28 research outputs found

    Current issues of the management of socio-economic systems in terms of globalization challenges

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    The authors of the scientific monograph have come to the conclusion that the management of socio-economic systems in the terms of global challenges requires the use of mechanisms to ensure security, optimise the use of resource potential, increase competitiveness, and provide state support to economic entities. Basic research focuses on assessment of economic entities in the terms of global challenges, analysis of the financial system, migration flows, logistics and product exports, territorial development. The research results have been implemented in the different decision-making models in the context of global challenges, strategic planning, financial and food security, education management, information technology and innovation. The results of the study can be used in the developing of directions, programmes and strategies for sustainable development of economic entities and regions, increasing the competitiveness of products and services, decision-making at the level of ministries and agencies that regulate the processes of managing socio-economic systems. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in the educational process and conducting scientific research on the management of socio-economic systems in the terms of global challenges

    Forever Young: Celebrating 50 Years of the World Heritage Convention

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    This open access publication gathers young and senior scholars of the Una Europa Universities to celebrate the first fifty years of the UNESCO 1972 World Heritage Convention (WHC). Financed as a Seed Funding grant of the Una Europa Alliance, the WHC@50 project offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the WHC, the jewel of the UNESCO Conventions. By introducing the (r)evolutionary concept of World Heritage, involving the International Community as a whole in the preservation, valorization and transmission to future generations of cultural and natural sites and landscapes of outstanding universal value, the WHC is indeed one of the major treaty instruments of our age. The editors therefore hope, through the final results of the WHC@50 research cooperation activity, to contribute to the dissemination of the WHC knowledge, attracting the attention of academics, politicians, experts, officials and civil society, and contributing to the debate for strengthening the 1972 UNESCO Convention, suggesting solutions to overcome the problematic aspects of its implementation and activities

    The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies

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    This book synthesizes and interprets existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures as well as lessons from successes and failures in order to better understand the challenges of technology upgrading in emerging economies. The objective is to bring together in one volume diverse evidence regarding three major dimensions of technology upgrading: paths of technology upgrading, structural changes in the nature of technology upgrading, and the issues of technology transfer and technology upgrading. The knowledge of these three dimensions is being synthesized at the firm, sector, and macro levels across different countries and world macro-regions. Compared to the old and new challenges and uncertainties facing emerging economies, our understanding of the technology upgrading is sparse, unsystematic, and scattered. While our understanding of these issues from the 1980s and 1990s is relatively more systematized, the changes that took place during the globalization and proliferation of GVCs, the effects of the post-2008 events, and the effects of the current COVID-19 and geopolitical struggles on technology upgrading have not been explored and compared synthetically. Moreover, the recent growth slowdown in many emerging economies, often known as a middle-income trap, has reinforced the importance of understanding the technology upgrading challenges of catching-up economies. We believe that the time is ripe for “taking stock of the area” in order to systematize and evaluate the existing knowledge on processes of technology upgrading of emerging economies at the firm, sector, and international levels and to make further inroads in research on this issue. This volume aims to significantly contribute towards this end

    Competitividad turística y benchmarking de destinos a través del modelo del World Economic Forum. Una aplicación del modelo de rasch.

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    El interés y la justificación del estudio del modelo para la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC) del World Economic Forum y su aplicación al destino turístico España atienden a varias razones. El turismo es un sector clave para la economía española. A nivel mundial, el turismo no ha parado de crecer desde el año 2009, alcanzando la cifra de 1400 millones de llegadas de turistas internacionales en el año 2018, tendencia que se espera continúe en el año 2019. Específicamente en el caso de España, los efectos directos del turismo representan el 11.2% del PIB total y, respecto al empleo, el sector turístico genera el 13% de los puestos de trabajo que se crean en España. Asimismo, el carácter transversal del turismo ha servido de soporte para el resto de los sectores de la economía en España y ha ayudado a amortiguar el impacto de la crisis económica. Estos buenos datos coexisten con una competencia creciente en el mercado turístico a nivel global. Esto obliga a las empresas, especialmente a las turísticas, a adaptar sus estrategias para poder conservar la posición competitiva actual. De hecho, la posición competitiva de las empresas condiciona la competitividad, tanto global como turística, del país en el que se localizan. En este sentido, la dotación tecnológica de las empresas es uno de los factores que posibilitan a las empresas adelantarse a los movimientos del mercado, anticipando las respuestas estratégicas y así aumentar la eficiencia y la competitividad. Una infraestructura tecnológica adecuada es especialmente importante en tiempo de crisis, debido a la mayor incertidumbre de los mercados, y más aún en aquellos destinos en fase de madurez, como es el caso de España. Es en este contexto en el que la competitividad turística, o competitividad del destino turístico (TDC), ha adquirido notable interés en los últimos años. Desde el punto de vista de las empresas, porque el turismo es un sector en crecimiento, en el que abordar nuevos retos estratégicos con los que incrementar su presencia internacional y, consecuentemente, su nivel de ingresos y de competitividad. Desde el punto de vista de la gestión del destino, el interés por la competitividad turística (TDC) radica en las oportunidades de desarrollo y crecimiento económico derivadas de un buen posicionamiento internacional. En los últimos 20 años, los estudios relacionados con la competitividad turística se han centrado en tres aspectos principales: (1) estudiar cuáles son los factores que determinan la competitividad turística (TDC) y proponer modelos teóricos generales, (2) modelizar la competitividad turística (TDC) a distintos tipos de destinos turísticos (i. e. microdestinos, regiones, países y grupos de países, entre otros) y (3) modelizar la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC). En el caso de este trabajo, los análisis se han centrado en un grupo de países y, más específicamente, en el destino turístico España. Los resultados de estos análisis han puesto de manifiesto que los factores determinantes de la competitividad turística (TDC) difieren entre destinos y que, por lo tanto, los resultados que se obtienen para destinos concretos no pueden generalizarse. Estos resultados evidencian la necesidad, por parte de los gestores del destino turístico, de investigar y de comprender las características propias de cada destino para poder implementar estrategias de éxito exclusivas que mejoren la competitividad turística (TDC). Respecto a la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC), el World Economic Forum (WEF) ha propuesto un modelo que, a pesar de no tener el total y absoluto respaldo científico-teórico ni estadístico, actualmente sirve de guía para la toma de decisiones en el ámbito turístico. Este modelo de evaluación de la competitividad turística (TDC) está basado en el modelo de medición de la competitividad global que el WEF lleva aplicando más de 30 años. En ambos modelos, los factores determinantes de la competitividad se denominan pilares de competitividad (pilares) y los resultados se muestran en forma de ranking competitivo para determinar cuáles son las economías más competitivas a nivel global y a nivel turístico. Por tanto, la tarea de este trabajo consiste, en realizar una doble revisión de la literatura para, en primer lugar, elaborar un marco teórico que dé soporte al concepto de competitividad y al concepto de competitividad turística (TDC) y, en segundo lugar, aportar un marco teórico que sirva de base para el modelo WEF de medición de la competitividad turística (TDC). Una vez elaborado el marco teórico, el trabajo práctico se divide en dos partes: la parte metodológica y la parte práctica, propiamente dicha. Respecto al trabajo metodológico, éste consiste en constatar si el modelo WEF para la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC) es estadísticamente significativo. Según el modelo WEF, España es el país más competitivo del mundo en turismo para el año 2017. Este hecho ya representa una tendencia, pues España ocupa el liderato según el modelo WEF para la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC) desde el año 2015 y lo conserva en el último análisis, publicado en octubre del año 2019. En este sentido, y una vez analizada la significatividad estadística del modelo WEF, el trabajo práctico consistirá en (1) identificar cuáles son los países con la mayor habilidad para la competitividad turística (TDC), (2) determinar las fortalezas y debilidades del modelo turístico español y (3) analizar si existen diferencias entre grupos de países respecto a los pilares. Estos análisis nos ofrecerán la posibilidad de legitimar estadísticamente el modelo WEF, así como los resultados y la propia tesis, y además, nos dotarán de la facultad de proponer mejoras tanto en el modelo WEF como en el modelo turístico de España. Esta tesis aporta algunas cuestiones novedosas a nivel teórico, metodológico y práctico. De manera sintética, las aportaciones de este trabajo se centran, principalmente, en la trascendencia de la cuestión que es objeto de análisis, así como su aportación al conocimiento: la competitividad turística. Desde el punto de vista teórico, la integración, la síntesis y la actualización de los conceptos y la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC) constituyen un avance que permitirá, tanto a gestores públicos y privados como a investigadores y académicos, mejorar su labor. Respecto a las aportaciones metodológicas, el modelo WEF para la medición de la competitividad turística (TDC) es una modelización ampliamente utilizada, a pesar de que su validez no ha sido contrastada científicamente. En este sentido, el modelo WEF ha servido de punto de partida, sobre todo entre la comunidad científica, para proponer nuevas modelizaciones aplicadas a destinos turísticos específicos mayoritariamente. Este modelo, cuya significatividad estadística se legitima en este trabajo de manera inédita, será, a partir de este momento, una herramienta robusta, válida y fiable con la que extraer conclusiones. Para ello en esta tesis se utiliza metodológicamente el modelo de Rasch, un modelo alternativo a la teoría clásica del test que, como se verá a lo largo de este trabajo, permite avanzar en el análisis estadístico. En cuanto a las aportaciones prácticas, y una vez comprobada la validez estadística del modelo WEF, el uso de éste será de gran utilidad para los gestores del destino turísticos, así como para académicos e investigadores del ámbito turístico, porque permitirá extraer conclusiones globales reproducibles y aplicables entre destinos turísticos diferentes. Además, en el caso específico de España, los resultados obtenidos de los diferentes análisis practicados facilitarán la labor de aportar mejoras al modelo turístico de España. Esto permitirá a su vez adaptar las acciones estratégicas y, consecuentemente, mejorar la competitividad turística (TDC) de España. Por último, en relación con las aportaciones desde la perspectiva valorativa/actitudinal, se ponen en valor la competitividad en general y la competitividad turística (TDC) en particular, demostrando que se trata de un tema con atractivo editorial y de actualidad

    The use of a national macro-environmental framework in selecting the appropriate airport ownership and management model.

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    The continuous increase in air traffic has placed pressure on governments to develop their airports in order to accommodate increasing demand. As a result, governments are opting to implement different airport ownership and management models, especially privatization, to finance the development of projects, improve operational and financial efficiency, and to enhance the quality of service of their airports. However, it has been observed that this trend towards airport privatization, especially in developing countries, has to a large extent been guided by international consultants who seldom appreciate local political, cultural and economic contexts within which airports are managed. Consequently, there have been many examples of privatization transactions, not achieving the required and expected outcomes. Therefore, this study proposes a framework to identify the airport ownership and management model that best suits the local circumstances of a country. The framework is based on five national macro-environmental factors that are found to be significantly influencing the efficiency of airports. These national macro-environmental factors are identified by first measuring the efficiency of a sample of international airports using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and secondly by conducting a truncated regression coupled with Simar and Wilson bootstrapping technique to test the significance of a set of national macro-environment factors on airport efficiency. The identification of these factors fills in the gap in the literature that is related to the relationship between the airport performance and non-discretionary variables. Finally, the proposed framework helps policymakers to identify which ownership and management model is most appropriate given prevailing national macro-environmental conditions.PhD in Transport System

    International student projects in a blended setting:How to facilitate problem based project work

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    TECHNOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT AND HAPPINESS IN A SPATIAL-ISLAND ECONOMY

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    When the title of this book, Technology, Development, and Happiness in a Spatial Island Economy, is exposed, the writer would like to analyze the correlation among the three key words in dealing with the development of islands countries, or it can be said in archipelago countries. It is understandable that in archipelago contries, there are some barriers in developing economy in every island. One of the visible barriers is demographic factors. Among islands must have straits, sea depths, natural disasters, people habbits and characters, weathers, and many more. Indonesia, for example, has about 17,000 islands from the west to the east, and from the north to the south. It is one of the islands countries in the world that has demographic factor which influence its economic growth. These demographic factors may make different development among them, one island may have better economy condition than the others. These different conditions may absolutely reflect to the condition of the islands country, in particular in its economy development of the country. Why economy? This has been agreed that a good economy condition of a country may reflect a good condition of a country. To look into the topic, this book describes about the importance of technology, development, and happiness of the economy condition in a spatial island economy. The writer organized the discussion into three parts, Spatial Island Economy, Technology and Economic Development, and Islamicity, Development and Happiness. Spatial Island Economy in Part I, discusses about Input-Output (IO) model for spatial economy analysis, a new hybrid procedure for spatial island economy, the essence of industrial sectors in Java Island in Indonesian economy, spatial dimension of economic multipliers in Sumatera, Java, Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara islands, and eastern part of indonesia. Input-Output (IO) model for special economy analysis is said to be a model that does not only describe kinds, the agents, and the venues of economic activities, but it can also give analysis about direct impact, indirect impact, and induced impact. The IO is also can be used for analizing the sectoral interdependency and spatial interdependency that are common in spatial economy or islands countries. The writer tried to expose the GIRIOT ( Generation of Inter-Regional Input Output Tables) as a hybrid procedure of Island Economy. GIRIOT is dirived from GRIT III, a method developed by University of Queensland (West et.al 1989) and a technique developed by Boomsma & Oostenhaven 1992 called DEBRIOT (Double Entry Bi-Regional Input-Output Tables). Although the DEBRIOT is good only for economic deals with a two regions model, the writer tried to find out the possibility for the use in Indonesia with thousands islands. The other important breakdowns in this Part I are on the concentration of Industries in Java island and a look on the spatial dimension of economic multilpliers in many island areas in Indonesia. In Part II, the book talked on the relation of technology and economic development in spatial island economy that includes technology efficiency and return to scale. It also ranges from spatial, sectoral, and national perspectives, economic growth, poverty reduction, the role of technology, the existance of Philip Curve. Despite of the use of technology in economic development, the issues on the human development and the global human competitiveness are also important. The writer quoted a view from Streeten (1994) that development concerns expanding the choices people have, to lead lives that they value, and improving the human condition so that people have the chance to lead full lives. All of the factors the writer mentioned are very important to pursue economic welfare for people particularly people’s economy in spatial island country like Indonesia. Part III is giving us about the Islamicity that may create development and happiness for people in a spatial island economy. It is interesting that religion like Islam may also have a power to influence the economic development and happiness. The Islamic live is regarded to have a strong influence to the economic growth, human development and human happiness, and economic global competitiveness in spatial island country like Indonesia. The writer mentioned interesting issue that he tried to analyze the direct and indirect impact of Islam in global economic competitiveness. He quoted the world index of human being from 123 countries that the result showed the Islamicity has direct and positive impact to the economic global comepetitiveness. Overall, this book describes and conveys some issues on the technology, development and happiness in a spatial island economy. There are many spatial island countries in the world including Indonesia, Japan, the Phillipines, Srilangka, Singapore, and many more. In particular, this book focuses on the economic condition in Indonesia. There must be differences in economy development in spatial island countries and the ones in land countries like China, India, USA, Australia, and some more. This book is very important and it is worth to learn by academicians in Indonesia and in other countries as well

    Energy management: An intervention-based analysis

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    Buildings account for approximately 40% of global energy use and emit 33% of global GHG emissions. Buildings also offer the greatest potential for GHG emission reductions, as energy consumption within existing stock can be reduced by 30-80% using proven and commercially available technologies. Despite this promise, there is a pervasive ‘performance gap’ between optimal and actual energy use within buildings, even in retrofitted or new high-performance buildings. This gap is attributed to the decision-making of individuals and organizations that occupy buildings and use energy services, resulting in both market and non-market failures. As such, energy efficiency is widely recognized as critical behavioural component that needs to be addressed in climate change mitigation strategy and policy, aimed at reducing the performance gap. Globally, energy efficiency finance is one of six workstreams under the G20 Energy Efficiency Action Plan, and is seen as an essential component in achieving the United Nations’ 7th Sustainable Development Goal (SGD) to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all”. Currently, there is an estimated 430billionUSDshortfallinenergyefficiencyinvestmentstomeetthisgoal;globalgovernmentandutilityspendingonenergyefficiencywasestimatedtobeUS430 billion USD shortfall in energy efficiency investments to meet this goal; global government and utility spending on energy efficiency was estimated to be US25.6 billion in 2017, and is expected to grow to US$56.1 billion in 2026. While the enormous and increasing amounts of taxpayer dollars being spent on energy efficiency around the world are promising, the varying degrees of performance outcomes resulting from these efforts are cause for concern. Examinations of national energy efficiency policies have shown only modest impact on national GHG emissions reductions and that defining energy as a demand-side resource limits the extent to which energy efficiency can be achieved. In addition, spending public funds to reduce negative externalities instead of correcting the internalization of external costs creates asymmetric incentives, leading to heterogeneous results. Drawing from the pro-environmental behaviour change literature, this dissertation positions stakeholder engagement an integral part of the success of energy efficiency programs, and thus focuses on the energy management decisions of various stakeholders at multiple scales within an energy systems context. Specifically, the relationship between voluntary programs and decisions about electricity consumption – i.e., do the former actually cause the latter to change – is expanded upon in three distinct (but interrelated) papers. The overall goal of this research was to investigate the success factors and barriers to the achievement of GHG emissions reductions in Ontario and to identify potential opportunities to achieve greater energy efficiency and conservation outcomes. Chapter Two of this dissertation presents a scoping review of the pro-environmental behaviour change literature, with a focus on the important/influential communities of scholarship that shape the structure of the field, and the extent to which emerging research fronts reflect the structural themes. The results revealed that the Journal of Social Issues (JSI) 2000 Vol. 56 Issue 3 was a compilation of important/influential papers, measured by co-citation analysis, bibliometric coupling analysis, and four types of centrality. A dense, six-cluster network was revealed, with two papers from this special issue by Stern and Dunlap & Van Liere forming the lobes of the structure. The four themes identified by the editors of the JSI 2000 special issue – synthesis, motives/values, power, and applicability – were found to generally map onto the structural network. This scoping review also revealed that the emerging research fronts reflect a stronger focus on the applicability of environmental behaviour change theories on salient issues such as consumerism, household (Abrahamse & Steg, 2011) and workplace energy consumption, transportation choice, and tourism. Chapter Three of this dissertation addresses the identified gap related to consequences of intervention design and implementation through a quantitative analysis of data collected by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB). A multi-level growth curve model was used to explain the achievement and rate of change towards the provincial Peak Demand and Cumulative Energy Savings targets by Ontario’s local distribution companies (LDCs) from 2011-2014, the first Conservation First Framework period. While there was insufficient variance in the data to allow for analysis of the Peak Demand target, the model revealed statistically significant variability in the achievement of the Net Cumulative Energy Savings target, as well as the rate of change towards the target amongst the LDCs. The results showed that in the Ontario context, customer density was statistically significant in predicting the achievement of an LDC’s Net Cumulative Energy Savings target. More importantly, the statistically significant variance of the rate of change over time demonstrates that LDCs moved towards their respective targets at different rates. This variance was largely left unexplained by the multi-level model developed in this case study, therefore opportunities remain to improve the model and offer further insight into Ontario’s energy conservation landscape at this level of the energy system. Chapter Four of this dissertation focused on the end use of energy, applying systems theory to explore opportunities to reduce the performance gap in commercial office buildings. This study used interview data from Ontario and Alberta, two provinces with different electricity grid compositions, electricity prices, and levels of energy consumption. A conceptual overview of the relationships between system components was developed, and five modes of behaviour were identified as pathways for increasing the investment in building retrofits and stakeholder engagement in energy behaviour programs. In this case study, evidence of collaboration between stakeholders to discuss shared benefits and outcomes created win-win scenarios, and mitigated some of the split-incentive challenges that have been documented in the literature. Findings from this dissertation contribute to the pro-environmental behaviour change literature by offering quantitative and qualitative evidence that deepen existing knowledge on the design and implementation of interventions to improve energy efficiency outcomes. Collectively, the three distinct papers presented in this dissertation established a need to examine the performance gap through a systems framework in order to ascertain the extent to which impacts at the infrastructure, institutional, and individual levels of the energy system are being addressed, and to leverage opportunities to catalyze motivations and reduce barriers for all system stakeholders, simultaneously. This framework is critical because individuals and organizations do not make decisions about energy efficiency and conservation in isolation; rather they are part of complex and nested social networks, where behaviour is influenced by the interactions and relationships between system components. Several key conclusions emerged from the synthesis of three papers. Considering electric distribution utilities as the unit of analysis, financial and operational metrics were insufficient at explaining the variability in CDM target achievement and the rate of change towards targets over time, pointing to a need to establish other differences between utilities that may have more predictive power. In the commercial real estate sector, corporate leadership and organizational culture were found to be determinants of retrofit investment behavior, prompting the question of whether such characteristics may also influence CDM target achievement in utilities
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