TY - JOUR A1 - Balderjahn, Ingo A1 - Appenfeller, Dennis T1 - A social marketing approach to voluntary simplicity BT - communicating to consume less JF - Sustainability N2 - Higher eco-efficiency will not be enough to slow global warming caused by climate change. To keep global warming to 2 degrees, people also need to reduce their consumption. At present, however, many who would be able to do so seem unwilling to comply. Given the threats of a runaway climate change, urgent measures are needed to promote less personal consumption. This study, therefore, examines whether social marketing consume-less appeals can be used to encourage consumers to voluntarily abstain from consumption. As part of an online experiment with nearly 2000 randomly sampled users of an online platform for sustainable consumption, we tested the effectiveness of five different “consume-less” appeals based on traditional advertising formats (including emotional, informational, and social claims). The study shows that consume-less appeals are capable of limiting personal desire to buy. However, significant differences in the effectiveness of the appeal formats used in this study were observed. In addition, we found evidence of rebound effects, which leads us to critically evaluate the overall potential of social marketing to promote more resource-conserving lifestyles. While commercial consumer-free appeals have previously been studied (e.g., Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacked”), this study on the effectiveness of non-commercial consume-free appeals is novel and provides new insights. KW - social marketing KW - voluntary simplicity KW - spending patterns KW - donation behavior KW - sustainability KW - randomized trial KW - rebound-effect Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032302 SN - 2071-1050 VL - 15 IS - 3 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Beier, Grischa A1 - Ullrich, André A1 - Niehoff, Silke A1 - Reißig, Malte A1 - Habich, Matthias T1 - Industry 4.0 BT - how it is defined from a sociotechnical perspective and how much sustainability it includes - a literature review JF - Journal of cleaner production N2 - Industry 4.0 has had a strong influence on the debate on the digitalization of industrial processes, despite being criticized for lacking a proper definition. However, Industry 4.0 might offer a huge chance to align the goals of a sustainable development with the ongoing digital transformation in industrial development. The main contribution of this paper is therefore twofold. We provide a de-facto definition of the concept "Industry 4.0" from a sociotechnical perspective based on its most often cited key features, as well as a thorough review of how far the concept of sustainability is incorporated in it. KW - sustainability KW - digitalization KW - manufacturing KW - Industry 4.0 KW - definition KW - sociotechnical approach Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120856 SN - 0959-6526 SN - 1879-1786 VL - 259 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khaw, Khai Wah A1 - Camilleri, Mark A1 - Tiberius, Victor A1 - Alnoor, Alhamzah A1 - Zaidan, Ali Shakir T1 - Benchmarking electric power companies' sustainability and circular economy behaviors BT - using a hybrid PLS-SEM and MCDM approach JF - Environment, development and sustainability N2 - This research examines the impact of firms’ decision-making, crisis management, and risk-taking behaviors on their sustainability and circular economy behaviors through the mediating role of their eco-innovation behavior in the energy industry in Iraq. Firms are exploring applicable mechanisms to increase green practices. This requires the industry to possess the essential skills to overcome the challenges that reduce sustainable activities. We applied a dual-stage structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach to explore the linear relationships between variables, determine the weight of the criteria, and rank energy companies based on a circular economy. The online questionnaire was sent to 549 managers and heads of departments of Iraqi electric power companies. Out of these, 384 questionnaires were collected. The results indicate that firms’ crisis management, decision-making, and risk-taking behaviors are significantly and positively linked to their eco-innovation behavior. This study confirms the significant and positive impact of firms’ eco-innovation behavior on their sustainability and circular economy behaviors. Likewise, eco-innovation behavior has a fully mediating role. For the MCDM methods, ranking energy companies according to the circular economy can support policymakers’ decisions to renew contracts with leading companies in the ranking. Practitioners can also impose government regulations on low-ranked companies. Thus, governments can reduce the problems of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental pollution. KW - eco-innovation KW - circular economy KW - crisis management KW - decision-making KW - risk-taking KW - sustainability Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-02975-x SN - 1387-585X SN - 1573-2975 VL - 35 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER -