Search Results (106)

Upcycled foods (UFs) are foods that are produced from ingredients that would otherwise be wasted and are considered a sustainable solution to the issue of food waste. However, since consumers’ responses to these foods will ultimately determine their success, there is a need to identify the factors that affect such responses. This systematic review is intended to contribute to fulfilling this need. A literature search was conducted in Scopus on 10 July 2025. Following the PRISMA protocol and setting selected inclusion criteria (scientific papers on consumer evaluation of UFs published since 2010 in English), 54 research articles (83 studies) were analyzed. The findings are discussed through the lens of the Total Food Quality model, where product cues, combined with consumers’ characteristics and perceptions, develop consumers’ ultimate responses, such as general attitude (analyzed in 91.7% of the reviewed studies), purchase intention (77.4%), sensory evaluation (69.2%), and willingness to pay (66.7%). Despite the general positive consumer attitudes toward UFs, translation into actual purchasing behavior is not immediate, and consumer awareness appears to be a major obstacle. However, the analysis of the literature suggests promising strategies to widen the acceptance and consumption of UFs. These entail the use, for example, of informational tools (e.g., claims and certifications), which can be differentiated to target consumers with different levels of knowledge and appreciation of UFs. In addition, targeting specific consumer segments (e.g., environmentalists) can promote a faster acceptance and spread of UFs, while providing information about the nature of UFs will likely help to reduce relevant barriers, such as price sensitivity, risk aversion, and food and technology neophobia. Full article

Behavioral deviations from subjective expected utility theory, most famously captured by the Allais paradox and the Ellsberg paradox, have inspired extensive theoretical and experimental research into risk and ambiguity preferences. While the existing analyze these paradoxes independently, little work explores how such heterogeneously biased agents interact in networked strategic environments. Our paper fills this gap by modeling a convergent Markov–network game between Allais-type and Ellsberg-type players, each endowed with fully enriched loss matrices that reflect their distinct probabilistic and ambiguity attitudes. We define convergent priors as those inducing a spectral radius of <1 in iterated enriched matrices, ensuring iterative convergence under a matrix-based update rule. Players minimize their losses under these priors in each iteration, converging to an equilibrium where no further updates are feasible. We analyze this convergence under three learning regimes—homophily, heterophily, and type-neutral randomness—each defined via distinct neighborhood learning dynamics. To validate the equilibrium, we construct a risk-neutral measure by transforming losses into payoffs and derive a riskless rate of return representing players’ subjective indifference to risk. This applies risk-neutral pricing logic to behavioral matrices, which is novel. This framework unifies paradox-type decision makers within a networked Markovian environment (stochastic adjacency matrix), extending models of dynamic learning and providing a novel equilibrium characterization for heterogeneous, ambiguity-averse agents in structured interactions. Full article

Reducing dependency on chemical pesticides is a core ambition of the European Green Deal, yet adoption of low-input practices remains uneven. This systematic review synthesizes evidence on the behavioural determinants of European farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding sustainable pesticide use and evaluates the role of digital tools in facilitating Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we analysed 65 peer-reviewed articles published between 2011 and 2025, which were identified through Scopus and Web of Science. The synthesis reveals that while pro-environmental attitudes drive the intention to change, actual behaviour is frequently inhibited by loss aversion, ‘clean field’ social norms, and perceived economic risks. Digital tools—specifically Decision Support Systems (DSSs) and precision technologies—demonstrate technical potential to reduce pesticide loads but are constrained by the same behavioural barriers: a lack of trust in models, perceived complexity, and costs. Consequently, we propose a Psycho-Digital Integration Framework which posits that digital innovation acts as a catalyst only when embedded in systemic enablers—specifically green insurance schemes and independent advisory networks. These mechanisms are critical to redistribute perceived agricultural risk and bridge the gap between technical potential and behavioral adoption. Full article

According to the Australasian Society for Developmental Paediatrics, experiential learning and outdoor play contain elements of risk, bravery, uncertainty, exploration, personal challenge, and adventure. These attributes are fundamental to a child’s growth, development, and wellbeing, and yet, in contemporary society, outdoor experiences have significantly declined. This scoping review explores the benefits and affordances of nature-based risky play and adventure education across early childhood and adolescence, asking what developmental opportunities emerge when children and adolescents engage in meaningful outdoor challenges. Adopting a benefit–risk approach where safety is “as safe as necessary” rather than “as safe as possible,” the review identifies common elements across developmental stages. A scoping review following PRISMA-ScR guidelines synthesised empirical studies (2015–2025). Our review included 40 empirical studies from a total of 5218 references, using diverse methodologies conducted predominantly in Western nations. All 40 studies reported positive associations across multiple developmental domains. Eight key themes developed: resilience and confidence, wellbeing, physical skills, autonomy and agency, nature connectedness, quality play provision, and educator influence. Authentic child agency and autonomy functioned as critical mechanisms through which benefits are realised across early childhood and school-aged populations. Key benefits included enhanced mental health, social competence, and anxiety prevention. Implementation barriers persist, including parental anxiety, institutional liability concerns, and cultural risk aversion. Evidence overwhelmingly supports nature-based risky play and outdoor adventure education as beneficial for child and adolescent development. Translation into practice remains limited by stakeholder attitudes and systemic barriers. Future research should prioritise longitudinal studies, cross-cultural investigation, and equity-focused approaches addressing disparities in access to positive risk-taking. Full article

The environmental pollution problem in the textile and garment industry has become increasingly severe, necessitating urgent mitigation. This study examines which supply chain member’s pollution abatement investment generates greater benefits for both the supply chain and the environment, particularly under demand uncertainty. We consider a three-tier textile and garment supply chain and employ uncertainty theory to model member risk attitudes via confidence levels. Based on this, uncertain demand and profit functions are formulated under different investment scenarios—single investment and joint investment. Our comparative analysis reveals that pollution abatement investment by either the fabric manufacturer or the garment manufacturer contributes to environmental sustainability. Which member’s investment is more advantageous for both the environment and supply chain performance depends on their respective cost coefficients. Interestingly, under certain conditions, the fabric manufacturer may derive greater benefit from the garment manufacturer’s investment than from its own. Furthermore, while both the fabric manufacturer and the garment retailer gain more from joint manufacturer investments than from a single manufacturer’s investment, the same does not hold for the garment manufacturer. Finally, as the three members become more risk-averse, both the optimal pollution abatement level and the profits of all members decrease. Full article

This paper explores the strategic implications of technological adoption within shipping logistics service supply chains, with a particular focus on blockchain technology (BCT). When integrating new technologies, supply chain stakeholders evaluate associated risks alongside complexity, profitability, and operational challenges, which influence their strategic behaviors. Anchored in the concept of technology trust, this study examines how different risk preferences affect BCT adoption decisions and freight rate strategies. A game-theoretic model is constructed using a mean-variance utility framework to analyze interactions between shipping companies and freight forwarders under three adoption scenarios: no adoption (NN), partial adoption (BN), and full adoption (BB). The results indicate that risk-seeking agents are more likely to adopt BCT early but face greater freight rate volatility in the initial stages. As the technology matures, strategic variability declines and the influence of adaptability on pricing becomes less pronounced. In contrast, risk-neutral and risk-averse participants tend to adopt more conservatively, resulting in slower but more stable pricing dynamics. These findings offer new insights into how technology trust and risk attitudes shape strategic decisions in digitally transforming supply chains. The study also provides practical implications for differentiated pricing strategies, BCT adoption incentives, and collaborative policy design among logistics stakeholders. Full article

Background: Understanding the determinants of children’s outdoor play is an important element for child development and broader public health outcomes. There is growing evidence that children’s opportunities for play, particularly outdoor risky play, are diminishing. Parents are concerned with keeping their child safe while affording them independence to play. This study explored parents’ attitudes to risky play and practices around children’s independent mobility in Ireland with the aim of informing public health strategies promoting healthy childhood environments. Methods: An online survey comprising validated scales and standardised questions was completed by a nationally represented sample of 376 parents of children up to 16 years. Data was analysed via descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and regression analysis. Results: A total of 376 participants accessed the survey, of which 349 completed it. A total of 84% of participants were female. A total of 74% agreed that children need regular exposure to actual risk to develop risk management skills, and 71% trusted their children to play safely. Chi-square tests reveal significant associations between outdoor play in the rain and school travel (p < 0.01), and appropriate age to begin activities at home and in educational settings (p < 0.05). A moderate association was found between the method of school travel and children’s permission to play in the rain (Cramer’s V = 0.51). Respondents considered supervision to be a necessity to ensure their children’s safety. Overall, the results indicate that parents were risk-averse in three of the six categories of risky play, namely, play near dangerous elements, play with adult tools, and out-of-sight play. Conclusions: This study presents a descriptive analysis of findings from the Ireland State of Play Survey. Findings indicate that although parents recognise the benefits of risky play, there is some contradiction between parental attitudes and actual practices, with a lack of willingness or confidence in permitting their children to participate in all such activities. Full article

In the face of economic, social, and environmental pressures, the issue of sustainable development has garnered widespread attention in the Logistics Service Supply Chain (LSSC) with risk attitudes under Technical Output Uncertainty. In this regard, this paper first constructs an optimal emission reduction investment game model for an LSSC composed of Logistics Service Integrators (LSIs) and Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) against the backdrop of Technical Output Uncertainty. To this end, it quantifies the participants’ risk attitudes using a mean-variance model to analyze optimal emission reduction investment decisions for centralized and decentralized LSSC under different levels of risk tolerance. Subsequently, it designs a joint contract with altruistic preferences for sharing emission reduction costs in the LSSC. This contract analyzes the parameter constraints for achieving Pareto optimization within the supply chain. Finally, the study employs a case simulation to analyze the changes in expected revenues for centralized LSSC and joint contracts under different risk tolerance levels. The study reveals that (1) in a centralized LSSC, under risk-neutral attitudes, there exists a unique optimal emission reduction investment, which yields the highest expected return from emission reduction. However, under risk-averse attitudes, the expected return is always lower than the optimal expected return under risk neutrality. (2) In a decentralized LSSC, the emission reduction investment decisions of the Logistics Service Providers are similar to those in a centralized LSSC. (3) Under risk-neutral attitudes, the cost-sharing and altruistic preference-based joint contract can also coordinate the risk-averse LSSC under certain constraints, and by adjusting the cost-sharing and altruistic preference parameters, the expected returns can be reasonably allocated. Full article

With the increasing integration of variable renewables, cascade hydro–photovoltaic (PV) systems face growing challenges in scheduling under PV output uncertainty. This paper proposes a risk-aware bi-level scheduling model based on the Information Gap Decision Theory (IGDT) to maximize renewable energy utilization while accommodating different risk preferences. The upper level optimizes the uncertainty horizon based on the decision-maker’s risk attitude (risk-neutral, opportunity-seeking, or risk-averse), while the lower level ensures operational feasibility under corresponding deviations in the PV and hydropower schedule. The bi-level model is reformulated into a single-level mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. A case study based on four hydropower plants and two photovoltaic (PV) clusters in Southwest China demonstrates the effectiveness of the model. Numerical results show that the opportunity-seeking strategy (OS) achieves the highest total generation (68,530.9 MWh) and PV utilization (102.2%), while the risk-averse strategy (RA) improves scheduling robustness, reduces the number of transmission violations from 38 (risk-neutral strategy) to 33, and increases the system reserve margin to 20.1%. Compared to the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) model, the RA has comparable robustness. The proposed model provides a flexible and practical tool for risk-informed scheduling in multi-energy complementary systems. Full article

Cocoa farming in Ecuador faces significant challenges due to market volatility and climate-related risks, necessitating effective risk management strategies. This study investigates the interplay between risk attitudes (RAs), risk perceptions (RPs), and risk management strategies (RMSs) among Ecuadorian cocoa farmers, examining how these factors influence decision-making under uncertainty. Combining experimental lotteries to assess risk and loss aversion, with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze survey data, we explore how farmers prioritize perceived impacts over probabilities in their risk assessments. The findings reveal that farmers focus more on mitigating severe perceived impacts, such as price drops and production losses due to adverse weather, than on probability-based strategies, commonly opting for diversification and nonagricultural activities. These results highlight the importance of designing policies and tools that address the perceived impacts of risks, align support with farmers’ needs, and improve access to financial resources and tailored insurances. This approach offers valuable insights for policymakers aiming to enhance cocoa farmers’ resilience in volatile agricultural environments. Full article

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors influencing the attitudes of women investors in the context of Islamic unit trust funds in Malaysia, with a focus on women’s religiosity and on the perceived religiosity of fund providers. Using the UTAUT model, the study examines data from a survey of 263 Muslim women in Malaysia and considers seven key factors: risk aversion, religiosity, price sensitivity, and Islamic financial literacy on the side of the investing women and past performance, perceived religiosity, and perceived risk on the side of the fund providers. The findings indicate that the perceived religiosity of a fund provider has a significant and positive impact on attitude, with positive moderating effects on the women’s own religiosity and Islamic financial literacy, and a negative moderating effect on the women’s price sensitivity. The study also discusses the practical implications of these findings and offers recommendations for fund providers. Full article

Various tailings storage facility (TSF) failures have caused catastrophic consequences, such as life and property losses and environmental destruction. It is crucial to select the optimal risk reduction scheme (RRS) to guarantee the safety and stability of the TSF. Decision-making problems in RRS selection for TSF failure are multiple-attribute decision-making problems. During the RRS selection process, the psychological behavior of the decision makers should be considered. To solve such problems, the cloud–TODIM (abbreviation for interactive and multi-attribute decision-making in Portuguese) method is proposed for RRS selection in this paper. Firstly, the quantitative evaluation information is qualified and converted into clouds based on the cloud model, in which the characteristics of fuzziness, uncertainty, and randomness can be described. Secondly, an improved TODIM method is proposed to select the optimal RRS. Furthermore, a TSF is employed as a case study to examine the superiority of the proposed method. Finally, the sensitivity of the loss aversion coefficient $\theta$, which reflects the attitudes of the decision makers (DMs) to the loss, is analyzed and a comparative analysis is developed therefore illustrating the competitiveness of the multiple-attribute decision-making of the proposed method. Full article

With the continuous development of information and communication technology, “software-defined vehicle” has become the trend of the times. The intelligent connected vehicle (ICV) is becoming a new direction for the development of the automotive industry. Nevertheless, the absence of cooperative innovation in the ICV sector, the dispersal of industrial chain resources, and the absence of enduring and consistent cooperation pose significant obstacles to value co-creation. Therefore, this paper constructs a value co-creation evolutionary game model of the innovation ecosystem of the ICV industry with the automotive enterprise, an intelligent automotive solution provider and the government as players, and applies prospect theory to optimize the tripartite evolutionary game. The payment matrix is established, the expected revenue is analyzed for each player’s strategies, and the replication dynamic equation and evolutionary stability strategy are analyzed. Finally, the theoretical research is validated through numerical simulation. The aim is to promote value co-creation by analyzing the co-evolution mechanism of various stakeholder strategies in the ICV innovation ecosystem. The results show the following: (1) The best evolutionary stability strategy is the positive cross-border cooperation between the automotive enterprise and the intelligent automotive solution provider, while the government gradually does not provide subsidies. (2) The government’s subsidy support should be controlled within an appropriate range. If the subsidy is too great, the marginal effect of incentives will gradually weaken. (3) The players’ willingness to integrate across borders can be enhanced by a higher level of trust and resource complementarity between the automotive enterprise and intelligent automotive solution provider. Also, liquidated damages and opportunity loss can effectively prevent the occurrence of negative integration behaviors. (4) The greater the risk attitude coefficient and risk aversion coefficient of the automotive enterprise and intelligent automotive solution provider, the more conducive they are to the occurrence of positive integration behavior. Full article

This paper addresses a research gap by examining how two groups of individuals with different personality traits (more entrepreneurial personalities versus less entrepreneurial personalities) react to changes in entrepreneurial intention after attending an entrepreneurship course. A key aspect of this study lies in its application of MEMORE; this tool was crucial in determining whether changes in entrepreneurial intention were driven by changes in the factors of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in each group of individuals. The survey employed a pre-test–post-test questionnaire design distributed before and after a university-level entrepreneurship course. The results indicated that individuals with more entrepreneurial personalities (characterized by high openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion and low neuroticism and risk aversion) had higher levels of entrepreneurial intention, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control compared to less entrepreneurial personalities. After the course, more entrepreneurial personalities reported higher entrepreneurial intentions and perceived behavioral control. MEMORE indicated that changes in perceived behavioral control affected the increase in entrepreneurial intentions. Less entrepreneurial personalities demonstrated a decline in entrepreneurial intention but a positive change in perceived behavioral control; this change did not affect the decline in entrepreneurial intentions. This study provides essential insights into an underexplored area, advancing knowledge in this field. Full article

The paper aims to examine the relationships between behavioural biases (such as overconfidence and herding) and the rational behaviour of Australian female consumers when making financial decisions. In doing so, the paper showcases the financial illiteracy of Australian female consumers when confronted with irregularities within the Australian financial markets. From a theoretical standpoint, the study adopts the notions of the adaptive market hypothesis (AMH) to understand the reasoning behind the relationships between behavioural biases (such as overconfidence and herding) and the rational behaviour of Australian female consumers when making decisions rationally. Using a quantitative approach, a structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted on the proposed theoretical framework with a cleaned dataset of 357 Australian female consumers, which revealed that behavioural biases significantly influence each stage of rational decision-making when making financial decisions. More precisely, the structural equation modelling (SEM) showcases that herding behaviour has a significant positive relationship with the information search and evaluation of alternative stages when making financial decisions. However, overconfidence behaviour has a significant negative relationship with demand identification and evaluation of alternative stages when making financial decisions. Moreover, the findings also showcase that the proposed theoretical model closely fits with the data utilised, indicating that Australian female consumers do follow rational decision-making when making financial decisions. Additionally, the findings revealed that the education and income levels of Australian female consumers positively influence the stages of rational decision-making. The findings also contend that Australian female consumers have a risk-averse attitude (i.e., within three key hypothetical scenarios) towards financial decisions due to the presence of financial illiteracy. Hence, it is strongly suggested that financial institutions highlight the calculative benefits and returns from financial product purchases in advertising and promotions in a way that appeals to female consumer segments. Full article