Search Results (35)

The Central Appalachian region, where family forest landowners (FFLs) control much of the carbon sequestration potential, holds the potential for forest-based climate solutions. Despite this, participation in carbon offset programs remains low, largely due to the disconnect between small landowner needs and program structure. This study examines FFL preferences for carbon programs in Central Appalachia. Utilizing a panel-data mixed logit model, we evaluated the effects of contract length, payment amount, harvest requirements, and program administration on participation decisions. Our results indicate that higher payments significantly increase program participation. Furthermore, contract lengths of at least 15 years and restrictive harvests negatively influence program participation. Program administration played a significant role, with government-administered programs being less preferred, with odds 48% lower than privately administered programs. Landowner characteristics such as carbon-oriented ownership, education, and income also influence participation. The willingness-to-accept analysis shows high compensation demands for less favorable terms: $107–$397/ha/year for longer contracts and $104–$173/ha/year for harvest restrictions. Additionally, landowners require an extra $66/ha/year for government administration. The findings underscore the importance of designing carbon offset programs that are flexible, offer adequate compensation, and foster trust, while aligning with landowners’ management objectives. Full article

The cold-chain supply of perishable fruits continues to face challenges such as fuel wastage, fragmented stakeholder coordination, and limited real-time adaptability. Traditional solutions, based on static routing and centralized control, fall short in addressing the dynamic, distributed, and secure demands of modern food supply chains. This study presents a novel end-to-end architecture that integrates multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), blockchain technology, and generative artificial intelligence. The system features large language model (LLM)-mediated negotiation for inter-enterprise coordination, Pareto-based reward optimization balancing spoilage, energy consumption, delivery time, and climate and emission impact. Smart contracts and Non-Fungible Token (NFT)-based traceability are deployed over a private Ethereum blockchain to ensure compliance, trust, and decentralized governance. Modular agents—trained using centralized training with decentralized execution (CTDE)—handle routing, temperature regulation, spoilage prediction, inventory, and delivery scheduling. Generative AI simulates demand variability and disruption scenarios to strengthen resilient infrastructure. Experiments demonstrate up to 50% reduction in spoilage, 35% energy savings, and 25% lower emissions. The system also cuts travel time by 30% and improves delivery reliability and fruit quality. This work offers a scalable, intelligent, and sustainable supply chain framework, especially suitable for resource-constrained or intermittently connected environments, laying the foundation for future-ready food logistics systems. Full article

Considering the inherent characteristics of long-term agreements, public–private partnership (PPP) projects are confronted with diverse uncertainties and external challenges. However, existing research has devoted limited attention to the resilience of PPP projects. This study seeks to identify governance factors influencing PPP project resilience and analyze the interconnections among these factors in fostering such resilience. A governance framework for PPP project resilience is proposed, comprising thirteen governance factors across four dimensions: institutional, organizational, contractual, and managerial factors. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques are adopted to explore the hierarchical relationships and interactive mechanisms among these governance factors in a systematic view. The findings reveal that strategic alliances, risk allocation and transfer, flexible contracting, and long-term relationship management represent core governance factors critical to enhancing project resilience. Institutional factors are identified as the most foundational determinants within the governance system, while contractual and managerial factors act as mediating elements facilitating the translation of institutional foundations into operational resilience. This study deepened the understanding of the practitioners with regard to the key governance factors and their inter-relationships, which can help systematically enhance the resilience of PPP projects. Full article

The scarcity of land drives urban village redevelopment projects, which involve interest redistribution among stakeholders with distinct demands. This paper utilizes evolutionary game theory and simulation methods, constructing a tripartite game model under the institutional arrangement of bottom-up with private developer funding. This study identifies the stable strategies and evolutionary trends of the tripartite interactions under four distinct scenarios and validates these strategies through simulations. The redevelopment of XC village validates the assumptions of the model and theoretical analysis, suggesting that when private developers adopt forced demolition strategies, although villagers ultimately choose to sign the contract of property exchange, it can easily lead to social conflicts. These research findings can enlighten the government to form a tripartite alliance to smooth urban village redevelopment. Full article

The energy transition toward Net Zero Emission by 2060 hinges on the renewable energy power plants in Indonesia. Good practices in several countries suggest a peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading system using blockchain technology, supported by renewable energy (solar panels), an innovation to provide equal access to sustainable electricity while reducing the impact of climate change. The P2P energy trading concept has a higher social potential than the conventional electricity buying and selling approach, such as that of PLN (the state-owned electricity company in Indonesia), which applies the network management concept but does not have a sharing element. This model implements a solar-powered mini-grid system and produces a smart contract that facilitates electricity network users to buy, sell, and trade electricity in rural areas via smartphones. This study aims to measure the stakeholders’ perceptions of the peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading model using blockchain technology in the Gumelar District, Banyumas Regency, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The stakeholders in question are representatives of Households (producers and consumers), Government, State Electricity Company (PLN), Non-Governmental Organizations, Private Sector and Academician. Measurement of perception in this study used a questionnaire approach with a Likert scale. The results of filling out the questionnaire were analyzed using four methods: IFE/EFE matrix; IE matrix; SWOT matrix; and SPACE matrix to assess the results and their suitability to each other. The results of the stakeholder perception assessment show that there are 44 internal factors and 33 external factors that can influence this model. We obtained an IFE and EFE score of 2.92 and 2.83 for the internal and external results using the IE matrix. These place the model in quadrant V, meaning the P2P model can survive in the long term to generate profits. Based on the SWOT analysis results, this model is located at the coordinate point −0.40, 0.31, placing it in quadrant II. This means that the P2P model is in a competitive situation and faces threats but still has internal strengths. Based on the SPACE matrix, stakeholder perception states that the P2P model is at coordinate point 1, −0.3. This shows that the P2P model has the potential to be a competitive advantage in its type of activity that continues to grow. In conclusion, our findings show that stakeholders’ perceptions of P2P models using blockchain technology can be implemented effectively and provide social, economic, and environmental incentives. Full article

In construction, risk is inherent in each project, and success involves meeting defined objectives beyond budget and schedule. Factors vary for infrastructure projects, and their correlation with performance must be studied. In the case of public–private partnership (PPP) transportation, the level of complexity is higher due to more involved parties. Risks and success factors in PPP projects affect each other, which may lead to project failure. Recognizing the critical risk factors (CRFs) and critical success factors (CSFs) is indispensable to ensure the success of PPP infrastructure project implementation. However, the existing research on the PPP risk and success relationship has not gone into sufficient detail, and more support to address the existing gaps in the body of knowledge and literature is necessary. Therefore, in response to the missing area in the public–private partnership transportation industry, this paper analyzed the correlation between PPP risks and success factors. It identified, explored, and categorized various risk and success factors by combining a literature review, expert panel interviews, and a questionnaire survey among both the public and private sectors, a win–win principle. The data collected were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and relative significance. Results show the relationship between risk and success factors, their influence on PPPs, and the most important factors, known as CRFs and CSFs, with high loading factors (LF > 0.5) and high relative importance (NMS > 0.5). The top five CRFs include “Contract quality (incomplete, conflicting)”, “Staff expertise and experience”, “Financial market risk”, “Conflicting objectives and expectations”, and “Inefficient feasibility study”. The top five CSFs were found as “Appropriate risk allocation and risk-sharing”, “Strong financial capacity and capability of the private sector”, “Government providing guarantees”, “Employment of professional advisors”, and “Realistic assessment of the cost and benefits”. This study advances the understanding of risk and success factors in PPPs and contributes to the theoretical foundations, which will benefit not only public management, policy consultants, and investors but also academics interested in studying PPP transportation projects. Full article

Unlike in Western countries, land ownership in China is overwhelmingly vested in the state, and individuals cannot directly own private lands and build houses. Therefore, developers will contract the land to the government and build it into collective apartments. Against this backdrop, a different kind of multi-story, high-density self-built residential buildings is widespread in small towns along the southeast coast of China. These buildings were built between 1980 and 2000 by residents who acquired land-use rights from the government for compensation. The uniqueness of these buildings is what makes them incompatible with the most mainstream, government-led urban renewal model in China, resulting in a large area of dilapidated and aging areas. Zherong County, Ningde, Fujian Province, is a typical example town, with a large number of such self-built houses, known locally as Liu Houses. In this study, these residential areas were selected as typical research objects of “characteristics of residential small towns”. Combined with the property rights of the sample cases, the methods of diagram and quantitative analysis are used to summarize the causes of the three types of residential areas from the aspects of regional planning, land division, building construction, and renovation. In the early days, the planning of the Liu House was greatly influenced by the residents, and the construction and renovation of the building was led by the residents, which strengthened the diversity of the style. In the middle period, the government had relatively dominant control over the planning of Liu Houses, and supervision was conducted during the construction and renovation process, resulting in a relatively balanced power between residents and the government. In the later period, the houses were built and operated by the developer, and the residents no longer directly participated in the construction and renovation, so the unity of style was strengthened. At the same time, the study finds that, in the process of the formation of the style of the residential area, on the one hand, the property rights directly affect the style through its own physical land attributes, and on the other hand, it becomes the basis of the game between the government, residents, and the county environment through its own property rights, thus indirectly affecting the style. In conclusion, this paper may provide theoretical support and design reference for the renewal of the characteristic features of residential small towns. Full article

The Public–Private Partnership (PPP) model has significantly contributed to global infrastructure and public service provision. The evolution of the PPP model closely aligns with policy directives. China’s PPP policy evolution has included five stages: budding (1986–2000), fluctuating (2001–2008), steady (2009–2012), expanding (2013–2018), and stagnating (2019–present). This study employs bibliometric analysis and co-word analysis to examine 407 policies enacted by the Chinese government from 1986 to 2018. By extracting policy text keywords at various stages and constructing a co-word network matrix, this study delineates the distinctive characteristics of Chinese PPP policies across different epochs. It can be found that critical areas such as “government credit”, “contract spirit”, and “power supervision” are still underappreciated. The challenges confronting China’s PPP model are multifaceted, stemming from policy gaps that have led to substantial project difficulties. Although the government proposed a new mechanism for franchising in 2023, the new mechanism is only for new PPP projects, and the difficulties of existing PPP projects have not been solved. This study advocates for enhancements in project bankability, regulatory clarity, institutional environment improvement, contract spirit defense, and the development of the PPP-REITs model to address these issues. Full article

Background: This study seeks to understand the empirical nature of macro-financial factors associated with the worsening of HIV infections and the risks that need to be carefully monitored for a sustainable improvement in HIV outcomes as developing countries seek to achieve the United Nations 95-95-95 targets. Methods: The author used a panel VAR model to study the long-term endogenous relationships between percentage changes in the annual spot price of the most traded commodities, GDP per capita, health spending, and the HIV infection rate of developing countries. Results: The author discovered that shocks of global commodity prices negatively impact GDP per capita, real government health spending, and real private health spending. These shocks have adverse spillover effects characterized by worsening HIV infections. The reactions from price shocks suggest that GDP per capita contract immediately when a commodity price shock hits developing economies. Real government health spending and real private health spending also contract instantly. HIV infections begin worsening three years after the shock in the energy and precious metal blocks of countries. HIV infections also begin to worsen two years after shocks in the agricultural block of counties. These impacts are statistically significant and can potentially reverse the positive HIV infection gains achieved in the previous years. Emergency funds, insurance schemes, and international aid for HIV need to discharge more funds to counter these shocks. Conclusions: There is a significant risk of reversing HIV infection outcomes arising from commodity price shocks. Funding agencies must protect HIV prevention services from global macro-economic shocks as countries move closer to the United Nations 95-95-95 targets. Full article

Much research has been carried out to discover partnership critical success factors that influence public-private partnership success. Since most public-private partnership projects are long-term in nature and include contractual arrangements, there is still a lot to learn about contract governance’s role in public-private partnership performance. Therefore, this study examines the effect of contract governance on the relationship between partnership critical success factors and partnership performance in Malaysia. Stakeholder Theory serves as the underpinning theory for this study. This study employed a quantitative method based on the positivist paradigm to distribute questionnaires. The information was collected from 261 contracting parties’ officials in Malaysian public-private partnership projects regulated by the Malaysian Public-Private Partnership Unit, and a stratified random sampling method was employed. The structural equation model analysis found that eight out of ten hypotheses were supported. According to this study, it has been established that contract governance has a direct favorable influence on partnership performance. However, it is also found that contract governance does not moderate the relationship between partnership critical success factors and partnership performance. Due to time constraints and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study was from a cross-sectional viewpoint and adopted a quantitative methodology. The findings of this study are important in the contract governance and partnership performance literature, providing policymakers and concessionaires with new information on the impact of contract governance on public-private partnership project performance. Managers of public-private partnership projects should also be able to enhance their projects’ performance by understanding how contract governance influences the performance of their projects. Full article

The broad and extensive application of public-private partnership (PPP), as well as the divergent documented definitions and experiences, have led to a translucent perspective of PPP and strained academia and industry to reach a consensus on the major practice of this concept. Early contractor involvement (ECI), governance tools, and relational contracting are only a few of the frameworks attributed to PPP. This issue has received limited attention from researchers, despite the focus of review studies on different disciplines of PPP. Hence, this paper puts forward the idea of conducting a comprehensive review to not only shed light on the major practice of PPP but also provide a wider outlook on this concept based on the research carried out since 1979. A narrative review is initially accomplished to identify the major drivers and milestones that have contributed to the evolution of PPP. Employing bibliometric analysis in the following phase assists in conducting a multi-dimensional assessment of studies published within the last five decades. The economic and societal practices of PPP throughout its evolution path signified the dominant application of this concept as a business model. The bibliometric analysis revealed that PPP has contributed to various sectors, i.e., urban development, public infrastructure, transportation, health, and education, just to name a few. In addition, economic and organizational management of PPP was revealed as a major research stream that was accompanied by sustainable development. As a matter of fact, economic and environmental sustainability are the major cross-disciplinary elements that form an interplay between the drivers and attributes of PPP. Value for money (VfM), technology, and innovation, along with smart infrastructure (SI) and smart cities (SCs), are identified as the major directions for the future research agenda associated with PPP. Full article

The advent of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies has revolutionized production environments with their application in supply chains, particularly within the agrifood sector. One notable I4.0 technology is blockchain, which holds significant potential for traceability in agrifood supply chains. However, there are concerns regarding digital trust among the actors involved in adopting this technology. The concept of digital trust, essential for successful implementation, remains underexplored. This research aims to propose a framework for evaluating digital trust in the context of blockchain technology to foster a secure and reliable information sharing environment among all stakeholders within the agrifood supply chain to build confidence in security based on data permissions for user identity. To accomplish this, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify the factors affecting stakeholders’ expectations and trust in using blockchain technology in agrifood supply chains. The literature review will enhance the knowledge about these different factors affecting digital trust under four key dimensions, that are, security/privacy, data control, accountability, and benefit/value. These factors are then ranked using a multi criteria decision-making technique, enabling the development of a framework for industries and government organizations. This framework addresses the use of blockchain technology for traceability in agrifood supply chains while ensuring the trust of actors utilizing this technology. In regions facing war-like situations, such as Ukraine, it becomes crucial to evaluate the factors that can enhance food safety in agrifood supply chains, mitigate food waste and fraud risks, and maintain the supply chain sustainability by exploring alternative food supplies from reliable partners. The situation is the same all over the globe, in which supply chain risks include frauds and lack of transparency. This study outlines the managerial implications and suggests future research directions to develop a model for assessing digital trust. This model aims to foster information sharing among actors, considering aspects, such as willingness, vulnerability acceptance, shared values, security, identifiability, and digital trust. Smart contracts can be added to the model that removes the need for a third party, warranting more trust. The deployment of this model on a private or public blockchain can enhance transparency, traceability, and address food safety concerns within transactions by addressing issues of security and reliability, accountability, and oversight with an inclusive, ethical, and responsible use. Full article

Users of utility tunnel public–private partnership (PPP) projects are productive corporate entities with a specific scope, a limited quantity, and strong bargaining power. They possess the ability and motivation to participate in PPP projects through equity investments. Tunnel PPP projects involving user participation are implemented jointly by consortia comprising construction contractors and users. Given that the government, construction contractors, and users have different interests, significant conflicts of interest arise among them. Furthermore, there exists dual information asymmetry between the government and construction contractors, as well as between the government and users. The government lacks a direct observation of the true ability endowments of construction contractors and users prior to signing PPP contracts, and it cannot directly observe the effort levels exerted by the construction contractors and users after contract signing. The combination of dual information asymmetry and conflicting interests may result in adverse selection and moral hazard on the part of construction contractors and users. Drawing on principal–agent theory, this study constructed incentive models with and without user involvement, examined the impact of user involvement on the effort level of construction contractors and the performance of PPP projects, and designed a reasonable incentive mechanism. The objective is to ensure that construction contractors and users truthfully report their ability endowments during the bidding stage and exert optimal efforts during the construction and operation stages. This research provides new insights for promoting the sustainable development of tunnel PPP projects. A case analysis of a PT tunnel PPP project and an SC tunnel PPP project demonstrates the reasonableness and feasibility of the research findings. Full article

The intensification of the EU’s institutional action to ensure an appropriate level of energy efficiency demonstrates the key role of pro-saving measures and energy efficiency measures to achieve a climate-neutral economy by 2050. Achieving this goal is therefore also possible through energy performance contracting (EPC), which enables specialised entities called energy service companies (ESCOs) to operate in the market. The creation of an appropriate and favourable framework at the EU level for the use of EPCs does not imply an identical approach by all individual member states. For this reason, the domestic policy of one member state, Poland, was contrasted with the EU framework. Under the influence of the EU guidelines and regulations, the EPC legislations in Poland was amended. This provided a reason to analyse the importance of legal factors (conditions) in implementing the EPC model, especially from the perspective of public institutions. In light of the above, it was attempted to show whether legal regulations would be sufficient to increase the number and level of ESCO projects in public sector units and whether they would remove the barriers to EPC development that are seen in public–private partnerships and the impact of obligations under an energy efficiency improvement agreement on the level of government debt or public finance sector deficit. This paper adopts research methods that are typical to studying EPC topics; however, the research conducted here is theoretical (descriptive analysis) and of dogmatic legal in nature. Full article

Australia’s tropical savannas are a vast landscape of grasslands with high biodiversity value. Effective biodiversity conservation in this landscape requires private contributions to complement the under-sized formal conservation estate. The landscape is dominated by rangelands, in particular extensive cattle grazing on pastoral stations which typically measure hundreds or thousands of square kilometers. The paper reports the results of a discrete–continuous (or “two-stage”) choice experiment conducted with savanna pastoralists. A discrete choice experiment explored the stated willingness to participate in two long-term conservation strategies: (i) total exclusion of cattle from designated parcels of land with management of that land for biodiversity, and (ii) the implementation of rotational grazing systems governed by the requirements of biodiversity, among other contractual attributes. An extension question asked about the area that respondents were willing to supply and a contract they were willing to accept. Double-hurdle (type II tobit) modelling was used for combined data analysis. The results show that potential participation in voluntary conservation contracts by pastoralists is primarily influenced by contract attributes, namely, the conservation action required, the stewardship payment received, contract length and whether the contract contains flexibility provisions. Land productivity is also significant. The level of stewardship payment required to incentivize participation in the conservation of grasslands is in line with opportunity costs, in particular option value. The amount of land that pastoralists are willing to supply is determined by the conservation payment as well as farm size and intrinsic motivation. This research illustrates strategies for integrating biodiversity conservation into cattle grazing operations in Australia’s tropical savannas, which are applicable to grasslands globally. It provides data of an economic nature to inform the development of multi-tenure biodiversity conservation strategies. Full article