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This chapter conceptualises a link between Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), big data, data science and sustainable tourism.

The author adopts a grounded theory and conceptual approach to endeavour in this exploratory research.

The outcome shows a significant rise of big data in the tourism sector under three major dimensions, i.e. business, governance and research. And, some exemplary evidence of institutions promoting the use of big data and data science for sustainable tourism has been discussed.

The conceptualised interlinkage of concepts like IR 4.0, big data, data science and sustainable development provides a valuable knowledge resource to policy-makers, researchers, businesses and students.

Tourism sustainability is a challenge for 21st-century destinations – this paper aims to analyse smart destinations' sustainability through a case study of Benidorm, the first world destination to be certified under the UNE 178501 standard as smart tourism destination (STD).

The methodological component has been divided into developing a framework for measuring sustainability through economic, social and environmental open data. Moreover, studying the plan's contribution “Benidorm, Destino Turístico Inteligente y Sostenible” to the city's sustainability through a time series analysis.

The main contribution shows that Benidorm's transformation into an STD leads to more sustainable cities. Thus, the conversion of Benidorm into an STD has a sustained effect in the medium and long term, contributing to the sustainability of the city.

An open question as a limitation is the subjectivity of the distribution of the relative weight of each indicator. However, statistical analyses are developed to explore the relationship between indicators and global sustainability.

The debate to contextualise this paper is bridging the gap between sustainability and tourism intelligence, giving an original framework for measuring destination sustainability that provides a reasonable starting point for comparing tourism sustainability in different destinations.

Tourists in the 21st century prefer environmentally friendly tourism. Marketing campaigns based on destination sustainability must be based on data rather than mere slogans.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the originality of this paper provides a flexible framework for measuring sustainability from open data sources, being one of the first empirical analyses to study the effects on the sustainability of converting a mature destination into an STD.

The universities of applied sciences (UASs) in Finland play a significant role in providing skilled professionals with higher education degrees to meet the needs of the labor market and society as a whole. The purpose of this study is to determine what the staff in these universities consider the role of UASs in promoting sustainable development (SD) to be.

The qualitative research data were collected from a survey distributed among UAS staff in the spring of 2021. The data consisted of 831 responses to an open-ended question on how UASs could promote SD and a sense of responsibility for it. The method used for the data analysis was theory-led content analysis.

Staff at UASs are actively promoting SD in higher education and have many ideas on how to do this, which is encouraging. With further processing of these ideas and support from management, UASs can play a more important role in sustainability work and set an example for how to build a sustainable future.

The promotion of SD is a timely topic, and examples of SD implementation and good practices can promote discussion of the role of higher education institutions in SD promotion and highlight collective ways to promote it.

This study aims to identify the content in introductory business sustainability courses in the USA to determine the most frequently assigned reading material and its sustainability orientation.

In total, 81 introductory sustainable business course syllabi reading lists were analyzed from 51 US colleges and universities. The study utilized frequency counts for authors and readings and R analysis of key words to classify readings along the sustainability spectrum.

The study reveals the most frequently assigned authors and readings in US sustainable business courses (by program type) and places them along the sustainability spectrum from weak to strong. In total, 55 per cent of the top readings assigned in the sample advocate a weak sustainability paradigm, and 29 per cent of the top readings advocate a strong sustainability paradigm.

This study focused on reading lists of introductory courses in the USA; cases, videos and supplemental materials were excluded, and the study does not analyze non-US courses.

The findings of this study can inform instructors of the most commonly assigned authors and readings and identify readings that align with weak sustainability and strong sustainability. Instructors are now able to select sustainable business readings consistent with peers and which advance a weak or strong sustainability orientation.

This is the first research to identify the most commonly assigned authors and readings to aid in course planning. This is also the first research to guide instructors in identifying which readings represent weak versus strong sustainability.

The Internet of Things-based digital twin (IoT-DT) technologies offer a transformative approach to building retrofitting for reducing operational carbon (ROC) emissions. However, a notable gap exists between the potential and adoption of the two emerging technologies, further exacerbated by the nascent state of research in this domain. This research aims to establish the best practices that innovatively strengthen the identified enablers to decisively tackle challenges, ensuring the efficient implementation of IoT-DT for ROC emissions in buildings.

This study adopted a mixed-method approach. Questionnaire data from 220 multidiscipline professionals were analysed via structural equation modelling analysis, while interview data obtained from 18 stakeholders were analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings were triangulated for cohesive interpretation.

After the analysis of questionnaire data, a structural model was established, depicting the critical challenges (inadequate data security, limited technical expertise and scalability issues) and key enablers (robust data security measures, skill development and government incentives) of implementing IoT-DT for ROC. Sequentially, analysis of in-depth interview data revealed the IoT-based DT best practices (safeguarding data, upskilling and incentivization). Upon triangulating the questionnaire and interview findings, this study explicitly highlights the potential of the established best practices to strategically strengthen enablers, thereby mitigating challenges and ensuring the successful implementation of IoT-based DT for ROC emissions in buildings.

This study provides practical guidance for stakeholders to effectively implement IoT-DT in ROC in buildings and contributes significantly to climate change mitigation.

The construction industry faces three emergent developments that in all likelihood will transform the industry into the future. First, engineering project networks (EPNs), in which teams collaborate on projects remotely in time and space, are transforming global construction practices. Second, as a major consumer of resources and significant producer of green-house gases, construction is under pressure to reduce its carbon footprint. Third, the construction industry presents as one of the least socially sustainable work environments, with high job dissatisfaction, skewed work–life balance and over representation of depressive and mental disorders. It is incumbent on the industry to reconcile these issues. Specifically, what scope is there to shape the evolution of EPNs towards a configuration that both promotes sustainability generally, and enhances quality of work-life issues, while at the same time continuing to apprehend the economic dividends for which it is adopted? As salient as this question is, it has not been broached in the literature. Therefore, this study aims to survey the extent to which EPNs align with the sustainability agenda, more broadly, and that of employee work-place satisfaction, more specifically.

A literature review of current knowledge of these concerns is explored and a summative assessment presented.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, as the first in its kind, the study brings to light that EPNs go a long way towards facilitating economic objectives, part way towards realising ecological and sociological objectives but make hardly any impact on improving employee work satisfaction.

This paper examines an entirely novel area that has not been studied yet. Future research should take up this finding to determine how EPNs may be further adapted to accommodate these wider necessary objectives.

Industry 4.0 is characterised by the exponential pace of technological innovations compelling organisations to transform or be displaced. Industry 4.0 transformation of construction enterprises lacks systematic guidance and notable earlier studies have utilised maturity models to map transformation of enterprises. This paper proposes a conceptual maturity model for construction enterprises for business scenarios leading to Industry 4.0.

The requirements for designing maturity models, including comparison with existing models and scientifically documenting the design process, make Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) appropriate. Two systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are conducted to shortlist a total of 95 papers, which are subjected to subsequent content analysis.

The first SLR identifies the following process categories as critical levers of industry 4.0 maturity; data management, people and culture, leadership and strategy, collaboration and communication, automation, innovation and change management. The second SLR ascertains that the existing maturity models in construction literature do not adequately correspond to Industry 4.0 business scenarios with limited emphasis on data management, automation, change management and innovation. The findings are assimilated to propose a conceptual Smart Modern Construction Enterprise Maturity Model (SMCeMM).

The paper systematises the transformation of construction enterprises in Industry 4.0 and leads to state-of-the-art development of Industry 4.0 and maturity model research in construction. The proposed conceptual model addressed both the demands of the construction industry as well as what is required to navigate Industry 4.0 better.

This paper aims to develop a user process framework with activities and their variations for the use of open government data (OGD) based on empirical material and previous research. OGD is interoperable data that is shared by public organisations (publishers) for anyone (users) to reuse without restrictions to create new digital products and services. The user process was roughly identified in previous research but lacks an in-depth description. This lack can hamper the ability to encourage the use and the development of related theories.

A three-stage research approach was used. First, a tentative framework was created from previous research and empirical material. This stage involved three different literature reviews, data mapping and seven interviews with OGD experts. The empirical material was analysed with inductive analysis, and previous research was integrated into the framework through concept mapping. Second, the tentative framework was reviewed by informed OGD experts. Third, the framework was finalised with additional literature reviews, eight interviews with OGD users, and a member check, including all the respondents. The framework was used to guide the data collection and as a tool in the analysis.

The user process framework covers activities and related variations, where the included phases are: start, identify, acquire, enrich and deploy. The start varies relating to the intended use of the OGD. In the identify phase, the user is exploring the accessible data to decide if the data are relevant. In the acquire phase, the user is preparing for the delivery of the data from the publisher and receiving it. In the enrich phase, the user is concocting and making something. In the final deploy phase, the user has a product or service that can be provided to end-users.

The framework development has some limitations: the framework needs testing and development in different contexts and further verification. The implications are that the framework can help guide researchers towards relevant and essential data of the user process, be used as a point of comparison in analysis, and be used as a skeleton for more precious theories.

The framework has some practical implications for users, publishers and portals. It can introduce users to the user process and help them plan for the execution of it. The framework can help publishers understand how the users can work with their data and what can be expected of them. The framework can help portal owners to understand the portal’s role between users and publishers and what functionality and features they can provide to support to the user.

In previous research, no user process with an in-depth description was identified. However, several studies have given a rough recall. Thus, this research provides an in-depth description of the user process with its variations. The framework can support practice and leads to new research avenues.