Search Results (583)

Public opinion event response requires not only timely decisions but also transparent and trustworthy collaboration among multiple stakeholders. To address delayed responses, fragmented collaboration, and information opacity, this study first proposes a collaborative-decision model based on blockchain for public opinion event response and then develops a blockchain-driven adaptive consensus method to improve consensus efficiency and decision quality. In the proposed model, public opinion information is mined to identify the attribute categories and weights of response alternatives, while collaborative-decision quality is evaluated by integrating decision reliability, opinion convergence, and individual comprehensive weights derived from social network influence. On this basis, smart contracts are designed to support transparent, traceable, and automated consensus processes. The adaptive consensus method dynamically terminates the consensus process by considering public opinion crisis levels and individual consensus differentiation. A utility-maximizing feedback mechanism is further introduced to improve consensus quality, and smart contracts are used to detect the adjustment willingness of inconsistent individuals and implement an elastic incentive mechanism. Case analysis and simulation experiments verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed model and method, showing their potential to support trustworthy collaborative decision-making in public opinion event response under uncertain and time-sensitive conditions. Full article

Echelon utilization of power batteries serves as a crucial pathway to achieving resource recycling and reducing environmental impacts. However, its large-scale development is constrained by the cognitive disparities between formal enterprises and new energy vehicle (NEV) owners. Previous studies have largely proceeded from single technological, economic, or policy dimensions, relying on quantitative data or a single-stakeholder perspective, while neglecting the fuzziness and subjective uncertainty inherent in the qualitative judgments of corporate experts, and failing to effectively integrate the opinions of vehicle owners. To address these shortcomings, this study constructs a hybrid evaluation framework that integrates Fuzzy DEMATEL with Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). Through content analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), we distill key criteria and underlying dimensions. We collect both importance ratings and performance scores from corporate experts and NEV owners respectively, and compare the IPA results of the two groups. This study contributes in the following aspects: (1) It establishes a multi-dimensional analytical framework covering both technical and social dimensions, thereby enriching the application of Socio-Technical Systems Theory in the field of echelon utilization; (2) A hybrid method integrating Fuzzy DEMATEL and IPA is proposed, in which the centrality of each criterion calculated by DEMATEL serves as the importance indicator in IPA. This approach effectively handles the fuzziness inherent in experts’ linguistic evaluations and the interdependencies among criteria, and reveals the cognitive differences between the two parties through comparative analysis; (3) Based on the dual-perspective comparison, the analytical results show that while both parties share consensus on certain technical capabilities, significant cognitive divergences exist regarding policy incentives and backend technology investment, providing a scientific basis for enterprises to optimize resource allocation. Full article

Product–Service Systems (PSS) require feedback loops that connect stakeholder experience with design decisions, but distributed feedback is often difficult to transform into actionable design knowledge. This paper synthesises previously distributed results from the DIVERSITY project into an integrated decision-support framework for feedback-driven PSS design. The framework combines social-sentiment representation, reach/influence weighting, opinion modelling, monitoring, extraction and prediction modules, and a hierarchical similarity mechanism for exploring likely sentiment toward new PSS configurations. It was implemented in the DIVERSITY engineering environment and assessed through a preliminary polarity plausibility check, controlled testing with synthetic data generated by OpinionSim, and three industrial business cases. The results indicate that the framework can support segmentation-aware interpretation of stakeholder feedback, shorten the path from market signals to design action, and provide exploratory evidence for early PSS concept generation and redesign. The predictive component is presented as an exploratory design-support mechanism, with forecasting accuracy remaining a topic for future empirical validation. The paper contributes an integrated feedback-to-design framework for PSS and clarifies the conditions under which sentiment-based indicators are most useful in B2C and B2B settings. Full article

Small-scale education systems are characterised by limited human and financial resources, centralised decision-making, and a relatively low level of institutionalisation. In such systems, leadership is mainly shaped by individual initiative, and approaches to developing sustainable leadership capacity should be tailored to the system’s conditions. This study seeks to examine the selection and training models of school administrators in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus from the standpoint of sustainable educational leadership, institutional capacity building, and system-level governance sustainability. The research used a qualitative design; semi-structured interviews were performed with 40 participants from five stakeholder groups, selected using maximum diversity sampling. Thematic results indicate that the current administrator selection system is principally exam- and document-based, with shortcomings in application-based competency assessment and structurally inadequate preservice preparation and onboarding mechanisms. The opinions of the stakeholders highlight the necessity for application-based preparation, structured mentoring, and multi-criteria assessment approaches. Based on these findings, an integrated, phased school leadership preparation model has been developed to support the continuity of the leadership pool and institutional learning. This study offers a conditionally transferable model and governance consequences for sustainable school development and evidence-based education policy design; the model’s core governance logic is appropriate to other small-scale, under-institutionalised systems, while specific design features remain context-dependent and require contextual adaptation before implementation elsewhere. Full article

Inland waterway locks are critical navigation infrastructures in waterborne transport systems, and their operational reliability is closely associated with the resilience and service capacity of regional inland waterway networks. As lockage demand continues to increase, reservation scheduling has emerged as an important institutional and operational instrument for improving traffic organization, alleviating congestion, and enhancing the adaptive capacity of lock operations. However, the implementation of reservation-based rules may reshape lockage resource allocation, priority mechanisms, vessel arrival patterns, and stakeholder benefit structures, thereby generating social risks that cannot be adequately captured by conventional engineering safety assessment methods. To address this issue, this study develops a stakeholder-informed dynamic social risk assessment framework for inland waterway lock reservation scheduling. First, a hybrid scheduling mode combining priority reservation and declaration-based queuing is conceptualized, and its operational process is characterized through lockage resource allocation, vessel reservation/declaration, coordinated water-area control, anchorage and safety inspection, and sequenced vessel lockage. Second, drawing on the social amplification of risk framework, a social risk assessment indicator system is constructed from four dimensions: legality, rationality, feasibility, and controllability. Third, a Dynamic Weighting Model is introduced to adaptively update indicator weights according to changes in scheduling rules and operational states, while a Two-Dimensional Cloud Model is developed to jointly represent risk probability and risk consequence under uncertainty. The proposed approach is validated using the reservation scheduling scenario of the Three Gorges locks. The results indicate that the overall social risk is classified as level 2, corresponding to a moderately low risk level, suggesting that the reservation scheduling mode is generally compatible with lock operation and navigation management requirements. Among the four dimensions, controllability exhibits the highest relative risk, indicating that greater attention should be paid to safety management, reservation compliance, public opinion guidance, and emergency response. The proposed framework provides a systematic and visual decision-support tool for risk identification, risk grading, and scheme optimization in inland waterway lock reservation scheduling. Full article

Several countries have adopted a nationwide ban on social media access for children. Our aim was to investigate public opinion regarding the implementation of a social media ban for children, as well as the factors influencing these views. We measured agreement with the ban, information regarding its implementation, perceived need for additional measures, confidence in the effectiveness of the ban, perceived impact of the ban, and parental familiarity with digital parental control tools. The study sample included 619 participants. In our sample, 69% agreed with the implementation of the ban, while 86.5% believed that additional measures should be implemented (i.e., digital literacy courses in schools, active parental involvement in digital literacy, prohibition of inappropriate content, reasonable parental limits on social media use, and restriction of addictive platform features). Females and higher-educated participants had more positive perceptions regarding the impact of the ban. We found a positive association between age, financial status, social media use, and impact of the ban. Reduced age was associated with increased parental familiarity with digital parental control tools. Social media use was associated with parental familiarity with digital parental control tools. There is a need for holistic and evidence-informed policy frameworks that integrate regulatory measures, educational initiatives, and shared accountability among stakeholders. Full article

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is considered a critical tool for sustainable supply chains within the scope of the European Green Deal. DPP significantly contributes to improving traceability, transparency, reliability, and circularity in supply chains, enabling a more robust and secure structure. However, despite this significant potential, achieving full integration of DPP is hampered by various organizational, technological, and environmental barriers. This study used the Grey Decision Making Testing and Evaluation Laboratory (Grey DEMATEL) approach, the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, and Force Field Theory to identify and categorize these barriers. A total of 27 barriers were identified based on a comprehensive literature review and the opinions of academic and industry experts, and these barriers were categorized into organizational, technological, and environmental categories. The study findings demonstrate that technological barriers, in particular, have a causal effect that strongly triggers both organizational and environmental challenges. The causal analysis conducted reveals the interdependencies among barriers and guides practitioners and policymakers in identifying resistance points to change. Furthermore, the study offers important insights that will help supply chain stakeholders transition from reactive approaches to proactive strategies when managing DPP-related barriers. The insights gained in this regard support the design of collaborative governance mechanisms to create a more resilient, transparent, manageable, secure, and circular supply chain ecosystem. Full article

Although Industry 4.0 has successfully advanced lean manufacturing through digitalization and automation, its primary focus on operational efficiency leaves emerging strategic priorities—human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience—outside its original scope. The Industry 5.0 agenda explicitly elevates these three pillars, creating new potential to drive lean transformation. However, how Industry 5.0 can systematically drive lean manufacturing transformation remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, this study develops a strategic roadmap. First, a content-centric literature review identifies 12 key enablers for Industry 5.0-driven lean manufacturing. Second, Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling (FISM) and expert opinions determine hierarchical relationships among the enablers and construct a multi-level structural model. Third, Matrices d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) analysis evaluates the driving power and dependence of each enabler. Finally, a strategic roadmap is developed based on expert synthesis. The findings reveal that “government regulation and incentives” and “employee skill training” are the most critical enablers, while “value chain design and improvement” and “resource input and return” are the most complex and difficult to develop. The roadmap highlights the mediating role of “stakeholder participation and collaboration.” Importantly, the roadmap addresses potential tensions in lean implementation—such as the carbon footprint trade-off of frequent small-batch transport—by embedding sustainability assessment into value chain design and technology governance. This study offers a practical guide for manufacturers to prioritize investments and sequence actions toward lean transformation in the Industry 5.0 era. The main contribution of this study is a strategic roadmap that explains how Industry 5.0 can enable lean manufacturing transformation through prioritized actions and hierarchical enablers, while reconciling efficiency with sustainability and resilience goals. This roadmap offers a practical guide for manufacturers and policymakers to sequence investments and actions toward lean transformation in the Industry 5.0 era. Full article

This research aims to assess the degree of risk disclosure practices in the Jordanian corporate sector and to examine the influence of critical audit quality dimensions—specifically audit opinion, audit fees, and auditor type—on the amount of corporate risk disclosure (CRD). The research examines 90 annual reports from Jordanian non-financial publicly traded companies from 2014 to 2023, resulting in 900 firm-year observations. A manual content analysis method was used to quantitatively assess the degree of risk disclosure, supplemented by logistic regression to analyze the influence of audit quality indicators. The empirical data indicate that the quantity of risk disclosure statements differs across businesses, spanning from 2 to 10 words, with a mean of 24 sentences. Furthermore, the findings indicate that characteristics influencing audit quality—specifically unqualified audit opinions, elevated audit fees, and Big Four auditors—exhibit a positive and substantial correlation with increased levels of risk disclosure. This indicates that enhanced audit quality elevates the legitimacy and openness of company reporting, thus reducing information asymmetry between management and stakeholders. Previous research on risk disclosure in Jordan has mostly neglected the influence of audit quality as a factor in transparency. This study is among the few that thoroughly investigate the impact of audit opinion, audit fees, and auditor type on company risk disclosure within the non-financial sector. The results underscore the essential importance of audit quality in improving monitoring and disclosure processes, thereby enriching the existing literature on corporate governance and risk reporting in developing economies. Full article

The teaching and assessment of veterinary professionalism are essential components of veterinary degree curricula. The content of veterinary professionalism education programs has been informed by multiple stakeholders including educators, practitioners, and regulatory bodies. Since student perceptions also represent a powerful force in shaping the curriculum, the aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of final-year veterinary students on professionalism teaching and learning within their veterinary program. A mixed-methods study was conducted across three veterinary schools (Massey University–New Zealand; Murdoch University–Australia; University of Nottingham–United Kingdom). An online survey captured final-year veterinary students’ opinions on professionalism teaching and the suitability of their current professionalism curricula. Subsequent focus groups explored perceptions in greater depth. Of 81 survey respondents, 66% perceived professionalism instruction to be essential, 79% agreed that their current professionalism instruction included appropriate content, and 58% perceived the instruction to represent adequate preparation for interaction with clients and professional colleagues. Only 39% of respondents, however, agreed that professionalism teaching was well integrated into the rest of the program. Three themes were identified following thematic analysis of the transcripts from the 11 focus groups conducted: ‘the challenges associated with teaching and assessing professionalism’, ‘the influence of clinical teaching faculty on student professionalism development’, and ‘the importance of adopting effective teaching methods to teach professionalism’. Findings from both studies showed that students placed the greatest value on learning and assessing professionalism within an authentic clinical context, while also appreciating interactive teaching formats and group work. Educators should, therefore, consider integration, authenticity, and interactive delivery as they continue to develop their veterinary professionalism curricula. Full article

To develop innovative solutions to urban challenges via a participatory design involving collaboration among all stakeholders—government authorities, designers, businesses, and local communities—technological applications that facilitate interactions must be integrated from the earliest stages of urban development projects. However, such collaboration is often hampered by the lack of effective platforms for communication and exchange, particularly given the difficulty of achieving consensus between experts and non-experts. From another perspective, hologram technology remains relatively underexplored and underutilized in the fields of architecture and urban design despite being a highly promising immersive technology. This study applied hologram technology and computer vision to create an interactive digital platform that enhances participatory design among stakeholders, which is called hologram walk. The proposed system was implemented on a university campus in Vinh Long, Vietnam, for its renovation project. This technology-driven platform allows users to experience and interact with the design proposal, communicate their opinions and needs, and enables the design team to make responsive adjustments. This proposed platform optimizes collaboration, fosters innovative designs outcomes, and can be easily replicated in future architectural and urban projects. Full article

The debate around corporate sustainability has become increasingly heated, with opinions ranging from denial of climate change to fatalistic acceptance of an impending collapse of civilization. This study examines how multinational enterprises, which contribute to nearly half of global GDP, internalize knowledge of planetary boundaries and take action within the organization or externally with investors, industry bodies, and policymakers. The research is grounded in empirical analysis of longitudinal data on two large samples of multinationals. It is found that, despite warnings from scientists about breaching planetary boundaries, multinationals, at best, follow an incremental approach to sustainability initiatives that collectively fail to drive positive global change. This well-entrenched practice remains unquestioned by external stakeholders, such as regulators, investors, and lenders. The research explains this behavior through (a) our inability to link global scientific findings to non-financial performance imperatives for individual businesses, and (b) our reliance on traditional enterprise risk management models that are less effective in a non-ergodic world. Full article

Existing studies on greenwashing have primarily focused on post-incident supervision, with limited attention given to proactive mechanisms. This study aims to develop an early warning evaluation model for greenwashing behavior in building materials enterprises exposed to negative public opinion. The main findings are as follows: (1) Drawing on actor network theory, gray system theory, the analytic network process, and gray fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, this study constructs an early warning evaluation model for greenwashing behavior in building materials enterprises. This model comprises 5 first-level dimensions and 20 s-level indicators, integrating key stakeholders (i.e., government, negative public opinion, media, the public, and enterprise) and is validated through case analysis. (2) Government dimension: Environmental regulation intensity emerges as the most critical indicator. (3) Negative public opinion dimension: Attention is the most critical indicator. (4) Media dimension: Media visibility ranks as the most critical indicator. (5) Public dimension: Public sentiment is the most influential indicator. (6) Enterprise dimension: The environmental performance level is the most critical indicator. This study offers both theoretical and practical foundations for the early warning, monitoring, and governance of enterprise greenwashing, contributing to the advancement of sustainable development and transparent environmental communication in the building materials industry. Full article

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being increasingly used for equid health and welfare. This study aimed to establish consensus on where and how AI should be developed to achieve maximum benefit in this field. A workshop involving 41 stakeholders generated statements about current welfare concerns, areas for AI development, and barriers and solutions to AI use. Statements were circulated through Delphi surveys (acceptance set at 75% agreement). One-hundred-and-six statements reached agreement. Ethological needs not being met and poor equid management practices were key welfare concerns. Participants identified that insufficient owner/carer knowledge and understanding were important factors contributing to welfare concerns. Priority areas for AI development included assessment of equid wellbeing, as well as individual and population-level monitoring. Barriers included limited understanding of both equine behaviour and AI, biased, unethical, or insufficient data collection, difficulties developing accurate models, challenges to validation, and uncertainty around interpretation. Proposed solutions included development of evidence-based, unbiased AI systems, following best practice guidelines, requiring approval/regulation of AI tools, collaboration, and education of AI users. This is the first study to identify stakeholders’ opinions about where AI is likely to have the greatest benefit for equids, potential barriers, and solutions. The findings should be used to prioritise funding and development. Full article

Background: ESG activities are increasingly regarded as a critical prerequisite for the long-term survival of humanity. Global and regional efforts have been undertaken to develop and control ESG activities; however, national differences (institutional and social schemes, level of economic development) are still considered to account for most of the variance in ESG performance. On this basis, a research gap was identified and verified to determine whether legal regulations have an impact on the quality of ESG reporting in Poland. The study was further extended by investigating whether taxonomic disclosures affect the quality of ESG reporting. Methods: The CATI and CAVI methods were applied, resulting in the collection of 325 valid responses. In the first stage of the research, the diversity of respondents’ answers was analyzed, according to their sector of activity, using a one-factor analysis of ANOVA variance with Welch and Brown–Forsythe corrections. In the second stage, the Games–Howell Test was employed to determine which sectoral responses differed significantly. The third stage was focused on diagnosing the impact of the sector of activity on respondents’ answers by calculating the eta-squared ratio. Results: The existence of a positive impact of ESG regulatory development on the quality of reporting disclosures was confirmed; nevertheless, this impact was assessed as moderate or weak. When more detailed taxonomic disclosures were considered, no significant influence on the quality of ESG disclosures was identified. An analysis of responses across sectors led to the conclusion that the sectoral perspective does not exert a meaningful influence on stakeholders’ opinions. Conclusions: The presented results are useful at the regulatory level, both internationally and nationally, as they partly legitimize the simplifications and exemptions currently being introduced in ESG reporting. At the same time, while highlighting the potential of the regulations under review, they point to the need for additional efforts to strengthen their impact by enhancing communication and, based on informing and promoting new solutions, emphasizing their potential positive effects and benefits, as well as considering the scope of reporting through selective application. The findings presented are also useful for educational purposes and to other researchers for comparative purposes, providing a basis for research into other determinants of ESG reporting quality. Full article