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Recently, the Republic of Korea has experienced natural disasters, such as typhoons and heavy rainfall, as well as social accidents, such as large-scale accidents and infectious diseases, which are continuously occurring. Despite repeated disasters, problems such as inefficient early response and overlapping command systems occur continuously. In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of disaster management systems by foreign countries, and the status of the damages by disasters for the past 10 years in the Republic of Korea, to suggest possible measures to improve the Republic of Korea’s integrated disaster management system. When a disaster occurs in the Republic of Korea, the Si/Gun/Gu Disaster Safety Measure Headquarters, under the command of the local governments, become the responsible agencies for disaster response while the central government supervises and controls the overall disaster support and disaster management. To improve the current disaster management system, we propose to incorporate all disaster types rather than dividing them by type into natural disasters and social disasters. To improve the disaster response and disaster management system, we propose to restructure the current administrative organization, revise the disaster-related laws, and overcome problems, such as inter-ministerial interconnectivity and overlapping regulation.

In today’s increasingly competitive coffee industry, the point of running a good coffee shop is no longer to run a coffee and beverage shop simply, but to focus on the quality of service and the value that customers feel as a result. Previous studies have mainly discussed the customer satisfaction and behavioral intention of restaurants, while few studies have explored the influencing factors of customer satisfaction and behavioral intention of chain coffee shops. Given that the perceived service quality theory and DINESERV model can effectively predict customer satisfaction and behavioral intention, this study took 385 consumers in the first Starbucks Reserve flagship store in China as survey objects. SmartPLS 3.0 software was used to explore the relationship among respondents’ perceived service quality, customer perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intention. The results show that service quality has a partially significant positive effect on perceived value. Perceived service quality and customers’ perceived value both have significant positive effects on satisfaction. Customers’ satisfaction has a significant positive effect on their behavioral intention. These results indicate that enterprises should strengthen the emotional bond between consumers and enterprises and improve the reliability, assurance, and empathy of perceived service quality to create a better emotional resonance between consumers and the Starbucks brand to improve customer satisfaction. At the same time, it should also promote the symbolic perceived value of Chinese consumers to Starbucks to realize the sustainable development of coffee-shop operation and consumer repurchase. This study expands the research on the service quality, perceived value, and behavioral intention of coffee chain enterprises in the context of non-habitual coffee-drinking countries. Moreover, it provides case support for the operation and research of regional cultural consumption habits of international catering chain enterprises.

In an era of environmental crisis, the world is at a perilous moment. The fight between sustainability and economical choice has been a contentious matter and the world is facing environmental uncertainties today. The main purpose of the present study is to prepare an integrated exploration of the development of consciousness in all business categories. This study also focuses on the indispensable roles and impact of top management in merging the commitment and abilities to environmental leadership and thus, adds a contemporary insight into how businesses, economic stakeholders, government authorities, and the general human sphere can mitigate the runaway menace of environmental issues. Finally, the current authors conclude that the environment is the supernatural force that is making life a possibility on the planet. Therefore, every human operation should be regulated by the approaches mentioned in this study and efforts made through the strategic principles and theories of leadership.

This study introduces a novel methodology to calculate the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction related to residual emissions, calculating the CO2 emission reduction through a 2 MW (40 tCO2/day) carbon capture and utilization (CCU) plant installed at a 500 MW coal-fired power plant in operation, to evaluate the accuracy, maintainability, and reliability of the quantified reduction. By applying the developed methodology to calculate the CO2 emission reduction, the established amount of CO2 reduction in the mineral carbonation was evaluated through recorded measurement and monitoring data of the 2 MW CCU plant at the operating coal-fired plant. To validate the reduction, the accuracy, reproducibility, consistency, and maintainability of the reduction should be secured, and based on these qualifications, it is necessary to evaluate the contribution rate of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) in each country. This fundamental study establishes the concept of CCU CO2 reduction and quantifies the reduction to obtain the validation of each country for the reduction. The established concept of the CCU in this study can also be applied to other CCU systems to calculate the reduction, thereby providing an opportunity for CCU technology to contribute to the NDCs in each country and invigorate the technology.

This study investigates the performance of the “green refurbishment” of existing buildings. Two ordinary rooms in an existing building were chosen for examination. Refurbishment measures such as additional insulation, high-performance glazing, and air-tightening were applied to the control room. Temperature and electricity use were monitored to identify heating performance in winter and then compared with a baseline. The results of the field tests showed that green refurbishment significantly improved heating performance. Lowered heating load and electricity use with increased airtightness were also verified through building performance simulations. The empirical investigation suggests a predictive model to obtain indoor minimum temperatures as a function of outdoor temperature swings.

With information technology (IT) now showing advanced capabilities, many new services are being introduced to consumers of smartphones through the various available app stores. Moreover, the recent proliferation of such services related to information and communications technology has seen a momentous rise. Despite this trend, the ever-changing landscape of mobile IT services is creating a serious problem for businesses who are already experiencing fierce market conditions. Thus, in order to maintain the sustainability of an enterprise, it is necessary to make an adequate analysis of the success and failure factors of IT services in order to create a sustained competitive advantage. Considering 22 real IT service cases based on two platform models (merchant model and two-sided model) and through surveys submitted to 11 experienced entrepreneurs in IT services, we conducted a t-test analysis in order to first assess the success and failure factors of the IT service cases. Next, we performed a logistic regression analysis in order to find underlying relationships of our hypothesized model. The results showed that the participants identified 141 success and 101 failure factors in total with the t-tests, confirming that the distinction between success and failure of each IT service assessed was significant. Next, the results from the logistic regression showed which relationships were the best on the basis of the given platform model. Overall, this study was able to identify the main factors that have an influence on the success and failure of IT services based on two identified platform models. In doing so, this paper can help to inform future IT service entrepreneurs and researchers involved in developing new apps based on IT services by providing a guide to what factors need to be considered before going to market.

Direct mineral carbonation (MC) is used to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This method has the great advantages of reducing the amount of industrial residues and creating valuable materials by incorporating CO2. Waste gypsum, industrial waste including flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum (25.27–53.40 wt% of CaO), and phosphogypsum (30.50–39.06 wt% of CaO) can be used for direct MC (conversion rate up to 96%). Mineral carbonation converts waste gypsum into calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which can be recycled during desulfurization. Furthermore, ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4), which is used as a fertilizer, can be prepared as a by-product when the carbonation reaction is performed using ammonia (NH3) as a base. In this study, recent progress in the carbonation kinetics and preparation of CaCO3 using FGD gypsum and phosphogypsum with NH3 was investigated. Temperature, CO2 partial pressure, CO2 flow rate, and NH3 concentration were reviewed as factors affecting carbonation kinetics and efficiency. The factors influencing the polymorphs of the prepared CaCO3 were also reviewed and summarized. A state-of-the-art bench-scale plant study was also proposed. In addition, economic feasibility was investigated based on a bench-scale study to analyze the future applicability of this technology.