Search results

It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified, establishing housing with a specialised status in economics, sociology, politics, and in related subjects. As we would expect, the new literature covers a technical, statistical, theoretical, ideological, and historical range. Housing studies have not been conceived and interpreted in a monolithic way, with generally accepted concepts and principles, or with uniformly fixed and precise methodological approaches. Instead, some studies have been derived selectively from diverse bases in conventional theories in economics or sociology, or politics. Others have their origins in less conventional social theory, including neo‐Marxist theory which has had a wider intellectual following in the modern democracies since the mid‐1970s. With all this diversity, and in a context where ideological positions compete, housing studies have consequently left in their wake some significant controversies and some gaps in evaluative perspective. In short, the new housing intellectuals have written from personal commitments to particular cognitive, theoretical, ideological, and national positions and experiences. This present piece of writing takes up the two main themes which have emerged in the recent literature. These themes are first, questions relating to building and developing housing theory, and, second, the issue of how we are to conceptualise housing and relate it to policy studies. We shall be arguing that the two themes are closely related: in order to create a useful housing theory we must have awareness and understanding of housing practice and the nature of housing.

The purpose of this paper is to critique the existing decision-making models of organizational theory and the ability of strategic managers to address unconventional problems using these models. Strategic management models presume reasonable stability in the task environment and the organizational design features. However, complex problems, or wicked problems, are prolific in a global world. They change profoundly the nature of strategic management, where management faces a deep paradox – an environment of unprecedented interdependence, yet unpredictable forces of chaos and volatility, a landscape of wicked problems. In this paper, the authors address wicked problems within the context of strategic management.

The authors review and critique the organizational theory literature, namely, microeconomics, bounded rationality, organizational failure and the theory of creative destruction within the context of wicked problems.

The authors find that the contemporary models of strategic management are incapable of assisting managers in addressing the reality of wicked problems. They argue that organizational pathologies rest in executive action: pursuit of goals and objectives with a false sense of causation, feedback filters that exaggerate good news and restrict bad news and actions that give only token measures to correct faulty design decisions and faulty decision processes, including more emphasis on vertical channels than horizontal task interdependencies.

The authors conclude that wicked problem-solving is by temperament and time horizon, a multilayered, multitasked, organizational challenge, and requires fundamentally different mindsets for design and performance systems for senior executives. The study of wicked problems requires a new corporate mindset, new collaborative models to address them and new corporate processes and executive training tools who increasingly have to address them. This research is a first step toward extending our understanding of how to address the world of wicked problems.

The purpose of the current study is to assess the efforts to control fraud in the home health care industry in the USA by examining the problems that criminal justice officials confronted in their attempts to control home health care fraud and abuse.

Attention is given to the history of the home health care industry in the USA, the types of fraud found in the health care field in general, and the officials who are given the duty of controlling health care fraud.

The results of this study suggest that the problems fraud control officials face in their response to home health care offenders are similar to those confronted in the response to white‐collar offending, but also similar to those confronted in the response to many conventional offenses.

Highlights the problems in controlling fraud and abuse in the US home care health field.

Nominal Group Technique (NGT) minimises many problems associated with conventional interactive group problem solving; however, its verbal inputting feature is unnecessarily limiting. By utilising cards, the Improved Nominal Group Technique (INGT) assures contributor anonymity, adds productive pre‐meeting activity and removes NGT′s inputting‐transcribing bottleneck. INGT is appropriate for identifying and evaluating options, positions or problems, solving a problem, and for reviewing and refining written proposals or other documents.

This paper describes an efficient reduced‐order method for the analysis of cylindrical dielectric resonators with an inhomogeneous dielectric medium. The field equations are formulated using the Laplace‐domain finite element method and are reduced to lower‐order models using the complex frequency hopping (CFH) technique. CFH is a moment matching technique which has been used successfully in the circuit simulation area for the solution of a large set of ordinary differential equations. The proposed technique is faster than the conventional approach by one to three orders of magnitude. The results are compared with those of other numerical methods available in the literature.

In our previous paper we developed a taxonomy of managerial skills and qualities; reported a modest research study giving some evidence for the validity of the taxonomy; and presented some further empirical evidence about the sources from which the managers we have investigated acquired these skills and qualities.

In the current exploration, the machining of a Nimonic 90 superalloy material was carried out in a die-sinking electric discharge machine. Experimentation was performed to investigate the impact of three input machining factors – current (I), pulse on time (T_on) and pulse off time (T_off) – on various response characteristics such as material removal rate (MRR), surface roughness (R_a) and electrode wear rate (EWR).

A Taguchi L9 design and ANOVA were used to assess machine response characteristics. The study also involved a grey relational analysis (GRA) multi-objective technique of optimization.

For single-objective performance, the most appropriate machining factors for achieving the best performance were attained as: MRR (I = 20 A, T_on = 200 µs and T_off = 45 µs), R_a (I = 14 A, T_on = 100 µs and T_off = 25 µs) and EWR (I = 17 A, T_on = 150 µs and T_off = 45 µs). The proposed grey relational approach provided the optimal settings (i.e. 14 A I, 100 µs T_on and 25 µs T_off) for the variables used to calculate the predicted and experimental results. Also, a confirmation test indicated that the final experimental grey relational grade value was enhanced when the experimentation was performed at optimal setting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present work is the first to examine the proposed machining variables (i.e. current, pulse on time and pulse off time) in relation to the optimization technique of GRA for a Nimonic 90 alloy using a die-sinking electric discharge machining method.

This paper will discuss two problems that have plagued the literature on the Ward-Domar-Vanek labor-managed firm (LMF) model, the perverse supply response problem and the horizon problem. The paper also discusses the solution to the horizon problem and the alleged “solution” of a membership market.

This is a conceptual paper so it analyzes the two problems and shows how they can be resolved. It also shows how one alleged “solution” (membership market) is based on several conceptual mistakes about the structure of rights in a democratic firm.

The perverse supply response is based on the assumption that the members of a democratic firm can expel for no cause some members when it would benefit the remaining members. It is shown that the same perverse behavior happens conceptually and historically in a conventional firm under the same assumptions. The horizon problem is resolved by the system of internal capital accounts (ICAs) that has been independently invented at least four times.

The idea of a democratic firm is quite often dismissed by conventional economists: “At first it seems like a good idea but unfortunately it is plagued by structural problems such as the perverse supply response and the horizon problem.” Hence it is important to see that the first is not a problem under ordinary assumptions and that the second is a solved problem.

The perverse supply response problem can be reproduced in a conventional firm under similar assumptions, and the horizon problem is real problem for social or common ownership firms but is solved in the Mondragon-type worker cooperatives by the system of ICAs. This has been known and published since the early 1980s, but conventional economists ignore the solution and still cite it as an inherent structure problem of a democratic firm.

It has not been previously shown in the LMF literature that the perverse supply response can be reproduced in a conventional corporation under similar assumptions since the maximand for the conventional firm is not total market value but that value per current shareholder. The solution to the horizon problem using ICAs has long been “known” but never acknowledged in the conventional literature as if it was a necessary feature of workplace democracy. The idea of a membership market is analyzed and criticized.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of Islamic home financing and some of its practical issues. In addition, the study also intends to draw attention to some recommendations to the issues highlighted from the viewpoint of industrial experts.

The methodology for this study follows the qualitative research approach which aims to capture the thoughts and extensive knowledge of a few related experts in the field. Eight respondents who are mainly scholars and bankers in Islamic banking were selected for the interview purpose. A semi-structured interview was adopted to investigate a series of themes concerning the Islamic home financing in Malaysia.

In terms of development, the findings showed that a majority of the participants agreed that the Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is developing in line with its counterpart – the conventional banks. This is due to its innovation in products as well as offering a variety of financial products including home financing. Some of the practical issues highlighted by the respondents include pricing, adherence to conventional framework and interest rate movement. Islamic home financing is argued to be much more expensive and faces difficulty in working within a conventional framework. The issue of interest rate movement is also becoming a major hurdle in Islamic banking due to the absence of a proper benchmark for IBF. At present, IBF still follows the benchmark set by its conventional counterpart. Furthermore, the respondents also believed that the product of home financing, together with other financial products, are not in line with the teaching of Shariah principles and guideline. In addressing those issues, the respondents provided some suggestions to counter those problems, which include promoting Islamic home financing, particularly in terms of Musharakah Mutanaqisah (MM), ensuring the transparency of products, strengthening due diligence, legal aspect and others.

This study is limited in terms of the relatively small number of respondents used to generate its findings. Time constraint is another limiting factor of the research. Additionally, potential respondents in a higher position were unable to take part in the study. Due to these factors, the generalisation of the study’s findings will be visibly restricted.

This paper is expected to generate several practical implications. Firstly, the study’s exploration of the issues surrounding home financing will likely provide a general overview of the recent development in Islamic banking and the challenges it faces. Consequently, this will indirectly help policymakers and bankers alike to design a better policy when dealing with Islamic home financing issues. In the review of various literatures in the field, a majority of research studies were observed to mainly focus on a quantitative approach. Hence, in terms of methodological innovation, the study’s use of qualitative inquiry based on an interview method may provide a deeper understanding of the matter. The resolutions proposed by the various experts are hoped to contribute to shaping a better framework and system in Islamic and conventional home financing in Malaysia.

Despite having many literatures revealing mixed results concerning Islamic home financing, especially the Bai Bithaman Ajil and MM, addressing the issues of Islamic home financing, particularly from an expert perspective, has been lacking. The majority of research studies claim those issues from a theoretical viewpoint rather than a practical one. With this gap and lack of initiative, the current study is motivated to undertake an in-depth analysis on the issues of Islamic home financing and how to address those arising issues from an industrial expert’s point of view via a qualitative approach.

The aims of this paper is to investigate the overall satisfaction of occupants of green and conventional residential buildings and their perception of indoor environment quality (IEQ) and to study factors that may cause occupants’ dissatisfaction.

Data were collected through a survey sent to occupants of comparable green and conventional multi-family buildings. The difference in responses between occupants of green and conventional buildings was analysed using Mann–Whitney (rank sum) test. The ordered logistic models were applied to the data to test whether the overall satisfaction changes depending on the level of acceptance of indoor environment quality and whether the building environmental profile and the apartment tenure affect occupant satisfaction.

The results show that both categories of occupants are very satisfied with their apartments and that there is no statistically significant difference between the stated overall satisfaction of occupants living in green and conventional buildings, although a difference was found in the acceptance level for thermal and sound quality. The research highlights the importance of occupant feedback, user-friendly technical installations and the ability to control indoor environment. This knowledge is important for designers, engineers and developers alike in enabling them to improve dwelling quality and minimize post-occupancy problems.

It was not possible to include physical measurements of IEQ parameters; the analysis is based only on occupants’ responses, which may carry a certain subjectivity.

The paper contributes to the understanding of IEQ from occupant perspective and to knowledge on green building performance.