http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/5 2026-07-03T14:47:35Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2491 Greenhouse gas emissions, economic factors, and socio-economic dynamics in canada Erkişi, Kemal This study investigates how economic and socio-economic structures are associated with greenhouse gas emissions in Canada between 1990 and 2024. Moving beyond a narrow growth–energy perspective, it brings together economic growth, population density, energy consumption, renewable energy, financial development, income inequality, and trade openness within a unified time-series framework. The analysis employs a VECM to examine long-run equilibrium and short-run adjustment, while FMOLS provides robustness evidence for the long-run estimates. The findings show that emissions are positively associated with growth, population density, energy consumption, income inequality, and trade openness, but negatively associated with renewable energy and financial development. Short-run dynamics largely reinforce these long-run patterns, and the error-correction mechanism indicates gradual adjustment toward equilibrium. The results suggest that Canada’s emissions reflect not only energy intensity and scale, but also demographic, distributional, financial, and external-integration channels. Policy responses should combine energy transition with cleaner production, financial allocation, and socio-economic considerations. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2490 Does governance-based adaptation capacity reduce human exposure to disasters? evidence from disaster-exposed OECD economies Erkişi, Kemal This study examines whether governance-based adaptation capacity reduces human exposure to natural disasters in 14 disaster-exposed OECD countries over the period 2000–2024. Using a two-way fixed-effects framework with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, the analysis evaluates the joint roles of temperature anomalies, disaster frequency, and governance capacity in shaping the disaster-affected population. The results show that temperature anomalies have a nonlinear effect on human exposure, while disaster frequency increases disaster-affected population across all model specifications. By contrast, governance-based adaptation capacity reduces baseline exposure. In the preferred specification, the coefficient of governance capacity is negative (−0.983), whereas the interaction between disaster frequency and governance capacity is positive (0.071), indicating that institutional capacity lowers baseline vulnerability but does not fully offset the effect of repeated hazard occurrence. These findings suggest that governance-based adaptation plays a protective role, yet its effectiveness remains conditional on the scale and frequency of climate-related hazards. The results underline the importance of strengthening institutional capacity as part of broader disaster risk reduction and adaptation strategies. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2489 The impact of degenerative and regenerative business practices on consumer norms and preferences Gürs, Batuhan This study examines how consumers' intentions to purchase environmentally friendly products differ across regenerative and degenerative gastronomy business contexts. The proposed model includes Problem Awareness, Ascription of Responsibility, Personal Moral Norm, perceived Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility, Attitude towards the Use of Eco-Friendly Products, and Purchase Intention. Data were collected through an online survey of 394 consumers with gastronomy-related experience and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that Problem Awareness increases Ascription of Responsibility, which in turn strengthens Personal Moral Norm. While perceived Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility positively influences Attitude towards the Use of Eco-Friendly Products, both Personal Moral Norm and this attitude construct enhance Purchase Intention. However, some relationships were found to be significant only in the regenerative business context. In addition, the model explained substantially less variance in the degenerative context, particularly for Personal Moral Norm (R2 = 0.036) and Purchase Intention (R2 = 0.127). Overall, the results indicate that eco-friendly consumption is shaped not only by consumers’ moral and cognitive processes, but also by the environmental value-creation logic adopted by businesses. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12566/2488 Environmental variation in taste perception: an evaluation of basic tastes at sea level and 2200 m altitude using a trained sensory panel Avcıkurt, Cevdet; Sarıoğlan, Mehmet; Dinç, Yakup; Gürs, Batuhan Taste perception is not determined solely by the chemical composition of food; it may also be shaped by environmental conditions. Previous research has suggested that hypobaric atmosphere, ambient noise, and temperature can influence gustatory perception. Rahne et al. (2018), for example, showed that hypobaric conditions may reduce gustatory sensitivity, while white noise may selectively impair sensitivity to sweet and sour tastes. Likewise, Green and Andrew (2017) demonstrated that temperature exerts stimulus- dependent effects on bitter taste perception. In addition, research on aircraft cabin environments has highlighted that reduced air pressure, low humidity, and background noise can weaken the overall tasting experience (Spence, 2017). Despite these findings, environmental influences on taste have largely been examined separately, and comparative field-based studies remain limited. This paper proposes a research design to examine whether basic taste perception varies across two distinct environmental settings: sea level and 2200 m altitude. The study will focus on the five basic tastes, namely sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, and will be conducted using a trained sensory panel. The research is structured in three stages. In the first stage, panelists will be selected and trained to recognize, discriminate, and rate the intensity of basic tastes. In the second stage, reference sensory evaluations will be carried out at sea level under standardized conditions. In the third stage, the same panelists will repeat the evaluations at 2200 m altitude, allowing for a direct comparison between the two environments. The proposed study is expected to contribute to the gastronomy literature by addressing taste perception within a real environmental context. By moving beyond laboratory-based or single-factor approaches, it offers a comparative sensory framework for understanding how altitude may influence taste perception under field conditions. The findings may provide useful implications for destination gastronomy, sensory product development, and the design of food and beverage experiences in high-altitude settings. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z