Social entrepreneurship has been recognized as a tool to attain sustainable development. This paper highlights the role of social entrepreneurship in triggering social change and attaining sustainable development. The paper contributes significantly to the existing literature by conducting a systematic review of extant works. To this end, we analyzed and reviewed 173 research papers from the Web of Science database. The results are presented in the form of descriptive findings and thematic discussion. The paper concludes by setting up the agenda for future researchers in the field.

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PurposeConventional economic contexts and value creation exert on the extensive use of intangible resources whose value is much greater than the tangible assets. In particular, intellectual capital (IC) is recognized as an important source of value creation for firms. However, the field of IC is majorly dominated by large firms, and little has been done in exploring IC in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Within this context, the purpose of this article is to contribute to the body of literature on IC in the SMEs context by investigating the different dynamics of IC and understanding its impact on their organizational performance and processes.Design/methodology/approachThe study has contextualized an integrative review of literature collected from Web of Science (WoS) and further analyzed integrating the bibliometric and manual review in a systematic approach.FindingsThe paper summarizes the key findings highlighting how SMEs can grasp IC in their core competencies and operational processes to achieve sustainable business performance. The study provides theoretical propositions highlighting the conceptual underpinnings of the literature on IC in SMEs and proposed methods outlining the methodological issues arising out of the diverse empirical/quantitative approaches adopted in the previous literature. Furthermore, empirical findings from the literature show that IC management affects a broad range of financial performance metrics in SMEs, however, sometimes with unexpected and mixed results. Hence, more research to replicate prior studies and corroborate extant research in both similar and different contexts would be desirable.Research limitations/implicationsThe study adopts an integrative review to understand the context of IC in SMEs; however, it does not study the synergy between varied IC components individually and their role in SMEs performance. Furthermore, the review relates IC to SMEs and does not cover the role of IC in large corporations.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in its contribution to the body of knowledge in the field of IC and SMEs by exploring IC's impact on SME performance, especially the market performance, knowledge management (KM), strategic business models, sustainability performance (corporate social responsibility [CSR]), innovation and their intercollaborations (varied stakeholders).

Graphical abstract This paper examines the nexus between the Covid-19 confirmed cases, deaths, meteorological factors, including an air pollutant among the world’s top 10 infected countries, from 1 February 2020 through 30 June 2020, using advanced econometric techniques to address heterogeneity across the nations. The findings of the study suggest that there exists a strong cross-sectional dependence between Covid-19 cases, deaths, and all the meteorological factors for the countries under study. The findings also reveal that a long-term relationship exists between all the meteorological factors. There exists a bi-directional causality running between the Covid-19 cases and all the meteorological factors. With Covid-19 death cases as the dependent variable, there exists bi-directional causality running between the Covid-19 death cases and Covid-19 confirmed cases, air pressure, humidity, and temperature. Temperature and air pressure exhibit a statistically significant and negative impact on the Covid-19 confirmed cases. Air pollutant PM2.5 also exhibits a significant but positive impact on the Covid-19 confirmed cases. Temperature indicates a statistically significant and negative impact on the Covid-19 death cases. At the same time, Covid-19 confirmed cases and air pollutant PM2.5 exhibit a statistically significant and positive impact on the Covid-19 death cases across the ten countries under study. Hence, it is possible to postulate that cool and dry weather conditions with lower temperatures may promote indoor activities and human gatherings (assembling), leading to virus transmission. This study contributes both practically and theoretically to the concerned field of pandemic management. Our results assist in taking appropriate measures in implementing intersectoral policies and actions as necessary in a timely and efficient manner. Causal relations of Meteorological factors and Covid-19 (2 models used in the study) Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-12668-5.

In this systematic review, the concept of the circular economy deals with much rigor to gain insights from the viewpoint of business sustainability. The ambivalent nature of the circular economy and business sustainability has led the authors to examine 142 papers from the Web of Science database for review. This study intends to provide a clear understanding of the circular economy concept through the lens of business sustainability. We synthesize the literature in a concrete form for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers by presenting a thematic framework. Based on the systematic review, key findings outlining trends and a reflection about the interface of the circular economy principles systematically and categorically identified nine business processes. Based on the analysis, key findings highlight on (a) addressing the synergy between the circular economy principles and business sustainability at the nine categorized business processes, as a systemic and holistic process; (b) future studies to work on developing tools and techniques to effectively measure the practical applicability in integrating the circular economy principles with the business strategies and models, including research methods like empirical research, action, and longitudinal research; and (c) the need to develop approaches and strategies to engage customers and other company stakeholders with the circular business processes adopted. We contribute to the existing body of knowledge by identifying future research agendas to advance in the concerned field of study consistently.