Editorial: Innovation and technological applications for more inclusive economies and societies

The digital transition brings many opportunities for governments, companies and societies around the world. But also societal, environmental and economic challenges.The Horizon Europe strategic plan 2025–2027 tackles some global challenges like the digital transition and an aging population. In particular this plan has three strategic orientations for investment: “green transition, digital transition and a more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe” (European Commission, 2025a).As the European Commission (2025b) states “R & I is a key engine through which to foster EU productivity growth, which in turn is important for boosting competitiveness and socioeconomic development, and tackling poverty and social exclusion” (p. 87).It is important to explore how technological innovations can improve competitiveness of companies and nations but also contribute to the building of more inclusive economies and societies (Almunawar et al, 2023a, 2023b). From social inclusion (fighting against discrimination and poverty) to job creation and education, new and emerging digital technologies have potential to be game changers in the twin transition. Furthermore, digital inclusion is another crucial issue to tackle in the digital age: from web accessibility and connectivity to digital skills to benefit from all opportunities provided by the digital transformation.The field of intellectual capital can provide innovative solutions to seize the opportunities of digital transition while contributing to the development of fairer societies (Gong and Ribiere, 2025; Ordóñez de Pablos, 2004).Issue 9 of Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management presents a collection of seven papers that provide knowledge and insights on key topics for navigating in the digital landscape today. The issue discusses themes like competitiveness, ecological innovation, green economy, innovation ecosystems, learning management systems, smart technology and technology.The first paper titled “Generating customer wealth by mobile based agricultural extension services: BoP farmers in the emerging markets” (by Verma) observes that “the use of mobile-based agricultural extension services (AES) applications has become increasingly popular among the bottom of the pyramid segment in recent years. However, users’ adoption is determined not only by their perception of technology but also by its perceived wealth. In other words, even though a technology may be perceived as advanced, if it does not fit users’ wealth perception benefits, they may not adopt it. Using an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) perspective, this study aims to explore potential predictors of behavioral intention toward AES such as effort expectancy, performance expectancy, customer wealth (CW), social influence and perceived characteristics of innovation. Potential causal connections between key UTAUT factors and users’ intentions to use the services are hypothesized. An integrated theoretical model was developed and tested against the empirical data collected from 336 AES users. A measurement model and structural equation model were tested using AMOS 22.0 and confirmed all 14 hypothesized relationships. The results were consistent with the recent literature on mobile technology acceptance, confirming an unmoderated relationship between CW and the adoption of mobile-based AES. This research proposes a mobile AES user adoption model by integrating CW with the unified theory of acceptance and usage of technology (UTAUT).”The second paper titled “Designing nickel smelter industry investment competitiveness policy in Indonesia through system dynamics model” (by Hanafi) presents the results of a study that aims to “assess the nickel smelter industry’s investment competitiveness in Indonesia and identify ways to improve its competitive advantage for the nation. This research uses a sequential mixed-methods approach, expanding on a first qualitative phase with a second quantitative phase. Interviews are used in the qualitative phase to identify the underlying causes of issues and potential solutions to increase the competitiveness of the nickel smelter industry, while a system dynamics (SD) model is used to conduct the quantitative phase. This study uses the idea of a country’s competitive advantage from Porter’s diamond model (PDM). The model was tested and validated using SD simulation resulting in a new policy scenario, which was evaluated in metallurgy expert conferences and high policymaker discussion forums. The results reveal the complexity of the nickel smelter industry in Indonesia and conclude that the integrated export duty beneficence policy is the most effective way to boost competitiveness. This policy gives a significant improvement both in the number of smelters and state revenue compared to the current policy. The industry’s investment competitiveness is enhanced by the six factors of the diamond model, with the first three factors being integrated strategy, limited export of excess production and export duty beneficence, while the remaining factors are metal price fluctuation, domestic demand and mineral supply which are related to mining conditions uncertainty”.The third paper titled “Green thinking: Impact of smart technologies on supply chain management” (by Verma) explores “how supply chain management (SCM) might be less affected by COVID-19 by using innovative technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), eco-friendly corporate practices and other digital advancements. It strongly emphasizes the use of technology to improve supply networks’ and Omani firms’ performance. Using a mixed-methods research strategy, this study integrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It involves a survey and interviews with supply chain and IT managers from various industries in Oman to gather data and evaluate the impact of technology on SCM. This study finds that IoT capabilities, smart technologies (STs) and green practices significantly mitigate COVID-19 impacts on SCM. The performance of the supply chain and the business are both improved by these technologies’ positive effects on integrating various supply chain elements, such as suppliers, internal processes and customer relations”.The fourth paper titled “Create and strengthening innovation ecosystem: Roles of policy-affiliated transition intermediaries in latecomers” (by Attarpour, Elyasi, Mohammadi and Rezaalizadeh) presents the results of a study that analyses “the functions of policy-affiliated intermediaries and their roles in driving innovation in latecomers. Latecomers have recently recognized the significance of an innovation ecosystem in transitioning to an innovation-driven economy. However, these countries encounter various market and system failures, making policy-affiliated transition intermediaries crucial in orchestrating innovation ecosystems. To achieve this, this study used a case study of a policy-affiliated intermediary and conducted interviews with 19 managers. The results from the content analysis revealed that innovation intermediaries in latecomers perform more comprehensive duties than those mentioned in the literature in the transition to innovation-based development. Results show that the most important of policy-affiliated innovation intermediaries’ roles is orientation to the government and private sector market, attracting the participation of the private sector through the implementation of tax credits and the development of the corporate innovation ecosystem, developing science and technology parks, developing laboratory research infrastructure, supporting prominent and capable professors to create innovation networks, developing innovation zones around research institutions and leading universities and developing international scientific cooperation. These are new and important functions that innovation intermediaries should play in the transition process”.The fifth paper titled “Design and validation of the usability framework of learning management systems” (by Abdoli, Nili Ahmadabadi, Fardanesh and Asgari) conducts a study that “aims to identify the most important factors affecting the usability of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and present these factors in the form of a comprehensive and practical framework and validate the framework.In this research, a mixed research method and sequential exploratory research design were used. In the qualitative section, the qualitative meta-synthesis method was utilized to extract usability factors from the research literature and formulate the framework of factors, and in the quantitative section, the survey method was employed to validate the framework. In the qualitative section, the research field included the research available in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and the data collection tool included electronic and printed documents on the usability factors of LMSs. To validate the findings, in addition to citing research literature and theoretical foundations, the audit trail, consensual validity and expert peer review methods were used. Also, to analyze the data, the thematic analysis method and thematic network via MAXQDA 2020 software were used. In the quantitative section, the statistical population was students of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Allameh Tabatabai University in Iran, and the sample included undergraduate students of this faculty with a volume of 200 people”.The sixth paper titled “Can regulated technological FOMO be used to enhance technology adoption at the bottom of the pyramid?” (by Joshi) discusses the results of a study that focuses “on exploring the role of fear of missing out (FOMO) in the technology adoption context, whereby the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) segment was studied to explore the factors responsible for the development of behavioral intentions (BI) to use unified payments interface (UPI), a disruptive technological phenomenon in the mobile payment systems field. A mixed-method research approach involving both qualitative and quantitative methods was used. Initially, qualitative data obtained through interviews with UPI’s BOP users were subjected to thematic analysis, leading to the identification of eight factors and the construction of a conceptual model. Subsequently, 354 responses were gathered, and empirical analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling in AMOS 23.0. Eight factors, including personal and social benefits, perceived security risk, socio-cultural influences, governmental influence, usability, psychological inertia, perceived value (PV) and FOMO, were discovered. The quantitative examination confirmed the validity of the conceptual model in the BOP context, explaining 51% of the variance in BI. FOMO and PV emerged as robust indicators of UPI adoption, with PV significantly regulating the impact of FOMO”.Finally, the last paper of the issue titled “The study on the impact of environmental regulation on ecological innovation: considering the joint action of internal and external factors” (by Zhao and Liu) states that “the impact of environmental regulations on ecological innovation is a contested issue in current research. However, there is no uniform consensus on existing conclusions. It is commonly accepted among scholars that external environment and organizational characteristics are key factors affecting ecological innovation. However, these are often analyzed in isolation, without consideration of the interaction between leadership and external environment. So this study aims to explore the impact of environmental regulation on ecological innovation by combining internal and external factors. Based on institutional theory and leadership theory, this paper takes environmental regulation as the independent variable, environmental leadership as the intermediary variable and intellectual property protection level as the regulating variable to explore the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on ecological innovation. The findings indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and ecological innovation. In addition, there is a positive correlation between environmental leadership and intellectual property protection level with ecological innovation. Furthermore, environmental leadership partially mediates the relationship between environmental regulation and ecological innovation. However, the level of intellectual property protection does not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between environmental leadership and ecological innovation”.