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Soft skills are essential not only for students but also for employees in any workplace. Some factors influence the development of soft skills in high schools. This study investigates the effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on soft skills through the role of psychological well-being at different students’ grade levels.

Three scales (i.e. the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, the Scale of Psychological Well-being and the soft skills assessment) were used on 707 high school students from seven senior high schools. The data were analysed using a moderated-mediation regression technique to reveal the conditional indirect effect of PsyCap on soft skills.

The results suggested that students' grade levels moderated the indirect effect of PsyCap on soft skills via psychological well-being. Students in higher grades showed a stronger impact of PsyCap on soft skills via psychological well-being.

The psychological states of students should be regarded as one of the most critical aspects of education and career advancement. Schools should assist students in developing their soft skills. Students, regardless of grade level, would begin to occupy their PsyCap, ensure their psychological well-being and finally, engage in soft skills development activities.

This current study has shifted from simply assessing soft skills to investigating some avenues for developing soft skills in various contexts and areas. If the theoretical model is well established, teachers and educators can effectively improve soft skills intervention by understanding the antecedents of soft skills.

The present study aims to examine the impact of social media marketing activities (SMMAs) on the adoption of food waste reduction behavior among Generation Z consumers within the restaurant service industry in Pakistan. The study focuses on the impact of social media advertisements and investigates the mediating influence of waste reduction intentions on actual behavior. This underscores the significance of contextual and emotional variables in comprehending consumer behaviors.

The study used a cross-sectional research methodology to examine the impact of SMMAs on the behavior of Generation Z consumers in Pakistan’s food service industry with regard to reducing food waste. A study was conducted to investigate the restaurant purchasing behaviors of a sample consisting of 449 individuals belonging to the millennial generation, often known as Generation Z.

The majority of variables related to SMMA, except for interactivity and personalization, were shown to have a positive impact on individuals’ intents to reduce food waste. The study observed a significant relationship between consumers’ intentions to decrease waste and their actual behavior in waste reduction. Furthermore, this relationship was shown to be influenced by the mediating role of waste reduction intention.

Examining how social media affects Pakistani Generation Z’s efforts to reduce food waste is what makes this study distinctive. According to the research, the majority of social media factors positively influence intentions to reduce waste. The relationship between intentions and actual behavior, which highlights the impact of social media campaigns and emotional aspects in promoting waste reduction, is one of the important conclusions.

Introduction: A company or organisation must resolve various problems in the business environment for better operation in any corporate environment. Such issues are traditionally handled in multiple ways. A small sector unit with many employees encounters this corporate issue, for example, the handicraft sector. The impact of handicraft issues and their intensity, speed, and regularity is growing in our system.

Purpose: This chapter studies how small businesses might succeed in the handcraft industry in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. There is a lack of proper knowledge of how the VUCA affects business proficiency in the Indian handicraft sector. A novel business strategy for the handicraft sector, like other business proficiency called best practices in handicraft business in a VUCA environment, will be presented along with a discussion about VUCA environments. This considers both the individual influences of each particular word and the overall impact of VUCA.

Methodology: The study included a thorough literature analysis for three learning areas: performance improvement, including VUCA, and the leadership incorporation of risk and quality. Awareness in the trade will be examined in further sections, as the mastery of VUCA is achieved with various traditional and digital management ideas.

Findings: The research defined a new unorganised firm concept to maintain and succeed in a high VUCA environment in the handicraft sector, identifying 18 important success characteristics through a comprehensive literature review. The authors proposed a conceptual framework for fusing quality management to attain proficiency in the handicraft sector VUCA environment.

This study aimed to examine the influence of psychological capital on the students' academic success in a PhD journey in Tanzania.

A cross-sectional survey design was used and data were collected through structured questionnaires from 200 PhD students in Tanzania. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the measurement model. The hypotheses were empirically tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The findings affirm that psychological capital in terms of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism are significant predictors of students' academic success in a PhD journey.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is among the first to comprehensively examine the influence of psychological capital on students' academic success in PhD studies. Previous studies have primarily focused on the undergraduate level. Additionally, this study extends the applicability of conservation of resource (COR) theory to the context of PhD students, demonstrating that psychological capital serves as a crucial resource for them to achieve success in their PhD studies.

Increased emphasis is being placed on developing creative approaches when working with children in research settings, especially with sensitive research topics like violence against children. Community art is a social form of art that gives artists the opportunity to work in collaboration with the public, with the aim of highlighting and addressing specific social issues. This chapter reflects on an art exhibition organised in Reykjavík called Wishes of Icelandic Children. The project was a collaboration between artists and children. The aim of the chapter is to present how an art exhibition may put violence that children experience into focus and encourage attendees to reflect on the subject by looking at descriptive pictures and texts from the Convention on the Rights of the Child and then writing comments about their thoughts and feelings. The research questions are: How do children express themselves about sensitive topics such as abuse and violence? Can community art enable professionals to better support increased participation of children in discussions about abuse and violence? This study involved a qualitative thematic analysis of comments written by children after having seen the exhibition. Three students took part in the analysis process as co-researchers. The exhibition was successful in creating a platform where children could express themselves on topics concerning abuse and violence. Many comments expressed an ardent desire to end violence in society, especially emphasising bullying, which can limit young people's capacity to feel safe and express themselves.

This study aims to explore the perception among the tourism stakeholders about Halal tourism competitiveness, challenges and opportunities in Aceh, a Sharia-law tourism destination.

This study adopted the qualitative research method and used in-depth interviews with purposively selected 13 Halal tourism stakeholders in Aceh.

This study found that the Indonesian Government has aggressively promoted Aceh as one of its main Halal tourist destinations. Despite its popularity in the growing and lucrative Muslim market, the understanding of Halal tourism in Aceh among its stakeholders is still at its infancy level. Besides, although Aceh is a Muslim-majority region, its Halal facilities and services, especially the Halal certification for their foodservice industry, are still lacking compared to their neighbouring competitors.

This study confirms the scarcity of stakeholder understanding and support challenged and undermined Aceh’s Halal tourism competitiveness. As such, this study sheds light on the original insight that stakeholders’ limited comprehension and backing can hinder Aceh’s Halal tourism competitiveness.

Existing Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools such as “Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design - Neighborhood Development” (LEED-ND) and “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM Communities) are widely criticized for a lack of transparency in the selection of indicators and an unbalanced focus on specific sustainability dimensions.

This paper asks how the expectations and use values of the professionals and residents involved in developing, designing, managing and living in a sustainable neighborhood can shape sustainability indicators that affect progress towards project goals. Taking as its focus The Sustainable City (TSC), a neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the paper develops data from in-depth, go-along interviews with 46 different actors.

Findings indicate that when given the opportunity to express their opinion, many actors will prioritize metrics different than the metrics dictated to the by sustainability experts and international rating systems. The findings suggest that NSA tools should place greater emphasis on local factors, public engagement and operational concerns.

The paper provides a method that any community can replicate to better understand the different use values of local actors and establish its own NSA tool. This can help experts learn how design, management and operational decisions interact to impact different dimensions of performance.

This paper recognizes sustainable neighborhoods as spaces with multiple identities. Hence, the indicators used to evaluate these neighborhoods need to be based on the expectations and use values of different actors. This paper proposes using the priorities of different local actors to reshape how these neighborhoods are assessed.

This chapter examines the significance of green innovation and technologies for sustainable business in Asia, focussing on the issues and challenges confronted by contemporary sustainable business models. The concept of sustainable development is introduced, which seeks to minimize negative impacts on ecosystems and preserve the environment for future generations. This chapter's methodology entails a comprehensive review of existing literature and research on green innovation, green technology, and sustainable business models in Asia. The expansion of ‘green’ energy is directly proportional to the global demand for energy resources. Understanding how green innovation influences a company's capacity for sustainable development is essential for identifying the factors that influence sustainable business models and their economic consequences. Green innovation practices encompass a variety of factors, including government regulations, preferences, supplier competence, and consumer concerns. Green technologies, such as green human resource management (HRM) practices and green innovation practices, play a crucial role in attaining sustainable development by conserving energy, protecting the environment, and enhancing business efficiency. Businesses that adopt green innovation acquire a competitive edge and enhance their performance. This chapter emphasizes the importance of green innovation research and application for business stability in Asia, where sustainability and green concepts are acquiring momentum. Customer, government, and societal pressures further emphasize the significance of green innovation in businesses. For the success of ecological innovation practices, collaboration and knowledge-sharing among various stakeholders are crucial. The adoption of green innovation practices is influenced by external environmental impacts, stakeholder pressure, and organizational support. Green technology innovation, which concentrates on resource conservation, energy efficiency, and environmental protection, is crucial to the sustainability of a business. This chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of business sustainability in achieving environmental and economic goals and assuring sustainable corporate development. Long-term success requires an understanding of the process of value creation, delivery, and capture within sustainable business models.

This paper aims to investigate the theoretical and practical links between digital twin (DT) application in heritage facilities management (HFM) from a life cycle management perspective and to signpost the future development directions of DT in HFM.

This state-of-the-art review was conducted using a systematic literature review method. Inclusive and exclusive criteria were identified and used to retrieve relevant literature from renowned literature databases. Shortlisted publications were analysed using the VOSviewer software and then critically reviewed to reveal the status quo of research in the subject area.

The review results show that DT has been mainly adopted to support decision-making on conservation approach and method selection, performance monitoring and prediction, maintenance strategies design and development, and energy evaluation and management. Although many researchers attempted to develop DT models for part of a heritage building at component or system level and test the models using real-life cases, their works were constrained by availability of empirical data. Furthermore, data capture approaches, data acquisition methods and modelling with multi-source data are found to be the existing challenges of DT application in HFM.

In a broader sense, this study contributes to the field of engineering, construction and architectural management by providing an overview of how DT has been applied to support management activities throughout the building life cycle. For the HFM practice, a DT-cum-heritage building information modelling (HBIM) framework was developed to illustrate how DT can be integrated with HBIM to facilitate future DT application in HFM. The overall implication of this study is that it reveals the potential of heritage DT in facilitating HFM in the urban development context.

Obtaining building permit certificate is an essential component of construction endeavors, but it can be cumbersome sometimes. The process is frequently beset with obstacles, including bureaucratic impediments, red-tapism, prolonged authorization protocols and insufficient inter-agency collaboration which result in project timeline extension, cost escalation and applicant dissatisfaction. Therefore, this study aims to examine customer satisfaction with the assessment of building construction permit certificates in Lalitpur, Nepal.

Following the notion of evaluation model theory, this study adopts an explanatory research design to determine the causal relationship between latent and observed variables. People who have recently completed the construction of their building and those people whose construction work is pending make up the population for the study. A total of 198 samples were collected by following the convenience sampling method from Lalitpur, Nepal. The primary data are collected by using the structured questionnaire with the interview process where the data are statistically evaluated using descriptive and inferential analysis using the KOBO toolbox, SPSS and AMOS. The connection between variables was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Results indicate that the negligence of the employees, the attitude of the employees, the need for additional costs and the hiring of the agent are the most significant obstacles encountered by customers during the process of getting construction permit. Regarding the whole assessment system, the general population expresses displeasure. SEM results indicate that environment and quality are significantly related to customer satisfaction.

This paper's novelty lies in its Nepal-specific inquiry into the relationship between building permit acquisition procedures and customer contentment. The study provides a distinctive viewpoint on this context by combining evaluation model theory and SEM. The localized approach emphasizes the importance of customized strategies to improve customer satisfaction, adding to the current literature on the subject. The study's use of SEM as a quantitative analysis tool enhances its methodological rigor. This interdisciplinary research offers valuable insights for academics, practitioners and policymakers in Nepal and contributes to the wider field of construction and customer satisfaction.