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While Blockchain can serve us, Bitcoin threatens our survival. If Bitcoin is assumed to be a country, it will rank 38th globally for energy consumption. With 90.2 metric million tonnes of carbon dioxide, Bitcoin mining and trading has emerged as an environmental threat. The current study investigates how the trading-specific variables, the prices of Crypto Index and Ethereum, affect bitcoin-based energy consumption. Also, the role of mining-specific variables is analyzed.

The study uses monthly data from various sources collected from December 2018 to January 2023. The authors used the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model to determine the short- and long-term relationships between variables. This study uses the Theory of Green Marketing and the Theory of Cross Elasticity of Demand as a theoretical lens.

The findings show that escalating crypto market index and Ethereum prices with a one-month lag increases bitcoin-specific electricity consumption and carbon emissions. Green investors may shift to cryptocurrencies based on consensus other than of Proof-of-Work. Ethereum behaves like a substitute for Bitcoin, reflected by the long-term positive relationship between Bitcoin's energy consumption and Ethereum prices.

The study analyses how the crypto market index and Ethereum price affect bitcoin-based energy use. The relationships identified are substantiated by the literature to provide suggestions to green investors and policymakers to mitigate the harmful impact of Bitcoin's colossal energy consumption on the natural environment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine if the announcement of corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) induce significant effects on the electricity buyers' stock returns.

This is an event study based on the Fama French Five Factor Model which uses several significance tests and robust regression approaches.

The announced closing of corporate PPAs induces significant positive abnormal stock returns. This announcement effect is even more pronounced in case of virtual PPAs.

To the best of the author‘s knowledge, this study is the first which explictly investigates the announcement effects of corporate PPAs, which are closed between the owner of the renewable energy asset and the institutional end consumer. In addition, this study extends the event study approach by robust regression methods.

This article aims to optimise energy use and consumption by integrating Lean Six Sigma methodology with the ISO 50001 energy management system standard in an Irish dairy plant operation.

This work utilised Lean Six Sigma methodology to identify methods to measure and optimise energy consumption. The authors use a single descriptive case study in an Irish dairy as the methodology to explain how DMAIC was applied to reduce energy consumption.

The replacement of heavy oil with liquid natural gas in combination with the new design of steam boilers led to a CO₂ footprint reduction of almost 50%.

A further longitudinal study would be useful to measure and monitor the energy management system progress and carry out more case studies on LSS integration with energy management systems across the dairy industry.

The novelty of this study is the application of LSS in the dairy sector as an enabler of a greater energy-efficient facility, as well as the testing of the DMAIC approach to meet a key objective for ISO 50001 accreditation.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is the worst pandemic in recent memory in terms of its economic and social impacts. Deadly second wave of COVID-19 in India shook the country and reshaped the ways organizations functions and societies behave. Medical infrastructure was unaffordable and unsupportive which created high distress in the Indian society, especially for poor. At this juncture, some pharmaceutical firms made a unique social investment when they reduced price of drugs used to treat COVID-19 patients. This study aims to examine how the market and the society respond to the price reduction announcement during the psychological distress of COVID-19.

Market reactions have been analyzed by conducting an event study on stock market data and visual analytics-based sentiment analysis on Twitter data.

Overall, this study finds positive abnormal returns on the day and around the day of event. Interestingly, this study finds that returns during the time of high distress are significantly higher. Sentiment analysis conveys that net sentiment is favorable to the pharmaceutical firms around the day of event and it sustains more during the time of high distress.

This study is unique in contributing to the business and industrial management literature by highlighting market reactions to social responsibility of business during the time of psychological distress in emerging economies.

This study reviews existing cryptocurrency research to provide answers to three puzzles in the literature. First, is cryptocurrency more like gold (i.e., a commodity) or should it be classified as a new financial asset? Second, can we apply our knowledge of the traditional capital market to the emerging cryptocurrency market? Third, what might be the future of cryptocurrency?

Bibliometric analysis is used to assess 2,098 finance-related cryptocurrency publications from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database from January 2009 to April 2022. Three key research streams are identified, namely, (1) cryptocurrency features, (2) behaviour of the cryptocurrency market and (3) blockchain implications.

First, cryptocurrency should be viewed and regulated as a new asset class rather than a currency or a new commodity. While it can provide diversification benefits to the portfolio, cryptocurrency cannot work as a safe haven asset. Second, crypto markets are typically inefficient. Asset bubbles exist and are exacerbated by behavioural finance factors. Third, cryptocurrency demonstrates increasing potential as a medium of exchange and store of value.

Extant review papers primarily study one or two particular research topics, overlooking the interaction between topics. The few existing systematic literature reviews in this area typically have a narrow focus on trend identification. This study is the first study to provide a comprehensive review of all financial-related studies on cryptocurrency, synthesising the research findings from 2,098 publications to answer three cryptocurrency puzzles.

This chapter examines the potential of solar energy for the development of sustainable tourism in Croatia. Tourism is an important economic activity in the Croatian economy due to the mild climate and many sunny days. Solar energy photovoltaic and thermal systems can help to support sustainable tourism, as well as increase employment and cooperation between local and national governments. This study compares best practices in solar energy for the Mediterranean countries of Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Greece. The Mediterranean Basin is a strategic development area for the European Union, and solar energy will help to maintain its stability and high-quality standards of living.

The malfunction variables of power stations are related to the areas of weather, physical structure, control and load behaviour. To predict temporal power failure is difficult due to their unpredictable characteristics. As high accuracy is normally required, the estimation of failures of short-term temporal prediction is highly difficult. This study presents a method for converting stochastic behaviour into a stable pattern, which can subsequently be used in a short-term estimator. For this conversion, K-means clustering is employed, followed by Long-Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) algorithms are used to perform the Short-term estimation. The environment, the operation and the generated signal factors are all simulated using mathematical models. Weather parameters and load samples have been collected as part of a data set. Monte-Carlo simulation using MATLAB programming has been used to conduct experimental estimation of failures. The estimated failures of the experiment are then compared with the actual system temporal failures and found to be in good match. Therefore, for any future power grid, there is a testbed ready to estimate the future failures.

The learning outcomes of this case study are to understand the business model canvas and value propositions and apply advanced business innovation tools in electric vehicle business models; evaluate the current cargo vehicle scenarios at national and global levels and draw out the possibilities and costs for a new player; extrapolate the future scenario of the cargo economy, its electrification and positioning in a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) segment, especially for a developing economy; and improve the student’s ability to get organisational buy-in and execute new business models.

LoadExx is a fully electrified electric cargo service focusing on logistics in Kolkata, a metropolitan city in the eastern part of the country. The service of LoadExx commenced in January 2021 in the B2B segment after overcoming its then issues of driver hesitancy and customer anxiety and financial issues to adopt electrified cargo systems. The conundrum faced by LoadExx in its commencement thus had been solved under the able guidance of its owner Amit Arora. The case study was positioned four months after the commencement of LoadExx. To gain market power and traction, Arora and his team came up with the idea of market expansion. However, the current conundrum was whether LoadExx would enter the B2C segment in its current location or expand with the same business model to other parts of the country. The expansion was to be implemented in the immediate future to retain its rarity and reduce the imitability of the business model of LoadExx. This case study details the logistics and market operations of the cargo sector, especially electric cargo, in a developing economy, especially India. A teaching note supplementing the “Cracking the conundrum of e-cargo logistics: curious case of LoadExx” case study has been provided.

This case study is designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students and senior management professionals in executive education programmes undertaking courses in logistics management and supply chain operations and related cargo logistics courses. This case study denotes integrating key processes from end-users and gaining the trust of drivers, thereby showing the perspective of the plight and conundrums of a cargo aggregator working in the B2C segment. This case study could be used to discuss concepts related to not-for-profit firms, aggregators, policymakers and think tanks.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the first quarter of 2020 has caused a severe decline in stock markets worldwide. While prior studies in developed markets found that workplace closure can negatively impact the capital market (e.g. Ozili and Arun, 2020), lesser is known about how it impacts emerging capital markets, which may have different characteristics and behaviour (Harjoto et al., 2021). Hence, this study seeks to uncover stock performance around workplace closure dates of firms incorporated in ASEAN countries and investigates the role of accounting fundamentals in mitigating workplace closure policy's effects on stock performances.

Using an event study methodology, the authors measure the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around workplace closure dates. The authors then use cross-sectional analysis to analyse whether the accounting fundamentals, specifically profitability, cash flow, and leverage, are associated with the CAR. This cross-sectional study involves 1,720 firms that are incorporated in the ASEAN countries.

This analysis indicates that, on average, ASEAN capital markets react negatively to workplace closure policies. The authors then find that the CARs around workplace closure dates are positively associated with the current ratios and are negatively associated with long-term debt ratios. This study’s results thus indicate that firms with a higher liquidity and a higher solvency experience a less adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic than other firms. The authors also find that the associations are more robust for (1) firms in industries more affected by COVID-19 and (2) firms located in countries with more severe cases. Additionally, contrary to this study’s expectation, the authors do not find meaningful associations between CARs around workplace closure dates and firms' cash flow from operation and profit respectively. This study’s results suggest that investors view prior performances related to firms' ability to generate operating cash flow and profit as less relevant to measure firm performance around the workplace closure event.

This study’s results contribute to studies examining fundamental accounting roles during the COVID-19 era, specifically in emerging economies. The findings are critical for investors in understanding the company fundamentals associated with stock price performance in emerging markets during the recent health-related crisis.

Most studies analysing cross-sectional differences in stock returns during the COVID-19 era focus on industry-level differences and use observations from developed markets (Sinagl, 2020; Ramelli and Wagner, 2020). Studies using firm-level analysis in emerging markets are still limited. The authors expand prior studies by using firm-level analysis that spans six countries in ASEAN.

This study aims to map and analyze health-care pricing information research. This work highlights current gap in pricing information research in health care and proposes future research avenues to academia and industry professionals.

A bibliometric method was adopted to analyze extant literature on pricing information asymmetry. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders in health care to triangulate the findings.

Pricing information is crucial for all stakeholders including health-care consumers, providers and regulators. The popular research areas were the rising health-care cost, cost-saving, outcome-based pricing, price based on service supply and demand, insurance and out-of-pocket spending. Cost–quality perceived linkages, cost–demand correlation in health-care service and cost–price interlinked drivers were the dominant themes in extant literature. The study highlighted that pricing information asymmetry pushed patients from weaker sections into a debt trap due to unplanned out-of-pocket health-care expenses. The study suggests areas of research to minimize this pricing information asymmetry.

The emerging themes in health pricing asymmetry will help key stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and take remedial actions in the health-care domain.

This study is a pioneering effort to summarize extant literature published in the health-care information pricing domain and analyze it from a bibliometric perspective. The study also triangulates the finding with primary data from key stakeholders and highlights emerging research areas.