Search results

This paper presents results of an empirical investigation involving private construction clients in Malaysia, which seeks to establish appropriate tender evaluation criteria and weightings for a risk-oriented tender evaluation system.

At the initial stage of this study, a list of significant risks is identified and gathered through literature review. These risks are then mapped onto tender evaluation criteria. Following this, the identified risks and their mappings are validated through a questionnaire survey to determine appropriate criteria for tender evaluation. Weightings for the selected evaluation criteria are established through an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) group decision-making (GDM) method.

In practice, different lists of criteria, covering tender's technical capability and financial performance, are often used by different client organisations. However, there is a paucity of research behind the selection of these criteria and the weighting being attributed to different criteria.

This study provides an important and a valuable insight into the actual criteria used during tender evaluation practice based on an analysis of documentary evidence. Both current practice and existing tender evaluation studies failed to address the risk element adequately. There is a lack of an explicit link between evaluation criteria and project risks. This study fills this knowledge gap by identifying tender evaluation criteria through reviewing criteria used in practice and examining their links to risk factors.

Measuring quality of life (QoL) under incarceration can be used to track successful rehabilitation and risk of re-offending. However, few studies have measured QoL among general incarcerated populations, and it is important to use psychometrically strong measures that pose minimal burdens to respondents and administrators. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The aim of this analysis was to explore the utility of a short generic tool measuring overall QoL, the QOL5, in an incarcerated population. The authors drew data from the Norwegian Offender Mental Health and Addiction Study, a cross-sectional survey of 1,499 individuals from Norwegian prisons.

Factor analysis suggested a unidimensional structure that explained 53.2 percent of variance in QoL scores. Intrascale correlations were high and internal consistency was acceptable (α=0.764). The QOL5 was strongly correlated with mental health, moderately correlated with exercise frequency and weakly correlated with ward security.

The QOL5 is a short measure that presents minimal burden to respondents and administrators. The authors recommend its further use in incarcerated populations to measure overall QoL as well as cross-cultural adaptation and validation in more languages.

In this analysis of the largest published sample to date of incarcerated individuals and their QoL, the QOL5 appears to be an acceptable and valid measure of overall QoL.

Refractory materials are now used in all major industries that demand high-temperature resistance, including petrochemicals, steel, cement and aviation. Businesses must decrease operating costs, enhance product technology, sell well and manage corporate risks in decision-making, notably supplier selection, to be more competitive. The study aims to determine the key criteria and factors of supplier selection and to evaluate the importance of the key factor of the supplier selection criteria for the refractory materials manufacturers in Taiwan.

Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to rank these factors for the decision maker. The AHP method is suitable for verifying refractory supplier selection criteria and providing references. The weighted loss scores for each supplier are then determined using the relative importance as the weights. Supplier selection criteria are ranked using their aggregate weighted loss scores. The provider with the lowest loss score should be chosen.

Product quality is the most significant of the five criteria: product quality, production technology, logistics capacity, service capability and supplier background. Professionalism is the most significant aspect of product quality, whereas equipment and capacity are vital in manufacturing techniques. The studies also show that the delivery rate is essential for logistics and service capabilities.

This research has important implications for refractory suppliers in promptly fine-tuning the production and service to enhance customer satisfaction, which is key to business sustainability.

The application of an AHP technique to a real-world industrial issue is what makes this research unique. This research addressed one of the most critical topics in supply chain operations by offering better judgement for supplier selection via the use of suitable quantitative methodologies.

The paper reports on a review of assessment scales commonly used for assessment of psychiatric illnesses or behaviour problems in adults with learning disabilities. Initially, a literature search was conducted to identify relevant peer‐reviewed journal publications pertaining to relevant scales. Those scales with more publications were reviewed with reference to the scale composition and psychometric properties. In total, eight behaviour scales, one psychiatric illness scale and three combined behaviour and psychiatric illness scales are reviewed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of information technologies and technology-enabled social networks on the efficiency of knowledge management processes in the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies.

Scientific literature analysis, structural equation modeling and expert evaluation (structured questionnaire) were used to develop the research model, collect data from the audit and consulting companies’ experts and test the research hypotheses.

The empirical results of this research supported the hypotheses stating that information technologies and social networks positively affect the knowledge management cycle, including five processes (acquisition, creation, storage, sharing and application) within the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies.

The research results were generated from the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies, which form a limitation concerning the geographical area and the business sector.

From the results of this study, audit and consulting companies, as well as organizations and society broadly, would benefit via the positive effect of information technologies and technology-enabled social networks on the whole knowledge management cycle, which has a further impact on organizational performance. These practical implications are related to a more open, sharing culture that drives organizational performance to the members and stakeholders of organizations, which, in turn, benefits society.

This research analyzes information technologies and technology-enabled social networks’ impact on knowledge management processes, particularly in the context of the Middle Eastern audit and consulting companies. While the phenomena have received some attention in the prior scientific research, the studied context so far remained under-researched, where a gap is found in studying the knowledge management cycle as a whole.

Research has demonstrated that girls are involved in gangs as members and affiliates. However, the psychological processes related to female gang membership has, to date, not been examined using a rigorous comparative design. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether female gang members exhibit distinct psychological and behavioral features when compared to female non-gang youth.

In total, 117 female students were recruited from all-girls’ secondary schools in London, UK. Gang members (n=22; identified using the Eurogang definition) were compared to non-gang youth (n=95) on self-report measures of criminal activity, sexual activity, self-esteem, anti-authority attitudes, their perceived importance of social status, and hypermasculinity, using a series of MANCOVAs.

The results found that gang members reported significantly more criminal activity, sexual activity, unwanted sexual contact, and held more anti-authority attitudes when compared to their non-gang counterparts.

These findings support Pyrooz et al.’s (2014) findings that gang membership contributes to the theoretical conceptualization of the victim-offender overlap. Practitioners need to take this into consideration when working with female gang members.

There is very little research that explicitly examines the characteristics of female gang members with suitable comparison groups. This study adds to the growing literature on female involvement in gangs and highlights the distinct psychological and behavioral characteristics of this group. In summary, these findings support the notion that female gang members are both at risk of being sexually exploited and engaging in criminal activities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between a challenging dimension of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and self-regulatory focus in an academic work setting. Job performance indicators were included to assess the nomological validity of regulatory focus measures.

Data were collected using a questionnaire conducted with 251 Spanish academic workers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results reveal the existence of positive relationships between promotion focus and two of the outcomes: change-oriented OCB and research-oriented performance-enhancement intention. On the other hand, prevention focus had only a significant relationship with teacher-oriented performance-enhancement intention.

The limitations of this research are twofold: on the one hand, further research should overcome the methodological limitations related with data gathering, looking for third-party measures of performance and favoring longitudinal data collection designs. On the other hand, more research is needed on the malleability of regulatory focus, defining models when prevention and promotion focus act as mediating variables.

Individuals with high levels of promotion focus will put their efforts on the tasks which are more valued in the processes of tenure, promotion and compensation. On the other hand, individuals with high levels of prevention focus will tend to meet the minimum of requirements and accomplish salient job duties. That can be taken into account when defining human resource policies, giving a high weight in the assessment of tenure and promotion programs to the tasks where the organization wants their promotion focus individuals to center their attention.

This paper is one of the first efforts of validating the Regulatory Focus at Work Scale in organizational and academic contexts different from the initial validation study. The study also contributes to research on the antecedents of change-oriented OCBs, and defines new measures of intentions to perform in specific working activities.

This paper aims to explore a new causal link between market orientation and business performance by introducing dynamic capabilities as a mediator of the relationship between market orientation and competitive advantages, which ultimately determine business performance.

The mediating roles of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages are tested with a sample of 1,190 Portuguese firms using a structural equation model.

The results confirm the hypotheses regarding the mediating roles of the competitive advantages (differentiation and cost leadership) in the relationship between dynamic capabilities and business performance. Additionally, dynamic capabilities also mediate the relationship between market orientation and competitive advantages.

This study shows that business performance depends on the capacity of firms to collect the best market information on customers and competitors, to disseminate this information throughout their internal structure and ultimately optimize its use to respond appropriately to market challenges and trends. These will provide firms with a set of capabilities and a competitive advantage.

This study provides empirical evidence on the understanding of the relationship between market orientation and performance, through the mediating effects of both dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages.

This paper aims to explore a new causal link between learning, market and entrepreneurial orientations and firms' performance by introducing dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages as mediator variables.

The mediating role of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages is tested using a sample of 1,190 Portuguese firms, and structural equation models.

It is shown that dynamic capabilities mediate the relationship between the three orientations–learning, market and entrepreneurial–and competitive advantages of differentiation and cost leadership, and both competitive advantages lead to firm's performance. It is also shown that learning orientation is an antecedent of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation.

This research shows that firm's performance depends on the capacity of firms to learn, innovate, be proactive, take risks and collect the best market data. Indeed, by optimizing the internal management and knowledge dissemination, firms will develop a set of capabilities and competitive advantages that lead to an appropriate response to market challenges.

This study tests the relationship between strategic orientations and firm's performance by taking the mediating effects of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages into account. This research was conducted in Portugal.