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There are a number of impediments to consumer adoption of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), including regulatory barriers, resources, infrastructure and vehicle characteristics themselves. These impediments also impact on other stakeholders, such as government, producers (i.e. corporations), suppliers (collaborators), competition (i.e. alternative products) and activist groups. The inter‐relationships amongst all stakeholders are complex, as one group may initiate actions that serve as impediments for others. Developing systems‐based sustainable alternatives to traditional, environmentally‐harmful automobiles requires the network of relationships between stakeholders and impediments to be considered. This paper looks at the various impediments as well as how they can affect various stakeholders. It then posits a broad based integrative approach to provide the most favourable environment for consumers to consider AFVs.

Most research on greening of industry using a network approach has the firm as smallest unit of analysis. In addition, few have focused on technological regimes. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues through research on the firm‐internal network of two automotive firms, the actors, resources and activities of their networks, and how change initiatives in the firm forge and dissolve external networks of alternative regimes.

The case study is based on an insider/outsider research methodology. The specific issues of contextual and temporal boundaries in case research with a network approach were addressed through a relatively open‐ended process of inquiry during which these boundaries emerge and unfold. In terms of data collection, interviews with project team members in the two focal companies were conducted.

Failure or success is not only a matter of how the alternative regime fits into its cultural ambience in society and how successful that mutual adaptation is, but also equally of how it fits into the firm and the firm‐internal mutual adaptation. Particularly established companies may experience alternative regimes as threats to the established business, even when these regimes are developed inside the firm. In addition, the actors‐resources‐activities model reveals important resource dependencies between established technologies and the alternatives to them. Most likely, such dependencies constitute important complementary causes as to why eco‐ordering endeavors often fail.

The network approach having a mesh that goes into the firm reveals important factors to the outcome of eco‐ordering efforts. The actors‐resources‐activities analyzing tool helped find important non‐human resource dependencies.

Knowledge of green consumer behavior is important for environmental and business reasons. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants of green curtailment behaviors and consumer adoption of innovations marketed as green (eco‐innovations), and to analyze factors explaining these two types of green behaviors.

The results from a survey on adopters and non‐adopters (n=1,832) of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) are reported. Regression analysis on willingness to curtail car use and willingness to adopt a so‐called environmentally friendly car are used to identify significant determinants across the behavioral categories.

The results show that values, beliefs, norms, and habit strength determine willingness to curtail and willingness for eco‐innovation adoption. Personal norms have a strong positive influence on willingness for the behaviors and habit strength has a negative influence. The other determinants have varying influence depending on type of behavior.

A limitation of this study concerns the focus on only one eco‐innovation. However, since the adoption of AFVs is a high involvement behavior, the results carry implications for other high involvement products as well.

Attitudinal factors and habits in combination prove to be effective determinants for curtailment behaviors and willingness to adopt eco‐innovations. In addition, previous adoption is found to be a strong determinant of future willingness to adopt.

The contribution of the paper is the two‐sided approach on green consumer behavior and the result that values, beliefs and norms not only predict low involvement post‐purchase behaviors but also adoption of high involvement eco‐innovations.

The purpose of this paper rapid development of various voltage sag compensation techniques in DC bus using ultra-capacitors (UCs) provides satisfactory results when compared with required peak power demand for shorter duration. Later, UCs have been used as floating capacitors [1] [2]. Various UCs are available based on internal resistances which also rely on its manufacturing materials, similar to double layer capacitors.

This paper demonstrates UCs based voltage sag compensation at load side under different working modes of hydraulic pack (HP) in an armored fighting vehicle (AFV). The main sources to supply the HP are 24 V, 400 Ahr battery bank and 20 kW main generator. HP is considered to be the highest power load of a system. 2,500 A inrush current was drawn by HP during initial conditions, and also, this system works in both elevation and azimuth mode. Voltage sag has been varied from 15 to 24 V for different modes. But as per the military standard, electrical systems should operate between 18 and 32 V DC. Because of insufficient terminal voltage, required energy cannot be attained and supplied to the loads. The proposed topology compensated the voltage sag and maintains nominal voltage on a DC bus. The devised circuit has been verified under all possible operating loads such as continuous, intermittent and momentary. The same has been simulated using MATLAB/Simulink and was experimentally verified. The minimum voltage maintained in a DC bus is 22.2 V in simulation, while experimentally, it was 24.2 V.

For getting higher percentage of efficiency, secondary energy system configuration, mainly designed for electrical vehicles, is needed. It was implemented and same was tested with the fighting vehicle system[1]. The proposed configuration comprises of bank of an UC and a battery bank. The system was finally implemented in AFVs.

The goods vehicles made of UCs can hold very minimum energy because of minimum density of energy. The modified AFV can have minimum charging as well as discharging of rate of energy and, thus, power[3][4]. Thus, the proposed idea of modified vehicle system has influence over significant change in the state of charge.

Freeway work zones have been traffic bottlenecks that lead to a series of problems, including long travel time, high-speed variation, driver’s dissatisfaction and traffic congestion. This research aims to develop a collaborative component of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to alleviate negative effects caused by work zones.

The proposed cooperative component is incorporated in a cellular automata model to examine how and to what scale CAVs can help in improving traffic operations.

Simulation results show that, with the proposed component and penetration of CAVs, the average performances (travel time, safety and emission) can all be improved and the stochasticity of performances will be minimized too.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that develops a cooperative mechanism of CAVs to improve work zone performance.

What should a Multi‐National Corporation (MNC) like UMW Toyota Motor Sdn. Bhd. set as its targeted growth in revenue by the Year 2020 to help its host country Malaysia realise its “Vision 2020”? To survive/succeed, Toyota has to anticipate its high technology niche, which is but a “Technological Gleam” today in the eye of Toyota’s “Technical Entrepreneur”. Significant segments of corporate resources will not be committed to the “Technological Gleam” unless the “Technical Entrepreneur” can present an irresistible transformation boost converting the Technology‐Push into Market‐Pull. What will be the market for the hitech product embodying the yet‐to‐emerge hitech? What present product is closest to the potential product? Can its life cycle profile be applied to the potential product? Using the theoretical structure of the Management Of TEchnology Protocol (MOTEP), we analyze Toyota’s transition from the present hybrid fuel (gasoline‐and‐hydrogen combination) to the potential hydrogen fuel in five years.

Climate change and global warming are acknowledged to be growing issues caused by emissions of greenhouse gases. Fuel-efficient or green cars offer a technological solution to reduce CO₂ emissions from car exhaust. This study aims to draw on value–belief–norm (VBN) theory to provide an explanation of eco-socially conscious consumer behavior (ESCCB) related to the choice and use of personal cars.

The data was collected from 1,372 customers of the automobile industry of Pakistan, randomly drawn from 8 metropolitan cities. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to verify the hypotheses of the study.

By using variance-based structural equation modeling, this study showed that the VBN theory is fully supported in the cultural context of Pakistan and behavioral context of ESCCB. More specifically, personal introjected norms of the customers proved to be strong predictors of ESCCB while personal integrated norms predicted eco-social purchase intentions well.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only study of its kind that examines the VBN model in the context of a developing country, Pakistan, and for a category of behaviors rarely tested before, i.e. ESCCBs related to purchase and use of personal cars.

The purpose of this paper is to understand consumer preferences concerning electric vehicles (EV) in Portugal, based on comparisons with other vehicles with different powertrains.

The analysis incorporated two survey-based approaches: choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC) and multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) based. The survey interviewed 252 respondents. The criteria characterizing each vehicle are purchase price, range, fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. Another criterion was added to verify the potential of EV privileges to influence consumer preferences. A sensitivity analysis on the influence of purchase price and fuel price in the global utility of the vehicles was performed.

The results showed that monetary criteria are those influencing vehicle purchase decisions the most, whereas the existence of privileges for EV owners has little relevance. EV are chosen by the consumer only if their price decreases or if gasoline and diesel prices increase sharply. The position of PHEV in the rankings makes the promotion of this type of vehicle an interesting path to exploit as potential intermediates to the diffusion of EV.

The results underline the need of improving technical barriers of EV that are responsible for consumers’ relevant concerns and that a price subsidy could eventually be effective to increase EV sales at its current market price.

This study compares a wide range of vehicles (conventional, hybrid and electric), addresses the Portuguese market and proposes an MCDA-based approach to obtain preference information, which is compared with a CBC approach.

This article is seeking to explore the practical implications of an epistemological approach to strategy formulation. In doing so it tries to expand the field of knowledge management and intellectual capital beyond its operational and often inwardly technological focus to a new theory of the firm. A resource‐based perspective is suggested, using autopoietic epistemology to guide strategy formulation. People use their capacity‐to‐act in order to create value in mainly two directions; by transferring and converting knowledge externally and internally to the organisation. The value grows each time a knowledge transfer or conversion takes place. The strategy formulation issues are concerned with how to utilise the leverage and how to avoid the blockages that prevent sharing and conversion. Activities that form the backbone of a knowledge‐based strategy are to be aimed at improving the capacity‐to‐act both inside and outside the organisation.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Since the early 1960s, there has been an increasing awareness of the problems associated with the exploitation of natural resources. The automotive industry is often regarded as partly responsible for the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, despite being at the cutting edge concerning new product development practices. Automotive companies are rarely credited for their work to promote a sustainable environment.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.