Technology Drivers Research Articles

An Empirical Review of Role of Education Technology Drivers (EDUTECH) on Education in Emergencies (EiE) Classroom/Non-Classroom Outcomes for Marginalized Countries: The Somalia Perspective

An Empirical Review of Role of Education Technology Drivers (EDUTECH) on Education in Emergencies (EiE) Classroom/Non-Classroom Outcomes for Marginalized Countries: The Somalia Perspective

The antecedents of participation in city branding: A comparison between Poznan (Poland) and Kutaisi (Georgia)

Considering citizens as a significant group of stakeholders, a need to study their attitudes and antecedents of engaging in city matters becomes evident. Therefore, the paper aims to determine which determinants impact citizen participation (both online and offline) in city branding in Georgia and Poland. By approaching city branding as a governance strategy, this paper reflects on the participatory and collaborative approach in which local authorities engage in citizen relations. The study develops a conceptual research model that identifies the determinants that affect citizen participation in city branding in the example of two cities Poznan (Poland) and Kutaisi (Georgia). A web survey (CAWI) results demonstrate that technological, relational, and attitudinal drivers affect citizen participation in city branding in the studied cities. The invariance analysis enables comparing the relations between variables in two diverse country contexts.

Establishing organisational resilience through developing a strategic framework for digital transformation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a strategic management framework for a successful digital transformation (DT) roll-out aimed at enabling organisational resilience. The study aims to identify the critical areas of consideration for management to strategically approach DT in order to build resilience.Design/methodology/approach The research study is based on the 3Ps framework: (1) people (culture, capabilities, engagement and well-being), (2) processes (systems) and (3) plant (technological infrastructure and tools). The research methodology is a qualitative study comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews, conducted with industry experts in different sectors undergoing major digital disruptions such as financial services, mining, oil and gas, energy and retail.Findings The research findings show that the successful roll-out of an organisation’s DT is largely driven by the people elements incorporating organisational culture, workforce skills and training and employee well-being. It also highlights that it is critical for organisations to invest in technological infrastructure, once the people elements have been addressed, as they are the drivers of technology implementation.Research limitations/implications A bigger and broader sample size can validate the elements and structure of the DT framework in South Africa.Practical implications The study’s discussion unlocks understanding about: (1) what are the key enablers for successful DT; (2) what hinders organisations from realising the value of digital investments and (3) a strategic framework for the digital roll-out.Social implications Technology is impacting employees at both a personal and professional levels. Ensuring that DT rollouts are strategical implemented lowers the impact on technostress and strengthens resilience.Originality/value The value and practical implication of this study is that the developed strategic framework can be used by managements to enable the smooth adoption of DT toward building organisational resilience in developing countries such as South Africa with low digital maturity.

Environmentalism, a flirt with eco-authoritarianism and the robustness of ordoliberalism

AbstractMore and more citizens around the world do not believe that market liberal democracies are up to the challenge of climate change. Instead, they favour radical solutions. Important parts of the environmentalist literature build on this fertile ground, reject liberal democracy and markets, and openly flirt with authoritarian solutions to environmental challenges. In my paper I ask whether it is correct that liberalism is not up to environmental challenges. I concentrate on ordoliberalism as a variety of liberal alternatives and test whether it provides a robust institutional framework to address the issue of climate change. The research agenda of Robust Political Economy analyses the performance of institutional orders under conditions where human agents are neither perfectly rational and informed nor perfectly altruistic. I point at two institutional features of green ordoliberalism as source of its robustness: First, I point at the green ordoliberal focus on the market economy as (1) a driver of technology, (2) a driver of coordination and (3) a driver of community. Second, I point at the green ordoliberal focus on universalizable political rules which decrease the likelihood of environmental government failure through (1) higher transparency, (2) less rent-seeking, and (3) the predictability of state action. While the political solutions favoured by ordoliberals exhibit serious shortcomings, ordoliberalism offers a liberal institutional alternative to solve environmental problems in a less than ideal world.

Examining policy−institution−program (PIP) responses against the drivers of ecosystem dynamics. A chronological review (1960–2020) from Nepal

Ecosystems are dynamic forms of nature, intuitively affected by natural processes and human interventions, depending on various drivers of changes and management responses. Understanding the ecosystem dynamics (ED) from the perspective of both the drivers of changes and the effectiveness of policy−institution−program (PIP) responses is crucial for nature sustainability. PIP response to a management problem, as a sectoral intervention, has been analysed in the past; however, national-level assessment of drivers of ecosystem dynamics and its PIP responses has not been done so far. This paper is aimed at cyclical assessment and chronological analysis (1960–2020) of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the PIP responses to the drivers of ED, taking the case of Nepal. Using a driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework, we have assessed 38 drivers of ED on a decadal basis and analysed > 30 policy instruments as well as 15 periodic development plans (i.e., five-year plans and three-year plans) that have been developed yet. Moreover, we have carried out 300 household surveys to understand local people’s demand for ecosystem management. Based on various qualitative and quantitative analyses, we have portrayed pressure, state, and impact of various economic, demographic, technological, governance, globalization, and other drivers, including PIP response to address the drivers of changes. We found that the drivers of ED are non-linear and multifaceted, but the PIP responses are sectoral and incremental (i.e., piecemeal gradation to the previous efforts). Instead of characterization of drivers of ED and public demand, domestic PIP responses are largely influenced by global environmental discourse. Our findings are critical in understanding dynamic drivers of ecosystems and pathways of PIP responses, which might support policymakers and scholars in Nepal and other developing countries in the Himalayas to recalibrate PIP measures for sustainable resource management by suitably addressing the drivers of ED.

GEOSPATIAL BIG DATA ANALYTICS FOR SUSTAINABLE SMART CITIES

Abstract. Growing urbanization cause environmental problems such as vast amount of carbon emissions and pollution all over the world.Smart Infrastructure and Smart Environment are two significant components of the smart city paradigm that can create opportunities for ensuring energy conservation, preventing ecological degradation, and using renewable energy sources. Since a great portion of the data contains location information, geospatial intelligence is a key technology for sustainable smart cities. We need a holistic framework for the smart governance of cities by utilizing key technological drivers such as big data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT). Geospatial Big Data applications offer predictive data science tools such as grid computing and parallel computing for efficient and fast processing to build a sustainable smart city ecosystem. Effective management of big data in storage, visualization, analytics, and analysis stages can foster green building, green energy, and net zero targets of countries. Parallel computing systems have the ability to scale up analysis on geospatial big data platforms which is key for ocean, atmosphere, land, and climate applications. In this study, it is aimed to create the necessary technical infrastructure for smart city applications with a holistic big data management approach. Thus, a smart city model framework is developed for Smart Environment and Smart Governance components and performance comparison of Dask-GeoPandas and Apache Sedona parallel processing systems are carried out. Apache Sedona performed better on the performance test during read, write, join and clustering operations.

A quantitative assessment of key drivers for environmental economic practices adoption for sustainable development

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to present the results of an assessment aimed at evaluating potential drivers for the adoption of environmental economic practices in the construction industry, with a view to enhancing sustainability of construction projects, using the Nigerian construction industry as a case study. This study utilized a post‐positivist philosophical approach and a quantitative research design to collect data from construction professionals in the Nigerian construction industry through a well‐structured questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using various statistical tests, including the Kruskal–Wallis H test, Kendall's coefficient of concordance (W), Chi‐square (χ2), and exploratory factor analysis. Five major clusters of drivers for the adoption of environmental economic practices were derived in this study. These are (1) operational drivers, (2) stakeholder drivers, (3) market and financial drivers, (4) regulatory and policy drivers, and (5) technological drivers. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into the potential drivers for the adoption of environmental economic practices in the construction industry, particularly from the perspective of a developing country such as Nigeria. Overall, this study contributes to the promotion of environmental sustainability in the construction industry, particularly in developing countries, which can have significant implications for global sustainability efforts.

Drivers of circular economy adoption in the construction industry: a systematic review and conceptual model

ABSTRACT Circular economy (CE) is gaining traction in the construction industry, providing a responsible business model to decouple construction activities from excessive consumption of finite resources. This study conducted a systematic literature review to consolidate and conceptualize the factors that induce and enable construction organizations and stakeholders to adopt CE solutions in the construction industry. The analysis revealed 88 drivers of CE adoption in the construction industry, clustered into eight dimensions, comprising knowledge, organizational, environmental, social, business, regulatory, technological and supply chain drivers. The study further modelled the path dependencies and hierarchical structure of drivers of CE adoption in the construction industry. Thus, the findings provide a holistic insight into the factors inducing stakeholders to adopt CE in the construction industry. The model can provide decision support to develop integrated policies and targeted interventions to facilitate a successful transition to CE in the construction industry.

Establishing a Reliable Assessment of the Green View Index Based on Image Classification Techniques, Estimation, and a Hypothesis Testing Route

Sustainable development policies and spatial planning for maintaining greenery are crucial for all major cities in the world, and the measurement of green space indicators in planning practice needs to evolve in response to the demands of the times and technological drivers. This study explores an informal urban green space indicator, the green view index (GVI), which uses the visual perception of an observer to measure the quality of urban space by simulating the pedestrian perspective of the road in street-view image data and then calculating the proportion of vegetation in the road landscape. The GVI is different from macro indicators, such as public recreational green space, forest coverage, and green space rate, which are derived from planning data or remote sensing data in traditional urban planning; it starts from the bottom-up perception of individual residents and is more relevant to their subjective demands. At present, most international cities have made outstanding achievements in controlling public recreational green space, forest coverage, green space rates, and other macrolevel indicators of urban spatial quality; however, with the promotion of the concept of “human-oriented” urban planning, the potential restoration of urban spatial quality at the microlevel is gradually being recognized. To ensure the efficiency and reliability of this study, inspired by computer vision techniques and related GVI studies, a research method based on chromaticity was built to identify the proportions of green vegetation in street view images, and the credibility was improved by eliminating unreliable data. By using this method, we could evaluate a city at an overall scale instead of the previous block scale. The final research result showed that Shenzhen is friendly to human visual senses, and the GVI of the streets in developed areas is generally higher than that in developing areas. The geostatistical analysis of the green viewpoint data provides a more intuitive guide for researchers and planners, and it is believed to inform the planning and design of environmentally friendly, smart, and sustainable future cities.

Biological Hydrogen Methanation with Carbon Dioxide Utilization: Methanation Acting as Mediator in the Hydrogen Economy

Hydrogen is one of the main energy carriers playing a prominent role in the future decarbonization of the economy. However, several aspects regarding the transport and storage of this gas are challenging. The intermediary conversion of hydrogen into high-density energy molecules may be a crucial step until technological conditions are ready to attain a significant reduction in fossil fuel use in transport and the industrial sector. The process of transforming hydrogen into methane by anaerobic digestion is reviewed, showing that this technology is a feasible option for facilitating hydrogen storage and transport. The manuscript focuses on the role of anaerobic digestion as a technology driver capable of fast adaptation to current energy needs. The use of thermophilic systems and reactors capable of increasing the contact between the H2-fuel and liquid phase demonstrated outstanding capabilities, attaining higher conversion rates and increasing methane productivity. Pressure is a relevant factor of the process, allowing for better hydrogen solubility and setting the basis for considering feasible underground hydrogen storage concomitant with biological methanation. This feature may allow the integration of sequestered carbon dioxide as a relevant substrate.

Application of Information Technology to Education in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The purpose of this study is to clarify the readiness and challenges of learning information technology, and the challenges of education in this fourth era in applying information technology to learning insights. That's it. As a driver of information technology for learning insights in Indonesia, Indonesia's willingness to face the challenges of the era 4th has made us a credible player in the field of education management to improve human resource management through education and analysts. The challenges of the fourth growth area will soon improve. Therefore, Indonesia's current educational administration policy prioritizes the use of digital technology and progress in educational informatics for her four-year-olds at all levels of education, especially in higher education institutions. Solutions that can be implemented include setting appropriate curricula and educational guidelines, preparing human resources to use information and communication technologies, optimizing student skills and personal development, and preparing for digital learning facilities and infrastructure.

Application of Information Technology to Education in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The purpose of this study is to clarify the readiness and challenges of learning information technology, and the challenges of education in this fourth era in applying information technology to learning insights. That's it. As a driver of information technology for learning insights in Indonesia, Indonesia's willingness to face the challenges of the era 4th has made us a credible player in the field of education management to improve human resource management through education and analysts. The challenges of the fourth growth area will soon improve. Therefore, Indonesia's current educational administration policy prioritizes the use of digital technology and progress in educational informatics for her four-year-olds at all levels of education, especially in higher education institutions. Solutions that can be implemented include setting appropriate curricula and educational guidelines, preparing human resources to use information and communication technologies, optimizing student skills and personal development, and preparing for digital learning facilities and infrastructure.

Decomposition Analysis of the Carbon Footprint of Primary Metals.

This study investigates how different technological and socioeconomic drivers have impacted the carbon footprint of primary metals. It analyzes the historical evidence from 1995 to 2018 using new metal production, energy use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission extensions made for the multiregional input-output model EXIOBASE. A combination of established input-output methods (index decomposition analysis, hypothetical extraction method, and footprint analysis) is used to dissect the drivers of the change in the upstream emissions occurring due to the production of metals demanded by other (downstream) economic activities. On a global level, GHG emissions from metal production have increased at a similar pace as the GDP but have decreased in high-income countries in the most recent 6 year period studied. This absolute decoupling in industrialized countries is mainly driven by reduced metal consumption intensity and improved energy efficiency. However, in emerging economies increasing metal consumption intensity and affluency have driven up emissions, more than offsetting any reductions due to improved energy efficiency.

Establishing links between safety culture, climate, behaviors, and outcomes of long-haul truck drivers

Introduction: This paper examines the safety relationships between safety culture, safety influences, safety climate, and safety outcomes for long-haul truck drivers. The relationships focus on the intersection of the electronic logging device (ELD) technology, regulations, and truck drivers that fall into the lone-worker category. Results: Through research questions, links between safety culture and safety climate were established with links between the layers. Conclusions: The implementation of the ELD system was associated with safety outcomes.

Circular and lower impact mussel and seaweed aquaculture by a shift towards bio‐based ropes

AbstractWorldwide, current mussel and seaweed aquaculture practices contribute to the increase of fossil fuel‐based plastic gears at sea, leading to marine litter and microplastics generation. Smart aquaculture has a great potential for shifting towards the use of lower impact bio‐based and biodegradable gears. This review defines the value chain of biogears as more sustainable gears for mussel and seaweed aquaculture, and sustainability issues covering technology, environmental impacts, economy‐market, policy, and social drivers for their potential implementation. Fit to purpose durability and functionality attributes, end‐of‐life (EoL) options and environmental benefits are key features for competitiveness of biogears versus conventional fossil fuel‐based aquaculture gears. EoL management for collection, sorting and logistics of biogears to recycling facilities is needed for the up cycling of bio‐based materials thus ensuring application of principles of circularity. The selection of the biopolymers for recyclability, improvement of the polymerisation and recycling processes together with the enhanced deployment of recycling facilities are considered as key factors for eco‐designing of circular biogears. Current policies supporting bio‐based plastics in marine applications and social benefits, as environmental sustainability, healthy products, and circular business opportunities, are likewise added value for the development and use of biogears. Overall, biogears can reduce environmental negative impacts in mussel and seaweed productions, while enabling circular use of bio‐based materials and sustainable circular bioeconomy.

Cloud Computing Value Chains: Research from the Operations Management Perspective

Problem definition: Cloud computing is recognized as a critical driver of information technology–enabled innovations. The operations management (OM) community, however, has not been exposed enough to the essential operations problems that arise from the management of cloud value chains. Academic/practical relevance: In this paper, we examine recent research on cloud value chains and explore future research opportunities from an OM perspective. In particular, we focus on major operations management challenges facing a cloud provider in three problem domains: (1) cloud computing resource management, (2) pricing in the cloud computing marketplaces, and (3) capacity planning and management of cloud supply chains. Methodology: We describe prevalent business models and management practices in the cloud value chains, discuss recent research from OM that falls into each of the three problem domains mentioned, and point out opportunities for future research. Results: We note that cloud computing operations are driven by demand that exhibits distinct characteristics, including complex workflow, demand redundancy, multifeatured characteristics, multidimensional resource requirement, and nonstationarity. On the supply side, cloud computing operations also exhibit distinct characteristics, including heterogeneous resources, packing constraints, preconfigured (“bundled”) supply, technology risks, and cost uncertainty. These characteristics of demand and supply are not all prevalent in other operations. Managerial implications: Cloud computing operations not only share many features with classic OM problems, but also bring new challenges and innovative business models. Thus, OM tools and research have the potential to provide vital insights into cloud computing operations and impact management practices in the cloud industry, which, in turn, can stimulate much innovative research from the OM perspective. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1178 .

Technological drivers of dry port efficiency in Brazil

PurposeThis paper aims to identify the scale efficiency of dry ports in Brazil and its main technological drivers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model in two stages. The first stage of the DEA was used to measure the efficiency of the dry ports. In the second stage, the Bootstrap Truncated Regression (BTR) was applied to explore the relationship between efficiency and the factors analyzed. The inputs, outputs and contextual variables for this analysis were extracted from the secondary database provided by Revista Tecnologística.FindingsIn the first analysis stage, a high level of idleness was verified in the operations. The contextual variables in the second stage were significant: Certification, Warehouse Management System (WMS), barcode and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Results corroborate the positive impact of Information Technology (IT) coordination processes on logistics performance.Practical implicationsResults show that dry ports operate below their technical and operational capacity and that the sector's lack of regulation in Brazil can facilitate and encourage the use of ports and marine terminals by importers and exporters.Originality/valueApplication of two-stage DEA measures efficiency as a sectoral benchmarking tool.

A regional approach to militarized riskscapes: An environmental justice analysis of military proximity and air pollution in United States Environmental Protection Agency's regions

AbstractRecent advances in sociological appreciation of risk have culminated in the concept of riskscapes, which describe how the social, political, biophysical, and technological drivers of risk are embedded within different spaces in ways that can reinforce systemic inequities. The U.S. military has long been recognized as an important structural and institutional contributor to environmental problems and therefore potentially riskscapes. However, the regional environmental injustice consequences of military presence have received little attention. To address this need, here we construct a regionalized military riskscapes modeling strategy that focuses on understanding environmental riskscapes across regional contexts. Using multilevel models with random intercepts, our exploratory analysis reveals differences in racial and ethnic environmental health exposure associated with proximity to military facilities across the 10 administrative regions used by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Furthermore, we find that the relative contributions to local air pollution profiles arising from military and non‐military sources likely differ by region, as do consequent environmental justice concerns. For example, in the Midwest, Central Mountain, and West/Southwest regions neighborhoods with more Latinx residents experience intensified air pollution inequalities associated with proximity to military installations. Neighborhoods with more Black residents in the Midwest reported greater environmental health risk from air toxics associated with nearby military facilities. These results underscore the usefulness of viewing the environmental consequences of domestic military facilities and their activities as regionally specific and spatially contingent. We further suggest that scholars studying environmental inequalities relating to military and other sources of pollution should consider how regional processes contextualize the existence and persistence of environmental injustice.

Catalyzing the circular economy of critical resources in a national system: Case study on drivers, barriers, and actors in nutrient recycling

Cycling of nutrients, such as phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N), is essential for all life: Nutrients are crucial for securing societies’ food systems and valuable raw materials for industrial processes. Recycling nutrients from various side and waste streams instead of virgin nutrients has attracted considerable interest in the society, particularly as geopolitical and epidemic issues have caused many nations to reconsider how they ensure flows of critical resources by increasing the Circular Economy (CE) principles. This study examines what drivers and barriers catalyze nutrient circulation in national settings, requiring diverse actors to support intentional nutrient recycling. By taking multidisciplinary and ecosystem approaches, we examine diverse sociotechnical drivers and barriers and the actor ecosystem involved. We conduct an extensive qualitative case study on nutrient circulation (P and N) in a Finnish context, analyzing over 150 documents and interviewing over 20 diverse actors (from diverse companies through ministries to farmers) involved in nutrient recycling, from biowaste through agricultural biomasses and sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Our study 1) generates an ecosystem actor map uncovering diverse actors enabling nutrient recycling in society; and 2) exposes technological, business, organizational, regulatory, linguistic, visual, and psychological drivers and barriers shaping nutrient circulation. It explains the sociotechnical preconditions for different actor/stakeholder groups to adopt and advocate circular economy (CE) principles for nutrient recycling, which are generalizable to other critical resources. The study contributes to CE research and advises practitioners by providing a comprehensive catalyst toolbox to advance nutrient circulation and facilitate its acceptability and diffusion.

Determinants of Digital Transformation in the Hospitality Industry: Technological, Organizational, and Environmental Drivers

The current study aims to investigate the factors that affect a hotels’ decision to adopt digital technologies. Our theoretical grounding builds on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) research framework. Our research model was validated through a survey of 502 hoteliers and managers using the Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) statistical method. The results indicated that micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) hotels affected by the COVID-19 outbreak are more likely to adopt digital technologies. The intention to adopt digital technology is positively and significantly influenced by the digital maturity of organizations, financial resource availability and government regulations. The current study investigates rather less explored factors, such as the organizational digital maturity, which consists of a multi-dimensional latent variable. Our findings may be employed to guide the formulation of digital strategies by hospitality industry organizations.