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Affluence and material goods of varying types are portents of a millennium age consumer culture that encourages the masses to voluntarily participate in the need to buy, buy and buy! This trend to spend creates a purchasing fervour that preoccupies many consumers with the ongoing yearning to shop until they drop. Clever marketing tactics such as enticing smells, catchy jingles, prize-draw entries, lucrative sales, discounts and the recruitment of celebrities to advertise a range of different wares are just some of the ploys adopted by vendors and retailers to maintain the sustainability of this cycle of consumer spending. This scenario promotes what could be perceived as a never-ending desire to procure yet more products and merchandise, which can create social dilemmas such as personal debt due to, for example, impulse buying, excessive spending and unnecessary borrowing.

Retailers and manufacturers are driven by a quest to sell so constantly tout their goods to tempt consumers including those with a need for personal and social respect, to take the bait in order to encourage them to keep buying. This, coupled with the rapid advances in technology over recent decades, has made it easier for consumers to shop, order, obtain and pay for their goods from the comfort of an armchair or via handheld devices, and all at a tap of a button. In essence, technology has added to, or even exacerbated, the materialistic consumer trend as witnessed across many global societies today – from the east and the west to the north and the south. But what impact does consumerism have on the well-being of humankind and, in turn, the environment? This chapter adopts a comparative approach to answer this question by exploring the implications of consumerism as a means for broadening the topic’s framework and to contribute to debates regarding consumerism, well-being, social dilemma, sustainability and techno-economics.

This research aims to assess and compare project-based learning (PBL) designs to deliver technopreneur in higher education, as a case student of the Industrial Engineering Department. So, it can facilitate students who play a role in facilitating the process of technological transformation so the student knows well how to solve the problem of commercialization.

Undergraduate students of Industrial Engineering teams were given hands-on, collaborative projects conducted with two incubation centers, such as the Technology Incubator Center from the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (AAAT) from the government of Indonesia and the Centre of Excellence for Electrical Energy Storage Technology (CEfEEST) from Sebelas Maret University (UNS), Indonesia. After completing the project, students will develop a final project which will become the basis for evaluating the implementation of PBL. The basis for the assessment uses a rubric designed through three sub-assessments: curriculum planning, report and presentation. This research uses the paired t-test method to see the average difference between the two groups of PBL in pairs and compare based on assessment results.

Implementing PBL between the two incubation centers (AAAT and CEfEEST) based on paired t-tests for each rubric assessment indicator showed most of them were significantly related. The assessment result gives the alternative to design the proposed PBL from AAAT, CEfEEST and a blended scenario for technopreneur education in the future.

The experiences and findings presented can help future PBLs provide technopreneur education based on comparing and evaluating learning outcomes in both incubation centers. Thus, it can produce a better PBL design to encourage the success of technology commercialization.

The assessment of PBL on students' knowledge in technopreneur education by utilizing the paired t-test method to compare the assessment results of the final projects with the designed assessment rubric. This evaluation serves as the basis for comparing the effectiveness of PBL implementation between AAAT and CEfEEST.

This paper aims to identify patterns and trends taking place in engineering education in sustainability, through analyzing the evolution of research conducted in relevant publications in the field of engineering education for sustainability in the past decades.

First, a bibliometric approach has been applied, adopting a co-word analysis based on co-occurrence of the keywords (300 items) in articles from three indexed journals related to engineering, education or sustainability. The selection of the articles has been based on the appearance of the previous three terms in the topic and title fields of the journal, where journal scope (based in the categories of the InCites Journal Citation Reports) covered at least two topics, and the third topic was applied in the search, as follows: International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education – Scope of the journal: sustainability and education, Keyword search: engineering (20 papers); Journal of Cleaner Production – Scope of the journal: sustainability and engineering, Keyword search: education (122 papers); International Journal of Engineering Education – Scope of the journal: engineering and education, Keyword search: sustainability (29 papers); Second, to identify topological patterns and their evolution, a structural and temporal analysis of the network of keywords and a categorization of the keywords in thematic clusters (named categories) have been performed.

The most relevant categories in terms of corresponding number of keywords, even though these have decreased in recent years, are those related with institutional and policy aspects to embedding or applying sustainability in higher education. At the same time, categories related to the professional development of faculty members, implementation and use of learning strategies (i.e. real-world learning experiences, educational innovative initiatives/tools/techniques) and cross-boundary schemes (i.e. transdisciplinarity, ethics, networking, etc.) increase their relevance in the past five years, signaling some of the challenging fields of interest in engineering higher education in sustainability in the near future.

Knowledge of the trends in devising sustainability education in engineering allows for designing curricular schemes and learning strategies to achieve competences, which are key factors for the change toward sustainability.

This research has a strong strategic value, as it indicates the focus of future research efforts and networking on some of the topics of greatest concern in engineering higher education for sustainability.

In 2008, a number of Southern African countries cultivated about 900,000 ha of Jatropha, with a number of biodiesel plants ready for production; however, none of the projects succeeded. In 2014, KiOR advanced biofuel Energy Company in the USA announced bankruptcy due to incompetent technology. Studies disclose that the reasons for biofuel plants failure are not only due to lack of incentives and unclear policies but also due to lack of economic feasibility and low production yields. This paper aims to review the techno-economy assessment of second-generation biofuel technologies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize specific techno-economic indicators such as production cost, technology efficiency and process life cycle analysis for advanced biofuel technology and to narrate and illustrate a clear view of what requires assessment to deploy a feasible advanced biofuel technology. This study also reviews assessment of biomass supply chain, feedstock availability and site selection criteria. The review also elaborates on the use of different processes, forecasting and simulation-modeling tools used in different techno-economic analysis studies. The review provides guidance for conducting a technical and economic feasibility study for the advanced biofuels energy business.

The aim of this review is, therefore, to evaluate the techno-economic feasibility studies for the establishment of viable industrial scale production of second-generation biofuels. It does so by grouping studies based on technology selection, feedstock availability and suitability, process simulation and economies as well as technology environmental impact assessment.

In conclusion, techno-economic analysis tools offer researchers insight in terms of where their research and development should focus, to attain the most significant enhancement for the economics of a technology. The study patterns within the scope of techno-economics of advanced biofuel reveal that there is no generic answer as to which technology would be feasible at a commercial scale. It is therefore important to keep in mind that models can only simplify and give a simulation of reality to a certain extent. Nevertheless, reviewed studies do not reach the same results, but some results are logically similar.

The originality of this article specifically illustrates important technical and economic indicators that should be considered when conducting feasibility studies for advance biofuels.

This research studies the development of the evolving dynamic system model and explores the important elements or factors and what detailed attributes are the main influences model in achieving the success of a business, industry and management. It also identifies the real and major differences between static and dynamic business management models and the detailed factors that influence them. Later, this research investigates the benefits/advantages and limitations/disadvantages of some research studies. The studies conducted in this research put more emphasis on the capabilities of system dynamics (SD) in modeling and the ability to measure, analyse and capture problems in business, industry, manufacturing etc.

The research presented in this work is a qualitative research based on a literature review. Publicly available research publications and reports have been used to create a research foundation, identify the research gaps and develop new analyses from the comparative studies. As the literature review progressed, the scope of the literature search was further narrowed down to the development of SD models. Often, references to certain selected literature have been examined to find other relevant literature. To do so, a supporting tool (that connects related articles) provided by Google Scholar, Scopus, and particular journals has been used.

The dynamic business and management model is very different from the static business model in complexity, formality, flexibility, capturing, relationships, advantages, innovation model, new goals, updated information, perspective and problem-solving abilities. The initial approach of a static system was applied in the canvas business model, but further developments can be continued with a dynamic system approach.

Based on this study, which shows that businesses are developing more towards digitalisation, wanting the ability to keep up with the era that is moving so fast and the desire to increase profits, an instrument is needed that can help describe the difficulties of the needs and developments of the future world. This instrument, or tool of SD, is also expected to assist in drawing future models and in building a business with complex variables that can be predicted from the beginning.

This study will contribute to the SD study for many business incubator research studies. Many practical in business incubator management to have a benefit how to achieve the business performance management (BPM) in SD review.

The significant differences between static and dynamics to be used for business research and strategic performance management. This comparative study analyses some SD models from many authors worldwide. Their goals behind their strategic business models and encounter for their respective progress.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of rural energy transition in cooking options in India. Although India is aiming to achieve a double-digit economic growth, a large share of rural households still rely on firewood for cooking which not only has serious repercussions of increasing indoor pollution but also has a concomitant adverse effect on women and child morbidity and mortality. However, transition to clean energy options like improved cookstoves for these households may not be necessarily linear. It is often driven or resisted by latent factors such as caste, trust, social capital, information flow, social positioning of clusters that are deeply embedded in the social and cultural norms and values specific to local rural contexts. This has been shown in the present case study that pertains to eight villages in the remote and deprived Purnea district of Bihar and the need for internalizing them in the macro energy policymaking has been established in the paper.

The paper applies a macro foundation research that is complemented by micro foundation tools of fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model framework to achieve the purpose of the study. Focused-group discussions and interviews are also conducted to establish the narrative of the paper.

Caste, socio-political position, asset structure, remoteness, culture and technology access affect rural households’ decision making capability that is related to shifting from using the traditionalmeans of firewood and biomass based traditional cookstoves for cooking to adopting improved clean cooking stoves which will enable the transition toward the use of clean rural energy in the eight villages in Bihar chosen for this study.

The findings of the paper have larger implications for the broader macro energy policymaking in the country by taking into account the non-linear, latent factors of village contexts.

The research will help energy policymakers in decision-making and will guide the implementation process of national- and state-level policies on rural energy transition in India.

The findings of the paper will help the smoother implementation of national- and state-level rural energy transition policies for cooking, creating developmental dividends for rural Indian households.

The research is new with regard to the application of non-deterministic fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model approach to contribute to the country’s national- and state-level rural energy transition policies.

In the twenty‐first century, the forces of information technology, markets and globalization will continue to be felt and will bring about both positive and negative effects. The past century saw these forces contribute to the wealth of nations but the greatest challenge for economists in the next century and more is to understand how these forces can bring about the wealth of the world, built around the concept of sustainability (with its four pillars of economic efficiency, social equity, ecological balance, and democratic governance). This article sets an ambitious agenda for economic research along four lines: socio‐economics, mesoeconomics, technoeconomics, and foresight.

This paper aims to propose a framework that combines the triple helix model with competitive strategies concepts to capture and guide any innovation-led national development strategies.

This paper adopted a methodological framework based on existing methods and guidelines, the most commonly reported approach for developing a methodological framework. The review of fundamental approaches to achieving fast and sustained economic development, triple helix model and competitive strategies helped develop the methodological framework. The framework was validated and tested using the case studies approach on Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

Kuwait aims to create an innovative environment to benefit from the innovation strategies anchored by the East Asian miracle economies and how they used the triple helix actors at different developmental stages. First, Kuwait’s research institutes and universities need to design interactive programs and activities with industry and community to help innovate solutions to current and prospective challenges. Second, the government needs to provide a competitive business environment and effective policies. Thirdly, the Kuwait industry must be encouraged to innovate and infuse modern technology practices.

Developing countries are trying to use science, technology and innovation as an effective strategy for achieving sustained economic growth. However, since each country has its unique conditions, learning from other success stories proved difficult if not structured in a framework designed to serve a specific purpose such as the one the authors propose in this paper.

Collective reputation cognition is an enterprise's perception of the general rules of reputation evaluation, jointly formed by a network's collective members. It affects the choice of enterprises' innovation behavior and guides enterprises to occupy a dominant position in the innovation network, thus achieving high innovation performance. In this process, it is inseparable from the enterprise's good network competence. This study attempts to bring collective reputation cognition, network competence and innovation performance into the same framework and aims to explore the relationship among them and determine the influential roles of collective reputation perception and network capability on innovation performance.

This study uses 227 Chinese enterprises in the innovation network as samples and applies partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the questions mentioned above.

The results verify the relationship among collective reputation cognition, network competence and innovation performance. Furthermore, the results yield five paths that lead to high innovation performance, such as “putting ability first” and “both fame and competence”, which are different combinations of collective reputation cognition and network competence.

Based on institutional theory, this study considers the network context and identifies “collective reputation cognition” as a key variable. Meanwhile, it opens the “black box” of the mechanism of reputation's influence on innovation performance and finds that the combined paths of collective reputation cognition and network competence achieve high performance in terms of innovation.

Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is seeing high-rise buildings springing up with extensive glazing. Given the challenges of the country concerning energy provision, guaranteeing comfort in buildings and sustainability aspects, this trend is questionable and worrying in this pandemic era. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate how glazing types and their properties could reduce cooling loads and provide comfort by following the recommendations set by the Ghana Green Building Council (GHGBC) after the Green Star of South Africa, as well as other references found in literature.

Indoor thermal conditions were monitored to evaluate prevailing indoor conditions. Using a simulation application, various options were probed based on the Green recommendations and others found in literature to improve thermal comfort within the structure. Moreover, a questionnaire survey with observation was undertaken with 250 architects to understand the basis of decisions taken when specifying glazing for buildings.

The results indicate that cooling loads increased by 2% when the GHGBC after the Green Star of South Africa recommendations were applied. However, the use of the recommendations of previous research conducted in Ghana could reduce cooling loads by 38% to save energy. Suggested strategies of air velocity up to 1.0 m/s as well as thermal mass, comfort ventilation, conventional dehumidification and air-conditioning were found to be means to improve indoor comfort. Furthermore, the architects revealed that around 40% of multi-storey buildings are 70%–100% glazed. Of all the buildings, 62.4% was found to be glazed with single pane windows, making them use so much energy in cooling. Additionally, the survey underlined the client’s preference, cost and functionality as the three main bases for the choice of glazing in multi-storey office buildings.

A significant contribution of this study to the body of knowledge is the provision of empirical evidence to support the fact that due to climate difference, each country needs to undertake more experimental research works to be able to come out with standards that work. Thus, the GHGBC after the Green Star of South Africa does not necessarily work within the climatic context of Ghana.