Search results

Combining the coping theory and social support theory, this study aims to reveal users' coping strategies for mobile fitness app (MFA) engagement and fitness intentions with a rigorous and comprehensive hybrid research approach.

A three-stage hybrid research design was employed in this study. In the first stage, this study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the associations between coping resources and coping outcomes. A post hoc analysis was conducted in the second stage to unveil the reasons behind the insignificant or weak linkages. In the third stage, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) technique was applied to explore the various configurations of coping resources that lead to the coping outcomes.

The results in the three stages verify and compensate each other. The SEM results confirm the presence of two coping strategies in MFA, highlighting the importance of the intertwining of the strategies, and the post hoc analysis unveils the mediating role of positive affect. Moreover, the fsQCA results reinforce and complement the SEM findings by revealing eight alternative configurations that are sufficient for leading to users' MFA engagement and fitness intention.

This study offers a prominent methodological paradigm by demonstrating the application of multi-analysis in exploring users' coping strategies. In addition, the study also advances the understanding of the complexity of the mechanism that determines users' behavioral decisions by presenting a comprehensive interpretation.

A research study was formed in the Spring of 1991 to survey the perceptions of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) employees in Saudi Arabia concerning their needs and their attitudes regarding library services. The problem of this study was the lack of knowledge about user satisfaction with the library services which are provided at the library of the MFA in Saudi Arabia. The purposes of the study were two‐fold: (1) to measure, evaluate, and analyze user satisfaction with the library services provided at the MFA Library for the employees; and (2) to develop a model for evaluation of all governmental libraries in Saudi Arabia. The data gathering instrument of this study was distributed to 425 employees from the MFA in Saudi Arabia. Usable questionnaires were returned by 280 or 65.88 percent of the participants and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results of the survey showed that the more education an employee had, the more dissatisfied the employee was with the library's services. Significant differences were also found depending on the rank of the employee, the employee's age, the nationality of the employee, and the number of years the employee had worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The most serious problem was the lack of space and adequate funding.

Hong Kong's prominent position in international textiles and the clothing trade will continue to shift under the transition of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA). To provide a better understanding of the relationships between the local clothing manufacturers' generic marketing strategies and their deployment for future challenges, some 33 industrialists were interviewed. The results reveal no difference between the marketing‐oriented firms and the less marketing‐oriented firms in relation to the adoption of strategic actions in response to the abolition of the MFA. The results also indicate that firms, irrespective of their marketing approaches, shared similar views regarding the perceptions of the impact of the MFA upon Hong Kong industry and the overall future prospects of the Hong Kong clothing industry. Nevertheless, an interesting finding was that there might be a relationship between a firm's marketing approaches and its attitude to experimenting with strategies under different business environments. Less marketing‐oriented firms are found to be less proactive towards future uncertainties than the more marketing‐oriented firms.

The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

To summarize Managed Funds Association's (MFA's) 2005 Sound Practices for Hedge Fund Managers™, which is designed to enhance the ability of hedge fund managers to manage operations, comply with applicable regulations, address unexpected market events, and help hedge funds satisfy responsibilities to investors.

Highlights the development of, and some of the recommendations set forth in, MFA's 2005 Sound Practices under the following categories: management and internal trading controls, responsibilities to investors, valuation policies and procedures, risk monitoring, regulatory controls, transactional practices, and business continuity and disaster recovery.

MFA's 2005 Sound Practices builds on recommendations first published in 2000, and subsequently revised by MFA in 2003, offering sound guidance on business and operational practices. In the 2005 update, MFA has expanded on topics of importance, including internal trading controls, responsibilities to investors, valuation, and risk controls, and has addressed new issues such as compliance programs, codes of ethics, and certain transactional practices. The 2005 Sound Practices is written from a “peer to peer” perspective and focuses on practices that are relevant primarily to the single‐manager hedge fund operation.

Article summarizes an essential hands‐on manual for hedge fund managers.

Banking traces back to 2000 BC in Assyria, India and Sumeria. Merchants used to give grain loans to farmers and traders to carry goods between cities. In ancient Greece and Roman Empire, lenders in temples, provided loans, and accepted deposits while performed change of money. The archaeological evidence uncovered in India and China corroborates this. The major development in banking came predominantly in the mediaeval, Renaissance Italy, with the major cities Florence, Venice and Genoa being the financial centres. Technology has become an inherent and integral part of our lives. We are generating a huge amount of data in transfer, storage and usage, with greater demands of ubiquitous accessibility, inducing an enormous impact on industry and society. With the emergence of smarter cities and societies, the security challenges pertinent to data become greater, impending impact on the consumer protection and security. The aim of this chapter is to highlight if SSI and passwordless authentication using FIDO-2 protocol assuage security concerns such as authentication and authorisation while preserving the individual's privacy.

Due to the popularity of mobile devices and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), AI-powered mobile fitness applications (MFAs) have entered people's daily lives. However, the extant literature lacks empirical investigations that explore users' continuance usage intentions regarding AI-powered MFAs. To fill this research gap, this paper employs goal-setting theory to establish a research model for exploring how AI-enabled features (i.e. intelligence and anthropomorphism) affect users' perceptions of goal difficulties and goal specificities, which in turn affect their MFA continuance usage intentions.

This paper uses a survey method to analyze the research model, and a total of 223 responses are collected. The partial least squares (PLS) technique is utilized for data analysis.

The results show that intelligence and anthropomorphism affect the continuance usage intention of MFA users through their goal difficulty and specificity. Both intelligence and anthropomorphism positively influence goal specificity, whereas they negatively affect goal difficulty. In addition, goal specificity increases users' MFA continuance usage intention, whereas goal difficulty decreases users' continuance usage intention. The findings of this study provide theoretical contributions for AI technology adoption research and offer practical strategies for firms to retain MFA users.

Based on goal-setting theory, this study reveals that as two primary AI features of contemporary mobile fitness apps, intelligence and anthropomorphism, can increase comprehension of users' perceptions regarding goal difficulty and specificity in the context of users' continuance usage intentions toward AI-powered MFAs.

This paper investigates the relationship between generic marketing strategies and organisational designs of the Hong Kong clothing manufacturing firms. It also studies the strategic deployment adopted by firms with different marketing approaches in response to the MFA. It was hypothesised that there are generic marketing strategies that characterised clothing manufacturing firms (H1); there is a relationship between the marketing strategies and the organisations of a clothing manufacturing firm (H2); organisational characteristics determine a clothing firm's approaches toward generic marketing strategies (H3); and marketing‐oriented clothing companies tend to cope better with the challenges of the MFA than less marketing‐oriented ones (H4). The findings partially supported the first and second hypotheses but rejected the last two.

The purpose of this paper is to measure food loss and waste by material flow analysis (MFA) tool. Applying this methodology, the authors estimate wastage-related losses and discuss opportunities for more circular and sustainable practices in the Italian potato industry.

MFA is applied to two specific typologies as follows: ready-to-eat (chips) and dried potato products produced in Italy. The analysis refers to the year 2017 as the complete dataset useful for this study includes measurements until this year. A bottom-up and top-down mixed approach is applied, and functional unit refers to 1 t of potatoes consumed as final product.

MFA is applied to quantify and qualify material balance associated with 1 t of potatoes consumed as final product. In Italy, in 2017, more than 22,000 t of fresh tubers were lost, including 3,500–4,800 t of starch, equivalent to 52,800–72,600 GJs. Moreover, fewer than 23,000 t of skins and scraps were produced within industrial plants, not available for food but suitable for animal feed (dry skins are an excellent carbohydrates source in cattle and poultry feed), starch industry and bioenergy production (biogas and/or bioethanol).

This research is one of the few studies proposing MFA methodology as a tool to measure food waste. This analysis shows its utility in terms of food waste quality/quantity evaluation, supporting both company management and policymakers.