Public sector organizations, primarily higher education institutions (HEIs), are facing greater levels of responsibility since adopting and committing to the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (SD) and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). HEIs are expected to provide guidance for various stakeholders on this matter, but also to implement this agenda and the SDGs in their institutions. Although the role of these organizations has been recognized, the fields and issues that HEIs should address on their path towards sustainability and SD are still unclear. To provide further clarity, a semi-systematic literature review on sustainability and SD in HEIs was conducted to identify both the key concepts and main research themes that represent sustainability and SD in HEIs and to identify research gaps. This review increases our knowledge of this topic and enhances our understanding of sustainability and SD in the context of HEIs.
To gain a competitive advantage on industrial markets, suppliers need to understand what motivates their customers to collaborate in long-term buyer-supplier relationships. Therefore, this paper presents (i) a literature-based model of a 12-part industrial customers' motivation profile, and (ii) empirical findings from an explorative survey of 118 decision makers in the purchasing departments of firms in the technology sector. The results indicate that, “the optimum value for money”, “the holistic problem-solving capability of the suppliers and their high degree of performance” and “the good assistance in economically hard times in the past, which has led to a feeling of gratefulness” are all of great importance to industrial customers for building and maintaining relationships.
For technology-orientated enterprises that operate project-based businesses, the goal-oriented allocation of scarce marketing resources has great potential to help consolidate their competitive position. An important precondition for goal-oriented management is the identification of the most valuable customers. This enables technology-orientated enterprises to segment markets in order to make tactical marketing decisions. This theorybased paper aims to develop and test a holistic customer ranking model. By deploying the five steps presented in this paper, customer relationship managers are better able to identify and to rank their customers in project-based businesses. A case study provides an example of the application of the method from the automotive industry in Austria. The experiences derived from this case study show that using a customer ranking framework is a crucial factor for enterprises in narrow technology markets to be successful and to achieve their corporate goals.
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