The expanding blue economy, marked by its focus on sustainable use of ocean resources, offers enormous opportunity for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). However, for SMEs to properly integrate and succeed in this economy, they must first have a thorough awareness of the sector’s challenges and prospects. This research used a scoping review and a qualitative study to identify the challenges and opportunities facing SMEs operating in the blue economy. The study discovered recurring themes and gaps in the existing literature by conducting an extensive examination of scholarly publications. The key challenges identified include complicated regulatory frameworks, restricted access to funding, infrastructure restrictions, talent deficiencies, government support, and market outreach. In-depth interviews with Malaysian SME leaders, industry stakeholders, and policymakers were conducted to decipher these findings. The results of interviews confirmed the relevance of the regulatory framework, infrastructure restrictions, talent deficit, and market access challenges in the Malaysian context. In particular, the study revealed emerging opportunities for Malaysian blue SMEs in sectors such as renewable energy, sustainable fisheries, marine biotechnology, and ecotourism. The study emphasizes the importance of an encouraging policy framework, knowledge-sharing platforms, and capacity building activities. It finishes by underlining the ability of SMEs to drive a sustainable and thriving blue economy, if challenges are systematically handled, and opportunities are appropriately capitalized.

The emission trading scheme (ETS) is arguably one of the most effective approaches for encouraging industries to transition to a low-carbon economy and, as a result, assisting nations in meeting their goals under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to mitigate the challenge of climate change. ETS is gaining popularity as more governments throughout the world contemplate implementing it, particularly in developing countries. Much of the existing research has concentrated on debates concerning ETS operations in developed nations. This study is to give a discourse of the success criteria for ETS implementation that have been identified in the literature and then cross-referenced in the context of Malaysia. For this, the research used an integrated approach of scoping review of existing literature and in-depth interviews with Malaysian stakeholders. Using Narassimhan et al. (2018)’s ETS assessment framework, the scoping review identified five major attributes that lead to successful ETS implementation in a global context that are environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency, market management, stakeholder engagement, and revenue management. In-depth interviews with several groups of discovered stakeholder engagement as an essential attribute that would play a critical role in advancing ETS implementation in Malaysia. The study concludes by proposing a complete strategy based on empirical information and first-hand narratives, providing useful insights for politicians, industry players, and environmental activists. The recommendation is especially important as Malaysia strives to improve its commitment to sustainable and responsible development in light of the challenges posed by climate change.

Considering the role of tourism in promoting sustainable practices in destinations, this study aims to map the scientific literature on footprint calculators in the last three years (2020–2023) with a focus on the tourism context. The method adopted is a scoping review with a qualitative and exploratory approach, using the Scopus database. The originality of this research lies in the study of publications related to footprint calculators with a focus on the tourism sector. Based on the analysis carried out, the main results show that the study of footprint calculators applied to the tourism sector has had little prominence in the indexed research in the Scopus database during the specific period considered for this study. Consequently, the conclusion of the study highlights the marginality of the tourism sector in the discussion of footprint calculators in the last 3 years of scientific publications.

Homelessness is a global social issue that has affected various nations around the world, including South Africa. The instances of homelessness began during the apartheid era in South Africa and have since risen to alarming levels in provinces such as Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, as reported in the 2022 census. Despite the lack of comprehensive research on homelessness in South Africa, this study conducted a scoping review to evaluate research completed on homelessness from independence to 2020 in the country. The scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and involved a systematic search of the Development Southern Africa and Urban Forum databases. A total of 72 research articles were identified, with 10 meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review, which were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The study identified several key themes, including homelessness as a reflection of patriarchal systems, gender-based conflicts leading to homelessness, proactive and reactive interventions by non-state actors for homeless individuals, and the quantitative focus of research on homelessness in South Africa from independence to the present day. The study presents the applicability of these findings to tackle homelessness in Papua New Guinea and recommends the use of mixed methods approaches to research homelessness in South Africa to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the various dimensions of homelessness in the country.