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This study aims to propose a new methodology to develop bistable textile structures with two different states of heat and moisture transfer by taking inspiration from the animal kingdom. Bionic approaches controlling thermoregulation were analyzed, implemented at the textile level and evaluated. Therefore, 4D technology has been applied. This paper presents all the steps necessary for transferring bionic concepts on the textile level by using rapid prototyping and the 4D-textile approach.

Concepts for thermoregulation are derived from bionic approaches and are evaluated by the metrics of low cost and high adaptability to quickly changing needs. Subsequently, bionic approaches were implemented as prototypes by printing on a pre-stretched textile using an fused deposition modeling printer. The printed patterns and properties were investigated, and the effects of each parameter were evaluated. Finally, the prototypes were tested by comparing the data from the thermal imaging camera of the two bistable states.

This paper presents two printing pattern concepts for creating textiles with two different states of thermal and moisture transfer. The results show that bionic approaches for thermoregulation transferred to the textile level are possible and quickly put into practice through 3D-printing technology as a tool for rapid prototyping.

The presented methodology fills the technological gap for quickly transferring bionic approaches to the textile level using the 4D-Textile technology. In addition, the possibility of generating two bistable states with different thermophysiological properties in one textile and switching between them easily was shown.

The purpose of this contribution is to review the theoretical and empirical literature on the economic determinants of terrorism.

Review of the relevant academic literature.

This contribution shows that there is a theoretical foundation to the popular hypothesis that poor economic conditions are conducive to terrorism. A review of the empirical evidence on the economic determinants of terrorism, however, yields an inconclusive result. Some studies find that economic conditions (directly and indirectly) matter to terrorism, whereas a plurality of studies suggest that noneconomic factors are more important.

The findings of the survey indicate that it is unlikely that economic conditions are universal determinants of terrorism. By pointing at several avenues of future research (e.g., a focus on the role of ideology in terrorism), this contribution, however, argues that the opposite also does not need to be true. The influence of economic factors on terrorism should neither be overemphasized nor completely ruled out.

The contribution offers a comprehensive overview of the economy–terrorism nexus and hints at promising areas of future research.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the energy efficiency of textile weaving machines. Increasing energy costs and environmental impact are a challenge for textile manufacturers as well as for the developers of textile production machines. As example, air jet weaving is the most productive but also most energy consuming weaving method.

A method based on energy efficiency considered as the main requirements in the design phase has been developed at the Institut für Textiltechnik der RWTH Aachen University (ITA), Aachen, Germany, in order to improve energy efficiency of air-jet weaving machines. Technological developments are always concerned about low energy costs, low environmental impact, high productivity and constant product quality. The high degree of energy consumption of the method can be ascribed to the high need of compressed air required by the relay nozzles during the weft insertion process.

The relay nozzles of the air-jet weaving technology consume up to 80 percent of the air required by the weft insertion process. At ITA a new nozzle concept was developed. The developed geometry is a so called high-volume-low-pressure nozzle, based on convergent nozzle aerodynamic theory.

By employing such new concept of relay nozzles within the weft insertion process, energy savings are possible up to 30 percent.

The wet-spinning process is very important for the development and production of new lightweight design materials. The washing process is determined as one of the most cost-expensive part of wet spinning. The purpose of this paper is to show the development of a new washing concept. It proposes to increase the washing performance by decreasing fiber-fiber-interfaces during the washing process.

For this purpose, conventional washing concepts are investigated by means of simulations and experiments to obtain process knowledge. Computational fluid dynamics simulation and particle image velocimetry measurements are used to investigate the process.

The overall deficit in conventional washing methods is the large number of fiber-fiber-interfaces, which inhibit the solvent transport out of the compact fiber bundle. Therefore, a new washing concept with included water nozzles is developed. Based on the simulations and observations it is found that the arrangement of the nozzles has direct influence on the fanning of the fiber bundle.

With increased fanning of the fiber bundle a more efficient solvent transport is expected. The developed washing box is a prosperous concept to achieve a higher washing performance during the wet-spinning process. The variable design of the washing box makes it possible to test different nozzle configurations and designs. In this paper the two most promising nozzle arrangements are shown and compared to each other.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes of China’s agri-food exports to Germany caused by China’s accession to WTO and the global financial crisis in a quantitative way. The paper aims to detect structural breaks and compare differences before and after the change points.

The structural breaks detection procedures in this paper can be applied to find out two different types of change points, i.e. in the middle and at the end of one time series. Then time series and regression models are used to compare differences of trade relationship before and after the detected change points. The methods can be employed in any economic series and work well in practice.

The results indicate that structural breaks in 2002 and 2009 are caused by China’s accession to WTO and the financial crisis. Time series and regression models show that the development of China’s exports to Germany in agri-food products has different features in different sub-periods. Before 1999, there is no significant relationship between China’s exports to Germany and Germany’s imports from the world. Between 2002 and 2008 the former depends on the latter very strongly, and China’s exports to Germany developed quickly and stably. It decreased, however suddenly in 2009, caused by the great reduction of Germany’s imports from the world in that year. But China’s market share in Germany still had a small gain. Analysis of two categories in agri-food trade also leads to similar conclusions. Comparing the two events we see rather different patterns even if they both indicate structural breaks in the development of China’s agri-food exports to Germany.

This paper partly originally proposes two statistical algorithms for detecting different kinds of structural breaks in the middle part and at the end of a short-time series, respectively.

The paper seeks to focus on the role of knowledge management in promoting corporate sustainability in the construction industry context. It proposes a maturity roadmap – STEPS to facilitate the implementation of a knowledge management strategy.

Two research methods were used. The first consisted of a postal questionnaire sent to the top 170 UK construction firms consisting of engineering design and construction contractor firms. The organisations were selected because they were considered the most influential organisations in the UK construction sector. The second research method involved 28 case study interviews with eight construction firms to investigate their approach to knowledge management and performance improvement. The results of the questionnaire survey and the case studies were used to develop the STEPS maturity roadmap.

The paper found that knowledge management is inextricably linked to corporate sustainability, but a methodical approach is required for successful knowledge management implementation. With this in mind, the STEPS maturity roadmap was developed to provide a structured approach to implementing and benchmarking knowledge management efforts.

This will allow companies to understand where they fall within the STEPS maturity roadmap and to devise a strategy to be developed to attain higher levels of knowledge management maturity.

This paper provides a mechanism for organisations to benchmark their knowledge management activities and to develop a knowledge management strategy that would improve their activities.

This study aims to explore factors influencing voluntary adoption of international sustainability and integrated reporting guidelines within a mandatory reporting framework. Given South Africa’s political history, the authors argue that accounting practice can be used to secure the legitimacy and transparency of businesses.

Two logistic regression equations are used to predict the likelihood of firms’ subscribing to either Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Integrated Reporting (<IR>) framework, respectively. The authors consider annual, sustainability and integrated reports issued for the financial year ended 2014.

The results show a statistically and significant positive association between the adoption of the GRI’s guidelines and the level of transparency of non-financial disclosures and environmental sensitiveness. The application of the <IR> framework is also associated with the level of a firm’s transparency score and with its respective analyst following, which acts as a measure for capital markets requiring a high information environment.

This paper illustrates the development of integrated and sustainability reporting (SR) practices within an emerging market. By drawing distinctions between locally developed South African codes of corporate governance, namely, King I-III and international guidelines proxied by the GRI’s guidelines for SR, and the <IR> framework, the authors show that South African firms still adopt international guidelines despite the mandatory framework in place.

In the past decade much has been written on the need to develop social, ethical and environmentally responsible performance reporting frameworks that engage with all organisational stakeholders. The theoretical development of these frameworks has spanned nearly a century culminating in the release in 2000 of voluntary guidelines developed by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies and the United Nations Environment Programme through the offices of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The release of the sustainability reporting guidelines perhaps could not have been more inopportune insofar as it coincided with a concerted effort on the part of the accounting regulators toward global harmonisation of financial reporting standards. This paper reports the findings of a survey of Company Secretaries and company provided information examining the extent to which these guidelines have been adopted by the leading public companies in the United Kingdom. The findings suggest limited acceptance and in the resource‐constrained environment of the twenty‐first century business implementation of mandatory requirements are given priority. Further research needs to be conducted to determine whether the GRI has a role to play in future stakeholder engagement.

This paper aims to examine whether tax disclosure in Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based sustainability reporting mitigates aggressive tax avoidance.

This study uses a multiple regression method for 714 nonspecially taxed firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2014–2018.

The findings demonstrate that disclosing tax payments in GRI-based sustainability reports reduces aggressive tax avoidance. Additional analysis indicates that the number of GRI-based sustainability reports positively affects aggressive tax avoidance. However, disclosing tax payments in multiple GRI-based sustainability reports negatively affects aggressive tax avoidance.

Recent prior studies demonstrate that aggressive tax avoidance does not indicate an organizational culture that devalues corporate social responsibility. This paper argues that firms cannot find the link between tax and corporate social responsibility when tax payments are not incorporated in sustainability reports. GRI considers tax a sustainability issue and seeks to institutionalize this concept by recommending that firms disclose taxes in their sustainability reports. This research analyses whether disclosing taxes in GRI-based sustainability reports may serve as a form of soft law by convincing firms that tax is a sustainability issue, thereby reducing their tax avoidance. This topic has received little attention in previous research.

This study aims to analyze whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) report characteristics, including disclosure level and external assurance, and reporting firms’ CSR performance, explain variation in cost of equity capital among CSR disclosers.

The study uses a propensity score matched sample of CSR reports prepared according to the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) G3/G3.1 Reporting Guidelines.

Overall, there does not appear to be a difference in cost of equity capital among CSR disclosers based on GRI disclosure level. The exception is for poor CSR performers reporting at the highest GRI disclosure levels, but not obtaining assurance. These firms may be suspected of greenwash and therefore have higher cost of equity capital than the reference group. Poor CSR performers, especially those reporting at the highest GRI disclosure levels, obtain the greatest cost of equity capital benefit associated with external assurance.

This study contributes to the literature by showing that the cost of equity capital benefits associated with CSR disclosure and assurance do not accrue equally to all CSR disclosers. Specifically, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the cost of equity capital consequences of suspected greenwashing and empirically demonstrate the role of external assurance in mitigating greenwashing concerns among poor performers.