Modern slavery is a persistent human tragedy and a growing organisational risk. The United Nations' sustainable development goals highlight the significance of governments in shaping firms' ...sustainability agenda and combating modern slavery. However, little is known about the effects of the institutional environment on modern slavery risk. This study, therefore, investigates the crucial policy question of whether the quality of the institutional environment has any effect on modern slavery and whether sustainable human development reinforces this relationship. Using data from 167 countries, we find that institutional environment quality is negatively associated with the prevalence of and vulnerability to modern slavery and positively associated with its modern slavery risk mitigation. Our results suggest that democratically elected governments operating in politically stable societies with higher quality of voice and accountability, higher levels of control of corruption, and stricter rule of law are more accountable and responsive to modern slavery risks. We also find that sustainable human development (HDI) has a moderating effect on the relationship between institutional environment quality and modern slavery, and this effect is mainly noticeable in low HDI countries. These results imply that governance reforms alone might not yield the desired effects for all countries and, hence, have significant implications for policymakers, companies, and societal stakeholders.
•Young actors’ perspectives and roles are absent in conservation and sustainability literature.•Importance of sustainable livelihood opportunities for youth in their home territories.•Youth value ...community participation and wellbeing in addition to biodiversity conservation.•Youth are active stewards in governing bodies, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and education.•Need to investigate pathways for effective involvement of youth in environmental governance.
Young stakeholders are key actors in social-ecological systems, who have the capacity to be agents of sustainability transformation but are also at high risk of exclusion in the unfolding of global change challenges. Despite the focus of sustainability on future generations, there has been little research effort aimed at understanding young actors’ roles as biosphere stewards. In this work we investigate how young stakeholders perceive and participate in the implementation of sustainability objectives in 74 Biosphere Reserves of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme across 83 countries, through participatory group workshops, individual surveys and grey literature review. We explore to what extent youth perceptions are aligned or not with current understandings of Biosphere Reserves and how young stakeholders are acting in pursuit of Biosphere Reserve objectives. We find that young stakeholders have a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by environmental governance, such as resilience and adaptation to global change and the governance challenges of implementing adaptive co-management and increasing stakeholder participation. We also show that young stakeholders can be active participants in a wide range of activities that contribute to achieving conservation and development goals in their territories. They are particularly concerned with youth participation within all levels of Biosphere Reserve functioning and with the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities that will allow future generations to remain in their native territories. Our study provides evidence of the importance of young stakeholder knowledge and perspectives as central actors in conservation and development initiatives, like Biosphere Reserves, and of the need to increase young stakeholder integration and participation within environmental governance.
BackgroundSimulation-based education in the area of mental health is under-utilized¹ One of the most challenging tasks a doctor can be faced with is deciding whether or not an unwell patient requires ...detention for assessment under relevant mental health legislation. This can be a highly emotional and difficult process for all involved before, during and after the event itself. General Practitioners are faced with this medical emergency in the community but despite this they get limited training and exposure to prepare them as they would for other medical emergencies. Other professionals involved also report limited formal training. There is therefore a need for the development of a simulation-based teaching intervention which can bridge this knowledge gap. This is a complex and sensitive clinical encounter and careful consideration must be given to ensure simulation content is authentic and meaningful.²Summary of projectIn this research, we are using scoping review methodology to explore mental health detention processes in primary-care settings. We are particularly interested in learning more about unmet training needs and experiences of doctors and key stakeholders involved in this process. We have identified key stakeholders as the patient, the patient’s wider support circle, GPs, social workers, the ambulance team, police-service, community mental health team and secondary care colleagues in psychiatry. Importantly, our scoping approach includes input from and consultation with stakeholder representatives throughout the project.Summary of resultsWe will present findings from our scoping review. Literature review indicates that there is very limited formal training in this area for any of the professionals involved. Despite this, there is widespread acknowledgment of the challenges associated with these situations in the community and of the potential benefits of interdisciplinary training. It is apparent that there is much we can learn from patients and families who have already been through this process. These findings will be augmented with results of our stakeholder consultation.Discussion, conclusions and recommendationsOur findings will help identify unmet training needs and will also provide key information that should be taken into consideration when developing simulation-based educational interventions to bridge this knowledge gap. It is anticipated that this work will serve as a foundation for the development of multidisciplinary, simulation-based learning activities in this area. Increasing the knowledge and experience of stakeholders will improve patient care and potentially lead to a reduction in associated stress and anxiety for all involved in this complex clinical encounter.ReferencesThomson A, Cross S, Key S, Jaye P, Iversen A. How we developed an emergency psychiatry training course for new residents using principles of high-fidelity simulation. Medical Teacher. 2013; 35(10): 797–800. Available from: DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2013.803522Nestel D, Krogh K, Kolbe M. Exploring realism in healthcare simulations. In: Nestel D, Kelly M, Jolly B, Watson M. (eds.) Healthcare simulation education: evidence, theory and practice. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell; 2018. p23–28.
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the development up to now in the field of residents’ destination image and propose new avenues for research that will help the field to mature.
...Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a thorough review of the relevant academic literature. However, owing to the very tight word limit (1,000), only few representatives studies were mentioned in the manuscript.
Findings
In spite of its contribution, the restricted and descriptive nature of much of the research calls for a more theoretically informed approach. A lack of consensus is also apparent with regard to the conceptualization and operationalization of the resident destination image construct. Most studies did not commonly provide a definition, and an interchangeable use of “place image” and “destination image” is noted. Equally, great variation is observed in the measurement items used to capture image – the scales used are often readily adopted from tourist studies – while there is limited attempt for scale development. Within this realm, the vast majority of previous research used quantitative methods. Next, despite the strong theoretical rationale, there is limited empirical evidence documenting the importance of residents’ destination image on tourists’ own image formulation. Little is also known about the inner motives that lead some residents to act as ambassadors of their place.
Originality/value
The need to expand our knowledge and understanding of residents’ destination image in the future is established. The paper also briefly presented the first era of research on residents’ destination image and critiqued its predominantly descriptive nature. Areas that seek further attention have been highlighted along with directions for future research.
The building sector is known to be a major emitter of global greenhouse gases. Given that, the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from a building account for about 38 % and 35 % of energy ...consumption globally. As a result, the stakeholder's partnership has been acknowledged as a promising pathway towards achieving a net zero carbon building whole life cycle. Stakeholders are involved directly or indirectly in every stage of the net zero carbon building life cycle. However, the identification of the key stakeholders in each stage of the net zero carbon building life cycle is multifaceted and has been under-explored. This paper aims to systematically explore the key net zero carbon building stakeholders in each life cycle stage and further identify the respective roles of these stakeholders in the whole life cycle of net zero carbon building. A systematic review was conducted on forty 40 articles obtained from Scopus. Results obtained from this study revealed five (5) stages of net zero carbon building whole life cycle which include preconstruction, construction, operation and maintenance, demolition, and reuse stage. Nine (9) groups of key stakeholders were identified across the net zero carbon building whole life cycle. Furthermore, forty-seven (47) roles of net zero carbon building stakeholders were also identified in this study. The study findings could guide the policymakers, researchers, and non-organizations in prioritizing the key stakeholders in the formation of net zero carbon building policies. In addition, the study serves as a basis for further research on stakeholders' analysis in net zero carbon building.
•The building sector is the major emitter of global carbon emissions.•Preconstruction, construction, operation, demolition, and reuse are net zero carbon building life cycle stages.•Achieving a net zero carbon building is hinged on the effective partnership of the stakeholders.•The respective roles of the stakeholders will assist in meeting the carbon reduction targets by 2035 and 2050.
Big data applications in agriculture evolve fast, as more experience, applications, good practices and computational power become available. Actual solutions to real-life problems are scarce. What ...characterizes the adoption of big data problems to solutions and to what extent is there a match between them?
We aim to assess the conditions of the adoption of big data technologies in agricultural applications, based on the investigation of twelve real-life practical use cases in the precision agriculture and livestock domain.
We use a mixed method approach: a case study research around the twelve use cases of Horizon 2020 project CYBELE, varying from precision arable and livestock farming to fishing and food security, and a stakeholder survey (n = 56). Our analysis focuses on four perspectives: (1) the drivers of change that initiated the use cases; (2) the big data characteristics of the problem; (3) the technological maturity level of the solution both at start and end of the project; (4) the stakeholder perspective.
Results show that the use cases’ drivers of change are a combination of data-, technology, research- and commercial interests; most have at least a research drive. The big data characteristics (volume, velocity, variety, veracity) are well-represented, with most emphasis on velocity and variety. Technology readiness levels show that the majority of use cases started at experimental or lab environment stage and aims at a technical maturity of real-world small-scale deployment. Stakeholders’ main concern is cost, user friendliness and to embed the solution within their current work practice.
The adoption of better-matching big data solutions is modest. Big data solutions do not work out-of-the-box when changing application domains. Additional technology development is needed for addressing the idiosyncrasies of agricultural applications.
We add a practical, empirical assessment of the current status of big data problems and solutions to the existing body of mainly theoretical knowledge. We considered the CYBELE research project as our laboratory for this. Our strength is that we interviewed the use case representatives in person, and that we included the stakeholders’ perspective in our results.
Large-scale deployments need effective interdisciplinary approaches and long-term project horizons to address issues emerging from big data characteristics, and to avoid compartmentalization of agricultural sciences.
We need both an engineering perspective – to make things work in practice – and a systems thinking perspective – to offer holistic, integrated solutions.
Display omitted
•Technology is not sufficiently conquered yet: the big data 4Vs still pose substantial challenges, even with top-notch technological facilities.•The majority of state-of-the-art use cases pursues a relatively modest technological maturity level of the aspired solution.•To stakeholders, solutions should be affordable, make use of already owned datasets, and pay specific attention to clarity of inputs and results.•Big data solutions are not yet out-of-the-box and depend much on the domain. The transition to agriculture-specific solutions is emerging.•Successful big data solutions for problems in agriculture need both a practical engineering and a holistic systems-thinking perspective.
A large amount of stakeholders take part in the decision-making process, usually called a large-scale group decision-making (LGDM) problem. Some stakeholders may only provide partial preference ...information because of the limitation of knowledge over the alternatives. In this paper, a LGDM model is proposed to handle such problems, in which the incomplete multi-granular linguistic information showcases more appropriateness in respect of multi-stakeholders to represent their assessments. Meanwhile, the proposed model attains the maximum information from all decision makers and avoids an oversimplification for the elicited information in traditional linguistic models. It is more significant that we present three normalising methods for the purpose of securing the complete probabilistic linguistic term sets (PLTSs) based on risk attitudes: optimistic, pessimistic and neutral, respectively. In addition, alternatives are ranked by the extended TOPSIS method. Finally, a sustainable supplier selection is used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model.
Successful destination branding strategies require the commitment and mobilization of internal stakeholders in order to reinforce the communication of the brand message to the tourist market. To this ...purpose, the literature suggests that adopting an inclusive and participative approach to the branding process can increase and maintain the stakeholders’ willingness to share the brand mission. However, the results of such sharing and involvement strategies in terms of internal brand equity creation are still under research. In order to fill such a gap, the article proposes to build on the established consumer-based brand equity model for assessing the internal stakeholder-based brand equity of tourist destinations. The model, comprising four dimensions – brand awareness, image, commitment, and satisfaction/loyalty – is then applied to the analysis of South Tyrol’s (Italy) regional branding strategy, through a survey of internal brand users. Findings confirm the importance of a participative approach to the branding process in order to enhance its overall internal equity. Findings also show a relevant information gap regarding brand performance that impacts the stakeholders’ commitment. This confirms the link between the internal and external performance of destination brands. Moreover, significant differences in the levels of brand awareness, commitment, and satisfaction among different categories of stakeholders suggest that the brand authorities should enact targeted internal communication efforts.
The aim of this paper is to propose a model of business competitiveness based on the value chain for the coking sector in Colombia that allows its promotion and strengthening. A systematic review of ...the literature in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, in the period 2012-2022, was carried out to establish the documentary corpus. The categories of analysis identified converge in the competitiveness based on the value chain from which a model is proposed to integrate: the participation of social actors (government, community, academy, businessmen and unions), primary activities, support and articulate to maintain and improve competitiveness business with direct involvement in the coking sector. As a conclusion, this model contributes to the definition and direction of strategies in the transformation of coke, generating conditions of competitiveness based on customer satisfaction and the strengthening of the sector.
This article examines how the international business (IB) literature has addressed social responsibility issues in the past 50 years, highlighting key developments and implications from a historical ...perspective. Specific attention is paid to the Journal of World Business (JWB), which has covered the whole period and published relevant articles related to these issues, in comparison to the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), the other long-standing IB journal. The article outlines that they illustrate different conceptualizations of IB and social responsibility. The 50-year review shows three subthemes: the (green) environment; ethics, rights and responsibilities; poverty and (sustainable) development. These are discussed consecutively, including main contributions and promising areas to further the field.
PDF
