Matjaz Knez

Dr. Matjaz Knez


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

8Years (2019-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
22 January 2021 in World Electric Vehicle Journal
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
VOVasja Omahne
Vasja Omahne
Matjaz KnezMatjaz Knez
Matjaz Knez
Matevz ObrechtMatevz Obrecht
Matevz Obrecht
E-mobility sustainability assessment is becoming more comprehensive with research integrating social aspects without focusing only on technical, economic, and/or environmental perspectives. The transportation sector is indeed one of the leading and most challenging greenhouse gas polluters, and e-mobility is seen as one of the potential solutions; however, a social perspective must be further investigated to improve the perception of and acceptance of electric vehicles. This could consequently lead to the European Green Deal’s holy grail: faster decarbonization of the transportation sector. Another way to achieve it is by promoting more comprehensive sustainable development goals. Therefore, this paper combines a systematic review of recent research with research emphasis focused on social aspects of electric vehicles and their interconnection with specific UN Sustainable Development Goals. By knowing the current research focus mainly related with “perception” of electric vehicles and assessing their social “impact” as well as an emerging area of “user experience” and their relations with UN Sustainable Development Goals enables better insight on the current and future directions of electric vehicle social sustainability research. The current priority is identified as “climate actions”. Increasingly important “sustainable cities and communities” shows potential for becoming one of the future research, policy, and community priorities.

27 October 2022 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
alaa Othman abomousaalaa Othman abomousa
alaa Othman abomousa
SGsara el gazzar
sara el gazzar
Matjaz KnezMatjaz Knez
Matjaz Knez
In this digital age, sustainable development and competitive advantage of port businesses rely on their capacity to adapt to changing business requirements. Although many previous studies develop a relation between smart port, technology, and sustainable performance, there is an urgent need to address such issues practically among ports, especially in developing countries. Therefore, this research aims at investigating to what extent the Egyptian ports could apply the smart practices and employ technology to achieve and improve sustainable port performance. The Egyptian ports have been selected to serve as an empirical study in this research, assessing their current performance and evaluating their level of readiness and adaptability to smart practices and technology employment. Interviews have been conducted with a group of 10 different stakeholders from government, private sectors, and experts in the field of port management. The interview results showed the main challenges and obstacles that might face the adaptation of technology and sustainable practices in Egyptian ports. This was followed by a focus group with experts in the field to discuss and conclude some procedures that can be adapted to facilitate the implementation of smart practices and technology employment in the Egyptian ports in order to improve their sustainable performance from different perspectives (economic, social, and environmental), deal with the obstacles facing adaptation, and suggest solutions The research adopted ‘content analysis’ for both phases. The research showed the great potential of technology employment to achieve sustainable performance in Egyptian ports while highlighting the main obstacles and challenges that might face the adaptation with suggestions and recommendations to those obstacles in order to adopt the digital transformation towards a sustainable smart port performance. Nevertheless, there are some limitations that could be an open issue to future researchers and practitioners who can benefit from those suggestions to employ technology and adapt sustainable procedures in ports, foster new practical research initiatives to adapt the smart port practices in different countries, and test their impact on port sustainable performance.

11 April 2022 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
alaa Othman abomousaalaa Othman abomousa
alaa Othman abomousa
SGsara el gazzar
sara el gazzar
Matjaz KnezMatjaz Knez
Matjaz Knez
The new business environment, and the new era of digital transformation put pressure on the global supply chain and accordingly on ports to cope with such changes; these require ports to be smarter and adapt to the new technological approaches. Smart ports SP express the prevailing trend for the transformation strategies. Although many previous studies discuss smart ports requirements there is no integrated vision provided before to capture different comprehensive elements of smart port and show its impact on sustainably. Therefore, this research aims at developing an integrated smart port index SPI, capturing different elements of SP and linking them to port sustainability performance. The research conducted a systematic literature review to identify all pillars that are required for the smart port adaptation and showed its impact on sustainability with a full-text reading stage that resulted in 48 articles. The paper indicated that few studies of the SPI have been proposed before to improve SP activity in different domains: operations, environment, energy, safety, and security; however, there is a need to address the several key issues related to port operations, and to consider human resources factor as part of the smart port requirement, particularly an integrated index that captures different pillars in SP elements and shows its effect on sustainable performance. The study reveals that SP initiatives around the world have different integration levels. According to this, the smart port index can be considered as the first integrated index linked to sustainability and including human resources; however, there are some limitations that could be an open issue to future researchers and practitioners to foster new practical research initiatives that can rely on this index to adapt the smart port practices in different ports, taking into consideration the human resources aspect and testing their impact on port sustainability.

29 August 2020 in Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
PDF file
Matjaz KnezMatjaz Knez
Matjaz Knez
Borut JerebBorut Jereb
Borut Jereb
EGEulalia Jadraque Gago
Eulalia Jadraque Gago
JOANNA ROSAK-SZYROCKAJOANNA ROSAK-SZYROCKA
JOANNA ROSAK-SZYROCKA
Matevz ObrechtMatevz Obrecht
Matevz Obrecht

18 March 2025 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
UKUROŠ Kramar
UROŠ Kramar
Matjaz KnezMatjaz Knez
Matjaz Knez
The transition to sustainable energy systems presents a critical challenge for the 21st century, necessitating both technological advancements and transformative educational strategies to foster awareness and knowledge. Hydrogen technologies are pivotal for decarbonization, yet public understanding and acceptance remain limited. This study introduces and evaluates a novel gamified educational framework, uniquely integrating simulation-based learning, collaborative problem-solving, and adaptive instructional scaffolding to enhance hydrogen literacy and sustainability awareness. Unlike traditional pedagogical approaches, this method actively engages learners in real-world decision-making scenarios, bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical applications. This study involved adolescents aged 13–15 from two distinct educational and cultural contexts, one in Europe and one in the Middle East. A pre–post study design assessed knowledge acquisition, gamification engagement, and environmental awareness shifts. Findings reveal statistically significant improvements in technical knowledge and strong positive perceptions of gamified learning as an effective sustainability education tool across both cultural groups (Europe and the Middle East). Variations in engagement across cultural contexts suggest the need for adaptive, context-sensitive educational frameworks. While the findings indicate significant short-term knowledge gains, this study does not assess long-term knowledge retention, which remains an important area for future research. This research contributes to sustainability education by demonstrating how strategically designed gamification can foster behavioral engagement, enhance environmental literacy, and support the global energy transition agenda. This study offers a pioneering perspective on integrating interactive learning methodologies to cultivate sustainability competencies among younger generations.

14 June 2022 in Sustainability
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
IHIslam Hassanin
Islam Hassanin
Matjaz KnezMatjaz Knez
Matjaz Knez
Nowadays, the research community focuses on sustainability studies that are at the severe phase in the transformation towards a sustainable world. In addition, reducing the human impact on the environment requires a shift from traditional energy to renewables, which have increased significantly during recent decades as sustainable energy sources. Hence, this study assesses renewable energy sources and their related production phases from a supply chain management perception, screening and reviewing the integration between the supply chain management within the area of energy production focusing on renewable energy resources. The study executes a systematic review of English literature published on international scientific databases, focusing on the previous decade 2010–2020, to congregate the recently updated knowledge related to such research area. Thus, this study provides an authentic review of the literature that points to the relationship between supply chain operations and the area of renewable energy manufacturing from another side. Several literature reviews have been available concentrating on particular areas of managing renewable energy supply chains; however, no review has highlighted the practices of supply chain processes in energy production, focusing on renewables. The searching process relies on the published works that focus on such an area to be analyzed and characterized based on different methodologies they propose; thus, prospective and future research interests are delineated.