bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Do Companies Need Financial Flexibility for Sustainable Development?
Authors: Zhang Haifeng , Zhang Zhuo , Steklova Ekaterina
Published: March 2020

Reserve financial flexibility relates to the long-term development of enterprises. Enterprise managers pay more and more attention to the financial flexibility of reserves, which, however, will cause problems such as insufficient investment and inefficient use of funds. This paper collects data from the listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2017. Our main results include the following. First, corporate social responsibility has a certain substitution effect on financial flexibility. Second, after excluding state-owned enterprises and politically-linked enterprises, there is a stronger substitution effect between social responsibility and financial flexibility for private enterprises without political connections. Third, the substitution effect between social responsibility and financial flexibility is stronger in companies with high environmental uncertainty and financing constraints. Furthermore, using a 2SLS procedure, we have verified that the substitution effect between social responsibility and financial flexibility is robust.
Life Cycle Analysis in the Framework of Agricultural Strategic Development Planning in the Balkan Region
Authors: Tsangas Michail , Gavriel Ifigeneia , Doula Maria , Xeni Flouris , Zorpas Antonis A.
Published: March 2020

Agricultural sector should be considered, as one of the main economic development sectors in the entire world, while at the same time is responsible for important pollution. The life cycle assessment (LCA) procedure was involved in the agricultural strategic development planning for Balkan region, as a useful tool to identify and quantify potential environmental impacts from the production of apple juice, wine and pepper pesto in three selected sites in Greece, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. These three products were chosen, as are considered as the main economic activities at the areas. The LCA approach covered the entire production line of each product. Based on the LCA results, which comprise the size of six impact categories characterization factors, suggestions were made in order to minimize the footprint of the apples orchard, vineyard and pepper cultivation plots as well as of the production processes of apple juice, wine and pepper pesto as final distribution products. The results indicate that changes in the cultivation and the production must be considered in order to optimize the environmental footprint. Moreover, the whole approach could be useful for agricultural stakeholders, policy makers and producers, in order to improve their products ecological performance, reduce food loss and food waste and increase the productivity of the agricultural sector, while at the same time can improve the three pillars of sustainability through strategy development.
Transparency for Multi-Tier Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Case Study of a Multi-tier Transparency Approach for SSCM in the Automotive Industry
Authors: Fraser Iain J. , Müller Martin , Schwarzkopf Julia
Published: March 2020

Sustainability in supply chain management (SSCM) has become established in both academia and increasingly in practice. As stakeholders continue to require focal companies (FCs) to take more responsibility for their entire supply chains (SCs), this has led to the development of multi-tier SSCM (MT-SSCM). Much extant research has focused on simple supply chains from certain industries. Recently, a comprehensive traceability for sustainability (TfS) framework has been proposed, which outlines how companies could achieve MT-SSCM through traceability. Our research builds on this and responds to calls for cases from the automotive industry by abductively analysing a multi-tier supply chain (MT-SC) transparency case study. This research analyses a raw material SC that is particularly renowned for sustainability problems—the cobalt supply chain for electric vehicles—and finds that the extant literature has oversimplified the operationalisation of transparency in MT-SSCM. We compare the supply chain maps of the MT-SC before and after an auditing and mapping project to demonstrate the transparency achieved. Our findings identify challenges to the operationalisation of SC transparency and we outline how FCs might set to increase MT-SC transparency for sustainability.
Assessment of Sustainability Governance in Higher Education Institutions—A Systemic Tool Using a Governance Equalizer
Authors: Niedlich Sebastian , Bauer Mara , Doneliene Margarita , Jaeger Larissa , Rieckmann Marco , Bormann Inka
Published: March 2020

The paper aims to add to the discussion on sustainability governance in higher education institutions by examining the role of sustainability assessment and introducing an assessment tool inspired by systemic thinking and centered on a ‘governance equalizer’. It discusses recent research and argues that the complexity inherent in sustainability governance remains to be addressed adequately. While a number of models and frameworks have been proposed, most of them remain caught between narrow, management-oriented approaches on the one hand, and rather abstract approaches that provide little guidance for improving the field on the other. Sustainability assessment tools represent a potential way to bridge this gap. While there are existing tools which include issues of sustainability governance, these are often limited to aspects that are easily quantifiable and neglect more complex aspects. Against this background, the article proposes an alternative tool to assess sustainability governance in higher education institutions. The tool is based on a multi-case study in Germany and has been tested in a series of workshops. Drawing on the concept of a ‘governance equalizer’, it focuses on the functional requirements of sustainability governance in five dimensions—politics, profession, organization, knowledge, and the public—and how they are addressed by the HEI. The tool raises the level of abstraction in order to capture complexity, but at the same time keeps sight of governance structures, processes, instruments, and practices. It combines clearly defined criteria that are assessed using carefully developed maturity scales with a focus on stakeholder participation and knowledge.
Topic Modeling of Online Accommodation Reviews via Latent Dirichlet Allocation
Authors: Sutherland Ian , Sim Youngseok , Lee Seul Ki , Byun Jaemun , Kiatkawsin Kiattipoom
Published: March 2020

There is a lot of attention given to the determinants of guest satisfaction and consumer behavior in the tourism literature. While much extant literature uses a deductive approach for identifying guest satisfaction dimensions, we apply an inductive approach by utilizing large unstructured text data of 104,161 online reviews of Korean accommodation customers to frame which topics of interest guests find important. Using latent Dirichlet allocation, a generative, Bayesian, hierarchical statistical model, we extract and validate topics of interest in the dataset. The results corroborate extant literature in that dimensions, such as location and service quality, are important. However, we extend existing dimensions of importance by more precisely distinguishing aspects of location and service quality. Furthermore, by comparing the characteristics of the accommodations in terms of metropolitan versus rural and the type of accommodation, we reveal differences in topics of importance between different characteristics of the accommodations. Specifically, we find a higher importance for points of competition and points of uniqueness among the accommodation characteristics. This has implications for how managers can improve customer satisfaction and how researchers can more precisely measure customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry.
Spatial Relations between the Standards of Living and the Financial Capacity of Polish District-Level Local Government
Authors: Malinowski Mariusz , Smoluk-Sikorska Joanna
Published: March 2020

The objective of the presented article is the identification of spatial relations between the inhabitants’ standards of living and the districts’ financial capacity basing on data for 2017. The investigation comprised all of the 380 Polish districts. In regard to the multidimensionality of economic occurrences analyzed, the TOPSIS (The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) approach to measure the inhabitants’ standards of living and the financial ability of districts was applied in the research. A spatial autocorrelation analysis between the taxonomic (synthetic) indexes was performed using local and global Moran’s I statistics in order to determine the districts’ clusters, demonstrating a comparable degree of occurrences analyzed. A spatial regression analysis was conducted to find the strength of spatial relations between the taxonomic index of the standards of living and the districts’ financial ability. Diagnostic variables were chosen according to substantive, statistical and formal criteria. The outcomes of the spatial regression analysis allowed it to be concluded that about 1% increase of the taxonomic indicator of the districts’ financial ability is reflected in about 0.4% growth of the taxonomic index of the standards of living of the inhabitants of different districts (other things being equal). The results of analyses can be applied indirectly by a number of stakeholders, e.g., local authorities responsible for local and regional development, when creating the development strategies at local government unit (LGU) level. The knowledge on spatial development structures can enhance the formation of the strategic management process (for instance, redefining the objectives and tasks set out in local strategies; restructuring the expenditure to meet the local population’s needs).
Mapping the Environmental Cost of a Typical Citrus-Producing County in China: Hotspot and Optimization
Authors: Yang Min , Long Quan , Li Wenli , Wang Zhichao , He Xinhua , Wang Jie , Wang Xiaozhong , Xiong Huaye , Guo Chaoyi , Zhang Guancheng , Luo Bin , Qiu Jun , Chen Xinping , Zhang Fusuo , Shi Xiaojun , Zhang Yueqiang
Published: March 2020

The environmental sustainability of the largest citrus plantation globally is facing a great challenge in China. Further, there is a lack of quantitative, regional hotspot studies. In this study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to quantify the environmental cost of citrus production based on 155 farmers’ surveys from typical citrus orchards in Danling County, southwest China, which produced 0.65% of the country’s total citrus production. The results showed that the average values of environmental risk indicated by global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP) were 11,665 kg CO2-eq ha−1, 184 kg SO2-eq ha−1, and 110 kg PO4-eq ha−1, respectively. The production and utilization of fertilizer ranked the first contribution to the environmental impacts among all the environmental impacts, which contributed 92.4–95.1%, 89.4–89.8%, and 97.8–97.9% to global warming potential, acidification potential, and eutrophication potential, respectively. Specific to the contribution of fertilizers to environmental costs, the production and utilization of nitrogen (N) fertilizer accounted for more than 95% of the total environmental costs. Thus, the spatial distribution of environmental costs in this county was well matched with that of N input. Compared with the average values of investigated 155 orchards, the high yield and high N use efficiency (HH) orchard group with younger and better educated owners achieved a higher citrus yield and N use efficiency with less fertilizer input and lower environmental costs. Five field experiments conducted by local government and Danling Science and Technology Backyard were used to further certify the reduction potential of environment costs. These field results showed that the local recommendation (LR) treatment increased citrus yield and N use efficiency by 1.9–49.5% and 38.0–116%, respectively, whereas decreased environmental costs by 21.2–35.2% when compared with the local farmer practice in the HH orchard group. These results demonstrated that an optimum nutrient management based on the local field recommendation in citrus-producing areas is crucial for achieving a win-win target of productivity and environmental sustainability in China and other, similar countries.
Territorial Fragmentation and Renewable Energy Source Plants: Which Relationship?
Authors: Saganeiti Lucia , Pilogallo Angela , Faruolo Giuseppe , Scorza Francesco , Murgante Beniamino
Published: March 2020

Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are part of the solution to tackle the global problems of climate change and carbon emissions. Programs and policies at different levels are continuing to promote new RES farms, posing a relevant challenge to regional planners and administrators: how to manage landscape transformation and territorial fragmentation to find a really effective sustainable arrangement for these kinds of technologies? Most effects induced by RES (land-use change, land take, diminishing aesthetic values, loss of habitat quality), without a doubt, depend on the location and the spatial pattern of the plants, the relative distance between them, the extension of secondary infrastructures and their technical characteristics. This work takes part in the debate, originating from the need to establish a monitoring system for this kind of new territorial transformation and discusses the implementation of a sprinkling fragmentation index (SPX) in order to assess the current regional settlement structure of RES farms. Our case study concerns the Basilicata region (in Southern Italy), a very low-density area which over the last decade has undergone a relevant increase in the installation of RES technologies, not supported by an effective planning framework. The evolution of the regional energy system has been strongly influenced both by incentive policies and by (weak) urban and territorial planning policies. This approach could be a valuable contribution both in identifying a fragmentation threshold beyond which the expected negative impacts outweigh the benefits, and in providing a useful procedure for the management of future installations.
Temporal Comparative Analysis of Industrial Symbiosis in a Business Network: Opportunities of Circular Economy
Authors: Florencio de Souza Fabiane , Bigarelli Ferreira Mariane , Valélia Saraceni Adriana , Mendes Betim Leozenir , Lucas Pereira Tafael , Petter Rodolfo Reinaldo Hermes , Negri Pagani Regina , Mauricio Martins de Resende Luis , Pontes Joseane , Moro Piekarski Cassiano
Published: March 2020

The objective of this work is to perform a temporal comparative analysis in a network of companies in the furniture sector, in Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, presenting drivers through circular economy modeling. The study was performed applying the model proposed by Saraceni et al. (2017) in a network of Furniture companies in Concórdia, Brazil. The model diagnoses the presence of industrial symbiosis practices in five domains variables involving Technical, Economic, Political, Information and Organizational Factors, influencing three spheres: by-product exchange, service sharing, and managerial cooperation. The study addressed the positive relationship aspects of the circular economy as guidelines for improving the industrial symbiosis of the network. The results of data collection in 2019 were compared with the results of the application made in 2014. The comparison revealed a significant advance from 2014 to 2019 towards Industrial Symbiosis, highlighting that corrective actions and circular economy strategies may lead this business network to be the first Industrial Symbiosis case in Brazil in the next few years, meanwhile fostering the ecological network’s process to the country.
Spatial Patterns of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services in Cities of Various Sizes, Morphologies and Economies
Authors: Ženka Jan , Slach Ondřej , Ivan Igor
Published: March 2020

We compare intra-urban localization patterns of advertising and IT companies in three large Czech cities. The main aim of our analysis is an empirically-based contribution to the question to what extent do knowledge bases affect the spatial distribution of various knowledge-intensive business industries. The central research question is: To what extent is the localization of these two industries influenced by different modes of innovation/knowledge bases (symbolic vs. synthetic) and to what extent by contextual factors, such as urban size, morphology, position in the urban hierarchy and economic profile of the given city. We found that the urban contexts shape the localization patterns of advertising and IT companies more than differences in knowledge bases—both industries cluster primarily in the inner cities and urban cores. Formation of more suburban IT “scientific neighborhoods” is limited.
SDGs-Based River Health Assessment for Small- and Medium-Sized Watersheds
Authors: Xue Chenyang , Shao Chaofeng , Chen Sihan
Published: March 2020

A river health assessment index system was established, focusing on the realistic needs of county sustainable development and the refined management of small- and medium-sized watersheds. The index system takes into consideration the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the vulnerability characteristics of small- and medium-sized watershed ecosystems and consists of 15 indicators in four areas: clean water, sanitation, the present status of biodiversity and threats to biodiversity. This paper uses the minimum discrimination information principle to construct a dynamic combination-weighting technology composed of a subjective weighting method (document frequency method) and an objective weighting method (entropy weight method). Using the fuzzy matter-element analysis theory, a comprehensive river health assessment technology system was constructed. Baoxing County was chosen as the research area and the results reveal that: (1) Key indicators are the biodiversity index of fish, water use intensity, endemic or indicative species retention, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions. (2) The Euclid approach degree of Baoxing County indicates that the entire river is in a moderate state of health. In the future, towns must take targeted measures to coordinate the relationship between the ecological environment and socio-economic development, and enhancement and releasing must be prioritised.
Alterable Electricity Pricing Mechanism Considering the Deviation of Wind Power Prediction
Authors: Cai Qinqin , Zhu Yongqiang , Yang Xiaohua , E Lin
Published: March 2020

Fluctuation and prediction errors of wind power would cause a large amount of automatic generation control (AGC) adjustment costs, which lead to the problem of power curtailment. A reasonable mechanism of grid-connection electricity price may encourage wind farms to take measures to reduce the deviation between output power and schedule power, which is helpful for source-network coordination and reducing wind power curtailment. An alterable electricity pricing mechanism considering wind power deviation rate is proposed. In each schedule cycle, electricity price is adjusted according to the deviation rate and its historical change trend. In this way, wind farms will be encouraged to configure energy storage to promote the accordance of wind output power with schedule power to the greatest extent. Given the statistical characteristic of prediction errors of wind power, this paper proposes a schedule power model, taking least squares of output power deviation as objective function, and then puts forward an engineering application method for determining schedule power. This paper analyzes the overall cost and revenue of a wind farm to configure energy storage and determine the optimal energy storage capacity with the goal of maximizing the profit of the wind farm. In the case analysis, the effect of the deviation rate and its historical change trend, the deviation rate tolerance coefficient on electricity price is analyzed. The case analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed alterable electricity pricing mechanism and shows that the mechanism is helpful at reducing wind power output deviation and wind curtailment.
Exploring Food Security and Household Dietary Diversity in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Authors: Cheteni Priviledge , Khamfula Yohane , Mah Gisele
Published: March 2020

Food security is one of the most severe challenges facing the majority of African countries. The objective of this study was to explore household food dietary diversity and food security in a rural area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. A total of 296 household heads were randomly sampled to participate in the study. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS) were used to identify the consumption patterns of the households and their food security status. Meanwhile, a binary model was used to identify the variables that had an impact on household food security. Findings from the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) revealed that 61 percent of the households had lower dietary diversity and were consuming at least three food groups, which mainly include pulses, milk, and cereals. The results from the Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS), however, showed that the majority of the households had adequate levels of food consumption. The binary model revealed that age, household income, access to credit, and gender are statistically significant in influencing household food security status in the study area. It can be concluded that household dietary diversity is not guaranteed by food security, as proven by the regression model. Therefore, the government should consider the impact of low income on food security and it should intensify efforts directed at helping rural households to reduce incidences of food insecurity.
Chinese-Style Innovation and Its International Repercussions in the New Economic Times
Authors: Shen Zhifeng , Siraj Ahsan , Jiang Hongbing , Zhu Yongming , Li Junjie
Published: March 2020

Innovation is the powerful headspring that makes the economy and society continue with sustainable development, and how to innovate is a current research issue all over the world. The purposes of this research are to examine Chinese-style innovations and to analyze the influence of Chinese-style innovation on the international market in the current economic times. From multiple perspectives of institutional innovation as well as scientific and technological innovation, the content, characteristics and connotation of Chinese-style innovation are comprehensively expounded and analyzed through the collection, combination and exploration of innovation, especially in Chinese-style innovation literature and interviews with relevant scholars, experts and enterprises. Then, the fit of Chinese-style innovation and characteristics of the new economic era are systematically described. Based on the exploration of international repercussions of Chinese-style innovation from both macro and micro aspects, the mechanism of Chinese-style innovation’s influence on China’s international market is also analyzed. In China, the underlying concept has not been well investigated before, therefore there is a gap in which to do research in this area. In accordance with the current research, a conceptual model for the new economic era, Chinese-style innovation and China’s international repercussions is established. This study finds that the influence of Chinese companies in research and development has significantly improved, the all-round and multi-domain pattern of Chinese enterprises’ overseas development has gradually taken shape, Chinese companies’ overseas social responsibility is growing, the overseas competitiveness of Chinese companies has gradually increased, the overall strength of China’s science and technology has gradually gained international recognition and its international repercussions have improved significantly.
Promoting Disaster Resilience: Operation Mechanisms and Self-Organizing Processes of Crowdsourcing
Authors: Song Zhijun , Zhang Hui , Dolan Chris
Published: March 2020

It is often difficult to realize effective governance and management within the inherent complexity and uncertainty of disasters. The application of crowdsourcing, through encouraging voluntary support from the general public, advances efficient disaster governance. Twelve international case studies of crowdsourcing and natural disaster governance were collected for in-depth analysis. Influenced by Complex Adaptive System theory, we explored the self-organizing operation mechanisms and self-organization processes of crowdsourcing within disaster governance. The self-organizing operation mechanisms of crowdsourcing are influenced by the multi-directional interaction between the crowdsourcing platform, the initiator (who commences the crowdsourcing process) and the contractor (who undertakes disaster reduction tasks). The benefits of crowdsourcing for governance structure and self-organization processes in natural disaster governance are reflected in three perspectives: strengthening communication and coordination, optimizing emergency decision-making, and improving the ability to learn and adapt. This paper discusses how crowdsourcing can promote disaster resilience from the perspective of the complex adaptive system to enrich the theoretical research on crowdsourcing and disaster resilience.
Technological Ecosystems in Citizen Science: A Framework to Involve Children and Young People
Authors: García-Holgado Alicia , García-Peñalvo Francisco José , Butler Paul
Published: March 2020

Young people are distinguished as a social group with the capacity to drive new behaviours and understandings in today’s society. However, most young people consider that people in charge of decision-making processes are not addressing their concerns. The WYRED project proposes a framework for citizen science based on a technological ecosystem to promote the transfer of perspectives, ideas, and knowledge among young people and decision-makers on issues related to the digital society. The work goal is to analyse the model proposed through a citizen science case study centred in identifying the ideas and opinions of children and young people between 7 and 30 years old, concerning gender stereotypes on the Internet. A total of 69 children and young people from Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom have interacted for two weeks in a private space guaranteed by the defined ecosystem. The results of the analysis of the interaction between young people and facilitators (with different profiles: educators, researchers and decision-makers) demonstrate that the use of technological ecosystems to sustain the development of citizen science projects allows for the improvement of knowledge transfer processes between children and young people with stakeholders, as well as the analysis of these processes.
Sustainable Tourism Marketing
Authors: Cristobal-Fransi Eduard , Daries Natalia , Ferrer-Rosell Berta , Marine-Roig Estela , Martin-Fuentes Eva
Published: March 2020

In this article, we introduce the themes and approaches covered in this special issue on Sustainable Tourism Marketing. Its objective has been to analyze the main contributions made as a result of research related to sustainable tourism-marketing management and current trends in this field. This issue has gathered articles about the marketing of destinations and the marketing and communication management of companies and tourism organizations from a sustainable tourism perspective. This editorial piece provides a useful introduction to the relationship between tourism and sustainable marketing management that can be used by researchers and practitioners to develop tourism marketing strategies from a sustainable perspective.
Quality Decision-Making Behavior of Bodies Participating in the Agri-Foods E-Supply Chain
Authors: Jing Xu , Guanxin Yao , Panqian Dai
Published: March 2020

The quality of agri-foods in e-supply chains confronts more threats than that in the traditional agri-food supply chain. However, most of the existing studies focusing on the quality problems of fresh agri-products are mainly cases studies and statistical analyses, and they do not take into account the farmers’ willingness to comply with safe agri-food supply procedures. To solve the supply quality problems of fresh agri-foods and help participators make a better choice, the decision-making behavior on the supply quality of agri-foods in the e-supply chain was deeply studied in this paper using game theory. Some factors related to the decision behavior of the supply chain were analyzed, including the supervision intension of the government, the rights protection consciousness of consumers, and the intensity of punishment for poor-quality agri-foods. These factors have an important influence on the farmers’ willingness to provide high-quality products and e-business’ probability of inspection. Compared with three different decision models of agri-food e-supply chains, the results show that the decentralized decision model is better than the centralized model from the view of quality protection. The behavior of members of the supply chain is as follows: the farmers’ willingness to supply high-quality agri-foods increases with the increase in the consumers’ consciousness of their rights and the government’s supervision intensity. The “experience deviation” phenomenon also occurs when a new e-business makes a decision about its quality inspection behavior in this e-supply chain where the quality information is traceable. As such, e-business enterprises should reduce their quality inspection behavior based on the increase in the government’s supervision intensity. This happens to be opposite to the traditional experience where quality information is not traceable. This study not only extends the research framework of the novel electronic supply chain, but also provides a certain reference for the subsequent research and e-business practices of fresh produce in developing countries.
Bioeconomy—Spatial Requirements for Sustainable Development
Authors: Grossauer Franz , Stoeglehner Gernot
Published: March 2020

The implementation of the bioeconomy, i.e., the conversion of an economic system from fossil to biogenic, renewable resources, is seen as an important component of sustainable development by many bioeconomy strategies. What has hardly been taken into account and investigated are the spatial requirements for a sustainable transition to this new system. In order to clarify this, bioeconomy related strategies and policy papers were analyzed thematically. It was shown that spatially relevant issues are addressed to very different extents. Some strategies have a clear technological and economic orientation, while other documents point to the importance of the regional and local levels and the use of spatial planning measures to successfully and sustainably implement a bioeconomy. Overall, the picture emerged that many strategies are still a long way from mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as set out by the United Nations.
A Conceptual Development Framework for Prefabricated Construction Supply Chain Management: An Integrated Overview
Authors: Liu Yang , Dong Jianjun , Shen Ling
Published: March 2020

Prefabricated construction (PC), with the characteristics of green, environmentally friendly, energy saving and high production efficiency, is attracting more and more attention from all over the world. Supply chain management is closely related to the application efficiency of PC, but only in the last three years has this interdisciplinary research received due attention. The prefabricated construction supply chain management (PCSCM) have not received enough attention. Especially recently, the related literature shows explosive growth. This paper adopted the method of systematic literature review through the tool of bibliometric statistics. And we reviewed 152 articles from 2001 to 2018, with the goal of understanding the current situation, trends, and gaps in PCSCM research, and a framework is proposed to promote its development. First, the study discussed the four themes of clustering, concentrating mainly on strategic research and project evaluation, PC supply chain process design and optimization, supply chain integration and management, and the application of advanced technology. Then, the research gaps and conceptual development framework to promote PCSCM were reported. Only through the coordinated development of technology, market circumstances, and decision-making level of participants, can the PCSC form an integrated whole, so as to optimize the efficiency and sustainability of prefabricated construction industry and improve its level.
A Metacoupling Framework for Exploring Transboundary Watershed Management
Authors: Merz Leandra , Yang Di , Hull Vanessa
Published: March 2020

Water is crucial for ecosystem health and socioeconomic development, but water scarcity is becoming a global concern. Management of transboundary watersheds is inherently challenging and has the potential to lead to conflict over the allocation of water resources. The metacoupling framework, which explores the relationships between coupled human and natural systems that are nested within multiple different scales, has been proposed to inform more holistic management of transboundary watersheds. This paper provides the first attempt to apply a metacoupling framework to a transboundary watershed for an improved integrated understanding of this complex system at multiple spatial scales. It does so with the transnational Limpopo River watershed in Southern Africa, which covers 1.3% of the continent and supports the livelihoods of 18.8 million people living in Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a growing gap between water availability and demand; the primary drivers are population growth and agriculture expansion. The novelty of the paper is outlining the importance of applying a metacoupling framework to transboundary watersheds, identifying the limitations to this application, and providing a detailed assessment of the steps needed to complete this application. We also identify directions for future research including application of a metacoupling framework to other transboundary watersheds and exploration of spillover effects and externalities within this and other transboundary watersheds.
Seed Germination in Alpine Meadow Steppe Plants from Central Tibet in Response to Experimental Warming
Authors: Wang Xiangtao , Niu Ben , Zhang Xianzhou , He Yongtao , Shi Peili , Miao Yanjun , Cao Yanan , Li Meng , Wang Zhipeng
Published: March 2020

Clarifying the effects of climate warming on seed germination is critical for predicting plant community assembly and species renewal, especially in alpine grassland ecosystems where warming is occurring faster than in other biomes globally. We collected matured seeds of 19 common species from a typical alpine meadow steppe community in Central Tibet. Seeds were germinated in three incubators with manipulated day-night temperatures to impose three treatments: (1) theoretically optimal values of 25/15 °C, (2) temperatures observed in the field (control), and (3) a warming of 3 °C above the observed temperatures. We calculated seed germination percentage (SGP) and mean germination time (MGT) per species at different treatments. Our results showed that SGPs of Stipa capillacea, Kobresia macrantha, Potentilla saundersiana, Saussurea tibetica, Pedicularis kansuensis, and Androsace graminifolia were higher under the warming treatment than under control. Among them, the MGTs of S. capillacea, K. macrantha, and And. graminifolia were significantly shortened, while the MGT of Pe. kansuensis was significantly lengthened by warming of 3 °C. Significant decreases in MGT induced by warming were only observed for Festuca coelestis and Anaphalis xylorhiza. Additionally, the treatment with theoretically optimal temperatures restrained germination of Stipa purpurea, S. capillacea, F. coelestis, and Sa. tibetica seeds but promoted germination of K. macrantha, Astragalus strictus, P. saundersiana, Potentilla bifurca, Pe. kansuensis, Swertia tetraptera, Pleurospermum hedinii, and And. Graminifolia seeds, when compared with the control and warming treatments. Therefore, the response of seed germination to warming differs among alpine species, implying that future warming could result in significant changes in community assembly of alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau.
Optimizing the Raw Material Supply Chain of the Wood Biomass Power Generation Industry for Different Stakeholders’ Benefits: An Analysis of Inner Mongolia, China
Authors: Bai Yang , Yang He , Zhao Yu , Zhang Min , Qin Jinyuan , Mi Feng
Published: March 2020

A large number of sand shrubs have been planted in western China, especially in Inner Mongolia. Sand shrubs produce a large amount of stump residue, and wood biomass power generation enterprises that use stump residue as raw materials have emerged in Wushen Banner and other areas. In this paper, the Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is used to optimize the raw material supply chain of forest biomass power generation enterprises. Optimizations with different objectives represent the choices of different stakeholders. The optimization results are listed as follows. (1) The self-issuance behavior of enterprises is inconsistent with the enterprise behavior required by social planners; (2) When social planners only pay attention to environmental benefits, the utilization rate of raw materials in towns located far from a power plant will be greatly reduced, which is not conducive for the reuse of stump residue; (3) When social planners consider economic, environmental, and social benefits simultaneously, the utilization rate of raw materials in each town will be significantly improved, resources will be effectively utilized, and certain economic benefits will be realized; (4) It is possible to reduce the difficulty of achieving optimization goals by promoting industrial development and encouraging technological progress.
Strategic Alliance for Vietnam Domestic Real Estate Companies Using a Hybrid Approach Combining GM (1,1) with Super SBM DEA
Authors: Wang Chia-Nan , Hsu Hsien-Pin , Wang Jing-Wein , Kao Yang-Chin , Nguyen Thi-Phuong
Published: March 2020

The high economic development in Vietnam contributes much momentum to boost the estate industry in this country. However, competition in this market is also increased. To survive better in this industry, the estate companies in the Vietnam estate industry can apply strategic alliance which, however, depends heavily on forming the right partnership. For this purpose, a hybrid approach combining Grey Theory with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been proposed in this research to assess and predict the performance of some Vietnamese estate companies, in addition to helping to form the right partnership. For empirical study, 16 companies in the Vietnam estate industry have been selected as Decision Making Units (DMUs). After collecting these DMUs’ historical data in the time period 2012-2017, the grey model GM (1,1) was first used to forecast the performance of these DMUs in 2018-2020. Then, the slacks-based measure (SBM) super efficiency (super SBM) model was used to assess their performance. To initiate partnerships, Becamex Infrastructure Development Joint Stock Company (IJC) has been selected as a target company and it can develop 15 different strategic alliance scenarios. The experimental results show that only some of the scenarios are beneficial. Thus, prudence is a necessity when using strategic alliance.
Does Environmental Information Disclosure Make Firms’ Investments More Efficient? Evidence from Measure 2007 of Chinese A-Listed Companies
Authors: Wang Xiaopeng , Shen Xueyao , Yang Yongliang
Published: March 2020

Using a sample of 2822 Chinese A-listed firms over the 2002–2015 period and the propensity score matching with difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) approach, we estimate the causality of environmental information disclosure (EID)’s impact on investment efficiency based on a quasi-experiment in 2007. This paper finds strong and robust evidence that there is a significant positive connection between EID and company investment efficiency in China. We further determine that heterogeneity of EID’s performance appears in the different settings of industry and subdivision industries. The significance of several sub-industries disappeared while the others retained larger significant coefficients than the whole industry case. The probability that an enterprise issues an environmental annual report has a significant positive link with investment efficiency in heavy industry, while this relationship is weakened or even not obvious in non-heavy polluting industries. Finally, we find that employee compensation serves as a mediator from which EID has an indirect effect on investment efficiency. Our results confirm that EID plays a vital role in firm-level capital allocation efficiency.
Intelligent Intersection Control for Delay Optimization: Using Meta-Heuristic Search Algorithms
Authors: Jamal Arshad , Tauhidur Rahman Muhammad , Al-Ahmadi Hassan M. , Ullah Irfan , Zahid Muhammad
Published: March 2020

Traffic signal control is an integral component of an intelligent transportation system (ITS) that play a vital role in alleviating traffic congestion. Poor traffic management and inefficient operations at signalized intersections cause numerous problems as excessive vehicle delays, increased fuel consumption, and vehicular emissions. Operational performance at signalized intersections could be significantly enhanced by optimizing phasing and signal timing plans using intelligent traffic control methods. Previous studies in this regard have mostly focused on lane-based homogenous traffic conditions. However, traffic patterns are usually non-linear and highly stochastic, particularly during rush hours, which limits the adoption of such methods. Hence, this study aims to develop metaheuristic-based methods for intelligent traffic control at isolated signalized intersections, in the city of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Genetic algorithm (GA) and differential evolution (DE) were employed to enhance the intersection’s level of service (LOS) by optimizing the signal timings plan. Average vehicle delay through the intersection was selected as the primary performance index and algorithms objective function. The study results indicated that both GA and DE produced a systematic signal timings plan and significantly reduced travel time delay ranging from 15 to 35% compared to existing conditions. Although DE converged much faster to the objective function, GA outperforms DE in terms of solution quality i.e., minimum vehicle delay. To validate the performance of proposed methods, cycle length-delay curves from GA and DE were compared with optimization outputs from TRANSYT 7F, a state-of-the-art traffic signal simulation, and optimization tool. Validation results demonstrated the adequacy and robustness of proposed methods.
Discovering Urban Functional Polycentricity: A Traffic Flow-Embedded and Topic Modeling-Based Methodology Framework
Authors: Wang Shaodong , Liu Yanbin , Zhi Wei , Wen Xihua , Zhou Weihua
Published: March 2020

With the rapid development of communication and transportation technologies, the urban area is increasingly becoming an ever more dynamic, comprehensive, and complex system. Meanwhile, functional polycentricity as a distinctive feature has been characterizing urban areas around the world. However, the spatial structure of the urban area has yet to be fully comprehended from a dynamic perspective, and understanding the spatial organization of polycentric urban regions (PUR) is crucial for issues related to urban planning, traffic control, and urban risk management. The analysis of polycentricity strongly depends on the spatial scale. In order to identify functional polycentricity at the intra-unban scale, this paper presents a traffic flow-embedded and topic modeling-based methodology framework. This framework was evaluated on real-world datasets from the Wujiang district, Suzhou, China, which contains 151,419 records of taxi trajectory data and 86,036 records of points of interest (POI) data. This paper provides a novel approach to examining urban functional polycentricity via combining urban function distribution and spatial interactions. This proposed methodology can help urban authorities better understand urban dynamics in terms of function distribution and internal connectedness and facilitate urban development in terms of urban planning and traffic control.
Advanced Modeling for the Identification of Different Pathogen Tolerant Vines to Reduce Fungicides and Energy Consumption
Authors: Cecchini Francesca , Serra Maria Cecilia , Bevilacqua Noemi , Costa Corrado , Valori Roberto , Pallottino Federico , Casadei Giorgio , Menesatti Paolo , Antonucci Francesca
Published: March 2020

The aim of this study is the application of advanced modeling techniques to identify powdery mildew tolerant cultivars and reduce fungicides and energy consumption. The energy savings resulting from the increased efficiency of the use of fungicides is an innovative aspect investigated within the project AGROENER researching on energy efficiency. In this preliminary study, investigations through phenotyping methods could represent a potential solution, especially if they are used in combination with tools and algorithms able to extract and convert a large amount of data. Twelve different grapevine cultivars were tested. The construction of an artificial model, characterized by absolute optima of response to a pathogen (i.e., low values of disease incidence and severity and first day of the pathogen appearance), allowed us to cover the potential variability of a real dataset. To identify the cultivars that tolerate powdery mildew the most, two Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) models were built. The modeling efficiencies, indicated by sensitivity value, were equal to 100%. These statistical multivariate classifications identified some of these tolerant cultivars, as the best responding to the pathogen.
Integrated Reporting and European State-Owned Enterprises: A Disclosure Analysis Pre and Post 2014/95/EU
Authors: Nicolò Giuseppe , Zanellato Gianluca , Tiron-Tudor Adriana
Published: March 2020

The European Directive 2014/95/EU regulating the disclosure of non-financial information for public interest organisations is enjoying its first years since entering into force in 2017. The emerging of social, environmental and sustainability issues in combination with the New Public Management (NPM) reforms, led public sector entities to huge demands of accountability. Long time before the European Union Directive (EUD) on non-financial information, public sector entities were pushed to demonstrate to a broad range of stakeholders how public resources are used. Accordingly, the stakeholders’ increasing demand for social and environmental information has encouraged the adoption of different types of reports by organisations, such as the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, Sustainability Reporting (SR) and the Integrated Report (IR).In the context of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), the disclosure of non-financial information gains a pivotal relevance as these type of organisations face a more comprehensive range of stakeholders than private organisations. In this vein, the present paper aims to investigate whether the mandatory disclosure directive increased the level of information provided by SOEs issuing an IR between the years 2016 and 2017 in order to demonstrate whether a mandatory regulation leads to higher disclosure.