Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship最新文献

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become the leading international reference for achieving a more inclusive and sustainable model of development. Businesses play an important role in changing the existing model. Analysis of the engagement of businesses with the SDGs first requires knowledge of how managers perceive advances toward achieving these goals. This knowledge is missing from the academic literature. This paper proposes a synthetic indicator that captures company managers’ ratings of how well their companies are meeting the 17 SDGs. To create the synthetic indicator, the DP2 distance method was applied. Companies that most positively rate the degree of achievement of the SDGs belong to the agrifood sector.

The objective of this study is to assess the current and potential dimensions of the digital economy in Bangladesh, with the ultimate goal of fostering the country's development and prosperity by the year 2041 (Al Mubarak, 2022). Concurrently, this analysis examines the various facets of the digital economy through a lens that incorporates the concepts of the 4th Industrial Revolution and emerging technologies. The methodology section employs a qualitative approach to ascertain the research objectives, utilizing secondary data. The study's findings aim to provide an overview of the present condition of the digital economy, focusing on emerging trends that have a positive impact on the national gross domestic product (GDP). Companies and individuals possess an understanding of the conceptual implications associated with the digital economy. This awareness has the potential to mitigate the digital divide and establish a robust connection between technology and the economy. In summary, it is anticipated that the digital economy will witness a growth in its potential for commercial and corporate prospects. Future research could potentially be expanded by employing a qualitative approach to examine the concept of a digital Bangladesh.

Innovation is not only a random or accidental process. It requires a deliberate and systematic approach to enhance the innovation performance of a country. The concept of the National Innovation System (NIS) has provided a valuable framework for organizing and fostering innovation efforts across individuals, groups, and organizations within a country. While numerous studies on NIS have been carried out in developed countries, contributing to their socioeconomic progress and shaping effective policies, there is a significant disparity between developed and developing countries. Researchers have recognized the importance of studying NISs in developing countries and have highlighted the need for in-depth investigations into system configurations to generate valuable insights for policy formulation.

This paper presents a conceptual model for conducting NIS studies in developing countries, derived from a critical review of existing literature. The proposed model serves as a guide for conducting comprehensive studies within the unique contexts of developing countries, focusing on the central core of NIS. Moreover, this study opens opportunities for future NIS-related research by identifying specific subsections of the overall NIS that warrant attention, while acknowledging the limitations faced by researchers. By adopting this conceptual model, researchers can delve into various aspects of the NIS in developing countries, facilitating a holistic understanding, and enabling the generation of impactful policy recommendations.

The study sought to determine the influence of Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices (SSCMPS) on environmental performance. The study undertook a systematic review and content analysis in order to derive valid insights on the relationship between the study variables. As such, the study reviewed 140 academic/journal articles published in the period 2012 to 2022, obtained from different databases. ABI/INFORMs (ProQuest), ScienceDirect, SCOPUS and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) were the principal databases used. The results demonstrate that there is considerable evidence that SSCMPs positively affect environmental performance. A sizeable number of scholars focus on sustainable supply chain management and environmental sustainability, and little focus were given to operational performance and social. Future studies should examine social performance and operational performance as mediating variables. Furthermore, more industry-orientated studies should apply robust methodologies such as mixed methods and include mediating and moderating variables to unpack the relationship between SSCMPs and environmental performance.

In light of significant advancements in both theoretical and practical aspects of technopreneurship, supported by empirical research, there remains an unexplored area within the academic domain pertaining to the impact of perceived parents’ entrepreneurial passion towards a career in technopreneurship and technopreneurship intention among Generation Z students remains unexplored in the academic domain. This study thus aims to examine how perceived parents’ entrepreneurial passion, perceived desirability and perceived feasibility would stimulate attitude towards a career in technopreneurship and technopreneurship intention among Generation Z students in Zimbabwe. It is based on a nomothetic quantitative methodology, where a survey was applied to collect responses from Generation Z university students in the Harare Metropolitan Province of Zimbabwe. Through structural equation modelling, the findings are validated, confirming that perceived parents’ entrepreneurial passion, perceived desirability and perceived feasibility do indeed influence attitudes towards pursuing a career in technopreneurship. The study also discovered that attitude towards a career in technopreneurship has a positive and a significant impact on technopreneurship intention. Moreover, the results support the moderation role of perseverance and perceived parental entrepreneurial rewards on the nexus between attitude towards a career in technopreneurship and technopreneurship intention. Based on the results, the study concludes that perceived parents’ entrepreneurial passion, perceived desirability and perceived feasibility would stimulate attitude towards a career in technopreneurship and technopreneurship intention among Generation Z students.

The success of agricultural  Small and Medium Enterprises (agri-SMEs), among other factors, heavily relies on their ability to manage  finances effectively. This study examined the extent to which agricultural SMEs in Tanzania practice financial management activities. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from 427 agri-SMEs in three regions of Tanzania. Descriptive statistics and higher-order reflective-formative Structural Equation Model (SEM) were employed for data analysis. The findings  indicated moderate adoption of financial management practices. Specifically, agri-SMEs were found to frequently engage in working capital management practices, such as maintaining sufficient cash flows and records for payables and receivables. However, financial reporting is less frequently practiced, with sporadic financial statements preparation and financial analysis. The findings indicate further that other financial management practices such as financial accounting, capital budgeting and financing management  were moderately and infrequently implemented, with external financing sources being utilized less frequently compared to internal financing sources. The path analysis indicates that all lower-order constructs significantly contributed to the higher-order financial management practice construct with capital budgeting demonstrating the strongest impact. The findings highlight the need for improving financial reporting, analysis, and external financing usage in Tanzanian agri-SMEs. These findings offer valuable insights agri-SMEs in developing countries to  appropriately strategize on implementation of financial management practices that will lead to improved access to finance and high performance.

The pandemic has highlighted the fact that healthcare systems around the world are under pressure. Demographic change is leading to an increasing shortage of care workers in most countries, and the demographic challenge is only just beginning in most societies. While robots are widely used in industry, robotic support in healthcare is still limited to very specialized robots in the operating theatre. The question of what type of deployment is likely to be successful in a healthcare scenario is not only a technological or economical question but also one of technology acceptance. The answer to this question supports entrepreneurial opportunities to develop sustainable healthcare solutions.

In this paper, we analyze the acceptance of robots in elderly care from the perspective of patients, patient families, and geriatric care professionals. To understand the various positions and to identify the suitability of existing acceptance models, we applied stakeholder mapping to conduct qualitative interviews with 14 people with different knowledge backgrounds and levels of involvement in care situations, based on 9 videos showing different robots and application scenarios.

The results confirmed that existing technology acceptance models need to be extended by factors such as robot appearance. We found that the background knowledge of the respondents influences the results of the questions about e.g. safety concerns. In addition, we found that the contribution to patients' self-determination and independence is an important factor that is not included in existing technology acceptance models. Finally, the discovery of a significant discrepancy between the self-perception and the external perception of the different stakeholders regarding the acceptance of a service robot can be explained by the stakeholder positions involved in caring for the benefit of a specific patient.

These findings encourage further research, especially with the underlying assumption that technology acceptance in healthcare is not just a patient issue, but a stakeholder issue. Stakeholder mapping is a valid tool to analyze the interdependencies for the acceptance of robots. Therefore, we suggest using a tool such as stakeholder mapping to further analyze these issues.

Despite noteworthy advancement of theoretical and practical knowledge of social media eWord-of-Mouth with evidence from prior empirical research, the influences consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits products in fast moving consumer goods retailers remains unexplored in academic domain. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examining the role of social media word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits products in fast moving consumer goods retailers. It is based on a nomothetic quantitative methodology, where a survey was applied to collect responses from consumers of commercialized indigenous fruits products in selected fast moving consumer goods retailers in Marondera town, in Mashonaland East province of Zimbabwe. The structural equation modelling validated results confirm that quality, source credibility, usefulness of information and information adoption have influence on social media electronic word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intentions of commercialised indigenous fruits products in fast moving consumer goods retailers. In line with the current research results, complementary cross-sectional studies using the same methodology in different geographical areas in the same focus can be applied to check for relevancy, reliability and applicability. However, the current study, originally contributes to digital marketing, information communication technologies or information systems and food marketing practice and theory building. Further to this, it provides researchers with an agenda for future research directions.

The private sector must play a central role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To fulfill their duty, businesses must rely on accurate methodologies for measuring their impact on the SDGs. Since they were established, tools for evaluating companies' impact on the goals have proliferated. Over the last few years, there has been an increasing interest from academia in the evaluation of business impacts on the SDGs. The current study undertakes a systematic literature review to investigate the state-of-the-art of academic research on corporate SDG impact measurement. The review sampled 30 articles published between 2015 and 2022. Relying on qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics, this study investigates the scope, purpose, main findings, and publication data of the articles of the sample, aiming to provide some structure to this novel field of research. Furthermore, this work identifies relevant gaps in the literature, providing some insights for future research.

The rabbit industry has a lot of livelihood and economic potentials. However, constraints such as inadequate production of rabbit to meet customer demand serve as hindrances to the growth of the industry. Commercialization of rabbit production will increase rabbit products which will be beneficial to both farmers and consumers. This paper examines the profitability and viability of commercialization of rabbit production among rabbit farmers in Ghana. The study used primary data collected from 200 rabbit farmers in Upper Denkyira East Municipal of Ghana using a multi-stage sampling approach. Descriptive statistics, income statement as well as discounted and undiscounted measures of project worth were the methods of analysis. The results showed that the gross margins for commercialized and non-commercialized rabbit producers were GH¢1,309.49 (US$221.95) and GH¢907.19 (US$153.76) respectively. Also, whereas the net income and return on investment for commercialized rabbit producers were GH¢689.14 (US$116.80) and 50% respectively, those of non-commercialized producers were GH¢511.07 (US$86.62) and 60% respectively. In addition, at a discount rate of 30%, the viability analysis revealed an NPV of GH¢1,456.10 (US$246.80), BCR of 1.37 and IRR of 36.53%. Finally, the results of the payback period analysis showed that it will take three (3) months to repay the initial investment. We conclude from the aforementioned results that commercialization of rabbit production is both profitable and viable. Government, investors and other stakeholders are therefore encouraged to consider investments in commercialization of rabbit production or its promotion as a way of improving livelihood and reducing poverty in especially rural communities where production inputs are relatively cheaper and poverty is endemic.