Exploring Relationships between Environmental Performance, E-Government and Corruption: A Multivariate Perspective

Insights into the Sustainable Development of the Bioeconomy at the European Level, in the Context of the Desired Clean Environment

The increasing awareness of the impact of global climate change has brought bio-based projects back into consideration. Thus, having as supports the reality of the troubling scenario that threatens the entire ecosystem and the up-to-date theoretical discourse and debate on sustainable development, this article aims to investigate the socio-economic and institutional determinants that trigger the dynamics of the bioeconomy value added indicator-a valuable instrument developed and recently launched by the EU's BioMonitor project. Using a panel corrected standard errors framework, we find that investment in human development along with innovation, the growing role of women and sound public governance have a positive effect on the transition towards a durable and resilient bioeconomy at the European level. This naturally implies that a combination of social and technological innovation can ensure the rise of a sustainable bioeconomy.

Corruption as a Moderator in the Relationship between E-Government and Inward Foreign Direct Investment

E-government initiatives help a country to publicize information with greater transparency and efficiency and are expected to reduce corruption in the country. The present study investigates the impact of a host country’s e-government system on inward foreign direct investment (FDI) which plays an important role in the sustainable growth of countries. Using a logistic regression method to model whether the inward FDI is positive or negative, this study provides empirical evidence on the effects of the e-government development level on inward FDI. In addition, the authors point out that the positive influence of e-government on FDI becomes greater when the target country is more corrupted, and they hypothesize that the impact of e-government is moderated by corruption. The estimation results show that the e-government effect becomes greater when the host country is more corrupted. The findings have practical implications for policymakers for sustainable development of their economies on how they can attract more FDI by controlling the market environment.

Stakeholder Expectation of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: A Case Study of PWiK Rybnik, Poland

Practices of corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially in organizations providing key services, related to the supply of fuel, water and energy, are extremely important from the point of view of identifying stakeholders with the functioning of enterprises in line with the principles of a closed loop economy. The article discusses the origins and evolution of the concept of corporate social responsibility, with particular emphasis on the water supply and sewage industry. The research problem was the perception and expectations of stakeholders toward prosocial activities of PWiK Rybnik (Sewage and Water Supply Ltd. Rybnik). The hypothesis assumed in the study was that the external stakeholders of PWIK Rybnik positively assess the company’s involvement in the tasks carried out as part of corporate social responsibility, they notice the involvement in educational activities and additional initiatives of PWIK that improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. For the purpose of this study, a quantitative method was used. For the purpose of the survey, the authors’ questionnaire “Survey of customers’ opinions on the activities undertaken by PWiK Rybnik” was created. The surveys conducted confirmed the hypothesis that the external stakeholders of PWIK Rybnik positively assess the company’s involvement in the tasks performed as part of corporate social responsibility; they notice the involvement in educational activities and additional initiatives of PWIK that improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. The results of the research made it possible to formulate guidelines for the operation of water supply and sewage companies in accordance with corporate social responsibility in the light of the opinions of their stakeholders.

Study of Temporal Variations in Species–Environment Association through an Innovative Multivariate Method: MixSTATICO

The study of biotic and abiotic factors and their interrelationships is essential in the preservation of sustainable marine ecosystems and for understanding the impact that climate change can have on different species. For instance, phytoplankton are extremely vulnerable to environmental changes and thus studying the factors involved is important for the species’ conservation. This work examines the relationship between phytoplankton and environmental parameters of the eastern equatorial Pacific, known as one of the most biologically rich regions in the world. For this purpose, a new multivariate method called MixSTATICO has been developed, allowing mixed-type data structured in two different groups (environment and species) to be related and measured on a space–time scale. The results obtained show how seasons have an impact on species–environment relations, with the most significant association occurring in November and the weakest during the month of May (change of season). The species Lauderia borealis, Chaetoceros didymus and Gyrodinium sp. were not observed in the coastal profiles during the dry season at most stations, while during the rainy season, the species Dactyliosolen antarcticus, Proboscia alata and Skeletonema costatum were not detected. Using MixSTATICO, species vulnerable to specific geographical locations and environmental variations were identified, making it possible to establish biological indicators for this region.

Human Capital and Environmental Sustainability

Human capital has been shown as an important determinant of environmental performance at the firm and province levels. We try to identify the impact of human capital on environmental performance at the country level. To address potential endogeneity and measurement errors regarding human capital, we use the primary school enrollment rate a century ago as an instrument for today’s human capital stock. The instrumental variable estimation, based on a sample of 72 countries, shows that human capital has a statistically significant effect on the Environmental Performance Index, a composite measure of national environmental performance, primarily through improving biodiversity, habitat, and sustainable agriculture, all of which are the indicators related to environmental sustainability. These findings from cross-country analysis are broadly consistent with those of firm-level or province-level studies, emphasizing the role of human capital in enhancing the awareness of and compliance with environmental regulations, thus leading to an improvement in environmental performance.

Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Decision Support for Informing Global Sustainable Development: A Human-Centric AI-Thinking Approach

Sustainable development is crucial to humanity. Utilization of primary socio-environmental data for analysis is essential for informing decision making by policy makers about sustainability in development. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches are useful for analyzing data. However, it was not easy for people who are not trained in computer science to use AI. The significance and novelty of this paper is that it shows how the use of AI can be democratized via a user-friendly human-centric probabilistic reasoning approach. Using this approach, analysts who are not computer scientists can also use AI to analyze sustainability-related EPI data. Further, this human-centric probabilistic reasoning approach can also be used as cognitive scaffolding to educe AI-Thinking in the analysts to ask more questions and provide decision making support to inform policy making in sustainable development. This paper uses the 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) data from 180 countries which includes performance indicators covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. AI-based predictive modeling techniques are applied on 2018 EPI data to reveal the hidden tensions between the two fundamental dimensions of sustainable development: (1) environmental health; which improves with economic growth and increasing affluence; and (2) ecosystem vitality, which worsens due to industrialization and urbanization.