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Foreign direct investment (FDI) has a critical role in boosting agricultural productivity and the growth of emerging economies. The relationship between FDI inflows and environmental factors has not received much attention in identifying its impact on agricultural output. Using annual time series data from 1990 to 2023, this study examines the causal association and short- and long-run effects of FDI inflows, forest coverage and CO2 emissions on the agricultural productivity of the India, China and US (ICU) economies. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) results confirmed that FDI inflows have a significant and positive impact on Indian and Chinese agriculture productivity, whereas CO2 emissions adversely affect US agriculture productivity in the long run. In the short run, CO2 emissions led to agricultural productivity in both China and the US economies. The bound test and error correction model (ECM) result also confirmed the long-run connection and convergence of the equilibrium path among the studied variables except India. The findings of the Granger causality test showed a unidirectional causal link between agriculture productivity and FDI inflows and forest coverage in India and a bidirectional causal link between CO2 emission and agricultural yield and forest coverage and CO2 emission in the Chinese agriculture sector. The study also revealed a unidirectional causal association between forest coverage and agricultural output and between FDI, CO2 emissions and forest coverage in the US agriculture sector. Policymakers were advised to encourage FDI in the agriculture sector and expand the use of environment-friendly technology to decrease carbon emissions and promote forest coverage for sustainable growth and higher agricultural production.

Grounded in the psychological reactance theory, this study aims to explore more effective strategies to promote environmentally friendly mobility preferences by examining the interplay between individual value orientations, perceived freedom threats, reactance and assertive language in advertisements promoting sustainable mobility on consumers’ attitude toward such ads.

An online questionnaire was distributed to 400 participants. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model.

The study demonstrates that when seeing assertive ads that promote environmentally friendly mobility options, a prevalent biospheric (hedonic) value orientation leads to a significantly lower (higher) perceived threat toward the ad. This was not the case when seeing the non-assertive ad. While assertiveness in ads has a greater positive influence on the relationship between perceived freedom threat and reactance, non-assertiveness has a greater negative effect on the relationship between perceived reactance and attitude toward green ads.

Organizations promoting sustainable mobility should tailor advertisements to audience values. For groups with shared values, direct and assertive messages work. For broader audiences, emphasize message attractiveness over assertiveness.

The study investigates the influence of assertive message framing and individual value orientations on the reactance process in the context of environmentally friendly mobility. It finds individual value orientations to be a significant factor in the reactance process, further extending the psychological reactance theory. Moreover, it revalidates reactance as a construct consisting of anger and negative cognition.

Increasing the need for education for sustainable development in universities requires an understanding of the predictors of students’ environmental concern (EC). In this paper, the authors focus on the EC of business students because of their future responsibility for business operations regarding the exploitation of natural resources. The aim of the study is to examine the predictors of business students’ environmental concern.

Based on the Norm Activation Model as the theoretical framework, this study hypothesizes the model of EC with two main predictors: ascription of responsibility for the environment (AOR), driven by locus of control and self-efficacy (LC/SE), and awareness of positive consequences of consumption reduction on the environment (AOC), driven by perceived environmental knowledge. Structural equation modelling was applied to confirm the conceptual model based on the responses of business students from six countries (Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Spain) collected through an online survey.

The environmental concern of business students is predicted both by the ascription of responsibility and by awareness of consequences; however, the ascription of responsibility is a stronger predictor of EC. A strong impact was found for internal locus of control and self-efficacy on AOR, as well as a weaker influence of perceived environmental knowledge on AOC.

Sustainability education dedicated to business students should provide environmental knowledge and strengthen their internal locus of control and self-efficacy in an environmental context.

Sustainability promotes specific and balanced circumstances which favours the survival of human population with the surrounding Mother Nature with proper synchronization. This practice ensures the use of all available natural resources in an equilibrated manner to satisfy the present needs along with the requirements of the succeeding generations. Agricultural sustainability reckons the role of healthy environment; society and economy in an integrated manner to promote food security and socio-economic development of the rural individuals. Normal agricultural practices have an unfathomed burden on the environment. This leads to various forms of environmental degradation like air and water pollution, soil depletion, climate change and loss of biodiversity. The sustainable agricultural practices aim to protect the environment, expand the Earth’s natural resource base and preserve or improve fertility of soil. Sustainable agriculture comprises with environmentally friendly farming methods that allow crops to be produced without harming natural systems. This prevents adverse impacts on soil, water, biodiversity as well as surrounding or downstream resources. In this present article we will analyse all issues related to mitigating environmental degradation through agricultural sustainability. Along with the proper assessment for agricultural sustainability is very crucial to understand the real scenario. This helps to take necessary measures for designing and its actual execution. The study constructed a composite index of agricultural sustainability by applying the principal component analysis method. Significant differences in agricultural sustainability were found among the states in India. It is important to mention that agricultural sustainability improved for all states in 2019 compared to 2016.

This paper aims to contextualize the process of public hospital providing services, based on the measurement of the performance of Federal University Hospitals (HUFs) of Brazil, using the technique of multivariate statistics of principal component analysis.

This research presented a descriptive and quantitative character, as well as exploratory purpose and followed the inductive logic, being empirically structured in two stages, that is, the application of principal component analysis (PCA) in four healthcare performance dimensions; subsequently, the full reapplication of principal component analysis in the most highly correlated variables, in module, with the first three main components (PC1, PC2 and PC3).

From the principal component analysis, considering mainly the component I, with twice the explanatory power of the second (PC2) and third components (PC3), it was possible to evidence the efficient or inefficient behavior of the HUFs evaluated, through the production of medical residency, by specialty area. Finally, it was observed the formation of two groups composed of seven and eight hospitals, that is, Groups II and IV, which shows that these groups reflect similarities, with respect to the scores and importance of the variables for both hospitals’ groups.

Among the main limitations, it was observed incomplete data for some HUFs, which made it impossible to search for information to explain and better contextualize certain aspects. More specifically, a limited number of hospitals with complete information was dealt with for 60% of SIMEC/REHUF performance indicators.

The use of PCA multivariate technique was of great contribution to the contextualization of the performance and productivity of homogeneous and autonomous units, represented by the hospitals. It was possible to generate a high quantity of information, to contribute with assumptions to complement the decision-making processes in these organizations.

Development of public policies, with emphasis on hospitals linked to teaching centers represented by university hospitals. The projection of improvements in the reach of the efficiency of the services of assistance to the public health, from the qualified formation of professionals, both to academy, as to clinical practice.

The originality of this paper for the scenarios, Brazilian public health sector and academic area involved the application of a consolidated performance analysis technique, that is, PCA, obtaining a rich work in relation to the extensive exploitation of techniques to support decision-making processes. In addition, the sequence and the way in which the content, formed by object of study and techniques, has been organized, generating a particular scenario for the measurement of performance in hospital organizations.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between financial distress risk and stock returns in the Indian context.

This is an empirical study wherein the Altman-Z score is used to identify the distressed and the non-distressed firms listed on Nifty 500. The author uses the Fama–French five-factor model to study the relationship between stock returns and distress risk. The study analyses the differences in the factor loadings among the portfolios sorted by distress. It evaluates if incorporating distress risk factors in conventional pricing models enhances the goodness of fit.

The study reported a positive relationship between the distress risk factor and stock returns in the distressed portfolios, signifying that distress risk is a systematic risk only for distressed portfolios. Furthermore, after including the financial distress risk premium, the observed fluctuations in the small-minus-big (SMB), high-minus-low (HML), RMW and CMA coefficients indicate a common association with distress risk-related information.

This study tests the Fama–French five factors for distress risk and examines its nature in asset pricing for emerging markets like India. The study examined the performance of the augmented Fama–French five-factor model across different sets of portfolios sorted based on distress.

Suspicions about space technologies can be regarded as instances of “space skepticism,” i.e. the broadly pessimistic view that human activities in space are untimely or liable to be counterproductive. Section 1 will explain that contemporary space skepticism is focused upon negative societal role rather than the physical possibility of the activities proposed. Such skepticism is a complex pool of familiar claims unevenly drawn upon rather than a single theory. Section 2 will suggest that contemporary space skepticism tends to integrate with a broader set of doubts and fears about technologies of the Anthropocene. Section 3 will draw out a tension within the skeptical complex between the idea that concern for space is irrelevant to our societal problems and the idea that it is likely to make such problems worse. Section 4 will briefly outline why the publicly dominant forms of space skepticism carry a growing capability for merger with political activism and why the publicly dominant skepticisms are not necessarily those with the greatest plausibility, but rather those with the strongest motivational force. Finally, Section 5 will set aside the issue of popular motivational force and focus instead upon the skepticisms with the greatest plausibility. It will briefly outline why the relevant fears and suspicions (about military tensions and geoengineering) are outweighed by other considerations. This response to plausible skepticisms will not aim to be comprehensive but indicative of the direction of travel for more detailed critique. It will provide a framing context for a large metaphor about space technologies allowing the Earth to breathe.

The existence of mismatches between training and jobs is relatively common and is accentuated in times of crisis where unemployment is growing. The negative effects that this phenomenon can generate on both workers and the economy makes its study relevant. The objective of this research is to analyse whether graduates of the Catalan university system have jobs according to their educational level.

This paper sees how graduates’ own and acquired characteristics influence the probability of a mismatch from the analysis of the microdata of different waves of the employment insertion survey conducted by the Agència per a la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya (AQU).

The main conclusions focus on confirming that more humanities-oriented degrees tend to have a higher level of mismatch while technology or medicine approach a perfect fit. Therefore, bringing the education and business systems together is important to reduce this gap. Meanwhile, in terms of activities, services such as hospitality and retail have historically been sectors with a poor fit, and what has happened with Catalan graduates has not been an exception.

The main contribution of the research has been to highlight where there is a greater mismatch from the point of view of training, the type of work and its evolution over time, detecting the need to adjust labour supply and demand.

This study explored whether women could “have it all,” both at home and in the workplace. Using neoliberal feminism, mental load theory and intergenerational perspective as theoretical frameworks, this study explored how neoliberal ideologies which emphasized individual agency, economic empowerment and self-responsibility interact with persistent gendered expectations/norms to influence women’s experiences in navigating familial commitments and career aspirations.

Around 140 (N = 140) women living in Australia were recruited to participate in a qualitative, open-ended questionnaire that aimed to explore their: (1) perceptions and (2) expectations about (a) how gender roles evolved for them from youth to adulthood in various contexts, (b) how their family structures and dynamics, such as attitudes toward marriage, caregiving and/or household responsibilities, have changed and (c) what has/have influenced their career aspirations and family choices.

Results revealed a trend of women who worked hard at home and professionally. Unlike women who in the past lived more traditional lives, women in our cohort focused on their career as an important part of their identity and self-fulfillment. However, many women did report heightened mental load, stress and a lack of physical exercise in their daily lives.

This study revealed complex interplay between societal norms, intergenerational influences and the cognitive burdens associated with managing multiple roles. By examining these dynamics and using an integrated theoretical framework, the article aimed to holistically explain the challenges women in Australia encounter as they try to balance familial obligations with career ambitions within changing socioeconomic contexts.

The measurement of regional competitiveness is becoming essential for policymakers to address territorial disparities, while considering the issue of correlations among indicators. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to measure regional competitiveness using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) by considering different distance measures and two levels of analysis to provide a comparative and comprehensive measurement of regional competitiveness in Europe.

The authors apply TOPSIS based on three different distance measures (the Manhattan, the Euclidean and the Mahalanobis distance measures) to the regions of the EU Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) 2019, which is taken as the frame of reference.

The authors replicate the RCI by using TOPSIS with a less preferred choice of distance measure, indicating TOPSIS as a valuable method for policymakers in the analysis of regional competitiveness. The authors argue in favour of the Mahalanobis distance measure as the best of the three, as it considers correlations among macro-economic indicators.

This study aims to make three contributions. Firstly, by replicating the RCI by means of TOPSIS with a less preferred choice of distance measure, the paper provides a benchmark for future research on regional competitiveness. Secondly, by suggesting the use of TOPSIS with the use of the Mahalanobis distance measure, the authors show how to measure regional competitiveness by taking into account correlations among pillars. Thirdly, the authors argue in favour of considering clusters of regions when measuring regional competitiveness.