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Circular economy advocates innovations that upcycle wastes in the food supply chain to generate high added-value materials. These innovations are not only disruptive and green but also they are often initiated by startups, leading to the emergence of novel open-loop supply chains connecting actors in food and non-food sectors. While earlier research has highlighted the need to seek legitimacy for disruptive innovations to survive and grow, little is known about how these innovations occur and evolve across sectors. This paper aims to elaborate on this mechanism by exploring the function of the circular economy as a boundary object to facilitate legitimacy-seeking strategies.

An exploratory multiple-case research design is adopted and features food waste innovation projects with multi-tier supply chains consisting of a food producer, a startup and a buying firm. The study is investigated from the legitimacy and boundary object lenses.

The findings proposed a framework for the role of a boundary object in enabling legitimacy-seeking strategies for novel food waste innovations. First, the interpretative flexibility of the circular economy affords actors symbolic resources to conduct manipulation strategy to achieve cognitive legitimacy. Second, small-scale work arrangements enable creation strategy for the new supply chain to harness moral legitimacy. Finally, pragmatic legitimacy is granted via diffusion strategy enabled by scalable work arrangements.

This paper provides novel insights into the emergence of food waste innovation from a multi-tier supply chain perspective. It also highlights the key role of the boundary object in the legitimacy-seeking process.

Lean construction (LC) is an innovative approach in the construction industry that has shown significant success in developed countries. Although LC has potential in the construction sector of Pakistan, it has not been extensively explored. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by identifying and predicting current lean practices and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of LC implementation in Pakistan.

Using robust statistical methods to analyze 92 valid responses, the study reveals that approximately 54% of lean practices are currently in use in the construction industry of Pakistan, with a population mean ranging from 52.7% to 55.6%.

Surprisingly, the research identifies instances where some construction firms in Pakistan are implementing LC practices, even though they have only a limited understanding of its underlying principles. Notably, certain subprinciples, such as visual management, top management commitment to change, employee training, process cycle time reduction and production optimization, are less integrated within the construction industry. Exploring the possibility of implementing LC, recommendations for strategies to implement LC in Pakistan are suggested, aligning with the conceptual model proposed by the researchers.

The novelty of this work offers insights that can serve as a comprehensive guide for developing nations. It provides a structured approach to assess and benchmark LC practices, which, in turn, can contribute to a more efficient and effective construction industry. Moreover, the strategies proposed in this research can aid developing countries in the efficient implementation of LC. This will have a positive implication for both economic and developmental outcomes.

The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants influencing industrial adoption of green hydrogen amidst the global transition towards sustainability. Recognizing green hydrogen as a pivotal clean energy alternative for industrial applications is critical for understanding its potential integration into sustainable practices.

This research examines the impact of factors such as innovativeness, perceived ease of use, user comfort, optimism and governmental policies on the industrial intention towards green hydrogen usage. Using responses from 227 Indian industry professionals and conducting analysis via the SmartPLS software, the study reveals a discernible discomfort among industrial workers pertaining to the daily application of green hydrogen.

The research presents an array of policy recommendations for stakeholders. Emphasized strategies include the introduction of green hydrogen certificates, sustainable public procurement mechanisms, tax incentives, green labelling protocols and the establishment of a dedicated hydrogen skill development council, all of which can significantly influence the trajectory of green hydrogen adoption within the industrial sector.

This research synthesizes various elements, from industry perception and challenges to policy implications, presenting a holistic view of green hydrogen’s potential role in industry decarbonization and SDG realization. In essence, this study deepens not only the empirical understanding but also pioneers fresh theoretical frameworks, setting a precedent for subsequent academic endeavours.

Despite the critical role of the policy environment in facilitating the advancement of building information modeling (BIM) as a systemic innovation to reshape traditional facility design, construction and operation processes, scant scholarly attention has been paid to systematically investigating how and why complex BIM policies are concretely and gradually implemented in different regional contexts from a dynamic policy diffusion perspective. This study aims to empirically investigate how different types of BIM policy instruments are dynamically implemented in heterogeneous regions over time and how the diffusion of BIM policies across different regions is comprehensively impacted by both internal efficiency needs and external legitimacy pressures.

This study employed a positivist research paradigm in which BIM policy data from 182 prefecture-level and above cities in China during 2011–2022 were analyzed with quantitative approaches for theory verification. Based on the content analysis of the evolutionary characteristics of the adopted BIM policy instruments in heterogeneous regions over time, the event history analysis (EHA) method was then used to further examine the mechanisms underlying the diffusion of BIM policies across different regions.

The content analysis results show that while environmental instruments (such as technological integration and goal planning) are the primary policy instruments currently adopted in China, recent years have also witnessed increasing adoptions of supply-side instruments (such as fiscal support and information support) and demand-side instruments (such as demonstration projects and tax incentives). After controlling for the impacts of regional fiscal and technical resources, the EHA results illustrate that BIM policy adoption positively relates to regional construction industry scale but negatively relates to regional industry productivity and that compared with public pressures from industry participants, vertical pressures from the central government and horizontal pressures from neighboring regions are more substantial drivers for policy adoption.

As an exploratory effort of using a dynamic policy diffusion perspective to systematically investigate how BIM policies are adopted in heterogeneous regional contexts to facilitate BIM advancement, this study not only characterizes the complexity and dynamics of BIM policies but also provides deepened understandings of the mechanisms underlying policy adoption in the conservative construction industry. The findings hold implications for how multifarious policy instruments can be more effectively and dynamically adopted to facilitate the advancement of BIM and related technologies as innovative solutions in the construction domain.

Problems such as information asymmetry and a lack of trust among construction practitioners damage the quality and progress of construction projects. The decentralization, transparency, traceability and temper-proof nature of blockchain technology (BCT) can provide solutions and facilitate multiparty cooperation. However, BCT acceptance in the construction industry is relatively low, and there are few pilot projects adopting BCT. Most relevant literature focuses on BCT acceptance at the industry and organizational levels, but the impact of non-managerial practitioners executing BCT or the traditional approach in day-to-day work tends to be disregarded. This study aims to establish a theoretical model of BCT acceptance, identify key influencing factors and paths of behavioral intention to adopt BCT and promote strategies to enhance BCT adoption.

A new BCT acceptance model for construction practitioners was proposed. A survey was performed with 203 construction practitioners in Shenzhen, China and post-survey interviews were conducted with four BCT experts for validation. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to examine the influence paths and moderating effect analysis was performed to check practitioners’ differential perceptions.

Performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and perceived behavioral control significantly and positively influence behavioral intention to accept BCT, while impacts from effort performance and risk are negative. Overcoming obstacles related to the effort required for BCT adoption and effective risk management will be essential to unlocking BCT’s transformative potential. Then, the moderating effects of respondents’ gender, degree and BCT knowledge as well as the project type involved were analyzed. Continued adoption of BCT in the construction industry has the potential to revolutionize project management, transparency and trust among stakeholders.

The findings of this research can help practitioners and government agencies understand crucial influencing factors and pathways of BCT acceptance. Targeted measures, such as increasing practitioners’ benefits and sense of BCT usefulness, conducting pilot projects and increasing publicity, were proposed for project leadership teams to enhance BCT adoption. This may lead to increased efficiency, reduced disputes and more streamlined and secure construction processes, ultimately enhancing the industry’s overall performance.

Few studies have explored BCT acceptance from the perspective of non-managerial construction practitioners. The BCT acceptance model proposed in this study is a novel adaptation of previous technology acceptance models, with new factors (risk and perceived behavioral control) and moderating variables (degree, BCT knowledge and project type) added for better understanding of non-managerial practitioners’ perceptions and differences.

The paper aims to apply social practice theory to clarify the process of innovation design and delivery from one successful digital innovation: the building information modelling (BIM) risk library. The paper clarifies the practices surrounding construction innovation and provides a schema useful for practitioners and technology designers through a social practice analysis.

The paper applies Schatzki's “organisation of practice” concepts to a construction project innovation to clarify how the practice of innovation revolves around understandings, rules and teleoaffectivities (emotive behaviours). Sources for the study include notes from meetings, workshops with experts and the shared artefacts of innovation.

The practice of innovation design and delivery are clarified through a social practice analysis: a distinct “field of practice” and a “schema” of generalisable prescriptions and preferences for innovation delivery being presented.

The paper informs the practice and process of innovation design and delivery; the insights clarify how collective understandings and rules of use evolve over time, becoming formalised into contracts, agreements and workplans. Practically, processes whereby innovation “sayings” evolve into innovation “doings” are clarified: a schema detailing prescriptions and preferences of practitioners and developers being presented.

The social practice analysis of one successful construction innovation is an original contribution to the body of knowledge, adding a level of detail regarding innovation design and delivery often missing from reported research.

The study aims to introduce The Compass Project (TCP), designed to determine whether strengthening morality and practicing emotion management can reduce youth antisocial attitudes and behaviours and increase prosocial attitudes and behaviours.The programme activities are informed by the existing evidence base and incorporate theoretical explanations of the mechanisms that link psychological moral and emotional traits and behaviour.

This paper will offer a description of the programme design and content, TCP 2022 pilot study and crucially, discuss the utility of delivering programmes like TCP in wider settings (schools, youth offending teams and other youth organisations). TCP is currently being delivered in UK schools as a multi-site, longitudinal, RCT design.

Participant feedback from TCP 2022 pilot study is used to illustrate the potential impact of TCP for young people in future. The authors identify five challenges faced by researchers conducting youth intervention studies: access, recruitment, continued attendance, nature of participation (enthusiasm, engagement and task-focus) and full participant completion of data measures.

This pioneering study offers a novel methodology to increase law-abiding moral attitudes and behaviours in young people. This paper adopts a forward-thinking and scientific approach to identify practical solutions to key challenges faced when delivering youth interventions and is relevant for youth practitioners and academics worldwide.

TCP seeks to achieve improved youth attitudinal outcomes (such as law-aligned morality, empathy for others, measured decision-making and consideration of the consequences of action) and improved youth behavioural outcomes (such as improved quality of relationships with others, increased helping and prosocial behaviours, reduced antisocial behaviour and delinquency and reduced contact with criminal justice system-related organisations).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, an evidence-based morality strengthening and emotion programme of this kind, closely aligned with a moral theory of rule-breaking, has not been developed before.

The emergence of distributed ledger technology (DLT) has transformed the way construction industries approach data management, ushering in an era of increased transparency, security and efficiency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the strategies to promote the adoption of DLT in the Nigerian construction sector. This was done to address the challenges that hinder the widespread adoption of DLT within the Nigerian construction sector.

A comprehensive literature review informed the design of a structured questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was distributed among diverse construction professionals to explore their perceptions of potential strategies. The collected data were analyzed using the Shapiro–Wilk test for data distribution, while mean values and standard deviations were used to facilitate the ranking of strategies. The Kruskal–Wallis H-test was used to assess opinion differences, and exploratory factor analysis was applied to uncover underlying dimensions.

The findings revealed the top five strategies for DLT adoption as conducting workshops and seminars to educate professionals, collaborating with universities for DLT courses, encouraging joint projects for shared insights, forming consortia for DLT standards and allocating funding for DLT research in construction. Through factor analysis, the strategies identified were categorized into four principal clusters: awareness and education advancements, government support and incentives, industry collaboration and standards and pilot projects and demonstrations.

While prior studies have identified barriers to DLT adoption and offering recommendations, this research advances the field by empirically investigating and assessing several of these strategies proposed in various studies. This approach provides valuable insights that go beyond existing research, offering a deeper understanding of the practical and contextual dynamics influencing DLT adoption in the construction sector.

This paper aims to explore virtual simulations, merging artificial intelligence with real-world simulations, supporting Canadian armed forces (CAF) junior military leaders (JMLs) leadership development. Our research questions are: (1) How do virtual simulations support CAF junior military leadership development within a globalized and complex environment in the 21st century? (2) Could virtual simulations support a leadership culture change through efficacious “soft skills” training? In this paper, we explore the efficacy of virtual simulations for enhancing or developing leadership in JMLs in the CAF through a four-day pilot project with twenty JMLs (n = 20).

To assess the efficacy of virtual simulations for leadership development, we designed and studied a four-day leadership workshop for JMLs in the CAF using several virtual artificial intelligence leadership role-play simulations developed by McGraw Hill in their smart book textbook (Manning & Curtis, 2022) and several non-virtual in-class simulations for comparison. We selected four twenty to thirty-minute virtual role-play simulations that synergized with the in-person morning leadership workshop. We facilitated the three-hour leadership workshops and virtual/in-class simulations over four consecutive days. We emulated the ELESS model (De Freitas & Routledge, 2013) to assess soft and leadership skills.

The participants (JMLs) reported beneficial learning utility associated with the virtual simulations. Participants also expressed that further utility might be leveraged through virtual simulations incorporating greater complexity with multiple potential outcomes. They also suggested that leadership simulations designed around military situations would prove highly beneficial, something that was outside of the scope of this small pilot project.

Since this phase of our research is a pilot project, we secured a small amount of funding to test our hypothesis that simulations enhance leadership development for JMLs. These funding limitations resulted in several constraints in the research, such as the availability of virtual simulations articulating leadership from a military perspective. However, we believed the assigned organizational leadership simulations in the McGraw Hill Smart Book ecosystem would approximate generic leadership situations enough to test the hypothesis with the JMLs. As a pilot project, our sample size was relatively small (n = 20 JMLs) since participation was voluntary amidst a busy spring season for the JMLs. Since this is a pilot project, we suggest that twenty JMLs are an adequate sampling to test the hypothesis that simulations enhance JML leadership development. We will expand the sample size in the next phase of our research as we work with the CAF to expand the pool of participants to at least forty JML participants (n = 40). We also plan to secure further funding to collaborate with subject matter experts to design virtual simulations based on Canadian military leadership scenarios.

The CAF host robust simulations capabilities for combat training, but have not exploited the potential training and analytical capacity of virtual leadership simulations for leadership development within the CAF. We believe that virtual simulations provide an opportunity for the CAF to effect desired culture change through leadership development that leverages the substantial pedagogical benefits of simulations.

The CAF encountered several detrimental leadership scandals that eroded the reputational capital of the CAF. In the current geo-political climate of an expanding North American Treaty Organization (NATO) and threats from several international actors, the CAF seeks to expand its capabilities by adding and enhancing its human capital. However, the CAF currently experiences a significant gap in its human capital aspirations. There is a unanimous consensus that the endemic traditional culture of the CAF, as expressed in the recent explosive leadership scandals, is a deterrent to recruitment and thus weakens the CAF’s capability. The CAF targets leadership development with new leadership paradigms as pivotal to culture change. The CAF suggests that by enhancing leadership development in the CAF the new cadre of leadership will change the culture of the CAF and thereby enhance the reputational capital of the CAF. It is believed that this rejuvenated culture will lead to greater recruitment and retention, leading to a strengthened military. A strengthened military is important to provide effective support and protection for the Canadian people in these volatile and uncertain times. This expanded capacity will enable the CAF to address external military threats more effectively and also the increasing operations other than war (OOTW), such as the military support of long-term care facilities during COVID-19 or the military’s support in fighting record wildfires and the military’s support in climate change related disasters such as flooding.

The satisfaction measures indicated by the participants are typical evaluative measures of leadership development (Noe, 2023). These satisfaction ratings do not, however, indicate whether training has produced a change in behaviour (Brown, 2022). The implications of these outcomes for leadership education are that role-player simulations are useful leadership education and development tools because they provide a theatre of practice in which mistakes are not detrimental and serve as learning moments (Moore, 2012; Piro and O’Callaghan, 2021; Riotto, 2021). Further, the importance of role-player simulations that closely approximate the sector where leadership is experienced and practiced is perceived to enhance the experience. While the CAF invest in combat related simulations, but leadership development simulations are not as evident in the training and development array. This study seeks to assess their potential value as a leadership development tool within the wider context of character development as a leadership competency.

This paper aims to map the evolution of hydrogen-based technologies (HBTs) by examining the patenting activity associated to these technlogies from 1930 to 2020. In doing so, the study provides a novel perspective on the development of HBTs and offers implications for managers and policymakers.

We collected patent data at the level of patent families (PFs). Our sample includes 317,089 PFs related to hydrogen production and 62,496 PFs to hydrogen storage. We examined PF data to delineate the state of the art and major technical advancements of HBTs.

Our analysis provides evidence of an increasing patenting activity in the area of HBTs, hence suggesting relatively high levels of expectations on the economic potential of these technologies. US and Japan hold the largest proportion of PFs related to HBTs (about 60%), while European applicants hold the highest proportion of highly cited PFs (about 60%). While firms represent the applicant with the highest share of PFs, our analysis reveals that firms holding HBT PFs are primarily from the chemical sector.

While our analysis is limited to examining patent data which capture some aspects of the innovation activity around HBTs (namelly, patented inventions), our study enriches existing literature by performinng a patent analysis on a much larger sample of data when compared to previous studies.

Two main implications emerge from our study. Firstly, there seems to be an urgent need to support the emergence of a dominant design so as to facilitate the consolidation and diffusion of the HBTs, hence the transition to a more sustainable energy production. Secondly, the majority of HBT PFs are held by a small number of countries. This, in turn, suggests opportunities to develop cross-country cooperation (e.g. international agreements, research and technology offices) to support the development and adoption of HBTs globally.

Considering the results obtained in this study, from a social point of view, the attention that organizations have paid to hydrogen related technologies is evident. This suggests that the development HBTs can function as a social enabler for a sustianable energy transition.

Extant research has focused on the individual components of the hydrogen chain. As a result, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the progress made in the area of HBTs. To address this gap, this study examined HBTs by focusing on both production and storage technologies since their initial developments, hence adopting an observation period of about 70 years.