Adolescent childbearing is a crucial problem challenging policymakers in sub-Saharan African countries. The objective of this study is to show how teenage pregnancy and motherhood is related to social determinants like place of residence, education level and wealth quintiles, and consequently to suggest pragmatic actions susceptible to control the burden of teenage pregnancy. Disaggregated data were analyzed using data covering the decade 2012–2022 and provided by Demographic Health Surveys. In each country considered, the index of dissimilarity (ID) was computed to illustrate the variation of teenage pregnancy and motherhood according to the level of education, the rural-urban residence and the income quintiles. Recent statistics were also used for a comparison between countries. This study showed that childbearing affected 22.7% of African adolescents (15–19 years). However, the rate of adolescent childbearing varied from 40.4% in Nigeria to 5.2% in Ruanda. Moreover, huge differences were found in each country. Teenage girls living in rural areas, illiterate or with low level of education and suffering from poverty are more likely to be early married and to be exposed to pregnancy. The rate of adolescent childbearing is higher in Sub-Saharan African countries compared with countries from Latin America and World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean. Most of the 31 countries considered in this study suffer from high rate of adolescent childbearing and large iniquities by place of residence and/or education level and/or wealth quintiles. Consequently, policymakers should adopt urgent and efficient strategies to reduce (and ideally to end) early marriage and teenage pregnancy by developing a policy that targets disadvantaged girls living in remote areas, having low or no decent income and suffering from illiteracy or low level of education.

To achieve the energy transition and carbon neutrality targets, governments have implemented multiple policies to incentivize electricity suppliers to invest in renewable energy. Considering different government policies, we construct a renewable energy supply chain consisting of electricity suppliers and electricity retailers. We then explore the impact of four policies on electricity suppliers’ renewable energy investments, environmental impacts, and social welfare. We validated the results based on data from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China. The results show that government subsidy policies are more effective in promoting electricity suppliers to invest in renewable energy as consumer preferences increase, while no-government policies are the least effective. We also show that electricity suppliers are most profitable under the government subsidy policy and least profitable under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. Besides, our results indicate that social welfare is the worst under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. With the increase in carbon intensity and renewable energy quota, social welfare is the highest under the subsidy policy. However, the social welfare under the renewable energy portfolio standard is optimal when the renewable energy quota is low.

Introduction: The growing global focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards necessitates that companies optimize their corporate governance to balance economic, social, and ecological responsibilities. This study examines how the synergistic effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental Responsibility (ER) can promote sustainable corporate development. Objective: The objective of this study is to analyze the critical elements of corporate governance structure optimization and to explore how companies can enhance their governance to achieve sustainable development through strengthened social and environmental management practices. Methods: The study uses case analysis and literature review to assess high-performing enterprises in CSR and ER integration, examining their governance, policy, and environmental strategies to uncover the factors behind their success in economic, social, and environmental spheres. Results: The research shows that optimizing governance structures markedly improves operational effectiveness. Companies need to create strong internal controls for equitable and transparent decisions, embedding CSR and ER into their strategies. CSR fulfillment builds public trust and environmental support, whereas ER improves brand reputation and competitiveness, driving sustainable and mutually advantageous development. Conclusion: The key to sustainable development in ESG practice lies in optimizing corporate governance and strengthening the synergy between social and environmental responsibilities. It is imperative for companies to build a governance structure that complies with ESG standards and to incorporate social and environmental considerations into their corporate strategies to effectively manage the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental performance.

In recent years, information technology and social media has developed very rapidly and has had an impact on government services to the public. Social media technology is used hugely by several developing countries to provide services, information and promote information disclosure in its government to improve its performance. This study aims to build role of social media technology concept as a public service delivery facilitator to the public. Furthermore, it discusses the potential impact of social media use on government culture. To achieve the goal, this study combines two theories, namely government public value theory and green smart city with four variables, namely quality of public services, user orientation, openness, and greenness. These variables are used as the foundation for data collection through in-depth interviews and group discussion forums. In-depth interviews are utilized as data search and direct observation. The informants consist of several government elements, including heads of regional apparatus organizations, heads of public service malls and Palembang city government employees. The study revealed that the Palembang government has several social media-based public services that have quality of services, user-orientation, openness, and environmental friendliness.

Universities continue to provide solutions to private and public sectors of the economy by providing a skilled economy, increasing employment potentials, and improving employee performance. This study offered a theoretical model on the contributing factors to graduate employability among student entrepreneurs in Malaysian Higher Education and the mediating mechanism of perceived support and usefulness in social entrepreneurship to solve the graduate unemployment problem. We attained data using purposive and face-to-face sampling methods with acceptable data from 296 undergraduates and analyzed with the SEM software from respondents of various cultural backgrounds. Findings suggest a positive significant relationship between motivations, skills in social entrepreneurship, knowledge, and social elements on graduate employability. Similarly, perceived support explained skills, knowledge and social elements’ relationship to graduate employability except for perceived usefulness. The outcome further discovered the perceived support role for graduates of social entrepreneurship in fostering job crafting and future employability with various implications and recommendations. The results require the application of other research approaches to provide concrete implementations and social and economic solutions. Insightful results and proposals helpful to policymakers like higher education curricula developers and implementers, scholars, government and private universities of this study can help curb graduate unemployment through social entrepreneurship.

This study analyzes in a comparative way the psychological meanings that social science and basic science researchers assign to the term “research”. Using the Natural Semantic Networks technique with 127 participants from a Colombian public university, we sought to unravel the distinctive epistemological and methodological positions between these disciplines. The findings reveal that, although both groups closely associate research with knowledge, they differ in the lexical network and associated terms, reflecting their different epistemological approaches. Basic science researchers emphasize terms such as “innovation” and “experimentation,” while social science researchers lean toward “solving” and “learning.” Despite the variability in the associated words, “knowledge” remains the common core, suggesting a shared basis in the perception of research. These results show the importance of considering disciplinary differences in research training and knowledge generation. The study concludes that research contributes significantly to both the advancement of individual disciplines and social welfare, urging future research to explore these dynamics in broader contexts to enrich interdisciplinary understanding and foster cooperation in knowledge generation.