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Previous evidence has shown a generally positive relationship between continuously developed innovation, known as innovation persistence and employment growth in firms. This study investigates whether firm size moderates this relationship and how, considering persistent product and process innovation.

The authors studied the influence of firm size on the relationship between innovation persistence and employment using a 10-year panel database of firms based on national innovation surveys. The authors consider firm size as sales and measure innovation persistence through the hazard rate of innovation spells. To assess the main model, they use a system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator.

The authors' main findings indicate that firm size negatively moderates the relationship between persistent innovation and employment growth. These results suggest that the positive effects of product and process persistent innovation on employment growth decrease as firm size increases. The authors also find evidence indicating that the moderator role of firm size is greater when firms innovate more persistently. Robustness tests with different specifications confirm the results.

The authors show that firm size negatively affects the strength of the relationship between innovation persistence and employment growth in product and process innovations. The authors also show that the moderator role of firm size is greater when firms are more persistent in generating product and process innovation. Additionally, using a panel dataset, they provide evidence from a sample of firms in a developing country where no studies on this matter have previously been conducted.

The purpose of this paper was to look into the impacts brought about by climate change to the food security in Saguday, Quirino in the Philippines.

A framework for developing community food security was utilized which identified the need to mitigate and address inherent externalities in a community such as flooding due to climate change as necessary preconditions to attaining a food secure environment. The study highlighted Saguday’s risk to externalities using risk assessment and modelling.

Data from literature reviews and agency reports were validated by key informant interviews of local and national officials and focus group discussions with different stakeholder groups.

A modification of the Urban Food Security Planning Process developed by Taylor and Carandang (2010, 2011) was utilized to address the local government unit’s need to mitigate and manage the inherent geographical risks that Saguday has in relation to its agricultural and food productivity.

The aim of this study is to estimate the technical efficiency of the massive and economically important crop of rice in Ecuador, and then conduct a comparison between groups of farmers with and without insurance.

The authors use an input-oriented data envelopment analysis approach (DEA) to estimate technical efficiency scores. The DEA is combined with the double bootstrap approach in Simar and Wilson (2007) to study factors that may affect technical efficiency. This method overcomes the traditional two-stage DEA approach frequently used in the efficiency literature. The authors thus research the role of insurance on rice efficiency production using this technique and sizeable field-level survey data from 376 rice farmers distributed in five provinces during the 2019 winter cycle in Ecuador.

Most uninsured rice farmers operate with increasing returns to scale, which means that farms improve their resource use efficiency by increasing their size. However, since scale efficiencies are relatively high, it appears that inefficiencies are explained by inadequate input use. Also, the authors find evidence that insured farmers have a negative relationship with technical efficiency in rice production. In other results, when exploring the influence of additional variables on efficiency, the authors find that parameters related to transplanting, high education, farm size and some locations are positive and statistically significant.

The results of this work are relevant for policymakers interested in evaluating technology performance, risk management instruments and farm efficiency in an industry in a developing country such as rice production in Ecuador.

This paper is the first attempt to estimate farm-level technical efficiency employing the double bootstrap approach to assess the efficiency and its determinants of Ecuadorian rice producers.

This paper aims to explore synergies between lean production (LP) and six sigma principles to propose a lean six sigma (LSS) framework for continuous and incremental improvement in the oil and gas sector. The Three-dimensional LSS framework seeks to provide various combinations about the integration between LP principles, DMAIC (define–measure–analyse–improve–control) cycle and plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to support operations management needs.

The research method is composed of two main steps: diagnosis of current problems and proposition of a conceptual framework that qualitatively integrates synergistic aspects of LP and six sigma and analysis of the application of the construct through semi-structured interviews with leaders from oil and gas companies to assess and validate the proposed framework.

As a result, a conceptual framework of LSS is developed contemplating the integration of LP and six sigma and providing a systemic and holistic approach to problem-solving through continuous and incremental improvement in the oil and gas sector.

This research is different from previous studies because it integrates LP principles, DMAIC and PDCA cycles into a unique framework that fulfils a specific need of oil and gas sector. It presents a customized LSS framework that guides wastes and cost reduction while enhancing quality and reducing process variability to elevate efficiency in operations management of this sector. This is an original research that presents new and original scientific findings.

Interest in the Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) in connection with tourism is constantly growing not only among consumers but also among theoreticians. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of studies that focus on eWOM in the tourism sector using the snowball method. The article is based on a review of the literature of 60 studies that focus not only on consumer behavior in tourism and the impact of eWOM on tourism supply but also on the impact of hotel managers' responses to other consumer behavior and tourism companies. The results of the studies show that eWOM has a significant impact not only on consumer behavior but also on tourism supply. Manager responses can also strongly affect other consumer behavior in decision-making. When eWOM is distributed, consumers are influenced by their emotions, motives, and also by the websites to which they have decided to contribute. The chapter proposes further research areas for different authors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how rising technologies from Industry 4.0 can be integrated with circular economy (CE) practices to establish a business model that reuses and recycles wasted material such as scrap metal or e-waste.

The qualitative research method was deployed in three stages. Stage 1 was a literature review of concepts, successful factors and barriers related to the transition towards a CE along with sustainable supply chain management, smart production systems and additive manufacturing (AM). Stage 2 comprised a conceptual framework to integrate and evaluate the synergistic potential among these concepts. Finally, stage 3 validated the proposed model by collecting rich qualitative data based on semi-structured interviews with managers, researchers and professors of operations management to gather insightful and relevant information.

The outcome of the study is the recommendation of a circular model to reuse scrap electronic devices, integrating web technologies, reverse logistics and AM to support CE practices. Results suggest a positive influence from improving business sustainability by reinserting waste into the supply chain to manufacture products on demand.

The impact of reusing wasted materials to manufacture new products is relevant to minimising resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. Furthermore, it avoids hazardous materials ending up in landfills or in the oceans, seriously threatening life in ecosystems. In addition, reuse of wasted material enables the development of local business networks that generate jobs and improve economic performance.

First, the impact of reusing materials to manufacture new products minimises resource consumption and negative environmental impacts. The circular model also encourages keeping hazardous materials that seriously threaten life in ecosystems out of landfills and oceans. For this study, it was found that most urban waste is plastic and cast iron, leaving room for improvement in increasing recycling of scrap metal and similar materials. Second, the circular business model promotes a culture of reusing and recycling and motivates the development of collection and processing techniques for urban waste through the use of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies and Industry 4.0. In this way, the involved stakeholders are focused on the technical parts of recycling and can be better dedicated to research, development and innovation because many of the processes will be automated.

The purpose of this study was to explore how Industry 4.0 technologies are integrated with CE practices. This allows for the proposal of a circular business model for recycling waste and delivering new products, significantly reducing resource consumption and optimising natural resources. In a first stage, the circular business model can be used to recycle electronic scrap, with the proposed integration of web technologies, reverse logistics and AM as a technological platform to support the model. These have several environmental, sociotechnical and economic implications for society.

The sociotechnical aspects are directly impacted by the circular smart production system (CSPS) management model, since it creates a new culture of reuse and recycling techniques for urban waste using 3D printing technologies, as well as Industry 4.0 concepts to increase production on demand and automate manufacturing processes. The tendency of the CSPS model is to contribute to deployment CE in the manufacture of new products or parts with AM approaches, generating a new path of supply and demand for society.

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the contribution made by migrants in the territory that hosts them, particularly when they transfer their knowledge to members of the community. In the specific case of the sea urchin fishery, it is described how the Morishita family in Baja California undertakes the sea urchin value chain, from the location of population banks to the commercialization of the product in the Japanese market and, by therefore, the promotion of development in rural places while starting a culture of export and currency generation. An adventure of opportunities that has been successful for more than 50 years, whose origin is the sustainable use of “a plague” that today is a delicacy for many.

Scholars have increasingly researched on how the uprise of Technologies 4.0 will alter the way in which the tourism destinations, the hospitality and tourism sector will operate. Research points out to the fact that the massive digital transformation can lead to a human-centric experience design perspective which is against the principles of tourism sustainable development. In fact, one of today's challenges is predicting how destinations can use immersive digital experiences like metaverse to instill sustainable behaviours. Bearing that in mind, in this chapter, one first explores the concept of metaverse in general and after in the context of tourism destinations management organisations, showing that metaverse that seeks to turn imagination into reality using a panoply of technologies should be seen as the perfect mean for sustainable tourism.

The study proposes a conceptual framework to create an understanding of metaverse experiences envisioning sustainable practices.

Finally, one identifies research gaps and proposes an agenda with the potential of benefiting destination's management organisations. Furthermore, it was our intent to identify opportunities and challenges involving the use of metaverse with sustainable ends by tourism destination management organisations.

This study assumes that metaverse can be used by destination management organisations to educate potential ‘tourists’ by providing to them innovative educational environments where they can ‘live’ all sorts of non-human-centric sustainable experiences. With that intent, a model for the implementation of metaverse was created with its foundations on current experiments happening worldwide.

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.