Search results

This paper aims to investigate and comprehend the nature of the relationship between e-government development and the digital economy.

A multidimensional research paradigm is developed on the basis of the technology adoption model and Fountain’s technology enactment theory. The model is empirically examined using a regional study of 20 Asian countries.

A positive two-way relationship between e-government development and the digital economy has been indicated by the findings. Moreover, along with social, economic, political, technological and demographic factors, certain national cultural characteristics have significant effects on the digital economy and e-government development.

One of the key limitations of the study is that it is based on publicly available secondary data. Therefore, some degree of caution should be kept in mind when making generalisations about the findings of this study.

The contribution of this study is that it provides a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the dynamic association between e-government development and the digital economy by providing aid to policymakers in understanding the nature of dynamic relationships between the digital economy, government organisations and citizens’ adoption of technologies.

Kish Island is one of the most attractive tourism destinations in Iran and it is becoming an increasingly popular destination for tourism investment. Many people have recently migrated to the island. Thus, one of the housing policies for the island is to maximize the efficiency of residential lands, particularly in providing affordable housing for low‐income people. The purpose of this study is to develop social, economical and architectural solutions for affordable housing design and overcome related problems using adapted vernacular solutions.

The methodology of this study involved identifying the research problem, followed by formatting the research framework, reviewing the comprehensive literature and documenting the concepts of affordable housing and vernacular architecture. Therefore, an affordable house design methodology was used to develop vernacular architecture to minimize cost and environmental impacts, while maximizing the social acceptability in housing projects for low‐income earners in Kish Island. Section A in Mir Mohanna, which is the most important residential centre for the low‐income people, was used as the study area in this research.

The results of this study clarified that the houses in Section A in Mir Mohanna did not meet the criteria of affordable housing and people's needs. Hence, some suggestions for affordable housing would certainly contribute towards formulating all these, including housing policy to be implemented on Kish Island.

The current paper was an attempt to find strategies for guiding the appropriate process of developing affordable housing on the basis of vernacular architecture for the country and other similar places. It is hoped that the recommendations might increase more regulated housing development and housing policies on Kish Island.

The aims of this paper is to present views of 13 experts who attended a roundtable discussion.

This article provides a narration of a conference roundtable. The questions by the moderator and a summary of the responses by panellists are provided.

Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes (WHATT) is playing a significant applied research role in the world of hospitality and tourism. Further, since 2013, the International Conference on Hospitality and Tourism Management (ICOHT), had been well attended and successful. In 2021, The International Institute of Knowledge Management included a WHATT roundtable in the programme of the 8th ICOHT. Twelve experts from the industry and academia were invited as panellists. They represented eight countries (Canada, Guyana, Iran, Jamaica, the Philippines, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the USA). The lead author of this article moderated the roundtable discussion. In conclusion, 20 of the key implementable concepts and suggestions for the post-pandemic era within hospitality and tourism industry, evolved from the WHATT roundtable at the 8th ICOHT in 2021, are presented.

This paper suggests 20 of the key implementable concepts, for post-pandemic era tourism and hospitality industry.

This paper aims to analyse whether the speed of Wi-Fi in hotels influences customer satisfaction with hotels and the implications of this for the provision of Wi-Fi by commercial and governmental bodies seeking to boost tourism.

Regression analysis on data from Australian hotels (191 entries) and 111 responses to a national survey of local government authorities on public Wi-Fi (PWF) provision were combined with a literature review and content analysis of online reviews by hotel customers.

If Wi-Fi quality rises by 1%, customer satisfaction with the hotel increases by 0.376/100 units. In the areas where hotel Wi-Fi is of better quality, PWF provided by the local government is also of better quality; the reverse statement is also true.

Tourists value continuous access to Wi-Fi, whether provided by commercial or public bodies. It is imperative for hotels and local governments seeking to boost tourist activity to invest in quality Wi-Fi networks. However, to assist this, national policies should address spatial disparities in broadband infrastructure revealed in the study.

This study looks beyond a conventional distinction between the private and public provision of Wi-Fi to examine the shared interests of industry and government in this essential component of tourist infrastructure. The study is unique in the English-speaking literature for its focus on the link between the quality of Wi-Fi provision and customer satisfaction, with original results and discussion providing a rationale for investing in quality Wi-Fi networks.

认真的么, 澳大利亚, 为什么你对WiFi 如此小气？：澳洲酒店顾客对Wi-Fi速度的满意度及其对公共Wi-Fi供给的启示

本研究分析了酒店的Wi-Fi 速度是否影响顾客满意度, 及其对致力于促进旅游业发展的商业和政府组织在提供Wi-Fi 服务上的启示

本研究结合191家澳洲酒店的数据以及111份对当地政府权威机关关于公共Wi-Fi供应的全国性调查的回复数据进行了回归分析, 并结合文献综述和对网上顾客评价进行了内容分析

如果Wi-Fi质量提高百分之一, 顾客满意度会相应提高0.376/100个单位。在酒店Wi-Fi质量普遍较好的地区, 由地方政府提供的公用Wi-Fi也会有更佳质量, 反之亦然。

不管是商业还是公共组织提供的Wi-Fi, 游客都重视它的持续性使用。对那些想要发展旅游的酒店和地方政府来说, 加大对Wi-Fi 质量的投入是必要的。然而, 为了推进此举, 国家政策应该根据此项研究的结果解决宽带基础设施的地域差异问题。

本研究 超越了传统意义上的公共和私有供给Wi-Fi的区别, 从业界和政府机关共同利益的角度出发来对这项关键的旅游基础设施进行研究。本文对英文文献关于Wi-Fi质量和顾客满意度的关系提供了支持, 并且为提高Wi-Fi质量的理论依据提供了创新性结论和讨论。

This study aims to analyse the impact of digital divide (DD) on income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2004–2016.

In applying a finite mixture model (FMM) to a sample of 35 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, this study posits that DD affects income inequality differently.

The findings show that the effect of DD on income inequality varies across two distinct groups of countries, which differ according to their level of globalization. In addition, the study shows that most globalized countries are more inclined to be in the group where the effect of DD on income inequality is negative. The results are consistent with several robustness checks, including alternative measures of income inequality and additional control variables.

This study complements that extant literature by assessing linkages among the DD, globalization and income inequality in sub-Saharan African countries contingent on cross-country heterogeneity.

This paper aims to study the impacts of viscous dissipation, thermal radiation and Joule heating on squeezing flow current and the heat transfer mechanism for a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) nanofluid flow in parallel disks during a suction/blowing process.

First, the governing momentum/energy equations are transformed into a non-dimensional form and then the obtained equations are solved by modified Adomian decomposition method (ADM), known as Duan–Rach approach (DRA).

The effect of the radiation parameter, suction/blowing parameter, magnetic parameter, squeezing number and nanoparticles concentration on the heat transfer and flow field are investigated in the results. The results show that the fluid velocity increases with increasing suction parameter, while the temperature profile decreases with increasing suction parameter.

A complete analysis of the MHD fluid squeezed between two parallel disks by considering Joule heating, thermal radiation and adding different nanoparticles using the novel method called DRA is addressed.

Increased dietary salt content is one of the effective factors of hypertension and a major public health challenge globally. Although the positive effects of dietary salt reduction on health are universally accepted, people can hardly reduce their salt intake. The purpose of this study is to identify the inhibitory factors of dietary salt reduction among 20–65-year-old women in Yazd City, Iran.

This study was conducted using a deductive content analysis approach based on the communication for the behavioral impact (COMBI) framework. The purposeful sampling method was applied with maximum variation in terms of different educational levels, age groups, occupational status and residential areas to select the participants. Snowball sampling was used to select health-care professionals. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions were conducted with 31 local women and 11 health-care professionals working in the City until data saturation was achieved. Data were analyzed using Graneheim and Landsman’s method.

After data analysis, 617 initial codes were extracted over the perceived barriers. After merging similar codes, 223 codes were extracted. The barriers were classified into five main categories of family, personal, organizational, educational and socio-cultural barriers.

Based on the COMBI framework, the results demonstrated that the most important barriers for reducing salt intake were negative attitude toward restrictions on dietary salt intake, insufficient and incorrect beliefs about the health risk of salt, lack of family support, inadequate health literacy and low self-efficacy in Yazd City. Among these barriers, lack of family support was considered as the most effective factor in reducing salt consumption. So, by focusing on this area and providing the community with the required education, the amount of salt consumed by families can be reduced.

Due to the importance of quality to customers, this study considers criteria of quality and profit and optimizes both in a multi-echelon cold chain of perishable agricultural products whose quality immediately begins to deteriorate after harvest. The two objectives of the proposed cold chain are to maximize profit and quality. Since postharvest quality loss in the supply chain depends on various decisions and factors, in addition to strategic decisions, the authors consider the temperature setting in refrigerated facilities and transportation vehicles due to the unfixed shelf life of the products which is related to the temperature found by Arrhenius formula.

The authors use bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming to design a four-echelon supply chain. The authors integrate the supply chain echelons to detect the sources and factors of quality loss. The four echelons include supply, processing, storage and customer. The decisions, including facility location, assigning nodes of each echelon to corresponding nodes from the adjacent echelon, allocation of vehicles to transport the products from farms to wholesalers, processing selection, and temperature setting in refrigerated facilities, are made in an integrated way. Model verification and validation in the case study are done based on three perishable herbal plants.

The model obtains a 29% profit against a total cost of 71 and 93% of original quality of the crops is maintained, indicating a 7% quality loss. The final quality of 93% is the result of making a US$6m investment in the supply chain, including the procurement of high-quality raw materials; facility establishment; high-speed, high-capacity vehicles; location assignment; processing selection and refrigeration equipment in the storage and transportation systems, helping to maximize both the final quality of the products and the total profit.

The proposed supply chain model should help managers with modeling decisions, especially when it comes to cold chains for agricultural products. The model yields these results – optimal location-allocation decisions for the facilities to minimize distances between the network nodes, which save time and maintain the majority of the products’ original quality; choosing the most appropriate processing method, which reduces the perishability rate; providing high-capacity, high-speed vehicles in the logistics system, which minimizes transportation costs and maximizes the quality; and setting the right temperature in the refrigerated facilities, which mitigates the postharvest decay reaction rate of the products.

Comparison of the results of the present research with those of the traditional chain (obtained through experts) shows that since the designed chain increases the profit as well as the final quality, it has benefits for the main chain stakeholders, which are customers of agricultural products. This study model is expected to have a positive impact on the environment by placing strong emphasis on quality and preventing excessive waste generation and air pollution by imposing a financial penalty on extra demand production.

Since profit and quality of the final product are two important factors in all cultures and communities, the proposed supply chain model can be used in any food industry around the world. Applying the proposed model induces growth in local industries and promotes the culture of prioritizing quality in societies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research on a bi-objective four-echelon (supply, processing, storage and customer) postharvest supply chain for agricultural products including that integrates transportation logistics and considers the deterioration rate of products as a time-dependent variable at different levels of decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the relationship of technology acceptance model (TAM) variables (PEOU and PU) with behavioral intention (BI) and attitude in mobile and digital libraries context. This study also examines the relationship of external variables (information quality and system quality) with TAM variables (PEOU and PU) in mobile and digital libraries context.

This meta-analysis was performed through PRISMA-P guidelines. Four databases (Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus and LISTA) were used for searching, and the search was conducted according to defined criteria.

Findings of this study revealed a large effect size of PU and PEOU with BI. There was also a large effect size of PU and PEOU with attitude. A medium effect size was found between SysQ → PU, InfoQ → PU and SysQ → PEOU. However, there was a small effect size between InfoQ and PEOU.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there was no study published till the time of conducting this meta-analysis. Hence, this study fills the literature gap. This study also confirms that TAM is a valid model in the acceptance and use of technology in mobile and digital libraries context. Thus, the findings of the present study are helpful for developers and designers in designing and developing mobile library apps. It will also be beneficial for library authorities and system librarians in designing and developing digital libraries in academic settings.

For over 2000 years, Iran was dominated by different religions, and hence, religious texts constructed identity, status, and rights for women. After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Islamists attacked “Iranian identity,” and tried to replace it with the “Islamic identity,” fearing that Iranians could undermine the legitimacy of their Islamic identity. The purpose of this discursive psychological research is to find out the level of faith development and religious identity among a sample of Iranian women. Due to the Iranian distinct politics and its young population, the Iranian women’s movement is one of the most important movements in the Muslim world. Findings of my inquiry indicate that a contradiction has been imposed on Iranian women since the revolution. Religious beliefs and practices based on Islamic laws and identities that are enforced by the government generate a traditional atmosphere in the society. Consequently, some Iranian women believe in inevitable destiny and admit that anything that happens is God’s will. They believe that an ideal woman must act according to the cultural and religious norms and traditions. Such women strongly internalize these values and have become a source of control and restriction over the activities of other women. On the other hand, many women attempts to become Westernized (modern) women, far from religious beliefs. This qualitative research provides us with rich detailed data and information about a sample of participants, so any generalizations made from the findings must be applied cautiously.