Avoiding Complexity Catastrophe in Coevolutionary Pockets: Strategies for Rugged Landscapes

Quantifying the environmental impacts of value chains on the earth’s ecological limits is crucial to designing science-based strategies for environmental sustainability. Combining the Planetary Boundaries (PB) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework can be used to estimate if a value chain can be considered as Absolute Environmentally Sustainable (AES) in relation to the PB. One of the crucial steps in implementing the PB-LCA framework is using sharing principals to downscale the global PB to smaller scales (e.g., country) and calculate an assigned Safe Operating Space (aSOS). This study assesses the potential AES of a wood panel value chain in Austria and Slovakia to understand the consequences of applying diverse sharing principles on different economies. Two economic and one emission-based sharing principles were compared. The results show that depending on the sharing principle implemented, different conclusions on the AES and potential strategies at a value chain and national level are achieved. Economic-based sharing principles are biased to the value chain’s economical contribution. As for the emission-based approach, greater aSOS is given to systems with a higher contribution of emissions. A potential downside of either approach is that it can lead to misleading environmental strategies, such as hindering the development of less wealthy value chains and giving less incentive to improve environmental efficiency. These outcomes highlight the importance of further research into resolving the issues about just assignment of SOS. Moreover, our study contributes to the effort of making the PB-LCA framework relevant for strategic decision-making at a value chain level.

The nontraditional export (NTE) sector promises to be the antidote to Africa's economic woes in the face of dwindling traditional exports. Adopting the Porter's Value Chain Framework and a case study design, we explore how alcoholic beverage companies in the African NTE sector could create value in their upstream, midstream, and downstream value chain activities through effective governance and digitization. In exploring these intricacies of governance and digitization within African global value chains (GVCs), we draw on two major case studies, Diageo South Africa and Kasapreko Ghana Limited. Our study shows that the NTE sector can contribute to both economic and social upgrading activities, contribute to industrialization and create international competitiveness for African firms. Second, GVC governance and digitization, even though still at its infant stages in Africa, has the potential in propelling economic value through the NTE sector.

In the present context of digitalization across all industries, most of the organizations are investing in that equipment, tools, and solutions which will help their procedures, employees, apparatuses, and also the goods to integrate into the solitary system. This single network will be helpful for data collection, analyzing data, and also evaluating the development of the company and its performance as well. In this chapter, authors have tried to understand the impact of 4.0 on the company using the Porter's value chain model, which is quite crucial for the area which is primarily concerned with the value creation with the customers. It has been analyzed that 4.0 primarily influence the process of value creation, and so far had a larger impact in this area. The main aim of the learning is to explore how corporations functioning in India understand the occurrence of 4.0, what equipment and tools they are using for Internet of Things for supporting the process and challenges faced by them during the adaptation. At the end of this chapter, it has been identified that due to real-time data spreading across companies—probably all the necessary tools and methods are available, it can surely have a larger impact on the company. Additionally, it has been concluded during the study that the majority of the companies have moved toward the evolution in a digital way, and they have already started investing in this area.

Engineering activities have in some sense reached a mature level. It is, however, well recognized that the results have not satisfied the corporate strategy that was determined in advance. This is probably due to the lack of another context for reflecting on the corporate strategy in engineering activities, and this may lead to failure in the competitive global market. The present work intends to develop a conceptual framework for engineering activities, in particular, focusing on the process system synthesis and design that are most influential to the other activities and congruent with a corporate strategy. The new context for the process system synthesis and design emphasizes on value-added activities. The discussions are based on the well-known concept of Michael Porter's value chain and on the extensive application of Bellman's “the principle of optimality” in a modified form. Despite the need for ongoing strategic corporative operations to be successful, these two concepts are not combined in an explicit way. The author proposes a conceptual framework for process system synthesis and design by combining the value chain concept with the modified form of “the principle of optimality” to satisfy multiple objectives. There are two sequential problems: the first is to maximize the monetary value added, and the second is to have the Pareto optimum or compromised solutions. Both are discussed, and an illustrative application is described.

As the knowledge drain in virtual organisations is much more significant than in traditional companies, an 'experience gap' between virtual corporations and traditional organisations may emerge over time. Hence, the often postulated advantage of the 'best-of-everything' organisation turns to a disadvantage. As a consequence, virtual corporations have to develop strategies to minimise the drain of experience in between their different projects. On an analytical base, this contribution depicts a new organisational concept for efficient project-based collaboration among value-creation partners to cope with problems such as knowledge drain, financial drain and inefficient learning processes in virtual organisations. Referring to the theoretical concepts of virtual corporations, Porter's value chain and the approach of the resource-based view, a new approach for the collaboration among business partners can be derived, which combines the advantage of loosely coupled organisations with traditional forms of collaborations. The new organisational concept is named 'Strategic Virtual Organisation'.

This paper proposes an approach for measuring innovation in the agrifood sector. First we develop a concept of innovation taking into account its multiform, complex and embedded character. We then we evaluate the validity of the concept by applying it to single firms and value chains in the agrifood sector. This reveals that the concept works well both at firm and value chain levels. This paper provides the basis for future research in the field of innovation measurement at firm and value chain levels, providing also important implications for the further development of the proposed approach. We encourage other scholars to test the applicability of our approach to other sectors.

PurposeThis study aims to develop a comprehensive framework for discussing sustainability within the insurance industry, extending the traditional Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) dimensions to include economic and technological considerations. This inclusion is vital, recognizing that financial stability and the adoption of innovative technologies are fundamental to meeting other sustainability targets.Design/methodology/approachWe base our findings on an extensive literature review, case studies, and interactive workshops with key stakeholders in the insurance industry. Our analytical framework employs Porter's (1985) insurance-specific value chain, complemented by Berliner's (1982) insurability criteria, to distinguish between insurable and non-insurable risks.FindingsOur results show that the insurance industry is sustainable because it actively incorporates and contributes to sustainability goals across environmental, social, economic, and technological dimensions. This is illustrated through the identification of 50 distinct contributions across the insurance value chain, showcasing the sector’s unique position to significantly influence the sustainability discourse.Practical implicationsAddressing the pressing challenges of sustainability and insurability necessitates a strategic, collective response from the global insurance and risk management community. This paper proposes several policy recommendations, including enhancing risk assessment methodologies, diversifying insurance product offerings, encouraging cross-sectoral collaboration, and prioritizing investments in resilience and preventive measures.Originality/valueBy broadening the sustainability discussion to encompass economic and technological facets, this paper enriches the dialogue surrounding the insurance industry’s role in sustainability. It aims to inform decision-makers across the industry, political spheres, and broader society about the necessity of sustainability, fostering pertinent political discussions and highlighting avenues for future research.

Boeing is the largest export manufacturer in the United States and has been the world's leading aerospace company since 2012, with overseas sales accounting for more than half of its revenues. Boeing's successful internationalization strategy, studying and learning its management strategy is of tremendous practical significance. What kind of company is Boeing? What are the significant milestones in Boeing's international journey? What is Boeing's value-creating strategy? What are the positive and negative elements of these strategies, and what are their preconditions? What should Boeing do to strengthen its value creation over the next five years? This report will use theoretical models in International Business Management, such as Robinson's six-stage theory, SWOT analysis, Boston matrix, Michael Porter's value chain model, and RBV model, to answer these five questions.

Service oriented architecture (SOA) enables organizations to easily integrate systems, data, and business processes. Implementation of SOA solution in private sector is widely used and successfully proven to increase their profit. But there are different challenge in public sector which is not profit oriented and has different business model. In public sector, user satisfaction on government agencies is one of common indicator to measure quality of public service. This paper presents SOA solution for public sector using SOMA to conduct a service integration for optimizing public satisfaction. We also combined SWOT and Porter's Value Chain to support business modelling analysis. The result shows that there is a simplicity and feasibility for users to access the service after SOA integration, which improves user satisfaction.

Health care delivery is moving toward a value-based environment, which calls for increased integration between physician groups and health systems. Health executives sit at a key nexus point for determining how and when physician-system integration occurs. The objective of this study was to identify the organizational factors that health executives perceived to have made physician-system integration successful. We used a multiple-case study research design. We conducted semistructured, qualitative interviews with 25 health executives in the roles of CEO, chief medical officer, chief financial officer and physician group chief executives from eight of Washington State's largest integrated delivery systems. To guide our analysis, we employed open systems theory and Porter's Value Chain to identify physician group and hospital factors that were integral to successful integration. Using the executives' perspectives, the factors grouped into three themes: (1) organizational structure-a mix of integration contracts united by common structural characteristics between physician groups and hospitals); (2) organizational culture-alignment of leadership between physician groups and hospitals; and (3) strategic resources-designated resources to establish and support care coordination activities. Our work indicates that health systems should focus on the pathway to integration success through the alignment of structure (not just the integration contract), culture, and resources and not on an end goal of the physician employment model. Health system executives are key drivers for when and how physician groups are integrated into health services organizations. This article provides executives with an evidence-based model to aid in formulating integration approaches that combine elements of organizational structure, organizational culture, and strategic resources.

Batubara Regency, North Sumatra, has significant potential for developing palm oil-based MSMEs through the downstream processing of palm sap into brown sugar. This study analyzes innovations in production processes and business management practices in palm sap brown sugar MSMEs in the region, focusing on two MSMEs in Lautador District. Using a qualitative single-case study approach based on Local Economic Development (LED) Theory and Porter's Value Chain model, primary data were obtained through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions (FGDs) with 10-15 business actors and stakeholders. Results show that the innovation of a semi-automatic steamer increased production efficiency by 105% (from 22% to 45%), monthly revenue increased by 132% to IDR 5.8 million per unit, and the share of digital sales reached 75% (a 1400% increase). Key obstacles include the lack of halal certification and village road infrastructure. Recommendations include facilitating BPDPKS (Indonesian Palm Oil Development Agency) for production equipment and certification, as well as establishing a joint production house. This study contributes to the literature on palm oil downstreaming and sustainable LED strategies.

Although hemp cultivation is increasingly perceived as a promising option in terms of crop diversification, especially in semi-arid conditions such as in the Mediterranean region, its adoption remains limited thus constraining the development of hemp value chains at a larger scale. Our objective was to explore suitable conditions, at farm and downstream levels, for organic hempseed oil production in Sicily, taking on an action-research perspective that involves local actors. Based on a preliminary characterisation of barriers to organic hemp development at different value chain levels, we carried out targeted complementary investigation: (i) assessment on agroenvironmental performances of integrating hemp in durum wheat-based rotations; (ii) chemical analysis of local hempseed oil; (iii) exploration of marketing opportunities and value chain development. Our results showed that the lack of technical and economic knowledge as well as the deficiencies of suitable cultivars and adequate machinery were the main barriers for the organic hemp value chain development in Sicily. The analysis of agroenvironmental performances also revealed both strengths and weaknesses of hemp introduction in durum-wheat based rotations. Despite the identified limitations, we demonstrated that the organic hemp value chains represent interesting perspectives for the Sicilian farming sector, particularly in case of substantial barriers removal or adaptation.

This dissertation investigates the transition from linear to circular economy business models (CEBMs) and examines the boundary conditions, barriers, and trade-offs that shape this transformation at the firm and value chain level. While the circular economy (CE) is widely promoted as a pathway to sustainable growth, the transition requires fundamental changes in business models, supply chains, and organizational practices. By combining theoretical review, case-based empirical analysis, and simulation-based modeling, this dissertation provides a multi-layered perspective on how firms can overcome challenges and realize the benefits of CEBMs. The first essay identifies and prioritizes barriers to circular economy adoption along the value chain. Using a case-study methodology, it uncovers organizational resistivity, sector-specific barriers, and interdependencies that hinder transition. The analysis highlights how different barriers impact the value chain, and suggests strategies to overcome them through targeted interventions, organizational change, and stakeholder collaboration. The second essay applies a scenario-based system dynamics (SD) simulation to examine how identified barriers affect circularity at the firm level. By modeling alternative scenarios, it evaluates the dynamic consequences of investment choices, policy interventions, and organizational responses. Results show that failure to address key barriers not only slows adoption but also reduces long-term profitability and resilience, whereas coordinated barrier management fosters more sustainable outcomes. The third essay integrates multi-objective optimization (MOO) with SD simulation to quantify trade-offs between economic and environmental outcomes. The analysis demonstrates how firms face conflicting objectives—such as profitability versus resource circularity—and provides a structured approach to evaluating strategic decisions. Results highlight that optimal strategies vary by context, barrier severity, and firm capabilities, underscoring the importance of boundary conditions in shaping transition pathways. Overall, this dissertation contributes to both theory and practice. Theoretically, it advances circular economy and business model research by developing frameworks for barrier prioritization and by integrating simulation and optimization methods into CE research. Empirically, it provides evidence on how barriers, trade-offs, and organizational conditions influence firm-level transitions. For practitioners and policymakers, the findings offer actionable insights into how firms can organize, prioritize, and design strategies to accelerate the move from linear to circular business models, while balancing environmental sustainability with economic viability.

How to license SEPs to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the IoT

Research Question: The aim of paper is to identify value chain of the music industry and to determine the impact of music industry on employment in Serbia. Motivation: Creative industry is a very attractive topic among both scholars and professionals. A total of 52 sectors are considered as creative industry sectors, including music industry. Our goal was to identify the impact of the music industry on the economy, in addition to the entertaining and amusement value of the music. In order to do so, our goal was to understand all the sub-sectors and activities within music industries. Idea: Although excising NACE nomenclature of activities is rigid, our goal was to identify music industry activities within NACE codes, and to define how the value creation is distributed among various activities within the music industry value chain. Data: Measuring employment is based on combining data from the official statistics entities. Tools: Research required data on the four-digit level of activity (NACE), that were cross-referenced with the findings of the primary research and defined value chain activities of the music industries. Findings: The paper analyses the complexity of the value creation and value chain in the creative industries, specifically in the music industry. Findings support excising literature review and confirms complexity of the value chain in the music industries. In addition, the paper adds value to the scientific research by presenting novel approach that is based on using the Porter value chain model in the music industry and identifying a total of 29 activities within. Further, using created value chain model, paper results demonstrate the impact of the music industry on the employment in Serbia, that has been growing over the analysed period, no matter the COVID-19 crisis. Contribution: The paper expands the existing research related to creative industries and formulates the music industry value chain activities. The significance of this paper stems from the fact that, similar to other sectors within the creative industries, music industry is insufficiently covered by the data of the national statistical authorities. In addition,the paper measures the music industry impact on the employment in Serbia.