Search Results (1,382)

The article provides a comprehensive overview of the role of hydrogen as a key vector in the decarbonization of the global transport sector. The study situates hydrogen within the broader context of energy transition and climate neutrality targets, emphasizing its potential to replace fossil fuels in road, rail, maritime, and aviation applications. The analysis integrates a review of current technological, infrastructural, and policy developments, covering both combustion-based and fuel-cell hydrogen propulsion systems. Quantitative and qualitative data were assessed from international reports, scientific publications, and ongoing industrial projects to evaluate performance, efficiency, safety, and cost parameters such as Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The results indicate that while hydrogen remains economically challenging, technological progress in electrolysis, fuel cells, and refueling infrastructure significantly improves its competitiveness, particularly in heavy-duty and long-range transport. The paper highlights the critical role of international strategies, including the European Hydrogen Strategy and Fit for 55 package, in driving market adoption and regulatory alignment. The conclusions suggest that by 2050, hydrogen could contribute up to one-quarter of total transport energy demand, positioning it as a cornerstone of sustainable mobility and a bridge toward a fully decarbonized transport ecosystem. Full article

This study examines the dynamic interlinkages among energy, food, and metal commodity markets under geopolitical tensions using daily data from January 2022 to July 2025. The empirical framework integrates correlation analysis, Granger causality tests, and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to capture both short- and long-run transmission mechanisms, with robustness assessed through impulse response functions, forecast error variance decomposition, and a Diebold–Yilmaz connectedness analysis across three structurally distinct geopolitical event windows. The results reveal asymmetric and sector-specific transmission patterns in which geopolitical risk significantly influences key commodity prices—particularly WTI crude oil, wheat, copper, and aluminium—confirming its role as a primary external shock driver. WTI emerges as the dominant transmitter of shocks, while industrial metals exhibit strong internal connectedness. Critically, gold’s role proves to be conditional and context-dependent: within an integrated energy–food–metal network under geopolitical stress, it functions primarily as a net receiver and passive absorber of macroeconomic uncertainty rather than as a systemic transmitter, a finding that complements, rather than contradicts, its established safe-haven role in financial asset pricing frameworks. These findings are subject to limitations, including reliance on futures price data and a linear VECM framework that may not fully capture nonlinear or regime-dependent dynamics. Full article

With the rapid expansion of rural tourism in China, high-quality development has become a key concern for academics and policymakers. Existing studies have focused primarily on economic and industrial growth, with limited attention paid to development quality from the perspective of resident well-being. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2022, this study establishes a multidimensional evaluation framework for high-quality rural tourism. We employed the entropy weight method, Theil index, and quadratic assignment procedure analysis to examine its level, regional differences, and driving factors. The findings revealed that: (1) the overall level of rural tourism development remained relatively low but rose steadily from 0.064 (2012) to 0.150 (2022) (134.38% cumulative growth), driven by supply-side improvements and demand-side expansion. (2) Pronounced regional inequalities existed: eastern provinces had higher overall levels but larger internal gaps, whereas central/western provinces had lower overall levels but smaller internal differences, with intra-regional disparities accounting for over 66% of the national inequality. (3) The tourism market and transportation were universal key drivers, but the underlying mechanisms differed: the ecological environment exerted greater influence in the east, while public services and living standards were more critical in the central/western regions. By incorporating resident well-being into a systemic analytical framework, this study reconceptualizes high-quality rural tourism as an adaptive socio-ecological system shaped by multilevel interactions among the economy, society, and the environment. The results provide empirical evidence and systemic governance insights for promoting balanced and sustainable rural tourism development. Full article

Objectives: This data-driven study aimed to explore the characteristics and initial hearing aid (HA) fitting parameters among older adults in Mainland China. Methods: Data were extracted from Oticon’s internal database, focusing on 82,834 older adults aged 55 or above who sought HAs for the first time. Results: Demographic details (e.g., age and gender), hearing-related data (e.g., the severity of hearing loss), and HA parameters (i.e., laterality of fitting, HA style, earpieces, gain settings, directionality settings, and noise reduction settings) were analyzed. The mean age was 71. There were more males (54.7%) than females, and the majority (78.1%) had at least moderately severe hearing loss. Bilateral fittings were common (76.6%), with receiver-in-canal (RIC) HAs being the dominant style (80%) and open fittings prevalent (44.1%). HA gain was set to below prescribed targets, along with adaptive directionality (93.4%) and low noise reduction levels (>68%). Conclusions: These findings offer insights into the Chinese hearing healthcare market. Future research should incorporate data from follow-up sessions to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the landscape, such as adjustments needed after initial fitting after first-time users have spent some time adapting to the use of HAs. Full article

This study develops and validates the 5P–ESG Composite Index as a finance-oriented framework for assessing firm-level sustainable-financial performance in emerging markets. It addresses a persistent limitation in ESG measurement, namely the lack of conceptually integrated and decision-useful metrics capable of incorporating not only environmental, social, and governance dimensions, but also institutional and relational dimensions that are especially relevant in heterogeneous emerging-market settings. Conceptually, the proposed framework is grounded in the 2030 Agenda’s 5Ps (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships) and extends conventional ESG approaches by explicitly incorporating Peace and Partnerships into firm-level assessment. Methodologically, the index is constructed through sequential indicator selection, data cleansing, winsorization, normalization, pillar-level scoring, and PCA-based endogenous weighting, while its statistical robustness is assessed through internal consistency tests and factorability diagnostics. Empirically, the framework is applied to issuers in the MSCI COLCAP universe, where it proves operationally feasible and suitable for classifying firms into relative performance groups. In addition, a benchmark comparison against a conventional ESG-3 scheme shows that the broader 5P architecture can modify issuer rankings and tercile classification. Overall, the findings support the proposed index as a transparent, auditable, and context-sensitive tool for investors and decision-makers seeking more comprehensive sustainability metrics in emerging markets. Full article

This study examines dynamic interdependencies and risk transmission among major cryptocurrencies and traditional financial assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, U.S. equities, and gold, over the period 2017–2024. Particular attention is given to the structural shift associated with the 2024 U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval, which marked a significant milestone in the institutionalization of cryptocurrency markets. Using daily data, the analysis distinguishes volatility-driven co-movement from structural spillover effects across markets. Dependence structures are modeled using tail-sensitive Student-t copulas applied to GARCH-filtered returns to capture nonlinear and extreme co-movements, while a vector autoregressive framework combined with generalized impulse response functions and Diebold–Yilmaz connectedness measures is employed to evaluate order-invariant shock transmission dynamics across pre- and post-ETF regimes. The results reveal three main findings. First, cryptocurrencies display strong internal dependence and short-horizon contagion, with Bitcoin consistently acting as the dominant transmitter of shocks to Ethereum over an approximately three-day transmission window. Second, linkages between cryptocurrencies and equity markets remain moderate and largely regime-dependent rather than indicative of persistent structural spillovers. Third, gold remains weakly connected throughout the sample, maintaining its role as a diversification asset. Portfolio analysis further indicates that including Bitcoin can reduce portfolio variance by 4–7% and Value-at-Risk by up to 5%, although economic gains are sensitive to transaction costs. Overall, the findings suggest that cryptocurrencies function as a partially segmented asset class, offering conditional diversification benefits despite increasing institutional adoption. Full article

The growing environmental impacts associated with conventional plastics and textiles have intensified interest in bio-based and circular material alternatives. This study presents a qualitative and structured literature review of the valorization of fruit and nut agricultural residues as sustainable feedstocks for biomaterials and biotextiles, with a strategic focus on Greece. Drawing on international literature, regional agricultural production data, and validated processing technologies, the review synthesizes existing evidence on residue availability, conversion routes, environmental performance, and market trends. The reviewed literature indicates that residues such as grape pomace, olive by-products, citrus peels, and nut shells have been widely reported as suitable sources of cellulose, lignin, and pectin for the development of fibers, films, and composite materials. Findings from published life cycle assessment (LCA) studies suggest potential reductions in water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and land-use intensity compared with conventional cotton and synthetic textiles, although results vary depending on system boundaries and processing conditions. The review further highlights enabling factors, technical limitations, and policy considerations relevant to the Greek context. This study provides a qualitative integrative perspective on the opportunities and constraints associated with agricultural residue valorization, identifying key research gaps and strategic directions for future development within Greece and similar Mediterranean regions. Full article

Influencer marketing research has shown that source-related evaluations matter, yet less is known about how specific influencer cues are translated into consumer responses through differentiated internal psychological states. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework, this study examines how influencer attractiveness and expertise shape consumer responses through parasocial interaction and trust. Attractiveness is conceptualized as a social-affective cue, whereas expertise is conceptualized as a competence-based cue. Parasocial interaction is modeled as a relational organismic state, and trust is modeled as a reliance-oriented organismic state. Survey data were collected from 532 Taiwanese social media users with prior experience following influencers and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that attractiveness positively predicts parasocial interaction, expertise positively predicts trust, and parasocial interaction further contributes to trust. Trust, in turn, positively influences loyalty, purchase intention, and recommendation intention, with the strongest effect observed for recommendation intention. These findings suggest that influencer effectiveness is better understood as a differentiated cue–mechanism–response process rather than as a generalized source-evaluation effect. By distinguishing attractiveness from expertise and by modeling parasocial interaction and trust as conceptually distinct but sequentially connected organismic states, this study provides a more precise S-O-R account of how influencer evaluations are translated into relational, transactional, and advocacy-oriented consumer responses. Full article

The study examines the impact of Work Social Media Usage (WSMU) on employee skills through the mediating roles of perceived relatedness, perceived autonomy, and perceived competence. A comprehensive questionnaire was formulated to measure WSMU and employee skills, based on self-determination theory, along with collecting data using a five-scale Likert questionnaire. The study focused on local and international consulting and training firms that are registered and operational in Jordan. Managers, trainers, marketers, evaluators, consultants, and academics were the main participants of the sample, which was chosen with convenience sampling. There was a total of 518 employees in the sample. The results obtained through structural equation modeling show that WSMU greatly increases employee skills, with perceived competence being the strongest mediator. The research illustrates how social media is useful in promoting the sharing of knowledge, emotional care, and skill acquisition, which can be helpful to organizations in making use of digital interactions for the development of employees. Full article

This study examines how Saudi consumers evaluate the commodification of cultural symbols in fashion amid intensified heritage branding and symbolic market expansion. It addresses a gap in the literature on internal cultural commodification, where tensions surrounding authenticity, legitimacy, and commercialization emerge within the same cultural community rather than across clearly separate cultural groups. Drawing on a culturally grounded application of the Theory of Planned Behavior and related literature on consumer ethnocentrism and moral evaluation, the study investigates how perceived authenticity, perceived cultural appropriation, ethical sense, and consumer ethnocentrism shape attitudes toward cultural commodification and purchase intention in the Saudi fashion context. Data were collected through an Arabic-language questionnaire-based survey of Saudi consumers (N = 552) using a non-probability purposive sampling approach. The measurement model employed reflective scales adapted from prior literature and was assessed for reliability and validity. To strengthen methodological rigor, the analysis also considered common method bias diagnostics. The proposed relationships were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with bootstrapping. The findings indicate that perceived authenticity is positively associated with attitudes toward cultural commodification and relates to purchase intention primarily through attitudes. Perceived cultural appropriation is negatively associated with both attitudes and purchase intention, suggesting both a direct deterrent effect and an indirect pathway via attitudes. Consumer ethnocentrism shows a negative association with purchase intention and a weaker negative association with attitudes, while its moderating role appears statistically significant but limited in magnitude. Ethical sense displays a more complex pattern, combining negative indirect effects through evaluative pathways with a positive direct association with intention, consistent with qualified rather than purely restrictive participation in symbolic consumption. The study contributes to the literature by clarifying how consumer responses to heritage-based fashion commercialization are shaped by representational, ethical, and normative evaluations in a non-Western setting. Practically, it suggests that fashion brands operating in Saudi heritage markets should manage authenticity claims, symbolic legitimacy, and appropriation risk with greater cultural and ethical sensitivity. Full article

This research enhances the literature on bank capital structure by combining financial intermediation theory with technological innovation to analyse the impact of FinTech adoption and liquidity management on leverage choices in South African banks. Utilising panel data spanning 2015 to 2024 and applying the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) to tackle endogeneity and dynamic persistence, the research presents new findings from an overlooked emerging market setting. The results show a diverse effect of technology on leverage. Conventional banking systems, represented by automated teller machines (ATMs), show a positive relationship with the total debt ratio (TDR), suggesting a capital-intensive nature of tangible assets. Conversely, digital technologies such as mobile banking and a composite FinTech Index display a notable negative correlation with leverage, indicating that digital transformation improves efficiency, strengthens internal funding capacity, and reduces dependence on external debt. Moreover, increased liquidity levels are negatively correlated with leverage, suggesting that well-capitalised banks with robust liquidity rely less on debt funding. By examining FinTech and liquidity dynamics, the research contributes to both theory and practice, emphasising digital innovation as an alternative to external funding and stressing the importance of sound liquidity management amid evolving regulatory environments such as Basel III. Full article

Poland ranks among the world’s leading exporters of goose meat and edible offal, yet domestic consumption remains minimal, revealing a structural imbalance between production and internal demand. This study aims to provide a comprehensive economic assessment of Poland’s foreign trade in goose meat and offal during 2020–2024, examining export specialization, price dynamics, and market resilience. Using official data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS), Eurostat, UN Comtrade, and the National Bank of Poland (NBP), trade flows were disaggregated by CN product codes, destination countries, and unit prices to identify key structural patterns. Results indicate that export volumes remained largely limited by price responsiveness despite sharp price increases and exchange rate fluctuations, confirming stable foreign demand. Exports were heavily concentrated in Germany, which absorbed over 70% of the total trade value, while domestic consumption stayed below 0.5 kg per capita annually. These findings demonstrate both the competitiveness and the fragility of Poland’s export-oriented trade model, characterized by dependence on a single market and limited domestic integration. The study concludes that long-term food system resilience requires diversification of export destinations, stimulation of domestic demand, and stronger alignment with sustainability goals. A forthcoming second part will address environmental impacts and consumer awareness. Full article

This study presents a fully integrated process for the flexible conversion of biogenic waste into synthetic natural gas (bio-SNG) and electricity centred on a 100 kWth dual concentric bubbling fluidised bed steam gasifier. The raw syngas is processed in a high-temperature gas cleaning section, and the resulting clean, H₂-rich syngas is directed to three alternative downstream configurations: (i) conventional methanation, (ii) enhanced methanation with external H₂ supplied by a reversible solid oxide cell (rSOC), and (iii) electricity generation via the same rSOC operating in fuel cell mode. The overall process is modelled in Aspen Plus, in which the gasification section is constrained by experimentally derived syngas data, while downstream units are described through thermodynamic and kinetics-based models. Methanation is simulated using a plug-flow reactor model based on validated kinetic expressions, while the rSOC operating in electrolysis and fuel cell mode is modelled using performance parameters of commercial stacks. A plant-wide heat integration strategy based on composite curve analysis is implemented to maximise internal heat recovery and minimise external utilities. The enhanced methanation configuration enables the production of bio-SNG with high methane content (up to 93.3 vol.% dry, N₂-free), with a yield 0.72 kg/kg_Biomass and a fuel efficiency of 70.1%. In electricity production mode, the system reaches an electrical efficiency of 43.1% with complete elimination of auxiliary fuel through thermal integration. These results demonstrate the capability of a single integrated plant to flexibly switch between fuel synthesis and power generation, enhancing adaptability to fluctuating electricity and methane market conditions while maintaining high efficiency. Full article

The contemporary green transformation of the economy is a strategic imperative for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the energy market, forcing the integration of sustainable practices in decision-making processes, including investment efficiency assessment. Classic financial tools, such as the internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV), commonly used in the SME sector, do not always adequately account for environmental, regulatory, and social risks associated with green transformation, as—particularly in the case of IRR—they rely on the assumption of stable cash flows and do not incorporate regulatory uncertainty, environmental externalities, or ESG-related risks into discounting parameters. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of nominal and real discount rates, adjusted for a synthetic measure of green transformation, on investment decisions. The research methodology combines advanced multi-criteria decision-making techniques, specifically TOPSIS and CRITIC, with sustainable finance concepts, offering an innovative approach to investment decision-making in the SME sector. The study shows that integrating environmental factors, when treated as a risk component, increases the cost of capital and reduces the net present value, while maintaining the profitability of the analysed projects. Incorporating green components into the discount rate enhances valuation appropriateness and improves investment risk management, particularly under macroeconomic uncertainty. The main contribution of the study lies in linking a synthetic green transformation indicator with dynamic discount rate adjustment within a multicriteria framework, extending existing ESG-adjusted valuation models by enabling a more structured and data-driven incorporation of environmental transition risk. Full article

This study examines the role of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in mitigating cyber fraud in Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). As digital transformation increases organizational exposure to cyber risks, effective risk governance mechanisms become essential for safeguarding financial integrity. This research investigates how ERM implementation is associated with cyber fraud prevention and detection within SOEs. The study employs a mixed-methods approach using quantitative firm-year observations from 48 non-financial SOEs during the 2020–2024 period, resulting in 112 pooled observations, complemented by qualitative insights from 25 key informants, including auditors, risk officers, and IT/cybersecurity specialists. The empirical analysis indicates that stronger ERM implementation is positively associated with higher levels of cyber fraud mitigation and improved coordination between financial risk management and information technology governance. The findings also highlight the importance of integrated risk governance structures in strengthening internal controls and organizational resilience against digital threats. However, given the cross-sectional and perception-based nature of the data, the findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal relationships. This study contributes to the literature on risk governance and digital risk management by providing empirical evidence on the role of ERM in supporting financial accountability and cyber risk mitigation in emerging market SOEs. Full article