Benefits To Different Stakeholders Research Articles

Smart optimization in battery energy storage systems: An overview

The increasing drive towards eco-friendly environment motivates the generation of energy from renewable energy sources (RESs). The rising share of RESs in power generation poses potential challenges, including uncertainties in generation output, frequency fluctuations, and insufficient voltage regulation capabilities. As a solution to these challenges, energy storage systems (ESSs) play a crucial role in storing and releasing power as needed. Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) provide significant potential to maximize the energy efficiency of a distribution network and the benefits of different stakeholders. This can be achieved through optimizing placement, sizing, charge/discharge scheduling, and control, all of which contribute to enhancing the overall performance of the network. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of BESS operation, optimization, and modeling in different applications, and how mathematical and artificial intelligence (AI)-based optimization techniques contribute to BESS charging and discharging scheduling. We also discuss some potential future opportunities and challenges of the BESS operation, AI in BESSs, and how emerging technologies, such as internet of things, AI, and big data impact the development of BESSs.

Integrating social accountability into the medical curriculum: The Need, Implementation, and Impact measurement

Abstract Social accountability in medical education deals with the responsibility of medical colleges and health-care facilities to effectively respond to the health-related needs of the communities they cater to. The incorporation of social accountability into the medical curriculum has been linked with multiple benefits for different stakeholders. Considering the utility of social accountability, there is an immense need to integrate the same into the medical curriculum and implement it for the benefit of medical students. The success of social accountability will essentially depend on the kind of partnership of medical colleges with the local community. Upon implementation of social accountability into the medical curriculum, the next step is to ascertain the impact of such initiatives. In conclusion, the adoption of social accountability into medical education can significantly aid in the process of producing compassionate and culturally competent medical graduates. The need of the hour is to adopt a concerted approach to integrate social accountability in the medical curriculum and regularly measure its impact for periodic betterment and reduction in health disparity.

Balancing stakeholder benefits: A many-objective optimal dispatch framework for home energy systems inspired by Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

The optimal scheduling of home energy systems is influenced by the benefits of different stakeholders, with the hierarchical nature of user's needs being particularly significant. However, previous studies have largely neglected these factors. To bridge the research gaps, a many-objective optimal dispatch framework for home energy systems, which was inspired by Maslow's hierarchy of needs, was proposed. In the framework, user's needs for the optimal dispatch of home energy systems were categorized into various hierarchies referring to the Maslow's theory, which were fulfilled in a specific sequence during the scheduling optimization. In addition to the user's needs, the benefits of grid operators and policymakers were considered in the developed many-objective nonlinear optimal model, which includes six objective functions that capture the interests of end-users, grid operators, and policymakers. Simulation results obtained across the home energy systems with various configurations verified the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Results indicate that user's needs can be fully satisfied and a tradeoff among the benefits of end-users, grid operators, and policymakers was achieved. For various home energy systems, the optimal scheduling demonstrated reductions of 22.33 %-81.05 % in daily operation costs, 14.39 %-25.68 % in CO2 emissions, and 15.58 %-17.49 % in peak-valley differences, associated with increment of 5.37 %-15.51 % in self-consumption rate and 8.91 %-27.29 % in self-sufficiency rate, compared with the benchmark. The proposed framework provides valuable guidance for the optimal scheduling of various home energy systems in practical applications.

Optimizing Landscape Structure of Hybrid Land Use in Ecological Corridors Based on Comprehensive Benefit Index in Metropolitan Area

As an inherent part of the landscape ecological network (LEN), the ecological corridor is the bridge between ecological sources and also the key to ensuring urban ecological security. Existing studies on ecological corridors mostly stay in the large scale of landscape patterns and lack guidance for corridor structure design or optimization at the land use level. To provide a reference for the internal landscape structure adjustment of the ecological corridor composed of hybrid land use in the rapidly urbanized areas, first, we constructed the “Comprehensive benefit index of ecological corridors I” by using the three indexes of “Ecological benefit enhancement potential”, “Economic input cost” and “Social coordination cost”. Second, with the goal of maximizing the comprehensive benefits of the three aspects of ecological corridor construction, we established a functional relationship between the converted agricultural land area A, constructed land area C, and index I to determine the optimal proportion of agricultural lands and constructed lands converted into ecological lands within the planning scope of the ecological corridors. The results show that (1) according to the conversion ratio, the ecological corridors in the study area can be divided into three degrees of conversion rate: low, moderate, and high. (2) Among the 66 ecological corridors, the agricultural lands in 26 ecological corridors and the constructed lands in 35 ecological corridors need to be converted into ecological land at a high ratio to ensure the comprehensive benefits of the corresponding corridors. We also put forward suggestions for landscape structure adjustment and optimization for ecological corridors with different conversion degrees. This method can help balance the benefits of different stakeholders in the city and implement the results of ecological corridor planning on a large spatial and temporal scale at the land use level.

Text to Causal Knowledge Graph: A Framework to Synthesize Knowledge from Unstructured Business Texts into Causal Graphs

This article presents a state-of-the-art system to extract and synthesize causal statements from company reports into a directed causal graph. The extracted information is organized by its relevance to different stakeholder group benefits (customers, employees, investors, and the community/environment). The presented method of synthesizing extracted data into a knowledge graph comprises a framework that can be used for similar tasks in other domains, e.g., medical information. The current work addresses the problem of finding, organizing, and synthesizing a view of the cause-and-effect relationships based on textual data in order to inform and even prescribe the best actions that may affect target business outcomes related to the benefits for different stakeholders (customers, employees, investors, and the community/environment).

An Auction-Based Local Market Clearing for Energy Management in a Virtual Power Plant

Virtual power plant (VPP) concept creates additional benefits for different stakeholders, such as system operators, distributed energy resources’ owners, and aggregators. This article presents an auction-based energy management solution from VPP aggregator point of view. To this end, a network-constrained economic dispatch has been developed taking into account a comprehensive resource portfolio, including the conventional and renewable distributed generations, energy storage units, and flexible loads. The VPP aggregator aims at minimizing its expected costs through optimal dispatch of its own resources as well as purchasing and selling electricity from/to upstream network. To this end, a stochastic programming approach has been employed to consider the generation uncertainty of renewable energy resources as well as day-ahead energy market prices using a set of plausible scenarios. The payments to the prosumers are according to an auction-based pricing method that could be an efficient strategy for the VPP aggregator in order to guarantee fairness among consumers and producers within the VPP. In the auction-based pricing scheme, the electricity price at each local node can be calculated according to the demand and generation in each time slot. The proposed framework is a mixed-integer linear programming problem and solved by the CPLEX solver in the GAMS software. It is noteworthy that the effectiveness of the model has been verified, considering several numerical studies.

Does E-commerce participation increase the use intensity of organic fertilizers in fruit production?-Evidence from China.

Commerce has had positive impacts on the whole agri-food value chain at different stages, it was developed rapidly in rural China in the past few years. E-commerce participation can promote the use intensity of organic fertilizers (OF) and this could achieve many benefits for different stakeholders including ensuring food safety, positive environmental impacts and promoting the adoption of green production technologies. Therefore, this study has used primary data collected from 733 fruit farmers in rural China to explore the impact of e-commerce participation on fruit farmers’ use intensity of (OF). Unlike previous studies investigating the dichotomous decision of (OF) adoption, this study captures the use intensity of (OF) from both input quantity and cost aspects. We employed an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to address selectivity bias caused by observed and unobserved factors. The results show that e-commerce participation significantly increases the use intensity of (OF) in input quantity and cost by 19.48% and 29.50%, respectively. Heterogeneous analysis further reveals that compared to fruit farmers with a low e-commerce participation level, fruit farmers with a high e-commerce participation level have higher (OF) use intensity. The findings also show that risk preference, human capital, cultivated area, cooperative membership and government restraint mechanisms positively and significantly affect the probability of fruit farmers’ participation in e-commerce and fruit farmers’ use intensity of (OF). The results emphasize that e-commerce promotion is an efficient way to encourage farmers to adopt (OF), which help improve product quality and promote sustainable agricultural development.

The Potential Compatibility of Designating Offshore Wind Farms within Wider Marine Protected Areas—Conservation of the Chinese White Dolphin Regarding Fishers’ Perception

The population of the Chinese white dolphin along Taiwan’s west coast is under a range of threats. The designation of marine protected areas (MPA) is urgently required for their protection. However, conflicts between specific species conservation and fishing rights mean that the success of such a designation relies on the fishers’ perceptions and awareness of an MPA. Designating offshore wind farms within MPAs can be a mechanism for minimizing conflicts between fisheries and conservation. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential for designating an offshore wind farm within an MPA for Chinese white dolphin conservation by exploring the attitudes of local fishers. This study used face-to-face questionnaires. The results show that the main challenges are conflicts of interest, insufficient science-based information, and inadequate law enforcement. Offshore wind farms could be a way to maximize the benefits for different stakeholders and positively impact the marine environment and ecosystem. This study makes feasible recommendations on how to improve conservation, promote renewable energy, and encourage sustainable fisheries.

The Impact of Perioperative Remote Patient Monitoring on Clinical Staff Workflows: Scoping Review.

BackgroundRemote patient monitoring (RPM) interventions are being increasingly implemented in health care environments, given their benefits for different stakeholders. However, the effects of these interventions on the workflow of clinical staff are not always considered in RPM research and practice.ObjectiveThis review explored how contemporary RPM interventions affect clinical staff and their workflows in perioperative settings.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review of recent articles reporting the impact of RPM interventions implemented in perioperative settings on clinical staff and their workflow. The databases accessed were Embase and PubMed. A qualitative analysis was performed to identify the main problems and advantages that RPM brings to staff, in addition to the approaches taken to evaluate the impact of those interventions. Different themes were identified in terms of the challenges of RPM for clinical staff as well as in terms of benefits, risk-reduction strategies, and methods for measuring the impact of these interventions on the workflow of clinical staff.ResultsA total of 1063 papers were found during the initial search, of which 21 (1.98%) met the inclusion criteria. Of the 21 included papers, 15 (71%) focused on evaluating new RPM systems, 4 (19%) focused on existing systems, and 2 (10%) were reviews.ConclusionsThe reviewed literature shows that the impact on staff work experience is a crucial factor to consider when developing and implementing RPM interventions in perioperative settings. However, we noticed both underdevelopment and lack of standardization in the methods for assessing the impact of these interventions on clinical staff and their workflow. On the basis of the reviewed literature, we recommend the development of more robust methods for evaluating the impact of RPM interventions on staff experience in perioperative care; the adoption of a stronger focus on transition management when introducing these interventions in clinical practice; and the inclusion of longer periods of assessment, including the evaluation of long-term goals.

Urban consolidation centers: Impact analysis by stakeholder

An Urban Consolidation Center is a city logistics solution that contributes to reducing the negative effects of transportation activities in urban areas, but few projects have been implemented fully and financial sustainability is commonly mentioned as a constraint to their implementation. The objective of this research is two-fold: to present a methodology to include socio-environmental impact monetization in the economic evaluation of urban consolidation center projects and to discuss the result of UCC project economic evaluations considering foundations of Welfare Economics. For this purpose, the impacts for each stakeholder were identified, their monetization was incorporated in the analysis and the results were discussed in light of the Kaldor-Hicks criterion. Two Brazilian cases are used to apply the proposed methodology. The results show that when socio-environmental impacts, such as a reduction in traffic congestion and pollution emissions, are incorporated into the economic evaluation, implementation is justified for cities with high levels of traffic congestion. This study might improve the future analysis of urban consolidation center projects by performing a more comprehensive economic evaluation. Notably, it includes social, environmental and monetary benefits for different stakeholders, and is relevant for practitioners and public administrators.

Evaluation of Lowland Bamboo Propagation Techniques in West Hararghe Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Bamboo has diverse utility ranging from construction to delicacy in Asia and Africa, and also several desirable qualities that make it a useful resource compared to many other plants. For example; it uses as food and feed preservative, construction, medicine purpose, natural conservation, charcoal and energy, arts and culture, aesthetic value, financial return and environment protection. Bamboo has additional unique characteristic that a fast growing plant than any other tree species and starts to give utility within three or four years of planting time in the exception of bearing fruits. To give fruit full seed takes a long time that after 50 years old. So to get its utilities has to be raised through various propagation methods. In this trial; propagations with culm cut, offsets cut and branch cut on Dendrocalmus membracius, Dendrocalmus hamlitonii and Oxytenanthera abyssinica bamboo species had been executed in RCBD design with three replications, respectively. So that in this experiment, among the methods of bamboo propagation technique; offset cutting (bamboo rhizome) followed by branch cut had been recommended based on consideration of giving adequate planting materials. The outcomes showed highly significant difference at (p<0.001) level between and within treatments as well as interaction effect based on the given parameters. Regardless of this fact; the highest mean value discovered under Dendrocalmus hamlitonii bamboo species with culm cut planting followed by Dendrocalmus memebranceous with branch cut planting, while the least mean value was recorded under Oxytenanthera abyssinica with culm cut planting based on number of new emerging bamboo shoot parameter. Based on root collar diameter, Length of shoot and number of node parameters, the highest mean value recorded under Dendrocalmus hamlitonii and Dendrocalmus memebranceous with offset cut planting, while the least mean value was recorded under Dendrocalmus hamlitonii with branch cut planting, respectively (Table 2). Despite this fact, the recommend that with offset cut plating for Dendrocalmus hamlitonii and Dendrocalmus memebranceous of bamboo species followed by Oxytenanthera abyssinica. The Culm cut planting parts designated higher mean value for Dendrocalmus hamlitonii bamboo species only, while branch cut planting designated higher mean value for Dendrocalmus memebranceous bamboo species only (Table 2). Generally, the study was propagations of lowland bamboo species (Dendrocalmus membracius, Dendrocalmus hamlitonii and Oxytenanthera abyssinica) with culm cut, offsets cut and branch cut techniques under Mechara and for related agro ecology zones is trustworthy so, the research advocated these technologies with further economic and livelihood benefits for different stakeholders through expanding the plantation materials with full package.

Adaptation and Growth Performance Evaluation of Agroforestry Tree Species in Babille District, East Hararghe Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Study was under taken on five agroforestry tree species: Moringa oliefera, Gravilea robusta, Azadarichta indica, Leuceana leucocephala and Cordia africana at Fedis Agricultural Research Center to evaluate their adaptability and growth performance. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications. The growth parameters; diameter, plant height and survival rate were measured and recorded at interval of three months. Results revealed that there were selected agroforestry tree species had no problem on survival and adaptability at study area except some growth variation and the outcome had a significant value at (p<0.05) between treatment’s parameters. The variations among tree species in height growth, root collar diameter development, diameter at breast height and survival rate were highly significant (p<0.05) after four years of age. This could be due to environmental factor and/or genetic potential of the species, which generally govern the growth of a given species. Among the species tasted, Azadarichta indica showed the highest performance followed by Leuceana leucocephala, Moringa oliefera in terms of height growth, root collar diameter and diameter at breast height. Moringa oliefera, Azadarichta indica, and Leuceana leucocephala showed the highest survival rate with 84%, 83.67% and 82.33% respectively. On the other hand, Gravilea robusta and Cordia africana showed lowest performance. Thus, the long dry season, which extended from eight to ten months in the study area, clearly explains the poor survival and growth response in some of the species. Hence it can be inferred that the conditions of Babille matched with the environmental requirement of Moringa oliefera, Azadarichta indica, and Leuceana leucocephala. Therefore, the species offers much promise for future use in agroforestry practices in the area. Generally, the study under Babille conditions and related agro ecology, we advocate these adapted species for further properly allocate species into the site that grow and adapt agro forestry practices, forest plantations and economic and livelihood benefits for different stakeholders.

Value chain analysis of mangrove forests in central Mozambique: Uses, stakeholders and income

This study aims at documenting the value chain derived from mangrove forests in selected sites in central Mozambique (Zambezi Delta, Nhangau and Chiveve River), through the identification of the services delivered by mangrove forests and assessment of stakeholder’s engagement within the value chain. Furthermore, this work evaluates the income pathways as well as the current and potential benefits of different stakeholders and the socio-economic sustainability of mangroves in the three regions. Zambezi Delta is one of largest mangrove swamps in Africa and Chiveve is located in Beira City, impacted by Cyclone Idai in 2019. The main benefits obtained by the communities both in the Zambezi Delta and Nhangau were derived from commercially important wood extraction and honey production for domestic use. Within the Zambezi Delta, profit for small mangrove poles accrued at the wholesale level (82.6%), while that for large poles accrued to harvesters (125.0%), after a small initial direct investment. At Nhangau, small poles fetched profits of 17%, medium poles 11.5%, and large poles 24%; for charcoal, the greatest portion of profits went to retailers at 50%. Men were mostly involved in mangrove wood harvesting for commercial purposes, while women collected firewood mainly for domestic use. At the Chiveve, the community benefited predominantly from non-extractable services such as flooding control, water purification, nursery grounds for fisheries and aesthetic beauty. It is suggested that Mozambique mangrove forests are valued at USD 2 400 per hectare per year. This monetary accounting can be used to inform decision making on mangrove management and to improve the performance of the value chain and the wellbeing of local communities.

DINA—Development of open source and open services for natural history collections &amp;amp; research

The DINA Consortium (DINA = “DIgital information system for NAtural history data”, https://dina-project.net) is a framework for like-minded practitioners of natural history collections to collaborate on the development of distributed, open source software that empowers and sustains collections management. Target collections include zoology, botany, mycology, geology, paleontology, and living collections. The DINA software will also permit the compilation of biodiversity inventories and will robustly support both observation and molecular data. The DINA Consortium focuses on an open source software philosophy and on community-driven open development. Contributors share their development resources and expertise for the benefit of all participants. The DINA System is explicitly designed as a loosely coupled set of web-enabled modules. At its core, this modular ecosystem includes strict guidelines for the structure of Web application programming interfaces (APIs), which guarantees the interoperability of all components (https://github.com/DINA-Web). Important to the DINA philosophy is that users (e.g., collection managers, curators) be actively engaged in an agile development process. This ensures that the product is pleasing for everyday use, includes efficient yet flexible workflows, and implements best practices in specimen data capture and management. There are three options for developing a DINA module: create a new module compliant with the specifications (Fig. 1), modify an existing code-base to attain compliance (Fig. 2), or wrap a compliant API around existing code that cannot be or may not be modified (e.g., infeasible, dependencies on other systems, closed code) (Fig. 3). create a new module compliant with the specifications (Fig. 1), modify an existing code-base to attain compliance (Fig. 2), or wrap a compliant API around existing code that cannot be or may not be modified (e.g., infeasible, dependencies on other systems, closed code) (Fig. 3). All three of these scenarios have been applied in the modules recently developed: a module for molecular data (SeqDB), modules for multimedia, documents and agents data and a service module for printing labels and reports: The SeqDB collection management and molecular tracking system (Bilkhu et al. 2017) has evolved through two of these scenarios. Originally, the required architectural changes were going to be added into the codebase, but after some time, the development team recognised that the technical debt inherent in the project wasn’t worth the effort of modification and refactoring. Instead a new codebase was created bringing forward the best parts of the system oriented around the molecular data model for Sanger Sequencing and Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) workflows. In the case of the Multimedia and Document Store module and the Agents module, a brand new codebase was established whose technology choices were aligned with the DINA vision. These two modules have been created from fundamental use cases for collection management and digitization workflows and will continue to evolve as more modules come online and broaden their scope. The DINA Labels &amp;amp; Reporting module is a generic service for transforming data in arbitrary printable layouts based on customizable templates. In order to use the module in combination with data managed in collection management software Specify (http://specifysoftware.org) for printing labels of collection objects, we wrapped the Specify 7 API with a DINA-compliant API layer called the “DINA Specify Broker”. This allows for using the easy-to-use web-based template engine within the DINA Labels &amp;amp; Reports module without changing Specify’s codebase. In our presentation we will explain the DINA development philosophy and will outline benefits for different stakeholders who directly or indirectly use collections data and related research data in their daily workflows. We will also highlight opportunities for joining the DINA Consortium and how to best engage with members of DINA who share their expertise in natural science, biodiversity informatics and geoinformatics.

Subjective benefit evaluation model for immature BIM-enabled stakeholders

Building Information Modeling (BIM) implementation brings many benefits for different stakeholders, but how to evaluate the benefits is still an unsolved problem. For dealing with the problem, this study proposes an overall benefit evaluation structure for BIM implementation, and then develops a subjective benefit evaluation model for immature BIM-enabled stakeholders by evaluating project-based benefits in three evaluation stages: pre-project, in-progress and post-project evaluations. Through an empirical study of thirteen BIM implementation cases in Taiwan, this study concludes that the proposed model is appropriate to evaluate project-based benefits for a stakeholder who is not familiar with BIM implementation. The research outcomes and findings of BIM benefits evaluation can assist those in the public and private sectors who have sensed the value of BIM and want to implement BIM technology. Further research to evaluate BIM benefits in different BIM implementation levels is needed.

Multiple DRPs to maximise the techno‐economic benefits of the distribution network

This study addresses a demand response programme (DRP) model considering the price elasticity of demand to determine the peak scheduling for different categories of consumers with the possibility of load shifting. The main objective is to minimise daily energy loss and improvement in the node voltage profile of distribution system along with the economic benefits of different stakeholders. The proposed work helps in appropriate selection of DRP for different feeders/consumers. The investigations are performed on a benchmark 33-bus test distribution system and comprehensive analysis is illustrated through simulation results.

DATA SCIENCE APPROACH FOR IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Majority of the IT companies realized that ability to analyse and use data, could be one of the key factors for increasing of number of successful projects, portfolios, programs. Key performance indicators based on data analysis helps organizations be more prosperous in a long term perspective. Also, statistical data are very useful for monitoring and evaluation of project results which are very important for managers, delivery directors, CTO and others high level management of company. The Data Science methods could make more efficient project management in several of business problems. Analysis of historical data from the project life-cycle based on Data Science models could provide more efficient benefits for different stakeholders. Differential of the project data vector with target as an integral evaluation of the project success which allow for the complex correlations between separate features. Therefore, the influence of features importance and override creatures could be decreased on the target. This study propose new approach based on Data Science providing more efficient and accurately project management, taking into account best practices and project performance data.

Modelling drivers’ working and recharging schedules in a ride-sourcing market with electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles

Recently, electric vehicles (EVs) have been introduced to the ride-sourcing market, raising interesting issues on the interaction between EVs and the ride-sourcing market. This study proposes an analytical framework for understanding drivers’ behavior in the ride-sourcing market with both EVs and gasoline vehicles (GVs). A time-expanded network is established to sketch out the schedules of working periods of both EV and GV drivers, and recharging schedules of EV drivers under the user equilibrium. The impacts of operating strategies of ride-sourcing platforms and electrical power suppliers on the benefits of different stakeholders are investigated both analytically and numerically.

Benefits of business and university collaboration in curriculum development

The relevance of the research In the face of increasing global competition, business was challenged to seek new methods for creating their competitive advantage and at the same time the decreasing budgets of higher education institutions were pressured to find new streams of financing. In both cases, collaboration is seen as an important method for achieving their objectives but universities of today have as well to find the appropriate balance between teaching, basic and applied research, and entrepreneurship. Ten types of university-business collaboration are related quite directly to the missions of the university and the needs of business. Curriculum development and delivery is one of that ten, which aim is to develop human resources to modern society. A summary of benefits was identified in the academic literature as arising from UBC in relation to curriculum design and delivery for multiple stakeholders including academics, students, university administration, business and community. Overall, UBC may take various forms that are influenced by different factors but even if all stakeholders seeks the main purpose of this process they may get different benefits. The research aim was to identify the benefits of universities and business organizations in curriculum development. The objectives of the research: to determine the instruments and activities used for universities and business organizations collaboration, to identify universities and business organizations benefits from collaboration to the various stakeholder groups. Analysis of recent research and publications. UBC became the subject of education and management sciences. P. D'Este and M. Perkmann explored the factors of UBC, the types were identified by T. Davey, T. Baaken, V. Galan Muros, A. Meerman, T. Barnes, A. Gibbons and the levels of UBC were represented by B.N. Ponomariov, P.C. Boardman, T. Davey, R. Laužackas. The benefits of UBC to research quality have been studied by researchers T. Davey , M. Crespo, N. Carayol, H. Forsyth, R. Laxton, S. Lamichhane, T. Nath Sharma, P. Van der Sijde and H. Dridi, as a collaborative factor for learning improvement by researchers K. Ramakrishnan, N.M. Yasin, A. Draghici. An overview of the study of this object shows that it was mostly analysed in vocational training and in last ten years’ period the publications is growing in UBC. Research methodology. The paper seeks to represent the UBC benefits for different stakeholders and collaboration forms, which was used by university with the business organizations from leisure industry. Quantitative research was used to gain quantify opinions of benefits and instruments of UBC – and generalize results from a larger sample population. Methods applied for the research was scientific literature review, a questionnaire survey for business organization leaders and mathematical statistics. Conclusion. The benefits of the UVB were grouped according to the type of stakeholder's: society, university administration, academics, entrepreneurs, students. The benefits of business stakeholders include additional funding, access to education resources, lecturer and coordinator, support in evaluating the program and developing new study subjects. The highest rated benefit to others stakeholders from their view could be reducing academic staff training costs, as well as business information available to student projects, skills development and student employment opportunities and human resource development in the region

Does energy efficiency affect financial performance? Evidence from Chinese energy-intensive firms

Energy-intensive firms are confronted with increasing pressure to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption. This paper explores the relationship between the energy efficiency and financial performance of a sample of firms in China based on a panel dataset for the period 2010–2014. Six financial indicators representing the benefits of different stakeholders are used in the analysis. Our empirical results show that energy efficiency is positively related to return on equity, return on assets, return on investment, return on invested capital and return on sales but has no significant relationship with Tobin’s q. In addition, we examine the interaction effect between energy intensity and firm growth and find that firm growth helps to enhance the positive relationship between energy intensity and financial performance. Our findings provide incentive for firms to be proactive in their efforts towards energy conservation and emissions reduction.