Search Results (6,539)

This study examines whether and how ESG rating divergence affects corporate maturity mismatch between investment and financing, using panel data from China’s A-share listed firms over the period 2015–2023. We employ fixed-effects models as the baseline specification and further apply instrumental variable estimation, propensity score matching, and a battery of robustness checks to address endogeneity and robustness concerns. We also introduce media supervision as a moderating variable to examine its governance role. We establish five main findings. First, ESG rating divergence significantly aggravates corporate maturity mismatch. Second, the underlying mechanism operates through tightened financial constraints, deteriorated information transparency, and rigid operating costs, which force firms to expand short-term debt while contracting long-term liabilities. Third, heterogeneity analyses reveal stronger effects for non-state-owned enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, firms with low total factor productivity, and firms in less competitive industries. Fourth, media supervision, particularly positive media coverage, mitigates the severity of maturity mismatch by counteracting rating inconsistency, whereas negative coverage amplifies it. Fifth, ESG rating divergence reduces corporate investment efficiency, especially by exacerbating underinvestment, and increases expected default frequency and risk-taking propensity. These findings highlight ESG rating fragmentation as a systemic amplifier of financial risk that undermines corporate resilience and impedes progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 9 and SDG 13. Policy implications include harmonizing ESG rating standards, strengthening media-based external governance, and integrating sustainability information transparency into financial regulation to align corporate financing behavior with long-term sustainable investment. Full article

Assessment of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) literacy in higher education draws on both GenAI-specific instruments and broader artificial intelligence (AI) literacy measures, but these evidence sources are not interchangeable. This systematic review examined the GenAI-literacy assessment landscape while distinguishing direct GenAI-specific evidence from general AI-literacy evidence. Following PRISMA 2020 and a registered INPLASY protocol, four electronic information sources were searched for peer-reviewed English-language studies published from 2022 through 26 July 2026. Thirty-one studies met the eligibility criteria: 23 (74.2%) assessed general AI literacy, whereas eight (25.8%) used GenAI-specific instruments. Self-report Likert-type scales predominated (n = 28; 90.3%); performance-based and hybrid approaches were uncommon. Psychometric evidence centered on internal consistency and factor structure, while temporal stability, measurement invariance, external validity, and item-level functioning were rarely examined. Potential implications were mapped to digital competencies, quality education, and responsible AI use, but inclusive learning appeared in only 11 studies (35.5%). Conclusions about GenAI-specific assessment are therefore limited to eight studies. The evidence indicates a need for GenAI-specific hybrid instruments, broader validation, and accessible performance tasks. Such assessment can inform education but constitutes a diagnostic contribution to SDG 4 rather than evidence of its achievement. Full article

Bangladesh’s commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) and its aspiration to attain high-income status by 2041 depends heavily on securing a reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy supply. Despite sustained economic growth, the country’s power sector continues to face challenges associated with fuel import dependency, supply insecurity, policy inconsistencies, and limited technological innovation. Although renewable energy is increasingly recognised as a key component of the global energy transition, non-hydroelectric renewable sources contribute only a small share of Bangladesh’s electricity production, with wind energy remaining largely untapped despite its considerable potential. This study examines the prospects and challenges of wind energy development in Bangladesh, with particular emphasis on the policy, regulatory, economic, and institutional conditions influencing its deployment. A desk-based research methodology was employed, drawing upon government policies, regulatory frameworks, industry reports, international agency publications, and peer-reviewed literature. Through a systematic review and comparative analysis of international experiences, the study evaluates barriers to wind energy, mainly offshore wind expansion. The findings reveal that progress has been constrained by inadequate resource assessment, fragmented governance, limited investment incentives, fossil fuel subsidies, insufficient technical capacity, and underdeveloped financing mechanisms. Furthermore, institutional inexperience with competitive procurement schemes and the absence of a comprehensive offshore wind regulatory framework continue to hinder large-scale deployment. The study highlights the importance of integrated policy reforms, enhanced investment support, capacity-building initiatives, and long-term strategic planning. Strengthening these enabling conditions can accelerate renewable energy adoption, improve energy security, and position wind power as a critical pillar of Bangladesh’s sustainable energy transition. Full article

With the intensification of global climate change, climate risk has become a systemic external shock faced by enterprises, profoundly affecting their strategic choices and transformation behaviors. Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—in particular, SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 13 (climate action)—requires enterprises, as microeconomic agents, to undergo fundamental low-carbon transformation. Against the backdrop of continued advancement of the “dual carbon” targets and government green governance, whether there is a link between climate risk and enterprises’ low-carbon transformation, and through which pathways this occurs, have become important questions in urgent need of answers. This study uses listed companies on China’s A-share market from 2011 to 2023 as research samples to empirically examine the relationship between climate risk and enterprises’ low-carbon transformation and its possible mechanisms. The study finds a significant positive association between climate risk and low-carbon transformation at the enterprise level, manifested as a relative decline in carbon emission intensity. Mechanism analysis shows that mitigating information asymmetry and promoting digital transformation may serve as important channels for this positive association; government green attention may strengthen the aforementioned relationship. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive association is more pronounced among samples in eastern China, heavily polluting industries, and non-state-owned enterprises. These findings broaden the research perspective on the microeconomic consequences of climate risk and the driving factors of low-carbon transformation in enterprises. They also offer practical insights for governments to improve climate governance systems and guide enterprises in seizing transformation opportunities. At the same time, they provide practical implications for enterprises to link climate response with the broader sustainable development agenda, and offer policy-makers and corporate managers feasible pathways for turning climate risk awareness into measurable progress in SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure). Full article

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) remains the material of choice for denture base fabrication; however, its limited mechanical durability and susceptibility to microbial colonization continue to compromise long-term clinical performance. This study aimed to engineer a multifunctional PMMA denture base composite through hybrid reinforcement with hemp fiber (HF), silk fibroin (SF), and phytocannabinoid-rich fractions (Frac1–Frac4) and to comprehensively evaluate its mechanical, structural, antimicrobial, and cytocompatibility properties. Twenty experimental groups were fabricated, including conventional PMMA, PMMA/HF, PMMA/SF, and hybrid PMMA/HF/SF systems with or without 1 wt% phytocannabinoid fractions. Flexural strength, elastic modulus, Charpy impact strength, and Vickers hardness were determined according to standardized protocols. Structural characterization was performed using ATR-FTIR, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Bacterial metabolic viability of Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus was evaluated using the MTT assay, while cytotoxicity was assessed using the LDH assay. Mechanical outcomes were analyzed using two-way factorial ANOVA to evaluate the main effects of the material system and phytocannabinoid condition and their interaction; significant interactions were followed by Tukey-adjusted simple-effects comparisons. Biological data were analyzed using the procedures specified for those outcomes (α = 0.05). The material system and phytocannabinoid condition significantly affected all mechanical properties (all main-effect p-values ≤ 6.068 × 10⁻⁸³). Significant material system × phytocannabinoid condition interactions were observed for flexural strength, Vickers hardness, and impact strength, whereas the interaction was not significant for elastic modulus. The PMMA/HF/SF control group exhibited the highest flexural strength (138.04 ± 2.05 MPa), elastic modulus (2.519 ± 0.017 GPa), Vickers hardness (26.14 ± 0.22 VHN), and impact strength (24.22 ± 0.22 kJ/m²). Although phytocannabinoid incorporation produced a gradual reduction in mechanical performance, all hybrid-reinforced formulations remained mechanically superior to unmodified PMMA. ATR-FTIR and XRD analyses confirmed preservation of the characteristic PMMA chemical structure and amorphous polymer architecture without evidence of new crystalline phases. SEM demonstrated markedly reduced bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation on phytocannabinoid-containing composites. The PMMA/HF/SF formulations exhibited the greatest antibacterial performance, reducing bacterial viability to 14.59–19.40% for L. acidophilus and 15.21–24.13% for S. mutans, while maintaining low cytotoxicity (<5%). These findings demonstrate the feasibility of combining hybrid natural-fiber reinforcement with phytocannabinoid functionalization in PMMA and support further investigation of this approach for denture base applications. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used to produce scientific–visual material, but a polished result is not evidence that its content is correct or its sources are checkable. This study examined 41 infographics on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and its geological applications, produced in one undergraduate Geology course in Ecuador in an assignment requiring GenAI use. The unit of analysis was the infographic, not the student. Two evaluators scored every artifact with a study-specific eight-criterion rubric applied after submission. The mean weighted score was 72.93 ± 13.01 on a 25–100 scale. Scientific accuracy (mean 3.52 of 4) and visual hierarchy (3.38) were the strongest criteria, whereas source quality and traceability were the weakest (1.63), with most artifacts at the minimum score. Agreement on the total score was moderate but imprecise, and one criterion, verifiability of images and claims, was scored too inconsistently to support firm conclusions. Artifacts with clearer source evidence tended to integrate text and images more coherently. Within this single course, the results indicate which aspects of scientific material produced under a GenAI-required assignment require human checking. Sustainability is an implication of that verification work, a quality-assurance practice aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, rather than an outcome measured here. Full article

Industrial site selection plays a critical role in shaping regional development trajectories, spatial equity, and long-term sustainability outcomes. However, limited attention has been given to how alternative policy priorities aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence spatial suitability patterns. This study develops a GIS-based hybrid multi-criteria decision-making framework integrating SWARA and CoCoSo methods to evaluate the site suitability of the existing Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs) under three alternative policy scenarios: Economically prioritized, environmentally prioritized, and balanced sustainability-oriented structures. A total of 26 criteria linked to SDGs 6–9, 11–13, and 15 are incorporated into the analysis. The results reveal that suitability rankings are highly sensitive to weighting configurations. The economically prioritized scenario reinforces transport accessibility and infrastructure-driven agglomeration advantages, elevating centrally connected districts, while environmentally oriented weighting substantially reshapes spatial outcomes by favoring ecologically resilient areas. The balanced scenario mitigates extreme polarization and produces more stability in rankings. These findings highlight the trade-offs between short-term economic efficiency and long-term environmental sustainability in industrial spatial planning. By explicitly modelling scenario-based policy priorities, the study provides a transparent and replicable decision-support framework that enables planners to simulate alternative development strategies and better align industrial location decisions with SDG-oriented socio-economic planning objectives. Full article

Despite its increasing use, the environmental dimension of regenerative agriculture remains underexplored, leaving a gap in understanding the challenges of assessing its environmental footprint. The main objective of this study was to provide an overview of scientific publications related to this topic. This critical review combined bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer as an analytic tool with a search of the Web of Science database aiming to identify the most relevant research and review papers associated with regenerative agriculture and the environment, published in the period 2016–2026. The preliminary analysis identified 282 publications of interest, revealing three main clusters: the first was related to carbon footprint, carbon sequestration and limited environmental impacts; the second was associated with regenerative agriculture and its farming practices; and the third identified an important dimension—soil health. Most publications come from scholars in the USA, Australia, and the UK, including 11 highly cited papers. They mainly address UN SDGs #2 ‘Zero Hunger’, #13 ‘Climate Action’, and #15 ‘Life on Land’. Finally, 52 publications have been further critically reviewed, and results highlight that regenerative agriculture’s environmental performance cannot be verified by limiting the perspective to carbon footprint, carbon sequestration or soil health indicators. Meaningful comparisons require harmonized system boundaries, sampling procedures, indicators, functional units, inventories, and environmental impact categories. Therefore, this paper builds on previous knowledge by identifying a need for a methodological transition from practice-based indicators to verification of environmental outcomes. Full article

Monitoring whether agricultural expansion advances over native vegetation and legally protected land is central to assessing the sustainability of commodity frontiers. This study reconstructs four decades (1985–2024) of soybean expansion in the MATOPIBA region of Piauí, Brazil, from annual 30 m land-cover maps, and quantifies its overlap with the protection instruments of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and with strictly protected conservation units. The region holds 32.6% of the state’s territory but accounts for 41.1% of the gross loss of native vegetation recorded in Piauí. Only 23.7% of the 2024 soybean area was converted directly from native vegetation in a single annual step, yet 98.9% of it carried native vegetation in 1985, and the median interval between clearing and the first soybean season is three years: expansion over previously cleared land is largely expansion over land cleared in the preceding seasons. Resolving overlaps between declarations reduces the area under protection instruments from an apparent 40.2% of the region to a unique 34.5%. Soybean overlaps were declared Legal Reserves and Permanent Preservation Areas, unregistered land, and the Uruçuí-Una Ecological Station, where a 6001 ha complex occupies 4.6% of the unit and was confirmed against 10 m imagery. These indicate potential non-compliance to be verified, not adjudicated violations, and support anchoring deforestation-free supply-chain screening on the date of native vegetation loss. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can support educational work while changing how users engage in independent generation and evaluation. This study examines whether the GenAI task use frequency has different associations with perceived role-specific capability and AI dependence. A cross-sectional survey of 1105 respondents (659 students and 446 teachers) from five Beijing universities measured all focal variables by self-report. Hierarchical regressions with HC3 standard errors were complemented by formal inverted U tests, bootstrap intervals, measurement-model sensitivity analyses, and nested out-of-fold prediction. Both capability outcomes showed positive lower-range and negative upper-range slopes, with the maxima located within the observed use range and supported by observations on both sides within each literacy stratum. Between the 25th and 75th percentiles of AI literacy, the model-implied maximum shifted by 0.715 use scale units for students (95% bootstrap CI [0.525, 0.973]) and 0.643 units for teachers (95% CI [0.450, 0.883]). The primary literacy measure was a 12-item mean; four-dimensional and second-order CFA specifications supported its interpretation as a broad composite. Separate exploratory dimension models yielded positive literacy-by-use interactions, with the largest point estimate for critical evaluation. Dependence was positively associated with use, habit, and trust and negatively associated with literacy. The combined squared use and interaction increments for dependence were 0.0024 and 0.0004, with 90% interval upper bounds of 0.0058 and 0.0031, below an exploratory 0.01 $R^2$ benchmark. Belief-centred and trust omission specifications supported the broader reliance pattern, although trust and dependence remained conceptually close. Nonlinear ridge recovered most of the capability prediction improvement over linear ridge. The findings describe between-person associations, not individual optimal use levels or intervention effects. They motivate the evaluation of literacy-oriented task design and complementary approaches to trust calibration and habitual reliance. Full article

This article advances Ubuntu translanguaging as a decolonizing pedagogical framework for multilingual literacy education, aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Drawing on Ubuntu philosophy and translanguaging theory, it conceptualizes Ubuntu translanguaging as a relational, asset-based framework that challenges linguistic hierarchies and affirms learners’ full linguistic resources. Grounded in Ghanaian educational contexts, the framework responds to deficit narratives that overlook the community-rooted pedagogies multilingual teachers already use, and shows how multilingual pedagogies strengthen comprehension, affirm identity, and expand equitable participation in education. Three questions guide the article: how Ubuntu translanguaging challenges colonial language hierarchies in curricula and policy, how it operationalizes SDG 4’s commitments to inclusion and equity, and how it can inform Global South–North research partnerships built on mutual growth. By centering indigenous epistemologies and positioning teachers as co-researchers and co-creators of knowledge, the framework offers a reciprocal model for achieving SDG 4. Full article

Saudi Arabia’s sustainability transition requires a systematic understanding of how national sustainability indicators represent and connect the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study identified and consolidated 88 sustainability indicators from official Saudi sources and organized them into a Sustainability Indicator Inventory structured across five sustainability dimensions. The indicators were mapped to all 17 SDGs, producing 359 indicator–SDG associations. Coverage, balance, concentration, and SDG co-occurrence network analyses were applied to evaluate their representation and interconnections. The results showed complete coverage of all 17 SDGs but uneven distribution across goals. SDGs 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 received comparatively strong representation, while SDGs 5, 7, and 14 were less represented. Network analysis revealed substantial interconnections through shared indicators, with the strongest relationship between SDGs 8 and 9. SDGs 10, 11, and 12 also occupied prominent but distinct network positions. Overall, the study moves beyond assessing whether the SDGs are represented to reveal how they are distributed and interconnected within Saudi Arabia’s national sustainability indicator system. This perspective can support policymakers and relevant institutions in refining sustainability monitoring, identifying imbalances in SDG representation, and strengthening cross-sectoral coordination as Saudi Arabia advances its sustainability agenda. Full article

Promoting sustainable consumption is essential for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, encouraging consumers to translate sustainable intentions into green consumption remains challenging. Although e-commerce platforms increasingly implement green reward programs, limited research has examined how different reward designs interact with consumers’ psychological characteristics. Across three scenario-based online experiments with Chinese consumers, this research examines how rewards for monetary efforts (RME) and rewards for temporal efforts (RTE) influence green consumption intention. Study 1 (N = 186) shows that reward effectiveness depends on time orientation: future-oriented consumers exhibit stronger green consumption intention under RTE than RME, whereas present-oriented consumers respond more favorably to RME. Study 2 (N = 183) further demonstrates the mediating role of perceived consumer effectiveness, while Study 3 (N = 377) reveals self-control as an important boundary condition underlying consumers’ responses to different reward types. These findings suggest that green rewards do not generate uniform effects, as their effectiveness depends on the fit between reward design and consumers’ psychological characteristics. Ultimately, this study advances sustainable marketing literature by uncovering the psychological fit and boundary conditions dictating green incentive efficacy, thereby broadening perspectives on consumer heterogeneity while offering guidance for platforms to optimize reward programs. Full article

The implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across educational contexts has generated substantial research on pedagogies aligned with technology-driven sustainability education. Recent scholarship increasingly recognises that sustainability transitions require not only technological innovation but also cultural transformations capable of reshaping social norms, environmental imaginaries, and collective values. However, the processes through which sustainability meanings are mediated across different cultural and media environments remain insufficiently explored. This article argues that intermediality provides a valuable analytical framework for understanding how sustainability knowledge is produced, transformed, and experienced through interactions among literary, visual, performative, audiovisual, and digital media. To examine the visibility of such approaches within sustainability education research, the study employs a bibliometric and thematic mapping of the Web of Science Core Collection, focusing on humanities and cognate social science perspectives. The findings reveal that sustainability education scholarship remains predominantly concentrated within scientific, technological, and policy-oriented domains, while intermedial approaches remain comparatively marginal within the indexed journal literature. However, complementary analysis of humanities scholarship beyond conventional bibliometric databases indicates a more substantial body of theoretical and creative engagement with sustainability, suggesting a mismatch between indexing structures and humanities modes of knowledge production. The study proposes that integrating intermedial literacy into sustainability education can expand existing approaches to environmental literacy by addressing how ecological meanings are culturally mediated across technologies, narratives, artistic practices, and material environments. By connecting bibliometric evidence with intermedial and new materialist perspectives, the article contributes to ongoing debates on how technology-driven sustainability education can move beyond instrumental models of digital innovation towards more culturally informed, relational, and transformative pedagogies for implementing the SDGs. Full article

Time-limited robotics assessments can misrepresent classroom performance when unfinished attempts are discarded or recorded as exact completion times. This exploratory study addresses a practical reporting need: describing immediate execution and post-task perceptions while retaining non-completion, rather than ranking educational technologies. Thirty-five novice lower-secondary students participated in an approximately 80 min challenge-based implementation in three intact cohorts ($n=16$, 11, and 8). A structured observation record and stopwatch captured completion of a movement-and-sensor task within 10 min; a six-item questionnaire captured task-specific perceptions. Completion proportions were 16/16, 11/11, and 5/8. Kaplan–Meier estimates and restricted mean time through 10 min yielded 3.05, 4.37, and 7.85 min, respectively. In the cohort with three unfinished attempts, the completer-only mean was 6.56 min, whereas the whole-cohort restricted mean was 7.85 min; these summaries address different questions. A compact exploratory analysis of all six survey items found no Holm-adjusted $p<0.05$. The main finding is that short challenge-based robotics activities are feasible and engaging, but performance differences cannot be attributed to the programming platform alone. Full article