A configurational study of innovation in the business and economic field

Abstract This paper revisits the work of Richard R. Nelson (1930–2025), focusing on his critique of equilibrium theory, to explore persistent methodological debates within the field of economics. It examines the tension between theoretical abstraction and empirical realism, arguing that Nelson’s evolutionary approach offers a compelling alternative to the dominant general equilibrium framework. By foregrounding processes of change, uncertainty, and adaptive behaviour, Nelson (alongside Sidney G. Winter) challenges the discipline’s tendency to model economies as static, fully understood systems. While this paper does not aim to provide a comprehensive review of their contributions, it highlights how their critique remains strikingly relevant today. Despite methodological refinements, shifts in research topics and policy engagement, mainstream economics continues to struggle with dynamic, out-of-equilibrium analysis. Revisiting Nelson’s legacy is not only timely, but also essential for those seeking a more realistic and responsive economics.

South Africa’s shift to renewable energy has been characterised by significant structural changes, primarily through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), which achieved considerable capacity by 2016. Although this green transition aligns with environmental and economic goals, gender inequities persist in labour market outcomes, particularly in technical and leadership positions. This study examines the short- and long-term impacts of renewable energy investments and important socioeconomic elements on female labour force participation (FLFP) in South Africa. Applying a bounds testing approach based on a semi-annual autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, this analysis utilises data from 2003 to 2022. It includes factors such as renewable energy investments, the share of green jobs, GDP per capita, and access to modern energy services. The results indicate a statistically significant long-term equilibrium relationship. Increased renewable energy investments align with increases in FLFP, and the growth of green jobs further boosts women’s workforce participation. GDP per capita additionally has a positive impact, highlighting the macroeconomic advantages of inclusive growth. On the contrary, access to existing energy services shows a statistically insignificant negative relationship with FLFP, suggesting that merely expanding infrastructure may not effectively tackle gendered labour disparities. This study adds to the field of energy economics by providing a gender-segregated empirical evaluation and by suggesting policy actions to foster a more inclusive and fair energy transition in South Africa.

The Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Nigeria are struggling with persistent income deficits and high unemployment rates, which is hindering the development of grassroots communities. As a dual approach to increase Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and generate job opportunities, this study evaluates the possibilities of constructing modern trailer parks that serve multiple functions and are reimagined as integrated transport logistics hubs. This article makes use of a narrative review technique to compile a synthesis of the literature from the fields of development studies, public administration, and transport economics. An integrated theoretical framework that incorporates Human Capital, Public-Private Partnership (PPP), and Fiscal Federalism serves as the basis for the investigation. The findings suggest that parks of this kind have the potential to create many layers of revenue through fees, leases, and formalized taxes, in addition to the creation of direct, indirect, and induced employment opportunities. On the other hand, the realization of this potential is dependent upon Nigeria overcoming its quintuple problem, which consists of informality, funding shortfalls, inadequate governance, environmental costs, and resistance from the community. The contribution that this study makes is the identification of critical success factors that are interdependent on one another. These factors include viable public-private partnership models, digital integration for transparency, strategic national siting standards, and proactive community benefit-sharing. The paper comes to the conclusion that trailer parks are a feasible instrument for local government area (LGA) economic autonomy and job creation, but that they require a significant amount of governance. This fact shifts the policy discussion away from the technological potential and towards the institutional conditions for successful implementation.

Livestock production plays a vital role in global food and nutritional security by supplying high-quality animal-source foods, supporting livelihoods, and contributing to agricultural sustainability. Productivity and efficiency of livestock systems are closely linked to the quality and precision of nutritional management. This review aims to synthesizes recent advancements in nutritional strategies aimed at enhancing livestock productivity while addressing health, welfare, economic viability, and environmental sustainability. Emphasis is placed on improvements in feed ingredients, including alternative feed resources, insect proteins, algae-based feeds, and genetically improved forage crops that enhance nutrient availability and reduce dependence on conventional inputs. The review highlights progress in precision nutrition and feeding technologies, integrating data analytics, sensors, and artificial intelligence to align nutrient supply with real-time animal requirements, thereby improving feed efficiency and reducing nutrient losses. Functional feeds and feed additives such as probiotics, enzymes, organic acids, and phytogenic compounds are discussed for their roles in gut health, immune modulation, and reduced reliance on antimicrobial growth promoters. Nutritional strategies targeting growth performance, milk yield and composition, meat quality, reproductive efficiency, and stress resilience are critically evaluated using current scientific evidence. Environmental sustainability remains a central theme, with nutrition-based interventions shown to lower greenhouse gas emissions, improve nutrient use efficiency, and reduce nitrogen and phosphorus excretion. Emerging fields such as nutrigenomics, nutrigenetics, and personalized livestock nutrition are explored for their potential to optimize productivity at the individual-animal level. The review also identifies key challenges related to economic feasibility, technology adoption, and limited long-term field data, underscoring the need for interdisciplinary research. Overall, advanced nutritional strategies represent a cornerstone for developing efficient, resilient, and sustainable livestock production systems under evolving global demands.

Why do some individuals make economic choices aligning with rational choice principles while others regularly deviate from such norms? This paper addresses this question by applying Bourdieu's field theory to economic cognition, arguing that economic and cultural fields cultivate opposing dispositions through fundamentally inverse logics of accumulation. Drawing on three original studies with U.S. adults, I demonstrate that capital composition and field socialization systematically pattern economic decision-making in ways behavioural economics cannot explain through psychological mechanisms alone. Study 1 reveals a negative correlation between performance on probability-based tasks (blackjack) and aesthetic evaluation, suggesting competing rather than parallel cognitive competencies. Study 2 shows that economic capital predicts lower loss aversion while cultural capital predicts heightened loss sensitivity, controlling for risk tolerance and demographics. Study 3 demonstrates that occupational and educational field socialization predicts loss aversion above and beyond capital stocks, providing direct evidence for the habitus mechanism. These findings make three contributions. First, they provide quantitative, micro-cognitive evidence for Bourdieu's chiastic structure, demonstrating that opposing field logics generate measurable cognitive interference. Second, they advance culture and cognition scholarship by introducing relational opposition as an explanatory principle: dispositions optimized for one field create systematic disadvantages in another, not merely parallel differences. Third, they suggest implications for dual-process theory, indicating that automatic and controlled processes may be relationally structured by field position rather than simply varying in content. The results challenge behavioural economics' universal bias framework and illuminate how social structure penetrates economic cognition, with practical implications for financial literacy interventions in an increasingly financialized economy.

This paper is based on a plenary given at the American Social Science Association (ASSA) in 2024. It examines the relationship between the individual and the collective/society, looking at the importance of the rise of the individual during the Enlightenment in Europe. Individualism has gone too far, according to feminist and post-structuralist critiques, and the paper goes over some of these arguments. I postulate that a new collective of economics has come about and, although meant to be universal, it has taken an exclusionary turn, in that those who do not wish to focus on wealth creation or extol Eurocentric technology-based economics are, at best, given a marginal place within the field. Some examples for correction may lie in rereading the original fathers of the discipline, examining recent creative work such as behavioral economics or identity and stratification economics, and the incorporation of ethics. This may help develop and extend the field of social economics.

Value is the result of the combined, conscious, and creative actions of caring, which promote sustainable prosperity. Despite its centrality in marketing theory, value is treated in the literature as a self-evident, abstract term denoting concepts as diverse as the desire to acquire goods or enjoy services, the benefits derived from using a product, the price of an object, or a customer’s contribution to business profits. This approach leads to amoral marketing decision-making focused on extracting value from stakeholders and accumulating it in the form of shareholder wealth. In this framework, the negative consequences of marketing actions for society and the natural environment are simply dismissed as externalities. This is not sustainable as it degrades the environment and increases wealth and human welfare disparities between individuals, groups, and societies. Drawing on conceptualisations of value from the fields of philosophy, semiotics, and economics, value is here defined as the result of the combined, conscious, and creative actions of caring which promote sustainable prosperity. As such, value is understood to be co-created by the interactions of various stakeholders and positioned as the link between individuals, companies, markets, society, and the natural environment. Marketing theory has traditionally viewed value creation and exchange as the result of dyadic interactions. The socioeconomic and technological milieu of the 21st century, however, creates a business ecosystem characterised by digitalisation, interconnectivity, and decentralisation which means that, the number of participants in value co-creation networks is increasing and potentially tending towards infinity. Consequently, marketing is reconceptualised as the values-driven mechanism for value formation, valuation, symbolism, exchange facilitation, and integration of the resources required for value co-creation and distribution aiming at contributing to sustainable prosperity. Virtuous marketers and mindful marketing practice can ensure the optimal use of resources and the maximisation and equitable distribution of welfare in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to continue to generate and enjoy value. Thus, by placing value at the centre of the business ecosystem, marketing contributes to sustainable prosperity.

The article is devoted to the opening of a new specialty at the Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. This is construction development. It implies the training of specialists for real estate operations in order to make a profit. These are land operations, construction, reconstruction, repair, changes in the functional purpose of buildings and structures. Today, about 400 development companies are registered in Ukraine. Today, such operations are most often carried out by lawyers, economists, or builders. The wide range of tasks facing development companies determines the list of knowledge and skills of a developer specialist. He needs to solve not only financial issues, but also geological, economic, and sometimes legal ones. Therefore, such a specialty should combine the capabilities of specialists in the listed industries. It should be based on the training of civil engineers. But the basic training of such specialists should include knowledge in the field of economics, law, project management, etc. Training such a specialist is the main task of specialization in the preparation of bachelor's and master's degrees. The work presents the tasks of the new specialty and its main components. In addition to basic training in the direction of "construction and civil engineering", it is "Supply Chain Management", as well as "Value Added Management - Value Chain Management". The work presents the structure of the curriculum by semesters and the main educational trajectories. To reveal the main advantages of obtaining a specialty at the Odessa State Academy of Construction and Architecture. Namely: the presence of a large number of practicing teachers; the possibility of implementing the acquired knowledge and skills; professional practice in development companies; the level of a developer specialist; academic mobility. Therefore, this specialty is relevant and in demand in Ukraine.

The Cihanjuang - Ciawi road section, precisely Jalan Pasar Ciawi, is a district road that functions as a collector road with a road length of 2 KM. In general, the Cihanjuang - Ciawi road is in good condition, but at several points damage was found, either potholes or waves. High traffic flow and large traffic loads, so it must be balanced with good road pavement. In this case, it causes congestion on the road section. To provide services to the community and for regional development, there must be development of transportation infrastructure as an effort to improve life both in the economic, social, cultural and other fields. Carrying out maintenance and improvement of transportation infrastructure on the Cihanjuang - Ciawi road section in Tasikmalaya Regency (Sta 000 + 000 - Sta 2 + 000) located in Ciawi District, Tasikmalaya Regency in the form of additional highway pavement (Overlay). Data collection was obtained by conducting a field survey for 4 (four) days in one week, namely Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Based on the calculation results of the planning of the thickness of the additional layer, several alternative pavement thicknesses can be taken by adjusting them to the soil conditions. However, technically, with the Bina Marga 1987 method, the pavement thickness is greater than using the AASTHO 1986 method. In this analysis, the thickness of the additional layer of the pavement with the Bina Marga 1987 method is 12.45 cm, while the AASTHO 1986 method is 6.4 cm. So that there is a significant difference with a difference of 6.05 cm. So that the thickness of the additional layer for the Cihanjuang - Ciawi Road section of Tasikmalaya Regency which is safe according to its planned age and implemented is the Bina Marga method with a thickness of 12.45 cm.

Time series forecasting has become a key decision-support tool, with broad applicability within a series of domains within the economic field, among other fields [...]

The city of Medan is one of the major cities in Indonesia that develops in a multicultural social and cultural context. The city's ethnic diversity was formed through a long historical process influenced by colonialism, migration, and urban economic development. This study aims to examine the historical traces of multiculturalism in the city of Medan by focusing on interethnic interaction and its role in the formation of city identity. The research uses a qualitative approach with historical research methods, which include heuristic stages, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. Data was obtained through documentation studies and literature studies on archives, historical documents, and relevant scientific works. The results of the study show that the multiculturalism of Medan City was formed since the colonial period through the migration of various ethnic groups such as Malays, Bataks, Chinese, Javanese, Tamil Indians, Minangkabau, and Arabs. Interethnic interaction takes place in the economic, social, cultural, and religious fields, which gives birth to a dynamic pattern of relations, both in the form of cooperation and social segregation. The process of cultural acculturation, especially in language, culinary, and social traditions, is an important factor in shaping the plural and inclusive identity of the City of Medan. This study concludes that multiculturalism is not only a historical heritage, but also a social capital that plays a strategic role in maintaining social cohesion and building the identity of the city of Medan as a cosmopolitan city in North Sumatra.

This study aims to understand the development and impact of machine learning in fraud detection. The study was conducted by reviewing 106 scientific articles indexed in Scopus and published between 2009 and 2025, specifically in the fields of Business, Management, Accounting, Economics, and Finance. The results indicate that interest in the use of machine learning in fraud detection has increased, especially after 2020. Compared with traditional methods, machine learning techniques can provide more accurate and faster results. However, challenges remain, such as the difficulty of understanding how the models work, imbalanced data, problems in developing widely usable systems, and their direct application. Furthermore, research in this field is still scattered across many disciplines and lacks clear assessment standards. Therefore, interdisciplinary collaboration, the development of explainable AI systems, and access to real-world data are needed. In conclusion, machine learning has great potential to improve fraud detection, but it still requires a more targeted, ethical, and practical approach to achieve widespread and relevant use across a wide range of situations. These findings provide an important foundation for future research and development of fraud detection technologies.

Telegram, along with WhatsApp and Signal, has become very popular due to its hybrid capabilities, including both instant private and public messaging, making it an effective tool for quickly broadcasting content to a wide audience. This article presents TGEconomicDataset, a new dataset containing more than 2.9 million messages from the most popular Russian-language Telegram channels in the field of economics, as well as synthetically generated labeled mixtures of these channels. These mixtures are specifically designed to model authorship change scenarios for testing various methods for solving the problem of continuous authentication, which is of particular interest due to the need for organizations and companies to rely on data posted on social media. The presented dataset is enriched with quotes of important financial instruments such as gold futures, the USD/RUB currency pair, BRENT oil, the dollar index (DXY), and bitcoin (BTC), synchronized with the message timestamps. A detailed joint analysis of the collected data is provided. In addition to the presented dataset, we publish the scripts used to collect the data, integrate the financial indicators, and generate the synthetic mixtures for the continuous authentication task, ensuring full reproducibility of the research.

This article’s authors present a novel, easy-to-use lesson plan for the first day of class. Designed for small to large introductory-level economics courses, the lesson plan describes two primary activities: asking students about their understanding of economics within an active learning framework and having them work in groups to research current economists. This lesson plan offers an efficient way for undergraduate students to gain a better understanding of potential topics of study within economics on the first day and connect with their classmates. This brief intervention may help improve diversity in economics by informing students about the field of economics, showcasing a variety of role models, and giving students the opportunity to begin to make connections with their instructors and classmates on the first day.

Abstract Dairy cattle systems and their related industry are important to food security, nutrition, and employment worldwide. Over the last decades, there has been an increase in global demand for milk and dairy products, due to both a growing human population and the increasing demand in emerging economies. Concern has been put on the unsustainability of conventional dairy systems, which significantly contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) and nutrient emissions, and show low profitability, high dependence on external inputs and subsidies, and animal welfare concerns. This review aims to show the central challenges and alternatives regarding the sustainability of dairy farming systems, based on a review of studies carried out in recent decades and years. We identified environmental, social, and economic challenges, as well as options for dealing with them. In environmental terms, we especially highlight GHG and nutrient emissions, with options to address the challenges based on diet changes, rumen bacterial modifiers, plant extracts, herd and manure management, genetic selection, strategic fertilization, urease and nitrification inhibitors, and regulations and taxes on emissions. In social aspects, challenges such as animal welfare, low associativity, and early retirement of dairy farmers can be addressed with pasture-based systems, improved barn design, avoiding overstocking, and strengthening of milk producer associations. In the economic field, rising labor costs, market liberalization, low economic margins, competition from plant-based alternatives and reduced genetic diversity can be addressed through options such as automated milking, subsidies to small/medium-scale farms, limiting herd sizes, innovation, organic or locally based dairy products and increased crossbreeding. We present selected examples of frameworks and case studies aimed at evaluating the sustainability of contrasting dairy systems. Organic or alternative systems had generally better values in environmental and social indicators, such as lower GHG and nutrient emissions, improved nutrient balances, and reduced external input dependence, with similar technical efficiency compared to conventional farms. Likewise, small-scale dairy systems in developing countries using minimum external inputs have been rated positively in environmental indicators related to emissions and soil quality, but their economic performance is dependent on access to fair markets. It is concluded that productivity improvements in the modern dairy industry have been associated with strong negative socioenvironmental impacts. To construct a more sustainable dairy sector, intersectoral dialogue will be central, sharing knowledge, expertise, and skills.

Gender gaps in career opportunities: a look at graduates in the field of business and economics in Uruguay

This paper explores the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the development of the International Economics major and proposes corresponding strategies. With the rapid advancement of AI technology, its applications in the field of international economics have become increasingly widespread, presenting both unprecedented opportunities and challenges for the major. The study finds that AI has driven changes in the talent cultivation model of the International Economics major. By providing personalized learning pathways and abundant practical opportunities, AI enhances students’ practical and innovative abilities. Moreover, AI has promoted interdisciplinary integration, expanded research directions, innovated research methods, and facilitated the integration and sharing of academic resources. In terms of employment and career development, AI has given rise to emerging occupations and job positions while also driving traditional careers towards data - driven transformation. In response to these changes, this paper puts forward strategies in talent cultivation, academic development, and major development, including enhancing AI literacy education, promoting interdisciplinary cooperation, optimizing the curriculum system, and fostering international cooperation and exchange. The implementation of these strategies will help the International Economics major better adapt to the demands of the AI era, cultivate more innovative and practically - oriented professionals, and drive the continuous development and innovation of the discipline.

Using quantitative data, the aim of the study is to bring to the attention of researchers a systematic summary of existing writings on labor economics in order to identify study trends related to the concept. Bibliometric data of various types of articles published between 1989–2024 were used as the unit of analysis. These data were obtained from the Web of Science database. This study aims to map the evolution of the concept and the studies conducted on this concept, specifically the research on the concept of Labor Economics. Considering the distribution of 2678 works on labor economics according to publication years, it is seen that the highest concentration is in 2022 (266 works), 2020 (253 works) and 2021 (207 works); The names that produced the most works were Joop Hartog, Alex Brayson and Knut Roed; The publication type was mainly journal articles (2476), proceeding papers (278) and book chapters (130); In terms of research areas, works were published in the fields of economics (2497), labor and industrial relations (451), management (51) and sociology (36); In terms of the distribution of publications by country, the leadership is in publishers originating from the USA (594), Germany (527) and England (410); Works were published primarily in English (2655), Russian (9) and German (5); It has been determined that the publications scanned in SSCI (2047), ESCI (399) and AHCI (274) indices are dominant. When we look at the most frequently used keywords in publications on labor economics, the following are Unemployment with 114 repetitions, Employment with 112 repetitions, Wages with 82 repetitions, labor economics with 79 repetitions and education expressions with 68 repetitions. Based on these results, the research is a basic guide for future researchers in the field of labor economics.

One of the national goals of the Russian Federation is to promote Russian education abroad, specifically increasing the number of international students at Russian universities. Strategic cooperation with the People's Republic of China in the fields of economics, culture, and education contributes to an increase in the number of Chinese students in Russia. To learn Russian and prepare for admission to Russian universities, Chinese citizens attend preparatory courses, where the key objective is to develop foreign language communicative competence. Special conditions exist in the border regions of the Russian Far East, where the number of Chinese students reaches 90 % of the total number of international students. Furthermore, China's proximity is reflected in the sociocultural environment of the border regions, as well as in intercultural communication. These circumstances highlight the need to develop not simply communicative competence, but regionally oriented communicative competence. Рreparatory departments experience difficulties in teaching Chinese citizens effective communication strategies adapted to specific cultural realities. Furthermore, a systematic understanding of pedagogical technologies for developing regionally oriented communicative competence in Chinese preparatory students in a border region is lacking. The study's results describe the development and implementation of a pedagogical technology for developing regionally oriented communicative competence in Chinese preparatory students in a border region. The results of the implementation of this pedagogical technology in the educational process at the preparatory department are analyzed.