For humanity to persist, we need to pay much more care that activities to provide for ourselves are sustainable. Our businesses need to green-up. Technological development will help, yet our overall economic activities and behavior need to adapt as well. For both, institutional change is key. Institutional economists are uniquely positioned to contribute to the economic and societal re-thinking that needs to be done.I place the agrifood industry at the center of the discussion. Agrifood plays a pivotal role in both humanity's survival, as well as in the current environmental challenges humanity faces. While some believe that greening the economy will come from (1) technological development, I conjecture that greening should also come from (2) new products and services, from (3) new business models, from (4) new business practices, from (5) market institutions, and from (6) market responses (including of consumers). All of these are deeply and inevitably imbued with institutions. Institutional economists also know that technological change is driven by (institutionalized) markets. The elements mentioned are interdependent. A discussion of policies to pursue for a more green business and economy ensues.

With digital innovations, there has been a rise in the establishment of business ecosystems centered on digital platforms. To sustain the performance of these platforms and secure the health of the digital business ecosystems (DBEs), resilience towards disruptive events should be paramount. Resilience can be obtained through sound architectural design approaches and demanding the identification of relevant cause-effect relations between digital system characteristics and performance. In this study, a system dynamics approach is adopted to reveal the relationships and the dynamics between main architectural design characteristics and DBE resilience and health. The main characteristics of the digital platform and the main cause-and-effect relationships among them and with the platform performance are specified. The dynamic model of DBE health and resilience is constructed using causal loop and stock-flow diagrams. Scenario analysis is performed following validation tests. This study contributes to the DBE architectural design, resilience, and business ecosystem health literature by means of a system thinking approach that advances understanding on the main DBE characteristics affecting health and resilience, their relationships, and the dynamics regulating their interactions. Moreover, the study shows the most effective strategies to sustain the related digital business against disruptions and likewise can provide guidance on the design of main DBE architectural choices.

Generational platform innovations prompt complementors to adapt their product development strategies. This paper examines how the speed of response to such platform changes affects new product quality and how this relationship is shaped by the complementor's prior experience. Adopting a contingency perspective on the strategy-by-doing literature, we differentiate between depth of experience (repeated NPD experience with the same platform generation) and breadth of experience (accumulation of NPD experience across different generations), and analyse their interplay with the radicalness of the platform innovation. Using panel data from 1,014 PC video games released by 378 developers between 1995 and 2014 in response to DirectX platform generations and updates, we find that faster responses lead to higher product quality for complementors with greater depth of experience in incremental platform innovation contexts. In contrast, for radical platform changes, faster responses are harmful for complementors with a greater breadth of experience, suggesting that translating and integrating diverse platform knowledge into effective responses requires more time. Our findings contribute to research on platform evolution and strategy-by-doing by clarifying when faster technology responses help (or hinder) product performance in generational platform contexts.

Resilience in critical supply chains, such as agri-food, is increasingly jeopardized by external shocks such as food safety incidents, localized climate change-induced weather events, or even geopolitical conflicts. Shocks are often exacerbated by factors such as high dependence on a limited number of local suppliers. What can make agri-food supply chains more resilient to shocks? Firms' strategic decisions related to enhancing resilience are affected by supply chain (industry) institutions, which may entice firms to engage in "Escape FDI" (foreign direct investment). In contrast, we introduce the "Push FDI" concept, where policymakers realign institutions proactively, encouraging businesses in critical supply chains to diversify production and strengthen collaborations with international partners, fostering more resilient governance structures. Encouraging "Push FDI" depends on appropriate alignment by firms to host-country institutional pressures. Using the case of Chinese outward investment into dairy production outside China following the 2008 melamine scare, we present considerations of which institutions may be relevant to incentivizing "Push FDI," along with how they may affect the business environment for firms, shaping the decisions managers face. This illustrates how policymakers looking to encourage resilience in agri-food supply chains can stimulate domestic firms possessing financial capacities to make supporting outward investments.

Environmental change presents escalating threats to food security and agricultural sustainability. Nevertheless, it remains ambiguous how firms—particularly farmers—respond strategically to these ecological challenges. Based on a systematic review of the literature, we examine: (1) the business strategies adopted within agricultural ecosystems to address challenges related to ecological sustainability, (2) the actors involved in implementing these strategies through specific practices, and (3) the technologies that facilitate these practices. We employ a mechanisms-based approach to analyze how these elements influence social interactions and resource utilization—natural, human, and technological—within agricultural ecosystems. Our findings reveal: (a) five business strategies implemented to address five specific challenges within agricultural ecosystems; (b) various actors operating interdependently at the micro, meso, and macro levels across each strategy to tackle these challenges; and (c) a combination of agricultural, mechanical, and digital technologies supporting actors’ specific practices within strategies aimed at addressing these challenges. By identifying the interdependencies among actors, practices, and technologies, we contributed to a more profound theoretical understanding of how agricultural ecosystems respond to ecological sustainability, particularly within rural contexts.

The Russia-Ukraine war has significantly disrupted global food supplies. The assumption is that after the war, production can return to normal. But is this true? This study estimates the damage to Ukraine's agricultural soil and the economic costs of restoring it to its pre-war fertility. Focusing on Kharkiv Oblast, we use high-resolution satellite imagery to identify 162,294 hectares of battle-damaged land and estimate that restoring this one region will cost $2 billion. Assuming that Kharkiv is representative, the implication is that it will cost about $20 billion-about one-fifth of Ukraine's pre-war GDP-to restore all of Ukraine's soil after the war. Given the scale of the demand on Ukraine's public finances we conclude that it will be quite some time before Ukraine's agricultural sector returns to its pre-war levels, and we warn policymakers not to assume that once the fighting ends, farmers can return, and the grain will flow.

Communication can, roughly, take two forms. It can either be instrumental, or intended for transmitting information to ensure the organization can properly function. In addition, one may distinguish within an organization communication with a social purpose. Social communication can be positive and energizing for all, or it can be invidious. Humor tends to be seen as positive social communication, but certainly need not be. Social communication is intended-explicitly or implicitly-to start or change (end) a relationship that exists between two or more individuals inside an organization. Being able to engage in social communication, and in humor most incisively, is constitutive of what it means to be a member of a community or an organization. This research note presents a way of representing the social in social communication somewhat formalistically to help understand the dynamics that can be involved in social communication as allegiances shift. Power balances in organizations and society at large are reflected in how different players communicate, with what target in mind, and with what level of mutuality is involved.

Research on open innovation (OI) in SMEs, particularly in the context of digital innovations and big data (BD), often highlights the potential for these innovations to drive SME growth. While digital innovations and BD can indeed enhance OI practices by presenting new opportunities, there is a significant gap in understanding how the challenges posed by these innovations can also act as catalysts for OI in SMEs. This study addresses this gap by examining the challenges faced by SMEs when leveraging digital innovations and BD for service delivery in the agri-food sector, and how they address them through OI practices. Focusing on Agritech firms in Ghana's agri-food sector as an empirical case, we conducted qualitative exploratory research using interviews and secondary data to fill the research gap. Our findings showcase how Agritech firms adopt OI practices through strategic collaborations and partnerships with external organizations interested in agricultural interventions which was triggered by the challenges they faced in leveraging digital innovations and BD. These partnerships and collaborations also serve as anticipatory measures to tackle potential future challenges. Our findings are not only applicable to Agritech firms in the agri-food sector but also offer valuable insights for other SMEs with limited financial resources and portfolio diversification in other sectors for anticipating related challenges.

This study investigates how online interactions influence anxiety levels in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain by examining the impact of social interactions within online health communities. We used actor-oriented modelling to analyse the online interactions of 200 users with musculoskeletal pain in an English-speaking online health community over three years. This method focuses on how people make decisions and interact within a network. We examined the behaviours and network dynamics of influential users with different anxiety levels to see how they engage socially online and if they adopt (non-)anxious attitudes from their peers. The findings suggest that although online social interactions could benefit anxious patients, more anxious individuals tend to experience more social isolation online. Moreover, individuals tend to adopt anxious attitudes from online peers, highlighting the influence of social interactions on emotional well-being. Contrary to homophily assumptions, we observed an "opposites anxiety attract" phenomenon-users frequently formed ties with others whose anxiety levels differed from their own. This dynamic indicates both encouraging and concerning aspects of virtual peer influence. While online health communities can reduce anxiety in patients with musculoskeletal pain, the effectiveness of social support depends on individuals' anxiety levels and their online interactions. Understanding these nuances is important for optimising digital platforms to support those struggling with anxiety and depression related to chronic pain.

The purpose of this study is to examine the reported architectural approaches and governance mechanisms for digital business ecosystems (DBEs). A systematic literature review is employed, in which 92 relevant articles are selected for analysis. This study provides an overview of articles, reports the formal modeling notations, modeling viewpoints, and design patterns used for DBEs in the reviewed articles, discusses DBE governance mechanisms, and provides evidence of the alignment between DBE architecture and DBE governance.

The commercial and governmental facility sectors are part of the core critical infrastructure grouping. Within these domains, business ecosystems have started to be developed around digital platforms for efficiency, scalability, and security leading to so-called digital business ecosystems (DBEs). To maintain and support the health and required financial performance, these DBEs need to be resilient towards adversarial attacks and vulnerabilities. The factors that impact the health and resilience of critical DBEs and the dynamic cause-effect relations are often not explicitly defined. In its turn, this lack of insight seriously impedes the health management of critical DBEs. In this study, a systems dynamic approach is adopted to support the health management and resilience of critical DBEs. For this, the variables related to the health management of DBEs are identified, and the cause-and-effect relationships among them are modeled using causal loop diagrams. As such, the study provides a holistic systems view of critical DBEs, including the variables, relations, and dynamics that define health and resilience. It has implications for practitioners by enhancing their visualization of the decision-making on DBE administration, especially in critical infrastructure sectors.

Although failure has been described as a significant trigger for the organizational learning process, current literature studies have provided limited insight into the organizational conditions that foster learning from failure. Interpreting the organizational failure as a missed opportunity for a firm to anticipate, recognize, avoid, neutralize or adapt to external environment generating diverse misfits, our study investigates how firms respond to different misfits within and in their environment. Using interviews and document analysis, we identify four types of misfits-managerial, cultural, technical, and political-and examine how firms respond to these misfits over time. Our research reveals that firms exhibit distinct patterns of response and learning depending on the type of misfit encountered. We also identify specific strategies and resources that firms utilize to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to misfits, such as developing innovative solutions and cultivating external networks. Lastly, we discuss the managerial implications of our findings and propose avenues for future research.

If employees have access to additional relevant knowledge and information, they can be more innovative, which is a reason for many firms to ally. Key in an alliance is the sharing of existing and creating of new knowledge, but transferring knowledge inside an alliance is not obvious or easy. Knowledge exchanged within an alliance must be perceived as relevant in order for it to be used. If individuals in an alliance can readily perceive knowledge to be relevant, the right knowledge is transferred and is transferred in an efficient manner. Building on stickiness of knowledge and knowledge relevance theory, we examine the relationship between an individual's job experience as well as intrinsic motivation on the one hand, on their perception of the relevance of others' knowledge on the other hand. These relationships are positively moderated by an individual's favourable position and connection strength in the network of individuals engaged in the alliance, respectively. We find a weak but insignificant negative relationship between job experience and perceived knowledge relevance. Being well‐positioned in a network brings out the positive effect of job experience, as expected, whereas connection strength does not further enhance the positive effect of intrinsic motivation.

Transitioning towards more sustainable agri-food ecosystems amidst the current global environmental change requires a shift in perspective. A perspective wherein agri-food ecosystems enact business strategies incorporating ecological concerns to address emerging environmental challenges. To unravel this perspective, we systematically reviewed the literature with the intent to extract information about: 1) the environmental challenges faced by agri-food ecosystems; 2) the business strategies incorporating ecological sustainability which are established to address the above challenges; 3) the design of agri-food ecosystems involved in the above business strategies and described as a constellation of actors, practices they enact and technological means they adopt. Drawing on this integrated view of ecological sustainability work, we discussed the configuration of agri-food ecosystems for addressing the different emerging challenges, provide the theoretical and practical contributions of the study and introduce future research avenues.