Mainstream Issue Research Articles

How to Shape an Organization’s Sustainable Green Management Performance: The Mediation Effect of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), a current mainstream issue in global corporate governance, is often used to verify a company’s financial performance and corporate image; however, few studies have focused on CSR for environmental issues. On the basis of the perspectives of the expectation value and signal theories, this study presents a new concept for determining the impact of green shared vision (GSV) on employee environmental performance (EEP) and green product development performance (GPDP), which could aid in exploring the GSV–environmental CSR (ECSR) relationship further. The current results demonstrated that ECSR contributes to enhancing EEP and GPDP. Therefore, enterprises must implement the promotion of ECSR to enhance their overall green management performance and achieve sustainable management.

Encouraging sustainable action in a food company: Impacting environmentally sustainable dietary and lifestyle behaviours using an in‐house Sustainability Toolkit and Challenge

AbstractThe need for more environmentally sustainable diets is clear and urgent; it is predicted that we will need two planets to feed the Earth’s population by 2050. Adopting more environmentally sustainable behaviours has become increasingly popular in the last decade, both at an individual and institutional level. However, whilst sustainability is now a mainstream issue, the perceived impracticalities that are attributed to more environmentally sustainable actions can act as a barrier to the widespread adoption of sustainable lifestyles and dietary behaviours in the general population. This study sought to observe the degree to which an in‐house Sustainability Toolkit and Sustainability Challenge can encourage the adoption of environmentally sustainable dietary and lifestyle behaviours by employees of a European food company. Eight employees participated in a successful pilot Sustainability Challenge, yielding greater feelings of empowerment and motivation in acting more sustainably. A full company rollout is now planned, and it is hoped that the Sustainability Toolkit and Sustainability Challenge will encourage current and future employees to adopt more environmentally sustainable lifestyles and dietary behaviours.

A new path planning method of mobile robot based on adaptive dynamic firefly algorithm

Path planning has always been a hot topic in the field of mobile robot research. At present, the mainstream issues of the mobile robot path planning are combined with the swarm intelligence algorithms. Among them, the firefly algorithm is more typical. The firefly algorithm has the advantages of simple concepts and easy implementation, but it also has the disadvantages of being easily trapped into a local optimal solution, with slow convergence speed and low accuracy. To better combine the path planning of mobile robot with firefly algorithm, this paper studies the optimization firefly algorithm for the path planning of mobile robot. By using the strategies of optimizing the adaptive parameters in the firefly algorithm, an adaptive firefly algorithm is designed to solve the problem that the firefly algorithm is easy to get into the local optimal solution and improves the performance of firefly algorithm. The optimized algorithm with high performance can improve the computing ability and reaction speed of the mobile robot in the path planning. Finally, the theoretical and experimental results have verified the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm, which can meet the requirements of the mobile robot path planning.

Research development of Bitcoin: a network and concept linking analysis

PurposeThis study aims to provide researchers a holistic approach for comprehensive understanding of the Bitcoin-related research by discovering its trends, subjects, relations, keywords and concepts.Design/methodology/approachAn integrated approach of bibliometric analysis, network analysis and concept linking analysis was proposed for exploring Bitcoin-related studies from 70 countries in the Scopus database.FindingsThe bibliometric analysis shows that electronic money and blockchain are the mainstream issues of Bitcoin, and the domain distribution of the literature is mainly in engineering-related fields. Through the network analysis of cocitations, co-occurrences and cowords, research clusters were discovered respectively from different perspectives. The authors also have mastered a multilevel concept linking diagram for six related major concepts.Originality/valueThe major contribution of this research is about providing an integrated and comprehensive approach to extract the mainstream issues that can help researchers conduct Bitcoin-relevant research. This study shows the development trend, context and clusters of Bitcoin-related studies from various perspectives networks and produces a visual concept linking diagram that will enable researchers to quickly understand the contextual relationship between Bitcoin keywords during literature analysis. In addition, the most crucial studies in the main topics are extracted to save the considerable time and labor that would be required to manually read all the literature and summarize the issues.

Student learning venture overseas in the transnational research partnership – a Taiwan and US PIRE case study

PurposeTransnational learning has become a mainstream issue in recent years due to the rise of global education. There are many kinds of overseas learning, including degree-seeking, joint/double degree, student exchange, internship, service learning and so on. The scope of learning may involve research, teaching/learning and community service. The purpose of the case study is to investigate how the Taiwanese students participating in an international internship project of the US–Taiwan Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) acquire professional knowledge and soft skills, including cross-cultural awareness, interdisciplinary communication, skill development and social networking. It also explores how a joint research project contributes into a collaborative educational program.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand participants' experiences in the PRIE, this study held three focus groups and seven in-depth interviews on the students, faculty members and project managers for data collection.FindingsThree major findings are shown in the study. First, participants agreed that the overall learning experiences in knowledge acquisition or skill development have been positive. Second, participants obviously expressed their greater interests in intercultural interaction with the locals, which did not happen quite often during the internship. Third, the extent of interest in applying for the PIRE deg ree program after the internship program is escalating year by year.Research limitations/implicationsMore investigation into participants’ social and cultural engagement in similar project will be needed for future research.Practical implicationsThe results will be implicated into other cross-border education project evaluation.Originality/valueThis study manages to investigate the cross-border research initiative from different participants' perspectives and received comprehensive feedbacks.

Integrating BIM with greenhouse-gas emissions in AEC: A scientometric review

More and more attention has been paid to the application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the field of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC). However, systematic analysis and visualization of its development trend have not been carried out. This paper combined digital statistical method and scientometrics to analyse major documents published in the Scopus database from 2008 to September 2019 and discussed the development trend, the main journals co-citation and keywords co-occurrence of this field. And then main challenges and future research were summarized by content analysis. The results show that: (1) the number of articles related to integrating BIM with GHG emissions has increased significantly in AEC, which deserves more and more scholars to study in this field; (2) top cited journals mainly focus on built environment, BIM and clean technology; (3) BIM and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are the mainstream issues in the calculation, analysis and decisionmaking of GHG emissions. This review provides status quo and existing main challenges of knowledge system of BIM applied to GHG emissions in AEC, and also offers inspiration for future research.

Litigating Climate Claims in India

Jacqueline Peel and Jolene Lin's informative assessment of climate litigation in the Global South is a vital and timely contribution to the growing literature on the issue. It relies on a definition of climate litigation that allows the authors to draw on a much larger set of cases from the Global South by including cases in which climate concerns are “at the periphery.” This essay examines climate litigation in India. Although the term “global warming” started appearing in Indian environmental judgments in the 1990s, climate litigation in India is of relatively recent provenance, and with a few exceptions, climate concerns are peripheral to other, more mainstream environmental issues. Peel and Lin analyze five Indian cases as part of their Global South docket; I expand this set by including fourteen more cases that I believe fit their article's chosen definitional ambit. I classify these cases into four categories based on the use of climate language—reference to climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, or the international negotiations—in the courts’ judgment. Drawing from case law analysis and Indian environmental litigation, I make observations about what we can interpret from the current set of climate cases, and I predict that while conditions are favorable for climate litigation in India to grow, in the near future climate claims are likely to remain peripheral issues.

CSR Practices Performance and their Visibility by Consumers: a Study with Spanish Food Products

Nowadays, companies around the world have engaged in an increasing number of CSR practices. This tendency is expected to continue growing up, becoming a mainstream global issue more and more relevant to business organizations in forthcoming years due to two main reasons. Companies are pretty concerned about advertising their ethical practices, on one side, in order to consolidate their involvement with collective demands of current societies and send a signal to the various stakeholders with whom they interact, and on the other, to differentiate their product offer and achieve competitive advantage in an increasingly globalized marketplace. In this sense, considering both lines together, customers maybe entail the most important group since they are the only ones to create income for companies. Based on this, this study analyses the importance of CSR for consumers in the food sector in reference to seven major CSR activities envisioned to fulfil seven stakeholders’ expectations considering three demographic variables of consumers. For that purpose, it is conducted a survey study with a total sample of 1,752 consumers and a multivariate analysis of variance to perform an intra-group comparison. In general, findings support a moderate impact of CSR over respondents, while some discrepancies can be observed between them within different age groups. Lastly, a final discussion is carried out gathering some interest considerations as direct reflection of results obtained and further lines of future research are indicated.

Determinants of non-transgenic soybean adoption among smallhoder farmers in Zambia

This study assessed how socioeconomic and attitudinal factors affect adoption of Non-Transgenic Soybean in Zambia. The study used quantitative primary data collected from 160 smallholder farming households in Chipata district. The Double Hurdle model was used to analyse both the factors determining adoption and the extent of adoption, while factor analysis was used to identify latent dimensions underlying the different variables that measured respondents’ attitudes towards Non-Transgenic soybean adoption and production. Parametric results showed that the decision to adopt Non-Transgenic soybean was affected by the age of the farmer, household size, livestock ownership and access to agricultural extension services of the households. Results further showed that the decision on the extent of adoption was largely influenced by presence of off-farm income, land size, livestock ownership, and access to credit services, gender and the marital status of the respondent. Further, Factor analysis results pointed out that the key attitudes were related to improved seed access, output pricing and marketing, as well as gender mainstreaming issues during promotion of production, marketing and consumption of soybean. The study concluded that Non-Transgenic Soybean adoption in Zambia is low despite the numerous socioeconomic prospects of the crop. The study further established that farmer attitudes towards the crop are negative. Hence there is minimal contribution of the crop to poverty alleviation and malnutrition. There is thus need for institutional strengthening in order to improve smallholder farmer access to information, credit services, extension services and access to land.

Impedance Control of Hydraulic Actuation Systems With Inherent Backdrivability

The demand for high-performance impedance control in electro-hydraulic actuation systems is a mainstream issue in the robot actuation research community. Although various nonlinear model-based impedance controllers have been developed and showed good performance in recent years, they remain hindered by the high cost of force sensors, and accurate internal dynamics models need to be derived to overcome the non-backdrivability and complex dynamics of hydraulic systems. As a solution to these problems, this paper presents an impedance control approach for hydraulic systems that require no external force sensors or chamber pressure sensors with a pressure control servovalve or backdrivable servovalve. First, we show that a backdrivable servovalve brings inherent backdrivability to hydraulic systems, such that high-performance impedance control can be implemented without requirement of force sensors and exact knowledge on the dynamics of hydraulic chambers, owing to its torque-source property and low effective valve inertia on the link side. Second, utilizing the obtained backdrivability, we develop a passivity-guaranteed impedance controller. A momentum-based external torque observation algorithm is incorporated to render desired impedance over a wide range, without using force/torque sensor. The performance of the proposed backdrivable servovalve and impedance controller was verified through extensive experimental results.

Community Innovation and Its Role in Gender Mainstreaming and Development Issues

Gender mainstreaming is a goal for building a society characterized by justice and equality. Gender mainstreaming requires a clear understanding of the concept. Therefore, the research focuses on the concept of gender and how it was addressed in the literature through which the concepts related to gender were extracted which is represented by the role and social status through which the relationship of gender can be measured. In order to find out the basis for the different status and roles of both sexes in societies, the interpreted theories of gender were addressed, through which the most important factors affecting gender relations, such as biological, social and economic factors, as well as political systems, were discussed. Due to the changing factors temporally and spatially, gender relations are also changing. As a result of these changes, the concept of gender has become a prominent concept in various aspects of life and has been the focus of many writers, researchers and conferences on how to contribute to gender and what mechanisms contribute to the uncles. The research focused on the concept of social innovation and the role of community initiatives as a means of mainstreaming gender into development issues.

A Study Of Changing Behaviours Of Consumer Regarding Green Marketing

Environmental problems are still the main concern for the entire world and human beings. Air pollution, greenhouse effects and ecological unbalances, are the main environmental problems that have occurred till now along with the activities of human being. As environmental concerns have increased, majority of customers prefer to buy greener products. The influence of the green consumer will grow as environmental awareness among consumers spreads and improvements are made to the environmental information available through eco-labeling schemes, consumer groups and consumer guides (Peattie, 1995). Environmental and economic concerns are changing the marketplace, customers needs are evolving and brand loyalty is being redefined. Companies that integrate green strategies into their product development, operational processes and marketing activities are finding new opportunities for competitive advantage. Green has become a mainstream issue driving millions of consumers to find out how they can live a more eco-friendly existence. This paper focuses on the changing consumer behavior towards the usage of green products.

A Study Of Changing Behaviours Of Consumer Regarding Green Marketing

Environmental problems are still the main concern for the entire world and human beings. Air pollution, greenhouse effects and ecological unbalances, are the main environmental problems that have occurred till now along with the activities of human being. As environmental concerns have increased, majority of customers prefer to buy greener products. The influence of the green consumer will grow as environmental awareness among consumers spreads and improvements are made to the environmental information available through eco-labeling schemes, consumer groups and consumer guides (Peattie, 1995). Environmental and economic concerns are changing the marketplace, customers needs are evolving and brand loyalty is being redefined. Companies that integrate green strategies into their product development, operational processes and marketing activities are finding new opportunities for competitive advantage. Green has become a mainstream issue driving millions of consumers to find out how they can live a more eco-friendly existence. This paper focuses on the changing consumer behavior towards the usage of green products.

A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK TO APPLY OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE (OPEX) AS A BUSINESS STRATEGY

This study is initiated from a perspective that OPEX is not one of the mainstream issues in the area of productivity improvement. However, the potency of OPEX applied to assist the management to improve the productivity is solid. From the literature review, it is found that this circumstance is probably caused by the confusions of the researcher and management about OPEX. In this paper, OPEX is then considered as a business strategy in order to narrow the discussion and reduce the confusion. As a business strategy, it is important to develop a framework to apply it in every level of organisation. Because, framework of OPEX has not yet found, a framework is proposed in this research based on the structure of OPEX. The framework is then applied in two case studies at two different company. The result shows that the framework is capable to assist the management to achieve the goal of OPEX.

PROGRAM PEMBANGUNAN PARTISIPATIF DAN DAMPAKNYA TERHADAP PEMBERDAYAAN MASYARAKAT

Since the Washington Consensus in the 1990s, participation has become a mainstream issue in development policy, including in Indonesia post-Political Reformation in 1998. The involvement of the community in development policy achieves moral and intellectual support so that not only national, the local-level policy also uses participatory approach as it is considered to be effective in empowering people. Using a descriptive-qualitative approach, this study is an analysis on how participation in the Development Innovation and Regional Empowerment Program (PIPPK) brings impacts to empowerment of Bandung communities. According to data gathered in Bandung, participation cannot bring empowerment instantly. PIPPK has encouraged empowerment in terms of capability expansion, but it has not brought changes in opportunity structure. There are two main factors which leads to the results, those are: (1) that empowerment is complex, multidimensional, and continuous so that it is challenging to explore to what extent empowerment has progressed and (2) that the participation of people in PIPPK is restricted to the program implementation and not yet reflect the citizen power.Keyword: development, empowerment, community participation, participatory approach

From Huntington to Trump: Twenty-Five Years of the “Clash of Civilizations”

:What is the explanatory value of the “clash of civilizations” paradigm, popularized by Samuel Huntington in the 1990s? How has Huntington’s argument fared in the perceptions of scholars and policy makers, the two audiences on which he focused? In the three decades since Huntington first aired his controversial framework, inter-civilizational “clash” and “dialogue” have become mainstream issues in both international relations and in many countries’ domestic concerns. The article focuses on the explanatory value of Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” paradigm in relation to recent political successes of right-wing populists in the USA and Europe.

Influence of Journalist Knowledge about Gender Mainstreaming Ideology on the Reporting of Gender Issues

Democracy has universal appeal in its respect for popular participation, accountability, equity and equality. The adoption of gender mainstreaming in Nigeria via the National Economic Empowerment Development strategy in 2003, and recently the 7-point agenda, vision 2020, among other development programmes support democratic values in the sense that the country’s ultimate goal is to achieve national development based on gender parity. This study sought to determine the Influence of Journalist Knowledge about Gender Mainstreaming Ideology on the Reporting of Gender Issues. The research which was anchored on the critical cultural theory was necessitated by the need to find out empirically how Nigerian journalists understood gender mainstreaming issues and its implications for their reportage of the issues. The survey research method using questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was adopted in this study. Practicing journalists in Nigeria put at 10,000 made up the study population. The sample size was 500 based on Nwanna’s (2008: p. 71) expert recommendation of selecting 5% of elements or units for a population size of several thousands. Results from the study established that Nigerian journalists have significant knowledge of gender mainstreaming issues which in turn influence the reporting of the phenomenon. Also, the dominant form of reporting of gender mainstreaming issues by journalists’ influences their perception of the phenomenon. In view of these findings, the study recommended sensitization of journalists to ensure that journalists begin to appreciate their ethical responsibility towards the cause of gender mainstreaming. Again, there will be need to strengthen advocacy and also move beyond the media organizations to media associations, since they are the umbrella body that can take decisions worthy of influencing media and editorial policies which, can facilitate gender sensitive and balanced reporting.

ACHIEVING GENDER EQUALITY, ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND COMPETITION LAW IN INDIA

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on gender equality can be achieved by mainstreaming a gender perspective and promoting women's economic empowerment. Punjab has almost become synonymous with the low status of women, patriarchal society, feudal customs and values, social polarization along caste lines, high illiteracy, and poverty. The secondary status of women in Punjab coupled with an oppressive caste system and grinding poverty has robbed the women of their rights and a life of dignity, which were envisaged by the framers of the Constitution. The issue of gender equality has acquired a global character, and therefore, there is a need for the Civil Society to actively participate and enable the women to fight for their rights. The United Nations has included the issue of gender mainstreaming in the Millennium Declaration and 'promoting gender equality and empowerment of women' is one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Improved gender sensitivity could be achieved by adopting a proactive approach towards achieving gender economic justice. Therefore achieving gender equality requires two complementary approaches--mainstreaming a gender perspective and promoting women's economic empowerment.

Developing a KPI for Measuring Staff Wellbeing

In late 2016, two well-known Australian organisations joined together to produce a new employee wellness index. The national and international firms, Medibank and Deloitte, respectively, promoted the index as enabling firms to measure the collective wellness and wellbeing of their staff. The two firms were of the view that these concepts should become a mainstream issue for boards and management, and form part of CEO accountability to the board. The case was put that responsibility for wellness should become a key performance indicator against which leadership and management performance could be judged. This paper examines the basis for such a proposal in terms of Australia’s system of corporate and tort law. It reviews the implications of a potential employee right to wellbeing. Would this impact, for example, on the established rights and expectations of employees, both individually and collectively? In addition to examining the consequences for relevant law and regulation, this paper reviews the implications in an international context for Australia’s long-established system of shareholder-primacy corporate governance. In particular, does the proposed wellness index invert the shareholder model, and give too much power to employees?

Prospects for Bilingual Education Curriculum in Turkey: A Mainstream Issue

The goal of bilingual education is fostering academic achievement, assisting immigrant acculturation to a new community, enabling native speakers to learn a second language, conserving linguistic and cultural heritage of minority groups, and advancing national language resources. This study investigated how certain parameters such as the views and attitudes towards bilingual education and curriculum development may affect the development of a bilingual education curriculum in Turkey. This study is significant because it could pave the way for developing a bilingual education program in Turkey. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed method, conducted in two phases: a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative phase. For quantitative data collection, 140 participants responded the survey instrument. For qualitative data collection, 4 participants were interviewed. The results indicated that a bilingual education curriculum is necessary for the education system in Turkey because the population of minority peoples is quite large. Results also reflected that a bilingual education program in Turkey should focus on speaking, listening, writing, reading, and on the development of vocabulary. Universities should open language teacher training departments for teachers who are going to teach in two languages. Examining and implementing elements of bilingual education models from other countries could prove helpful in establishing an efficient bilingual education program in Turkey.