ABSTRACT This study analyzes spatial disparities in fixed broadband penetration and digital readiness across Mexico's 32 states from 2015 to 2023. Using a balanced panel of 288 state-year observations, we estimate a hierarchical spatial dynamic panel model that captures temporal persistence, regional interdependence, and multivariate technology effects. Inference relies on heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation-consistent (HAC) standard errors, and stationarity diagnostics address potential spurious correlation. Results reveal strong diffusion inertia, with lagged penetration emerging as the dominant determinant of broadband expansion. ICT equipment availability is positively and robustly associated with penetration, underscoring the importance of household digital readiness. In contrast, conditional technology shares (fiber, DSL, and cable modem) show limited short-run associations once persistence is controlled for. Hierarchical clustering identifies eight regional typologies reflecting enduring institutional and infrastructural heterogeneity. Explaining 91.9% of variation, the model highlights path dependence and ecosystem capacity as central factors shaping broadband diffusion in emerging economies.

ABSTRACT Eco-innovation strategies play a vital role in promoting the sustainability both individuals and businesses. Recent academic interest has emphasized eco-innovation within organizations, with an increasing body of literature exploring this topic. This study aims to synthesize and analyze research on eco-innovation in the tourism sector using content analysis and bibliometric methods. This study examined 92 publications from the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases following the PRISMA guidelines. Biblioshiny software was used for performance analysis and science mapping. These research spans 2004–2024, uncovering key trends, intellectual structures, and advancements in the field. The findings demonstrate how sustainable tourism practices can mitigate environmental impacts while boosting industrialy competitiveness. Furthermore, the study identifies 19 relevant theories, expanding the understanding of eco-innovation in tourism and offering valuable insights for future research.

ABSTRACT This study examines how authoritarian regimes leverage innovation as a strategic tool for policy adaptation and sustainable development while preserving political control. Contrary to the perception of authoritarianism as resistant to change, these regimes selectively embrace innovation to strengthen governance efficiency, reinforce legitimacy, and respond to socio-economic and environmental pressures. The paper conceptualizes ‘survival innovation’, a concept describing how authoritarian states pursue policy shifts not through democratic pressures but as adaptive responses to existential threats. Drawing on Middle Eastern cases particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt the analysis shows how centralized decision-making enables rapid policy implementation in economic diversification, digital governance, and sustainability initiatives. However, these innovations often reinforce state power rather than fostering inclusivity and grassroots participation, illustrating the paradox of authoritarian development. This study contributes to the discourse on governance, innovation, and sustainability in non-democratic contexts.

ABSTRACT Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship is increasingly considered a crucial way of transforming systems of consumption and production towards sustainability. Entrepreneurial support organizations like incubators have proliferated, and increasingly appear in the Global South. However, there is limited understanding about how these programmes in their role as intermediaries empower participants to actively engage in the transformation towards an environmentally and socially sustainable economy. Knowledge is particularly scarce for innovation contexts outside the Global North, where major sustainability challenges and limited funding intersect. The objective of the article is therefore to assess the empowerment effects of an incubation programme in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and provide insights for designing ecopreneurship incubation programmes in Southern settings. Building on data from ex-ante and ex-post participant surveys, the study integrates different empowerment dimensions including resources, social capital, intrinsic motivation, social learning and process design. The results show overall increased empowerment levels and a correlation between social capital increase and increased willingness. We however also found ambivalent results with negative effects for individual motivational effects including impact and competence. Incubation programmes must account for such disempowering tendencies to realize their transformative goals.

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked interest in how social innovation arises during crises and fosters resilience in rural areas, particularly in the Global South. This study investigates how changes in the business model of social enterprises stimulate rural social innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Using a double case study, two villages with different social enterprises and rural socio-economic backgrounds are examined. We find that adapting business models in social enterprises helps convey their societal significance to the community. Balancing economic and social missions in the business model is crucial for sustainability and fulfilling social goals.

ABSTRACT This research evaluates the effectiveness of innovation and e-commerce as corporate strategies for resilience during the COVID-19 crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using World Bank data from 2,405 firms in 7 sub-Saharan African countries, and employing an ordered probit model, we show that innovation and e-commerce have differentiated effects on firm resilience. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the innovation strategy is much more effective than e-commerce in permitting firms to restore their pre-crisis performance levels. These findings in SSA hide disparities according to firm size and industry. This study is crucial for sub-Saharan African economies to recover from such a crisis and provide a foundation for future resilience.

ABSTRACT Mozambique has substantial solar power potential (23,000GWe) yet only 83MWe of installed capacity (representing 2% of the total 3623MWe generation capacity). Meanwhile, 44% of the population has electricity access, making Mozambique one of the least-electrified countries. Efforts to scale-up off-grid solar photovoltaics and improve rural electrification face key sociotechnical challenges. Using interview data from 33 national stakeholders, we identify the key policy, inter-agency coordination, socio-cultural development, and institution-driven actions needed to overcome these challenges. We introduce the concept of a ‘social multiplier effect’ to explain how small-scale electricity access improvements increase public demand for grid-based electrification, demonstrating how this can drive socioeconomic benefits to rural and peri-urban areas. We call for coordinated actions from policy and market actors, advocating for policy coherence and increased private sector involvement to boost investment, regulation and innovation in off-grid solar technologies, ultimately achieving universal electricity access and improving social development outcomes in Mozambique.

ABSTRACT The network approach of value chain analysis examines the role and centrality of various actors and their interrelationships with other actors, besides establishing the role of external linkages in this process. This paper tries to combine the effect of research networks on the geographic dispersion of innovative activity in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. We use activity-wise data from USPTO's patents to establish the level of integration of Indian innovative firms in the pharmaceutical global value chain. Using Tobit analysis, we examine the nature of the collaborative pattern of firms and establish whether this pattern of the inventor network level translates to integration into global networks in terms of geographic dispersion. We analyse the geographic dispersion of inventor networks as a function of the characteristics of the innovative actors that coordinate their inventive work. We show the level of integration of Indian innovative firms in the pharmaceuticals global value chain and assess the structure of these research networks. This helped contextualize firms' roles by contrasting them with other institutional types. The level of integration of Indian firms is low in terms of the geographic dispersal of innovation networks, while the private universities and public research centres are more geographically dispersed.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the link between innovation and income inequality in a panel dataset of 50 countries from 2014 to 2019, focusing on the moderating effects of digitalization and the mediating effect of economic growth. Simultaneous quantile regression and structural equation modeling are used for analysis. The results reveal a significant negative association between innovation and lower and middle-income inequality, while higher-income inequality is not significantly linked to innovation. Moreover, the study finds that digital infrastructure negatively moderates the relationship between innovation and income inequality, whereas the digital market has a positive moderating effect. Additionally, the indirect effect of innovation through economic growth is not found to significantly contribute to reducing income inequality. To address this issue, policymakers are urged to act in bridging the digital divide and tackling income inequality.

ABSTRACT This paper reviews research on business incubators in Africa, as a policy tool for supporting entrepreneurial businesses. Combining bibliometric and narrative approaches, it identifies five themes in the literature: incubator types and support; incubator performance and innovation; incubator impact on businesses and economy; incubator role in start-ups; and incubator as enabler of learning. It also highlights gaps for future research, including the lack of studies on climate change and industrialization; the limited evidence on how to improve incubator support; the absence of studies on adaptive, responsive and inclusive incubators; and the scarcity of rigorous impact evaluations. The paper concludes that incubators are useful for enterprise development in Africa but need collective research and policy efforts to strengthen their contribution.