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Globally, climate change governance continues to be a significant challenge to policymakers, environmentalists and politicians despite international summits, conferences and programmes designed to find sustainable solutions to the climate change crises. Climate change continues to be viewed primarily as a challenge for the future, whereas many leaders and administrators globally regard it as an environmental issue rather than a challenge that encompasses all aspects of life. In South Africa, these misleading perceptions of climate change continue to prevail both at national and local levels. The government and private organisations do not attach the required levels of urgency needed to address the climate change crisis. While numerous policies and institutions have been established to address these challenges, they lack financial backing, coordination and synergy that cut across the broad objectives of environmental, social and economic agendas. Additionally, weak, eroding trust and manipulating of institutions continue to hinder effective policy implementation and focus-driven governance. This paper aims to explore the structural and governance weaknesses of climate change administration in the KwaZulu-Natal province and South Africa in general.

This paper used extensive literature reviews and a triangulated approach to investigate the weaknesses of the current governance structure in the context of institutional and capacity constraints.

The findings uncovered that most institutions and organisations mandated to address climate change challenges operate in silos, lack required investment and capacity and have weak accountability mechanisms with a shallow understanding of climate change governance.

This paper recommends better coordination between national, provincial and local governments as well as the private sector towards climate change activities and capacity to ensure that climate change actions are effectively implemented.

The existing gaps and knowing about the truth inspired the researchers to select this area and to know more about various initiatives taken for their liberation by an individual self-propagating effort, the faith-based communities, the government, the organizations dealing with educationalists as researchers, banking, media and the revealing role of women in handling poverty concerns.

The current study is compiled after the review of seventy-seven research articles. This study adopted a descriptive research design essentially because it appears more appropriate for the study. Data were collected mainly through the secondary sources such as electronic databases like Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, Google Scholars. The study is conducted through a qualitative approach.

Hence based on the extensive literature review and its synthesis, this research work explores the meaning of poverty, its effects, root cause, measurement tools, associated theories and models and stakeholders' role in poverty alleviation.

This study reflects that there is a huge gap in designing standardized tools that can bring more income equality, ethics in operations, cooperation and environmental sustainability.

For poverty alleviation, individuals need to work towards perfection and improving their own skill sets. Leading Faith groups encouraging individuals about their divine duties to help the poor community and promote debt forgiveness. Government provides funds to develop certain tools and app that can help in checking the distribution of wealth. Banks to introduce flexible microcredit scheme education sector need to develop more financial literacy and innovative thinking courses. Social media and Information communications technology (ICT) provide connectivity services with high affordability.

Poverty will remain be an ongoing societal challenge if not handled by various stakeholders strategically by contributing in their own fields with their unique ideas.

The proposed idea explained through qualitative inquiry promotes compassion and hope needed for poverty alleviation through various stake holders.

This study aims to explore farmers’ perceptions of environmental impacts of dairying and their practices towards implementing environmental management accounting (EMA) techniques.

Semi-structured interviews were held with five dairy farmers in the South Island of New Zealand (NZ).

Dairy farmers perceive environmental sustainability in dairying as being able to feed people while protecting the environment so that future generations can also enjoy the natural world. Recognising the need to alter their practices to reduce environmental damage they have produced, dairy farmers use some EMA techniques, but the primary motivation is compliance with government regulations. Other motivations for using EMA techniques are high economic returns, maintaining their reputation and self-satisfaction. Barriers to implementing EMA techniques are primarily due to lack of clarity and feasibility of regulations, coercion and inadequate communication by regulators and high compliance costs.

The findings contribute to the current EMA literature by providing a better understanding of EMA practices of dairy farmers in NZ, barriers to implementing EMA and how those barriers could be reduced. It may also help NZ central and local government in developing environmental strategies and policies. Furthermore, this research is expected to help people in the dairy industry to find ways to educate farmers about how the measures that are required can help them to reduce both the environmental impacts and the costs of dairying, thus contributing to sustainable development globally.

This paper aims to present a comprehensive overview of the emergence and significance of digital payments, focusing on their impact on competitiveness and the need for policy interventions. In addition, it explores the design of policies that promote the adoption of digital payments, highlighting the benefits they offer to providers and users.

The paper examines the technological advances that have driven the growth of digital payment systems. It identifies key requirements for successful adoption and discusses the associated risks, along with potential strategies to mitigate these risks.

The findings emphasize the importance of responsible implementation and safeguarding the well-being of end users to fully realize the benefits of digital payment adoption. Understanding the inherent risks and establishing effective risk mitigation mechanisms are crucial. This necessitates the development of appropriate infrastructure to support the provision of digital payment services.

More research is needed to gain deeper insights into how emerging global trends in financial technology should be analyzed and understood by policymakers, service providers and users.

The findings of this study can guide policymakers, private sector managers and consumers in comprehending the effects of emerging digitalization trends and determining their adoption responses accordingly.

This paper stands out as one of the few research contributions that provide comprehensive and actionable policy recommendations to facilitate a smooth transition to a digital payments ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders.

The current body of empirical research regarding the impact of trust in the cybersecurity commitment of institutions on digital payment usage has focused solely on a macro-level analysis, overlooking the intricate dynamics between institutions' cybersecurity commitments and the trust levels of digital payment users. In light of this limitation, this study aims to offer a more comprehensive understanding of this complex relationship.

A case study was conducted on digital payment users in India through the critical realist lens. To gather data, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with digital payment users from various regions of the country.

The citizen-centric outcomes of the national cybersecurity commitment (performance and responsiveness) are the most prominent and impactful trust indicators. These outcomes play a crucial role in shaping digital payment users' perception and trust in the cybersecurity commitment of public institutions. Individuals' value positions also influence trust judgments, as it is essential to recognize the value tensions that may arise due to security implementation and their congruence with citizens' values.

The findings of this study have significant implications for policymakers. They are potentially an artifact of the security and perception of digital payment users and the cultural uniqueness of digital payment users in India.

The study proposes a holistic understanding of the relationship between institutions' cybersecurity commitments and the trust levels of digital payment users. It offers a qualitative evaluation of how digital payment users perceive and construe efficient information security management implemented by public institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to precisely measure the risk attitudes of Chinese agricultural laborers and then analyze the impact and mechanism of risk attitudes on the entrepreneurial choices of Chinese agricultural laborers.

This paper is based on the theory of expected utility function and utilizes the authoritative China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to accurately measure the risk attitudes of 7,639 Chinese agricultural laborers through experimental methods. In the empirical analysis, this paper employed Probit, IV-Probit and mediation effect models to examine the research hypotheses.

First, agricultural laborers with the lowest risk appetite account for 54.8%, which is 8.69 times the number of agricultural laborers with the highest risk appetite. Second, agricultural laborers preferring risk are more likely to engage in entrepreneurship; this result has been validated through a series of robustness tests. Third, mechanism analysis shows that risk attitude drives the entrepreneurship of Chinese agricultural laborers through improving interpersonal trust, social interaction and formal credit behavior.

Existing research has mainly investigated the impact of risk attitudes on the entrepreneurial choices of the general population, with limited attention paid to agricultural laborers. The potential mechanisms in that process remain unclear, and the measurement results of risk attitude also require further precision. Based on experimental method, this paper not only helps clarify the relationship between risk attitudes and agricultural laborers entrepreneurship in China, but also provides policy recommendations to promote agricultural laborers entrepreneurship and drive rural development.

Digital platforms increase their function and scope by leveraging boundary resources and complementary add-on products from third-party developers to interact with external entities and producers. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are essential boundary resources developers use to connect applications, systems and platforms. This notwithstanding, previous API studies tend to focus more on the technical dimensions, with little on the social and cultural contexts underpinning API innovations. This study relies on the new (neo) institutional theory (focusing on regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars) as an analytical lens to understand the institutional forces that affect API integration among digital firms.

The study adopts a qualitative case study methodology and relies on phone calls and a semi-structured in-depth interview approach of a Ghanaian digital music platform to uncover the institutional forces affecting API integration.

The findings reveal that regulative institutions such as excessive tax regimes mostly constrained API development and integration initiatives. However, other regulative institutions like the government digitalization agenda enabled API integration. Normative institutions, such as the growing use of e-payment options, enabled API integration in digital music platforms. Cultural-cognitive institutions like employee ego constrained the API integration process in music digital platforms.

This study primarily contributes to deepening understanding of the relevant literature by exploring the institutional forces that affect API integration among digital firms in a developing economy. The study also uncovered a new form of an institution known as motivational institution as an enabler for API development and integration in digital music platforms.

3D printing has been warmly welcomed by clothing enterprises for its customization capacity in recent years. However, such clothing enterprises have to face the digital transformation challenges brought by 3D printing. Since the business model is a competitive weapon for modern enterprises, there is a research gap between business model innovation and digital transformation challenges for 3D-printing garment enterprises. The aim of the paper is to innovate a new business model for 3D-printing garment enterprises in digital transformation.

A business model innovation canvas (BMIC), a new method for business model innovation, is used to innovate a new 3D-printing clothing enterprises business model in the context of digital transformation. The business model canvas (BMC) method is adopted to illustrate the new business model. The business model ecosystem is used to design the operating architecture and mechanism of the new business model.

First, 3D-printing clothing enterprises are facing digital transformation, and they urgently need to innovate new business models. Second, mass customization and distributed manufacturing are important ways of solving the business model problems faced by 3D-printing clothing enterprises in the process of digital transformation. Third, BMIC has proven to be an effective tool for business model innovation.

The new mass deep customization-distributed manufacturing (MDC-DM) business model is universal. As such, it can provide an important theoretical reference for other scholars to study similar problems. The digital transformation background is taken into account in the process of business model innovation. Therefore, this is the first hybrid research that has been focused on 3D printing, garment enterprises, digital transformation and business model innovation. On the other hand, business model innovation is a type of exploratory research, which means that the MDC-DM business model’s application effect cannot be immediately observed and requires further verification in the future.

The new business model MDC-DM is not only applicable to 3D-printing garment enterprises but also to some other enterprises that are either using or will use 3D printing to enhance their core competitiveness.

A new business model, MDC-DM, is created through BMIC, which allows 3D-printing garment enterprises to meet the challenges of digital transformation. In addition, the original canvas of the MDC-DM business model is designed using BMC. Moreover, the ecosystem of the MDC-DM business model is constructed, and its operation mechanisms are comprehensively designed.

Zakat has succeeded in becoming one of the safety nets for welfare during the crisis. As a result, continuous improvement is a necessity, especially through strengthening technology adaptation. This study aims to explore the factors determining Muslim behavior on their intention to pay zakat by taking into consideration the adoption of digital technology using the modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT).

The data collected were 265 respondents who live in urban and suburban areas. They were processed using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) design. Furthermore, the multigroup analysis (MGA) was conducted to capture the difference results between urban and suburban.

The findings show that performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, perceived security and privacy and zakat literacy significantly increase the intention of Muzakki to adopt financial technology. Perceived security and privacy has succeeded in being an important predictor of digital payment adoption for Muzakki. This paper provides a specific description of the adoption of Muzakki living in urban and suburban areas by using MGA. The research findings illustrate that there is a different urgency between the related variables. Suburban communities have more significant results regarding the research model used.

This research provides new component variables that can drive individuals’ intentions to use digital services to pay zakat online by using the redesigned UTAUT model. Further research can explore more variables related to zakat digitalization, such as social media interaction, by conducting in-depth interviews with stakeholders to improve zakat performance in this digital era.

The result of this research recommends that zakat institutions enhance their zakat literacy and education among the Muslim population to improve zakat performance. The government should pay attention to the digital ecosystem to attract the community to use a digital platform.

This research modified the UTAUT model by integrating several other important constructs to produce more comprehensive findings in investigating the factors that can influence an individual's intention to pay zakat through an online digital platform. This study also examined the indirect effect to obtain significant results by positioning perceived security and privacy as an intervening variable. The implementation of the MGA was conducted to divide research respondents into two categories (urban and suburban) and compare the test results.

Poor cash flow management and lack of profitability have plagued the construction industry for decades. In response, the UK Government published the project bank account (PBA) payment strategy in 2012 to mitigate main contractors unfairly withholding liabilities. However, PBAs suffer from adoption challenges, such as systems fragmentation and a lack of incentives for main contractors to adopt them effectively. This study aims to investigate how to reduce systems fragmentation in construction by integrating PBA procedures with existing management workflows to increase payment automation, resulting in improved cash liquidity and better incentives for using PBAs.

A PBA blockchain decentralised application is developed, presented and critically evaluated. Blockchain is the technology used because of its permissionless, license-free, open-source and immutability properties. It is a suitable general-purpose technology layer for building and testing applications without the limitations associated with centralised technologies, such as high proprietary fees, vendor lock and intellectual property restrictions.

The research demonstrates how a blockchain application can integrate siloed construction workflows such as cash flow scheduling, supply chain management and payment executions, reducing the management workload for implementing PBAs in construction projects. Furthermore, the proposed application is open-source and replicable, and its user interface is available for external testing here: https://console.atra.io/app/bf26f846-7f16-4f80-90a0-c5488ab6edd3.

PBA is a suitable test case because it enforces an auditable, transparent and neutral account, which are inbuilt properties of blockchains; thus, both systems are harmonious to integrate. PBA is mandated in UK public sector construction projects; therefore, the research has a solid practical foundation.