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The practice of renovation and construction of university libraries is flourishing, but how to attract readers to use the library is an issue that urgently needs to be explored. Spatial cognition is a subjective judgment of a person's tendency to take action in the future and implies behavioral intention. Based on the sensory–image–cognition relationship, a theoretical model of university library readers' spatial cognition is conducted, and the influencing factors and mechanisms of spatial cognition are explored based on empirical data to provide theoretical references for spatial practices in university libraries.

A visual and art-based mental map approach is introduced based on a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire is mainly used for the specific evaluation of spatial use and the breakdown of the detailed elements, while the mental map method is mainly used for the evaluation of readers' spatial cognition. Relevant empirical data are collected from the library of the Zhejiang University of Technology.

The results indicate that readers' spatial sensory experience and mental imagery have positive effects on readers' behavior via the mediator spatial cognition, readers' spatial sensory experience and mental imagery have a positive effect on readers' spatial cognition and spatial cognition has a significant effect on readers' behavior.

The main contribution of this study is to construct a theoretical model of readers' spatial cognition and to explore the factors that have an impact on spatial cognition and the influence of cognition on behavior. This provides a more rational and in-depth thinking paradigm for the study of university library space and provides theoretical references for library practice.

A growing body of evidence points to the influence of location and allocation decisions on the structure of healthcare networks. The authors introduced a three-level hierarchical facility location model to minimize travel time in the healthcare system under uncertainty.

Most healthcare networks are hierarchical and, as a result, the linkage between their levels makes it difficult to specify the location of the facilities. In this article, the authors present a hybrid approach according to data envelopment analysis and robust programming to design a healthcare network. In the first phase, the efficiency of each potential location is calculated based on the non-radial range-adjusted measure considering desirable and undesirable outputs based on a number of criteria such as the target area's population, proximity to earthquake faults, quality of urban life, urban decrepitude, etc. The locations deemed suitable are then used as candidate locations in the mathematical model. In the second phase, based on the proposed robust optimization model, called light robustness, the location and allocation decisions are adopted.

The developed model is evaluated using an actual-world case study in District 1 of Tehran, Iran and relevant results and different sensitivity analyses were presented as well. When the percentage of referral parameters changes, the value of the robust model's objective function increases.

The contributions of this article are listed as follows: Considering desirable and undesirable criteria to selecting candidate locations, providing a robust programming model for building a service network and applying the developed model to an actual-world case study.

The studies that explore the impacts of national intellectual capital on informal economy are scant. Moreover, the effect of an external factor such as institutional quality that moderates this relationship has largely been neglected in previous studies. Institutions are considered important pillars to accumulate national intellectual capital and reduce shadow economy. As such, this paper aims to investigate how institutional quality moderates the effects of national intellectual capital on informal economy in 17 Asian countries from 2000 to 2018.

This paper uses the generalized method of moments techniques, which allow cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity in panel data, to examine the moderating role of institutional quality on the relationship between national intellectual capital and informal economy. Various tests are conducted to ensure the robustness of the findings.

Empirical findings from this paper indicate that an increase in national intellectual capital and institutional quality declines the informal economy. Interestingly, better institutional quality aggravates the negative effects of national intellectual capital on reducing the size of informal economy. The author also finds that enhancing international trade and economic growth results in a decrease in the informal economy in Asian countries.

Empirical findings offer policymakers an indication of the relationships between national intellectual capital, institutional quality and informal economy, pointing out that national intellectual capital and institutional quality should be strengthened to allow Asian countries to limit the informal economy.

This study provides a conceptual model through which the moderating role of institutional quality on the national intellectual capital–informal economy nexus can be recognized. This approach has thus far not been investigated in the existing literature. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study makes an original contribution to the empirical of national intellectual capital and informal economy nexus and produces new insights into the fields of the moderating effects of institutional quality on this nexus.

As ecommerce becomes more prevalent, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers such as warehouse clubs (WCs) face the challenging task of maintaining and growing their customer base. This study aims to unravel the combined impact of retail agglomeration and ecommerce activities on consumer foot traffic (also referred to as “footprint”) at WC stores, placing an emphasis on the locational strategies adopted by WCs in this evolving retail landscape.

Mobile-based customer foot traffic data for Costco, a major U.S. WC chain, is sourced for our analysis. We use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify dimensions of general merchandise (GM) and narrow-range merchandise (NM) retail agglomeration. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions are used to explore how the intensity of ecommerce activities and WC locational choices within retail agglomerations impact WC foot traffic.

Our analysis highlights a notable decline in WC store visits attributable to both GM and NM ecommerce activities, with GM ecommerce presenting a more significant competitive challenge to WCs. Regarding retail agglomerations, proximity to GM clusters that include a diverse range of supercenters, department stores, and club stores, is associated with an increase in WC customer visits within their vicinity. In contrast, the influence of NM agglomerations is mixed; clusters adjacent to grocery stores lead to higher WC customer traffic compared to those focused on other specialized stores. These findings underscore the strategic importance of location in mitigating the adverse effects of ecommerce competition. Additionally, our study uncovers intricate dynamics between GM and NM retail clusters and ecommerce activities, demonstrating varied impacts on WC customer footprint.

Access to customer footprint data illustrates the potential of this data source for retail decision making and researchers. Our analysis is limited to one chain, notably Costco.

Our findings underscore the need for retailers to adeptly navigate the evolving retail landscape, including the confluence between physical and digital retail environments, to secure future success. In particular, our results emphasize the benefits of locating stores within mixed retail agglomerations and underline the need to consider the broader retail landscape in location decisions.

The rise of ecommerce in the U.S. has reshaped consumer behavior and altered local shopping districts’ communal dynamics. This change may spur policy interventions to help physical stores compete with online retailers, emphasizing the importance of retail diversity and community-centric environments to sustain communal retail interactions amidst digital advancements.

The paper makes use of a unique dataset to provide a first assessment of the combined effects of retail agglomeration and ecommerce activities on consumer foot traffic for WC retailers. Thus, this paper provides insights into the impacts on consumer shopping behavior from the dynamic interactions between physical retail clusters and online shopping behaviors.

Because of the global increase of climate change effects, floods are becoming more frequent and severer, especially in urban areas of coastal cities and islands where floodplains have turned into buildings because of rapid urbanisation, leading to a higher risk of damages. Urban heritage areas should be highly considered in the time of evacuation because of the vulnerability of streets and buildings and limitations on taking counteractions. Given these limitations, this study aims to propose a network of potential evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis of the heritage areas.

Penang Island's heritage site, namely, George Town, located on the northwest coast of Malaysia, is chosen as the case study. By using an approach of spatial configuration analysis using space syntax techniques in addition to considering the potential starting points for evacuation and flood risk map of the area, this study analysed the area's street network values for evacuation function during flood crisis time.

Potential evacuation routes were identified for flood disasters in the George Town heritage area. Furthermore, the proposed evacuation routes were evaluated in terms of time for evacuation by metric step-depth analysis of space syntax.

A few studies have focused on practical guidelines for evacuation routes based on spatial configuration analysis, an important yet neglected approach in this regard, especially concerning urban island areas. This study can contribute to providing strategies to reduce vulnerability and casualties in urban heritage areas.

This study aims to investigate consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging in a regional context.

Following a socio-spatial lens and considering the “realm of meaning” of place, this research focusses on local consumers’ lived meanings of “local” food choice, and hence adopts a phenomenological approach to the data collection and analysis of 20 in-depth interviews with residents of the Italian region of Marche.

Drawing on Trudeau’s (2006) politics of belonging, this study reveals three interconnected themes which show how local consumers articulate a local food “orthodoxy” and how their discourses and practices draw and maintain a boundary between local and non-local food, whereby local food is considered “autochthonous” of rural space. Thus, this study’s participants construct a local food landscape, conveying rural (vs urban) meanings through which food acquires “localness” (vs non-“localness”) status.

There exists further theoretical opportunity to consider local consumers’ construction of food localness through the politics of belonging in terms of non-representational theory (Thrift, 2008), to help reveal added nuances to the construction of food localness as well as to the complex process of formulating place meaning.

The findings provide considerable scope for food producers, manufacturers and/or marketers to differentiate local food products by enhancing consumers’ direct experience of it in relation to rural space. Thus, enabling local food producers to convey rural (vs urban) meanings to consumers, who would develop an orthodoxy guiding future choice.

The findings enable regional promoters and food policymakers to leverage the symbolic distinctiveness of food autochthony to promote place and encourage consumers to participate in their local food system.

By using the politics of belonging as an analytical framework, this study shows that the urban–rural dichotomy – rather than being an obsolete epistemological category – fuels politics of belonging dynamics, and that local food consumers socially construct food localness not merely as a romanticisation of rurality but as a territorial expression of the contemporary local/non-local cultural conflict implied in the politics of belonging. Thus, this study advances our theoretical understanding by demonstrating that food “becomes” local and therefore, builds on extant food localness conceptualisations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for shaping the tourist spatial identity of the city and to take advantage of it to discover alternative urban outdoor spaces. As the number of indoor visitors has been limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, open urban areas such as streets, squares and parks have become more important tourist locations.

The assessment methodology consists of two basic steps. In the first step, the authors look for places or points that are carriers of spatial identity. For this purpose, the method of mental mapping is used. In the second step, statistical methods are used to evaluate the spatial suitability for the most common tourist activities. To obtain a holistic picture, a temporal component is included.

The application of the methodology is presented in the form of a case study. The obtained research results provide an insight into the spatial situation of the city of Maribor (Slovenia, Europe). Tourist spatial identity of a city depends on time. Based on the value of spatial sensitivity indicator and the suitability of activities, it is possible to adapt the tourist offer to the temporal component.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original perspective on the spatial identity of tourists. The presented approach could be integrated as a good practice in any other city worldwide. It supports the identification of suitable outdoor tourist places that are memorable, cosy, multifunctional and can be recommended by city guides (mobile or printed books). Every city has many hidden gems that tourists have yet to discover.

This paper aims to examine the learning gained from the evolving adjustment experiences of co-workers in moving to home-based working during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of these experiences on re-adjusting to return to co-working.

Results of a longitudinal qualitative study are reported where a group of co-workers were interviewed on three occasions between 2019 and 2022. Experiences are analysed alongside the adjustment to the remote work model using a boundary management lens.

The main adjustment experiences were in work location, temporal structures, professional and social interactions, and a new adjustment area was identified around family role commitment that emerged in the home-based setting. Boundary management practices were temporal, behavioural, spatial and object-related and evolved with the unfolding of adjustment experiences. A return to using co-working spaces was driven by the need for social interaction and spatial boundaries but affected by the requirement for increased privacy.

This paper will help workplace managers to understand adjustment experiences and develop facilities that will support a positive shared working environment not fulfilled through home-based working.

Although many workers abruptly transitioned to home-based working during the pandemic, this research considers those who would normally choose to work in a community-centred working environment rather than being home-based. As such, their experience of adjustment is of greater interest, particularly in terms of their expectations for shared working spaces.

The present study aims to propose a framework elucidating the attributes of mobile augmented reality (AR) shopping apps (i.e., spatial presence, perceived personalization and perceived intrusiveness) and how they translate to downstream consumer-related outcomes (i.e., immersion, psychological ownership and stickiness to the retailer).

By conducting a questionnaire-based survey, 308 responses were collected, and the data were submitted to partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analyses.

A few important findings were generated from the present study. First, attributes of mobile augmented reality shopping apps (i.e., spatial presence, perceived personalization and perceived intrusiveness) influence stickiness to the retailer through immersion and consumer empowerment in serial. Second, immersion positively influences psychological ownership. Third, the optimum stimulation level moderates the relationship between spatial presence and immersion. Lastly, a post-hoc exploratory finding yielded by the multigroup analysis uncovered the moderating effect of gender.

This study offers a novel contribution to the smart retail literature by investigating the role of mobile AR shopping apps in predicting consumers' stickiness to the retailer. A holistic framework elucidating the serial mediating effect of immersion and consumer empowerment, and the moderating roles of optimum stimulation level and gender were validated.

The new Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) has prioritised a new healthcare model that will establish the additional community healthcare facilities (CHFs). The paper proposes a methodology for supporting decision-making on location of the future facilities according to new parameters that consider how proximity to healthcare benefits communities. Rethinking the spatial parameters for locating future CHFs, focusing on fragile areas, creates a novel decision support system.

The methodology is based on multifactor analysis and on geographic information system (GIS) mapping to simulate the potential and risks associated with the proposed location of CHFs, focusing on territorial contexts of metropolitan cities, medium-sized cities, and Inner Areas, characterized by different fragilities. This method aims to innovate urban planning practices by updating the practice of per-capita urban planning standards and promoting implementation of the 15-minute city model.

The method defines new spatial parameters useful to inform the appropriate location of CHFs in Italy's Inner Areas. This offers a new integrated approach to spatial design mixing urban planning and healthcare dimensions.

The methodology will bring about an integrated urban planning approach, which guides both transformative urban choices and health services' implementation according to the needs of communities.