Visual narratives and audience engagement: edutainment interactive strategies with computer vision and natural language processing Xinyue Hao, Sijo Valayakkad Manikandan, Emrah Demir, Daniel Eyers Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 2026 PurposeThis study aims to explore how the integration of visual storytelling and textual elements within edutainment content drives recursive, emotionally grounded consumer engagement in interactive marketing environments. It challenges linear models of the consumer journey by emphasizing cyclical, meaning-making processes shaped by visual-symbolic and narrative cues.Design/methodology/approachUsing a multimodal artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted analytical approach, this study draws on natural language processing and computer vision to analyze over 10,000 social media posts from leading educational media brands. It identifies underlying engagement mechanisms by examining how visual themes and textual expressions interact to influence consumer behavior across different stages of the edutainment experience.FindingsVisual themes, especially those featuring human or natural elements, trigger early-stage attention, while emotionally resonant language anchors deeper involvement. This co-activation supports a recursive engagement model, where consumers continuously reinterpret and contribute to brand narratives through micro-actions and user-generated content. Engagement becomes a dynamic, participatory loop rather than a discrete outcome.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could explore how different visual and narrative elements influence emotional and cognitive engagement across diverse consumer groups. Additionally, investigating the long-term impact of recursive engagement on brand loyalty and consumer behavior will be valuable for further advancing interactive marketing theory.Practical implicationsFor practitioners in interactive marketing, this research underscores the importance of using visually compelling narratives to craft personalized content that resonates emotionally with consumers. By integrating both emotional and cognitive dimensions into content strategies, brands can enhance consumer engagement. Furthermore, incorporating interactive features, such as user-generated content and real-time feedback loops, is crucial for fostering deeper consumer involvement and strengthening long-term brand loyalty.Social implicationsThe growing influence of interactive marketing via edutainment and visual storytelling presents opportunities for brands to create more meaningful content that fosters engagement and learning. By aligning with consumers’ values, brands can contribute to societal change, advocating for social and environmental causes while enhancing public awareness and participation.Originality/valueThis research reframes interactive marketing as a psychologically layered and dialogic process, offering new theoretical insight into the symbolic and affective mechanics of edutainment. It provides a data-driven foundation for designing content strategies that foster long-term emotional resonance and participatory brand relationships. By demonstrating how AI tools can decode and optimize multimodal engagement, the study contributes both conceptual advancement and methodological innovation to the field.
Impact of imputation methods for ship technical parameters on emission estimations in ports Ruikai Sun, Wessam Abouarghoub, Emrah Demir, Andrew Potter Maritime Policy and Management, 2026 Greenhouse gas emissions from ships have emerged as a pressing concern. Nevertheless, the quality of data in existing databases remains inadequate, with numerous instances of missing information. This presents significant challenges for accurately estimating emissions associated with ship activities in port. This paper uses three imputation methods and applies them to three ports as a case study to evaluate their performance in emission estimation. The mixed-method demonstrates high accuracy while covering nearly all cases of missing data, resulting in the smallest error in estimating daily emissions. The results indicate that if the data quality is not improved, at least 12% of CO2 emissions may be underestimated. The cases of missing data that the imputation model can address also have a significant impact. For example, the multiple linear regression method, which only covers partial cases of missing data, leads to an underestimation of emissions by 2% to 6%. The findings highlight that an appropriate imputation method can significantly improve the accuracy of emission estimation. They also highlight the importance of data quality, which not only reduces estimation errors but also helps prevent the substantial underestimation of emissions.
Geopolitical disruptions and maritime transitions: Environmental and economic costs of rerouting Ruikai Sun, Wessam Abouarghoub, Emrah Demir, Andrew Potter Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice, 2026 This study examines the environmental, operational and economic implications of crisis-induced rerouting in maritime shipping, focusing on the 2024 Red Sea crisis as a case study. Contributing to the literature by linking operational modelling with transition theory, offering new insights into how geopolitical crises can accelerate or constrain sustainability transitions in global shipping. Within the socio-technical transitions framework, it explores how landscape-level geopolitical disruptions interact with regime inertia and create opportunities for niche innovation. Using an activity-based bottom-up model integrated with AIS data, the study quantifies GHG emissions, costs and voyage durations for vessels rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope, covering three major Eurasian routes (Asia–West Europe, Asia–West Mediterranean, and Asia–East Mediterranean). Emissions cost analysis is combined with scenario modelling to assess trade-offs between environmental and economic impacts across different innovation pathways. Results show that rerouting increases GHG emissions at least 46 %, economic cost at least 51 % of entire route fleet and extends round-trip durations by 20–34 days. Despite this, most shipping companies increased vessels’ speeds, reflecting institutional inertia that prioritises short-term efficiency over sustainability. Scenario simulations reveal that incremental innovations (e.g. operation optimisation) reduce excess emissions by 8–10 %. Whereas, transformative innovations such as LNG fuel and shore power cut emissions by up to 23 %, with combined deployment achieving up to 33 % reductions. These findings highlight the limited impact of incremental measures under sustained disruption and underscore the potential of transformative innovations to accelerate sustainability transitions in global shipping.
Susceptible-infected diffusion of food safety opinion dissemination: Infrastructure-driven spread and behavior-embedded substance Xinyue Hao, Dapeng Dong, Chang Liu, Emrah Demir, Samuel Fosso Wamba Expert Systems with Applications, 2026 This study examines how food safety information disseminates across three structurally distinct Chinese social media platforms, Weibo, TikTok, and Xiaohongshu (XHS), during crisis events. Rather than serving as neutral transmission channels, these platforms are conceptualized as dynamic Information Service Systems (ISS), in which algorithmic infrastructures and content substances co-produce public meaning, emotional salience, and trust dynamics. Drawing on the Substance–Infrastructure (S-I) model, specifically Type II logic, where infrastructure drives substance, we theorize that technical mechanisms such as feed algorithms, trending systems, and visibility logics interact with semantic features like emotional tone, media modality, and narrative framing to shape the velocity, reach, and epistemic reliability of crisis communication. Employing a mixed-methods design that combines temporal Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM), Susceptible-Infected (SI) diffusion simulations, and BERT-based sentiment analysis, we identify how different network structures, decentralized, centralized, and hybrid, interact with conformity, homophily, and neophilia to produce platform-specific information ecologies. TikTok’s architecture enables high-speed virality with minimal deliberative anchoring, limiting the platform’s ability to support trust repair; XHS facilitates high-affinity trust ecosystems led by key opinion leaders, but is vulnerable to echo chambers and insular misinformation; Weibo, with its hybrid infrastructure, supports rapid escalation and multi-directional discourse, but suffers from volatility in trust due to inconsistent epistemic control. These distinct affordances explain the asymmetric amplification of food safety narratives and the divergent trajectories of public trust, consolidation, polarization, or collapse, across platforms. As a contribution, the study introduces the Integrated Design and Operation Management (IDOM) framework, which positions platforms as reflexive control systems that must adapt to real-time signals of uncertainty and trust decay. It further underscores the need for resilient public governance that aligns institutional interventions with platform-specific logics and user cognitive baselines, advocating for a coordinated socio-technical ecosystem capable of sustaining trustworthy, inclusive, and responsive food safety communication in the digital era.
Value creation in parcel delivery: A systematic literature review and research agenda Wafa AlMazrouei, Emrah Demir Sustainable Futures, 2025 The rapid growth of e-commerce and urbanization has resulted in a significant increase in the demand for parcel delivery services. Consequently, firms must satisfy stakeholder demands while simultaneously maintaining operational efficiency and sustainability. This study examines value creation within the parcel delivery process by systematically reviewing 138 peer reviewed articles published between 2015 and August 2025 using PRISMA framework. The analysis identifies six core value criteria (economies of scale, learning economies, innovation capabilities, management capabilities, social and environmental aspects) and maps them across the stages of parcel delivery process. Findings highlight significant knowledge gaps in areas such as cargo security, customer decision-making, delivery personnel well-being, and environmental concerns. It calls for sustainable, innovative, and eco-friendly solutions, emphasizing emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital twin, and the Internet of Things. By integrating these criteria into a structured framework, the study offers actionable insights for designing parcel delivery strategies that are operationally efficient, environmentally responsible, and socially beneficial.
Beyond human-in-the-loop: Sensemaking between artificial intelligence and human intelligence collaboration Xinyue Hao, Emrah Demir, Daniel Eyers Sustainable Futures, 2025 In contemporary operational environments, decision-making is increasingly shaped by the interaction between intuitive, fast-acting System 1 processes and slow, analytical System 2 reasoning. Human intelligence (HI) navigates fluidly between these cognitive modes, enabling adaptive responses to both structured and ambiguous situations. In parallel, artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved to support tasks typically associated with System 2 reasoning, such as optimization, forecasting, and rule-based analysis, with speed and precision that in certain structured contexts can exceed human capabilities. To investigate how AI and HI collaborate in practice, we conducted 28 in-depth interviews across 9 leading firms recognized as benchmarks in AI adoption within operations and supply chain management (OSCM). These interviews targeted key HI agents, operations managers, data scientists, and algorithm engineers, and were situated within carefully selected, AI-rich scenarios. Using a sensemaking framework and cognitive mapping methodology, we explored how HI interpret and interact with AI across pre-development, deployment, and post-development phases. Our findings reveal that collaboration is a dynamic and co-constitutive process of institutional co-production, structured by epistemic asymmetry, symbolic accountability, and infrastructural interdependence. While AI contributes speed, scale, and pattern recognition in routine, structured environments, human actors provide ethical oversight, contextual judgment, and strategic interpretation, particularly vital in uncertain or ethically charged contexts. Moving beyond static models such as “human-in-the-loop” or “AI-assistance,” this study offers a novel framework that conceptualizes AI and HI collaboration as a sociotechnical system. Theoretically, it bridges fragmented literatures in AI, cognitive science, and institutional theory. Practically, it offers actionable insights for designing collaborative infrastructures that are both ethically aligned and organizationally resilient. As AI ecosystems grow more complex and decentralized, our findings highlight the need for reflexive governance mechanisms to support adaptive, interpretable, and accountable human–machine decision-making.
Vehicle routing problem: Past and future Emrah Demir, Katy Huckle, Aris Syntetos, Andrew Lahy, Mike Wilson Contemporary Operations and Logistics Achieving Excellence in Turbulent Times, 2019
Multi-objective Optimization for the Sensor Allocation Problem in Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks LF Pinheiro, FR Henriques, F Usberti, E Demir, LS Assis Available at SSRN 6571603 , 2026 2026
Resilient supply chain network design under super-disruption considering inter-arrival time dependency: a new data-driven stochastic optimization approach MM Vali-Siar, H Tikani, E Demir, Y Shamstabar Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 207, 104615 , 2026 2026 Citations: 1
Visual narratives and audience engagement: edutainment interactive strategies with computer vision and natural language processing X Hao, S Valayakkad Manikandan, E Demir, D Eyers Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 20 (1), 68-90 , 2026 2026 Citations: 24
Circular logistics and operations: transportation across a product’s lifecycle E Demir, TE Goltsos, S White Circular Economy Supply Chains: Optimizing via Data Science, 187-205 , 2026 2026
Impact of imputation methods for ship technical parameters on emission estimations in ports R Sun, W Abouarghoub, E Demir, A Potter Maritime Policy & Management 53 (1), 70-92 , 2026 2026 Citations: 4
Geopolitical disruptions and maritime transitions: Environmental and economic costs of rerouting R Sun, W Abouarghoub, E Demir, A Potter Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 203, 104737 , 2026 2026 Citations: 4
Susceptible-infected diffusion of food safety opinion dissemination: Infrastructure-driven spread and behavior-embedded substance X Hao, D Dong, C Liu, E Demir, SF Wamba Expert Systems with Applications 295, 128886 , 2026 2026 Citations: 4
Value creation in parcel delivery: A systematic literature review and research agenda W AlMazrouei, E Demir Sustainable Futures 10, 101557 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
A matheuristic approach for the mobile parcel locker delivery system with delivery robots and drone resupply C Chen, E Demir, W Li, X Hu, H Huang, J Li Swarm and Evolutionary Computation 99, 102182 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
An advanced hybrid approach for emergency healthcare pickup and delivery with unmanned aerial vehicles under a stochastic environment Z Lin, E Demir, X Xu, G Laporte Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 204, 104395 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Beyond human-in-the-loop: Sensemaking between artificial intelligence and human intelligence collaboration X Hao, E Demir, D Eyers Sustainable Futures 10, 101152 , 2025 2025 Citations: 24
A metaheuristic approach for the multi-objective sustainable vehicle routing problem R Moghdani, K Salimifard, E Demir, S Barak, A Aazami, SAH Shekarabi Annals of Operations Research, 1-50 , 2025 2025 Citations: 4
Reinforcement Learning for the Vehicle Routing Problem: Methodologies, Applications, and Research Outlook M Liu, E Demir, L Jian Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 1-28 , 2025 2025 Citations: 4
A simulation-based analysis for the road freight transport decarbonization: A case study of Colombia C Gil, A Rey-Ladino, G Wilmsmeier, AM Montes, E Demir, ... Energy and Climate Change, 100216 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
Beyond lotka-volterra: A game-theoretic exploration of two-dimensional airline competition NT Khan, A Al Hanbali, E Demir, Y Kim Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 200, 104619 , 2025 2025
Parcel locker solutions for last mile delivery: A systematic literature review and future research directions Q Zhang, E Demir Frontiers in Future Transportation 6, 1654621 , 2025 2025 Citations: 14
A green multi-period request assignment problem for road freight transport EJ Mamaghani, Y Ghiami, E Demir, T Van Woensel Journal of Cleaner Production 519, 145855 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
When customers know it’s AI: Experimental comparison of human and LLM-Based Communication in service recovery X Hao, D Dong, Y Zhang, E Demir Journal of Marketing Communications, 1-28 , 2025 2025 Citations: 14
A reinforcement learning framework using pointer networks to address tampering of pollutant control systems in freight transportation MM Bidgoli, E Demir Expert Systems with Applications, 129178 , 2025 2025 Citations: 2
Operational research on dengue: critical review and research agenda LS Assis, FL Usberti, E Demir, C Cavellucci, G Laporte Journal of the Operational Research Society 76 (7), 1391-1413 , 2025 2025 Citations: 3
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
A review of recent research on green road freight transportation E Demir, T Bektaş, G Laporte European journal of operational research 237 (3), 775-793 , 2014 2014 Citations: 1063
An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the pollution-routing problem E Demir, T Bektaş, G Laporte European journal of operational research 223 (2), 346-359 , 2012 2012 Citations: 943
The bi-objective pollution-routing problem E Demir, T Bektaş, G Laporte European journal of operational research 232 (3), 464-478 , 2014 2014 Citations: 609
A comparative analysis of several vehicle emission models for road freight transportation E Demir, T Bektaş, G Laporte Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 16 (5), 347-357 , 2011 2011 Citations: 576
A selected review on the negative externalities of the freight transportation: Modeling and pricing E Demir, Y Huang, S Scholts, T Van Woensel Transportation research part E: Logistics and transportation review 77, 95-114 , 2015 2015 Citations: 341
The adoption of self-driving delivery robots in last mile logistics C Chen, E Demir, Y Huang, R Qiu Transportation research part E: logistics and transportation review 146, 102214 , 2021 2021 Citations: 324
The green vehicle routing problem: A systematic literature review R Moghdani, K Salimifard, E Demir, A Benyettou Journal of Cleaner Production 279, 123691 , 2021 2021 Citations: 319
An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows and scheduled lines V Ghilas, E Demir, T Van Woensel Computers & Operations Research 72, 12-30 , 2016 2016 Citations: 310
A green intermodal service network design problem with travel time uncertainty E Demir, W Burgholzer, M Hrušovský, E Arıkan, W Jammernegg, ... Transportation Research Part B: Methodological , 2016 2016 Citations: 286
An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with time windows and delivery robots C Chen, E Demir, Y Huang European journal of operational research 294 (3), 1164-1180 , 2021 2021 Citations: 283
A metaheuristic for the time-dependent pollution-routing problem A Franceschetti, E Demir, D Honhon, T Van Woensel, G Laporte, ... European Journal of Operational Research , 2017 2017 Citations: 203
The dial-a-ride problem with electric vehicles and battery swapping stations MA Masmoudi, M Hosny, E Demir, KN Genikomsakis, N Cheikhrouhou Transportation research part E: logistics and transportation review 118, 392-420 , 2018 2018 Citations: 188
Exploring collaborative decision-making: A quasi-experimental study of human and Generative AI interaction X Hao, E Demir, D Eyers Technology in Society 78, 102662 , 2024 2024 Citations: 179
A scenario-based planning for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows, scheduled lines and stochastic demands V Ghilas, E Demir, T Van Woensel Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 91, 34-51 , 2016 2016 Citations: 158
Last mile logistics: Research trends and needs E Demir, A Syntetos, T Van Woensel IMA Journal of Management Mathematics 33 (4), 549-561 , 2022 2022 Citations: 142
Green vehicle routing T Bektaş, E Demir, G Laporte Green transportation logistics, 243-265 , 2016 2016 Citations: 135
An exact approach for a variant of the pollution-routing problem S Dabia, E Demir, TV Woensel Transportation Science 51 (2), 607-628 , 2016 2016 Citations: 133
Artificial intelligence in supply chain decision-making: an environmental, social, and governance triggering and technological inhibiting protocol X Hao, E Demir Journal of Modelling in Management 19 (2), 605-629 , 2024 2024 Citations: 130
Branch-and-price for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows and scheduled lines V Ghilas, JF Cordeau, E Demir, TV Woensel Transportation Science 52 (5), 1191-1210 , 2018 2018 Citations: 129
Green intermodal freight transportation: bi-objective modelling and analysis E Demir, M Hrušovský, W Jammernegg, T Van Woensel International Journal of Production Research 57 (19), 6162-6180 , 2019 2019 Citations: 123
