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AbstractThe growing ubiquity of the metaverse among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) offers a game-changing chance for creative business plans and improved communication. This adoption reduces the consumption of physical resources and promotes an environmentally responsible business model in besides increasing operational efficiency. In accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UNDP, our study attempts to clarify how the metaverse might improve the sustainable performance of SMEs. We developed a comprehensive study model based on the diffusion of innovation (DOI) and technical organizational and environmental (TOE) paradigms. For data analysis a hybrid approach merging partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) was implemented. The study highlights the crucial roles of relative advantage, value alignment, compatibility, and top management after analyzing data from 369 respondents across Chinese SMEs that was collected both physically and online. The understanding of decision-makers becomes evident as a crucial element impacting the adoption of metaverse and ensuing sustainable (social, economic, and environmental) outcomes. This study offers valuable insights on metaverse adoption and sustainable performance for Chinese SMEs. Additionally, it offers appropriate suggestions for managers of SMEs, policy makers, and metaverse developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the dynamics of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) during the commercialization process in high-tech sectors, particularly in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field. Except for early-stage entrepreneurial activities in technology firms, SMEs in the commercialization stage have received limited attention. Employing the Construal-Level Theory (CLT) and a concrete-abstract dimensional narrative approach, the study explores the relationship between narrative construal levels and SMEs' success in Chinese cities. Encompassing ICT firms with 6 to 1000 employees, the study utilizes a Multilevel Mixed Method approach. Findings reveal that concrete narratives play a moderating role in the relationship between specific business technology and firm performance, emphasizing the importance of aligning a firm's business with its target audience during commercialization. However, the competition level (ICT firms' population) in the city reduces the firm's success. The study extends our understanding of entrepreneurial activity in the ICT sector, CLT, and potential policy guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blue economy investment behaviour has become highly important in the past decades as it relies on making positive investment decisions which lead to the development and growth of sustainability of every country. This paper contributes to the literature through the investigation of the drivers affecting blue economy investments, and the overall impact on the sustainability of the supply chain performance of marine shipping firms in Egypt. Egypt has a strategic geographic location with long coastlines along the Red, Mediterranean and Gulf of Aqaba seas, in addition to around 50 marine ports to which logistics firms have access to. Relying on the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) theory and Appiah et al. (2023) model, this paper finds positive impacts of five factors – technological, organisational, environmental, cost spending and supply chain management on blue economy investment decisions in Egypt; however, it finds an insignificant impact of the regulatory factors on stimulating substantial investment. In addition, this paper finds an overall positive impact of blue economy investments on the sustainability of the supply chains of the Egyptian marine shipping firms. This paper suggests actions to be implemented by the Egyptian government to entirely switch to a blue economy to support the sustainability of its blue waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to analyse the effect of Knowledge Management (KM) on Sustainable Performance (SP) in the wine industry context. In particular, the study investigates how SP is influenced by KM through the mediating role of Green Innovation (GI), as well as the moderating role of Collaborative Culture (CC). The research proposes a conceptual model, based on previous studies, which is tested through structural equations (PLS-SEM) with data collected from 202 Spanish wineries. The results of the research indicate that there is a positive relationship between KM and SP, with GI mediating and CC moderating this link. The originality of the research is due to the fact that, firstly, there are no previous studies that have addressed the KM-SP relationship in the wine context and, secondly, there is no previous academic literature that has used the CC variable to moderate the main relationship analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though manufacturing industrialisation has significantly contributed to Chinese economic growth, it has also resulted in resource abuse and environmental pollution. Therefore, manufacturing enterprises need to pursue green development to obtain legitimacy. The successful implementation of green manufacturing requires the joint efforts by enterprises, society and government, as well as the support of technology. Only by putting limited resources into the elements that can drive manufacturing SMEs to implement green practices and obtain sustainable performance, can achieve the effectiveness of Pareto. To this end, this paper constructed a 'new kinetic energy – green practices – sustainable performance' evaluation model, which is verified by partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and multi-group analysis (PLS-MGA). It was found that top manager commitment and consumer demand did not have a positive impact on enterprise green practices in all industry types. However, while technology was found to play a crucial role in technology-intensive industries, and employee engagement was only found to promote green behaviour in labour-intensive industries. Although new kinetic energies were observed to play different roles in the different industrial types, the results showed that green practices could result in economic, environmental, resource and social benefits in all industrial types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inconsistent relationships in the previous research studies related to quality management practices and sustainability have initiated the purpose of this study. Further investigation is prompted to understand better the effects of other intervening variables to explain the nature of the relationship. Therefore, this study investigated the mediating roles of organizational excellence on the relationship between quality management practices (QMP) and sustainability. The QMP considered in this study are human resources management (HRM), service design (SD), information and analysis (IA), benchmarking (BM) and management leadership (ML) with the respective relationship with sustainable performance while being mediated by organizational excellence. A questionnaire survey was administered to 303 companies of Malaysian food and beverage and the returned questionnaires were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results revealed that organizational excellence is a significant mediator of the relationships between ML, SD, HRM and sustainability. The developed framework from this study can be employed by policy and decision-makers to forecast and provide insights into the economy. Managers in the industry should consider the importance of this model when implementing any practice in the future. For future research, it is recommended that a longitudinal study is carried out to evaluate the impact of TQM and organizational excellence on SP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although literature investigating role of Green Marketing (GM) in enhancing firm’s performance is voluminous, there is a scarcity of studies exploring effects of GM on organizational sustainable performance in developing countries context. This study explores the impact of implementing GM on organizational sustainable performance in Palestinian food industries. To this end, GM practices and organizational sustainable performance-related data were collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results show a modest, unstructured quasi-GM strategy. More specifically, both green product and green placement and distribution contribute to enhancing the firm’s environmental performance (EP), while green promotion enhances the economic performance (EcP). Also, the social performance (SP) is affected by the green placement and distribution. However, green pricing has no significant effect on the organizational sustainable performance. This study is among few studies exploring impacts of GM on firm’s organizational sustainable performance in developing countries context, thus adding significant value to the literature by attempting to counter sustainable performance issues in current complex business environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel COVID-19 virus, and the pandemic that has followed its spread, has had a massive impact on the banking industry on a global level. Therefore, considering this context, this study examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the banking sector's performance in the Asian emerging economics, over a time span ranging from 2016Q1–2021Q2. For this purpose, this study makes use of the FE, RE, 2SLS, and PPML regression models. The empirical findings show that the GDP and banking size are positively related to bank performance in the pre-COVID era, and the COVID pandemics era thus far in the Asian emerging economies. In addition to this, the findings also reveal that the impact of GDP and bank size on banking performance is lower in the pandemic period, as compared to the pre-COVID period. Furthermore, the results show that the COVID pandemic has significantly affected the banking sector performance in the Asian emerging economies. Findings have also suggested that the central bank should shift their focus on the banking industry in the Asian emerging economies. Various other policy implications have also been suggested under the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, sustainable performance (SP) has become an obligation of every organization globally, which captures the attention of recent researchers and policymakers. Following the green theory, this study aims to examine the impact of corporate social responsibilities (CSR), transactional and transformational leadership on the SP. Besides, examining the moderating role of sustainable entrepreneurship and mediating role of organizational commitment among the nexus of CSR, transactional and transformational leadership, and SP is another target of this research. This study adopted the questionnaires to collect the data from the respondents of the internet services industry in China, and structural equation modeling (SEM)was employed to analyze the data. This research revealed that CSR, transactional, and transformational leadership have a positive effect on SP. Secondly, this study also indicated that sustainable entrepreneurship significantly moderates among nexus of transactional and transformational leadership to SP. Besides, our results show that organizational commitment positively mediates the links between CSR, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and the SP. The conclusion of this research signifies that organizational leadership strongly influences the adoption of green and sustainable operations, which further influences the SP. These results help the regulation-making authorities make new policies related to CSR, leadership, entrepreneurship, and SP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed green-servitization (GS) as a means of sustainable performance (SP) for publicly listed manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Manufacturing firms in recent times have faced serious challenges due to huge cost paid for environmental clean-up resulting from traditional operating system. Primary and secondary data were used for this study. Data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire. Ten (10) manufacturing companies were randomly selected, and three management staffs of the selected companies were purposely selected based on their designation to be the respondents. A simple linear regression was used to analyse the relationship between green-servitization (GS) and sustainable performance (SP). The regression result showed that the coefficient of green servitization GS is −0.040 and p = 0.247. The correlation coefficient, R = 0.218, indicates a very weak correlation between green servitization (GS) and sustainable performance (SP). The R² = 0.048 shows that the variation in SP is only accounted for by 4.8% of the GS. The F-test for the hypothesis testing showed that F = 1.400, p > 0.001, which implies that there is no positive significant relationship between green servitization (GS) and sustainable performance (SP). The implication of this research will be useful for policymakers to design suitable policies and industrial practitioners to improve their operations in terms of firms’ sustainable performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the past literature, the relationship between quality practices and sustainable performance has not adequately been explored. Hence, this research attempted to further investigate the impacts of other variables that may proffer better explanation to the nature of the relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the mediating and moderating effect of organizational excellence and environmental regulation and policy (ERP) on the relationship between TQM (quality practices) and sustainable performance by proposing an inclusive research model comprising the antecedent factors in food and beverage industry of Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to 303 Malaysian food and beverages companies while 168 questionnaires were returned (response rate above 50%) and PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data in order to assess the validity and reliability of the instrument. This study serves as a validation process for the developed instruments of the research with the identified constructs of the study while the preliminary analysis and results are shown. Also, the result reveals that the instruments are reliable and the analysis indicates a strong evidence of rational validity. Similarly, it reaffirms the importance of excellence for any successful strategic implementation in enhancing sustainable performance through the implementation of quality practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the impact of designing service operations using the systems thinking approach on the sustainable performance of service organisations. Data were collected from a survey conducted with 183 service organisations that have implemented the systems thinking approach. Using Structural Equation Modelling, the results confirmed that using the systems thinking approach has a significant impact upon the environmental and social performances but has no direct effect on the economic performance of such organisations. The analysis also indicated a statistically positive relationship between environmental and economic performances and between social and economic performances, but not between environmental and social performances, thus suggesting that the dimensions of sustainable performance should not be viewed as being equally weighted. This study shows that the systems thinking approach ensures that the service system design is directly linked with enhanced environmental and social benefits while indirectly contributing to economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004, Jason F. McLennan, in his book, The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, stated that ‘Sustainable design is the philosophy that simply asks, what is the most we can do on a given project to enhance thequality of the built environment’ or ‘it is a design philosophy that seeks to maximize the quality of the built environment, while minimizing or eliminating negative impact to the natural environment’. Such philosophy is a simple translation to ‘Sustainable Design’ in terms of ‘Sustainable Development’. In 2013, in SudBE international conference held in China, our research team coined the term ‘Art of Sustainability’ as the key element for sustainable design development. It links the concept of sustainable development to sustainable design principles. The aim of this research work is to establish a new model that links the six major sustainable design principles (The respect for: 1 – The wisdom of natural systems, 2 – The human vitality principle, 3 – The ecosystem principle, 4 – Cycle of life 5 – Energy and natural resources, and 6 – And finally the process – Holistic thinking principle) to the elements defining the Art of Sustainability which are: (1 – The meaning of space, 2 – The innovative structures, 3 – The innovation in construction and building material, and 4 – The contextual and cultural values). Such model can define the state of paradigm shift in sustainable design in architecture, where sustainable design seeks better building performance in terms of sustainability while Art of Sustainable design model would seek a better sustainable design performance, which is a step forward towards more sustainable practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Manufacturing firms are striving to improve their sustainable performance in order to satisfy multiple stakeholders. Eco-innovation is a promising approach that decreases environmental impact and helps firms to increase their business value. There are several antecedents which help the firms to innovate and improve their triple bottom line performance. Among the antecedents, management and innovative practices are directly related to eco-innovation. It is not well known what practices and innovations help the firms to eco-innovate as well as to improve sustainable performance. Hence, the research objective of this paper is to identify the suitable combination of management and innovative practices that help firms to eco-innovate as well as to achieve overall sustainable performance. The paper develops an eco-innovation conceptual model which relates the management and innovative practices (antecedents) and overall sustainable performance (consequences) of eco-innovation using institutional theory. Using Indian manufacturing sector’s empirical data and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach, this paper determines the effect of eco-innovation’s antecedents and consequences. In the Indian context, this study suggests that the role of management practice is more significant towards eco-innovation than innovative practices. The results reflect practitioners’ view on how to increase innovation rate and to focus more on social aspects. The finding suggests that training on environmental related practices could tackle innovation and social aspects in the Indian manufacturing sector context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asset-intensive organisations are under rising pressure from their stakeholders to realise the optimum level of exploiting assets to achieve a balanced and sustainable performance (SP) over their life cycle. However, industrial organisational structures delineated along traditional disciplines fail to provide an asset-centric focus. Accomplishing SP in an asset-intensive organisation depends on the ability of the human authority in an organisational hierarchy to maintain different asset operations align with sustainable considerations. The level of physical assets' integrity in a particular industrial setting depends on the personnel ability for acquisition, exploitation (includes design and operation), maintenance, modification and disposal of critical assets and properties within the limits of universally accepted norms. Thus, human factor (HF) is a central measure to evaluate the ‘integrity’ of physical assets in asset management as the ‘integrity’ is a characteristic that human beings can have. The publically available specification (PAS) which is published by British Standards Institution (BSI) provides specification (PAS-1) and guidelines (PAS-2) for managing integrity of physical assets towards SP. This manuscript demonstrates the role of PAS 5-1&2 and HFs achieving SP. It also proposes a framework and its implementation methodology to mitigate unwanted events due to human errors leading to organisational weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owner-managers make decisions and manage their firm as governed by the manner in which they conceptualize or ‘conceive’ performance for themselves and their firm, rather than being governed by researchers' and experts' conceptualizations of small business performance. On the basis of survey data obtained from 433 Canadian small businesses, this study aims at a deeper understanding of what owner-managers conceive performance to be, and to what extent this conception is determined by their objectives and social influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that firms' human resource management (HRM) in information technology (IT) may have a positive effective effect on their strategies of sustainable development. Based on the perspective of organizational identity orientation, we argue that firms' collectivistic orientation may moderate the relationship between the HRM and the implementation of the strategy. Focusing on firm performance in environmental protection, we test our predictions with empirical data from China's manufacturing industry. The results show a significant direct effect of the HRM and a significant moderating effect of identity orientation on the dependent variable, i.e. performance in sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]