Purpose: Organizational sustainability in the changing market requires adequate management of resources and opportunities; thus, entrepreneurship and digitization have acquired special relevance as key elements in the training programs offered for employee’s development. In order to analyze whether employee motivations influence corporate entrepreneurial development and consider the influence of this type of training program on intrapreneurial activity, a survey of 241 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Community of Madrid was carried out. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis was conducted using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methodology. Findings: This analysis provides a new perspective for the research of the training programs proposed and puts forward recommendations to achieve an approach that favors entrepreneurial development. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for managers and business leaders and showing actions to integrate digitalization with transversal value for continuous and sustainable development. Originality/value: The value of this article lies in demonstrating that training in entrepreneurial skills or digital tools is not a necessary variable for the presence of entrepreneurship in the organization; however, an absence of training in these areas does imply that intrapreneurial characteristics do not develop. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

This study proposes an investment evaluation and incentive allocation model for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in renewable energy development projects (REDPs). A hybrid multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) and bi-level optimization model are proposed to evaluate investment opportunities and allocate government financial incentives (GFIs) to REDPs. The best-worst method (BWM) is used to weigh the evaluation criteria. VIKOR and grey relational analysis (GRA) rank and allocate GFIs to the private sector companies selected to participate in the REDPs. The government uses the PPP to persuade digital services companies in the private sector to invest in underdeveloped REDPs using financial incentives with minimal risk and maximum return. An iterative full-enumeration-based heuristic model is developed to handle the computational intractability in the bi-level model. The computational results show that political and financial support and land use are the most and the least important criteria, respectively. Moreover, we show that the government prefers to allocate a significant portion of its GFIs to waste heat recovery and hydropower in partnership with digital services companies. The results from the bi-level model help government agencies and policymakers offer equitable incentive programs in the energy sectors. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Kinomichi is a movement art of Japanese origin based on the martial art of Aikido. It is based on the Japanese tradition known as Budo, which can be translated as a form of self-knowledge and personal development through martial practice. It was created by Aikido master Masamichi Noro (1935-2013) after a serious traffic accident in 1966. Noro adapted Aikido, minimised the physical demands and incorporated therapeutic exercises so that people with motor limitations could also practice it. Our aim is to analyse the therapeutic potential of Kinomichi by determining the Western therapies on which it is based. A systematic search of six databases was conducted using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis) guidelines. The search yielded 118 results, of which seven met the inclusion criteria (n = 7) and were found in the EBSCOHOST and Google Scholar databases. The Western therapeutic methods incorporated in the Kinomichi were the following (n = 9): Alexander Technique; Gindler Method; Ehrenfried Method; Kabat Method; Feldenkrais Method; Eutonia Method; Mézières Method; GDS-Godolieve Denys-Struyf Method and Antigymnastics Method. It justifies the need for quantitative experimental or quasi-experimental studies to verify the hypothetical benefits of Kinomichi as a therapeutic exercise. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Many studies are available on the relationship between natural resources, economic growth, and sustainable development; however, studies on the influence of debt servicing and its role in sustainable economic growth in poor economies are missing. This study explores the influence of natural resources and debt servicing on the economic growth of highly indebted poor economies between 1988 and 2021, including the role of renewable electricity output. Various time-series approaches were employed, including unit root tests (ADF with and without break years, DF-GLS) and Bayer-Hanck cointegration. The empirical evidence indicates a positive contribution of natural resource rents, like natural gas and coal, to economic growth. Preliminary findings were offered by utilizing FMOLS, DOLS, and CCR, and to ascertain the precision, robustness techniques varied from parametric to nonparametric analyses were employed. Conversely, renewable electricity output reduces long-term economic growth. These outcomes were confirmed by robust regression analysis, structural breaks, simple least squares, and quantile regression. The research provides policy implications for the prudent use of external debts, natural resources, and renewable electricity output for sustainable economic growth. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a modern alternative financing instrument capable of connecting economic agents, entrepreneurs, and investors from all over the world. The benefits of blockchain technology in terms of privacy, security, and immutability make these financing tools particularly attractive. In this article, we analyze ICOs through the world’s largest global database of ICOs. The analysis has been carried out through fsQCA methodology to a sample of 75 projects funded through this funding tool and aims to answer what are the possible ways to achieve success in fundraising in an ICO. The results shed light on the importance of financial factors, such as the risk of the operation, but also related to communication and user communities for the success or failure of these campaigns. The aim of this article is to provide entrepreneurs with a tool to help them plan their ICOs, develop them in a suitable way to attract the largest amount of funds, and mobilize investors’ resources, achieving a synergy between the entrepreneur and the investor, with impactful, innovative, and profitable projects. It is also intended to contribute to the academic development of the subject with comparative qualitative studies. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

The judicialization of climate change has emerged as a key mechanism for demanding environmental protection in response to state inaction. Through the analysis of environmental principles such as precaution, non-regression, and sustainable development, this study examines the growing role of the judiciary in climate governance. It also addresses the legal and political challenges of this trend, including the tension between judicial activism and the separation of powers, as well as the effectiveness of climate rulings. In this context, the need to consolidate a hybrid model of environmental protection that combines strategic litigation with robust regulatory frameworks is proposed, ensuring the effective safeguarding of the right to a healthy environment. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Plant-derived extracellular vesicles possess different intrinsic therapeutic activities that can potentially help prevent or treat human diseases. These EVs can be administered as such, or ingested daily in the diet. However, food EV sources are commonly subjected to cooking processes prior to consumption. Indeed, before any biological effect can be exerted, orally-administered EVs must overcome several technological, extracellular, and cellular barriers before reaching target tissues. To explore their capacity to exert biological effects, we evaluated the stability of broccoli-derived EVs under thermal culinary conditions and gastrointestinal digestion (GI), and their ability to cross the intestinal barrier. EVs were isolated from raw broccoli, broccoli sprouts and broccoli subjected to one of five thermal culinary treatments (frying, boiling, microwaving, scalding and steaming). Nanoparticle tracking analysis (particle size distribution, concentration, and z-potential), electron microscopy, and Western blot were used to characterize the EVs. They were run through a simulated in vitro GI tract and again characterized. Potential EV transport through the intestinal barrier was assessed using transwell-cultured differentiated Caco-2 cells, and their antiproliferative effects were evaluated in intestinal and hepatic cell lines. All five thermal culinary treatments lowered EV particle concentration, protein content, and cargo, as well as influencing EV structure. Around 10 % of the broccoli-derived EVs survived GI digestion. The RNA cargo of EVs can enter intestinal cells, but only a small amount of EVs cross the intestinal barrier. Thermal treatment also reduced EV antiproliferative effects. Broccoli-derived EVs are affected by thermal culinary processing and GI digestion, and cannot cross the intestinal barrier. However, even after thermal processing they apparently maintain some potential therapeutic effects. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Milk extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent promising drug delivery platforms, yet current isolation methods face scalability challenges. Ultracentrifugation (UC), the gold standard, is expensive and energy-intensive, limiting pharmaceutical and pharmacological implementation. This study aimed to standardize scalable EV isolation methods and evaluate cheesemaking whey as a sustainable alternative to milk for therapeutic applications. We systematically compared isolation techniques including UC, tangential flow filtration (TFF), and polyethylene glycol (PEG) co-precipitation across milk and whey from bovine, caprine, and ovine sources. Casein removal strategies using acidification and EDTA treatment were evaluated. Functional validation included in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion and in vivo pharmacokinetic studies of miRNA-loaded EVs in murine models. Our results demonstrate that cheesemaking whey serves as a sustainable EV source with reduced casein contamination and comparable yields to milk. Both TFF and PEG co-precipitation effectively concentrate EVs from whey, offering viable UC alternatives for pharmaceutical scale-up, though additional purification steps are required for optimal purity. Acidification effectively removes protein contaminants from milk but shows minimal benefits for whey. Cow whey provided the highest EV yields among species evaluated. Functionally, EV-encapsulated miRNAs demonstrated superior gastrointestinal stability compared to free miRNAs and exhibited enhanced bioavailability in multiple target tissues including cardiac, splenic, and skeletal muscle following oral administration. These findings establish cheesemaking whey as a sustainable, pharmaceutical-grade EV source and validate scalable isolation methods suitable for therapeutic applications, providing essential groundwork for clinical translation of milk-derived EV-based drug delivery systems. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

This article theorizes and characterizes the concept of “outnovation” as an alternative or a complement to innovation within the framework of grounded theory. Outnovation consists of stepping out of the unrelenting innovation race and removing all unnecessary innovations from a product, focusing instead on sustainability, simplicity, authenticity, and nostalgia. After presenting the dangers and limits of innovative strategies and disasters resulting from poorly mastered innovations, the research studies four different cases, which examples demonstrate that not innovating or suppressing innovations is not synonymous with bankruptcy. At a time when customers are looking for more sustainable products and when many economists advocate degrowth and less unbridled consumption, companies are looking for new forms of differentiation and value creation. Outnovating is a way of getting out of the vicious circle of endless innovation and meeting United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. © 2024 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the motivations of two companies in the food sector to successfully implement blockchain technology in their value chain, or as the core of their business model. The study, focused on relatively small companies, analyses technical motivations such as traceability, transparency and security, as well as sustainable and social variables. The aim is to analyse specifically the role of the latter in the decision-making process regarding blockchain technology by small and medium-sized companies. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study of two successful cases of blockchain technology application in the food sector has been carried out. To this end, in-depth interviews were conducted with senior executives from both companies, who occupy different positions in the sector’s value chain. The interviews were recorded and processed with specific software, transcribed and coded. Findings: The findings of the study highlight the relevance of blockchain technology for ensuring traceability and process quality in the food industry, as well as the social and sustainable motivation of companies when making decisions regarding blockchain technology adoption. These results suggest that there are differences in motivations between small and large companies, as well as an increase in perceived value on the consumer side. Originality/value: The study addresses a research gap in the investigation of the application of blockchain technology in the food industry, exploring the determining variables for the adoption of the technology in agri-food SMEs. The research brings a global and multidimensional view to the research question, focusing on its ability to drive innovation, sustainability and generate new business models. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Digitalisation has facilitated the cultivation of corporate social responsibility through the channels of information disclosure and financial stability of the enterprises under the background of globalisation and informationalization. This study explores the influence of digitalisation on the enhancement of Corporate Social Responsibility within 512 Born Global Firms (BGFs) listed on the Second-board Market during the period from 2014 to 2020. The study focuses on the extent to which digitalization contributes to corporate social responsibility, and the degree to which this impact is moderated by information disclosure and financial stability. The study employs the entropy weight method to accurately measure BGFs’ digitalisation. Moreover, both the information disclosure and financial stability exert important mediating role in bridging digitalisation and corporate social responsibility. The study designs enterprises’ information disclosure and financial stability as mediating paths and employs spatial mediating model to measure the shaping effect of digitalisation on corporate social responsibility. The digitalisation increased by 3.22%, and it had positively stimulated corporate social responsibility by 1.54% from 2014 to 2020. Enterprises’ information disclosure is identified as a significant mediator in this dynamic relationship between digitalisation and CSR to 10.34%. In contrast, financial stability did not have a significant mediating effect. The results underscore the strategic importance of leveraging digitalisation to enhance information disclosure, thereby bolstering BGFs’ CSR in response to external environmental pressures.The study provides a new perspective on embedding digital technologies into BGFs’ corporate stakeholder management and internal governance, and highlights information disclosure and corporate social responsibility through digitalisation. This study provides insights for seeking to leverage digital strategies to strengthen their corporate social responsibility stance and enhance stakeholder engagement. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Purpose: This study investigates the effects of institutional pressures on the adoption of supply chain analytics (SCA) and its subsequent impact on supply chain (SC) innovation and frugal innovation. It also examines the correlation between SC innovation and frugal innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The study collected data from manufacturing companies in Jordan. PLS path analysis is applied. Findings: The PLS path analysis showed that coercive pressures did not significantly affect the outcome, but both normative and mimetic ones were found to have significant effects on SCA adoption. The study also shows that SCA plays a significant role in SC innovation and frugal innovation. Furthermore, it demonstrates that SC innovation significantly impacts frugal innovation. Originality/value: Overall, these findings provide valuable theoretical implications to the literature by advancing our understanding of the interactive relationships between institutional pressures, SCA, SC innovation and frugal innovation. Understanding the role that institutional pressures play in SCA adoption and its subsequent impact on SC innovation and frugal innovation enables organizations to strategically position themselves for competitive advantage and sustainable growth within the dynamic field of supply chain management. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

This study explores the adequacy of the CRETA-R framework as a teaching resource and the reliability of AI-based assessment using ChatGPT. A mixed-methods design was applied with 427 university students completing a structured task evaluated by both professors and ChatGPT. Quantitative analysis employed Kendall’s tau-b and the Wilcoxon test to compare scores, while qualitative clustering examined student performance across CRETA-R dimensions. Results showed no significant differences between human and AI evaluations, with high alignment in scoring criteria. However, students struggled with prompt refinement and example integration. The strongest predictors of high performance were the Role, Adjustment, and Refinement components. The findings support the use of AI as a viable tool for structured academic assessment, though outcomes are highly dependent on prompt quality. The study highlights the importance of AI literacy and structured prompt design to ensure consistent and pedagogically meaningful evaluation. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.