Connecting the Dots: Linking Sustainable Wild Capture Fisheries Initiatives and Impact Investors

Wilderness Markets undertook a series of fishery value chain assessments to better understand the opportunities and constraints for private impact capital to flow into wild capture fisheries markets. Given the investments in developing sustainable fisheries pilots, Wilderness Markets expected to identify a range of investment opportunities in each of the fisheries assessed. However, they did not find investment opportunities that could address the suite of challenges associated with improving financial and social outcomes, while also contributing to conservation outcomes, particularly in developing country fisheries. Wilderness Markets' research indicates the lack of triple-bottom line (TBL) investment opportunities is due to six main constraints to an economically sustainable fisheries value chain—data, management, market differentiation, infrastructure, finance and the lack of investable entities

Indonesia Sustainable Fisheries Value Chain Assessments

Wilderness Markets, with the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, undertook a series of fishery value chain assessments to better understand the opportunities and constraints for private impact capital to flow into wild-capture fisheries markets in Indonesia. Building on extensive impact-focused investment experience in agricultural value chains, the objectives were to:*  Identify and categorize potential impact investment opportunities in wild-capture fisheries utilizing a combination of impact investment frameworks.*  In the absence of impact investment opportunities, document value chain constraints preventing such opportunities.*  Support the creation of sustainable wild-capture fisheries investment strategies by identifying appropriate frameworks for the assessment and development of intervention opportunities.Wilderness Markets assessed four developing country fisheries (DCFs) in two countries, with a particular focus on Indonesia, plus one fishery in California, US, for comparison. This document focuses on Indonesia and summarises our assessment of the blue swimming crab, snapper, yellowfin and skipjack tuna seafood value chains. Each fishery assessed provided a piece of a larger puzzle, allowing Wilderness Markets to identify the components of a sustainable seafood value chain and its relationship to stock health which, in turn, drives value chain health.This document provides a summary of the findings in Indonesia

Action learning : co-creating value from collaborative sustainable projects

This article reports on the specific role that action learning plays in the promotion of sustainability and innovation in the Local Government sector. The study focuses on one organisation and the efforts of a senior manager to enact change. The senior manager utilized his participation in an MBA programme to bring the classroom learning into his business. As a consequence of the requirements of the programme and also the desire of the senior manager, he was able to instigate a change programme, which delivered measurable outcomes and had financial and cultural impact. This case study illustrates the favourable advantages of using action learning as an intervention approach by HEI’s in driving sustainable innovation in the Local Government sectorFinal Published versio

Understanding take-up of broadband by small and micro-enterprises: a case study

The paper examines patterns of broadband take-up, implementation and effects within small and micro-sized enterprises. The research focuses on the ‘onlincolnshire’ initiative, a local government-led programme which aims to encourage broadband take-up through provision of connection subsidies to SMEs in rural areas of Lincolnshire

Evaluating Barriers, Enablers and Opportunities for Closing the Loop through ‘Waste Upcycling’: A Systematic Literature Review

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to ‘do more and better with less’, with numerous calls to action arising from the business sector concerning the substantial reduction of targeted types of commercial and industrial waste. Emanating from the original work on closing material loops by McDonough and Braungardt in the 1990s, over the last two decades the concept of ‘upcycling’ has increased in popularity as a targeted intervention to reduce material and energy use in business processes. Essentially upcycling involves reusing, repairing, repurposing and upgrading waste material to avoid the conventional endpoint of ‘disposal’. However, upcycling is still considered a niche practice and many business enterprises remain unclear as to how to use upcycling opportunities for better management of their waste. In this paper, the authors propose a Tiered Approach to Waste Upcycling for Business, as a strategic way for businesses to close the loop within their industrial processes and production chains. The paper comprises a systematic literature review of opportunities and barriers for enabling business enterprises to close the loop through waste upcycling. The review highlights the ad hoc, champion-based and highly variable use of upcycling practices and uncovers opportunities for more systematic and streamlined practices to produce value-added products from waste material. Synthesising the findings, the authors establish three tiers of ‘macro’, ‘meso’ and ‘micro’ barriers and enablers that businesses can consider identifying upcycling opportunities for managing their waste. The authors also discuss key benefits of upcycling including improved quality and life of material, creating jobs and influencing positive consumer behaviour. The authors conclude the benefits of a structured approach to considering circular economy opportunities, towards improved waste management that is better for the bottom line, people and planet. With regard to future research in the field, the authors define a set of key theoretical constructs relating to waste upcycling, that can facilitate innovation and investigations into applying ideas

Exploring the enablers of organizational and marketing innovations in SMEs: findings from South-Western Nigeria

Previous research studies on innovation tend to focus on process and product innovations. Recent theoretical opinions reveal that Organizational and Marketing Innovations (OMIs) could be the necessary prerequisites to optimally utilize and deploy such process and product innovations. It is important to note that there is a dearth of information on the enablers of OMIs capabilities among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Despite their closeness to their customers, many SMEs are finding it difficult to achieve successful and effective innovations; these are innovations that have a positive impact on the business growth and returns. This study presents findings from exploratory qualitative research conducted in SouthWestern Nigeria. Drawing upon information-rich evidence from 13 in-depth interviews with the owners and the managers of SMEs, this study identifies some enablers that can promote SMEs' OMIs capabilities, effective innovations, and organizational survival. © The Author(s) 2015

How do supply chain management and information systems practices influence operational performance?:Evidence from emerging country SMEs

This study first provides a comparative analysis of the impact of supply chain management (SCM) and information systems (IS) practices on operational performance (OPER) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in two neighbouring emerging country markets of Turkey and Bulgaria. Then, we investigate moderating effects of both SCM–IS-linked enablers and inhibitors on the links between SCM and IS practices and OPER of SMEs. To this end, we first empirically identify the underlying dimensions of SCM and IS practices, and SCM–IS-related enabling and inhibiting factors. Second, a series of regression analyses are undertaken to estimate the impact of the study's constructs on OPER of SMEs. The results are discussed comparatively within the contexts of both Turkish and Bulgarian SMEs and beyond. The study makes a significant contribution to the extant literature through obtaining and analysing cross-national survey data of SCM and IS practices in emerging country markets

Proposing Circular Economy Ecosystem for Chinese SMEs:A Systematic Review

Circular Economy (CE) has attracted so much attention around the world as it can contribute to the balance between economic development and environmental sustainability, to address the increasing critical resources scarcity and environmental issues. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China are a major driving force in the economy with 43 million SMEs in 2020. Most of them maintain the traditional economic development method of "take–use", without considering the environment. This has caused great harm to the environment and resource availability. Therefore, Chinese SMEs must adopt CE in their business to address this issue. The current study aims to explore the key barriers (lack of time, lack of human resources and finance) and enablers (e.g., network, innovation, and reputation) for Chinese SMEs CE adoption. The current study employs a systematic review approach with thematic analysis to identify the internal and external barriers and enablers of CE adoption among SMEs. Moreover, a CE ecosystem has been proposed for identifying the key actors in the CE system, which will be beneficial for policy-makers to take into account when drafting and adjusting CE laws and regulations.</p