Maintenance and sustainability: a systematic review of modeling-based literature

PurposeMaintenance is a critical business function with a great impact on economic, environmental and social aspects. However, maintenance decisions' planning has been driven by merely economic and technical measures with inadequate consideration of environmental and social dimensions. This paper presents a review of the literature pertaining to sustainable maintenance decision-making models supported by a bibliometric analysis that seeks to establish the evolution of this research over time and identify the main research clusters.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review, supported with a bibliometric and network analysis, of the extant studies is conducted. The relevant literature is categorized based on which sustainability pillar, or possibly multiple ones, is being considered with further classification outlining the application area, modeling approach and the specific peculiarities characterizing each area.FindingsThe review revealed that maintenance and sustainability modeling is an emerging area of research that has intensified in the last few years. This fertile area can be developed further in several directions. In particular, there is room for devising models that are implementable, based on reliable and timely data with proven tangible practical results. While the environmental aspect has been considered, there is a clear scarcity of works addressing the social dimension. One of the identified barriers to developing applicable models is the lack of the required, accurate and timely data.Originality/valueThis work contributes to the maintenance and sustainability modeling research area, provides insights not previously addressed and highlights several avenues for future research. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first review that looks at the integration of sustainability issues in maintenance modeling and optimization.

Social Dimensions of Roma Marginalization

The paper aims to analyze aspects of Roma marginalization, by identifying and assessing the dimensions of social needs within a compact Roma community, located in a marginalized urban area. The effects of the economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic increase inequalities regarding the economic and social situation. The major challenge is to reduce the risk of poverty, especially among families with children, people with disabilities and chronic diseases, but also the social exclusion of people at social risk, based on accurate measurements of social phenomena. The community profile indicates the social status of the inhabitants, which provides a picture of the degree of marginalization and social exclusion of Roma. Thus, the study was conducted by constructing a questionnaire as a research tool, which summarizes the results of the activity of information collection and processing, both based on statistical methods and percentage analysis. The problems faced by marginalized Roma communities are low participation in education, early school leaving, difficult transition to tertiary education, lack of adult skills, low skills among vulnerable people in the labor market, low access to services, poor health and housing. Measures for early detection of situations of social risk and intervention lead to positive effects in preventing marginalization and social exclusion.

Integrated Carbon Policy Design for Achieving Net-Zero Targets

Several countries have set net-zero targets, and many more will announce in the next few years. Countries have used carbon pricing as an instrument to cut Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and provide a price signal to attract private investments to achieve net-zero targets. However, current carbon policy in countries with net-zero targets remains inadequate and asymmetrical to overcome net-zero challenges; there are visible gaps in the carbon price level, sectoral coverage, and mechanism to reward carbon-neutral initiatives. This paper proposed an integrated carbon policy design covering economic, technical, and social dimensions and discussed how an integrated policy design approach could be effective in helping countries achieve net-zero objectives. The paper makes recommendations for net-zero policymakers. First, a stable and appropriate carbon price must be in place to attract private investments in carbon offset measures and commercialize clean technologies. Second, governments should use an effective revenue recycling mechanism to engage firms and citizens in mitigating the side effects of the carbon price regime and win their trust. Third, countries should promote behavioral changes and carbon footprint reduction measures through citizen participation. 

Social Dimension of Shopping Centers Operation: Managerial Perspectives

Shopping centers do not operate in a vacuum but in a society of diverse stakeholders who influence their profit and growth. Therefore, shopping centers management addresses the problem of incorporating social dimensions in their management. The paper aims to identify and evaluate managerial approaches and marketing strategies of shopping centers in the Czech Republic in the context of social dimensions leading to sustainable operation. The research builds methodologically on an online questionnaire survey with top management of shopping centers. It took place at the turn of the years 2019/2020. Out of 88 Czech existing shopping centers, 30 completed responses were received (response rate 34%). The managerial approaches and marketing activities of shopping centers aimed at customers, internal employees, and tenants of the shopping centers were assessed. In addition to profit, the main social aspect on which the management of shopping centers places an emphasis is also loyalty. A properly set working environment and working conditions are essential to achieve higher employee productivity and consequently higher profits. The shopping centers should increase their social roles to preserve the well-being of their employees and enhance customer satisfaction.

Sustainability Efficiency Assessment in the Turkish Manufacturing Sector

This chapter intends to measure environmental, social, and economic sustainability efficiency levels of the manufacturing companies listed in Borsa Istanbul Sustainability Index by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) based on the target year of 2019. In this context, considering the relationship between inputs and outputs determined as a result of the comprehensive review of the related literature, efficiency assessment is made by considering environmental, social, and economic indicators, which are the main dimensions of corporate sustainability. The input-oriented Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) and Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (BCC) models have been used in the efficiency measurement. According to the obtained efficiency scores for the relatively inefficient companies in terms of environmental, economic, and social dimensions, several suggestions are offered depending on the potential improvement rates for them.

Corporate Digital Responsibility

Digital technology is reshaping businesses across much of the world, but as companies introduce digital technologies into their business activities, they are facing new sets of responsibilities. While many businesses have enthusiastically embraced the economic benefits of these digital technologies, the social and environmental impacts of these developments have received much less attention. With this in mind, this chapter reviews how the leading information technology companies publicly address their social and environmental responsibilities. The chapter includes an outline of digital technologies and their potential social dimensions and environmental impacts, a brief review of the emerging academic and professional literature to provide some reference and context for the review, details of the method of enquiry and frame of reference adopted by the authors, a review of how the leading information technology companies publicly reported on their social and environmental digital responsibilities, and some general reflections on these social and environmental responsibilities.

The Acoustics of the Social on Page and Screen

Sound positions individuals as social subjects. The presence of human beings, animals, objects, or technologies reverberates into the spaces we inhabit and produces distinct soundscapes that render social practices, group associations, and socio-cultural tensions audible. The Acoustics of the Social on Page and Screen unites interdisciplinary perspectives on the social dimensions of sound in audiovisual and literary environments. The essays in the collection discuss soundtracks for shared values, group membership, and collective agency, and engage with the subversive functions of sound and sonic forms of resistance in American literature, film, and TV.

Effectiveness of Social Interactivity in Merchant Websites on Emotional and Behavioral Responses

In a context of hyper connectivity, the designers of commercial websites are constantly seeking to generate favorable psychological states among internet users and to re-enchant them. This research aims to study the effect of the interaction between the social dimensions of interactivity on psychological states and the approach behavior of the e-consumer. Experimentation is chosen as the most appropriate method for testing the proposed model. An online experiment was conducted with 662 internet users. A merchant website was designed for the purposes of the study incorporating the interaction forms investigated. The results of this research underline the power of the social dimension of interactivity in the mediated market environments and show that a socially interactive site can generate the user's flow state, as well as a feeling of being physically present in a remote environment. This relation is moderated by the perceived risk.

Organizational aspects of landscape enterprises: The case of Istanbul

ABSTRACT: As a management function, organizing deals with activities designed to support the realization of institutional goals and plans, performed within an organizational structure that serves to connect, direct, manage, and control the activities associated with these plans and goals. Considering the extensive scope of landscape architecture, it is necessary for organizations operating in this field to focus on management and organization issues (which have ecological, architectural, economic, and social dimensions), and their integration with administrative functions to achieve success. In this context, the present study examined the organizing processes of private enterprises operating in the landscape sector, investigated the differences among them, and analyzed the interaction of organization-related aspects. Within this scope, the research focused on evaluating stages of organizing, principles and effects of organizing, organizational relations, and organizational authorities and responsibilities. The province of Istanbul was selected as a case study to consider the specified objectives. Data were collected through questionnaires and then sent through ANOVA and Spearman correlation analyses. The results showed that the main problems affecting these enterprises in terms of organizing were delegation, participative management, and inter-departmental relations. Organizational aims and customer groups were also shown to have an impact on these issues, and the components of the organizing function distinct relationships with one another. This study concluded that adopting a holistic approach in organizational processes and related applications is essential.

Banjar Language Shifting in Ecolinguistics Perspective

The research attempts to examine language shifts that occur in the Banjar community using an ecolinguistics approach. The language shifts studied were limited to the vocabulary shift commonly used in the social interactions of everyday Banjar people. The data gathering was using interviewing and documentation techniques. Interviews are semi-structured interviews. The interview was on respondents spread across various cities in South Kalimantan, where the Banjar language is the language of community communication. Due to the pandemic, researchers enlisted the help of students in their respective hometowns to collect data with protocols that the research team had established. The data was the subject of reduction, organized by category of word classes and reasons for shifts, analysed based on the three-dimensional social theory of language praxis. The three practical social dimensions of language are the ideological, social, and biological dimensions. The research expects to be a reference for Banjar language participation efforts.