Search results for "social science"
showing 10 items of 43040 documents
Uncovering the knowledge flows and intellectual structures of research in Technological Forecasting and Social Change: A journey through history
2020
Abstract Technological Forecasting and Social Change (TF&SC) celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. The anniversary represents an appropriate time for an introspective analysis of the journal's history and impact. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of TF&SC in terms of how often TF&SC is cited by other journals (citation outflow), how often other journals are cited by TF&SC (citation inflow), citations by Web of Science and SCImago disciplinary categories, most-cited articles in TF&SC, co-citation of journals, and co-occurrence of author keywords. Analysis is conducted by using the Web of Science (WOS) database and Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer software. The in…
Exploring how social interactions influence regulators and innovators: The case of regulatory sandboxes
2020
Like incubators, regulatory sandboxes constitute a prominent mechanism to enable entrepreneurial activities that guide financial technology (FinTech) firms through regulatory frameworks in the financial industry. Because they are new, there is a lack of research on regulatory sandboxes; most studies have investigated legal aspects while overlooking the management perspective. To address this gap, this paper builds on incubation research studies to explore how social interactions within regulatory sandboxes influence the practices of regulators and regulatees, using social capital theory. An exploratory-abductive approach is adopted, using data collected from 16 semi-structured interviews. T…
Renewable energy growth and the financial performance of electric utilities: A panel data study
2017
Electric utilities are under pressure to increase clean energy production. Although the adoption of renewable energy can improve the utilities' environmental performance, a fundamental question is if it also pays in economic terms. Building on the natural-resource-based view of the firm, we answer this question using two data analysis methods. First, we carry out a regression analysis of panel data from 66 large electric utilities covering the period 2005–2014, applying both a fixed and random effects estimator. Subsequently, we use the Granger causality test to explore possible causality links. Our results show a negative correlation at the firm level between renewable energy increase and …
“Natural wine” consumers and interest in label information: An analysis of willingness to pay in a new Italian wine market segment
2019
Abstract Increasing public attention to issues of health and environmental sustainability has contributed to a growing consumer demand for “natural” food and drinks. As has been observed, this trend has also affected the wine market, leading to the spread of so-called “natural wine”. According to the literature, consumers who are aware of the social and environmental impact of their consumption choices pay more attention to the information displayed on the label as a tool to reduce the risk associated with their purchase. This study seeks to identify which consumers are willing to pay for natural wine and to understand what information on the label influences their choice. This study is one…
From lab to industry: Scaling up green geopolymeric mortars manufacturing towards circular economy
2021
Abstract Construction is nowadays considered an extremely energy intensive industry and one of the main sources of environmental pollution in the world. Therefore, the research and the development of novel energy-saving manufacturing processes and sustainable construction materials is more than ever urgent and challenging. This paper aims at identifying the industrial process for the production of novel geopolymers to be used as a greener substitute for cement, especially the Portland one, widely used for structural applications to significantly reduce the environmental impact of the construction industry. Here, the materials sustainability and the manufacturing process are improved by valo…
Reviewing the role of ecosystems services in the sustainability of the urban environment: A multi-country analysis
2020
The urban environment is characterised by many pressures caused by population growth, transport (and its related emissions), and the damage to green areas. Yet, there is a variety of ecosystem services available in urban areas, which may be deployed to ameliorate the current problems and foster their sustainability. This paper reviews the role of ecosystem services as tools for sustainability, based on an urban setting. It also describes a series of multi-country case studies, where an assessment of their functions using a set of benefits valuation approaches such as health benefits, economic benefits, social benefits and benefits to climate resilience, are provided, along with an appraisal…
Evaluating the material resource efficiency of secondary aluminium production: A Monte Carlo-based decision-support tool
2019
The contamination of aluminium streams during the different life cycle stages by alloy mixing and/or accumulation of foreign elements, in combination with the limited melt purification options during remelting, represents an important limiting factor in recycling. Consequently, in secondary aluminium production, primary aluminium is used to dilute the concentration of the residual elements, and alloying elements are added to adjust the composition to the target alloy specifications. However, adding elements, for which their refinement in a subsequent recycling step is problematic, results in permanent down-cycling or ‘quality losses’. Hence, it is crucial to more efficiently control the com…
Heavy metal uptake by plants from wastewater of different pulp concentrations and contaminated soils
2021
There is a lack of information on the extent of mineral extraction by plants from wastewater in arid and semi-arid environments in developing countries. This research assesses the performance of Alhagi and Mallow plant species for the absorption of heavy metals around the tailings dam of a copper mine in Iran. The industrial wastewater, known as the pulp, from the copper mine site has different concentrations of heavy metals. In a laboratory setting the plants were cultivated and irrigated with different pulp concentrations (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%) in water. Heavy metals (chromium, manganese, cadmium, and lead) accumulation in the aerial parts and roots of the plants, and the in-situ s…
Soft Innovation Resources: Enabler for reversal in GDP Growth in the Digital Economy
2018
While Finland and Singapore have been maintaining world digital leaders position, they demonstrate interlaced contrast: high welfare with low GDP growth in Finland and higher GDP growth with lower welfare in Singapore. This provokes an uncaptured GDP postulate that Finnish wellbeing has developed more than one might conclude by GDP. However, a recent reversal in the GDP growth trend suggests the possibility that uncaptured GDP contributes to remove structural impediments in GDP growth.This paper demonstrates this hypothesis. An empirical analysis elucidating the inside the national accountings and institutional systems revealed that soft innovation resources have substituted for service cap…
District heating networks: enhancement of the efficiency
2019
International audience; During the decades the district heating's (DH) advantages (more cost-efficient heat generation and reduced air pollution) overcompensated the additional costs of transmission and distribution of the centrally produced thermal energy to consumers. Rapid increase in the efficiency of low-power heaters, development of separated low heat density areas in cities reduce the competitiveness of the large centralized DH systems in comparison with the distributed cluster-size networks and even local heating. Reduction of transmission costs, enhancement of the network efficiency by optimization of the design of the DH networks become a critical issue. The methodology for determ…