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Sustainable management activities focus on creating efficiencies and value for organizations. Scholars advocate that evaluating and enabling appropriate management interventions can pave the way for future competitive advantage and sustainability. Knowledge management is regarded as a key organizational resource and a means of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. This is especially important in high-tech service organizations, which are under increasing pressure to capture, process and share knowledge efficiently. While much work has been conducted to advance our knowledge on good practices, there is a dearth of empirical evidence relating to organizational level enablers for knowledge sharing. We advocate that creating the conditions conducive to knowledge sharing influences an organization’s ability to sustain a long-term competitive advantage. Therefore, this current study extends the literature on knowledge management by exploring the questions of whether and how key organizational factors impact knowledge sharing, focusing on the role of trust, communication, reward systems and leadership. To do this, we analyzed prior work and generated hypotheses relating to relevant enablers. We then operationalized these constructs via a structured data collection instrument, which consisted of 27 measurable items. Empirical data were collected from 104 team members in a high-tech service organization in Ireland. Data were analyzed using a quantitative approach, and descriptive statistics, correlations and regression analyses are presented. Our research offers a persuasive body of evidence supporting the notion that trust, communication, reward systems, and leadership strongly impact knowledge sharing in organizations. Specifically, the findings reveal that employees are more willing to share their personal knowledge with those they trust, and carefully designed communication systems can enable knowledge sharing. Reward systems play an important role in affecting employees’ motivation to share knowledge, while empowering leadership and participatory leadership are two main drivers in promoting knowledge sharing. This research addresses a relatively unexplored area, has implications for sustainable management practices relating to organizational design and provides ideas for future research studies.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 provides a catalogue of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In this context, Circular fashion stands out as one of the sectors where commitment to the SDGs is most needed, given its global nature and its significant growth in terms of consumption. Moreover, it is not possible to assert that society, in general, is aware of the importance of the principles that guide circularity, both in terms of awareness and attitudes. In this study, through cluster analysis, five different segments have been identified with divergent characteristics in terms of level of maturity regarding principles of circular fashion and/or benefits and/or enablers of related communication tools. Social and personal characteristics make it possible to contrast the differences in consumer behavior, as well as relevant aspects, such as willingness to pay more for circular fashion. The present study will help to fill the gap in research between the awareness and attitudes of consumers in circular fashion and propose different strategies for the industry and institutions to develop the concept of sustainability regarding circular fashion.

Sustainable residential development requires a balance between the increasing demand for housing and the efficient use of materials and resources. The increasing use of industrialized building systems (IBSs) through new building techniques and materials holds high potential as an optimum construction alternative. Although considerable research has been conducted on industrialized buildings, very few studies have focused on low- and mid-rise residential buildings. Therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap. An extensive literature review was conducted to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) followed by an interview to discuss and validate the collected factors. This study resulted in twenty-six factors grouped into five CSFs comprising planning and control, roles and responsibilities, policies and incentives, industry maturity and technology advancement. In addition, 219 survey responses were collected and analyzed. Three factors were perceived differently among organizations including commitment toward IBS policy, implementation of preferential policy for IBSs and imposition of higher taxes on waste dumping. The top five CSFs were early planning to implement IBSs, extended training for local labor, effective communication among project players, project location evaluation and accessibility and standardized design concept adoption. The findings of this paper will help policymakers to review current practices and help develop a roadmap for sustainable IBS development for all industry organizations.

While there is ample research on the barriers and enablers for implementing circular economy (CE) in large companies and developed economies, scant research exists concerning the factors impacting CE implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies. To address this gap, our research seeks to determine the internal and external barriers SMEs face when implementing CE initiatives in emerging economies and identify how they can leverage CE implementation through bottom-up approaches. We present a multiple-case study of five SMEs in Mexico. Our findings suggest that the lack of regional enabling conditions and unsuitability between the CE business strategy and the context can further exacerbate implementation barriers. In this sense, we found that in our study’s unsuccessful case, the company failed to align its business to the particularities of the markets where it operated. Contrary, successful initiatives adopted strategies that incorporated contextual attributes in their business models, such as available infrastructure, current regulations, or consumer characteristics. Our results provide lessons from both failing and successful CE initiatives implemented by SMEs in an emerging economy. This work intends to help practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to create the required enabling conditions to accelerate the transition toward a CE in these regions.

Contributing to Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 is a shared objective of all institutions and people. The challenges differ according to the characteristics of every context. In developing countries, strongly dependent on the agricultural sector, agricultural supply chains are recognized as crucial for economic growth and enablers for livelihood improvement. Moreover, sustainable development issues are correlated and can meet in agricultural supply chains. For several decades, parallel to decision-makers, the research community has elaborated sustainability assessment tools. Such tools evolved to fit with actuality, but it is challenging to find decision-making support tools for sustainable development adequate in agricultural supply chains and developing countries contexts. There is a necessity to define evidence-based tools and exhaustive analytical frameworks according to sustainability multidimensionality and strategical tradeoffs necessity. The VCA4D method aims to go beyond the limits of previous methods. It proposes a combination of multidisciplinary analytical tools applied empirically to analyze agricultural supply chains in their context. It provides evidence-based analytical results allowing to identify enablers for strategic sustainable and inclusive interventions. However, to even better meet contextual exhaustiveness’s expectations and indicators’ robustness to lead to relevant interventions, we should insist on a stricter framing of contextual data collection processes.

Rapid population growth and urbanization have led to an increase in Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste, prompting government and industry bodies to develop better waste management practices. Waste trading has emerged as a targeted intervention to divert waste from landfill sites and create a second life for waste material. This paper examines key barriers and enablers influencing the creation of a marketplace for waste trading. A systematic literature review was undertaken to examine global efforts in creating a marketplace for C&D waste. A framework on enablers and barriers for developing a marketplace for C&D waste emerged from the review, based on market-based, operational, and governance factors. References demonstrated that markets for materials such as glass and metals have already been established, but there are increasing marketplace opportunities for other recycled materials. Technology-based market applications are emerging as targeted interventions to facilitate online trading, which will provide a more accessible and user-friendly marketplace for sellers and buyers. Further research should test the complex interactions between people and technology associated with online waste trading platforms, as well as help develop the business case for a C&D waste marketplace.

Climate change and anthropogenic pressure are increasingly modifying and interfering with ecosystem functions and limiting the delivery of ecosystem products, livelihoods, and adaptive response capacity in many developing countries. We identify measures by which local people in the semi-arid Limpopo Basin part of Botswana are responding to climate change and fluctuations in ecosystem products and examine socio-economic attributes of households influencing their adoption and discuss their adequacy. Our study used a case study of Bobirwa sub-district and employed key informant and household interviews to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used to analyze textural data from key informant interviews while frequencies, proportions, and Chi-squared tests were used to analyze the adoption of different strategies. A multinomial logit (MNL) regression was used to analyze the influence of several social, demographic, and economic attributes of households on household adaptation choices. We attributed the high adoption of on-farm adaptations to the simultaneous influence of more severe droughts and the free input support through the government&rsquo, s Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture (ISPAAD). Our findings suggest that current adaptations were inadequate and implementation of the ISPAAD programme required fine-tuning to be more effective. Results of the MNL regression provide critical information on the barriers and enablers of adaptation in the sub-district yet offer important entry points for improving current adaptations. Therefore, the government needs to put measures that encourage investments in the processing of ecosystem products in rural areas to broaden the livelihood base and possibly reduce overdependence on rainfed agriculture. However, the extent to which this can be achieved depends on the level of government commitment to supporting local initiatives to addressing the climate change threat.

The changing climate represents a large challenge for farmers, and adaptation responses are necessary to minimize impacts. Mixed approaches, which involve the analysis of meteorological data, web-based surveys, and face-to-face interviews, explore producers&rsquo, barriers and pressing needs to enhance climate resilience based on the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach in semi-arid north-western China. According to the main categories of farming activity, 85 crop farmers, 68 animal farmers, and 81 agro-tourism operators were interviewed. We found that most of the producers perceived climate impacts, and they encountered multiple adaptation obstacles, of which institutional and normative obstacles were more serious, such as farmers unable to obtain resources or government incentives, lacked scientific, and efficient coping measures. The survey also observed that crop farmers had a pressing need for agricultural subsidies, while animal farmers and agro-tourism operators had a strong enabler for animal housing infrastructure and credit facilities, respectively. Given the heterogeneity of the context and climate change experience of different categories of farmers, it is necessary to formulate flexible adaptation strategies and adjust them according to specific climate stress and farming conditions. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and implement the 2015 Paris Agreement, policymakers should plan and introduce appropriate adaptation strategies to minimize the adverse effects of climate change such as improving irrigation and weather forecasting system through technological advancement, cost reduction of farm inputs, ensuring availability of information, providing agricultural subsidies to the farmers, and increasing the access to agricultural markets.

The paper examines factors that support or obstruct the development of urban community garden projects. It combines a systematic scholarly literature review with empirical research from case studies located in New Zealand and Germany. The findings are discussed against the backdrop of placemaking processes: urban community gardens are valuable platforms to observe space-to-place transformations. Following a social-constructionist approach, literature-informed enablers and barriers for the development of urban community gardens are analysed against perceived notions informed by local interviewees with regard to their biophysical and technical, socio-cultural and economic, and political and administrative dimensions. These dimensions are incorporated into a systematic and comprehensive category system. This approach helps observe how the essential biophysical-material base of the projects is overlaid with socio-cultural factors and shaped by governmental or administrative regulations. Perceptual differences become evident and are discussed through the lens of different actors.

The research presented in this paper aimed at identifying the most significant green procurement barriers and enablers for construction projects in the Bucharest-Ilfov region and grouping them into clusters. For this purpose, 14 barriers and 14 enablers were selected on the basis of the literature review and a questionnaire-based survey was carried out with members of the construction projects&rsquo, teams from the analyzed region. The cluster analysis resulted in eight clusters for barriers and seven clusters for enablers. In the case of barriers, the most significant cluster was the one that included the barrier regarding technical and technological difficulties related to the use of green building materials. Another significant barrier was the increase of project execution costs. Enablers from the most significant cluster had higher energy efficiency and use of green building materials as a competitive advantage. Another significant enabler identified was regarding the pressure to implement environmental protection policies/legislation. To explain and detail the results of the cluster analysis, semi-structured interviews were carried out with experts involved in projects. They indicated, in most cases, the same barriers and enablers as those obtained from the cluster analysis.

While policy study of smart city developments is gaining traction, it falls short of understanding and explaining knowledge transfers across national borders and cities. This article investigates how transboundary learning occurs through the initiation and development of a regional smart cities network: the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN). The article conducts an in-depth case study from data collected through key informant interviews and document analysis. Spearheaded by Singapore in 2017, ASCN is seen as a soft power extension for Singapore, a branding tool for ASEAN, and a symbiotic platform between the private sector and governments in the region. Most transboundary knowledge transfers within the ASCN are voluntary transfers of policy ideas. Effective branding, demand for knowledge, availability of alternative funding options, enthusiasm from the private actors, and heightened interest from other major economies are highlighted as facilitators of knowledge transfer. However, the complexity of governance structures, lack of political will and resources, limited policy capacity, and lack of explicit operational and regulatory mechanisms hinder transboundary learning. The article concludes that transboundary learning should go beyond exchanges of ideas and recommends promoting facilitators of knowledge transfer, building local policy capacity, encouraging collaborative policy transfer, and transiting from an information-sharing platform to tool/instrument-based transfer.

To move closer to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a change from the traditional paradigm of the linear economy towards the circular economy is of paramount importance. One of the key promoters of this shift is servitization, which involves a shift from a purely transactional product-selling model to customer satisfaction through providing the service inherent to the product. Although servitization is a promising field for academics and practitioners, its adoption faces different challenges and drivers that need to be understood and addressed. A latent issue is the lack of common language around the topic. In the present study, a systematic literature review has been conducted to allow the identification and classification of the main challenges and drivers. Based on the findings, we propose a classification framework that identifies, classifies, and groups common challenges and drivers to different areas of knowledge on servitization through intensity heat maps. From a managerial point of view, our results highlight the importance of embracing servitization as a collective effort from the different departments within a company.

The concept of Circular Economy (CE) and its application in the built environment is an emerging research field. Scholars approach CE from various perspectives covering a wide range of topics from material innovation to city-scale application. However, there is little research on CE implementation in housing stock, particularly that which is managed or owned by the social housing organisations (SHOs) and which offers opportunities to generate circular flows of materials at the portfolio level. This research focuses on Dutch SHOs and uses the Delphi method to examine CE practices in their asset management, as well as the main barriers to and potential enablers of its uptake. The analysis of two iterative rounds of expert questioning indicates that Dutch SHOs are in the early experimental phase in CE implementation. From the results, it is evident that organisational, cultural, and financial barriers are the most pressing ones that hinder the wider adoption of CE in their asset management. Building on the panel input, this study suggests potential enablers to overcome these barriers, such as CE legislation, best practice case studies, commitment and support from the top management, and the creation of a clear business case.

The adaptability of buildings addresses the responses of buildings to the changing needs of owners/users and the demands of external factors, over their lifecycle. An understanding of these changes is therefore key to the creation of adaptable buildings. This paper reports research which was aimed at modelling building changes to better understand the challenges for their adaptability. An in-depth study of the changes in selected case studies was conducted to understand the nature, characteristics, and implications of these changes for buildings and their ability to adapt. The findings from these case studies were analyzed against theoretical models reported in the literature on change and adaptability. As a result, a model was developed that identified and categorized a wide spectrum of changes to the building fabric within the broad remit of adaptability that are triggered by many factors, which are sometimes external to the building or organization. In the cases investigated, it was found that the factors that lead to actual changes to buildings were not necessarily due to the ease of making those changes, but rather the organizational will and means to make the changes. Similarly, changes were made not because the building systems were obsolete, but because of non-building factors. The timings of changes therefore did not correspond to the assumed lifespan models of different building layers, suggesting that a new way of predicting and/or categorizing building changes is needed. Furthermore, the interrelationships and nature of the triggers for change suggest that the adaptability of buildings is not just about building systems, but also about non-building factors. Thus, the further exploration of non-building triggers and enablers for change using the developed model presented here, will further enhance the creation of more adaptable buildings.

Entrepreneurship is often considered a male-gendered concept, and carries masculine connotations. However, the importance of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the economy has recently been realized. Nonetheless, there is limited research about female entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship in the developing countries context. This paper challenges the implicit masculinism of the traditional entrepreneurship research, and aims to explore the enablers and constraints of female social entrepreneurship within the context of a developing country. Our theoretical focus is based on institutional and feminist perspectives, thus developing logic through reconciling predictions from these two competing theories. This integration contributes by offering novel insights about social entrepreneurship. Utilising an interpretive qualitative research approach, data from in-depth interviews with ten female social entrepreneurs of KP, Pakistan were analyzed using thematic analysis. Empirically, we identify and discuss a number of interesting and explanatory themes affecting female entrepreneurship such as &ldquo, women empowerment, patriarchal culture, role of culture and societal norms, religious extremism and terrorism, forced entrepreneurs, change creators, unique institutional constraints, institutional corruption and security issues&rdquo, The findings highlight female entrepreneurs&rsquo, struggle for sustainability, and explain how this occurs. The paper also provides an interesting insight into how context determines social entrepreneurship in KP, Pakistan.

E-learning, a technology-mediated learning approach, is a pervasively adopted teaching/learning mode for transferring knowledge. Some of the motivational factors for its wide adoption are time and location independence, user-friendliness, on-demand service, resource richness, and multi-media and technology driven factors. Achieving sustainability and performance in its delivery is of paramount importance. This research utilizes the critical success factors (CSFs) approach to identify the sustainable E-learning implementation model. Fifteen CSFs have been identified through the literature review, expert opinions, and in-depth interviews. These CSFs have been modeled for interdependence using interpretive structural modeling and Matriced&rsquo, Impacts Croise&rsquo, s Multiplication Appliqu&eacute, e a UN Classement (MICMAC) analysis. Further, the model has been validated through in-depth interviews. The present research provides quantification of CSFs of E-learning in terms of their driving and dependence powers and their classification thorough MICMAC analysis. The E-learning system organizers may focus on improving upon the enablers such as organizational infrastructure readiness, efficient technology infrastructure, appropriate E-learning course design, course flexibility, understandable relevant content, stakeholders&rsquo, training, security, access control and privileges, commitment, and being user&ndash, friendly and well-organized, in order to enhance the sustainability and performance in E-learning. This study will also help E-learning stakeholders in relocating and prioritizing resources.

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) around the world in the last 20 years had been characterized through an extensive analysis of scientific papers on the IS emerging process, with a special focus on its early stages. The literature suggests that in this process there are key factors (enablers, barriers, triggers, and challenges) that play a critical role in Industrial Symbiosis. From those factors, the enablers and barriers have been highlighted in most of the studies in their different dimensions (social, economic, policy, technological, management, or geographical, amongst others). Several implementation cases suggest that the relevance of these factors rely on the dominant economic sectors involved. This study aims to reveal the key enablers and barriers in various economic sectors and its behaviour according to each one. To accomplish this objective, a comprehensive assessment methodology was designed and performed. This methodology is divided in two sequential phases: the first, sectoral analysis, focuses on the identification of the more relevant dimensions per economic sectors; in the second phase, incidence analysis, the individual behaviour of the enablers and barriers per economic sector are identified. This new approach correlates the economic sectors and factors incidence in order to provide new insights on the key barriers, and enablers on different dimensions. The main result of this study consists in the identification of a set of recommendations that might be critical to reinforce the emerging synergies process and to help overcome the barriers in each economic sector analysed.