Search Results (55)

This study assessed the impact of mindful consumption on tourists’ green purchase intention and explore the mediating roles played by health consciousness, ethical self-identity, and environmental consciousness. Through an online survey, multi-source data were collected from tourists across China, and SmartPLS SEM was used for analysis to accommodate the requirements of complex models and the testing of mediating effects. The findings indicate that mindful consumption directly enhances green purchase intention and exerts an indirect effect through the mediating roles of ethical self-identity and environmental consciousness. However, the impact of health consciousness on green purchase intention was insignificant. This study is the first to link mindful consumption to tourists’ green purchasing behavior, constructing a critical framework to explore how mindful consumption influences green purchase intention. Additionally, it verifies the partial mediating roles of ethical self-identity and environmental consciousness in this process. Tourism stakeholders can utilize the proposed framework to implement strategies that promote tourists’ green purchasing behavior, therefore fostering sustainable development. Full article

The existing environmental imbalances and the need to promote actions that minimize the impact and promote awareness and behavioral change are now primary needs. As a reflection of this situation, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are faced with the need for more sustainable development practices in their environmental, social, and economic aspects both in curricular and non-curricular spaces. This paper aims to show how the activities developed under the International University Sports Federation (FISU)’s Healthy Campus (HC) program can be an asset in promoting the environment, sustainability, and social responsibility in an HEI in Portugal. The methodology reflects a case study at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja) and includes (1) diagnosis, (2) drawing up the action plan, and (3) preparation, development, and monitoring of activities. The methodology approach adopted to analyze the activities uses the following: (1) the Mentimeter tool; (2) a mind map; and (3) a SWOT analysis. The results show that when activities are designed in a collaborative and participatory way, they end up geared towards the aspirations of the participants, allowing for greater involvement of people and growth of the institution in the aspects of the environment, sustainability, and social responsibility. The HC program is an asset program to align HC requirements, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), integrated and transdisciplinary approaches, and people’s environmental awareness and sustainable mindset. In political terms, this case study contributes to what is recommended in the institutional strategic plan. Full article

In the pursuit of development and evaluation, entrepreneurship is the key to unlocking the shackles of poverty and unemployment. However, Pakistani students often catch themselves lacking the catalyst that ignites the entrepreneurial flame due to the absence of the essential knowledge, skills, and creative mindset, which can lead to significant challenges and a dim attitude toward entrepreneurial intentions. The harsh reality is that the rate of new business formation in Pakistan is only 1.5%. Therefore, the study aims to shed light on the impact of entrepreneurial inspiration, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial awareness on the intentions of Pakistani university students with the mediating effects of entrepreneurial education. Revealing the importance of entrepreneurial education in shaping the minds and desires of the students, seven hypotheses were developed based on social cognitive theory (SCT). A comprehensive survey was used to collect primary data from final-year business students, with a sample size of 865, from seven universities in the Punjab region of Pakistan that provide higher education in entrepreneurship and the data were analyzed in two stages, namely a model measurement and structural model Via Smart PLS 4. The findings clearly augment entrepreneurial inspiration, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial awareness, which can ignite the flames of entrepreneurship among Pakistani students. Moreover, entrepreneurial education plays a crucial role in mediating relationships and motivating students to choose entrepreneurship as a future occupation. However, the study is restricted to the Punjab region of Pakistan and focuses solely on final-year business students. This study serves as a guiding light of hope for academics, policymakers, and educational institutions to emphasize the need to revamp the business education landscape in Pakistan to foster entrepreneurial passion among our future leaders. Full article

In recent decades, the debate on consciousness has been conditioned by the idea of bottom-up emergence, which has influenced scientific research and raised a few obstacles to any attempt to bridge the explanatory gap. The analysis and explanation of vision conducted according to the accredited methodologies of scientific research in terms of physical stimuli, objectivity, methods, and explanation has encountered the resistance of subjective experience. Moreover, original Gestalt research into vision has generally been merged with cognitive neuroscience. Experimental phenomenology, building on the legacy of Gestalt psychology, has obtained new results in the fields of amodal contours and color stratifications, light perception, figurality, space, so-called perceptual illusions, and subjective space and time. Notwithstanding the outcomes and the impulse given to neuroscientific analyses, the research carried out around these phenomena has never directly confronted the issue of what it means to be conscious or, in other words, the nature of consciousness as self-referentiality. Research has tended to focus on the percept. Therefore, explaining the non-detachability of parts in subjective experience risks becoming a sort of impossible achievement, similar to that of Baron Munchausen, who succeeds in escaping unharmed from this quicksand by pulling himself out by his hair. This paper addresses how to analyze seeing as an undivided whole by discussing several basic dimensions of phenomenal consciousness on an experimental basis and suggesting an alternative way of escaping this quicksand. This mind-set reversal also sheds light on the organization and dependence relationships between phenomenology, psychophysics, and neuroscience. Full article

Efforts to create a sustainable future require careful and complex thinking, interdisciplinary and cross-organizational collaboration, and effective and ethical communication. However, the structural biases of digital communication technologies foster modes of thought and expression that undermine or impede these necessities. While one possible solution to this problem is digital literacy, the two prevailing paradigms of digital literacy both reproduce the myth of technological neutrality. This myth further inhibits sustainability by wrongly suggesting that digital technologies are appropriate to all communication goals and tasks. As a corrective to these models, I propose a new paradigm of digital literacy, one rooted in media ecology. The adoption of this model, I maintain, allows us to consciously co-create our social world rather than merely inhabit it. Full article

As online education advances, there is a growing interest in conducting various online courses. However, design thinking education, which heavily relies on active interactions and discussions among team members, has predominantly taken place in offline environments. This raises the question of whether online design thinking education can be equally as effective as offline education. To address this, our study conducted comparative research between offline and synchronous online design thinking classes to investigate how these different environments contribute to developing design thinking mindsets. The acquisition levels of seven design thinking mindsets—ambiguity, curiosity, empathy, experimental spirit, integrative thinking, open mind, and teamwork—were used to measure the efficiency of the design thinking classes. The research involved a 15-week project-based course provided to 126 engineering students at a university, examining the differences in design thinking mindsets before and after the completion of the process. The study’s findings demonstrated that synchronous online classes favorably influence the cultivation of design thinking mindsets, exhibiting efficiency comparable to that observed in traditional offline courses. Specifically, synchronous online classes were found to be more effective in cultivating empathy, integrative thinking, and open mind, while experimental spirit showed more significant development in offline courses. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the potential of synchronous online design thinking education and contribute the development of sustainable and effective online learning environments. Full article

Wolves, dogs and humans share extremely social and cooperative minds. These similarities are rooted in phylogenetic homology and in the convergence of neuronal and physiological mechanisms, particularly the brain, in the functioning and communication of basic affects and in the mechanisms of stress and calming. The domesticated wolves called dogs are particularly close companion animals. Both Palaeolithic humans and wolves were hypercursorial hunters, cooperating in complex and prosocial ways within their clans with respect to hunting, raising offspring, and defending against conspecific and heterospecific competitors and predators. These eco-social parallels have shaped the development of similar social mindsets in wolves and humans. Over the millennia of domestication, this social match was fine-tuned, resulting in the socio-cognitive specialists humans and dogs, possessing amazingly similar social brains and minds. Therefore, it can be concluded that the quality of their relationships with their human masters is a major factor in the wellbeing, welfare and even health of dogs, as well as in the wellbeing of their human partners. Based on their strikingly similar social brains and physiologies, it can be further concluded that anthropomorphically applying human empathy to dogs in an educated manner may not be as inappropriate as previously thought. Full article

Actinidia arguta leaves have gained notoriety over the past years due to their rich bioactive composition with human pro-healthy effects, particularly in relation to antioxidants. Nevertheless, antioxidants are well known for their chemical instability, making it necessary to develop suitable delivery systems, such as microparticles, to provide protection and ensure a controlled release. The aim of this work was to produce polymeric particles of A. arguta leaves extract by spray-drying that may improve the oral mucositis condition. Microparticles were characterized by size, shape, antioxidant/antiradical activities, swelling capacity, moisture content, and effect on oral cells (TR146 and HSC-3) viability, with the aim to assess their potential application in this oral condition. The results attested the microparticles’ spherical morphology and production yields of 41.43% and 36.40%, respectively, for empty and A. arguta leaves extract microparticles. The A. arguta leaves extract microparticles obtained the highest phenolic content (19.29 mg GAE/g) and antioxidant/antiradical activities (FRAP = 81.72 µmol FSE/g; DPPH = 4.90 mg TE/g), being perceived as an increase in moisture content and swelling capacity. No differences were observed between empty and loaded microparticles through FTIR analysis. Furthermore, the exposure to HSC-3 and TR146 did not lead to a viability decrease, attesting their safety for oral administration. Overall, these results highlight the significant potential of A. arguta leaves extract microparticles for applications in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Full article

Measuring the similarity between two objects and classifying them on the basis of their resemblance level has been a fundamental tool of the human mind. In an intuitionistic fuzzy environment, we find researchers that have attempted to generalize the fuzzy versions of similarity measures between fuzzy sets to their intuitionistic forms for measuring the level of similarity between the intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Though many different forms of intuitionistic fuzzy similarity measures have been introduced so far, a comparative study reveals that among all these measures, it is difficult for one to claim the existence of a single measure that alone has the capability to recognize every single pattern assigned to it. This paper presents a four-parametric family of similarity measures for intuitionistic fuzzy sets employing weighted average cardinality and intuitionistic fuzzy t-norms along with their dual t-co-norms. A combinational variation of the parameters involved in this family resulted in some of the famous similarity measures having an intuitionistic version. These new measures are analyzed for their properties, and they have shown some remarkable results. Moreover, the proposed family has a practical advantage over the other measures in the existing literature because every member not only possesses the capability of successfully recognizing any pattern assigned to it up to a fine accuracy but also a choice of different t-norms and co-norms within a single measure equips it with the capacity to portray different mindsets of a decision-maker who, besides being unbiased, can possess a deep psychology of being an optimist, pessimist, or possessing neutral behavior in general. Lastly, the members of this family are tested for their feasibility in a sensitive medical decision process of detection of COVID-19. Full article

For many years, entrepreneurs were considered the change agents of their societies. They use their initiative and innovative minds to solve problems and create value. In the aftermath of the digital transformation era, a new group of entrepreneurs have emerged who are called transformational entrepreneurs. They use various digital platforms to create value. Surprisingly, despite their importance, they have not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, this research scrutinizes the elements affecting transformational entrepreneurship in digital platforms. To do so, the authors have considered a two-phase method. First, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and Matrices d’Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliqué a Un Classement (MICMAC) are used to suggest a model. ISM is a qualitative method to reach a visualized hierarchical structure. Then, four unsupervised machine learning algorithms are used to ensure the accuracy of the proposed model. The findings reveal that transformational leadership could mediate the relationship between the entrepreneurial mindset and thinking and digital transformation, interdisciplinary approaches, value creation logic, and technology diffusion. The GMM in the full type, however, has the best accuracy among the various covariance types, with an accuracy of 0.895. From the practical point of view, this paper provides important insights for practitioners, entrepreneurs, and public actors to help them develop transformational entrepreneurship skills. The results could also serve as a guideline for companies regarding how to manage the consequences of a crisis such as a pandemic. The findings also provide significant insight for higher education policymakers. Full article

Based on the conceptualisation of the 21st Century Competencies Framework from the Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR) we developed an online program to enable school-age students to increase their level on several social-emotional competencies. BE organized is a program that aims to help students to better organize themselves to be more efficient in today’s and tomorrow’s world. To do so, 12 individual sessions were designed to develop 4 out of the twelve 21st century competencies: Critical Thinking, Mindfulness, Resilience and Metacognition; collective sessions (action lab) to develop others such as Creativity. We used a mixed methodology, i.e., quantitative (two questionnaires) and qualitative (reflective questions) evaluation to test whether the targeted competencies have been developed during this program. Preliminary results (since it involves only a small number of participants, n = 27) partially confirm our hypotheses. Both qualitative and quantitative data show a development of critical thinking; the cross-sectional results are more mixed for the other three targeted competencies. Moreover, some other competencies, such as Creativity and Growth Mindset, seem to be developed during this program. However, it is difficult to determine whether it is the group and/or individual sessions that are responsible for these non-targeted competencies development. These results will be discussed in relation to the youth literature on 21st century competency and the broader literature on socio-emotional learning (SEL) and/or emotional intelligence (EI). Full article

This work first develops the idea of an American Separationist Mindset—a deeply rooted and often unthinking supposition that the strict separation of church and state is the only defensible church-state arrangement under the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. Such a Mindset can make arguments for religious accommodationism difficult to be assessed openmindedly in contemporary constitutional discourse. The essay next surveys the potential of a counterfactual history of topics long thought settled to weaken prevailing views and treasured interpretations so to allow greater critical engagement with alternative assessments. The work in turn deploys a counterfactual reconstruction of Maryland’s colonial Anglican establishment. This account imagines the founding vision for Maryland’s establishment of Anglicanism developed by Rev. Thomas Bray as having been sustained. The cogency of this counterfactual can assist contemporary constitutional discourse by weakening the prejudicial potential of the American Separationist Mindset. Full article

This article approaches quality assurance in higher education from the perspective of quality culture. We present a concept model of quality culture that incorporates both the structural/managerial elements of the educational context as well as individual and interpersonal dynamics. The model highlights the importance of leadership, communication and information in connecting both sides of the educational praice. Our approach is unique in that it provides an interactive instrument to map, discuss and advance the existing quality cultures in cocreation with the educational actors. This instrument consists of a face-valid blueprint of the concept of quality culture. This blueprint is enriched by identifying the characteristics for less and more mature quality cultures. The feasibility of the instrument was tested in a pilot study with 13 appreciative in-depth interviews. We found that this instrument allowed faculty members and programme directors to grasp and co-create the profile of their existing quality culture. By using the appreciative approach, stimulating dialogue and reflection, our concept of quality culture aims to structure, scaffold and strengthen the continuous strive for educational quality. Full article

This paper highlights the growing importance towards supporting Chinese Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in adopting pro-active and collaborative behaviors that stimulate sustainability initiatives. Equating to 90% of enterprises in the country and contributing towards 60% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), China’s SMEs are recognized for their willingness to engage in change, raising the potential for exploring and embarking on new ventures. This paper proposes that a design thinking mind-set, rooted in empathic stakeholder dialogue, conceptually supports SMEs to engage with the increasingly complex challenges that envelop China’s society, culture, economy, and environment. Discussion emphasizes that proactively including and responding to the various and ambiguous needs of stakeholders leads to increased opportunity for innovation and new ways of thinking, both being vital for sustainable and responsible growth. Equally, the questions of whom to empathize with and how should SMEs empathize are postulated as roadblocks to the adoption of design thinking in SMEs. This paper proposes a model for addressing those challenges. Full article

Calls for systemic transformations have become prevalent throughout sustainability discourse. Increasingly, these calls point towards consciousness expanding practices and interventions, such as mindfulness, to support the development of individual understandings, skills, and capacities that are conducive to more sustainable ways of being and doing. The growing interest in leveraging inner capacities, including mindsets, worldviews, values, and beliefs for sustainability transformations emerges from concerns that conventional approaches are failing to align social and ecological systems towards long-term viability. Interest in these consciousness-driven transformations is spreading, particularly in governments and prominent organisations. Tempering this enthusiasm are concerns that untethered from moral and ethical guidelines as well as caring understanding of local and global prospects for lasting wellbeing, mindfulness programs, workshops, and interventions for inner transformation can inadvertently strengthen unsustainable systems and deepen inequities. Accordingly, this paper presents an exploratory assessment framework to increase understandings of how events focused on interventions for inner transformation align with broad sustainability requirements. Findings from application of the framework should help to elucidate how these offerings can disrupt normative ways of thinking and doing, and in turn, positively influence multi-scalar transformations. Furthermore, use of the assessment process to plan and/or evaluate inner development offerings is anticipated to help strengthen progress towards sustainability and reduce adverse trade-offs that might undermine positive systemic transformations. Full article