Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine Volume 13, Issue 4, Year 2022 by Romanian Distribution Committee

Editorial: Lessons to Learn in Adapting to Market Uncertainty. Limitation of Perspective, Balance of Feedback, and Experimenting Along the Way

In our first RDC Magazine issue (Purcarea, 2010) we wrote about information, knowledge, education and culture, and invited the subscribers, advisory committee members, associate editors and the reviewers to take full advantage of this opportunity to contribute to a great agenda of sharing results by bringing confidence in critical times. We also expressed the belief that we will move forward thanks to their spirit of exploration, focus, innovation and consistency Three years later, we used the following starting question: “If the art of creating the brand can do better, could we all in the “global community” do better?” Within this framework we showed that: “We communicate more and more, and in different ways. We are talking increasingly more and more about our rights, and less about our responsibilities. And when we talk about the responsibilities, we are doing so looking more at other people, all of us knowing that the world is being shaped by ideas and by the way we are habituated to perceive. We watch, comment and act by imitating more, with more or less discernment in the context of information bombardment to which we are subject… On the other hand, we all know that, in the end, our life won’t change until we want it to change” (Purcarea, 2013).

In November 2022, Colin Shaw, a LinkedIn ‘Top Voice’ & influencer Customer Experience & Marketing, as well a Financial Times Award Leading Consultancy 4 Straight Years, described the current environment as “very stressful, with many things you cannot

control, which makes a few things on the path forward uncertain” . He explained how after putting a poll question on LinkedIn received extremely interesting answers, as shown in figure below.

Figure no. 1: Poll question on LinkedIn: “What are you expecting the business environment will be over the next year?”

Source: Shaw, C., 2022. In an Increasingly MAD World, Here Are 5 Rules for Managing Uncertainty, LinkedIn Newsletter series, Tue, Nov 15, 6:57 PM (work cited)

Consequently, Shaw launched the invitation to talk about the way of managing uncertainty based on five rules (Recognize uncertainty is uncomfortable; Remember, the upside of uncertainty is that it provides opportunity; Control the controllable; Be alerted to be prepared; Hope for the best and plan for the worst), saying in conclusion that: “If you can look at things from a positive perspective and see things differently, you could come out even better on the other side. ”

In the same month, a study by Insider Intelligence (Goldman, 2022) underlined that marketing leaders are being forced to adapt to market uncertainty by both shifting priorities, and embrace agility. This need of having a better ability to think and understand quickly is determined by their marketing priorities (marketing systems/technology, digital transformation, advertising and customer insights/data, and customer loyalty) and necessary channel investments (social media advertising, display and online video advertising, mobile app, website, and e-mail being the most critical customer touchpoints for marketing departments in 2023, as in 2022)

With regard to metaverse, it is interesting to note that more than one in five respondents (22%) believe it will be a major focus (as channel investments) in 2023, a significant increase compared to 2022 (9%). And from the point of view of US marketing leaders’ expectations concerning the macroeconomic/market developments with the most impact on their business in 2023 we can see in figure below that inflation is placed in the first position.

Figure no. 2: Macroeconomic/Market Developments US Marketing Leaders Expect to Have the Most Impact on Their Businesses in 2023

Source: Goldman, J., 2022. Marketing leaders are somewhat optimistic about the economy, but they are being forced to adapt to market uncertainty, Insider Intelligence, Nov 23, 2022 (work cited)

To navigate rising inflation, European retailers, for instance, can set up according to McKinsey’s representatives (Bright et al., 2022) a control tower (a so-called centralized “inflation management office”) acting on commercial effectiveness, resilience in supply chain and sourcing, and productivity in general and administrative functions (based on a longer-term action plan, of course).

And as consumers are dramatically impacted by inflation (Hamstra, 2022), it is imperative to pay attention to the already changed shopping behaviors. As revealed by McKinsey’s research (Bazzoni et al., 2022), a quest for better value for money and better prices/promotions (see figure below) represent an obvious aspect of changed shopping behavior (because of consumers’ need for more affordable both brands, and retailers).

Figure no. 3: Better prices/promotions and better value for money consistently are key reasons for switching brands

Source: Bazzoni, E., Mijer, M., Jacob, M., Welchering, S., Land, S. and Moulton, J., 2022. European consumer pessimism intensifies in the face of rising prices, McKinsey & Company Growth, Marketing & Sales Insights, Survey, October 27, 2022 (work cited)

In the summer this year, Preet Banerjee, a behavioral finance expert, showed how difficult was to precisely predict what’s happening today, inflation being, for example, a consequence of a number of factors coming together immediately (Speakers' Spotlight, 2022). On the other hand, as very recently shown by Retail Brew (Newman, 2022), when consumers notice a product has been shrinkflated (downsized) they choose a different brand (48% of respondents, according to an August report by Morning Consult), and that within the context in which #shrinkflation videos on TikTok collected more than 296 million views, while on the social media website Reddit a shrinkflation subreddit (online community & posts associated with it) has more than 44,900 members.

Focused on effective leadership in difficult times, Christian Harrison (2022) underlined how vital in good leaders is to question the way things are done and make teams think in new ways (including by using mind-mapping, brainstorming and gamification) about existing challenges. Six years ago, Leigh Thompson, Professor of Management & Organizations, and Director of Kellogg Team and Group Research Center was cited for saying: “When team members are thinking through different possible courses of action, then everybody can be writing cards that talk about a pro and a con. This helps build a balance of feedback Let’s talk about the positives; then let’s talk about the negatives” (Walsh, 2016).

More recently, we read about two great discussions:

• The first one, between Daniel Burstein, Senior Director, Content & Marketing, MarketingSherpa and MECLABS Institute and Jasmin Guthmann, Head of Corporate

Communication, Contentstack, and also Vice President of MACH Alliance (Burstein, 2022). And while talking about getting the marketer in the right mindset to really produce, Guthmann said: “… applying things that you read in books can be hard. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But an idea that I read and that I then tried out with the team is we start our weekly team meeting with gratefulness exercise.” She made reference to a book that has a particular meaning written by James Clear, and entitled “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones”. As we also read this book, allow us on our turn to cite a quote from this above-mentioned book: “We all deal with setbacks but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible. Maybe there are people who can achieve incredible success overnight. I don’t know any of them, and I’m certainly not one of them… What I offer you is a synthesis of the best ideas smart people figured out a long time ago as well as the most compelling discoveries scientists have made recently. My contribution, I hope, is to find the ideas that matter most and connect them in a way that is highly actionable. Anything wise in these pages you should credit to the many experts who preceded me. Anything foolish, assume it is my error” (Clear, 2018);

• The other one, between Katherine Tam, a member of McKinsey Global Publishing (McKinsey’s New York Office) and the social-change strategist Jacob Harold, the cofounder of Candid (the former CEO of GuideStar), and author of a new book entitled “The Toolbox: Strategies for Crafting Social Impact” , John Wiley & Sons, December 2022 (McKinsey & Company, 2022). From the very beginning, Harold explained how within the context of the current very complicated challenges he made an effort to offer a set of tested tools to build a better world. He underlined the need of better understanding the limitation of perspective of each of us, and stated: Information is a lifeblood of social change, and technology helps to enable that… We have to develop new techniques and a new kind of psychological resilience to handle this… It will play out differently for each person and in each sector. But my hope is that in the social sector, we can capitalize on the power of connection and information while still maintaining fundamental humanity that isn’t mediated by technology… What we can do is keep a sharp eye on how things are evolving. We can experiment along the way. We can learn, change, and pivot. And all through that, we can figure out how to hold onto that fundamental human passion that drives the desire to make a better world. We can do that in a way that is enabled by technology instead of obscured by technology. ”

Without doubt, to build a better world within the above-mentioned current very complicated challenges it is difficult. But let us try to keep it simple along the right way, by keeping in mind that “What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things” (citing again the wise words spoken by the famous Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi).

Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor-in-Chief

Bazzoni, E., Mijer, M., Jacob, M., Welchering, S., Land, S. and Moulton, J., 2022. European consumer pessimism intensifies in the face of rising prices, McKinsey & Company Growth, Marketing & Sales Insights, Survey, October 27, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/surveyeuropean-consumer-sentiment-during-the-coronavirus-crisis> [Accessed 9 December 2022].

Bright, K., Ciger, G., Laizet, F., Lauer, K. and Monge, A., 2022. How retailers in Europe can navigate rising inflation, Mckinsey & Company, Retail Insights, December 7, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/how-retailers-in-europecan-navigate-rising-inflation?> [Accessed 9 December 2022].

Burstein, D., 2022. Corporate Communication and Marketing Innovation: The dangerous delusion of safety – playing it safe can hurt you more than you know (podcast episode #41), MarketingSherpa, December 07, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/corporate?> [Accessed 8 December 2022].

Clear, J., 2018. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, Publisher: Avery, Illustrated edition, Penguin Random House LLC, New York, October 16, 2018.

Goldman, J., 2022. Marketing leaders are somewhat optimistic about the economy, but they are being forced to adapt to market uncertainty, Insider Intelligence, Nov 23, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/marketing-leaders-somewhatoptimistic-about-economy-they-being-forced-adapt-market-uncertainty?> [Accessed 25 November 2022].

Hamstra, M., 2022. Inflation dramatically impacting shoppers: Survey, Supermarket News, Dec 08, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-financial/inflationdramatically-impacting-shoppers-survey> [Accessed 9 December 2022].

Harrison, C., 2022. Five rules for effective leadership in difficult times, The Conversation, January 24, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://theconversation.com/five-rules-for-effectiveleadership-in-difficult-times-174948> [Accessed 27 December 2022].

McKinsey & Company, 2022, pp. 1-2, 7. Author Talks: A toolbox for social change. [pdf] Jacob Harold interviewed by Katherine Tam, McKinsey Global Publishing, December 22, 2022. Available at: <Jacob Harold _ The Toolbox _ McKinsey Author Talks _ McKinsey> [Accessed 23 December 2022].

Newman, A.A., 2022. Retail Word of the Year: Shrinkflation, Retail Brew, December 22, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2022/12/21/retail-word-of-the-yearshrinkflation? > [Accessed 22 December 2022].

Purcarea, T., 2010. Editorial: An invitation to maturing interdisciplinary dialogue and to becoming architects of conversations generating responsible action, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 1(1), pp. 01-03, August.

References

Purcarea, T., 2013. Editorial: If the art of creating the brand can do better, could we all in the global community do better? Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 4(3), pp. 1-3, September.

Shaw, C., 2022. In an Increasingly MAD World, Here Are 5 Rules for Managing Uncertainty, LinkedIn Newsletter series, Tue, Nov 15, 6:57 PM.

Speakers' Spotlight, 2022. Behavioural Finance Expert Preet Banerjee’s Guide to Fighting Inflation, July 27, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.speakers.ca/2022/07/behaviouralfinance-expert-preet-banerjees-guide-to-fighting-inflation/> [Accessed 27 December 2022].

Walsh, D., 2016. 5 Strategies for Leading a High-Impact Team, Kellogg Insight, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Careers, Leadership, Jul 1 2016. [online] Available at: <https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/five-strategies-for-leading-a-high-impactteam?> [Accessed 6 November 2022].

Prof. Eng. Ph.D. Victor GREU

Abstract

The paper analyses the context of the increasing complexity of World evolutions, now manifesting by the multi-crises we began to face and suffer from, which leads to unpredictable challenges for our ecosystem, resulting from unprecedently complicated and unsustainable processes of this system, as we could count here the climate changes, social and geopolitical unbalances or Earth resources fading. Along with such premises, largely known, we consider, for a more efficacy approach, to also include the role of humankind nature/behaviour and evolution along with these processes, in order to find how we have arrived to this point/level of dramatism at Earth scale and the ways toward appropriate solutions. We believe that, usually, the larger the humankind power, the probability of going to unsafe/unsustainable directions, or even failing the target, is slightly increasing. More than these, from a long history, we know that humankind potential has a dual face: to construct and to destroy. As a matter of fact, we consider that, generally, the fundamental problem of humankind evolution was and remain just our ability to balance this duality for a sustainable/constructive progress, but here the news is that the actual levels of power, complexity and Earth resources, which humankind could use, arrived in a critical combination of parameters. This actual critical combination could be seen like a very sharp sword, for which the technology provided highly strong materials but humankind decisions positive potential, in spite of the science unprecedented progress, is highly impaired by the highly complex and complicated processes of Earth ecosystem. For a more realistic image of the factors to be approached for an optimization analysis, when estimating the actual premises, we consider to count perhaps the most influent, but difficult to control factors of the aimed balance: the ever changing/subjective role of human personality and the crucial multiplying role of technology, where information and communication technology (ICT) is the most prevailing. We think that the education is the main way to change the people toward a better World and the combination of human intelligence (HI) and artificial intelligence (AI), we already approached [6][9], is and will be more and more linked with ICT sustainable development. Among the few certainties of the new normality, we are looking for, the necessity of new paradigms for a multicriteria approach, along with the relativity of any optimization solution in a complex, complicate and interconnected Earth ecosystem of highly dynamic processes, should be included

-Part 4-

Developing information and communications technology to provide more intelligence and leverage more wisdom for a dramatically changing World

As relevant ICT advances, AI is the most complex and also promising, but any optimization should address both measuring and metrics, which are real challenges to define and design for the complex and complicate subsystems of Earth ecosystem, especially for those parts of the processes where ICT/AI is largely involved. Addressing these issues, the paper analyses a comprehensible example for the multi-criteria approach and the relativity of AI development optimization [1], approaching both AI measuring and metric. Although, apparently, the main issue and criteria of the optimization is energy efficiency (among the most important performance parameter for present and future ICT systems), for AI unprecedented advances and expansion this is far from being enough to be considered, especially because of the inherent diversity and complexity of the potential AI applications World-wide. Beyond competition aspects, we noticed the technology advances implications, as AI accelerator chips, which could make the difference in certain areas of applications. Even with such complex AI benchmarks, in the actual dynamic ICT/AI context, it is very difficult to generally optimize/rank the technology advances, but they still provide means to evaluate the typical applications performance differences. Another analysed example, also presenting systemic covering and relevance at Earth scale, referred to the implications of developing safe ICT applications for the huge industry of modern cars, aiming the proper protection/reliability against cyberattacks [2]. The crucial importance of cars industry must be also understood in the crises emergent context, but inherently from multi-criteria point of view (sustainability, energy, reliability, security etc.), being a special part of World critical infrastructure/services. The complex dependence on ICT was proved, this way, more than obvious and highly increasing, in the Earth ecosystem expansion, generating more complex challenges at different levels of development, even when considering the standardization at the United Nations (UN) level, which is surely more and more necessary, as the diversity and complexity increase in every industry. From the resulted list of requirements for achieving a proper protection/reliability against cyberattacks, we could notice that optimizing such complex and dynamic industry/domain is involving a lot of interdependent processes, along with associated human inputs/outputs which are surely relative and time sensitive factors.

Further, we noticed that the ICT optimal development analyses should be extended by deeper refining of context knowledge and multi-criteria optimization at Earth scale and humankind behaviour level. Using one of the special features of ICT development, we consider that a systemic approach should include the proper information management in order to maximize the efficacy and efficiency of optimization analyses, i.e., to refine knowledge in a continuously manner regarding the multi - crises challenges implications on short and long term, but taking into account the unprecedented high level of incertitude and changing which must alter the actual paradigms of development.

There are many lessons to be learned from the cars example/case, as the modern car (especially the emerging self-driving one), along with the smartphone, are perhaps the most relevant symbols of humankind technology progress, where ICT advances impact is more than essential. Still, the protection of modern cars, although a planetary issue with dynamic challenges, considering the increasing complexity and the extended proliferation, is only a facet of World picture, but still relevant here by the impact of ICT involved applications and their fast advances. In fact, all the World seems to be a fast and complicated car, moving still faster by the ICT impact, but sometimes we wonder where to and which are the chances to safely get there! Recalling the mentioned essential role of the proper information management in the modern cars huge industry, the information context and risk factors evaluation must be also considered, for intelligent cars, but also for the rest of the World led by ICT advances. Finally, concrete ways to attend the needed target in the complicate and changing environment of hostile factors could be found by practical sets of measures which should be followed and continuously improved in processes of check and act type.

Paper analysis, which aimed more general and large covering approaches, using the ICT potential at Earth ecosystem scale, also considered the comprehensive frame of the information security standard, given by ISO 27001, the world's best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS), which provides a coherent and holistic approach (meaning that the entire organization is covered, not just IT [4]), i.e., here we have the evidence that the link between information and all the Earth ecosystem is essential, real and functional, as the information is the operational element of the systemic approach. This way, the understanding of refining knowledge, i.e., the highest way/level of benefit from information, is clear, as we have to approach introspections on how the most complex actual challenges could be identified and step by step treated using actual data/information/knowledge, new models and innovation.

Finally, for the considered ICT role in the World dramatic/crises context and emergence, the analyses must be further focused on testing the resilience of the associated complex systems, i.e., the appropriate models of the Earth ecosystem context. This way, engineering and designing complex and interconnected systems become a major goal of the actual ICT development, as resulted from another relevant example [5].

As seen in the case of modern cars industry, testing procedures are not enough if the knowledge is not continuously refined, i.e., using actual data, new paradigms and human innovation/imagination. In concrete approaches, refining knowledge means that we have to change paradigm, use data of actual crises and challenges, along with needed support.

Along with these technical/logical ingredients, in order to get wisdom solutions, perhaps the most difficult of them is to identify and introduce those human weighting factors (as behaviors) that meet the wisdom which corresponds to the actual context and provides the sustainable evolution and sometimes even the surviving requirements for the Earth ecosystem and humankind progress, as it is, indirectly, confirmed by[5] too, where a ray of hope could be imagined, as there exists an inherent ability to survive and bounce back, but, in addition, we should also consider the need to be in natural ecosystems, i.e., to benefit from their potential of adapting and surviving. Practically, using also the huge potential of AI/ICT, we have to count our differences versus a natural ecosystem and mitigate the consequences, focusing on climate changes, Earth resources fading etc

As main conclusion, we consider that, for meeting “wisdom”, in such complex and dramatic World context we live in, deeper and timely analyses should continue, keeping in mind the necessity to achieve what it seems that we have lost: the (natural) chances of our Earth ecosystem to adapt and survive

Keywords: artificial intelligence performance, cybersecurity, modern cars, refining knowledge, accelerator chips, ISO/IEC 27001, resilience of complex systems

JEL Classification: L63; L86; M15; O31; O33

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom ― Aristotle

1. Watching ICT advances through the new dramatical World challenges

After decades of wondering about technology amazing progress, our expectations from future, which is becoming more and more uncertain, tend to prevail upon the usual benefits and comfort we are used to be with.

Such impressions are most probably determined by the role of the increasing complexity of World evolutions, now manifesting by the multi-crises we began to face and suffer from [3].

The role of complexity in the unpredictable World evolution is mainly linked with the evolution of our ecosystem, resulting from unprecedently complicated and unsustainable processes of this system, as we could count here the climate changes, social and geopolitical unbalances or Earth resources fading (we also earlier approached [11][12]).

In fact, it is not rarely when people say: How all these became possible? How we have arrived to this point/level of dramatism at Earth scale?

It is sure that the answers are not simple, but also the questions could be …many more. Here we have to count not only the Covid 19 pandemic or Russia’s aggression context, but all their consequences and correlations with the prior premises of Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution, where climate changes, Earth resources fading or energy crisis were iceberg tips to be ... properly considered!

We believe that, usually, the larger the humankind power, the probability of going to unsafe/unsustainable directions, or even failing the target, is slightly increasing.

Although it is not new, from a long history, we know that humankind potential has a dual face: to construct and to destroy.

As a matter of fact, we consider that, generally, the fundamental problem of humankind evolution was and remain just our ability to balance this duality for a sustainable/constructive

progress, but here the news is that the actual levels of power, complexity and Earth resources, which humankind could use, arrived in a critical combination of parameters

With other words, this actual critical combination is just like a very sharp sword, for which the technology provided highly strong materials but humankind decisions positive potential, in spite of the science unprecedented progress, is highly impaired by the highly complex and complicated processes of Earth ecosystem.

In order to have a more realistic image of the factors to be approached for an optimization analysis, when estimating the actual premises, we consider to count perhaps the most influent, but difficult to control factors of the aimed balance: the ever changing/subjective role of human personality and the crucial multiplying role of technology, where information and communication technology (ICT) is the most prevailing.

More than these, the proliferation of ICT and its amazing expansion at Earth scale became the main driving factor of the human society by the complex consequences of ICT services, products and applications when supporting the Information Society (IS) on the way towards the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) [13][10][7][14][16][17][12].

This way we have just arrived to the point where the role of ICT in optimizing the Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution, aiming a sustainable World progress in the new dramatical context, is obviously crucial but the expected solutions are still faraway.

As the ever changing/subjective role of human personality in the decision processes (generally in governance) is, in its turn, related to the complex premises of education and human nature, its analysis would be perhaps an even more difficult issue, exceeding our paper aim, although most of people think that the World evolution is depending on leaders quality.

On the other side, we consider that the education is the main way to change the people towardabetterWorldandthecombinationofhumanintelligence(HI)andartificial intelligence (AI), we already approached [6][9], is and will be more and more linked with ICT sustainable development.

Among the few certainties of the new normality, we are looking for, the necessity of new paradigms for a multicriteria approach, along with the relativity of any optimization solution in a complex, complicate and interconnected Earth ecosystem of highly dynamic processes, should be included

For a concrete and realistic picture of this context of ICT sustainable development, we consider that among the relevant ICT advances, AI is the most complex but also promising. Further, any optimization should address both measuring and metrics, which are real challenges to define and design for the complex and complicate subsystems of Earth ecosystem, but especially for those parts of the processes where ICT is largely involved.

A comprehensible example for the multi-criteria approach and the relativity of AI development optimization, is step by step and concretely presented by [1]:

“… AI industry group MLCommons released a new set of results for AI performance. The new list, MLPerf Version 1.1, follows the first official set of benchmarks by five months and includes more than 1800 results from 20 organizations, with 350 measurements of energy efficiency. The majority of systems improved by between 5-30 percent from earlier this year, with some more than doubling their previous performance stats, according to MLCommons. The new results come on the heels of the announcement, last week, of a new machine-learning benchmark, called TCP-AIx”.

Although,apparently,themainissueandcriteriaoftheoptimizationis energy efficiency (among the most important performance parameter for present and future ICT systems), for AI unprecedented advances and expansion this is far from being enough to be considered, especially because of the inherent diversity and complexity of the potential AI applications Worldwide:

“

In MLPerf's inferencing benchmarks, systems made up of combinations of CPUs and GPUs or other accelerator chips are tested on up to six neural networks performing a variety of common functions image classification, object detection, speech recognition, 3D medical imaging, natural language processing, and recommendation. For commercially available data center-based systems they were tested under two conditions a simulation of real data center activity where queries arrive in bursts and "offline" activity where all the data is available at once. Computers meant to work onsite instead of in the data center what MLPerf calls the edge were measured in the offline state and as if they were receiving a single stream of data, such as from a security camera.”

Step by step, the above-mentioned complexity and expansion of ICT/AI applications are concretely revealed and practically considered in the measuring processes and this way the appropriate metrics are suggested for the multi-criteria approach of AI development optimization:

“Although there were datacenter-class submissions from Dell, HPE, Inspur, Intel, LTech Korea, Lenovo, Nvidia, Neuchips, Qualcomm, and others, all but those from Qualcomm and Neuchips used Nvidia AI accelerator chips. Intel used no accelerator chip at all, instead demonstrating the performance of its CPUs alone. Neuchips only participated in the recommendation benchmark, as their accelerator, the RecAccel, is designed specifically to speed up recommender systems which are used for recommending e-commerce items and for ranking search results.

Beyond competition aspects, we observe the technology advances implications, as AI accelerator chips, which could make the difference in certain areas of applications:

“

For the results Nvidia submitted itself, the company used software improvements alone to eke out as much as a 50 percent performance improvement over the past year. The systems tested were usually made up of one or two CPUs along with as many as eight accelerators. On a per-accelerator basis, systems with Nvidia A100 accelerators showed about double or more the performance those using the lower-power Nvidia A30. A30-based computers edged out systems based on Qualcomm's Cloud AI 100 in four of six tests in the server scenario. However, Qualcomm senior director of product management John Kehrli points out that his company's accelerators were deliberately limited to a datacenter-friendly 75-watt power envelope per chip, but in the offline image recognition task they still managed to speed past some Nvidia A100-based computers with accelerators that had peak thermal designs of 400 W each.”

Finally, we could notice that even with such complex benchmarks, in the actual dynamic ICT/AI context, it is very difficult to generally optimize/rank the technology advances, but they still provide means to evaluate the typical applications performance differences:

“

With six tests under two conditions each in two commercial categories using systems that vary in number of CPUs and accelerators, MLPerf performance results don't really lend themselves to some kind of simple ordered list like Top500.org achieves with supercomputing.

The parts that come closest are the efficiency tests, which can be boiled down to inferences per second per watt for the offline component. Qualcomm systems were tested for efficiency on object recognition, object detection, and natural language processing in both the datacenter and edge categories. In terms of inferences per second per watt, they beat the Nvidia-backed systems at the machine vision tests, but not on language processing. Nvidia-accelerated systems took all the rest of the spots.”

Another example, also presenting systemic covering and relevance at Earth scale, is referring to the implications of developing safe ICT applications for the huge industry of modern cars, aiming the proper protection/reliability against cyberattacks.

The crucial importance of cars industry must be also understood in the crises emergent context, but inherently from multi-criteria point of view (sustainability, energy, reliability, security etc.), being a special part of World critical infrastructure/services, as it is presented in [2]:

“These days, if something connects to an information stream, it’s vulnerable to cyberattacks. And since modern cars are essentially data centers on wheels, it’s easy to understand why they’ve piqued the interest of hackers. From infotainment systems and engine control units to steering columns and brake lines, almost everything in a vehicle tie into various computer-based subsystems.”

The complex dependence on ICT is then more than obvious and highly increasing, in the Earth ecosystem expansion, generating more complex challenges at different levels of development:

“The trouble is that each system offers multiple footholds for attackers to exploit. But that’s only half the problem. Cars connect over a number of interfaces including USB, CAN bus, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and automotive ethernet. These interfaces give cybercriminals a veritable smorgasbord of attack options, making it a nightmare for your engineering and testing teams to secure.”

Perhaps it could not appear among the first solutions, but, for the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the standardization at the United Nations (UN) level is surely more and more necessary, as the diversity and complexity increase in every industry, but here the impact is quite fundamental:

“

The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, UNECE WP.29 is a wide-ranging strategic initiative to bring OEMs into lockstep on various vehicular regulations, from the headlights to the exhaust pipe. In June 2020, WP.29 adopted a new framework to combat cybersecurity risks on passenger vehicles. The group’s work resulted in a pair of regulations instructing automakers to implement measures to:

Manage vehicle cybersecurity risks.

Mitigate risks along the supply chain by securing vehicles in design. Detect and respond to security incidents across the vehicle fleet.

Provide safe, secure software updates that do not compromise vehicle security.

Think of this high-level guidance as a proverbial carrot, while the included regulations are a stick ”

From this impressive list of requirements, we could notice that optimizing such complex and dynamic industry/domain is involving a lot of interdependent processes, along with associated human inputs/outputs which are surely relative and time sensitive factors.

This way we consider that the ICT optimal development analyses should be extended by deeper refining of context knowledge and multi-criteria optimization at Earth scale and humankind behaviour level.

2. The long and complicate ways toward wisdom when refining knowledge at Earth scale, facing multi - crises challenges

Traditionally, when incertitude prevails, wisdom is sometimes associated with keeping the routine/behaviour in thinking and acting, but now the times are changing that approach, as deeply refining knowledge should become mandatory in our fast and turbulently changing World.

After the above examples, it is clear that there is a long and difficult way to exhaustive optimization solutions, this conclusion exceeding, unfortunately, the impact of ICT development or the modern cars industry, as ones of the most dynamic and prolific branches of World economy, which generate huge implications on all humankind activities and evolution.

Using one of the special features of ICT development, we consider that a systemic approach should include the proper information management in order to maximize the efficacy and efficiency of optimization analyses, i.e., to refine knowledge in a continuously manner regarding the multi - crises challenges implications on short and long term, but taking into account the unprecedented high level of incertitude and changing which must alter the actual paradigms of development.

Again, as a very good example, the protection of modern cars, although a planetary issue with dynamic challenges, considering the increasing complexity and the extended proliferation, is only a facet of World picture, but still relevant here by the impact of ICT involved applications and their fast advances.

In fact, all the World seems to be a fast and complicated car, moving still faster by the ICT impact, but sometimes we wonder where to and which are the chances to safely get there!

Anyway, it is sure that there are many lessons to be learned from the cars example/case, as the modern car (especially the emerging self-driving one), along with the smartphone, are perhaps the most relevant symbols of humankind technology progress, where ICT advances impact is more than essential.

Recalling the mentioned essential role of the proper information management in the modern cars huge industry, the information context and risk factors evaluation are also considered by [2] as:

“But for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), cybersecurity is anything but a trivial matter. In fact, a single cyberattack can cost an automaker as much as $1.1 billion.

But the sheer monetary impact isn’t the only thing keeping business leaders up at night. The effects of a cyberattack extend far and wide including potential legal / compliance fines, brand reputation impact, and crippling market capitalization losses…

OEMs must establish and implement a cybersecurity management system (CSMS) that implements risk-driven engineering processes for vehicular components, subsystems, and assemblies.”

Further, the common threat/challenge, for intelligent cars, but also for the rest of the World led by ICT advances, is clearly pointed:

“A good CSMS requires an extensive evaluation of applicable threats which is otherwise known as a Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA). TARAs enable OEMs to identify, implement, and verify mitigations before pushing fixes to components and systems via software updates. But what if a new threat emerges? Engineering teams need a repeatable response that prioritizes speed and accuracy. A CSMS gives them the tools to promptly evaluate and mitigate emerging threats while ensuring their corrective actions didn't inadvertently expose something else to attack.”

Finally, the concrete ways to attend the needed target in the complicate and changing environment of hostile factors is found:

<<How can automakers fight back against cybercriminals?

Now that the standards are written and the regulations adopted, the next question seems all too obvious. “Where do we go from here?”

Given the state of the threat landscape and the incoming regulations, it’s easy to understand the uncertainty. But ISO / SAE 21434, WP. 29, and UN R155 aren’t a threat. They’re a playbook to beating cybercriminals at their own game. But what does that mean? Well, for automakers, that means attacking your own vehicles before someone else gets the chance. It all comes down to thinking like the enemy. Where a cybercriminal seeks to exploit system and component vulnerabilities, automakers can perform controlled cyberattacks to test vehicular security (in alignment with their CSMS). This practice is generally referred to as automotive penetration testing and encompasses multiple test types including functional cybersecurity testing, fuzz testing, and vulnerability testing.>>

Fromhereit is clearthat practical sets ofmeasures shouldbefollowedandcontinuously improved in processes of check and act type.

On the other side, our analysis, which aims more general and large covering approaches, using the ICTpotential at Earthecosystem scale,haveto considerand benefit from the comprehensive frame of the information security standards.

Thefundamental frameoftheinformation security standards,givenforexamplebyISO 27001, the world's best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS), provides a coherent and holistic approach, as it is also presented by [4]:

“Organizations that adopt cyber resilience through confident vulnerability quickly emerge as leaders in their industry and set the standard for their ecosystem. The holistic approach of ISO/IEC 27001 means that the entire organization is covered, not just IT. People, technology and processes all benefit.

When you use ISO/IEC 27001, you demonstrate to stakeholders and customers that you are committed to managing information securely and safely. It’s a great way to promote your organization, celebrate your achievements and prove that you can be trusted. “

Although we do not intend to detail the ISO/IEC 27001potential, it is worth to notice that its less visible part is crucial, as “the entire organization is covered, not just IT. People, technology and processes all benefit”, i.e., here we have the evidence that the link between information and all the Earth ecosystem is essential, real and functional, as the information is the operational element of the systemic approach.

Thisway,theunderstandingofrefiningknowledge,i.e.,thehighest way/levelofbenefit from information, is clear, as we have to approach introspections on how the most complex actual challenges could be identified and step by step treated using actual data/information/knowledge, new models and …imagination.

Going beyond the traditional, but fundamental approach of the information security standards, given for example by ISO/IEC 27001, for the considered ICT role in the World dramatic/crises context and emergence, as we already have mentioned [3], the analyses must be further focused on resilience of the associated complex systems, i.e., the appropriate models of the Earth ecosystem context

As we have pointed [16], engineering and designing complex and interconnected systems is becoming a major goal of the actual ICT development and this approach is successfully also presented by [5]:

“

For modern day engineering systems, designing for resilience or testing resilience at the design phase, poses a significant challenge. Due to the interconnectedness and embeddedness of these systems in a nested system of systems [2]–[4], it gets increasingly difficult to adopt the traditional approach of testing a system in isolation for resilience. Here, isolation refers to engaging with stress testing using a restrictive set of prede-termined input parameters and system specific conditions [5].”

Here we have to notice that, as mentioned also in the case of modern cars industry, testing procedures are not enough if the knowledge is not continuously refined, i.e., using actual data, new paradigms and …human innovation/imagination

In concrete approaches, refining knowledge means that we have to change paradigm, use data of actual crises and challenges, along with needed support:

<<Supporting the argument for a need to develop alternative methodologies to approach engineering system resilience, Gheorghe and Katina [1] quote “the dwindling applicability of ‘old’ methods and tools cannot be expected to address increasing 21st century concerns.” The underlying assumption to this assertion is that being complex, these systems demonstrate complexity traits such as adaptation, self-organization, and emergence; and these system traits inherently conflict with the purpose-driven approach of engineering system design that looks for convergence of behaviors and consistency of design and performance [7].

Beyond these technical/logical ingredients, in order to get wisdom solutions, perhaps the most difficult of them is to identify and introduce those human weighting factors (as behaviors) that meet the wisdom which corresponds to the actual context and provides the sustainable evolution and sometimes even the surviving requirements for the Earth ecosystem and humankind progress.

The complexity of such optimization, including, indirectly, human factors, though our model of weighting factors could seem too sophisticated, is in fact further confirmed:

“A complexity perspective prompts engineering systems’ research to reason why a system behavior exceeds what is intuitively the sum of its individual parts [8]. Prime examples of these, that will be expanded later on, are transportation infrastructure that not only connect existing places, but shape the commuting patterns, the supply chains, the emergence of new conurbation, and so on. Another question that may arise is whether embeddedness or interconnectedness is actually to be blamed for loss in resilience [9, p. 13]. Elsewhere in

complex natural system research, it has been established that in natural ecosystems, which are proven to be highly nested and interconnected, there exists an inherent ability to survive and bounce back [1]. “

More than these, a ray of hope could be imagined, as there exists an inherent ability to survive and bounce back, but, in addition, we should also consider the need to be in natural ecosystems, i.e., to benefit from their potential of adapting and surviving.

In a concrete manner, using also the huge potential of AI/ICT, we have to count our differences versus a natural ecosystem and mitigate the consequences, focusing on climate changes, Earth resources fading etc

In conclusion, we consider that, for meeting “wisdom”, in such complex and dramatic World context we live in, deeper and timely analyses should continue, keeping in mind the necessity to achieve what it seems that we have lost: the (natural) chances of our Earth ecosystem …to adapt and survive.

3. Conclusions

The increasing complexity of World evolutions, now manifesting by the multi-crises webeganto faceandsufferfrom, leads to unpredictablechallenges forourecosystem, resulting from unprecedently complicated and unsustainable processes of this system, as we could count here the climate changes, social and geopolitical unbalances or Earth resources fading (we also earlier approached [11][12]).

As such premises were largely known, without saying that their analysis is no more necessary (on contrary), we consider, for a more efficacy approach, to also include the role of humankind nature/behaviour and evolution along with these processes, in order to find how we have arrived to this point/level of dramatism at Earth scale and the ways toward appropriate solutions. It is sure that the answers are not simple, but also the questions could be …many more.

Here we have to count not only the Covid 19 pandemic or Russia’s aggression context, but all their consequences and correlations with the prior premises of Earth ecosystem and humankind evolution, where climate changes, Earth resources fading or energy crisis were iceberg tips to be ... properly considered!

We believe that, usually, the larger the humankind power, the probability of going to unsafe/unsustainable directions, or even failing the target, is slightly increasing. More than these, from a long history, we know that humankind potential has a dual face: to construct and to destroy.

As a matter of fact, we consider that, generally, the fundamental problem of humankind evolution was and remain just our ability to balance this duality for a sustainable/constructive progress, but here the news is that the actual levels of power, complexity and Earth resources, which humankind could use, arrived in a critical combination of parameters.

On the other side, we consider that the education is the main way to change the people towardabetterWorldandthecombinationofhumanintelligence(HI)andartificialintelligence (AI), we already approached [6][9], is and will be more and more linked with ICT sustainable development.

For a concrete and realistic picture of this context of ICT sustainable development, we consider that among relevant ICT advances, AI is the most complex but also promising.

Further, any optimization should address both measuring and metrics, which are real challenges to define and design for the complex and complicate subsystems of Earth ecosystem, but especially for those parts of the processes where ICT is largely involved.

Addressing these issues, we have analysed a comprehensible example for the multicriteria approach and the relativity of AI development optimization, concretely presented by [1].

Approaching this way both AI measuring and metrics, although, apparently, the main issue and criteria of the optimization is energy efficiency (among the most important performance parameter for present and future ICT systems), for AI unprecedented advances and expansion this is far from being enough to be considered, especially because of the inherent diversity and complexity of the potential AI applications Worldwide. Beyond competition aspects, we noticed the technology advances implications, as AI accelerator chips, which could make the difference in certain areas of applications.

Another example, also presenting systemic covering and relevance at Earth scale, referredtotheimplicationsofdevelopingsafeICTapplicationsforthehugeindustryof modern cars, aiming the proper protection/reliability against cyberattacks.

The complex dependence on ICT was proved, this way, more than obvious and highly increasing, in the Earth ecosystem expansion, generating more complex challenges at different levels of development, even when considering the standardization at the United Nations (UN) level, which is surely more and more necessary, as the diversity and complexity increase in every industry.

From the resulted list of requirements for achieving a proper protection/reliability against cyberattacks, we could notice that optimizing such complex and dynamic industry/domain is involving a lot of interdependent processes, along with associated human inputs/outputs which are surely relative and time sensitive factors.

This way we consider that the ICT optimal development analyses should be extended by deeper refining of context knowledge and multi-criteria optimization at Earth scale and humankind behaviour level.

Although, traditionally, when incertitude prevails, wisdom is sometimes associated with keeping the routine/behaviour in thinking and acting, now the times are changing that approach, as deeply refining knowledge should become mandatory in our fast and turbulently changing World.

As a very good example, the protection of modern cars, although a planetary issue with dynamic challenges, considering the increasing complexity and the extended proliferation, is only a facet of World picture, but still relevant here by the impact of ICT involved applications andtheirfastadvances. Infact,alltheWorldseemstobeafastandcomplicatedcar,moving still faster by the ICT impact, but sometimes we wonder where to and which are the chances to safely get there!

Recalling the mentioned essential role of the proper information management in the modern cars huge industry, the information context and risk factors evaluation must be also considered, for intelligent cars, but also for the rest of the World led by ICT advances. Finally, concrete ways to attend the needed target in the complicate and changing environment of hostile factors could be found by practical sets of measures which should be followed and continuously improved in processes of check and act type.

Our analysis, which aimed more general and large covering approaches, using the ICT potential at Earth ecosystem scale, also considered the comprehensive frame of the information security standard, given by ISO 27001, the world's best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS), which provides a coherent and holistic approach (meaning that the entire organization is covered, not just IT [4]),i.e.,herewehavetheevidence that the link between information and all the Earth ecosystem is essential, real and functional,

as the information is the operational element of the systemic approach. This way, the understanding of refining knowledge, i.e., the highest way/level of benefit from information, is clear, as we have to approach introspections on how the most complex actual challenges could be identified and step by step treated using actual data/information/knowledge, new models and …imagination.

Eventually, for the considered ICT role in the World dramatic/crises context and emergence, the analyses must be further focused on testing the resilience of the associated complex systems, i.e., the appropriate models of the Earth ecosystem context. This way, engineering and designing complex and interconnected systems become a major goal of the actual ICT development and this approach is successfully also presented by another relevant example [5].

As also it was seen in the case of modern cars industry, testing procedures are not enough if the knowledge is not continuously refined, i.e., using actual data, new paradigms and …human innovation/imagination. In concrete approaches, refining knowledge means that we have to change paradigm, use data of actual crises and challenges, along with needed support.

Still, a ray of hope could be imagined, as there exists an inherent ability to survive and bounce back, but, in addition, we should also consider the need to be in natural ecosystems, i.e., to benefit from their potential of adapting and surviving.

REFERENCES

[1]Samuel K. Moore, Benchmark Shows AIs Are Getting Speedier > MLPerf stats show some systems have doubled performance this year, competing benchmark coming, 24 SEP 2021, https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-benchmarks-mlperf-performance

[2]Mike Hodge, Automakers, Regulators Take On Cybersecurity, February 28, 2022Author, https://www.keysight.com/discover/blogs/automakers-regulators-take-oncybersecurity?elq_cid=3286481&cmpid=ELQ-20689

[3]Victor Greu, Developing information and communications technology to provide more intelligence and leverage more wisdom for a dramatically changing World -(Part 3),Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 13, Issue 3, Year 2022.

[4]***, ISO/IEC 27001: What’s new in IT security?, https://www.iso.org/contents/news/2022/10/new-iso-iec27001.html#:~:text=The%20holistic%20approach%20of%20ISO,managing%20information %20securely%20and%20safely.

[5]Giuliano Punzo et all, Engineering Resilient Complex Systems: The Necessary Shift Toward Complexity Science, IEEE Systems Journal, Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2020

[6]Florin Enache, Victor Greu, Petrică Ciotîrnae, Florin Popescu, Model and Algorithms for Optimizing a Human Computing System Oriented to Knowledge Extraction by Use of Crowdsourcing, 2020, 13th International Conference on Communications (COMM), (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Military Technical Academy, IEEE Romania), (COMM 2020 is covered in IEEE Explore Database and ISI Web of Science in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index)

[7]Gareth Smith, Demystifying intelligent automation, May 2022]: https://www.enterpriseitworld.com/demystifying-intelligent-automation-2/

[8]Raj Kumar Hansdah, Scientific Progress Without True Wisdom Will Cause More Harm Than Good, https://www.beaninspirer.com/scientific-progress-without-true-wisdom-willcause-more-harm-than-good, Updated: October 21, 2021

[9]Victor Greu et all, Human and artificial intelligence driven incentive-operation model and algorithms for a multi-purpose integrated crowdsensing-crowdsourcing scalable system, Proceedings of International Conference Communications 2018, (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Military Technical Academy, IEEE Romania), June 2018(COMM 2018 is covered in IEEE Explore Database and ISI Web of Science in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index).

[10]Robert W. Lucky, Deep Complexities in EE, IEEE Spectrum, May 2018

[11]Victor Greu, Searching the right tracks of new technologies in the earth race for a balance between progress and survival, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 3, Issue1, Year 2012.

[12]Victor Greu, Information and communications technologies go greener beyond IOTbehind is all the earth-Part1,RomanianDistributionCommittee(affiliatedtothe“International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 7, Issue 2, Year 2016.

[13]Ernesto Villalba, The Concept of Knowledge for a Knowledge-based Society From knowledge to learning, European Commission Joint Research Centre © European Communities, 2007

[14]Victor Greu, The information and communications technology is driving artificial intelligence to leverage refined knowledge for the World sustainable development –(Part 2), Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 10, Issue 1, Year 2019.

[15]Andreas Poltermann, Education for a Knowledge-Based Society? A Concept Must be Rethought, 17 April 2014, https://rs.boell.org/en/2014/04/17/education-knowledge-basedsociety-concept-must-be-rethought

[16]Victor Greu, Information and communications technology is merging data science and advanced artificial intelligence towards the core of knowledge based society -(Part 3), Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 12, Issue 3, Year 2021.

[17] Victor Greu, Communicate on … Communications - From a Conference every 2 years to the need to communicate every day and everywhere, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association –A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine (international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 5, Issue 2, Year 2014.

Consumption Reduction: A Challenge For BehaviourChange inThe Future

by Cosmin TĂNASE

Abstract

The need to shift the economies and societies onto a more sustainable path is widely acknowledged in principle,yetdifficulttomakesubstantiveprogresstowardsinpractice,astheworseningofcriticalindicators on CO2 emissions or rainforest destruction demonstrates. A more sustainable future depends upon many things, including getting those within wealthier economies to consume both differently and less. However, the former has proven much more palatable for companies and governments than the latter. Changes to technologies, production systems, and business models will play important roles in progressing towards sustainability but will be insufficient in the face of a population growing in size and consumption intensity. Globalecologicalfootprintdatashowsthatwewentbeyondconsumingwhattheplanetcanprovidewithout degradingenvironmentalsystemsinthe mid-1980s,soinevitablyprogresstowardssustainabilitywillpartly dependonusdesiringandconsumingless.Consumptionreduction,evenifagreeduponasasocietalpriority, will be complicated topromote,not least becausetheneed to consumeless is unequally distributedbetween and within societies.

Keywords:Sustainability, Environment,Existential Needs,FoodWaste, EconomicValue, Mentality, Social Influence

JEL Classification:L15, L66,L81, M31, P46, Q01, Q02,Q13, Q53,Q55,Q56

There are many countries where environmental destruction is driven by poverty rather than wealth. Such places still require economic growth and consumption expansion to progress towards sustainability. It is within mature industrialised economies, that degrowth and some forms of consumption reduction are most necessary.Complexityis alsocreatedbytheinterconnectionsbetweenricherandpoorereconomies. Ending long-haul flights fortourismmight seem asimplesteptowards carbon reductionand sustainability.It would howeverriskdevastatingtheeconomiesofpoorer tourism-dependentcountries,almostinevitablyheralding the liquidation of environmental resources (such as forests) that attract the tourists. Consumption reduction opportunities therefore need to be understood within a context of the overall circumstances and lifestyles within which someone’s consumption takes place and the holistic consumption and production systems through which their wants and needs are met. The need to adjust or reduce consumption is also unequal across different aspects of a typical consumer lifestyle. An “every little helps” mentality has a tendency to focus pro-sustainabilitybehaviour(PSB)campaignsonperipheralelementsofconsumptionwithamarginal impact, such as not overchargingmobilephones or avoidingsingle-useshopping bags orplasticstraws.

The“EuropeanEnvironmental ImpactofProducts”projectanalysed255domesticproducttypesintermsof pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and human and environmental health risks. It concluded that 70– 80% ofimpactsrelatetowhatweeatanddrink,ourhomes(includingtheirconstructionandmaintenanceandtheir domestic power) and our transport for work, shopping and leisure. The remaining impacts are mostly from water use, domestic equipment (including appliances, computers and home entertainment), furniture, clothing and shoes. This provides a relatively clearly defined consumption agenda that policy-makers, companies and consumers can address to seek opportunities to reduce or reconfigure consumption more sustainably. In the early decades of discussions about sustainability, the perceived primacy of the need for economicgrowthpushedthetopicofconsumptionreductiontothemargins.However,first,theglobalcredit crunch of 2008 and then the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic have challenged the neo-liberal orthodoxy based on ever-expanding economic growth, consumption and globalisation. From the radical protests of the Occupy Wall Street or Extinction Rebellion movements to the less radical Slow Consumption or Voluntary Simplicitymovements, alternatives to a futurepredicated on expanding consumption areincreasingly being discussed. The COVID crisis initially impacted consumption through lockdown measures affecting whole populations and particularly affecting the travel and tourism, non- food retailing, hospitality and culture sectors. Its employment impacts then began to impact individuals’ and households’ consumption more selectively,withtheEuropeanCentrefortheDevelopmentofVocationalTraining(Cedefop)forecastingthat 5million EUjobs would belost duetothepandemic2019–2022.

PERSPECTIVES ON CONSUMPTION

Consumptioncanbeconsideredinseveralwaysinordertounderstandthepotentialfor,andimplicationsof, its reduction:

• Function and Utility: We consume to satisfy our wants and needs for sustenance, clothing, shelter, healthcare,education, entertainment,communicationandmanyothernecessary ordesirablethings. Wealso seekmorefoundational,but taken-for-granted,formsofutilitysuchascleanliness,comfortandconvenience. As economies develop, so consumers’ discretionary spending power extends, and the mix of expenditure

betweennecessitiesandluxuriesorbetweenmeetingexistentialneedsandexperientialdesires,evolves.One interestingaspectofthesustainableconsumptiondebateisthedifficultyofdrawingaclearboundarybetween essential needs and desirable wants and the tendency of the literature to simply conflate them. There is also atendency foryesterday’s “luxuries”tobecometomorrow’s “necessities”.

• Economic: Private consumption represents a substantial portion of an economy −55% of 2017 Eurozone GDP according to the European Central Bank’s 2018 “ Economic Bulletin (Issue 5)” – but such data does not captureall consumption.Wemayconsumeinwaysleaving no economicfootprint becausetheyinvolve products (like food, clothes or flowers) we produce ourselves, are swapped or lent, that the planet provides without charge(suchasforagedfood,breathableairorabeautifulview),orinvolvegoods andservices(like childcare)providedbyfamilyandfriendsforloveratherthanmoney.Withintheformaleconomy,pricingis one way to influence and reduce consumption. Indeed, economists could argue that there is no inherent behav-iouralchallengeinthepursuitofsustainability.Adjustingpricestoreflectthefullsocio-environmental costs of all we purchase would, theoretically, transform economies and societies into sustainable ones at a stroke.Itremainstheoreticalbecauseitdependsuponthose“full”costsbeingcalculable,knownandagreed, andonconsumers,investors,companiesandgovernmentsacceptingtheyshouldbemet.Previousresponses toproposalstointroduce“carbontaxes”toreducefossilfuelconsumptionandCO2emissionsillustratehow challengingthis would betoachieveinpractice.

• Symbolism: Sociologically, consumption plays an important role in signalling our status, identity, worldview and values to others and can become a focus for our individual ambitions and the pursuit of meaning. One challenge for consumption reduction is that it is easier to signal through the presence of something than through its absence. Consumption also reinforces social bonds through the sharing of meals or the giving and receiving of gifts. The commercialisation, and cross-border expansion, of cultural events including Christmas, Diwali, Valentine’s Day, Easter or Chinese New Year has also stimulated new forms and levels of symbolically-loaded consumptionalongwitha “market resistance”backlash against it.

• Physical: Discussions about the consumption predominantly frame it as a socio-economic phenomenon. Thesustainabilitymovementhasfocussedattentioninsteadonconsumption’sphysicalimplicationsthrough theextractionandtransformationofresources(particularlyenergy)andthegenerationofpollutionandwaste. Ocean microplastics, rising atmospheric CO2 levels and rainforest clearances are all aspects of the physical costs of our consumption and production. The physical impact of a given unit of consumption can vary significantlyifproductionmethodsshift.Electricityfromfossilfuelshasadifferentlevelandmixofimpacts to energy from hydro- electricornuclearsources, althougheach has its environmental burdens. Aphysical view of consumption has led to new concepts such as “household metabolism” to depict the efficiency and various consequences of the physical flow of resources through our homes. Consumption reduction can involve reducing the amount of utility accessed e.g. buying and consuming less of something), decreased economicactivity attributedtoagivenconsumptionbehaviour(e.g. startingtogrowyourownfood)and/or areductionintheenergyorphysicalresourcesrequiredtode-liverparticularconsumerbenefits(e.g.buying asecond-handratherthannewproduct).Reducingtheenvironmentalimpact ofconsumptionmaypartly be assisted by the “decoupling” of the economic value of consumption from its environmental costs. This is something that has long been observable when prices change. A “ buy-one-get-one-free” offer effectively doubles the environmental cost of a given product, and for food, it also increases the risks of overconsumption and waste.Conversely, an environmental tax increasing a product’s pricereduces the physical

impact of a given expenditure. Improving the resource efficiency of production and consumption systems, design changes that remove impactful ingredients or promote recycling and repair, and improving product longevityorconsumptionbasedonsharingandaccesstodurablegoodsratherthanindividualownershipare all methods by which such decoupling can occur. The relationship between the economic and physical aspects of consumption is complex, and negative outcomes can arise from apparently beneficial reductions in consumption. If consumers are persuaded to demand less of a given damaging product, then (a) the price should fall, potentially re-stoking demand and resulting in a higher level of physical impact for the same economic value and (b) to make a profit from a lower price and a higher production volume, producers are likelytocutcostsinwaysthatmayworsensocialandenvironmentalquality.Similarly,the“reboundeffect” considers what happens to the money that consumers may save by engaging in cost-positive consumption reduction behaviours such as energy saving. Investing money saved in a discounted long-haul flight, or donatingittoanenvironmentalcharity,willhaveverydifferentimpactsonthesustainabilityofaconsumer’s lifestyle.

PROBLEMATICCONSUMPTION:QUALITY VS QUANTITY

Discussions about the need for consumption reduction are often couched in terms of a broadly stated set of problems related to environmental or human impacts, such as unsustainability described as a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. However, understanding and addressing such problems is aided by breaking consumption down according to specific (but potentially overlapping) problematic attributes that might prompt anticonsumptionsentimentsandconsumptionreductionefforts.Sustainabilityconcernsandmeasurementssuch as “ ecofootprints” often frame the need for consumption reduction in quantitative terms; however, problematic consumption can alsoreflect qualitative attributes concerning what is consumed and how:

• Excessive Consumption: “Hyper” or excessive consumption is often said to characterise life in contemporary industrialised societies, but the exact point at which consumption becomes excessive is hard to define. Attempts to differentiate between necessary and unnecessary air travel have, for example, proven difficult. More obvious perhaps are the forms of consumption that have passed well beyond that boundary. Owningahomeorapairofshoesiseasytorecogniseasanecessity,owningasecondhome,orafiftiethpair ofshoes, orengaginginspacetourism,less so.

•Wasteful Consumption: Inefficiencythroughwasteleadsto over-consumption.Foodwastehas knock-on socio-environmentaleffectsfromtheuseofadditionalland,waterandenergyforfoodproductionandhigher food prices. There are other areas where materially inefficient consumer choices can be viewed as wasteful including disposing of “unfashionable” but wearable clothes, driving when you could walk or cycle and over- heatinghomes to facilitate T-shirt wearingin winter.

• Subsidised Consumption: Arguably the failure to internalise the full external costs of consumption/ production systems means that much of our consumption is excessive and wasteful because it is subsidised (bytheenvironmentorotherpeople).However,therearespecificformsofconsumption(particularlycarbon critical sectors such as energy, flying, fuel and food) that are boosted through producer subsidies reducing consumerprices and thereforepromoting over-consumption andwaste.

PROBLEMATICCONSUMPTION:MOTIVATIONS VS CONSEQUENCES

Making progress towards sustainable consumption is often framed simplistically as about persuading individual consumers to buy less and to meet their needs by choosing differently. This overlooks some key complexities relatingto consumerbehaviour(andPSBsin particular).Firstly,althoughpurchasemaybethe most economically significant element of consumption, it is not the entire story. From a physical and sustainability perspective, behaviours surrounding the use and disposal of a product like a car or washing machine may be more significant. Secondly, consumption is not necessarily an individual affair. We may buy for others, and many of the most significant behaviours such as food, energy, transport and waste decisions and behaviours are shaped by the households or friendship groups to which we belong. Finally, consumption may not reflect free and rational choices. Our behaviours may be constrained and shaped by habit,choice restrictions, infrastructural barriers,social norms, cultural values, emotions orcircumstances.

One quirk of conventional consumer behaviour theory when considering sustainability is that “green” consumers arejudgedbythemotivationsbehindtheirchoices.Notbuyingmeatbecauseyouunderstandthe embedded carbon burden makes you a green consumer, not being able to afford it just makes you poor. If youchoosetobuyanewelectriccar,driveitmanymilestovisitan eco-tourismdestination,butthendestroy it by crashing into the remaining specimen of a protected tree and injuring yourself, marketers will still classify you as a “green” or “ethical” consumer. What a sustainability perspective brings is a focus on the socio-environmental consequences of our consumption behaviours, as well as on the motivations and intentions behind them. This provides a further set of potentially problematic attributes of the consumption that wemay wishto reduce:

HarmfulConsumption:Theimpactsofsomeproduction/consumptionsystemsontheplanetorsocietymake theminherentlyunsustainableirrespectiveofthequantityconsumed.Theglobaltradeinendangeredspecies, destructionofpeatbogsforsoilconditioner,ortheconsumptionofsocialorprintedmediaorpromotinghate wouldrepresent examples.

Unhealthy Consumption: Some products (like cigarettes) are inherently unhealthy, but for others, excessive consumption can generate negative utility via health impacts. Of particular concern is the impact of food of poor nutritional quality and in excessive quantity. Excessive social media consumption is also increasingly recognised as having negative health impacts. Driving at excessive speed could also be viewed in this category due to the health impacts of increased air pollution and the risks involved. Reducing unhealthy consumption would have a knock-on benefit of reducing consumption of healthcare products and services, and it has been aprimaryfocus ofthedisciplineofsocial marketing sinceits inception.

Addictive Consumption: Certain types of consumption that can be unhealthy are linked to addictive behaviours involving products including food, alcohol, tobacco, opioids, gambling products, video gaming and mobile phone use. For such behaviours consumers may want to reduce their consumption but lack the necessarysenseof self-efficacy,requiringhelpfromthirdpartiessuchashealthprovidersoradviceservices.

CompensatoryConsumption:The“hedonictreadmill”metaphorcharacteriseslifeinindustrialisedconsumer economies as avicious circleofworkinghardtoearnenoughtoconsumewhat’sneededto cheerus up after working so hard. If some consumption acts are primarily conducted to compensate for other experiences,

there may be scope to switch towards more sustainable “rewards” or to reduce consumption by improving thoseexperiences or reframingourperceptions aboutthem.

Socially Obligatory Consumption: Although consumption is often framed as reflecting an individual’s inherent wants and needs, in practice some consumption responds to a sense of social obligation (and therefore our need for social acceptance). This can apply to the commercialisation of those religious and cultural celebrations that manufacturers have successfully leveraged into festivals of consumption of chocolate eggs, fireworks, novelty items and cards. Similarly, according to the Carbon Literacy Project, the many “thank you” emails sent at the end of a chain of correspondence generate an estimated 4g of CO2 equivalent each.

ConspicuousConsumption:Althoughthereisdebateoverwhetherthisis abehaviouroftherich, orofthose who want to appear richer, there is evidence that some people engage in “status- orientated consumption” when purchasing certain clothing brands or homes and vehicles larger than they need. Conspicuousness in consumption is however only truly problematic when combined with one of the other attributes identified above.

CONSUMPTIONREDUCTIONAS BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

Changingordirectingbehaviourisafocusofmultiplesocialsciencedisci-plinesandencompasseslawsand their enforcement, political campaigning, education, fiscal policy, urban planning, building and product design, health promotion and many other fields. Changing behaviours to reduce consumption is of interest to commercial marketers seeking to make their products, companies and industries more sustainable; to policy- makers seeking to achieve societal goals related to climate change and wider sustainability; and to sustainability- orientatedNGOs.Theliteratureoninfluencingsustainableconsumptionfrequentlysplitsinto twobroad(andsometimes antagonistic)camps.One,rooted in psychology,focusses onthemotivations and choices (particularly purchases) of individual consumers. The other, rooted in sociology, is concerned with socialpractices,socialinfluencesandtheunconscioushabitsthatshapehowwerunourhouseholdsandlives. The core consumption categories from a sustainability perspective clearly combine both approaches. Buying a particular car or fridge, choosing new clothes, installing a boiler or picking local, organic, or fairtrade produce are classic consumer behaviour decision-making scenarios. Driving or maintaining a car, remembering to close the fridge, washing clothes, operating a central heating system or dealing with food leftoversaremorelikelytobedrivenbyhabit.Therangeoffactorswiththepotentialtoshapeandpotentially reduce consumptionis usefullysummarisedinthe“ SHIFT” framework ofWhite et al. (2019):

•SocialInfluence:Includingsocialnormsthatencourageorobligeustoshareinbehavioursadoptedbythose weidentifywithandavoidthosetheymightdisapproveof;andtheadoptionandprojectionofasocialidentity that wefeel willmakeagoodimpressiononothers (suchas being “ arecycler”);

• Habit Formation: Many of the most important behaviours for sustainability, including food shopping, transportchoice,householdenergyuseandwastedisposalarestronglyhabitualratherthanbeingdetermined byindividualconsciousdecisions.Thismakesitimportanttogetpeopletoconfrontandbreakunsustainable habits and toencouragethem to form newandbetterones;

• Individual Self: The classic behavioural foundations of self-interest still apply in PSBs and appealing to self- interest is one means to promote consumption reduction, for example stressing the money- saving benefits of reduced energy use. PSBs are also more likely to be adopted if they match our sense of selfidentity andgenerateasenseof self- efficacy inmaking apositivedifference;

• Feelings and Cognition: Thereis a “head and heart” dimension to PSBs in that consumers may respond to emotional appeals and cues that generate guilt, fear, pride or hope and also to factual information about sustainabilityproblems andthepotential forparticularbehaviours to ad-dressthem;

•Tangibility:Tocounterthesensethatsustainabilityissuescanseem ab-stract andrelatingtothefutureand to distant others by stressingthemoreimmediate, local and tangibleissues and impacts. Anotherdimension of tangibility is the opportunity to promote the dematerialisation of consumption with less emphasis placed on consumers owningtangiblegoods.

The levers within theSHIFT framework can be used individually or in combination to persuade consumers to purchase less, choose more sustainable options, engage in less wasteful consumption practices and even play newroles (including as co-creators) within emerging resource-efficient “product-servicesystems”.

CONCLUSIONS

Theprospects forconsumption reductionmayseem slight, and arguing forit is easily characterised as naïve or unrealistic at best, and at worst puritanical, or hypocritical when delivered from a position of privilege. With the majority of the world’s population still seeking to survive on under $5 per day, and the global economy still reeling from first the 2008 credit crunch and then the COVID pandemic, voluntary consumption reduction may seem like a strange priority to many. These things however are interconnected, and many of the recent and emerging crises are symptoms of the unsustainable nature of our production systems and our consumption levels. Pursuing consumption reduction represents a classic commons dilemma:

’’… aphenomenon in whichthemembers of asocial group facechoicesin which selfish, individualistic, or uncooperative decisions, though seeming more rational by virtue of short-term benefits to separate players, produce undesirable long-term consequences for the group as a whole.” (Shultz & Holbrook, 1999Marketingand thetragedyofthe commons: Asynthesis, commentary, and analysis for action)

Itrunscontrarytoourmostfundamentalbiologicalinstinctstoaccumulateresourcestoimproveourchances ofsurviving andthriving. Itis at odds with amaterialist dominant social paradigmthat values individualism andviewsconsumptionastherewardofhardworkandameanstosignaloursuccessandidentity.Itmaybe difficult to achieve in practice within communities often physically structured in ways that promote socially atomisedlivingormakecarownershipseemnecessary.It may also behardto frameas attractiveintheface of an avalanche of persuasive pro-consumption communication from manufacturers’ marketing or the glamorous instagrammed lifestyle portraits ofsocial mediainfluencers. Wemight have apowerful desireto be more sustainable consumers, but we also want to seem well-travelled, fashionable, attractive and successful to ourselves and to others in ways that prompt us to consume more. As a marketing challenge,

consumptionreductionissomethingofa“hard”sell.Reframingconsumptionreduction asattractivemaybe challengingbut is not impossible.

Consumption reduction has always been attractive to some people. For thousands of years a minority have rejected materialism as an expression of their religious beliefs, and it is notable that frugality is an explicit value within all the World’s major religious belief systems (although it seems to be one of the more easily overlookedonesin terms ofreligious practice).

But perhaps the most widespread and enduring illustration that people can embrace consumption reduction is the willingness of parents across the world to forego spending to save money to invest in their children’s education.Thislogictranslates veryneatlyintoaconsumptionreductionagendatoreducecarbonemissions and promote sustainability. Like education, changing our behaviours to desire and accumulate less could represent avital investmentinthequalityoflifeandprospects ofthenext generation.

References

[1] Barr, S.,Shaw, G. & Coles,T. ( 2011). Times for (un)sustainability? Challenges and opportunities for developing behaviour change policy. A case- study of consumers at home and away. Global Environmental Change, 21(4), 1234– 1244.

[2] Blanken, I., van deVen, N.& Zeelenberg, M. (2015).A meta- analyticreview ofmoral licensing. Personality andSocial PsychologyBulletin,41(4), 540– 558.

[3] Jackson, T. (2005). Motivating sustainable consumption: A review of evidence on consumer behaviour and behavioural change.SustainableDevelopment Research Network, London.

[4] Jackson, T., Jager, W. & Stagl, S. ( 2004). Beyond insatiability – Needs theory and sustainable consumption. In Reisch, L., & Røpke, I. (Eds.), Consumption– perspectives from ecological economics. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

[5] McDonald,S.,Oates,C.J.,Alevizou,P.J.,Young,C.W.,&Hwang,K.(2012).Individualstrategies forsustainable consumption.Journal ofMarketingManagement, 28( 3– 4), 445– 468.

[6] Mont, O.&Plepys, A. (2008).Sustainableconsumption progress:Should webeproudoralarmed? Journal ofCleanerProduction, 16, 531– 537.

[7] Peattie, K. ( 2015). Sustainability marketing: Reconfiguring the boundaries of social marketing. In Wymer, W. (Ed.), Innovations in social marketing and public health communication ( p p. 365– 389). Springer, Cham.

[8] Shultz, C. J. & Holbrook, M. B. (1999). Marketing and the tragedy of the commons: A synthesis, commentary, and analysis foraction.Journal ofPublicPolicy & Market-ing,18(2), 218– 229.

[9] White, K., Habib, R. & Hardisty, D. J. (2019). How to SHIFT consumer behaviors to be more sustainable: Aliteraturereview andguiding framework.Journal ofMar-keting, 83(3),22–49.

E-Commerce Personalization Wanted by the Next Generation of Shoppers.

Livestreaming E-Commerce, Q-commerce, Social Commerce, and the Metaverse

We are witnessing a double challenge, of fast-tracked last-mile delivery to right answer to the strong consumers’ wish to enjoy ultrafast convenience, and of going direct-to-avatar via minting NFTs, and not only, better understanding the communities to be engaged. It is important to look at the next generation of shoppers, Generation Z, through a shopping lens, and seeing the differences between social networks. Without doubt, it is necessary to take into account E2E commerce platforms, valuable social media e-commerce tactics, and a holistic approach, while identifying overlapping, of social commerce, social media e-commerce marketing, and social selling. Marketers need to better understand how Q-commerce is powering e-commerce transactions, producing a winning combination in approaching delivery speed versus assortment on the very competitive market, including by considering the role of the Venture Capitals in capturing new high LTV customers. It is the real time now to make a major change in e-commerce personalization, following the trends to actually doing something about them.

Keywords: E-Commerce Personalization; Gen Z; Livestreaming E-Commerce; Q-Commerce, Social Commerce; Metaverse

JEL Classification: D83; L21; M21; M31; M37; O31; O33

A double challenge, of fast-tracked last-mile delivery to right answer to the strong consumers’ wish to enjoy ultrafast convenience, and of going direct-to-avatar via minting NFTs (and not only), better understanding the communities to be engaged. Looking at the next generation of shoppers, Generation Z, through a shopping lens and seeing the differences between social networks

Let us start by recalling that at the beginning of the last year Coresight Research (2021) brought to our attention (among various retail global trends) the importance of: the areas and supporting technologies for the last mile (seen as the most expensive part of the delivery chain);

consumers’ engagement through livestreaming e-commerce; enhancing e-commerce based on media technology, bringing back into it the human element back (see the below three figures).

Figure no. 1: The Last Mile: Areas and Supporting Technologies

Source: Coresight Research, 2021. Retail 2021: Global Trends, February 2, 2021 (work cited)

Figure no. 2: Livestreaming E-Commerce: Four Key Ways Brands and Retailers Can Drive Success

Source: Coresight Research, 2021. Retail 2021: Global Trends, February 2, 2021 (work cited)

Figure no. 3: Media Technology That Can Enhance E-Commerce

Source: Coresight Research, 2021. Retail 2021: Global Trends, February 2, 2021 (work cited)

In 2022, various reports (in Financial Times, Semafor etc.) underlined TikTok’s livestream efforts and experiments outside of Asia, while other technology have been forced to take into account TikTok’s dominance in short-form video has forced the hand of other tech platforms (Sato, 2022). Recent published research highlights the impact of e-commerce advances on stable growth of livestreaming, and consequently on social interaction methods (Zhang, Guo and Wu, 2022; Qin et al., 2022).

Among the technology trends to examine it very carefully in 2022 the valuable technology insights platform CB Insights (2022) included the so-called ultrafast convenience and direct-to-avatar (D2A), together with other trends like next wave of telehealth, crypto crime,

virtualizing the clinical trial, net-zero or bust, de-risking supply chains, the electrification of everything, the consumer privacy battle, killing the credit card, lab-to-table, and fusion energy.

Within this framework it was shown that: compared to in 2005 started Amazon ecommerce model of “speed is king”, today is a moment of over boarding with the current focus on ultrafast delivery based on an increasingly diverse set of partnerships between retailers and delivery players involved in the intense competitive battle at the level of e-commerce spaces and online grocery to engage target customers and ensuring offerings’ differentiation; as more and more users interact in the form of personalized avatars (physical representations of people in the metaverse) with various purchases (such as clothing, accessories etc.), the digital identities (mainly in case of Generation Z, known as feeling more like themselves online, see figure below) and the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) will continue to take off, largely opening both retailers’ and fashion brands’ branding and monetization opportunities’ windows (by going D2A/selling to users’ digital identities, via minting NFTs etc.), better understanding the communities to be engaged.

Figure no. 4: More Gen. Z consumers say they feel most like themselves ‘online’ than ‘offline’

Source: CB Insights, 2022. 12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2022, p. 18 (work cited)

It is interesting to note that a Morning Consult survey (see the below figure) revealed that compared to the older generations US Generation Z adults are more probable to be very familiar with the metaverse, most common interest (according to a YouGov survey) of this Generation in the metaverse being to play video games. And all this within the context in which according to also a 2022 survey (Lebow a, 2022) by Insider Intelligence, compared to 38% overall the majority of social users from both US Generations Z and Y make purchases directly on social media, as shown in figure below

Figure no. 5: US Social Media Buyers, by Generation, June 2022

Source: Lebow, S., 2022. How Gen Z consumes media in 5 charts, Insider Intelligence, Dec 21, 2022 (work cited)

It is not accidental, for example, that the PR and marketing consultancy firm Edelman has already an in June this year founded Gen Z Lab (having as a generational insight resource a mix of employees, outside advisors, and data), which “keeps account managers up to date on its findings and ensures they are aware of any cultural moments (think, the launch of a new social app or a new climate policy) that are relevant to Gen Z… Actually, Gen Zers just want brands to take accountability… They are a generation of sensibility and don’t have outlandish demands” (Schilling, 2022). Without doubt, Generation Z is a major driving force in making evolve several industries to evolve, changing consumer demographics and behavior opening the windows of opportunities for brands to win over consumers, as shown in the below figure regarding how eight trends will influence daily lives in the next year (Lebow b, 2022)

Figure no. 6: 8 Trends to Watch in 2023

Source: Lebow b, 2022. Here are 8 trends we’re watching in 2023, Insider Intelligence, Nov 30, 2022 (work cited)

Recently, a reputed social commerce expert and board advisor (Nicholls, C., 2022) brought to our attention the importance of looking at Generation Z (as the next generation of shoppers) through a shopping lens, better understanding the differences between social networks (which are used by consumers for different purposes), for instance Instagram compared to TikTok, and never forgetting that profitability comes not from one-off purchases, but from repeat sales. What presupposes accurate and updated product catalogs’ set up and maintenance, ensuring direct traffic to the brand site, and capturing both customer data and consent to market in addition to the newly acquired customers.

And while struggling to meet Gen Z where they are it is recommendable (Lebow c, 2022) to consider what a global study by Yahoo and OMD Worldwide revealed regarding the contrast between Gen Z (who just after 1.3 seconds is losing active attention for ads) and the older generations (who expect to stay until the end of ads). And that within the context in which Gen Z ad expectations are shaped by the social platforms, as shown in figure below.

Figure no. 7: Social Platforms Shape Gen Z Ad Expectations

Source: Lebow c, 2022. Gen Z has a 1-second attention span. That can work to marketers’ advantage, Insider Intelligence, Dec 15, 2022 (work cited)

A recent infographic (representing key digital trends through the 2022 holiday season in US retail) authored by Coresight Research (a, 2022) and sponsored by Bolt, revealed how ecommerce management, flexible payments and personalization and experiential retail confirmed the continued technology adoption as one of the key trends (together with both deep discounts online, and shoppers’ embracement of flexible payments in the current uncertain environment), as shown in figure below.

Figure no. 8: Holiday 2022: US Digital Shopping Update

Source: Coresight Research, 2022. Holiday 2022: US Digital Shopping Update Free Infographic, December 21, 2022 (work cited)

E2E commerce platforms, valuable social media e-commerce tactics, and a holistic approach, while identifying overlapping, of social commerce, social media e-commerce marketing, and social selling

It is also interesting to note that according to a report by The New Consumer and Coefficient Capital entitled “Consumer Trends 2023” e-commerce will continue to quickly become very popular on TikTok (regardless of rising inflation), which puts in the same place both entertainment, and shopping, 19% of Gen Z discovering, for instance, beauty products on TikTok (mainly), while some 27% of US consumers surveyed purchased a product because of a TikTok video (Lebow d, 2022).

And in an attempt to impose itself as an E2E commerce platform (Wolff, 2022), TikTok is already planning to open fulfillment centers, beyond what they made during last year by launching its Shop feature to US merchants, becoming active in livestream commerce by partnering with the e-commerce concept TalkShopLive (known as the “first live-streaming, social buying and selling platform for anyone, anywhere”), and adding visual enhancements to search advertising (advertising formats). And that within the context in which: Meta (the majority of social commerce buyers being attracted in 2022 by its Facebook and Instagram), for example, was forced to diminish its commerce ambitions because of downturn in advertising spending; US retail social commerce sales it is expected to grow over the next three years, as shown in the below figure.

Figure no. 9: US retail social commerce sales, 2019-2025, billions, % change, and % of total US e-commerce sales

Source: Wolff, R., 2022. TikTok will drive social commerce growth in 2023, Insider Intelligence, Dec 23, 2022 (work cited)

As shown by Hootsuite (McConnell, 2022): TikTok is the main growth story in social ecommerce, and its ads have a potential reach of 1.02 billion, all these (and other) aspects within the context in which the benefits of social commerce (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok being social media apps with native built-in social selling capabilities) are well-known (without leaving social media apps, customers can shop, select, and complete purchases). It is also well-known that: both selling products directly on social media, and promoting and driving traffic to an ecommerce website or branded app (together with other tactics like building an online social media community around the brand, customers’ and prospects’ engagement directly on social channels, pre- and post-sale support provided to customers, insights gathering about the industry and market) are valuable social media e-commerce tactics; an online store really needs a social media e-commerce marketing strategy, based on a holistic approach (and identifying overlapping) of social commerce, social media e-commerce marketing, and social selling (see figure below). According to Hootsuite’s reporting there is a significant reach by social media channel (2.17 billion on Facebook ads, 1.44 billion on Instagram ads, 1.02 billion on TikTok ads, and 849.6 million on LinkedIn ads), social media (being the most powerful advertising channel

Figure no. 10: Social Commerce, Social Media E-commerce Marketing, and Social Selling

Source: McConnell, B., 2022. 6 Ways to Use Social for Media Ecommerce in 2023, Hootsuite, Social, November 23, 2022 (work cited)

According to the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, G2 (2022), with Yieldify’s full-service team and platform (Yieldify being a fully managed E2E personalization platform helping e-commerce businesses’ success with customer engagement based on personalized CX) more than one thousand e-commerce brands (in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) have generated in the last 4 years over $2.5 billion in extra revenue. Top 7 platforms for e-commerce social media marketing (as for e-commerce businesses, social media being both a huge revenue driver, and a strong influential part of a multichannel strategy)

according to the above-mentioned Yieldify (2022) are as follows: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter. As shown by Yieldify: in advance of launching a social media strategy it is necessary to consider not only the audience demographics and product and in-house expertise, but also a few channels; e-commerce business growth can be increased by investing in the right social media channels (seeing social commerce as a sum of social media plus e-commerce).

Q-commerce powering e-commerce transactions and producing a winning combination in approaching delivery speed versus assortment on the very competitive market, including by considering the role of the Venture Capitals (VCs) in capturing new (high LTV) customers

On the other hand, we underlined last year (Purcarea, 2021) the signals regarding the big potential of the so-called “quick commerce” (Q-commerce, on-demand or rapid delivery; facilitated by the “dark stores” as fulfilment centers supporting e-commerce distribution strategy), and its impact on supermarkets’ online models, as well on the battle between the new entrants and the enduring players expanding aggressively. As shown more recently by:

• Mudsa (2022), Q-commerce modernized and speeded up the classic e-commerce paradigm, the working of the technological developments in last-mile and e-commerce producing a winning combination, taking into account the importance of a faster delivery time (the benefits of Qcommerce services are shown in figure below);

Figure no. 11: Quick Commerce Services Have Several Benefits

Source: Mudsa, J., 2022. Reasons Behind The Fast Growth Of Quick Commerce, CMarix, May 11, 2022 (work cited)

• Melikyan (2022), Q-commerce powers e-commerce transactions by using quantum computing (and QKD/quantum key distribution is impossible to hack), and being mobile-friendly makes it easy for mobile users to visit places where the wanted goods are sold (in order to look at and directly buy them from their favorite social media platforms), its conversational interface being very useful (including by considering the role of voice-activated devices that are driving it).

It is also interesting to note within this framework the opinions expressed this summer by Stratably (2022) with regard to Q-commerce retrenchment (considering the reduction of spending as reaction to the current economic difficulty) plus retail media & social commerce, highlighting on this occasion the ignorance by companies of the reality of a very competitive market (see the below figure regarding a big picture of delivery speed versus assortment on this very competitive US market) which attracted Venture Capitals (VCs) to capture new (high LTV) customers (people who shop a lot and are brand loyal)

Figure no. 12: Delivery Speed vs. Assortment

Source: Stratably, 2022. Q-Commerce Retrenchment + Retail Media & Social Commerce, June 6, 2022 (work cited)

As shown by Lahunou (a, 2021), in order to have a better general review of an ecommerce business across various areas to be improved (based on measuring impacts of the marketing strategy, financial resources’ allocation, customer acquisition costs’ reduction, customer retention, most profitable customers etc.) it is necessary to understand LTV (Customer Lifetime Value). Acting on this path it is possible to increase LTV (what is considered an excellent indicator of an e-commerce business with increased revenue), meaning also an increase in customer spending (the average amount), customers buying more products over time (meaning

return customers). LTV for e-commerce businesses can be calculated on the basis of a wellknown formula (Average Order Value/AOV x Average Purchase Frequency/APF x Average Customer Lifespan/ACL), and can be predicted by using various models (the aggregate model, cohort model, probabilistic model or the machine learning models). Marketing efforts can be amplified based on using LTV (integrating the LTV metric into companies’ digital marketing campaigns). On the other hand, LTV might be affected (positively or negatively) by different factors, such as: pricing and billing, product offering and products’ quality, branding, sales strategies (upselling and cross-selling), content creation/social media presence, customer service, and referral and loyalty programs (Lahunou b, 2021).

Instead of conclusions: Making a major change in e-commerce personalization, following the trends to actually doing something about them

In our last RDCM issue (Purcarea, 2022) we underlined the linkage between value innovation, retail highly competitive market with e-commerce as its flourishing segment, and successful innovation, paying attention to (functional, social, and emotional) value and its adoption (while reducing the resistance against it). Allow us now to remember some other aspects:

• At the beginning of this year, on the occasion of the US NRF’s Big Show in New York City, it was highlighted how interesting cultural moments are now created by the metaverse, this opinion being expressed (in a session focused on reaching Generation Z consumers) by an investor (25 years old) at a venture capital firm (Newman a, 2022);

• Some months later, in May, on the occasion of Gen Z month at Retail Brew (Newman b, 2022), the same young investor (an expert on the metaverse, and named this year by Forbes to its “30 Under 30” list in the VC category) stated: “It’s gonna be sad when Gen Z goes out of favor eventually. But it’s not like Gen Z is going to disappear in 10 years – it’s still going to be a core customer base for a lot of brands, the same way that millennials are now. It’s just not going to be as much of a mystery as Gen Alpha will be. Gen Z is hot right now, and Gen Z will be hot in five years. But in 10 years when we’re not, I’m still happy to be the Gen Z oracle for folks who need me ” In the same month of May 2022:

- The drag and drop website builder Ucraft (2022) wrote about how the future of e-commerce is shaped by Gen Z, underlining significant trends influencing Gen Z’s buying behavior (such as: social commerce, mega-mobility, and belief-driven purchases), and recommending e-commerce strategies to attract Gen Z customers (such as: creating a mobile-friendly, user-friendly site; putting brand values out there; socialization; rethinking entirely the way of running the business, Gen Z having more choices, channels, and demands compared to the older generations);

- The leading provider of media and market intelligence on the metaverse industry, The Metaverse Insider (Ali Hussain, 2022), made reference to the time dedicated to study the fastevolving metaverse market, the result being the so-called The Metaverse Market Map (for a more comprehensive and holistic view of the Metaverse Ecosystem being possible to click to view an Interactive Metaverse Market Map), as shown below.

Figure no. 13: Metaverse Market Map

Source: Ali Hussain, W., 2022. The Metaverse Market Map – the Ecosystem of our Emerging Virtual Worlds, The Metaverse Insider, May 16, 2022 (work cited)

• Three of the (13) e-commerce trends to look for in 2023 identified (within the focus of enhancing CX) more recently by the full-service e-commerce platform WebSell (McGillycuddy, 2022) are: “Personalization will delight customers” , “Social commerce continues to rise with Gen Z” , and “Customers have less patience for late deliveries”;

• The world’s no. 1 Commerce Experience Cloud, Bloomreach (2022), confirmed in October this year that “now offers practitioners even more ways to drive impactful business results, fast ROI, and lasting customer loyalty”, by revolutionizing “what’s possible for e-commerce personalization”, and consequently “delivering continued innovation for its customers”;

• As shown recently by SaleCycle (Turnbull, C., 2022), known for optimizing the e-commerce buying funnel with personalized and targeted emails (so as to ensure a better reconnection with shoppers with after they have left companies’ site), in order to browse during Black Friday (when there is a huge online sales value not only for gaining new and returning customers, but

also for filling the pipeline full of potential customers) the majority of online consumers used their mobile devices (79% from the 11 million online sessions tracked by SaleCycle were mobile sessions), consequently being obvious retailers’ imperative to adopt a mobile-first approach and improve the mobile user experience;

• As recently confirmed by Coresight Research (b, 2022), during Black Friday shopping, compared to stores, a more significant channel is the online channel (figure below shows Where Did US Consumers Shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday).

Source: Coresight Research, 2022. Holiday Bites: Where Did US Consumers Shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Holiday Bites series, December 8, 2022 (work cited)

McKinsey & Company (2022) expressed the belief that “the metaverse is best characterized as an evolution of today’s internet something we are deeply immersed in, rather than something we primarily look at. It represents a convergence of digital technology to combine and extend the reach and use of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), spatial computing, and more. And the “enterprise metaverse” may coalesce in a way that unlocks even more opportunity, beyond simply serving as a virtual place where people interact. ” And in the Special Report entitled McKinsey Technology

Figure no. 14: Where Did US Consumers Shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Trends Outlook 2022 it was underlined (among other technology trends) that “Web3 includes platforms and applications that enable shifts toward a future, decentralized internet with open standards and protocols while protecting digital-ownership rights, providing users with greater ownership of their data and catalyzing new business models”, while “Immersive-reality technologies use sensing technologies and spatial computing to help users “see the world differently” through mixed or augmented reality or “see a different world” through virtual reality” (Chui, Roberts and Yee, 2022).

Let us end by making reference to:

• Shopify’s Industry Insights and Trends (Keenan, 2022) that challenged readers in December this year to better understand “How Augmented Reality (AR) is Changing Ecommerce Shopping”. It was interesting to note that from the very beginning the above-mentioned Shopify’s article referred to a McKinsey’s approach regarding the use of metaverse technology Allow us to add (and remember) that McKinsey’s representatives (Aiello et al., 2022) finally stated: “One thing is certain: whatever shape the metaverse will take, consumers will be the driving force behind the evolution;”

• “The Great Realignment” report by Insider Intelligence (Enberg, et al., 2022) that illustrated the continuous transformation of e-commerce, social media, financial technology etc. in the middle of the market turmoil of this year. Presented by Tealium, this report by Insider Intelligence (2022) revealed that the recent e-commerce growth come mostly from friction-reducing capabilities (such as: Apple Pay, BNPL, click and collect/BOPIS, and brands selling D2C), the drivers of the continuing effect of e-commerce being m-commerce, grocery, BNPL, D2C, and click and collect (also referred to as BOPIS). Within this framework, it was also made reference to Shopify that provoked the D2C e-commerce trend by lowering barriers of entry for brands selling online, social commerce helping with demand.

References

Aiello, C., Bai, J., Schmidt, J. and Vilchynskyi, Y., 2022. Probing reality and myth in the metaverse. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail Practices, p. 8. Available at: <probingreality-and-myth-in-the-metaverse-final> [Accessed 15 June 2022].

Ali Hussain, W., 2022. The Metaverse Market Map – the Ecosystem of our Emerging Virtual Worlds, The Metaverse Insider, May 16, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://metaverseinsider.tech/2022/05/16/the-metaverse-ecosystem-a-market-map-for-our-emergingvirtual-worlds/> [Accessed 25 December 2022].

Bloomreach, 2002. Bloomreach Announces Q3 Product Launches, Revolutionizing Personalized ECommerce with Advanced Features for Marketing, Product Discovery, and Content, News, Oct 11, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.bloomreach.com/en/news/2022/bloomreach-announces-q3-productlaunches-revolutionizing-personalized-e-commerce-with-advanced-features-for-marketing-productdiscovery-and-content?> [Accessed 22 December 2022].

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Continuing

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of the European Retail Academy http://www.european-retail-academy.org/), an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, and distinguished Member of both the Editorial Board of “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”, and the Editorial Board of RAU “Holistic Marketing Management” other great events happening in the last time, and allowed us to present them. It is also worth remembering that: immediately after visiting Romania for the first time on the occasion of the 24th International Congress of the International Association for the Distributive Trade (AIDA Brussels), Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier sent us, in May 1998, a memorable letter we have referred initially in the Journal of the Romanian Marketing Association (AROMAR), no. 5/1998, and also later, in 2010, in the first issue of the Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine. The Romanian-American University (RAU) has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Special Academic Merit”. The “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Excellence”

Social Challenges, Preservation & Revitalization, Own Benchmarking, Reshaping VUA, Strength of India, Business & Academic Partnership, Transformation Challenge, and South Bohemia Prof.Dr.BerndHALLIER

Continuing Social Challenges

Based on own experiences in the Economic Crisis in 1826 in France and the JulyRevolution of 1830 Henri Murger published in the period 1845-1849 his impressions of the life at the Quartier Latin in Paris under the title “Studies of the Boheme”. In 1896 the composer Giacomo Puccini transformed the content of four of those essays into the opera “La Boheme”: centered around X-mas in the Quartier Latin showing the social gap between the rich and the poor. After its first performance in Turin, it was not only played at all Italian opera-houses but also in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, London, St. Petersburg, Hamburg, Munich and in 1904 at the Semperoper in Dresden.

Visiting in December 2022 the present performance of “La Boheme” at the Semperoper in Dresden Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier stated: “The Cholera of 1826 could be compared with Covid of today; also the economic disruptions have similar effects dividing the poor suffering by Wars, the global Climate Change, Migration, and problems of a disturbed Total Supply Chain causing all together high energy costs and lack of cheap food and on the other hand the affluent rich in our Western society who increasingly suffer by obesity. 200 years after the experiences of H. Murger we see that we did not learn from the Wheel of History and are still not further in the 21st Century versus the 19th Century to optimize a peaceful Global House of Harmony within the triangle between Economics, Ecology and Ethics! - Is it just enough under those circumstances to wish each other Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year?” Hallier added.

Preservation & Revitalization

The EU sponsored ISTER-project united 15 partners from 8 countries as an Excellence Cluster Research of Universities and Applied Sciences to rediscover and to document Roman Routes along the Danube River. The Preservation has been kicked off by enlargement of present studies and making them internationally accessible by language-links of the eight partners. Further on physical milestones at the places of heritage have been placed in form of towers of concrete or steel or at tables with information-plates for the sightseers. By including QR-codes further background by Apps or the Internet of Things is available.

About 80 participants attended the hybrid final Project Conference of this transnational multidisciplinary approach. ERA-President Prof. Dr. B. Hallier and CORP-Director M. Schrenk pointed in that discussion to the potential to use ISTER as a tool to multiply its scope of users within the stakeholder community of tourism and regional planners by Revitalization of the traditional trading routes. Both see in such future activities a sustainability and empowerment of the present project results and a win-win-situation between research and business.

Own Benchmarking

The Trade Faculty of the University for World Economy in Sofia/Bulgaria used the 70 years Anniversary of its faculty for a hybrid International Conference and a Publication of the contributions of the lectures (see also program). Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier praised in a review that from the aftermath of World War II until today all Deans and their Teams have been honored by a series of reviews. “Only by describing the personal impact on the permanent challenges of the research and teaching a benchmark for the present and future generations of Deans is possible” he said. “Progress does not come from itself - it needs People to initiate innovation” is his Credo.

“Comparing Central Europe with Western Europe we have to see that our friends in the COMECON had been blocked from innovations of the Wheel of Retail of a free market economy for roughly 50 years which were given to us to learn to adapt our old systems via permanent innovation-cycles. After dissolving the borders between East and West in the former COMECON-countries the Wheel had the effect of a Tornado: destroying the socialistic distribution structures.” Hallier reflects the period from 1945 -2022. “Evaluating the content and the digital presentation of the papers of the International Conference professors and students of the Trade Faculty in Sofia are nowadays fully at state of the art” Hallier summarized.

Reshaping VUA

The Visegrad University Association (VUA) was founded in 2011 for the academic exchange of Universities of Agriculture. Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier was from the start an honorary member of VUA and became later also member of the Editorial Board of the scientific journal which is published two times per year and meanwhile is recognized in international citation-lists.

During the last years 10 Universities from Russia had joined VUA and actively practiced the offer of double diploma and even inviting twice for General Meetings of VUA. Due to the Russian invasion into the Ukraine the VUA General Meeting 2022 decided to suspend the membership of all Russian Universities which also included the VUA-functions of professors of those universities. Prof. Hallier proposed to add to the VUA Constitution a paragraph that VUAmembers have to support a Peaceful Dialogue for a Global House of Harmony based on the optimization of the triangle of Economics, Ecology and Ethics.

Strength of India

“India has changed tremendously in the last fifty years: having seen students learning in Delhi at night using the light of electrical lamps at public places in 1973 because they did not have it at home – India has become in the last twenty years one of the world’s leading resources for IT-specialists whose services are used by the internet as a tool globally around the world. By its GNP and by Sector Competences like IT all India has moved from the status “developing country” towards high ranks of G-global. Having taken part for several years in the Indian Retail Forum (IRF) in Mumbai and getting to know entrepreneurs like Kishore Biyani from the Future Group and his competitors I know how powerfully Business Schools and Universities have contributed to the excellent performance of those entities.” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier stated at the welcome of the new ERA-member Jagan Institute of Management from New Delhi ( home site).

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On the other hand, travelling through India shows that the different regions have their own cultural approaches and tastes – and that a uniform behaviour cannot be expected all over such a Subcontinent. This fragmentation is part of the charm of India (like the different mix of curries) but in times of pandemics like Covid 19 sometimes more central power could lead to more efficiency. But judging long-run perspectives like Consumption 2050 also myths and religions play an important role: even death is seen in India as part of a new start into the eternity of a never-ending cycle of lives. And exactly this mentality might be the Strength of India despite all the present problems. Buying shares at the Stock Exchange my advice would be: Buy now at falling prices – because India has still a bright future to come!” (More in the YouTube Link: YouTube)

Business & Academic Partnership

“The 13th Conference about the Supply Chain Management in Targoviste/Romania is an example for the necessary cooperation between Academia and Business to be competitive in global trade markets” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier stated in a review. “According to a study of EuroCommerce 90 percent of growth until 2030 will be generated by more digitalized processes; 40 - 50 percent of the processes in the Total Supply Chain will be fully automated by Artificial Intelligence at that time. Those facts had been focused exactly in the Conference headline Data Management of Digital Supply Chains in the Whirlwind of Disruptions” Hallier added. “The Wheel of Retail has turned into a Retail Tornado which needs optimization of all players along the chain to survive a competition which needs rationalization to save costs on the one hand side and big investments into tools for future/technology, standardized processes and skilled staff for implementation and leadership on the other side,” Hallier concluded.

Academia was presented in the Conference

As partner for the application of Sciences the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) /Paris acted as a co-chair - supported by a research-report and contributions like from Gerd Wolfram, former founder of the RFID implementation team at the METRO Group Future Store Initiative. “Already the fact of meeting continuously in such highranking team for more than a decade is an indicator for a high-level evaluation of this platform,” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier summarized.

by the top professors Virgil Popa, Costel Negricea, Mircea Duica and Theodor Purcarea.

Transformation Challenge

The Association “EuroCommerce” in Brussels is for Retail and Wholesale the political platform for the dialogue with the EU Commission. The interests of cross-border impacts are discussed and harmonized to optimize legislation. This Webinar showed the necessary investments to be taken until 2030 to compete with Asia and the US: split in a Study Report as well as a panel of retail/wholesale experts - both moderated by the Director General of EuroCommerce Christel Delberghe.

“It is not only for the political administration important to understand the development and processing of the actors in the Total Supply Chain but also for Universities and Applied Sciences to get an early feed-back for their own research”, Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier stated attending this Webinar. “The three key-words Sustainability, Digitalization and Skills should be pushed in all the curricula of Education: they demonstrate the Tornado of Retail Evolution” he added. “Our experience in the analysis of successful leadership shows that Skills beat Knowledge by 80 to 20!”

South Bohemia

The Second Meeting of the International Advisory Board of the Faculty of Economics of the University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice/CZ was organized as a two-days hybrid event. Participants had been the Faculty Management and the Advisory Board Members: H. Pernsteiner/Austria, B. Hallier/Germany, L. Sdrolias/Greece, Z. Bacsi/Hungary, R. Miura/Japan, A. Skibinski/Poland and E. Horska/Slovakia.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier has been teaching in Budweis periodically after the transformation of the Czech Republic. In 2009 his Budweis-Students created the seepage after a crash course about city marketing. Budweis University also took part with three students sailing in an international workshop of Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier with the tall-ship Kruzenshtern from Kaliningrad/Russia via the Skagarak to Bremerhaven/Germany. The focus was beside speaking English and acting in an international team also character-building by climbing the masts of the boat or to build an emergency-team for the case of SOS.