Search Results (21,690)

Sustainable e-commerce has become increasingly relevant, although the mechanisms through which online reviews are associated with purchase intention and consumers’ economic engagement require more precise explanation. This study examines a cross-sectional model in which positive and negative eWOM are associated with the cost–benefit assessment of sustainable online purchasing, and this assessment is related to purchase intention and the level of self-reported annual expenditure. The proposed model integrates Signalling Theory and Social Exchange Theory. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse data from 520 consumers in Extremadura (Spain) with prior experience of sustainable online purchasing. Positive eWOM was associated with greater perceived benefits, while negative eWOM was associated with greater perceived costs. Benefits were positively related to intention, whereas costs were negatively related to it. Intention showed a positive association with higher expenditure categories, which was additionally tested using ordinal logistic regression. The findings show how eWOM valence is linked to distinct components of exchange assessment. Given the cross-sectional and self-reported nature of the data, the relationships should not be interpreted as causal or as a temporal conversion of current intention into expenditure reported for the preceding twelve months. Full article

Infrastructure systems play a critical role in shaping environmental performance, economic investment, and social well-being. Infrastructure systems are responsible for nearly 60% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Pavement construction and maintenance alone consume over 350 million tons of asphalt annually and account for 30% of public infrastructure expenditure. While sustainability frameworks increasingly emphasize the integration of environmental, economic, and social dimensions commonly conceptualized as the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), their application in pavement engineering remains uneven. This study investigates the extent and nature of TBL integration in pavement sustainability research through a combined scientometric and qualitative content analysis of 529 peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus between 2015 and 2025. Using a PRISMA-guided review protocol, the study maps publication trends, geographic distribution, and thematic evolution, and systematically classifies each study according to its level of sustainability integration. The results reveal a pronounced imbalance across sustainability dimensions. Only 7.4% of studies achieve full TBL integration, while 45.2% address a single dimension and 29.1% remain primarily technical with limited sustainability framing. Environmental and economic dimensions are consistently operationalized through standardized methodologies such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), whereas social sustainability appears in less than 10% of studies and is typically represented through simplified or proxy-based indicators. The findings suggest that this imbalance is not solely a result of data or awareness limitations but is associated with prevailing methodological preferences that favour quantifiable and optimization compatible indicators. These tendencies create systematic challenges for integrating context-dependent and participatory social considerations into engineering decision-making frameworks. By highlighting these structural patterns, the study contributes to ongoing discussions on sustainability governance and calls for more inclusive, methodological plural approaches to infrastructure assessment. The paper concludes by outlining pathways for advancing TBL integration through standardized social indicators, participatory assessment methods, and alignment with emerging ESG reporting requirements. Full article

Decentralised finance (DeFi) is a relatively new trend in finance that uses blockchain, smart contracts, and distributed ledger technology to offer financial services in a decentralised manner. Although scholars have made many theoretical advances in decentralised finance in recent years, knowledge of its theoretical structure and future research areas remains limited. This is why this study provides a bibliometric analysis of 1002 articles on DeFi published in Scopus between 2012 and 2026. The analysis uses performance analysis and a science mapping approach based on citation analysis, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence analysis. The results reveal a remarkably high annual growth rate of 39.34% and DeFi’s dynamism and interdisciplinary nature. The three main countries involved in DeFi research are the USA, China, and the UK. Management Science, Energy Economics and Technological Forecasting and Social Change became the main scientific journals for disseminating knowledge about DeFi. Analysis of thematic changes showed a transition of scientific interests from blockchain and cryptocurrencies to new topics, like artificial intelligence, sustainability, governance, and financial inclusion. Overall, the current study provides a better understanding of the intellectual, conceptual, and social basis of DeFi and highlights possible research areas in the use of artificial intelligence in DeFi, decentralised governance, and sustainable digital financial system development. Full article

Retaining population is a core condition for the long-term sustainability of rural communities, yet rural out-migration is often treated merely as evidence of local development failure. Agriculturally productive regions may continue to lose population even when output, corporate activity, and local services improve, which raises the question of what kinds of rural development are demographically sustainable. This study examines that puzzle in Akmola, Kazakhstan, a major grain-producing region surrounding Astana. It asks how corporate social responsibility (CSR), rural amenities, economic vitality, and agricultural dependence are associated with net migration across rural districts. The question is important because CSR and agricultural modernization are frequently expected to support rural communities, yet their demographic implications depend on whether they generate broad local opportunities or mainly improve services and production capacity. Using an unbalanced district-level panel of eight rural districts from 2010 to 2023, the study estimates PLS-SEM models under alternative measurement specifications and compares the results with fixed-effects panel estimates and PPML (Poisson) gross-flow models. The findings show that economic vitality is associated with population retention or attraction, while agriculture-oriented development is associated with out-migration. Amenities generally support the retention-oriented interpretation, and CSR is more consistently associated with amenity provision than with migration directly. These patterns suggest that the sustainability of rural communities depends less on agricultural output or CSR-funded services in isolation than on economic diversification and enhanced local livability. Full article

Oyster aquaculture plays a critical role in coastal social-ecological systems by providing ecosystem services such as economic benefits, food security, and environmental regulation; however, multiple biophysical and socio-economic stressors threaten its long-term sustainability. This study operationalizes the seven established resilience principles to identify strategies that enhance the resilience of oyster aquaculture globally. A scoping review following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, and JSTOR, yielding 345 peer-reviewed publications (2000–2026) from which 13 stressor categories and 15 mitigation strategy categories were identified. Diseases and pathogens constituted the most documented stressor (24.3%), followed by climate change and ocean acidification (9.9%). Among strategies, the governance, policy, and stakeholder engagement strategy was the most frequently used (12.8%). Classification by resilience principles revealed that managing slow variables and feedback (P3, 30.1%) and maintaining diversity and redundancy (P1, 22.6%) dominated the literature, while broadening participation (P6, 11.0%) and promoting polycentric governance (P7, 4.6%) were least represented, revealing a significant gap in the scientific literature between biophysical and socio-institutional research attention. Context-specific indicators were developed for each principle, providing a replicable framework linking stressors, strategies, and resilience principles applicable to diverse mariculture systems. Full article

Bedouin society in the Negev/Naqab has experienced rapid social, spatial, and economic transformation, including expanded access to higher education and paid employment alongside enduring kinship obligations and gendered expectations. Guided by an ecological perspective on family life, this qualitative descriptive study examined how married, educated, and employed Bedouin women and men described their experiences at the intersection of social change, family relationships, parenting, gendered work, and place. Twenty-four participants (12 women and 12 men), aged 28–60, participated in semi-structured interviews. Data underwent reflexive thematic analysis. Four interconnected patterns were identified: (1) negotiating household-level autonomy within extended-family belonging; (2) pursuing marital partnership while unequal care and public authority persisted; (3) treating children’s education as both an intergenerational resource and a present-day strain; and (4) experiencing locality and planning status as conditions that shaped family security and everyday coordination. Rather than presenting a linear movement from “tradition” to “modernity”, participants’ accounts suggest that family change is an ecological process: everyday marital and parental arrangements are negotiated within kin networks, work demands, community expectations, and their location’s material conditions. The study contributes to family science by showing how dual-earner family processes in a collectivist, Indigenous-minority context are shaped not only by household-level role negotiation, but also by spatial governance and collective belonging. Full article

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and epilepsy are complex, frequently co-occurring neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders that share key mechanisms, such as altered neurotransmission, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and gut–brain axis disruption. Despite pharmacological advances, current treatments often provide only partial relief and are associated with significant side effects. The comorbidity of ASD and epilepsy, affecting millions worldwide, remains under-recognised and poorly addressed, imposing a profound burden on patients, families, and healthcare systems through reduced quality of life, increased caregiving demands, and substantial social and economic costs. This review highlights the convergent pathways shared between ASD and epilepsy, including immune dysregulation, synaptic dysfunction, and metabolic imbalance, which create opportunities for unified therapeutic strategies. Marine algae have emerged as a sustainable source of bioactive compounds offering a unique potential to address these overlapping pathologies. Algal polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, polyphenols, polysaccharides, and vitamins have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and microbiota-modulating activities. By addressing both the biological underpinnings and clinical burden of ASD–epilepsy comorbidity, algae-based strategies represent a novel and ecologically sustainable direction for mitigating ASD–epilepsy comorbidity and advancing marine-inspired neurotherapeutics. Full article

Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to promote social integration, migrants continue to face considerable obstacles in adapting to the urban life. These obstacles arise not only from the constraints of the hukou system, but also from the difficulties in sociocultural adaptation. While the literature on social integration is extensive, there remains a lack of a comprehensive and cohesive framework for assessing social integration of migrants in China. This study addresses this gap by developing the Social Integration of Migrants Scale (SIMS), an instrument designed to capture the multifaceted nature of migrant integration in urban China. Using a sample of 600 migrants from Shenzhen, China, the SIMS was tested for reliability, factorial validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The results demonstrate the strong internal consistency of the scale. Factor analyses identified six key dimensions of integration: economic integration, acculturation, perceived discrimination, social relationships, civic engagement, and identity integration. The findings provided initial evidence of convergent and discriminant validity based on the scale’s internal structure. The SIMS thus offers a promising multidimensional instrument for assessing the integration of migrants within Chinese urban contexts, with external criterion validation identified as a priority for future research. Full article

Social media platforms have become major vectors for financial and cryptocurrency fraud, resulting in substantial economic losses and eroding user trust. This research presents a dual model system integrating machine learning-based user verification with deep learning-based content analysis to detect fraudulent activity more effectively than traditional single dimensional approaches. The core innovation lies in fusing these two modalities using a logical OR strategy. This design facilitates the detection of hybrid fraud schemes such as compromised legitimate accounts posting deceptive content or fake accounts spreading benign-looking messages that typically evade isolated detection systems. For user verification, ensemble methods were evaluated on a large, balanced dataset of social media profiles. Among the individual classifiers evaluated, the random forest classifier achieved the strongest performance and was selected for the final architecture due to its optimal balance of accuracy, interpretability, and computational efficiency. For content analysis, a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on a substantial corpus of crypto-related posts demonstrated high accuracy, outperforming traditional keyword-based and recurrent neural network baselines. Ultimately, combining these models yields a system that flags significantly more fraudulent posts than either component alone. The user verification component retains interpretability through feature importance measures, while the CNN-based content analysis component operates as a less transparent classifier; the combined system can be adapted across diverse social media platforms. Full article

Entrepreneurship in South Africa is widely recognised as a critical driver of economic inclusion and job creation. While existing research highlights the role of formal education in enhancing entrepreneurial capability, less attention has been given to how entrenched gender norms, historical inequalities, and informal learning processes shape entrepreneurial visions. This study aims to investigate how gender dynamics shape entrepreneurial visions beyond formal educational attainment, particularly in contexts of persistent structural inequalities and high unemployment. The study adopts a qualitative research design. Using purposive sampling, 60 participants were selected and organised into three focus groups. Guided by Social Feminist Theory, the analysis foregrounds gendered social structures as central to the formation of entrepreneurial visions. Data were analysed thematically to explore recurring patterns related to structural uncertainty, informal learning, gendered perceptions of risk and confidence, and the reframing of entrepreneurial aspirations. The findings reveal that entrepreneurship often emerges in response to structural uncertainty rather than purely from opportunity-driven motives. Informal learning through community networks, lived experiences, and adaptive strategies constitutes a central source of entrepreneurial knowledge, particularly for women. Women participants frequently reported constrained growth aspirations shaped by structural barriers and questioned their own legitimacy, while men tended to benefit from broader institutional networks and greater perceived entrepreneurial confidence. The study highlights the need for policy interventions that extend beyond formal education. It recommends recognising informal competencies, addressing structural constraints, and developing gender-responsive support systems that validate diverse entrepreneurial pathways. Such interventions are essential for fostering inclusive entrepreneurship and reducing inequality in South Africa. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by foregrounding the role of gendered social realities in shaping entrepreneurial visions. It further demonstrates how informal learning processes inform these visions beyond formal educational attainment. Full article

Bereavement in Southern Africa is not a private event. It is rather a shared and communal experience, shaped by rituals, faith, and relationships. In Botswana, mourning is influenced by Botho, a way of life that says, “I am because we are,” where a whole community carries the pain of loss together and takes responsibility for the bereaved. These communal rituals bring comfort, meaning and a sense of belonging, helping families accept death and move towards healing. Yet research also shows a harder side: many mourning practices are gendered and favors male gender. Widows often face long, strict rituals, social isolation and suspicion, rooted in patriarchy and ideas about impurity or danger, which can harm their emotional, social, and economic well-being. This article uses conceptual/theological analysis within pastoral theology and African relational ethics to examine these practices and to explore how churches and caregivers can honor culture while resisting injustice. Drawing on work of Botho African pastoral care and gender, it shows that the same communal systems that care can also exclude and marginalize widows. The article proposes a Gendered Botho Pastoral Care Model that calls Christian communities to sustain communal solidarity and shared mourning, challenge patriarchal and violent widowhood rites, reinterpret rituals in life-giving ways, and build resilience, dignity and agency for widows, so that mourning spaces become places of healing, justice and restored humanity Pastors for widows in Botswana and across Southern Africa. Full article

Students’ sense of safety at school is an important dimension of school climate and student well-being; however, the factors shaping perceived safety remain insufficiently understood. This study examined the extent to which social, emotional, and contextual factors predict students’ sense of safety at school using data from the OECD PISA 2022 assessment in Lithuania (N = 7257). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships between students’ sense of safety and school belonging, teacher–student relationships, bullying, school safety risks, stress resistance, life satisfaction, socio-economic status, and gender. The findings suggest that students’ sense of belonging was the strongest predictor of perceived safety. Positive teacher–student relationships, higher life satisfaction, and greater stress resistance were also positively associated with students’ sense of safety, whereas bullying and school safety risks were negatively associated with perceived safety. Socio-economic status and gender demonstrated comparatively weaker effects. Overall, the findings suggest that students’ sense of safety is shaped primarily by relational and psychosocial experiences rather than by background characteristics or the mere absence of risk. The study provides preliminary evidence supporting the importance of fostering inclusive and supportive school environments to strengthen students’ perceived safety. Full article

The growing urgency of climate change, environmental sustainability, and financial resilience has led to increased global interest in green finance as a tool for achieving sustainable economic development. However, the existing research lacks a comprehensive empirical framework integrating multiple green finance mechanisms and examining their collective influence on the sustainable performance of financial institutions across environmental, social, and economic dimensions, particularly in emerging economies. This study is grounded in institutional theory, the resource-based view, diffusion of innovation theory, and the cost-efficiency approach. It develops and empirically tests a model in which green bonds, green bank loans, carbon credit financing, sustainable agricultural financing, green microfinance, energy-efficient financing, renewable energy financing, and environmental impact financing determine green finance. Green finance, in turn, enhances the sustainable performance of financial institutions across environmental, social, and economic dimensions in Saudi Arabia. This study employs Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modelling to analyse survey data collected from 384 employees in Saudi financial institutions. The results show that all eight green finance mechanisms significantly contribute to green finance, which in turn significantly enhances the sustainable performance of financial institutions. This study makes a significant theoretical contribution by developing and validating measurement items for nine green finance constructs and empirically testing a comprehensive model that explains how green finance mechanisms enhance the sustainable performance of financial institutions. This study provides one of the first comprehensive empirical analyses in Saudi Arabia of green finance’s role in promoting sustainable financial strategies aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The findings offer a strong foundation for future research and provide valuable insights for policymakers, financial regulators, and industry leaders in advancing sustainability-focused financial decision-making and policy reforms. Full article

This paper investigates the impact of organisation capital (OC) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2022. Employing corporate ESG indicators as a proxy for CSR performance, we find that OC significantly enhances CSR engagement. However, this positive relationship becomes less prominent for firms operating in heavily polluting industries and among firms with higher earnings volatility. These results suggest that pollution intensity and earnings uncertainty may limit the effectiveness of OC in driving CSR improvements. Further analyses reveal that the positive relationship is weaker among state-owned enterprises, smaller firms, service firms, and firms with CEO-chairperson duality. Mechanism analyses suggest that corporate visibility serves as a key underlying mechanism through which OC positively influences CSR performance. Firms with higher OC tend to be more visible to the public, making them more inclined to align with stakeholder expectations and proactively enhance their CSR performance. This study enriches the literature by providing new insights into the determinants of CSR performance and the economic consequences of OC. Full article

The global mining sector plays a vital economic role but frequently results in the displacement of communities, generating profound environmental, social, and cultural consequences. In South Africa mining remains a key economic driver. The literature on the sustainable livelihood framework (SLF) attests to the impact of mining on communities and the industry’s influence on the five capitals, namely social, physical, natural, financial and human. However, research on SLF offers a limited assessment of the long-term effectiveness of livelihood restoration initiatives directed at communities resettled elsewhere because of mining. The research gap in this study can be explained as the sparseness of research in clarifying and amplifying the voices of mining-resettled communities. Research, besides being limited, has focused on the activities of mining companies and their supposed economic benefit. Adopting a qualitative approach within an interpretivist paradigm, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven community leaders and activists from Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. Contestations, inaccessibility and possibilities of victimisation by mining companies, and non-universality in interview sample numbers are some of the issues justifying those seven interviewees in this study. Additionally, the interviewees in this study are leaders, activists, and family and community members directly affected by mining resettlement. Based on the nature of the research inquiry, the number of interviewees is adequate and enabled the study to establish its findings as a multi-case study of the communities in the three provinces. Thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti revealed that resettlement significantly disrupted livelihoods through loss of productive land, diminished agricultural activities, and the erosion of social and cultural networks. Although mining companies provided compensation, housing, and skills training, these measures were largely fragmented, short-term, and insufficient to restore pre-displacement living standards. Weak governance and limited community participation further undermined outcomes. Although limited to seven participants doubling as activists, community leaders, and former farm owners, the study concludes that existing livelihood restoration efforts are largely unsustainable from the perspective of community leaders and activists based in three mining provinces of South Africa. The study proposes a sustainable livelihood framework that embraces justice and guarantees the socio-economic resilience of the resettled communities. Full article