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The purpose of this work is to construct a grey entropy comprehensive evaluation model to measure the regional green innovation vitality (GIV) of 31 provinces in China.

The traditional grey relational proximity and grey relational similarity degree are integrated into the novel comprehensive grey evaluation framework. The evaluation system of regional green innovation vitality is constructed from three dimensions: economic development vitality, innovative transformation power and environmental protection efficacy. The weights of each indicator are obtained by the entropy weight method. The GIV of 31 provinces in China is measured based on provincial panel data from 2016 to 2020. The ward clustering and K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) algorithms are utilized to explore the regional green innovation discrepancies and promotion paths.

The novel grey evaluation method exhibits stronger ability to capture intrinsic patterns compared with two separate traditional grey relational models. Green innovation vitality shows obvious regional discrepancies. The Matthew effect of China's regional GIV is obvious, showing a basic trend of strong in the eastern but weak in the western areas. The comprehensive innovation vitality of economically developed provinces exhibits steady increasing trend year by year, while the innovation vitality of less developed regions shows an overall steady state of no fluctuation.

The grey entropy comprehensive relational model in this study is applied for the measurement and evaluation of regional GIV, which improves the one-sidedness of traditional grey relational analysis on the proximity or similarity among sequences. In addition, a three-dimensional evaluation system of regional GIV is constructed, which provides the practical guidance for the research of regional development strategic planning as well as promotion paths.

A comprehensive grey entropy relational model based on traditional grey incidence analysis (GIA) in terms of proximity and similarity is proposed. The three-dimensional evaluation system of China's regional GIV is constructed, which provides a new research perspective for regional innovation evaluation and expands the application scope of grey system theory.

Given the importance of performance consistency of chain hotels in customers’ decision-making and service evaluation, this study aims to explore how consistently chain hotel brands offer quality service and carry out their performance from the eyes of customers through online reviews on TripAdvisor of the top five US hotel chains (i.e. Choice, Hilton, InterContinental, Marriott and Wyndham) and their brands.

The research objectives were achieved through methodological triangulation: business intelligence, data visualization analytics and statistical analyses. First, the data collection and pre-processing of consumer-generated media (CGM) (i.e. TripAdvisor online reviews) were performed using business intelligence for further analyses. Using data visualization analytics (i.e. box-and-whisker plot by region and brand), the geographic patterns of performance attributes (i.e. online review ratings, including location, sleep, cleanliness, room and service) were depicted. Using a series of analyses of variance and regression analyses, the results were further assessed for the impacts of brand performance inconsistency on consumers’ perceived value, sentiment and satisfaction.

The empirical results demonstrate that there are significant performance inconsistencies in performance attributes (location, sleep, cleanliness, room and service) by brands throughout the six regions in the US hotel market. More importantly, the findings confirm that brand performance consistency significantly influences consumers’ perceived service quality (i.e. perceived value, satisfaction and sentiment).

This study is one of the first attempts to empirically explore hotel brand performance consistency in the US hotel market from customer reviews on CGM. To measure hotel brand performance in the US hotel market, this study collected and analyzed user-generated big data for the top 5 US hotel chains through business intelligence, visualization analytics and statistical analysis. These integrated and novel research methods would help tourism and hospitality researchers analyze big data in an innovative data analytics approach. The findings of the study contribute to the tourism and hospitality field by confirming hotel brand performance inconsistency and such inconsistent performance affected customers’ service evaluations.

This study demonstrates the significant impact of hotel brand performance consistency on consumers’ perceived value, emotion and satisfaction. Considering that online reviews are perceived as a credible source of information, the findings suggest that the hotel industry pays special attention to brand performance consistency to improve consumers’ perceived value, emotion and satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical framework toward facilitating the quantitative measurement of interdisciplinary understanding regarding sustainable energy systems with an application in the area of capacity-building projects in higher education.

The analytical framework is developed using the portfolio representation measurement approach in combination with a survey questionnaire. The subsequent assessment is carried out using the statistical measure of mean signed deviation to capture variation from an established baseline across the project group and visualized via radar diagrams.

The results provide a quantitative assessment framework for evaluating the degree of interdisciplinary understanding in the project groups. The application of the framework to the DESIRE project indicates the most significant degree of variation across economic and regulatory dimensions of sustainability. Discrepancies in general and educational contexts are observed.

The exploitable value of the results is sensitive to the derivation of composite indicators of the dimensions defined as well as the survey design. The case study was carried out on an ex-post basis, potentially biasing the results reported and limiting their interpretability and theoretical value.

The analytical framework can be used as a basis for assessing and engaging in discussions on interdisciplinarity understanding at the outset of capacity-building projects.

The contribution of this paper is practical in scope and entails the development of a quantitative framework for measuring interdisciplinarity in the specific context of capacity-building projects in the field of sustainability research in higher education institutions.

This paper aims to investigate the patterns of and reasons for regional differences in entrepreneurship among Chinese provinces (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan).

The paper employs a linear regression model to examine determinants of regional entrepreneurship in China.

Evidence suggests that provincial differences in entrepreneurship were directly related to local business growth, but not to factors such as level of local business development, urbanisation rate, level of market economy, level of salary and ratio of unemployment. The differences among economic growth in various regions contributed directly to differences in entrepreneurship.

There is a need to determine the spatial patterns of entrepreneurship by using panel data in a more sophisticated econometric model. A further investigation of regional entrepreneurship in China is planned for the near future.

Active entrepreneurship in a region can contribute to the economic growth of the region, leading to more active enterprising activities. It is therefore argued that one of the effective ways to boost entrepreneurship and small business development is to advance the economic growth of a region.

The paper adopts an industrial location perspective on determinants of business growth and its links with regional entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to explore how organizations use annual reporting for legitimacy purposes in the context of the ten recently privatised regional water companies in the UK. Although privatization required the water plcs to establish a distinctly different organizational legitimacy for themselves as customer‐focused companies commensurate with their new private sector status, it was clear from the nature of their privatization that they would experience difficulties in achieving this. Privatization did little to change their previous monopoly character, and this created discrepancy with the model of private sector companies operating in customer‐led competitive markets.

The paper uses a content analysis of statements concerning customer service in annual reports. The analysis examines the variety of ways in which the ten water plcs deployed both assertive and defensive impression management techniques in their attempts to gain, maintain and repair their legitimacy as customer‐focused companies.

The analysis emphasises the importance of the role of corporate reporting as a resource in legitimacy management. The paper also argues that, despite sustained efforts, the water plcs did not wholly succeed in persuading all their customers that the privatization of water was “a good thing”.

The paper will be valuable to researchers and practitioners alike, as it attempts to take further one's understanding of how organizations use corporate reporting for legitimacy purposes by examining a much more extreme case of the legitimacy problem than has been previously considered in the literature: namely, the need for an entirely new basis for corporate legitimacy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the developments in final electricity consumption, estimate the portions of changes that can be attributed to national, sectoral or regional factors, and to investigate determinants of the regional component (RC) in Croatia at the subnational level in the period 2001-2013.

In the first stage, the dynamic shift-share method is used to decompose final electricity consumption, and then, in the second stage, the panel population-averaged logit model is conducted to find the main determinants of the extracted RC.

The results show that both the sectoral factor and the regional factor are responsible for an increase in electricity consumption over the period considered, whereby the regional specificities had a larger impact in general. Thereby, the most developed regions, including the tourism-oriented ones, exhibited the largest average increase in electricity consumption mainly due to positive effects of the regional-specific factors, while the negative effects of these factors were mainly responsible for low average rates of changes in electricity consumption in less developed regions.

The results suggest that regional-specific energy conservation programs might be more effective in improving energy efficiency than the sector-oriented ones, as well as that socio-economic and contextual determinants matter when it comes to the probability of having a positive regional effect on the electricity consumption rate.

The paper investigated the determinants of the extracted RC which has not yet been addressed in the energy economics literature.

This paper aims to develop a cross-border regional brand management model to help enhance cooperation for developing such localities. It analyzed its applicability in the Brazil–Argentina and Italy–Austria cross-border regions comprising several cities.

A systematic literature review was conducted to obtain a theoretical basis and select elements for creating the cross-border regional brand management (CRBM) model. To apply the model, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 specialists of different nationalities and distinct expertise on cross-border governance and regional branding. In addition, to validate the proposed model, a focus group was carried out, and specialists were consulted using forms, providing 22 additional opinions.

The results show good managerial practices and gaps that must be overcome to create and manage the brands from the two regions analyzed.

The theoretical contributions consist in extending the literature in place branding by presenting the first CRBM model and the conceptual explanation of each of the model's elements.

The study's practical implications occur through the suggestion of good management practices for the studied localities arising from the applicability of the CRBM model. Furthermore, it is expected that the model developed can be applied in other locations, bringing practical contributions to the management and creation of cross-border regional brands in other countries.

This study presents the first CRBM model and its applicability to two cross-border regions.

This paper aims to measure the potential for electronic participation of Brazilian citizens via Facebook as social media, identifying latent factors that provide a favorable environment for such participation by Brazilian municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Based on these factors, the Potential Index for Electronic Participation (PIEP) of municipalities is calculated.

The theoretical discussion is based on the literature on electronic government and citizen participation. In the methodology, exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis have been used to identify latent factors and to classify PIEP according to the clusters.

The results of the research point to serious regional discrepancies regarding the level of participation in social media, highlighting an urgent need for national e-government policies to be rethought from a regionalized point of view.

The research enhances understanding of the relation between sociodemographic indicators such as income, education, employment and those concerning the access to and effective use of social media technologies by citizens and local governments.

The purpose of this paper is to study a new pathway out of poverty for rural areas through cultivating non-farm employment: the new media utilization.

The authors utilize two waves of nationwide micro survey data in China, China General Social Survey 2005 and 2013, to investigate the impacts of new media coverage on non-farm employment and earnings in rural China with the ordered probit model and instrument variables.

The authors find that promotion of new media coverage can significantly enhance rural non-farm employment in China by 10-20 percent and ultimately increase earnings for rural residents. The findings provide new evidence for the new media as a potential newly emerging pathway out of poverty for rural areas. The conclusions are robust regarding a variety of controls and model specifications, evaluations with alternative measures, examinations within different subsamples, and estimations with constructed pseudo panels.

Encouragement of new media coverage in rural China not only can improve the rural non-farm employment and living standards but also can contribute toward narrowing the differences between urban and rural areas, thereby balancing regional development.

It contributes to the existing literature through primarily empirically investigating the economic functions of new media in rural China.

Different from the previous studies in the Sudanese literature, this study aims to examine the incidence and of food security, the variation in households' food insecurity between localities and the adaptation and survival strategy in Kassala State as a case study of Eastern Sudan.

This paper uses the measurement of Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and uses new primary data from a Food Security Household Survey in Kassala State (2019) and uses the descriptive analysis to discuss the measurement of HFIAS, the incidence of food security, the variation in households' food insecurity between localities and the adaptation and survival strategy in Kassala State.

The authors find that the majority of household (77%) are food-insecure of various degrees, with 32.9% being severely food-insecure, while some households are food-secure (23%). The authors find support for their hypothesis that there will be variation in households' food insecurity between localities that most probably relate to variation in the distribution of monthly income between localities. In particular, the authors find that most households in rural areas are severely food-insecure.

This paper provides a significant contribution to the Sudanese and international literature because it discusses the incidence of food insecurity in Sudan. Different from the two other accompanying papers that focused on the determinants of food security in Kassala State using the measurement of HFIAS and determinants of production of food and consumption of food in Kassala State, this paper focuses on the incidence of food security in Kassala State using the measurement of HFIAS.