The mining sector, like other sectors of the economy, is under increasing pressure to adopt circular economy (CE) principles across its value chains and core operations. This paper offers a critical and conceptually grounded contribution to understanding how CE can support systemic transformation in one of the most resource-intensive and path-dependent sectors of the global economy. It examines the structural and institutional conditions that shape the adoption of CE in mining and identifies key tensions that constrain or enable transformative change. In parallel, the paper explores emerging pathways informed by technological innovation, shifts in production routines, and the rise of new circular business models. These insights are synthesised into a multi-level framework that captures the dynamic interactions between micro-, meso-, and macro-level processes shaping CE transitions. In addition to offering a diagnostic perspective, the framework outlines concrete action points for advancing systemic change. 

This study investigates how digital transformation unfolds over time within a multi-business manufacturing firm. Drawing on a longitudinal case study of SweX—a global industrial firm—we trace the dynamics of digital transformation across three empirically derived phases: experimentation, consolidation, and acceleration. Five interrelated patterns shape the process: (1) digital transformation unfolds recursively rather than linearly; (2) tensions arise between corporate strategy and business unit adaptation; (3) monetizing digital innovation remains challenging; (4) structural adjustments are needed to balance stability and change; and (5) temporal asymmetry—misalignments between technology deployment and customer readiness—can hinder digital transformation. We organize these insights around three overarching themes—organizational tension, structural adjustment, and organizational adaptation—developed through iterative analysis across corporate and business unit levels. The study advances process-oriented perspectives on strategy by showing how recursive patterns of tension, structural change, and organizational adaptation drive digital transformation in complex, multi-level firms. 

This paper combines literature on program management and the multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions to analyze how a firm within the petrochemical industry negotiates across niches and regimes in its transition-oriented program. The analysis shows that this strategic change program comprises three types of projects—exploitation, exploration, and hybrid. In the context of the firms’ ambition to attain net-zero emissions, individual projects of all three types play distinctive roles. In exploitation projects, negotiations stay at the regime level, which reinforces existing institutions but also enables a transfer of certain emission-reducing technologies. In contrast, exploration and hybrid projects entail negotiations that cut across niche and regime levels. For hybrid projects, we find that niche-regime negotiations remain predominantly internal, while they are externalized in exploration projects. Clarifying the relationship between internal and external negotiations, our work suggests that strategic project sequencing could facilitate transition-oriented programs. Run in sequence, exploration projects may help mobilize external support and resources, hybrid projects can safeguard internal support, and exploitation projects can enable companywide diffusion of practices that support the net-zero objectives.

The global economy has entered a decade of deep transformation driven by the confluence of geopolitical conflicts, climate pressures and accelerating technological rivalry. What began as a sequence of shocks in the early 2020s— pandemic disruption, war in Europe, and rising strategic tensions in East Asia—has evolved into a structural reorientation of globalization, security policies, alliance formation and industrial development. Fragmented globalisation has replaced the efficiency-driven integration of previous decades, as states and firms reorganise supply chains along political and security lines. Climate-related shocks further reshape macroeconomic conditions, fiscal priorities and long-term productivity trajectories. These forces interact with rapid technological change, including advances in artificial intelligence, new national armament priorities, and transformations of organisational practices.

Sectoral developments in defense, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and energy illustrate how geopolitical pressures and technological imperatives are reshaping industrial capabilities and strategic policy choices. At the firm level, AI adoption reconfigures decision-making, skill requirements and capability development, underscoring the role of national learning systems in sustaining long-term competitiveness. In this editorial we outline a research agenda that highlights the analytical and empirical challenges for the fields of applied economics, business studies and policy analysis. The editorial concludes by discussing future research directions related to supply chain fragmentation, institutional adaptation and the evolving climate–security–technology nexus.

Although several studies have extensively discussed the role of intrapreneurs, individuals’ experiences of intrapreneurial processes in the academic context remain largely unexplored. The prominence of intrapreneurial logic in academia has led to increased institutional complexity and highlighting the need for an improved understanding of how to navigate multiple logics present at individual, organizational, and field levels to attain the desired intrapreneurial outcomes. To address these challenges, we propose an integrative framework that captures both organizational and individual-level responses to these multiple logics, while also incorporating intrapreneurial logic. Upon analyzing data from nineteen intrapreneurs across three universities, this study reveals that universities actively uphold the academic logic that intrapreneurs identify as a barrier, compelling them to refine their skills and actively hybridize logics by integrating multiple specific elements of intrapreneurship, teaching, and research. Simultaneously, universities incorporate intrapreneurial logic into their operational processes, even combining multiple logics, which intrapreneurs leverage within their own activities to push their ideas forward. The study offers implications for intrapreneurship literature, academic management, and policymakers to more effectively foster intrapreneurial activities.

Research on digital transformation focuses on business models and technological innovation but it often lacks a detailed exploration of how firms develop, execute, and evaluate related and unrelated digital diversification strategies. To address this gap, this study employs a multiple case study approach to uncover the varied processes and outcomes of implementing digital diversification programs in established firms. The findings reveal that established firms frequently refine and adjust their digital diversification strategies to achieve desired results. Specifically, related digital diversification strategies benefit from well-defined market segments, clear technological focus, and robust senior management support. In contrast, unrelated digital diversification strategies thrive through extensive exploration and experimentation with novel digital technologies and markets, reduced senior managerial intervention and increased middle- and lower-level management involvement. Semi-related digital diversification strategies, which incorporate elements of both related and unrelated approaches, often encounter tensions owing to conflicting traditional and new program execution methods, posing significant realization challenges. Key factors identified as instrumental in the success of digital diversification strategies include technology, markets, management & organization, and program execution. The study concludes by discussing the managerial and academic implications and offers recommendations for future research in this domain.

This conceptual paper argues that there are unrealized benefits from a cross-fertilization between research on sustainable tourism and sustainability transitions studies. With the aim to stimulate such cross-fertilization, the paper identifies three contemporary streams in sustainability transitions studies that are particularly relevant for sustainable tourism: deep transitions, transitions in practice, and the geography of transitions. These three streams present complementary perspectives, which can help reach a more nuanced understanding of transition processes in the tourism sector. The paper concludes that while research on sustainable tourism can benefit from theories, concepts, and frameworks from research on sustainability transitions, research on sustainable tourism can support further conceptual developments in sustainability transitions studies.