This research examines how an Industry 4.0 (I4.0) readiness assessment can inform the development of a digital transformation roadmap for smart manufacturing, while accounting for firm-level challenges, drivers and readiness conditions. The single case study approach involved I4.0 readiness assessment and analysis of inputs from cross-functional teams and experts. The firm’s digital transformation roadmap is based on the prioritisation of key areas for the I4.0 adoption, supported through an I4.0 readiness assessment and inputs from intra-firm/external experts. The analysis revealed that prioritised key interventions are required across Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Furthermore, mapping process-related areas and influencing factors enabled the identification of targeted pilot projects and innovation opportunities that align with the organisation’s digitalisation journey from computerisation to adaptability. This research advances theoretical understanding of digital transformation by integrating perspectives on phased transformation, demonstrating how process and technology-oriented evaluation co-constitute one another across sequential stages of transformation. The key limitation is that the study is based on a single ‘revelatory’ case study, which limits the generalisability of findings. This study provides guidance for manufacturing firms in emerging economies to develop a digital transformation roadmap using I4.0 readiness assessment outcomes, combined with expert inputs.

The increasing pressure of global energy shortage demands a better understanding of energy efficiency of current greenhouse food production systems to future climate changes. This study investigates the seasonal dynamics of energy and resource use efficiency for multi-year capsicum production in a high-tech glasshouse under current and future climate conditions. The analysis revealed that heating and cooling energy under the pad-fan energy system varies by over an order of magnitude across seasons, driving significant variation in total energy efficiency in the four capsicum trials. Skipping winter (Scenario 4) achieved the highest total energy efficiency (70.8 kg·GJ−1), achieving 14.1 million USD net present value (NPV) over a 25-year projected greenhouse lifespan in a modelled commercial scale glasshouse. Comparatively, year-round production (Scenario 5) has the shortest break-even period of 6.45 years. Forecasting energy demand under IPCC climate pathways demonstrated that energy efficiency improves over time, particularly under mild warming (SSP126) due to reduced winter heating. Therefore, we conclude that implementing smart seasonally adapted cropping and energy strategies will enhance the sustainability and resilience of vegetable production in pad-fan greenhouses in a warmer future climate.

Climate change issues have led to growing attention in academia to corporate carbon-related practices. However, the role of female leadership in promoting carbon reduction and how diverse cultural contexts affect this role remain unknown. Therefore, this study investigated the role of corporate gender diversity (i.e. board gender and executive members' gender diversity) in companies' carbon emissions and intensities, and how national culture affects this role. Our results show that corporate gender diversity is negatively correlated with companies' carbon emissions and intensities, individualism has a negative moderating effect, and masculinity has a positive effect. These findings emphasize the importance of corporate gender diversity in promoting board decision-making and related actions for carbon reduction, and clarify how national culture can affect the influence of corporate gender diversity on carbon reduction. Finally, based on our results, suggestions for practitioners on how to promote corporate carbon reduction are presented.

Inherent uncertainty in innovation projects is a management challenge for organisations. This study examines the impact of intra-organisational collaboration on reducing uncertainty in innovation projects, along with the role of organisational learning in facilitating this relationship. It draws on empirical data collected from 249 managers of innovation projects and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The results confirm that intra-organisational collaboration, with its five dimensions, reduces uncertainty in innovation projects and leads to organisational learning. Our paper provides empirical evidence for the first time that effective organisational practices reduce innovation project uncertainty, providing important insights for practitioners on the importance of investing in enhancing organisational learning and collaborations to increase the success of innovation projects.

PurposePurchase decision-making in cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) is inherently complex and dynamic, largely due to consumer situations shaped by geographical, cultural, institutional, linguistic and social separation between sellers and buyers. This study aims to unpack the mechanisms underlying consumers' purchase decision-making in CBEC through a situationist perspective.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the stimulus-organism-response model, this study integrates five aspects of consumer psychological situations - website design, interactivity, tolerance to wait, purchase goal and habit - as stimuli; dual-process evaluation (cognitive and affective satisfaction) as the organism; and purchase intention as the response. Survey data were collected from 417 experienced Taiwanese customers of a large US-based CBEC platform and analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results confirm the consumer relevance of the identified situational factors in CBEC purchase decisions and reveal the complementary yet distinct mediating roles of cognitive and affective satisfaction in linking these situational influences to purchase intention. Notably, cognitive satisfaction exhibits a stronger overall mediating effect than does affective satisfaction in both informative-aesthetic and task-oriented situations.Research limitations/implicationsThis study proposes a situational framework that offers new theoretical insights into the complexity and dynamism of consumer purchase decision-making in CBEC.Practical implicationsThe findings offer actionable implications for international e-commerce management and digital marketing by highlighting how consumer psychological situations can be strategically managed to stimulate purchase intentions.Originality/valueAlthough prior research acknowledges the importance of consumer situations, their specific roles in CBEC decision-making remain underexplored. By adopting a situationist lens, this study offers an explanation for inconsistent findings in the literature and advances understanding of CBEC purchase behavior.

IntroductionEnergy management in protected cropping is imperative to sustainably produce food. Optimal energy consumption in a protected cropping facility strongly depends on infrastructure control settings and meteorological conditions. This study aimed to optimise glasshouse energy management by investigating energy consumption under different shading, light-altering and ventilation conditions.MethodsWe compared energy consumption used in heating and cooling under two light-altering films and four different ventilation and shade screen positions. The light-altering glasshouse films, namely, light shifting film (LSF) - Luminescent Light Emitting Agriculture Film (LLEAF), and light blocking film (LBF) - low emissivity film ULR 80 (ultra-low reflectivity with 80% light transmission) were compared to a light diffusing hazed glass as the control.ResultsThe mean combined energy consumption was significantly higher in summer compared to winter. The light treatment and ventilation/shade screen position combinations influenced total heating and cooling energy consumption mostly in summer. The LBF achieved the most efficient total energy consumption, particularly when ventilation was open and shade screens closed during winter, and when both ventilation and shade screens were closed during summer.DiscussionRegardless of the season, cooling energy use was more dependent on the rooftop rather than the outside air temperature, indicating that incoming radiation is the major contributor to glasshouse warming during winter. Therefore, the minimization of energy consumption in protected cropping requires combined management of ventilation settings and light-altering methods to match the seasonal photoperiod and outside temperature environment.

Global climate change is today’s biggest threat, encompassing rising extreme temperature events. The increase in the thermal mass of the building envelope by adding phase change material (PCM) is one of the promising measures to improve the thermal performance of buildings. In this study, a calcium carbonate (CaCO3) coated PCM-impregnated recycled concrete aggregate (PCM-RCA) is developed by immersion and injecting carbon dioxide (CO2) techniques. Two concrete samples using RCA and PCM-RCA aggregate are prepared and compared their thermal performance in building envelopes through EnergyPlus simulation for Sydney, Australia. The results showed that using PCM-RCA concrete in exterior walls could reduce the peak indoor air temperature by 1 °C and have an energy savings of 14.2

Owing to the urgency of the climate change crisis and the emerging greenwashing issue that companies face, greenwashing in companies' carbon reduction is exceptionally important in the progress of global carbon reduction and the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals. Therefore, this study focused on multinational corporations (MNCs) listed on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list (2001–2020) and used institutional theory to theoretically discuss and empirically test the relationship between MNCs' environmental scores and carbon emissions/intensity, as well as the moderating effect of national culture. Our results demonstrate that the environmental scores of MNCs positively affect their carbon emissions and intensity, meaning that managers tend to use high scores to hide their poor carbon reduction, showing a typical “talk” more and “act” less (i.e., greenwashing) behavior. Meanwhile, the moderating effects of individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance were negative. These revealed that the balance of MNCs' “talk” and “act” can be influenced by the domestic national cultural characteristics. Further analysis showed that the Paris Agreement did not prevent MNCs' greenwashing in carbon reduction. Such greenwashing behavior has become even worse in societies with power distance characteristics after the Paris Agreement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate companies' greenwashing in terms of carbon reduction. The goal is to enhance our understanding of why and how greenwashing occurs based on the institutional theory perspective, extend the application of institutional theory, enrich the literature on companies' greenwashing and national culture, and offer insight into interdisciplinary research between national culture and green transition management. Finally, suggestions for policymakers on how to prevent MNCs' greenwashing in carbon reduction, considering national cultural influence, were provided.

Students from Asian countries form the largest group of mobile international students in Western anglophone countries. Despite research on the mobility experiences of international students to anglophone and non-anglophone countries, there are limited cross-comparative, mixed-method studies exploring the experiences of host language acquisition and usage and how these impact on academic performance and shapes social connectedness. This study contributes further understanding by exploring language acquisition experiences of international university students in Taiwan and Australia, where the language of instruction is not their native language. In the two universities studied, usage levels (general usage, speaking, reading, listening and writing) differed and depended on situational and contextual needs. Those studying in Australia consistently reported higher mean scores of host language usage across three of the five components: listening, reading and writing. Written communication was perceived to be a challenge for both groups during interviews. Overall, students preferred face-to-face classroom learning and highly valued peer support. Information communication and technology use was common in supporting vocabulary and pronunciation. We discuss how the findings of our study inform the types of academic learning support needed, and how these differed, depending on the host language, and student background.

High-tech protected cropping holds great potential to improve global food security, but high cooling energy costs in warm climates pose difficulties in propagating the industry. Emerging technologies, such as diffuse glasses fitted with photoselective thin films, have interactions with crops and other cooling technologies which are not well-characterized for warm-climate glasshouses. A light-blocking film (LBF) was chosen as a high-tech, climate-controlled greenhouse cover permitting transmission of 85% of photosynthetically-active light and blocking heat-generating radiation. Two consecutive 7-month trials of two capsicum crops were grown under warm climate conditions partially impacted by bushfire smoke, with 2 cultivars (Gina and O06614) in the first trial, and 2 cultivars (Gina and Kathia) in the second trial. Capsicum fruit yield decreased by 3% in Gina and increased by 3% in O06614 for the first trial, and decreased by 13% in Gina, 26% in Kathia for the second trial. Cooling energy use increased by 11% and 12% for both capsicum crops in AE and SE respectively, with small but insignificant decreases in fertigation demand (2%–5%). Cooling potential was significantly different from material specifications, with indications that convection from LBF interfaces was responsible for higher heat loads. LBF and similar absorptive glasses may still be beneficial for reducing nutrient, water, and energy use in warm climate glasshouses. However, yield is cultivar-dependent and may decrease with below-optimal crop lighting, whereas energy savings are more dependent on LBF orientation and building geometry than outside climate.

Energy management in protected cropping is critical due to the high cost of energy use in glasshouse facilities. The main purpose of this research was to investigate two different methods of regulating cooling energy consumption, by adjusting the settings (opening/closing) of either vents or curtains during the day, at the protected cropping facility at Western Sydney University in Australia. This research study adopted an experimental approach to investigate energy consumption under four different open/closed combinations of vents and curtains (vents open/curtains open, vents closed/curtains open, vents open/curtains closed, vents closed/curtains closed) and develop an optimal cooling strategy for energy management using multi-temperature acquisition points. The daily average consumption and the temperature (both gutter and rooftop levels) during the day at the protected facility were measured over four different open/closed combinations of vents and curtains. The results show significant differences in temperature between rooftop and gutter levels during the day across all four combinations tested. Furthermore, analysis of energy consumption shows significant differences in daily average energy consumptions, including the highest daily average of 121 kWh using vent (closed)/curtains (open) and the lowest daily average of 70.5 kWh using vent (open)/curtains (closed). Since the combination of open vent and closed curtain is the better experimental setting with the lower daily and average energy consumption among four combinations evaluated, adjustable settings for the opening of vent and closing of curtain, based on the required temperature and tolerance levels, are recommended as the optimal cooling strategy for energy management using multi-temperature acquisition points at the selected protected cropping facility, taking into consideration of the type of crop and stage of the crop cycle. These findings can be used as a guide for developing timeframes for adjustable settings of vent opening, depending on the measured temperature differences inside the facility and external temperature. Although vents opening using the adjustable settings could provide better cooling energy consumption, taking the advantage of the warm temperature outside, a longer period of vents opening could have adverse effects on other conditions such as level of CO2. Therefore, a holistic approach to energy consumption taking consideration of key control variables is recommended for future research.

AbstractYoung water professionals (YWPs) have a critical role in ensuring how water resources will be managed to contribute towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To address the challenges of climate change, population growth, and urbanization, YWPs require leadership skills, transdisciplinary competencies, technical knowledge, and practical experience. This article presents the India YWP training program, led by Western Sydney University and the Australia India Water Centre (AIWC), aimed at developing a cohort of skilled YWPs and nurturing the next generation of water leaders in support of India's water reform agenda and the National Water Mission. The program engaged 20 YWPs, consisting of an equal gender representation, selected by the Ministry of Jal Shakti from various water management agencies and departments across India. The 11‐month training program was designed to be transformative and interactive, and it used an online platform comprising online lectures, mentoring, and project‐based learning facilitated by the AIWC team. The training methodology focused on engaged learning, incorporating online workshops, Situation Understanding and Improvement Projects (SUIPs), online group discussions, and mentoring. The SUIPs provided a platform for YWPs to work in pairs, receiving guidance from AIWC members, enabling them to develop practical skills and knowledge in real‐world contexts. The program effectively enhanced participants' capacities in project planning, design, implementation, and management, while fostering critical thinking and problem‐solving skills by adopting transdisciplinary approaches. Furthermore, participants demonstrated improved leadership, project management, time management, and communication skills. The training helped YWPs to equip them with a holistic perspective and stakeholder‐focused mindset to address diverse water challenges from a holistic and long‐term standpoint.

Cross-border electronic commerce (CBEC) was developed from traditional e-commerce to cater to the growing demand for online transactions among global traders. Consumer behaviour is one of the most important topics that multistakeholders (e.g., e-commerce platforms, entrepreneurs, governments and third-party service providers) need to understand to develop CBEC. Although for over a decade studies across disciplines and regions have explored various consumer behaviours and their factors in CBEC through diverse research methods and theoretical lenses, the current literature is still fragmented and lacks consolidation of past contributions. In the present study, we conduct a systematic literature review based on 40 CBEC studies to present an overview of the current research status of the field. This study analyzes research contexts, theoretical applications and methods, and unifies a CBEC definition as a benchmark for future research. More importantly, we employ the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework to categorize factors into the inner and outer CBEC ecosystem stimuli, cognitive and affective states, and approach and avoidance behaviours, and to generalize two consumer behavioural patterns to provide a comprehensive understanding of consumer behaviours in CBEC. With the proposed future research directions, we believe that this review can serve as a fundamental and informative guideline for researchers to continue advancing knowledge of the field.

Academic attention on corporate water disclosure and the role of board gender diversity (BGD) in corporate environmental responsibility has increased dramatically. However, the study of the relationship between BGD and corporate water disclosure is lagging, particularly in the influence of national culture on the relation. Therefore, this study investigates the water disclosure of 150 MNCs from China, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. using content analysis, theoretically discusses and empirically tests the relationship between BGD and MNCs’ water disclosure, and the moderating effects of national culture. The results indicate that (1) BGD positively impacts MNCs’ water disclosure, and (2) the cultural constructs of masculinity and uncertainty avoidance negatively moderate this relationship. These results reveal that female board members’ moral characteristics caused by gender differences are the key to promoting the board’s abilities of stakeholders’ water issue detection. This advantage of female board members could be enhanced or weakened in different national cultures. Our study closes a research gap, strengthens our understanding of the role of BGD in promoting the board’s water-related strategic decision-making, and extends the application of the national cultural dimension in interdisciplinary research in management and social science fields.

This study investigated the impact of online product reviews on consumers purchasing decisions by using eye-tracking. The research methodology involved (i) development of a conceptual framework of online product review and purchasing intention through the moderation role of gender and visual attention in comments, and (ii) empirical investigation into the region of interest (ROI) analysis of consumers fixation during the purchase decision process and behavioral analysis. The results showed that consumers' attention to negative comments was significantly greater than that to positive comments, especially for female consumers. Furthermore, the study identified a significant correlation between the visual browsing behavior of consumers and their purchase intention. It also found that consumers were not able to identify false comments. The current study provides a deep understanding of the underlying mechanism of how online reviews influence shopping behavior, reveals the effect of gender on this effect for the first time and explains it from the perspective of attentional bias, which is essential for the theory of online consumer behavior. Specifically, the different effects of consumers' attention to negative comments seem to be moderated through gender with female consumers' attention to negative comments being significantly greater than to positive ones. These findings suggest that practitioners need to pay particular attention to negative comments and resolve them promptly through the customization of product/service information, taking into consideration consumer characteristics, including gender.

PurposeConsidering both online and offline service scenarios, this study aims to explore the factors affecting doctors' intention to offer consulting services in eHealth and compare the factors between the free- and paid-service doctors. The theory of reasoned action and social exchange theory are integrated to develop the research model that conceptualizes the role of extrinsic motivations, intrinsic motivations, costs, and attitudes in doctors' behavioral intentions.Design/methodology/approachPartial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was leveraged to analyze 326 valid sample data. To provide robust results, three non-parametric multigroup analysis (MGA) methods, including the PLS-MGA, confidence set, and permutation test approaches, were applied to detect the potential heterogeneity between the free- and paid-service doctors.FindingsThe results with overall samples reveal that anticipated rewards, anticipated associations, anticipated contribution, and perceived fee are all positively related to attitude, which in turn positively influences behavioral intention, and that perceived fee positively moderates the relationship between attitude and behavioral intention. Attitude's full mediation is also confirmed. However, results vary between the two groups of doctors. The three MGA approaches return relatively convergent results, indicating that the effects of anticipated associations and perceived fee on attitude are significantly larger for the paid-service doctors, while that of anticipated rewards is found to be significantly larger for the free-service doctors.Originality/valueeHealth, as a potential contactless alternative to face-to-face diagnoses, has recently attracted widespread attention, especially during the continued spread of COVID-19. Most existing studies have neglected the underlying heterogeneity between free- and paid-service doctors regarding their motivations to engage in online healthcare activities. This study advances the understanding of doctors' participation in eHealth by emphasizing their motivations derived from both online and offline service scenarios and comparing the differences between free- and paid-service doctors. Besides, horizontally comparing the results by applying diverse MGA approaches enriches empirical evidence for the selection of MGA approaches in PLS-SEM.

Glasshouses hold the potential to improve global food security, but high energy costs are an ongoing challenge in bringing them to the forefront of agriculture in warm climates. Here, the energy-saving potential of a ‘Smart Glass’ (SG), diffuse glass fitted with ULR-80 film which permits transmission of 85% of photosynthetically-active light and blocks heat-generating radiation, was characterised for a warm-climate glasshouse. Two consecutive 6-month trials of eggplant crops were grown in a high-tech glasshouse to compare SG to standard diffuse glass (control) in both cool and warm climate conditions. The SG reduced cooling energy use by 4.4% and fertigation demand by 29% in cooler months, and reduced cooling energy use by 4.4% and fertigation demand by 18% in warmer months. The SG did not significantly affect ventilation or heating energy use, but substantially reduced fruit yield. SG may be beneficial for reducing nutrient/water use alongside minor energy savings in commercial glasshouses. However, re-engineering the spectral characteristics of SG could improve eggplant fruit yield while maintaining reductions in energy, nutrient, and water use in the glasshouse.

There have been many researchers investigating the strategies to optimize the quality and yield of the flower. However, only a small number is concerned with the environmental impacts of cut flowers from the growing facility to the end consumer, and no such review has been documented in the literature. As a result, this study attempts to review the life cycle assessment (LCA) studies for the cut flower to achieve a comprehensive and minimally biased overview. Based on the literature review, there is no consensus on which functional unit (FU) is the most suitable, but a majority of studies use pieces of product (number of stems in the case) as a FU to evaluate the environmental impacts, when post-harvest handling and consumer stages are usually excluded in the system boundary. It is also found that carbon footprint, or global warming potential (GWP) is the primary indicator the researchers focus on, and energy is another important factor. The inconsistencies of LCA parameter selections, together with the various flower species and cultivation methods, challenge the comparisons of environmental performance. Aiming to enhance the environmental sustainability in the industry, it is proposed to advance technology in the greenhouse system, implement integrated nutrient and pest management, introduce the certificate and label for cut flowers, develop sea transport with the refrigerated container, and raise consumer's perception to the environmental impact. Compared with studies of other products, research on LCA of cut flowers is laid behind. There is still a room for improvement in terms of LCA of cut flowers, since the issues such as allocation, waste treatment, and uncertainty analysis have not been explored yet. This review suggests that indicators such as water usage, chemicals, land use, and waste not included in CML methodology are also significant. Besides, analyses focusing on post-harvest handling and consumer stages should be carried out in the future.

In the online travel industry, many hotels collaborate with online travel agencies (OTAs) to attract new customers to book hotels. Meanwhile, hotels and OTAs compete with each other for repeat customers because hoteliers are unwilling to pay a commission to OTAs for the same customers again. The purpose of this study is to investigate the collaboration and competition between OTAs and hotels. The quality of OTA websites and customer values of hotel booking services are key factors in attracting customers in the online-to-offline-to-online (O2O2O) commerce. In particular, the data were collected from China and Vietnam in the travel industry. The results compare the differences and similarities of cross-country customer perceptions and the behavioral intentions of OTAs and hotels. The findings provide insights into the collaboration and competition between OTAs and hotels from a global perspective. Managerial implications for hotels that partner with OTAs are also offered.