Corporate Risk Tolerance and Acceptability towards Sustainable Energy Transition

The omnipresence of risk prevails in almost every aspect of human life. Individuals and societal factors are pivotal in the decision-making process to judge acceptability and tolerability of risk. Tolerability of risk (ToR) is characterized by dynamism pinned in the process of decision making that helps to gauge the society and individual’s risk. The energy transition implies switching the energy system from fossil fuels or any traditional mechanism to modern renewable sources that are sustainable. The energy transition is paramount important in the current global energy system to attain sustainable goals for organizations. This study used the positivism research paradigm to address the research questions. The quantitative approach helps to examine the cause-and-effect relationship. It also helps to collect systematic information to meet the objectives of the research. A total sample of 300 was selected for the data collection from renewable energy companies. The study used positivism research philosophy applied deductive approach. The data is analyzed through PLS-SEM. It is summarized that the scale of risk acceptability and tolerability in Pakistan is moderate which encourages companies to work progressively and increases sociocultural activities to make society a partner of this new shift in energy transition that will ultimately increase the level of risk acceptability. Nevertheless, as a society, people are neither high-risk takers nor risk avoiders due to income constraints, macroeconomic uncertainty, and political instability.

Technological Risk in the Context of Process Approach and Risk Assessment

The processes effectiveness means their ability to achieve the planned aims. While planning the aims, one should currently take into consideration not only the quality parameters but also all of the criteria reflecting the expectations stated by the interested parties. Influence on the processes by the factors disturbing their realization requires such their monitoring and regulation to make the aims achievable. In return, it requires development and application of the processes assessment methods enabling pointing out their pivotal points and the possibilities of their monitoring. The study proposes the following combination: process approach and risk assessment enabling pointing out the “risky” processes as well as their “risky” aspects. The risk of the particular process has been evaluated by taking advantage of two methods considering various risk parameters as well as various individual criteria for assessing the mentioned parameters. Application of the developed methodologies of risk analysis and assessment of its acceptability allowed for formulating the conclusion that while risk assessment the following aspects are important: choice of the risk parameters, application of the individual assessment criteria of these parameters and taking advantage of the risk acceptability scale of the process, depending on the phase of its improvement. Properly prepared method of risk assessment gives the chance for the effective monitoring of the process risk refraining from its particular threats.

Do Paramedics Have a Professional Obligation to Work During a Pandemic? A Qualitative Exploration of Community Member Expectations

ABSTRACTObjectives:Previous research has identified a lack of clarification regarding paramedic professional obligation to work. Understanding community expectations of paramedics will provide some clarity around this issue. The objective of this research was to explore the expectations of a sample of Australian community members regarding the professional obligation of paramedics to respond during pandemics.Methods:The authors used qualitative methods to gather Australian community member perspectives immediately before the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Focus groups were used for data collection, and a thematic analysis was conducted.Results:The findings revealed 9 key themes: context of obligation (normal operations versus crisis situation), hierarchy of obligation (individual versus organizational obligation), risk acceptability, acceptable occupational risk (it’s part of the job), access to personal protective equipment, legal and ethical guidelines, education and training, safety, and acceptable limitations to obligation. The factors identified as being acceptable limitations to professional obligation are presented as further sub-themes: physical health, mental health, and competing personal obligations.Conclusions:The issue of professional obligation must be addressed by ambulance services as a matter of urgency, especially in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Further research is recommended to understand how community member expectations evolve during and after the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Development of an Occupational Risk Assessment Tool for Laboratory Animal Facilities

Introduction: Laboratory animal facilities aim to provide excellence in animal care and welfare and support scientific research. Critical to these goals is to ensure a safe work environment for personnel comprising veterinary and animal care, laboratory research, and maintenance staff. Objective: Thus, performing occupational risk assessments allows for evaluation of risks from identified hazards associated with a variety of tasks ongoing in laboratory animal facilities. Methods: Herein, we present the development of an occupational risk assessment tool purposed to capture the dynamics of work performed in laboratory animal facilities, calculate and prioritize identified risks associated with procedures and processes, and inform and evaluate risk mitigations. Results: We also discuss a risk assessment for refining sharps use in nonhuman primate husbandry and care to demonstrate the utility of this tool to improve occupational safety in our animal facility. Conclusion: This tool and framework evolve into a holistic occupational risk management system that identifies, evaluates, and mitigates occupational risks; determines risk acceptability; consistently ensures communication and consultation with frontline personnel, stakeholders, senior leadership, and subject matter experts in biosafety, science, and animal care and welfare; and continuously strives to improve and enhance the operations of laboratory animal facilities.

Roasting soybeans in a microwave for manufacturing chocolate dragées

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different microwave-roasting timeson different sizes of soybean grains with black tegument to achieve the best crunchiness, flavor, and hardness. Black soybean dragées- containing a soybean core coated with layers of chocolate (dragée) - were manufactured, and their nutritional value, microbiological risk, acceptability, and consumer-purchase intentions were verified. Flavor and crunchiness of the roasted black soybeans wereonly affected by the roasting time in the microwave, whereas the hardness was only affected by grain size. The best core of the dragéewas obtainedusing grains ofsieve size 15 (large grains) roastedin the microwave for 11 min; this core presented higher frequencies for extremely crunchy notes (56%), toasted flavor (61%), and an instrumental hardness close to that of the existing commercial product (33.17 N). The manufactured dragées did not present resistant starch, anthocyanins, and microbiological risk, and they were sensorially accepted by the tasters (mean scores of 7.77 for texture and 8.36 for appearance on a scale of 1 to 9). Thus, roasted black soybean dragéeshave a high marketing potential from technological, nutritional, and sensorial points of view.

New approach integrating the health, safety, and environment systems for the maintenance function in industries

Health, safety, and environment risk assessment, based on company quality, health, safety, and environment commitments, constitutes a precondition in the definition of the strategy to be adopted by the maintenance service. The imperfections of the knowledge; the disputes over opinions among decision-makers; and the absence of health, safety, and environment equipment risk assessment integrated models hinder the assessment of risk acceptability. In this article, we propose a health, safety, and environment risk management approach for the equipment maintenance. This approach expands the scope of action relative to the overall equipment risk-level assessment. It is based, on one hand, on fuzzy logic and, on the other hand, on two methods of decision-making support: the method of converting verbal judgments into numerical values and the pair comparison of decision criteria. This approach allows the maintenance service to implement a health, safety, and environment risk control policy for the most critical equipment. Therefore, it allows to improve the staff and product safety and to protect the environment in accordance with the strategic objectives.

Accounting, Statistics Bakhtigozina E. I. Assessing the System of Internal Control on the Basis of the Risk Card

Efficiency of managerial decisions, higher economical characteristic of transactions, providing truthfulness of finance accounting, compliance of company work with the effective legislation depend greatly on competent internal control. Lately serious attention has been paid to the function of internal control in the organization. It is connected with the fact that Russian companies are more and more involved in global integration and economic processes. Shaping the system of internal control implies identification of the most serious risks, i.e. those which can cause finance losses, designation of control procedures in order to minimize or eliminate risks. The article investigates issues of developing and estimating the system of internal control on the basis of risk card by singling out one of the principle elements of the system – risk estimation. The author shows key stages of work in the field of building the effective system of internal control: identification and description of key business processes; definition and identification of risks typical of key business processes; estimation of risks; finding borders of risk acceptability; disclosing information about identified risks; development and introduction of effective control measures aimed at risk control beyond borders of acceptability. Execution of the mentioned above steps could provide efficiency of the system of internal control that is efficiency of managerial decisions promoting favorable development of finance and economic activity.

Turning risk assessment and adaptation policy priorities into meaningful interventions and governance processes

The UK is one of the first countries in the world to have set up a statutory system of national climate risk assessments followed by a national adaptation programme. Having this legal framework has been essential for enabling adaptation at the government level in a challenging political environment. However, using this framework to create an improvement in resilience to climate change across the country requires more than publishing a set of documents; it requires careful thought about what interventions work, how they can be enabled and what level of risk acceptability individuals, organizations and the country should be aiming for. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy'.