Towards a green and just industry? Insights from traditional leather districts in Southern Italy.

Artisanal processes are crucial for examining major economic development, industrial, and historical forces. Among the different industries, fashion is regarded as one of the most polluting business activities. The indication of origin "Made in Italy" has found extensive scholarly economic appetite; however, the leather sector in its socioeconomic and environmental components has been scarcely investigated. The paper at hand analyzes selected leather poles in Campania, Italy - namely, the tanning, shoes, and gloves industries. Besides, the industrial processes and sustainability implications required are examined to render these productions. The tannery districts are characterized by a strong artisanal component in the productive processes and follow diverse geographical agglomeration rationales. Field visits and in-depth interviews were conducted in the local districts of Solofra (tanning), Grumo Nevano-Aversa (shoemaking), and Rione Sanità pole (glove-making). The local activities and specific operational industrial processes are mapped, highlighting the technical industrial phases needed to produce the three leather outputs. Besides, the sustainability repercussions of these industries are analyzed. The study finds that most of the activities heavily rely on traditional techniques and would benefit in socioeconomic and environmental terms from modernization, management, ICT upgrades, as well as process revisions and spatial agglomeration organization. Selected sectoral sustainable development, CSR, ESG, labeling, ethics, and environmental strategy recommendations are presented - especially concerning tanning wastewater treatment. These measures result in a compulsion to face the massive multidimensional crises occurring in the three sectors and business activities.

Evaluation of primary-level credit environment, indicator system and empirical analysis: A case study of credit construction in China county and district.

Townships (towns, streets) represent the foundational layer of China's administrative structure, and the quality of their credit environment is crucial for underpinning the development of a primary-level social credit system. This initiative aims to accelerate the establishment of the social credit system and cultivate a trustworthy economic and social environment. Starting from the three major fields of government, business and society, and focusing on integrity culture and credit innovation, the article proposes an innovative evaluation framework for primary-level credit environment and it can become a point of reference as a policy tool in international evaluation programs. Using clustering and the coefficient of variation methods, we quantitatively refine our indicator system, establishing a set of criteria to assess the primary-level credit environment. We incorporate hierarchical analysis, the entropy weight method, and machine learning models to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the credit environments within 24 townships (towns, streets) of Fuyang District in Hangzhou City for the year 2023. The findings underscore the need for a realistic appraisal of the current state and deficiencies of the primary-level credit environment. We advocate for the bolstering of credit development within governmental, business, and societal realms. It's imperative to leverage the normative influence of honesty and integrity culture, enhance the breadth and application of credit innovations, and thereby foster the high-quality growth of the primary-level social credit system.

Top of tide: Nexus between organization agility, digital capability and top management support in SME digital transformation.

In the swiftly evolving business landscape, digital transformation (DT) has emerged as a crucial strategy for firms to gain a competitive edge. Despite the abundance of literature on DT in firms, there remains a dearth of empirical research that defines and analyzes crucial antecedents of small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) DT from an internal perspective. To fill this research gap, this study examines the correlation between organizational agility and digital capability in cultivating SMEs' DT while also evaluating top management support as a moderating variable through the lens of internal factors of SMEs. The results indicate that both organizational agility and digital capability have a positive impact on SMEs' DT, with organizational agility significantly influencing digital capability. Furthermore, the findings highlight that digital capability serves as a mediator between organizational agility and SMEs' DT. In addition, top management support plays a moderating role in these relationships to a certain extent. Additionally, we explicate the concept of digital capabilities from the perspective of dynamic capability. Our study contributes to an enhanced understanding of the effect of organizational agility and digital capability on SMEs' DT, as well as the role of top management support. We provide recommendations for managers to enhance organizational agility and suggest that SMEs should improve their digital thinking to better perceive digital technology changes, enhance digital operation capabilities, and better integrate digital resources.