The COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted an unprecedented reaction in several multinational enterprises (MNEs). These MNEs have adopted social innovation approaches to meet the needs of vulnerable societal groups by swiftly innovating their business models; drastically changing their product offerings and customer bases; and producing COVID‐19 necessities. These approaches have alleviated some key pandemic‐induced social challenges related to health and sanitation. In this perspective article, we use secondary sources of information to present and exemplify the various types of MNE pandemic‐induced social innovation approaches. We open the discussion on whether these approaches are transitory in nature or whether they can and should be sustained in the long‐term, given the right incentives to these MNEs. We conclude by redefining MNEs' social innovation and by suggesting avenues for scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and educators to support this momentum in MNEs which we argue, if sustainable, can be fruitful for addressing other pressing grand challenges such as climate change, food security, poverty, and inequality.

Purpose: This study illustrates the experience of scholar–practitioner collaboration for data-driven decision-making through the problematic of optimizing facility locations and minimizing logistics costs for La Palette Rouge (LPR) of Portugal.Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a mixed mixed-method approach involving (1) a quantitative exploratory analysis of big data, which applied analytics and mathematical modeling to optimize LPR's logistics network, and (2) an illustrative case of scholar–practitioner collaboration for data-driven decision-making.Findings: The quantitative analysis compared more than 20 million possible configurations and proposed the optimal logistics structures. The proposed optimization model minimizes the logistics costs by 22%. Another optimal configuration revealed that LPR can minimize logistics costs by 12% through closing one of its facilities. The illustrative description demonstrates that well-established resource-rich multinational enterprises do not necessarily have the in-house capabilities and competencies to handle and analyze big data.Practical implications: The mathematical modeling for optimizing logistics networks demonstrates that outcomes are readily actionable for practitioners and can be extended to other country and industry contexts with logistics operations. The case illustrates that synergistic relationships can be created, and the opportunities exist between scholars and practitioners in the field of Logistics 4.0 and that scientific researcher is necessary for solving problems and issues that arise in practice while advancing knowledge.Originality/value: The study illustrates that several Logistics 4.0 challenges highlighted in the literature can be collectively addressed through scholar–practitioner collaborations. The authors discuss the implications of such collaborations for adopting virtual and augmented reality (AR) technologies and to develop the capabilities for maximizing their benefits in mature low-medium technology industries, such as the food logistics industry.

We propose that there exists a virtuous circular relationship between firm exports and firm innovation whereby they drive and reinforce each other. We analyse two key elements which support this relationship, namely policy initiatives and firm-level strategies for innovation and exports. We use data from Canadian innovation surveys, and the two-stage least squares technique to explore the interplay between innovation and exports. Our results confirm our hypothesis; however, the effect of policies and firm-level strategies are not uniform or predictable across sectors and time.

This article analyses the case of the wine industry in rural Nova Scotia (Canada) and addresses the following question: what sparks a new wine industry path in rural regions that lack supportive preconditions and local assets? We examine this from the perspective of different actors and their agencies when creating the conditions and structures for shaping new path development. Our findings provide a novel, empirically based understanding of individual and system-level agency and a nuanced account of new industrial path development in rural regions, which is often missing in contemporary debates.

There is a lack of empirical-based models derived from practice to explain the digital innovation process. The authors investigate how the digital innovation process unfolds in practice. The authors undertake an exploratory and phenomenological study of 21 Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. The findings show that the delineation between digital innovation process and outcome is blurred in practice, due to the process' iterative nature. Under this process, customers' role has changed from being passive receivers of innovative products to active reviewers, testers, influential decision-makers, initiators and co-creators at different review points in the innovation process. Enterprises' role has expanded from being the initiator of the innovation process to being a cogitative actor by seeking and absorbing knowledge from customer reviews into the digital innovation process. Market analysis is often the initiator of the digital innovation process, and the findings shed light on the underlying causative mechanisms of the initiation stage, which are understudied and not well understood in the existing literature. The study contributes to academic knowledge by answering scholars' call for developing third-generation practice-based innovation models, which accounts for enterprises' context-specificities and internal and external environments, and for exploring the suitability of the need–solution fit approach for the digital innovation process. Such models have only been conceptually advocated in the literature. The study also informs practitioners on the organizational and operational activities involved in managing and strategizing for the digital innovation process.

It has been 14 years since Banco Palmas was created. Joaquim Melo, its coordinator, feels that it is time to reconsider some of the fundamental premises upon which this community bank was built.DOI: 10.12660/gvcasosv4n2c16 http://dx.doi.org/10.12660/gvcasosv4n2c16