Mycelium-based composites (MBCs) are biomaterials with scientifically proven potential to improve sustainability in construction. Although mycelium-based products are not entirely new, their use in ...engineering presents challenges due to the inherent properties of this fungal material. This study investigated professional architects’ and interior designers’ perceptions of MBCs, focusing on familiarity, aesthetic appeal, and willingness to use. The first phase of the survey explored respondents’ views on material-related ecological design principles. In the second phase, respondents evaluated ten small architectural objects crafted from MBCs, focusing on form, detail, and visual appeal. The last phase of the survey measured their interest in using mycelium in their design work. The results revealed that MBCs were relatively unknown among the surveyed professionals; only every second respondent knew this material. Despite this, 90% found MBCs visually appealing after seeing the examples. Interestingly, the natural, unprocessed appearance of the material was assessed as less aesthetically pleasing, with thermal treatment improving its perceived value. Architects were more receptive to using MBCs in their professional projects for customers than for personal use. This observation points to a ‘double standard’: professional architects are more open to using MBCs in projects not intended for their own use.
Intensive cattle production systems are currently a major contributor to CO
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emissions and biodiversity loss. Silvopastoral systems that combine foraging pastures and trees into an integrated system ...for raising livestock have been suggested a promising avenue to store carbon and preserve farmland biodiversity. However, investments and maintenance costs for these improvements are paid by producers, who reap few of the environmental benefits. The objective of the present study was to assess farmers’ willingness to adopt silvopastoral systems by reforesting treeless pastures, their compensation claims related to adoption, and how both are affected by their attitudes towards silvopastoral systems. This study was based on a contingent valuation approach coupled with exploratory factor analysis to obtain measures of attitudinal constructs derived from the Theory of Planned Behavior. Results indicate that 52% of respondents were willing to adopt silvopastoral systems and the mean compensation claim per year per hectare is estimated at SEK 3107.17 (308€). Adoption decision is positively correlated with attitudes towards silvopastoral systems, suggesting that decision-making is not solely driven by profit maximization through concerns related to pecuniary factors.
PurposeManaging the growing word-of-mouth (WOM) of brand fans has become a new challenge for companies in the fan economy era. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of language intensity ...of brand fan WOM on customers' willingness to adopt WOM based on psychological resistance theory and to reveal the underlying mechanism of this process.Design/methodology/approachA research model was developed to test the proposed hypotheses. Two experiments were conducted on an online platform using data from 708 participants. The independent samples t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.FindingsThe results show that, in the context of WOM among brand fans, high-intensity language leads to a lower willingness to adopt than low-intensity language and threats to freedom mediate this effect. Moreover, the restoration postscript moderates the effect of language intensity on threats to freedom and customers' willingness to adopt WOM.Originality/valueUnlike previous studies that focused on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) language content, this paper focuses on language intensity to reveal the psychological process of customers' willingness to adopt brand fan WOM. The findings not only enrich the research related to the language effect in eWOM, but also deepen the understanding of the influence effect on brand fan WOM, providing effective guidance for brands to manage fan WOM.
The subject of the research is focused on the application of agri-environmental management practices in the agricultural policies of the Republic of Serbia. The research, in the first part, addresses ...the current attitudes of the policymakers in the sector for agricultural policy, sector for rural development, and the department for the IPARD of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, regarding the introduction of agri-ecological measures. In the second part, the current attitudes of the agricultural producers and agricultural advisory employees regarding the main economic and structural factors, as determinants of the adoption of agri-environmental management practices, are analyzed. The findings show that the policymakers have put in place an adequate framework, providing the training and education for the introduction of future AE measures. The findings show that the agricultural producers and the agricultural advisory employees consider agri-ecological measures to be a good way to improve the state of the environment and promote the diversity of nature and organisms. The producers have shown a high willingness to adopt the agri-ecological measures. For them, the highest motivation for using the agri-ecological measures is agriculture-oriented training and education, while the potential obstacles are the complexity of measures, implementation of measures, property rights, purpose of land use, and full-time farm workers. The farmers that perceived that the agri-ecological measures treat all farmers equally contributed the most to predicting the willingness of the agricultural producers to adopt agri-ecological measures. On the other hand, the agricultural advisory service employees perceived as the highest motivations the responsibility of farmers towards future generations, previous experience in the application of similar measures, and agriculture-oriented training and education, while the size of agricultural holdings and the property rights were seen as the largest obstacles. The proposed research on the agri-environmental management practices is particularly relevant in the context of discussions on the reform of the Serbian agricultural policy in light of the EU accession process. The findings of the research shall directly contribute to raising knowledge on the agri-environmental management practices in the Republic of Serbia.
Although most studies present willingness to adopt as a pre-adoption facet, very few studies can be found that include pre- and post-adoption willingness factors/conditions in adopting solar energy. ...This study was carried out to explore public willingness to adopt solar energy in residential areas through the lens of different states (stages) of willingness to adopt, and consequent patterns of social acceptance. This qualitative study found the existence of four states of willingness to adopt solar energy among laypersons and expert Finnish respondents, forming quadrants in the interplay between decision and actions. This gave rise to five segments of customers, most representing the ‘acceptance in principle’ pattern of social acceptance. The results of this study emphasize the necessity for an effective and meaningful approach to those states of willingness to adopt in the growth and diffusion of renewable energy technologies such as solar energy.
In tandem with the current drive to achieve the SDG 2030 goals, the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is been projected as a strong propelling strategy with key indicators, all aimed at achieving ...universal access to health services without having to endure financial difficulties in individual countries. Currently, Africa is lagging in meeting the targets of the UHC with between 5% -25% coverage across countries. Adoption of new innovations are critical for the actualization of Universal Health Coverage in Africa. Digital health technology offers one of such novel approaches to providing quality healthcare services and can help countries achieve the Universal Health Coverage targets. It has been suggested that digital health provides an opportunity to overcome the longstanding problems of inefficiency of health information gathering, sharing, and access. In addition, literature is already replete with various factors that can aid countries to achieve UHC and one of such factors is the urgency of generating valid and quality evidence to inform decision-making. Although the Primary Health Care remains at the core of the achievement of Universal Health Coverage, the utilization of digital health technologies remains very poor at the grassroots in Africa and this poses a huge barrier to effectiveness and quality of healthcare delivery. Given the foregoing, it is obvious that there is an urgent need to understand the landscapes, issues and barriers to utilization of digital health at the Primary Health Care levels. However, there remains a paucity of data to support evidence-based decision making about full implementation of digital health services across the continent while also taking into cognisance the peculiarities of individual countries. Hence, there is a critical need to determine the current levels of knowledge, skills, attitude, practice and readiness to adopt digital health in service delivery by healthcare workers at the Primary Health Care levels across the continent. The generation of such data from major stakeholders such as health workers and health managers, providers among others will provide important evidence needed for attaining optimal utilization of digital health in the context of health for all. Summarily, a clear understanding of the contextual and implementation bottlenecks highlighted from such assessment(s), especially as it relates to individual African countries, will go a long way to guide decisions to address the low utilization of digital health technologies in health services delivery in Africa. Source of funding This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Acknowledgement The authors acknowledge the support of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Ibadan and contributions of Prof. G.R.E. E Ana, Prof. M.K.C. Sridhar, Dr. E.C. Uwalaka, Dr. O.T. Okareh and Dr. O.M. Morakinyo, in the writing of this paper CO is supported by Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) which is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant No--B 8606.R02), Sida (Grant No:54100029), the DELTAS Africa Initiative (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z). Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the writing of this paper. Author contributions CO: Conceptualization; CO, PO and OF: Writing- Original draft preparation, CO, PO and OF: Writing- Reviewing and Editing.
PurposeThis study investigates consumers' willingness to adopt genetically modified foods (GM) and the role of innovation and behavioral determinants.Design/methodology/approachA new integrated model ...that expands the Health Belief Model (HBM) into the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) was developed and examined. A total of 241 consumers were selected from the capital of Iran, Tehran, through a multistage random sampling. The data were analyzed using SEM-PLS modeling.FindingsThe extended HBM model was able to predict about 84% of the variance changes in consumers' willingness to adopt GM foods. The effects of net benefit and perceived compatibility on the willingness were also significant. In addition, the mediating effect of compatibility on the relationship between net benefit/self-efficacy and willingness to adopt GM foods was also significant.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by developing the HBM into the IDT to assess consumers' willingness to adopt GM foods.
Worldwide, biogas programs fail to achieve broad acceptability because of failure to account for socio-economic constraints during program design and implementation. This paper attempts to revisit ...the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of rural households and adoption of biogas technology at the household level in Pakistan by using a predicted willingness-to-adopt approach in addition to considering energy-related variables which have been rarely accounted for in previous literature. The study is based on primary data collected from 200 households across eight villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province. A chi-square test of association is applied to determine the relationship between farmers’ socio-economic characteristics and their willingness-to-adopt domestic biogas technology. Results confirm that socio-economic factors such as education, total landholdings, cost of energy consumption, duration of electric shortfalls, occurrence of smoke-related diseases, and possession of livestock had a significant relationship with farmers’ willingness-to-adopt biogas technology. The study concludes that for the successful deployment of biogas technology in rural areas, it is imperative to account for the socio-economic conditions of the population.
Despite the immense returns of new agricultural technologies to increase agricultural productivity and meet rising food demand, there is a lag in the adoption of these technologies by farmers. The ...aeroponics system is one of such innovative technologies implemented for seed yam propagation. This study assessed the awareness and the determinants of the willingness of yam farmers to adopt the aeroponics farming system, employing the likert scale and the logit regression model. Results showed that more than three-fifths of the farmers had never heard of the aeroponics farming system but were willing to adopt it for yam and seed yam propagation, although high cost of capital required for adoption was a major constraint. Key determinants of farmers' awareness of the aeroponics system include gender, age, education, membership of cooperative society, monthly income and access to extension agent, while the main factors influencing its adoption were marital status, age, access to credit, membership of cooperative society, farm size and income. Efforts at dissemination of aeroponics farming system for increased productivity should be intensified for its effective adoption by the farmers.
Experiencing an extreme weather event and its consequences might make the risks associated with climate change more tangible, easier to evaluate, and more salient. Consequently, those experiences ...might translate into the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours. Understanding this relationship is fundamental for the successful design of policies aimed towards promoting the adoption of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. This work contributes to the literature by showing that there is in fact a positive relation between experiencing an extreme weather event and willingness to take pro-environmental actions. The prevailing available evidence is for developed countries. Our empirical analysis is based on a nationally representative sample of households from Mexico, a developing country that is highly vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather events.
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