The purpose of this study was to conceptualise a framework that reflects an intertwined relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. Agency and stakeholder theories hold a basic notion of supporting the relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. The moderating role of intellectual capital (IC) was introduced in the intertwined relationship between green board committees and firm performance based on a resource-based view theory. This study proposes a new measurement index, namely, the “green board committee index”, to measure the green practices of organisations. This index is comprised of four dimensions: strategy and policymaking, monitoring and control, sustainability, and risk management. The current study hypothesised a significant and positive relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. It was believed that the moderation effect of IC strengthens the relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. The data for this study were proposed to be measured through a content analysis of the company’s annual and embedded reports and a Thomson Reuters DataStream terminal. It adds to the body of knowledge by alluding to an integrated notion of green board committees and IC concerning firm performance. The mentioned conceptual framework sends signals to legislators, regulators, policymakers, and practitioners on the critical insights and actions of green board committees in setting strategies and objectives, addressing sustainability issues, forging a relationship with stakeholders, and increasing the firm’s value from the business operations. Full article

Smart cities and smart tourism destinations integrate technological infrastructures and end-user devices with the aim of providing more satisfying experiences. They generate expectations of superior innovation, greater interactivity, participation and a better image. Therefore, they need to communicate their smartness and include it in their branding. The study analyses the smart content present in the tourist and non-tourist official Twitter accounts of a selection of smart cities and smart destinations, through semantic analysis, in order to find out which smart concepts are strategically branded to create a smart tourism destination image. The results show that the best cities in the ranking for each smart topic are not the ones with highest percentages of tweets on that topic. The study also shows that the number and percentage of tweets that communicate smart aspects on the platforms analyzed are low, showing the smartness is not included in their branding. It has also been observed that, almost all cities communicate or do not communicate the same concepts, evincing an undifferentiated branding strategy. The results of this study are interesting for urban policy-makers and tourism destination marketers to improve their branding. Full article

Internships are increasingly being used in the hospitality industry, as these can provide students with opportunities to examine their abilities, interests, and career decisions in a workplace context, as well as help cultivate human resources within this sector. This study thus examines students’ career decision-making self-efficacy with regard to internships. Based on social cognitive theory and career decision-making self-efficacy theory, we developed the research constructs with a focus group interview and a review of the existing literature, and then verified their content validity and scale reliability. Using 782 student data from the hospitality management departments, we found the direct influence of career decision-making self-efficacy in relation to internships on the intention to stay in the hospitality industry. Most important of all, we also found the mediating roles of internship satisfaction and career commitment in the relationship between decision-making self-efficacy and intention to stay in the hospitality industry, as well as the moderating roles of intrinsic motivation in the relationships among career decision-making self-efficacy, internship satisfaction, career commitment, and intention to stay in the hospitality industry. The theoretical and practical implications of these results in the context of hospitality will be discussed. Full article

In response to the Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom has developed mega entertainment events in different cities, referred to as cities-based entertainment, to diversify the long prevalent oil-dependent economy and change the traditional image of the Kingdom as a sole religious tourism destination. This research develops and tests a conceptual model on the relationship between the quality cities-based entertainment recently provided at the kingdom, and destination image, quality of tourist experience, and tourist satisfaction. More specifically, the research examines the direct influence of quality cities-based entertainment on tourist satisfaction and the indirect influence through destination image and quality of tourist experience. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test structural relationships between the research variables. The results showed a positive and significant influence of event (cities-based entertainment) quality on destination image and on tourist experience quality. However, the results revealed that event—i.e., cities-based entertainment—quality failed to have a direct influence on tourist satisfaction. Hence, destination image and tourist experience quality were found to fully mediate the influence of event quality on tourist satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed and elaborated. Full article

With a growing number of displaced people, there is a need for robust approaches to coping with displacement. Uganda has a progressive refugee policy that promotes freedom of movement and the socioeconomic rights of the refugees. Specifically, refugees are often allocated land to settle and cultivate rural settlements, and the integrated social service provision facilitates interaction with host communities. However, there remain challenges in creating sustainable livelihoods for refugees in rural settlements. There exist significant tensions over shared resources such as land, water, woodlots, and grazing areas. Based on a survey of 416 households and key informant interviews with South Sudanese refugees in selected settlements in the Adjumani district, the paper highlights refugees’ access to social and economic spaces as critical pathways to sustainable livelihoods and integration. Uganda’s progressive policy expands the opportunity space; however, refugees still encounter significant barriers in accessing the socioeconomic spaces. Full article

Lean Thinking has been one of the preferred approaches to improve healthcare processes in developed countries; however, it has been barely used in Latin America. This study presents a Lean implementation in a Mexican public academic medical center. The goal was to reduce the time required to discharge patients from the Internal Medicine Department. This non-experimental intervention study measured, analyzed, and improved the process flow through a time study, value-added/non-value-added analysis, and the four-step quick changeover approach. Once changes were implemented, inferential statistics were used to compare results. Lean implementation allowed reducing the time to discharge patients from 6 to 3 h by eliminating 57% of non-value-added activities and 70% of errors found in discharge orders. This represents a 2% annual capacity increase and a 6.423 h bed made available without investment. Other findings include barriers regarding untrained staff about process improvement and departmental barriers and a successful quick changeover implementation. This is one of the handful of implementations of Lean Healthcare in Latin America. Furthermore, this is one of the very first studies that showcase the implementation of the quick changeover approach in healthcare. Further research should focus on the long-term impact and how the specific environment encourages/discourages future implementations. Full article

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is radically reshaping the procedures and the manufacturing environments through the digitalization process. The digitalization process can change according to the context and to specific solutions, and it is able to modify manufacturing systems and production areas. All the employees are directly affected by the transformation of the working environment, manufacturing tools, and working conditions and by the increasing need for new competencies. In this context, it is crucial to identify new and emerging hazards concerning the health and safety of the employees to ensure a conscious and safe digital transformation for everyone involved. In this regard, the paper presents the state of the research and defines seven areas of interest for a safe and harmless digital transformation for the employees, drawing attention to the hazards in the different technological areas. The state of the research unveils the absence of detailed analysis to identify specific hazards of 4.0 technologies. Therefore, every specific 4.0 technologies is analyzed by an extensive review to provide a comprehensive matrix of new and emerging hazards for health and safety within digitalized manufacturing systems. The results can help manufacturing organizations to perform robust risk assessments for worker when introducing specific 4.0 technologies. Full article

A mega-project is a major project or a group of projects of significant cost that attract a high level of public attention or political interest because of substantial direct and indirect impacts on the community, environment, and state budget. Capturing and sharing the knowledge from the performance of the current mega projects is essential in order to avoid losing vital corporate knowledge assets in the construction industry. The learned lessons are gained from experience, success, and failure for improving future performance. This research aims to review and read out the lessons learned from 77 research papers that have dealt with the barriers that hinder the successful performance of mega building construction projects in developing countries, identify and classify the main obstacles, and propose improvements for successful implementation and management of mega building construction projects. The results of this paper will help project owners, construction companies, and other stakeholders in developing countries to overcome the limitations in the execution of mega building construction projects. Full article

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users in low- and middle-income countries, hence understanding their attitudes towards traffic safety and the pedestrian behaviours associated with those attitudes is vital. The current study identifies the factor structure of a self-report questionnaire on pedestrian behaviours and road safety attitudes and explores the relationships between them. It also assesses demographic effects. A total of 532 people were surveyed. The questionnaire sections related to attitudes and behaviours were developed for use in different, largely high-income settings, hence their suitability for use in the low-income setting of Bangladesh was first assessed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A structural equation model was then developed to examine the relationships between attitudes and pedestrian behaviours. It was found that positive attitudes towards traffic safety were associated with safer pedestrian behaviours, and that males, younger respondents, and less educated respondents reported performing riskier behaviours and holding more dangerous attitudes to road safety. Results are discussed in terms of the factors likely to influence such behaviours, as well as a discussion on the need for validation of the research tools which have been developed in high-income settings for low-income settings. Full article

In this study, we suggest methodologies for identifying promising and vacant technologies on smart farms by analyzing patent information. Additionally, a technology roadmap for smart farms is suggested using network analysis. The database of patents related to smart farms was extracted from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by keyword search, and valid patents data was selected and clustered using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm. We also conducted the technical importance analysis and trend analysis to identify promising technology topics. By developing a patent map based on a self-organizing map (SOM), we were able to identify vacant technologies among smart farm technology groups. In order to develop vacant technologies, we presented a stepwise technology roadmap by analyzing the relationship between technology elements using network analysis. The proposed procedure and analysis method provides useful insights in establishing research and development (R&D) strategies for the development of smart farm technology roadmaps. Full article

This study empirically investigates the role of employees’ perceptions of CSR in improving their green behavior in the hospitality industry. In addition, this study investigates the mediating role of employee well-being and the moderating role of hotels’ environmental strategy in this relationship. Empirical analysis is performed in a cross-country setting using evidence from Pakistan and Italy. The study model is tested through PLS-SEM using survey data of 485 hotel employees. Findings from the overall sample and country-specific samples reveal that CSR is positively and significantly related to employee green behavior. Moreover, employee well-being serves as a significant mediator in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee green behavior, while hotels’ environmental strategy significantly moderates this relationship in the overall and country-specific samples. These results suggest that paradoxically, though the selected countries have different tourism implementation levels, economic development, and cultures, the employees’ perceptions of CSR and its effect on their green behavior do not vary significantly across both countries. Full article

Energy retrofitting the existing building stock is crucial to reduce thermal discomfort, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. However, insulating and enhancing the thermal mass of an existing building wall using traditional methods is a very challenging and expensive task. There is a need to develop a material that can be applied easily in an existing occupied building without much interruption to occupants’ daily life while also having high thermal resistance and heat storage capacity. This study aimed to investigate a potential building wall retrofit strategy combining aerogel render and Phase change materials (PCM) because aerogel render is highly resistive to heat and PCM has high thermal mass. While a number of studies investigated the thermal and energy-saving performances of aerogel render and PCM separately, no study has been done on the thermal and energy-saving performance of the combination of PCM and aerogel render. In this study, the performance of 12 different retrofit strategies, including aerogel and PCM, were evaluated numerically in terms of heat stress, energy savings, peak cooling, emission, and lifecycle cost using a typical single-story Australian house. The results showed that applying aerogel render and PCM on the outer side of the external walls and PCM and insulation in ceilings is the best option considering all performance indicators and ease of application. Compared to the baseline, this strategy reduced severe discomfort hours by 82% in a free-running building. In an air-conditioned building, it also decreased energy use, peak cooling demand, CO₂ emission, and operational energy cost by 40%, 65%, 64%, and 35%, respectively. Although the lifecycle cost savings for this strategy were lower than the “insulated ceiling and rendered wall without PCM” case, the former one was considered the best option for its superior energy, emission, and comfort performance. Parametric analysis showed that 0.025 m is the optimum thickness for both PCM and aerogel render, and the 25 °C melting point PCM was optimum to achieve the best results amongst all performance indicators for a typical Australian house in Melbourne climate. Full article

The high economic costs of human–wildlife conflicts (HWC) hinder long-term conservation successes, especially in developing countries. We investigated HWC by interviewing 498 respondents from 42 villages in Nowshera district, Pakistan. According to respondents, six species—the common leopard (Panthera pardus), grey wolf (Canis lupus), golden jackal (Canis aureus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), Indian porcupine (Hystrix indica), and wild boar (Sus scrofa)—were involved in livestock predation and crop-raiding. Livestock predation (N = 670) translated into a total annual economic loss of USD 48,490 across the 42 villages, with the highest economic loss of USD 57.1/household/year attributed to the golden jackal. Crop damage by wild boar and porcupine incurred a total annual economic loss of USD 18,000. Results further showed that livestock predation was highly affected by location, prey type, prey age, and herding practices, while cereals and vegetables were preferred crops for wild boar and Indian porcupine. The grey wolf was declared as the most dangerous carnivore, followed by the golden jackal and common leopard. Negative attitude about golden jackal and wild boar prevails among 90% of the respondents of the study area. We strongly assume that the abundance of apex predators can control the economic impacts of meso-carnivores and wild boar on the community’s livelihood. Keeping relatively smaller herds may reduce carnivore attacks and educating the populous and compensation can minimise negative perceptions of HWC. To reduce HWC in the study area, there should be an incessant and timely coordination between wildlife officials and the local community. Full article

This review examines how life cycle methodologies are presently used by regional authorities in their sustainable development programmes. The review incorporates formal methods of life cycle assessment (LCA) as well as non-standardised approaches like life cycle management (LCM). The review describes the sustainability agenda facing regions, and a ‘life cycle toolbox’ that can be used at territorial level. Several parallel literature research methods were used to collect representative examples from around the world of regional life cycle approaches, identifying a variety of common and still-evolving methodologies used to address sustainability issues and applications. Results show that regional use of various life cycle methodologies from the toolbox is growing although scope is often constrained to short life chains, and with limited consideration of secondary (“spillover”) impacts. The conclusions confirm earlier findings that current life cycle tools are not always ideally structured for public sector organisations, with some not yet mature for addressing regional sustainability issues, such as biodiversity, land use and social impacts. Regional data aggregation is currently insufficient for certain methods. Further research is needed to adapt certain life cycle methodologies for regional application, but many available tools could already be further applied than is currently the case. Full article

The present study explores the impact of different land uses on water quality in a Mexican basin and addresses key mitigation measures, with key measurements made by citizen scientists. The Amanalco-Valle de Bravo Basin reservoir is the major freshwater supply for Mexico City. By measuring physical-chemical and bacteriological parameters in creeks over 21 months and correlating them to land use areas, it was possible to understand the impacts of different land uses (urban, forest, riparian forests, and different agricultural systems) in water quality. The results show that the concentration of E. coli, nitrates, nitrites, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, and total suspended solids were higher than the recommended reference levels, and that average oxygen saturation and alkalinity were lower than the recommended reference levels in most sites. The analysis of the Pearson correlation coefficient showed a strong relationship between water pollution and urban and agricultural land uses, specifically a higher impact of potato cultivation, due to its intensive use of agrochemicals and downhill tilling. There was a clear positive relationship between total forest area and riparian vegetation cover with improved water quality, validating their potential as nature-based solutions for the regulation of water quality. The results of the present study indicate the opportunities that better land management practices generate to ensure communities’ and water ecosystems’ health. This study also highlights the benefits of citizen science as a tool for raising awareness with regard to water quality and nature-based solutions, and as an appropriate tool for participative watershed management. Full article