ABSTRACT
Increasing production capacity may necessitate the facility to cater for higher hazardous area category (e.g., H-Occupancy) design features, such as specialized building construction and potential blast zones. [...]an assessment should cover: * Quantification of flammable material use for production steps, including buffer preparation and LNP storage * Equipment and facility cleaning strategies that contribute to the facility flammable materials inventory * Impact of HVAC design to avoid hazardous atmospheres (e.g., full fresh air), use of local exhaust ventilation (LEV) or fume hoods * Solvent distribution methods (e.g., closed solvent delivery and waste removal systems) * Location of solvent bulk storage outside of the processing area/ facility, and piping in what is necessary plus removing spent solvent in a timely manner (e.g., piped transfer to a waste tank for removal by a specialist contractor). At present, the process cannot be fully single-use, so thought needs to be put into the cleaning and sterilization processes, plus the analytical support infrastructure needed for reusable product-contact surfaces. [...]it is recommended that for each mRNA project, consideration is given to the following aspects to determine the link between the equipment available and the facility design: * Need for custom/proprietary equipment * Independent production rooms with "through-wall" buffer transfer through iris ports in from logistics corridor (Buffer Prep/Hold) * Room electrical classification needs versus process step. * Equipment selection versus electrical and fire code requirements * Benefits and limitations of implementing single-use technologies, given that the process will be hybrid (with stainless steel). [...]the limited capacity for outsourcing of supporting functions, such as facility environmental monitoring or product sterility testing, should be considered during concept design.
ABSTRACT
The development of financial technology has promoted the innovation and digital transformation of commercial banks. Through digital transformation, commercial banks can improve bank efficiency and operational capabilities. Through empirical analysis, this study explored the relationship between digital bank transformation and commercial bank operating capabilities and how COVID-19, bank categories, and enterprise life cycles affect the relationship between digital bank transformation and commercial bank operating capabilities. This study selected data from China's commercial banks from 2011 to 2021 and used the regression method of fixed effects to conduct an empirical analysis. The research results show that the digital transformation of banks has improved the operational capabilities of commercial banks. Further analysis showed that the emergence of COVID-19 has negatively affected their relationship. At the same time, compared with rural commercial banks and commercial banks in the recession and phase-out periods, non-rural commercial banks and commercial banks in the growth and maturity stages play a more vital moderating role in the impact of the digital transformation of banks on the financial performance of commercial banks. The main research object of this study is Chinese commercial banks, and this study examines the results of banks' digital transformation and enriches the research on digital transformation. At the same time, this study is helpful to investors who like investment banks and has good practical significance.
ABSTRACT
While technology factors are the main driver of the booming real estate APP platforms with important implications for user behavior pattern during and post-pandemic contexts, there is a lack of adequate research. In response, this study explores the user behavior pattern of real estate APP platforms to promote user mental health by taking the real estate APP platforms users as the participants based on theory of technology readiness and acceptance model. Data collected from offline surveys are analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results reveal the technology readiness index positively affects individuals' perceived usefulness and satisfaction, ultimately positively affects individuals' continuance intention with real estate APP platforms;satisfaction with real estate APP platforms mediated the relationship between technology readiness index, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and individuals' continuance intention with real estate APP platforms. However, the group comparison finds no significant difference in user behavior patterns by gender. The contribution of this study is to reveal the influence mechanisms of digital technology on users' behavioral patterns toward real estate APP platforms, which can help guide the sustainable development of real estate APP platforms and promote user mental health and wellbeing in the post-COVID era.
ABSTRACT
Education plays a critical role in promoting preventive behaviours against the spread of pandemics. In Japan, handwashing education in primary schools was positively correlated with preventive behaviours against COVID-19 transmission for adults in 2020, during the early stages of COVID-19. The following year, the Tokyo Olympics were held in Japan, and a state of emergency was declared several times. Public perceptions of and risks associated with the pandemic changed drastically with the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines. We re-examined whether the effect of handwashing education on preventive behaviours persisted by covering a longer period of the COVID-19 pandemic than previous studies. A total of 26 surveys were conducted nearly once a month for 30 months from March 2020 (the early stage of COVID-19) to September 2022 in Japan. By corresponding with the same individuals across surveys, we comprehensively gathered data on preventive behaviours during this period. In addition, we asked about the handwashing education they had received in their primary school. We used the data to investigate how and to what degree school education is associated with pandemic-mitigating preventive behaviours. We found that handwashing education in primary school is positively associated with behaviours such as handwashing and mask wearing as a COVID-19 preventive measure but not related to staying at home. We observed a statistically significant difference in handwashing between adults who received childhood handwashing education and those who did not. This difference persisted throughout the study period. In comparison, the difference in mask wearing between the two groups was smaller but still statistically significant. Furthermore, there was no difference in staying at home between them. Childhood hygiene education has resulted in individuals engaging in handwashing and mask wearing to cope with COVID-19. Individuals can form sustainable development-related habits through childhood education.
ABSTRACT
Since Covid-19 is an enduring disease that pushed the world to reshape business strategies to overcome the unprecedented situations in all sectors such as the sports industry. Although substantial research has been carried out to inspect this phenomenon globally. Nevertheless, how entrepreneurial initiatives can contribute to tackling the situation is still lacking. This study attempts to uncover the relationships between entrepreneur psychological capital (EPC) and business sustainable performance (BSF). Second, this study strives to reveal the relationships between employee wellbeing (EWb) and BSP. In addition, education is treated as a moderating factor to unfold the relationships among factors, i.e., EPC, EWb, and BSF. Data were collected from eight hundred (n = 800) participants who were associated with the Chinese sports industry from March to July 2022. The results demonstrated interesting and fruitful findings based on SEM statistical model. First, a positive connection was found between EPC and BSF. Second, it found a positive link between EWb and BSF. Finally, the study highlighted a significant moderating impact of education among implicit relationships, i.e., EPC, EWb, and BSF. This study provides insights into entrepreneurship, entrepreneur psychological capital, and employee wellbeing on how it can optimize the performance of a business during and post-Covid-19 era. Besides, certain shortcomings along with future potential lines are reported for future researchers. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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The aim of this study is to explore the preference of corporations for sponsorship motives and the impact of sponsorship motives on sponsoring intention in the post-epidemic era of COVID-19. Taking a Taiwanese company as a case study, a total of 60 expert groups comprising 300 respondents (the management of the sampled companies) were surveyed in the post-epidemic period, with data being collected from 60 sampled companies in February-May 2022. Data were analyzed by using two different functional approaches, including fuzzy preference relations (FPR) for the first survey (study 1) and structural equation model (SEM) for the second survey (study 2). Results reveal that corporate image is the most preferential motive of sponsorship and also demonstrates the most significant and positive influence on sponsoring intention. Meanwhile, the measured factor of performing corporate social responsibility (CSR) appears the most correlated with the construct of corporate image. Based on the results, the study can fully fill the gap between sponsorship motives and sponsoring intention in sponsorship knowledge. Additionally, the conjunction of FPR and SEM can also create methodological synergies, namely, enhancing complementary effects and achieving better holistic analysis. Findings also suggest that special attention should be paid to CSR, which plays a pivotal role in affecting the decision of corporations for sponsorship motives and sponsoring intention and, in a post-epidemic era, continuing to develop CSR actions to enhance corporate image can be the best strategy while facing internal and external challenges of implementing sustainable development (SD).
ABSTRACT
The goal of this book is to improve the ability of enterprises to implement the green growth model and value chain reconstruction. China's environmental development strategies, such as carbon peak emission and carbon neutrality, have created new challenges and requirements for enterprises to "go green.” In addition, anti-globalization and the complex dynamic uncertainty caused by COVID-19 have changed the operational environment that enterprises face. The application of new technologies, including the new generation of information technologies and the whole process management technology, provides solutions for the implementation of enterprises' green growth model and value chain reconstruction. Based on China's enterprise management cases, this book reveals the connotative features of enterprises' green growth model and their evolutionary regularities, the overall framework and decision optimization of value chain reconstruction under the green growth model, and the approach to implementing the green growth model and value chain reconstruction. The theoretical framework of the green growth model and value chain reconstruction established in this book has enriched and developed the research results in this field. Cases of enterprises implementing the green growth model can provide references for the green transformation of enterprises and help enterprises appreciate the synergy between sustainability and growth. This book can also serve as a research reference for scholars engaged in the field of sustainable operations, as well as decision-makers and managers of relevant government departments. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
ABSTRACT
Zimbabwe has diligently started pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations in 2015. While making progress and being aware of it, will be a shot in the arm, with success breeding more success, the journey may seem daunting at times. However, the journey – sustainable development towards the targets set – is what matters more than the final destination, as philosophers and savants often remind us. This article, while dwelling on sustainable development in this southern-African landlocked country in general, presents a beautiful example of a collaborative venture, undertaken by dedicated and determined international partners, and predicated on SDG#4 (Quality Education) and SDG#5 (Gender Equality), and harnessing the complementarities and synergies with the other SDGs, which set root during the COVID-pandemic, in Mwenezi in southern Zimbabwe. The pandemic while being a scourge, tended to have some silver linings to it, as it gave birth to many collaborations and made human beings realise that one's own happiness is dependent to a very great extent on that of others. This venture emphasizes girls' education and skills-development, which open the doors, synergistically, to sustained growth, development and progress. Education, indisputably, is a key component of the freedom necessary to live a life of value. To quote Nelson Mandela, "It is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”. © 2023, Scientific Publishing House of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Vietnam is a country that produces a variety of agricultural products, including vegetables, tubers, fruits, and processed products. Along with the increase in population, the demand for consumers also increases, and the by-products of farming are increasing and being discharged into the environment. This is one of the critical research issues that need to be solved to ensure sustainability in agriculture. This review summarized recent studies on familiar sources of by-products in Vietnam, such as banana peels, citrus peels, dragon fruit skins, rice bran, and rice husks, and their potential in the food industry. Some solutions are also proposed to solve and turn this low-value raw material into a high-value product and serve a variety of products and consumers in the food industry. Especially after the COVID19 pandemic, the by-products contain valuable and reusable biological resources. These compounds could be future applications to support improving the consumer's immune system and various health benefits. Processed and utilized by-products from food production could not only help increase incomes for farmers, especially in developing countries like Vietnam but also could aid in ensuring food security and sustainability in agricultural production.
ABSTRACT
The current global economic environment demonstrates a high dynamic of global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a comprehensive recession, the consequences of which can be severe. This has raised interest in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of three aspects: whether it is possible to achieve the SDGs after the 2020 recession, the main ways out of the recession based on achieving the SDGs, and the prospects for adapting the SDGs and ESG management to the current global realities. The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China have substantial backlogs and significant interest in achieving the SDGs. The present study examines the methodological aspects of including indicators in the SDGs in terms of traditional and new indicators. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Following the elaboration of a Tunnel Safety Documentation for the T4 tunnel, several deviations from the European and national Standards were identified. Moreover, due the tunnels' special characteristics and its ageing equipment, the rehabilitation plan had not only to upgrade the level of safety to "Category A” as per the ADR agreement, but also to perform heavy maintenance works and provide sustainable solutions for the tunnel operations and the local community. The construction methodology poses significant challenges in the operation and the construction. Therefore, special provisions, technical and operational, were required in order for the transport of heavy and dangerous goods vehicles to be allowed in the tunnel during construction. The Covid pandemic and the geopolitical conditions (Ukraine war), seem to negatively affect the projects' duration and financing. With a budget of more than €20M, it is the first tunnel upgrade project of this magnitude and complexity in Greece, that sets the basis as refence for future tunnel upgrades. © 2023 The Author(s).
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the disruptive effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on the relationship between environmental beliefs and pro-environmental behaviors. We used a survey conducted in the four major cities of Colombia before COVID-19 arrived in December 2019 and then repeated it in October 2020, after most of the major restrictions on mobility and economic activity had been lifted. The survey captured ecocentric and anthropocentric beliefs using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and Pro Environmental Behaviors (PEBS) using 18 questions about energy and water savings, recycling, and sustainable purchasing. In the 2020 survey, we included a measure of the severity of the individual's experience of disruption, including economic, family, and health-related aspects. Controlling for demographic variables, we analyzed (1) descriptive changes in NEP and PEBS, (2) the moderating effect of the disruption on the effect of NEP on PEBS, (3) the direct effect of disruption severity on PEBS, and (4) the moderating effect of severity on the effect of NEP on PEBS in 2020. We found that disruption caused by the lockdown crisis decreased anthropocentric beliefs and slightly increased ecocentric beliefs. This disruption also modified the effects of NEP on PEBS, thereby ameliorating the capacity of NEP to activate PEBS. The severity of experience moderated most of these effects. We discuss the implications of our results for the theory of environmental beliefs and pro-environmental behaviors and offer recommendations to reverse the potential negative effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the promotion of sustainable consumption.
ABSTRACT
Sustainable agriculture is the backbone of food security systems and a driver of human well-being in global economic development (Sustainable Development Goal SDG 3). With the increase in world population and the effects of climate change due to the industrialization of economies, food security systems are under pressure to sustain communities. This situation calls for the implementation of innovative solutions to increase and sustain efficacy from farm to table. Agricultural social networks (ASNs) are central in agriculture value chain (AVC) management and sustainability and consist of a complex network inclusive of interdependent actors such as farmers, distributors, processors, and retailers. Hence, social network structures (SNSs) and practices are a means to contextualize user scenarios in agricultural value chain digitalization and digital solutions development. Therefore, this research aimed to unearth the roles of agricultural social networks in AVC digitalization, enabling an inclusive digital economy. We conducted automated literature content analysis followed by the application of case studies to develop a conceptual framework for the digitalization of the AVC toward an inclusive digital economy. Furthermore, we propose a transdisciplinary framework that guides the digitalization systematization of the AVC, while articulating resilience principles that aim to attain sustainability. The outcomes of this study offer software developers, agricultural stakeholders, and policymakers a platform to gain an understanding of technological infrastructure capabilities toward sustaining communities through digitalized AVCs.
ABSTRACT
The World Health Statistics report detailed an overall shortage of services, in and outside the health system, to prevent and treat non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The report also highlighted the need for stronger data and health information systems, owing to "uneven capacities to collect and use accurate, timely, and comparable health statistics.” Samira Asma, WHO assistant director general, said, "As the world battles the most serious pandemic in 100 years, just a decade away from the SDG [sustainable development goal] deadline, we must act together to strengthen primary healthcare and focus on the most vulnerable among us in order to eliminate the gross inequalities that dictate who lives a long, healthy life and who doesn't.”
ABSTRACT
The data explained in the relevant report "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy” (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, Rome 2020) reveals that the world is not on track to achieve the SDG 2.1 ("Universal access to safe and nutritious food”) and SDG 2.2 ("End of all forms of malnutrition”), both Zero Hunger of Sustainable Development Goal 2 ("End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”) targets by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger would increase further. The combination of moderate and more severe levels of food insecurity raises the estimate to over 25% of the world population, equivalent to a total of about 2 billion people. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems and of all the activities and processes affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of food so that this circumstance further questions the achievement of the goal Zero Hunger. A very important tool to successfully tackle this serious and long-standing problem is represented by nutraceutical products and in the rehabilitation of severe patients and undernourished children, the "ready-to-use therapeutic foods” (RUTFs) have shown remarkable efficacy. They refer to a number of varieties of ready-to-eat foods, ranging from those prepared from locally available ingredients by village women in their own self-help groups for the malnourished children to those prepared according to specific formulas in worldwide factories. RUTF now almost always refers to the latter and it is a generic term including different types of foodstuff, such as spreads or compressed products with precise amounts of nutrients, mainly derived from powdered milk, peanut, oil, sugar, and micronutrients, providing energy equivalent to WHO requirement. However, the local availability of the necessary ingredients limits the production in geographical areas where their use is required, thus there are currently important efforts in the research for alternative ingredients to overcome this limitation. The purpose of this study is to trace the current scenario in terms of food security and malnutrition in the world, focusing attention on the problems associated with the dissemination of initiatives aimed at addressing such a global challenge. The research was conducted following the tripartition model both in the analysis of the problem and in the proposed answer model, although the business perspective was the privileged one. Encouraging the proper and effective implementation of an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable local market for RUTFs means creating shared values, acting jointly, and maximizing the results in favour of children and their families who are still fighting for the right to live in dignity. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Online and distance learning classes have been touted for the last several years as an innovation in higher education that should help improve the entrepreneurial growth mindset of students. However, the reported negative online learning experience of many college students worldwide during the COVID-19 epidemic has shown that many opportunities remain to improve the sustainable development and growth of online visual instruction practices. In this study, we outline and investigate a set of hypotheses related to the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (from TAM) of online video instruction in higher education courses during the pandemic. We employ grounded theory using autoethnographic case studies as a data source. We found that (a) synchronous broadcast lectures improve participant attitude (H1) and motivation (H2) toward online instruction, (b) prerecorded video instruction increases participant perceived "ease of use" (H3) and perceived behavioral control (H4) of online instruction, but (c) indicators of recorded dates on pre-recorded video instruction decreases participant perceived "usefulness" (H5) and "certainty" (H6) of online instruction. We enrich the insights of popular motivation models for organizations and the higher education industry by outlining a set of emotional elements originating in neuroscience leadership research (SCARF) that might either amplify or diminish the perceived the ease of use and perceived usefulness to technology usage relationships when participations engage in online learning situations.
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Urban space is often the cause of disputes. The underlying causes of these disputes are conflicting interests, attitudes and needs regarding the way it is used. Among the various functions performed by cities, tourism activities have been distinguished as the foremost in the cities of historical value. Mass tourism has developed in the last decade and its excessive flow of tourists has in turn led to overtourism which as described in literature is a negative phenomenon. The causes of conflicts related to the development of tourism and their scale are very diverse. The freezing of the tourism economy during the COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity to balance its development in the future. As described in the article, this research aims at identifying the attitudes and expectations of Krakow's residence towards the tools of balancing the tourism economy in the post pandemic period. The statistical analysis of the acquired data collected through questionnaires from 386 respondents during July 2020 revealed that most of the respondents support the preservation of cultural heritage and landscapes over business and profit making.
ABSTRACT
Evaluation and selection of eco-innovation strategies is a significant and complex strategic decision, and despite the relevance and interest in the field of eco-innovation, the area of eco-innovation strategies has not been explored in depth in the scientific literature. Therefore, in this study, we propose an integrated approach to evaluating eco-innovation strategies from the perspective of strategic green transformation that helps decision-makers evaluate and select eco-innovation strategy aiming to achieve a competitive advantage. For this study, we adopted a validated multi-criteria decision-making methodology (MCDM) by combining Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The reliability of the proposed framework was tested and applied in the context of the Lithuanian furniture industry. This study offers three contributions and provides a comprehensive and profound insights into eco-innovation strategies. First, this study conceptualizes eco-innovation strategy from the perspective of strategic green transformation and proposed a novel definition and classification of eco-innovation strategies leading to competitive advantage. Second, this study proposes a novel approach to the evaluation of eco-innovation strategies taking into account micro-, meso-, and macro-level environmental factors. Third, the findings of this study provide implications for scholars and decision-makers in the field of eco-innovation strategy and set an agenda for future research.
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the social dimension of product sustainability is increasingly in demand, however, industrial designers struggle to pursue it much more than the environmental or economic one due to their unfamiliarity in correlating design choices with social impacts. In addition, this gap is not filled even by the supporting methods that have been conceived to only support specific areas of application. To fill this gap, this study proposed a method to support social failure mode and effect analysis (SFMEA), though the automatic failure determination, based on the use of a chatbot (i.e., an artificial intelligence (AI)-based chat). The method consists of 84 specific questions to ask the chatbot, resulting from the combination of known failures and social failures, elements from design theories, and syntactic structures. The starting hypothesis to be verified is that a GPT Chat (i.e., a common AI-based chat), properly queried, can provide all the main elements for the automatic compilation of a SFMEA (i.e., to determine the social failures). To do this, the proposed questions were tested in three case studies to extract all the failures and elements that express predefined SFMEA scenarios: a coffee cup provoking gender discrimination, a COVID mask denying a human right, and a thermometer undermining the cultural heritage of a community. The obtained results confirmed the starting hypothesis by showing the strengths and weaknesses of the obtained answers in relation to the following factors: the number and type of inputs (i.e., the failures) provided in the questions;the lexicon used in the question, favoring the use of technical terms derived from design theories and social sustainability taxonomies;the type of the problem. Through this test, the proposed method proved its ability to support the social sustainable design of different products and in different ways. However, a dutiful recommendation instead concerns the tool (i.e., the chatbot) due to its filters that limit some answers in which the designer tries to voluntarily hypothesize failures to explore their social consequences.
ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the higher education institution's face-to-face education. Higher education institutions have overcome this challenge through enhanced virtual education which has provided further opportunities to the higher education institutions. One of these opportunities is the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education which enables higher education institutions to reach more students globally. Purposes: This paper aims to investigate the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education's role in glocal sustainable development and how to enhance its use to support glocal sustainability and sustainable development. This paper emphasises importance of political economy of the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education to support glocal sustainable development and environmental policies. Methodology/Approach: The aim of this paper is achieved based on an in-depth literature review. Findings: This paper highlights effective, strategic and successful 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education's role in competitiveness of higher education institutions. This paper highlights political economy of the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education and provides recommendations and key success factors for the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education to enhance glocal sustainable development and sustainability as well as environmental policies. This paper emphasises importance of considering the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education in countries' sustainable development plans, strategies and policies. Discussion: Effective and strategic 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education can support higher education institutions' competitive advantage globally. They can support higher education institutions' success in getting intelligent students from all over the world. This can further contribute to their competitiveness. Furthermore, this can enable them to employ, in these 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education programmes, globally competitive and competent academic staff from all over the world. This paper can be useful to academics, policy-makers and researchers in the relevant field.