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Recent trends in total quality management (TQM) argue in favor of incorporating environmental concerns into TQM and considering external stakeholders. The aim of this study is to bring environmental consciousness in the soft TQM dimension of human resource management (HRM) and assess its interrelationship with stakeholder integration towards achieving a competitive advantage.

An empirical study was conducted in the transportation sector, specifically targeting managers in Greek shipping companies involved in global cargo transport and vessel operations. A structured questionnaire was administered, yielding 109 responses. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal the positive effect of both green HRM (GHRM) and stakeholder integration on the innovation differentiation advantage and market differentiation advantage of shipping companies. Results confirm the complementary (partial) mediating effect of GHRM in the relationship between stakeholder integration and both types of competitive advantage.

The primary limitation resides in data collection exclusively from shipping companies in Greece. A longitudinal approach would be beneficial for examining how the relationship between variables changes over time.

The findings of the study could assist shipping managers in their decisions to allocate resources for developing GHRM practices and for involving stakeholders in organizational practices to overcome competition.

This study contributes to the discourse on TQM by empirically investigating the combined impact of GHRM and stakeholder integration on competitive advantage – an aspect that has been relatively overlooked in existing literature.

Green innovation, particularly in manufacturing firms, is one of the most advocated methods to curb the effects of climate change. This study aims to investigate the impact of the integration of green customers and suppliers on the green innovation performance of food manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The institutional and resource-based view theories determine the moderating role of regulatory pressure and the mediating role of green knowledge integration capability (GKIC).

Data was collected from 511 middle management-level employees of food manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The questionnaire was tested for reliability and validity. Hierarchical regression is used to test the proposed hypothesis.

A marginal improvement in integration with green customers can increase the green innovation performance (GIP) of a firm by 23.6%. Green supplier integration can improve the GIP by 14.2%, whereas the GKIC mediates the relationship between Green Customers Integration (GCI) and GIP but not for green suppliers integration (GSI). The moderating effect of regulatory pressure was significant for the relationship between GCI and GIP but insignificant for GSI.

Food manufacturing accounts for approximately 16% of global green house gases (GHG) emissions. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) cannot be achieved without a significant decrease in GHG emissions by food manufacturing companies. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate firms' green innovation performance in this sector. The findings of this study can help policymakers develop policies for achieving SDGs.

Thus, this study aims to determine the status-quo of research on the role of IT in M&A from 2010 to 2022 by providing a summative meta-analysis of this phenomenon.

This study presents a meta-analysis of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) research in information systems (IS), aimed at accounting for themes in M&A literature over the past 13 years, research methodology, research frameworks, level of analysis and geographical distribution. A total of 47 articles from 24 peer review articles and 23 conference publications were analyzed from 2010 to 2022.

Findings of the study suggest that M&A research in IS emphasizes IS integration at the expense of other under-explored dimensions such as M&A context, stakeholder involvement and within-firm conditions. Although studies on M&A have increased over the past 10 years, a significant number of studies have not been underpinned by models and theories. Also, a large number of studies adopted the qualitative approach as research methodology compared to quantitative, design science and mixed methods.

This study contributes to the literature on M&A in IS by proposing an M&A in IS research framework that bridges the gap between existing and future studies on M&A in IS research by shedding more light into well research areas and opportunities for further studies.

The growing awareness of climate risks associated with food safety issues has drawn the attention of stakeholders urging the food industry to carry out a sustainable food safety management system (FSMS). This study aims to investigate whether the critical success factors (CSFs) of sustainable FSMS can contribute to achieving climate neutrality, and how the adoption of FSMS 4.0 supported by the Industry Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) technologies moderates the impact of the CSFs on achieving climate neutrality.

Survey data from 255 food production firms in China and Vietnam were utilised for the empirical analysis. The research hypotheses were examined using structural equations modelling (SEM) with route analysis and bootstrapping techniques.

The results show that top management support, human resource management, infrastructure and integration appear as the significant CSFs that directly impact food production firms in achieving climate neutrality. Moreover, the results demonstrate that the adoption of FSMS 4.0 integrated with the three components (ecosystems, quality standards and robustness) significantly moderates the impact of the CSFs on achieving climate neutrality with lower inputs in human resources, infrastructure investment, integration and external assistance, and higher inputs in strengthening food safety administration.

This study provides empirical findings that fill the research gap in understanding the relationship between climate neutrality and the CSFs of sustainable FSMS while considering the moderating effects of the FSMS 4.0 components. The results provide theoretical and practical insights into how the food production sector can utilise IR 4.0 to attain sustainable FSMS for achieving climate neutrality.

The increasing complexity of civil engineering projects necessitates focusing on new competencies of project participants. Based on the research on team performance and design processes that are more closely linked to the relevance of the project context, it is hypothesised that empathic abilities could play an important role in the performance of civil engineering projects. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether performance can be improved by focusing on empathic abilities during the integrated design phase.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews with experts were conducted to explore the relevance of empathic abilities and their interaction with performance in a real-life infrastructure project. The project team’s empathy level was measured by means of a survey using Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index method. Finally, differences between expected and measured levels of empathy were analysed.

The results provide insights into how empathic abilities interact with performance. The measurement indicates that, on average, professionals in the civil engineering industry score relatively low on empathy. In addition, differences were identified between the expected distribution and the measured empathy levels of the team, implying a potential for improvement, in particular by increasing the empathic abilities of the project management and increasing gender diversity.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate a relationship between empathy and the performance of civil engineering projects. The results provide initial insights into the empathic ability of civil engineering project teams and the potential of empathy to improve performance. Furthermore, from an empathy perspective, this study advocates increasing the gender diversity of project teams to improve performance.

This study evaluates the knowledge structure of building information modeling (BIM) in green buildings. Buildings are one of the main contributors to carbon emissions, and implementing BIM in green buildings is seen as an indispensable approach to mitigate environmental and climate change issues.

Through a bibliometric analysis, 297 publications retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) were analyzed to explore their intellectual structure.

Bibliographic coupling analysis produced four clusters on current and emerging trends, while co-word analysis produced four clusters on future BIM and green building trends. Current and emerging trends revolve around BIM adoption in green and existing buildings, life cycle analysis (LCA) and sustainable rating tools. Future trends related to BIM and performance analysis and optimization, the BIM framework for green building design and construction, overcoming barriers and maximizing benefits in BIM adoption.

The implications of this study are relevant to all BIM and green building stakeholders, including developers, engineers, architects, occupants, tenants and the whole community.

This study examines the crucial integration of BIM and green building within the more extensive construction and building field scope.

Sandbag building technologies (SBTs) have been offered as a cost-effective and sustainable alternative building technology (ABT) capable of accelerating house construction in South Africa, but its acceptance remains low. However, knowledge about how to effectively improve SBT social acceptance is limited. This study aims to develop and prioritise SBT social acceptability strategies towards providing a comprehensive framework for the successful deployment and widespread adoption of sandbag technology.

This study used a quantitative research strategy that included a literature review and a structured questionnaire survey of 228 ABT professionals and stakeholders in the South African housing industry. The study statistically analysed 13 strategies for the social acceptance of SBT.

The analysis showed that the top three strategies include the availability of sandbag demonstration projects in all provinces, the approval of a sandbag building code and the availability of standard design methods for earthbags. A factor analysis clustered the 13 strategies into Stakeholders integration and policy formation, Effective education and knowledge sharing and Grassroots advocacy and incentives.

The current study’s findings provide a broad framework for the effective implementation and wide acceptance of sandbag technology in housing projects. It offered certain best practices that policymakers and practitioners might use to promote ABT and SBT societal acceptability.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study represents the first and only attempt to investigate the viewpoints of experts and housing market stakeholders in South Africa regarding sandbag technology social acceptance strategies and contributes to the social acceptance body of knowledge in ABT and SBT.

This study investigates the integration of information technology (IT) competencies with organizational inclusion initiatives and its impact on firm performance. It examines the role of organizational inclusion in promoting knowledge management capability (KMC) and the moderating effect of approach and avoidance motivation on the relationship between KMC and operational performance.

The study is grounded in the resource orchestration theory (ROT), which conceptualizes the integration of IT competencies and organizational inclusion. It employs hierarchical regression analysis on data collected from 204 firms and 374 managerial respondents to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results indicate that IT competencies enhance the relationship between organizational inclusion and KMC. Additionally, the relationship between KMC and operational performance is weaker when employees exhibit higher levels of avoidance motivation.

This study offers theoretical and managerial insights for integrating IT competencies into organizational inclusion initiatives, providing guidance for organizations seeking to enhance their performance, with a specific focus on the relevance of China as the research context.

This study enriches the scholarly discourse by examining the underexplored integration of IT competencies with organizational inclusion, notably in the context of China. It illuminates the moderating role of motivation in the KMC-operational performance relationship, benefiting both academia and practitioners. Furthermore, this work extends the literature by demonstrating how combining organizational inclusion and IT competencies can enhance workplace KMC, connecting it to internal knowledge resources. Theoretical implications extend beyond organizational inclusion and IT to show the broader application potential of ROT in management and information systems.

This study aims to develop a modular and prescriptive digital transformation maturity model whose constituent elements have conceptual integrity as well as reveal the priority weights of maturity model components.

A literature review with a concept-centric analysis enlightens the characteristics of constituent parts and reveals the gaps for each component. Therefore, the interdependency network among model dimensions and priority weights are identified using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-based analytic network process (ANP) method, including 19 industrial experts, and the results are robustly validated with three different analyses. Finally, the applicability of the developed maturity model and the constituent elements are validated in the context of the manufacturing industry with two case applications through a strict protocol.

Results obtained from DEMATEL-based ANP suggest that smart processes with a priority weight of 17.91% are the most important subdimension for reaching higher digital maturity. Customer integration and value, with a priority weight of 17.30%, is the second most important subdimension and talented employee, with 16.24%, is the third most important subdimension.

The developed maturity model enables companies to make factual assessments with specially designed measurement instrument including incrementally evolved questions, prioritize action fields and investment strategies according to maturity index calculations and adapt to the dynamic change in the environment with spiral maturity level identification.

A novel spiral maturity level identification is proposed with conceptual consistency for evolutionary progress to adapt to dynamic change. A measurement instrument that is incrementally structured with 234 statements and a measurement method that is based on the priority weights and leads to calculating the maturity index are designed to assess digital maturity, create an improvement roadmap to reach higher maturity levels and prioritize actions and investments without any external support and assistance.

Despite carbon reduction commitments, many constraints hinder the delivery of low-carbon buildings (LCBs) in high-rise high-density cities. The collaborative commitment of relevant stakeholders is vital to effectively address and mitigate these constraints. Hence, this study aims to comprehensively explore the required stakeholder collaboration attributes to address and mitigate the “common” constraints of delivering LCBs by focussing on several high-rise high-density cities.

A list of 21 “significant and common” constraints was identified through a systematic literature review followed by a questionnaire survey covering five economies (Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Qatar and the UAE). Nineteen influential stakeholders/stakeholder categories were identified through the literature, and their ability to influence the 21 constraints was mapped and identified through a two-round Delphi survey of 15 experienced professionals. The Delphi survey findings were analysed through social network analysis (SNA) methods to assess the stakeholder engagement and collaboration attributes.

The SNA results revealed the ability of stakeholders to influence the constraints, required collaborative stakeholder networks to address the constraints, significance of stakeholders according to the SNA centrality measures, core and periphery stakeholders and individual co-affiliation networks of core stakeholders.

While achieving the planned primary target of exploring stakeholder collaboration and their significance through SNA, this study also presents a useful sequential methodological approach for future researchers to conduct similar studies in different contexts. The findings also provide a foundation for accelerating the delivery of LCBs by strengthening stakeholder collaboration.