Academic Literature Research Articles

Future of Earthquake-Based Disaster Logistics and Futuristic Approaches

Disasters that occur in the world can be caused by natural as well as human-induced factors. These disasters cause damage to cities, villages, and inhabited areas, and also result in loss of life and property. Accurately and effectively planned disaster logistics management activities are crucial during these moments when life comes to a halt. Today, it is evident that cities suffer damage or even face extinction due to deficiencies in planning, coordination, and opportunities within these practices. To mitigate the consequences of disasters and minimize damage, it is essential to always be prepared for such events and manage them well before, during, and after they occur. Disaster logistics practices should be dynamic and tailored to the specific event, suitable for addressing the situation at hand. Each disaster requires a unique set of solutions that depend on the area and geography affected. Therefore, disaster logistics must adopt and develop new approaches with a sustainable perspective. Given that earthquakes are among the disasters that occur frequently in our country, there is a critical need to create earthquake-based disaster management and action plans. Looking at disaster logistics from a futuristic perspective, it is clear that digital transformation technologies can have a significant and beneficial impact, making disaster logistics services more efficient, innovative, and solution oriented. The study conducted a literature review within the framework of qualitative research methodology, providing a detailed analysis of the role of digital transformation technologies in earthquake logistics processes. The literature review was conducted by reviewing relevant academic articles, reports, books, and scientific research. Special emphasis was placed on studies published in the last 10 years, focusing on the intersection of disaster logistics and digital transformation technologies.

Two Years in the Making: Co-Learning Insights from the CSEAR’s Education Community of Practice

ABSTRACT As the imperative to address unsustainability grows, higher education institutions, individual academics, scholarly networks, and professional bodies are calling for sustainability to be (more prominently) embedded in curricula. Over the past 30 years, a strong body of work has been published related to social and environmental accounting education such as textbooks, academic articles, and teaching cases. Yet, the individual and collective endeavours scholars undertake to develop and embed social and environmental accounting education within their respective institutional contexts often remain invisible. Insights may be gleaned thanks to corridor conversations, informal networks, one-off workshops, or panel discussions. To further strengthen capacity to undertake such education, a community of practice approach might help connecting individuals and sharing experiences. This commentary outlines the aims of the CSEAR Education of Community of Practice, the process of establishing and running this community, and offers preliminary reflections following the first two years of its existence. Finally, we consider the next steps in the development of this initiative as means to enhance collective efforts to mobilize social and environmental accounting education to enable a more sustainable society.

A Nature-based Solutions Framework for Embedding Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation into Urban Land Use Plans through Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).

Climate change impacts comprise a particular challenge for authorities when reconciling the implications of land use planning decisions. Whilst Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is typically applied to the development of urban land use plans, the selection of mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate change impacts can have knock-on effects on nature. However, Nature-based Solutions (NbSs) could provide an innovative means of addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation without these knock-on effects. The main aim of this research is therefore to propose a conceptual framework for embedding NbSs into the main stages of the SEA process to potentially enhance climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban land use planning. This is achieved through a systematic literature review of academic and grey literature sources, with subsequent content analysis. This study demonstrates the value of matching these manifold NbS approaches to climate change impacts potentially addressed in SEA process stages and suggests how this might be achieved in practice focusing on urban land use plans.

LEGITIMAÇÃO, PROCEDIMENTO E FUNDAMENTAÇÃO DAS DECISÕES JUDICIAIS

This academic article intends to analyze the relation between Niklas Luhmann's theory of Legitimation by procedure and the need to substantiate judicial decisions, in order to answer whether judicial substantiation is a requirement for legitimation in Niklas Luhmann's systems theory and in accordance with the Brazilian legal system (also from a procedural perspective). To facilitate reading and understanding, some definitions regarding the concepts used by the German author in his work will be briefly provided throughout the text, which will certainly help the reader to understand the proposal and conclusions of this article.

An Empirical Analysis of the Performance of Luxury Watch Portfolios among High-Net-Worth Individuals in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study empirically evaluates luxury watches owned by high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) in India as unconventional alternative assets providing diversifying benefits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the major stock exchanges in India, NSE and BSE, faced negative returns and high volatility, igniting numerous conservative investors to divest from traditional investments and retain alternative assets, such as luxury watches, due to their low correlation to financial markets. Owing to supply chain disruptions and demand forces, the overall secondary watch market prices surged throughout this period, creating high economic value for investors. Through hypothesis testing and attribution analysis, this paper evaluates the performance of watch portfolios owned by 57 HNIs, comprising of 464 watches, to investigate whether luxury watches are viable investments during economic downturns within the domain of alternative investments. Hence, this study employs suitable attribution tools such as Sharpe ratio, M2 Alpha, Treynor Measure and Jensen’s Alpha to understand the strength of their performance. Using academic literature, market data and primary data, this study found that luxury watches provided substantial portfolio diversification benefits and outperformed traditional assets like the NIFTY50 and gold in terms both nominal and risk adjusted returns during the pandemic. Brands such as Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Audemars Piguet achieved the highest performance, as Patek Philippe demonstrated superior risk-return trade-offs. Despite challenges such as valuation complexities and liquidity constraints, luxury watches provided remarkable upside potential, benefiting from a high retention rate due to their unique emotional features. Ultimately, the findings suggest that luxury watches can be viable alternative investments considering that 65% of these HNIs viewed their watch purchases as investment opportunities.

Textual Attributes of Corporate Sustainability Reports and ESG Ratings

While the textual attributes of corporate financial documents, such as annual reports, have been extensively analyzed in the academic literature, those of corporate sustainability reports, which serve as a critical channel for nonfinancial disclosure, are relatively under-explored. Given the increasing importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors in corporate strategy and stakeholder evaluation, understanding the role of textual attributes in sustainability reporting is crucial. This study examines 10,021 hand-collected sustainability reports from Chinese firms between 2009 and 2021, focusing on six key textual attributes: length, readability, tone, boilerplate language, redundancy, and completeness. Using computational linguistics, we analyze how these attributes evolve over time and their impact on ESG ratings provided by both international (MSCI, FTSE) and domestic (SNSI) agencies. Our findings reveal that the length and completeness of sustainability reports significantly influence ESG scores across agencies, demonstrating a shared appreciation for detailed and transparent disclosures. However, international and domestic rating agencies exhibit differing responses to attributes like tone, boilerplate language, and redundancy. These differences highlight variations in evaluation standards, methodologies, and value orientations between global and local stakeholders. The results emphasize the need for firms to tailor their sustainability disclosures to meet diverse stakeholder expectations. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on nonfinancial reporting by providing empirical evidence on how specific textual characteristics of sustainability reports can shape ESG evaluations, offering insights for both corporate communicators and policymakers.

MAPPING THE FEMVERTISING LANDSCAPE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

In this systematic literature review, the aim is to explore the place of the concept of femvertising in academic literature. Accordingly, articles published in journals indexed in the Web of Science database that use the keyword "femvertising" have been analyzed. The results revealed that research on femvertising has been conducted since 2016, with most studies focusing on the business category. More than half of the articles have employed qualitative research methods. The review of contemporary literature reveals a growing body of research centered around the concept of femvertising, with a particular emphasis on the interplay between social media, women empowerment, and consumer attitudes. A notable gap in the existing literature is the paucity of studies investigating the intersection of femvertising and corporate social responsibility. After the VOSviewer analysis, the most frequently cited sources are revealed as the Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Female Media Studies, and Sex Roles. The presence of Female Media Studies and Sex Roles emphasizes the interdisciplinary aspect of femvertising research, thus suggesting that a comprehensive understanding of the topic requires perspectives from both marketing and gender studies. This underscores femvertising's relevance in both fields. Also, the analyzed articles mainly used qualitative methods, with content analysis, interviews, discourse analysis, and textual analysis being the most common. Quantitative methods like experiments and structural equation modeling were also used, though studies combining both approaches were rare. There is a notable deficiency in research employing big data analytics.

The Efficacy of Virtual Physical Education and Its Contribution to Raising Learners' Interest and Engagement Levels

Background: Schools are reluctant to adapt physical education to virtual as it would be challenging to do physical education via virtual learning. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the contemporary efficacy of virtual physical education and its contribution to raising learners' interest and engagement levels. Methods: This study employed an exploratory research design. The content was compiled using various printed and electronic textbooks, encyclopedias, reference materials, scholarly publications, and dissertations. Subsequently, the author assessed the multiple sources to ascertain the data's caliber. Results: Conventional education is obsolete; thus, schools should adopt virtual physical education due to its positive outcomes in education regarding learners' performance by increasing learners' interest and engagement. Conclusion: A properly planned and well-implemented virtual physical education, well-trained and experienced educators, well-guided learners, proper infrastructure, and supporting resources result in learners being interested and engaged, thus leading virtual physical education to success. This study bridges the gap between virtual physical education and learners' interest and engagement, adding to the existing corpus of information concerning virtual physical education.

Systematic Review of Environmental Uncertainty, Environmental Management Accounting and Sustainable Performance

Sustainable performance has emerged as a critical concern in the modern era. Consequently, numerous scholars and researchers are exploring innovative approaches across various disciplines within the social and applied sciences. While the advantages of environmental management accounting (EMA) are well-documented, environmental uncertainty is insufficiently studied yet in many countries and industries. This systematic review seeks to identify the barriers, including environmental uncertainty, that hinder the implementation of EMA practices. Additionally, it examines the scholarly flow and publication toward literature enrichment and practical implementations. The study complies with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) guidelines. conducted on fifty-one primary articles from Web of Science, Science Direct, and ProQuest databases published in the period 2000-2024. The findings reveal several compelling reasons for adopting EMA to improve sustainable performance, despite challenges like environmental uncertainty that obstruct the implementation of effective EMA practices toward performance sustainability.

Implementasi Kepemimpinan Kepala Madrasah Dalam Perspektif Trait Approach

This study highlights the importance of leadership in Islamic educational institutions, particularly through the trait approach which emphasizes characteristics such as intelligence, maturity, achievement drive, and integrity. Using a qualitative approach and descriptive methods, this research was conducted at MTs Qur'aniyah Batu Kuta through observations and interviews with the school principal, school committee, teachers, and students, as well as utilizing data from school profiles and religious activity records. The findings indicate that these traits significantly contribute to the effectiveness of the madrasah principal's leadership, as evidenced by the principal's ability to make strategic decisions, manage resources and conflicts, design high-quality curricula, drive innovation, and maintain integrity and transparency in school management. This study offers practical contributions for the development of madrasah principals' leadership and provides theoretical contributions to the study of leadership in the context of Islamic education. It is expected to serve as a basis for the recruitment and professional development of prospective madrasah principals and to enhance the academic literature on leadership in Islamic education.

Assessing the Alignment and Implementation Challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) 2030 in Morocco: A Relevant Inquiry

Morocco, a North African nation known for its rich cultural heritage and diverse landscapes, has been actively pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide its development efforts1. The country has made significant progress in aligning its national development strategies with the SDGs, particularly prioritizing goals such as quality education2, clean water and sanitation, and clean energy3. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of SDGs implementation in Morocco, highlighting achievements, challenges, and future prospects. (Smith, 2020). The SDGs, adopted by the United Nations in 20154, represent a global commitment to address pressing challenges including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. This review provides an analysis of the SDGs' effectiveness in driving positive change across various dimensions5. By examining academic literature, reports, it evaluates progress towards achieving the SDGs, identifies key implementation challenges, and assesses potential for successful realization. The article explores how effectively Morocco aligns its policies and addresses implementation challenges to achieve the SDGs by 20306, considering factors such as cultural diversity, economic structures, and geographic disparities. The integration of the SDGs into Morocco's development agenda presents both challenges and opportunities. By addressing issues like adaptation, inter-sectoral coordination, data availability, climate resilience, and policy integration, Morocco seeks to overcome these challenges. Understanding these obstacles and their solutions is crucial for assessing the relevance and effectiveness of SDGs' implementation, ultimately contributing to Morocco's sustainable development journey by 2030.

Transformation of Traditional Corporate Tax Planning into AI-Driven Corporate Tax Planning

Corporate tax planning has traditionally relied on manual processes and expert judgment to minimize tax liabilities. However, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) presents new opportunities to transform these practices through automation, real-time analysis, and predictive capabilities. To conduct this research, a comprehensive review of academic literature, case studies, and existing AI tools in tax planning was carried out. The proposed AI-based tax planning model was developed based on these findings and validated through simulations and expert feedback. The study also examined the process of integrating AI systems with existing corporate tax structures to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of implementation. Results show that AI-driven corporate tax planning significantly enhances accuracy and efficiency compared to traditional methods. The AI model provides real-time analysis and predictive insights, enabling businesses to optimize tax strategies while ensuring compliance with evolving regulations. Tax authorities also benefit from AI implementation, gaining more transparent and equitable tax structures, along with stronger supervision capabilities. The proposed model can be developed into customized software tailored to individual companies, seamlessly integrating with existing corporate systems. These findings indicate that AI has the potential to revolutionize corporate tax planning by streamlining tax management and optimizing outcomes. For businesses, AI enables personalized tax strategies that adapt to specific data and regulations, improving both compliance and long-term tax optimization.

A situated analysis of research publication evaluation in Latin countries based on a pluriversal approach

The global knowledge ecosystem is affected by ethnocentrism and witnesses Western monopolies of knowledge that have built hegemonic structures and narratives, especially in scientific and academic publishing. For the design field, the paper proposes a transition from processes of power and control over knowledge to processes of distributed knowledge leadership among the stakeholders of the publishing system (journals, conferences, scientific associations and societies, academic networks). It analyses the publishing ecosystem of Latin American countries as a case study representative of Global South knowledge that is ‘decentring’ scientific design publishing. By problematizing pluriversity, it proposes a practical frameworkon international collaboration, informed evaluation, and distributed processes to promote equity and accessibility. The 8th International Forum of Design as a Process serves as a testbed, showcasing community-led knowledge experimentation targeting the Global South countries. The case study highlights the potential to re-evaluate established structures for more pluriversal design knowledge.

Crossing disciplinary boundaries: An ethnographic exploration of academic publishing invitations.

Background: This autoethnographic study examines email invitations for health researchers to publish in journals outside their expertise, exploring implications for interdisciplinary research and knowledge production.Methods: Over three months, email invitations to publish outside the author's field were documented and analysed thematically and through reflexive journaling.Results: Five main themes in publication invitations were identified: emphasising novelty, promising rapid publication, appealing to research impact, flattering language, and persistent messaging. Reflexive analysis revealed complex factors shaping responses, including publication pressures, desires for prestige, and tensions between disciplinary norms and interdisciplinary collaboration. While invitations may present opportunities for novel collaborations, they often reflect predatory publishing practices.Conclusions: Navigating this landscape requires careful discernment, commitment to academic integrity, and reflexivity about one's positionality. The study underscores the need for researchers to critically interrogate the motivations behind such invitations. Further research could explore decision-making processes across disciplines and implications for academic publishing integrity and equity.

The digital evolution in toxicology: pioneering computational education for emerging challenges

The educational landscape of toxicology is increasingly integrating computational methodologies due to ethical concerns about animal testing and advancements in biotechnological and data analysis tools. This paper examines the evolution and significance of the Toxicology in the 21st century (Tox21) initiative and its impact on computational toxicology education. It contrasts computational toxicology with traditional methods, highlighting the limitations of conventional approaches and the new perspectives offered by computational techniques. The study emphasizes the importance of incorporating computational toxicology into curricula, including case studies that demonstrate how this integration enhances students’ problem-solving abilities, real-time data analysis skills, and innovation capabilities. Furthermore, it outlines effective teaching content and methods, including software tools, online resources, and academic literature. The paper also addresses the challenges and limitations faced in this educational shift and explores prospects for advancing computational toxicology education. By documenting these developments, the study aims to clarify the current advancements in toxicology education and the preparedness of students to address global chemical safety challenges with innovative solutions.

A comprehensive Beyond-GDP database to accelerate wellbeing, inclusion, and sustainability research

“Beyond-GDP” metrics are essential for understanding societal progress. Yet despite their importance, these metrics are scattered across various databases, hindering accessibility and interdisciplinary analysis. Addressing this gap, we present the ‘WISE database’ – the first extensive collection of important Beyond-GDP metrics organized by Wellbeing, Inclusion, and Sustainability (WISE) dimensions. The WISE database consolidates data from a variety of sources, including international institutions and academic publications. It encompasses over one million data points across 244 metrics, covering 218 countries and 61 country groupings, from specific social and environmental indicators to the main Beyond-GDP indexes, and is augmented by essential metadata. The data primarily spans from 1995 to 2015, with some metrics extending back to the 19th century. To improve accessibility and data interpretation, a user-friendly online visualization tool has been developed. The WISE database aims to foster a broader view of societal progress, facilitate research on synergies and trade-offs of wellbeing, inclusion, and sustainability, and provide a foundation for interdisciplinary research.

Green cryptocurrency and business strategies: Framework and insights from a stewardship literature review

AbstractThis study critically evaluates the extant research on green cryptocurrency (GC). It incorporates the systematic literature review (SLR) approach of research executed through the analysis and compilation of 54 relevant studies. The focus is on identifying and interpreting the thematic foci and existing gaps about GC to inform potential areas of future research. The SLR findings aggregated the research around key themes: interconnectedness, portfolio diversification, environmental impact, green blockchain, behavioral impact, and regulatory policy. Additionally, the study develops the research profile of the selected studies in terms of data analysis methodology, research findings, variables investigated, and critical knowledge gaps in the literature corpus. The study proffers an integrated framework and actionable inferences for supporting the merits of novel research and regulatory project applications in GC. It is crucial for understanding and advancing research in the GC domain, which currently has scant academic literature and efforts toward sustainable investment.

Current State of Serious Games in Human Trafficking: Evaluation, Gaps, and Future Research Directions

Addressing human trafficking is crucial due to its severe impact on human rights, dignity, and well-being. Serious games refer to digital games that are designed to entertain while also accomplishing at least one additional objective, such as learning or health promotion. Serious games play a significant role in raising awareness, training professionals, fostering empathy, and advocating for policy improvements related to human trafficking. In this study, we systematically examine and assess the current landscape of serious games addressing human trafficking to unveil the existing state, pinpoint gaps, and propose future research avenues. Our investigation encompassed academic publications, gray literature, and commercial games related to human trafficking. Furthermore, we conducted a thorough review of evaluation criteria and heuristics for the comprehensive assessment of serious games. Subsequently, incorporating these evaluation metrics and heuristics, the games were subjected to evaluation by both players and experts. Following a combined qualitative and quantitative analysis, the results were deliberated upon, and their implications were expounded. Five serious games related to human trafficking were identified and evaluated using the SGES and EGameFlow scales, along with both game-specific and serious game heuristics. Player and expert evaluations ranked “(Un)TRAFFICKED” and “Missing” as the best-performing games, while “SAFE Travel” received the lowest ratings. Players generally rated the games higher than experts, particularly in usability, feedback, and goal clarity, although the games scored poorly in audiovisual quality and relevance. Experts highlighted deficiencies in motivation, challenge, and learning outcomes. The lack of personalization and the absence of social gaming elements point to the need for more targeted human trafficking games adapted to different demographics, cultures, and player types.

Academic Coverage of Online Activism of Disabled People: A Scoping Review

Disabled people need to be activists given the many problematic lived realities they face. However, they frequently encounter obstacles in traditional offline activism. Online activism could be a potential alternative. The objective of this scoping review is to examine the extent and nature of the coverage of disabled people in the academic literature that focuses on online activism. We searched the abstracts in Scopus, Web of Science, and the 70 databases in EBSCO-HOST for the presence of 57 terms linked to online activism or online tools or places for online activism, which generated 18,069 abstracts for qualitative analysis. Of the 18,069 abstracts, only 54 discussed online the activism by disabled people. Among these 54 relevant abstracts, only one contained the term “Global South”. No relevant abstracts were found that contained the terms “Metaverse” or “Democrac*” together with “activis*”. Only two relevant abstracts contained the phrase “digital citizen*”. Out of the 57 terms, 28 had no hits. The thematic analysis identified 24 themes: 6 themes in 30 abstracts had a positive sentiment, 7 themes in 30 abstracts had a negative sentiment, and 11 themes present in 23 abstracts had a neutral sentiment. There were three main themes: the positive role and use of online activism; the technical accessibility barriers to online activism; and the attitudinal accessibility problems arising from ableist judgments. The intersectionality of the disability identity with other marginalized identities and the issue of empowerment were rarely addressed, and ability judgment-based concepts beyond the term’s “ableism” and “ableist” were not used. The study underscores the necessity for further research given the few relevant abstracts found. The study also indicates that actions are needed on barriers to online activism and that examples for best practices exist that could be applied more often. Future studies should also incorporate a broader range of ability judgment-based concepts to enrich the analysis and to support the empowerment of disabled activists.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine Imperialism

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated the global inequalities regarding the availability and access to vaccines. Many terms have appeared in the academic literature (“vaccine colonialism,” “vaccine nationalism,” “vaccine apartheid”) trying to capture and interpret these inequalities, failing in most cases to realistically explain the upstream causes of the observed injustices. A Marxist perspective on the contrary emphasizes the structural causes of inequalities in capitalism and attributes them to the existence of economic exploitation. “Vaccine imperialism,” which refers to the control that advanced industrialized countries exert on the development, production, and distribution of vaccines at the expense of less-developed economies, can describe and explain in a more realistic way the observed inequalities during the pandemic. Our study proposes a circuit of vaccine imperialism that explains how economic imperialist exploitation takes place via transfers of value from less-developed economies (vaccine recipient countries) to imperialist economies (vaccine producing and patent holder countries) using four different channels: (a) protection of intellectual property (IP) rights (patents), (b) earnings from royalty payments for the use of vaccines (monopolistic prices and profits), (c) exercise of monopoly power on the production and distribution of vaccines (control over the quantity of vaccines supplied, exclusion of competitors through vaccine licensing), and (d) public debt servicing. JEL Classification: I14, I18, D43, F54, F55, H51