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College students are the engine of the sustainability of the future, and their awareness of environmental protection and waste classification is very important for the sustainable implementation of urban solid waste separation projects. Chongqing is one of the first 46 waste separation pilot cities in China. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the municipal waste separation behavior of college students and its influencing factors. Data from a total of 814 questionnaires among college students from sixteen universities in Chongqing were collected. Results showed that most college students think it is necessary to separate waste, and they have executed it in their daily life. Students have a high accuracy in classifying perishable waste, but they are not familiar with the classification of waste lamps, bulbs (14.00%), expired drugs (30.71%), toilet paper (11.3%), peel (18.80%) and brick kilns (27.76%). Special attention should be paid to distinguishing recyclables and other wastes. The principal factors that affect students’ willingness to classify waste are attitude, situational factors and publicity and education, which are embodied in students’ attitude towards waste separation, the surrounding environmental hygiene, the convenience of waste separation, the ease of understanding of waste separation marks and the degree of publicity and education of the school. Four measures are recommended for improving students’ willingness to separate municipal waste based on this investigation.

Low-carbon energy technology is the most fundamental way to control carbon emissions. The Sanjiangyuan region in Qinghai Province must put environmental conservation in first place during development, because of its important function of national ecological protection. The comprehensive benefits of photovoltaic technology in this area need to be evaluated. In this paper, a new multicriteria decision model (MCDM) is established, with the four dimensions of “environment-society-economy-population”, and 16 specific indicators are developed by combining the coupling coordination degree (CCD) and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. MCDM can contribute to screening out key indicators that should be of high concern. The evaluation results show that the four dimensions of “environment-society-economy-population” in the Sanjiangyuan region are highly correlated, and the PPAT is creating a coordinated development; the elements of population and environment play a decisive role in the comprehensive benefits based on five key indicators and three indicative indicators. The paper provides suggestions for the local government to further implement the PV poverty alleviation industry, under the condition that the natural environmental capacity of the region and the natural ecosystem are fully respected and undisturbed.

The present study aims to introduce a comprehensive framework that may help to better understand how to make rural consumers hold a favorable attitude and enhance their willingness to adopt e-commerce. To empirically assess the hypotheses posited in this paper, we started by conducting a qualitative interview-based study of 104 rural consumers. This analysis elucidates new problems or challenges faced by rural consumers in impoverished areas after several years of experience in e-commerce. To further understand the service quality and cultural context effects, we conducted a quantitative study in 434 rural consumers in relatively underdeveloped areas of China. Using a partial least squares of structural equation modeling (SEM) approach through smart PLS, this study empirically tested the hypotheses posited in the paper. The SEM results demonstrate a positive relationship between logistics and training service quality, subjective norms, self-efficiency sense, and rural consumers’ attitudes toward e-commerce platforms, which in turn positively contributes to their willingness to engage in word-of-mouth e-commerce promotion. In addition, it is shown empirically that corporate social responsibility positively moderates the effects of logistics and training services, subjective norms, and attitudes toward the use of e-commerce platforms. The findings from these two studies contribute to a better understanding of, and have major implications for, successful e-commerce entrepreneurial practices in areas undergoing the process of transition to an important emerging e-commerce marketplace.

This paper reports on a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed academic literature in the areas of tourism and hospitality family entrepreneurship. Specifically, it explored how and to what extent existing literature paid attention to the roles of children and how children are constructed, including whether their voices and lived experiences are reflected in the studies. The Extension for Scoping Reviews’ approach (PRISMA-ScR) was used to identify appropriate articles included in the review. Findings suggest there is limited research focused, specifically, on the role of children in tourism and hospitality family entrepreneurship. Children are often referred to, in passing, as family helpers, beneficiaries of inheritance, and as recipients of intergenerational knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. The original contribution of this paper lies in highlighting the dearth of research focused on children’s roles, as economic and social actors, in tourism and hospitality, as well as proposing a child-inclusive approach to conceptualising tourism/hospitality family entrepreneurship. This is part of a broader social justice agenda, which is critical in tourism and hospitality research, policy, and planning to privilege children’s rights, their participation, and wellbeing.

The low-carbon development of China’s iron and steel industry (ISI) is important but challenging work for the attainment of China’s carbon neutrality by 2060. However, most previous studies related to the low-carbon development of China’s ISI are fragmented from different views such as production-side mitigation, demand-side mitigation, or mitigation technologies. Additionally, there is still a lack of a comprehensive overview of the long-term pathway to the low-carbon development of China’s ISI. To respond to this gap and to contribute to better guide policymaking in China, this paper conducted a timely and comprehensive review following the technology roadmap framework covering the status quo, future vision, and key actions of the low-carbon development of the world and China’s ISI. First, this paper provides an overview of the technology roadmap of low-carbon development around the main steel production countries in the world. Second, the potential for key decarbonization actions available for China’s ISI are evaluated in detail. Third, policy and research recommendations are put forward for the future low-carbon development of China’s ISI. Through this comprehensive review, four key actions can be applied to the low-carbon development of China’s ISI: improving energy efficiency, shifting to Scrap/EAF route, promoting material efficiency strategy, and deploying radical innovation technologies.

Purpose of the paper: This paper explores size and potential of green employment for Circular Economy (CE) in SMEs in the European Union and investigates the role of green jobs and skills for the implementation of CE practices. Design/methodology/approach: The data are collected in a Eurobarometer survey, and refer to resource efficiency, green markets, and CE practices. Lack of environmental expertise is one of the factors that might be perceived as an obstacle when trying to implement resource efficiency actions. Previous research shows that, although resource efficiency practices are adopted by firms in all European countries, there are differences both within and between countries. The analysis of the determinants of green behavior by European SMEs is completed by a study of heterogeneity across firms and within countries with a multilevel latent class model, a hierarchical clustering method. Findings: A general important evidence is that having no workers dedicated to green jobs is strongly correlated to the probability of adopting resource efficiency practices, while perceiving the need of extra environmental skills has a positive effect on the intention to implement actions in the future. Other characteristics of the firms play a significant impact on resource efficiency: in general, older and bigger firms, with larger yearly turnover, are more prone to implement actions. The type of chosen action varies across activity sectors. What is original/value of paper: In the reference literature, the relationship between green jobs, environmental skills, workers employed in CE practices, and resource efficiency has received limited attention so far., 25 pages

A container terminal is a facility used to collect containers from the hinterland and ports for distribution to the end destination. Based on these essential functions, container terminals often reflect the economic conditions in a country. Many studies have recently examined the use of business impact analysis (BIA) when disruption happens at a container terminal. In sustainability and business impact research, the economy is one of the prioritized aspects of impact analysis. The impact related to the economic aspect is generally caused by disruptions resulting from natural disasters, pandemics, and human activities (terrorists, labor issues, and lockouts). Until this article was conducted, there was still little literature explaining the business impact analysis procedures with case studies of disruptions in container terminals related to operational constraints. This paper aims to provide a perspective in deepening and adapting the BIA procedure initially general into an analysis that can be applied to the container terminal business. This paper takes a case study of BIA in a container terminal caused by electrical disruption. Based on the research, six categories of disruption became a concern when the port’s electricity supply stopped, i.e., decreased productivity, economic loss, reduced employee productivity, decreased numbers of customers, a decline in company reputation, and wasted energy.

The increasing European consumer awareness of cybersecurity and sustainability issues in e-commerce is raising key methodological concerns. In a field like this, still unexplored by scholars, it is crucial to identify reliable data as well as to choose the modalities of combining primary and secondary data. As the robustness of the outcome of a study on a complex issue is highly sensitive to the quality of the data used, this paper is a communication that aims to complement and support previously published empirical research. This communication describes the methodological path to collect, integrate, and process data from different sources to interpret European consumers’ attitudes towards cybersecurity and sustainability during e-commerce. In fact, COVID-19 has driven many users to shop online, raising concerns especially about the security of digital transactions. Scientific studies analyzing these effects are still lacking in the literature and therefore this paper aims to fill this gap. The limits of a rigid dataset such as Eurostat’s are overcome by integrating the results of European citizens’ behavior during online purchases, with a survey that involved some experts appropriately selected by the research team. The combination of primary and secondary sources of data and the application of a hybrid methodological approach using MCDA (multi-criteria decision analysis) and a Likert scale allowed new information that fills some gaps in the literature to be extracted from the data. How European citizens correlate e-commerce with cybersecurity and sustainability emerged, thus providing important insights for decision-makers.

Entrepreneurship is becoming understood as a set of competencies needed for many professions and, as a result, requires to be integrated into higher education even in such seemingly distant areas as, e.g., public administration, sport, agriculture, tourism, etc. Therefore, there is a need for research-based guidance on how to introduce and develop entrepreneurial education as an enabling approach to the transition in higher education that could serve as an integral part of a paradigm shift towards an entrepreneurial university. This paper aims to support that transition and to address related challenges by the presentation of a new progression model, which provides guidelines for the development of courses at the tertiary level with an entrepreneurial university approach. The construction of the new applicable model is central to the purpose of this study and based on a systematized literature review. Additionally, the input–process–output–outcome framework, originally constructed for the evaluation of educational programs, was adapted to the incorporation of an overall framework into the new model. In the results, the paper redefines some of the relevant core terms, such as “entrepreneurial education” and its “progression model”. The research outcomes offer broad practical and theoretical applicability to a range of stakeholders—educators, students/learners, industry/business, policy makers, and researchers.

While there is no universal right to land enshrined in existing human rights treaties, access to land is intrinsically linked to the achievement of human rights. For example, the right to food, adequate housing, property and equality and non-discrimination are of special concern for smallholder farmers, pastoralists, women, and other marginalized groups. In this regard, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the context of national food security (VGGT) is considered a milestone document. They link binding human rights frameworks with universally agreed principles of responsible land governance. However, the implementation of the Guidelines is impeded by their voluntary nature and the absence of clear monitoring and accountability structures. The objective of this paper is to make a case for adopting human rights-based monitoring approaches that strengthen the implementation of the VGGT and, ultimately, responsible land governance. This policy analytical paper draws from a literature review, an analysis of secondary data gathered from National Human Rights Institutions working on land rights, as well as findings from two pilot case studies. The cases illustrate the need for a human rights-based land governance monitoring approach, relevant for policy-makers as well as land rights practitioners. Furthermore, this paper shows that there is currently no systemic approach that monitors the implementation of the VGGT from a human rights perspective. Therefore, the paper suggests that a human rights-based monitoring approach centered around established human rights monitoring and reporting mechanisms can provide a new, and urgently needed, impetus for implementing the VGGT. Linking VGGT implementation to human rights obligations by states can strengthen efforts towards responsible land governance reforms and contributes to holding governments accountable to their commitments.

Vehicle automation and communication technologies are considered promising approaches to improve operational driving behavior. The expected gradual implementation of autonomous vehicles (AVs) shortly will cause unique impacts on the traffic flow characteristics. This paper focuses on reviewing the expected impacts under a mixed traffic environment of AVs and regular vehicles (RVs) considering different AV characteristics. The paper includes a policy implication discussion for possible actual future practice and research interests. The AV implementation has positive impacts on the traffic flow, such as improved traffic capacity and stability. However, the impact depends on the factors including penetration rate of the AVs, characteristics, and operational settings of the AVs, traffic volume level, and human driving behavior. The critical penetration rate, which has a high potential to improve traffic characteristics, was higher than 40%. AV’s intelligent control of operational driving is a function of its operational settings, mainly car-following modeling. Different adjustments of these settings may improve some traffic flow parameters and may deteriorate others. The position and distribution of AVs and the type of their leading or following vehicles may play a role in maximizing their impacts.

Taiwan’s offshore wind energy policy (OWE policy) is a response to sustainable development goals. Offshore wind energy has become one of the fastest growing renewable energies on Taiwan’s coastline, with the government’s full support for the promotion and implementation of the OWE policy. With the operation of Taiwan’s first wind farm in 2021, increasing controversies are specifically concerned with the distribution of social, economic, and environmental burdens and benefits resulting from the OWE policy. More offshore wind farms are forthcoming by 2025. However, little attention has been paid to policy dilemmas for many aspects relevant to sustainable development. Therefore, this paper conducts a policy analysis to construct policy-relevant information of the OWE policy and identifies policy dilemmas in relation to concerns about sustainable development. This paper presents policy recommendations on the design and decision-making processes for facilitating the smooth promotion and implementation of Taiwan’s OWE policy and future renewable energy policies.

With the continuous promotion of China’s new rural construction, rural tourism is considered to be an important driving force to promote the sustainable development of rural economy. Sustainable farmers’ income is a major part of the sustainable development of rural economy. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the effect of rural tourism on sustainable farmers’ income. Using China’s provincial panel data over the period of 2003 to 2020 and employing the mediation effect model to perform empirical analysis, four results are obtained: (1) rural tourism positively and significantly affects sustainable farmers’ income. However, among five kinds of farmers’ income, the coefficients in magnitude are different. (2) A mediation effect of rural ecological environment on the relationship between rural tourism and sustainable farmers’ income exists. (3) A mediation effect of urbanization on the relationship between rural tourism and sustainable farmers’ income also exists. (4) On the whole, the mediation effect of rural ecological environment on the relationship between rural tourism and sustainable farmers’ income is less than that of the mediation effect of urbanization. Based on the evidence this paper provides, corresponding suggestions are raised to promote sustainable farmers’ income.

Throughout time, the global tourism industry and economy have been significantly affected by disasters and crises. At present, COVID-19 represents one of these disasters as it has been causing a serious economic downturn with huge implications in tourism. In this review paper, we have analysed more than 100 papers regarding the effect and consequences of a pandemic on tourism and related industries, the economic situation in countries and areas, and mitigation of the loss incurred due to pandemic situations. The article (1) is based on past research on tourism and economy, (2) examines the effects of a pandemic on listed sectors and mitigation processes, and (3) suggests future research and approaches to help progress the field. We have gathered and categorised the literature reviews into several parts. In addition, we have listed the name of authors, journal names, books, websites, and relevant data.

This paper provides basic materials for considering the sustainability of natural resource development in the Arctic, taking the Sakha Republic as a case study of the Russian Arctic regions. The author clarifies the contribution of the mining industry to the economic development of Sakha with special attention paid to the contribution to government budgets by numerical and statistical analysis of regional and municipal data. The paper demonstrates that the mining industry has been a driving force of the economic growth of Sakha and that the oil sector has sharply increased its presence while the diamond sector has decreased its presence. Simultaneously, it reveals that the mining industry is unevenly developed in Sakha, which has caused significant inequality in per capita Gross Municipal Product (GMP). Then, the analysis of the paper shows that Sakha’s contribution to the federal budget has increased significantly in recent years due to growing oil production and that the diamond sector is still more influential than the oil sector in the contribution to the republican and local budgets.

Recently, the approaches of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the renewable energy development have changed with the new global approach to sustainability. Today, CSR is an evolving and dominating business practice that integrates sustainable development into a company’s business model. The main focus of our paper is on the public relations of corporate social responsibility in renewable energy development. We show that a proper approach to public relations and resulting communication and dissemination of products and results should be sustained. This paper assesses the new pathways for executing public relations for CSR with relation to the renewable energy projects. The study analyses the impact of corporate social responsibility on energy companies, which are expected to make a positive contribution to the development of sustainable energy. We use both the overview of the theoretical concepts and literature as well as analyze the case of the "old" and "new" European Union Member countries represented by the Baltic States that yield many similarities but differ in their economic development to show the best practices of promoting CSR in sustainable energy development. Our results demonstrate that the implementation of corporate social responsibility can help to create more ethical and conscious sustainable companies and to build better relationships with the environmentally engaged citizens and loyal customers who are also concerned about the environment, health and well-being of their communities. Keywords: corporate social responsibility; renewable energy; public relations; sustainable development; Baltic States.

According to the ongoing discussions of researchers, practitioners, and international legislation, the prioritization of top-down decision-making processes in public participation is questionable due to their ambiguous outcomes in various contexts associated with the management of cultural heritage. The main aim of this paper is to highlight and identify co-creation as a sustainable and significant bottom-up methodology that has a wide range of applications, especially in the domain of Cultural Heritage Management (CHM). It is presented as an alternative to the already existing, less democratic, and passive public participation decision-making processes. Examining the evolution of the terms and the processes, together with the common aspects and differences between public participation and co-creation is another goal of this paper. Based on these aims and goals, after conducting case study analyses in various contexts and comprehensive theoretical reviews of the international charters and ongoing practices associated with both key terms, “public participation” and “co-creation”, this paper introduces results that have the potential to solve the existing problems in public participation models and frameworks and successfully integrate communities into the CHM decision-making process through the implementation of the co-creation methodology.

Design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) is an important part of the future of the construction industry due to the promise of speed of project delivery, quality control, worker safety, and waste minimization onsite via the purposeful design for manufacture and assembly offsite. However, the adoption of DfMA in Australia has been slow. This paper investigates the barriers prohibiting widespread uptake and how digital construction will be a catalyst for improving use on commercial-scale projects. A total of six leading experts were interviewed to elicit their opinions, and seven recent case studies of high-rise modular apartment and hotel buildings constructed by Hickory were cross-referenced as evidence of DfMA capability. The experts suggested that the reasons for slow adoption in Australia were community mindset, government regulations and incentives, planning and building codes, unionization and business politics, finance, and supply chain management. The case studies suggest that compatible building type and transportation distance are also factors. These barriers can be addressed by the clever integration of building information modelling tools with lean construction processes as part of a proposed strategy leading to smarter (more productive) and better (more sustainable) outcomes predicated on growth in digital construction practices. The paper concludes with a proposed framework for change that conceptualizes the ‘ecosystem’ needed to support widespread DfMA in the Australian context, including the paradigm shift from building to manufacturing/assembly, the displacement of workers from onsite to offsite activity, and the expansion of interdisciplinary design and construct collaboration.

Sustainability is an urgent issue in the basic endowment insurance system in China. The advancement of the national pooling and the transfer of collection responsibility from the social security department to the taxation department are the policy measures taken to ensure the sustainable development of the endowment insurance system. In this circumstance, this paper discusses the solvency of the national pooling account fund of basic endowment insurance when the enterprise contribution rate drops to 16% by constructing an improved theoretical actuarial model. The conclusion shows that under the national pooling mode of peeling off historical debt and personal account, even if the contribution rate drops to 16%, the basic endowment insurance fund in China will still have strong solvency in the long run. In addition, due to the transfer of the collection responsibility of the basic endowment insurance, the proportion of the actual number of payers to the number of in-service insured will gradually increase to 100%, and the calculation results in this paper show that the bankruptcy scope of China’s basic pension insurance funds will be postponed to the year of 2113. This study enriches the relevant literature and solves a policy concern in the reform of China’s basic endowment insurance system: Does reduction of contribution rate affect the sustainability of the basic endowment insurance system?

The Arctic is a remote region that has become increasingly globalised yet remains extremely vulnerable to many risks. The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges to the region. Using the Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and Analysis (SALSA) approach to conduct a meta-synthesis of the academic and grey literature on the impacts of the pandemic, an assessment is conducted of the types of risks that have been presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the scales, and the national response strategies for mitigating the risks. Two case studies are explored, Iceland and Greenland, island nations that exemplify the extremes of the Arctic and reliance on tourism, a sector that was nearly entirely suspended by the pandemic. An evaluative matrix is employed which combines five different scales of risk – nano, micro, meso, macro and cosmic – with a sustainability categorisation of impacts. The risks of the pandemic cut across the respective scale and categories, with the potential for macro-scale events (systemic risk) to unfold linked to economic spillover effects driven by the curtailment of tourism and various supply chain delays. Both Iceland and Greenland have exemplified risk mitigation strategies which prioritise health over wealth, very strictly in the case of the latter. Strict border controls and domestic restrictions have enabled Iceland and Greenland to have much lower case and death numbers than most nations. In addition, Iceland has led the way, globally, in terms of testing and accumulating scientific knowledge concerning the genetic sequencing of the virus. The academic contribution of the paper concerns its broadening of understanding concerning systemic risk, which extends beyond financial implications to includes sustainability dimensions. For policymakers and practitioners, the paper highlights successful risk mitigation and science-based measures that will be useful for any nation tackling a future pandemic, regardless of whether they are island states, Arctic nations or another country.

In recent decades, predicting company bankruptcies and financial troubles has become a major concern for various stakeholders. Furthermore, because financially sustainable businesses are affected by numerous highly complex factors, both internal and external, the situation is even more complex. This paper applies Altman’s Z-score models, more precisely, the paper applies the initial Z-score model (a model for manufacturing companies), the Z′-score model (for companies operating in emerging markets), and the Z-score bankruptcy probability calculation. Therefore, this paper offers the results of the application of different Z-score models and the calculation of bankruptcy probability on a sample of agricultural companies listed on the Belgrade Stock Exchange in the period 2015–2019. In addition, different Z-score models are used for the same sample so that the difference between their results and application can be determined. In addition, the validity of the data published in the financial statements of the respective companies was confirmed using the Beneish M-score model with five and eight variables. The results obtained by applying Altman’s Z-score model (initial and adapted to emerging markets) indicate that a certain number of companies had impaired financial stability during the observed period, i.e., that they were in danger of bankruptcy. In addition, based on the results obtained using the Beneish M-score model, it was identified that a number of companies showed signals that indicate possible fraudulent financial reporting. Further, it was found that less than half of the observed companies reported on environmental protection in their annual reports, and they did so by providing a modest amount of information. The originality and value of the paper lies in suggesting that policymakers in the Serbian emerging markets should pay more attention to the operations of companies from the observed sector, as well as to their financial and non-financial reporting. Future research should focus on comparisons with agricultural companies from the same sector whose securities are listed on stock exchanges in the region.

Sustainability has to penetrate more and more into higher education. It should not focus only on traditional elements. It should also enter new, but for future improvement, extremely important areas. Based on this premise, creativity and motivation, when additionally interconnected and supported by trust that is provided and achieved, decide on the progress and sustainability of universities. This connection is gaining importance especially from the point of view of building solid foundations and mechanisms that functionally preserve the potential effects of these elements in the future. For this reason and following the nature, importance, and content of sustainable academic motivation (SAM), the paper introduces two new concepts: sustainable academic creativity (SAC) and sustainable academic trust (SAT). For further original contributions, the paper hypothesizes the existence of mutual—spiral—relations of sustainable academic motivation (SAM), sustainable academic creativity (SAC), and sustainable academic trust (SAT). The empirical section tests the validity of this claim in the universities of two countries: the Slovak Republic and Poland. A survey performed on a sample of n=181 pedagogical, scientific, management, and administrative staff in higher education confirms the existence of these spirals. The results indicate the spiral effect of motivation when connected with creativity and trust and show that it is accented by the crucial principles of sustainability (responsibility, novelty, usefulness, progress, etc.). Therefore, the paper’s conclusion contains the explanations for the potential occurrence of three types of sustainably mutual systems and complexes. These are: (a) individual sustainable systems of SAM, SAC, and SAT; (b) group/sectional sustainable systems of SAM, SAC, and SAT; and (c) the global sustainable complex of SAM, SAC, and SAT in the university.

In recent years, moped-style scooter sharing is gaining increasing attention in many urban areas worldwide. Nevertheless, research contributions are still limited, unlike other shared mobility systems. This paper is aimed at providing a first insight on moped sharing demand by exploring the usage and opinions towards this new mobility alternative. To that end, the research exploits the data from a web-based survey conducted in Spain, one of the countries with the largest implementation around the world in terms of the shared e-mopeds fleet. Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to identify the segment of the urban population that is more likely adopted moped sharing, and additional statistical mean differences in specific variables concerning moped sharing were carried out. The paper also provides a better understanding of the shared mopeds market and some implications for urban mobility, such as the potential role of shared mopeds in reducing vehicle ownership and its effect on urban modal shift. Furthermore, two discrete choice models were developed to (i) analyze the key drivers determining the willingness to use moped sharing, and (ii) explore individuals’ opinions on whether owning a private vehicle will not be a need in the future. The results indicate that age, occupation, income, and environmental awareness seem to be among the main reasons behind the potential use of these services in the future. The results may be useful for both operators and transport planners when designing actions and policy efforts addressing this mobility option and urban mobility in general.

COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant and multiple challenges for SMEs. While SMEs have traditionally faced financial and non-financial crises, the pandemic has brought about additional uncertainties on how to maintain business continuity. The purpose of this paper is to examine how SMEs can mitigate against COVID-19-related crisis by examining the impacts that the pandemic has had on them through a review of 34 articles. The thematic analysis from the literature covered three overarching and inter-related challenges including (i) cost and finance-related challenges, (ii) disruption of activities, and (iii) existential difficulties. The paper’s value lies in addressing the gap between the espoused literature’s claim of the beneficial impact of new technological advancements and SMEs’ ability to survive in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional value of this paper is a framework of recommendations to help enhance SMEs’ resilience and responsiveness in the context of COVID-19. These recommendations include collaboration, openness, taking advantage of opportunities/victory, and durability.

Within the objectives of the H2020 DIAMOND project, the paper investigates women’s needs and expectations as users of the bike-sharing service managed by Syndicat Mixte Autolib et Velib Métropole in the territory of Paris Region-Petite Couronne (France). The paper presents a thematic literature review focused on gender inclusion in bike-sharing schemes. The proposed methodological approach is based on (i) Geographic Information Systems for the analysis of geolocated open datasets related to land, sociodemographic and mobility characteristics of the areas surrounding each docking stations. This was aimed at identifying a short list of suitable bike-sharing docking stations, which were further characterized through: (ii) structured proprietary data focused on travel demand, (iii) onsite observations focused on universal design indicators, (iv) survey questionnaires focused on women’s concerns, needs and expectations, and (v) social media data from Twitter focused on the opinion of the end-users. Results showed that women use the VELIB’s bike-sharing service much less than men (about 30% of the total number of users), since they are more concerned about the following issues: accessibility (e.g., availability of bikes at the docking stations, distance to the nearest station, type and quality of the cycle paths), safety and security (e.g., perception of danger and insecurity while cycling and using the current bicycle infrastructures), social constraints (e.g., perceptions and cultural stigmatization associated with cycling and bike-sharing), weather and topography (e.g., impact of weather and the urban terrain on cycling and bike-sharing). The final aim of the H2020 DIAMOND project is to support the definition of guidelines and policies for the inclusion of women’s needs in the design of future bike-sharing services.

The world is evolving, and it has transformed from the industrial age to the era of connected and intelligent products in both organizations and competition. The advances in technology in the last decade have led to the introduction of a new term called Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution and that has led to the emergence of the term Quality 4.0. Quality 4.0 is the digitalization of traditional quality approaches and the focus on the use of digital tools to improve an organization’s ability to meet customers’ requirements with high quality. The purpose of this paper is to assess the environments of higher education institutions (HEIs) against the 11 axes of LNS Research Quality 4.0 framework and provide insights about their readiness for Quality 4.0 transformation. The framework helps the organizations digitalize their traditional quality practices and transform to Quality 4.0 through exploring the traditional quality—Quality 4.0 continuum of tools and/or concepts related to each axis so they can assess their transformation efforts accordingly. This paper uses these continuums to identify the quality implementation efforts conducted by HEIs through analyzing the continuums’ related practices adopted within their environments and find out what should be done to get to the full transformation to Quality 4.0 within the higher education field. The study shows the HEIs potential of adopting the Quality 4.0 tools and techniques of varies axes of the framework while revealing a limited adoption of most of them in the current times. This is due to several challenges the most impacting of which is having fragmented processes together with fragmented data systems and sources. The study is concluded with a proposed roadmap to assist HEIs to get the best out their efforts in the Quality 4.0 transformation process.

For an institution to be classified as one of the best or worst, it largely depends on the people behind it. An institution’s human resource is, therefore, seen as its most important asset. This paper investigates the role of employee commitment in linking some components of organizational culture to employee intention to stay. Components of organizational culture investigated in this paper include work environment, reward system, work environment, and leadership. Data for this study was obtained through a survey of staff of Kumasi Technical University in Ghana with the help of a questionnaire modified and simplified from pre-validated instruments proposed by early researchers. A total of 216 responses were sought from the permanent staff of the university (teaching, non-teaching). Analysis of the study was completed using LISREL software. Parameter estimates of the best-fitting model reveal that commitment mediates the relationship between three components of organizational culture (i.e., reward system, work environment, and leadership) and employee intention to stay. An important conclusion of this study is that a committed employee still requires a well-structured reward system, conducive work environment, and quality leadership from management of institutions to inform their decision to remain in the service of that organization or otherwise.

The current literature on social responsibility in tourism is criticized for its bias in focusing on business ethics and responsibility while neglecting the tourist perspective. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the underlying factors of tourist social responsibility (TSR) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the Saudi tourism market. Based on the common scale development procedures, including a thorough review of the literature, identifying TSR domains and items, purifying the measurement scale, and demonstrating its reliability, a five-dimensional 24-item scale is developed. The findings reveal that TSR can be measured based on five distinct factors: (1) “Responsibility for legal and social aspects”, (2) “Responsibility for COVID-19 health issues”, (3) “Responsibility for altruism and solidarity”, (4) “Responsibility for supporting socially responsible businesses”, and (5) “Responsibility for environmental impacts”. Moreover, the results confirm the significant relationship between TSR attitude and tourists’ intention to behave socially. These findings enable policymakers to understand the TSR notion and factors influencing tourists to be more socially responsible during and after the COVID-19 pandemic to realize a more resilient and sustainable tourism sector.

Chongli, an internationally renowned ski mecca, is famous for hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. As a booster of local economic development, ski tourism facilitates Chongli in moving away from poverty, and provides a new model for the economic development of other impoverished areas in China. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of ski tourism in Chongli on local economic development in detail, to clarify the relationship between ski tourism and its related industries, and propose improvement measures, using the methods of the literature review, Delphi and investigation. This paper presents a detailed analysis of indicators which reflect ski tourism and its economic development, and calculates the degree of influence of skiing tourism on local economic development. The results show that, except for transportation, storage and postal services, the local economy of Chongli is positively affected by the income of ski tourism and the number of ski tourists. The influence coefficient of ski tourism has exceeded the average level of social influence. Based on the place of ski tourism in Chongli, some strategies, such as extending the industrial chain and improving product quality to strengthen the economic impact of ski tourism, are proposed.

The capability approach is increasingly presented as a promising approach to address questions of justice in local climate adaptation. In an attempt to integrate environmental protections into the capability approach, Breena Holland developed the meta-capability Sustainable Ecological Capacity to establish substantive ecological limits. This article, however, empirically demonstrates that defining ecosystem thresholds in co-evolving systems is subject to conflict and continuous negotiation. Taking the Haringvliet dam in the Dutch South-West Delta as an illustrative case, this paper shows how people uphold different views about the Haringvliet’s most desirable ecosystem state. Future shifts in the socio-ecological system, such as decreased fresh water availability and sea-level rise, are expected to uproot today’s compromise about chloride levels in the Haringvliet. This suggests that anticipatory water management should not only address climate impacts, but also prepare for re-negotiations of established ecological thresholds. The associated politics of climate adaptation deals with questions about which functions to protect, at what costs and for whom. Hence, it is critical to integrate procedural justice and attention to political inequalities in capabilities-based adaptation justice frameworks.

In this paper, we study the green credit financing equilibrium in a green supply chain (GSC) with government subsidy and supply uncertainty. The GSC system is composed of one manufacturer, two retailers, one bank, and the government. The manufacturer is subject to both supply uncertainty and limited capital. The manufacturer invests in the R&D of green products and borrows loans from the bank. The government subsidizes banks to encourage banks to provide loans to manufacturers with lower interest rates, which is termed “green credit financing”. The two retailers decide their order quantities with horizontal competition or horizontal cooperation. We first developed a Stackelberg model to investigate the green credit financing equilibriums (i.e., the interest rate of the bank, the manufacturer’s product green degree and wholesale price, and the retailers’ order quantity) under horizontal competition and horizontal cooperation, respectively. Subsequently, we analyzed how the subsidy interest rate, supply uncertainty, and supply correlation affect financing decisions regarding equilibrium green credit. We found that a high subsidy interest rate leads to a low interest rate of bank and the manufacturer can set a high level of green product and high wholesale price, while the retailers can set a high order quantity. Finally, we compared the green credit financing equilibriums under horizontal competition with those under horizontal cooperation using numerical and analytical methods. We found that, in general, the optimal decisions and profits of bank and SC members, consumer surplus, and social welfare under horizontal competition are higher than those under horizontal cooperation. The findings in this research could provide valuable insights for the management of capital-constrained GSCs with government subsidies and supply uncertainty in a competing market.

Payments for ecosystem/environmental services (PES) have emerged internationally as a new environmental conservation concept over the past two decades. By contrast, Japan has a centuries-long history of using various forms of PES. These schemes can be understood as solutions to interregional problems with forest ecosystem services that have been agreed upon and accepted by the society. This paper aims to consider the significance of PES with respect to cooperative relationships by examining historically formed solutions in Japan. The Japanese experience shows that rather than simply being a demonstration of monetary value, PES in upstream forests were a means of communication across regions, expressing interregional solidarity as a core concept. As connections among communities became less visible, the government artificially created solidarity through payments. The payments gradually shifted from having a socioeconomic meaning to having a psychological meaning. The government sought to substantiate the sense of solidarity by making individual users more aware of the meaning of payments. We can find the significance of this type of PES in the fact that payments can be a way to approach the issue of building solidarity by focusing on the function of payments as messengers rather than them merely having an economic value.

Today, soft skills (transversal competencies) are increasingly appreciated by employers as essential skills for professional success. Likewise, these competencies are necessary to be able to operate as individuals in today’s society. In view of this situation, in the future post-COVID-19 educational model it is necessary to design training programs that promote both hard skills (specific competencies) and soft skills. This fact brings to the table the need for university teachers to have an optimal level of soft skills so that their students can acquire them. Given this situation, this paper aims to analyze the degree of acquisition of this type of competencies in American university teachers from different regions: (i) North America, (ii) Central America, and (iii) Southern Cone. To achieve this objective, it has been necessary to develop a questionnaire on the self-concept of soft skills, based on several variables: (i) gender, (ii) age range, (iii) geographic area, (iv) area of knowledge, (v) years of teaching experience, and (vi) university tenure (public-private). The questionnaire developed was based on the soft skills included in the Bochum Inventory of Personality and Competences (BIP). Results, obtained by descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the means and deviations of the data collected from a sample of 473 participants, reflect that, in general, the American university teachers have a high self-concept about their degree of soft skills development. Although results show significant differences depending on each variable considered in this study, it can be suggested that the American university teachers are prepared to face a mixed university educational model, which promotes equally both hard skills and soft skills.

Similar to the number of agricultural cooperatives in the European Union, the number of German wine cooperatives is decreasing. The main purpose of the wine cooperatives is to support the member businesses with the highest possible payouts for their grapes. Wine cooperatives can fulfil this purpose by implementing a differentiation strategy. On the one hand, brands can be used for differentiation. On the other hand, cooperatives can use particular values in the communication with customers that correspond to the target group’s values. Based on the definition of the International Co-operative Alliance, cooperatives are a sustainable form of enterprise. Therefore, the question arises whether it is possible to use sustainability as a value that corresponds to cooperatives as a form of enterprise as well as to a strong societal value that gains importance. Which role does social capital play in the context of social sustainability? The aim of this paper is to shed light on the understanding of brands, to show which cooperative-specific characteristics might pose a challenge to cooperatives in terms of brand management and to examine the understanding of the sustainability construct as well as sustainable management practices applied by wine cooperatives to date. Two exploratory, qualitative studies have been conducted.

This paper adopts the GDYN model to estimate the dynamic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global manufacturing industry and the value chain. Our simulation finds that (1) In the short run, the low-tech manufacturing industries will suffer greater shocks, with a decline of output growth in 2021 by 6.0%. The growth rate of the high-tech manufacturing industry showed an increasing trend of 3.7% in 2021. (2) In the post-epidemic period, the total manufacturing output will return to the baseline level, from which the growth rate of low-tech manufacturing will rebound, demonstrating a V-shaped development trajectory. (3) From the perspective of Global Value Chain (GVC), the participation in GVCs of manufacturers in countries along the Belt and Road, the European Union and the United States will weaken, while China’s manufacturing industry has witnessed an obvious improvement in export competitiveness. The import added value of China has decreased, which shows that its ability to meet domestic demand has been improving. This indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic is providing a crucial opportunity for China to upgrade its manufacturing value chain, which contributes to the accelerated construction of a new dual-cycle development pattern.

To service high-value international markets, many agrifood value chains in developing countries are required to transform to meet the strict quality and safety standards. This transformation process has become further complicated by increased sustainability expectations. The key players in these countries, typically smallholders, are struggling to meet this new sustainability value focus. Economic drivers pervade in this context, whilst the lack of integration often decouples producers from the end market. To address these challenges, this paper develops a framework to enable sustainable agrifood value chain transformation in developing countries. A narrative review was used to analyse the major enablers and barriers in sustainable agrifood value chain transformation specifically in developing countries. The framework novelty lies in the synthesis and prioritisation of transformations actions, by integrating three central dimensions: sustainability, governance, and value addition. The incorporation of sustainability drivers into value chain governance provides a holistic approach that balances profit maximization with social and environmental impacts, thus enabling smallholders in developing countries to access higher value markets. The framework can assist these value chain actors in identifying their transformation trajectory and guide policymakers, along with the public sector, in prioritising their intervention to overcome barriers.

Over the last couple of decades, the livestock production systems of the agri-food sector increase meat production in order to meet the demand and adapt to satisfy the food preferences of the continuously increasingly world population. This fact, along with the promotion of sustainable production, has brought to light the topic of bioeconomy. The rapid increase in publications on the research area of bioeconomy has become the motivation for this study in order to analyze its relation with livestock production. This study provides a thorough review of the scientific literature on the bioeconomy of livestock production. The bibliometric network analysis (i.e., software VOSviewer) were performed over the time frame of 2004–2021. The results identified 624 documents bioeconomy of livestock production by 160 research organizations from 83 countries. This paper visualizes the strongest links about livestock production bioeconomy, main research topics, most influential countries, authors, and organizations, as well as high-frequency keywords. Therefore, this study contributes to building global bioeconomy policies and encouraging the livestock sector to implement bioeconomy practices. The research gap identified in many countries should be the trigger for future research in this subject.

This paper presents a dynamic efficiency study of the solid waste management in the municipalities of the Apulia region (Southern Italy). The study employs the non-parametric Global Malmquist Index to measure the change in productivity of the municipal solid waste service from 2010 to 2017. Three different DEA-based models are implemented to measure productivity. The first model computes the service productivity solely from the economic perspective, while the second and third models compute the service productivity from both the economic and environmental perspectives. Adopting two distinct perspectives provides a more comprehensive insight into the performance of the waste management service considering the productivity and the eco-productivity of service provision. The results from the productivity analysis show that, between 2010 and 2017, the municipal solid waste sector was still facing a transitional period characterized by low cost-efficiency and productivity growth measurements. Vice versa, the efficiency and productivity indicators improve when the analysis is performed accounting for the environmental impact. Indeed, both the eco-efficiency and eco-productivity measures increase from 2010 to 2017. Findings demonstrate the critical importance to include environmental indicators in the efficiency and productivity analysis.

The paper addresses the sustainability of the European Union’s food consumption through a water footprint assessment of selected vulnerable agricultural imports from a two-pronged perspective: (1) the degree of the EU’s dependence on global green water resources embedded in the apparent consumption of selected water-intensive agricultural products and (2) the degree of commitment of countries of origin to sustainability policies. The study argues that the vulnerability of the EU’s agricultural imports to water risks can be estimated based on the amount of green water consumed in producing crops in the countries of origin. The results show that the EU’s consumption of agricultural goods is highly dependent on virtual water imports for all six selected vulnerable agricultural products, from the lowest footprint for bananas (5 mil. km3) to the largest for coffee (69 mil. km3). The analysis also points to a greater concern for quality issues in the countries of origin (56.53%) relative to management (26.52%) and availability issues (16.85%), but the latter are to arise in importance for sustainable production in the years to come. Our conclusions contribute to building up a responsible commitment towards (1) development of environmental policies and the design of practical measures by providing quantitative information that makes problems more clearly defined and tangible, and (2) assessing the outcome of policies and practical measures by understanding their effects on the sustainability of food consumption.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming one of the most critical challenges that firms must address to survive in the competitive market. This study investigates the impact of customers’ CSR perceptions on their purchase intentions as mediated by brand equity, brand credibility, and brand reputation in order to identify the benefits of CSR integration for business development. The study employs a quantitative approach to collect data from customers who purchase cosmetics through an online survey. PLS-SEM software is used to analyze the data from the 380 responses. The results indicate that customers’ perceptions of the CSR of a firm affect their intention to purchase its brands in the future. Brand equity, brand credibility, and brand reputation mediate the impact of CSR perceptions on purchase intentions. Since previous studies have not employed a comprehensive approach to verifying the influence that CSR exerts through brand credibility, brand reputation, and brand equity, the results provide an essential reference for academics who conduct empirical research on the subject. This paper is also particularly beneficial for marketers and managers who wish to develop marketing strategies and brand management techniques that boost business efficiency.

This paper proposes an integrated approach towards rapid decision-making in the agricultural sector aimed at improvement of its resilience. Methodologically, we seek to devise a framework that is able to take the uncertainty regarding policy preferences into account. Empirically, we focus on the effects of COVID-19 on agriculture. First, we propose a multi-criteria decision-making framework following the Pugh matrix approach for group decision-making. The Monte Carlo simulation is used to check the effects of the perturbations in the criteria weights. Then, we identify the factors behind agricultural resilience and organize them into the three groups (food security, agricultural viability, decent jobs). The expert survey is carried out to elicit the ratings in regard to the expected effects of the policy measures with respect to dimensions of agricultural resilience. The case of Lithuania is considered in the empirical analysis. The existing and newly proposed agricultural policy measures are taken into account. The measures related to alleviation of the financial burden (e.g., credit payment deferral) appear to be the most effective in accordance with the expert ratings.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the spatial transformation in the Hungarian and Slovenian pig sectors at the level of local administrative units (LAU). Concentration and inequality measures were applied in the empirical analyses, along with Markov transition probability matrices, to examine the stability and/or mobility over time and the presence of clustering effects. Both countries experienced a rapid decline in pig population. This profound structural change has led to a smaller number of more concentrated pig farms and increased territorial concentration. The degree of farm and territorial concentration and inequality in Hungary has been much higher than in Slovenia, and the concentration gap between the countries has increased. Between 2000 and 2010, the degree of concentration was much higher in Hungary than in Slovenia, average herd size per holding increased by 68 percent in Hungary, and only seven percent in Slovenia. In Hungary, clustering effects were particularly significant, with the pig sector moving towards large-scale concentration. The former effect was also confirmed in the Slovenian pig sector, but significantly weakened during the period under investigation. The exploitation and policy management of spatial externalities justifies these agricultural, economic, and agri-environmental practices.

This paper aims to investigate Google’s role in European media sustainability. In order to understand the implication of this digital intermediary in the news industry, we have analysed all of the projects funded through Google’s DNI Fund from 2016 to 2020. After revising each report, we have classified the data available, including the full amount of money awarded, chronologically marking every new country added to the fund and all the media outlets involved in each project. We argue that Google’s role is truly beneficial for the medium and long-term sustainability of European media because it offers both financial support and a successful path for media companies to truly embrace its digital technology potential. However, it also has some added weight in terms of transparency (a key element in sustainability practice and standards) and press independence. Besides the existing correlations between the awarded countries and the changes that have affected media legislation in Europe, our findings show an alarming scarcity of information regarding both the continuity and the conditions of each funded project. Our proposed agenda for future research consists of an in-depth investigation of each beneficiary, which will entail several interviews as well as different case studies of all the participants in Europe.

Contemporary cities generally lack the balance between the development of the spatial structure and the communication possibilities of the inhabitants. The high motorisation rate in Poland, as well as in other European countries, and the preferred choice of individual means of transportation have both contributed to a significant increase in congestion over the last 10 years. The aim of this research was to try to establish to what extent a consciously conducted parking policy can help control the mobility of inhabitants of selected Polish cities. The starting point for the analysis was the availability of parking spaces in residential areas, introduced as an imposed indicator in the operative planning documents. As part of the research, the authors of this paper analyzed the legal provisions of the operative Local Spatial Development Plans (MPZP) concerning the parking function for housing estates five of the biggest cities in Poland. The results were confronted with data on selected European cities. Nearly 550 planning documents from the years 2000–2019 and parking standards operating in individual countries were cataloged and analyzed. The research results show that for 20 years Polish cities have mainly been using the possibility of determining the minimum rate of parking spaces. Regulations attempting to limit the number of cars are incidental. However, this is a necessary direction of legislative changes.

This paper aims to analyze the associated environment and climate benefits of electrification by comparing the air pollutant and CO2 emissions from the fuel cycle of battery electric commercial vehicles (BECVs) and internal combustion engine commercial vehicles (ICECVs) through a case study in Guangzhou Province. Five types of vehicles (i.e., electric buses, coaches, light-duty trucks, dump trucks, and waste haulers) used in the public service sector were selected for analysis, taking into account six development scenarios based on the prevalent ownership trends of electric vehicles and the energy system optimization process. The results reveal that an increase in commercial vehicle electrification in the public service sector will cause reductions of 19.3 × 103 tons, 0.5 × 103 tons, 9.5 × 103 tons, and 8.5 × 106 tons for NOx, PM2.5, VOCs, and CO2, respectively, from the base 2030 case (CS_II, the electrification rates of buses, coaches, light-duty trucks, dump trucks, and waste haulers will reach 100%, 26.5%, 15.4%, 24.0%, and 33.1%, and their power needs will be met by 24% coal, 18.4% gas, and 13.2% renewable power), but with a slight increase in SO2 emissions. With the further penetration of BECVs into the market, the emission reduction benefits for NOx, PM2.5, VOCs, and CO2 could be even more remarkable. Moreover, the benefit obtained from the optimization of the share of renewable energy is more noticeable for CO2 reduction than for air pollutant reduction. Prioritizing the electrification of light-duty trucks after completing bus electrification could be a potential solution for achieving ozone pollution control and lowering carbon emissions in Guangdong. In addition, these results can provide scientific support for the formulation or adjustment of advanced pollution mitigation and peaking carbon policies in Guangdong, as well as other regions of China.

This paper explores the effects of on-journey (i.e., waiting and travel time reliability, driver quality), before-journey (i.e., service coverage, application quality, fare, etc.), and multi-tasking advantages when using ride-sourcing, the perceived usefulness of ride-sourcing and, in turn, the frequency of usage. Assuming a structural form without any reciprocal effects, the modified Structural Equation Model is used. This study collected data from 497 ride-sourcing users in Bandung city in 2018. As expected, ride-sourcing users who appreciate the usefulness of ride-sourcing services correlate with a higher frequency of use. This study found that situational variables or variables related to travel and built environment conditions (e.g., on-journey advantages, built environment, and travel characteristics) play a role in keeping travellers using the services. This study confirms that multi-tasking is not a reason for ride-sourcing users to use the services more often. Moreover, those who previously used motorcycles and car-based ride-sourcing (CBRS) are more loyal travellers than car, public transport users, and motorcycle-based-ride-sourcing (MBRS) users, respectively.

Prefabricated construction quality can not only influence the service life and function of buildings, but is also closely associated with the users’ safety. Therefore, effective quality management is significant for the development of this type of construction method in this industry. The current research regarding quality management in the field of construction mainly focuses on on-site construction, while lacking extensive attention to prefabricated construction. Based on the existing literature and expert opinions from the construction firms, the government, and academia, this paper summarizes 23 critical factors that affect the quality management of prefabricated construction, adopts the interpretation structure model-matrix cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification (ISM-MICMAC) to analyze the hierarchical relationship between these factors, and further investigates the influence degree of the relationship by using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL). The result shows that the government guidance is the most important influencing factor, and other factors, including integration in the supply chain, laws and regulations, codes and standards for prefabricated components, technology, and professional personnel, etc., also play a critical role in the quality management of prefabricated construction. These factors can affect the quality of raw materials for the production, manufacturing and transport equipment of prefabricated components through assembly and design schemes, ultimately resulting in an influence on the quality of prefabricated construction. The study aims to identify a mutual relationship between the critical factors affecting prefabricated construction quality, which can help managers to have a better understanding of the quality of prefabricated construction, and take effective measures to improve the status quo as well as promote the sustainable development of prefabricated construction.

The current model of linear economy is causing accelerated consumption and an extensive use of natural resources that accentuates the effects of the current global environmental crisis. In this context, green products are becoming a key element in the transition to a sustainable consumption and production model. The main goal of this paper is to identify the factors predicting youth consumer satisfaction towards green products and to analyze the public perception of green brand products in Romania. Considering these goals, a questionnaire was developed and applied to 268 participants. The results show that a positive attitude towards green products and the level of information held by the consumers about them are significant predictors of green product satisfaction. Moreover, the importance of products being green significantly predicts the purchase of such products. Further implications and research directions are discussed towards the end.

The motorcycle market has experienced an upward trend. That growth brings along mobility, accidents, and environment-related issues; nevertheless, there is a scarcity of literature on evaluating the impact of motorcycle market policies. Consequently, it has been challenging for researchers and policymakers to develop evidence-based strategies to promote or control the growth of this market. This paper aims to review and analyze the scientific literature about motorcycle market policies, using tech-mining techniques and a cluster analysis of keywords, to provide insights about the most relevant world trends in this research area. For this purpose, the bibliographic information of publications in the field was retrieved from the Scopus database. As a result, three thematic clusters (sustainability, mobility, and electric motorcycles) were identified and explained. According to our findings, greenhouse gas emissions, sustainability, environmental impact, and developing countries are the hot research topics. The research leader countries on said topics are the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. This study can, therefore, be used as a reference to define a future research agenda in the area. Consequently, it permits researchers and policymakers to identify trending topics and gaps in knowledge, as a baseline to include motorcycles in sustainable and affordable transport systems design.

Positive Energy Districts (PED) are areas within cities that generate more renewable energy than they consume, contributing to cities’ energy system transformation toward carbon neutrality. Since PED is a novel concept, the implementation is very challenging. Within the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action, which offers an open space for collaboration among scientists across Europe (and beyond), this paper asks what the needs for supporting the implementation of PEDs are. To answer this, it draws on Delphi process (expert reviews) as the main method alongside the literature review and also uses surveys as supplementary methods to identify the main challenges for developing PEDs. Initial findings reveal seven interacting topics that later were ranked as highest to the lowest as the following: governance, incentive, social, process, market, technology and context. These are interrelated and interdependent, implying that none can be considered in isolation of the others and cannot be left out in order to ensure the successful development of PEDs. The resources that are needed to address these challenges are a common need for systematic understanding of the processes behind them, as well as cross-disciplinary models and protocols to manage the complexity of developing PEDs. The results can be the basis for devising the conceptual framework on the development of new PED guides and tools.