This manuscript, for the first time, analyses the volatility spillover of oil price uncertainty in the world using data from oil price uncertainty recently developed by Abdul and Qureshi (2023), ...spanning the time 1996-2019 on a monthly frequency. ARCH/GARCH (Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity and Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity) models are employed as an econometric tool. The findings suggest that ARCH model is more consistent than GARCH model in assessing the volatility of oil price uncertainty in the world. The results show that the volatility of oil price uncertainty is high in the world. The transition to renewable energy sources is proposed as a way to resist unexpected oil shocks since the production of renewables does not depend on the fluctuations of oil prices. Consequently, uncertainties in the oil price do not hinder economic activities.
Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) consumers are seen as environmentally aware, socially attuned and with a view of the world that takes into account personal, community and planetary ...outcomes. The main aim is to identify the relationship between the consumer's affiliation with a LOHAS segment and its buying behaviour. It is based on a questionnaire survey among costumers of shopping centers. The possibility of identifying the attitude and tendency among the consumers regarding the five factors as defined by the Annual LOHAS Forum was found by confirmatory factor analysis. Three LOHAS segments were found by cluster analysis with rmANOVA test. We have found age and especially gender as important for differentiation of LOHAS market segment. LOHAS consumers could be identified as a group with a specific buying behaviour. Healthy Lifestyles and Ecological Lifestyles correlate strongly in multivariable space (based on redundancy analysis) with the preference for products by companies with similar social values to those of the respondent, the strong interest in socially responsible consumption, and the preference to domestic and local products. Sustainable Economy negatively correlate with influence by marketing, advertisement and sales promotion, impulse buying behaviour, and importance of the price. It is positively correlated with the preference for Fairtrade products. It seems, that LOHAS factors are influenced by East-West paradigm as Personal Development and Alternative Health Care were of low importance for respondents.
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•Three main LOHAS segments were identified – not-interested (34%), partially interested (23%), and interested (43%).•Women are more interested in LOHAS than men.•The LOHAS customers search for the same values as producers; they prefer local producers, high quality and natural products.•There is no single LOHAS segment to target.
The aim of the article is to assess the consumers’ buying behaviour and decision-making process when purchasing bread and to propose the ways of how to improve the position of bread in the market. ...1601 properly filled questionnaires were used for the analysis. Results are presented under the form of frequencies of answers and statistical tests. The analysis included evaluation of statistical hypotheses about the independence (significance level α = 0.01) using the chi-square goodness of fit test and Pearson coefficient of contingency. The significance level was then compared with the value p-value, for p-value > α, the null hypothesis was not rejected. The most important factors of choosing bread are freshness, appearance habit and price. The importance of the price grows with the increasing age of respondents and decreases with the increasing income of questioned consumers. The importance of the brand, as well as the reference or recommendation from the family and friends slightly strengthens with the increasing income of the consumers. Most of the respondents make no difference between both (yeast and rye leaven) technologies of baking bread when making their buying decision. We cannot say, however, the preference to the rye leaven bread grows with the increasing age of respondents to the detriment of the yeast bread or vice versa.
The aim of this article is to explore the possibility of increasing the sale of organic products through supplying schools and school canteens. Potential of this way of commercialization of organic ...production is assessed based on the survey on preschools and elementary schools and among parents of children attending the surveyed schools. The article is based on the local survey in the district of České Budějovice and additionally on the results of a national survey that have, however, omitted the region of South Bohemia. Only about one fifth of pre-schools and elementary schools have already experienced the involvement of organic food in the school meals preparation. Some of them are not interested in organic food but most of them fear the strong increase of the school meal’s price when using ingredients originated from organic farming. Most parents are interested in inclusion of organic food in the school meals but they also worry about the price. Model cases proved, however, that the increase of the price is not so dramatic, and the real increase of the price corresponds with most parents’ willingness to pay higher prices for meals with organic food content.
In the environment of globalisation and progressive liberalisation of the market, many small local producers were excluded from the market as uncompetitive to the producers realising scale economy ...due to their presence in large global market and being able to meet requirements of large retailers' chains. As there is growing consumers' interest to recover their identity, those of the local cultures and traditional values, there is a new chance for those small local producers. The problems of locally produced food recently awakened interest and aroused many discussions of practitioners and scholars as well. The aim of the presented study has been to test the parameters that influenced preferences among food product branded as national, regional, or local product. Presented models identified several consumers' attitudes and feelings that are the main predictors of the relation between consumers' preferences for local food and the preferences for national or regional food. Food made by local producers is perceived by consumers as being of higher quality and better complying with their habits and requirements than "regional" or "national" food products.
Purpose
This paper aims to assess how a hotel geographical location in different parts of Central and Eastern Europe influences the complexity of perception of pro-environmental behavior.
...Design/methodology/approach
To find out, whether hotel location in a specific country influences the complexity of environmental practices, this study used two closely connected multivariate statistical techniques analyzing gradients: principal components analysis and partial redundancy analysis. The research comprises data collection from seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In all, 25 randomly selected hotels (based on star rating) from various countries were approached to complete a questionnaire. Environmental practices were studied based on motivations, perception of barriers, perception of support from different levels of public sector, will of managers to promote pro-environmental measures based on sufficient funding, perception of legislation and perception of various other important factors.
Findings
The study reveals significant differences between hotels in Central Europe and Eastern Europe in the perception of the complexity in implementation of the environmental practices by hotel managers. The character of the present study, however, needs to address the identification of particular aspects that are relevant to the geographical differences among the studied countries.
Research limitations/implications
Research was limited to a selection of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. There is still probability that managers in hotels from Poland and Croatia could possess different preferences. Other limitation of this study is that only special part of hotels were asked – hotels certified by star grading, out of our scope remained other hotels. It is also known that important factor is precise location of hotel within country – hotels in established tourism destination behave other way that those outside recreational areas. These factors deserve further study within this topic. There are many aspects of sustainability and environmental protection regarding hotel industry. As we have found in our principal correspondence analysis, different environmental measures were different location in biplot – some were affected by country, the other by star grading and affiliation to hotel chain. The complexity deserves to be studied in depth.
Practical implications
The importance lies first in the identification of the aspects that are governed by geographical differences among the countries studied. These aspects are the initiatives and support from the government and the local governments, which counteract the perception that there is a lack of financial resources and the return on investments is slow. So, based on the data, which included information from various types of hotels from seven CEE countries, the activities of national and local authorities were identified to be the main differentiating variable. The support of the environment-friendly conduct of business in the hotel industry is appreciated by hotel managers from Central Europe. On the other hand, hotel managers from Eastern Europe do not feel any significant support from either national or other public institutions. The second factor of differentiation is represented by the perception of the lack of funds. Hotel managers from Eastern Europe feel strongly about funds limitation. The coherence of both those factors is obvious in the results, as they show the same direction but opposite orientation. It has already been discussed above. When looking at the results, the authors find the perception of availability of funds to be a fundamental difference between hotel management in Central Europe and in Eastern Europe. The lack of funds is perceived more intensively in Eastern Europe than in Central Europe, particularly because of a stronger awareness of direct or indirect support for such activities by national and other public institutions in Central Europe.
Social implications
The differentiation of the aspects mentioned above comes from the social and culture policies, company policies and business cultures between these two sub-realms. Pro-environmental actions are apparently promoted less publicly in Eastern European countries than in Central European countries. The reaction to the trend for demand of greener hotels is stronger in the West, and its hotels are more likely to have legislation requirements and public support as an incentive to adopt pro-environmental measures in their business operations.
Originality/value
The study is based on data obtained from seven countries. The results revealed a problem of the macro-environmental influence on hotels’ potential to implement environmentally sustainable approaches and procedures throughout the industry.
•Two-thirds of derelict farm premises experience long-term abandonment.•Planning for derelict farm premises is different from planning for current agricultural use.•Two-thirds of derelict farm ...premises are planned to be re-used in agriculture.•Housing is another important re-use option for such premises.•Actual regeneration generally follows the requirements of territorial zoning plans.
Re-using and regenerating derelict and abandoned areas constitutes an important element in sustainable land use policy and planning. This paper explores the phenomenon of derelict farm premises in South Bohemia, the Czech Republic. It analyses the origin and extent of this phenomenon as well as land use targets applied to such sites by planning documents. A large number of derelict farm premises have emerged on former collectivized lands. According to local territorial zoning plans, agricultural use prevails as the reuse designation for these sites. However, they are still significantly less frequently planned to be used in agriculture than areas currently in active agricultural use and are more frequently planned to be converted into housing, public buildings, or industrial activities. Overall, strategies for the planned utilization of derelict premises are found to be contingent on temporal and spatial factors. While many long-term derelict premises are planned to be converted into non-agricultural use, newly emerged ones are more likely to retain the agricultural designation. In terms of spatial diversity, rural municipalities of the inner peripheries emphasize housing development rather than industrial activity. Further, by analysing successful regeneration projects accomplished for abandoned premises since 2004, it is found that they generally adhere to the requirements of territorial zoning plans.
Food processing in hotels is one of most energy-intensive activities in the tourism industry. There is an urgent need to reduce energy consumption in hotels to limit their environmental impact. This ...research aims to assess tourists' preferences for the provision of food that require low energy preparation and to compare them with tourists’ preferences for other indirect energy saving options. A quantitative survey with 944 tourists visiting six tourist sites across the Czech Republic was used for primary data collection. Data were analyzed using linear regression models. Our findings signal that direct energy savings tend to be perceived differentially and surprisingly as the least preferred option among tourists. Those who support direct energy savings in food processing are rather older respondents and also respondents who declare stronger pro-environmental everyday behaviour and subjective norms. We claim that as tourists show highly diverse preferences for various ways of energy savings, we need to ensure that multiple energy saving options are offered so that tourists contribute to reducing the ecological footprint of hotels. At the same time, it has to be highlighted that only few surveyed tourists voluntarily accepted reduction of comfort in the food and beverage provision. There is room for many technological and social innovations and raising environmental awareness among tourists to overcome this contradiction.
The variety of post-socialist agricultural transitions in four different rural regions located in South Bohemia (Czech Republic), with respect to the utilisation of the older premises, is subject to ...analysis in this article. A complete database was constructed, containing the identification of agricultural premises in 1989 and their use in 2004 and 2017. From 1989 to 2004, a number of agricultural brownfields emerged, and many sites had been utilised for non-agricultural purposes. After 2004, the acreage of agricultural brownfields was reduced and new land-use utilisation for housing and, especially other non-agricultural activities, significantly increased. The transition in the utilisation of pre-1989 agricultural premises is strongly influenced by the social and economic contexts in which particular sites are located. Proximity to an upper-level regional centre is of crucial importance for decisions with respect to how (and if) the site will be reused. The peripheral location of the site also affects the level and the selection of options for the ways in which particular pre-1989 agricultural premises are used. In the case studies reported here, the marginality of particular regions is increased by their location in the border regions of outer peripheries, where the probability of the presence of agricultural brownfields and the probability of long-term abandonment of agricultural premises is higher. For the traditional developed countryside, we found a typical low level of the share of long-term agricultural brownfields. After 2004, the re-use of pre-1989 agricultural brownfields for agriculture was ascertained, which is complemented by their use for housing.
The aim of this paper is to assess the relation between the character of the interpretive trail and the imposition of a charge on the entrance. This was done using the discrete choice experiment that ...involves eight attributes, seven of which are with three levels: the overall character of the trail, the way that the route signs are used in the terrain, the ways of providing information, the length of the trail, the way of the routing, the focus of the trail, and the price of the entrance. There is also one with two levels that involves the existence of the places for rest. The fractional factorial design was used (the orthogonal main effects plan) and the Multinomial Logit Model was used in analyzing the data. The 2,830 choices were done by random sampled visitors from eight tourist locations in the Tourist Regions of the Šumava Mts. and South Bohemia during the summer season 2012. The impact of the character of the trail was especially detected in the model. Except for that, the equipment of the trail and its length have had the fundamental impact on the choice of the trail as well. Those longer and worse equipped trails have a significantly lower degree of utility for the respondents. What is quite surprising is that the respondents refused the ecotourism elements of the interpretive trails, such as the possibility of going through the trail on horseback or the accompaniment of an expert who would provide some comments, as it is common to do this at historical attractions within those sightseeing paths.
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