http://hdl.handle.net/10256/133 Thu, 19 Jun 2025 14:12:19 GMT 2025-06-19T14:12:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26704 Ocean literacy in managing marine protected areas: bridging natural and cultural heritage Gómez, Sílvia; Garriga Ripoll, Anna; Bosch Badia, Maria Teresa; Bosch Vilarrubias, Marta; Vallasante, Sebastian; Salazar, Janire This study explores the factors driving the integration of ocean literacy into the management of Marine Protected Areas, highlighting its role as a powerful tool to transform the human-ocean relationship to improve conservation efforts. A survey was completed by 197 visitors in Cap de Creus (Northeastern Catalonia, Spain). The findings show that visitors who were more willing to pay for conservation valued cultural and natural heritage more highly, and held more positive opinions about protection, regardless of their knowledge and despite their lower income and educational level. These results show us that knowledge does not necessarily indicate greater environmental awareness. The need to consider the marine environment as a cultural-natural embedded heritage is highlighted to foster a cultural connection, inspire commitment to its protection and promote conservation that ensures human well-being and health. Finally, some recommendations are offered to improve the integration of OL in MPA policies Tue, 15 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26704 2025-04-15T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26678 The impact of COIL on EFL learners' communication competence, anxiety, and soft skills Remmerswaal, Robert; Tuncer, Hülya; Naval, Joaquín This paper investigated the effect of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' self-perceived communication competence (SPCC), communication anxiety (CA), and soft skills. The participants were 157 university students from Japan, Türkiye, and Spain who completed various tasks and created a video on Sustainable Development Goals during the fall of 2022. Students answered two surveys (pre-COIL and post-COIL) through a mixed-method convergent research design. Both surveys included three different 5-point Likert scales (analyzed via t-test and convergence analysis), and the post-COIL survey included additional open-ended questions for qualitative analysis. The t-test analysis demonstrated a statistically significant increase in EFL students' average SPCC. The convergence analysis showed that students with the lowest and highest SPCC, CA, and soft skills converged towards the average and experienced the greatest change in these traits post-COIL. Considering the qualitative data and social cognitive theory, participation in the COIL assisted students in better understanding their SPCC, CA, and soft skills when working in an international group Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26678 2025-03-27T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26652 Chapter 3: When size does not matter: compositional data analysis in marketing research Ferrer Rosell, Berta; Martín Fuentes, Eva; Vives Mestres, Marina; Coenders, Germà Compositional Data analysis (CoDa) is the standard statistical methodology when data contain information about the relative importance of parts of a whole. Many research questions in marketing have to do with distribution of a whole (e.g., market share, product portfolio, spending distribution), or with relative importance (e.g., advertising content or style, preferred product attributes). CoDa solves the statistical problems that arise when treating compositional data with classical statistical methods and focuses on research questions about relative importance. In a costumer opinion platform the dominant types of reviews matter more than the number of reviews. We show how to apply the most common CoDa tools (visualization and linear models), by means of real data from an electronic word-of-mouth platform: are hotel characteristics affecting the share of valuation categories (e.g., from terrible to excellent reviews), or is it related to other compositions (e.g., by type of travelers)? Fri, 22 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26652 2021-10-22T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26651 Compositional DuPont Analysis. A Visual Tool for Strategic Financial Performance Assessment Saus Sala, Elisabet; Farreras Noguer, M. Àngels; Arimany Serrat, Núria; Coenders, Germà DuPont analysis is a classical tool for assessing the determinants of financial performance of firms. It is based on financial ratios comparing revenues with costs (the so-called margin ratio), revenues with assets (turnover ratio), and debt with assets (leverage ratio). DuPont analysis thus focuses on comparing accounting values in relative terms and lends itself naturally to compositional analysis. In this chapter, we show how to graphically display firms according to margin, turnover and leverage by means of a standard compositional biplot, and how to cluster firms into strategic groups by means of k-means compositional cluster analysis. Practitioners who prefer to stick to the classic definitions of industry or cluster-level financial ratios can compute them with the usual formulae from the centre of the composition, i.e. from the industry or cluster geometric averages rather than the totals or arithmetic averages commonly used. An illustration is presented with farm-tourism firms Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10256/26651 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z