Search results

The purpose of this study is to unfold the existing information channel in the higher moments of currency futures for different time horizons.

The authors use a quasi-Bayesian local likelihood approach within a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) framework and a dynamic connectedness measure to study the volatility, skewness and kurtosis of most traded currency futures.

The authors’ results suggest a time-varying presence of dynamic connectedness within higher moments of currency futures. Most spillovers pertain to shorter time horizons. The authors find that in net terms, CHF, EUR and JPY are the most important contributors to the system, while the authors emphasize that the role of being a transmitter or a receiver varies for pairwise interactions and time windows.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that looks upon the connectivity vis-á-vis uncertainty, asymmetry and fat tails in currency futures within a dynamic Bayesian paradigm. The authors extend the current literature by proposing new insights into asset distributions.

This research aims to conceptualize and validate the mall service design as a multidimensional construct and then test a conceptual framework by investigating the impact of mall service design on customer mall experience and its subsequent outcomes, that is, intention to revisit and desire to stay in mega shopping malls.

The survey data of 455 shopping visitors in Pakistan were collected using a mall intercept technique and tested through structural equation modeling in AMOS.

The study reveals that service design significantly impacts customer experience and subsequent outcomes. Customer mall experience mediates the relationships between mall service design and the intention to revisit and desire to stay at malls.

Data from a collectivist culture country (Pakistan) were collected. To explore the impact of service design on customer mall experience, researchers should conduct similar studies in individualistic societies like Europe and North America. Additionally, the authors recommend assessing the effect of each dimension of service design on customer experience separately.

The research provides policy guidelines for the owners and operators of mega shopping malls in developing experience-oriented retailing strategies based on service design.

The research conceptualizes and validates the mall service design as a multidimensional construct using the service theater model and empirically tests its relationship with the customer mall experience.

The purpose of this paper is to modernize the generator system of wind turbine concept that not only improves the efficiency and power density but also reduces the system cost making design simpler and less expensive, especially in large-scale production.

This paper presents a new permanent magnet transverse flux generator (PMTFG) for wind energy production. The key feature of its composition is the double armature coil in a semi-closed stator core. The main structural difference of the presented design is the use of double coil in the same space of semi-closed stator core and reduced number of stator pole pairs and rotor magnets from 12/24 to 10/20. 3D simulations are performed using finite element analysis (FEA) to measure induced voltage and magnetic field distribution at no load. The FEA is performed to quantify the change in flux linkage, induced voltage and output power as a function of different speeds and load current.

Results show that PMTFG with double coil configuration has improved electromagnetic performance in terms of flux linkage, induced voltage, output power and efficiency. The power density of 10/20 PMTFG with the double coil is 0.0524 KW/Kg, about an 18% increase compared to the conventional design.

The proposed PMTFG is highly recommended for direct drive applications such as wind power.

Four models are simulated by FEA with single and double coil configuration, and load analysis is performed on all simulated models. Finally, results are compared with conventional PMTFG.

Building information modelling (BIM) has transformed the traditional practices of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. BIM creates a collaborative digital representation of built environment data. Competitive advantage can be achieved with collaborative project delivery and rich information modelling. Despite the abundant benefits, BIM’s adoption in the AEC is susceptible to confrontation. A substantial impediment to BIM adoption often cited is data interoperability. Other facets of interoperability got limited attention. Other academic areas, including information systems, discuss the interoperability construct ahead of data interoperability. These interoperability factors have yet to be surveyed in the AEC industry. This study aims to investigate the effect of interoperability factors on BIM adoption and develop a comprehensive BIM adoption model.

The theoretical foundations of the proposed model are based on the European interoperability framework (EIF) and technology, organization, environment framework (TOE). Quantitative data collection from construction firms is gathered. The model has been thoroughly examined and validated using partial least squares structural equation modelling in SmartPLS software.

The study’s findings indicate that relative advantage, top management support, government support, organizational readiness and regulation support are determinants of BIM adoption. Financial constraints, complexity, lack of technical interoperability, semantic interoperability, organizational interoperability and uncertainty are barriers to BIM adoption. However, compatibility, competitive pressure and legal interoperability do not affect BIM adoption.

Finally, this study provides recommendations containing the essential technological, organizational, environmental and interoperability factors that AEC stakeholders can address to enhance BIM adoption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies to combine TOE and EIF in a single research model. This research provides empirical evidence for using the proposed model as a guide to promoting BIM adoption. As a result, the highlighted determinants can assist organizations in developing and executing successful policies that support BIM adoption in the AEC industry.

This study examines the effect of design quality (i.e. appearance, navigation, information and interactivity) on cognitive and affective involvement leading to continued intention to use the online learning application.

We assume that design quality potentially contributes to enhance the individual's involvement and excitement. An experimental prototype is developed for collecting data used to verify and validate the proposed research model and hypotheses. A partial-least-squares approach is used to analyze the data collected from the participants (n = 662).

Communication, aesthetic and information quality revealed to be strong determinants of both cognitive and affective involvement. However, font quality and user control positively influence cognitive involvement, while navigation quality and responsiveness were observed as significant indicators of affective involvement. Lastly, cognitive and affective involvement equally contribute to determining the continued intention to use.

This study will draw the attention of designers and practitioners towards the perception of users for providing appropriate and engaging learning resources.

Prevalent research in the online context is focused primarily on cognitive and utilization behavior. However, these works overlook the implication of design quality on cognitive and affective involvement.

This paper aims to examine the mediating role of environmental concern in the relationship of green purchase awareness and purchasing behavior of fast food consumers keeping in view the theory of planned behavior.

A quantitative, cross-sectional design is used by collecting primary responses through a validated questionnaire. In all, 1,008 male and female buyers of fast food were sampled. Structural equation modeling is applied.

The results revealed that green purchase awareness has a positive relationship with green purchase behavior, and environmental concern has no mediation in the relationship. Upon having awareness, the respondents adopted green or pro-environmental behavior, but at the same time, they were found having least concern for the protection of environment.

This is a cross-sectional study with questionnaire. Multiple sources of data collection results in weakening self-reporting bias.

Implications count toward individuals, enterprises and society at general.

The study highlights the issue of not having concern for the protection of the environment even after having green purchase awareness. This is the first time the environmental concern is examined as a mediator in the selected relationship. The contradictory results of having no environmental concern differentiate this study from others.

The purpose of this study is to explain the effects of screen printing parameters on the quantity of ink deposited and the print quality in the context of printing of functional inks. Both these aspects of printing are crucial in the case of conventional and functional printing. This is because, in the case of conventional printing, the quantity of ink deposit affects the color strength while in the case of functional printing, it directly affects the resulting functionality of the ink layer.

In this work, an automatic lab-scale screen printer was used to print functional inks on a paper board substrate. The printing parameters, i.e. printing pressure and squeegee angle were altered and the resulting effects on the quantity of ink that was deposited were recorded. The quantity of ink deposit was related to its surface resistivity. In addition, the quality of the print was also assessed by examining the design registration quality.

The authors found that altering the squeegee angle has a significant effect on the properties of the resulting ink deposit. More importantly, the authors found that the deflection in the rubber blade squeegee was greatly dependent on the initial angle of the squeegee at the start of the printing stroke. For each set value of the squeegee angle that was considered, the actual angle during printing was recorded and used in the analysis. A printing pressure of three bars and squeegee angle of 20° resulted in the maximum weight of ink deposit with a correspondingly lowest surface resistivity.

This study is envisaged to have considerable practical implications in the rapidly growing field of functional printing of flexible substrates including, but not limited to, textiles. This is because, the study provides an insight into the effects of printing parameters on the characteristics of a functional ink deposit.

Screen printing of flexible substrates is a well-developed and arguably the most widely used printing technique, particularly for textiles. Numerous studies report on the analysis of various aspects of screen printing. However, to the best of the knowledge, the effects of printing parameters on the characteristics of functional inks, such as electrically conductive inks, have not been studied in this manner.

This paper aims to analyse the let-down stability of the binder-free dispersion of non-printing ink grades of carbon black and to assess the screen-printability of the finished inks formulated thereof from these pigment dispersions.

Binder-free pigment dispersions that were prepared and optimised following a ladder series of experiments (reported in a separate study by the authors) were let-down with three different binders such that inks containing various amounts of a binder were prepared followed by a rheological characterisation immediately after formulation and after four weeks of storage. The screen printability of the inks that displayed considerable stability was assessed, so was the ink film integrity.

The pigment dispersions that were considered in the present study were generally found to be stable after let-down with different binders. This was indicated by the fact that the finished inks possessed a shear thinning viscosity profiles, after formulation and after storage, in most of the cases. Furthermore, the screen printability of the inks was also found to be good in terms of registration quality of a selected design. The structure of the ink film deposits on uncoated and binder-coated textile fabrics was also highly integrated and free from discontinuities.

Carbon blacks with very low volatile matter content and/or high surface area are generally not considered suitable for use in the formulation of printing inks. This is because of their generally poor dispersability and inability to form dispersions that remain stable over extended periods. This work, which is a part of a larger study by the authors, concerns with the stability of inks formulated from binder-free dispersions of such non-printing ink grades of carbon black. The major advantage of using such pigments in inks is that the required functionality is achieved at considerably low pigment loadings.

The purpose of this study is to investigate safe-haven properties of environmental, social and governance (ESG) stocks in global and emerging ESG stock markets during the times of COVID-19 so that portfolio managers and equity market investors could decide to use ESG stocks in their portfolio hedging strategies during times of health and market crisis similar to COVID-19 pandemic.

The study uses a wavelet coherence framework on four major ESG stock indices from global and emerging stock markets, and two proxies of COVID-19 fear over the period from 5 February 2020 to 18 March 2021.

The results of the study show a positive co-movement of the global COVID-19 fear index (GFI) with ESG stock indices on the frequency band of 32 to 64 days, which confirms hedging and safe-haven properties of ESG stocks using the health fear proxy of COVID-19. However, the relationship between all indices and GFI is mixed and inconclusive on a frequency of 0–8 days. Further, the findings do not support the safe-haven characteristics of ESG indices using the market fear proxy (IDEMV index) of COVID-19. The robustness analysis using the CBOE VIX as a proxy of market fear supports that ESG indices do not possess safe-haven properties. The results of the study conclude that the safe-haven properties of ESG indices during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is contingent upon the proxy of COVID-19 fear.

The findings have important implications for the equity investors and assetty managers to improve their portfolio performance by including ESG stocks in their portfolio choice during the COVID-19 pandemic and similar health crisis. However, their investment decisions could be affected by the choice of COVID-19 proxy.

The authors believe in the originality of the paper due to following reasons. First, to the best of the knowledge, this is the first study investigating the safe-haven properties of ESG stocks. Second, the authors use both health fear (GFI) and market fear (IDEMV index) proxies of COVID-19 to compare whether safe-haven properties are characterized by health fear or market fear due to COVID-19. Finally, the authors use the wavelet coherency framework, which not only takes both time and frequency dimensions of the data into account but also remains unaffected by data stationarity and size issues.

The purpose of the study is to analyse the occurrence and distribution of different tree species in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, as a baseline for further inventories, and estimate the biomass per species and plot. Furthermore, it aims to measure forest biodiversity using established formulae for tree species diversity index, richness, evenness and accumulative curve.

Field data were collected, including stratification of forest sample plots. Statistical analysis of the data was carried out, and locally appropriate allometric equations were applied for biomass estimation.

Representative circular 556 forest sample plots of 1,000 m² contained 13,135 trees belonging to nine tree species with a total aboveground biomass of 12,887 tonnes. Sixty-eight per cent of the trees were found between 2,600 and 3,400 masl; approximately 63 per cent had a diameter at breast height equal to 30 cm, and 45 per cent were less than 12 m in height. The Shannon diversity index was 1.82, and Simpson’s index of diversity was 0.813.

Rough terrain, long distances, harsh weather conditions and location of forest in steep narrow valleys presented challenges for the field crews, and meant that fieldwork took longer than planned.

Estimating biomass in Gilgit-Baltistan’s forests using locally developed allometric equations will provide transparency in estimates of forest reference levels, National Forest Monitoring System in Pakistan and devising Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation national strategies and for effective implementation.

This paper presents the first detailed forest inventory carried out for the dry temperate and semi-arid cold region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.