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11 – 20 of 842Flavio Hourneaux Jr, Marcelo Luiz da Silva Gabriel and Dolores Amalia Gallardo-Vázquez
The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimum set of indicators to be measured by industrial companies to represent the triple bottom line (TBL) approach.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimum set of indicators to be measured by industrial companies to represent the triple bottom line (TBL) approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is both descriptive and quantitative. Three hypotheses establish associations among the degrees of use of TBL indicators and their different degrees of use in firms. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to validate the scale and structural equation modelling to represent the final measurement model. The survey gathered 149 industrial companies.
Findings
The results pointed out that there are positive associations among the degree of use of environmental indicators and social indicators, economic, environmental and social indicators have different degrees of use in firms, a positive association between the degree of use of environmental and social indicators and the use of economic indicators was not confirmed. The findings suggest how to measure sustainable performance for industrial companies and highlight the differences in the degree of use for the three dimensions of TBL.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations refer to the non-probabilistic sample, applied in a specific context, industrial companies.
Practical implications
This set of indicators is intended to be used by industrial companies as a reliable instrument to sustainable performance assessment of the current stage of the TBL deployment and provide alternative approaches to address specific issues related to the environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Social implications
The results offer tangible results for measuring and reporting firm’s social and environmental performance.
Originality/value
This paper intends to offer an integrated and consistent way of measuring sustainability in industrial companies.
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Luna Leoni, Matteo Cristofaro, Koteshwar Chirumalla and Stephen Dobson
Jared France, Julie Milovanovic, Tripp Shealy and Allison Godwin
This paper aims to explore the differences in first-year and senior engineering students’ engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainable development. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the differences in first-year and senior engineering students’ engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainable development. The authors also sought to understand how topics related to sustainable development in engineering courses affect senior engineering students’ goals to address these issues in their careers. This work provides evidence of how students’ agency beliefs may be shaped by higher education, which is essential to workforce development.
Design/methodology/approach
Findings stem from two national surveys of engineering first-year (Sustainability and Gender in Engineering, n = 7,709) and senior students (Student Survey about Career Goals, College Experiences, n = 4,605). The authors compared both groups using pairwise testing by class standing.
Findings
The results indicate that undergraduate studies tend to reinforce students’ engineering agency beliefs to improve their quality of life and preserve the environment. Significantly more senior students selected career goals to address environmental issues compared to first-year students. In general, students undervalue their roles as engineers in addressing issues related to social inequities. Those topics are rarely addressed in engineering courses. Findings from this work suggest discussing sustainability in courses positively impact setting career goals to address such challenges.
Research limitations/implications
The study compares results from two distinct surveys, conveyed at different periods. Nonetheless, the sample size and national spread of respondents across US colleges and universities are robust to offer relevant insights on sustainable development in engineering education.
Practical implications
Adapting engineering curriculum by ensuring that engineering students are prepared to confront global problems related to sustainable development in their careers will have a positive societal impact.
Social implications
This study highlights shortcomings of engineering education in promoting social and economic sustainability as related to the engineering field. Educational programs would benefit from emphasizing the interconnectedness of environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. This approach could increase diversity in engineering education and the industry, and by ripple effect, benefit the communities and local governance.
Originality/value
This work is a first step toward understanding how undergraduate experiences impact students’ engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainability. It explores potential factors that could increase students’ engineering agency and goals to make a change through engineering.
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Federico Barravecchia, Fiorenzo Franceschini, Luca Mastrogiacomo and Mohamed Zaki
The paper attempts to address the following research questions (RQs): RQ1: What are the main research topics within PSS research? RQ2: What are future trends for PSS research?
Abstract
Purpose
The paper attempts to address the following research questions (RQs): RQ1: What are the main research topics within PSS research? RQ2: What are future trends for PSS research?
Design/methodology/approach
Twenty years of research (1999–2018) on product-service systems (PSS) produced a significant amount of scientific literature on the topic. As the PSS field is relatively new and fragmented across different disciplines, a review of the prior and relevant literature is important in order to provide the necessary framework for understanding current developments and future perspectives. This paper aims to review and organize research contributions regarding PSS. A machine-learning algorithm, namely Latent Dirichlet Allocation, has been applied to the whole literature corpus on PSS in order to understand its structure.
Findings
The adopted approach resulted in the definition of eight distinct and representative topics able to deal adequately with the multidisciplinarity of the PSS. Furthermore, a systematic review of the literature is proposed to summarize the state-of-the-art and limitations in the identified PSS research topics. Based on this critical analysis, major gaps and future research challenges are presented and discussed.
Originality/value
On the basis of the results of the topic landscape, the paper presents some potential research opportunities on PSSs. In particular, challenges, transversal to the eight research topics and related to recent technology trends and digital transformation, have been discussed.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop a new understanding of the multidimensionality of the knowledge worker of the future, and develop an approach to building the mind/brain…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a new understanding of the multidimensionality of the knowledge worker of the future, and develop an approach to building the mind/brain infrastructure in support of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The many dimensions of the mind/brain are explored as they specifically relate to knowledge work in a changing, uncertain, complex, anxious (CUCA) environment. Along the way four tenets are forwarded that directly impact the knowledge worker, leading to a discussion of building the infrastructure (capacities) of the mind/brain in support of sustainability.
Findings
As the close relationship among the characteristics of the Net Generation and those characteristics that support survival in a CUCA world is looked at, it appears that the future of knowledge work is close at hand and in the right hands. There is already a level of co‐evolving with the environment that is occurring in the Net Generation. Four tenets are forwarded and supported: in a CUCA environment capacity is more important than capability for sustainability over time; through continuous connectivity and engagement in conversation and dialogue (a search for meaning), the Net Generation is developing a wide array of shallow knowledge; knowledge workers coming of age in the global world are mentally stimulated by interactions involving diverse views, perspectives, concepts and cultures and are not bounded by local ideas; and thoughts and feelings can nurture, develop, and change the infrastructure of the mind/brain/body system. Eight capacities that support sustainability are introduced.
Originality/value
The paper looks at the new (Net) generation of knowledge workers from the viewpoint of the mind/brain. It introduces the idea of capacities in support of building the mind/brain infrastructure.
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Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu, Teddy Ossei Kwakye, Edem Emerald Welbeck and Charles Gyamfi Ofori
This study examines the multidimensionality of the environmental literacy concept among university business students in Ghana. The study also investigates the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the multidimensionality of the environmental literacy concept among university business students in Ghana. The study also investigates the relationship between students’ interests in environmental issues and knowledge levels of environment and assesses how these two constructs influence students overall environmental behaviour and actions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a total of 591 business students from the University of Ghana Business School, the study uses exploratory factor analysis to examine the multidimensionality of environmental literacy concept. A structural equation modelling-based approach was used to examine the relationship among the study constructs.
Findings
Based on the factor analysis results, the study documents that environmental literacy concept can be grouped under four distinct factors (general environmental factors; industry-related factors; environmental assessment factors; and accounting-related factors). The regression results indicate a direct and positive relationship between students’ interest in environmental issues and their environmental literacy level. Also, students’ interest and their knowledge levels of environmental issues were found to be good predictors of actual students’ involvement in activities that promote sustainable environment.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusions of the study are based on only data from one public university, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
Originality/value
The study is unique as it is the first empirical study to investigate environmental literacy levels in higher education in the Ghanaian setting.
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Siti Aqilah Jahari, Ashley Hass, Izian Binti Idris and Mathew Joseph
Promoting sustainable behavior is an elusive task as it is not an innate and natural response of individuals. While a conducive environment that promotes sustainability arguably…
Abstract
Purpose
Promoting sustainable behavior is an elusive task as it is not an innate and natural response of individuals. While a conducive environment that promotes sustainability arguably plays a prominent role in influencing individuals’ belief structure and norms, not much has been done to examine the interplay between environmental, personal and behavioral domains in sustainable consumption. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of the social cognitive theory (SCT) and value–beliefs–norms (VBN), this study aims to contribute to the literature by proposing an integrated framework that examines sustainable consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a partial least squares structural equation modeling model based on 313 young consumer responses from an eco-friendly institution in Malaysia.
Findings
The findings from this study advance sustainable literature by establishing the multidimensionality concept of the personal domain of SCT. Interestingly, an enabling environment that promotes sustainability was found to be more influential in determining young consumers’ beliefs and norms, as opposed to their competencies. This is demonstrated by the sequential mediation of attribution of responsibility and personal norms on the relationship between campus advertisements and pro-environmental behaviors.
Originality/value
Previous research has investigated SCT and VBN as two separate streams of research in examining green behaviors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that integrates SCT and VBN by examining the multidimensionality aspect of the personal construct to provide a more holistic perspective of examining sustainable behaviors.
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Tai-Yi Yu, Jeou-Shyan Horng, Chih-Hsing Liu, Sheng-Fang Chou, Ming-Tsung Lee, Yung-Chuan Huang and Maria Carmen B. Lapuz
This study attempts to fill the research gap by extending sustainability literature and providing empirical evidence that considers sustainability marketing commitment (SMC) as a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to fill the research gap by extending sustainability literature and providing empirical evidence that considers sustainability marketing commitment (SMC) as a fundamental attribute of effective marketing strategy that consequently improves tourism service quality, as represented by service attractiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
In the current study, data was collected from 313 tourism and hospitality firms. To test the model, this study applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationships among environmental strategy, SMC, supplier trust and service attractiveness in a mediation-moderation setting.
Findings
The results indicate that the multiple mediation effects of environmental strategy may indirectly influence tourist attractiveness through SMC and tourism services. The two-way moderating effects reveal that supplier trust and socialization strengthen the service attractiveness development process, while three-way interaction discovered that socialization and supplier trust positively moderate the relationships between tourism services and service attractiveness.
Originality/value
Sustainable strategy is a future trend for tourism business management; however, unknown to most is the role of marketing and environmental strategy in tourism business due to lack of integration with concepts in marketing strategy, with the multidimensionality of tourism services, and with the function of trust and socialization, critically undermining analyses of service attractiveness. This paper combines corporate sustainability and sustainability marketing methods to explore how an environmental strategy can improve tourism services and enhance a destination's attractiveness based on a mediation-moderation mechanism.
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This work aims to establish the relationship between painting art and sustainability, which allows for highlighting implications likely to improve sustainability for humanity's…
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to establish the relationship between painting art and sustainability, which allows for highlighting implications likely to improve sustainability for humanity's welfare.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this objective, painting art is measured by a composite index aggregating the quantity and quality represented by the market value. As for sustainable development, it is represented by a composite index comprising three variables: the climate change performance index (ecological dimension), the wage index reflecting distributive justice (social dimension) and the gross domestic product (economic dimension). The composite indices were determined through adjusted data envelopment analysis. In addition, two other methods are used in this work: correlation analysis and a neural network method. These methods are applied to data from 2007 to 2021 across the world.
Findings
The correlation method highlighted a perfect positive correlation between painting art and sustainability. As for the neural network method, it revealed that the quality of painting has the greatest impact on sustainability. The neural network method also showed that the most positively impacted variable of sustainability by painting art is the social variable, with a pseudo-probability of 0.90.
Originality/value
The relationship between painting art and sustainability is underexplored, in particular in terms of statistical analysis. Therefore, this research intends to fill this gap. Moreover, analysis of the relationship between both using composite indices computed via an original method (adjusted data envelopment analysis) and a neural network method is nonexistent, which constitutes the novelty of this work.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2023-0006
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Msafiri Njoroge, Wineaster Anderson, Lena Mossberg and Omari Mbura
The purpose of this study is to identify and validate indicators of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the hospitality industry, as well as to examine its dimensionality in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify and validate indicators of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the hospitality industry, as well as to examine its dimensionality in the context of emerging economies with a specific focus on tourist hotels in Tanzania.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a mixed-method approach for data collection and analysis. The qualitative study involved 20 in-depth interviews with hotel managers. Based on interview insights, indicators of EO were identified and applied in contextualizing the study and develop the survey questionnaires. The second phase, which was quantitative in nature involved a survey of hotels (n = 346) in the Coastal and Northern tourist circuits of Tanzania for validation and generalization. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to analyze the quantitative data.
Findings
EO in the studied context consists of proactive-risk-taking, innovativeness and competition approach. Hotels focus on proactive and risk-taking efforts concurrently, undertake wide-ranging acts; pursue bold and risk decisions in exploiting opportunities; being proactive on opportunity exploration but less emphasis on initiation speed on actions of competitors. Innovativeness focuses on providing quality services; standardization of services; product introduction; and technological advancements. Besides, the conventional dimensions, hotels use competition approach geared at extensive marketing; customer management; and flexibility in pricing based on competition. EO also exhibits multidimensionality with its dimensions exhibiting moderate-to-high correlations and with acceptable discriminant validity.
Practical implications
The study’s findings imply that EO and its respective indicators confirmed in western contexts are not necessarily a perfect reflection and applicable in the hospitality industry in emerging economies like Tanzania. Hospitality firms must be vigilant with contextual characteristics – economically, socially and culturally shaping entrepreneurial opportunities.
Originality/value
This study identifies and validates indicators of EO in the hospitality industry in emerging economies. Moreover, the study adds to the body of knowledge that EO in this context is also multidimensional in nature.
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