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1 – 10 of over 123000
Article
Publication date: 14 February 2024

Charles Gillon, Michael J. Ostwald and Hazel Easthope

The architectural profession faces an increasingly complex ethical landscape. In recent decades, the ethical foundations for architecture – formally defined in professional codes

Abstract

Purpose

The architectural profession faces an increasingly complex ethical landscape. In recent decades, the ethical foundations for architecture – formally defined in professional codes of conduct and reflected in regulatory frameworks – have expanded to incorporate imperatives derived from environmental and social responsibilities. The present research examines how these expanding ethical expectations are reflected in, and supported by, recent research about architectural ethics.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis is based on a systematic review of recent research (2002–2023) focussing on ethical values and associated behaviours in the architectural profession. The review identifies 37 research articles (from a starting set of 2,483 articles), which are analysed empirically and then qualitatively to draw out views around three types of ethical behaviour. The paper then discusses how these findings align thematically with the evolving ethical needs of architectural practitioners (as defined in the professional codes of ethics and conduct of the RIBA in the UK, AIA in Australia and the AIA in the USA).

Findings

While business ethics remains the focus of past research, there has been a rise in research about ethics and social and environmental factors. The content of professional codes reflects this shift, setting the conditions for architects to aspire to increased expectations of environmental and social responsibility.

Originality/value

This article undertakes the first systematic review of recent research about architectural ethics and its alignment with the content of contemporary professional codes. Organised thematically, recent research about ethical values and associated behaviours can offer guidance for the evolving ethical needs of architects.

Details

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-6862

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 February 2024

Duc Tran, Hans De Steur, Xavier Gellynck, Andreas Papadakis and Joachim J. Schouteten

This study aims to investigate the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on consumers' evaluation of blockchain-based traceability information. It also examined how the use of quick…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of consumer ethnocentrism on consumers' evaluation of blockchain-based traceability information. It also examined how the use of quick response (QR) codes for traceability affects consumers' evaluation of traceable food products.

Design/methodology/approach

An online choice experiment was conducted to determine consumers' evaluation of the blockchain-based traceability of Feta cheese with a quota sample of 715 Greek consumers. Pearson bivariate correlation and mean comparison were used to examine the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and QR use behaviour. Random parameter logit models were employed to examine consumers’ valuation of the examined attributes and interaction terms.

Findings

The results show that ethnocentric consumers are willing to pay more for blockchain-based traceability information. Ethnocentric consumers tend to scan QR codes with traceability information. Spending more time reading traceability information embedded in QR codes does not lead to a higher willingness-to-pay (WTP) for traceable food products.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that patriotic marketing messages can draw consumers' attention to blockchain-based traceability information. The modest WTP for and low familiarity with blockchain-based traceability systems raise the need for educating consumers regarding the benefits of blockchain in traceability systems.

Originality/value

This is the first study to provide timely empirical evidence of a positive WTP for blockchain-based traceability information for a processed dairy product. This study is the first to attempt to distinguish the effects of the intention to scan QR codes and reading information embedded in QR codes on consumers’ valuation of food attributes.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 February 2024

Faguo Liu, Qian Zhang, Tao Yan, Bin Wang, Ying Gao, Jiaqi Hou and Feiniu Yuan

Light field images (LFIs) have gained popularity as a technology to increase the field of view (FoV) of plenoptic cameras since they can capture information about light rays with…

Abstract

Purpose

Light field images (LFIs) have gained popularity as a technology to increase the field of view (FoV) of plenoptic cameras since they can capture information about light rays with a large FoV. Wide FoV causes light field (LF) data to increase rapidly, which restricts the use of LF imaging in image processing, visual analysis and user interface. Effective LFI coding methods become of paramount importance. This paper aims to eliminate more redundancy by exploring sparsity and correlation in the angular domain of LFIs, as well as mitigate the loss of perceptual quality of LFIs caused by encoding.

Design/methodology/approach

This work proposes a new efficient LF coding framework. On the coding side, a new sampling scheme and a hierarchical prediction structure are used to eliminate redundancy in the LFI's angular and spatial domains. At the decoding side, high-quality dense LF is reconstructed using a view synthesis method based on the residual channel attention network (RCAN).

Findings

In three different LF datasets, our proposed coding framework not only reduces the transmitted bit rate but also maintains a higher view quality than the current more advanced methods.

Originality/value

(1) A new sampling scheme is designed to synthesize high-quality LFIs while better ensuring LF angular domain sparsity. (2) To further eliminate redundancy in the spatial domain, new ranking schemes and hierarchical prediction structures are designed. (3) A synthetic network based on RCAN and a novel loss function is designed to mitigate the perceptual quality loss due to the coding process.

Details

Data Technologies and Applications, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9288

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 February 2024

Kian Yeik Koay and KerSoon Ang

This study aims to examine the factors influencing consumers’ intentions to use QR code menus in the post-COVID-19 pandemic using the unified theory of acceptance and use of…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the factors influencing consumers’ intentions to use QR code menus in the post-COVID-19 pandemic using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and rational choice theory as the theoretical foundations.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survey method, 200 data are collected from consumers who had used QR code menus in the past. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data.

Findings

Our findings show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, habit and perceived privacy protection have a significant positive influence on intentions. However, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and perceived privacy risk do not have a significant influence on intentions.

Originality/value

This study further extends the work of previous studies by using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model, with additional two new predictors, namely perceived privacy protection and perceived privacy risk, to understand consumers’ intentions to use QR code menus.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2024

James Routledge

This paper examines whether the adoption of Japan’s Stewardship Code by institutional investors influences their preference for investee companies' governance quality. The Code

Abstract

Purpose

This paper examines whether the adoption of Japan’s Stewardship Code by institutional investors influences their preference for investee companies' governance quality. The Code, introduced by the Financial Services Agency in 2014, promotes constructive engagement between institutional investors and investee companies. Engagement with investees should improve institutional investors' ability to assess governance quality across their portfolios. The paper examines if this results in a positive relationship between the levels of Code-compliant institutional shareholding and investee governance quality.

Design/methodology/approach

The association between Code-compliant institutional shareholding levels and a governance quality score is examined for Nikkei 500 companies.

Findings

A positive association is observed between shareholdings by Code-compliant institutional investors and investee governance, with board independence playing a key role. Analysis shows that the association between institutional shareholding and governance is stronger for the Code-compliant shareholding than for overall institutional shareholdings. In addition, no significant relationship is found between the levels of shareholding by non-Code-compliant institutional investors and the governance quality score of investee companies. Taken together, the results suggest that Code adoption strengthens institutional investors' preference for high-quality investee governance.

Originality/value

Despite the introduction of stewardship regulation worldwide, there is a scarcity of empirical research that examines its operation. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into how compliance with stewardship regulation influences institutional investor decision-making.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2024

Zhuoyu Zhang, Lijia Zhong, Mingwei Lin, Ri Lin and Dejun Li

Docking technology plays a crucial role in enabling long-duration operations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Visual positioning solutions alone are susceptible to…

Abstract

Purpose

Docking technology plays a crucial role in enabling long-duration operations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Visual positioning solutions alone are susceptible to abnormal drift values due to the challenging underwater optical imaging environment. When an AUV approaches the docking station, the absolute positioning method fails if the AUV captures an insufficient number of tracers. This study aims to to provide a more stable absolute position visual positioning method for underwater terminal visual docking.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a six-degree-of-freedom positioning method for AUV terminal visual docking, which uses lights and triangle codes. The authors use an extended Kalman filter to fuse the visual calculation results with inertial measurement unit data. Moreover, this paper proposes a triangle code recognition and positioning algorithm.

Findings

The authors conducted a simulation experiment to compare the underwater positioning performance of triangle codes, AprilTag and Aruco. The results demonstrate that the implemented triangular code reduces the running time by over 70% compared to the other two codes, and also exhibits a longer recognition distance in turbid environments. Subsequent experiments were carried out in Qingjiang Lake, Hubei Province, China, which further confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed positioning algorithm.

Originality/value

This fusion approach effectively mitigates abnormal drift errors stemming from visual positioning and cumulative errors resulting from inertial navigation. The authors also propose a triangle code recognition and positioning algorithm as a supplementary approach to overcome the limitations of tracer light positioning beacons.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 December 2023

Eyyub Can Odacioglu, Lihong Zhang, Richard Allmendinger and Azar Shahgholian

There is a growing need for methodological plurality in advancing operations management (OM), especially with the emergence of machine learning (ML) techniques for analysing…

250

Abstract

Purpose

There is a growing need for methodological plurality in advancing operations management (OM), especially with the emergence of machine learning (ML) techniques for analysing extensive textual data. To bridge this knowledge gap, this paper introduces a new methodology that combines ML techniques with traditional qualitative approaches, aiming to reconstruct knowledge from existing publications.

Design/methodology/approach

In this pragmatist-rooted abductive method where human-machine interactions analyse big data, the authors employ topic modelling (TM), an ML technique, to enable constructivist grounded theory (CGT). A four-step coding process (Raw coding, expert coding, focused coding and theory building) is deployed to strive for procedural and interpretive rigour. To demonstrate the approach, the authors collected data from an open-source professional project management (PM) website and illustrated their research design and data analysis leading to theory development.

Findings

The results show that TM significantly improves the ability of researchers to systematically investigate and interpret codes generated from large textual data, thus contributing to theory building.

Originality/value

This paper presents a novel approach that integrates an ML-based technique with human hermeneutic methods for empirical studies in OM. Using grounded theory, this method reconstructs latent knowledge from massive textual data and uncovers management phenomena hidden from published data, offering a new way for academics to develop potential theories for business and management studies.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1990

Bodo B. Schlegelmilch and Jane E. Houston

Business ethics is an area growing in importancefor business managers. Research in the USAsuggests that three‐quarters of major corporationshave specific codes of ethics, and in…

2125

Abstract

Business ethics is an area growing in importance for business managers. Research in the USA suggests that three‐quarters of major corporations have specific codes of ethics, and in the UK some 40 per cent (and increasing) of major organisations have codes of ethics. This article explains a survey on corporate ethics undertaken in the UK and points to some reasons why firms choose to have codes of ethics, and why some firms do not. It concludes by suggesting that further research is needed, especially on the perceived benefits of a corporate code of ethics to organisations.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 28 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1996

Brian J. Farrell and Deirdre M. Cobbin

Focuses on the status of ethics in the larger and more significant Australian business corporations, using a survey instrument. The findings cover the origins of Australian…

1086

Abstract

Focuses on the status of ethics in the larger and more significant Australian business corporations, using a survey instrument. The findings cover the origins of Australian enterprise codes, their implementation, the use of comprehensive strategies to support them, the sanctions imposed for their breach and the level of ongoing review and reporting. Uses these as criteria of “mainstreaming” ‐ the establishment of a company’s ethics function as a major and central focus of management activities, systems and procedures. Suggests that the extent of “proprietary interest” afforded addressees of codes is an element of code effectiveness and ethics mainstreaming.

Details

Journal of Management Development, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0262-1711

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2000

Douglas Telford

Growing needs for identification of small items for tracking and traceability purposes have led to the development of encoding structures known as matrix codes, capable of…

Abstract

Growing needs for identification of small items for tracking and traceability purposes have led to the development of encoding structures known as matrix codes, capable of containing machine‐readable data. Describes practical applications for two particular types of high‐density code, the Data Matrix code and the DMT code. The applications relate to needs within the electronics industry, the automotive industry, and the aerospace industry. Through these examples an approach is presented for selecting appropriate codes and marking methods for given applications. The two codes considered, although both high‐density structures, exhibit different features. These are examined as a basis for considering their suitability for the various applications. Later in the paper the codes are discussed, along with the methods of printing and/or realising them in direct‐marking form.

Details

Assembly Automation, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-5154

Keywords

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