Search results
1 – 10 of 103Oluwadamilola Esan, Nnamdi I. Nwulu, Love Opeyemi David and Omoseni Adepoju
This study aims to investigate the impact of the 2013 privatization of Nigeria’s energy sector on the technical performance of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of the 2013 privatization of Nigeria’s energy sector on the technical performance of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) and its workforce.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a questionnaire-based approach, and 196 participants were randomly selected. Analytical tools included standard deviation, Spearman rank correlation and regression analysis.
Findings
Before privatization, the energy sector, managed by the power holding company of Nigeria, suffered from inefficiencies in fault detection, response and billing. However, privatization improved resource utilization, replaced outdated transformers and increased operational efficiency. However, in spite of these improvements, BEDC faces challenges, including unstable voltage generation and inadequate staff welfare. This study also highlighted a lack of experience among the trained workforce in emerging electricity technologies such as the smart grid.
Research limitations/implications
This study’s focus on BEDC may limit its generalizability to other energy companies. It does not delve into energy sector privatization’s broader economic and policy implications.
Practical implications
The positive outcomes of privatization, such as improved resource utilization and infrastructure investment, emphasize the potential benefits of private ownership and management. However, voltage generation stability and staff welfare challenges call for targeted interventions. Recommendations include investing in voltage generation enhancement, smart grid infrastructure and implementing measures to enhance employee well-being through benefit plans.
Social implications
Energy sector enhancements hold positive social implications, uplifting living standards and bolstering electricity access for households and businesses.
Originality/value
This study contributes unique insights into privatization’s effects on BEDC, offering perspectives on preprivatization challenges and advancements. Practical recommendations aid BEDC and policymakers in boosting electricity distribution firms’ performance within the privatization context.
Details
Keywords
Amjad Suri, Abdullah Al-Hadrami, Adel Sarea and Ali ElAsad
The main purpose of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) sustainability case is to allow students to explore how nonfinancial information reported in sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) sustainability case is to allow students to explore how nonfinancial information reported in sustainability plays a vital role in maintaining a trade-off between current economic pressure and future environmental needs.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an exploratory study in nature using a qualitative case study approach. The case requires an examination of DEWA's sustainability reporting (SR) in the context of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRIs). This case is designed to assist students in gauging DEWA's sustainability and explore how the company evaluates the materiality of sustainability issues.
Findings
With stakeholders' and investors' increased interest in sustainability, the authors argue that accounting programs should incorporate this topic into their curricula. The case enables students to focus on sustainability-related initiatives with DEWA that are aligned with GRI initiatives. The case might be instructive for both undergraduate and postgraduate students studying environmental and management accounting.
Originality/value
This case study is the first of its kind in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region to comprehensively analyze DEWA's sustainability practices concerning GRI-based SR. This study widens the understanding of DEWA's implementation of GRI standards in the preparation of its sustainability reports.
Details
Keywords
Subhanjan Sengupta, Sonal Choudhary, Raymond Obayi and Rakesh Nayak
This study aims to explore how sustainable business models (SBM) can be developed within agri-innovation systems (AIS) and emphasize an integration of the two with a systemic…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how sustainable business models (SBM) can be developed within agri-innovation systems (AIS) and emphasize an integration of the two with a systemic understanding for reducing food loss and value loss in postharvest agri-food supply chain.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted longitudinal qualitative research in a developing country with food loss challenges in the postharvest supply chain. This study collected data through multiple rounds of fieldwork, interviews and focus groups over four years. Thematic analysis and “sensemaking” were used for inductive data analysis to generate rich contextual knowledge by drawing upon the lived realities of the agri-food supply chain actors.
Findings
First, this study finds that the value losses are varied in the supply chain, encompassing production value, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, market value, institutional value and future food value. This happens through two cumulative effects including multiplier losses, where losses in one model cascade into others, amplifying their impact and stacking losses, where the absence of data stacks or infrastructure pools hampers the realisation of food value. Thereafter, this study proposes four strategies for moving from the loss-incurring current business model to a networked SBM for mitigating losses. This emphasises the need to redefine ownership as stewardship, enable formal and informal beneficiary identification, strengthen value addition and build capacities for empowering communities to benefit from networked SBM with AIS initiatives. Finally, this study puts forth ten propositions for future research in aligning AIS with networked SBM.
Originality/value
This study contributes to understanding the interplay between AIS and SBM; emphasising the integration of the two to effectively address food loss challenges in the early stages of agri-food supply chains. The identified strategies and research propositions provide implications for researchers and practitioners seeking to accelerate sustainable practices for reducing food loss and waste in agri-food supply chains.
Details
Keywords
Celia López-Bravo and José Peral López
Faced with the growing need to find new viable water supply models for urban areas, this article studies and maps the strategies and identifies the key criteria of sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
Faced with the growing need to find new viable water supply models for urban areas, this article studies and maps the strategies and identifies the key criteria of sustainable development present in pioneering water supply systems in the medieval period. The main aim is to determine which of its innovative principles could be applied in present-day cities.
Design/methodology/approach
From a methodological perspective, two types of cases were established, such as water supply models for human consumption and pre-industrial hydraulic systems, all of which are located in Italy. For the first group, the cases of Venice and Siena were analysed, while for the second, in the context of the cities along the Aemilian Way, the case of Bologna was selected.
Findings
Five key criteria resulted from the analysis of the cases: exploitation, self-sufficiency, maintenance, rationalisation and reuse. The said concepts were defined and contextualised within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Originality/value
The Middle Ages were a historic moment in technological reinvention, before the development of modern systems of sanitation. With very limited resources, these traditional systems focused on rational use and deep cultural and geographical knowledge. This is why its recognition is of great importance today, in a time full of instabilities, with a view to the work that needs to be done for the development of more sustainable communities.
Details
Keywords
Marisol S. Romero-Mancilla, Kenneth E. Hernandez-Ruiz and Diana L. Huerta-Muñoz
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a three-echelon multimodal transportation problem applied to a humanitarian logistic case study that occurred in Mexico.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a three-echelon multimodal transportation problem applied to a humanitarian logistic case study that occurred in Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops a methodology combining a transshipment problem and an adaptation of the multidepot heterogeneous fleet vehicle routing problem to construct a mathematical model that incorporates the use of land-based vehicles and drones. The model was applied to the case study of the Earthquake on September 19, 2017, in Mexico, using the Gurobi optimization solver.
Findings
The results ratified the relevance of the study, showing an inverse relationship between transportation costs and delivery time; on the flip side, the model performed in a shorter CPU time with medium and small instances than with large instances.
Research limitations/implications
While the size of the instances limits the use of the model for big-scale problems, this approach manages to provide a good representation of a transportation network during a natural disaster using drones in the last-mile deliveries.
Originality/value
The present study contributes to a model that combines a vehicle routing problem with transshipment, multiple depots and a heterogeneous fleet including land-based vehicles and drones. There are multiple models present in the literature for these types of problems that incorporate the use of these transportation modes; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are still no proposals similar to this study.
Details
Keywords
Liyun Zeng, Rita Yi Man Li, Huiling Zeng and Lingxi Song
Global climate change speeds up ice melting and increases flooding incidents. China launched a sponge city policy as a holistic nature-based solution combined with urban planning…
Abstract
Purpose
Global climate change speeds up ice melting and increases flooding incidents. China launched a sponge city policy as a holistic nature-based solution combined with urban planning and development to address flooding due to climate change. Using Weibo analytics, this paper aims to study public perceptions of sponge city.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected 53,586 sponge city contents from Sina Weibo via Python. Various artificial intelligence tools, such as CX Data Science of Simply Sentiment, KH Coder and Tableau, were applied in the study.
Findings
76.8% of public opinion on sponge city were positive, confirming its positive contribution to flooding management and city branding. 17 out of 31 pilot sponge cities recorded the largest number of sponge cities related posts. Other cities with more Weibo posts suffered from rainwater and flooding hazards, such as Xi'an and Zhengzhou.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the public perception of sponge city in Sina Weibo.
Details
Keywords
Lucrezia Sgambaro, Davide Chiaroni, Emanuele Lettieri and Francesco Paolone
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the most recurrent variables characterizing the collaborative relationships of industrial symbiosis (IS) (hereinafter also referred to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the most recurrent variables characterizing the collaborative relationships of industrial symbiosis (IS) (hereinafter also referred to as “anatomic” variables) established in the attempt to adopt circular economy (CE) by collecting evidence from a rich empirical set of implementation cases in Italy.
Design/methodology/approach
The current literature on IS was reviewed, and a content analysis was performed to identify and define the “anatomic” variables affecting its adoption in the circular economy. We followed a multiple-case study methodology investigating 50 cases of IS in Italy and performed a content analysis of the “anatomic” variables characterizing each case.
Findings
This research proposes the “anatomic” variables (i.e. industrial sectors involved, public actors involvement, governmental support, facilitator involvement and geographical proximity) explaining the cases of IS in the circular economy. Each “anatomic” variable is discussed at length based on the empirical evidence collected, with a particular reference to the impact on the different development strategies (i.e. “bottom-up” and “top-down”) in the cases observed.
Originality/value
Current literature on IS focuses on a sub-set of variables characterizing collaboration in IS. This research builds on extant literature to define a new framework of five purposeful “anatomic” variables defining IS in the circular economy. Moreover, we also collect and discuss a broad variety of empirical evidence in what is a still under-investigated context (i.e. Italy).
Details
Keywords
Miklesh Prasad Yadav, Shruti Ashok, Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, Deepika Dhingra, Nandita Mishra and Nidhi Malhotra
This paper aims to examine the comovement among green bonds, energy commodities and stock market to determine the advantages of adding green bonds to a diversified portfolio.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the comovement among green bonds, energy commodities and stock market to determine the advantages of adding green bonds to a diversified portfolio.
Design/methodology/approach
Generic 1 Natural Gas and Energy Select SPDR Fund are used as proxies to measure energy commodities, bonds index of S&P Dow Jones and Bloomberg Barclays MSCI are used to represent green bonds and the New York Stock Exchange is considered to measure the stock market. Granger causality test, wavelet analysis and network analysis are applied to daily price for the select markets from August 26, 2014, to March 30, 2021.
Findings
Results from the Granger causality test indicate no causality between any pair of variables, while cross wavelet transform and wavelet coherence analysis confirm strong coherence at a high scale during the pandemic, validating comovement among the three asset classes. In addition, network analysis further corroborates this connectedness, implying a strong association of the stock market with the energy commodity market.
Originality/value
This study offers new evidence of the temporal association among the US stock market, energy commodities and green bonds during the COVID-19 crisis. It presents a novel approach that measures and evaluates comovement among the constituent series, simultaneously using both wavelet and network analysis.
Details
Keywords
Alina Steblyanskaya, Mingye Ai, Artem Denisov, Olga Efimova and Maksim Rybachuk
Understanding China's carbon dioxide (
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding China's carbon dioxide (
Design/methodology/approach
In this study using the input and output (IO) table's data for the selected years, the authors found the volume of
Findings
Results show that in the industries with a huge volume of
Originality/value
“Transport, storage, and postal services” and “Smelting and processing of metals” industries in China has the second place concerning emissions, but over the past period, emissions have been sufficiently reduced. “Construction” industry produces a lot of emissions, but this industry does not carry products characterized by large emissions from other industries. Authors can observe that Jiangsu produces a lot of
Details
Keywords
Harshal Pandurang Gund and Jay Daniel
The purpose of this study is to systematically review available state-of-the-art literature on comparative studies on Quick Commerce (Q-commerce) and E-commerce and their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to systematically review available state-of-the-art literature on comparative studies on Quick Commerce (Q-commerce) and E-commerce and their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature survey methodology is based on the funneling approach of Kitchenham (2004), where results are obtained according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The literature review methodology used for this study covers the period from 2016 to 2022. The areas considered for the survey are operations, logistics and supply chain network design for the distribution of goods in e-business. After deciding on the criteria, a total of 140 articles were extracted from 9 journal articles that study e-commerce and environmental emissions.
Findings
The result of this study reveals that GHG emissions from both modes of shopping depend on various parameters such as speed of delivery, last-mile depot locations, logistics and vehicle efficiency, customers’ order patterns and average basket size. Furthermore, the findings also highlight the difference between Q-commerce and E-commerce supply chain networks.
Research limitations/implications
This study only accounts for GHG emissions from logistics activities, but there are other sources of GHG emissions in the overall supply chain that are not taken into consideration. Supply chain/business analysts in Q-commerce companies might refer the findings from this study to measure GHG emissions from their operations.
Originality/value
This is the first study in the Q-commerce field that uses a structured approach to find relevant literature from the years 2016 to 2022 and focuses on GHG emission measurement.
Details