Sustainable Technology and Entrepreneurship最新文献

The study investigated the suitability of Limestone Dust (LSD) and Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) as stabilizer for the improvement of the geotechnical properties of Calabar subgrade soil. Limestone Dust (LSD) and Sugarcane Bagasse Ash (SCBA) wastes were employed as stand-alone stabilizers and in combination, to improve the geotechnical properties of Calabar subgrade soil. The soil was classified as clay with low plasticity using the USC-system and, A-6 under the AASHTO classification. The un-stabilized soil had a maximum dry density of 1.74 kg/m³ at an optimum moisture content of 24.5%, with a 48-hours soaked California Bearing Ratio (CBR) value of 6.92%, and, an unconfined compressive strength of 103.66 KN/m³. Stabilizers were added at 0% – 50% by weight of soil. Results showed a reduction in the swelling potential of the soil, improvements in compaction characteristics by a range of 4.3–9,8%, an increase in CBR by 50% -78.5%, unconfined compressive strength by 23.8%-38.1%, as well as improvements in shear strength, and secant modulus. It was observed that LSD as a stand-alone stabilizer and in combination with SCBA, showed better improvement compared to SCBA as a stand-alone stabilizer. It was concluded that a combination of limestone dust and sugarcane bagasse ash can be used for soil stabilization, contributing to the useful conversion of wastes and supporting the global advocacy for sustainable development in term of economic resource utilization

Zimbabwe is blessed with tourist attractions that draw visitors from all over the world. However, there are no quantitative models available for tourism stakeholders to utilize in decision-making and planning. The country is experiencing foreign currency shortages, which may be alleviated if the tourism industry, which has the power to generate foreign currency, adopted quantitative forecasting techniques that can provide reliable estimates. For planning reasons, resource mobilization, and allocation, accurate tourist projections are critical to the government and other tourism stakeholders. The goal of this research is to model international tourist arrivals in Zimbabwe and develop a quantitative statistical model that can be used to forecast future international tourist visitors. The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) provided monthly foreign tourist arrivals data for the period January 2000 to December 2018. After the data revealed non-stationarity and seasonality, a time series technique in the form of the Box-Jenkins approach is applied to the data. The autocorrelation function (ACF), partial autocorrelation function (PACF), and root mean square error (RMSE) revealed that a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model suited well to the data. The model predicted a gradual and seasonal increase in international tourist arrivals. The results of this model could be used by those in charge of tourism marketing to develop effective and efficient marketing strategies so that the country can receive a significant increase in international tourists, which will bring in much-needed foreign currency. It is important for tourism stakeholders and service providers to guarantee the availability of enough transport and accommodation facilities, especially during peak seasons.

Internet has become a new way of communication leading the transformation of the use of conventional communication though digital platforms, bringing a new paradigm in human interaction (Saputra et al., 2020) but having Internet access does not mean that citizens are using Internet effectively and successfully, at least for participating in public decision-making. The disruption of information and technology development without creating a media and information literacy as part of the digital education, create a phenomenon that is worrying for the sustainability of society. In critical areas for society such as entrepreneurship, this phenomenon is critical and highly determining. This paper analyses the Media and Information literacy applied to citizen participation theoretical framework through a quantitative Bibliometric Overview of the most important studies in the field. The main objective is to present a general overview of the selected research areas, determining which of both areas is more explored from the point of view of how these literacies are used to reach citizen participation in public decisions, with a clear link to business decisions linked to entrepreneurship.

In this study, the thermal, energy, economic, and environmental perspectives of a smart Cannabis plantation are investigated. A commercial R-32 air conditioning at a cooling capacity of 12,300 BTU/h is implemented for the 5-lighting sets. One 300 W_e-violet-light-emitting diode (LED) and two 100 W_e-daylight-LEDs are designed for one lighting set at a photosynthetic photon flux density of 100 µmol/m²⋅s. A smart watering system is designed to automatically control a watering period of 62 h, an operating time of 40 min, and a watering rate of 41.5 L/time. The smart Cannabis plantation can produce a fresh inflorescence of 250 g and a dried inflorescence of 46.3 g_dy, respectively. A power consumption of 126.9 kWh/plant is mainly driven the environmental impacts of a climate change of 6.22E+02 kg CO₂ eq/kg_dy. The economic result of a levelized cost is approximately 262.85 USD/kg_dy.

This paper examines the convergence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in OECD countries. Specifically, we are interested in examining to what extent the per capita emissions of different countries tend to draw closer over time. This issue is important since this question is associated with fairness regarding the distribution of per capita emissions. In this context, we examine the stochastic convergence of per capita carbon dioxide emissions for 30 OECD countries from 1960 to 2018. We adopt a newly developed test by Payne et al. (2022), which allows for two structural breaks and cross-correlations in a factor structure. Our results accounting for breaks and factors jointly show that per capita CO₂ emissions do not converge, implying that the differences in CO₂ emissions exist and are persistent.

Changing customer demand, globalization, pandemics, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war have introduced a lot of complexities, uncertainties, risks, and challenges in various global businesses, especially in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of emerging markets. This sector plays a significant role in fostering economic growth, generating employment, and reducing poverty. In such a situation, proper identification of supply chain risk (SCR) factors is pivotal for this sector to achieve a resilient and sustainable SC, specifically since a sustainable and resilient supply chain can withstand the impacts of various uncertain situations. However, no studies have yet explored these risk factors from an emerging economy perspective. This study fills this research gap by identifying the SCR factors and analyzing their interactions using an integrated approach, including Pareto analysis, fuzzy theory, total interpretive structural modeling (TISM), and a Matriced' Impacts Cruoses Multiplication Applique a un Classement (MICMAC) analysis. The findings from the fuzzy TISM imply that the “lack of enthusiasm in top management regarding sustainable practices” is the most significant factor. Besides that, lack of skilled and educated workers, lack of knowledge about modern technologies, labor strikes, and political instabilities are also some crucial risks that may hinder the sustainable development and smooth operation of SMEs. Fuzzy MICMAC analysis confirms that all identified risk factors are interrelated. The study insights can guide managers to successfully identify the risk factors for achieving long-term sustainability and operational resilience and can enhance policymakers’ ability to formulate proactive and efficient mitigation strategies.

Through this paper, we illustrate the concept of Farm Entrepreneurship in the light of value addition through qualitative data analysis using ATLAS.ti®. For this purpose we have analyzed (n = 120) Scopus articles published in the broad time frame (2000–2022). From the understanding of value addition in agri-entrepreneurship as a multi-layered approach, we analyzed the textual data focusing on four key dimensions of value addition, challenges, support measures and entrepreneurial identity of the farmers. This paper highlights that further research in these dimensions shall benefit potential agri-entrepreneurs and policymakers alike.

Given the context that technology is becoming ever more important, research about technology multinational enterprises (MNEs) is also increasing, but from technology in the international business context, especially concerning entry timing, there is scant literature. Therefore, from the perspective of game theory this research examines how different aspects of host countries and players’ resources affect the decision on entry timing into foreign countries. The data comprise 979 technology-based Taiwanese firms operating in service and manufacturing industries, mainly collected from the Taiwan Economic Journal and World Bank databases. The empirical findings show that firm resources and experiences, host country uncertainties, and investment payoff all influence the entry timing into foreign countries. This research contributes to the current knowledge about technology-based service and manufacturing firms on what factors they consider when choosing the time to invest into foreign countries, especially for technology MNEs from emerging markets.

Composite indicators play a very useful role in supporting international policy entrepreneurship, helping to inform decision-making processes and to address conflicts between countries. In this paper we present a Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis (Fuzzy-DEA) model to construct composite indicators based on time series under the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) approach in order to evaluate water security in 10 European water security hotspots. First, we identified nine indicators within the PSR framework. Second, we aggregated the indicators in each PSR set using a Fuzzy-DEA model. Finally, we compared the PSR results under pessimistic, optimistic and neutral scenarios. Results show that, overall, Bulgaria achieved the best pressure, state and response performance. In terms of responses, Spain registered the best performance after Bulgaria, despite the fact that it suffers from the highest pressures of all the analyzed countries. Estonia achieved the best state performance in all three scenarios, but worse results in responses than Bulgaria and Spain. Cyprus and Belgium registered the highest variability for pressures, Spain for state and Portugal for responses.

The model was able to pinpoint the problems that political strategies and urgent actions should seek to tackle, while providing information regarding the variability of the indicators over time.

Leveraging theoretical insights from Mike W. Peng's institution-based view, this paper examines how mandatory corporate social responsibility investment regulations impact on firm performance in emerging economies, such as India. We thus first discuss the overview of India's statutory provisions and disclosure guidelines related to corporate social responsibility, which became effective from the financial year 2014–2015. Then, because in the emerging economy, formal institutional environments such as the rule of law greatly influence a firm's strategic decisions and performance, we propose a contingency framework of the impact of mandatory corporate social responsibility investment on a firm's overall performance, i.e., firm-specific advantages, financial outcome, and competitive advantage. In this way, we also explore how corporate social responsibility implementing intermediary agencies’ mediating role with third-party contractual terms will moderate the relationship between the focal firm's social investment agendas and performance. In so doing, the study contributes to and advances understanding of the institution-based perspective on the relationship between the focal firm's mandatory social investment and performance in emerging economies and brings the institution-based view into the mainstream of corporate social responsibility literature. Taken together, the novelty of our work is to study the association between sustainable social agendas and firm-specific and competitive advantages, as well as the mediating role of registered social intermediary agencies.