Browsing by Author "Contu, Davide"
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Item Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries(American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2024-02-09) Vlasceanu, Madalina; Doell, Kimberly C.; Bak-Coleman, Joseph B.; Todorova, Boryana; Berkebile-Weinberg, Michael M.; Grayson, Samantha J.; Patel, Yash; Goldwert, Danielle; Pei, Yifei; Chakroff, Alek; Pronizius, Ekaterina; van den Broek, Karlijn L.; Vlasceanu, Denisa; Constantino, Sara; Morais, Michael J.; Schumann, Philipp; Rathje, Steve; Fang, Ke; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Alfano, Mark; Alvarado-Yepez, Andy J.; Andersen, Angélica; Anseel, Frederik; Apps, Matthew A J; Asadli, Chillar; Awuor, Fonda Jane; Azevedo, Flavio; Basaglia, Piero; Bélanger, Jocelyn J.; Berger, Sebastian; Bertin, Paul; Białek, Michał; Bialobrzeska, Olga; Blaya-Burgo, Michelle; Bleize, Daniëlle N M; Bø, Simen; Boecker, Lea; Boggio, Paulo S.; Borau, Sylvie; Bos, Björn; Bouguettaya, Ayoub; Brauer, Markus; Brick, Cameron; Brik, Tymofii; Briker, Roman; Brosch, Tobias; Buchel, Ondrej; Buonauro, Daniel; Butalia, Radhika; Carvacho, Héctor; Chamberlain, Sarah A E; Chan, Hang-Yee; Chow, Dawn; Chung, Dongil; Cian, Luca; Cohen-Eick, Noa; Contreras-Huerta, Luis Sebastian; Contu, Davide; Cristea, Vladimir; Cutler, Jo; D'Ottone, Silvana; De Keersmaecker, Jonas; Delcourt, Sarah; Delouvée, Sylvain; Diel, Kathi; Douglas, Benjamin D.; Drupp, Moritz A.; Dubey, Shreya; Ekmanis, Jānis; Elbaek, Christian T.; Elsherif, Mahmoud; Engelhard, Iris M.; Escher, Yannik A.; Etienne, Tom W.; Farage, Laura; Farias, Ana Rita; Feuerriegel, Stefan; Feuerriegel, Stefan; Findor, Andrej; Freira, Lucia; Friese, Malte; Gains, Neil Philip; Gallyamova, Albina; Geiger, Sandra J.; Genschow, Oliver; Gjoneska, Biljana; Gkinopoulos, Theofilos; Goldberg, Beth; Goldenberg, Amit; Gradidge, Sarah; Grassini, Simone; Gray, Kurt; Grelle, Sonja; Griffin, Siobhán M.; Grigoryan, Lusine; Grigoryan, Ani; Grigoryev, Dmitry; Gruber, June; Guilaran, Johnrev; Hadar, Britt; Hahnel, Ulf J J; Halperin, Eran; Harvey, Annelie J.; Haugestad, Christian A P; Herman, Aleksandra M.; Hershfield, Hal E.; Himichi, Toshiyuki; Hine, Donald W.; Hofmann, Wilhelm; Howe, Lauren; Huaman-Chulluncuy, Enma T.; Huang, Guanxiong; Ishii, Tatsunori; Ito, Ayahito; Jia, Fanli; Jost, John T.; Jovanović, Veljko; Jurgiel, Dominika; Kácha, Ondřej; Kankaanpää, Reeta; Kantorowicz, Jaroslaw; Kantorowicz-Reznichenko, Elena; Kaplan Mintz, Keren; Kaya, Ilker; Kaya, Ozgur; Khachatryan, Narine; Klas, Anna; Klein, Colin; Klöckner, Christian A.; Koppel, Lina; Kosachenko, Alexandra I.; Kothe, Emily J.; Krebs, Ruth; Krosch, Amy R.; Krouwel, Andre P M; Kyrychenko, Yara; Lagomarsino, Maria; Lamm, Claus; Lange, Florian; Lee Cunningham, Julia; Lees, Jeffrey; Leung, Tak Yan; Levy, Neil; Lockwood, Patricia L.; Longoni, Chiara; López Ortega, Alberto; Loschelder, David D.; Lu, Jackson G.; Luo, Yu; Luomba, Joseph; Lutz, Annika E.; Majer, Johann M.; Markowitz, Ezra; Marsh, Abigail A.; Mascarenhas, Karen Louise; Mbilingi, Bwambale; Mbungu, Winfred; McHugh, Cillian; Meijers, Marijn H C; Mercier, Hugo; Mhagama, Fenant Laurent; Michalakis, Katerina; Mikus, Nace; Milliron, Sarah; Mitkidis, Panagiotis; Monge-Rodríguez, Fredy S.; Mora, Youri L.; Moreau, David; Motoki, Kosuke; Moyano, Manuel; Mus, Mathilde; Navajas, Joaquin; Nguyen, Tam Luong; Nguyen, Dung Minh; Nguyen, Trieu; Niemi, Laura; Nijssen, Sari R R; Nilsonne, Gustav; Nitschke, Jonas P.; Nockur, Laila; Okura, Ritah; Öner, Sezin; Özdoğru, Asil Ali; Palumbo, Helena; Panagopoulos, Costas; Panasiti, Maria Serena; Pärnamets, Philip; Paruzel-Czachura, Mariola; Pavlov, Yuri G.; Payán-Gómez, César; Pearson, Adam R.; Pereira da Costa, Leonor; Petrowsky, Hannes M.; Pfattheicher, Stefan; Pham, Nhat Tan; Ponizovskiy, Vladimir; Pretus, Clara; Rêgo, Gabriel G.; Reimann, Ritsaart; Rhoads, Shawn A.; Riano-Moreno, Julian; Richter, Isabell; Röer, Jan Philipp; Rosa-Sullivan, Jahred; Ross, Robert M.; Sabherwal, Anandita; Saito, Toshiki; Sarrasin, Oriane; Say, Nicolas; Schmid, Katharina; Schmitt, Michael T.; Schoenegger, Philipp; Scholz, Christin; Schug, Mariah G.; Schulreich, Stefan; Shreedhar, Ganga; Shuman, Eric; Sivan, Smadar; Sjåstad, Hallgeir; Soliman, Meikel; Soud, Katia; Spampatti, Tobia; Sparkman, Gregg; Spasovski, Ognen; Stanley, Samantha K.; Stern, Jessica A.; Strahm, Noel; Suko, Yasushi; Sul, Sunhae; Syropoulos, Stylianos; Taylor, Neil C.; Tedaldi, Elisa; Tinghög, Gustav; Huynh, Luu Duc Toan; Travaglino, Giovanni Antonio; Tsakiris, Manos; Tüter, İlayda; Tyrala, Michael; Uluğ, Özden Melis; Urbanek, Arkadiusz; Valko, Danila; van der Linden, Sander; van Schie, Kevin; van Stekelenburg, Aart; Vanags, Edmunds; Västfjäll, Daniel; Vesely, Stepan; Vintr, Jáchym; Vranka, Marek; Wanguche, Patrick Otuo; Willer, Robb; Wojcik, Adrian Dominik; Xu, Rachel; Yadav, Anjali; Zawisza, Magdalena; Zhao, Xian; Zhao, Jiaying; Żuk, Dawid; Van Bavel, Jay J.Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions' effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior-several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people's initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.Item Assessing views towards energy sources with social media data: The case of nuclear energy in the UAE(MDPI, 2021-11) Contu, Davide; Elshareif, Elgilani Eltahir; Gurrib, IkhlaasInsights from the analysis of views towards energy sources are of paramount importance for the setting of successful energy policies, especially in instances where the public might be reluctant towards certain projects’ implementations. This work presents an analysis of social media comments data given in response to posts around the connection to the grid of a nuclear plant reactor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We assessed comments on Facebook posts of local and international media, as well those written in response to a post of a social media influencer. We extracted the main themes and performed sentiment analysis. The results indicate the presence of mixed views towards nuclear energy when focusing on comments on international media’s posts as well as on the social media influencer’s post considered, whilst they were very positive when assessing comments to local media. All in all, nuclear waste and previous nuclear accidents appear to be as the top of the mind; at the same time, solar energy is often suggested in the comments as a viable energy source for the UAE. Implications for the communication of nuclear energy developments in social media are discussed. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).Item Attitudes towards climate change and energy sources in oil exporters(Elsevier Ltd, 2021-11) Contu, Davide; Kaya, Ozgur; Kaya, IlkerSwitching to energy mixes that use more non-fossil fuels is critical to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. Climate change poses a major challenge to oil exporting Gulf countries, like the rest of the world, but research on human views on energy and climate change is limited. We aim to fill this gap by focusing on the UAE, a nation with a peculiar demographic composition that includes an overwhelming proportion of expatriates and transitions towards green and nuclear resources. We examine whether transiency of residence and life satisfaction play a role in influencing perceptions about climate change and energy sources. We also analyze how expatriates' opinions differ from UAE citizens who have significantly higher income and welfare benefits. © 2021 The AuthorsItem Complementing choice experiment with contingent valuation data: Individual preferences and views towards IV generation nuclear energy in the UK(Elsevier Ltd, 2020-01) Contu, Davide; Mouratob, SusanaItem COVID-19, Short-selling Ban and Energy Stock Prices(Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association, 2020) Gurrib, Ikhlaas; Kweh, Qian Long; Contu, Davide; Kamalov, FiruzWe examine the short-selling ban imposed by the National Commission for Companies and the Stock Exchange of Italy, the authority that regulates the Italian securities market, on three Italian energy stocks. We find that the effect of the short-selling ban was temporary. © 2020, Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association. All rights reserved.Item Do Vaccines’ Announcements Cure Stock Market Volatility? Evidence From the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Markets(Universiti Putra Malaysia, 2022) Elshareif, Elgilani; Kabir, Muhammed; Contu, Davide; Mujahed, MuradItem Drivers of the next-minute Bitcoin price using sparse regressions(Emerald Publishing, 2023) Gurrib, Ikhlaas; Kamalov, Firuz; Starkova, Olga; Elshareif, Elgilani Eltahir; Contu, DavidePurpose: This paper aims to investigate the role of price-based information from major cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange, equity markets and key commodities in predicting the next-minute Bitcoin (BTC) price. This study answers the following research questions: What is the best sparse regression model to predict the next-minute price of BTC? What are the key drivers of the BTC price in high-frequency trading? Design/methodology/approach: Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and Ridge regressions are adopted using minute-based open-high-low-close prices, volume and trade count for eight major cryptos, global stock market indices, foreign currency pairs, crude oil and gold price information for February 2020–March 2021. This study also examines whether there was any significant break and how the accuracy of the selected models was impacted. Findings: Findings suggest that Ridge regression is the most effective model for predicting next-minute BTC prices based on BTC-related covariates such as BTC-open, BTC-high and BTC-low, with a moderate amount of regularization. While BTC-based covariates BTC-open and BTC-low were most significant in predicting BTC closing prices during stable periods, BTC-open and BTC-high were most important during volatile periods. Overall findings suggest that BTC’s price information is the most helpful to predict its next-minute closing price after considering various other asset classes’ price information. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to identify the covariates of major cryptocurrencies and predict the next-minute BTC crypto price, with a focus on both crypto-asset and cross-market information. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item Faculty perceptions of online presence: intercultural considerations(Emerald Publishing, 2023-10-30) Yousef, Dima; Takshe, Aseel A.; Contu, DavidePurpose: The Covid-19 pandemic forced educational institution to rapidly switch to online delivery. Even if the pandemic seems to be over, online learning will continue to constitute at least a part of the course’s delivery in the future. With that in mind, this study aims to explore the factors that influence teaching presence online and how these perceptions will guide teachers to adopt practices that will impact their presence accordingly. Given the changes implemented due to the pandemic, this study is essential to identify the significance of teaching and social presence in online classes. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews were used to find answers to the posed research questions. Exploring the perceptions and experiences of four university teachers, this study, informed by the community of inquiry (CoI) model, investigated the impact of teaching and social presence on the online learning experience in higher education. Findings: The findings indicate that teachers acknowledged the importance of these two elements in teaching online. Moreover, the study investigates how teachers could establish teaching and social presence to enhance the online learning experience. Originality/value: The study explores teachers’ views on the importance of presence, their practices to achieve in an online learning environment and addresses a gap in the literature on “teaching presence from the educator’s perspective, [since] most studies exploring the student’s perspective” (Gurley, 2018, p. 200). © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item Greater acceptability, lower compensations required? The impact of perceived net benefits on willingness to accept nuclear energy projects(Emerald Group Holdings Ltd., 2022-01) Contu, Davide; Elshareif, ElgilaniPurpose: This paper aims to estimate willingness to accept (WTA) hypothetical nuclear energy projects and the impact of net perceived benefits across three countries: Italy, a country without nuclear plants in operation; the UK, a country with nuclear plants in operation and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has more recently opted for the inclusion of nuclear energy in its energy mix. These valuations can support cost-benefit analyses by allowing policymakers to account for additional benefits and costs which would be otherwise neglected. Design/methodology/approach: Data collection was conducted through online nationwide surveys, for a total of over 4,000 individuals sampled from Italy, the UK and the UAE. The surveys included choice experiments designed to elicit preferences towards nuclear energy in the form of WTA, indicating estimated compensations for welfare worsening changes and questions to measure perceived risks and benefits. Findings: The average WTA/Km is the lowest for the case of the UAE. What is more, perceived net positive benefits tend to decrease the WTA required by the UAE respondents? Moreover, across the cases, albeit to a lesser extent with regard to Italy’s case, there is evidence that a more positive benefit perception seems to increase the valuation of environmental and public benefits offered as part of the experiment. Originality/value: The contribution of this study is primarily twofold: first, it provides a comparison of WTA values in a context where the availability of choice experiment data is scant; second, it assesses whether and to what extent perceived net positive benefits of nuclear energy impact WTA of nuclear energy projects. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.Item Individual preferences towards nuclear energy: the transient residency effect(Routledge, 2020) Contu, Davide; Mourato, Susana; Kaya, OzgurNuclear energy is an energy source that is usually unfavourable among the public due to its inherent risks. However, it presents a number of benefits, including the possibility to reduce emissions and the contribution to tackle climate change. Among the countries adopting nuclear energy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is unusual in that a large share of its residents consists of expatriates who live only part of their lives in the country with no (or highly unlikely) access to citizenship. This distinctive population structure offers the opportunity to investigate the effect of transient residency on acceptance and preferences towards nuclear energy. We conducted this investigation by designing a stated preferences-based survey, targeting an online nationwide sample. The survey collected information on socio-economic characteristics and attitudes, including views on perceived risks and benefits of nuclear energy, views towards different energy sources and life satisfaction. Results indicate that transient individuals, especially those who are more satisfied with their lives in the UAE, are significantly less likely to oppose the construction of new nuclear plants. These individuals are characterized by a more positive perception of benefits over risks arising from nuclear energy. Policy implications are discussed. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Item Prioritising climate change actions post COVID-19 amongst university students; a Q methodology perspective in the United Arab Emirates(Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 2022) Takshe, Aseel A.; Lovett, Jon C.; Stenner, Paul; Contu, Davide; Weber, NoeliaThe COVID-19 pandemic caused strict regulations to lower transmission rates. Industries were shut down, people were in lockdown, and travel was curtailed. Restrictions were in effect for an enough period for people's behaviour to change. For example, online meetings rather than needing to travel. This opens the possibility for alterations to the perception that it is possible to commit to effective climate change actions. A Q methodology study was conducted to analyse how 33 university environmental students across the United Arab Emirates perceive the importance of prioritising climate change actions post-pandemic. Statistical analysis yielded four discourses. The first emphasises the need to learn lessons about climate sustainability and sustain them post-pandemic. The second, more pessimistic but advocates preventing a return to pre-pandemic norms by implementing post-pandemic climate change regulations. The third expects economic recovery to take priority over reducing emissions. The fourth raises opportunities and challenges for environmental sustainability post-COVID-19. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.Item Simulation-based learning in business and entrepreneurship in higher education: A review of the games available(Springer International Publishing, 2022-03-17) Yasin, Naveed; Gilani, Sayed Abdul Majid; Contu, Davide; Fayaz, Mohammad JabarSimulation games in enterprise education are expected to foster the learning experience of the students whilst powering the teaching capabilities of instructors, becoming an additional asset among learning technologies that are more traditionally available. However, research in this area is under-developed, leaving practitioners with limited information with regards to the options available for the implementation of such games. In this chapter, we attempt to help bridge this gap by conducting a review of the existing entrepreneurship gaming landscape. Furthermore, this chapter investigates whether the entrepreneurship games identified appear to have been adopted in higher education and in enterprise education. The Implications for practitioners are also discussed. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.Item Testing for saliency-led choice behavior in discrete choice modeling: An application in the context of preferences towards nuclear energy in Italy(Elsevier Ltd, 2022-09) Contu, Davide; Strazzera, ElisabettaThis work proposes a discrete choice model that jointly accounts for heterogeneity in preferences and in decision making procedures adopted by respondents, as well as for non-linearities in the utility function, allowing for the potential effect of salient attributes in choice experiments. We present an innovative application in the context of preferences towards nuclear energy, with data obtained from a nationwide online survey conducted in Italy. Results show that most of the variation in the choice data is indeed due to heterogeneity in the decision process, where the saliency heuristic plays an important role. Furthermore, the proposed model provides more conservative monetary valuations as opposed to standard models, potentially leading to substantial differences in cost-benefit analysis. Implications for choice modeling practitioners are discussed, emphasizing the need to account for saliency effects when modeling the choice data. © 2022 Elsevier LtdItem Typology of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Applicability of CSR within SMES Companies in Developing Countries – The Case of Morocco(The International Society for Technology Education and Science, 2023) Alami, Rachid; Contu, Davide; Stachowicz-Stanusch, AgataThis research aims to analyze and evaluate the constraints and factors that prevent the implementation of CSR principles within SMEs in developing countries, specifically in Morocco. Morocco has adopted a national sustainable development strategy in line with its 2011 constitution and international commitments. The National Strategy for Sustainable Development sets objectives for 2017-2030 and identifies operational measures. It is considered a continuous process that requires various actors, including SMEs, to modify their behavior by integrating socio-environmental components more significantly into their strategic roadmaps. However, recent diagnostics have revealed that while the elements of sustainability are present in the majority of policies, their implementation remains insufficient. This study focuses on both internal variables (employee commitment, strategic decisions, internal organization, and the posture of the entrepreneur-owner) and external variables (competition, business opportunities, and government incentives) that can influence the application and implementation of CSR in Moroccan SMEs. The results highlight significant gaps in terms of employee awareness, company strategy, organizational structure and processes, as well as owner awareness regarding CSR. The findings also suggest that company size, sector, and age are associated with distinct outcomes. © 2023 Published by the ISTES OrganizationItem UAE University Students’ Dietary Practices and Lifestyles at times of COVID-19: A Cross Sectional Study(Enviro Research Publishers, 2022-08) Takshe, Aseel A.; El Khatib, Rami; Contu, Davide; Shehaiber, Samir Nael; Alkaabi, MohammedWe examinedthe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ dietary practices and lifestyles. In this study, the term “dietary practices” refers to people’s choice in food consumption, whereas “lifestyles” refers to their overall habits including both diet and exercise. We followed a quantitative approach through a cross sectional study and collected data from 475 university students in the UAE by means of an online survey. The results of this study indicated that a majority (67%) of the surveyed students seem to have changed their dietary practice for the better and were making healthier life choices. Additionally, it appears that students started leading more active, healthier lifestyles by incorporating exercise in their daily routine. The research concludes with initial suggestions and implications for healthcare practitioners and providing them with information regarding how younger adults in the UAE have behaved during a pandemic. Understanding the results from similar studies will help the health authorities in reshaping policies on nutrition in anticipation of any future pandemics. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Enviro Research Publishers.Item What is a lion worth to local people – Quantifying of the costs of living alongside a top predator(Elsevier B.V., 2022-08) Jacobsen, Kim S.; Sandorf, Erlend Dancke; Loveridge, Andrew J.; Dickman, Amy J.; Johnson, Paul J.; Mourato, Susana; Contu, Davide; Macdonald, David W.Item Willingness to pay for innovative heating/cooling systems: A comprehensive appraisal of drivers and barriers to adoption in Ireland and Italy(Elsevier Ltd, 2024-03) Strazzera, Elisabetta; Meleddu, Daniela; Contu, Davide; Fornara, Ferdinando