Urban destinations increasingly deploy events as strategic instruments to amplify competitiveness, stimulate visitation and sustain demand beyond peak seasons. However, their effective contribution to destination management, particularly in the post-pandemic urban tourism landscape, remains insufficiently evidenced. This study examines Lisbon through a mixed-methods design that combines a structured intercept survey of 388 non-resident visitors with a focus group involving nine directors of four- and five-star hotels in the metropolitan area. Quantitatively, events emerge as a relevant but segmented pull factor: their importance is concentrated among short-stay visitors, younger and highly educated travellers, and full-time professionals, who also register the highest satisfaction with event experiences. Satisfaction with events is generally favourable and is closely associated with their experiential, symbolic and emotional value. Qualitatively, hotel directors describe large concerts, congresses and public programmes as decisive triggers of demand, generators of extended stays and catalysts of repeat visitation, while noting that these effects are systematically under-captured by hotel booking and reporting systems. The discussion further reveals structural coordination gaps, including limited communication between event organisers, municipalities and accommodation providers, the absence of an integrated events calendar, and the lack of shared data on event-motivated travel. The study argues that events in Lisbon operate not only as temporal attractors but as experiential enhancers of destination image, memorability and competitiveness. Yet, their strategic potential remains only partially realised due to governance and information constraints that limit integrated planning and evidence-based management. Read more

Sustainable fashion is gaining interest from consumers. However, when buying apparel, individuals look for benefits and try to circumvent or lower barriers. This study aims to document motives and barriers in online buying of sustainable apparel, exploring the tendency of buying from online second-hand vendors, as well as platform features, and information deemed necessary when considering buying such products. The research employed a qualitative methodology, combining in-depth interviews with focus groups. A sample comprising 20 Romanian consumers for the in-depth interviews and 16 for the focus groups was used. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the collected data. The study indicates sought-after benefits and envisaged barriers when buying online sustainable apparel, displaying perspectives particular to online second-hand vendors, provides evidence about online platform features considered important by consumers when buying sustainable fashion, clarifies what information is important in the buying decision of sustainable clothes and indicates reasons for using second-hand platforms to purchase clothes. The study expands the literature by investigating consumer behaviour constructs in a broad manner, by employing a dual-qualitative methodology and by providing information about the Romanian market. Practical recommendations are made to vendors and online platforms. Read more

Climate change represents one of the most pressing existential threats of our time, requiring coordinated, cross-domain responses that integrate technological, financial, and policy-oriented knowledge. This paper investigates the behavior of selected clean energy stock indices before, during, and after the COVID-19 crisis and applies  advanced machine learning methodologies, specifically Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs), to predict clean energy stock prices. The results provide new insights into the nonlinear dynamics of financial markets linked to the clean energy sector and show that both LSTM and GRU models outperform VAR in stock price forecasting, delivering superior accuracy. This research highlights the effectiveness of integrating traditional statistical models with deep learning techniques to improve forecasting performance. It promotes a deeper understanding of the behavior of this crucial industry, providing a bridge between finance, technology, and sustainability topics, necessary to achieving a resilient and equitable low-carbon economy. Read more

Digital government transformation is reorganizing public-sector work at a pace that civil service institutions have struggled to keep pace with. This article examines whether digital upgrading in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan has produced a meaningful restructuring of the civil service workforce and why the translation of infrastructure investment into occupational change remains incomplete. The study draws on an asymmetric comparative design, combining shift-share occupational decomposition and vacancy-platform analysis for Kazakhstan with qualitative process tracing for Uzbekistan. In Kazakhstan, routine-intensive occupational shares declined over 2018-2024, yet persistent gaps in digital skill requirements and post-hire training suggest that formal restructuring has outpaced actual capability development. Uzbekistan shows a sharper version of the same pattern, where major digital and AI initiatives were launched before any consolidated reskilling architecture existed for the civil service core. These findings are captured through the concept of the reskilling paradox. Centralized personnel control, hierarchical information flows, and compliance-oriented organizational cultures act as friction coefficients that slow workforce adaptation regardless of how far digital platforms have advanced. Digital modernization, the evidence suggests, cannot be assessed solely through infrastructure. Read more

Currently, organizations are being called upon to adapt to numerous crises, which hinder their development and even their survival. Among these crises there are significant upheavals in the job market. In this context of uncertainty, companies are trying to find tools to better retain and build employee loyalty. One of these tools would be the understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its links with employees' perception of identification with the organization. Despite the existence of some studies on CSR and human resources management (HRM), several facets of the subject remain to be explored. Based on a cross-sectional qualitative research using a comparative case study of two organizations in Eastern Canada, we wanted to study potential links between the fields of CSR and HRM. The first objective was to create an integrative model based on a literature review of the founding texts of CSR and to test it with managers and employees. Next, we aimed to study employees' perceptions of their social identification and the links they perceived between CSR and their social identification. Finally, we made comparisons between the two organizations in relation to the subjects under study. Our research results demonstrated the relevance of the CSR management model we designed. We also observed a strong general connection between employees and their organization. Although further research will be necessary to validate this result, our research demonstrates the existence of a link between participants' perception of social identification and social responsibility management models. Thus, according to employees, sharing the same values as their organization could increase the identification link. However, it was the model as a whole that was appreciated by employees and not specific social responsibility measures. In short, one of the important and novel contributions of this study is the analysis of the connection between two different fields, namely the field of strategic management and that of organizational behavior while also achieving significant results. Read more