Inclusive governance and sustainable value co-creation in circular business models: The case of ‘neighbourhood hubs against food waste’ in Milan

Enhancing urban energy efficiency is central to low-carbon transition and broader urban sustainability. However, whether innovation-oriented urban policy can generate such gains, through which channels it operates, and whether its effects extend beyond pilot cities remain insufficiently understood. Focusing on China’s Innovative City Pilot (ICP) program, this study uses panel data for 274 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2022 and treats the staggered implementation of the program as a quasi-natural experiment. A multi-period difference-in-differences model is employed to examine the impact of the ICP program on urban energy efficiency. The results show that the ICP program significantly improves urban energy efficiency, and this conclusion remains robust across a series of robustness checks. Mechanism analysis further suggests that the policy effect operates through lower per capita carbon emissions and stronger green technological innovation. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect is more pronounced in larger cities, economically more developed cities, and cities with stronger pre-existing innovation capacity. Spatial analysis indicates that the program generates not only significant local benefits but also positive spillover effects on neighboring cities. Overall, these findings suggest that innovation-oriented urban policies can promote energy-efficient, low-carbon, and more sustainable urban development, while highlighting the importance of regional coordination and local innovation capacity in shaping policy effectiveness.

This study critically examines the extent to which the governance of local public service innovation in Indonesia operates within and beyond its formal legal and institutional frameworks. Employing an empirical legal research design grounded in qualitative analysis, the study draws on multiple case studies, including innovations implemented in Bantul Regency, Kubu Raya Regency, and Batam City, supported by in depth interviews, document analysis, and field observations. The findings reveal that while Indonesia has established a comprehensive regulatory architecture through Law Number 25 of 2009, Law Number 23 of 2014, Law Number 30 of 2014, Government Regulation Number 38 of 2017, and Ministerial Regulation Number 30 of 2014, the practical governance of innovation remains uneven and fragmented. Normative compliance does not consistently translate into effective implementation, participatory inclusiveness, or sustainable institutionalisation. The study demonstrates that governance outcomes are shaped by the interaction between regulatory structures, administrative capacity, digital transformation, and accountability mechanisms. It argues that strengthening legal integration, institutional coherence, and performance based accountability is essential for ensuring that local public service innovation contributes meaningfully to governance effectiveness and public value creation.

This study examines the implementation of the Triple Helix model, which facilitates collaboration among academia, industry, and government, in advancing sustainable tourism and promoting peace at Mount Bromo, Indonesia. The swift expansion of tourism in this region has generated economic advantages while underscoring the necessity for strategic, sustainable governance to reconcile development with environmental and social equilibrium. The study investigates governance challenges and the roles of various stakeholders in tourism development, highlighting the necessity for integrated management practices to enhance local community engagement, innovation, and economic advancement. This study employs descriptive qualitative methods to achieve three primary objectives: enhancing partnerships for tourism governance, creating tourism clusters, and promoting innovation in tourism management. Research indicates that although the Triple Helix model effectively aligns stakeholder initiatives, enhanced integration, especially in education and community involvement, is necessary to realize the model's potential fully. This research enhances the tourism governance literature by illustrating how the Triple Helix model can facilitate sustainable tourism, stimulate economic development, and cultivate peaceful, inclusive societies.

ABSTRACT The transition to circular construction suffers from uncertainties related to costs, market realities, supply, regulations and expertise using secondary materials in building projects. Uncertainties are large, and resolving them needs policy interventions. This study examines a local policy innovation that successfully prompted construction companies to develop business cases for circular construction. At the heart of policy innovation was a novel use of a plot handover procedure. A city used the procedure in the form of a competition where construction companies competed for a valuable plot by drafting a concept for circular residential building. Our data consisted of interviews, documents and observations. We used uncertainty management from market formation studies as our main analytical tool. This research provides empirical evidence of how policy can facilitate the circular construction transition and provides methodological and theoretical contributions to market formation studies by showing in detail how public interventions can support the development of sustainable markets.

This study refines dynamic capabilities theory by showing that the development of sustainability-oriented capabilities is shaped by a firm’s organizational design as well as its level of sustainability performance maturity, which influences how and when different microfoundations emerge. Drawing on a multi-case study of 8 Canadian construction firms recognized as sustainability leaders, the research explores how dynamic capabilities—sensing, seizing, and transforming—are operationalized through certain microfoundations. The findings suggest that firms which achieve higher levels of sustainability performance seem to systematically develop localized innovation initiatives, early stakeholder engagement practices, performance measurement mechanisms, and organizational change routines. These dynamic capabilities are enabled by decentralized organizational structures, cross-functional learning systems, and purpose-driven leadership. By linking organizational design to the evolution of dynamic capabilities for sustainability, this study offers theoretical insights into the role of internal configurations in capability development. Practical implications are provided for firms in project-based and hard-to-abate sectors seeking to embed sustainability into their core operations and pursue long-term environmental and social objectives.

Background Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), yet its rapid adoption raises complex ethical, regulatory, and implementation challenges. This review investigates these barriers and identifies emerging strategies that support equitable and inclusive AI deployment in resource-limited settings. Methods Following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, a systematic mapping of literature was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library (2000–2025) alongside global health policy reports. The search was framed using the Population, Concept, and Context (PCC) framework to identify studies addressing AI governance in LMICs. A total of 60 sources addressing ethical, regulatory, or implementation issues were analyzed across three domains derived from the WHO and OECD frameworks: governance, privacy, and AI applications. Results This study reveals that 7.4% of LMICs have adopted national AI strategies. Evidence indicates that over 60% of AI models in LMICs rely on non-representative datasets, increasing contextual bias. Of the 60 included studies, 25 focused on ethics, 17 on regulatory gaps, and 18 on implementation. Findings highlight workforce readiness gaps, with fewer than 10% of institutions offering structured AI training. Case studies from Brazil and India illustrate how these barriers are addressed through context-sensitive design. Conclusion Successful AI integration requires context-sensitive design, participatory governance, and capacity building. This scoping review identifies critical gaps in empirical research on operationalization and recommends a transition from digital dependency to local innovation ecosystems.

The development of digital technology and the Internet has made new popular literature and art the mainstream of contemporary culture. Its characteristics of popularity, interactivity, cross-culturality and technological dependence have brought opportunities and challenges to college music education. At present, college music teaching is plagued by outdated content, monotonous methods, insufficient integration of digital technology, and rigid evaluation systems, which are seriously disconnected from the development of new popular literature and art. Supported by theories such as multiple intelligences, constructivism and interdisciplinary integration, this study puts forward innovative practice strategies from four dimensions: content, method, technology and evaluation, and constructs a systematic implementation path from curriculum system, teaching staff, resource support and policy system. The research shows that college music teaching needs multi-dimensional collaborative innovation to cultivate interdisciplinary music talents adapting to the development of new popular literature and art. In the future, it is necessary to deepen the integration of cutting-edge technology and teaching, learn from international experience and carry out localized innovation, so as to promote the high-quality and contemporary development of college music education.

Abstract Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a transformative technology with strong potential to enhance teaching and learning through its immersive and interactive features. This study examined the factors influencing the acceptance of VR technology among university teachers and students in China and Africa, drawing on an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the theoretical framework. The model incorporated key constructs, including perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, innovativeness, attitude toward using, and behavioral intention. In particular, individual innovativeness was conceptualized not only as an antecedent influencing perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intention, but also as a moderating variable that strengthens the relationships between the core TAM constructs and behavioral intention.This study employed a quantitative questionnaire survey and collected data from 339 participants. The Mann-Whitney U test and the entropy-analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were applied to examine differences between groups and to assess the relative importance of the evaluation indicators. The results revealed that African respondents demonstrated higher levels of acceptance compared with their Chinese counterparts, while students exhibited greater receptivity to VR than teachers. Moreover, individual innovativeness was found to play a significant moderating role in shaping behavioral intentions toward VR use. The findings provided cross-cultural validation of TAM within emerging-economy contexts of immersive education, highlighted the importance of local context and personal innovativeness as moderating factors. This study contributed theoretical insights into cross-cultural technology adoption and offered practical implications for promoting the effective integration of VR in higher education.

ABSTRACT Purpose Working with livestock farmers in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, we explored how extension can better support actor-oriented, collaborative learning. We focused on locally-led adaptation solutions already working for livestock farmers affected by climate change, using positive deviance (PD). Our main research question was whether PD theory can be adapted to identify positive deviants whose uncommon solutions are a response to climate change. Design/Methodology/Approach Using qualitative research methods, we identified PD livestock farmers who were more successful in adapting to climate change and securing their livelihoods. From an initial sample of 112 local innovators, we selected 27 positive deviants across the three countries. Findings The PD approach effectively identified farmers with high potential for scaling locally-led adaptation practices and farmer-led innovations. However, we observed that climate change is not always the primary concern for these farmers, as other factors can sometimes take precedence. Practical Implications Our locally-led adaptation focused approach to PD has strong potential to support research, farmers, and extension services in building climate resilience in East African livestock farming. Originality/Value Positive Deviants succeed not just because of external project support but due to their own ingenuity and drive for change. Their ability to innovate – shaped by life histories and unique experiences – offers valuable learning opportunities for others in similar situations. A holistic AR4D approach is needed to better reflect the realities of East African farmers and promote adaptive, collaborative learning.

Background: Seven Ontario Health Teams (OHTs), each a group of cross-sectoral health service organizations, were chosen by the Canadian province of Ontario to lead the modernization of home and community care. At the heart of this work lay the reconceptualization of care coordination, with a focus on integration. We explore how Ontario’s Ministry of Health (MOH) sought to modernize care coordination through its guidance to OHTs, OHTs’ own innovations, and the potential and limits of these efforts. Approach: While our broader goal was to understand the key elements of each home care model and what helped and hindered its development, we focused the analysis of data collected from May to October 2024 on OHTs’ care coordination efforts. During this time, we conducted semi-structured interviews (26) and focus groups (4) with cross-sectoral participants, monthly interviews with team leads, and monthly observations of key team meetings with a subsection of three teams. Participants included senior managers from hospitals, home care and community organizations, physicians, care coordinators, patients, caregivers and OHT staff members. We also conducted a document review of relevant system-level guidance and OHT-level program proposals. Results: The MOH sought to enact change through three key levers: First, after a competitive bidding process, a single home care service provider organization (SPO) was selected to service all home care patients within a specific jurisdiction at a capitated rate, replacing the multiple service providers and fee-for-service structure that previously existed. Secondly, the care coordinator would be accountable not only to the provincial home care organization but also to the OHT, a move that also encouraged the care coordinator to be embedded within a care team and other team members to take on limited care coordination tasks. Third, team members would have access to an information sharing platform previously accessible only to the home care sector. In addition, OHTs themselves proposed changes related to the embedding of care coordinators in primary care teams and neighbourhood settings, and new roles to bridge coordination responsibilities. While OHT stakeholders largely welcomed these changes, their concerns were threefold: First, the SPO procurement process culminated only shortly before anticipated program implementation; this was particularly challenging for some teams where an SPO unfamiliar with the area was successful. Secondly, the provincial home care coordinator agency (alongside its associated labour union) was seen as an unwilling participant that pushed back on efforts to tweak the care coordinator role to enable effective teamwork. Third, the provincial impetus to standardize care coordination approaches across projects (aimed at levelling patient experience and facilitating evaluation) was seen as discouraging local innovation. Implications: The audience for these findings includes jurisdictions seeking to learn about the promise and limits of innovative approaches to care coordination in the home care sector. These findings indicate the importance of a locally relevant procurement process, the engagement and partnership of all sectors and open conversations in the absence of that engagement, in order to arrive at common ground.

Background: In Ontario, Canada, health care is organized and delivered in local communities in the form of Ontario Health Teams (OHTs). The East Toronto Health Partners (ETHP) (OHT) serves a population of approximately 400,000 people across 21 urban neighborhoods in the City of Toronto. ETHP has developed a neighborhood care portfolio of projects designed to improve population health by focusing on addressing health inequities within our highest needs neighborhoods, including expanding access to primary and social care, improving navigation across the health care system and using a population health approach to preventative healthcare, including vaccination campaigns. Inclusivity to Reduce Inequality: The high needs neighborhoods in East Toronto face numerous health and social challenges that are attributable to greater population density, higher proportion of newcomers and refugees, higher unemployment levels, and higher rates of chronic diseases. These same neighborhoods were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic with much higher COVID positivity rates, resulting in higher numbers of hospitalizations and deaths and further exacerbation of pre-existing challenges related to the social determinants of health. Leveraging Partnerships for Health and Development through Innovation Through ongoing collaborative relationships among organizations from different stakeholder groups, our innovations include: Delivering integrated primary care and social care through health access hubs within high needs neighborhoods offering both reliable primary care and social prescribing to address health inequalities. Introducing Holistic Intake and Navigation Counsellor roles that act as community connectors within healthcare settings such as acute care and primary care, to increase access to community-based comprehensive primary care and social care. A coordinated response across ETHP to provide seasonal and routine vaccinations to vulnerable populations across East Toronto with enhanced cooperation across multi sectoral partners to achieve a higher level of collective impact. We are measuring our progress by evaluating process measures such as the number of referrals made across partners and the number of specific provider interactions. We will also review outcome measures such as attachment rates to primary care through the access models and the number of community members who received vaccinations through our collaborative efforts. Distributed Leadership within the Community: This presentation will include an overview of ETHP’s approach to community co-design that includes patient and community leadership at all levels of decision-making. ETHP includes a range of roles for community members from OHT leadership to community health ambassadors working on the ground to provide outreach and support to our high priority, culturally-diverse communities. Distributed leadership amongst service providers, the health care system, and community members through local neighborhood wellness councils is a key aspect to this work. We will highlight how patients and community members are equal partners in driving the design and development of our neighborhood care models and how this deep level of engagement has shaped the purpose and direction of the work.

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe imperative for food system transformation is well known, yet to date there has been minimal emphasis on the blue food system [foods sourced from marine and freshwater environments]. Generally, a food systems approach should shift away from linear and move towards more systems thinking to embrace complexity. This paper focuses on a local social innovation project (Plymouth Fish Finger (PFF)) which has pioneered localising the blue food system. This study aimed to elicit how the (policy and practice) system around the PFF can be appraised to optimise social innovation practices for (blue) food system transformation.MethodsExpert elicitation combined with group model building (GMB) to co‐create and validate a ‘Causal Loop Diagram’ (CLD) to visually understand the policy and practice implication and needs of the PFF initiative. Purposive sampling to recruit a range (n = 14 total) of experts representing the different parts of the system. Two ‘mapping’ workshops (one face‐to‐face, one online) facilitated elicitation of expert input into the process to enable establishment of a final synthesised systems map for critique and validation.FindingsHand‐created maps evolved into a validated CLD, containing 49 elements connected by 130 causal links and 5 feedback loops. These loops revealed how demand generation, supply chain capacity, economic viability, trust and product consistency, and infrastructural constraints, reinforce or balance system performance. Six themes emerged: (i) demand generation, (ii) supply chain constraints, (iii) economic viability, (iv) social innovation and trust, (v) nutritional guidance and (vi) unintended consequences. The CLD also enabled interventions to be pinpointed within a system to inform policy/practice actions for change.ConclusionsWe illustrate how systems thinking and expert elicitation approaches have successfully encouraged dynamic dialogue to support the identification of future policy and practice interventions. This demonstrates how social innovation projects can be championed and their powerful potential for catalysing (blue) food system transformation better realised.

Agriculture remains central to the economy of India, with Andhra Pradesh representing a diverse agro-ecological landscape facing critical challenges such as soil degradation, inefficient input use, and climate variability. This study examines the role of sustainable agricultural chemistry in enhancing food security by improving productivity and environmental sustainability. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, primary data were collected from 400 farmers across major districts, supported by secondary data and expert interviews. The findings reveal that sustainable practices, including slow-release fertilizers, bio-based soil amendments, and integrated pest management, significantly improve crop yields (by 12–18%) and reduce pest damage. Moreover, households adopting these practices demonstrated higher food availability and stability, indicating a positive correlation between sustainable chemistry and food security outcomes. Despite these benefits, adoption remains constrained by limited awareness, high initial costs, and inadequate policy support. The study highlights the need for targeted subsidies, strengthened extension services, and localized innovations to promote sustainable inputs. It concludes that integrating environmentally sound chemical practices with traditional farming systems can enhance agricultural resilience and contribute to long-term food security in India.

ABSTRACT COVID-19 presented multiple simultaneous shocks to systems in the U.S. stimulating state and local government innovations in response. What lessons can be learned to better prepare for the next system shock, whether from a new pandemic or another crisis? This in-depth literature review identifies and analyzes innovative interventions by state and local governments, focusing on the critical non-health sectors of transportation, food security, and small business relief. The findings reveal that state and local governments were surprisingly agile, engaging in a process of early adoption and peer-to-peer diffusion to bypass traditional bureaucratic inertia. These initiatives are best understood as nested layers within a robust, complex ecosystem of local and state interventions during COVID-19. The research further reveals common attributes of public sector innovations. It sheds theoretical light on why and how state and local governments innovate, yielding best practices that can help bolster resiliency during future crises.

Northern Ghana faces acute climate vulnerabilities, yet adaptation pathways remain fragmented and poorly synthesized. This study systematically reviewed 15 peer-reviewed literature covering the Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, North East, and Northern regions to assess climate impacts on agro-pastoral communities, evaluate existing adaptation strategies, and explore policy implications. Findings reveal that erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, rising temperatures, and land degradation have undermined food security and livestock systems, while increasing pest outbreaks and intensifying farmer–pastoralist conflicts. Communities have responded through water harvesting, livelihood diversification (including agroforestry, shea processing, small livestock rearing, and seasonal migration), and reliance on indigenous knowledge systems. However, these strategies remain constrained by inadequate finance, weak infrastructure such as faulty hand pumps, gender inequalities, and limited integration with formal climate services. The review underscores the need for coherent policies that expand decentralized water infrastructure, scale climate-smart financing, institutionalize conflict-resolution platforms, and embed gender-responsive and indigenous approaches into national adaptation planning. Strengthening the interface between local innovation and formal governance is critical for building inclusive and scalable resilience across Northern Ghana’s agro-pastoral systems.

Rising urban temperatures and heat extremes pose an urgent global challenge, yet the potential for mitigating excessive urban heat-particularly at the global scale-remains unclear. Here, we quantify the cooling potential across 2,265 cities worldwide by the 2050s using validated urban climate simulations. Cooling effects are quantified as the reduction in the summer average wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and heat danger hours (HDH; WBGT > 31.4 °C) under the combined implementation of reflective surfaces, green transformation, and anthropogenic heat reduction. We show a distinct spatial asymmetry: while the cooling potential increases with latitude, primarily due to greater cooling from reflective surfaces, the highest heat risk is concentrated in low- to mid-latitude regions (10°N-40°N). In these high-risk regions, combined mitigation is more effective at night, reducing HDH by an average of 37%, whereas daytime heat is mitigated to a lesser extent (11%). These asymmetries underscore the need for context-specific strategies-particularly accelerated action and localized innovation for low-latitude humid regions-as well as the integration of city-scale planning with targeted daytime heat risk interventions.

This article presents 'Becoming a Rotterdammer' (BaR), a social innovation project aimed at supporting the integration of status holders (refugees with a residence permit) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We applied the Positive Deviance (PD) strategy to identify and amplify successful, community-driven practices and inform grassroots support and local policy innovation. Collaborating with three communities of status holders, we identified individuals thriving despite similar systemic constraints. Through surveys and interviews, we assessed their sense of belonging as a key indicator of integration and well-being. We used a Random Forest model, a machine-learning approach estimating outcomes from interacting factors, to identify individuals whose sense of belonging exceeded predictions based on contextual factors like time in the Netherlands, employment, education, and social support. Follow-up interviews and card-sorting sessions uncovered uncommon practices fostering belonging, including easily adoptable ones (e.g., language buddy programs) and more challenging practices (e.g., affording sports club memberships), which highlighted structural barriers for NGOs and policymakers. This study demonstrates how PD can adapt to super-diverse contexts by integrating Random Forest analysis. Sorting practices by ease of adoption expanded their applicability, complementing top-down integration strategies. Our insights contextualize belonging as a dynamic process shaped by both agency and structural conditions.

Stunting remains a major public health problem in Indonesia, with a disproportionate burden in Papua, where many districts are classified as 3T regions (frontier, outermost, and least-developed areas) characterized by limited infrastructure, restricted access to services, and distinct socio-cultural challenges. The aim of this study was to comprehensively examine the implementation of stunting reduction programs in Papua’s 3T regions, including program delivery, barriers, and local innovations, through a systematic review. Articles were identified through searches of five major databases and grey literature and were selected using the PRISMA framework. Eligible studies reported on program implementation, barriers, risk factors, and/or strategies related to stunting reduction in Papua. A total of 45 studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized using a thematic narrative approach. The review indicated that stunting reduction efforts in Papua have included both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions, supported by the establishment of acceleration teams, the use of integrated health service posts (Posyandu), supplementary feeding, micronutrient supplementation, and the 1,000 days of life initiative. However, program effectiveness is constrained by geographical isolation, health workforce shortages, weak cross-sectoral coordination, and a persistent gap between national policy design and local implementation capacity. Frequently reported risk factors included suboptimal caregiving practices, inadequate dietary intake, recurrent infections, poor sanitation, poverty, and a double burden borne by women, all of which impede program success. Conversely, locally grounded strategies—such as local food-based interventions, strengthening cadres and traditional leaders, community education, and pentahelix collaboration—emerged as more contextually appropriate and community-accepted approaches. Overall, these findings underscore the need to adapt policies to local conditions, strengthen convergence governance, and expand long-term evaluative research to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of stunting interventions in Papua’s 3T regions.

The use of public health vending machines (PHVMs) is an emerging strategy implemented to mitigate drug-related harms via the dispensation of supplies like naloxone and sterile syringes from vending machines that have been documented to reduce transmission of blood borne viruses, support hygiene and basic personal health needs, and prevent overdose. To inform future applications of this technology and performed initially as part of a technical assistance request, we sought to examine PHVM adoption and implementation by conducting semi-structured interviews with 26 individuals from diverse roles and organizations/agencies across the United States in March 2023 about their experiences launching and optimizing PHVMs. We engaged in a secondary thematic analysis of the interview data using both deduction and induction. Using the interview guide as the frame, we broadly organized our findings into themes that are pertinent to consider prior to PHVM implementation ("Pre-implementation") and those that are relevant during implementation ("Implementation and maintenance"). Pre-implementation themes included (1) Motivating factors influencing implementation, (2) Intended PHVM uptake population, (3) Partnership cultivation, (4) Responsiveness to community needs and concerns, and (5) Factors influencing placement of PHVMs. Implementation and maintenance themes included: (1) Operational components of implementation and (2) Tracking consumer use of machines and supply flow. We found that PHVMs have emerged as versatile and central tools to expand and extend critical, life-saving supplies and services to PWUD and other groups within communities throughout the United States, especially to underserved and high-risk populations, such as people of color, young people, rural residents, individuals leaving incarceration, and veterans. We also found that the planning phases of implementation were shaped by local needs, funding opportunities, collaboration, and community engagement, with PHVM placement most often determined by feasibility and willingness of host sites, as well as the perceptions and needs of the community. Operational challenges included unanticipated costs related to maintenance and supply stocking of the PHVMs. Our findings elucidate the local, ground-up, and bold approaches and innovations undertaken by many organizations, agencies, and programs throughout the country in PHVM implementation. Policymakers and government officials should consider passing local ordinances or granting permissions in support of placing PHVMs and securing access to life saving materials.