Economics Ecology Socium

Analysis of Reliability and Cost of Complex Systems with Metaheuristic Algorithms

Shivani Choudhary, Mangey Ram, Nupur Goyal, Seema Saini — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. The assessment of the reliability and cost of complex systems, such as Complex Bridge Systems (CBS) and Life Support Systems in Space Capsules (LSSSC), is fascinating. To achieve the ideal system design through diverse constraints and increase overall system reliability, researchers have extensively explored system reliability and cost optimization problems. Hence, the significant advancement in metaheuristic methods is the primary source of further system reliability and cost optimization process refinement.

Aim and tasks. This research attempts to enhance the reliability and cost of complex systems named CBC and LSSSC has been presented.

Results. The structure is based on few recent metaheuristic techniques, such as Moth Flame Optimization (MFO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), Gazelle Optimization Algorithm (GOA), Dragonfly Algorithm (DA), and Coati Optimization Algorithm (COA). Comparing the acquired findings to those found in other proposed techniques demonstrates the usefulness of a methodology based on COA. The proposed COA algorithm exhibits enhanced efficiency by offering superior solutions to reliability and cost-optimization problems. In addition, a non-parametric Friedman ranking was performed for validation. The results of this research are based on improving the reliability of the parameters and decreasing complex systems’ costs used by the five metaheuristic methods. Observing the convergence graph, Friedman ranking, statistical results test, and tables determined that COA is the most effective algorithm for a complex system’s cost and reliability parameters compared to other existing approaches, and also provided a faster solution.

Conclusions. This study proposes unique ways to reduce costs while increasing parameter reliability in complex systems. After analysing the comparative solution, the authors found that when comparing these approaches (GOA, DA, MFO, WOA, and COA), the COA provided the best minimum solution for the cost and reliability of complex systems. Hence, the suggested COA procedure was more successful than that described in this study.

A Review of Circularity Indicators and Psychological Factors: a Comprehensive Analysis of Circularity Practices in Organizations

Andreea Loredana Birgovan, Elena Simina Lakatos, Viorel Nita, Anamaria Sim — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. In a booming global economy of finite resources, pandemics, armed conflict and irresponsible over-consumption, attention to the nature of finite resources becomes imperative. The transition to a circular economic model lies at the intersection of economic development and environmental protection needs, significantly impacting today's society and future generations. Research and understanding of the circular economy are catalysts for accelerating processes to change the current unsustainable paradigm. This study reviews the literature and identifies how circularity indicators are addressed at the organisational level.

Aim and tasks. The study aims to review and synthesise the literature on micro-level circular indicators, psychological factors, and relevant theories in the context of organisational performance, as well as identify knowledge gaps and ways the two elements can be integrated into the circularity assessment.

Results. The study shows no universally accepted method to measure the circular economy at the organisational level. Most indicators focus only on the environment, ignoring the social dimension, while many indicators in the literature are not standardized and cannot be compared. It has also been identified that the social component needs to be better represented, with all the attention focused on the environment. Within the social component, organisational psychology (organisational culture, satisfaction, attitudes, leadership, motivation, and employee well-being) is almost not represented in the studies and indicators, as they are highly relevant to the social component.

Conclusions. This systematic review provides an overview of existing indicators and measurement tools at the organisational level. Following the analysis and results presented above, it can be said that although underexplored, the social dimension of the circular economy has begun to attract attention in the literature. The present research highlights the relevance of the social aspect in the circular economy and suggests that it has been undervalued in research to date. Irrespective of the specific areas of interest of different studies, there is a growing need for a more comprehensive understanding of the social impact of the circular economy, which would include all aspects of social life, from jobs and education to civic engagement and behaviour change.

Analysis of the Advancement of Public-Private Partnership in Ukraine

Mykola Negrych, Viktor Vashkevych, Olena Tkachenko, Oleksandr Kuchmieiev — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. The significant amount of destruction caused by the war in Ukraine necessitates the involvement of all forms of financial and organizational support for the country's reconstruction process. A tried-and-tested method of attracting resources to this process is a public-private partnership. The intensification of public-private partnerships aims to meet the basic needs of the population during martial law before creating the necessary conditions for economic recovery after the war. Since the war led to the stagnation of the specified process, the obstacles and peculiarities of public-private partnerships in this period need to be researched.

Aim and tasks. The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of martial law conditions on the activation of public-private partnerships to reveal its role in the recovery of the country's economy based on the analysis of available data to identify trends and significant results that can shed light on the activation of the public-private partnership process. This determines the following tasks: to investigate obstacles to the activation of public-private partnership from 2021 to this time, and to establish peculiarities, urgent directions, and prerequisites for implementing projects, measures, methods, and forms of public-private partnership in the specified period.

Results. The analysis showed that, in recent years, the contractual discipline of partnership projects has significantly deteriorated, and the range of directions for their implementation has narrowed and does not correspond to the priorities specified in the legislation. Thus, in 2021, only 16% of agreements were realized, 16.6% were terminated, and 61.6% still needed to be implemented. Directions for their implementation are not urgent in wartime conditions. Business activity is restrained by the risks of war, incomplete compliance of the legal framework with the conditions of war, and the intensification of illegal actions against investment objects. In total, 363 court cases related to raiding were initiated in 2023, reflecting a two-fold increase compared to 2022. The identified peculiarities, directions, and prerequisites for the implementation of public-private partnerships intensify the implementation process.

Conclusions. Measures to reduce risks and change the approaches to their distribution in partnership agreements have been proposed. It is proposed to introduce an institute of small investors, which will strengthen public control of public-private partnership projects and ensure the attraction of additional private investments in the process of rebuilding the country. This is substantiated by the fact that 61% of the surveyed citizens are ready to participate financially in the reconstruction of the country's infrastructure and 33% are ready to participate if they have a financial opportunity.

Innovative Aspect of E-Commerce Development in Ukraine

Iryna Gamova, Nataliia Shportiuk, Ganna Duginets, Tatiana Busarieva — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. The share of e-trading in the total volume of the Ukrainian retail sales market tends to increase. Since innovative trade approaches open new perspectives and provide the possibility of doing business in conditions of significant challenges, the role of e-commerce in restoring the country's economy becomes more significant. The social role of e-commerce as a source of vital goods for a population is also growing. Therefore, the study of the e-commerce market and analysis of the impact of war on its development have become important tasks.

Aim and tasks. The purpose of this study is to examine the state of the e-commerce market using statistical data, analyze the impact of the war on the development of e-commerce, identify the main market trends, and forecast the main indicators of e-commerce. This determines the following tasks: establishing the peculiarities of the e-commerce market in Ukraine, establishing obstacles to the development of e-commerce, identifying opportunities that e-trading opens up for Ukrainian entrepreneurs, and determining the conditions to be taken into account in the transition of retail trade to e-trading under the challenges of war..

Results. The negative impact of significant market changes in the 2022-2023 was compensated by the growth in active e-commerce users. A change in the growth rate of users by 40% in 2022 was confirmed. This indicates that hostilities changed the range of e-commerce products and that the market share of basic necessities exceeded 50%. The highest annual revenue per user for food products will be 89.4% ahead of the product group closest to this indicator. According to the indicator “Average income from e-commerce per client”, it is predicted to reach 2019 only in 2026. Sales changes for the main product groups in 2024 have been established. According to the “Highest annual revenue per user” indicator, food products will exceed the value for 2023 by 25% and personal care products by 9.4%.

Conclusions. Innovative technologies (e-marketplace, analysis of buyer profiles, omnichannel communication with consumers, m-trading, etc.) that contribute to the development of e-commerce and the interaction of these technologies and market needs are identified. The peculiarities of the Ukrainian e-commerce market during the war were established. Obstacles to the development of e-commerce and the opportunities that e-trading opens for Ukrainian entrepreneurs have been identified. The conditions that must be considered during the transition from retail trade to e-trading due to the challenges of war, which is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises, are determined.

Assessing Therapy and Rehabilitation Comprehension of Chemical Labelling and Forming Chemical Safety Competence Specialists

Аlla Ishchenko, Nataliia Stuchynska, Lesya Yanitska — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. Considering the higher risk of man-made chemical disasters due to military operations, the demand for the training of qualified therapists and rehabilitators is increasing. Future healthcare professionals should be competent in chemical safety and fully possess information on the designation and classification of hazardous substances and the labelling of chemical substances. Therefore, the relevance of their competent risk assessment is growing regarding the use of dangerous chemical substances of an inorganic and organic nature and their anthropogenic influence.

Aim and tasks. The paper aims to determine the formation of chemical safety competence among future specialists in therapy and rehabilitation.

The results. A questionnaire established that future rehabilitators should acquire chemical safety competence to decipher hazard markings and possess information about the rules for working with chemicals based on a detailed study of the marking and labelling of chemical substances and rules for their use and disposal. Only 47.1% of the respondents (according to their assessment) knew the rules for handling chemicals, and 41.2% deciphered a potential danger to human health (carcinogenic effect). However, 88.2% of the higher education students interviewed wanted to develop chemical safety competence using unique chemical safety cards.

Conclusions. The correct interpretation of the marking constituent elements allows for avoiding accidents and injuries while handling chemicals, and in the moment of a threat to human health or damage, allows the application of the given algorithm for providing first aid. Therefore, understanding the main components of chemical safety by future rehabilitators is possible through applying relevant knowledge, skills and abilities in further professional activities. However, future therapists and rehabilitators cannot correctly decipher the designation of the carcinogenic danger and do not have complete information about the rules for working with chemical substances. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct additional activities for future therapists and rehabilitators for their better understanding of the rules for handling chemicals and deciphering the dangers indicated on the labels of chemical products.

Management and Marketing of the Wartime Agribusiness in Ukraine

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. Full-scale military actions led to the need for radical changes in the management of agricultural enterprises. Effective management of Ukrainian agribusiness under conditions of military aggression can contribute to the stability of revenues to the country's budget and strengthen national security, particularly in providing the population with food and jobs in depressed rural regions. The state of war in Ukraine determines the peculiarities of the activities of agricultural enterprises and, accordingly, forms the peculiarities of agricultural management, which requires scientific research.

Aim and tasks. The study aims to develop directions and tools for managing agricultural enterprises in the conditions of war in Ukraine. The task of the study was to develop a mathematical model of operational change in the goal of an agro-enterprise, establish conditions for changing agribusiness goals, determine wartime requirements for agribusiness management, and assess the impact of the war on the components of the resource potential of agricultural enterprises.

Results. A mathematical model of the operative change in the purpose of an agro-enterprise under the conditions of acquisition of integral risks, including the risk of military operations, of a degree greater than 50%, has been developed. The study of the components of the resource potential established the following: the growth of the dynamism of the land market, the acceleration of the redistribution of land ownership - the alienated area of land in 2023 compared to 2022 has almost doubled; the share of individual entrepreneurs in the total number increased by 19.8% in 2022; a decrease in the level of provision of labour resources, which has long-term and short-term dimensions related to military operations, reducing the volume of imports of agricultural machinery by approximately 30–35%. The implementation of effective management requires a comprehensive approach to the formation of systemic prerequisites for agricultural activity and the improvement of the structure of agricultural production, taking into account the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Conclusions. The developed mathematical model makes it possible to change the goals of agricultural enterprises in an operational manner and form an appropriate level of competitiveness to ensure the viability of agricultural enterprises. The proposed directions and management tools of agricultural enterprises will ensure an increase in the efficiency of agribusiness management during wartime conditions. Evaluation of the impact of the war on the components of the resource potential of agricultural enterprises will increase the efficiency of resource use.

Assessment of Consistency in the Functioning of Seaports of Ukraine

Lyudmila Sotnychenko, Oleksandr Haichenia, Taras Omelchenko, Kateryna Kuzmenko — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. Seaports in a state’s economies are the main levers of economic development, investment generators, and innovation demand. Modern trade ports are open systems that are influenced by many factors. During the last decades of globalization and innovative technologies, an essential factor in the competitiveness of seaports, such as the stability of the functioning of Ukraine, is gaining relevance. The improvement of port management is driven by the urgent need to apply innovative strategies and methods to ensure the development and efficiency of the port industry due to the impact of many factors affecting the stability and growth of the port system.

Aim and tasks. The aim of the study is to assess the influence of various factors on the consistency of the management system of the port industry.

Result. An algorithm for forming generalized stability indicators for the functioning system of the port industry is proposed. Using an entropy approach to the management indicators of the development of the port industry functioning system showed an increase in the indicators of the ship operations group by 1.07% and cargo operations by 1.01%, a decrease in the financial group by 1.65%, and a port environment by 1.30%. The application of the established approach and the defined sequence of relevant calculations will allow ports to respond sensitively to violations of the stability of their system both at the industry and individual port levels and to find answers for each group of selected influential indicators for the finance group, the ship and cargo operations group, and the port environment. The main difference between the proposed approach and the existing ones is the calculation of the overall level of functioning of the port management system, which is based on the accumulation of the values of the relevant integral indicators for groups of indicators such as finance, ship-cargo operations, and port environment.

Conclusions. The operation system of the port economy can be considered from the perspective of researching its various states, which are a consequence of the dynamics of the external environment. This allows us to use such a quality of entropy by considering the final nature of the management processes of the industry. This will help determine the nature of trends that can be considered in the future when forecasting the port industry’s development directions and when making relevant comparisons in the industry at the national and global levels.

Innovative Models of Green Entrepreneurship: Social Impact on Sustainable Development of Local Economies

Olha Prokopenko, Anna Chechel, Artem Koldovskiy, Maria Kldiashvili — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. Green entrepreneurship has become a powerful new force, driving sustainability and promoting economic development within local economies. This research explains how small-scale green entrepreneurship activity has its desired role in environmentally affected matters and any economic grow-ups from the low ends.

Aims and tasks. The study aims to analyze green entrepreneurship models and highlight successful initiatives in various regions, including those related to solar energy, green agriculture and green product development startups, to understand the impact related to social, economic and environmental factors.

Results. The findings in the research indicate that creativity is an important business strategy, partnerships in the strategic plan, application of technology and capturing communities in driving green entrepreneurship. As such, the study discovered that business models were continuously associated with the creation of jobs, and in average 15,000 new jobs per region were created. North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America contributed significantly. Thus, as well as through strategic partnerships and technology adoption, it has contributed to a reduction in CO2 emissions by an average of 60,000 tons a year across all regions. The success of green entrepreneurship models is analyzed using empirical case studies and real-life examples to bring out core issues requiring action and offer recommendations to policy makers, investors, and entrepreneurs on how to implement green business models further.

Conclusions. The research underlines the dynamic capability of green startups to solve environmental issues along with its shifting economy and community interface. An essential role of green entrepreneurs is the ability to use creative mindsets together with progressive tie-ups. This therefore engenders positive change and leads the way to a more equal and sustainable world. Going further, all critical characters in the area must still be inspired and enlightened to launch more green entrepreneurship initiatives to provide more significant influence on transitioning to a more sustainable society.

Energy Marketing and Fiscal Regulation of a Competitive Energy Efficiency System

Nataliia Kuzmynchuk, Tetiana Kutsenko, Serhii Aloshyn, Oleksandra Terovanesova — Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction. Developing and implementing the principles of the energy-saving approach concept actualizes the need to define energy marketing tasks and fiscal regulation tools for energy conservation to increase the efficiency of using resources in the energy sector.

Aim and tasks. The aim of this study is to form and substantiate the expediency of implementing directions for energy marketing development and fiscal regulation of implementing energy-saving measures to achieve the goals of national economic recovery and large-scale energy modernization.

The results. The main tasks of energy marketing in monitoring the current world environment based on information and communication technologies have been defined and substantiated, and that should become a source of competitive advantage in the electric energy market and obtain significant income for market participants. It has been proven that using oligopoly models to determine the equilibrium condition of the electric energy market will make it possible to form a corrective managerial influence on the development of a competitive energy industry. With a 3-fold increase in the demand parameter, it has been established that the electricity market reaches equilibrium under the equilibrium model of supply functions with larger electricity production volumes and lower prices than in other models. It has been proposed to introduce tools for fiscal regulation by introducing energy-saving technologies into a single system of solutions to increase energy efficiency and energy saving.

Conclusions. Analysing and generalizing the features of energy market participants’ interaction using a wide range of oligopoly models made it possible to develop recommendations for implementing strategic security-related tasks. If these tasks are not realized, the risks of losing energy independence will increase, and the economic potential necessary for the restoration and further development of the national economy will continue to be lost based on the principles of sustainable development and a systematic approach to setting and achieving the goal of the national energy-saving policy. The feasibility of introducing tools for budget regulation is also justified, which will create a robust creative basis for implementing an effective strategy for managing the demand for energy resources.