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1 – 10 of 848Gonzalo Díaz Meneses and Asunción Beerli Palacio
The objective of this research is not only to provide a new theoretical framework to overcome doctrinal inconsistencies related to the reward recycling technique but also to…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this research is not only to provide a new theoretical framework to overcome doctrinal inconsistencies related to the reward recycling technique but also to empirically contrast the proposed explanations.
Design/methodology/approach
This research follows a quasi‐experimental design. This type of treatment comprises the application of a draw‐based prize technique. A questionnaire was issued to gather the information from a sample with 123 individuals. The approach is quantitative.
Findings
It was found that recycling behaviour has become a routine or habit with recognized awareness of ecology and recycling, but without a high level of involvement, since today's adoption process does not require such effort. This implies that the efficacy of the reward technique has been transformed and consequently its effects must be understood differently. To be specific, responders and non‐responders are similar, in terms of their levels of beliefs about recycling, ecological concern and involvement with recycling, and both show the same model of adoption with a low hierarchy of effect and with a few minor differences. Nevertheless there is only one difference between sustainers and non‐sustainers, namely, the sustainers’ greater ecological concern before the promotion application.
Research limitations/implications
The non‐existence of a control group is a limitation with the result that the validity of the experiment is not being totally checked.
Originality/value
This research provides some empirical evidence challenging some old presumptions concerning the understanding of recycling.
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In this world of complexity, disruption, multi-layered crises and insecurity, people seek orientation, stability and meaning. This desire exists in everyday life, in working…
Abstract
In this world of complexity, disruption, multi-layered crises and insecurity, people seek orientation, stability and meaning. This desire exists in everyday life, in working environments and even more in vacation time. Therefore, the way we see the world and how we interact with each other and with nature should also be reflected by tourist destinations. ‘Destination Conscience’ seems to be a promising conception that offers the desired contemporary design of destination realities and travel experiences. Accordingly, destinations and their products should be characterised by authenticity, meaning, sensitivity and humaneness on all levels. In this chapter, the concept of ‘integral ecology’ as a holistic worldview and new paradigm is presented. Integral ecology can be a source of perception and wisdom that enriches the ‘conscience’ of a destination and all its actors. Hence, this chapter addresses the question of how integral ecology can contribute to Destination Conscience. The essay uses the methods of literature review, application, transfer and case study.
Firstly, the concept of integral ecology will be presented. In the second part, this worldview will be applied to destinations. The enrichment of Destination Conscience by the principles of integral ecology can manifest in the destination's self-image and in the interaction in business relations and business actions. It can find expression in the operational management, organisation and development of a destination and in the design of the touristic services and products. In the third part, the case study of a Catholic monastery in the Altmühltal will be presented for further illustration.
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Bronislaw Buczek and Anna Zajezierska
The aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of reusing frying oil, obtained during thermal treatment of food in fast-food restaurants for production of plastic…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of reusing frying oil, obtained during thermal treatment of food in fast-food restaurants for production of plastic greases.
Design/methodology/approach
In accordance with the proposed research concept, the used frying oil was to be the base oil of biodegradable plastic greases thickened with calcium 12-hydroxystearate and lithium 12-hydroxystearate. These studies included the determination of the effect of variable amounts of used oil component in the base oil on the properties of the resultant plastic greases.
Findings
It was found that the optimum amount of the component in the base oil is 10-15 per cent. Calcium and lithium greases prepared in such a way possess a quality to that of greases prepared with fresh rapeseed oil.
Research limitations/implications
Higher concentrations of used frying oil in the base oil adversely affect the degree of thickening, thixotropic properties and dropping point of the grease, as well as, creating technological problems.
Practical implications
The investigations, beside their research goals have also a practical character – recycling waste material in place of its present method of disposal.
Originality/value
One of the least expensive material, and most commonly used to produce biodegradable lubricants are vegetable oils. In recent years, besides introducing biodegradable lubricating oils, increasing interest is observed in the use of plastic greases of high biodegradability. Now, it is possible to obtain such greases with additive of used frying oils. Biodegradable greases are used as lubrication of open gear, food production equipment, central lubrication system in cars and railway engineering.
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Aldo Leopold's idea of a land ethic was inspired by his work in game management. The land ethic merged ecology with an aesthetic and ethical sensibility. This chapter traces the…
Abstract
Aldo Leopold's idea of a land ethic was inspired by his work in game management. The land ethic merged ecology with an aesthetic and ethical sensibility. This chapter traces the origins of the idea to Leopold's efforts to devise incentives for private landowners to share their land with wildlife. Scholars have failed to account for how Leopold's affection for the institution of private property shaped his ethical philosophy. Although the land ethic is conventionally understood as a defense of the rights of animals, plants, and the environment they inhabit, it was also a defense of property rights. The limitations of the land ethic as philosophical basis of wildlife management and conservation stem from these contradictory purposes. Although Leopold's ecological aesthetic may help people to visualize an alternative to the violent simplification and diminished biodiversity of the modern form of capitalist agricultural commodity production, his emphasis on voluntary mechanisms has detracted from the objective of liberating wildlife and the land they inhabit from human exploitation.
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The purpose of this paper is to document the contribution of alternative forms of tourism in the eco-development of mountain areas with rich natural and cultural environment.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to document the contribution of alternative forms of tourism in the eco-development of mountain areas with rich natural and cultural environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows two methods: first, bibliographical research and second, personal fieldwork and study which included interviews with the local body and citizens; collection of information from public agencies; research of the particular characteristics of the natural and cultural environment and registration of socioeconomic activities; visits in the villages, photographing of landscapes and traditional houses and data from the author’s participation in the research program “Possibilities of a self-reliant local development, respecting the environment“, which refers to the mountainous region of Xanthi Prefecture District and with the involvement of Greek and German scientists.
Findings
The utilization of the existing tourism resources of the region with ecological perception, combined with the excellent management of the two national parks, will contribute to eco-agritourism in the eco-development of the area. The ecological center in Drymia, with its completion and expansion to a European Ecological Centre, in direct connection with the national parks, will contribute significantly to the attraction of Greek and European researchers and eco-agritourists.
Originality/value
The scientific community has not thoroughly studied the region of Drymia, which presents unique ecological interest in Greece and Europe.
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There is limited research that utilizes the consequential‐conflictual (CC) approaches, which utilized radical orientation of double loop, second order and reorientation of…
Abstract
Purpose
There is limited research that utilizes the consequential‐conflictual (CC) approaches, which utilized radical orientation of double loop, second order and reorientation of organizational learning strategies. Both the functional‐institutional (FI) and CC approaches are integrated with the sustainability and ecological resources management literature. The aim of this paper is to fill this research gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies FI and CC sociological approaches.
Findings
This paper's contribution to the managerial auditing education literature is based on the proposition that ethics education can improve the moral and ethical reasoning of auditors, when the educational processes incorporate both the FI and CC sociological organizational learning strategies. The paper suggests that ethics education in auditing could benefit from experiential teaching methods utilized in allied applied disciplines of medicine, engineering, and educational psychology.
Research limitations/implications
Sociological approaches have been commonly applied in behavioral managerial accounting and control systems research. This paper extends the FI and CC framework to ethics education in managerial auditing research.
Practical implications
The subject of accounting ethics education is important to auditors. When accounting ethics education utilizes both the FI and CC teaching approaches, the managerial auditing education processes become interactive and cooperative by bringing experiential organizational experiences to the classroom.
Originality/value
Accounting ethics education is shaped by ecological and environmental sustainability concerns. Recently, business school interest and growth in sustainability management has contributed to the integration of ethics education in managerial auditing and accounting contexts, overcoming the shortcomings accounting programs experienced from stand‐alone ethics courses.
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Ioannis Papadopoulos, Glykeria Karagouni, Marios Trigkas and Evanthia Platogianni
The purpose of this paper is to study the possibility of promoting certified timber coming from sustainable managed forests, in order to support Greek enterprises and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the possibility of promoting certified timber coming from sustainable managed forests, in order to support Greek enterprises and the institutions of the Greek timber sector involved to apply effective green marketing methods and policies.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a prototype questionnaire, specifically structured for the aim of the research, 55 responses were collected from Greek timber enterprises in April 2009. The questionnaires were processed and analyzed with the statistical program SPSS of ver17.0, using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The main purpose was the investigation of knowledge, use and promotion of certified timber that emanates from forests under sustainable management, thus planning the green marketing.
Findings
The Greek enterprises of the timber sector expressed a great interest in the protection of forests all over the world, ranging from illegal loggings to their rational management. At the same time, in their overwhelming majority, they strongly support the certification of the sustainable management of Greek forests. These enterprises believe that the movement of green buildings has also reached Greece, albeit at a slow pace, and forecast that green consumers are prone to offer an additional percentage of about 6 per cent on price, in order to buy certified timber products. Companies trust to a high degree most institutions of higher education (universities and technological institutions) for the promotion of certified timber products and propose their publicity through newspapers and magazines, as well as through internet portals of close contact. Finally, the paper discusses reflections and forecasts on the growth of this new market of timber.
Practical implications
The results offer precious knowledge on the market of certified timber and its future developments in the following five years, which can assist both enterprises and the institutions involved in strategy forming and decision making, in order to gain an important share of the market of green consumers. The paper also proposes effective green marketing applications.
Originality/value
This is the first research on green marketing and the promotion of certified products of timber in the Greek market, while similar work is very limited even at an international level.
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Plato and Aristotle would have found the modern effort to fuse ethics and ecology to be incomprehensible. Despite the fact that oikos—meaning house or household—is a Greek word…
Abstract
Plato and Aristotle would have found the modern effort to fuse ethics and ecology to be incomprehensible. Despite the fact that oikos—meaning house or household—is a Greek word, Greek science did not entertain a concept of ecology. Nor did Greek philosophy regard nature as morally considerable. Etymology aside, the word ecology in anything like its modern sense of “biospheric house” did not appear in European thought until 1873 when Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, a German biologist and philosopher, used it, with the spelling “Oekologie,” in his The History of Creation. Furthermore, the words “ecology” and “ecological” always had exclusive reference, until quite recently, to a scientific discipline and not to a branch of philosophy. As with the Classical Greek philosophers, so it was also with modern thinkers. Ethics, they held, were concerned solely with interpersonal relations. They could not, therefore, recognize a duty to nature. That we do owe a duty to nature, however, is the carefully considered conclusion of most of the environmental ethicists.
Tom Lombardo and Ray Todd Blackwood
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, given contemporary global challenges and trends, the central goal for the future of higher education should be to facilitate the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, given contemporary global challenges and trends, the central goal for the future of higher education should be to facilitate the development of wise cyborgs.
Design/methodology/approach
Contemporary global challenges are identified. A theory of wisdom and wisdom‐based education is outlined, highlighting the development of character virtues and enhanced future consciousness. It is demonstrated that a wisdom‐based education is necessary for addressing global challenges. The intimate evolutionary connection between human intelligence and technology is described, including a general definition of a cyborg. The concept of a wise cyborg is described. Examples are provided regarding how to facilitate the educational development of the wise cyborg.
Findings
Solutions to modern global challenges require a synthesis of holistic, integrative, future‐focused, and ethical thinking – all qualities of wisdom. The qualities of wisdom can be described analytically and addressed educationally. Humans have purposely enhanced their functional capacities through technology throughout history. Humans are cyborgs and the intimate functional synthesis of the biological and technological will further develop in the future. Wise people in the future will be wise cyborgs. Educational methods can be identified that facilitate the development of wise cyborgs.
Originality/value
Wisdom, a concept traditionally associated with philosophy and spiritual thinking, is connected with technological evolution. An educational approach is described which synthesizes wisdom and character virtues with future consciousness and technological proficiency. This educational model is applied to creating individuals who can successfully address the problems of today and tomorrow.
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This conceptual paper focusses on climate change as a social issue and therefore as a social scientific problem. According to young climate activists, Greta Thunberg being the…
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual paper focusses on climate change as a social issue and therefore as a social scientific problem. According to young climate activists, Greta Thunberg being the most widely known, climate change is specifically a problem of generations. Typically, the discourse on responsibility focusses on the technical and philosophical questions posed by the study into “intra-” and “inter-generational justice”. It is the purpose of this paper to present sociological conceptual tools with which to both analyze and propose solutions to specific social problems caused by current generations that will affect future generations.
Design/methodology/approach
Figurational process sociology develops and tests models of long-term, unplanned developments, which produce the conditions in which short-term practices of informing and planning social interventions are bound up.
Findings
The paper reveals the significance of sociological models that can describe and explain social processes and long-term developments in human habitus that have important explanatory value for understanding contemporary social problems such as human-caused climate change.
Originality/value
The concepts and analytical frames of reference provided by figurational process sociology provide crucial insights into the problem of generations and can help reveal how this social dynamic contributes to challenges facing young climate activists calling for rapid “ecologization” processes and increased human restraint with regard to the natural environment.
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