Decentralization of the Water Industry in the Context of Economies in Transition

This research focuses on network industries, specifically on the water industry in the context of the Czech economy in transition between 1992-1998, the state of the water industry towards the end of the 1980s, key legislative changes between 1991-92 that touched upon key administrative questions, and the future ownership of the water network and water market. The Czech Republic chose a specific way to approach the transformation of the water industry by gratuitously transferring the ownership of the previously state-owned infrastructural properties to individual cities and municipalities. The next part outlines the effectiveness of such (de)regulation process based on development of key industry indicators. Very slow development of industry indicators and lack of state financial support for capital investment in water infrastructure led to the subsequent privatization of water companies, which can be considered as a completely rational outcome of unsustainable market developments.

Appropriateness of Standard Accounting Tools in Measuring Social Innovation in the New Global Economy

The global economy brings about new trends, challenges, and needs, which require new solutions. Social innovations can have a major role in satisfying unmet social needs and increasing overall well-being. Measuring social innovation is therefore an important task with the purpose of informing the stakeholders about the performance value that an innovation creates. Standard accounting tools often neglect social or environmental impact, and thus, new or adjusted methods need to be developed. The objective of this chapter is to analyze methods of measuring social innovation and discuss advantages and disadvantages of traditional measures versus new approaches with the purpose of better understanding the significance of social innovation in the global economy. The chapter consists of six parts. After the introduction follows the literature review. The third part of the chapter discusses different approaches to measuring innovations while the fourth part suggests some new approaches to measuring social innovations. The fifth part describes future research perspectives. The final part is the conclusion.

Management of Industrial Waste

Al substances that are left directly or indirectly into the environment that may cause harm to human health and the environment are regarded as waste. Waste generation occurs as a result of daily activities during production of goods and after their use by consumers. In order to decrease and/or eliminate the negative effects onto the environment, a proper waste management is crucial for the societies and governments. In this chapter, the subject is explained starting from the brief historical aspects of waste and waste management and continuing with explanation of the main concepts and their types, focusing on solid waste management and recycling. Various examples are given.

Understanding Political Consumerism, Political Participation, and Their Antecedents

Political consumerism is a form of self-expression where consumers boycott or buycott a brand, company, or a product. The increase in the amount of these actions in recent years has led scholars and marketers improve their understanding of how and why consumers engage in political consumerism and what its predecessors are. By employing a wide scale survey among 360 participants in Turkey, this study presents empirical and qualitative evidence for boycott behavior and investigates how other forms of political participation and individual level characteristics have an effect on political consumerism. Results suggest main reason for boycott behavior in Turkey is due to political reasons and conservatism as an individual level value orientation has a negative effect on boycott behavior. In addition, online activism and voting participation behaviors have positive effects on political consumerism.

New Financial Technologies, Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and Challenges

As technological innovation transforms our economies, companies and start-ups all over the world are performing developments on financial technologies called “FinTech/fintech” for a chance to thrive. It even sparked the invention of blockchain and the inception of cryptocurrencies (digital/virtual money) such as Bitcoin. The blockchain technology provides Bitcoin's public ledger, an ordered and timestamped record of transactions. Blockchain is one of a kind decentralized technology mainly used by fintechs and it is a distributed as well as decentralized ledger that presents a radical, new, modern, and disruptive way of conducting all manner of transactions over the internet. Blockchain-based applications provide many opportunities to create a more sustainable world. With this research agenda, this chapter contributes to the discussion on future avenues for sustainability and information systems research on fintechs, especially cryptocurrencies and blockchain-based platforms and services.

Industry 4.0 and Sustainability

Modern industry developed over several centuries and three industrial revolutions. Today, we experience the fourth era of the industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. The advance of industrialization brought along many problems, including environmental pollution, global warming, and depletion of natural resources. As a result, the concept of sustainability began to gain importance. Sustainability can be achieved through a balance between economic, social, and environmental processes. In order to establish such balance, businesses need new business models or insights. At this point, Industry 4.0 can be regarded as a new business mindset that will help businesses and communities move towards sustainable development. The technologies used by Industry 4.0 bear a strong promise to solve these problems, after all. Even though Industry 4.0 attracts a lot of attention lately, few works are available on its impact on sustainability. This chapter examines the impact of Industry 4.0 on sustainability.

Sustainable Development of Cultural Tourism on Example of Botevgrad Municipality

The survey includes a study of the potential for sustainable tourist development of cultural tourism on example of Botevgrad Municipality, Bulgaria. The main accents are focused on theoretical formulations as system methods for territorial development of cultural tourism in the former tourist destination and practical researches which include proposals for tourism product development. The main approaches are the systemic, related to the systemic character of the territorial system for recreation and tourism at the local level and the empirical, used for gathering the necessary, in volume and character, primary quantitative and qualitative information. The research methods used are based on a deductive approach. The main limiting factors of the study are the lack of monitoring of tourist visits, sufficient statistical information and previous systematic research studies, the lack of traditions in the tourism sector, and the fact that the municipality has never worked preoperatively for the tourist development.

Social Component of Sustainable Development and Quality of Life

Sustainability is the basis for survival on Earth, as well as for the survival of mankind. Sustainability is connecting with growing population. Sustainable development implies the merger of the three components in a single unit. The first one is the economic viability, the second includes social sustainability, while the third is linked to environmental sustainability. The social component of development relates to the quality of life of people their habits and lifestyles. This chapter put emphasis on the social component of sustainability in Serbia that includes quality of life but also the index of human development. The results of PEST analysis of the Eastern Serbia will explain factors that affect the implementation of sustainable development in the Balkan region. With PESTEL analysis applied to the eastern part of Serbia, it can be observed a wider picture of social life in other smaller countries of the Balkans with similar economic and social characteristics such as Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Srpska, Macedonia.

Quality of Life in the Republic of North Macedonia Seen Through the Human Development Indicators

This chapter considers the trend of human development in the RNM, presented through the HDI. The special focus would be the links with the problem of poverty and inequality in the economy, regarding the data for the GINI, IHDI, GDI, poverty line, MPI, vulnerable employment, and youth unemployment. The research subject is the period from 2010 to 2017, using the secondary statistical data. Comparative analysis, with the countries from the CESEE countries, further improve the quality of the chapter. The RNM is a country with a high level of human development, and it is relatively equally distributed among the population. There is a difference in the distribution of the achievements of HD and an intermediate level of equality in the distribution between the genders. Income inequality expressed with the GINI index shows increase. The results confirm that there is no automatic link between the economic growth and human development. Income and gender inequality regress the quality of life in Macedonia. Growth in RNM in the past period has failed to produce the expected positive effects.

Using European Carbon Dioxide Emission Allowances for Investments in Storage Technologies

European Trading Scheme should encourage the idea of CO2 utilization and/or underground storage. Despite the large estimates of CO2 storage capacities, cost-effective storage has not been performed in the EU. As EU ETS went through several phases and is tested to the level that it can be called mature, the trends of CO2 allowance market prices can be analyzed. CO2 reduction can be achieved by simultaneous injection for CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) commercially, which is proved outside the EU. The technology is well developed as a part of the oil and gas business, and the mover for implementing such technologies might be CO2 allowance price. As investments in those technologies are long-term and extremely capital intensive, this chapter discussed CO2 utilization and storage in the context of EU ETS. Additionally, the chapter presented statistical analysis that helps long-term CO2 price understanding; the connection of CO2 price with oil, gas, and electricity price; and guidelines for risk mitigation in assessing the feasibility of applying CO2 utilization and storage (CUS) technologies.