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1 – 10 of over 3000Oliver Tannor, Elvis Attakora-Amaniampong and Emmanuel Kanchebe Derbile
This study aims to assess the facilities management (FM) strategies used in multi-tenanted purpose-built office buildings (Mt-POBs) in Ghana and the drivers that influence the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess the facilities management (FM) strategies used in multi-tenanted purpose-built office buildings (Mt-POBs) in Ghana and the drivers that influence the decision to use such strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted via a survey and key informant interviews. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire targeted at 65 multi-tenanted office building owners in the Greater Accra region. The data from the survey revealed the views of building owners on FM strategy and the extent to which 20 facility management decision drivers influenced their decisions to use a particular strategy and the responses were descriptively analysed. The key informant interviews were conducted among six leaders of the property owners’ association who use in-house FM to further understand their perspectives and decisions on using such strategy. The interviews were conducted over telephone using an interview guide and analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
The results showed that 88% of Mt-POBs in Ghana are managed in-house. The results also showed that the decision to use the in-house strategy was driven by the innovative, strategic and cost-saving advantages associated with the in-house strategy.
Originality/value
This study shows the factors that drive the decision of multi-tenanted office building owners in Ghana to use the in-house strategy. The findings of this study will be useful for prospective owners of office buildings in Ghana.
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Lipeng Pan, Yongqing Li, Xiao Fu and Chyi Lin Lee
This paper aims to explore the pathways of carbon transfer in 200 US corporations along with the motivations that drive such transfers. The particular focus is on each firm’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the pathways of carbon transfer in 200 US corporations along with the motivations that drive such transfers. The particular focus is on each firm’s embeddedness in the global value chain (GVC) and the influence of environmental law, operational costs and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The insights gleaned bridge a gap in the literature surrounding GVCs and corporate carbon transfer.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology comprised a two-step research approach. First, the authors used a two-sided fixed regression to analyse the relationship between each firm’s embeddedness in the GVC and its carbon transfers. The sample consisted of 217 US firms. Next, the authors examined the influence of environmental law, operational costs and CSR on carbon transfers using a quantitative comparison analysis. These results were interpreted through the theoretical frameworks of the GVC and legitimacy theory.
Findings
The empirical results indicate positive relationships between carbon transfers and GVC embeddedness in terms of both a firm’s position and its degree. From the quantitative comparison, the authors find that the pressure of environmental law and operational costs motivate these transfers through the value chain. Furthermore, CSR does not help to mitigate transfers.
Practical implications
The findings offer insights for policymakers, industry and academia to understand that, with globalised production and greater value creation, transferring carbon to different parts of the GVC – largely to developing countries – will only become more common. The underdeveloped nature of environmental technology in these countries means that global emissions will likely rise instead of fall, further exacerbating global warming. Transferring carbon is not conducive to a sustainable global economy. Hence, firms should be closely regulated and given economic incentives to reduce emissions, not simply shunt them off to the developing world.
Social implications
Carbon transfer is a major obstacle to effectively reducing carbon emissions. The responsibilities of carbon transfer via GVCs are difficult to define despite firms being a major consideration in such transfers. Understanding how and why corporations engage in carbon transfers can facilitate global cooperation among communities. This knowledge could pave the way to establishing a global carbon transfer monitoring network aimed at preventing corporate carbon transfer and, instead, encouraging emissions reduction.
Originality/value
This study extends the literature by investigating carbon transfers and the GVC at the firm level. The authors used two-step research approach including panel data and quantitative comparison analysis to address this important question. The authors are the primary study to explore the motivation and pathways by which firms transfer carbon through the GVC.
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Suzan Alaswad and Sinan Salman
While steady-state analysis is useful, it does not consider the inherent transient characteristics of repairable systems' behavior, especially in systems that have relatively…
Abstract
Purpose
While steady-state analysis is useful, it does not consider the inherent transient characteristics of repairable systems' behavior, especially in systems that have relatively short life spans, or when their transient behavior is of special concern such as the motivating example used in this paper, military systems. Therefore, a maintenance policy that considers both transient and steady-state availability and aims to achieve the best trade-off between high steady-state availability and rapid stabilization is essential.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies the transient behavior of system availability under the Kijima Type II virtual age model. While such systems achieve steady-state availability, and it has been proved that deploying preventive maintenance (PM) can significantly improve its steady-state availability, this improvement often comes at the price of longer and increased fluctuating transient behavior, which affects overall system performance. The authors present a methodology that identifies the optimal PM policy that achieves the best trade-off between high steady-state availability and rapid stabilization based on cost-availability analysis.
Findings
When the proposed simulation-based optimization and cost analysis methodology is applied to the motivating example, it produces an optimal PM policy that achieves an availability–variability balance between transient and steady-state system behaviors. The optimal PM policy produces a notably lower availability coefficient of variation (by 11.5%), while at the same time suffering a negligible limiting availability loss of only 0.3%. The new optimal PM policy also provides cost savings of about 5% in total maintenance cost. The performed sensitivity analysis shows that the system's optimal maintenance cost is sensitive to the repair time, the shape parameter of the Weibull distribution and the downtime cost, but is robust with respect to changes in the remaining parameters.
Originality/value
Most of the current maintenance models emphasize the steady-state behavior of availability and neglect its transient behavior. For some systems, using steady-state availability as the sole metric for performance is not adequate, especially in systems that have relatively short life spans or when their transient behavior affects the overall performance. However, little work has been done on the transient analysis of such systems. In this paper, the authors aim to fill this gap by emphasizing such systems and applications where transient behavior is of critical importance to efficiently optimize system performance. The authors use military systems as a motivating example.
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Weiwei Liu, Yuqi Liu, Xiaoyu Zhu, Pantaleone Nespoli, Francesca Profita, Lei Huang and Yimeng Xu
This study aims to present the critical role of knowledge management in digital entrepreneurship by reviewing the literature and proposing future research directions for digital…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to present the critical role of knowledge management in digital entrepreneurship by reviewing the literature and proposing future research directions for digital entrepreneurship and knowledge management through an interdisciplinary framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the Derwent Data Analyzer to identify and visualise the extant studies on digital entrepreneurship. This study qualitatively analyses the hot topics and trends in digital entrepreneurship research to understand digital entrepreneurship from the knowledge management perspective.
Findings
The authors found two dominant trends in existing research: logical and development trend exploration at the theoretical background and empirical research at the practical dimension. To understand digital entrepreneurship from a knowledge management perspective, the authors summarised the theoretical logic and internal and external reasons why knowledge management is required in digital entrepreneurship. Moreover, the authors analysed the new features of digital entrepreneurship under five aspects: management concept, object, content, scope and focus. The authors concluded that existing research on integrating knowledge management and digital entrepreneurship is primarily conducted from three perspectives: technology, platform and ecosystem.
Originality/value
This study provides an in-depth analysis of digital entrepreneurship from a knowledge management perspective. The findings can further promote the theoretical research and practical development of digital entrepreneurship and knowledge management. This approach provides a new direction for interdisciplinary study and enriches entrepreneurship research. In addition, this study proposes a knowledge management framework for digital entrepreneurship research. The findings contribute to understanding the role and function of knowledge management in digital entrepreneurship.
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Mutairu Oyewale Akintunde and Halimah Odunayo Amuda
This study aimed to predict and understand the academic libraries' probability of successful adoption of blockchain within the lens of integrated technology acceptance model (TAM…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to predict and understand the academic libraries' probability of successful adoption of blockchain within the lens of integrated technology acceptance model (TAM) and technology organization and environment theory (TOE) framework.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed approach was employed to gather data from librarians (292) and system analysts (46) totaling 338 respondents. The total enumeration sampling technique was considered. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, while quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation model (SEM).
Findings
Perceived usefulness and policy are the important factors that influence academic libraries' blockchain adoption intentions. Unlimited access to both print and electronic resources, security of users' information and easy collaboration between users and library staff were found to be the benefits of blockchain application to academic libraries' operations. Major challenges to the adoption of blockchain in academic libraries include the cost of infrastructure related to blockchain applications, privacy issues and a lack of understanding of blockchain technology among librarians.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies would need to include more relevant items to the observed variables of the independent variables that were found insignificant in this study.
Practical implications
The findings of this study will create a roadmap for government and polytechnic management on the factors that could strengthen the adoption of blockchain in the libraries.
Social implications
The outcome of this study came at a crucial moment when the majority of academic libraries in developing nations like Nigeria were skeptical about the deployment of blockchain technology in their libraries.
Originality/value
The study identified new factors that influence blockchain adoption intention.
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Sarah Herwald, Simone Voigt and André Uhde
Academic research has intensively analyzed the relationship between market concentration or market power and banking stability but provides ambiguous results, which are summarized…
Abstract
Purpose
Academic research has intensively analyzed the relationship between market concentration or market power and banking stability but provides ambiguous results, which are summarized under the concentration-stability/fragility view. We provide empirical evidence that the mixed results are due to the difficulty of identifying reliable variables to measure concentration and market power.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from 3,943 banks operating in the European Union (EU)-15 between 2013 and 2020, we employ linear regression models on panel data. Banking market concentration is measured by the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), and market power is estimated by the product-specific Lerner Indices for the loan and deposit market, respectively.
Findings
Our analysis reveals a significantly stability-decreasing impact of market concentration (HHI) and a significantly stability-increasing effect of market power (Lerner Indices). In addition, we provide evidence for a weak (or even absent) empirical relationship between the (non)structural measures, challenging the validity of the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) paradigm. Our baseline findings remain robust, especially when controlling for a likely reverse causality.
Originality/value
Our results suggest that the HHI may reflect other factors beyond market power that influence banking stability. Thus, banking supervisors and competition authorities should investigate market concentration and market power simultaneously while considering their joint impact on banking stability.
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Arissara Suratanon Weiler and Bhumiphat Gilitwala
The growth of the internet has transformed digital infrastructure in Thailand over the past two decades, with the widespread use of e-commerce, digital money and online services…
Abstract
Purpose
The growth of the internet has transformed digital infrastructure in Thailand over the past two decades, with the widespread use of e-commerce, digital money and online services becoming a daily norm for all ages. The COVID-19 restrictions, which limited in-person business operations, boosted demand for takeout and delivery services and fueled the expected steady growth of the online food delivery market in Thailand. The pandemic also resulted in a shift towards online ordering and delivery, reflecting changes in customer behavior. This study focuses on exploring the factors that have driven Bangkokians to use online food delivery services after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in June 2022.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 398 participants who had ordered food delivery services after the announcement.
Findings
The findings showed that perceived usefulness, time saving benefit and price saving benefit have a significant impact on the intention of customers to use online food delivery services, while food safety risk perception had no effect.
Practical implications
Bangkokians favor online food delivery services due to convenience and time-saving, indicating high demand post-pandemic. Businesses should invest in improving their platforms to meet evolving consumer behavior.
Originality/value
The result of this study offers valuable insights into the attitudes and behaviors of Bangkokians towards online food delivery services and could be beneficial for businesses in the industry to improve their services, enhance customer satisfaction as well as increase their competitiveness.
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Krishna Chauhan, Antti Peltokorpi, Rita Lavikka and Olli Seppänen
Prefabricated products are continually entering the building construction market; yet, the decision to use prefabricated products in a construction project is based mostly on…
Abstract
Purpose
Prefabricated products are continually entering the building construction market; yet, the decision to use prefabricated products in a construction project is based mostly on personal preferences and the evaluation of direct costs. Researchers and practitioners have debated appropriate measurement systems for evaluating the impacts of prefabricated products and for comparing them with conventional on-site construction practices. The more advanced, cost–benefit approach to evaluating prefabricated products often inspires controversy because it may generate inaccurate results when converting non-monetary effects into costs. As prefabrication may affect multiple organisations and product subsystems, the method used to decide on production methods should consider multiple direct and indirect impacts, including nonmonetary ones. Thus, this study aims to develop a multi-criteria method to evaluate both the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabrication solutions to facilitate decision-making on whether to use prefabricated products.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon a literature review, this research suggests a multi-criteria method that combines the choosing-by-advantage approach with a cost–benefit analysis. The method was presented for validation in focus group discussions and tested in a case involving a prefabricated bathroom.
Findings
The analysis indicates that the method helps a project’s stakeholders communicate about the relative merits of prefabrication and conventional construction while facilitating the final decision of whether to use prefabrication.
Originality/value
This research contributes a method of evaluating the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabricated products. The research underlines the need to evaluate the diverse benefits and sacrifices that stakeholder face when considering production methods in construction.
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Ramesh Dangol, Rangamohan V. Eunni, Patrick J. Bateman and Alina Marculetiu
This study aims to investigate the conflicting views in supply chain and strategic management literature regarding cooperative supply chain relationships (CSCR) and firm…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the conflicting views in supply chain and strategic management literature regarding cooperative supply chain relationships (CSCR) and firm performance. Supply chain literature suggests a universally positive impact of CSCR on performance, irrespective of a firm’s strategy. In contrast, strategic management literature contends that the effectiveness of CSCR depends on their alignment with the firm’s competitive strategy. The research aims to clarify this disparity, offering insights into the strategic use of CSCR for enhancing firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper theorizes the integration of perspectives for the impact of CSCR on firm performance by examining the relationships considering the alignment of cost leadership and product differentiation strategies with supplier and customer relationships. Plant-level survey data is analyzed using regression techniques to test four hypotheses.
Findings
All four main relationships (cost leadership, product differentiation, supplier relationship and customer relationship) on firm performance are statistically significant. However, cost leadership firms are better aligned to their chosen strategy when they have strong relationships with suppliers, whereas similar relationships with customers create misalignment, negatively influencing firm performance. In contrast, product differentiators benefit by investing in relationships with customers rather than with suppliers.
Practical implications
A firm’s performance does not solely depend on its CSCR efforts but on aligning them with the firm’s overall strategy. Therefore, managers need to be cognizant of the firm’s competitive strategy when investing in CSCR. Failing to do so could negatively impact firm performance and, eventually, its ability to compete in the marketplace.
Originality/value
Scholars have advocated for the importance of examining competing perspectives of phenomena, both within and across various bodies of literature, as cross-disciplinary analysis often brings enhanced focus and depth, leading to improved understanding. This research is one of the initial efforts to empirically analyze the varying perspectives on CSCR in supply chain and strategic management literature. This cross-disciplinary approach can yield a more integrated perspective.
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Raka Saxena, Anjani Kumar, Ritambhara Singh, Ranjit Kumar Paul, M.S. Raman, Rohit Kumar, Mohd Arshad Khan and Priyanka Agarwal
The present study provides evidence on export advantages of horticultural commodities based on competitiveness, trade balance and seasonality dimensions.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study provides evidence on export advantages of horticultural commodities based on competitiveness, trade balance and seasonality dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study delineated horticultural commodities in terms of comparative advantage, examined temporal shifts in export advantages (mapping) and estimated seasonality. Product mapping was carried out using the Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) and Trade Balance Index (TBI). Seasonal advantages were examined through a graphical approach along with the objective tests, namely, modified QS-test (QS), Friedman-test (FT) and using a seasonal dummy.
Findings
Cucumbers/gherkins, onions, preserved vegetables, fresh grapes, shelled cashew nuts, guavas, mangoes, and spices emerged as the most favorable horticultural products. India has a strong seasonal advantage in dried onions, cucumber/gherkins, shelled cashew nut, dried capsicum, coriander, cumin, and turmeric. The untapped potential in horticulture can be addressed by handling the trade barriers effectively, particularly the sanitary and phytosanitary issues, affecting the exports. Proper policies must be enacted to facilitate the investment in advanced agricultural technologies and logistics to ensure the desired quality and cost effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
Commodity-specific studies on value chain analysis would provide valuable insights into the issues hindering exports and realizing the untapped export potential.
Originality/value
There is no holistic and recent study illustrating the horticulture export advantages covering a large number of commodities in the Indian context. The study would be helpful to the stakeholders for drawing useful policy implications.
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