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This paper analyzes how Digital Transformation (DT) processes have influenced the Attitude of local governments (LGs) toward the COVID-19 pandemic and their effect on achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The data were collected from LGs in Spain ( n = 124) through a questionnaire in which the IT skills of their workers, the DT processes, budgets, degree of regulatory compliance, and implementation of trust seals were measured, together with the IT security measures adopted. The contrast between the proposed model and the results showed that the direct influence of IT security influences the government’s attitude toward COVID-19 and DT implementing actions to achieve SDGs. The findings of this work are of great value both for the actors involved in the design and implementation of public policies and for those responsible for local governance in their objective to improve citizens’ experience of the services provided and in exceptional situations such as the one experienced as a result, of-COVID-19.

In this paper, we argue that William Stephenson, Qmethodology, when demonstrated through the research conducted for the SANCOOP: Climate & Beliefs project can provide guidance for doing context-specific mixed-method research and has implications for climate change education in South Africa. In the project, Q-methodology was mixed with techniques of transcendental philosophical analysis, to investigate the correlations between subjectivity and climate change adaptation in rural South African context. Subsequently, context-specific considerations are in order, since limited research employing mixed Q-methodology has previously been conducted in rural South Africa. Thereby, we hope to provide some guidance for conducting mixed methodological research in this context. Finally, the implications of mixed methodology for climate change education in South Africa are discussed in the light of epistemic justice in the construction of knowledge.

Although personality has been widely studied within the academic literature, there has been little research into the relationship between personality and leadership development programs, particularly within an agricultural context for adult learners. The purpose of this research was to investigate the nature of relationships among ten aspects of the Big Five personality factors and demographic characteristics including: gender, age, organizational level, educational attainment, and geographic region within a sample of adult agricultural leadership development program participants. Results of the study indicate that there are differences between demographic groups relative to specific aspects of personality. Among the ten aspects analyzed, the most statistically significant differences between groups were observed between age groups, while the fewest statistically significant differences were observed in the educational attainment and geographic region groups. Effect sizes were also calculated with gender having the largest observed effect sizes and age having the largest number of statistically significant effect sizes.

The increasing digitalization of economies has highlighted the importance of digital transformation and how it can help businesses stay competitive in the market. However, disruptive changes not only occur at the company level; they also have environmental, societal, and institutional implications. This is the reason why during the past two decades the research on digital transformation has received growing attention, with a wide range of topics investigated in the literature. The following aims to provide insight regarding the current state of the literature on digital transformation (DT) by conducting a systematic literature review. An analysis of co-occurrence using the software VOSviewer was conducted to graphically visualize the literature’s node network. Approached this way, the systematic literature review displays major research avenues of digital transformation that consider technology as the main driver of these changes. This paper qualitatively classifies the literature on digital business transformation into three different clusters based on technological, business, and societal impacts. Several research gaps identified in the literature on DT are proposed as futures lines of research which could provide useful insights to the government and private sectors in order to adapt to the disruptive changes found in business as a result of this phenomenon, as well as to reduce its negative impacts on society and the environment.

This paper analyses how farmers to take decision to allocate and use their lands for potato production when both contract and non-contract farming options are available in West Bengal. We used a primary data collected from 327 potato producing households in Bankura and Bardhaman districts of West Bengal. We used generalized least squares fixed effect model in the empirical analysis. We observed that imposed restriction of seed supply limits the choice of both potato farming and non-potato farming. The benefits from contract farming are not accrued by the farmers who are mainly small and marginal landholders. They are also in a moment of ambiguity to choice their land use under non-potato cultivation. The choice of the farmers, therefore, remains constrained. This uncertainty can be overcome only through effective land use planning and institutional intervention.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) was created to address the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry’s lack of collaboration among consultants. Advances in cloud BIM have led to the easy exchange of data and real-time collaboration among consultants from conceptual design to the detailed construction drawing stage and through the project life cycle. This is critical in the development of smart cities. Cloud BIM also facilitates visualization of the city and data exchange for internet of things (IoT). Smart city development involves incorporating data from sensors and hardware attached to existing infrastructure. This article studies cloud BIM technology as a means of project integration in smart city development. To do this, a case study of digital modeling for the development of a smart city was done. Benefits include seamless communication, monitoring real-time progress, and visualization of files. Problems encountered include governance problems, problems preserving work sets, the integrity of drawings, and difficulty specifying coordinates on-site.

Although the research on social-economic and demographic inequities of parents and their approach to formal child care (early childhood education and care [ECEC] system) is increasing, the territorial effects on child care remain underresearched. In Lithuania, the importance of the accessibility and availability of formal child care services are highlighted by the political agenda. However, the residential location is not considered enough to explain the differences in parental approach to child care in rural and urban regions. The article seeks to analyze how families’ child care choices and family welfare priorities are related to parental socioeconomic backgrounds, territorial dimension (residential location of parents), and general life satisfaction. The article uses the subsample of representative population survey data of the working-age generation cohort (34–48 years old cohort), focusing on respondents who have children below 4 years old and benefit from formal child care services in Lithuania. The main results contribute to explaining parental preferences to benefits-in-cash or services-in-kind (child care) family welfare priorities and their socioeconomic backgrounds, including residential location. The less is the residential location size (rural areas), the more likely respondents would support the benefits-in-cash system rather than formal child care services. Keywords: family policy, ECEC system, family inequality, urban and rural regions, child care services

South Korea imports a large amount of agricultural and aquatic food products from China, which meets its food security. However, the import from China raises food safety questions, leading to food safety apprehension. We explored the source of the Korean consumer’s apprehension. Based on the apprehension reduction theory (ART) developed from interviews with Korean consumers in the first stage of the study, we conducted a survey to assess the social media as an indirect source of information and direct experience of the consumer in the second stage of the study. We received 504 responses, of which 1/3 of the respondents had visited China in the last year. Using FSS (Food Safety Satisfaction) as the dependent variable (1— low to 5— high), we link information from the social media vis-à-vis direct experience and made three discoveries. (a) The information quantity of social media increases the consumer’s apprehension, partially refuting the ART. (ii) FSS increased in response to information flow from the direct experience of the consumer with Chinese imported food. (c) The direct information from experience mediates the effects of indirect information (social media) on apprehension about agricultural and aquatic product imports. We made three inferences. First, information quantity and quality have separated roles in the ART. Second, social media increases the free-market style information flow, turning legitimate products to illegitimate and vice versa. Third, the collective irrationality from the information quantity needs institutional bricolage to legitimize the chaotic nature of the untamed information.