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Sustainability in Urban Waste Management: The Efficiency of Electric Waste Transport Vehicles
1-18Views:358This study evaluates the long-term economic feasibility of electric waste collection vehicles (EVs) as a sustainable alternative to diesel-powered counterparts in urban municipal services. Using real operational data from a Hungarian waste management company, we developed a total cost of ownership (TCO) model spanning 10 years, which incorporates investment costs, energy consumption, maintenance, depreciation, and battery replacement. Our analysis reveals that although EVs require a significantly higher upfront investment (€350,000 vs. €183,200), their lower operational and maintenance costs result in a break-even point around year 8. When accounting for a €50,000 battery replacement in year 6, the total 10-year cost of the EV remains lower (€431,769 vs. €450,914) than the diesel vehicle, resulting in a net saving of €19,145. The study emphasizes the significance of local energy prices and service structures in assessing fleet electrification. While the findings are based on Hungarian data, the proposed methodology can be adapted internationally to support data-driven decision-making in sustainable waste logistics.
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Overview of the Appearance of Management Information Systems In Hungarian Higher Education through the Example of the University of Debrecen
60-68Views:278In recent years, the ever-decreasing number of students in Hungarian higher education has created a serious competition between institutions, in which not only national but also foreign universities prove to be competitive. In order for national institutions to be able to compete adequately in this competition, managers need to be provided with well-structured, up-to-date information that can support decision-making. The management information system, which successfully adapted at the University of Debrecen, has been in operation for years and provides significant support in data reporting and ad hoc reporting, but there are still many opportunities for advancement. The study draws attention to the importance of management information systems through the example of the University of Debrecen.
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Applying New Innovative Market Research Methods in the Innovation Process of New Products
56-69Views:379The innovation environment has changed a lot in the recent years, companies and their enterprises concentrating on product- and process innovation have undergone a lot of changes. According to GUPTA et al. (1986) product innovation is a multidisciplinary process. Although, all functional interfaces are important in the product development process, the research and development – marketing interface is one of the most difficult one. In the last two decades the incredibly fast penetration of the internet has more and more effects on the consumer attitudes. It encourages market researchers to apply such methods by which they could get as close as to the consumers to know their attitudes without taking them out of their natural habitat. In this study our aim is to concentrate on the first phase of the product innovation, which is the exploration of insights and attitudes. In this phase we can use the classical, conventional market research techniques if we want to get primary data, such as focus group interviews, questionnaires, in-depth interviews, but there are new methods as well. One of such novel methods is netnography. The biggest advantage of this research method is that the researcher can observe the consumer groups’ state of mind and decision-making mechanisms through publicly available communication sources in their natural environment. In this study it will be analysed how the directions of netnographic researches have changed by the dynamic changes of the internet. Besides, online participants’ attitudes towards healthconscious nutrition are analysed in practice. As a result of this study, special groups could be identified, which can provide a new perspective for the companies operating in this field beside the classical segmentation techniques. These groups can be the ones which draw up latent market requirements, and thus, helping the companies’ innovation processes.
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Segmenting the Impact of Organizational Structure and Leadership on Project Resilient and Project Success in the Ethiopian Construction Industry: a FIMIX-PLS & PLS-POS Approach
73-103Views:326This research looks at the vital roles of leadership and organisation design in the attainment of project resilience and success in the construction sector. Informed by contemporary theories on organisational resilience and leadership, a framework was developed and rigorously tested against data using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and with more advanced techniques of segmentation (FIMIX-PLS and PLS-POS) to identify and take into consideration unobserved heterogeneity. Using data collected from project professionals, resilient leadership and adaptive organisation design were shown to be critical to project resilience, but the effect of leadership and organisation design on project resilience differed from segment to segment as well as across demographics. The ex-post analysis suggested that the awareness of resilience, practical experience and higher education exacerbated the relationships between aspects of resilient leadership and project resilience, as well as between adaptive organisation design and project resilience. The analysis also showed that relationships between leadership, organisational structure, and resilience can be mediated by demographic factors, such as awareness, experience, and education. The findings highlighted the importance of fostering inclusive, participative type leadership styles and continuous forms of experiential learning to enhance resilience outcomes. The value of specific indicators such as team participation in decision making or the leader's self-confidence was also identified as being critical aspects of resilient organisational structures and effective leadership. The implications of this study were important for each group of stakeholders: organisations should encourage resilience-based leadership, experiment with multi-dimensional flexible team structures and create a culture of continued, experiential learning and communications as knowledge and industries evolve. The theoretical contributions that validated the effects of segments of latent variables and offered insight into the added value of using segmentation were positive contributions to theory. Limitations, such as sample size and sector, stimulate avenues for future work and in particular reinforce the case for longitudinal, cross-sector research to build sectors’ internal and external constructs of project resilience. Future research needs to apply multi-facilitated empirical, qualitative and advanced analytics means to enable further quantification, and complexity in project survival, success and resilience.