Search Results (47,947)

Over the past three decades, global tourism has significantly contributed to the world economy, driven by factors such as globalization, technological advancements, and rising disposable incomes. However, alongside these economic benefits, tourism’s environmental impact remains a pressing concern, involving resource depletion, pollution, and substantial carbon emissions. Despite extensive research on these issues, there remains a gap in the literature regarding how state social responsibility and sustainability can be effectively integrated into tourism policies, particularly in prominent tourist destinations like Spain. This study addresses this gap by employing a combined qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (survey) approach to explore the dual role of tourism in economic growth and environmental sustainability. Focusing on Spain as a case study, the research highlights both the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable tourism practices. It examines the influence of factors such as the host country’s image, quality of life, the home country’s purchasing power parity (PPP), and the geographical distance between home and host countries on tourists’ destination choices within the framework of Stakeholder Theory. The novelty of this research lies in its comprehensive analysis of these factors, offering critical insights for researchers and policymakers striving to balance tourism growth with environmental sustainability globally. Full article

Scholars propose that future research on real options theory should shift attention away from option buying during the first investment stage and toward option execution after investment. Researchers maintain that it would be interesting to explore the circumstances under which investors decide to withdraw their investments, thereby exercising the option to abandon their investments. The present research seeks to fill the gap in the literature and investigate the applicability of real options theory when an organization enhances sustainability policies while focusing on disciplined capital allocation through exit strategies. With case study data on Natura &Co’s divestment strategy for the Body Shop in November 2023, a real options analysis revealed the method’s practical advantages and disadvantages. This paper investigates real options theory in the context of the divestments of foreign affiliates, providing unique viewpoints and enhancing the theory beyond previous knowledge while also increasing our understanding of the divestiture phenomenon. This study concludes with a review of this paper’s theoretical contributions to real options theory, the managerial and practical/social implications of real options applications in general, and the valuation methods of abandonment options in particular, shedding light on the potential of future research. Full article

Workplace cyberbullying, exacerbated by the growing prevalence of digital work environments, has emerged as a significant threat to employee well-being and organisational productivity. Despite increasing research attention around the world, there is a critical gap in understanding the unique context and implications of cyberbullying within African workplaces, particularly those operating in digital spaces. This bibliometric analysis, utilising Scopus and Web of Science databases, systematically examines the publications on workplace cyberbullying from 2000 to 2024 using Microsoft Excel and visualisation tools such as VOS Viewer. The findings underscore a stark disparity in research focus, with most studies originating from developed countries and neglecting African organisations’ specific challenges. Although South Africa and Ghana have made initial contributions, a comprehensive understanding of the prevalence, manifestations, and consequences of cyberbullying in diverse African cultural and organisational settings in Africa remains elusive. This study serves as a call to action for researchers and practitioners to prioritise investigations into cyberbullying in Africa, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive interventions and policies tailored to digital work environments. By addressing this research gap, organisations can promote healthier and more sustainable workplaces for employees across Africa. Full article

In recent years, the rapid advancement of digital technologies has driven a profound transformation in both individual lives and business operations. The integration of Industry 4.0 with advanced mechatronic systems is at the forefront of this digital transformation, reshaping the landscape of smart manufacturing. This article explores the convergence of digital technologies and physical systems, with a focus on the critical role of mechatronics in enabling this transformation. Using technologies such as advanced robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data analytics, industries are developing intelligent and interconnected systems capable of real-time data exchange, distributed decision making, and automation. The paper further explores two case studies: one on a smart plastic injection moulding machine and another on soft robots. These examples illustrate the synergies, benefits, challenges, and future potential of integrating mechatronics with Industry 4.0 technologies. Ultimately, this convergence fosters the development of smart factories and products, enhancing manufacturing efficiency, adaptability, and productivity, while also contributing to sustainability by reducing waste, optimising resource usage, and lowering the environmental impact of industrial production. This marks a significant shift in industrial production towards more sustainable practices. Full article

Gastronomic identity is a crucial segment of sustainable gastronomy and its successful positioning in the tourism market. As such, it calls for the creation of a suitable SusGastroIdentity scale that would identify influential factors. The research investigated the opinions of the employees in catering establishments in two tourist destinations in the Balkans: Fruška Gora Mountain, a tourist area in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia, and Jahorina Mountain, a tourist area in the Republic of Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study involved 606 participants, 66% of whom work in à la carte restaurants. Of these participants, 68% hold operational roles in hospitality establishments, and 58.3% have over 5 years of experience in the hospitality industry. After conducting a survey using a questionnaire and performing appropriate statistical analysis of the responses, four factors of gastronomic identity and sustainable gastronomy were defined: geographic and cultural characteristics of gastronomy, gastro-tourism events, economic aspects of business operations, and commercial aspects of business operations. The present research has shown that employees in hospitality and tourism perceive geographic and cultural characteristics and the economic aspects of business as the significant factors of gastronomic identity that affect both the sustainability of gastronomy in tourism and the tourist destination itself. Full article

This study explores the relationship between entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial competence, and entrepreneurial performance, focusing on the moderating role of environmental dynamics under conditions of high and low environmental dynamics. Using SPSS 21.0 and Smart PLS 4.0 software, this quantitative research analyzed survey data from 424 college students in China who have started their own businesses. The results indicate that entrepreneurship education has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial performance. Furthermore, environmental dynamics moderate the indirect effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial performance through entrepreneurial competence, with the indirect effect being stronger when environmental dynamics are high. The study also underscores the need for the sustainable development of entrepreneurship education, ensuring that educational programs evolve continuously to meet the changing demands of entrepreneurial environments. The findings highlight the importance of entrepreneurship education in fostering entrepreneurial competence and enhancing entrepreneurial performance. However, due to the cross-sectional design and self-reported nature of the data, the ability to draw causal inferences is limited. Future research should adopt longitudinal designs and objective performance measures to further investigate these relationships. Full article

This study aimed to investigate factors that predict Indonesian primary school teachers’ behavior of innovative teaching with technology (BITT). A survey instrument was adapted and validated through content validity, a pilot test, and a measurement model in partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We obtained data from 868 primary school teachers, analyzed through a structural model in PLS-SEM and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) in SPSS. The structural model was computed with several statistical reports, including the path coefficient (β), effect sizes (f²), coefficient of determination (R²), and predictive relevance (Q²). MANOVA results informed t and p values. Findings indicated that four out of six hypotheses significantly predicted primary Indonesian teachers’ BITT. The most substantial relationship emerged between group learning and BITT. Meanwhile, the weakest correlation was between innovative culture and BITT. Two insignificant predictors of BITT were job autonomy and innovation compatibility. Most variables showed insignificant differences based on gender. However, some variables, such as benefits of innovation, innovation compatibility, innovative culture, group cohesion, and BITT, varied significantly based on location. The study may help teachers and policymakers understand BITT elements that encourage primary school teachers to use technology creatively. Full article

Taking into consideration the moderating role of perceived organizational support within the framework of the natural resource-based view (RBV) theory, the purpose of this study is to investigate the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable environmental performance. Specifically, this study focuses on the roles that green capability and green transformational leadership play as mediators in this relationship. Through the use of a survey questionnaire, information was collected from 420 employees working for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bangladesh. The data were analyzed with the help of AMOS and SPSS. The findings indicate that the level of CSR has a significant impact on the performance of sustainable environmental practices. To a large extent, green capability and green transformational leadership serve as mediators in the relationship between CSR and sustainable environmental performance. Furthermore, perceived organizational support plays a significant role in moderating the relationship between CSR and sustainable environmental performance. The relationship between green transformational leadership and sustainable environmental performance is also significantly moderated by perceived organizational support. This is a significant contributor to the connection. This multidimensional corporate social responsibility model can be used to assess sustainable environmental performance in both industrialized and developing countries, and it can also be extended to other service sectors, according to the theoretical conclusion that can be drawn from the research. This research demonstrates that there is a direct connection between corporate social responsibility and sustainable environmental performance. As a result, practitioners are able to develop strategies that are effective in terms of corporate social responsibility. These findings should be taken into consideration by policymakers and managers who are dedicated to promoting equitable development of the country. Full article

This paper explores the influence of the risk–return relationship and volatility spillover on stock market returns of emerging economies, with a particular focus on the BRICS countries. This research is undertaken in a context where discussions on de-dollarization and the expansion of BRICS membership are gaining momentum, making it a novel and distinct exercise compared to prior studies. Utilizing econometric techniques to investigate daily market returns from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2023, a period that witnessed major events like the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia–Ukraine conflict, linear and non-linear models like ARCH, GARCH, GARCH-M, EGARCH, and TGARCH, are employed to assess stock return volatility behaviour, assuming a Gaussian distribution of error terms. The diagnostic test confirms that the distribution is non-normal, stationary, and heteroscedastic. The key findings indicate a lack of the risk–return relationship across all BRICS stock markets, except for South Africa; a more pronounced effect of unpleasant news over pleasant news; a slow mean-reverting process in volatility; the EGARCH model is the best fit model as evidenced by a higher log likelihood and lower Akaike information criterion and Schwardz information criterion parameters; and finally, the presence of significant bidirectional and unidirectional spillover effects in the majority of instances. These findings are valuable for investors, regulators, and policymakers in enhancing returns and mitigating risk through portfolio diversification and informed decision making. Full article

Jump dynamics in financial markets exhibit significant complexity, often resulting in increased probabilities of subsequent jumps, akin to earthquake aftershocks. This study aims to understand these complexities within a multifractal framework. To do this, we employed the high-frequency intraday data from six major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dashcoin, EOS, and Ripple) and six major forex markets (Euro, British pound, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Swiss franc, and Japanese yen) between 4 August 2019 and 4 October 2023, at 5 min intervals. We began by extracting daily jumps from realized volatility using a MinRV-based approach and then applying Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) to those jumps to explore their multifractal characteristics. The results of the MFDFA—especially the fluctuation function, the varying Hurst exponent, and the Renyi exponent—confirm that all of these jump series exhibit significant multifractal properties. However, the range of the Hurst exponent values indicates that Dashcoin has the highest and Litecoin has the lowest multifractal strength. Moreover, all of the jump series show significant persistent behavior and a positive autocorrelation, indicating a higher probability of a positive/negative jump being followed by another positive/negative jump. Additionally, the findings of rolling-window MFDFA with a window length of 250 days reveal persistent behavior most of the time. These findings are useful for market participants, investors, and policymakers in developing portfolio diversification strategies and making important investment decisions, and they could enhance market efficiency and stability. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted global tourism, raising the need for sustainable recovery strategies. This study examines how tourists’ confidence in tourism recovery (CTR) influences travel intentions across different pandemic phases—outbreak, stabilization, and conclusion. Positioned within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the research explores the mediating role of CTR in the relationships between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and travel intention. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), multi-group analysis (MGA), and Importance–Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA), this study assesses changes in travel behavior during each pandemic phase. Data were collected through three surveys conducted in major Chinese cities between late 2022 and early 2023. The findings reveal that CTR significantly mediates the influence of behavioral factors on travel intention, especially during the stabilization and conclusion phases. The IPMA results highlight key areas for intervention, with CTR, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms varying in importance across phases. This research underscores the need for adaptive and sustainable strategies to strengthen traveler confidence, offering practical insights for supporting long-term resilience and growth in the tourism industry during and beyond health-related crises. Full article

This paper aims to leverage Bayesian nonlinear expectations to construct Bayesian lower and upper estimates for prices of Ether options, that is, options written on Ethereum, with conditional heteroscedasticity and model uncertainty. Specifically, a discrete-time generalized conditional autoregressive heteroscedastic (GARCH) model is used to incorporate conditional heteroscedasticity in the logarithmic returns of Ethereum, and Bayesian nonlinear expectations are adopted to introduce model uncertainty, or ambiguity, about the conditional mean and volatility of the logarithmic returns of Ethereum. Extended Girsanov’s principle is employed to change probability measures for introducing a family of alternative GARCH models and their risk-neutral counterparts. The Bayesian credible intervals for “uncertain” drift and volatility parameters obtained from conjugate priors and residuals obtained from the estimated GARCH model are used to construct Bayesian superlinear and sublinear expectations giving the Bayesian lower and upper estimates for the price of an Ether option, respectively. Empirical and simulation studies are provided using real data on Ethereum in AUD. Comparisons with a model incorporating conditional heteroscedasticity only and a model capturing ambiguity only are presented. Full article

Olive oil is not only an essential culinary element in the diet of Mediterranean countries, but it is also becoming an increasingly attractive element from a tourism perspective. The olive grove landscape, ancient olive trees, and oil mills are increasingly attracting tourists eager to experience this type of tourism. This research analyzes the profile of the oleotourist in the four designations of the province of Córdoba (Spain). SARIMA models have been applied to predict oleotourism demand, resulting in a growing demand, which will create jobs in the towns dedicated to this cultivation. The main problem is the seasonality of this demand, which can be corrected by creating complementary activities such as olive oil festivals, cooking workshops, or tasting sessions. A logit model has also been developed to determine which variables influence the probability of being satisfied with the oleotourism experience, with environmental conservation and travel cost being the most influential. Regarding the bivariate analysis, motivation and satisfaction with the trip are closely related, as is the personal classification of the oleotourist; the more they know about the world of olive cultivation, the more satisfied they are with their experience. Full article

The economy is significantly impacted by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks. The growth of the economy can be sped up by the effective management of ESG risks through sustainable business practices. To promote sustainable development and to secure the long-term welfare of employees, customers, and all other stakeholders in the economy, companies must adapt and reposition their business strategies and organizational cultures. The goal of this paper is to determine how a set of common ESG elements, chosen from the viewpoints of sustainability and well-being, influence economic growth in the Western Balkan countries. For each ESG component, we used different variables. The information pertains to the five Western Balkan countries of North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Because of a lack of data, Kosovo is excluded from the study. Then, we compared results from the analysis of the Western Balkan countries with a set of countries in Southeast Europe, which are members of the European Union and essentially coincide with the Western Europe countries. We performed multiple regression analysis with applied fixed effects to the data model. According to the study’s findings, each of the independent variables had no significant impact on the GDP’s annual growth of the Western Balkan countries, but two of the variables, life expectancy at birth and labor force participation, have certain impact on the GDP growth of Southeast Europe countries, which are members of the European Union. The green transition has gained significant importance in the Western Balkan countries as a crucial pathway toward sustainable economic growth, though it introduces a range of new social and economic challenges. Economically, these nations are confronted with considerable funding requirements for development. To build sustainable societies, it would be beneficial for these countries to explore more creative financing strategies. It is advised to establish financing frameworks that not only increase the transparency in policymaking but also ensure greater accountability in their execution. Full article

The effects of cold rolling reduction on the microstructure, recrystallization behavior, and magnetic properties of 3.0%Si-0.8%Al-0.3%Mn steel were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). With the reduction rates of 78%, 85% and 87% in the cold rolled sheet, the width of the deformation band becomes narrower, the number of intragranular shear bands decreases, and the proportion of grain boundaries increases. The intensity of the α and γ fibers texture in the cold rolled sheet is enhanced, and the annealed sheet is dominated by the γ fibers texture and the content increases from 26.0% to 34.5%. During the recrystallization process, the Goss and γ-grains nucleate first. The λ-grains nucleate mainly at the grain boundaries of the deformed α-grains, and the α-grains ultimately recrystallize. With the increase in the cold rolling reduction rate, the γ-grains develop into the main texture due to a large amount of nucleation at the deformation band and grain boundary. The λ-grains with a high mobility do not have a numerical advantage, and the increase in the texture content is very small. The content of the unfavorable γ fiber texture in the annealed sheet increases, the magnetic induction intensity B50 decreases, Pe and Pt decrease significantly, and the critical grain size with the lowest iron loss decreases from 136.2 to 109.4 μm. Full article