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1 – 10 of 16Hans Voordijk, Seirgei Miller and Faridaddin Vahdatikhaki
Using real-time support systems may help operators in road construction to improve paving and compaction operations. Nowadays, these systems transform from descriptive to…
Abstract
Purpose
Using real-time support systems may help operators in road construction to improve paving and compaction operations. Nowadays, these systems transform from descriptive to prescriptive systems. Prescriptive or operator guidance systems propose operators actionable compaction strategies and guidance, based on the data collected. It is investigated how these systems mediate the perceptions and actions of operators in road pavement practice.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study is conducted on the specific application of an operator guidance system in a road pavement project. In this case study, comprehensive information is presented regarding the process of converting input in the form of data from cameras and sensors into useful output. The ways in which the operator guidance systems translate data into actionable guidance for operators are analyzed from the technological mediation perspective.
Findings
Operator guidance systems mediate actions of operators physically, cognitively and contextually. These different types of action mediation are related to preconditions for successful implementation and use of these systems. Coercive interventions only succeed if there is widespread agreement among the operators. Persuasive interventions are most effective when collective and individual interests align. Contextual influence relates to designs of the operator guidance systems that determine human-technology interactions when using them.
Originality/value
This is the first study that analyzes the functioning of an operator guidance system using the technological mediation approach. It adds a new perspective on the interaction between this system and its users in road pavement practice.
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Rui Jia, Zhimin Shuai, Tong Guo, Qian Lu, Xuesong He and Chunlin Hua
This study aims to analyze the influence of farmers’ degree of participation in collective action on their adoption decisions and waiting time regarding soil and water…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the influence of farmers’ degree of participation in collective action on their adoption decisions and waiting time regarding soil and water conservation (SWC) measures.
Design/methodology/approach
The Probit model and Generalized Propensity Score Match method are used to assess the effect of the degree of participation in collective action on farmers’ adoption decisions and waiting time for implementing SWC measures.
Findings
The findings reveal that farmers’ engagement in collective action positively influences the decision-making process regarding terrace construction, water-saving irrigation and afforestation measures. However, it does not significantly impact the decision-making process for plastic film and ridge-furrow tillage practices. Notably, collective action has the strongest influence on farmers’ adoption decisions regarding water-saving irrigation technology, with a relatively smaller influence on the adoption of afforestation and terrace measures. Moreover, the results suggest that participating in collective action effectively reduces the waiting time for terrace construction and expedites the adoption of afforestation and water-saving irrigation technology. Specifically, collective action has a significantly negative effect on the waiting time for terrace construction, followed by water-saving irrigation technology and afforestation measures.
Practical implications
The results of this study underscore the significance of fostering mutual assistance and cooperation mechanisms among farmers, as they can pave the way for raising funds and labor, cultivating elite farmers, attracting skilled labor to rural areas, enhancing the adoption rate and expediting the implementation of terraces, water-saving irrigation technology and afforestation measures.
Originality/value
Drawing on an evaluation of farmers’ degree of participation in collective action, this paper investigates the effect of participation on their SWC adoption decisions and waiting times, thereby offering theoretical and practical insights into soil erosion control in the Loess Plateau.
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This paper aims to examine prospective graduate students' attitudes toward educational loan borrowing in an experimental setting.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine prospective graduate students' attitudes toward educational loan borrowing in an experimental setting.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups and one control group. Subjects in experimental group 1 received financial education: a short online course on the economic viability of getting a master's degree and how to finance it with a graduate student loan, while subjects in experimental group 2 received financial education along with information on the availability bias.
Findings
Relying on a control group in the assessment of financial literacy education intervention impacts, this research finds positive causal treatment effects on individuals’ attitudes toward debt-financed graduate education. In comparison to the control group, experimental subjects perceived the possibility of going into debt with a graduate loan to complete a master’s degree as less stressful and worrying.
Practical implications
This study has important educational policy implications to prevent students from stopping investing in human capital by perceiving educational loan debt as something stressful or worrying. The results can help potential (and current) grad students develop a feasible financial plan for graduate school by encouraging higher education institutions to implement educational loan information and financial education into university seminar courses for better graduate student loan decision-making.
Originality/value
Student attitudes toward debt have been analyzed in the context of higher education, but only a few researchers internationally have used an experimental design to study personal financial decision-making.
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Luiz Henrique Alonso de Andrade and Elias Pekkola
This research addresses the professional logics of street-level managers (SLMs) and bureaucrats (SLBs) working in the Brazilian National Social Security Agency (INSS) through…
Abstract
Purpose
This research addresses the professional logics of street-level managers (SLMs) and bureaucrats (SLBs) working in the Brazilian National Social Security Agency (INSS) through their perceptions of distributive justice and discretion. Since SLMs have the authority to influence SLBs' actions, we investigate whether these two groups hold similar viewpoints.
Design/methodology/approach
We integrate the administrative data and survey responses (n = 678) with earlier thematic content analysis (n = 350) in three stages: mean-testing, regression analyses and complementary qualitative analysis, integrated through a mixed-methods matrix.
Findings
Whilst no significant differences emerge in distributive justice ideas between groups, SLMs demand wider benefit-granting discretion, praising professionalism whilst adopting managerial posture and jargon.
Research limitations/implications
The study adds to the theoretical discussions concerning SLM’s influence on SLB’s decision-making, suggesting that other factors outweigh it. The finding concerning the managers’ demand for wider discretion asks for further in-depth approaches.
Practical implications
Findings supply valuable insights for policymakers and managers steering administrative reforms, by questioning whether some roles SLMs play are limited to symbolic levels. Further, SLBs’ heterogenous formations might be more relevant to policy divergence than managerial influence and perhaps an underutilised source of innovation.
Originality/value
By approaching street-level management professional logics within a Global South welfare state through a mixed-methods approach, this study offers a holistic understanding of complex dynamics, providing novel insights for public sector management.
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Anna Kosmützky and Georg Krücken
Traditional studies in the sociology of science have highlighted the self-organized character of the academic community. This article focuses on recent interrelated changes that…
Abstract
Traditional studies in the sociology of science have highlighted the self-organized character of the academic community. This article focuses on recent interrelated changes that alter that distinctive governance structure and its related patterns of competition and cooperation. The changes that we identify here are contractualization and large-scale cooperative research. We use different data sources to exemplify these new patterns and discuss the illustrative role of research clusters in German academia. Research clusters as funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) are both a highly prestigious scarce good in the competition for reputation and resources and a means of fostering cooperation. Our analysis of this German example reveals that this new institutional configuration of universities as organizations, academic researchers, and the state has a profound effect on organizational practices. We discuss the implications of our empirical findings with regard to collegiality in academia. Ultimately, we anticipate a further weakening of collegial bonds, not only because universities and the state have become more active in shaping the nature of academic competition and cooperation but also because of the increasing strategic and individualistic orientation of academic researchers. In the final section, we summarize our findings and address the need for further research and an international comparative perspective.
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Juliano Domingues da Silva, João Otávio Montanha Endrici and Thiago Brusarosco Ferreira
This study proposes that reciprocity appeal may influence consumers helping behavior. The authors suggest that this influence depends on the target of reciprocity (direct vs…
Abstract
Purpose
This study proposes that reciprocity appeal may influence consumers helping behavior. The authors suggest that this influence depends on the target of reciprocity (direct vs. indirect), consumer–brand social distance (close vs. distant) and frequency of exposure to the appeal over time.
Design/methodology/approach
This research was conducted through three experimental studies. They were carried out both through online experiment (Study 1) and in laboratory (Studies 2 and 3). Study 3 consisted of an experiment combined with longitudinal growth models, supporting the hypothesis that repetitive periods decrease reciprocity over time.
Findings
The results demonstrate that consumers close to a brand become more prosocial toward the company when the reciprocity appeal is perceived as direct (vs. indirect). In contrast, the indirect reciprocity appeal influences consumers distant from the company. Furthermore, reciprocity appeal decreases consumer helping behavior over time, but indirect reciprocity appeal attenuates this negative effect only to close customers.
Research limitations/implications
This research contributes to theory by showing that direct reciprocal appeals increase the helping behavior of close customers when company appeals are infrequently made.
Originality/value
This research is the first to empirically investigate the efficiency of voucher campaigns. Furthermore, it innovates by exploring a situation of direct consumer reciprocity in which the consumer decides to help a company with an expectation, but no explicit requirement, that the company will reciprocate.
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The purpose of this paper is to outline how the EU figures out the importance of strengthening its relations with Egypt as one of the most strategic countries in the region to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline how the EU figures out the importance of strengthening its relations with Egypt as one of the most strategic countries in the region to keep the union secured and stable. The paper also assesses to what extent the EU succeeds to promote democracy in Egypt.
Design/methodology/approach
The EU pursues its policy through a series of both bilateral and multilateral agreements with Egypt aiming at positioning their relations in a strategic context. The research adopted different approaches as descriptive and analytical ones.
Findings
Following the Arab uprisings, the EU was caught by surprise and announced a paradigm shift in its relations and introduced a set of policies to foster democracy promotion that witnessed some successes but with extremely modest results in some areas compared to the costs of the process. The EU succeeded in important reforms in trade liberalization while it did not bring clear changes in the political arena in Egypt.
Originality/value
The findings of this paper convey that the Arab uprisings were a wake-up call for the EU. It was the right time for the EU to conduct such a strategic and sincere reflection based on the role it wants to play in the changing region. In addition, findings prove that the EU’s response to revolutionary events has been weak and hesitant, and the EU has not an effective role in promoting democracy in Egypt.
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Na Hao, H. Holly Wang, Xinxin Wang and Wetzstein Michael
This study aims to test the compensatory consumption theory with the explicit hypothesis that China's new-rich tend to waste relatively more food.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test the compensatory consumption theory with the explicit hypothesis that China's new-rich tend to waste relatively more food.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors use Heckman two-step probit model to empirically investigate the new-rich consumption behavior related to food waste.
Findings
The results show that new-rich is associated with restaurant leftovers and less likely to take them home, which supports the compensatory consumption hypothesis.
Practical implications
Understanding the empirical evidence supporting compensatory consumption theory may improve forecasts, which feed into early warning systems for food insecurity. And it also avoids unreasonable food policies.
Originality/value
This research is a first attempt to place food waste in a compensatory-consumption perspective, which sheds light on a new theory for explaining increasing food waste in developing countries.
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Johanna Gummerus, Catharina von Koskull, Hannele Kauppinen-Räisänen and Gustav Medberg
Past research on luxury is fragmented resulting in challenges to define what the construct of luxury means. Based on a need for conceptual clarity, this study aims to map how…
Abstract
Purpose
Past research on luxury is fragmented resulting in challenges to define what the construct of luxury means. Based on a need for conceptual clarity, this study aims to map how research conceptualises luxury and its creation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a scoping review of luxury articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Of the initial 270 articles discovered by using the database of Scopus, and after control searching in Web of Science and reference scanning, 54 high-quality studies published before the end of 2020 were found to meet the inclusion criteria and comprised the final analytical corpus.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that research approaches luxury and its creation from three different perspectives: the provider-, consumer- and co-creation perspectives. In addition, the findings pinpoint how the perspectives differ from each other due to fundamental and distinguishing features and reveal particularities that underlie the perspectives.
Research limitations/implications
The suggested framework offers implications to researchers who are interested in evaluating and developing luxury studies. Based on the identified luxury perspectives, the study identifies future research avenues.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the luxury research stream by advancing an understanding of an existing pluralistic perspective and by adding conceptual clarity to luxury literature. It also contributes to marketing and branding research by showing how the luxury literature connects to the evolution of value creation research in marketing literature.
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Carolina M. Vargas, Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie and Thomas Reardon
We study five exogenous shocks: climate, violence, price hikes, spoilage and the COVID-19 lockdown. We analyze the association between these shocks and trader characteristics…
Abstract
Purpose
We study five exogenous shocks: climate, violence, price hikes, spoilage and the COVID-19 lockdown. We analyze the association between these shocks and trader characteristics, reflecting trader vulnerability.
Design/methodology/approach
Using primary survey data on 1,100 Nigerian maize traders for 2021 (controlling for shocks in 2017), we use probit models to estimate the probabilities of experiencing climate, violence, disease and cost shocks associated with trader characteristics (gender, size and region) and to estimate the probability of vulnerability (experiencing severe impacts).
Findings
Traders are prone to experiencing more than one shock, which increases the intensity of the shocks. Price shocks are often accompanied by violence, climate and COVID-19 shocks. The poorer northern region is disproportionately affected by shocks. Northern traders experience more price shocks while Southern traders are more affected by violence shocks given their dependence on long supply chains from the north for their maize. Female traders are more likely to experience violent events than men who tend to be more exposed to climate shocks.
Research limitations/implications
The data only permit analysis of the general degree of impact of a shock rather than quantifying lost income.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to analyze the incidence of multiple shocks on grain traders and the unequal distribution of negative impacts. It is the first such in Africa based on a large sample of grain traders from a primary survey.
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