Local support is important for the longevity of conservation initiatives. The literature suggests that perceptions of ecological effectiveness, social impacts, and good governance will influence levels of local support for conservation. This paper examines these relationships using data from a survey of small‐scale fishermen in 11 marine protected areas from six countries in the Mediterranean Sea. The survey queried small‐scale fishermen regarding perceptions and support for conservation. We constructed composite scores for three categories of perceptions—ecological effectiveness, social impacts, and good governance—and tested the relationship with levels of support using ordinal regression models. While all three factors were positively correlated with support for conservation, perceptions of good governance and social impacts were stronger predictors of increasing support. These findings suggest that employing good governance processes and managing social impacts may be more important than ecological effectiveness for maintaining local support for conservation.

To contribute to small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) sustainable transition into the circular economy, the study proposes the activation of organizational learning (OL) processes—denoted here as multi-level knowledge creation, transfer, and retention processes—as a key phase in introducing circular business models (CBMs) at SME and supply chain (SC) level. The research employs a mixed-method approach, using the focus group methodology to identify contextual elements impacting on CBM-related OL processes, and a survey-based evaluation to single out the most frequently used OL processes inside Italian construction SMEs. As a main result, a CBM-oriented OL multi-level model offers a fine-grained understanding of contextual elements acting mutually as barriers and drivers for OL processes, as possible OL dynamics among them. The multi-level culture construct—composed of external stakeholders’, SC stakeholders’, and organizational culture—identify the key element to activate CBM-oriented OL processes. Main implications are related to the identification of cultural, structural, regulatory, and process contextual elements across the external, SC, and organizational levels, and their interrelation with applicable intraorganizational and interorganizational learning processes. The proposed model would contribute to an improved implementation of transitioning into the circular economy utilizing sustainable business models in the construction SMEs.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a common management tool for preserving marine biodiversity and halting resource depletion. Despite the number of MPAs rapidly increasing worldwide, there are concerns over the full achievement of their objectives. Indeed, in some cases—the phenomenon of so-called “paper parks”—protected areas totally fail to achieve their conservation and socioeconomic targets. Therefore, identifying the factors underpinning MPA success or failure is crucial to increase their effectiveness. To achieve this goal, we performed a global literature review on the socioeconomic factors that managers should pursue to enhance MPA effectiveness on a global scale. A search of the Scopus database, using strings of keywords connected by Boolean operators, generated a batch of 715 items, out of which 68 were retained after the application of inclusion/exclusion criteria. Six other articles were added through the scanning of the literature cited in selected papers. We grouped MPA success-factors into 13 main groups and ranked them according to the frequency of citation in the literature. Our findings identify stakeholder involvement, increasing communication and awareness between specific stakeholder groups, as well as ensuring appropriate enforcement and monitoring, control and surveillance, as the leading factors for MPA success. Our results will assist in the process of upcoming global expansion of MPAs, thus contributing to improving conservation of marine biodiversity and associated livelihoods.

Purpose: Taking Nonaka’s SECI model as the main reference, this paper aims to offer reflections on the virtual evolution of ba, the places for knowledge creation. Indeed, looking at the current scenario, widening the knowledge spiral to the inter-organizational epistemological level is inevitable. To this aim, information technology tools and virtual communities can establish effective interactions to exchange knowledge, making ba evolve congruently. Design/methodology/approach: The paper takes the exemplary case of a platform developed during a European research project called “BIVEE: Business Innovation in Virtual Enterprise Environments”. The investigative approach chosen is participatory action research (PAR), with two researchers conducting PAR in real time, and two others involved ex post. Findings: The paper shows that the virtual evolution of ba can lead the SECI model towards an inter-organizational level. Moreover, through a learning history, it describes how all the phases of the SECI process, even the Socialization one, can take place or be supported in virtual spaces. Research limitations/implications: Taking into account just one single exemplary case study provides a rich, contextualized understanding of phenomena, while allowing only some theoretical generalizations. Originality/value: This paper contextualizes the SECI model within a Web platform for open innovation, to investigate whether the knowledge creation process can take place entirely within a virtual environment linking subjects from different organizations. In so doing, it applies the SECI model to the phases of the innovation process, called waves.