Search Results (4,742)

In contemporary organizations, digital learning environments and AI-supported instructional modalities play an increasingly important role in workforce upskilling and operational efficiency. Despite growing investments in video-based learning and AI-generated instructional agents, empirical evidence on their effectiveness remains inconclusive. This study examines whether different digital learning modalities influence skill acquisition, task performance, retention, and user perceptions in a simulated work-related context. An experimental study was conducted with 65 participants assigned to one of three learning conditions: static instructional material, video-based instruction with human narration, and video-based instruction with an AI-generated avatar. Performance was assessed through a pretest–posttest design, a practical task simulating a typical data-processing activity, and a delayed retention test after seven days. Participants also evaluated the learning experience in terms of clarity, engagement, and overall effectiveness. The results revealed no statistically significant differences between instructional modalities in knowledge acquisition, task performance, or retention. Similarly, no statistically significant differences were observed in participants’ self-reported ratings. However, qualitative findings suggested that some participants perceived the AI-generated avatar as somewhat distracting, despite generally positive evaluations of the video-based formats. These findings did not provide evidence that more technologically advanced and resource-intensive learning formats led to superior performance outcomes in the present sample. The findings highlight the importance of instructional design quality over technological complexity and point to a potential mismatch between user preferences and actual performance. From a management perspective, the results raise relevant questions regarding the cost-effectiveness of AI-supported learning solutions and provide evidence-based insights for decision-making in organizational learning and digital transformation strategies. Full article

The high-value utilization of construction and demolition waste is critical for sustainable development in the building sector. However, in construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling supply chains, existing studies lack a systematic analysis of pricing mechanisms for such recycled CDW as substrate products, particularly regarding interest coordination and the quantification of green value. To reveal the bargaining mechanism between farmers as recyclers and processors and supermarkets as retailers under an asymmetric bargaining structure, this study applies Nash bargaining theory to construct a dynamic game model. The study revealed that (1) when the green degree of a product reaches a certain level, it can obtain a sustainable market premium and create a stable income space for both parties. (2) The relative strength of the bargaining power between the two sides significantly affects the impact of market base scale changes on profit distribution. When the bargaining power of the supermarket is lower than the threshold and the bargaining power of the farmers is higher than the threshold, the difference in profit between the farmers and the supermarket is negatively correlated with the market base scale of the CDW as a substrate. (3) The green sensitivity level of consumers affects the difference in profit of the main body with the government subsidy to farmers. This level is determined by the value of the green sensitivity coefficient of consumers and presents a differentiated adjustment effect in different value ranges, which in turn affects the transmission direction of government subsidies to profit distribution. (4) When the green sensitivity coefficient and the green communication intensity of farmers and the investment level are lower than the corresponding critical values, the difference in social welfare with or without subsidies is positively correlated with the amount of the subsidy. This study provides decision support for farmers and supermarkets in designing rational bargaining strategies and offers insights for improving coordination and sustainability in construction and demolition waste recycling supply chains. Full article

To address the “greenwashing” trust crisis induced by information asymmetry in sustainable supply chains, this study develops a comprehensive game-theoretic model integrating Stackelberg and evolutionary game theories (EGT). We quantitatively investigate the dynamic interactions among multi-dimensional consumer preferences, blockchain implementation costs, and boundedly rational government interventions. Our analysis yields three core contributions. First, we analytically reveal the “double-edged sword effect” of blockchain adoption. While structural transparency unlocks a trust dividend, exorbitant technological costs trigger a “budget crowding-out effect.” Quantitative results demonstrate that breaching the absolute Feasibility Threshold completely cannibalizes the environmental budget, driving substantive green investments strictly to zero. Second, EGT analysis proves that isolated punitive carbon taxes trap supply chains in a suboptimal “shallow greening” equilibrium. A composite tax-subsidy policy is structurally required to expand the feasible cost space and hedge against technological risks. Finally, we formulate a dynamic policy exit mechanism. As blockchain infrastructure matures and the endogenous green premium effectively offsets implementation costs, regulators must systematically phase out subsidies and converge toward a single-taxation regime to prevent corporate policy arbitrage and alleviate long-term public financial burdens. Full article

The main challenge of hydrogen electrolysis lies in the high cost of hydrogen production. Achieving a decarbonized energy sector requires substantial investment to shift from carbon-intensive technologies to more sustainable alternatives. However, investment decisions in this context remain complex and uncertain. Currently, green hydrogen projects account for more than 500 initiatives worldwide and are expected to expand rapidly in the coming years. Evidence from feasibility studies suggests that green hydrogen produced from renewable energy is already technically viable and is approaching economic competitiveness. The current emphasis is on large-scale deployment and learning-by-doing processes to reduce electrolyzer costs and improve supply chain efficiency. This transition requires appropriate funding mechanisms, often involving significant public sector participation alongside private investment. This study analyzes the financing structures of green hydrogen projects in Germany, Australia, and Brazil using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify the most relevant combinations of technical, economic, and financial variables. Unlike previous studies that address technical, economic, and financial dimensions in isolation, this study offers an integrated, empirically grounded analysis at the project level, combining cross-country comparison with a multivariate approach. The results indicate that project characteristics are strongly associated with capital intensity and financing structures, while cost variables such as levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) play a secondary role in explaining variation across projects. These findings suggest that financing arrangements—particularly those involving public support mechanisms—are closely associated with project configuration in this emerging sector. However, these results should be interpreted as patterns of statistical association rather than evidence of causal relationships. Overall, the analysis highlights the importance of coordinated financing strategies in supporting the development of green hydrogen and its potential contribution to emissions reduction in line with the Paris Agreement and the transition toward climate neutrality. Full article

Adopting a circular economy approach requires new business models, multi-stakeholder engagement, and tailored financial models and mechanisms as core pillars. This paper examines the conditions needed to scale circular economy initiatives in Europe by analysing insights collected from the DECISO project and conducting a comparative analysis of 38 European projects. The study adopts a mixed methods approach that integrates an online stakeholder survey with inputs generated through participatory workshops and discussions of selected use cases. This combined approach is used to identify the main structural barriers limiting the maturity and investment readiness of circular economy projects, such as regulatory complexity, difficulties in accessing funding, and weak stakeholder dialogue mechanisms. The approach was also used for enabling factors that can support development of circular economy. Particular attention is given to the role of project development assistance, modular financing strategies, and de-risking tools, which are highlighted as crucial elements for supporting the technical and economic credibility of projects and attracting public and private investors. The article also identifies and addresses seven unresolved research gaps in the literature, including the lack of interoperable policy instruments, the absence of business models capable of integrating investor expectations, the paucity of integrated methodologies for assessing technical and economic regulatory feasibility, and the need for trust-building procedures. The findings suggest that the transition to a regenerative economy requires a systemic approach based on coherent policies, de-risking financial instruments, collaborative governance, and strategic technical support throughout the project development cycle. Full article

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations are increasingly investing in strategies to protect themselves against information system violations. While these technologies offer remarkable benefits—boosting efficiency, productivity, and overall performance—they also bring significant risks, particularly regarding information security breaches. This study delves into the critical connections between technostress, techno-strain, and the violation of information security policies. Our research aims to shed light on how technostress, which is commonly experienced by engineers working in technology-intensive environments within the IT sector, drives information security violations. Importantly, we will also explore how techno-strain mediates this relationship. By focusing on engineers who are consistently engaged with advanced technology, we seek to answer essential questions about their experiences. It is worth noting that the requirements for information security technology can widely vary based on factors such as industry type, organizational structure, departmental roles, and cultural norms. Therefore, this study examines how technostress increases the likelihood of information security policy violations and how techno-strain mediates this relationship. Looking ahead, future research should consider both the broader institutional contexts and the individual characteristics that may shape the relationship between information security violations and technostress. Furthermore, understanding the repercussions of information security violations—stemming from technostress—on a company’s financial health is vital for organizations aiming to safeguard their assets and maintain a competitive edge. Emphasizing these insights can lead to more effective strategies for managing both technology and talent in the workplace. Full article

Quantitative risk assessment of flash floods is crucial for developing disaster prevention and mitigation strategies. This study developed a refined framework that innovatively integrates field-validated data from Chongqing’s flash flood disaster investigation project with AHP, factor analysis, and cluster analysis to quantify hazard, vulnerability, resistance, and risk indicators at a 30 m grid. Unlike existing coarse-scale assessments that rely on generic indicators, this hybrid model, calibrated by observed disaster evidence, significantly enhanced the local relevance and reliability of risk zoning. The validity of this framework was confirmed through validation against objective weighting methods and historical flash flood locations. The results indicated that the risk value of flash floods in Chongqing was between 0.24 and 0.69, with extremely high-risk and high-risk zones covering 42,388 km² (51.47%) of the study area. This accurately identifies areas at high risk of flash floods and provides a basis for government decision-making regarding priority areas for disaster risk reduction investments. Verification showed that 83.44% of historical disaster points fall within medium-risk or above zones, confirming the framework’s accuracy in identifying flood-prone hotspots and providing actionable support for targeted early warning and resource allocation. Full article

Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) highlight two dominant strategies for performance improvement: prompt engineering and fine-tuning. While prompt design can significantly influence model output, it remains uncertain whether lightweight fine-tuning methods, such as adapter-based training, offer meaningful advantages for structured, domain-specific tasks. This study builds on prior research comparing three prompting strategies for natural-language command parsing into JSON schemas. Expanding that framework, the current work investigates how adapter-based fine-tuning, where most model parameters are frozen and only small adapter modules are trained, affects model accuracy and consistency. The experiment uses the same controlled shopping-cart parsing task and dataset of 12,000 synthetic commands to ensure direct comparability. Results quantify the trade-off between computational cost and performance gains, offering evidence-based insights into whether fine-tuning is a justified investment compared to advanced prompt engineering. The contribution of this study is a clear, empirical framework for deciding when fine-tuning meaningfully enhances LLM utility in applied natural-language understanding. Full article

The evaluation of intervention strategies for the existing building stock, within the context of energy transition and increasing attention being given to sustainability, requires approaches capable of systematically integrating economic and environmental dimensions over the entire building life cycle. From this perspective, the present study develops and applies an integrated Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model aimed at comparing two alternative intervention strategies for traditional residential buildings: conservative retrofit of the existing structure and demolition with reconstruction according to Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) criteria. The methodological framework, compliant with ISO 15686-5 and based on a simplified LCA-oriented approach inspired by EN 15978 principles, is applied to a representative case study of Swedish vernacular wooden architecture (röd stuga) located in the municipality of Falun. The assessments are carried out over 50- and 100-year time horizons, adopting Net Present Value (NPV) as the primary economic indicator and Global Warming Potential over 100 years (GWP100) and Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) as environmental indicators. The results show that the NZEB scenario, despite higher initial investment costs, achieves a significant reduction in life-cycle environmental impacts, with a decrease of approximately 20–25% in terms of GWP100 and about 45–50% in terms of CED compared to the retrofit scenario. The analysis also highlights a differentiated behavior of environmental indicators—while operational energy use remains dominant in cumulative energy demand, embodied impacts become increasingly significant in the GWP balance, particularly in high-performance scenarios. From an economic perspective, conservative retrofit results in lower global costs over the considered time horizons, although the economic gap tends to narrow in the long term. The integrated LCC–environmental assessment approach highlights the economic–environmental trade-offs and provides a replicable decision-support framework for sustainable regeneration policies targeting the existing residential building stock. Full article

Large-scale wind integration introduces significant harmonic degradation and resonance risks. Traditional strategies primarily targeting Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) often struggle with individual node violations and high investment costs. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a two-stage sequential coordination strategy for Passive Power Filters (PPFs) and Active Power Filters (APFs). First, stochastic harmonic emission and frequency-domain power flow models are developed to characterize wind-induced harmonic propagation. Second, a sequential optimization framework is established to minimize Life Cycle Cost (LCC). In the first stage, PPF siting and sizing are optimized for cost-effective, system-wide mitigation of low-order harmonics while ensuring THD compliance. The second stage utilizes targeted APF deployment to precisely suppress residual high-order violations and localized resonance. Chance-constrained programming is incorporated to manage wind power uncertainty, enhancing the scheme’s robustness. Simulations on an IEEE 17-bus system demonstrate that the proposed method effectively balances harmonic suppression performance with economic efficiency, providing a robust and cost-effective solution for wind farm power quality management. Full article

To address the output volatility of distributed photovoltaics, the low utilization efficiency of energy storage resources, and the challenge of optimal revenue for PV-storage virtual power plants (VPPs) in multi-market environments, this paper proposes a three-stage stochastic optimal operation strategy for PV-storage VPPs under multi-market synergy and develops a benefit allocation model based on the Nash–Harsanyi bargaining game. A Monte Carlo simulation was adopted to capture the uncertainties of market electricity prices and PV power output, and the stochastic dual-dynamic-programming (SDDP) algorithm was employed to solve the three-stage optimization framework consisting of day-ahead bidding, real-time optimization, and real-time frequency regulation. Bargaining power was quantified from four dimensions—the marginal contribution rate, PV prediction accuracy, energy storage capacity, and utilization rate—to establish a fair and reasonable internal benefit allocation mechanism. Case studies verified that the proposed method improved the single-day market revenue by up to 20.79% compared with traditional operation modes, achieved a near-zero curtailment rate for distributed PV, and maintained frequency regulation performance scores above 0.4 at all times. The benefits of all investment entities in the alliance increased by 3.36–99.43%, significantly enhancing the multi-market profitability of PV-storage VPPs and the stability of alliance cooperation. Full article

In Luoyuan Bay, China, Sporobolus alterniflorus invasion has hindered mangrove restoration and disrupted faunal communities within mangrove habitats. This study investigated its impact on mollusk, crab, and fish assemblages across mangrove, mudflat, and invaded habitats from 2019 to 2020. Results showed that species diversity of three assemblages did not differ significantly between invaded and non-invaded mangrove habitats; however, assemblage structure was altered and functional traits declined markedly in invaded areas. Compared with non-invaded mangroves, invaded habitats showed decreases of 81.6% in mollusk density, 50.7% in mollusk biomass, 66.6% in crab density and 84.2% in crab biomass. Dominant fish species (Acanthogobius ommaturus, Liza carinata, Stolephorus chinensis) also exhibited lower body size, total size and biomass in invaded habitats. Given the close dependence of coastal residents on these faunal resources, a socioeconomic analysis of livelihood strategies was conducted, revealing Sinonovacula constricta aquaculture achieved the highest net income-to-investment ratio, 122.7% higher than nearshore fishery and 308.3% higher than shallow-sea oyster cultivation, while professional shellfish farming yielded the highest net income per hectare, 23.6% higher than oyster cultivation. Thus, both forms of shellfish aquaculture provide greater economic returns than other livelihood options. Based on these findings and niche theory, we propose a management framework: after removing S. alterniflorus, plant native mangroves (Kandelia obovata) in mid-to-high intertidal zones and lease lower flats for shellfish farming. This framework has the potential to integrate ecological restoration with local livelihoods and may inform similar efforts in other regions facing biological invasions and restoration challenges. Full article

This study assesses liquidity, profitability, and working capital management (WCM) strategy in Polish manufacturing companies in the pressure-casting industry, drawing on evidence from the pre-COVID-19, COVID-19, and Russia–Ukraine war periods. Using panel data from 19 companies representing 90% of the Polish aluminum diecasting industry, we employ non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis) to analyze the data. The period after the COVID-19 crisis coincides with the Russian–Ukrainian war. These countries are Poland’s neighbors. This period of uncertainty for Poland has led to supply chain disruptions and reduced investments. For manufacturing companies, this is dangerous because they have limited development opportunities. The results indicate the adoption of a conservative WCM strategy in Polish aluminum foundries during the pre-COVID-19, COVID-19, and Russia–Ukraine war periods, characterized by increased inventory levels, extended operating cycles in large firms. Additionally, the results showed reduced the level of receivables in large companies and visible decrease in the level of financial liquidity and profitability—however, these differences are not statistically significant. Polish aluminum foundries are adapting their WCM strategies toward an optimal, conservative approach that incorporates both safe and risky elements to ensure continued operations and profits. In addition, larger Polish aluminum foundries exhibit distinct liquidity patterns relative to smaller foundries, particularly in indicators of inventory, receivables, and fixed assets. In addition, the Russia–Ukraine war period exhibits distinct liquidity characteristics in Polish aluminum foundries compared with the COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 periods, particularly in inventory turnover and operating cycle. The results of this study offer several novel contributions to the existing literature on financial security indicators by examining unexplored factors related to size and period. The results of this study have several practical implications for business leaders seeking to adopt an optimal liquidity, profitability, and WCM strategy. Full article

The paper analyses the economic impact of the reduction in road traffic accidents in Slovakia between 2000 and 2024 and quantifies both direct and indirect costs of road crashes. Over this period, annual crashes declined from more than 50,000 to approximately 11,500 and fatalities from over 600 to 262, demonstrating the effectiveness of national road safety strategies. The methodology is based on the national road accident database, complemented by macroeconomic and demographic indicators, and follows European recommendations for the valuation of external costs of transport. The study applies the value of a statistical life, the value of a statistical life year, the relative severity index and the critical accident rate, with particular emphasis on comparing the value of a statistical life and the relative severity index. The total VSL-based economic costs of road traffic crashes in 2024 are estimated at approximately €1.25 billion, underscoring the scale of the socioeconomic burden. Building on the forecasted values for 2025, the paper further tests and compares these methodologies on a specific road section, illustrating their practical implications for project appraisal and safety management. The results confirm that VSL-based estimates systematically exceed RSI-based estimates by 21–45% per year, reflecting the broader societal costs captured by the VSL concept. The study shows that investments in safety measures are economically worthwhile and reduce the burden on public finances, while also highlighting the need to harmonize methodologies and improve data quality. Full article

Understanding how P availability affects root turnover and P redistribution within plants is essential for optimizing fertilization strategies and sustaining forest growth under low-P soils. This study evaluated the effects of P fertilization on root system dynamics, plant growth, and P nutrition of Handroanthus heptaphyllus, a flowering landscape tree, cultivated in a subtropical climate. Plants were grown under two soil P levels (low and high). Plant height, stem diameter, leaf P concentration, soil P availability, total numbers of living and dead fine roots, total fine root surface area, and fine root production rate were measured at 18, 24, 30, and 36 months after planting. Phosphate fertilization increased soil P availability during the first 24 months and resulted in significant gains in plant height, stem diameter, fine root production, total surface area, and the ratio between living and dead fine roots, indicating a higher proportion of living roots relative to dead ones. Under high P availability, the greatest fine root production and surface area of living fine roots occurred in the 0–20 cm soil layer, reflecting localized P application near the plants. High P availability enhanced root system development, promoted greater soil exploration, and improved P uptake. These results indicate that under P supplementation, plants strategically invest in root growth, improving nutrient acquisition efficiency and reducing dependence on external inputs. Increased phosphorus availability enhances root growth and increases fine root production and turnover. Minirhizotron monitoring effectively captured shifts in root system dynamics driven by P availability, including enhanced root growth, increased fine root production and turnover, and improved nutrient uptake under high P, as well as limited root activity under low P conditions, indicating a more conservative strategy with reduced investment in root production. Full article