• Title/Summary/Keyword: Environmental Investments

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Workplace influenza vaccination in private hospital setting: a cost-benefit analysis

  • Mohd. Ab. Hadi Tohiar;Safurah Jaafar;Azimatun Noor Aizuddin;Tan Kok Leong;Azrin Syahida Abdul Rahim
    • Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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    • v.34
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    • pp.3.1-3.12
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    • 2022
  • Background: Influenza illness causes several disruptions to the workforce. The absenteeism that often ensues has economic implications for employers. This study aimed to estimate the cost-benefit of influenza vaccination in a healthcare setting from the employer's perspective. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in a private hospital in 2018-2019 comparing voluntary vaccinated with non-vaccinated employees with influenza vaccine. The analyses were made based on self-reporting on absenteeism and presenteeism from Influenza-like illnesses (ILIs). The costs incurred, both direct and indirect costs, were included in the study. A cost-benefit analysis was performed by measuring the cost of the vaccination program. The costs of absenteeism and reduced productivity were calculated using 3 hypothesised levels of effectiveness in the following percentage of productivity of 30%, 50%, and 70%. The costs were also calculated based on four scenarios: with and without operating income and with and without replacement. The benefits of the influenza vaccination from the employer's perspective were analysed. The benefit to cost ratio was determined. Results: A total of four hundred and twenty-one respondents participated. The influenza vaccination rate was 63.0%. The rate of ILI of 38.1% was significantly lower among vaccinated. The ILI-related absenteeism reported was also significantly lower amongst vaccinated employees at 30% compared to 70% non-vaccinated. Employers could save up to USD 18.95 per vaccinated employee when only labour cost was included or 54.0% of cost savings. The cost-saving rose to USD 155.56 when the operating income per employee was also included. The benefit to cost ratio confirmed that the net cost-benefit gained from the vaccination was more than the net cost of vaccination. Conclusions: Influenza vaccination for working adults was cost-saving and cost-beneficial when translated into financial investments for the employer. A workplace vaccination demonstrates a significant cost-benefit strategy to be applied in any institutional setting.

A Study on Industry-specific Sustainability Strategy: Analyzing ESG Reports and News Articles (산업별 지속가능경영 전략 고찰: ESG 보고서와 뉴스 기사를 중심으로)

  • WonHee Kim;YoungOk Kwon
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.29 no.3
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    • pp.287-316
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    • 2023
  • As global energy crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have emerged as social issues, there is a growing demand for companies to move away from profit-centric business models and embrace sustainable management that balances environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. ESG activities of companies vary across industries, and industry-specific weights are applied in ESG evaluations. Therefore, it is important to develop strategic management approaches that reflect the characteristics of each industry and the importance of each ESG factor. Additionally, with the stance of strengthened focus on ESG disclosures, specific guidelines are needed to identify and report on sustainable management activities of domestic companies. To understand corporate sustainability strategies, analyzing ESG reports and news articles by industry can help identify strategic characteristics in specific industries. However, each company has its own unique strategies and report structures, making it difficult to grasp detailed trends or action items. In our study, we analyzed ESG reports (2019-2021) and news articles (2019-2022) of six companies in the 'Finance,' 'Manufacturing,' and 'IT' sectors to examine the sustainability strategies of leading domestic ESG companies. Text mining techniques such as keyword frequency analysis and topic modeling were applied to identify industry-specific, ESG element-specific management strategies and issues. The analysis revealed that in the 'Finance' sector, customer-centric management strategies and efforts to promote an inclusive culture within and outside the company were prominent. Strategies addressing climate change, such as carbon neutrality and expanding green finance, were also emphasized. In the 'Manufacturing' sector, the focus was on creating sustainable communities through occupational health and safety issues, sustainable supply chain management, low-carbon technology development, and eco-friendly investments to achieve carbon neutrality. In the 'IT' sector, there was a tendency to focus on technological innovation and digital responsibility to enhance social value through technology. Furthermore, the key issues identified in the ESG factors were as follows: under the 'Environmental' element, issues such as greenhouse gas and carbon emission management, industry-specific eco-friendly activities, and green partnerships were identified. Under the 'Social' element, key issues included social contribution activities through stakeholder engagement, supporting the growth and coexistence of members and partner companies, and enhancing customer value through stable service provision. Under the 'Governance' element, key issues were identified as strengthening board independence through the appointment of outside directors, risk management and communication for sustainable growth, and establishing transparent governance structures. The exploration of the relationship between ESG disclosures in reports and ESG issues in news articles revealed that the sustainability strategies disclosed in reports were aligned with the issues related to ESG disclosed in news articles. However, there was a tendency to strengthen ESG activities for prevention and improvement after negative media coverage that could have a negative impact on corporate image. Additionally, environmental issues were mentioned more frequently in news articles compared to ESG reports, with environmental-related keywords being emphasized in the 'Finance' sector in the reports. Thus, ESG reports and news articles shared some similarities in content due to the sharing of information sources. However, the impact of media coverage influenced the emphasis on specific sustainability strategies, and the extent of mentioning environmental issues varied across documents. Based on our study, the following contributions were derived. From a practical perspective, companies need to consider their characteristics and establish sustainability strategies that align with their capabilities and situations. From an academic perspective, unlike previous studies on ESG strategies, we present a subdivided methodology through analysis considering the industry-specific characteristics of companies.

River Basin based Region Reconstruction and it's Regulation Analysis: A Case of Gangwon Province (하천 유역권에 의한 권역구분과 권역별 규제지역 분석 - 강원도 지역을 대상으로 -)

  • Kim, Chang-Hwan;Bae, Sun-Hak
    • Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.20-33
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    • 2006
  • Changing of industry structure and development of traffic and telecommunications requires a change of the knowledge about the space where the human beings reside. Step by step the world is being divided into specified utility blocks. Today there is a limit that only one local government can compete with another region in the world. This study provides decision support tools with the use of GIS on the regional level for regions competition. GIS establishes regions and analyzes their geographic environment data, which will help in local-government problem solving and provide framework data for similar regions to become the community. The wide-area GIS application can present an objective and rational basis for regulation of inefficient investments and excessive competition between adjacent regions. The study area is Gangwon-do. Considering specific features of Gangwon-do which preserved high-quality environment resources, river basins were taken as a basis among natural regional elements. The main object of analysis conducted were the facts relevant to environmental regulation. The Gangwon-do consists of three regions in this study: Yongdong region, North-Hangang region and South-Hangang region. The analysis of each region regulation cases showed the following: in Youngdong region the forests regulation rate is high, in North-Hangang region the military installations protection sector's rate as well as regulation rate for water resources protection is relatively high, in South-Hangang region the forest and water resources regulation rate is high. The percentage of forests and water regulation rate appeared to be rather high in Gangwon-do, which means that the value of forest and water resources there is very high.

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An Analysis on the Factors Affecting the Level of Globalization of Korean Venture Business (한국의 벤처기업은 태생적 글로벌기업인가: 벤처기업의 국제화에 미치는 영향 요인 분석)

  • Kim, Jong Woon
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.11 no.3
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    • pp.37-48
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    • 2016
  • The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the degree of export intensity of Korean venture businesses, and to analyze the effect of export intensity on corporate performance. We use 1,970 firm data (from Venture Business Survey by Small & Medium Business Administration) and analyze the possible factors of the CEO characteristics, the corporate characteristics, and the environmental factors. Our analysis shows that Korean venture business' CEO characteristics, such as his/her doctoral degree and marketing work experiences, increase their export intensity statistically significantly, while their age does not. In addition, the companies who outsource their products have a higher export intensity, and, as the firm age increases, the export intensity decreases significantly. It is also analyzed that, as the number of export regions or FDI regions increases, their export intensity goes higher. However, firms' higher level of internationalization does not bring higher performance of the venture firms, while it does significantly for the venture firms that are older than 10 years. The result implies that CEO's education or work experiences and strategic approaches are important for corporate globalization, and that it takes time for globalizing venture firms to be able to garner profits from their global investments.

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A Study on the Interaction between Online Public Benefit Projects and Users: Alipay's ANT FOREST Focuses on Analysis (온라인 공익 프로젝트와 사용자의 상호작용관계에 관한 연구: 알리페이의 앤트 프레스트를 분석중심으로)

  • Zhao, Xiaolong;Lian, Zexu
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.20 no.8
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    • pp.513-521
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    • 2020
  • Launched in August, 2016, the online public benefit project ANT FOREST has planted more than one hundred million trees in desertification areas and is currently continuing on with its activities. It is a fruit of online communications network development, and the public benefit project based on this puts more emphasis on the spirits of public interest rather than the investments of public services, unlike traditional public benefit activities. Hence the purpose of this study is to figure out the interaction between the users supporting the online public benefit and the public benefit progress online. The study was divided into 4 stages in order to find out the interaction, key factors for users to continue to support online public interest. First, preceeding studies on online public benefit will be reviewed to understand the characteristics of online public benefit. Second, determine the public benefit nature of ANT FOREST and investigate the project progress. Third, review the usage rate of ANT FOREST and categorize the properties of users. Fourth, interview was conducted to direct the interaction between the online public benefit project and the user. In conclusion, the online public benefit project completes the public benefit process through the user, the operator, and the supporter, the important factor connecting the energy connecting the process in cyber space and the public benefit activity in reality is the sense of participation, and the user continues the public benefit project through this sense of participation.

Greenhouse Gas Reduction from Paddy by Environmentally-Friendly Intermittent Irrigation: A Review (환경 친화적인 간단관개를 통한 논에서의 온실가스 저감)

  • Choi, Joongdae;Uphoff, Norman;Kim, Jonggun;Lee, Suin
    • Journal of Wetlands Research
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.43-56
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    • 2019
  • Irrigated and flooded rice paddy contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that affect climate. This in turn affects the supply and reliability of the water needed for rice production. This dynamic makes current rice production methods foreseeably less sustainable over time while having other undesirable effects. Intermittent irrigation by a means of the system of rice intensification (SRI) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) methods was reviewed to reduce global warming potential (GWP) from 29% to 90% depending on site-specific characteristics from flooded rice paddy and analyzed to be a promising option for enhancing the productivity of water as well, an increasingly constraining resource. Additional benefits associated with the SRI/AWD can be less arsenic in the grain and less degradation of water quality in the run-off from rice paddies. Adoption and expansion of intermittent irrigation of SRI/AWD may require costly public and private investments in irrigation infrastructure that can precisely make irrigation control, and the involvement and upgrading of water management agencies and farmer organizations to enhance management capabilities. Private and public collaboration as a means of earning carbon credit under the clean-development mechanism (CDM) with SRI/AWD for industries to meet as a part of their GHG emission quota as well as a social contribution and publicity program could contribute to adopt intermittent irrigation and rural investment and development. Also, inclusion of SRI and AWD in programs designed under CDM and/or in official development assistance (ODA) projects could contribute to climate-change mitigation and help to achieve UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).

A Study on the Feasibility Evaluation of Overseas Wind Power Projects with RETScreen Software (RETScreen를 활용한 풍력발전사업의 투자 적절성 평가 사례 연구)

  • Lee, Ju-Su;Choi, Bong Seok;Lee, Hwa-Su;Jeon, Eui Chan
    • Journal of Climate Change Research
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.105-114
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    • 2013
  • Recently, foreign direct investment of Korea has increased significantly. Foreign direct investment is motivated by various reasons and renewable energy investments in foreign countries can be performed by many causes. Korean companies can enjoy the export of products, related EPC contracts, acquisition of the knowledge of the project management technique, pre-occupying effect of the market and profit itself. Wind power projects have biggest share in the investment amounts among the renewable energy business. So, in this study, one wind farm project was selected and supposed to be invested in China, USA, Germany and UK at the same time and the effect of electricity price, corporate income tax, inflation rate and interest rate of debt were analyzed. The result showed that investing in Germany is most profitable because of the highest electricity price and electricity price and debt interest rate are the most sensitive factors for IRR. This approach would be helpful to make decisions in investing foreign wind power projects.

Case Study on ESG Activities and Performance in Response to the Climate Change Crisis (기후변화 위기에 대응하는 건설기업 ESG 활동 및 성과 사례)

  • Lee, Yoonsun;Moon, Hyuk;Lee, Tai Sik
    • Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.106-118
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    • 2021
  • Global governments and initiatives have attempted and integrated various organizational efforts to implement the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), presenting a new paradigm of sustainable development to address global issues (climate change, poverty eradication, and human rights). Recently, investment in sustainable finance has expanded to finance the attainment of goals set out in the Paris Agreement and SDGs. Non-financial factors such as environment, social responsibility, and governance (ESG) have become intangible assets that determine the future competitiveness and profitability of companies. Domestic and foreign institutional investors and asset management companies have been expanding their investments based on the ESG performance of companies. In this study, we aim to derive international standards and initiatives that require disclosure of information on corporate social responsibility activities and ESG performance and analyze construction companies' ESG activities and performance levels. The results of this study can be used as the basis to develop platforms for the construction industry ESG ecosystem and the measurement and management of intangible assets. These could ultimately contribute to overcoming the crisis in the future due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, fostering net-zero emissions, and preventing fatal workplace accidents in the construction industry.

The Influence of Ethical Leadership and Collaborative Communication on IS Behavior in Organizations: The Role of Trust and Person-Organization Fit (조직 내 정보보안 행동 관련 윤리적 리더십과 협력적 커뮤니케이션의 영향: 신뢰 및 개인-조직 적합성 역할)

  • In-Ho Hwang
    • The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.465-474
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    • 2023
  • As the effective use and strong protection of an organization's information resources are recognized as a condition for the growth of an organization, they are increasing technological and policy investments in IS(information security). However, information exposure can occur from external invasions such as hacking and incidents related to misuse and abuse by insiders. This study proposes a mechanism that considers the organizational environment and individual characteristics from the viewpoint of promoting employees' IS participation activities. In other words, the study presents the complex effects of organizational environmental factors (ethical leadership, IS collaborative communication) and personal factors (person-organization fit) on organization trust and IS voice behavior. We surveyed office workers who asked for IS-related business activities and tested hypotheses using 422 samples. As a result, ethical leadership influenced organization trust through collaborative communication, and organization trust strengthened IS voice behavior by having an interaction effect with person-organization fit. This study suggests direction for establishing an organizational environment for promoting IS-related activities by office workers, so it provides practical implications for organizations with goals related to internal information exposure control.

Algorithm for Correcting Error in Smart Card Data Using Bus Information System Data (버스정보시스템 데이터를 활용한 교통카드 정류장 정보 오류 보정 알고리즘)

  • Hye Inn Song;Hwa Jeong Tak;Kang Won Shin;Sang Hoon Son
    • The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.131-146
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    • 2023
  • Smart card data is widely used in the public transportation field. Despite the inevitability of various errors occur during the data collection and storage; however, smart card data errors have not been extensively studied. This paper investigates inherent errors in boarding and alighting station information in smart card data. A comparison smart card data and bus boarding and alighting survey data for the same time frame shows that boarding station names differ by 6.2% between the two data sets. This indicates that the error rate of smart card data is 6.2% in terms of boarding station information, given that bus boarding and alighting survey data can be considered as ground truth. This paper propose 6-step algorithm for correcting errors in smart card boarding station information, linking them to corresponding information in Bus Information System(BIS) Data. Comparing BIS data and bus boarding and alighting survey data for the same time frame reveals that boarding station names correspond by 98.3% between the two data sets, indicating that BIS data can be used as reliable reference for ground truth. To evaluate its performance, applying the 6-step algorithm proposed in this paper to smart card data set shows that the error rate of boarding station information is reduced from 6.2% to 1.0%, resulting in a 5.2%p improvement in the accuracy of smart card data. It is expected that the proposed algorithm will enhance the process of adjusting bus routes and making decisions related to public transportation infrastructure investments.