Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences

Multi-region Input-Output-based Carbon and Energy Footprint Analysis of U.S. Manufacturing

Kadhim Abbood — 2023-06-19

In this research, U.S. manufacturing activities' life cycle-based carbon and energy footprint impacts have been quantified, taking international trade linkages with the rest of the world into account. The U.S economy has been integrated into a multi-region input-output (MRIO) life cycle assessment framework where total of 40 major economies, including the USA, China, Russia, and others, plus the rest of the world (ROW) were modelled to assess global energy and carbon footprint impacts. Each country's economy is assumed to compromise 35 major industries based on the WIOD database classification. A total of 1435 (41 × 35 = 1435) industries has therefore been taken to represent the global structure of the world economy. The novelty of the approach is that the MRIO model has been developed in a stochastic fashion, plus global trade-linked uncertainties have also been taken into consideration. Top carbon emitting and energy consumer industries and countries have been analysed using data analytics and statistical modelling methods. The results show that the USA is the largest contributor to the total carbon footprint (CFP) and the total energy footprint (EFP) with 81.73% and 84%, respectively. Moreover, the agriculture/hunting forestry/fishing sector and the electricity/gas/water supply sectors dominate the overall U.S. carbon footprint, contributing 22% and 21.28%, respectively. The coke/refined petroleum/nuclear fuel sector has the largest share of the total energy footprint, with 47.9% of the total impacts.

The Role of Temporary Use of Public Space in Sustainable Development

Michaela Högyeová — 2023-06-19

The aim of this research paper is to explore the sustainable approach towards the management of public spaces. The paper is divided into seven sections. In the beginning, a discussion of why management of public spaces is generally an important subject is described by means of a literature review.
The second part of the paper focuses on the value of public space, providing an overview of the benefits of, and roles played by, properly defined and planned public spaces.
The third part of the paper presents a detailed discussion of the process of what is seen to be an innovative approach to the management of public spaces. Significant objectives are identified, in accordance with the new process of public space management, its impact, and synergies.
In the fourth part, the research methodology is discussed. This section outlines the two approaches taken towards a case study of temporary use of public space in Slovakia and a survey exploring the success of the temporary approach.
Finally, the outcome of the case study and results of the survey are outlined, highlighting interesting potential best practices regarding the temporary use of public spaces.
The results of the case study suggest that the planning of public spaces plays a significant role in the cities; consequently, the creation of public spaces must be considered as one of the most important aspects when analysing strategies towards sustainable urban development.

Green Growth Analysis of Social Development in OECD Countries

Anıl Yıldırım Poyraz — 2023-06-19

This paper seeks to elucidate the inter and intrarelationships between a selected set of OECD green growth indicators (GGI). In addition to the selected GGI, the analysis includes the Human Development Index (HDI) and its sub-indicators. The novelty of the analysis comes from the incorporation of these established indicators, which have been utilised and developed to reflect human well-being and prosperity for decades. Production-based CO₂ intensity and emission change are significantly correlated to average length of schooling across the 36 countries that were members of the OECD in the year 2019. Longer years spent in school on average can facilitate the green transition of countries. The correlations among intra-GGI also suggest where OECD countries are lagging in terms of green transition. For example, renewable energy supply share in energy and air transport-related CO₂ per capita are positively correlated in the countries. This indicates that countries with a successful path toward green energy are not paying much attention to their high level of CO₂ emissions caused by aviation. Infrastructural and technological advancement as well as increased public awareness are needed to challenge such issues.

Examination of the Brand Archetypes of the Hungarian Retail Banking Sector and Their Correlations with Consumer Preferences Regarding Banking Products

Nóra Julianna Gombos — 2023-06-19

The primary goal of this research is to explore the preferences of domestic consumers in relation to the brand archetypes of banks. The chosen topic fits into broader research that examines the elements of brand building in the Hungarian retail banking sector and their impact on consumer preference and behaviour. Besides defining and manufacturing products brand building includes the development of a brand personality. The basic conceptual framework examined in the present research was determined based on the Mark and Pearson brand archetype framework to enable a comparison with the findings in the USA. In the research, we were also seeking an answer to the question as to whether the consumer preference regarding the banking services, payment methods and banking marketing channels examined in research has an impact on the consumer preference regarding brand archetypes, as the exploration of such effects expands the scope for interpretation and usage of the obtained results. Knowledge of preferred brand archetypes supports the management of banks' branding tools, can help banks in their innovation activities and the results can be used to develop new products and services. It is identifiable that the most preferred archetypes by consumers among the 12 possible brand archetypes are the Sage and Caregiver archetypes. There is only a slight correlation between the consumer preference regarding the various banking services, payment methods and forms of information examined in the research and the choice of the brand archetype; however, a strong relationship can be established between the choices of brand archetypes.

Achieving Usability: Looking for Connections between User-Centred Design Practices and Resultant Usability Metrics in Agile Software Development

Adam Nemeth — 2023-06-19

This article searches for correlations between the practices of usability professionals from software development teams and the resulting usability of the system they are working on. After reviewing the literature of the past decade, we can conclude that most researchers try to achieve better usability with process proposals, but measurements focus on perceived usability. The level of involvement of users in the requirements capture phase is unclear. There is a trend to reduce costs of usability engineering, either by choosing more lightweight and informal methods or by trying to substitute user involvement. Looking at decade's worth of 452 articles about "agile AND usability" in Scopus, we selected 133 which deal with the integration of usability, UX and User Centred Design practices and Agile development.

Methodological Challenges in Eye-Tracking based Usability Testing of 3-Dimensional Software – Presented via Experiences of Usability Tests of Four 3D Applications

Mária Babicsné-Horváth — 2023-06-19

Eye-tracking based usability testing and User Experience (UX) research are widespread in the development processes of various types of software; however, there exist specific difficulties during usability tests of three-dimensional (3D) software. Analysing the screen records with gaze plots, heatmaps of fixations, and statistics of Areas of Interests (AOI), methodological problems occur when the participant wants to rotate, zoom, or move the 3D space. The data gained regarded the menu bar is mainly interpretable; however, the data regarded the 3D environment is hardly so, or not at all. Our research tested four software applications with the aforementioned problem in mind: ViveLab and Jack Digital Human Modelling (DHM) and ArchiCAD and CATIA Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Our original goal was twofold. Firstly, with these usability tests, we aimed to identify issues in the software. Secondly, we tested the utility of a new methodology which was included in the tests. This paper summarizes the results on the methodology based on individual experiments with different software applications. One of the main ideas behind the methodology adopted is to tell the participants (during certain subtasks of the tests) not to move the 3D space while they perform the given tasks at a certain point in the usability test. During the experiments, we applied a Tobii eye-tracking device, and after the task completion, each participant was interviewed. Based on these experiences, the methodology appears to be both useful and applicable, and its visualisation techniques for one or more participants are interpretable.

Impact of Trust on Employees' Engagement: The Mediating Role of Conflict Management Climate

Ayman Alshaabani — 2023-06-19

This study investigates the role of conflict management climate (CMC) as a mediator between trust and employees' engagement. The study surveyed international employees who work in Hungary. The study aimed to determine how perceived trust affects employees' engagement through CMC's mediating effects. 355 participants joined in filling the questionnaires. After collecting the data, hypotheses were tested all together in a mediation analysis to fulfil the study's objectives. The results indicated that trust and CMC are related to employees' engagement. The results also showed that CMC could partially positively mediate the relationship between trust and employees' engagement. The study highlighted the importance of having a positive trust and conflict management climate on employees' engagement. Furthermore, the results suggested depending more on CMC when trying to build higher engagement levels among employees.

Assessing the Effects of a Reformed System of Student Evaluation of Teaching

Gergely Dániel Lukáts — 2023-06-19

The importance of student evaluation of teaching (SET) in higher education has increased substantially in the past decades. Despite this increase, there is no consensus on the most efficient way of executing these surveys or about the questions. This study analyses the impact of an SET system reform on the distribution of the responses and the response rate. The reform impacted the questions, the scale used for evaluation, the anchor labels of the scale elements, and the incentives for students to fill out the survey. Our results show that the number of extreme responses increased after the reform, which can be due to the elimination of anchor labels of the middle scale points. Insufficient effort bias also increased; however, the new motivation system doubled the response rate, which helped to collect more representative sets of evaluations. Taking into consideration the relatively small increase in insufficient responses, we believe this incentive can be a valid choice for SET surveys.

The Relationship Between Assessment Centre Outcomes and Personality Traits

Zsolt Péter Szabó — 2023-06-19

The present study aimed to assess the nomological validity of the Assessment Centre (AC). More specifically, the authors investigated the relationship between theoretically related personality variables and AC ratings in a personnel selection procedure. Previous studies have reported contradictory findings regarding the nomological validity of the Assessment Centre. We identified shortcomings in the previous studies and demonstrated the nomological validity of the AC in a relatively large sample of line manager candidates (N = 314). Our results are in harmony with trait activation theory, and this confirms the nomological validity of Assessment Centres. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.