There has been a recent shift from the usage of fossil fuels to renewable energy due to increased awareness of environmental quality. Although governments have taken various actions to promote the usage of renewable energy, consumer behaviour is also important. This study reviews the literature on the factors that influence renewable energy adoption among consumers. We use the PRISMA protocol for systematic reviews to select the relevant articles about consumers’ renewable energy consumption over the period from 2000 to 2020. The findings and discussion consist of (1) the profile of the studies, such as publication outlets, authorship, and publication trends; (2) theories on renewable energy adoption; and (3) factors influencing consumer adoption of renewable energy. Most importantly, based on our findings, we propose a framework of very important factors (willingness to pay, price or cost, knowledge, and government policies), moderately important factors (public awareness), and less important factors (perceived benefits and social influence). This study also provides key implications for researchers, suppliers, and policymakers. We also synthesize the findings with an analysis of different dimensions, identifying future research directions on renewable energy adoption, which include suggestions for examining political and regulatory factors, comparative studies between countries, and considering the suppliers’ perspective.
The inability to physically interact with products remains a fundamental barrier to virtual commerce, particularly for weight-a key cue for quality and value. This study validates a low-cost, multisensory pseudo-haptic solution using standard VR controllers to simulate product weight. Through an experiment (N = 120) manipulating the control-display (C/D) ratio across 16 product categories, we demonstrate that pseudo-haptic "heft" significantly increases purchase intent and perceived value. This effect is serially mediated by perceived scarcity and is substantially stronger for hedonic (e.g., luxury goods) versus utilitarian products. The findings provide an evidence-based, hardware-agnostic design protocol (optimal C/D range: 0.6-1.4) for enhancing sensory marketing in virtual retail.
Purpose We examined how people perceive artificial intelligence (AI) as a moral patient – the target of morally wrong actions by humans. Design/methodology/approach We did a thorough literature review by integrating perspectives from the literature on marketing, management and human–AI interaction and proposed the theoretical framework. Findings Following this notion, we spotlighted a novel typology by classifying different situations in which AI is most likely to be involved in ethical issues and combined the perceived experience of AI with the moral intensity of the tasks performed by AI. Furthermore, we outlined the mechanisms that lead to people's misbehavior toward AI, by examining the extrinsic cost and intrinsic psychological cost of misbehavior. Originality/value AI is rapidly changing the way service encounters take place and transforming people's overall experience. Although interactions between humans and AI are gradually becoming part of individuals' everyday lives, people's moral consideration of AI and their ethical behavior toward it is still unclear. Therefore, our research enhances the understanding of how AI-related ethical issues.
Biodegradation of phenol from wastewater coupled with biohydrogen production using immobilized microalgae is a promising approach to produce green energy. This study investigated the environmental impacts and energy performance of dark fermentative biohydrogen production in phenol-containing wastewater using immobilized microalgae-alginate beads. A life cycle assessment was conducted with cradle-to-gate mode via using the global ReCiPe 2016 v1.1 method at both midpoint and endpoint levels in SimaPro 9.3.0.2. The results revealed that the production process of biohydrogen was the primary contributor to all environmental impacts, which was mainly due to the high electricity consumption. In contrast, microalgae cultivation and harvesting had minimal environmental impacts, suggesting that this stage required low inputs in terms of energy, chemicals and water. Similar trends were also observed in both normalized midpoint impacts and endpoint impacts, in which supporting the reliability of discovered environmental hotspots. Nevertheless, the net energy ratio (NER) attained was 1.33, indicating a net energy gain and supporting the energy efficiency amidst overall production processes. In addition, the reuse of immobilized microalgae-alginate beads and utilization of phenol-containing wastewater as feedstock for dark fermentation could greatly reduce the amount of chemicals input and energy demand. The findings highlighted by combining treatment of phenol with biohydrogen production using immobilized microalgae-alginate beads could promote both green energy production as well as sustainable method for wastewater treatment simultaneously.
Efficient hydrogen evolution in alkaline media requires electrocatalysts that couple rapid water dissociation with facile hydrogen desorption. Here, we report a binder-free nickel-molybdenum (NiMo) electrocatalyst grown directly on nickel foam, in which catalytic activity is governed by controlled formation of mixed amorphous-crystalline phases. By tuning hydrothermal synthesis duration and temperature and guided by a machine-learning cubic regression model, a kinetically favourable regime is identified around 24 h at 160-180 degrees C, yielding an overpotential as low as 26.0 mV at 10 mA cm-2. Structural analysis reveals intertwined Ni1Mo1 (313) and Ni4Mo1 (121) domains embedded within an amorphous matrix. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that both phases are catalytically active, with site-resolved adsorption energetics showing preferential water adsorption and dissociation on Mo-rich sites, followed by hydrogen migration to Ni-rich sites for desorption. The coexistence of these phases shortens diffusion pathways and spatially separates reaction steps, thereby enhancing alkaline HER kinetics. When implemented as the cathode in an anion exchange membrane water electrolyser, the optimised NiMo electrode sustains stable operation at similar to 2.0 V for 100 h at 400 mA cm-2. This work elucidates how phase cooperation in amorphous-crystalline NiMo alloys governs HER kinetics and provides a scalable route to durable, high-performance alkaline electrocatalysts.
