The lack of transparency along global supply chains poses challenges in the areas of fraud, pollution, human rights abuses, and inefficiencies. In this context, the blockchain has the potential to offer an unprecedented level of transparency, with a shared and decentralized database in which immutable and encrypted copies of information are stored on every node of the network. Using a single case study methodology, this paper investigates how blockchain technology can improve and facilitate sustainable business models. The aim of this paper is to understand how blockchain technology can drive the development of sustainable business models. Recent studies show the importance of sustainability perspectives for business models. The study was conducted by applying the CAOS (“Characteristic, Ambience, Organization, Start-up”) model to a start-up operating in the agri-food sector, not yet institutionalized, called Devoleum. The results indicate that blockchain technology can increase sustainability through realizing the traceability, security, and non-manipulability of information, which are particularly useful in the agri-food sector. Furthermore, the absence of intermediaries in blockchain technology contributes to reducing transaction costs and the time required to consolidate relations between the company and the environment. The limitations of this study must be identified in that the company is operational but not yet incorporated.

Purpose: Recent socioeconomic events, not least the Covid-19 pandemic, have led farms to rethink their traditional production methods. Innovation, new technologies and the establishment of relationships could be crucial for farms to remain competitive and sustainable over time. These factors can be assumed as structural and relational capital, two of intellectual capital's components. In this stream, the aim of this paper is to analyze how structural and relational capital could contribute to farm's sustainability in terms of competitiveness during its normal life cycle and in terms of resilience during an uncertain period, such as the coronavirus emergency.Design/methodology/approach: The paper is supported by the qualitative methodology of a single case study. To reach the declared goal, the paper applies the C.A.O.S. (Characteristics, Ambience, Organizations, Start-up) model, an interpretative model for analyzing the small and medium enterprise dimension. In this way, the main aspects that allowed the farm to be competitive and to react at the emergency period were described.Findings: The findings show that innovation technology involved the farm's internal processes, improving execution, control and feedback phases. Thanks to the two main introduced innovations, the farm reduced staffing costs and minimized cultivation risk related to climatic factors. These innovations are the main factors allowing the farm to increase its efficiency. Moreover, the proactive and reactive roles of the structural and relational capital to face the emergency period are confirmed.Originality/value: The paper contributes to the literature in several ways. Regarding innovation literature, the paper shows how technology helps farms to improve their performance and their global competitiveness. Insight into structural and relational capital enhances the knowledge of intangible assets, such as intellectual capital. In the light of the Covid-19 emergency, the work demonstrates how the main resilience factors (proactive, i.e. structural capital, and reactive, i.e. relational capital) ensure the farm's survival.

The digitalization of processes in healthcare sector firms is expected to reduce costs, improve the quality of healthcare service, customer care experience, and patient safety, and attain efficiency and efficacy in project implementation. This research investigates the impact of digitalization on the financial performance of healthcare-sector firms in the European Union. The study also examines whether a firm’s intellectual capital efficiency mediates the process of digitalization’s impact on a firm’s financial performance. Using a sample of 965 firm observations from 2017 to 2021, we find that digitalization positively affects financial performance. Further analysis suggests that capital-employed efficiency fully mediates the relationship between digitalization and firm performance. Partial mediation is also reported for intellectual capital efficiency, human capital efficiency, and structural capital efficiency in the process of digitalization impacting firm performance. These findings provide fresh insight into how digitalization impacts a firm’s financial performance, establishing intellectual capital efficiency as a mediating mechanism that may explain this impact.

Environmental sustainability as a pillar of corporate sustainability has gained increasing prominence in policy and academic discourses (Birindelli, Iannuzzi, & Savioli, 2019). The rise of regulatory frameworks, combined with stakeholder pressures to discourage actions that are harmful to the community and the environment, are driving companies to respond to the increased demand for environmental sustainability as a means to enhance their reputation and sustain their business over time. The results of this study may contribute to a better understanding of the role of board gender diversity in corporate environmental sustainability, outlining the current state of research and providing an agenda for future research.