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Contemporary economies worldwide appreciate the underlying importance of service sectors, culminating in sectorial growth and satisfactory performance of agri-preneurship. This study is premised on two simple explanations that cascaded into two hypothetical questions: (i) Are there inspiring factors for individuals to start up their own agri-preneurship business? (ii) Are there factors hindering individuals from starting up their own agri-preneurship business? These two hypothetical constructs triggered four primary arguments established in the study. This study was conducted in Mbombela local Municipality in category 'B', which is made up of the Ehlanzeni District, Mpumalanga South Africa. From a population of 1021 farmers, 458 samples of respondents were obtained and considered to be realistic for the study. The study embraced the mixed research approach, and the field survey was done between the months of February 2022 and June 2022. Descriptive statistics, involving the frequency count and percentages, were used to determine the motives and obstacles of starting up one's own business. The hypothesis was assessed by employing multinominal logistic regression to determine the relationship between demographic variables and predictor variables. The findings revealed that potential agri-preneurs are affected by an array of inspiring factors in the decision-making process. Further, the results revealed that agri-preneurial spirit is inhibited by numerous challenges. In the shared view of respondents, there was a portmanteau of obstacles impeding the commencement of one's own business. The results also showed that, in the self-realization variant, age (p < 0.035) and marital status (p < 0.033) were found to be correlated and statistically significant as an inspiration for setting up an agri-preneurship business, while the self-satisfaction variant specified marital status (p < 0.001) to be significant and to negatively (β −1.564) influence inspiration for agri-preneurship. In the independence variant category, two crucial variables, level of formal education (p < 0.005) and farm experience (p < 0.007), were found to be correlated and statistically significant in determining agri-preneurial decisions. This study has several policy propositions: the government and allied stakeholders must consider the motives that inspire potential investors in agriculture. The government must also oversee the reasons for young and old agri-preneurs leaving agri-businesses because of failure. This study underscores the need to subjectively analyze agri-preneurial inspiring factors and obstacles to performance. The contributions of agri-preneurial businesses to economic growth and poverty alleviation justify the need for a concerted effort to motivate potential investors. Another pertinent contribution of the study is highlighting the obstacles of agri-preneurs to enable the government to support and prepare responsive, innovative, and resilient agri-preneurs in South Africa. This paper recommends that starting up one's own agri-preneurial business is a good idea for abating hunger and unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context and background A global land rush -driven by a variety of factors-is driving transformative change in African rural communities that depend on land for their livelihoods. This increased demand has resulted in the acquisition of large areas of land on the continent. While the pace and scale of land acquisition may be levelling off,1 in many cases, some or all of the land acquired by investors stands idle.2 Land return- in which a private company legally transfers all or part of its land holdings back to a community or government-is an emerging phenomenon that may be on the rise as companies seek to limit their exposure to risk, governments redesignate lands and communities push for the return of their land. Land return holds promise as a way to correct for overzealous and misguided land acquisition and historical injustices amidst a growing understanding of the value of land to communities. Goal and Objective Yet land return presents challenges, many of which may be unexpected. Though existing frameworks and guidelines regarding responsible investments require effective community consultation, there is less clarity and limited guidance on what risks, mitigation strategies, and tools are needed to safeguard the rights of communities in the context of land return. Methodology This paper brings forward experience from a recent land return process in Tanzania in which Landesa and its partners worked to identify and put into practice standards and approaches that protect community rights while supporting a company's efforts to comply with best practices, national and international requirements and expectations for responsible corporate practice. The tools and processes tested and shared through this project align with efforts to support implementation of the Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Areas (AfCFTA) and achieve the aspiration of the Africa We Want (Agenda 2063). Results: This paper highlights the importance of inclusive and transparent land governance practices by presenting a case study of Landesa's experience working with a forestry company to engage with communities and local land administration to understand needs and expectations around the companys intention to return approximately 14,000 hectares of land. The case study will highlight land return-related risks, present a model for community benefit sharing arrangements, and will share lessons learned, highlighting potential best practices that companies holding idle land might consider and employ to reallocate to landscarce communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the globe has faced a series of topics of growing concern, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the international financial crisis, rising socio-economic inequalities, the negative outcomes of greenhouse gas emissions, which resulted in climate change, and many others. Organizations worldwide have confronted these new challenges of sustainable finance by incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors and digital transformation (DT) in their innovation business strategies. The healthcare sector represents a large share of the global economy (about 10% of global economic output), employs a large number of workers, and needs to rely more on an open innovation model where interested parties, especially patients, are going to have a say in their own well-being. Thus, it is imperative that healthcare providers be efficient, effective, resilient, and sustainable in the face of significant challenges and risks. At the same time, they must offer sustainable development goals and digital transformation to healthcare users through limited governmental resources. This study investigates the role, importance, and correlation of ESG factors and digital transformation to the sustainable finance of healthcare systems through an innovative model. The main purpose of the paper is to present the already implemented ESG and DT factors in the healthcare sector and to propose a mutual and combined implementation strategy based on common evaluation tools, methods, and actions. A set of proposed actions and strategies are presented for the sustainability and resilience of the healthcare sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article. This paper attempts to reveal the effect of the study by visually presenting the analysis of the studies on the concept of "financial literacy". Methodology. Bibliometric analysis of the studies published in the Web of Science (WOS) database between 1991 and 2023 was analyzed with the VOSviewer (Version 1.6.9) package program. Since the title, content, and keyword of the concept of "financial literacy" were intended to be scanned in all languages and all publication types, 2,889 works were accessed and analyzed. The limitations of the study are that only the studies in WOS are analyzed. No data from Scopus and PubMed databases has been included. For future studies, research from the Scopus and PubMed databases should be added. Results of the research. When the most frequently included keywords in the publications related to the concept of "financial literacy" have a relationship between them at least twice in the study, the keywords "financial literacy" with 825 repetitions in terms of 1841 total connection strength, "financial education" with 111 repetitions in terms of 315 total connection strength, "financial behavior" with 65 repetitions in terms of 217 total connection strength and "financial knowledge" with 71 repetitions in terms of 213 total connection power are seen. As a result of the analysis performed, it was determined that there were 2265 connection powers and 4069 total connection powers for a total of 36 clusters. When we look at the year-by-year distribution, the most works were published in 2022 with a maximum of 426 works. At least one work was published in 2004, 2003, 1998, 1994 and 1991. Among the published studies, journal article 2,515, proceedings paper 280, early access 135, book chapters 101, review article 68, editorial material 29, correction 6, book 5, book review 3 were determined as works. When we look at the languages in which the published works are published, they are in English with a maximum of 2,814 works. At least two works are in French and Chinese. In order to determine the year-based stratification status of the published studies for country-based citations, it was noted that a country should have at least 1 study published and at least 1 citation obtained. As a result of the analysis, analysis was carried out on 78 observation units that were found to have a relationship between them, and it was determined that there were 14 clusters, 1065 connection power and 9417 total connection power. The countries with the most citations are the USA (11981 citations), the Netherlands (2445 citations) and England (1685 citations). In terms of the number of works, the ranking is the USA (197 publications), China (77 publications), India (73 publications), and Australia (70 publications). When the stratification status of the citation ties of the countries on a yearly basis is examined, it is seen that they are limited between 2017 and 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a systemic model on the intertwined relations among managerialization, professionalization and firm economic performance, considering both business‐ and family‐specific features and issues. It sheds light on the role that, in the family business, the firm economic performance may play in favouring a positive development of both the business and the family itself. It aims at understanding how, in family businesses, the firm managerialization and professionalization may represent relevant drivers of firm performance. A Systems Thinking model based on causal loop diagrams was developed, to provide a clear framing of the interrelationships among the various aspects at stake. The conceptual model combines with systemic perspective all the variables and relationships that come into play when considering jointly the growth and development of the company and the family. This paper provides not only a conceptual background but also practical insights for family business' owners, managers and consultants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bushmeat is a resource exploited by thousands of people around the world, especially in tropical and neotropical regions, constituting an important source of protein and income. But what is known, so far, about the consumption and trade of wild vertebrate meat (hereinafter "bushmeat") in a megadiverse country like Brazil? This question was answered through a systematic survey of publications on the consumption and trade of wild vertebrate meat made in Brazil between 2011 and 2021. Methods: We selected 63 scientific articles available on "Google Scholar," "Science Direct," "Scopus," " Web of Science" and "Portal de Periódico da CAPES." The articles were categorized as: exclusive to (1) consumption or (2) bushmeat trade, totals of 54 and three articles, respectively; both (3) consumption and trade bushmeat, totaling six articles. We applied a nonparametric Spearman's correlation analysis to verify the association between the number of papers and the species richness of wild vertebrates cited for consumption by Brazilian state. Results: The results revealed that the publications were concentrated in the Northeast (36), North (26) and Southeast (1) regions, distributed across 16 states of the federation. These data reinforce the need for more researches in states and other regions of the country. Our research hypothesis was confirmed, since the richness of species cited for meat consumption was positively associated with the amount of work carried out by the states of the federation. We identified a total of 321 species of wild vertebrates mentioned in the categories involving the consumption of bushmeat. We had a greater bird species richness mentioned for consumption (170) to the detriment of mammals (107), reptiles (40) and amphibians (4). Furthermore, in the articles involving the bushmeat trade categories we had 57 species of vertebrates mentioned, with mammals being the most representative in terms of species richness (29), to the detriment of birds (20) and reptiles (8). These data reinforce that birds and mammals have been the groups most used both for consumption and trade in bushmeat in the country's regions, and it is necessary to mitigate the hunting exploitation of these groups. We recorded that socioeconomic, biological, environmental and sociocultural factors were the most cited predictors of the consumption and trade of bushmeat in the articles. We identified that the bushmeat trade chain is dynamic and ramified, made up of several actors, including specialized and diversified hunters, intermediaries, market sellers, market vendors, restaurant owners and final customers. Public markets and open-air fairs were the most cited places for buying and selling wild meat in commerce. Conclusions: In general, our results indicate that we have made significant advances in publications on the consumption and trade of bushmeat in Brazil over the last few years. However, we highlight the need to better understand the patterns of consumption and trade of bushmeat in different regions of the country, as well as the factors associated with the dynamics of the trade chain and uses of wildlife by local communities. We emphasized that a multidimensional understanding of hunting activities is important to face socio-ecological problems and improve the conservation of target species which have continually been explored for uses by populations in different regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper aims to comprehensively review the conceptualizations of "business resilience" in the context of entrepreneurship and gather different perspectives on the topic. The goal is to provide conceptual clarity and enhance theoretical and practical outcomes in entrepreneurship research. Method: This research is a descriptive study carried out using the qualitative metaanalysis (QMA) method. The purpose of this method is to qualitatively summarize a set of researches in terms of concepts, methods, results, context, etc. This method especially is used when the central issue has been investigated from various perspectives. By searching for research published between 2000 to 2020, containing “resilience” in the title, approximately 10,500 records were found. Filtering the document and journal titles with certain words led to 1260 records. At this stage, a group of papers was selected for further analysis by reviewing titles and abstracts. After detailed examination, 85 studies were selected for qualitative analysis and coding. Thereafter, subsequent steps for conducting a qualitative meta-analysis research including the appraisal of primary studies, preparing data, data analysis and credibility checks are followed. Results: The final results of the analysis are provided in three main parts. At first, the definitions of resilience were categorized into six groups. Then, similar concepts to resilience were classified into four groups based on crisis occurrence time. Finally, a network of related concepts to business resilience was developed. This network has eight parts. According to this conceptual network, resilience is assumed to have three main definitions in general. Some define “resilient business” as “a business that has survived after the disaster”, some assume it to be “a business that has recovered to the same performance level in comparison to the pre-disaster state”, and others describe it as “a business that has improved its performance to a higher level”. Also, resilience has been explained at four levels: “regional economic resilience”, “social resilience”, “business resilience”, and “resilience of the entrepreneur”. Moreover, resilience has been studied by three main approaches, namely “engineering”, “ecological” and “adaptive”. Considering the required duration to evaluate resilience, some believe that resilience could be evaluated at any “point” in time, while others declare that it is necessary to consider a “duration” of time for evaluation. Conclusion: The literature on business resilience is rich at the individual and business levels but lacks research at macro levels. Integrating ecological and adaptive approaches with the engineering approach would contribute significantly to the field. It is suggested to categorize concepts into "active-passive" and "absorptive-adaptive" dualities and avoid the use of numerous overlapping terms and definitions found in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutting-edge technologies, with a special emphasis on the Internet of Things (IoT), tend to operate as game changers, generating enormous alterations in both traditional and modern enterprises. Understanding multiple uses of IoT has become vital for effective financial management, given the ever-changing nature of organizations and the technological disruptions that come with this paradigm change. IoT has proven to be a powerful tool for improving operational efficiency, decision-making processes, overall productivity, and data management. As a result of the continuously expanding data volume, there is an increasing demand for a robust IT system capable of adeptly handling all enterprise processes. Consequently, businesses must develop suitable IoT architectures that can efficiently address these continually evolving requirements. This research adopts an incremental explanatory approach, guided by the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). A rigorous examination of 84 research papers has allowed us to delve deeply into the current landscape of IoT research. This research aims to provide a complete and cohesive overview of the existing body of knowledge on IoT. This is accomplished by combining a rigorous empirical approach to categorization with ideas from specialized literature in the IoT sector. This study actively contributes to the ongoing conversation around IoT by recognizing and critically examining current difficulties. This, consequently, opens new research possibilities and promotes future developments in this ever-changing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper explores the surprising impact exerted by third elements on the escalation and de‐escalation of conflicts in business families. To this end, we draw on core concepts of Batesonian cybernetic theory to perform a reconceptualisation of pertinent literature on changing conflict dynamics gathered in family business research and consultancy. Based on this reconceptualisation, we identify explanations and key mechanisms for the impact of third elements on conflict dynamics. Our study thus contributes to research at the interface of family business research, conflict research and cybernetic theory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative digital technologies, together with new sustainable practices, push for new business models and skillsets, pressuring companies to adapt to external change in order to gain competitive advantage. Higher education institutions could offer support. More than 20% of university graduates in the European Union study "business, administration or law", with some of them being future top-level managers and entrepreneurs. This paper aims to provide an understanding of the factors shaping business students' perspectives and decisions in the modern business landscape. It reunites their career preferences, personality characteristics and knowledge regarding technology's utility for business and compares them between two cohorts (i.e., first year bachelor students and second year master students). The results of an online survey with a sample of 154 respondents show that business students' entrepreneurial intention is influenced by their entrepreneurial confidence, their boldness when considering risks, as well as by being further along their educational journey. While almost 80% of business students are daring, oriented toward results and confident in their entrepreneurial abilities, and around 50% would feel most comfortable having their own business, approximately half of first year bachelor students and 14% of second year master students tend to be "not sure" regarding how eight out of ten modern technologies mentioned in this paper (i.e., robotic process automation, big data, artificial intelligence, computer vision, industrial robots, internet of things, virtual reality, enterprise resource planning) could improve a company's innovation and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tenors like "bring in the arts and get the creativity for free" have attracted business practitioners and researchers, and this "intersection" of business and arts has developed into a study field. Metaphorical learning from arts involves musical, also theatrical, and terpsichorean improvisation. Not surprisingly, several subfields in business - entrepreneurship, project, process, and service management - as well as other business and non-business fields - have been "jazzed". Another strengthening trend is linking different (sub)fields and fostering mutual learning. The paper seeks for novel possibilities to learn from jazz and to support further mutual learning and linking of disserted business, also non-business fields. Nowadays traditional business models and services are moving towards problem-solving and adaptation to change, implementing creativity and improvisation. Taking a fresh stock of relevant academic literature and discussion revealed the increasing importance of organizational improvisation. Jazz (music and arts) appeared to be a fruitful metaphor and source of learning. As differences appeared across the examined fields, possibilities for learning from jazz, as well as for mutual learning are not yet depleted. This paper provides insights to further learning from the jazz approach, as well as mutual learning and enrichment between the examined subfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological changes in business, both in how business is conducted and the services it may provide, have demonstrated failures by regulatory bodies to accurately address and properly understand these issues. From the Wayfair decision on sales tax, to California's Assembly Bill 5 distorting the definition of "employee," to President Reagan legislating computer fraud based on a White House viewing of WarGames, executives, legislatures, and courts have relied on a forced approach to understanding and regulating technology: doing is better than understanding. The approach has relied on two false assumptions: (i) technological advancements are only different methods of conventional business; ride sharing is simply a digital way to hail a cab at the street corner; the gig economy is just parttime or a stopgap measure for those who cannot find full-time employment; ecommerce is the digital door-to-door salesman, and (ii) technological innovation necessitates innovative solutions when existing law already covers the issues. A technological educational awakening must occur amongst those seeking to regulate it. While others have written about the odd outcomes of regulation in regards to particular laws or court cases, this paper aims to illustrate how the failures to understand emerging technology are systemic within governmental entities. The paper analyzes failures to understand technology through three different examples: from Ronald Reagan's Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, South Dakota vs. Wayfair, and California's Assembly Bill 5. In each of these instances, government actors have failed to understand how and what the technology is doing. Instead of seeing a developing or emerging technology as an innovation and taking steps to foster it, it is erroneously and contradictorily viewed and regulated as a digital version of an already existing business dynamic, yet is addressed by requiring new laws. That is, by viewing these technologies as merely modern versions of preexisting business practices or products, they have been regulated as if they are as well by creating modern new versions of existing laws. This paper discusses how the regulated technologies should be viewed in the context of their innovation rather than a normative pigeonhole. Bringing these examples together offers a more complete perspective of the issue facing emerging technologies. They cannot be viewed and treated as a transformed predecessor rather than a creator of a new business model where existing law and tradition allowed the innovation to come to fruition and still have the necessary effect given proper understanding of the underlying technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health budget allocation choices are increasingly aided by medical technology's economic evaluation (EE). With thousands of new items launched each year, the medical device (MD) business is one of the most active domains of medical advancement among providers of innovation. Some of these considerations have to do with the specifics of how the gadget works. The paper examines the investment assessment of new medical devices from an industrial viewpoint. The strategy EE-MD presented should lead to more inventive and cost-effective surgical supplies for the medical industry. The study's purpose is to better the decision-making process for medical device development. Small and medium-sized firms are a crucial source of innovation for the future, and the research focuses mostly on them. Design economy and professional engineering literature are linked in the article. The proposed multi-attribute and team method to construct selection discusses the financial factor and provides a strong foundation for ongoing program management by identifying project-specific risks and strategic alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth unemployment remains a major political and socioeconomic challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, particularly given the region's young population. Literature points to two key barriers facing youth employment in the region, skills deficiencies and weak fundamentals that inhibit job creation and growth. Labor supply challenges are not unique to the younger population, and employment interventions adopted by the Nigerian government to combat these challenges in the formal wage sector, are primarily focused on graduates and non-graduates. This paper makes a case for encouraging the education system, employers, and governments to better prepare post-secondary students for the labor market before graduation through cooperative education. Cooperative education, a strategic policy response geared towards increasing youth employability and smoothing school-to-work transition, can help address the gap in the current suite of government intervention strategies and allow for a more proactive, dynamic and progressive response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing attention given to the relationship between children's rights and business due to a greater understanding of the direct and indirect impacts that businesses have on children and youth. Concomitantly, many businesses are involved in charitable work. Do charitable activities performed by businesses provide an entry point for considering children's rights? Further, do these charitable activities facilitate an opportunity for the amalgamation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business and human rights? It is hypothesised that charitable contributions can facilitate a greater understanding of children's rights and subsequently advance implementation. Accordingly, businesses can recognise their capacity to do more than mitigate their negative impacts, and positively influence the realisation of children's rights. This can be facilitated through the improved assessment of charitable contributions using a child-rights-based approach. This research paper is informed by qualitative individual interviews with 15 stakeholders from pertinent professional sectors, five focus groups with 38 children and youth, and academic and grey literature reviews. It is concluded that attention to impact assessment offers a valuable avenue forward by which to knit the threads of activity regarding both human rights and corporate social responsibility through accountability. A proposed checklist may stimulate future actions and developments in children's rights within and outside of businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basketball and business organizations can be compared from various standpoints (organizational structure, type of teams, processes etc.). One such standpoint is regarding objective setting. By undergoing a literature review analysis on the topic of objective setting in basketball versus business organization, the author tried to answer the research question: "are there any differences in the way basketball and business organizations conduct their objective setting activities?" Considering this, the objective of this paper is to provide an insight into how objectives in basketball and business organizations are set, and if there are any similarities or differences in the way they conduct this activity. The results however, did not provide clear and sufficient information if there are any differences between how objectives are set and communicated in basketball versus business organizations. Furthermore, a simple literature review like this one cannot provide a clear answer to the research question, as the necessary information regarding objective setting in basketball organizations is, in most cases, not public or easily identifiable. Moreover, the author was not able to identify research on the topic of how exactly basketball organizations set their objectives or what criteria they take into consideration when setting these objectives. This proves the fact that topics like how basketball organization set their objectives for each season or what criteria they take into consideration when undergoing this activity could be considered relevant for a future and more detailed qualitative/quantitative research having as target group: basketball teams that play in the Euroleague/Romanian National Basketball League. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to measure the impact of perceived benefits offered by loyalty programmes on store patronage behaviour and repeat purchase behaviour of customers. Another purpose of this study is to assess the impact of mediating and influencing factors on patronage behaviour and customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: The convenience sampling method was adopted for the sample selection. Structured questionnaire instruments were distributed to subscribers who are enrolled or subscribed to any loyalty programme and asked them to mark their opinions about subscriptions to a loyalty programme and the benefits or perceived values that customers get from the subscribed loyalty program. To determine respondent responses, closed-end questions and Likert scales were used. A SmartPLS statistical programme was used to analyse the coefficient and p-value of the perceived value of the loyalty programme and its relation with patronage behaviour. Findings: The study finds a significant impact of various loyalty programme determinants on store patronage behaviour, supported by hypothesis testing. Researchers have used variable commitment to the test with satisfaction and trust and found it supportive. Another hypothesis tested for the impact of satisfaction on trust shows a significant relationship. They found a significant relationship between the perceived benefits of a loyalty programme and satisfaction with the store and trust. Another hypothesis tested for the impact of satisfaction on trust shows a similar relationship. The impact of commitment on loyalty behaviour (store patronage) was analysed and found to be significant. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, to date, this methodology has not been used to measure the influence of loyalty programme values on patronage behaviour in the present context. Based on the understanding that the measurement of the impact of perceived values of loyalty programmes on repeat purchase behaviour could be very useful in providing guidance for decision-making in consumer retention strategy, this paper contributes to the literature on the evaluation of store patronage behaviour with its influencing variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies worldwide can play a fundamental role in the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda. This paper aims to determine the scope of the existing literature about the role that organizations play in contributing to the advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A bibliometric analysis is conducted considering the papers specifically focused on SDGs and businesses published from 2015 to 2021 in journals indexed in the Scopus database. The analysis shows that approximately 80% of the studies on this topic have been published in the last three years. Moreover, only one journal (Sustainability) has published more than the 50% of the publications on the subject. The final sample is divided into 11 clusters that analyze different perspectives within the same research topic, and, in all these clusters, practically all of the papers have been published in the last two years, which confirms that this issue is increasing its presence in the academic world. This work extends the existing research on the subject, taking into account the publications of the last year, so it is an update on this "hot topic". Moreover, it contributes to providing a reference frame of the state of the art of this research topic and can orientate researchers in the development of future studies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Analysis of the tobacco market can provide valuable insights for developing tobacco control strategies. This study examines the market trends of cigarettes, cigars/cigarillos, smoking tobacco, smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products (HTPs), and tobacco-free oral nicotine, across 97 countries between 2007 and 2021. METHODS We obtained annual tobacco retail value data from Euromonitor Passport and calculated the market share for each type of tobacco product. The research examined trends in retail value and market share globally, stratified by national income level, as well as in individual countries. RESULTS From 2007 to 2015, the growth of the global tobacco market was primarily driven by cigarette sales. However, starting in 2016, emerging products, including e-cigarettes, HTPs, and tobacco-free oral nicotine, as well as non-cigarette combustible products, including cigars/cigarillos and smoking tobacco, have been mostly responsible for the increases in the global tobacco retail value. Highincome countries experienced the greatest increase in the retail value of emerging products, while middle- and low-income countries still observed rises in cigarette sales. CONCLUSIONS Trends in the retail value of different tobacco products varied widely during the study period, with distinct trends observed in different income levels and within individual countries. These trends can supplement prevalence data and be used to inform local tobacco control policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION In January 2006, the Spanish government enacted a tobacco control law that banned the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco. In January 2011, further legislation on this matter was adopted to provide a more restrictive specification of the ban. In this study, we analyze the effect produced on cigarette sales by these two prohibitions. We address this problem using a cluster time-series analysis to test whether the sales of cigarettes by brands have been homogenized with the prohibition of advertising, promotion, and sponsorship. METHODS The data source used was the official data on legal sales of cigarettes by brands in Spain, from January 2005 to December 2021 (excluding the Canary Islands and the Autonomous Communities of the cities of Ceuta and Melilla). To achieve our objective, we used log(t) test statistics to check if there is global convergence in the three selected periods according to the regulatory changes that have occurred in Spain (2005-2021, 2005-2010 and 2011-2021). Second, once absolute convergence is rejected, we applied a clustering algorithm to test for the existence of subgroup convergence. RESULTS The cigarette brands that have been marketed during the period 2005- 2021 (n=40), can only be grouped into three groups according to the behavior of their sales. When we focus on the period 2005-2010 (n=74), cigarette brands are grouped into five groups according to their sales behavior. Finally, the cigarette brands marketed during the period 2011-2021 (n=67) are grouped into three groups according to the temporal evolution of their sales. These results suggest a greater homogenization of cigarette sales after the application of the law of January 2011. CONCLUSIONS Act 42/2010 (total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship actions) was associated with greater homogenization of cigarette sales than the application of Act 28/2005 (partial ban). This finding supports what is established in the previous literature that indicates that Act 42/2010 provided a more restrictive specification of the ban than Act 28/2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with the story that systems science, born of modern Western civilization, began to pay attention to traditional Eastern wisdom to deal with management issues. The consequence of the story is that we should complementarily utilize quantitative and rational analysis results and qualitative and intuitive empirical knowledge to solve problems. As a methodology for implementing knowledge synthesis, this paper presents the knowledge construction systems methodology that promotes knowledge management enhanced by systems thinking. Based on this methodology, it introduces the concept of knowledge synthesis enablers, which are conditions or activities that facilitate knowledge synthesis when promoting research and businesses. This paper shows some results of covariance structure analysis using the evaluation data of applied systems research projects and examines the validity of the assumed enabler candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature is declining globally at unprecedented rates with adverse consequences for both ecological and human systems. This paper argues that only transformative change—a fundamental, system-wide reorganization—will be sufficient to arrest and reverse this loss and to meet globally agreed development goals, including the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In search for a credible platform to help facilitate such transformative change, this paper explores the potential of multifunctional 'scape approaches to improve sustainable management outcomes at scale. Beyond a current international focus on nature restoration, this paper emphasizes the urgency and criticality of confirming approaches for sustainably preserving large 'intact' natural areas. Through a semi-systematic review of contemporary academic and gray literature and derivation of a theory of change, the authors consider tropical peatland systems—which can interconnect multiple ecosystem types and be of global biodiversity and carbon sequestration significance—to help derive potentially broader sustainable ecosystem management lessons. Beyond identifying key considerations for implementing multifunctional 'scape approaches, the paper recommends further work to deepen understanding of the multidimensional 'value' of nature; strengthen governance frameworks; empower indigenous peoples and their knowledge sharing and community management; align nature-positive and climate-positive goals; andmobilize commensurate business and financial support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates and presents the importance and usefulness of building resilience in business and companies especially during the frequent processes of business internationalization. The paper describes as well the importance and role of fostering resilience as well to mitigate and deal with the possible controlled and uncontrolled risks that may occur and hit companies and business during internationalizing their products and services. The research questions are "how important is business resilience for business and companies?" and "what risks may companies and business face during their business operation and internationalization?" The used research method to fulfill this research started from an initial literature review that was conducted and developed concerning the concepts of this research. As the used method is more qualitative, in order to analyze the mutual connection between business, internationalization and resilience a case study was conducted. The results showed that fostering business resilience needs to start with business resilience model as suggest in the results to mitigate the anticipated and unanticipated risks, some of the highest unanticipated risks are cyber-attacks, geopolitical, nature disaster risks business To sum up, internationalization can be a key to expand the revenue and company's business but to internationalize, it is important to follow a business resilience model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term internationalization has been mainly used to show the expansion of economic activities of firms outside of their home country where they aim at capturing a bigger market. The Central and Eastern Europe region has gone through a process of market transition over the past few decades, yet the business internationalization process has played an important role in the states' economies. The aim of this paper is to analyze the firm internationalization process in the new member states and the Western Balkans countries and gain a better understanding of the process and its course over time. Due to different geopolitical circumstances, the Western Balkan countries did not attract as many investors as much as the EU member states in CEE did that have had a constant flow of investments once they were members of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We are witnessing that the healthcare system of the Republic of Croatia is faced with numerous challenges, especially financial ones. Many activities are needed to improve the condition. In this paper, the emphasis is on the application of information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool for reducing costs and increasing income. The hypothesis of the work is that with the help of ICT we can directly, but also indirectly, by applying ICT through the so-called Dynamic Balanced Scorecard (DBSC) to influence business improvement. The DBSC method enables the evaluation of financial operations indirectly through employee education, optimization of business processes and increased patient satisfaction. In addition to the DBSC method, analysis of the collected literature, cost-benefit method and case studies are used to test the hypothesis. Regarding structure of the work, the introduction explains the context of the hospital's operations, defines the goals, hypothesis and research methods. This is followed by a description of the conducted research. The conclusion contains final considerations as well as suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital start-ups play a crucial role in boosting the economies of many countries through technological innovations. Several studies have been conducted assessing digital start-ups or digital entrepreneurship, mainly from the perspective of the Global North. However, gaps exist in the literature regarding digital ecosystems, especially in the context of developing countries (the Global South), such as South Africa. This study fills this gap by exploring the structure as well as highlighting the hindering factors of the start-up ecosystem in South Africa. In addition, the study explores the influential factors of the digital start-up ecosystem and models that can be used to assess upscaling for the growth of new digital start-up ventures. The study conducted a systematic literature review using the PRISMA framework. The Scopus-indexed database was used to source published peer-reviewed papers on digital ecosystems between 2017 and 2023. Key findings of the study pertaining to South Africa's start-up ecosystem revealed that the country is producing thriving digital start-ups. The current study also identified several challenges that affect the development of digital start-ups in South Africa. Some of the challenges include regulatory barriers, skills shortages, a lack of funding, and a digital infrastructure gap, among others. Furthermore, work is being conducted by ecosystem stakeholders to address these challenges, with a greater collective and cohesive effort needed to effectively address the hindering factors. The study advocates for intervention as well as policy and practitioner implications that could be utilised by ecosystem stakeholders, particularly entrepreneurs in the digital market. The research findings pertain to the South African start-up ecosystem but have greater appeal and relevancy for many developing start-up ecosystems globally, especially in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This paper aimed to explore the views of employers at senior care businesses concerning the employment of retired nurses in Thailand. Design: A qualitative interview study was conducted. Methods: Face‐to‐face and online semi‐structured interviews with 78 senior care business employers were conducted. Results: Business employers had positive sentiments towards employing retired nurses to deliver care and supported them to remain in the profession. Business employers acknowledged that retired nurses have a high level of professional confidence with excellent knowledge and skills. Furthermore, retired nurses were often assigned to work in managerial roles. In addition, flexibility in terms of work hours, suitability of role and responsibilities, and reasonable compensation rates were important to nurses' decisions to remain in or return to the nursing profession. There is a need for the further development of recruitment, retention and reform policies to encourage retired nurses to continue or return to the nursing profession. Patient and Public Contributions: We thank all participants for their valuable input throughout the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forum Empresarial is the property of University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With growing global actions toward sustainability, businesses have to align their course ensuring it as an outcome of their core business strategy. Businesses have to adapt this challenge and create opportunities to integrate sustainability in their goals. This paper provides a brief review of the relevant literature capturing the recent advances in sustainability oriented innovation in business, based on a bibliometric analysis and a systematic review of the highly cited papers indexed by the Web of Knowledge database. The research highlights the links between knowledge, innovation and sustainability in business. The results of this research expand the conceptual background of business sustainability and unveils future research directions in the light of opportunities created by knowledge and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the steady increase in the number of Internet users, email remains the most popular and extensively used communication means. Therefore, email management is an important and growing problem for individuals and organizations. In this paper, we deal with the classification of emails into two main categories, Business and Personal. To find the best performing solution for this problem, a comprehensive set of experiments has been conducted with the deep learning algorithms: Bidirectional Long-Short Term Memory (BiLSTM) and Attention-based BiLSTM (BiLSTM+Att), together with traditional Machine Learning (ML) algorithms: Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) optimization applied on Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Extremely Randomized Trees (ERT) ensemble method. The variations of individual email and conversational email thread arc representations have been explored to reach the best classification generalization on the selected task. A special contribution of this paper is the extraction of a large number of additional lexical, conversational, expressional, emotional, and moral features, which proved very useful for differentiation between personal and official written conversations. The experiments were performed on the publicly available Enron email benchmark corpora on which we obtained the State-Of-the-Art (SOA) results. As part of the submission, we have made our work publicly available to the scientific community for research purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study addresses the potential benefits for companies of adopting ChatGPT, a popular chatbot built on a largescale transformer-based language model known as a generative pre-trained transformer (GPT). Chatbots like ChatGPT may improve customer service, handle several client inquiries at once, and save operational costs. Moreover, ChatGPT may automate regular processes like order tracking and billing, allowing human employees to focus on more complex and strategic responsibilities. Nevertheless, before deploying ChatGPT, enterprises must carefully analyze its use cases and restrictions, as well as its strengths and disadvantages. ChatGPT, for example, requires training data that is particular to the business domain and might produce erroneous and ambiguous findings. The study identifies areas of deployment of ChatGPT's possible benefits in enterprises by drawing on the literature that is currently accessible on ChatGPT, massive language models, and artificial intelligence. Then, using the PSI (Preference Selection Index) and COPRAS (Complex Proportional Assessment) approaches, potential advantages are taken into account and prioritized. By highlighting current trends and possible advantages in the industry, this editorial seeks to provide insight into the present state of employing ChatGPT in enterprises and research. ChatGPT may also learn biases from training data and create replies that reinforce those biases. As a result, enterprises must train and fine-tune ChatGPT to specific operations, set explicit boundaries and limitations for its use, and implement appropriate security measures to avoid malicious input. The study highlights the research gap in the dearth of literature by outlining ChatGPT's potential benefits for businesses, analyzing its strengths and limits, and offering insights into how organizations might use ChatGPT's capabilities to enhance their operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Comprehensive exploration of e-commerce landscape; Insights drawn from diverse scholarly sources across disciplines. Objective: Examine key themes, including COVID-19 impact, consumer behavior, business models, regulatory challenges, security, privacy, opportunities, and future trends in digital commerce. Method: The methodology involved a comprehensive literature review spanning various disciplines to explore ecommerce. Scholarly sources were gathered from academic databases and journals, focusing on key themes like the COVID-19 impact, consumer behavior, business models, regulatory challenges, security, privacy, opportunities, and future trends. Data analysis identified patterns and trends, with findings organized into distinct sections. Synthesizing and interpreting the results within the e-commerce context, along with peer feedback, ensured the study's rigor and credibility. Results: Uncover sustained shift in consumer preferences influenced by the pandemic; Provide insights into strategic approaches adopted by businesses in the digital marketplace. Conclusion: Anticipate future e-commerce trajectory, discussing emerging trends like metaverse integration, AI, augmented reality shopping, voice commerce, and online-offline convergence; Serve as a guide for businesses navigating challenges, seizing opportunities, and aligning with emerging trends; Offer a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic nature of e-commerce in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effect of strengthening management literacy on digital business innovation and accelerating performance recovery and examined the impact of digital business innovation on accelerating performance recovery. This study is explanative/associative research accompanied by hypothesis testing. The unit of analysis in this study was creative industry entrepreneurs, with a total population of 354. Sampling in this study used purposive sampling with specific criteria and obtained 194 as a sample size, after which they were referred to as respondents. Path analysis results show that strengthening management literacy directly and significantly influences digital business innovation and accelerates performance recovery; digital business innovation directly and substantially influences the acceleration of performance recovery in the creative industry sector. The findings of this study indicate that strengthening management literacy, which is carried out in a structured and massive manner, will encourage innovative behavior in implementing digital business. Digital business innovation will spur business activities to become more effective, because they are not limited by space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cadernos de Dereito Actual is the property of Ruben Miranda Goncalves and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Concern for sustainable development and environmental protection has become increasingly important in the business world in recent decades. Looking for business professionals who are currently implementing sustainable development practices and the principles of the circular economy might be the most meaningful approach to the time and the space we are all heading towards in the future. This study seeks to identify the motivations, obstacles, strategies, and perspectives of specialists in the integration of the circular and sustainable economy model in businesses in the Romanian context. It focuses on providing a solid basis for promoting sustainable practices and policies in the business environment, considering theoretical elements and the perspectives and experiences of specialists. In our research, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted among diverse specialists in Romanian businesses to gain insight. The research findings indicate consistent requests for consumer education and involvement in the circular economy process and for political support and funding sources for investments in assistive technologies. This article presents viewpoints from Romanian experts, entrepreneurs, and business decision-makers on the circular economy and sustainability. Decision-makers prioritize developing and promoting sustainable products and services, emphasizing the use of recycled materials, and using renewable energy for their activities. The presented results highlight the situation in Romania and implicitly make a significant contribution to the scientific knowledge in this field. Although the study's qualitative nature limits its generalizability, it offers valuable insights and suggests potential directions for future research on aspects related to the circular economy and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Green Deal creates a framework for sustainable business and for the implementation of new models of business and service provision. Sustainable business promoted by the European Union is determined by the enforcement of common measures in all EU member states. The paper aims to clarify a new business model, namely a sustainable business model, adopted by business companies which incorporate sustainability into the management and management systems of the company and make managerial decisions with regard to the protection of human rights and the protection of the environment. By using scientific methods such as a systematic analysis of valid legislation framework of sustainable business, a survey of factors influencing sustainable business, synthesis of acquired knowledge, and the comparison of acquired data, the authors formulated recommendations regarding sustainable business. A key aspect of sustainable business is the business environment, based on the principles of fairness, transparency, environmental sustainability, decent work and human dignity. Sustainable businesses are a benefit to the economy of each EU member state and a source of growth and employment. The benefit of the paper is to highlight of the EU activities, promoting sustainable development and the transition of economies and business companies to sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The online retail market shows a sharp increase in traffic during holiday sales. The ability to distinguish customers who will likely purchase is critical for provisioning traffic and for providing cost-effective promotions. This paper uniquely studies the browsing and purchasing behaviors of online shoppers during a yearly sale event in China, the world’s largest online marketplace. Based on 31 million action logs gathered from wide residential areas, we characterize the steps leading to purchases and determine their precursors. We investigate the effect of time (e.g., date, time of date), environment (e.g., platform, viewed category), and action (e.g., session time, clicks, sequence) on purchases. Action cues from shopping behaviors can be used for early detection. While most shoppers start with strong intentions to purchase, yet the moment of ordering comes rather impulsively within 30 seconds to several minutes of browsing. The predictive accuracy reaches as a high AUC of 0.924. The findings in this paper provide an understanding of traffic during mega sale events that can help online shops plan and provide a better user experience for upcoming shopping festivals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and internationalization create new opportunities but also new challenges for companies to operate on the market. Due to globalization we are witnessing new trends and new technologies where digitalization and digital transformation drastically affect and change the way organizations operate. Digital transformation of business is inevitable and is a key element of further development of the organization in today's modern environment and market. Being competitive, achieving and ensuring long-term competitiveness is impossible today without new digital technologies that create a precondition for achieving it. A systematic literature review was undertaken to provide an overview of digitalization and digital competitiveness, as well as the digital technologies that support them. The terms ("digitalization" OR "digital transformation") and ("digital competitiveness" OR "digital technology") were used to collect data. The papers were reviewed in order to determine correlation between digital technologies and digital competitiveness and impact of digital technology on digital competitiveness. Results indicate that digital technology ensures the creation of sustainable competitive advantage and leads to digital competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested world leaders' capacity to manage, and they have been found wanting. Traditional, institutionalised health services will shortly be unsustainable due to unconvincing leadership and inept managerial capacity to identify and alleviate risks to nurses and other workers on the pandemic front line. The aim of this paper is to share insights on nursing career and practice options to provide nursing services to our communities; and canvass anticipated resistance to nurses choosing autonomous practice models in independent business approaches to health care provision. From analysis of the evidence and literature, it was found that the systematic ill treatment and mismanagement of nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic is appalling. Nurses are exiting hospitals and health systems across the globe. Some are leaving nursing itself. On any measure, the situation is a wholesale disaster and a wanton waste of skilled and dedicated people. When hospital and health systems become too toxic for nurses and nursing services to function fully and thrive, and when government officials and politicians trivialise and disrespect the work and value of nursing, it is time for nurses to consider other employment and practice model options. In conclusion, A groundswell of support is needed for nurses to remove normalised policies that bind them to medical control, and to break medical monopoly on universal health insurance funding to permit access by nurses to sufficient specified items to earn a wage as independent practitioners. The implications for nursing and health policy makers are: nurse safety and practice integrity need to be central to policy deliberations that affect spending on risk management and reduction. Policies that put nurses and patients at increased risk encourage those with a choice, to abandon unsafe health system employment. Administrative accountability for staff and patient safety affected by their decisions has long been neglected in health systems around the world. It is time for a reckoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Políticas Públicas is the property of Revista Brasileira de Politicas Publicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has brought revolutionary changes to the world, enabling businesses to create new experiences by combining virtual and physical worlds. As the use of GAI grows along with the Metaverse, it is explored by academics, researchers, and industry communities for its endless possibilities. From ChatGPT by OpenAI to Bard AI by Google, GAI is a leading technology in physical and virtual business platforms. This paper focuses on GAI's economic and societal impact and the challenges it poses. Businesses must rethink their operations and strategies to create hybrid physical and virtual experiences using GAI. This study proposes a framework that can help business managers develop effective strategies to enhance their operations. It analyzes the initial applications of GAI in multiple sectors to promote the development of future customer solutions and explores how GAI can help businesses create new value propositions and experiences for their customers, and the possibilities of digital communication and information technology. A research agenda is proposed for developing GAI for business management to enhance organizational efficiency. The results highlight a healthy conversation on the potential of GAI in various business sectors to improve customer experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of blockchain in new business model development requires greater focus because the technology is still in its infancy. Thus, there has been little research on the effects of the various blockchain networks (such as public, private, and consortium). This finding prompted a thorough investigation of new blockchain-based business models created between 2012 and 2022 to close this gap. This review's focus is on journals, and duplicate articles have been removed. Works based on interviews, articles in press, non-English articles, reviews, conferences, book chapters, dissertations, and monographs are also not included. Seventy-five papers from the past ten years are included in this evaluation. This study examines the current state of new blockchain-based business models. Additionally, the implications and applications in the related literature have been investigated. These findings highlight numerous open research questions and promising new directions for investigation, which will likely be helpful to academics and professionals. The business strategies built on blockchain are currently on a path with a rapid upward trajectory. Blockchain technology offers businesses numerous chances to modify and develop new company models. By changing the conventional framework, blockchain innovation leads to the development of new methods for developing company models. The supportive potential of blockchain technologies such as NFT and P2E is increasingly being coupled with the development of new corporate projects and the modification of current business models. Since this field of study is still fairly new, researchers will have fresh opportunities to analyze its characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future communication networksrequire higher bandwidth, greater coverage, and better throughput. The Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network (SAGIN) has the advantage of wide-area coverage and can cover global communications. It can meet the needs of network resources for maritime activities and remote mountainous areas, which is of great significance to the realization of a new generation of communications networks. With the development of the network and the emergence of delay-sensitive applications such as the Internet of Things, improving the delay performance of the system has received extensive attention. SAGIN involves multiple networks and is more complex than other networks. If there is no reasonable management between different networks, it is easy to lead to difficult link deployment and high time delay. On the basis of research and customization of SFC technology, it can provide a wide range of services and other advantages. It has significant performance in application scenarios involving multi network integration. In order to solve the above problems, this paper studies the SAGIN architecture of SFC based on business types. A service function chain mapping method based on delays prediction is proposed. Calculate the delay of the deployment path and select the path with the lowest delay as the SFC mapping path. The service model is constructed according to the mapping path, and the network slices are divided based on the service type. The simulation results show that the SFC mapping algorithm based on time delay prediction is compared with the traditional SFC mapping scheme. The algorithm does not affect other indicators, the CPU resource utilization rate is 27.8 $\%$ higher, and the link resource utilization rate is 22.7 $\%$ higher. The service acceptance rate increased by 21.5 $\%$ , the latency performance increased by 38.2 $\%$ , and the total resource consumption is reduced by 25.2 $\%$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]