This study investigates the impact of supply chain agility on customer value and customer trust while investigating the role of price sensitivity as a mediating variable in the healthcare industry. A quantitative methodological approach was used. This was cross-sectional descriptive research based on a survey method, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The sample consisted of 384 respondents who had already used healthcare facilities. The sampling technique was convenience sampling and collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The study indicated that supply chain agility positively impacts customer value and customer trust, while there is no moderation role of price sensitivity in the healthcare industry. Previous scholars revealed that there is a strongly available association between supply chain agility and customer value. But no attempt was undertaken to investigate the impact of supply chain agility on customer trust while moderating the role of price sensitivity.

The development of the personal innovative competences in workers is of capital importance for the competitiveness of organizations, where the ability of the employees must respond in an innovative way to diverse situations that arise in specific contexts. Considering this, the question arises: How do innovative employees’ competences affect the sustainable development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)? Therefore, the objective of this work is to present a multi-criteria method based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP), to relate innovative personal competences and the sustainable development of MSMEs. An instrument was applied to groups of experts from 31 Ecuadorian fruit-exporting MSMEs, to develop a multi-criteria decisional network that allowed identifying the innovative personal abilities that have the greatest impact on the sustainable development of these organizations. The results demonstrate the relevance of the elements of innovative personal competencies, with a cumulative participation of 39.15%, Sustainable Export Development with 32.18% and Improvements with 28.66%. It also presents three types of analysis: i) Global to establish the weight of each variable; ii) Influences, to establish solid cause-effect relationships between the variables and iii) Integrated. The most relevant innovative personal competences for sustainable development and improvements for exporting SMEs are teamwork, critical thinking, and creativity within the international context.

With the rising global consumer demand for green and healthy food, the tea industry is facing unprecedented competitive pressure. Therefore, how to build tea enterprises with sustainable competitiveness has become a key issue facing the industry. This paper firstly reviews the concept of traceability systems and their evolution and, based on the theory of enterprise competitive advantage, explores the influence mechanism of traceability as a strategic resource on the long-term competitiveness of tea enterprises; secondly, it analyzes the multi-dimensional role of traceability on enterprise competitiveness from five aspects, namely, quality and safety control and guarantee, brand image shaping and trust construction, market dynamics response and consumer feedback, risk response and product recall, as well as technological innovation and efficiency enhancement; finally, combined with the above analysis, this paper constructs a theoretical framework for the competitiveness of tea enterprises, integrates the impact of traceability in different dimensions, and proposes a multi-level competitiveness enhancement model. Through this framework, tea enterprises can more comprehensively understand and grasp the close relationship between traceability and the long-term competitive advantage of enterprises and then make strategic adjustments according to their own actual situation so as to realize sustainable competitiveness enhancement in the future market competition.

This study aimed to analyze the effect of training programs on entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and the Optimism of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The research was conducted at Babakan Madang MSMEs, Bogor Regency, assisted by Human Resources Education and Training Center (P2SDM) under the Community Service Institution (LPPM) at IPB University (IPB). The sample size was set at 100 SMEs with a purposive sampling method. Data was obtained by distributing questionnaires and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study were as follows: 1) Reactions in the training program did not affect the ESE of MSME actors, 2) Learning in the training program affected the ESE of MSME actors, 3) Behavior in the training program did not affect the ESE of MSME actors, 4) Results in the training program does not affect the ESE of MSME actors, and 5) ESE affects the Optimism of MSME actors. The effect of ESE on the Optimism of MSME actors is greater than the effect of learning in training programs on the Optimism of MSME owners.

Foodborne diseases are a global health problem. Every year, millions of people die worldwide from these diseases. It has been determined that the high prevalence of these diseases is related to unfavorable socioeconomic conditions of the population. In this study, the relationship between foodborne diseases and socioeconomic conditions of the population was determined using principal component analysis as a multivariate statistical analysis technique. In this study, the socioeconomic variables of each Ecuador province and the prevalence of foodborne diseases (hepatitis A, salmonella, shigellosis and typhoid fever) during the years 2018 and 2019 were considered. The results show the relationship between foodborne diseases and the socioeconomic conditions of the population, as well as identifying regions more vulnerable to present high levels of prevalence of foodborne diseases, thus facilitating the implementation of social investment programs to reduce the prevalence of these diseases.