(1) As the craft beer industry continues to expand in Canada, understanding the regional differences between the Eastern and Western markets becomes pivotal for brewing ingredient companies seeking to penetrate or expand within these regions. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review of these two distinctive markets, focusing on economic, logistical, ingredient, and cultural differences. (2) The study primarily relies on secondary data from government, industry reports, and scholarly publications, providing a holistic view of the Canadian craft beer landscape. It further highlights the need to consider market distinctions between Canada and the United States. (3) Findings reveal that Western Canadian breweries, unlike their Eastern counterparts, operate under constrained storage space, prefer locally-sourced ingredients, and offer a distinct variety of beer styles catering to local tastes. The study further uncovers the regulatory and financial complexities of the Canadian market compared to the United States. (4) Based on these findings, this study provides strategic recommendations for brewing ingredient companies, emphasizing domestic logistics, local sourcing, product adaptation, educational support, and regulatory navigation, fostering success in the Canadian craft beer landscape.

Fish is a very healthy food that is a great source of proteins, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids. For many people in developing nations, like Nigeria, smoked and dried fish serves as a significant source of protein and is an integral part of the traditional diet. However, smoked and dried fish are susceptible to fungal growth, especially when the storage conditions are not right, and it has been discovered that many products contain fungi that are easily visible on the surface. This study investigated the diversity and occurrence frequency of contaminated fungi species in dried fishes sold in local markets of Awka in Anambra state, Nigeria. Twenty-four fungal isolates with varying colony morphology were isolated from the various dried fish products. The contaminating species were further subjected to lactophenol cotton blue (LPCB) staining and Ten (10) Unique fungal morphology was detected. Carbohydrate utilization test was used to select unique isolates and further molecular identification showed successful PCR amplification of the isolates. The current study identified various fungal groups contaminating dried fish products sold in Awka Markets. The three dominant genera were the fungal genera' Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. These results suggest that most dried fish being sold in the Markets are contaminated with multiple fungi, posing a critical health risk to individuals. Thus, there is a need for attention to be paid to the packaging and storage of dried fish to lessen the likelihood of air exposure, lower water activity, and prevent microbiological growth on the dried fish.

Productivity has been modest in construction due to many reasons, especially project-specific operations and fragmentation. The main aim of this research is to map the challenges towards industrialization in construction through a comparative study of the manufacturing industry. An inductive approach and a qualitative method are followed by applying semi-structured inter-views, and node-based thematic analysis. The key elements of industrialization in mature man-ufacturing companies are benchmarked. The findings indicate a specific order of steps for indus-trialization in construction. Data and information management with achieved systematization have been sources of productivity in manufacturing companies. However, the systematization starts from the offering, construction companies need to define their offering, that is the products, and define their respective data. Only accurate and good quality data on products enables the systematization of order delivery processes, which are the engine for a company’s success or failure. Continuous efficiency improvement is only possible with systematized processes and respective data related to the processes. The originality involves clarifying the industrialization of construction companies via products, respective data, and processes considering industrialized manufacturing companies.

In this study, we analyzed the microbial community of traditional fermented foods in Jeju Island to identify the distribution of useful microorganisms and confirm their anti-inflammatory and anti-melanogenic effects to determine their potential use as cosmetic ingredients. Firstly, we examined the microbial communities of Omphalius rusticus Jeotgal (OR), Spratelloides gracilis Jeotgal (SG), Chromis notata Jeotgal (CN), Turbo cornutus Jeotgal (TC), Trichiurus lepturus intestine Jeotgal (TL), Branchiostegus japonicus Sweet Rice Punch (BJ), Salted Anchovy Sauce (SA), Jeju Soy Sauce (JSS), and Jeju Soybean Paste (JSP). We found that Latilactobacillus sakei (87.2%), Tetragenococcus halophilus (37.7%), T. halophilus (96.8%), Bacillus subtilis (23.4%), T. halophilus (71.3%), L. sakei (53.7%), Lentibacillus sp. (42.9%), Enterococcus durans (14.6%), and E. durans (32.8%) were the dominant species. Secondly, to study the nine Jeju fermented foods’ anti-inflammatory and anti-melanogenic effects, we employed RAW 264.7 and B16F10 cells, classic cell models for inflammation and melanogenesis studies. Ethyl acetate extracts of the nine Jeju fermented foods all inhibited nitric oxide (NO) and melanin production in a concentration-dependent manner. Thirdly, to test the applicability of the nine Jeju fermented foods to human skin, we used the MTT assay to assess their cytotoxic effects on human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells). Finally, the topical applicability of the nine Jeju fermented foods was tested through primary skin irritation, and it was found that they did not cause any adverse effects. Therefore, extracts from the nine Jeju fermented foods have potential applications as ingredients in anti-inflammatory and anti-melanogenic products and can be used in the cosmetic industry.

: Microbiology has long been a keystone in fermentation and the utilization of yeast biology rein-forces molecular biotechnology as the pioneering frontier in brewing science. Consequently, modern understanding of the brewer’s yeast has faced significant refinement over the last few decades. This publication presents a condensed summation of Saccharomyces species dynamics with an emphasis on the relationship between traditional ale yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the interspecific hybrids used in lager beer production, S. pastorianus. Introgression from other Sac-charomyces species is also touched on. The unique history of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharo-myces hybrids are exemplified by recent genomic sequencing studies aimed at categorizing brewing strains through phylogeny and redefining Saccharomyces species boundaries. Phylogenetic investigations highlight the genomic diversity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ale strains long known to brewers by their fermentation characteristics and phenotypes. Discoveries of genomic contribu-tions from interspecific Saccharomyces species into the genome of S. cerevisiae strains is ever more apparent with increased investigations on the hybrid nature of modern industrial and historical fermentation yeast.

Biochar is a carbonaceous material derived from the thermochemical conversion of biomass under oxygen-lean conditions. Its properties render it many applications in agriculture, environmental remediation, and catalysis. Commonly produced by pyrolysis under a nitrogen atmosphere, the biochar composition is influenced mainly by residence time, heating rate, and process temperature. The existing literature primarily assesses biochar properties, such as ultimate, proximate, calorific, porosity, and combustibility, generated under various thermo-conversion conditions. However, there is a notable lack of sufficient investigation and attention given to the practical application of biochar. This article seeks to bridge that gap by enhancing the comprehension of the necessary experimental assessment for specific biochar applications and proposing process optimization methods using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). By delving into these aspects, the study offers a concise overview of biochar production and presents a comprehensive panorama based on articles and patents. Additionally, the research explores the physicochemical characterization techniques associated with biochar and its various applications in conjunction with MCDA. This comprehensive approach aims to uncover valuable insights that could further advance the practical and sustainable utilization of biochar in a wide range of fields.

In this study, a critical review was carried out using the Web of ScienceTM Core Collection database to analyse the scientific literature published to date to identify lines of research and future perspectives on the presence of chemical pollutants in beer brewing. Beer is one of the world's most popular drinks and the most consumed alcoholic beverage. However, a widespread challenge with potential implications for human and animal health is the presence of physical, chemical and/or microbiological contaminants in beer. Biogenic amines, heavy metals, mycotoxins, nitrosamines, pesticides, acrylamide, phthalates, bisphenols, microplastics and, to a lesser extent, hydrocarbons (aliphatic chlorinated and polycyclic aromatic), carbonyls, furan-derivatives, polychlorinated biphenyls and trihalomethanes are the main chemical pollutants found during the beer brewing process. Pollution sources include raw materials, technological process steps, the brewery environment and packaging materials. Different chemical pollutants have been found during the beer brewing process, from barley to beer. Brewing steps such as steeping, kilning, mashing, boiling, fermentation and clarification are critical in reducing the levels of many of these pollutants. As a result, their residual levels are usually below the maximum levels allowed by international regulations.

Peanut hulls (PH) are an edible food waste that is an underutilized food source for human consumption. While edible and palatable, they are mainly diverted to livestock feed or building materials. Here, we describe existing literature on human food valorization of PHs and propose methods to optimize recapturing nutrients (e.g. protein, fiber, polyphenols) lost by treating PHs as waste. Incorporated into common foods, PHs can be processed into functional ingredients to improve nutrient-density and the corresponding positive health outcomes associated with increases in plant foods. PH valorization can also address additional priorities of the UN Sustainable Development Goals using a Food Systems Approach (FSA) including food waste, increasing economic opportunities for farmers, and increasing the availability of healthy shelf-stable foodstuffs to address food security. Recent advances in sustainable food processing technologies can be utilized to safely incorporate peanut hulls into human food streams. We propose future applications that could make meaningful impacts to food availability and the nutritional composition of common foods. While the limited literature on this topic spans several decades, no global operations exist to incorporate peanut hulls and most publications precede the technological ‘green revolution’. The approaches outlined in this review may help bolster commercialization of this underutilized and nutritious food potentially improving opportunities for multiple global stakeholders.

This paper aims to assess whether the financial performance of Portuguese companies that publish sustainability reports (SR) differs from the financial performance of companies that do not publish SR. We use two methodological procedures. First, we conducted a univariate analysis to test the differences in the financial performance according to the disclosure of SR. Second, we conducted a multivariate analysis using a multiple linear regression that explains financial performance by the disclosure of SR, as well as control variables such as sector, size, leverage, growth, and liquidity. Findings indicate that financial performance of companies that disclose SR does not significantly differ from the financial performance of companies that do not disclose SR. The results are robust to both methodological procedures, as well as to the sample split by sectors.

High gravity brewing (HGB) and adjunct use are common practices in industrial breweries. This work studied the impact of HGB and wheat adjuncts on beer characteristics. Parameters were evaluated in full-malt beer and beers prepared with 30 % wheat grits (WG) and wheat flakes (WF) in the grist and the effect of HGB was examined. Five beers were prepared; one control, two with different original gravity (OG) with WF and two with WG. Beers with higher OG were diluted to a lower OG and control beer was prepared too. The application of wheat adjuncts increased foam stability but HGB did not affect the beer foam. HGB beers had a remarkably higher ester concentration than other samples, and beers with WG also had a significantly higher ester content. Decreased higher alcohols to esters ratio in HGB beers affected the balanced flavour profile of the lager beer. There was a significantly lower content of unwanted volatiles such as vicinal diketones and dimethyl sulphide in HGB beers. The application of HGB mostly did not affect the beer ageing characteristics such as carbonyl compounds and thiobarbituric acid number.

Consumer demands for new sensory experiences have driven the research of unconventional yeasts in beer. While much research exists on the use of various common Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains as well as non-Saccharomyces yeasts, there exists a gap in knowledge regarding other non-cerevisiae Saccharomyces species in the fermentation of beer, outside that of S. pastorianus. Here, five distinct species of Saccharomyces from the UC Davis Phaff Yeast Culture Collection, as well as one interspecies hybrid from Fermentis, were chosen to ferment 40 L pilot scale beers. S. kudriavzevii, S. mikatae, S. paradoxus, S. bayanus, and S. uvarum yeasts were fermented in duplicate, with one fermenter in each pair receiving 10 g/L dry-hop during fermentation. Analytical measurements were made each day of fermentation and compared to controls of SafAle US-05 and SafLager W 34/70 for commercial brewing parameters of interest. Finished beers were also analyzed for aroma, taste, and mouthfeel to determine the flavor of each yeast as it pertains to brewing potential. All beers exhibited spicy characteristics, likely from the presence of phenols; dry-hopping increased fruit notes while also increasing perceived bitterness and astringency. All of the species in this study displayed great brewing potential, and might be an ideal addition to beer depending on a brewery’s desire to experiment with flavor and willingness to bring a new yeast into their production environment

Logistics plays an important role in globalized companies and contributes to the development of foreign trade. A large number of external conditions, such as recession and inflation, affect logistics. Therefore, managers should find ways to improve operational performance, enabling them to increase efficiency while considering environmental sustainability due to the industry’s large scale of energy consumption. Based on data collected from the financial reports of top global logistics companies, this study uses a DEA model to calculate corporate efficiency by implementing a Grey forecasting approach to forecast future sustainability values. Consequently, the study addresses the problem of how to enhance operational performance while accounting for the impact of external conditions. This research can help logistics companies develop operation strategies in the future that will enhance their competitiveness vis-à-vis rivals in a time of global economic volatility.

Companies are increasingly focusing on sustainable business practices. Internal and external stakeholders’ expectations manifest in legal requirements, national and international standards, and market and customer expectations, among other things, must be considered. In addition to profit maximization as the usual target for corporate management, management must consider environmental sustainability aspects such as resource efficiency, greenhouse gas intensity, and a company's emissions behavior. In addition, social aspects relating to the company's employees, the immediate urban environment, the situation in the supply chain, and effects on the market environment must increasingly be considered. Specifically, companies are faced with the chal-lenge of dealing with conflicting objectives regarding the various aspects of sustainability and, if necessary, weighing them up against each other. These trade-offs must be made against the company's socio-economic and ecological environment, corporate strategy, and sustainability goals. This paper provides an overview of current approaches and research gaps on this topic through a literature review. It shows a lack of methods and frameworks to specifically deal with trade-offs and conflicts of goals.

Very hot (> 65 °C) beverages such as espresso were evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as probably carcinogenic to humans. For this reason, research into lowering beverage temperature without compromising its quality or taste is important. For espresso, one obvious possibility consists in lowering the brewing temperature. In two sensory trials using ISO 4120:2004 triangle test methodology, brewing temperatures of 80°C vs. 128°C and 80° vs. 93°C were compared. From the tested levels, espresso brewed at the lowest temperature had the highest acceptance. However, most tasters were unable to distinguish between 80°C and 93°C. The results of these pilot experiments proof the possibility to decrease the health hazard of very hot beverages by lower brewing temperatures.

Abstract: Efforts for carbon emission reduction have been identified as a major climate change mitigation target in the Paris Agreement. The 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change highlighted the worldwide effort for cleaner and greener mining, urging the mineral industry to embrace greener operational emissions reduction technologies and strategies. Ghana pledged at the Paris Conference to reduce CO2 emissions by 15% and increase renewable energy share to 10% of the national energy mix. Here the fundamental question is how Ghana’s mining industry can contribute to CO2 emission reduction efforts. This paper investigates barriers to low-carbon emission policy implementation among mining companies in Ghana. The questionnaire survey was conducted among Ghana’s four large-scale gold mining companies. As the sample number of available companies is limited, we used a descriptive analysis to assess the responses. The results show that the companies expressed widely different ways to respond to the issues of cost, a government policy/regulations for carbon emission reduction, and the adoption/acquisition of low-carbon technologies. Those companies that are relatively less prepared for this endeavor emphasized the uncertainties of securing sufficient energy in case of using low-carbon technologies. They also expressed a need for more trained workers to handle low-carbon technologies. All companies agreed with a expected high cost of adopting low-carbon options. There was a communication gap with the relevant government ministry about low-carbon mining options where the government should be able to facilitate the involvement of othe low technology providers, such as solar PV installation.

In this paper, the main physicochemical characteristics and evolutionary laws of microbial community structure during the fermentation of aged vinegar were discussed, and the correlation between Cuqu and microorganisms and physicochemical characteristics during fermentation was explored. The results showed that there are significant differences in genera at different stages of fermentation, the main dominant bacteria in R1 are Bacillus, Lactobacillus, Aspergillus and Issatchenkia. At R2 fermentation stage, Lactobacillus, Acetobacter and Saccharomyces showed an upward trend and finally became absolute advantage bacteria. The main genus of bacteria at the end of overall fermentation is Aspergillus. Correlation analysis shows that in Cuqu, the bacterial genera that are significantly positively and negatively correlated with reducing sugars and amino acid nitrogen are the same, while the bacterial genera that are significantly positively and negatively correlated with pH and saccharification power are the same. During the fermentation process, pH, reducing sugar and saccharification ability are mainly positively correlated with bacterial genera. And research has found that during the fermentation process, the overall correlation between fungal communities and physicochemical characteristics is weaker compared to bacteria.

Beer is a fermented beverage with a history as old as human civilization and its productive process has been spread all around the world becoming unique in every country and iconic of entire populations. Ales and lagers are by far the most common beers; however, the combination of raw materials, manufacture techniques and aroma profiles are almost infinite, so it is not surprising to notice that there is a large amount of different beer styles, each of them with unique characteristics. Nowadays, diversification is becoming increasingly important in the brewing market and the brewers are continuously interested in improving and extending the already wide range of products, especially in craft brewery. One of the major components that can have a deep impact on the final product is yeast, since it is able to convert carbohydrates in wort, especially maltose and maltotriose, into ethanol, carbon dioxide and other minor aroma-active compounds. Saccharomyces cerevisiae (top‐fermenting yeasts used to produce ales) and Saccharomyces pastorianus (cryotolerant bottom‐fermenting hybrids between S. cerevisiae and Saccharomyces eubayanus responsible for the fermentation of lagers) are most used in breweries. However, an increasing number of different yeast starter cultures are commercially available, to improve the production efficiency also at relative low temperatures and to obtain desirable and diversified aroma profiles avoiding undesired compounds. Four main genetic engineering-free trends are becoming popular in craft brewing yeast development: 1) the research for novel reservoirs as source of new performant S. cerevisiae yeasts; 2) the creation of synthetic hybrids between S. cerevisiae and Saccharomyces non-cerevisiae in order to mimic lager yeasts by expanding their genetic background; 3) the exploitation of evolutionary engineering approaches; 4) the usage of non-Saccharomyces yeasts either in co-coculture or in sequential fermentation with S. cerevisiae. In the present work we summarized pro and contra of these approaches and provided an overview on the most recent advances on how brewing yeast genome evolved and domestication took place. Finally, we delineated how the correlations maps between genotypes and relevant brewing phenotypes can assist and further improve the search for novel craft beer starter yeasts.

The beer industry is a major producer of solid waste globally, primarily in the form of brewer’s spent grains (BSG), which due to its low value has historically been diverted to livestock as feed or to landfills as waste. Its high moisture content and chemical composition positions BSG as an ideal candidate for further processing with microbial fermentation, and recent research has focused on filamentous fungi and the ability of some species therein to degrade the predominant recalcitrant cellulolignin components of BSG to produce valuable compounds. Many species have been investigated to biovalorize this waste stream, including those in the genuses Aspergillus, Pennicillium, Rhyzopus, and Trichoderma, which have been used to produce a wide array of highly valuable enzymes and other functional compounds, and to increase the nutritional value of BSG as an animal feed. This review of recent developments in the application of filamentous fungi for the valorization of BSG will discuss the biochemical makeup of BSG, the biological mechanisms underlying fungi’s primacy to this application, and the current applications of fungi in this realm. As the majority of these studies are at lab-scale, the challenges to scale-up and more widespread application and will be discussed as well.

Sustainability is a characteristic manifested in the ability to maintain the necessary level of performance for construction companies when risk factors arise during the implementation of investment and construction projects. The risk factors that arise during the implementation of in-vestment and construction projects differ in nature, degree of influence, and other characteristics. Ignoring these factors and measures to manage them often leads to critical consequences in the form of disruptions in the timing of work. Risk is a combination of the probability and consequences of the occurrence of adverse events. The article considers the concept of risk as a potential possibility of occurrence of adverse situations and related consequences when exposed to these factors. Risk factors are characterized by surprise, discreteness of changes, the presence of threshold values, upon reaching which a transition to a different mode of operation is required. The article discusses the risk factors arising at the construction stage, their classification. A methodology has been developed that includes conducting a survey in the form of a questionnaire in order to collect information about risk factors that affect the implementation of investment and construction projects. Experts with experience in the construction sector were involved in the survey. The processing of the survey results made it possible to assess the significance of various risk factors in investment and construction projects. Thus, statistical and expert methods were used in the study. The results showed that financial, technical, legal, economic, managerial and natural factors have the greatest impact on investment and construction projects. It is recommended to pay special attention to the listed factors when developing measures aimed at preventing risks and their consequences. The methodology described in the study can be used by construction companies in strategic planning. The analysis of the stability of construction companies, depending on their use of various ways to counteract risk factors, allowed us to develop a number of practical recommendations to reduce the impact of the studied factors on achieving the goals of investment and construction projects.

The aim of this study was to investigate the parameters affecting the extraction of positive molecules such as chlorogenic acids and antioxidants, as well as potentially carcinogenic substances such as acrylamide, in different coffee brewing methods. Three coffee varieties, each assigned to different roasting degree, were used to prepare coffee brews following eight diverse preparation methods. Acrylamide was quantified by HPLC-MS/MS instrument while chlorogenic acids and caffeine by HPLC-DAD system. Three spectrophotometric analyses were also performed (DPPH, TFC and TPC) to evaluate antioxidant activity as well. The results showed that the main brewing parameters, that have the greatest influence on the final content of these compounds were the volume of water used, more specifically the brewing ratio (coffee to water ratio), the extraction time and the particle size of the coffee powder.

Grape pomace (GP) is a winemaking residue that can be used as a functional ingredient due to its phenolic content, among others. The influence of GP, grape pomace extract (GPE) and encapsulated grape pomace extract (BGPE) on the phenolic compounds content, physical, textural and sensory properties of the functional biscuit (FB) was studied. In the production of FB, 10-30 % of the wheat flour in the standard biscuit was replaced by GP or by adding GPE and BGPE in amounts equivalent to the phenolic content of GP. The highest content of phenolic compounds was found when 30 % of GP was used. The antioxidant activity (AA) correlated well with the phenolic compound content (R > 0.87). The antiproliferative activity of biscuit extracts against cancer cell lines is in the following order: SW620 > Caco-2 > Hep G2, but the positive correlation with phenols and AA was not found. Textural properties of biscuits with GPE and BGPE addition were worse compared to GP and standard biscuits, i.e. they were harder. Biscuits with BGPE addition received the highest overall sensory score. The results indicate that biscuits enriched with phenolics from grape pomace could be a promising functional food with good sensory properties.

It is important for food recognition to separate each ingredient within a food image at the pixel level. In this paper, we propose a new approach to segment ingredients by utilizing a CNN-based Single-Ingredient Classification Model. In detail, we firstly introduce a standardized biological-based hierarchical ingredient structure and construct a single-ingredient image dataset based on this structure. Then, we build a single-ingredient classification model based on a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that utilizes an attention mechanism. Afterwards, we propose a new framework for segmentation using the above single-ingredient classification model as the backbone. In this framework, two methods are involved in segmenting ingredients in the food images. We introduce five evaluation metrics (IoU, Dice, Purity, Entirety, Loss of GTs) to assess the performance of ingredient segmentation in terms of ingredient classification. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, achieving an maximal mIoU of 0.65, mDice of 0.77, mPurity of 0.83, mEntirety of 0.80, and mLoGTs of 0.06 on the FoodSeg103 dataset. The results confirm that our CNN-based architecture achieves higher segmentation performance compared to ResNet18 and EfficientNet-B0 when used as the backbone for ingredient segmentation. We believe that our ingredient segmentation approach lays the foundation for subsequent ingredient recognition.

The oil and gas industry in Nigeria, a vital contributor to the nation's economy, has long been associated with significant environmental challenges. Pollution, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions have raised global concerns about sustainability and corporate responsibility. This empirical study explores the relationship between environmental accounting practices and the financial performance of listed oil and gas companies in Nigeria. We investigated eight oil and gas companies that are publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange Market (NGX) as of January 17, 2022, from 2011 to 2022. The study employs Driscoll-Kraay standard errors and reveals that environmental accounting had significant effects on returns on assets, earnings per share, and liquidity ratio. The study revealed that the implementation of environmental accounting practices had diverse effects on the performance of oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The findings encourage policymakers and stakeholders in the sector to utilise the insights and design more effective regulations and incentives that promote environmental corporate responsibility. Also, valuable insights into the potential benefits and challenges associated with adopting environmental accounting practices, and influencing the decision-making processes of corporate stakeholders were provided to ensure sustainability in terms of improved financial performance of the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

During the European unification process, they stated the need for drawing up a common energy strategic plan that will affects electricity production system in terms of infrastructure, production and generation. The EU strategic action plans included; reduction in emissions, an increase in renewable energies, energy efficiency. In this light therefore the energy efficiency was booked for researching. This article presents an in-depth study of the challenges in transforming a functioning PMO model to an EPMO model within four electricity companies from different countries within the EU and how those challenges can be address within companies implementing same methodology to bring about electricity production efficiency. Will these identified challenges make it impossible for the companies to achieve electricity production efficiency in the transformation from PMO to EPMO? PMO has been the major methodology used by these companies. To achieve production efficiency, the need for a heavyweight methodology was identified (EPMO) and implemented in four mega electricity producing companies with cross boarder distributions, one from France; Germany; Spain and UK

The purpose is to verify trends of scientific production from 2010 to 2020, considering the best universities of the United States, China, the European Union (EU) and private companies. The top 30 universities in 2020 in China, the EU, and the US and private companies were selected from the SCImago institutions ranking (SIR). The positions in 2020, 2015, 2010 in SIR and three sub-indicators were analyzed by means of non-parametric statistics, taking into consideration the effect of time and group on rankings. American and European Union universities have lost positions to Chinese universities and even more to private companies, which have improved. In 2020, private companies have surpassed all other groups considering Innovation as sub-indicator. The loss of leadership of European and partly American universities mainly concerns research linked to the production of patents. This can lead to future risks of monopoly that may elude public control and cause a possible loss of importance of research not linked to innovation.

The incidence of celiac disease and gluten intolerance has been significantly rising globally. Gluten-free product consumption registered a sudden rise also among tolerant people, due to psychosocial factors. Biscuits are popular, low-cost bakery foods, consumed by nearly everyone worldwide. The removal of gluten from the baked product causes some undesirable traits and different textures and tastes. The main goal consists of creating a food product with the same taste and texture as a product with gluten. Moreover, gluten-free bakery products are usually low-grade sources of protein and poor in dietary fiber. Quinoa is a source of TDF and valuable protein. In this study, quinoa flour was used as the main constituent in the formulation of gluten-free c to improve their nutritional properties. Six different recipes with different percentages of quinoa flour have been realized. The formulations were compared, by rheological analysis, of each other and with a wheat flour control shortbread. The recipes with rheological features more similar to control shortbread were subjected to a discrimination analysis and the preferred was characterized from a chemical-physical and sensorial point of view. The experimental shortbreads constituted a good compromise to exploit the good nutritional composition of quinoa maintaining an acceptable sensory profile.

Digital transformation of companies is often referred to as a future track and a strategic path towards ensuring the survival and sustainability of companies. In this paper, we aim to outline this transformation process in Tunisian companies and identify its driving factors and finally explain its key success factors. To this end, we examine a sample of 70 companies operating in all economic sectors. The results indicate that such a digital strategy has a significant and a positive effect on the success of digital transformation of companies. Leadership has an effect at a low level of digital maturity. On the other hand, corporate culture does not have a significant effect on digital transformation. These results contribute to explaining this emerging phenomenon by focusing on the driving factors as well as the factors that contribute to its success.

This study tries to focusing on applying information communication technology for economic importance of Mid Oil Company (MDOC), which is among contemporary oil companies in Iraq. Since ICT forms a significant aspect of achieving organizational economic objectives, most of public and private bodies seek to utilize ICT tool and techniques to improve work efficiencies. The emerging growth in ICT has made it process and service automation possible in managing organizational activities. To determine this effect of ICT on organizations, this study formulated statistical research model at MDOC through using fifteen questionnaires, which were distributed on three axes. The outcome of the questionnaire analysis revealed that there is inadequate comprehensive infrastructure to suitably support ICT within the selected organization management. In addition, it revealed that there are no ideal standards to maintain and sustain internet networks. Based on these revelations, the study presents recommendation for the adoption of ICT with the aim of minimizing cost, enhancing communication and managing infrastructure. Also recommends the need to support IT department within an organization, with essential equipment, in terms of man and machine, for better efficiency to employ the key of ICT Impact in Iraqi governmental oil companies.

Yarrowia lipolytica is a widely used microorganism in biotechnology since it is capable of producing a wide range of products. A less studied related strain is Y. divulgata, which is also capable of erythritol production in even higher concenctration then most Y. lipolytica wild strains. Thus the aim of this work was to investigate Y. divulgata’s complex utilisation based on erythritol fermentation to establish a Yarrowia based biorefinery in which both the fermentation broth and separated cells are utilised in high-value products. An important parameter of erythritol fermentation is the adequate oxygen level, so the effect of it was investigated in baffled flasks and fermentor as well. Furthermore, we measured the cosmetic applicability of cell lysates and the efficiency of biodetergent produced during erythritol fermentation. The results were showed that Yarrowia divulagata NCAIM 1485 strain could produce relative high amount of erythritol (44.14±1 g/l) under adequate oxygen supply while its cell lysate could exert good skin moisturizing effect. In all cases, the collected samples had emulsification index above 50% of which stability was also high, above 50% even after 24 hours.Therefore, it can be considered as an effective bioemulsifier. In conclusion, the erythritol fermentation of Y. divulgata is suitable for complex utilisation in a biorefinery, since the fermentation broth can be used for isolation of sweetener and bioemulsifier, meanwhile the cells can be processed for cosmetic application as skin moisturizer.

Is it possible that the addition of wild-growing flowers with anti-inflammatory applications can improve the antioxidant properties of rapeseed and multifloral honey? The study objective was a comparative analysis of two honey varieties enriched by flowers of six plant species, based on the content of the antioxidant capacity as well as total flavonoids and phenolic content. Experiments demonstrated that at each level of enrichment there was an improvement in antioxidant properties compared to honey of both varieties without additives, especially in the case of dried flowers. Primula veris L. and Pulmonaria officinalis L. improved the antioxidant properties and phenolic content most effectively in honey at all levels of enrichment. Rapeseed-type honey produces a better matrix for the incorporation of natural plant metabolites into honey. The content of biologically active substances in honey enriched with flowers gives hope for new applications of health-promoting substances contained in wild plants.

Pakistan is under developing country and it has an unpredictable market nature of shareholder-investors observe the company’s performance. This research could help to companies in understanding financial behavior, attitude and investors’ satisfaction in stock trade. Financial behavior is comparatively new subject in Pakistan therefore; this study has examined the financial behavior and attitude of investors. The behavioral finance that has been attempted to understand the positive experiences influences investors’ financial behavior. This study has find out that investor satisfaction is strongest in influence of positive financial behavior of investor and trader in stock trading; positive experience and brokers suggestions are strengthens the investment decision of investors and increases behavior loyalty to prefer over competitor. The main purpose of research to determine the effect of financial behavior on investors’ attitude and behavioral loyalty and investors’ satisfaction to preference over competitor. The research framework links with experiences in stock trade for positive (negative) experiences, attitude and financial behavior is developed. The research framework is measured data from sample of Karachi and Karachi Stock Exchange; the data is analyzed in smart PLS based on PLS-SEM. This study focused on trading experience with company’s active investors and traders in banking industry in Pakistan. The future research could be research in other sectors with inter-related issue of investors and traders (brokers) in stock trade. This is the first study in this research area; this study will be determine the experiences with positive (negative) financial behavior, attitude, satisfaction and behavioral loyalty of investors and traders in stock trade. Therefore, adding in this area of study which will help understanding the investors and traders attitude, preference and financial behavior in financial market.

Nutraceuticals are combination of nutrients and pharmaceuticals and these are derived from various plants, microbes and animals too. The food products that are considered as nutraceuticals are categorised based on the availability in the market. It is a medical approach to improve health and remedy for illness. Nowadays there is an increase in shift towards use of nutraceuticals as its usage provides preventive therapies to various chronic diseases. Various natural nutraceuticals are based on extracts from Ginger, turmeric, garlic, amla, cinnamon, aloe vera etc. A wide variety of therapeutic values are provided by them such as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal properties, allergy relief, antidiabetic and cardiovascular problems. India is in its infancy stage but have many emerging companies that are trying to meet the demand of growing population. Overall ‘Nutraceuticals’ has been known as a new era of well being, in which the food industry has become a main player.

Sustainability enhancement is one of the main challenges of aquaculture. Since feeds represent one of the major costs from an environmental point of view, it is priority to find sustainable alterna-tive ingredients for aquaculture diet. Insect meals have some advantages as ingredients for aqua-culture, like its sustainability and nutritional value. However, the biggest drawback of full-fat in-sect meal is its fatty acid profile. The objective of this work was to assess the effects of partial plant or marine-derived ingredients replacements with full-fat Tenebrio molitor meal (TM) at two differ-ent levels on growth performance and fatty acids profiles of Solea senegalensis. For this purpose, a control diet and four experimental diets were tested, two of them contained 5 and 10% w/w TM that replaced mostly fish meal. Two other experimental diets included 10 and 15% w/w TM that replaced mostly plant meals. The inclusion of insect meal resulted in an improvement in growth rate and feed efficiency in both cases. Moreover, dietary inclusion of insect meal increased muscle total protein and decreased total lipid, without changes in phospholipids, and maintaining the relative level of n-3 PUFA. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that full-fat TM inclusion up to 15% in S. senegalensis diets had no negative effects or even positive effects on fish survival, growth performance, nutrient utilization and flesh quality.

Supplements in fish nutrition can help alleviate pressure on the wild stock; however, there is limited information on the benefits of rooibos tea extract in aquafeed. This study aimed to determine the effect of rooibos tea extract inclusion in the commercial diet on the growth performance of larval fish. Fish were reared on three diets: a commercial diet with 30% fermented or green rooibos extract and a commercial tilapia diet (control). Fish (initial weight of 0.54 ± 0.008 g and length of 2.22 ± 0.01 cm) were randomly distributed into recirculating aquaculture systems in triplicates at 100 fish per tank. Fish was hand-fed thrice daily for eight weeks at 2% body weight. After that, samples were withdrawn to measure growth parameters. Fish-fed fermented, and green tea extracts exhibited a significantly (p ˂ 0.05) higher weight gain than the controls. The feed conversion ratio was higher in the control group, fermented (1.50 ± 0.25 cm) and green tea (1.41 ± 0.07 cm). Similarly, the control group exhibited the highest condition factor (K=13.14 ± 4.87). The two treatment groups were comparable (p >0.05) in growth performance. Overall, the evidence indicates that adding rooibos tea extracts to the basal diet can improve fish growth.

This study aimed to analyse the relationship between environmental, social, and governance disclosure (ESG disclosure) and the performance of Saudi Arabian companies. Looking at the Saudi Arabian context, ESG disclosure guidelines were issued in 2018 to encourage Saudi companies to disclose their ESG practices. Grounded in the frameworks of agency and signalling theory, this study bears profound implications for stakeholders, decision makers, policymakers, and academics alike. Our findings underscore the paramount significance of ESG disclosure practices in enhancing corporate performance and creating long-term value for stakeholders within the Saudi Arabian context. The analysis is based on panel data spanning from 2017 to 2022. Rigorous econometric methods, including fixed effects (FEs), random effects (REs), the Hausman test, and the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM), were employed in the analysis. Furthermore, to evaluate corporate performance, we also used vital indicators, such as the return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and Tobin’s Q. To score companies’ sustainability practices, we created an ESG index that was obtained through a principal component analysis of individual environmental, social, and governance scores using a sample extracted from the annual reports of the top 100 non-financial listed companies in the Saudi Arabian stock exchange (Tadawul). The results of this study provide a strong confirmation of the significantly positive relationship between ESG disclosure and companies’ key performance variables. These results are consistent with stakeholder theory, which argues that companies that actively manage their stakeholders through comprehensive ESG practices have better financial performance; this is also in agreement with signalling theory, which argues that the positive relations found in this study can be a signal sent to policymakers and decision makers. This finding should instil confidence in the potential of ESG practices to drive companies’ success. Recommendations include strengthened regulatory frameworks, awareness-raising campaigns for ESG philosophies among investors and potential target companies, capability enhancement programs, arrangements for engagement with stakeholders, and effective reward/confirmation mechanisms in credit/debit plans, if possible, to encourage more companies to adopt ESG disclosure and to help stakeholders, decision makers, policymakers, and academics improve their awareness. These measures, if implemented, can significantly enhance the ESG landscape in Saudi Arabia, inspiring a more sustainable and responsible business environment. This research sheds light on the complex processes by which ESG considerations and corporate strategy remain integrated by using advanced econometric methodologies that suggest important policy implications. The findings of this study underscore the critical role of sustainable business practices in enhancing corporate performance, fostering societal development, and ensuring sustainability within the context of Saudi Arabian enterprises.

In western societies about one in six employees works in shifts. Shiftwork is associated with a number of poor somatic and psychological health outcomes, especially sleep issues. Higher rates of absenteeism and accidents in the workplace are possible consequences. Still, prevention programs and treatment options that are specifically tailored to shift workers’ needs are rare. We devised a 4-week online sleep intervention (n = 21) and compared treatment outcomes to our outpatient treatment for shift workers (n = 12). Measures included the WHO-5, ISI, and ESS scales as well as sleep diaries. Shift workers reported worse symptoms of insomnia than other participants. Results show significant average increases in sleep efficiency (+ 7%) and total sleep time (+ 25 min.), as well as significant improvements regarding insomnia symptoms and wellbeing in the online sample. Rates of improvement did not differ between the online and outpatient samples. Sleep disorders affect a relevant part of the working population, especially shift workers. Online approaches to treatment of these issues seem feasible and effective. Randomized controlled trials are needed.

The construction industry is responsible for 40 to 45% of primary energy consumption in Europe alone. Therefore, it is essential to find new materials with a lower environmental impact in order to attain sustainable housing. This study aims to determine and compare the environmental impact of two clay samples forming a basis for the manufacture of traditional brick, a standard material in building construction; traditional red clay brick and a brick based on clay mixed with a biological ingredient. The samples of fired clay were manufactured at the laboratory scale, the results being valid exclusively as indicators for the extrapolation of the analysis to other studies. The results of the environmental impact of these formulations have been examined through an evaluation of life-cycle analysis (LCA), observing that the incorporation of biological pore forming agents led to a decrease of around 15 to 20% of all impact categories studied. Thus, the suitability of using biological-based additives in clay bricks was confirmed both for their constructive characteristics (lighter material) and increased energy efficiency (better thermal insulation) considering the environmental point of view.

Insurers act as institutional investors and underwriters of risk, therefore improving their own environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is important for the transmission of ESG values to all other economic sectors. We analyze ESG scores of worldwide Property and Casualty (P&C) insurers during 2012-2022, and show that more sustainable insurers have high operating leverage, although their combined ratios and z-scores reveal that they are financially stable. Additional results for the US subsample illustrate that stocks issued by sustainable insurers deliver positive excess returns. Overall, these findings suggest that sustainable practices are associated with the ability of insurers to execute business and create value. This is important for insurance managers, investors, and policy makers, as insurers play a prominent role in promoting economic growth and stability.

Already more than 140 countries consider or have pledged to reach net-zero emission targets by 2050 or earlier and the share of global emissions falling into an emission pricing scheme has steeply increased over the past three years. Even where there are no direct implications for industry (yet), there is a series of subtle pressure points driving an increasing number of companies across the globe to work towards climate neutrality and pledging ambitious emission reduction goals. This article sheds light on the pressure points, the subtle triggers, the underlying considerations as well as the hoped-for benefits for industrial companies from achieving net-zero emissions. The observations and ideas presented in this paper are derived from quantitative data obtained via the Energy Efficiency Index of German Industry (EEI) and qualitative data. Not only societal, work force, supply chain and investor expectations play a large role, but also many strategic considerations which have the potential to make the company more resilient and profitable, particularly in time of crisis. Those companies that do not move towards decarbonisation, on the other hand, may face a costly late-mover disadvantage. This piece uncovers subtle interconnections, helping stakeholders from industry and beyond to grasp opportunities and challenges ahead.

Although the fusion energy sector is at a nascent stage, the private fusion energy market has grown. There are currently 38 private fusion energy companies around the world aiming to commercialise fusion energy in early 2030s and 2040s. Given the capability of fusion energy in transforming today’s energy paradigm and the global character of the market, it is important to analyse how these companies are interacting with international human rights standards. Therefore, this work investigates the involvement of the private fusion energy sector with two voluntary international initiatives in particular: the UN Global Compact and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). This study attempts to answer two research questions: (i) Are private fusion energy companies participating in the UN Global Compact? (ii) How are private fusion energy companies publicly implementing the UNGP? Content analysis of secondary data collected from the UN Global Compact, Fusion Industry Association, ITER and companies’ official website as well as published reports is adopted. In summary, this work finds that private fusion energy companies are neither participants nor signatories of the UN Global Compact. Their observance of the UNGP is also very poor. This study contributes to the field by highlighting this gap which the private fusion energy companies need to consider and take measures in order to create a salutary human rights sector.

Clarifying the impact mechanism of digital transformation of enterprises on the M&A efficiency of listed companies can provide a factual basis for improving capital market regulatory policies. Taking the mergers and acquisitions of listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as a research sample, the influence mechanism of the digital transformation degree of companies on their M&A efficiency was studied. The research results show that the digital transformation of listed companies will improve their M&A efficiency. Digital transformation will reduce the degree of mispricing of stocks of M&A companies, curb conflicts between managers and agents of M&A companies, and improve their M&A efficiency. Further research finds that the promotion effect of digital transformation on M&A efficiency is more significant in non-state-owned companies, with a higher degree of financing constraint and high analyst attention. In the future, regulatory authorities should actively promote the digital transformation of listed companies, curb mispricing and management agency problems in the capital market with digital governance, and improve the efficiency of mergers and acquisitions in the capital market.

Habitual entrepreneurs became an important group of entrepreneurs who make a large contribution to the process of wealth creation. Previous studies have indicated that habitual entrepreneurship is a widespread phenomenon. It highlights the need to focus on the habitual entrepreneurs to understand the dynamic aspect of entrepreneurship. The aim of the article is to present the results of preliminary research on the relationships of entrepreneurial behavior of novice entrepreneurs and habitual entrepreneurs, in particular their motivation and impact on the entrepreneurial process. Research were conducted on a sample of 373 small innovative enterprises in the fourth quarter of 2017. The scale of habitual entrepreneurs in the examined sample is 32.44% and is comparable with research carried out in other countries. Survey results reveal that habitual entrepreneurs have greater tendency to create opportunities (introduction new products or services) than novice entrepreneurs. Habitual entrepreneurs also have higher development rate (increase of turnover) and larger share in the international market than novice entrepreneurs. The article also contains indications for further research into the phenomenon of multiple entrepreneurship.

The attempt of this study made us to Study the Competency Mapping (CM) in Software Companies”. CM is a process of categorizing the gap of a person or an employee’s performance routine or professional related skills to fill the gaps through effective programs. (1) Background: Integrating competencies such as “Developing people through Empowering and Training Programs, Providing Feedback, and Rewards, Recognizing the Employee for their work, Effective Communication, Aligning right values ensuring standards, etc. to evaluate and improve the performance an employee to get desired results; (2) Methods: This study involved 100 software employees (n = 100) to state that the competencies that are mapped have a significant impact on performance.. Chi- square and one – way ANOVA tests we used to identify the relationship between two variables; (3) Results: Goal oriented people can adopt the changes and work in any kind of circumstance for better outcomes; (4) Conclusions: competencies that are mapped have a significant impact on performance. And the person who is goal oriented will try to achieve his/her goals in any type of circumstances.

This paper investigates the possible failure modes of the product development process in production companies that are active in the B2C markets with a focus on household products. Since these cases require short lead times and are difficult to differentiate, in many instances the end result will not be the desired one and could affect profitability for a season or for good. A model of these possibilities is created and an approach to plan contingencies for their solutioning is proposed in the article. The main guideline is to switch from failure probability determination to accepting failure as inevitable and using digital solutions to reinforce the development process in order to offset its impact. For this goal, an Industry 5.0 Abatement Factor (abbreviated IFAF) is introduced in the contingency planning approach, that factors in the evaluation the low cost of digital instruments and the proper mix of Technology, Humans and AI (abbreviated THAI). The new working procedure based on these concepts and their interlinkages is discussed based on specific examples.

A new approach based on input-output (IO) analysis has emerged to estimate the carbon footprints of companies and their products from cradle to gate. While they rely on the same principles as the GHG Protocol, they use a distributed iterative framework to improve the footprint estimations and reduce their uncertainty. While optimal estimations would result if all the world’s companies would enter such a system, this paper shows how such a distributed system could apply to the real world where many enterprises would stay out of the system. We show how it would increase the quality of the estimations with respect the GHG Protocol by integrating scope 1 and scope 2 data of the value chains in the footprint estimations and reducing the part of remaining scope 3 data. To help analyzing uncertainty, we show how to use the scope 1/2/3 decomposition to estimate the biases and the standard deviations of the computed production intensities. We illustrate the model on macroeconomic data for 44 sectors and two regions (Europe and Rest of World), using the Inter-Country Input-Output database (ICIO). Such a system would necessarily rely on Information and Communication Technology since the companies would be permanently interconnected in a large-scale meshed network, using an application protocol for data exchange.

As technology continues to play a central role in shaping global industries, the performance of technology firms on the NASDAQ has significant implications for broader economic trends. Investors, facing an increasingly complex landscape, require detailed insights to make informed decisions and navigate market volatility. Moreover, amid the ongoing digital transformation, understanding the operational dynamics of technology companies is critical for policymakers and regulatory bodies to create frameworks that foster innovation while ensuring market stability. In the current context, characterized by rapid technological advancements, market uncertainties, and evolving consumer demands, the need for a comprehensive study on the operational efficiency of NASDAQ-listed technology companies is more pertinent than ever. Objective of our study is to identify relationships and patterns among selected financial metrics to assess the operational efficiency of NASDAQ-listed technology companies between 2011 to 2023. Financial metrics used in the study include following variables namely revenues, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, research, and development expenses, selling and general administrative expenses, and operating income. Johansen's cointegration methodology is employed to unveil long-term relationships and equilibrium adjustments among the considered variables. Results of our study underscore the paramount importance of efficiently managing the cost of goods sold (COGS) for achieving superior operating performance among these leading technology firms. The findings point to a nuanced interplay among these operational metrics, highlighting the interconnectedness and sustained relationships among them. This suggests that the top technology companies exhibit a sophisticated understanding of the dynamics between these variables, allowing them to navigate the complexities of the industry with strategic finesse.

The transport sector is pivotal and indispensable in our daily existence, being the exclusive conduit for the intercontinental conveyance of commodities and individuals. Hence, comprehending the phenomenon of business failure within the transport industry assumes paramount significance in delineating an effective competitive policy for this sector. The primary objective of this research paper is to execute a comparative investigation between statistical models forecasting business failure and models founded on artificial intelligence, within the context of the transport sector. This analysis spans the temporal expanse from 2014 to 2021 and encompasses the nations of Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy, aiming to ascertain superior efficacy among these models. The dataset employed for this endeavor encompassed a final cohort of 4866 companies, comprising 2881 that endured as going concerns and 1985 that succumbed to business failure. The models developed for this study exhibited the capacity to accurately categorize a proportion of companies ranging from 71% to 73%. Nonetheless, upon comparative scrutiny of these outcomes with those derived from the statistical models dedicated to business failure prediction, it becomes evident that the latter demonstrate an enhanced predictive prowess, manifesting fewer errors in the classification of the scrutinized companies.

The state of epidemic emergency in force in our country since March and the related requirement to implement various sanitary procedures constitute problems for the operation of all companies. However, the unique operation of underground mining companies increases their scale considerably. However, despite initial turbulent moments related to the occurrence of an unknown threat, it was possible to stabilise the situation in all such companies as a result of implementing various anti-threat actions. Following the initial introduction to basic properties of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the paper presents the results of the study (a case study) on actions taken in individual mining companies. There was an attempt to formulate the so-called good work practices recommended to be applied.

Developing prosperous and inclusive societies requires a reformulation of the business-society nexus toward sustainability. This means that all economically motivated behaviors of firms need to also consider their social and environmental impact, and all social and environmental policies need to also consider their impact on the economy. With the Companies Act 2013, the Indian government adopted a legislative approach to reconfigure the business-society nexus. Mandating what has been considered discretionary elicited an extensive academic debate. We employ Content Configuration Analysis on 70 local and international English-language book chapters, research articles, reports, reviews, and expert commentaries published between 2013 and 2019 to develop a typology of the advantages and disadvantages associated with the Companies Act 2013. We find that, among the large set of arguments for and against the Act, specific arguments extolling its advantages concurrently appear as disadvantages in other texts. This paradox is indicative of the difficulties of satisfying stakeholder expectations, as well as the complexities corporate responsibility programs face in India. By systematizing the opportunities and challenges associated with the Companies Act 2013, we reveal how, similar to China, context and culture influence India’s socioeconomic development trajectory beyond the conventional market economy canon.

The UK food industry faces significant challenges to remain sustainable. With major challenges such as Brexit on the horizon, companies can no longer rely on a low labour cost workforce to maintain low production costs and achieve economic sustainability. Smart Systems (SS) is being seen as an approach towards achieving significant improvements in both economic and environmental sustainability. However, there is little evidence to indicate whether UK food companies are prepared for the implementation of such systems. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Smart Systems in UK food manufacturing companies and, to identify the key priority areas and improvement levers for the implementation of such systems. A triangulated primary research approach is adopted and includes a questionnaire, follow up interviews and visits to thirty-two food manufacturing companies in the UK. The questionnaire and interviews are guided by the development of a unique measuring instrument created by the authors that is focusses upon SS technologies and systems. This paper makes an original contribution in that it is one of few academic studies to explore the implementation of SS in the industry and, provides a new perspective on the key drivers and inhibitors around its implementation. Findings suggest that the current turbulence in the industry could be bringing food companies closer to the adoption of such systems, hence it is a good time to define and develop the optimum SS implementation strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine if there are links between interpersonal trust and competences, relations and cooperation in Polish telecom companies. It examines what factors affect trust in coworkers and managers in sustainable organizations. The paper surveys a sample of 175 employees of telecom companies in Poland by means of a questionnaire. The results indicate that the competences, relations and cooperation are related to interpersonal trust. Regression analysis showed that the competences and relations predict a significant variance in trust amongst coworkers. Additionally, cooperation contributes to prediction of trust in mangers. Given the importance of trust in sustainable organizations, a better comprehension of what factors are related to team confidence provides valuable information for stakeholders. The results provide valuable clues how to improve interpersonal trust in sustainable organizations.

The paper presents the findings of research on companies in the early stage of development based on the concept of ensuring their sustainability. The starting point is attributes shaping a sustainable model of start-ups. A solution has been proposed and examined that identifies the factors dynamising a business model, which give the company the ability to make fast changes in the configuration of the business model, and that applies stabilizing factors based on the concept of the Triple Bottom Line. The research problem is a response to the phenomena of the bankruptcy of many start-ups that cannot find a way to survive in the long term. The business models of companies in the early stage of development should be designed taking into account the possibility of their dynamic and iterative changes when the earlier assumptions do not work when implemented in practice. A cognitive gap has been observed as the relevant literature does not propose a systemic solution to the problem of instability of the startups viewed from the perspective of the business model concept. The research problem, therefore, is to identify potential new methods to ensure the sustainability of young companies trying to combine aspects dynamising changes in business models, taking into account economic, environmental and social aspects. The findings of research on companies in the early stage of development show that when the methods of increasing the flexibility of the business model are applied and attention is drawn to environmental and social activities and a strong emphasis is put on financial performance, reflecting the expectations of shareholders, the concept of ensuring the sustainability of young companies from the point of view of sustainable business model attributes emerges.

The perceived poor performance of publicly traded companies on their sustainability commitments and the quality of sustainability reporting has prompted stakeholders to consider the economic, environmental, and social impacts of corporate activities. Economic activities have led to various threats in the form of climate change, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, natural disasters, and other issues that have negatively impacted the environment and stakeholders. Companies are expected to report to stakeholders on their sustainability performance, but reality proves that present reporting falls below stakeholders’ expectations mainly due to its still voluntary nature. The present study aims to provide a literature review of the relationship between sustainability reporting and the role of companies governance, especially observing if climate change requirements and energy-needed changes are being accounted. Results highlight mixed evidence for the influence of board governance attributes, providing interesting insights for research advancement. The study has practical implications for businesses, regulators, governments, and other stakeholders in their policy deliberations and investment decisions. Further empirical studies are recommended to re-examine sustainability reporting using the variables identified as important factors and gaps in this study and other board characteristics to improve the generalizability of the results.

The use of the voice of the customer as a main input to guide decision making towards customer centricity strategies has become a necessity for companies. This research proposes a structured method of textual processing using the KDD (Knowledge Discovery Databases) methodology applied to the tweets of users of Colombian public sector companies, through the analysis of temporal sentiments and topic modeling to identify the areas in which actions should be taken to improve the perception of service. To fulfill such purpose, tweets from January to June 2022 are processed, followed by a temporal analysis of the evolution of the sentiment based on 3 enriched dictionaries; after, the LDA (Linear Discriminant Analysis) algorithm is implemented to find the areas with ailment for the user, in addition to propose a method to homologate the CIER (Comisión de Integración Energética Regional) survey. Finally, metrics are detailed to follow up the perception of the service. It is concluded that for the Acueducto the topic with the highest number of complaints is related to "Water truck request", for Enel "Servide Outages" and for Vanti: " Case solution and request information". Also, the homologation of 3 of the 5 pillars on which the CIER survey is based is presented.

This paper proposes a model to evaluate business projects to get into an incubator, allowing to rank them in order of selection priority. The model combines the Momentum method to build prospective scenarios and the Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method TOPSIS-2N to rank the alternatives. Six business projects were evaluated to be incubated. The Momentum method made it possible for us to create an initial core of criteria for the evaluation of incubation projects. The TOPSIS-2N method supported the decision to choose the company to be incubated by ranking the alternatives in order of relevance. Our evaluation model has improved the existing models used by incubators. This model can be used and / or adapted by any incubator to evaluate the business projects to be incubated. The set of criteria for the evaluation of incubation projects is original and the use of prospective scenarios with a MCDM method to evaluate companies to be incubated does not exist in the literature.

This study examines the effect of market risk on the financial performance of 31 non-financial companies listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) over the period 2000-2016. We utilize three alternative variables to assess financial performance, namely return on assets, return on equity and profit margin. Next, we use the degree of financial leverage, the book-to-market ratio, and the gearing ratio as market risk variables. Besides, we employ the pooled OLS model, the fixed effects model, the random-effects model, the difference GMM and the system GMM models. The results show that market risk indicators have a negative and significant influence on the companies' financial performance. The elasticities are greater following the book-to-market ratio compared to the degree of financial leverage and the gearing ratio, respectively. In most cases, the firm size, the tangibility ratio, and the cash holdings ratio have a positive effect on financial performance, whereas the firms' age, the debt-to-income ratio, stock turnover, and leverage hurt the performance of these non-financial companies. Therefore, decision-makers and managers should mitigate market risk through appropriate strategies of risk management, such as derivatives and insurance techniques.

This research aims to analyze the impact of Social Responsibility on the performance of 216 European companies during the years 2017 to 2021. The objective of this research is to determine how the operational, financial and market performance of companies is influenced by social responsibility practices. The methodology adopted is quantitative in nature, using the estimation of dynamic models for panel data. To quantify corporate performance, this study will use, the return on assets, the return on equity and finally the Tobin's Q ratio. On the other hand, ESG (Environment, Social and Government) scores and GC Score scores will be used in order to quantify SR. The results show that SR presents not only a negative influence on the financial and operational performance of companies, but also a positive impact on market performance. This influence is even greater when distinguishing the best from the worst scores. The environment, social and government dimension shows a negative relationship with ROA and ROE, and a positive one with Tobin's Q. On the other hand, the anti-corruption and environment dimension of the GC Score, relates negatively with Tobin's Q, the human rights dimension relates negatively with ROE and ROA, and finally, the labor law dimension presents a positive relationship with ROE. Importantly, firm size positively influences this relationship, while age has a negative influence. This research offers important contributions to the literature, since from the ESG scores and the GC Score, a complete analysis of the impact of social responsibility on corporate performance is developed.

The main objective of this study is to analyze the impact of investment in Research & Development on the performance and value of companies, that is, to try to explain how R&D investment influences the companies’ performance. For this purpose, a dynamic panel data model was estimated using the Generalized Method of Moments, which made possible to measure the impact of R&D investment on performance through the Return on Operating Assets ratio for the Portuguese companies that invested the most between 2012 to 2019. The results show that the investment in R&D is not statistically significant in explaining the operating return on assets. However, the lagged financial performance in one period, the leverage, the asset turnover ratio and the accounts payable turnover show to have impact on the variable under study.

The following article analyzes Italian companies with more than 10 employees that use online sales tools. The data used were acquired from the ISTAT-BES database. The article first presents a static analysis of the data aimed at framing the phenomenon in the context of Italian regional disparities. Subsequently, a clustering with k-Means algorithm is proposed by comparing the Silhouette coefficient and the Elbow method. The investigation of the innovative and technological determinants of the observed variable is carried out through the application of a panel econometric model. Finally, different machine learning algorithms for prediction are compared. The results are critically discussed with economic policy suggestions.

Rising raw material prices can have a significant impact on the financial performance of the food and beverage (F&B) business. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of rising prices of staples onfinancial resilience F&B business in Indonesia. This study uses a quantitative approach with bivariate correlation analysis and secondary data from the financial reports of F&B companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2020-2022 period. The results showed that the increase in the price of basic commodities had a significant positive impact onfinancial resilience F&B company. This can be seen from the decline in the profitability and liquidity of F&B companies as a result of the increase in the price of basic commodities. Therefore, F&B companies must pay attention to and manage the risk of rising prices of basic commodities to maintainfinancial resilience and sustainable business continuity.

This qualitative research investigates the role of collaborative planning in synchronizing supply chain and marketing activities among multinational companies (MNCs). Collaborative planning integrates traditionally separate functions to enhance operational efficiency, customer responsiveness, and strategic alignment. The study employs semi-structured interviews with key informants from diverse MNCs across industries and geographies to explore practices, challenges, and outcomes associated with collaborative planning initiatives. Findings highlight the pivotal role of cross-functional collaboration and advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and big data analytics, in improving demand forecasting accuracy, optimizing inventory management, and enabling personalized marketing strategies. Challenges include organizational resistance, cultural barriers, and the complexity of aligning global strategies. Strategic outcomes encompass improved operational efficiency, cost savings, enhanced customer satisfaction, and strengthened competitive advantage. Moreover, the integration of sustainability goals underscores the importance of environmental responsibility and regulatory compliance in collaborative planning frameworks. The study also identifies emerging trends in digital transformation and agile supply chains shaping future practices. Overall, collaborative planning emerges as a strategic imperative for MNCs to navigate complexities, capitalize on opportunities, and sustain growth in a globalized marketplace.

Aquaculture is an important source of food for the growing global population. To meet the increasing demand for fish, intensive aquaculture methods are commonly used. However, these methods can lead to stress and disease in fish, which can result in significant economic losses. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid that is found in the brain and central nervous system of animals as inhibitory neurotransmitter. It has been shown to have a variety of physiological functions, including stress reduction and immune enhancement. This study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation of GABA on growth, serum biochemistry, innate immunity and disease resistance in juvenile olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) challenged with Edwardsiella tarda under high stocking density. A control diet and three experimental diets were prepared, with 150 mg/kg (GABA150), 200 mg/kg (GABA200), and 250 mg/kg (GABA250) of GABA added to each diet, respectively. The actual GABA content of the experimental diets was analyzed and found to be 63.9 mg/kg (CON), 231.3 mg/kg (GABA150), 291.6 mg/kg (GABA200), and 323.9 mg/kg (GABA250). Each experimental diet was fed to olive flounder with an initial weight of 12.75 g ± 0.3 g in 40 L tanks at two stocking densities: normal density (20 fish/tank) and high density (40 fish/tank). The experiment was conducted in triplicate for each diet and stocking density. The water temperature was maintained at 17.5 ± 1℃ and the salinity at 33 ± 1 ppt. After 8 weeks of feeding trial, growth, feed utilization, whole-body proximate composition, blood analysis, non-specific immune response, and challenge test were performed. There were no significant difference in weight gain and specific growth rate among the GABA concentrations and density × GABA concentration interaction groups. However, the low-density groups showed significantly higher values than the high-density groups (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in feed efficiency and protein efficiency ratio among all groups. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the whole-body general composition analysis (P > 0.05). In the hematological analysis, there was no significant difference in cortisol in terms of diet and density × GABA concentration interaction, but the high-density experimental group showed a significantly higher value. Blood GABA significantly increased in proportion to the addition amount regardless of the density group (P<0.05). Superoxide dismutase activity in the non-specific immune response showed that the GABA-added experimental group had a significantly higher value than the control group, but there was no significant effect of the density densities or density × GABA concentration interaction (P<0.05). Myeloperoxidase activities in fish fed the GABA200 and GABA250 diets showed significantly higher values, and a density × GABA concentration interaction effect was observed (P<0.05). Lysozyme activity was significantly higher in the GABA150 group than in the CON, GABA200, and GABA250 groups (P < 0.05). After 15 days of challenge test by intraperitoneal injection of Edwardsiella tarda, the cumulative survival rates of the GABA150, GABA200, and GABA250 groups were significantly higher than that of the CON group (P < 0.05). The results suggested that the optimal dietary GABA level for juvenile olive flounder culture is 150 mg/kg, regardless of rearing density, to enhance growth, immune function and disease resistance.

This study aims to understand the changes in management trends among global companies before and after the onset of COVID-19. To achieve this, we employed keyword and topic modeling to analyze 420 CEO messages extracted from the reports of the Fortune Global 100 largest companies. The analysis revealed a noteworthy prevalence of keywords associated with shared culture, such as face-to-face interactions and cooperation, during the initial period. In the subsequent period, we observed a higher frequency of keywords related to community-centeredness and digital trans-formation, including employee health and well-being, inequality reduction, and sustainable cities. Furthermore, we identified common topics before and after COVID-19, such as risk management and competitive advantage. However, the topics that exhibited variation were the significance of corporate leadership and the evolution of digital technologies. This study is significant in that it enables us to analyze CEO messages and deduce the trajectory of corporate management post-COVID-19.

The effective implementation of a sustainable supply chain leadership (SSCL) strategy at each organization’s level, positively impacts on corporation’s competitive advantage and sustainable development. While fears have been acknowledged in previous literature, the benefit of designing Sustainable supply chain models for operational excellence and sustainable development is a noteworthy exploration. The study collected statistical data using an online Survey- monkey questionnaire from 46 of the top 100 JSE-listed companies with the intention to elucidate the large firms’ transition from longstanding linear approaches to sustainable production and consumption to a more circular approach. A bivariate data analysis was used to generate the results in SPSS. The results indicate a positive contribution of SSCL strategy to operational excellence and sustainable development of large corporations if only the entire supply chain system is well-coordinated and implemented. This study makes a vital contribution by proposing a new SSCL model for fast-tracking corporate sustainability and enhancing corporate contributions to sustainable growth.

This research was conducted with the aim of knowing how to compare the financial performance of the oil and gas trading industry with cross-sectional analysis techniques. The type of research conducted in this research is qualitative research with research objects at several companies, namely PT Radiant Utama Interinsco Tbk, PT Elnusa Tbk, PT AKR Corporindo Tbk, and PT Aneka Gas Industri Tbk. The data used in this study comes from secondary data, namely the internet in the form of company financial reports for the 2019-2021 period obtained from the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The results of this study indicate that PT Radiant Utama Interinsco Tbk has the best financial performance on inventory turnover ratio and average age, PT Elnusa Tbk has good inventory performance on current ratio, quick ratio, DAR, and DER., PT AKR. Corporindo Tbk has performed well on the ratios of TIE, FCC, Dividend Payout, Dividend Yield, and PER. PT Aneka Gas Industri Tbk has performed well on the ratio of Receivables Turnover Ratio and Average Age of Receivables.

The coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has emerged as a global phenomenon that significantly affects almost all sectors, irrespective of whether they have a well-established economic system. The inception of COVID-19 pandemic has increased and accelerated the demand for opera industry embrace digit technology to continue to produce performances and reach audiences. The brutality of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected most sectors, and opera artists are significantly affected in the Global South. South Africa, among others, is at the receiving end. The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc and exacerbated the existing vulnerability of opera artists. Opera artists have difficulty obtaining employment and finding funding for performing arts organisations have caused seriously challenged opera artists to survive during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study is aimed to examine the quest for new digital skills for opera artists and opera companies during the Covid-19 pandemic. A qualitative research method was adopted using interviews with opera artists, selected retired opera practitioners and managers of opera companies. In this study, scholarly documents were reviewed to yield trustworthy findings. The findings demonstrate a high demand for opera artists to upgrade their current skills to meet the demand for digital skills. This demand for digital skills is partially attributable to the closed and suspension of live theatre performances due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings also reveal that digital connectivity in the performing arts sector become an essential driver of economic growth. This study concludes by affirming that digital skills are key skills required for resuscitating the opera industry.

This study aims to examine Turkish companies from a sustainability and green innovation point of view. Through this purpose, this research’s objective is to find out relationship between sustainability drivers and green innovation and also to search for green organizational culture’s mediation effect in this relationship. Survey was carried in companies operating in Turkey which were listed among İstanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) Top 500 companies for last 3 years successively and have ISO14001 Environmental Management Certificate. According to the survey results, it was manifested that factors directing companies to sustainability having a positive relationship with green organizational culture and green innovation. It is found that there is a partial mediation effect of green organizational culture between motivating factors for sustainability and green innovation.

Without doubt, the social and environmental business impact will become more important as the governments cannot take care about these problems. Thus, launching the EU Green deal rules, World Global Sustainable Development Goals, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and strategies are part of this global commitment. Additionally, CSR is strongly connected to the exploration of (social) market awareness and technology development and application as it focusses on social, environmental and economic business impact. The main goal of the paper is to verify that contemporary greener CSR strategies are beneficiary activity for high-tech companies because of better competitive advantages acquisition through management of corporate reputation risk and patenting innovative technologies. The structure of the paper is the next: 1. Introduction – explanation the previous researches that explore the relation: CSR strategy – high-tech company competitiveness; 2. State of art – exploring the corporate reputation and patent rights as factors in CSR strategy; 3. Patent monopoly and CSR – research the connection between reputation risks of patents rights and CSR strategy; 4. Business performance and CSR reporting – briefly research methodology is presented as some results from Bulgarian companies; 5. Discussion and conclusions – summarizing a methodology for patent rights and reputation risk management for better CSR effects.

This study outlines the development of an innovative method utilizing UHPLC-PDA for the simultaneous identification of polyphenols and bitter acids (alpha-acids, beta-acids, and iso-alpha-acids) in beer samples. The resulting chemical profiles were leveraged to distinguish the characteristics of four bergamot-flavored beers, each representing distinct styles (IPA, Lager, Blanche, and ALE), produced on a pilot-scale plant. In a streamlined 29-minute analysis, twenty-nine polyphenols and fourteen bitter acids were successfully identified under optimized separation conditions. Rigorous validation, encompassing parameters such as Limit of Detection (LOD), Limit of Quantification (LOQ), R-squared (R2), repeatability, and reproducibility, was conducted for polyphenol quantification using constructed calibration curves with seven levels. Exploring polyphenolic components as potential discriminators among different beer styles, a total of thirty-two polyphenolic compounds were identified and quantified, including characteristic bergamot peel polyphenols like neoeriocitrin, naringin, and neohesperidin. The determination of bitter units and total phenols further aided in style differentiation. Multivariate analysis provided additional insights into variations among specific beer styles, revealing discrepancies in the presence or relative concentrations of specific compounds linked to brewing ingredients and processes. This research enhances to trace the fingerprinting of the chemistry governing beer quality through a straightforward and cost-effective analytical approach, readily applicable in common laboratories.

This qualitative research investigates how supply chain innovations drive marketing differentiation in consumer goods companies. In a competitive global marketplace, firms are increasingly leveraging advanced supply chain management (SCM) practices to enhance operational efficiency and create distinctive market positions. The study explores five key supply chain innovations—digitalization, sustainability practices, predictive analytics, agile supply chain models, and collaborative partnerships—and their impact on marketing differentiation strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 executives and managers from leading consumer goods companies, analyzing themes related to innovation adoption, challenges, and outcomes. Findings indicate that digital technologies such as IoT, AI, and blockchain are pivotal in improving supply chain visibility, optimizing inventory management, and enabling real-time decision-making, thereby supporting personalized customer experiences and agile responses to market dynamics. Sustainability practices, including sustainable sourcing and green logistics, emerge as critical drivers of brand reputation and consumer trust, aligning with growing consumer preferences for eco-friendly products. Predictive analytics facilitate better demand forecasting and pricing strategies, while agile supply chain models enhance flexibility and responsiveness in delivering products faster to market. Despite benefits, challenges include integrating innovations with legacy systems, managing resistance to change, and addressing data security concerns. Strategies for overcoming these barriers include leadership commitment, cross-functional collaboration, talent development, and strategic partnerships. By embracing these strategies and innovations, consumer goods companies can strengthen their competitive positioning, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

This study aims to analyse whether Chinese companies' R&D investment affects management innovation performance. Also, this dissertation defines management innovation as diversification strategies such as technology and industry diversification and analyzes the impact of these diversification strategies. In particular, this paper analyzes whether R&D investment leads to technology and industry diversification and whether technology diversification creates a mediating effect in the process of R&D investment leading to industry diversification. The analysis results can be summarized as follows: First, R&D investment showed a significant positive relationship with industry diversification. Second, R&D investment shows a significantly positive relationship with technology diversification. Third, technology and industry diversification showed a positive relationship. Fourth, this study examined the mediating role of technology diversification, and it was confirmed that technology diversification plays a mediating role in the effect of R&D investment on industry diversification. R&D investment and business innovation play a key role in the sustainable development of enterprises, and the findings of this paper have important reference value for enterprises' R&D investment decision-making. The results of this study provide the following implications that Chinese companies improve business innovation performance by increasing their R&D investment, promoting innovative R&D, and improving technology diversification and industry diversification strategies.

Numerous studies have been conducted in past so as to understand whether the working capital management policies of an organisation affect its performance or not. Some studies have found a positive relationship between WCM and firm performance. However, other studies have found a negative impact of WCM on firm performance. Present research work is an endeavour in this direction to find out the working capital management policies and strategies of Indian cement companies and their performances. The study employs a quantitative approach to examine whether the Indian cement companies optimally use their working capital, which is analysed by establishing the relationship between the working capital management and profitability using 11-year (2010-2021) financial data of 31 cement companies listed in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The findings of the random-effects model say that only ITP is significantly negatively related to the ROA of the cement companies at a 0.01 level of significance. Similarly, APP also negatively yet poorly predicts ROA at a 0.10 level of significance the firm’s profitability is not significantly affected by ARP and CCC. Also, it has been observed that the liquidity measures CR and QR have a significant positive association with ROA. Further, the size of the industries and leverage are inversely related to ROA but the age of the firm is not significantly predicting their financial performance.

This paper investigates if Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports published by a selected group of Nordic companies are aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. To achieve this goal, several natural language processing, and text mining techniques were implemented and tested. We extracted strings, corpus, and hybrid semantic similarities from the reports and evaluated the models through the intrinsic assessment methodology. A quantitative ranking score based on index matching was developed to complement the semantic valuation. The final results show that Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and Global Vectors for Word Representation (GloVE) are the best methods for our study. Our findings will open the door to the automatic evaluation of sustainability reports which could have a strong impact on the environment.

The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the challenges faced by business organizations implementing sustainable solutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the wider Gulf Coast Countries (GCC) region. To this end, our study examines an academic theory supporting the implementation of responsible solutions to the market. Ultimately, the authors hope to inspire the reader to consider what he or she can do to ameliorate the existing challenges encountered by sustainable businesses. The analysis presented in this article implies that in recent markets, the implementation of the sustainability theory is essential for further development. The research project contributes to the increase of knowledge about corporate and organizational challenges related to running a responsible business, as well as challenges related to the application of environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainable business practices. The research is currently limited to conceptual analysis, literature review and a survey conducted during the Sustainability Week 2019 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Nevertheless, this is the first stage of the research project conducted by the research team in cooperation with enterprises that implement responsible solutions in many global markets, and in UAE market. The scope of the first stage of the study was limited to the analysis of data clarifying the concept of the model specified in the research. To prove the validity of the model it will be implemented and tested in cooperation with organizations participating in the research.

While the importance of corporate governance has been broadly acknowledged in global financial markets and academic research, how to devise a practical evaluation system is relatively unexplored. This paper attempts to refine the Corporate Governance Evaluation System (CGES), constructed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) since 2014. The current CGES has several debatable issues in its complicated design (e.g., it comprises over 80 indicators in different types). To resolve those issues, this study invited ten senior domain experts (including several CEOs of financial holding companies) to retrieve 13 essential criteria from the CGES in four dimensions. And this study integrates several multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods (i.e., Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), modified VIKOR, DEMATEL-based analytical network process (DANP)) and the fuzzy evaluation technique to rank the exemplary companies. The obtained ranking is consistent with the one released from the CGES in 2017. This study conducted additional experiments to ensure the robustness of the findings. The newly devised model not only supports the ranking decisions but also provides a managerial guidance for companies to pursue systematic improvements. These findings enrich the understanding of corporate governance and contribute to gaining business sustainability for financial holding companies.

The concept of supply chain leadership strategy has garnered increasing interest from policymakers and experts, because it is among the most dependable practices to sustainable innovation and competitiveness for large firms across developing economies. Effective implementation of supply chain leadership strategic actions at each level in the company can create sustainable innovative and competitiveness. The study collected statistical data using an online Survey- Monkey questionnaire from 46 of top 100 JSE-listed companies with the intention to discover supply chain leadership strategic actions that drive sustainable innovation and competitiveness in the company. The findings expose a significant empirical insight for companies to understand and leverage supply chain leadership strategic actions to influence sustainable innovative position in a developing economy. These results suggest that firms operating within emerging markets should embrace and acknowledge the importance of sustainable innovation in business practices in the provision of goods and services. This study therefore delivers major contributions to the literature to assist in planning sustainable innovation and supply chain practices in a developing economy to survive in a competitive global environment. The paper also offers a vigorous awareness and knowledge of the common characteristics and strategies for supply chain management that needs to be prioritized by the JSE-listed companies.

The service sector, whose value has started to increase in recent years, has gained momentum with the acceleration of economic developments especially after the 2000s in Turkey. In a world where competition is increasing and social purchase perception is changing, companies started to differentiate in the service sector to create a competitive advantage. Companies that would like to grow in the industry and aspire to a greater proportion need credit to extend. There are many factors to consider in order to allocate the credit. Banks make financial and non-financial analysis to make credit decisions. This study has been prepared to assess the effect of financial and non-financial features of middle segment companies that need credit in the service sector on the credit decision to be allocated by banks. The group of variables that explain the credit decision at the highest level in these companies are non-financial variables.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a wide-ranging impact, resulting in a global recession due to weakened purchasing power. This circumstance necessitates business organizations adapting to developments and being more conscious of the risk of financial statement fraud. The intention of this research is to investigate the way corporate governance affected financial statement fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic. To acquire empirical data for examining corporate governance variables on financial statement fraud, the research was examined using quantitative methods. The study takes advantage of secondary data acquired from annual reports of companies under special monitoring listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange of 2020-2021. The logistic regression method was used to evaluate 134 data sets, and financial statement fraud was measured using the Z-Score and F-Score models. The results indicate that using the Z-score, only the board size has a negative effect on financial statement fraud during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Meanwhile, using the F-Score, the corporate governance variables studied are not proven to have an influence on financial statement fraud during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) have been the main contributor to the reduction of malaria in the past two decades in sub-Saharan Africa. Development of pyrethroid insecticide resistance threatens the effectiveness of these LLINs, especially when nets become holed and the insecticide decays. Three classes of dual active ingredient (AI) LLINs, have been assessed for their physical durability as follows: 1) Royal Guard®, combining pyriproxyfen, which is known to disrupt female reproduction and fertility of eggs, and a pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin; 2) Interceptor® G2, two adulticides with differing modes of action; chlorfenapyr and alpha-cypermethrin; 3) OlysetTM Plus incorporates permethrin (pyrethroid) and a synergist, piperonyl butoxide, to enhance the potency of pyrethroid insecticides; all nets were compared to standard pyrethroid only net (Interceptor®). About 40,000 nets of each type were distributed in February 2019 to different villages in Misungwi. A total of 3072 LLINs were followed at 6, 12, 24, 30 and 36 months to assess survivorship and fabric integrity in a community setting. The median functional survival were less than three years with Interceptor®, Interceptor® G2 and Royal Guard® having 1.9 year each and 0.9 years for OlysetTM Plus . After 36 months, 90% of OlysetTM Plus and Royal Guard® and 87% of Interceptor® G2 were no longer present (thrown away) in the households due to wear and tear, compared to 79% for standard Interceptor®. Short life spans of all assessed LLINs were driven by material of the net, rather than social economic status and housing material. All dual AI LLINs have a poor textile durability with OlysetTM Plus being the worst of the three.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the financial performances of the publicly held healthcare companies in crisis periods in Türkiye. The 2018 Economic Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis were included in the study as the crisis periods. We collected the financial data of the publicly held healthcare companies and calculated three liquidity, three turnover, three leverage and three profitability ratios by ratio analysis to use as financial performance indicators. We then conducted Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and we did separate analyses for the 2018 Economic Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The results of the analyses showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the publicly held healthcare companies’ liquidity, turnover, leverage, profitability ratios and thus their financial performances before the crises and after the crises. While the results are reassuring and give valuable insights to managers and policy makers to determine the areas that needs to be strengthened to be better prepared for possible future crises, our sample was limited. Therefore, this study presents an exploratory foundation for future studies which are needed to make a case of financial stability for the publicly held healthcare companies before and after the crisis periods.

The study is based on the notion that big data predictive analytics is important for developing strategic alliances performance of companies. this study investigates the relationship between big data predictive analytics, big data culture, and competitive strategies 'techniques were adopted, such as descriptive statistics, correlation,regression, etc. using SPSS and SmartPLS statistical software. Hypotheses were tested with bootstrapped analysis using SEM (through SmartPLS). The study developed a structural equation model by using the SEM analysis. The results of the SEM analysis suggested the hypothesized model of the study was valid. The results supported all the hypotheses of the study.Through empirical analysis, demonstrated the conclusion is that the big data predictive analytics has a positive and significant relationship with strategic alliance performance

In a business environment that is constantly changing, intellectual capital stands out as the most valuable asset for companies. Those who invest in developing their employees, especially their Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), tend to outperform their competitors. This study explores the relationship between the intellectual Capital of CFOs and the financial performance of companies listed on B3. The 100 companies with the largest capitalization listed on B3 in 2022 were analyzed, with available data on the CFO. A statistical model was applied in a cross-section analysis, considering two of the three subdivisions of Intellectual Capital: Human Capital ( experience, education, and certifications) and Relational/Social Capital ( network and reputation of the CFO). The results indicated a statistically significant relationship between CFOs' Human Capital level and the performance of the companies they manage, measured by EPS, ROA, and ROE. However, no statistical significance was found for Relational/Social Capital. This study contributes to the literature on intellectual capital and corporate finance in the Brazilian context, providing new evidence on the importance of CFOs' intellectual capital for company performance. It was observed that there are few equivalent studies in Brazil on the topic, especially about the Intellectual Capital of CFOs of companies listed on the stock exchange (BOVESPA).

Logistics industry has been found to be among the key sources of carbon emission. In Vietnam logistics industry, there is a considerable difference between the number of foreign and Vietnamese firms as well as the proportion of markets that they are taking. This study is to research the low-carbon emission measures conducted by domestic and foreign invested logistics service providers (LSPs) and compare the results of the two groups. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are applied. Literatures in relevant fields are reviewed and expert opinions are taken for structuring a questionnaire which was later distributed to 279 LSPs, with 166 returned and 159 being valid for data calculation. The results imply that there are differences in extension of applications of low-carbon practices between foreign and domestic firms. Except for transport mode switch and energy-saving lighting, the other practices witness that adoption levels of foreign LSPs are higher than their counterparts, which is possibly thanks to their global operation, more comfortable capital resources and awareness level of green initiative necessity. In conclusion, a comparison between the application conducted by foreign-invested firms and domestic ones, which has not been investigated before, was made.

In this dynamic 21st Century global economy, managers of insurance companies cannot afford to ignore the involvement of their employees in strategic change programmes. The employee's voice in strategic change programmes is now a prerequisite for organizational performance. This study seeks to determine the effect of employee involvement in strategic change programmes through participation in decision-making, teamwork, communication, creativity, and innovation. The research approach used was quantitative to collect data from 115 respondents using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The study employed the multiple regression method to analyse data using the IBM SPSS V28 software. All five constructs of employee involvement had a significant effect on the performance of insurance companies in Zimbabwe. The study findings will convince top managerial leaders of the insurance industry to acknowledge and appreciate the importance of involving employees in strategic change programmes. Besides, industry regulatory authorities can advocate for policies that encourage employee involvement in decision-making.

Research has shown that innovativeness is a key factor leading to company performance. However, the business environment can play a detrimental effect on company performance by undermining the company’s internal strategic efforts in terms of innovativeness. To test this, 344 questionnaires were sent to manufacturing companies owners and managers. 178 of them were returned and usable to test the study hypotheses. Though a hierarchical regression analysis, it was found that innovativeness has positive and significant effect on company performance, but business environmental dynamism has a negative and significant effect in innovativeness-company performance relationship. Recommendations and other research perspectives are suggested

This study focuses on a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2019 to 2020 to explore the relationships among corporate social responsibility, financial constraints, and financial performance. In addition, we discuss five factors affecting financial constraints. We also analyze the types of enterprises that can improve their financial performance by implementing corporate social responsibility keeping in mind the factors that lead to a high degree of financial constraint. The results indicate that: 1. The degree of financial constraints has a negative and significant impact on financial performance; 2. There is a reverse relationship between the degree of financial constraints and the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility measures; 3. Enterprises with high financial constraints (due to lower financial slack and revenue growth rates) can significantly improve their financial performance through the implementation of effective corporate social responsibility programs. 4. Enterprises with high financial constraints, caused by financial slack and revenue growth rate, can significantly improve their financial performance by implementing corporate social responsibility programs.

Failure to meet the deadlines for the implementation of investment and construction projects is a problem in all countries of the world, and leads to unstable activity of construction companies. The article studies the most important destabilizing factors affecting the main indicator of sustainable activity of construction companies-the duration of the implementation of an investment and construction projects. To determine and assess the impact of destabilizing factors on the duration of implementation of selected investment and construction projects, a survey was conducted, in which a number of customers, consultants and contractors involved in construction projects took part. Questionnaires developed on the basis of a cluster sample were sent to respondents, 48 responses were received in response to the assessment of destabilizing factors. To analyze the received and grouped information, structural equation modeling using the Smart-PLS program was used. As a result of modeling, a number of results were obtained, the most important of which are the identification of the main reasons that lead to an average (20% - 50%) increase in the duration of projects in the construction sector. The most significant were: the lack of an appropriate procurement program for materials; inefficient scheduling by contractors and instability of construction production; poor-quality processing of incoming information and untimely deci-sion-making due to changes in projects during their implementation. Destabilizing factors con-tribute to an increase in the duration of construction sector projects, which leads to time overruns, cost overruns, and an increase in the negative impact on the overall use of resources. As a result of the study, a set of recommendations was formed, the most important of which is the use of possible compensatory measures that can allow construction companies to eliminate the risks of disrupting construction deadlines for sustainable activities. These compensatory measures include: - recommendations to customers of the construction project; - recommendations to contractors; - recommendations to the consultant. Moreover, the control of destabilizing factors that can cause delays, the improvement of contracts and the precise and clearer definition of all elements of the project can help to reduce the duration of construction, and will allow companies to maintain sustainable activities in the construction industry.

Previous research has paid little attention to the relationship between corporate governance and brand equity in the tourism industry. This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of corporate governance (CG) on the relationship between brand equity (BE) and corporate profit-ability (CP) with ten control variables including five company characteristics and five macroeconomic variables. Financial data is retrieved from the Taiwan Economics Journal Database (TEJ), covering a total of 196 records from 32 listed companies for 16 years. Results indicate that BE has a significantly positive impact on CP in Taiwanese-listed tourism companies, and that CG moderates the relationship between BE and CP. These findings could help management executives enhance profitability by deepening BE and CG in the tourism industry. Managerial implications are also discussed.

With the economic recession and the deterioration of the ecological environment becoming more and more prominent in the world, the sustainable operation of enterprises is facing the most difficult choice in history. For each responsible enterprise, it is crucial to choose the market power expansive strategy that can improve the realistic viability or the technological innovation strategy that can improve the future development potential. This is of great significance to reduce the negative external effects of the corporate social environment and ensure their sustainable development. In this paper, we select the data of 18 large listed petrochemical companies from 2003 to 2018 as samples and construct a linear regression model for empirical analysis. Meanwhile, we put forward more practical business management strategies for the sustainable development of petrochemical enterprises in developing countries in further research.

Innovation and sustainability are key elements gaining important positions in public and private organizations’ agenda in recent years. Whilst innovation drives for more productivity, efficiency and competitiveness, sustainability incorporation into the development of the organizations outlines as a counterbalance. It helps directing the innovative endeavors of the organizations towards more responsible activities in terms of environmental, economic and social impacts. To help achieve that, standardization offers valuable tools to orient organizational development efforts towards sustainability. This research aims at exploring the plausible connection between use or implementation of standards and pursuit of sustainability in an important industrial sector in Romania – food industry. The objective of the research is to determine which of the two iden-tified hypothesis can be scientifically supported using the quantitative research methods. The expected results are that more than simply following short-term objectives, companies that con-sciously use recognized standards in their activity pursue long-term sustainability.

We aim to map the ESG patterns of emerging-market companies from 2018 to 2021 in order to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic exerted any influence on sustainable corporate behavior. Thus, the ESG performances were assessed by applying the Kohonen neural network for clustering purposes at three main levels: i) ESG overall, including country and sectoral perspectives; ii) ESG thematic; and iii) ESG four-folded (stakeholder, perspective, management level, and focus strategic views). Our results show that emerging-market companies focus their ESG efforts on social and governance issues rather than on environmental. However, environmental, and social behavior differ more acutely than governance behavior across clusters. The ESG pillars country-level and eleven market-based economic sectors analysis corroborate the geographic and sector dependence of ESG performance. The thematic-level analysis indicate that operational activities and community issues received more attention, which suggests that emerging-market companies address distinct ESG topics according to their particularities and competitiveness. Furthermore, our empirical findings provide evidence that the ESG behavior of companies has changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, our findings are relevant to policymakers involved in regulating ESG disclosure practices, investors focused on enhancing their sustainable investment strategies, and firms engaged in improving their ESG involvement.

Having effective and efficient financing is one of the most important steps in accelerating the development of public infrastructure, including toll roads. This study aims to identify Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for the implementation of toll infrastructure financing in Indonesia. Thirty-three CSFs have been identified from literature review. A Delphi survey involving a panel of experts working in the infrastructure industry was conducted. Based on the survey, it is known that internal rate of return, affordability, investment decision, commercial banks, financing costs, interest rate risk, control of cash flow, contract scope, and principles of risk transfer are important factors for the implementation of toll infrastructure financing in Indonesia. This study fills research gaps by developing a CSF model for successful toll road infrastructure financing in Indonesian PPPs, considering private perspectives and aiming to provide insights for investors and enhance understanding of country profiles in developing countries. The focus on toll road implementation in Indonesia contributes to a comprehensive understanding of CSFs for PPPs in the country.

Water resources are under pressure because of human activities. Its management faces the challenge of enhancing long-term water security while minimizing undesirable economic, social, and environmental impacts along with its production chain. Since water and wastewater treatment plants are designed to maintain and conserve freshwater provisioning services, it is paramount to understand how it operates before proposing options for sustainability. At this point, the diagnosis phase claims for methods scientifically-based, systemic, and more objective to provide information for decision-makers towards strategic management of water resources. This work applies the five-sector sustainability model (5SenSu) to assess Brazil's twenty major water and wastewater treatment companies (WWTC) to quantify their sustainability levels that allow ranking procedures and the establishment of benchmarks for improvements. Under comparative basis, results identified the top-three sustainable companies, CORSAN, CASAN, and SANEPAR, which should be considered examples of best practices. Specifically, the following best-ranked companies in each sector within 5SenSu should be used as benchmark patterns for more oriented best practices: SANEAGO, sector 1; AGESISA, sector 2; CORSAN, sector 3; CASAL, sector 4; MA, sector 5. This work contributes to the advancement in modeling sustainability assessment of human-managed systems (applied in WWTCs in this present study) from a systemic and epistemologically rooted approach, avoiding shortcomings and misleading discussions on the sustainability issue. Quantifying sustainability of WWTCS from 5SenSu allows the identification of those sectors/indicators that requires immediate cleaner production practices by decision-makers to improve overall sustainability, besides identifying those companies more aligned with the requirements of UN SDGs.

Overweight and obesity adversely affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL) through day-to-day impairments of both mental and physical functioning. It is assumed that polyphenols within the Mediterranean diet may contribute to improve HRQOL. This investigation aimed at studying the effects of a polyphenol-rich ingredient on HRQOL in overweight and obese but otherwise healthy individuals. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study including 72 volunteers was conducted. Subjects were randomly assigned to receive for a 16-week period either 900 mg/day of the supplement or a placebo. Dietary recommendations were individually determined, and intakes were recorded; daily physical mobility was monitored. Improvement of HRQOL was set as the primary outcome and assessed at baseline and at the end of the investigation, using the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Health survey. Body composition was analyzed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Physical activity level was calculated using International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). After 16 weeks, despite there was no adherence to the Mediterranean Diet Serving Score (MDSS), supplemented individuals experienced significant HRQOL improvement (+5.3%; P=0.001), including enhanced perceived physical (+11.2%; P=0.002) and mental health (+4.1%; P=0.021) components; bodily pain, vitality, and general health, being the greatest contributors. Besides, body fat mass significantly decreased (-1.2 kg; P=0.033), mainly within trunk area (-1.0 kg; P=0.002). Engagement in physical activity significantly increased (+1308 Met-min/week; P=0.050). Hence, chronic supplementation with a nutritional diversity and dose of a Mediterranean diet-inspired polyphenol-rich ingredient resulted in a significant amelioration in both perceived physical and mental health, concomitant with the improvement of body composition, in healthy subjects with excessive adiposity.

This study aimed to identify and categorize the influencing factors on the purchase of dairy products among customers of dairy companies in Mashhad city. This study is a mixed research (qualitative and quantitative), conducted with the aim of identifying and categorizing the influencing factors on consumers’ purchase. Therefore, the theoretical foundations were examined in the initial step, after which the customers and their needs and demands were addressed in terms of the company and its products. In the qualitative part, interviews were conducted in the focus group (23 people in 5 groups) to identify and extract these factors using the theme analysis technique. The reliability of the interviews was confirmed by retesting and the reliability between two encoders. Sixty themes (factors) that affected the purchase of dairy products were collected. In quantitative part, 517 questionnaires were collected from 13 regions of Mashhad city to perform statistic tests. A questionnaire was designed using the extracted themes in the previous (qualitative) stage to assess customers’ feedback. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by content and structure validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis), and its reliability was checked by Cronbach’s alpha. Fourteen components were obtained by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, after which the variables were labeled as intrinsic, psychological, and personality factors, the identity of the company, production power of the company, competitive power of the company, competitive prices, social awareness, and store capabilities. The construct validity was confirmed using confirmatory factors.

A study was carried out in a Waste Sorting Plant (WSP) located in France and treating dry recyclable household waste (DRHW) as well as dry recyclable commercial and industrial waste (DRCIW). The aim was to investigate the exposure to bioaerosol and dust. The aim of the study was to assess the extent to which the measurement of concentration, species composition and particle size distribution can contribute to a better assessment of the biological risks associated with exposure. Both stationary and personal bioaerosol and dust samples were collect in the (WSP). The results confirm that waste and waste sorting activities are sources of airborne fungi. Indeed, ambient concentrations ranged from 7.3×103 to 8.5×105 CFU/m3 for culturable moulds and up to up to 4 mg/m3 for dust. Personal exposure to inhalable dust was found up to 3 mg/m3 for dust and ranged from 8.6×103 to 1.5×106 CFU/m3 for fungi. Airborne fungal communities were found to be dominated by the Penicillium genera in both bioaerosols and settled dust samples, followed by the Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Wallemia, Mucor, and Rhizopus genera. Fungi were carried by particles of aerodynamic diameters mainly between around 2.0 and 10.0 µm. The findings dealing with size distribution and biodiversity of bioaerosols suggest that employees are exposed to complex bioaerosols during their work and helps to make a finer diagnosis of the risks involved, which is often difficult in the absence of any OEL for bioaerosols in general.

This study examines whether and how carbon trading policy impacts the financialization of non-financial firms, using China emission trading scheme as a natural experiment. We show that the carbon trading policy has effectively long-term inhibitory effect on corporate financialization. Our findings are robust to possible result bias and more precise control group. In addition, we explore potential channels through which carbon trading policy can affect financialization, and find that it contributes to curb financialization by reducing financing constraints. Finally, we show that the relationship between carbon trading policy and financialization of non-financial companies is moderated by company’s ownership, region and industry competition.

Evaluating the efficacy of the traceability systems (TS) plays an important role not only for planning system implementation before development, but also for analyzing system performance once the system is in use. In the present work, we evaluate the traceability granularity using a comprehensive and quantifiable model and try find its influencing factors via an empirical analysis with 80 vegetable companies in Tianjin city, China. Granularity indicators were collected mostly by the TS platform to ensure the objectivity of the data, and the granularity score was evaluated by using a TS granularity model. The results show a clear imbalance in the distribution of companies as a function of score. The number of companies (21) scoring in the range [50,60] exceeded the number in the other score ranges. Furthermore, the influencing factors on traceability granularity were analyzed by using a rough set method based on nine factors pre-selected by using a published method. The results show that the factor “number of TS operation staff” is deleted because it is unimportant. The remaining factors rank according to importance as follows: Expected revenue > Supply chain (SC) integration degree > Cognition of TS > Certification system > Company sales > Informationization management level > System maintenance investment > Manager education level. Based on these results, the corresponding implications are given with the goal of (i) establishing the market mechanism of high price with high quality, (ii) increasing government investment for constructing the TS, and (iii) enhancing the organization of SC companies.

This study identified, analysed, and prioritised significant factors for standardising the Korean smart city project evaluation system. We analysed the efficiency and productivity of companies currently providing smart city services to consider both policy and practical aspects. The prioritisation of smart city planning reflects the latest trends in South Korea, where urban planning is moving towards smart city planning. Furthermore, the capacity building of public-private/private-private partnerships indicate the importance of business scalability. This indicates that smart city services are only stabilised when the private sector is involved and leads the project, rather than focusing on public development. The feasibility of building intelligent facilities indicates that smart city projects should be implemented after securing cost-benefit feasibility. The results were used as the basis for building an evaluation system, showing that in smart city convergence alliances, small- and medium-sized enterprises achieved the highest efficiency by reducing inputs to 81% and 86%, under the assumptions of constant and variable returns to scales, respectively. As the operational aspect is more problematic than the technical aspect, policy alternatives are necessary for smooth business progress, including increased flexibility of laws and institutions and the activation of policies that temporarily relieve regulations to demonstrate smart city projects.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) play an significant role in financial inclusion and poverty alleviation activities. A critical challenge facing MFIs is how on all to build its own capacity for sustainable and healthy development. By using the data from the pilot survey of 65 microcredit companies in Zhejiang of China, this paper explores the factors affecting MFIs activities by principal component analysis and analyzes the key Influencing factors and sustainable development performance with the analysis of variance and multi-regression model.The results indicate that four key factors of operational technology, external environment, financial condition and institution size have a significant positive effect on the economic sustainability performance of MFIs, while the adjusted institution size is insignificant positive effect on operational sustainability performance,which means that key factors of MFIs sustainability have a greater impact on economic sustainability performance than operational sustainability performance.