Investigating recycling decisions of internet recyclers: A step towards zero waste economy

Exploring coordination strategies for sustainable development: Addressing information challenges in waste resourcization

In view of the limited mineral resources, it is imperative to develop coordinated strategies to mitigate the risks of information asymmetry in the e-waste recyclable supply chain. This study explores the two-period strategies employed by brand owners when outsourcing to qualified recyclers who engage in both processing and remanufacturing, and operate across online and offline waste recycling channels, under conditions of both symmetric and asymmetric information. The research compares the effects of full-commitment contracts and anti-renegotiation contracts on the strategies of brand owners, recyclers, and information incentives. When information is symmetric, brand owners can set higher expected transfer payments from recyclers and lower offline recycling reward prices paid to customers during periods of high market demand. Offline recyclers, leveraging their collaborative effect with brand owners, offer higher rewards to customers compared to the online channel, where rewards are more sensitive to fluctuations in market demand. In contrast, when information is asymmetric, the brand owner needs to adjust the offline recycling rewards upwards to screen for low market demand conditions. This distortion helps mitigate the risks associated with incomplete information and ensures appropriate incentives are in place for both parties. When the recycler discloses a low market demand in both periods, the brand owner will set a lower reward price in period II than that in period I. In certain conditions, full-commitment contracts and anti-renegotiation contracts are identical. When contracts are separated and the history signal is low, the high-type recycler can get higher information rent in period two under the anti-renegotiation contract. When the history signal is high, the high-type recycler can receive the same information rent under the two contracts in period II and higher information rent under the anti-renegotiation contract in period I. Compared to the full-commitment contract, the anti-renegotiation contract can mitigate the upward distortion of the offline reward under certain conditions, thereby proving more advantageous for the brand owner. This research provides valuable insights for managers of waste resourcization enterprises, facilitating their ability to screen market information effectively. Such findings are particularly pertinent for promoting green and sustainable development practices.

Internet development, information availability, and Chinese enterprises' cooperative green technology innovation

Cooperative green technology innovation is potentially the answer to the lack of motivation for independent green innovation, which can effectively alleviate many difficulties faced by enterprises engaging in independent green innovation. Internet development provides new opportunities to stimulate innovative cooperation of enterprises. However, little literature has studied the impact of Internet development on enterprises' cooperative green technology innovation. Based on the data of Chinese A-share 3284 listed companies from 2010 to 2019, this paper uses a panel two-way fixed effects model to assess the effect of Internet development on enterprises' cooperative green innovation. The findings are: (1) Internet development significantly drives firms' collaborative green innovation behavior. The result remains robust even after performing a series of robust tests. (2) The Internet empowers green innovation cooperation among firms by improving information availability, including market information availability and technical information availability. (3) The heterogeneous results show enterprises use the Internet to accomplish high-quality collaborative green innovation. Internet development is more helpful in encouraging the cooperative green innovation of enterprises located in central cities and state-owned enterprises. This study provides novel and targeted policy implications to empower enterprises' green innovation cooperation and drive sustainable economic development through Internet development.

How does the digital economy affect the provincial "zero-waste city" construction? Evidence from China

The digital economy is playing a crucial effect in the field of environmental governance. Digital and intelligent management is an essential means to fully realize the "zero-waste city" construction. The present paper investigates the impact of digital economy on China's provincial "zero-waste city" construction. The results indicate that digital economy can contribute to "zero-waste city" construction. The digital economy has a positive nonlinear effect on the construction of "zero-waste city," but the marginal effect is diminishing. The digital economy can facilitate "zero-waste city" construction by improving industrial structure upgrading and green technology innovation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that digital economy contributes to the construction of "zero-waste city" in the eastern and western regions and high-level environmental regulation regions, while this impact is insignificant in the central region and low-level environmental regulation regions. The digital economy exerts the most significant positive influence on waste resource recycling followed by waste final disposal and then waste reduction at the source. These findings underscore the effect of digital economy in fostering "zero-waste city" construction and promoting sustainable waste management. The present study provides new ideas for the "zero-waste city" construction in emerging developing countries such as China.

Unboxing the dilemma associated with online shopping and purchase behavior for remanufactured products: A smart strategy for waste management

Despite an unprecedented shift in favor of sustainable consumer purchase patterns globally, the overall adoption of refurbished products is still scarce. Earlier empirical investigations have tested aspects affecting consumer purchase intentions concerning remanufactured products, yet they largely ignored risks hindering consumers from opting for them. In order to fill the given theoretical gap, the study tests both inhibiting and igniting factors affecting consumer's remanufacturing products purchase behavior through the use of Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) theory. SOR assists in better understanding consumers' digital purchase behavior toward remanufactured products. Moreover, the study extends the knowledge by examining the impact of Perceived Environmental Benefits, Seller's Reputation, Price Sensitivity, and Social Influence on Consumer's Purchase behavior for remanufactured products. It also investigates the mediating role of the Perceived Risk of Remanufactured Products, followed by the moderating role of Consumers Trust. A useable sample data of 361 was collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results indicated the inverse relationship between increased price sensitivity and purchase behavior concerning remanufactured products, and all other stated variables reflected a significant association with consumer purchase behavior. Likewise, both mediating and moderating roles were found to be significant. Along with theoretical contributions, the study contains numerous practical directions for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers to increase consumers' purchase behavior toward remanufactured products.

How to promote knowledge transfer within R&D team? An evolutionary game based on prospect theory

Knowledge transfer is the basis for R&D teams and enterprises to improve innovation performance, win market competition and seek sustainable development. In order to explore the path to promote knowledge transfer within the R&D team, this study considers the bounded rationality and risk preference of individuals, incorporates prospect theory into evolutionary game, constructs a perceived benefits matrix distinct from the traditional benefits matrix, and simulates the evolutionary game process. The results show that, R&D personnel's knowledge transfer decisions depend on the net income difference among strategies; only if perceived cost is less than the sum of perceived synergy benefit, perceived organization reward value, and perceived organization punishment value, can knowledge be fully shared and transferred within the R&D team. Moreover, R&D personnel's knowledge transfer decisions are interfered by the irrational psychological factors, including overconfidence, reflection, loss avoidance, and obsession with small probability events. The findings help R&D teams achieve breakthroughs in improving the efficiency of knowledge transfer, thereby enhancing the capacity of enterprises for collaborative innovation.

A Recent Digitalization in Recycling Industry Attaining Ecological Sustainability: A Comprehensive Outlook and Future Trend

The management of waste through dual way of recycling (i-e offline and online) is assumed to have a key role in attaining ecological sustainability and enabling circular practices. The research on online recycling is gaining evolution in recent age. Prior literature on the current research theme has failed to provide a comprehensive outlook and future trend. Therefore, the current research intends to elaborate the current research scenario linked with online recycling by critically scrutinizing the prior research over the last 41 years. A comprehensive analysis was conducted using the Scopus database, retrieving a total of 866 articles. These articles were selected to provide a conceptual overview and understanding of the fundamental research conducted in the field. By employing bibliometric analysis this research provides comprehensive detail about evolution, mapping of publications and prominent trends from the year 1981 to 2022 to understand the practices and future trends of online recycling research. The outcomes elucidated that there is exponential increase in research publications relating to online recycling over the last five years. The most influential producer of online recycling research are China, United Kingdom and United States. Chinese Universities has the highest number of publications among all the countries across globe. Moreover, the current research trend is focused on technology based circular economy, industrial ecology, bio-based waste management, dual channel recycling, municipal waste, waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), environmental impact and lifecycle assessment. Hence, the prominent research perspective and highlighted features could offer recommendation for upcoming studies to contribute in literature and help practitioners, policymakers and professionals move towards circular practices.

Environmental taxes, eco-innovation, and environmental sustainability in EU member countries

Environmental taxes and renewable energy consumption are becoming central policy instruments in countries especially in European Union (EU) countries to enhance environmental sustainability; however, no attention has been given to eco-innovations in the nexus between environmental taxes and carbon dioxide emission. This study investigates the effect of environmental taxes, innovations, and renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions in 26 EU countries from 2000 to 2020. Panel quantile regression was employed for analysis where the results show that environmental taxes have both positive and negative influence on CO2 emissions across quantiles in different models, whereas renewable energy consumption considerably reduces carbon emissions. Economic growth causes an increase in CO2 emissions; however, the financial progress greatly reduces CO2 emissions. Eco-innovations and its square term have a negative influence on carbon emissions which shows that eco-innovations significantly reduce carbon dioxide emission. The findings have significant implications for public policy in the sample countries, notably in terms of promoting renewable energy sources and transitioning to green growth through eco-innovations in order to achieve environmental sustainability.

Ecotoxicological evaluation of organic contamination in the world's two significant gateways to the Black Sea using GIS techniques: Turkish Straits

This study was carried out to determine the spatial-temporal distributions of limnological parameters of Çanakkale Strait (ÇS) and İstanbul Strait (İS), Turkiye. Fluvial (n = 11) and lacustrine (n = 4) habitats water samples were collected in the dry and rainy seasons of 2022-2023. Among limnological parameters, the highest mean electrical conductivity values of 6063 μS/cm were noted in the İS basin during the rainy season and the lowest was 0.04 mg/L for nitrite in the ÇS basin. Generally, the levels of organic contaminants and ecological risk indices were as follows: rivers of İS > rivers of ÇS > Alibey Dam Lake (İS) > Atikhisar Dam Lake (ÇS). The highest non-carcinogenic health risks of 0.88 were noted for children in the ÇS basin during the dry season and the lowest of <0.01 in Atikhisar Dam Lake during the rainy season. Multivariate statistical techniques were applied to data to categorize investigated ecosystems and sources apportionment of contaminants and geospatial distribution.

How to promote the sustainable development of virtual reality technology for training in construction filed: A tripartite evolutionary game analysis

In recent years, virtual reality training technology (VRTT) has been considered by many scholars as a new training method instead of traditional training (TT) to reduce unsafe behaviors ascribed to construction workers (CWs) and corporate accident rates. However, in this process, a conflict of interest arises among the government, construction enterprises (CEs), and CWs. Therefore, this study introduces a quantitative research method, the three-party evolutionary game and creatively combining them with the product life cycle (PLC) to solve this problem by analyzing the equilibrium and evolutionarily stable strategies of the system. Finally, collaborative players' decision-making behaviors and their sensitivity to critical factors are examined. This paper will illustrate these in each stage through numerical simulations. The results of the study indicate that the government plays a dominant role in the VRTT introduction stage. When the government gives CEs appropriate subsidies, CEs will eventually realize the importance of VRTT for CWs. Then the government will gradually reduce the amount of the subsidies in this process. In addition, we also find that the continually high cost will lead to negative policies by the government, which requires the active cooperation and attitude change from CEs and CWs. Ultimately, the government, CEs and CWs adopt the best strategy in the evolutionary process to facilitate the promotion, application and sustainability of VRTT in the construction industry.

Unlocking sustainable supply chain performance through dynamic data analytics: a multiple mediation model of sustainable innovation and supply chain resilience

This article provides a theoretical framework for comprehending the connections between dynamic data analytics capability (DDAC), innovation capabilities (IC), supply chain resilience (RES), and sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP). Since this is the first empirical investigation of the sequential mediation effect between DDAC and SSCP through IC and RES, it fills a critical need in the supply chain literature. A quantitative methodology was used, involving a survey questionnaire distributed to 259 large Pakistani manufacturing firms. We used PLS-SEM to test for the expected associations. Findings show that using DDAC has a beneficial effect on both innovative and resilient capabilities, which in turn leads to better SSCP. The research illuminates the sequential mediating roles of product, process, and resilience, underlining the need of combining data-driven innovation with resilience in order to achieve sustainable supply chain performance. These results provide useful guidance for businesses that want to boost their sustainability results by taking a more all-encompassing approach to data-driven innovation and resilience.

Interconnection between the role of blockchain technologies, supply chain integration, and circular economy: A case of small and medium-sized enterprises in Pakistan

Increased industrialization has led to unprecedented resource depletion on a global scale. The current state of affairs has compelled practitioners and academics to investigate the role of sustainable technologies in greening the operations of businesses. Previous studies have attempted to examine the number of operational aspects for their role in making firms sustainable, yet the utility of blockchain technologies is in its infancy. The role of BT in enhancing integration across supply chains has been in the limelight in the recent past. At the same time, its ability to cause sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP) in sync with the circular economy (CE) and supply chain integration (SCI) has largely remained unexplored. Therefore, this study intends to examine the association between blockchain technologies (BTs) and SSCPs through integration to fill the empirical gaps. The study was pursued to investigate the moderating role of the CE on the relationship between multiple extents of SCI and SSCP. Based on dynamic capability theory (DCT), the study considered BT a dynamic resource. BTs are used to integrate and reenergize the relationships with upstream and downstream channel members in pursuit of sustainable performance outcomes. The study opted for a cross-sectional design, where data was collected through convenience sampling from 475 managers from SMEs operating across Pakistan. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data and to generate the required empirical outcomes. Study results favored the significant association between BT and SSCP, followed by a significant mediating role of SCI dimensions and moderating role of the CE. The study's findings propagate the utility of BTs adoption for SMEs, which holds the potential for firms to achieve system-wide integration to achieve sustainable outcomes. The given empirical investigation holds valuable insights for practitioners and scholars intending to pursue research on the subject matter.