True value co-creation initiatives on Business Model Innovation for Sustainability (BMIfS) are essential for universities and Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for addressing the challenges created by the wicked problem of sustainability. Currently, however, such inter-organizational collaboration initiatives are understudied. This article, which examines two inter-organizational collaboration initiatives involving two universities and two SMEs that were engaged in true value co-creation in BMIfS, makes a two-fold contribution. The article unravels the opportunities and risks associated with two true value co-creation BMIfS initiatives (between university students and SME managers) and proposes a set of key principles underpinning the success of inter-organizational collaboration for true value co-creation in BMIfS. © 2026 The Author(s)

Agrivoltaics, the dual use of land for energy and food production, promises to improve people’s lives, but its adoption is hindered by various challenges. Drones appear well suited to supporting the enhanced need for monitoring and maintenance associated with agrivoltaic systems, due to their affordability, efficiency, and operational flexibility. A challenge is understanding what has already been done and what remains to be done in regard to the opportunities and obstacles that exist for drones in agrivoltaics, also in various local sectors, and with respect to the trend toward artificial intelligence (AI) and growing autonomy in technology. Thus, the current paper presents the results of an exploratory, big-picture review, identifying important themes and potentially interesting gaps that could be leveraged in the next years, including perspectives on research, industry, AI, and local initiatives. Finally, opportunities and roles are discussed, with the aim of stimulating interest and ideation in the area. Overall, the literature suggests that activity in the area is multinational, high, and increasing, yet still in an exploratory phase. Future work will include transferring various technical capabilities, to conduct integrated studies that leverage latest innovations in real world environments. © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

There are today more challenges than ever facing organisations. To tackle these wicked problems which are characterised with high level of complexity, there is also a need for the higher education system to revise its curriculum for engineering education integrating theory, practice and reflexivity.

There has been a debate at universities for many years, about what technical and personal abilities students from universities need – when industry brings up concerns, on a regular basis, about the students’ lack of communication and teamwork skills, as well as their inability to have a broader perspective of subjects that concern their profession, such as social, environmental and economic issues, and how to apply their knowledge in practice.

The purpose of this chapter is to understand how competences for professional practice could be developed at university, when increasing students’ engagement and motivation through applied projects using the pedagogical ideas of design-based learning. © Yufeng Zhang 2024

In contemporary society, digital competence has become increasingly important for people in everyday life as well as in working life. Hence, it is vital that today’s higher education contain an appropriate degree of digitization both in terms of content and approaches, something which is particularly important in higher education, where there is a pronounced expectation of what one should be able to handle in terms of digitization when one enters the workplace. Drawing on insights from previous research, this study seeks to explore the integration of digital elements in higher education pedagogy via students’ perceptions of digital integration in their education and evaluate their assessments of teachers’ digital competence. Special attention is given to collaborative learning practices facilitated by digital technologies. The research questions posed to guide the aim are: How do university students perceive the integration of digital elements within their education, and what are their assessments of their teachers’ digital competence in utilizing these technologies? The results show that teachers’ digital competence varies across disciplines which might influence their utilization of digital pedagogical methods and tools. Moreover, both engineering and non-engineering students reported varying levels of usage of digital collaborative learning methods which might reflect discipline-specific preferences and practices in collaborative learning. Also, despite high confidence levels in using digital tools, students exhibited limited awareness of existing digital functionalities. These results seek to inform pedagogical practices, institutional policies, and professional development initiatives to cultivate a digitally proficient educator workforce and have relevance globally for all involved in teaching and learning in higher education.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the need to rethink the traditional approach to education in the university engineering curriculum. The paper examines two engineering projects led by university students in Sweden: the design and construction of a solar-powered car taking part in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge and the creation of a business model for the ownership phase of an electric car together with Polestar.  

Design/method – An extensive literature review was conducted. Students were interviewed and surveyed on their impressions of their learning experience in the two projects and student logbooks reviewed. Problem-based learning, the CDIO approach, and the ABCD-procedure are used. Results are compared to theories from the literature.

Results – Project-based learning in real-world settings can increase engineering students’ technical knowledge and improve their technical skills as they solve complex problems or propose solutions to such problems. Such projects also strengthen students’ commitment, self-confidence, and self-esteem as well as promote co-operation and creativity. These are soft skills largely absent from traditional engineering education.  

Originality/value – This research offers a timely perspective on an issue of current interest in engineering education: student-led learning vs. teacher-led learning. The paper also provides two illustrative student-led projects that focus on sustainability and mobility. 

Practical implications – Innovative, student-led learning in the applied engineering curriculum can foster students’ soft skills in ways that teacher-led, lecture-style learning does not.

© 2022, Joakim Tell and Maya Hoveskog.

Companies in the agri-food sector are under increasing pressure to adopt sustainable business models that consider not only economic but also both social and environmental aspects. This paper examines how Swedish food producers use sustainable business models to innovate their businesses. The empirical data comes from a telephone survey with 204 companies and from case studies of 4 companies. A conceptual framework regarding sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) and a eight sustainable business model archetypes are used to map and analyse the sustainability innovation practices and the sustainable business models. The results show a surprisingly sustainable business focus taken by many companies, which is not only on optimization, but also on organizational transformation and on systems building. The results show the companies vary as far as which archetypes they match. The most common archetype matches are ‘Maximise material and energy efficiency’ and ‘Adopt a stewardship role’. Only 10% measure success solely in financial terms, while 80% measure success in financial terms as well as social and environmental terms. Another conclusion is that companies in the agri-food sector have unique characteristics and the value intention of the entrepreneurs is an important building block in sustainable business model innovation. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group