Search Results (3)

Data-driven marketing analytics has advanced targeting and optimization, yet its underlying infrastructure now functions as a complex sociotechnical system with overlooked ecological costs. This study conceptualizes programmatic advertising through a systems lens. It introduces the Ecological Delivery Paradox, a structural incongruity where environmentally friendly advertising messages are transmitted via energy-intensive delivery pipelines. Using an interpretivist–abductive design, we conducted 38 in-depth interviews with consumers and professionals, which were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis in MAXQDA. Results show that awareness of hidden delivery costs emerges through a concretization threshold and crystallizes into metaphors such as “clean message, dirty conduit,” which trigger differentiated cognitive–affective pathways. These pathways shape trust trajectories across four profiles: cliff erosion, slow seep, suspended risk, and resilient cores. System-level moderators, including rationalization buffers, efficiency beliefs, and the visibility of low-data alternatives, determine outcomes. The findings extend marketing systems theory by reframing greenwashing as message–infrastructure misalignment and by integrating delivery congruence into advertising trust models. We propose a data-driven control architecture that aligns predictive analytics with ecological proportionality through mechanisms such as lightweight creatives, carbon-aware bidding coefficients, frequency–data quotas, and ad-level transparency labels. This systemic approach advances legitimacy, audience trust, and sustainability as joint objectives in programmatic advertising. Full article

High-performance green buildings mitigate the adverse environmental effects of energy consumption and carbon emissions while simultaneously demonstrating that sustainability does not mean compromising utility, productivity, or comfort. We need to address the identified gap in the evolution of energy-efficient structures facilitated in building applications to enhance energy usage without mitigating comfort. The aim of this study was to provide a review of the current methods used to assess energy efficiency in buildings in Malta through secondary data and to supplement this with qualitative data from interviews. The study investigated the importance of certification, compulsory legislation, and regulations implemented by local authorities and the European Union to incentivise energy performance measures. The findings, supplemented with qualitative data from representatives of public entities, show that most participants agreed that the current method of assessing needs requires a complete overhaul in order to promote a proactive approach to sustainable development. Recent public awareness has highlighted the limited understanding of sustainable practices implemented in buildings to capture and conserve energy. However, it is widely recognised that the building industry has significant potential for energy savings, which applies to both new constructions and existing structures, but the current level falls short of what is necessary in Malta. The study findings emphasise the primary energy users and pinpoint the obstacles in the implementation process. In conclusion, the use of software EPRDM, which may be applied to raise the importance of energy performance in building standards, lacks a value-driven focus, resulting in its full utilisation and potential being unexplored. Future applications of this study include the categorisation of old buildings for a possible bid in energy retrofit; campaigns to promote responsiveness; and the utilisation of advanced technological tools, such as DESIGNBUILDER and related software, to enable the simulation of an optimal building envelope. While increased energy efficiency may result in elevated rental and sale prices for buildings, this knowledge, when disseminated to prospective purchasers via the energy performance certificate (EPC) system, can catalyse investments in structures that are more energy efficient for the end user. Full article

Developing low-carbon agriculture has become a development goal for low-carbon economies in various countries, and consumers’ awareness and willingness to pay (WTP) for low-carbon agricultural products is an important link in achieving the sustainable development of low-carbon agriculture. The theory of planned behavior is a widely used framework to explain consumers’ food choices. Considering the intrinsic norms of consumers, their perceptions of low-carbon agricultural products, and shifts in consumer behavior, our study adds the influence of environmental awareness and consumer preferences to the theoretical framework of analysis. We choose the contingent valuing method (CVM) and use 532 consumer questionnaires in Shanghai to validate Chinese urban consumers’ WTP for low-carbon products and its influencing factors. The findings show that Chinese urban consumers have a high overall awareness of low-carbon agricultural products and, after strengthening the conceptual information of consumers, most consumers agree that low-carbon vegetables are more conducive to ecological environment protection, quality, and safety guarantees than conventional vegetables. The existing analysis showed that some variables such as bid price, behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and consumption preferences significantly influenced consumers’ willingness to pay for low-carbon leafy greens, while the effect of the environmental awareness variable was not significant. Further research found that consumers’ WTP for low-carbon leafy greens showed significant group differences across income, gender, age, and education. Therefore, to promote the consumption of low-carbon agricultural products in China, we should attach importance to the publicity and guidance of low-carbon vegetables and strengthen the certification of low-carbon vegetable products. This study can provide policy reference for reasonably regulating and subdividing China’s low-carbon agricultural products market. Full article