Analyzing the challenges and opportunities in developing a sustainable digital economy

Shabur M.A., Ali M.F., Alam M.M.

AbstractIndustry 4.0 is gaining significant attention and recognition in both academic and practical spheres since to its potential to deliver substantial advantages to various industries and enable novel applications. This research aims to investigate the fertilizer production industry, evaluating its current state and identifying the barriers impeding the implementation of Industry 4.0 in this domain. The first investigation on Industry 4.0’s current state in Bangladesh entailed visiting and surveying five significant fertilizer companies. Approximately 50% of the components associated with Industry 4.0 have been successfully integrated into these manufacturing facilities. In order to ascertain the causes behind this negative circumstance, a research study was undertaken to uncover the barriers that are hindering the successful Industry 4.0 implementation. Based on the views expressed by a board of ten experts from industry and university, it has been determined that nine out of the twelve issues initially identified are deemed to be significant hurdles. A widely known decision-making approach based on numerous factors, the Best–Worst Method (BWM) was used to evaluate the ranking of these nine difficulties. Insufficient knowledge about Industry 4.0 was determined to be the most significant barrier, while the possibility of job loss was determined to be the least significant. The ranking was further improved by conducting a sensitivity analysis. Subsequently, many pragmatic strategies for overcoming these obstacles are discussed. This study is expected to have a substantial impact on the fertilizer business in Bangladesh by providing valuable insights to industry owners, policymakers, and stakeholders, therefore facilitating their adoption of the fourth industrial revolution.

Shabur M.A.

AbstractThe application of Industry 4.0 technology has substantial prospects for future innovation and corporate growth. This research study investigates the influence of Industry 4.0 technologies on the establishment of environmental sustainability in the manufacturing sector and other associated industries. Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems, have a detrimental effect on environmental sustainability. This is due to factors such as air pollution, improper waste disposal, and excessive consumption of raw materials, information, and energy. The approach employed in this study is an extensive review of a literature review comprising 207 manuscripts that explore subjects pertaining to Industry 4.0 and environmental sustainability. Currently, there is a gap between the current and intended state of affairs. Production is happening in a paradigm that lacks sustainability, which is why this research examines the impact of Industry 4.0 on environmental sustainability and the relevant aspects of Industry 4.0. One of the objective of this study is to examine the notable advantages of Industry 4.0 in the context of sustainable manufacturing. The other objective of this study are to ascertain the specific tools and components associated with Industry 4.0 that have a role in promoting the progress of a sustainable ecosystem and to do a comprehensive analysis of existing literature to find out the effectiveness of technologies of Industry 4.0 in promoting environmental sustainability. This study identifies and examines 18 significant uses of Industry 4.0 that contribute to the development of a sustainable environment. This research shows that the convergence of Industry 4.0 and the sustainable development goals improves environmental sustainability by establishing ecological support that ensures superior environmental performance with a greater positive influence than previously. This paper aims to assist stakeholders and organizations in addressing current environmental concerns by implementing innovative technologies. This study is novel in that it illustrates the integration of Industry 4.0 and its technologies with sustainable development goals, resulting in a sustainable Industry 4.0 that combines environmental protection and sustainability.

Shabur M.A., Siddiki M.R.

Abstract This study aims to clarify how social media and smart devices affect the modern interactive learning process, particularly in Bangladesh, a South Asian nation. Several hypotheses have been formulated to support the notion that social media and digital gadgets have a favorable impact on interactive learning. These hypotheses were evaluated by surveying students to gauge their perceptions. This in-depth study uses data from an online survey administered to 350 students at various universities in Bangladesh to inquire into the ways in which these students make use of mobile devices like smartphones, laptops etc. and social media platforms to enhance their learning in an interactive manner, with their instructors, and amongst themselves. The examination and instrument validation techniques used an indirect structural equation model. The research found that students' interactions with their peers and teachers, as well as their tendency to share what they've learned online, were all significantly influenced by their participation in group efforts via online social networking. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that students' interactions with instructors, peers, and online information-sharing practices greatly impact student engagement, which impacts academic achievement. This study's findings suggest that students who work together to learn on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are more likely to be creative, motivated, as well as committed to academic exploration.

Shabur M.A., Jahan J.

AbstractThis research looked on the gender gap in smartphone app usage and the impact of gender on smartphone-based social networks and social support in Bangladesh, a south Asian country. The sample of smartphone-owning 250 college/university students was surveyed online. Results showed that women were more likely to utilize a smartphone's camera than men were, but men were more inclined to make phone calls and use apps developed expressly for smartphones. Moreover, the findings revealed unique behaviors associated with the use of smartphones in the upkeep of interpersonal connections. Women were more likely to think bonding ties enhanced while using smartphones for text communications, whereas men were more inclined to believe more bridge links expanded. According to these findings, women tend to be more likely to use their cellphones to improve already-strong connections, whilst men appear to be more prone to use them to boost already-weak social relationships.

Shabur M.A., Rahman K.A., Siddiki M.R.

AbstractWith the promise of great benefits for industry and new possibilities for a wide range of applications, Industry 4.0 is quickly rising to prominence as one of the most important and widely discussed topics in academia and in practice. In this study, we look at the steel production business and identify the current state of affairs as well as the barriers to implementing Industry 4.0 there. Initially, the current state of Industry 4.0 was uncovered by visiting and surveying four prominent steel companies in Bangladesh. Less than fifty percent of Industry 4.0 components are now implemented in these plants. To determine the reasons for this unfavorable situation, research was conducted to identify the obstacles impeding the implementation of Industry 4.0. On the basis of the preferences of 9 experts (4 from industry and 5 from academia), 9 of the 12 proposed challenges have been selected as significant obstacles. The ranking of these nine difficulties was then assessed utilizing the popular best–worst method (BWM), a multi-criteria decision-making approach. It was determined that “high capital investment” was the most significant barrier, while “lack of government support” was the least significant. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was conducted, which improved the ranking’s quality. Then, several viable techniques for overcoming these challenges are discussed.

Wang R., Wang Q., Shi R., Zhang K., Wang X.

The development of the cultural industry cannot be isolated from the efficient integration with the digital economy and digital technology at the current stage of the technological and industrial revolution. This paper constructs an indicator system to measure the sustainable development of the cultural industry and tests the relationship between the digital economy and the sustainable development of the cultural industry using an OLS model based on China’s provincial panel data from 2011 to 2021. The findings of this study suggest that the digital economy can significantly aid in the long-term growth of cultural companies. The process of promoting sustainable development of the cultural industry through the digital economy has also advanced thanks to the government’s strong support. This report also suggests governmental recommendations based on these findings for the sustainable development of China’s cultural industry in the age of the digital economy. This paper theoretically elucidates the mechanism of the role of the digital economy on the sustainable development of the cultural industry, constructs a system of indicators to measure the sustainable development of the cultural industry, and tests the impact of the digital economy on the sustainable development of the cultural industry.

Fan J.

Data breaches are increasingly disruptive and have caused dramatic financial implications for the organizations affected by incidents. Although the government has enacted and amended relevant legal provisions, the number of data breaches is broadly on the rise. The laws concerning data breaches aim to decrease the risk of such incidents, but their true efficacy remains to be quantitively evaluated. In this study, we use panel data on data breaches in the United States from 2005 to 2019 to empirically verify whether laws enacted can reduce the probability of data breaches. First, we attempt to confirm that the law is in force to curb the occurrence of data breaches; second, we further study the effectiveness of the penalty regulations. Our findings will clearly illustrate whether data breach laws can play a deterrent role in reducing incidents and provide new insights into the field of government regulations.

Abdalla S., Amankwah-Amoah J., Badewi A.

This research study reviews the literature on the participants in the sharing economy (SE) ecosystem and its impact on the participants, creating and capturing value through increasing the understanding of the ecosystem’s novel models. The review classifies the participants in the SE ecosystem into primary and secondary participants. The classification is based on the connection to the core network/ecosystem and the role of the participants in the ecosystem. The primary participants are subdivided into groups: customers are subdivided into New Customers (NC) and Current Customers (CC); providers into Product Providers (PP) and Service Providers (SP); and mediators are subdivided into Small and Medium Mediators (SMM) and Large Mediators (LM). The secondary participants are governments sub-grouped into Local Governments (NG) and National Governments (NG); Theories and methodologies within the academic literature on the sharing economy ecosystem are also examined. The study also analyses the influence of digital sharing and explores the value of digital technologies in management strategies and the value of the integration between participants of SE businesses. Recommended future research directions are outlined according to the conducted review.

Cheng S., Fan Q., Huang M.

Digital transformation is a critical challenge for commercial banks to achieve sustainable competitive advantages in the digital economy. However, conventional research focuses too much on constructing linear models to explain the non-linear relationships between and among the factors relevant to digital transformation. By adopting the configurational framework, we propose that the interactions between strategy and dynamic capabilities determine the paths of how digital transformation may succeed or fail. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of digital transformation practices by Chinese commercial banks shows that: (1) a single condition of strategic orientation or dynamic capabilities does not constitute the necessary condition for high digital transformation, yet market orientation plays a more general role in generating high digital transformation. (2) There are three configurational paths that can contribute to high digital transformation of commercial banks, such as sensing capability-driven paths dominated by strategic orientation, integrating capability-driven paths dominated by strategic orientation, and the market orientation-driven paths dominated by dynamic capabilities. (3) There are two configurational paths that lead to non-high digital transformation, which verifies the existence of the asymmetrical relationship compared to the configurational paths of high digital transformation; (4) In the pathways dominated by strategic orientation, there is a substitutive relationship between sensing capability and integrating capability. The findings make contributions to the literature on digital transformation and provide implications for the digital transformation of commercial banks.

Pirciog S.C., Grigorescu A., Lincaru C., Popa F.M., Lazarczyk Carlson E., Sigurdarson H.T.

Globalization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 act as shocks on regional labor markets and regional economies. The presence of a digital economy has high spillover effects on regional development, job creation, economic resilience, and sustainability; furthermore, it valuates eco-innovation and the clean economy. We believe that the process of digital transformation has a robust impact on the green and clean aspects of the entire economy. The consistency of high digital-intensive (HDI) sectors can be evaluated through high digital-intensive employment, human resources, and technological infrastructure, as these are the main pillars of digital transformation. The shift-share analysis method (SSM) is used in this study on employment growth during 2008–2018 for the EU27, the United Kingdom, and Norway, combined with a second stage of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). The findings on national growth, industrial mix, and competitiveness are presented in GIS mapping system considering the Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) technique at the NUTS2 level. This approach allows us to determine the clustering level of high digital-intensive employment and sectors, resilience based on connectivity and eco-innovation, and the regional potential of digital transformation. Policymakers and political or governmental decision-makers could consider the results of the present study as the starting point for developing and implementing their policies for a sustainable green regional economy and determine the emerging area patches that need to be stimulated.

Geng Q., Wang Y., Wang X.

The 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) emphasized that all parties should focus on practical actions for the next step, take “implementation” as the key word, vigorously promote green and low-carbon development and accelerate the application of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Green sustainable development has become an important factor in achieving the goals of COP26, so improvements in green economic efficiency (GEE) has become the focus of governments, enterprises and academia. This study selected data from 30 regions across China between 2007 and 2021, used the super-efficiency SBM method to evaluate GEE and then used a tobit model to verify the effects of natural resource endowment and green finance on GEE; thus, based on the results of our empirical analysis, we proposed countermeasures to improve green economic efficiency. Our conclusions were as follows: (1) the average GEE value was 0.737, there was an overall rising trend during the study period, the low-level GEE areas were concentrated in the central and western regions and the high-level areas were in the eastern region; (2) the elasticity coefficient of natural resource endowments was negative, indicating a “resource curse” effect on the GEE that was long-term and persistent, and the impact of green finance on GEE had a “U"-shaped relationship, which was in line with the EKC hypothesis; (3) digital economies could promote GEE. The impacts of environmental regulations on GEE also presented “U"-shaped relationships. The influence coefficient of foreign direct investment on GEE was positive, had a low significance value and its coefficient was also small. The coefficients of the primary and secondary terms of the industrial structure index were positive, which confirmed that the tertiary industry sector could significantly improve GEE.

Hao X., Wen S., Xue Y., Wu H., Hao Y.

Deepening of the New Development Concepts and the strategy of building a “digital power” have necessitated improving the digital economy for improving environmental efficiency (EE) and resource sustainability in China. Using the panel data from 2011 to 2018, this study measures the digital economy level (DIGE) using the entropy weight method and quantifies EE using the SBM-DEA model. Then, based on four different spatial models and the mediation model, this study empirically investigates the spatial effect of DIGE on EE, and the potential impact mechanism. The primary study findings are as follows: (i) EE demonstrated a stable but slow increase and clear spatial agglomeration with spatial differentiation characteristics in regions. (ii) DIGE could significantly promote EE, and there was a noticeable “spatial synergistic effect,” which was manifested as a spatial spillover effect of “1 + 1>2.” (iii) The mediating effect of TFP growth rate showed that technological progress could synergize with DIGE to promote the enhancement of EE. (iv) According to the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model, spatial heterogeneity from the east to the west showed a “band-like increase” characteristic. Finally, we present corresponding policy implications.

Feng Z., Cheng S., Qu G., Cui Y., Ye J.

(1) Background: Under the background of building a new pattern of “double cycle” development, the green meaning of the digital economy is highly valued. The innovative feature of the digital economy is forming a new economic growth pole, and gradually becomes the driving force for China’s economic restructuring and green development; (2) methods: this paper empirically tests whether the digital economy can promote green development by using various econometric models based on panel dataset with 30 provinces from 2011 to 2019 in mainland China and measuring the development level of the digital economy and the greening index; (3) results: it is found that the digital economy can directly boost green development in greening degree of economic growth, resources and environment-carrying potential, and government policy support. The digital economy’s influence on green development has an inverted U-shaped trend; environmental control is an effective regulatory variable with a substitution effect on green development. With an obvious regional heterogeneity, the digital economy promotes green development; the digital economy can greatly affect green growth through technical innovation through mechanism analysis. The robustness test supports the above conclusion; (4) conclusions: the findings provide a foundation for multi-party policymakers to effectively formulate and implement policies for the digital economy that encourage green growth.

Kaswan M.S., Rathi R., Cross J., Garza-Reyes J.A., Antony J., Yadav V.

PurposeThis research aims to propose a framework to integrate Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) and Industry 4.0 to improve organizational sustainability.Design/methodology/approachThe integration of GLSS and Industry 4.0 is proposed based on theoretical facets of the individual approaches. A generic, conceptual framework of an integrated GLSS-Industry 4.0 approach is then proposed using the application of different tools and techniques of GLSS and Industry 4.0 at different stages of the realization of a project.FindingsBoth approaches have common facets related to enablers and barriers, and the integrated application of tools and techniques of each approach supplements the common focus of both related to sustainability enhancement. The proposed, conceptual framework provides systematic guidelines from the project selection stage to the sustainment of the solution, with the enumerated application of different techniques and tools at each step of the framework.Originality/valueThis research is the first of its kind to propose the integration of GLSS and Industry 4.0 under the umbrella of a unified approach, including a conceptual framework of this integrated GLSS-Industry 4.0 approach.

Ghalwash S., Ismail A., Maurya M.

Learning outcomes Learning outcomes can only be achieved through using case-based pedagogy. Instructors must encourage students to dive deeply into the case dilemma, so they are able to engage with the case objectives and questions, applying the appropriate theory. By doing so, students can provide solutions based on five core objectives. These are the objectives that students should learn after completing the case discussion: ■ Critique the marketing activities for implications of global branding. ■ Understand the turnaround strategies in the context of the digital economy and COVID-19 crisis to build a global brand and drive B2C customers from awareness and advocacy. ■ Suggest a map of traditional and digital marketing strategies to enhance the company’s efficiency and effectiveness. ■ Discuss the three main sources of influence marketers can implement to drive customers from awareness to advocacy across the customers’ path. ■ Discuss the application of the UN 17 SDGs practices in today’s fashion industry. Case overview/synopsis In 2018, Ali El Nawawi and Mai Kassem decided to start up the Scarabaeus Sacer brand to take their passion for social and human development and create ethical fashion streetwear. Scarabaeus Sacer was an Egyptian brand that sold 100% organic Egyptian cotton fashionable streetwear, and the core mission of the fledgling company was “promoting Egyptian organic cotton textiles with a premium quality globally” (Al Nawawi, 2021). While Scarabaeus was mainly guided by the well-being, sustainability, and mental health goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) numbers 3, 8, 11 and 12 (good health and well-being; decent work and economic growth; sustainable cities and communities; and responsible consumption and production), their position as an advocacy brand was only beginning to be understood by their customers in Egypt. With the rapid increase of e-commerce during the COVID-19 crisis and their previous international experience, the co-founders wanted to achieve their mission of building a global brand that promotes Egyptian organic cotton and sustainability while offering unique designs of fashionable streetwear. To achieve this mission, the co-founders El Nawawi and Kassem faced major decisions related to marketing strategies at the beginning of 2020. These included how to build global brand awareness and brand advocacy for well-being, sustainability and mental health with a special focus on penetrating new markets (namely, Europe and the USA) to stock their products on e-commerce platforms and advocating their cause and increase their sales. Complexity academic level This case is suitable for graduate-level marketing courses in which it allows students to engage with classical marketing strategies, digital marketing, global branding, communication, media and sales within a management framework. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.