Environmental Orientation Research Articles

SYNERGY OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES FOR THE EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE VERIFICATION PROCESS ILLEGALLY HARVESTED WOOD

Modern technologies, digitalization and the formation of a new stage of industrialization, called «industrialization 4.0» in the absence of achieving the final goals of the previous stages of transformation, testify to the rapid and multidirectional flow of transformations in society. Despite the desire to unite a tremendous amount of information, each science, discipline, industry, production, etc., is changing based on an individual vector of development, remaining within the framework of digitalization mechanisms recommended by law. This generally does not contribute to the formation of a synergistic effect in certain activities. In this article, the author considers the possibilities of interdisciplinary methods to counter illegal logging through synergy of wood verification methods. The analysis of illegal logging from the point of view of violation of the rights of the Russian Federation, as the owner of the resource, and wood, as material evidence, the storage of which is impossible in a criminal case, together with the results of surveys, allowed the researcher to form and graphically present a mechanism for the implementation of material evidence (wood), identify problematic issues and propose possible ways to resolve them with an emphasis on reducing procedural costs and developing criminal proceedings. The author's definition of the term «wood verification» is proposed, the classification of methods (dendrochronological, forensic identification (including tracological, botanical, forest-pathological, forestry), visual, odorological, stable isotopes, genetic), as well as their characterization. The study concludes with a conclusion on the advisability of transforming the approaches used by some units of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation in order to achieve a synergistic effect in the process of verifying illegally harvested wood and countering criminal encroachments of an environmental orientation.

The right to a safe environment for life and health in the aspect of conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems

The article is devoted to the study of the right to a safe environment for life and health in the ecosystem aspect. Based on the analysis of a number international legal documents of environmental orientation, it is substantiating that the relationship between the human right to a safe environment for life and health and the need to preserve and restore natural ecosystems through the implementation of an ecosystem approach as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. It is emphasized that the active development of this approach has led to the emergence of a new area of scientific research called «ecosystem approach to health», or in abbreviated form «EcoHealth», which studies how changes in the Earth’s ecosystems affect the life and health of people. It is noted that in Ukraine the specified problems have not yet received universal recognition, however, certain tendencies in this direction, which are primarily associated with the prospects for the implementation of an ecosystem approach to ensure the right to a safe environment for life and health are already traced in the Law of Ukraine «On the Basic Principles (Strategy) of the State Environmental Policy of Ukraine for the Period until 2030», according to which the goal of such a policy is to achieve a good state of the environment by introducing an ecosystem approach in all areas of socio-economic development to ensure the right of every citizen to a clean and safe environment.

“The tree was there first” – using an everyday ecological dilemma to explore the personal orientations of secondary school students in environmental decision-making

Studies have repeatedly shown that the goals of environmental education are as indispensable as they are difficult to achieve. In particular, the discrepancy between environmental awareness and everyday actions seems to be particularly large and strongly dependent on personal factors. Against this background, the authors argue that the evaluation of everyday environmental situations should be considered and different personal orientations should be addressed. In a study among more than 1,100 secondary school students in Germany and Austria, an instrument was developed and tested that focuses on an everyday environmental dilemma and its evaluation. The use of this instrument identified five types of student orientations, each of which was accompanied by a typical evaluation pattern. The authors conclude that the instrument is applicable to educational practice as classroom tool, to identify students’ environmental orientations and develop teaching programmes that can deal with these personal predispositions in an appropriate and differentiating manner.

Role of Environmental Concerns on the Startups Networking: A Study of Indian Startups

Environmental challenges are increasingly becoming central to businesses. The startups are also being increasingly influ-enced by environmental concerns. The present article attempts to understand the environmental concerns in the values guiding the management of the startups at two levels, i.e., start up’s internal as well as external operations. At the same time, it tries to correlate the same with the network size and networking frequency of the startups. A model has been pro-posed to show the relationship between start up’s environmental concerns and their networking efforts. To identify and understand these relations, a survey was conducted on the emerging startups from different fields. The incubation centres at different institutions of Rajasthan (India) were covered under the survey. The findings highlighted a significant relation-ship between the start up’s external environmental concern and networking, thereby suggesting the significance of these concerns for environmental issues in business operations. The startups having high environmental concern were found to be among the businesses which will get more attention and find themselves more scalable. Moreover, findings also re-vealed that the environmental orientation is a very crucial aspect of networking of startups, although the influence of ex-ternal and internal environment orientation has a contrasting impact on the networking of startups. So, researchers and academicians working in the field of environmentally oriented startups can use this differentiation for further researches. There have been studies on correlating the environmental concern with networking in established firms in developed country such as Dickel et al. (2018). Moreover, emerging economies like India, there have not been an attempt to study this kind of relationship in the context of startups. The current study tries to validate the results of the study conducted by Dickel et al. (2018) for the startups in Rajasthan (India).

Benefits and challenges of developing an eco-social orientation: implications for marketing practice

PurposeSocial and environmental actors have been added to the stakeholder balancing act required of organizations in today’s competitive marketplace. To address this, the firms may create orientations to convey their strategic priorities. The purpose of this paper is to explore how different levels of environmental orientation (EO) and social orientation (SO) influence firm outcomes. This paper leverages logic from the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect to predict that firms must strategically align their resources with performance goals to optimize these resources.Design/methodology/approachThe paper outlines a step-by-step guide that combines latent moderated structural equation modeling with response surface analysis to estimate curvilinear relationships. The approach leverages the benefits of both techniques to produce precise results and more nuanced – and meaningful – implications.FindingsThe procedure is effective in uncovering a curvilinear relationship between the indicator variables. Specifically, firms optimize environmental performance when EO is higher than SO. The opposite is the case for the outcome of social value and manager trust. Economic performance is highest when both indicators are simultaneously high.Research limitations/implicationsThis study tests the relationships between social and EOs and performance. As such, the exploratory data in this study are US-centric and self-assessment in design. These limitations open the door to confirmatory studies using objective outcome data and cross-cultural comparisons. Such studies should embrace more variables and examine potential moderating influences. Most importantly, future research should work to expand and verify the development of the eco-SO construct presented here, as the dynamics of these relationships have been overlooked in most social responsibility and sustainability research. Future studies should adopt this construct into extant models and also consider the dynamics and inter-organizational fit for partner firms with competing orientations.Practical implicationsFor managers, the results show that conveying an environmental or social outcome has unique benefits to the firm. Further, there is an incentive to try and do both simultaneously. However, there is a critical point where the effects taper off, which can guide managers as they implement social and/or environmental strategies.Social implicationsThe research questions ask if a company can simultaneously deliver: economic value to shareholders, environmental value to the planet and social value to consumers while maintaining the trust of its managers. The results generally support that to fully serve one group, a firm must underserve another.Originality/valueThe study introduces SO as a valid construct to mirror EO and then models their interaction in three-dimensional space to present an optimal firm strategy.

Spatial orientation in virtual environment compared to real-world

Virtual reality (VR) is popular across many disciplines and has been increasingly used in sports as a training tool lately. However, it is not clear whether the spatial orientation of humans works equally within VR and in the real-world. In this paper, two studies are presented, in which natural body movements were allowed and demanded. Firstly, a series of verbal and walking distance estimation tests were conducted in both the virtual and the real environment. The non-parametric Friedman test with pairwise comparisons showed no significant differences neither in verbal nor in walking distance estimations between the conditions (all p > 0.05). However, shorter distances (0.9-1.5 m) were estimated more precisely than larger distances (2.6-2.8 m) in both environments. Secondly, a self-developed route recall test to examine the spatial orientation was performed in the virtual and the real environment. The participants visually perceived the predefined route and were instructed to follow these routes with their eyes blindfolded and afterward to return to their starting position. Between the ending and the starting position, no difference between the two environments was observed (p > 0.05). Based on these two studies, the performance of the human spatial orientation preliminarily verified the same in a virtual and real environment.

Mathematical problems of professional environmental orientation as a means of forming professional competence of future ecologists

Mathematical problems of professional environmental orientation as a means of forming professional competence of future ecologists

Sustainable Development, Energy Transition, and Climate Challenges in the Context of Gender: The Framework of Gender Determinants of Environmental Orientation in Poland

How does gender affect attitudes towards ecology? This question is of particular interest in a society where conservative and populist power elites perceive the concepts of “gender” and “ecology” as manifestations of “foreign” cultural influences. In turn, the dependence of the Polish energy system on coal forces us to look for various social factors that may support energy transition and the principles of sustainable development. The article outlines the results of computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) research on a representative sample of Polish society composed of 1.001 people and analyses the gender differentiation of attitudes towards the policy of sustainable development in Poland. The results presented in this article clearly show that women in Poland constitute an important support for ecological activities and energy transition. This is also the case with the entire progressive vision of politics: Women have become its main driver and an opportunity for change.

Economics, organization and management of environmental engineering in farms and rural individual entrepreneurs of environmental orientation

The use of environmental engineering in peasant, farm and environmental farms in Russia should be considered as an important factor in the modernization of productive forces that contribute to solving a number of important economic, social and environmental problems in individual regions and the entire economy of the Russian Federation. The paper provides a clear definition of the concept of environmental engineering as various forms of creating, organizing, reproducing, managing, controlling and ensuring economic efficiency of production that uses environmentally friendly technologies and equipment, has minimal impact and reproduces the ecological environment on a simple and expanded scale. The main objects of environmental engineering are considered as natural, economic and natural-economic resources that are in a close system of interaction. The article analyzes the most important tasks of environmental engineering, primarily in relation to the specific field of various environmental conditions. The authors of the article propose an original economic and mathematical model of remote management of environmental engineering of ecological farms, which allows to optimize the complex economic and environmental efficiency of any modernization within the framework of ecological farms and their environment.

The Influence of Contactless Lifestyle on E-Commerce Use Intention: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Environmental Orientation

The Influence of Contactless Lifestyle on E-Commerce Use Intention: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Environmental Orientation

The Use of Wayfinding Apps by Deafblind Travelers in an Urban Environment: Insights From Focus Groups

This brief report explores qualitative themes from focus groups with 9 individuals who are Deafblind regarding their use of wayfinding apps to support orientation and mobility in an urban environment. Culturally responsive approaches to the design of the focus groups integrated the partnership with Deafblind communication facilitators and ProTactile approaches to solicit naturalistic inquiry on the experiences and preferences of Deafblind travelers. Thematic emergences suggest that participants benefit from various wayfinding apps for orientation and mobility in a densely populated city but they long for greater functionality, consistency of access, and recognition of the unique travel demands faced by Deafblind travelers.

Research of consumer behavior in environmental marketing

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the prospects of Ukraine's accession to the European Green Course and the resulting need to intensify efforts to form and constantly increase demand for environmental goods and services. A significant role in this issue is given to environmental marketing, namely – the study of consumer behavior of environmental goods and services, environmental market segmentation, selection of target groups and development of marketing strategies for each of them. Much attention is paid to these issues in our work. The article also contains a theoretical analysis of different approaches to the formation of a model of consumer behavior of environmental goods and services. We focused on the peculiarities of the application in environmental marketing of economic, psychological and social approaches to the formation of behavioral patterns of different groups of consumers in relation to the environmental friendliness of goods. We also considered the features of marketing strategies to attract different groups of "green" consumers and the main tools of environmental orientation of the consumption structure. Last one include eco-labeling, eco-branding, consumer information orientation on sustainable products, editing consumer choices and nudge. We made a conclusion that consumers of ecological goods should be considered as a dynamic structure that is constantly changing based on the growing awareness of buyers and their understanding of the problems of sustainable development and requires constant monitoring. In Ukraine, "green buyers" can be an excellent target group of high-value market segment, which is not yet sufficiently developed. The use of environmental marketing tools will help direct consumer demand for sustainable products and stimulate the development of environmental entrepreneurship.

Patients', radiographers' and radiography students’ experiences of 360° virtual counselling environment for the coronary computed tomography angiography: A qualitative study

IntroductionThe aim of this study was to describe patients', radiographers' and radiography students’ experiences of the developed 360° virtual counselling environment (360°VCE) for the coronary computed tomography angiography (cCTA). MethodsA descriptive qualitative approach was used. The participants were cCTA patients (n = 10), radiographers (n = 10) and radiography students (n = 10) who used the 360°VCE and visited or worked at a university hospital in Finland. The 360°VCE, resembling the authentic environments of a CT imaging unit, included digital counselling materials in text, image, animation and video formats. Data were gathered through thematic interviews individually to obtain an understanding of participants’ perspectives and analyzed by inductive content analysis. ResultsFive main categories and 15 categories were identified. Identified benefits of the 360°VCE for patients included improvements in knowledge, spatial and environmental orientation, and senses of security and self-efficacy, with reductions in fear and nervousness. Patients found the counselling materials engaging, and that the 360° technology conveniently provided reassuring familiarity with the environment before their visit.Identified benefits for radiographers and radiography students included improvements in patients' mental preparedness, knowledge, spatial and environmental orientation, and reductions in patients’ fear, which eased procedures and enhanced diagnostic success. The 360°VCE also provided useful information and familiarization with the cCTA unit for students during clinical practice and staff of referring units. ConclusionIt seems that patients', radiographers' and radiography students' experiences of 360°VCE respond to patients’ needs by improved knowledge and reduced fears. Thus, current counselling practices can be usefully complemented with spherical panoramic imaging technology and online information delivery. Implications for practiceThe results may be used to improve patient counselling and care, thereby optimizing the cCTA examination procedure and reducing fear. However, further research is needed to characterize experiences of the 360° VCE more comprehensively.

Sustainability Reporting as a Consequence of Environmental Orientation: A Comparison of Sustainability Reporting by German Emerging Davids and Greening Goliaths

ABSTRACT Various studies investigate the design of corporate sustainability reporting in light of institutional theory. Whereas most of this literature examines the external factors that influence sustainability reporting, few studies focus on the internal drivers of sustainability reporting, especially the role of environmental orientation. This paper attempts to address this research gap by comparing companies with differences regarding environmental orientation. Therefore it distinguishes between companies that prioritise sustainability as business goals (Emerging Davids) and companies that use sustainability goals supplementary to their core business goals (Greening Goliaths). The paper finds differences in the sustainability reporting guidelines used by Emerging Davids and Greening Goliaths. Greening Goliaths are more likely to report according to the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative than Emerging Davids are. Thereby the study leads to the assumption that Greening Goliaths react more strongly to institutional pressures in terms of sustainability reporting than Emerging Davids do. This paper applies institutional theory in the context of environmental orientation and provides first insights into different institutional pressures within this field. While institutional pressures strongly influence the sustainability reporting of Greening Goliaths, they have less impact on the sustainability reporting of Emerging Davids.

The duality of digital and environmental orientations in the context of SMEs: Implications for innovation performance

Debate surrounding the performance outcomes of a firm’s strategic commitment to digitalization and environmental sustainability (namely, digital orientation and environmental orientation, respectively) is gathering pace. Despite progress, there remains no conclusive evidence on whether, and how digital orientation and environmental orientations enhance innovation outcomes, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, this paper examines the direct and complementary effects of digital and environmental orientations on the likelihood that SMEs introduce product and/or process innovations (i.e., product and process innovation performance). The study tests its hypotheses on a sample of 369 North American SMEs. Results demonstrate that digital and environmental orientation have a positive direct effect on product and process innovation performance. Instead, the complementary effect of pursuing a dual strategy towards digitization and environmental sustainability has a negative impact on process innovation performance and is not significant for product innovation performance. These results add new insights to theory linking strategic orientation to innovation performance, with specific regard to smaller firms.

Drivers of Socially Responsible Investments Across Europe

The European Union wants to foster the sustainable growth of the economy by using the financial markets as an intermediary. Thus, politicians need to know which factors account for differences in socially responsible investments (SRI) between countries to create an efficient framework, which supports SRI across Europe. This study aims to provide important insights about the drivers of SRI markets for politicians as well as academics. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that provides quantitative evidence on the framework established by Scholtens/Sievänen (2013) using a comparatively large data sample comprising 13 European countries during a period from 2005 to 2015. Our results can be summarized as follows: Firstly, we show that economic wealth and the size of the pension market of a country influence the size of the SRI market per capita. In particular, it seems that countries need a certain level of wealth and pension market size to start adopting basic sustainability strategies like negative screening. Secondly, we provide evidence that the differences in national SRI evolvement stem from the individual cultural characteristics of a nation. For example, masculinity, as seen by the revenue orientation of a country, prevents the emergence of more advanced SRI strategies, like engagement or integration. However, femininity, which relates to a more societal and environmental orientation, drives the emergence of more advanced SRI strategies. In this context, the recommendation to European policymakers is to opt for a minimum standard for the integration of more advanced SRI strategies, so that non-feminine countries also implement a deep-rooted sustainable investment behavior.

300 GHz radar object recognition based on deep neural networks and transfer learning

For high-resolution scene mapping and object recognition, optical technologies such as cameras and LiDAR are the sensors of choice. However, for future vehicle autonomy and driver assistance in adverse weather conditions, improvements in automotive radar technology and the development of algorithms and machine learning for robust mapping and recognition are essential. In this study, the authors describe a methodology based on deep neural networks to recognise objects in 300 GHz radar images using the returned power data only, investigating robustness to changes in range, orientation and different receivers in a laboratory environment. As the training data is limited, they have also investigated the effects of transfer learning. As a necessary first step before road trials, they have also considered detection and classification in multiple object scenes.

Fluid Decolonial Futures: Water as a Life, Ocean Citizenship and Seascape Relationality

ABSTRACT Interrogating the settler-colonial governmentality of natural resource extraction lies at the heart of this article while centering relationships to water and emergent forms of ocean citizenship. This article articulates a seascape epistemology that conceives of water as a life force, not a resource, and offers a non-extractive way to conceptualize ocean citizenship. From an environmental justice orientation, this article responds to the following question: how can we move from an extractive treatment of the ocean to a relational approach? Fusing environmental political thought and decolonial futures, this article examines how seascape epistemologies turn away from landlocked property-centric territorial geographies and engage with more embodied, fluid, storied, and vibrant ways of being, knowing, and sensing the world. Informed by interpretive methods, political ethnography, and community-engagement, this article demonstrates how seascape epistemologies across archipelagos in Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Coast Salish (Canadian) territories challenge the foundational underpinnings of extractivist settler-colonial governmentality.

Comparison of the Practical and Theoretical Knowledge of the Hepatitis B Virus among Dental Hygiene Students

Background: Hepatitis B is an important public health problem as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to compare the theoretical and practical knowledge levels of dental assistant students about Hepatitis B Virus. Methods: The 1st and 2nd grade students of the Oral and Dental Health program were invited to participate in the survey. Out of the 68 invited students, 61 completed the questionnaire. The average ages of the male and female students surveyed were 20.27±1.45 and 19.56±1.16, respectively. A total of 34 questions were asked, of which 15 measured basic theoretical knowledge and 19 assessed basic practical knowledge. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the students’ knowledge for each question according to their sex and grade. When the questionnaire was grouped into basic theoretical and basic practical knowledge levels, both were observed to be high. While the lowest correct answer rate was 35.00% for the questions about practical applications, it was 31.14% for the questions measuring the level of theoretical knowledge. There was no statistically significant difference when the levels of knowledge of 1st and 2nd grade students were compared. Students answered the majority of the questions correctly, and ranged between 71% and 100%. Conclusion: Students’ high level of basic theoretical knowledge can be a result of their in-class education on the fundamentals. However, their knowledge about the correct approaches in practical applications indicates the beneficial role of having well-defined criteria and prevention protocols that are required in hospitals and the effectiveness of their environmental orientations.

Environmental orientation and firm performance

This study aims to investigate the mediation effect of green product and green process innovation by focusing on the role of internal and external environmental orientation over firm performance to expand researches on environmental orientation. With this aim, a conceptual model has been recommended by unifying institutional theory and natural resource-based view. Data collected from 315 firms who have ISO14001 Environmental Management Certificate and took part in Turkey’s first and second ISO 500 Industrial Enterprises list in 2018 have been tested by using SmartPLS 3 software as part of Structural Equation Modelling. Empirical proofs show that internal and external environmental orientation has a positive effect on both green product innovation and green process innovation. Additionally, it has been concluded that internal environmental orientation has a direct positive effect on firm performance, while external environmental orientation has an indirect effect, which is through green product and green process innovation. The reason could be rooted in the ecological responsibility feeling of internal environmental orientation. External environmental orientation, though, could be limited only with fulfilling legal requirements with legitimacy acquiring desire. Firms strategically directed to the green product and green process innovation by doing more than the laws require and taking the lead could increase their firm performance. These findings contribute to theory and practice, enriching our understanding of how two dimensions of environmental orientation affect firm performance.