Increasing consciousness and responsibility in several fields of sustainability
Authors:   , Vona Gábor 
Published: December 2024

First article: Applying a positive approach in the argumentation targeting mitigating behavioural risks may prove to be more effective in preserving and prolonging the health of individuals than the use of probabilities. Albeit the geographical scope is Hungary, Czechia (both countries at high cardiovascular risk), and Austria (country at low risk), the results can be taken over. Probabilities for the occurrence of fatal cardiovascular events within 10 years can be appropriately estimated based on gender, age, smoker status, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol, then, life expectancies – as a new proposed positive approach for raising health consciousness – can be calculated by relying on them. Free-to-download tables (A1-A3) (see http://www.ksh.hu/statszemle_archive/en/2021/2021_01/2021_01_017_annex.xlsx) align the life expectancies for each health status split by country. Preceding akin research was not found. The study can be assigned to the category of articles analysing the relationship between health risk factors and an aggregate variable (here in specific life expectancy). Second article: Spurring firms lagging behind on the digital pathway combined with deploying environmental management enhances their competitiveness. The findings bear relevance with particular reference to Hungary. Accelerating the spread of green(er) technologies in the most polluting industries could substantially abate air pollution and harm to societies. The study deals with the subareas of digitalisation and environmental protection of the scrutinised small and medium-sized enterprises. The article contributes to the research fields (i) investigating the relationship between firms’ capabilities and competitiveness and (ii) identifying the factors hindering the innovation activity of enterprises. Third article: People demonstrating a higher degree of environmental consciousness began to make use of more sustainable alternatives except for particular facets of mobility and governance. The findings bear relevance for Hungary. The hypothesis of the generalisability of environmental consciousness can be declined. Further theses shed light on attributes related to the most environmentally aware customers and their less conscious counterparts. Environmentally conscious consumer behaviour is a frequently analysed and profoundly explored research area. The present scrutiny joins the numerous analogous antecedents unifying the attributes of two grouping themes represented by (i) comparative studies (along the level of consciousness) and (ii) influencers of sustainable consumption patterns. The aim was to classify consumers along environmental consciousness and collect their cluster-specific characteristics. The peculiarity lies in the feature of enabling stakeholders to conceive targeted actions when raising awareness. Fourth article: With regard to modifiable circumstances, a prosumer pathway can be outlined in the course of unfolding environmental awareness. It starts with being a traditional customer without photovoltaic (PV) plans in the near future, then shifts towards having PV plans, and finally, the customer becomes a prosumer. The validity of the findings below may vary depending on the respective subset consisting of the countries Italy, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The theses relate to dissimilarities along the stages of the three-stage prosumer pathway and to specificities at the level of country groups/countries, to the role of information channels and that of installation reasons, and to the nexus amongst having PV plans in the near future, the routines for own energy conservation actions, and the evaluation of factors detaining other people from saving electricity. The article can be placed not only amongst the studies revealing the enablers and disablers of the diffusion of PV technology, but it explores consumer profiles as well. Fifth article: Numerous alternatives enable us to promote environmentally friendly mobility (e.g. public transport, individual electromobility, mobility sharing business models, biking, and walking). A plethora of influencing factors are analysed from three viewpoints: whether they are (i) country-independent or -specific, (ii) enablers or disablers, and (iii) unidirectional or ambivalent. The article widens the series of studies addressing determinants of green residential routine mobility by putting the research field in a broad international comparative analysis. By dividing arbitrarily corresponding preceding research into four dimensions, the collective and individual levels are affected, while the dimension of the technological background and the corporate level are left out.