Search Results (72)

Driven by the “dual carbon” goal and the strategy for cultivating new productive forces, China’s economy is undergoing a crucial transformation from high-speed growth to high-quality development. As a typical high-energy consumption and high-emission sector, the green and low-carbon transformation of the building materials industry directly affects the optimization of the national energy structure and the realization of ecological goals. However, traditional building material enterprises generally face practical challenges such as low resource utilization efficiency, insufficient digitalization and greening integration of the industrial chain, and weak green innovation momentum. The transformation actions of a single entity are difficult to break through systemic bottlenecks, and it is urgently necessary to establish a dynamic evolution mechanism involving multiple entities in collaboration. This paper aims to explore the evolutionary rules and stability of digital green (DG) transformation strategies of building materials enterprises (BMEs) under multi-agent interactions involving government, universities, and consumers. Centering on BMEs, a four-party evolutionary game model among the government, enterprises, universities, and consumers is constructed, and the evolutionary processes of strategic behaviors are characterized through replicator dynamic equations. Using MATLAB R2022 (Version number: 9.13.0.2049777) bnumerical simulations, this study investigates how key parameters, such as government subsidies, penalty intensity, and consumers’ green preferences, affect the transformation pathways of enterprises. The results reveal that the DG transformation behavior of BMEs is significantly influenced by governmental policy incentives and universities’ knowledge innovation. Stronger subsidies and penalties enhance enterprises’ willingness to adopt proactive DG strategies, while consumers’ green preferences further accelerate transformation through market mechanisms. Among multiple strategic combinations, active DG transformation emerges as the main evolutionarily stable strategy. This study provides a systematic multi-agent collaborative analysis framework for the transformation of BME DG, revealing the mechanisms by which policies, knowledge, and market demands influence enterprise decisions. Thus, it offers theoretical and decision-making references for the green and low-carbon transformation of the building materials industry. Full article

This study investigates how financial growth connects to regional environmental performance within the framework of policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions. It uses a comprehensive panel dataset covering the period from 2010 to 2024. Although Kazakhstan has set ambitious targets, significant differences in financing levels and institutional development across regions pose substantial obstacles to achieving the target emissions reductions. Employing regional panel data, we use a random-effects model to assess links among banking loans, governmental funding metrics, employment statistics, and pollution measurements. Principal component analysis is utilized to tackle potential collinearity and reveal fundamental patterns. This approach reflects the inherent differences between regions rather than evolutionary shifts. The obtained empirical data demonstrate a significant relationship between high levels of bank loans and reduced carbon emissions. Regions with better access to financial services are better positioned to invest in energy efficiency, green infrastructure, and green innovation. Conversely, increases in regional budgets are associated with rising emissions, as tax revenue growth primarily comes from industries most dependent on fossil fuels. Dependence on the national budget for subsidies exacerbates distortions in regional budgets’ relationship with the regions’ transition to low-carbon development. The findings confirm the importance of regional financial management in determining the path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Based on this, it is proposed to transform the mechanism of interbudgetary relations to grant regions greater financial autonomy and to localize credit resources at the regional level to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy in Kazakhstan. Full article

Pear cultivation in Greece, with an annual production of approximately 81,000 tonnes, constitutes a significant segment of the national fruit industry, particularly in Northern regions such as Macedonia and Thessaly. Despite ranking 8th in the EU in terms of pear production, Greece’s cultivated area is slightly declining, and adoption of smart agriculture technologies (SAT) remains limited. In this context, the present study investigates the preferences, patterns, and barriers of SAT adoption within the Greek pear sector, aiming to lay the groundwork for more effective digital transformation in the agri-food domain. Using a structured interview-based survey, data were collected from 30 pear growers, revealing critical insights into the technological landscape of the sector. A central challenge that emerged was the insufficient internet connectivity in rural farming areas, highlighting the urgent need for improved digital infrastructure to support SAT deployment. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of targeted education and awareness programs to bridge the digital knowledge gap among pear farmers. An especially notable finding concerns the role of the chosen tree training system in influencing SAT uptake: more than 50% of adopters utilize the palmette training system, suggesting a strong correlation between orchard design and technological readiness. Among the SAT categories, Data Analytics and Farm Management Software were the most widely adopted, a trend partly driven by attractive governmental subsidies of €30 per hectare. Importantly, all respondents who had implemented SAT (100%) reported a measurable increase in farm income, reinforcing the technologies’ impact on productivity and profitability. Foremost among the challenges encountered is the deficit in technical knowledge and training. In conclusion, this study offers a comprehensive overview of Greek pear producers’ perceptions, challenges, and emerging opportunities related to smart agriculture. Full article

This study aims to provide a comprehensive and realistic evaluation of consumer and external costs associated with commercially available passenger cars. The central research question is: How do Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and external costs differ between conventional vehicles, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) across various vehicle segments? The methodological approach includes the selection of 55 commonly registered vehicle variants in Germany and the calculation of TCO and external costs over a 16-year vehicle lifetime. TCO components include purchase price, governmental subsidies, remaining value, fuel or energy expenses, maintenance, insurance and taxes. External costs incorporate emissions, land use and the societal costs from purchase bonuses. Apart from the large quantity of considered vehicles and the depth of investigation, this study’s main contribution is the consideration of tax revenue as a negative external cost. The results show that BEVs consistently exhibit the lowest TCO and external cost across all segments. For example, a BEV in the E segment has 26% lower TCO and 14,300 € lower external cost than an equivalent diesel vehicle. FCEVs show competitive results in both TCO and external costs, though limited by market availability. While higher in TCO, vehicles in higher segments generally lead to lower external cost due to higher tax revenue. The findings support the economic and ecological advantages of BEVs, which should therefore be primarily considered by consumers and policy-makers. Full article

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set the criteria for sustainable economic development. These goals encompass four dimensions, including social, human, economic, and environment, of which the last two goals (i.e., economic and environment) were contemplated in this study. A case study for Corner Brook, a middle-sized city, located in the western region of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, revealed that the current urban water use pricing mechanism is not matched with the SDGs, which reflects impediments to the city’s achievements to become a sustainable economic development community. Residents are billed a fixed rate for water use rather than a tiered or usage-based rate. This is not a resilient policy, as it fails to conserve water resources, ultimately leading to wasting freshwater produce, inhibiting economic growth, creating social exclusion, and degrading natural resources. We recommend changing the current flat-rate based water billing mechanism to either increasing block tariffs or two-part tariffs, adjusted by seasonal rates; issuing governmental policies, such as rebates, subsidies, and lower property taxes to entice residents’ willingness-to-install water meters on their premises; encouraging provisions such as using rain barrels to help cut down water consumption; and raising public knowledge through social media on how high per capita water use is in the region, including how much it costs to install water meters. These recommendations will also help provincial and municipal policymakers pursue the SDGs. Full article

The rapid growth of China’s electric vehicle (EV) market has led to a peak in end-of-life (EOL) power batteries, yet the recycling sector remains dominated by informal operations. This paper incorporates the formal and informal recycling participation behaviours of EV owners into the framework of evolutionary games, systematically examines the mechanism by which governmental incentive and disincentive mechanisms influence the evolutionary stability of each party, and constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model involving the government, recycling enterprises, and EV owners. Numerical simulation experiments conducted using PyCharm 2.3 provide an in-depth exploration of the strategic evolutionary trajectories of each participating agent. The findings indicate that (1) the stable strategy for the game-theoretic system of EOL power battery recycling is government non-regulation, recycling enterprises adopting formal recycling practices, and EV owners participating in formal recycling; (2) strengthening penalties against recycling enterprises will accelerate their transition towards formal recycling strategies, while increasing incentive levels can significantly enhance the steady-state probability of firms opting for formal recycling; (3) government subsidies for EV owners encourage both EV owners and recycling enterprises to adopt formal recycling, with recycling enterprises shifting first. This study enriches the application of evolutionary game theory in the field of EOL power battery recycling and further provides guidance for the healthy development of the recycling industry. Full article

The corporate water use audit system is an important part of implementing China’s strictest water resource management system and building a water-saving society. Since 2009, seven provinces (municipalities/autonomous regions) in China have begun to explore corporate water audits. However, conflicts of interest between the Chinese government, water-using enterprises, and commissioned third-party auditors may lead to the ineffective promotion of the corporate water audit policy. In this paper, we study corporate water auditing behavior from the perspective of information asymmetry, construct an evolutionary game model of the three parties, explore the strategy choices of each party, study the asymptotic stability of the evolutionary stability problem via numerical methods, and analyze the impact of parameter changes on it. The study shows that, firstly, strict governmental supervision plays a key role in promoting the implementation of corporate water audit systems. Incentive subsidies had a positive and direct impact on firms and auditors in the water audit system. Secondly, the higher rent-seeking costs of tripartite audit institutions affect the probability of firms’ participation in rent-seeking. As a social institution, regulation and penalties for firms should be strengthened to reduce the risk of information asymmetry. The results of this study provide insights into the existence of asymmetry problems and possible coping strategies. Full article

The crisis of research integrity triggered by academic misconduct, such as scientific fraud and paper retractions, has emerged as a critical issue demanding urgent resolution within the academic community. Blockchain (BC), with its core features of distributed ledger, peer-to-peer transmission, consensus mechanisms, timestamps, and smart contracts, offers novel technical solutions for research institutions seeking efficient models of research credit supervision. By incorporating the psychological factors of risk perception among decision-makers and the dynamic evolution of behavioral decision-making, and drawing on prospect theory, this study has constructed an evolutionary game model involving researchers, scientific research institutions, and governmental entities to examine BC-enabled research credit supervision. This model analyzes the key determinants influencing scientific research institutions’ adoption of blockchain regulation (BC regulation), elucidates the behavioral characteristics and boundary conditions of research integrity among researchers under this new regulatory paradigm, and reveals the dynamic evolutionary trajectory of collaborative supervision between governments and scientific research institutions. The findings indicate the following: (1) Compared to traditional regulation, the BC regulation demonstrates superior regulatory effectiveness at equivalent levels of researcher integrity and misconduct costs, as well as under identical settings for reputational loss and penalties. (2) In addition to cost considerations and government subsidies, factors such as loss aversion coefficient, risk preference coefficient, and privacy breach losses are critical in influencing research institutions’ decisions to implement BC regulation. (3) The evolution of blockchain-empowered regulatory models encompasses three distinct evolutionary patterns. This study provides a theoretical foundation and a simulation case to optimize regulatory strategy formulation and resource allocation, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of research credit supervision. Full article

The research aims to evaluate financial instruments on household uptake of energy efficiency and renewable energy towards different risk scenarios. The study addresses the problem of behavioral response to financial incentives when technological, financial, or institutional risks are perceived as continuous. Two sophisticated models were used for the analysis to quantify the effect of subsidies, green loans, personal income, energy costs, and governmental support for energy efficiency and renewable energy uptake. The research data came from the UK, Estonia, Germany, Poland, and Ukraine between 2022 and 2024. The results suggest that countries experiencing drops in risk indices with strong institutional support, such as Germany and the UK, had maximum improvement in energy efficiency (as high as 598.72 kWh saved a year) and renewable energy implementation rates (above 30%). Countries posing high risk, like Ukraine, require more potent and custom-made strategies to achieve comparable advances compared to a less-risky environment. The evidence indicates that even financial mechanisms are most fruitful if they are complemented by risk management tactics. With these results, policymakers can proceed with useful information in formulating economically appropriate strategies that rely on realistic assumptions of behavior. Full article

This paper analyzes the potential of hydrogen technologies in transport, placing it within the context of global environmental and energy challenges. Its primary purpose is to evaluate the prospects for the implementation of these technologies at international and national levels, including Poland. This study utilizes a literature review and an analysis of the results of a highly limited, exploratory pilot survey measuring public perception of hydrogen technology in transport. It is critical to note that the survey was conducted on a small, non-representative sample and exhibited a strong geographical bias, primarily collecting responses from Europe (50 people) and North America (30 people). This study also details hydrogen vehicle types (FCEV, HICE) and the essential infrastructure required (HRS). Despite solid technological foundations, the development of hydrogen technology heavily relies on non-technical factors, such as infrastructure development, support policy, and social acceptance. Globally, the number of vehicles and stations is growing but remains limited, with the pace of development correlating with the involvement of countries. The pilot survey revealed a generally positive perception of the technology (mainly due to environmental benefits) but highlighted three key barriers: limited availability of refueling infrastructure—51.5% of respondents strongly agreed on this obstacle, high purchase and maintenance costs, and insufficient public awareness. Infrastructure subsidies and tax breaks were identified as effective incentives. Hydrogen technology offers a potentially competitive and sustainable transport solution, but it demands significant systemic support, intensive investment in large-scale infrastructure expansion, and comprehensive educational activities. Further governmental engagement is crucial. The severe limitations resulting from the pilot nature of the survey should be rigorously taken into account during interpretation. Full article

Aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 11 and 13), this study examines how dynamic subsidy thresholds steer environmental resilience, social inclusion, and fiscal sustainability in China’s urban renewal. Using evolutionary game theory (EGT) and system dynamics (SD), stakeholder strategies are modeled under varying policy interventions, with key parameters calibrated through Chongqing’s LZ case and MATLAB simulations. These include government subsidies (M₁, M₂), penalties (S₂), and stakeholder benefits (R₁–R₅). The results reveal the following two distinct types of critical thresholds: a universal and robust fiscal warning line for developers (M₁ > 600 k RMB) and a threshold for residential subsidies that is moderated by psycho-social factors (M₂), with its value fluctuating within a certain range (approximately 550 k RMB to 850 k RMB). A sequential synergy pathway is proposed: “government-led facilitation → developer-driven implementation (when R₃ > 450 k RMB) → resident participation (triggered by R₂ > 150 k RMB).” The study advocates differentiated incentives and penalties, prioritizing early-stage governmental leadership to foster trust, promote inclusive participation, and align with environmental, social, and economic sustainability goals. This integrated framework reveals critical policy leverage points for enhancing social and fiscal resilience, providing a replicable model for sustainable and resilient urban governance in the Global South. Full article

Driven by the urgent need to decarbonize the logistics sector—where conventional vehicles exhibit high energy consumption and emissions, posing significant environmental sustainability challenges—electrification represents a pivotal strategy for reducing emissions and achieving sustainable urban freight transport. Despite rising global electric vehicle sales, the penetration rate of electric logistics vehicles (ELVs) remains comparatively low, impeding progress toward sustainable logistics objectives. Battery-swapping mode (BSM) has emerged as a potential solution to enhance operational efficiency and economic viability, thereby accelerating sustainable adoption. This model improves ELV operational efficiency through rapid battery swaps at centralized stations. This study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model involving government, consumers, and BSM-ELV manufacturers to analyze market dynamics under diverse strategies. Key considerations include market scale, government environmental benefits, battery leasing/purchasing costs, lifecycle cost analysis (via discount rates), and resource efficiency (reserve battery ratio $\lambda$). MATLAB-2021b-based simulations predict participant strategy evolution paths. Findings reveal that market size and manufacturer expectations significantly influence governmental and manufacturing strategies. Crucially, incorporating discount rates demonstrates that battery leasing reduces consumer enterprises’ initial investment, enhancing economic sustainability and cash flow while offering superior total cost of ownership. Furthermore, gradual reduction of government subsidies effectively stimulates market self-regulation, incentivizes leasing adoption, and bolsters long-term economic/operational sustainability. Market feedback can guide policy adjustments toward fiscally sustainable support mechanisms. This study proposes the following management implications for advancing sustainable logistics: 1. Governments should phase out subsidies systematically to foster market resilience; 2. Manufacturers must invest in BSM R&D to improve efficiency and resource circularity; 3. Consumer enterprises can achieve economic benefits and emission reductions by adopting BSM-ELVs. Full article

(1) Background: Traditional logistics training faces challenges like high costs, limited scalability, and safety risks. Virtual Reality Movie Training (VRMT) enhances operational accuracy, safety, and accessibility through immersive simulation. However, adoption faces barriers including high equipment costs, immature technology, and coordination challenges among logistics enterprises, design companies, and government entities. This study explores strategic interactions to optimize VRMT adoption. (2) Methods: A tripartite evolutionary game model was used to analyze strategic interactions between logistics enterprises, design companies, and government. (3) Results: System stability occurs when logistics enterprises adopt VRMT, design companies deliver high-quality solutions, and government provides active support. Simulations reveal stronger adoption coefficients through increased employee acceptance and enhanced training quality. Government incentives and brand premiums significantly influence quality design provision, though excessive subsidies may reduce governmental willingness to support initiatives. (4) Conclusions: Cost minimization and accessibility improvement require batch hardware purchasing, optimized training cycles, and shared platforms at logistics enterprises. Design companies should optimize content development for cost-effectiveness while maintaining quality standards to leverage brand benefits. Governments should establish VRMT quality certification, invest in public VR platforms for SMEs, and convert accident savings into fiscal supplements. This tripartite collaboration enables efficient, safe, and sustainable logistics training transformation. Full article

In the context of global climate governance and the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) stringent carbon reduction targets, the transition to green shipping fuels faces systemic challenges in supply chain coordination. This study focuses on the strategic interactions between governments and enterprises in the construction of green fuel supply chains. By constructing a multidimensional scenario framework encompassing time, technological development, social attention, policy intensity, and market competition, and using evolutionary game models and system dynamics simulations, we reveal the dynamic evolution mechanism of government–enterprise decision making. System dynamics simulations reveal that (1) short-term government intervention accelerates infrastructure development but risks subsidy inefficiency; (2) medium-term policy stability and market-driven mechanisms are critical for sustaining enterprise investments; and (3) high social awareness and mature technologies significantly reduce strategic uncertainty. This research advances the application of evolutionary game theory in sustainable supply chains and offers a decision support framework for balancing governmental roles and market forces in maritime decarbonization. Full article

Amid accelerating population aging and the rapid evolution of digital technologies, the digital transformation of rural elderly care services has become a pivotal strategy for restructuring the rural elderly care system. This study identified the local government, rural elderly care service centers, and the elderly population as the principal stakeholders, and developed a tripartite evolutionary game-theory model to examine the dynamic strategic interactions among these actors under the influence of digital technologies. The model further investigated the evolutionary trajectories and equilibrium conditions of their behavioral strategies. Numerical simulations conducted via MATLAB were employed to validate and visualize the model outcomes. The findings revealed the following. (1) The evolutionary equilibrium of digital elderly care service development in rural areas is jointly determined by the strategic choices of the three parties, with its stability shaped by a complex interplay of cost structures, incentive mechanisms, and utility outcomes. (2) Cost factors exhibit heterogeneous effects across stakeholders. Specifically, excessive regulatory costs diminish the performance incentives of local governments, digital infrastructure and operational expenditures influence service centers’ capacity for precision-oriented service delivery, and the participation of the elderly is constrained by affordability thresholds. (3) Local government behavior demonstrates a pronounced sensitivity to incentives. In particular, rewards and social reputation conferred by higher-level governmental bodies exert a significantly stronger influence than punitive measures. (4) Government subsidies for digital transformation enhance cross-stakeholder synergy through dual transmission channels. Nonetheless, excessive subsidies may escalate fiscal risk, while moderately calibrated penalty mechanisms effectively curb moral hazard within service centers. This study advances theoretical understanding of multi-stakeholder coordination in the context of digitally enabled rural elderly care and provides actionable insights for policymakers aiming to formulate interest-aligned strategies and construct resilient, intelligent governance systems for elderly care. Full article