Societal Demands Research Articles

THE INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED EASE OF USE, PERCEIVED USEFULNESS, AND TRUST AS INTERVENING VARIABLES ON INTEREST IN USING DIGITAL BANKS AMONG MILLENNIAL GENERATION (GEN Y) & GENERATION Z (GEN Z)

As information technology advances, societal demands increase, and the features and sophistication of smartphones increase along with that, banks must adapt to meet current demands. For Indonesians who are used to using cash, digital banking will be a new digital transformation. There is no information regarding the variables that might influence the behavioural intentions of the Indonesian people in using digital banking services. In particular, among Millennials and Generation Z in Indonesia, this study investigates the relationship between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and trust that influences the intention to use digital banks based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) using smartPLS software and data been collected from a survey conducted on 170 individuals from the Millennial and Generation Z demographics. The results of this research analysis show that perceived ease of use and usefulness greatly influence trust in using digital banking services. Perceived usefulness and trust significantly affect interest in using digital banking services compared to perceived ease of use. Therefore, for customers to truly understand the benefits of using digital banking services, improving their perception of the service's usefulness in their daily lives is essential

Environment-driven evolution analysis of a product: A case study of braking system evolution

In response to evolving societal and technical demands, this research explores the dynamic landscape of product evolution, focusing on the case study of braking systems. Acknowledging the critical role of product evolution analysis in design phases, the study introduces the Environment-Based Design (EBD) methodology. EBD emphasizes environmental analysis before delving into product specifics, employing tools like Recursive Object Model (ROM) diagrams and questioning-and-answering analyses. The paper systematically unfolds with a literature review highlighting various design methodologies, followed by the EBD application in a braking system evolution analysis. Trends in environment components are dissected, emphasizing the increasing influence of the human environment. The discussion underlines the significance of analyzing environment components in product evolution and asserts EBD’s applicability. Despite limitations, such as the exclusive focus on braking systems, the study contributes to understanding product evolution dynamics and advocates for the continued exploration of EBD across diverse products and cultural contexts.

Bridging the Gap: Regulating and Innovating Talent Management for Indonesian Civil Servants Through Technology and Data Analytics

This research aims to explore how technology, data analysis, regulations, and laws can work together in the context of Indonesian Civil Servant talent management. Thus, this research will not only provide in-depth insight into the application of technology in talent management, but also identify challenges and opportunities that must be addressed in the regulatory context relating to the use of Civil Servant personal data. Talent Management within the Indonesian State Civil Servant is a key element in improving the efficiency and quality of public services. The importance of talent management in the context of Civil Servant bureaucracy is increasingly understood, especially in handling increasingly complex societal demands. The quality and competence of Civil Servant has a direct impact on the effectiveness of implementing government tasks. The research method used is qualitative with a literature study approach. The insight of this research shows the potential to provide valuable guidance for stakeholders in government bureaucracy to develop an integrated and effective approach to Civil Servant talent management approach by SMART Civil Servant and BerAKHLAK core value, which can improve public services and maintain integrity in the bureaucratic environment toward a world-class bureaucracy.
 Keywords: civil servant, data analytics, smart civil servant, BerAKHLAK, technology

Reforming the Curriculum System for Applied Undergraduate English Majors: Bridging Theory and Practice

Since the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy, Chinese universities have seen a significant growth in the study of foreign languages, with a focus on English majors. Nonetheless, ongoing difficulties compromise this educational system's efficacy. It is often acknowledged by experts that, despite substantial expenditure, English majors struggle to satisfy societal demands because of curricular structures that are out of date and were inherited from earlier times. To address these issues, this paper suggests extensive changes to the applied undergraduate English major curriculum. The suggested changes, which stress the development of practical skills in line with the demands of the modern labor market, seek to close the gap between theory and practice by drawing on theoretical frameworks and real-world experiences. The theoretical structure for curriculum design includes refining traditional language proficiency courses, incorporating a variety of professional modules, creating career-focused vocational courses, enhancing comprehensive practical training. By aligning curriculum content with evolving industry demands and fostering a holistic approach to talent cultivation, these reforms strive to equip English majors with the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in today's dynamic global landscape.

Plant metabolomics.

Plants are a treasure trove of metabolic compounds. The chemical diversity of plant cells has developed and been maintained through evolution and metabolic regulation, and plays a crucial role in plant physiology, development, and adaption to changing environmental situations. Metabolomics, when combined with genomics and proteomics, has opened up unprecedented opportunities to address the biological importance of metabolic diversity. It has also provided an avenue for metabolic engineering to produce a particular compound of interest to meet societal and economical demands, an important effort to achieve sustainable development. This Special Issue therefore focuses on current trends in plant metabolomics research, providing examples in the development of analytical technologies, the functional study of plant metabolism, and applications to synthetic and engineering biology.

A Synthesis on Agent-Based Impact Assessment Models from the Perspective of the EU Rural Development Policy Measures

The second pillar of the EU’s CAP aims to support rural areas by meeting economic, environmental, and social challenges. To deal with these challenges, countries are faced with the question of selecting the best tools among a large set of policy instruments. The problem of choosing the best policy instruments is aggravated by the very heterogeneous nature of the societal demands that differ among member countries with very different economic and institutional structures. So far, policy impact assessment regarding the agricultural sector and rural areas has been carried out by partial and general equilibrium type models, sector models, and econometric approaches. In comparison to the above-mentioned sector/region/country-based platforms, the use of agent-based approaches, which consider spatial, social, and economic heterogeneity and the risk behavior of farms, has increased recently. From the above perspective, this paper first reviews the EU’s evolution of rural development policies and then compares some agent-based platforms used for agricultural policy impact assessment. To conclude, although specific features of agent-based models may provide several advantages over other modeling approaches, they still embody various problems, especially in terms of database adjustments and parameterization and calibration of the model.

Sustainability from Policy to Practice: Assessing the Impact of European Research and Innovation Frameworks on Circular Bioeconomy

Europe leads in shaping circular bioeconomy (CBE) policies for sustainability, relying on dynamic research and innovation (R&I) projects to propel the transition. Increased European R&I investment, fueled by commitment and a societal demand for measurable project returns, lacks a comprehensive evaluation. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the alignment of European-funded R&I projects with CBE policy priorities and assesses their societal impact. Rooted in an interpretive paradigm, it employs content analysis through semi-structured questionnaires to survey project leaders. The study evaluates benefits using the triple bottom line concept and interprets results guided by the theory of change. Our results suggest that European-funded R&I projects actively cultivate a supportive ecosystem for CBE adoption, as evidenced by emerging themes such as knowledge sharing, capacity building, and collaborative learning, aligning closely with investment priorities and funding schemes. The societal impact focuses on the short and medium term, emphasizing the social dimension by committing to empowering individuals, fostering collaboration, and enriching knowledge. Long-term benefits primarily contribute to the economic dimension, highlighting the potential for positive impacts like promoting business growth, innovation, improving market efficiency, and fostering sustainability. This study seeks to enhance the impact of R&I projects and promote a paradigm shift towards sustainability by providing context-specific recommendations.

Silent reflections remain unheard.

To consider the contribution of non-clinical factors in the rising rate of mental health presentations and explore the associated silence within the psychiatric profession. Medicalisation, concept creep and group think, alongside societal demand and expectations, have collectively contributed toward a distorted view of mental health and illness. Equitable service provision has been hindered by the silence of important perspectives.

The Character Development of University Students on Education in A District

Character development is a continuous and developmental process shaped by educational experiences and learning. As character development remains a high priority for educators, this study explores the impact of education on the character formation of university students in A district. This study acknowledges the objective laws governing character formation among university students. To analyze the character of university students in A district, quantitative research methods will be employed. By identifying influencing factors, the research seeks to contribute valuable insights into the nexus between character development. The findings of this study will not only shed light on the vital role of education in universities but also address the societal and internal demands for student growth and success. The research proposes new requirements for enhancing character cultivation in the new era, delineating these requirements across three dimensions: teaching staff, teaching methods, and teaching environment.

Advanced flow simulations of estuarine water resources responding to changes in societal demands

Water resources of rivers and estuaries have traditionally been managed for local societal demands, including municipal, agricultural, and industrial usages, as well as for transportation as navigational channels. However, as societal demands have changed including urban expansion, economic growth, cultural transition, etc., the land uses also should be changed, and the civil necessities of water have been diversified, and this has raised concerns about the ecology, environment, and water quality issues. This study attempted to address three water resource management issues in South Korean rivers and estuaries, which occurred recently due to the changes in societal demands for water and explained how the most advanced scientific research techniques had been applied. The main issues were 1) agricultural water security and ecological environment restoration in Nakdong River Estuary, 2) water and soil quality degradation due to industrial effluents in Hyeongsan River Estuary, and 3) utilization of rivers as waterways and water quality and ecology issues in the ARA waterway. To find solutions to conflicts of water resources, the series of numerical simulations validated by the field observations allowed 1) assessments of the impact and extent of salt intrusion upon the opening of estuary dam gates, 2) estuarine physical processes to investigate the influence of industrial effluent, and 3) analysis water quality variations resulting from changes in the function of artificial channels. These analyses are expected to provide appropriate and science-based strategies of regional water management.

Lake management in ASEAN countries: issues and challenges

As human populations grow, societal demands led to aquatic ecosystems degradation and vulnerabilities. In this paper, we identified several drivers to the impairment of water bodies in ASEAN, which are partly influenced by socio-economic activities of the nations, the morphometry, and watershed of the selected lake basins. There are barriers in managing these ecosystems, including fragmented management and administration, a lack of intersectoral coordination and governance, insufficient enforcement measures, and limited resources. A multi-dimensional approach is required to achieve a balance between environment, economy, and social needs, so that a resilience water body could be conserved. To achieve this, it is imperative and timely for the governments to include the inland waters as a prominent resource in the national water agenda, considering the present Decade for Ecosystem Restoration.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Underconformity to Female Board Representation Norms

AbstractDespite mounting societal demands for increased female representation on corporate boards, some firms underconform to institutional expectations, exhibiting significantly lower female board representation than their country peers. We argue that a firm's entrepreneurial orientation is positively viewed by stakeholders, providing its corporate leaders with greater latitude to deviate from governance norms. Drawing from social role theory regarding beliefs about the association between entrepreneurial success and typical male traits, we propose that this substitutive legitimacy drives corporate leaders of firms with an entrepreneurial orientation to underconform due to a desire to maintain their firm's orientation. However, the history of female leadership in the firm and disclosure about environmental and social activities moderate the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on underconformity to female board representation norms. A generalized estimating equations analysis of 8410 firm‐year observations in 16 countries from 2012 to 2018 supports our predictions. Our study offers a novel explanation of heterogeneity in female board representation, informs theory of organizational non‐conformity to institutional norms, and highlights potentially unintended consequences of entrepreneurial orientation.

Flexible packaging past, present and future: Reflections on a century of technology advancement

Since its inception nearly 100 years ago, flexible packaging has seen tremendous growth due to its ability to meet packaging needs at the lowest cost and with the least amount of material usage. The modern era of flexible packaging began in the early twentieth century with the introduction of cellophane, a transparent “wonder” film which enabled the development of large distribution channels of pre-packaged goods and changed consumer lifestyles and buying habits. New processes and materials have continually advanced flexible packaging technology. In concert, the scientific understanding of materials and polymer processing has progressed. This paper traces the history of flexible packaging, describing major developments in technology and the science behind them. Flexible packaging has constantly evolved to meet new demands and challenges. This bodes well for the future as the industry address its end-of-life shortcomings and moves towards a more circular economy. Learnings from the past, guided by improved scientific insight and engineering principles, can be leveraged to adapt flexible packaging to changing market, societal and regulatory demands.

Layer-by-layer assembled graphitic carbon nitride membranes for water treatment

Meeting societal demand for potable water supply remains one of the prioritized challenges faced in the modern era. The anthropogenic intervention has led to a dire situation threatening ecological balance and human health. There is an inevitable need for the development of new technologies and innovations in existing technologies for water treatment. Photocatalytic Membrane technology, encompassing the merits of membrane filtration and photocatalytic degradation has evolved as a potential and reliable technology for sustainable water treatment. Innovations in photocatalytic materials and membrane fabrication techniques can lead to the goal of commercialization of membrane water treatment technology. Herein, we demonstrate the potential of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and its functionalized analog as photocatalytic membranes for sustainable water treatment. g-C3N4 and Tetracarboxyphenylporphyrin sensitized g-C3N4 (g-C3N4/TCPP) was introduced onto commercial nylon membrane surface via a layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly method using chitosan and sodium salt of polystyrene sulphonic acid as polyelectrolytes. The fabricated membranes were characterized to ensure the integration of the photocatalysts. The performance of the membranes for water treatment was assessed by selecting some common dyes as model pollutants. The modified membranes exhibited excellent flux recovery and could afford high rejection rates upon irradiation indicating the prospects for sustainable filtration.

Aligning agri-environmental-climate public good supply and desire in a sustainable Dutch agricultural sector.

European agricultural policies increasingly incorporate mechanisms for delivery of public goods. Sustainable public good delivery requires alignment between societal demand and landscape supply. However, the variation of demands or desires regarding future public good delivery among society is hardly known. We inventoried the desires for public goods across Dutch society, and projections of agricultural supply. A multi-method approach was used to find agreement levels between desired and expected change in good delivery. Most stakeholders expressed a desire for biodiversity and climate regulation from agriculture, whilst desire for natural heritage and recreation was less common. The utility of a public good to a stakeholder appears to influence its desire. Scenarios for agriculture focus on extensification, sustainable intensification, regionalization, or meadow bird conservation. Regionalized scenarios showed the highest agreement between public good supply and desire. Maximizing alignment between desire and supply thus requires a challenging transition towards region-specific agricultural sustainability strategies.

Factors Explaining the Willingness of Small-Scale Private Forest Owners to Engage in Forestry—A German Case Study

In Germany, 24% of the forest area is owned by small-scale private forest owners, whose property is affected by a societal demand for forest-related ecosystem services. In the inhomogeneous group of small-scale private forest owners, different living conditions and lifestyles exist, which are affecting the management of the forest ownership. To support the management activities of small-scale private forest owners, institutional instruments exist, but these are only used by a small proportion of forest owners. In order to gain insights into the accessibility and activation of small-scale private forest owners for management, and to draw conclusions for appropriate support instruments, a large number of studies have analyzed the factors influencing the management activities of forest owners. Some studies identify socio-demographic and socio-economic variables as important influencing factors, but do not take into account their complex interdependencies, which have developed as a result of the pluralization of lifestyles and individualization of forest owners. For this reason, in addition to the influencing factors identified in the literature as relevant for forest management activities of small-scale private forest owners, the lifestyle segmentation approach of Sinus milieus established in German market research was applied in this study. This approach allocates forest owners based on their complex lifestyles into ten different milieu groups. A logistic regression analysis was used to determine the parameters influencing the willingness to engage in eight different forest management activities. The results show that the willingness to engage in forest management activities in the future is higher compared to actions in the past. In addition to timber harvesting-related activities, the small-scale private forest owners show a high action potential for non-commodity-related activities. Non-commodity-related activities can primarily be explained by the Sinus milieu affiliation of the small-scale private forest owners. This result underlines the usefulness of a lifestyle segmentation approach such as the Sinus milieus to address small-scale private forest owners in a target group specific way in line with their willingness to engage in specific forest management activities. Institutional instruments such as the membership in a forest owners association or subsidies do not play a significant role for non-commodity-related activities and seem to be inappropriate for targeting small-scale private forest owners for these activities. Timber harvesting-related activities are primarily influenced by the presence of professional foresters, socio-demographic factors or institutional instruments. Based on these empirical findings, implications can be drawn for the target group-specific addressing of forest owners based on different management activities. In this way, forest owners can be motivated to engage in forest management and the provision of forest-related ecosystem services.

СИСТЕМА АКТУАЛЬНИХ ПРОФЕСІЙНИХ І ЖИТТЄВИХ НАВИЧОК ВЧИТЕЛЯ ПОЧАТКОВИХ КЛАСІВ

The article based on the analysis of modern societal demands, was found that the labor market today requires not so much a specialist to have a diploma, but with the certain set of life skills. Scientists from different countries claim that the skills necessary for successful life in the 21st century are formed at an early age, so the primary education system faces a significant task. In the system of 21st century skills, the main ones are defined as higher level cognitive skills, hard and soft skills, digital skills and survival skills. The author of the article proves that in order to form a certain set of life skills of the 21st century in pupils, primary school teachers themselves must possess a system of relevant professional and life skills. The author determined what professional and life skills Ukrainian primary school teachers should have in order to prepare pupils for successful life in the changing and unpredictable conditions. The article considers the system of key professional and life skills that are necessary for the work of a primary school teacher. The author analyzes modern requirements for pedagogical activity and pedagogical competence, in the context of the requirements of the modern educational environment. The main skills, namely the formation of the competence of the elementary school teacher, including the development of creativity, the ability to work in a team, adapt to changes in the field of education and effectively interact with students and their parents, are proposed for consideration in the article. A generalized system of skills is presented and can help primary school teachers effectively fulfill their professional mission and promote the harmonious development of the pupils' personality in primary school. The research points to the importance of developing a set of skills that include not only pedagogical professionalism, but also adaptation to modern requirements of the socio-cultural environment and improvement of the teacher's communicative, technological, and organizational skills

Research on the Training Mode of Innovative Talents in Information and Computing Science from the Perspective of Scientific and Technological Innovation

This study aims to identify and analyze effective training modes for fostering innovative talents in information and computing science, with a focus on the perspective of scientific and technological innovation. The research method employed includes a comprehensive literature review, interviews with industry experts and academics, and empirical data analysis from existing training programs. The findings indicate that an integrated approach combining project-based learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and practical experiences can enhance students' innovative capabilities. Recommendations from this research include the need for increased investment in educational facilities and resources, the formation of strategic partnerships between universities and industries, and the development of curricula responsive to the evolving needs of the job market. This research provides a significant contribution to the development of relevant and effective training strategies in response to societal demands for innovative talents in the field of information and computing science

Advancing forest inventorying and monitoring

Key messageEvolving societal demands and accelerated ecological dynamics due to global change are rapidly altering forest ecosystems and their services. This has prompted the need for advancing forest inventorying and monitoring initatives to expand their scope, improve data collection, foster scientific understanding, and better inform policy responses. Here, we discuss the collaborative processes followed to develop an Advanced Inventorying and Monitoring (AIM) system for Swiss forests. Further, we provide the key messages that emerged from this process which can be of interest to those involved in similar processes at the national/international level.

Innovative business models in European agrifood systems: governance issues in an era of digitalization, societal demand and environmental challenges

Innovative business models in European agrifood systems: governance issues in an era of digitalization, societal demand and environmental challenges