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The pressing issues of climate change and environmental degradation call for a reevaluation of how we approach economic activities. Both leaders and corporations are now shifting their focus, toward adopting practices and embracing the concept of circular economy (CE). Within this context, the Food and Beverage (F&B) sector, which significantly contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, holds the potential for undergoing transformations. This study aims to explore the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in facilitating the adoption of CE principles, within the F&B sector.

This research employs the Best Worst Method, a technique in multi-criteria decision-making. It focuses on identifying and ranking the challenges in implementing AI-driven CE in the F&B sector, with expert insights enhancing the ranking’s credibility and precision.

The study reveals and prioritizes barriers to AI-supported CE in the F&B sector and offers actionable insights. It also outlines strategies to overcome these barriers, providing a targeted roadmap for businesses seeking sustainable practices.

This research is socially significant as it supports the F&B industry’s shift to sustainable practices. It identifies key barriers and solutions, contributing to global climate change mitigation and sustainable development.

The research addresses a gap in literature at the intersection of AI and CE in the F&B sector. It introduces a system to rank challenges and strategies, offering distinct insights for academia and industry stakeholders.

To assess which partnerships were most critical during the recovery planning process following Hurricanes Maria and Irma. We discuss the roles and impact of different types of partners, barriers and facilitators to partnerships and lessons in collaboration during the development of the economic and disaster recovery plan for Puerto Rico.

The Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) was tasked with assisting the Puerto Rican government with an assessment of damages from Hurricanes Maria and Irma and the development of the Recovery Plan. During the process, a small team compiled and coded a database of meetings with non-HSOAC partners. The team was divided into sector teams that mirrored FEMA’s Recovery Support Functions. Each sector completed two surveys identifying high impact partners and their roles and contributions, as well as barriers and facilitators to partnerships.

A total of 1,382 engagements were recorded across all sectors over seven months. The most frequently identified high impact partners were federal and Puerto Rican governmental organizations partners. NGOs and nonprofits were noted as key partners in obtaining community perspective. Sector teams cited a lack of trust and difficulty identifying partners as barriers to partner engagement. Given the expedited nature of disaster response, establishing partnerships before disasters occur may help facilitate community input. Early networking, increased transparency and defining roles and responsibilities may increase trust and effectiveness among partnerships.

To our knowledge, this is one of the few studies that quantifies and illustrates the partnerships formed and their contributions during recovery planning, and lessons learned.

This study aims to empirically explore and compare the dynamic dependency between health-care sector and Islamic industries before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Time-varying student-t copula is used for before, during and after COVID-19 periods. The data used are the daily frequency price series of the selected markets from February 2017 to October 2023.

Empirical results found strong evidence of significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dependence structure of the studied indexes: Co-movements between various sectors are certain. The authors assist also in the birth of new dependence structure with the health-care industry in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This reflects the contagion occurrence from the health-care sector to other sectors.

By specifically examining the Islamic industry, this study sheds light on the resilience, challenges and opportunities within this sector, contributing novel perspectives to the broader discourse on pandemic-related impacts on economies and industries. Also, this paper conducts a comprehensive temporal analysis, examining the dynamics before, during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Such approach enables an understanding of how the relationship between the health-care sector and the Islamic industry evolves over time, accounting for both short-term disruptions and long-term effects. By considering the pre-pandemic context, the paper adopts a longitudinal perspective, enabling a deeper understanding of how historical trends, structural factors and institutional frameworks shape the interplay between the health-care sector and the Islamic industry.

This paper aims to reexamine the relationship between financial openness and financial development in Ghana.

The study applied maximum likelihood estimation and autoregressive distributed lag approach and tested Granger causality using quarterly data from 1990:1 to 2020:4.

This study revealed a long-run equilibrium relationship between financial openness and development, indicating that financial openness is a critical factor in Ghana’s financial development. Therefore, the study recommends with caution that policies aimed at promoting financial openness could be an effective way to encourage sustainable financial development in Ghana, as financial openness alone may not bring the desired outcome.

The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the link between financial openness and financial sector development in Ghana. Future research could delve deeper into the mechanisms through which financial openness affects financial development, exploring potential channels and transmission mechanisms.

The findings suggest that policymakers, particularly the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana, should prioritize policies aimed at promoting financial openness. This includes continued efforts toward financial liberalization and creating an environment conducive to domestic and international financial transactions. Moreover, policies aimed at increasing trade openness, boosting real GDP and maintaining moderate real interest rates are essential for fostering financial sector development.

Enhancing financial sector development can have significant implications for society, including increased access to financial services, improved economic opportunities and enhanced overall economic stability. By promoting financial openness and development, policymakers would contribute to poverty reduction, job creation and overall socio-economic development. The study bridges the gap between theory and practice by providing empirical evidence supporting the theoretical proposition that financial openness stimulates financial sector development.

This study fills a crucial gap in the literature on the effects of financial openness on Ghana’s financial sector development. It focuses on Ghana, which liberalized its financial sector in 1988 as part of the overall economic reforms in 1983, and this justifies the starting point of this paper in 1990, as there are no adequate data before 1990. The study uses principal component analysis to construct an index that measures financial development. The study considers the recent financial crises in Ghana in 2017 and underscores the importance of understanding the link between financial openness and financial development, which becomes useful for policymakers and researchers studying financial system development in sub-Saharan Africa which includes Ghana.

This study aims to test the market anomaly of herding behavior driven by the response to supply chain disruptions in extreme market conditions such as those observed during COVID-19. The authors empirically test the response of the capital market participants for B2B firms, resulting in herding behavior.

Using the event study approach based on the market model, the authors test the impact of supply chain disruptions and resultant herding behavior across six sectors and among different B2B firms. The authors used cumulative average abnormal returns (CAAR) and cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) to examine the significance of herding behavior across sectors.

The event study results show a significant effect of COVID-19 due to supply chain disruptions across specific sectors. Herding was detected across the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. The authors also provide evidence of sector-specific disruption impact and herding behavior based on the black swan event and social learning theory.

The authors examine the impact of COVID-19 on herding in the stock market of an emerging economy due to extreme market conditions. This is one of the first studies analyzing lockdown-driven supply chain disruptions and subsequent sector-specific herding behavior. Investors and regulators should take sector-specific responses that are sophisticated during extreme market conditions, such as a pandemic, and update their responses as the situation unfolds.

The microfinancing sector is infamous for being prone to high credit risks due to loan defaults by its poor borrowers. Conversely, the sector is also criticized for creating debt traps for the poor. The dual nature of these peculiar problems in microfinancing causes the market failure phenomenon. Therefore, the current study explores whether public policy intervention is required to address market failure.

The study undertakes a critical review of existing literature, the news, the policy documents and other publicly available information to shape the viewpoints in this study. Constructive criticism is used to build arguments to arrive at a conceptual framework that depicts how public policy should interact with markets to address the peculiar problems of the microfinancing sector.

The findings indicate that market failure in microfinancing is real and pressing. Therefore, public policy is invited, though in its limited form. While the policy intervention may help the formal microfinancing arena by regulating the interest rates, the policy administration in the informal sector is likely to fail. Therefore, the policy should attempt to create an environment of inclusiveness. Policies that rely on coercion are not recommended. In the long run, subsidies via policy intervention are discouraged. Instead, the policy should motivate the microfinancing sector to become self-reliant.

The study is one of its kind to provide perspectives on specific market failures and policy interventions in microfinancing, particularly in economies where formal and informal sectors coexist and are equally crucial.

Trust is the glue that holds cooperative relationships together and often exists in an asymmetric manner. The purpose of this study is to explore how to mitigate the issue of losses or increased transaction costs caused by opportunistic behavior in a soft environment where trust asymmetry is quite common and difficult to avoid.

This study focuses on examining asymmetric trust between the government and the private sector in public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Drawing upon both project realities and relevant literature, the primary conditional variables influencing asymmetric trust are identified. These variables encompass power perception asymmetry, information asymmetry, interaction behavior, risk perception differences and government-side control. Subsequently, through the use of a survey questionnaire, binary-matched data from both the government and the private sector are collected. The study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to conduct a configurational analysis, aiming to investigate the causal pathways that trigger asymmetric trust.

No single conditional variable is a necessary condition for the emergence of trust asymmetry. The pathways leading to a high degree of trust asymmetry can be categorized into two types: those dominated by power perception and those involving a combination of multiple factors. Differences in power perception play a crucial role in the occurrence of high trust asymmetry, yet the influence of other conditional variables in triggering trust asymmetry should not be overlooked.

The findings can contribute to advancing the study of trust relationships in the field of Chinese PPP projects. Furthermore, they hold practical value in facilitating the enhancement of trust relationships between the government and the private sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted tourism, and the hotel and restaurant industry was the most affected sector, which faced issues related to business uncertainty and unemployment during the crisis. The analysis of recovery time and the influence factors is significant to support policymakers in developing an effective response and mitigating the risks associated with the tourism crisis. This study aims to investigate numerous factors affecting the recovery time of the hotel and restaurant sector after the COVID-19 crisis by using survival analysis.

This study uses the quarterly value added with the observation time from quarter 1 in 2020 to quarter 1 in 2023 to measure the recovery status. The recovery time refers to the number of quarters needed for the hotel and restaurant sector to get value added equal to or exceed the value added before the crisis. This study applies survival models, including lognormal regression, Weibull regression, and Cox regression, to investigate the effect of numerous factors on the hazard ratio of recovery time of hotels and restaurants after the COVID-19 crisis. This model accommodates all cases, including “recovered” and “not recovered yet” areas.

The empirical findings represented that the Cox regression model stratified by the area type fit the data well. The priority tourism areas had a longer recovery time than the non-priority areas, but they had a higher probability of recovery from a crisis of the same magnitude. The size of the regional gross domestic product, decentralization funds, multiplier effect, recovery time of transportation, and recovery time of the service sector had a significant impact on the probability of recovery.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the recovery time of the hotel and restaurant sector across Indonesian provinces after the COVID-19 crisis. Employing survival analysis, this study identifies the pivotal factors affecting the probability of recovery. Moreover, this study stands as a pioneer in investigating the multiplier effect of the regional tourism and its impact on the speed of recovery.

Healthcare property has become an important alternate property sector in recent years for many international institutional investors. The purpose of this paper is to assess the risk-adjusted performance, portfolio diversification benefits and performance dynamics of French healthcare property in a French property portfolio and mixed-asset portfolio over 1999–2020. French healthcare property is seen to have different performance dynamics to the traditional French property sectors of office, retail and industrial property. Drivers and risk factors for the ongoing development of the direct healthcare property sector in France are also identified, as well as the strategic property investment implications for institutional investors.

Using annual total returns, the risk-adjusted performance, portfolio diversification benefits and performance dynamics of French direct healthcare property over 1999–2020 are assessed. Asset allocation diagrams are used to assess the role of direct healthcare property in a French property portfolio and in a French mixed-asset portfolio. The role of specific drivers for French healthcare property performance is also assessed. Robustness checks are also done to assess the potential impact of COVID-19 on the performance of French healthcare property.

French healthcare property is shown to have different performance dynamics to the traditional French property sectors of office, retail and industrial property. French direct healthcare property delivered strong risk-adjusted returns compared to French stocks, listed healthcare and listed property over 1999–2020, only exceeded by direct property. Portfolio diversification benefits in the fuller mixed-asset portfolio context were also evident, but to a much lesser extent in a narrower property portfolio context. Importantly, this sees French direct healthcare property as strongly contributing to the French property and mixed-asset portfolios across the entire portfolio risk spectrum and validating the property industry perspective of healthcare property being low risk and providing diversification benefits in a mixed-asset portfolio. However, this was to some degree to the loss or substitution of traditional direct property exposure via this replacement effect. French direct healthcare property and listed healthcare are clearly shown to be different channels in delivering different aspects of French healthcare performance to investors. Drivers of French healthcare property performance are also shown to be both economic and healthcare-specific factors. The performance of French healthcare property is also shown to be different to that seen for healthcare property in the UK and Australia. During COVID-19, French healthcare property was able to show more resilience than French office and retail property.

Healthcare property is an alternate property sector that has become increasingly important in recent years. The results highlight the important role of direct healthcare property in a French property portfolio and in a French mixed-asset portfolio, with French healthcare property having different investment dynamics to the other traditional French property sectors. The strong risk-adjusted performance of French direct healthcare property compared to French stocks, listed healthcare and listed property sees French direct healthcare property contributing to the mixed-asset portfolio across the entire portfolio risk spectrum. French healthcare property’s resilience during COVID-19 was also an attractive investment feature. This is particularly important, as many institutional investors now see healthcare property as an important property sector in their overall portfolio; particularly with the ageing population dynamics in most countries and the need for effective social infrastructure. The importance of French direct healthcare property sees direct healthcare property exposure accessible to investors as an important alternate real estate sector for their portfolios going forward via both non-listed healthcare property funds and the further future establishment of more healthcare REITs to accommodate both large and small institutional investors respectively. The resilience of French healthcare property during COVID-19 is also an attractive feature for future-proofing an investor’s portfolio.

This paper is the first published empirical research analysis of the risk-adjusted performance, diversification benefits and performance dynamics of French direct healthcare property, and the role of direct healthcare property in a French property portfolio and in a French mixed-asset portfolio. This research enables empirically validated, more informed and practical property investment decision-making regarding the strategic role of French direct healthcare property in a portfolio; particularly where the strategic role of direct healthcare property in France is seen to be different to that in the UK and Australia via portfolio replacement effects. Clear evidence is also seen of the drivers of French healthcare property performance being strongly influenced by healthcare-specific factors, as well as economic factors.

The purpose of the study is to analyze and measure the impact of disruption in demand which causes the bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect impacts the performance of firm. Just like everything else, covid has had an impact on the disruption of supply chain too leading to the need of measuring the bullwhip effect of select Indian sectors. The comparison on bullwhip effect is drawn in pre- and during covid era in major sectors. The study helps to understand, analyze and measure the impact of covid and its challenges to supply chain.

The empirical study is carried out on five major select Indian sectors which have the largest market capitalization in Indian economy, namely, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), automobile, utility, consumer durable and IT (information technology). The disruption in the supply chain is measured in terms of bullwhip effect. The novel metric ratio of bullwhip effect is computed which is based on demand–supply mismatch and analyzed based on 10 years of observations. The data is analyzed twice, first from 2011 to 2019 (pre-covid era) and second from 2019 to 2021 (during covid era). Each time, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sectoral indices are used to compute the bullwhip ratio, and empirical data is collected using Prowess. The firms listed in BSE represent most of the sector. Such panel data helps us to analyze inter- and intraindustry bullwhip effect. The changes in the bullwhip effect for various BSE listed firms are analyzed pre- and during covid era. These changes are specifically studied at the manufacturer end of the supply chain. Later regression analysis is performed to study the changes required in production based on the demand. The various strategies that cause or mitigate the impact of covid in intraindustry can be derived from the study. The disruption in production is analyzed based on the disruption in demand and profit before interest and tax (PBIT).

In pre-covid era, the percentage of demand disruption was low in select sectors but not exactly zero. Covid caused the disruptions in supply chain across the globe which resulted in bullwhip effect in Indian sectors too. Yet some of the sectors were able to cope better with the situation as compared to others. In the present study, same is analyzed statistically, and results are derived for practical significance.

The empirical data is having the observations of past 10 years to analyze the pattern of demand disruption in the firms and hence the sectors. The impact of covid is studied on performance, which is analyzed in terms of PBIT. The impact of other factors (political, social, marketing policies, etc.) that may cause disruption in the supply chain of a firm is not considered in the study.

Study is unique, as it measures disruption and provides a peerless way to study the inter- and intrasectors. To analyze the impact of bullwhip effect on sector performance, it is very much required to first measure the bullwhip; this measure of bullwhip as a ratio of the slopes of demand and supply is a novel approach. The study emphasizes that the impact of covid is not the same among the firms, and hence among the sectors. Also, it is found that the impact of such adversities can be mitigated, and performance of firm can remain intact in turbulent times too.