Search Results (1,251)

In this paper, we formulate a new endogenous growth framework designed for the artificial intelligence era. We theorize AI as a hybrid production factor, possessing the non-rivalrous properties of public knowledge and the rivalrous constraints of computing power. By endogenizing the role of public finance, the model demonstrates that strategic government investment in digital infrastructure and AI-specialized human capital acts as a primary catalyst for the marginal productivity of private capital. We derive the Theorem of Digital Optimality, identifying the optimal allocation of tax revenue between physical hardware and intangible intelligence. Our findings suggest that in an AI-driven economy, public spending generates a significant crowding-in effect, shifting the private investment frontier upward. The model warns that failure to optimize these public inputs leads to digital secular stagnation, in which the lack of sovereign digital platforms bottlenecks private-sector innovation. Full article

Dyes widely used in industrial sectors like pharmaceuticals and textiles cause a severe environmental threat due to the high stability and toxicity of synthetic dyes, which impair water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Normally, there are used traditional treatment methods, such as adsorption, and membrane filtration, but showed limitations including high costs, energy intensity, and low selectivity in complex matrices. Aqueous Two-Phase Systems (ATPSs) are an sustainable, economic, and versatile alternative for the extraction, separation, and purification of dyes. Therefore, this review examines the thermodynamic fundamentals, formation mechanisms, and the integration of innovative components like Ionic Liquids (ILs) and Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs). Recent research highlights that ATPS can achieve extraction efficiencies exceeding 95% for dyes; however, the optimization of critical parameters such as pH, temperature, polymer molecular weight, and salt concentration is necessary. Furthermore, this review discusses the potential of these systems within circular economy schemes, emphasizing component recyclability and their alignment with green chemistry principles. Ultimately, ATPSs represent a scalable and eco-friendly platform for managing industrial effluents and recovering valuable compounds. Full article

This article presents a systematic review of Internet of Things technology applications across the entire lifecycle of prefabricated buildings. By combining bibliometric analysis with qualitative research methods, seven key research topics in this field are identified and analyzed: integrated information management platforms, position tracking, quality checking and management, project management and cost control, carbon emissions monitoring, indoor environment monitoring, and data security and information encryption. The current research status and challenges pertaining to each of these topics are critically assessed with emphasis on the main challenges in terms of automation level and accuracy, system integration and data interoperability, and deployment economy and robustness. The findings reveal that current IoT applications in prefabricated buildings are mainly focused on data collection, data visualization, and status monitoring, and future research should further strengthen the integration of IoT with AI, big data, and other technologies to promote predictive analysis, intelligent optimization, and autonomous decision-making. Three key topics are subsequently discussed from a management perspective: collaborative carbon information flow management, human-centered health and safety management, and finally, smart operation, maintenance, and disassembly driven by a circular economy, and directions are proposed for their future integration and innovation with emerging technologies. This study provides directional recommendations and references for researchers and practitioners in related fields. The review further suggests that the future development of IoT-enabled prefabricated buildings requires not only technological breakthroughs but also the collaborative evolution of digital technologies, construction practices, and industrial systems, supported by effective management mechanisms, industry collaboration, and practical implementation strategies. Full article

This study examines whether the diffusion of financial technology expands or constrains private-sector credit across OECD economies, and whether regulatory quality conditions that relationship. Fintech diffusion is operationalized through a composite index of general digital-infrastructure indicators (internet use, mobile subscriptions, and ICT-service exports); this index proxies the broader digitalization environment rather than measuring payment-platform use, embedded credit, or digital lending directly. It conceptualizes digital payment ecosystems as complex financial systems in which technological diffusion, regulatory capacity, and credit dynamics co-evolve through feedback mechanisms. The policy discourse often assumes that digital financial inclusion automatically enhances resilience, yet evidence on credit expansion and systemic exposure remains contested. Using an unbalanced panel of 37 OECD economies from 2015 to 2024, comprising 356 observations, the analysis employs Driscoll–Kraay standard errors to address cross-sectional dependence within a common-slope two-way fixed-effects framework, along with panel quantile regression at the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles and Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality testing. Fintech diffusion is positively and statistically significantly associated with private-sector credit exposure, and this association is robust to a two-way fixed-effects specification. The quantile estimates show that the association is present at these selected points of the conditional distribution and strongest at its lower and upper tails, a pattern consistent with complex-adaptive-system dynamics in which effects vary across system states. Contrary to the negative-feedback expectation, the interaction between fintech diffusion and regulatory quality is positive, consistent with high-quality institutions enabling rather than restraining the translation of fintech into credit, though the observational design identifies this interaction rather than the mechanism producing it. The findings therefore shift the discussion from fintech as a stand-alone inclusion tool to fintech as a system-shaping force with implications for institutional resilience, macroprudential supervision, and systemic credit exposure. Because domestic credit to the private sector aggregates household and corporate lending, the policy implication below is framed at this aggregate level: digital payment infrastructure should be governed jointly with consumer protection, credit reporting, and financial-resilience mechanisms rather than promoted as a neutral technological upgrade. Full article

In recent years, UHV AC/DC transmission projects in China have developed rapidly, and transmission line corridors have become increasingly limited. As a result, UHV AC transmission lines are increasingly located near areas where residents live and work, and the electric field distribution around houses near transmission lines has become a major public concern. To further investigate the electric field around houses near UHV transmission lines, a full-scale house platform was constructed near an actual operating 1000 kV AC transmission line. The electric field distribution above the house platform and around the house was systematically measured and analyzed. The effects of house height and the distance between the house and the transmission line on the electric field distribution were discussed, with emphasis on the electric field distribution on the two-story platform. In addition, the shielding effect of shielding wires installed near the house on the electric field of the house platform was analyzed. The results show that the electric field on the two-story platform is significantly higher than that on the single-story platform, and the electric field decreases approximately linearly with distance. Installing shielding wires can effectively reduce the power-frequency electric field intensity on the house platform. A relatively optimal balance between shielding performance and installation economy can be achieved when the shielding wire is installed along the edge of the house, with a length 3 m longer than the house edge and a height 1.5 m higher than the position to be shielded. A reasonable combination of multiple shielding wires provides a much better shielding effect than a single shielding wire. Full article

Research on sharing economy platforms has expanded rapidly, yet the literature remains fragmented across studies on platform business models, gig work, algorithmic management, trust, reputation systems, artificial intelligence, and data-driven value creation. This article addresses this fragmentation through a bibliometric and systematic review of 660 documents retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science covering the period from 2010 to May 2026. A PRISMA-based protocol guided identification, deduplication, screening, eligibility assessment, and final corpus construction. The analysis combined performance indicators, co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence mapping, country collaboration analysis, longitudinal thematic evolution, strategic diagrams, and systematic content coding using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny 5.4.1, VOSviewer 1.6.21, and SciMAT 1.1.04. The results show a marked acceleration of the field after 2020 and identify major research clusters around algorithmic labour and platform control, algorithmic management, trust and reputation, and dynamic pricing. The systematic coding further indicates that algorithmic management, reputation systems, dynamic pricing, surveillance, matching, and AI-enabled mechanisms recur across governance and value-creation processes. The study develops an integrative framework that interprets these patterns through four connected elements: data inputs, algorithmic mechanisms, governance functions, and value outcomes. This framework provides managers and regulators with a basis for assessing transparency, accountability, participant autonomy, value distribution, and the legitimacy of platform governance. Full article

The embedded finance paradigm is fundamentally restructuring digital economies by seamlessly integrating financial services into non-financial digital infrastructures. This study dynamically evaluates the productivity frontiers of Sea Limited’s embedded fintech operations (SeaMoney) across six core geographic markets (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brazil) over the 2023–2026 temporal horizon. Employing a rigorous Panel Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Malmquist Productivity Index framework, the research measures systemic performance by analyzing Sales & Marketing (S & M) Expenses and the undesirable Non-Performing Loan (NPL) rate as inputs, against Gross Loan Outstanding as the primary credit output. Before model execution, robust isotonicity was empirically validated using Pearson correlation matrices. The empirical findings reveal profoundly robust systemic performance across the global ecosystem, driven primarily by overarching algorithmic innovations captured by the Technical Change (TC) index. However, this technological boundary exhibits a stabilizing deceleration over time, indicative of a maturing ecosystem transitioning from explosive, frontier-shifting innovation to optimized refinement. Furthermore, localized managerial optimization, measured by the Efficiency Change (EC) index, displays significant regional heterogeneity. While markets like Brazil demonstrated aggressive late-stage efficiency spikes, and core Southeast Asian markets (such as Vietnam and the Philippines) maintained highly stable, competitive trajectories, other regions, such as Thailand, experienced notable managerial regression. This regression signals severe internal frictions in optimizing local marketing budgets against rising credit defaults. Managerial Implications: These findings provide critical strategic insights for orchestrators of the multinational e-commerce ecosystem. The empirical evidence suggests that relying exclusively on centralized technological scaling, such as unified platform infrastructure and global AI architectures, is insufficient for sustained operational growth. To maintain a competitive advantage, operations executives must deploy hyper-localized resource-allocation and customer-acquisition frameworks tailored to specific regional market dynamics and consumer behavior. Sustainable scaling in cross-border digital commerce requires a precise dynamic equilibrium: leveraging robust global technological infrastructure while executing highly adaptive, market-specific operational and marketing optimizations to maximize customer lifetime value (CLV), eliminate customer acquisition waste, and streamline localized transaction and engagement cycles. Full article

This study examines the role of the ethics of responsibility at individual, societal, and institutional levels and explores its potential to address the ethical challenges of the contemporary world. This ethical framework requires individuals and institutions to consider not only their own interests but also the long-term societal and environmental consequences of their decisions. The study explores how this approach provides guidance in the contexts of technological innovations, environmental crises, and globalization. Technological developments are presented as a domain that both expands the scope of ethics of responsibility and introduces new ethical challenges. It is emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) systems may give rise to issues such as bias, data privacy violations, and the spread of misinformation through digital platforms. In this context, the necessity of designing “fair AI” and ensuring that digital platforms operate in alignment with ethical principles is emphasized. From the perspective of environmental sustainability, it is stated that while individual efforts, such as recycling and energy conservation, are important, institutions must focus on large-scale initiatives, such as carbon-neutral targets and circular economy models. The article also addresses the criticisms and challenges associated with implementing this framework. The subjective nature of ethical principles and the conflict between diverse cultural values make the universal adoption of this approach difficult. Additionally, the prioritization of individual interests within the capitalist system and the inadequacy of global cooperation are seen as major obstacles to the practical application of ethics of responsibility. This situation underscores the importance of both individual awareness and institutional policies. In conclusion, this framework is presented as an important guide capable of addressing the complex issues of the contemporary world. It is argued that the broader application of this approach is essential in areas such as technological advancements, environmental crises, and global inequalities. Fulfilling the ethical responsibilities of individuals, institutions, and the international community is critical for creating a more equitable and sustainable world. Full article

The increasing global demand for sustainable energy solutions has intensified the need for efficient and environmentally friendly biomass-conversion technologies. Among these, thermochemical processes, such as pyrolysis, gasification, and hydrothermal liquefaction, have emerged as promising pathways for transforming lignocellulosic and other organic waste materials into valuable biofuels and biochemicals. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of advanced thermochemical conversion and catalytic conversion methods, focusing on their operational mechanisms, catalytic enhancements, and product yields. The efficiency, environmental impact, and economic feasibility of various thermochemical platforms, including recent developments in catalyst design and process-integration strategies, are compared, and innovative approaches to optimize hydrogen generation, improve carbon efficiency, and minimize undesirable byproducts through tailored reaction conditions and bifunctional catalytic systems are explored. Recent advances as well as the current challenges related to feedstock variability, process scalability, and system sustainability are highlighted. By identifying critical research gaps, this study provides strategic insights aimed at guiding future improvements in thermochemical biomass utilization for clean energy production within a circular economy framework. Full article

The construction sector has a significant impact on natural resources consumption and waste generation. In accordance with circular economy principles, the adoption of secondary materials, encompassing both reused and recycled components, by construction companies is of increasing strategic importance, especially in cities and their surrounding areas. However, enterprises in this sector continue to face substantial challenges related to implementation of these materials. The article aims to investigate the opinions of representatives of companies operating in the construction sector in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland regarding the benefits and obstacles associated with the implementation of secondary materials, as well as to identify measures that could contribute to the wider use of these materials in practice. The study was conducted using a diagnostic survey method based on computer-assisted web interviews. The sample comprised 46 respondents from the West Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland. The analysis of the collected opinions emphasized that waste reduction, protection of the environment and natural resources are perceived as the most significant benefits. Among the main obstacles to implement these materials, respondents highlighted the lack of specialized platforms for secondary materials trading, difficulties in materials sorting, including construction and demolition waste, as well as complex bureaucratic procedures. In the respondents’ opinion, the measures crucial for facilitating the use of secondary materials include the development of legislation enabling the reclassification of waste as secondary construction materials, ensuring reliable access to these materials, and providing government support. It was revealed that despite broad recognition of environmental benefits, the primary obstacle is the absence of an effective marketplace for secondary materials, pointing to a crucial role for institutional intervention. Recommendations for companies’ managers from the construction sector, designers and local policymakers were proposed. Full article

This paper examines mainstream platform moderation as it encounters contemporary pagan religious practice in Europe and reads what it finds as a symptom of a wider condition: the algorithm functions less as a neutral tool than as a productive instrument of an extractive political economy whose characteristic operation is the appropriation, classification, and revenue-conditioned filtering of human expression. Minority religious traditions are structurally exposed within it: too small to constitute an accommodated market, too polysemic for classifiers trained on majority devotional and Anglo-American extremism corpora, and too fragmented to extract policy concessions. Empirically, the paper draws on netnography of pagan online communities across Europe, informal conversations with 97 practitioners across nine European jurisdictions, and a corpus of 247 takedown notices and appeal exchanges (2019–2025). Three recurrent rationale-clusters—devotional content classified as occult, as extremism-adjacent, and as unsafe activity—are read as predictable outputs of the system’s cost structure rather than as ordinary classifier errors. Two concepts are proposed. Algorithmic sacredness names the transfer of gate-keeping functions previously held by ecclesiastical, state, and editorial actors, routed through Bourdieu’s meta-capital as extended to platforms. Algorithmic pluralism names a programmatic direction toward infrastructures whose governance is not capital’s. Full article

Physical cash remains a critical component of payment systems worldwide due to its accessibility, liquidity, anonymity, and role in promoting financial inclusion and resilience during systemic shocks. Despite rapid digitalisation, cash retains its relevance in economies such as South Africa, where it supports both formal and informal market activity. Understanding the determinants of cash demand is therefore essential for managing operational and policy risks faced by central banks. This study examines the factors influencing cash demand in South Africa and their implications for the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) currency management and risk mitigation strategies. Using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), Impulse Response Functions (IRFs), and advanced forecasting techniques, the analysis integrates key macroeconomic and technological variables, including GDP, interest rates, mobile penetration, ATMs, EFTs, and tax ratios. The study also benchmarks its results against international empirical evidence to contextualise South Africa’s evolving cash dynamics. The results highlight the significant impact of payment technology, especially mobile banking, on reducing cash usage. While ATMs and bank branches still support cash demand to some extent, the growing preference for digital transactions, notably through EFTs and mobile platforms, is reshaping financial behaviour. Macroeconomic variables like GDP and interest rates continue to influence demand, but their role is increasingly mediated by digital adoption. The forecasting analysis reveals that neural network models, particularly NNETAR, outperform traditional linear models (like VECM and Exponential Smoothing), especially over longer horizons. These models better capture non-linearities and evolve structural dynamics in cash usage. These insights hold material implications for SARB’s operational and financial risk frameworks. As cash demand becomes more unpredictable and technology-driven, adaptive forecasting and policy strategies are required to ensure efficient currency management and financial system stability. Full article

Whether the marketization of data as a production factor can be redirected toward environmental ends is a central question for the governance of the digital economy. This study investigates whether and how the pilot policy for big data trading platforms improves corporate green development performance (CGDP). Using A-share firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2024, this paper treats the pilot policy for big data trading platforms as a quasi-natural experiment and applies a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) design to estimate its effect on CGDP, together with the transmission channels and boundary conditions that govern it. Because the rollout is staggered, we complement the two-way fixed-effects benchmark with the heterogeneity-robust estimators of Callaway and Sant’Anna, Sun and Abraham, and the Goodman–Bacon decomposition, and cluster standard errors at the city level. The policy raises CGDP by 0.076, about 6.1% of the sample mean. The estimate remains robust to an event-study/parallel-trend test, placebo tests, propensity score matching (PSM), the Oster selection-on-unobservables bound, alternative and broader green outcome measures—including a significant reduction in chemical oxygen-demand emissions—controls for concurrent digital and innovation policies, exclusion of the 2020 pandemic year, and industry fixed effects. Mechanism evidence shows that the effect operates through stronger green dual innovation, upgraded human capital, and heightened scrutiny from media outlets and securities analysts. The impact is stronger for firms whose executives exhibit greater green awareness and whose internal control is of higher quality, and in more competitive industries and regions with stricter environmental regulation. By showing that a market for data can be redirected toward environmental ends, this study links data-factor marketization to corporate green transition and provides policy evidence for aligning digital economy reform with sustainable development. Full article

Digital capitalism is often described either as a clean break with the past or as a continuation of older markets. This article takes a third position: digital capitalism is a reorganisation of capitalist accumulation around platforms, data, attention and digital labour, not a departure from capitalism’s basic logic. The study uses a critical narrative review approach, drawing on Marxian value theory and recent work on platforms, datafication and surveillance. It is anchored by a curated set of publicly reported indicators from institutional and market sources, used as context rather than as a causal test. These show a platform environment that reaches most of humanity, highly concentrated advertising and cloud markets, platform labour as a global phenomenon, and a supposedly weightless economy resting on dense physical infrastructure. The article traces four contradictions: the commodification of unpaid user activity, the material basis of immaterial production, the concentration of market power, and the gap between participation and algorithmic control. The contribution is conceptual. It shows that media business models usually treated as separate, including advertising, subscriptions, creator monetisation, in-game spending and platform commissions, share one logic: user activity is captured as attention, measured as data and converted into revenue. New media therefore function as economic infrastructures for value extraction. Full article

The objective of this paper is to examine the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a test case of Gulf energy transition finance by analyzing how a hydrocarbon-dependent economy is constructing the financial, regulatory, and institutional architecture required to move from net-zero pledges to climate finance flows. Rather than treating climate finance as a set of isolated instruments, the paper conceptualizes the UAE’s approach as a state-led transition-finance model shaped by Gulf state capitalism, sovereign wealth accumulation, national oil company strategy, financial regulation, and post-COP28 climate diplomacy. Using a qualitative policy and institutional review, the paper maps the UAE’s transition-finance architecture across three interrelated dimensions: institutions and governance, financial instruments, and policy alignment. It examines the role of federal strategies such as Net Zero 2050 and the UAE Energy Strategy 2050, regulatory actors including the Central Bank of the UAE, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), and Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), and key financial mechanisms including green bonds and sukuk, sustainability-linked finance, sovereign wealth fund investments, national oil company decarbonization strategies, blended-finance platforms, and carbon-market mechanisms. The analysis finds that the UAE has developed a distinctive state-led, finance-centric model for financing the energy transition. This model enables rapid capital mobilization, de-risking of private investment, and strong international positioning, particularly following COP28 and the launch of ALTÉRRA. However, its effectiveness is constrained by unresolved tensions between net-zero ambition and hydrocarbon expansion, fragmented sustainable-finance regulation, limited carbon-pricing signals, uneven disclosure practices, underdeveloped domestic green capital markets, and restricted access to green finance for SMEs. The paper argues that the UAE’s climate-finance architecture is best understood neither as simple green diversification nor as symbolic climate positioning, but as an emerging Gulf model of transition finance: well-capitalized, and institutionally coordinated, yet structurally shaped by the same hydrocarbon rents and state-led governance logics it seeks to transform. By positioning the UAE as a benchmark, the paper contributes to debates on climate finance, state capitalism, and transition governance in hydrocarbon-dependent economies, while identifying the coherence gaps to be addressed for climate finance to support economy-wide decarbonization. Full article