, followed by collaborative efficiency, whereas the human resources and organisational variables received the slightest significance. A supplier selection framework has also been developed by using the adoption capability of these factors by the supplier partners. In this study’s model, Supplier 4 exhibited better SCF adoption capability and received the top priority.

Manufacturing supply chains in a developing country are the scope of the current study. Extensive future studies are required to derive a global consensus.

The proposed framework of this study can be used to select supplier firms based on their SCF adoption capability. Policymakers can emphasise the most critical enablers of SCF adoption to assist small supplier firms to be a part of the advanced global supply chains.

The current study established a novel comprehensive framework for supplier selection based on the Supply Chain Finance adoption capability of MSME supplier firms.

The main purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive review and critical insights of the application of fuzzy methods in modeling, assessing and understanding the various aspects of green and sustainable supply chains (SSCs).

The present study conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis of 252 research articles. This study employs various tools such as VOSviewer version 1.6.10, Publish or Perish, Mendeley and Excel that aid in descriptive analysis, bibliometric analysis and network visualization. These tools have been used for performing citation analysis, top authors' analysis, co-occurrence of keywords, cluster and content analysis.

The authors have divided the literature into seven application areas and discussed detailed insights. This study has observed that research in the social sustainability area, including various issues like health and safety, labor rights, discrimination, etc. is scarce. Integration of the Industry 4.0 technologies like blockchain, big data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) with the sustainable and green supply chain (GSC) is a promising field for future research.

The authors' contribution primarily lies in providing the integrated framework which shows the changing trends in the use of fuzzy methods in the sustainability area classifying and consolidating green and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) literature in seven major areas where fuzzy methods are predominantly applied. These areas have been obtained after the analysis of clusters and content analysis of the literature presenting key insights from the past and developing the conceptual framework for future research studies.