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Article
Publication date: 6 September 2022

Lawrence A. Isiofia, Emmanuel Nna, Francis O. Uzuegbunam and Eziyi O. Ibem

This research examines the association of physical development density, prevalence and types of microbes in colonized façade finishes of buildings in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria.

Abstract

Purpose

This research examines the association of physical development density, prevalence and types of microbes in colonized façade finishes of buildings in Enugu metropolis, Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey and experimental research designs were adopted. A total of 383 buildings were investigated with samples collected from those with colonized façade finishes. The microbes were identified using the standard procedure for genomic sequencing with descriptive statistics, and the chi-square test used to analyse the data.

Findings

The results revealed a 64% prevalence of microbial colonization and a significant association between this and physical development density with 71.0% of the colonized buildings located in high-density neighbourhoods of the metropolis. The sequencing also showed 24 different microbes with Trichophyton tonsurans, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichoderma harzianum species being the most common in the colonized façade finishes.

Practical implications

The research informs building professionals and owners of the specific microbes involved in the colonization of façade finishes of buildings in high-density urban areas. It also provides a clue about the nature of damages and defects associated with microbial colonization of building façades and the type of biocide additives required for the production of microbial-resistant façade finishes in the hot-humid tropical environment of Nigeria and beyond.

Originality/value

The study has shown that there is a significant relationship between the intensity of urban land use and microbial colonization of façade finishes of buildings. It also identified some new or less known microbes responsible for the biodeterioration of façade finishes and the effects this has on the buildings and public health in the hot-humid tropics of Enugu, Southeast Nigeria.

Details

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-4708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 December 2021

Shadrack Fred Mahenge and Ala Alsanabani

In the purpose of the section, the cracks that are in the construction domain may be common and usually fixed with the human inspection which is at the visible range, but for the…

Abstract

Purpose

In the purpose of the section, the cracks that are in the construction domain may be common and usually fixed with the human inspection which is at the visible range, but for the cracks which may exist at the distant place for the human eye in the same building but can be captured with the camera. If the crack size is quite big can be visible but few cracks will be present due to the flaws in the construction of walls which needs authentic information and confirmation about it for the successful completion of the wall cracks, as these cracks in the wall will result in the structure collapse.

Design/methodology/approach

In the modern era of digital image processing, it has captured the importance in all the domain of engineering and all the fields irrespective of the division of the engineering, hence, in this research study an attempt is made to deal with the wall cracks which are found or searched during the building inspection process, in the present context in association with the unique U-net architecture is used with convolutional neural network method.

Findings

In the construction domain, the cracks may be common and usually fixed with the human inspection which is at the visible range, but for the cracks which may exist at the distant place for the human eye in the same building but can be captured with the camera. If the crack size is quite big can be visible but few cracks will be present due to the flaws in the construction of walls which needs authentic information and confirmation about it for the successful completion of the wall cracks, as these cracks in the wall will result in the structure collapse. Hence, for the modeling of the proposed system, it is considered with the image database from the Mendeley portal for the analysis. With the experimental analysis, it is noted and observed that the proposed system was able to detect the wall cracks, search the flat surface by the result of no cracks found and it is successful in dealing with the two phases of operation, namely, classification and segmentation with the deep learning technique. In contrast to other conventional methodologies, the proposed methodology produces excellent performance results.

Originality/value

The originality of the paper is to find the portion of the cracks on the walls using deep learning architecture.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 April 2024

David A. Kirby and Felicity Healey-Benson

This study aims to develop an entrepreneurial business model capable of addressing and preventing the exploitation and inequality that traditionally have resulted from…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to develop an entrepreneurial business model capable of addressing and preventing the exploitation and inequality that traditionally have resulted from entrepreneurship, particularly in emerging economies.

Design/methodology/approach

The research uses systems thinking, the first law of cybernetics, and the principles of harmony to formulate a systemic solution to the problem, which it exemplifies via six purposefully selected short cases drawn from diverse industry sectors and economies.

Findings

This paper demonstrates how the conventional model of entrepreneurship, often associated with colonial exploitation and resultant inequalities, can be transformed into a triple bottom line model—harmonious entrepreneurship – that integrates the traditional economic, eco-, humane, and social approaches and creates a synergy where profit, planet, and people are in harmony. The model challenges the profit maximisation/shareholder value doctrine of business success.

Research limitations/implications

Only six cases are presented here, and there is a need for further research in different political-economic contexts and industry sectors. Also, the way entrepreneurship is taught needs to change so that it addresses the sustainability challenge in general and the problem of inequality in particular.

Practical implications

There needs to be a change in the entrepreneurial mindset and the way entrepreneurship is taught and potential entrepreneurs are trained if entrepreneurship is to address the sustainability challenge in general and the problem of inequality in particular.

Originality/value

This is a novel approach to the study of entrepreneurship and its impact on inequality that shows how it can ameliorate and/or prevent inequality, particularly in emerging economies, by adopting a more holistic approach to business success and supplanting “having and needing” with “being and caring”.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4604

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 February 2024

Andrew Cram, Stephanie Wilson, Matthew Taylor and Craig Mellare

This paper aims to identify and evaluate resolutions to key learning and teaching challenges in very large courses that involve practical mathematics, such as foundational finance.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to identify and evaluate resolutions to key learning and teaching challenges in very large courses that involve practical mathematics, such as foundational finance.

Design/methodology/approach

A design-based research approach is used across three semesters to iteratively identify practical problems within the course and then develop and evaluate resolutions to these problems. Data are collected from both students and teachers and analysed using a mixed-method approach.

Findings

The results indicate that key learning and teaching challenges in large foundational finance courses can be mitigated through appropriate consistency of learning materials; check-your-understanding interactive online content targeting foundational concepts in the early weeks; connection points between students and the coordinator to increase teacher presence; a sustained focus on supporting student achievement within assessments; and signposting relevance of content for the broader program and professional settings. Multiple design iterations using a co-design approach were beneficial to incrementally improve the course and consider multiple perspectives within the design process.

Practical implications

This paper develops a set of design principles to provide guidance to other practitioners who seek to improve their own courses.

Originality/value

The use of design-based research and mixed-method approaches that consider both student and teacher perspectives to examine the design of very large, foundational finance courses is novel.

Details

Journal of Work-Applied Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2205-2062

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2024

Erik Taylor

Working conditions, pay rates and the rights of workers to collectively negotiate have become important points of discussions in recent years, with support for unions and union…

Abstract

Purpose

Working conditions, pay rates and the rights of workers to collectively negotiate have become important points of discussions in recent years, with support for unions and union applications rising to levels long unseen in America. In many instances, though, companies have responded aggressively. This is not the first time such a dynamic has played out in American business. This study aims to take a fresh look at one of America’s most prominent historical disputes between labor and ownership – the Homestead Massacre of 1892 – to glean lessons from that conflict that remain relevant to today’s business environment.

Design/methodology/approach

This study adopts game theory and the principles of repeated interaction to assess how differing discount factors led to differences in time orientations between the workers and the Carnegie company. These differing time orientations affected both the strategy each side deployed in the negotiations and the payoffs received by the parties. Letters, contemporary news reports and histories of the events leading up to and immediately following the 1892 Homestead Massacre are qualitatively analyzed with a genealogical pragmatic approach.

Findings

Differences in temporal orientation between management and workers exacerbated the conflict, with the workers adopting a more cooperative stance and distal time orientation, while the Carnegie company negotiated with a proximal time orientation and played to “win” a game that, in fact, could not be fully won or lost given its infinitely repeating nature. The result was a short-term victory for the Carnegie company but with long-term negative consequences that highlight the suboptimal outcome the company achieved by playing a proximal strategy in an infinite game.

Originality/value

Although the incident at Homestead is a well-studied labor dispute, many of the themes that preceded the incident have resurfaced in the modern work context. This work, by adopting game theory as an analytical framework, provides new insights into management mistakes that led to the labor conflict and lessons for what present-day managers can do to avoid exacerbating labor strife.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 April 2024

Andrew C. Billings

The purpose of this essay is to explore the ramifications of Web 3.0 on sports media and the desire for the ultimate fan experience.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this essay is to explore the ramifications of Web 3.0 on sports media and the desire for the ultimate fan experience.

Design/methodology/approach

The essay explains how Web 3.0 will influence (1) the social TV experience, (2) the drive for zero latency in sports streaming, (3) the desire for exclusive sports memorabilia and experiences, (4) artificial intelligence-driven content and (5) the potential decentralization of certain elements within the sports media ecosphere.

Findings

The core fan experience will still be recognizable, but AI, VR, blockchain and other elements will be infused within it.

Originality/value

Ramifications on sports media scholarships are offered.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 April 2024

Jane Andrew and Max Baker

This study explores a hegemonic alliance and the role of relational forms of accounting and accountablity in the making of contemporary capitalism.

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores a hegemonic alliance and the role of relational forms of accounting and accountablity in the making of contemporary capitalism.

Design/methodology/approach

We use the WikiLeaks “Cablegate” documents to provide an account of the detailed machinations between interest groups (corporations and the state) that are constitutive of hegemonic activity.

Findings

Our analysis of the “Cablegate” documents shows that the US and Chevron were crafting a central role for Turkmenistan and its president on the global political stage as early as 2007, despite offical reporting beginning only in 2009. The documents exemplify how “accountability gaps” occlude the understanding of interdependence between capital and the state.

Research limitations/implications

The study contributes to a growing idea that official accounts offer a fictionalized narrative of corporations as existing independently, and thus expands the boundaries associated with studying multinational corporate activities to include their interdependencies with the modern state.

Social implications

The study traces how global capitalism extends into new territories through diplomatic channels, as a strategic initiative between powerful state and capital interests, arguing that the outcome is the empowerment of authoritarian states at the cost of democracy.

Originality/value

The study argues that previous accounting and accountability research has overlooked the larger picture of how capital and the state work together to secure a mutual hegemonic interest. We advocate for a more complete account of these activities that circumvents official, often restricted, views of global capitalism.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 April 2024

Lisa Nicole Cain, Trishna G. Mistry, Shenee Douglas, Imran Rahman and Andrew Moreo

This study aims to analyze the importance and performance of customer-facing technologies in luxury hotels. The study also assessed differences between and within the four…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyze the importance and performance of customer-facing technologies in luxury hotels. The study also assessed differences between and within the four generations in the importance-performance analysis (IPA).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using a Qualtrics panel of recent luxury hotel customers in the USA belonging to all four generations. The cross-generational IPA was conducted using t-tests and (ANAOVA).

Findings

The IPA matrix concentrated most technology items in either low importance – low performance or high importance – high performance quadrants. One-way ANOVA revealed significant differences between generations on the importance ratings of all technology items except wireless charging power solutions and on the performance ratings of all technology items. Furthermore, post hoc tests indicated that millennials rated luxury technology most favorably among the four cohorts, followed by generations Z, X and Baby Boomers. In addition, significant differences between the importance and performance of many technology items within each generational cohort were observed. Overall, Wi-Fi was unanimously ranked across generations as the most important technology among luxury guests, but it was the only one that scored lower in performance than importance.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study contribute to hospitality scholarship in two primary ways: the importance and performance of technology and generational differences. The results advance the understanding of the impact of generational factors on customer-facing technological adoptions in the luxury hotel sector.

Practical implications

Technologies that are pervasive in the home also become vital offerings for hotels. The more pervasive technology, the more a luxury hotel must work to ensure that it performs at optimal levels. Additionally, which technologies are most important to targeted generations are provided so practitioners may budget for their implementation.

Originality/value

This research is a pivotal step forward in unraveling the intricate interplay between generational factors and technological evaluations, providing a foundation for future research and practical applications in a rapidly evolving technological landscape in the hospitality industry.

Details

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-6119

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 April 2023

Christopher Mackin

The field of broad-based employee ownership within corporations is a specific application of the foundational topic of property ownership. It is situated at the intersection of a…

2407

Abstract

Purpose

The field of broad-based employee ownership within corporations is a specific application of the foundational topic of property ownership. It is situated at the intersection of a broad range of scholarly disciplines including economics, law, finance and management. Each discipline contributes vocabulary and distinctions describing this field. That broad spectrum of disciplinary inquiry is a strength but it also lends a “ships passing in the night” quality to discussions of employee ownership. This paper attempts to unravel the narrative diversity surrounding this topic. Four meanings of ownership are introduced. Those meanings are in turn embedded within two abstract models of the corporation; the corporation as property and the corporation as social institution.

Design/methodology/approach

There is no experimental design The paper presents a conceptual overview and introduces a taxonomy of four meanings and two models of ownership.

Findings

Four meanings of ownership are introduced. The meanings are ownership as compensation, investment, retirement and membership. Those meanings are in turn embedded within two abstract models of the corporation; the corporation as property and the corporation as social institution.

Research limitations/implications

No hypotheses are advanced. This is not a research paper. A conceptual overview that makes use of taxonomy of meanings and models is introduced to help clarify confusions abundant in the field of employee ownership. Readers may differ with the categories of meanings and models introduced in this conceptual overview.

Practical implications

The ambition of the paper is to describe the various meanings and models of employee ownership presently in use in both academic and applied settings. It is not necessary or desirable to assert the primacy of a single meaning or model in order to achieve progress. The analysis provided here surfaces a range of assumptions about ownership that have heretofore been implicit in both scholarship and in practice. Making those assumptions explicit should prove useful to both scholars and practitioners of employee ownership.

Social implications

The concept of employee ownership enjoys a relatively broad appeal with the public. Among the academic disciplines that have trained their lights upon it, a more mixed reception prevails. Much of the academic and policy controversy derives from confusion about the nature and structure of employee ownership. This paper attempts to address that confusion by presenting a taxonomy of meanings and models that may prove useful for future research.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first efforts to comprehinsively map the various meanings and models of broad-based employee ownership.

Details

Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-7641

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 February 2024

Bataa Sayed Mohamed Mazen, Badawi Mohamed Ismail, Rushdya Rabee Ali Hassan, Mahmoud Ali and Wael S. Mohamed

The purpose of this study is to detect the effect of some natural cellulosic polymers in their nano forms with the addition of zinc oxide nanoparticles on restoring the lost…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to detect the effect of some natural cellulosic polymers in their nano forms with the addition of zinc oxide nanoparticles on restoring the lost mechanical strength of degraded papyrus without any harmful effects on the inks.

Design/methodology/approach

In the current study, the USB digital microscopy, scanning electron microscope, measurement of mechanical properties (tensile and elongation), pH measurement, color change and infrared spectroscopy were undertaken for the samples before and after treatment and aging.

Findings

In the current study, the USB digital microscopy, scanning electron microscope, measurement of mechanical properties (tensile and elongation), pH measurement, color change and infrared spectroscopy were undertaken for the samples before and after treatment and aging.

Originality/value

The effect of strengthening materials was studied on cellulose and carbon ink, which makes this study closer to reality as the manuscript is the consistent structure of cellulose and inks, whereas most of the literature stated the impact of consolidation materials on the strengthening the cellulosic supports without attention to their impact on inks.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

Keywords

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