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This research aims to measure the public sector comparator (PSC) to reach public–private partnership (PPP) projects' negotiable price range for water and sewage companies in Iran. PSC measurement drives the public sector to make valid decisions about costs.

Around 170 risks were primarily determined through studying numerous articles. Then, risk effects were specified by distributing questionnaires in two steps. The questionnaires are distributed among experts on PPP-related projects and the Monte Carlo simulation method is used for confidence factors of 70, 80 and 90%. PSC is measured based on these results to study cases of Sirjan’s sewerage and sewage purification systems.

11 risks were identified as the main risks that are effective on PSC, and project implementation costs were specified based on the modeling. The corruption of the private and public sectors was identified as the most effective risk in this research. It can affect a project’s cost up to 158% in the construction period and up to 134% in the operation period. Based on the obtained results, 63% of this risk’s cost goes to the public sector.

The originality of this research is the PSC measurement method and appointing the risk share of each private and public sector. The results of this research can be applied to all the infrastructure and PPP projects in Iran and other developing countries as a way for employers to estimate accurate negotiable price ranges.

The supply chain (SC) of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in India witnessed a significant change soon after introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST). With the initiation of this tax, companies started moving from individual state-wise warehouses to consolidation warehouses model to save costs. This paper proposes a model that frames a mathematical formulation to optimize the distribution network in the downstream SC by considering the complexities of multi-product lines, multi-transport modes and consolidated warehouses.

The model is designed as mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), and an algorithm is developed that works on the feedback loop mechanism. It optimizes the transportation and warehouses rental costs simultaneously with impact analysis.

Total cost is primarily influenced by the critical factor transportation price rather than the warehouse rent. The choice of warehouses at prime locations was a trade-off between a lower distribution cost and higher rent tariffs.

The study enables FMCG firms to plan their downstream SC efficiently and to be in line with the recent trend of consolidation of warehouses. The study will help SC managers solve complexities such as multi-product categories, truck selection and consolidation warehouse selection problems and find the optimum value for each.

The issues addressed in the proposed work are transporting products with different sizes and weights, selecting consolidated warehouses, selecting suitable vehicles for transportation and optimizing distance in the distribution network by considering consolidated warehouses.

Of critical concern to the world is the need to reduce consumption and waste of natural resources. This study provides a multi-level exploration of the ways situational and transformational links between levels and challenges are related to the adoption and utilization of material flow cost accounting in Vietnam, to encourage green productivity.

Based on triangulation of public documents at different institutional levels and a set of semi-structured interviews, situational and transformational links and challenges for material flow cost accounting in Vietnam are examined using purposive and snowball sampling of key actors.

Using a multi-level framework the research identifies six situational and transformational barriers to implementation of material flow cost accounting and suggests opportunities to overcome these. The weakest links identified involve macro-to meso-situational and micro-to macro-transformational links. The paper highlights the dominance of meso-level institutions and lack of focus on micro transformation to cut waste and enable improvements in green productivity.

The paper identifies ways for companies in Vietnam to reduce unsustainability and enable transformation towards sustainable management and waste reduction.

The paper is the first to develop and use a multi-level/multi-time period framework to examine the take-up of material flow cost accounting to encourage transformation towards green productivity. Consideration of the Vietnamese case builds understanding of the challenges for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 12, to help enable sustainable production and consumption patterns.

A secondary research method was used to collect data for this case. The authors have made use of newspaper articles and articles by experts published in the public domain.

This case discusses the dilemma faced by Amazon Prime Video in India regarding content. Amazon Prime Video attained success and rapid growth in India ever since its entry into the Indian over the top (OTT) market in 2016. However, the pursuit of attractive and bold content landed Amazon Prime Video in a legal tangle in India. Amazon Prime Video was accused of hurting the religious and political sentiments of Indians by broadcasting bold shows like Tandaav, Family Man, Mirzapur, Family Man 2, etc. Litigations against Amazon Prime Video were filed in the Indian courts by members of religious and political organizations. Protests and online campaigns on Twitter caught the attention of internet influencers in India. The key dilemma faced by the protagonist in this case is whether to continue streaming attractive content that may be controversial and may occasionally hurt the religious/political sentiments of some Indians or stream only safe content that may be deemed as boring by its young target audience.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students studying marketing management and international business courses in business management and commerce streams can use this case.

A prime objective of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA; Clean India Mission) is to motivate people to segregate their household waste. The purpose of this study is to assess the ground reality of waste management behaviour of Delhi residents with the help of a modified Value–Belief–Norm (VBN) model. Past researches point the need to include cost as a variable in the VBN model. This study fulfils this need and tests cost as one of the variables on the gathered data.

The research data were gathered by interacting with the people and the civic staff in the jurisdiction of the three Delhi municipalities through a stratified sampling technique (N = 250). The structural equation modelling was used to analyse the collected data.

The modified VBN model explains the waste management behaviour, but the variables do not follow the exact causal chain. Values, awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility and personal norms all explain the resident's waste management behaviour. However, cost limits the resident's waste management behaviour.

The study could only achieve a moderate model fit; its sample size was small; and data were collected through self-reported questionnaire.

Three main practical implications of the study are: (1) While designing waste management solutions, due importance must be given to the cost to be borne by people for adopting these solutions. (2) Design such interventions that target residents' values to convince them to make the desired behavioural change. (3) People need be educated about the ways to sort waste and made aware of the importance of waste segregation in eradicating the urban waste mess.

The paper is an original contribution to testing a modified VBN model in predicting waste management behaviour. The modified model includes cost as a variable missing in the previous research. This research is useful in the backdrop of the SBA and provides suggestions for policymakers and pro-environment researchers.

To explore a potential relationship between politicians’ media background and social media success through an analysis of content and engagement strategies adopted by three consecutive Israeli prime ministers on their official Facebook pages.

A detailed comparative content analysis of a total of 1,242 posts published by three Israeli prime ministers – Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett – on the same official Facebook account, “the Prime Minister of Israel,” during their respective terms. Metrics like engagement rates, content distribution and media type utilization were considered.

All analyzed prime ministers exhibited consistent messaging strategies, suggesting a standardized approach to digital political communication. However, we found no correlation between a politician’s media background and their success on social media. Instead, decisive determinants of engagement outcomes were factors like longstanding political exposure and familiarity.

The observed uniformity in leaders’ messaging strategies indicates a prevalent standardized approach in digital political communication, revealing potential avenues for innovation and diversification.

This research challenges the prevailing notion that background in media inherently benefits digital political engagement, emphasizing the significance of political experience. The results provide new insights into the evolving landscape of political communication. Using signaling theory to evaluate how digital content reveals leaders’ intentions and credibility, our findings provide new insights into political communication in the digital era.

This paper aims to investigate a condition under which identity salience effects are weakened. By examining how identity salience influences individuals’ product judgment in a domain of trade-offs, the current research demonstrates that the utilitarian value of a product is an important determinant of the effectiveness of identity salience on product judgment.

This research consists of two experiments. In Experiment 1, the authors examined whether identity salience effects were mitigated when the level of the perceived utilitarian value of an identity-incongruent product was greater than that of an identity-congruent product. In Experiment 2, the authors examined the effectiveness of internal attribution as a moderator that strengthens identity salience effects when the perceived utilitarian value of an identity-incongruent (vs. identity-congruent) product is higher.

In Experiment 1, the authors show that when the utilitarian value of a product with an attribute congruent (vs. incongruent) with one’s salient identity is lower, individuals do not show a greater preference for the identity-congruent (vs. identity-incongruent) product, mitigating the identity salience effects. Experiment 2 demonstrates that when individuals with a salient identity attribute a decision outcome to the self, they display a greater preference for the identity-congruent product even when its utilitarian value is lower compared to that of the identity-incongruent product.

The research contributes to previous research examining conditions under which identity salience effects are weakened [e.g. social influence by others (Bolton and Reed, 2004); self-affirmation (Cohen et al., 2007)] by exploring the role of the utilitarian value of a product, which has not been examined yet in prior research. Also, by doing so, the current research adds to the literature on identity salience in a domain of trade-offs (Benjamin et al., 2010; Shaddy et al., 2020, 2021). Finally, this research reveals that when a decision outcome is attributed to the self, identity salience effects become greater. By finding a novel determinant of identity salience effects (i.e. internal attribution), the present research contributes to the literature that has examined factors that amplify identity salience effects [e.g. cultural relevance (Chattaraman et al., 2009); social distinctiveness (Forehand et al., 2002); different types of groups (White and Dahl, 2007)].

The findings provide managerial insights on identity-based marketing by showing a condition under which identity-based marketing does not work [i.e. when the utilitarian value of an identity-congruent (vs. identity-incongruent) product is lower] and how to enhance the effectiveness of identity-based marketing by using internal attribution.

By exploring the role of utilitarian value, not yet examined in prior research, the present research adds to the knowledge of the conditions under which identity salience effects are weakened. Furthermore, by finding a novel determinant of identity salience effects (i.e. internal attribution), the research contributes to the literature on factors that amplify identity salience effects.

Reducing the number of generated mutants by clustering redundant mutants, reducing the execution time by decreasing the number of generated mutants and reducing the cost of mutation testing are the main goals of this study.

In this study, a method is suggested to identify and prone the redundant mutants. In the method, first, the program source code is analyzed by the developed parser to filter out the effectless instructions; then the remaining instructions are mutated by the standard mutation operators. The single-line mutants are partially executed by the developed instruction evaluator. Next, a clustering method is used to group the single-line mutants with the same results. There is only one complete run per cluster.

The results of experiments on the Java benchmarks indicate that the proposed method causes a 53.51 per cent reduction in the number of mutants and a 57.64 per cent time reduction compared to similar experiments in the MuJava and MuClipse tools.

Developing a classifier that takes the source code of the program and classifies the programs' instructions into effective and effectless classes using a dependency graph; filtering out the effectless instructions reduces the total number of mutants generated; Developing and implementing an instruction parser and instruction-level mutant generator for Java programs; the mutant generator takes instruction in the original program as a string and generates its single-line mutants based on the standard mutation operators in MuJava; Developing a stack-based evaluator that takes an instruction (original or mutant) and the test data and evaluates its result without executing the whole program.