Strategic planning and decision support in small-medium wood enterprises using database technology

As the enterprise management plays vital role in the overall performance of a company, it is recognized the need for application of quality improvement tools and techniques such as database technology. A DataBase Management System (DBMS) is an IT application, which contains information about the company in various levels. Enterprises can use DBMS to plan and standardize their practices and increase overall efficiency in the company. It is an essential management tool for Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because in such companies the entrepreneur-owner is personally responsible for managing the activities of the company without being an expert. This modern information technology tool is the basis of the application of marketing principles and techniques via electronic media and more specifically the internet. The purpose of this paper is to explore how implementation of modern information technology tools, such as DBMS, simplifies SME management. That DBMS design approach can be a useful tool while designing similar applications in SME in wood sector and also in various issues in primary and secondary production sector

Internet functions in marketing: multicriteria ranking of agricultural SMEs websites in Greece

Δημοσιεύσεις μελών--ΣΔΟ--Τμήμα Λογιστικής, 2013The invasion of new technologies combined with the high cost for running shop force enterprises to search for new sales methods. Network applications and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) can help achieve e-commerce goals. In Greece, many enterprises in the agro-food and drink sectors are already present on the internet. This paper studies the adoption of e-commerce on websites that support e-commerce activities within the agro-food and drink sectors. Therefore, the paper aims to identify and evaluate their qualitative and quantitative content characteristics, rank them according to 6 content characteristics/criteria using the multicriteria method of PROMETHEE II and classify them in groups of similar adoption. The findings of this study reveal the rate of adoption of e-commerce in the sectors and can serve as a valuable model for the designers of websites that promote e-commerce activities within the wider areas of food and drinks

A Multicriteria Approach for Assessing the Impact of ICT on EU Sustainable Regional Policy

As a global actor, the European Union (EU) plays a leading role in international efforts to promote sustainable development globally. All sustainable objectives and targets need Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as key catalysts, since ICTs constitute tools of unprecedented power which help people to face the growing challenges of rising population, poverty, epidemics and climate change. Policy makers in the EU are increasingly putting ICTs into relations with sustainable regional development. This paper aims to study and assess the impact of ICT on the EU regional policy in terms of sustainable development by applying the multicriteria approach, PROMETHEE II, using the software Visual PROMETHEE. The criteria that were used in this research are the criteria that both the European Commission and member states define to assess the ICT implications of new EU legislation since 2010. The results revealed that the impact of ICT on EU sustainable regional policy has gotten stronger in the last two decades

Benchmarking Internet Promotion of Renewable Energy Enterprises: Is Sustainability Present?

Sustainability constitutes a broad discipline that focuses on the social, economic and environmental impact of human activities. Many policies and strategies have been developed for the pursuit of environmental sustainability and the guidance to a green society. Many enterprises have taken meaningful steps to improve their own environmental performance through corporate sustainability and environmental management. Environmental management contributes to significant improvements to environmental performance of the enterprises. This paper aims to evaluate the Renewable Energy Enterprises performance in the Internet in Thessaloniki Prefecture regarding the characteristics of sustainability using Multi-criteria Decision Analysis. TOPSIS method was used to provide a ranking of the Renewable Energy Enterprises according to their sustainability and finally conclude to a benchmark. According to the results of the research, the Renewable Energy Enterprises achieve a good level of sustainability but not the optimum. However, the entrepreneurs should adopt modern environmental policy, sustainable marketing, green network framework and certified environmental management system in order to consider their enterprise sustainable

Assessment of information and communication technology adoption in the environmental policy of the European Union

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes a broad range of services, applications, technologies, equipment and softwares which are required for the use of these technologies and improve social, cultural and financial structures. ICT adoption constitutes a key point for the environmental protection through the environmental policies/strategies and the sustainable development in the European Union (EU). The EU's commitment to leading a response to the current environmental challenges has resulted in a high level of legislative activity relating environmental policy. EU environmental policy rests on the principles of precaution, prevention and rectifying pollution at source. This paper aims to study and present the ICT exploitation by the member-states of the EU and assess the contribution of ICT in the European environmental policy. In particular: the most popular e-indexes are presented, they are analyzed applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in R Studio while the member-states are classified in three groups applying K-means method in R Studio. Furthermore, the European environmental policies concerning issues such as the environment and climate change, regional policy, maritime affairs and fisheries, development and energy are presented. The environmental policies are classified using content analysis according to their ICT implications level (communication technology, information technology, networking technology) and according to the use of their ICT implications, about the environmental monitoring, the environmental analysis, the environmental planning and the environmental management and protection. In addition, the current environmental policies are presented according to the e-Environment ICT application map and they are ranked applying the PROMETHEE-GAIA methodology in Visual Promethee software. Finally, the benefits of using the results are mentioned and some recommendations are presented. The importance of the research and the innovation are highlighted. Furthermore, the future extension of this research is suggested.Ο όρος των Τεχνολογιών Πληροφορικής και Επικοινωνίας (ΤΠΕ) καλύπτει ένα ευρύ φάσμα υπηρεσιών, εφαρμογών, τεχνολογιών, εξοπλισμού και λογισμικών, αναγκαία για τη χρήση των εν λόγω τεχνολογιών και επιφέρουν σταδιακά επανάσταση στις κοινωνικές, πολιτιστικές και οικονομικές δομές, δημιουργώντας νέες συμπεριφορές ως προς τις πληροφορίες, τη γνώση, την επαγγελματική δραστηριότητα, κ.λπ.. Η αξιοποίηση των ΤΠΕ συμβάλλει στην προστασία του περιβάλλοντος μέσω των περιβαλλοντικών πολιτικών/στρατηγικών και στη βιώσιμη ανάπτυξη της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης (ΕΕ). Σκοπός της παρούσας διδακτορικής διατριβής είναι, αρχικά, η μελέτη της χρήσης και αξιοποίησης των ΤΠΕ από τα κράτη-μέλη της ΕΕ, καθώς και των δυνατοτήτων τους να εφαρμόσουν άμεσα πολιτική που απαιτεί υψηλό επίπεδο υποδομών ΤΠΕ. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, γίνεται: ανεύρεση και παρουσίαση των δημοφιλέστερων δεικτών χρήσης και αξιοποίησης των ΤΠΕ (e-indexes) από τα κράτη-μέλη της ΕΕ ώστε να εκτιμηθεί η υφιστάμενη κατάσταση, Ανάλυση σε Κύριες Συνιστώσες των δημοφιλέστερων δεικτών χρήσης και αξιοποίησης των ΤΠΕ με το λογισμικό R Studio ώστε αυτοί να περιοριστούν και να παρουσιάζουν συνοπτικά την υφιστάμενη κατάσταση, oμαδοποίηση των κρατών-μελών της ΕΕ σύμφωνα με τις τιμές των δεικτών χρήσης και αξιοποίησης των ΤΠΕ με την μέθοδο K-means σε τρεις ομοιογενείς ομάδες με το λογισμικό R Studio ώστε να διακριθούν τρεις ζώνες χρήσης και αξιοποίησης των ΤΠΕ στην ΕΕ. Στην συνέχεια, μελετάται η ενσωμάτωση των νέων Τεχνολογιών Πληροφορικής και Επικοινωνίας στην πολιτική της ΕΕ που αφορά το περιβάλλον. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, γίνεται: ανεύρεση των πράξεων νομοθετικού περιεχομένου σχετικά με το περιβάλλον και την κλιματική αλλαγή, την περιφερειακή πολιτική, την θαλάσσια πολιτική και αλιεία, την ανάπτυξη και την ενέργεια στην ΕΕ και παρουσίαση των στατιστικών αποτελεσμάτων, κατηγοριοποίηση των περιβαλλοντικών πολιτικών με την μέθοδο της ανάλυσης περιεχομένου ανάλογα με τις ΤΠΕ που χρησιμοποιούν (τεχνολογία τηλεπικοινωνιών, τεχνολογία πληροφοριών, τεχνολογία δικτύων) ώστε να αξιολογηθεί το επίπεδο των ΤΠΕ που χρησιμοποιούνται. Επιπλέον, γίνεται κατηγοριοποίηση των περιβαλλοντικών πολιτικών με την μέθοδο της ανάλυσης περιεχομένου ανάλογα με τις εφαρμογές ΤΠΕ που χρησιμοποιούν με σκοπό την περιβαλλοντική παρακολούθηση, την περιβαλλοντική ανάλυση, τον περιβαλλοντικό σχεδιασμό, την περιβαλλοντική διαχείριση και προστασία ώστε να γίνει πιο κατανοητή η συνεισφορά των ΤΠΕ στις πρακτικές διαχείρισης, παρουσίαση της ισχύουσας περιβαλλοντικής νομοθεσίας βάσει του προτύπου εφαρμογών ΤΠΕ για το e-περιβάλλον ώστε να αξιολογηθεί η υφιστάμενη κατάσταση όσον αφορά τα σχέδια δράσης της ΕΕ και τα χωρικά επίπεδα εφαρμογής, και στην συνέχεια, κατάταξη των περιβαλλοντικών πολιτικών σε σειρά υπεροχής ανά τομέα βάσει των κριτηρίων που χρησιμοποιεί η Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή για την αξιολόγηση των εφαρμογών ΤΠΕ που ενσωματώνονται από τις προτεινόμενες πολιτικές της ΕΕ με τη μέθοδο PROMETHEE-GAIA με την χρήση του καινοτόμου λογισμικού Visual Promethee. Τέλος, αναφέρονται τα συμπεράσματα της έρευνας και τα οφέλη της χρήσης των αποτελεσμάτων της έρευνας, γίνονται οι απαραίτητες προτάσεις, αναφέρονται οι τρόποι αξιοποίησης των αποτελεσμάτων, τονίζεται η αναγκαιότητα και σπουδαιότητα της έρευνας, και τέλος, παρουσιάζεται η ενδεχόμενη μελλοντική επέκταση της παρούσας έρευνας

Green products: digital marketing and consumer behavior for sustainability

The main objective of the current study is to present the potential of digital marketing for green products and especially, to contribute on knowledge regarding the factors that affect online consumer behavior towards green sustainable products. Moreover, the primary research is going to identify the most important factors during the online shopping process, as well as, the existence of statistically significant relationships between the variables of the research and specifically the intention to buy online green products, the factors of perceived value (quality, emotional, price and social), the brand consciousness of customers and consumers’ attitude toward green products. A primary quantitative research has been conducted in order to answer on specific research hypothesis that have been stated in the methodology chapter. The main findings of the research illustrate that there are positive relationships between the intention to buy online green sustainable products, the factors of perceived value (quality, emotional, price and social), the brand consciousness of online customers and consumers’ attitude toward green products, and with some of the demographic variables

Renewable energy sources: Using PROMETHEE II for ranking websites to support market opportunities

International audienc

Assessing the ICT exploitation in EU energy policy: a multicriteria evaluation

Summarization: Purpose This paper aims to present and assess the EU energy policies regarding their dependence on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) implications and the level of complexity of the applied ICT implications using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity of Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The used criteria have been retrieved from the official “ICT Implication Assessment method of EU Legislation”. Design/methodology/approach The methodology approach deals with the ranking representation of EU energy policies according to the ICT exploitation. The data for the study were collected from the official website of the European Union (EU) (www.europa.eu). According to these data, the subtopics of the EU energy policies regard the internal energy market, the European energy policy, the energy efficiency, the nuclear energy, the security of energy supply, the external dimension, the enlargement and the renewable energy sources. The EU energy policies were assessed using the TOPSIS multicriteria analysis. The TOPSIS is widely used to solve real-world decision-making problems due to its characteristic to deal with different information types. Findings According to the results of the research, the EU energy policies achieve a good level of dependence on ICT implications and of complexity of the applied ICT implications but not the optimum. However, EU policy-makers should take into account the ICT factors while updating an existing one or while designing a new energy policy. The results of this research can provide an overview of the current situation regarding the current legislation while moving toward a sustainable eEurope. There is a need for stronger incubation efforts for a wide range of innovations to be ready in due time. Originality/value This is the first time that EU energy policies are presented and assessed regarding their dependence on ICT implications and the level of complexity of the applied ICT implications using the TOPSIS method.Presented on: Management Decisio