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Article
Publication date: 19 May 2023

Ling Yan, Yichao Chen and Tingting Cao

The consulting team intervenes in the integrated construction consulting (ICC) network structure centered on “client-contractor-consultant.” Team boundary-spanning behavior (TBB…

Abstract

Purpose

The consulting team intervenes in the integrated construction consulting (ICC) network structure centered on “client-contractor-consultant.” Team boundary-spanning behavior (TBB) driven by the network structure is crucial to project performance. This article investigated how to stimulate the consulting project performance (CPP) improvement by considering the interactive effect of network structure and TBB. To be specific, this paper explored the configuration between structural characteristics of project networks, the dimension of TBB, and project performance in ICC projects.

Design/methodology/approach

Network density and centrality were used to reflect network structure. This study collected 216 valid responses from construction professionals (including project managers, department managers, and project engineers) via a questionnaire survey and analyzed the data using fsQCA.

Findings

Combining with the corresponding typical project case and analysis, the results concluded four types of configurations for achieving high performance in the ICC projects. Meanwhile, network centrality, density, ambassadorial behavior, coordination behavior, and detection behavior significantly impact high consulting project performance. Matching ICC network characteristics with the TBB is important. There are also three low performance configurations for the ICC projects. Low performance state also occurs when network centrality or density and coordination behavior is simultaneously low. Only the right match between the network characteristics and TBB can produce high consulting project performance.

Research limitations/implications

The network centrality and density, the implementation of TBB vary, and the paths to achieve high consulting project performance are different. Clients, ICC projects, and consulting teams should choose the appropriate development paths according to the actual situation. (1) Clients should commit to applying the ICC project model with high network centrality, density, and coordination behavior of ICC enterprises to promote project performance. (2) Consulting enterprises should carry out ICC business based on detecting behavior and coordinating behavior. (3) The market should cultivate head consulting enterprises with independence and integration, and bring into play the effectiveness of consulting team ambassadorial behavior.

Practical implications

Comparing the results of the four high CPP configurations, the network structure characteristics are essential, which means that in the Chinese consulting practice between the owner and the consulting firm pay attention to the use of appropriate ICC organizational structure model and arrange the degree of centralization of authorized responsibilities. Coordination behavior is necessary to achieve high CPP. Therefore, Chinese consulting firms should pay attention to effective communication and exchange with project contractors in order to get high CPP in conducting business; meanwhile, enabling behavior can achieve high CPP both in the presence and absence of configuration H1 and H4, which indicates that enabling behavior has substitution effect. Comparing the three low CPP configurations also contrarily confirms the indispensability of coordinating behavior. Comparing the results of high and low CPP configurations, the TBB is seriously missing and not properly applied in CPP enhancement. In detail, Chinese consulting firms have been regarded as independent third parties providing services, and less attention has been paid to the TBB of Chinese consulting firms in past practice, thus leading to the dilemma of inadequate empowerment of consulting firms due to their unclear status. To solve this dilemma, the findings of this paper offer a solution at the micro level to change the previous perception of consulting and demonstrate that Chinese consulting practice needs to pay attention to TBB with owners and contractors, and apply it well to enhance the reputation, management consulting level and capability, and experience and expertise of consulting firms to achieve high CPP.

Originality/value

The research results changed from the previous bilateral project governance to a new perspective of network embedding. It provided a theoretical basis for the improvement path of high consulting project performance, as well as providing ideas for clients on the organizational design of ICC projects. On the other hand, it provided a practical reference for TBB positioning of ICC enterprises for transformation and upgrading development.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 February 2024

Eminda Ishan De Silva, Gayithri Niluka Kuruppu and Sandun Dassanayake

The non-fungible token (NFT) market had undergone dramatic growth and a sudden decline during 2021–2022. The market experienced a surge in prices in late 2021 and early 2022, with…

Abstract

Purpose

The non-fungible token (NFT) market had undergone dramatic growth and a sudden decline during 2021–2022. The market experienced a surge in prices in late 2021 and early 2022, with NFTs being sold at inflated prices. Despite this, by April 2022, the market underwent a correction, and the prices of NFTs returned to more reasonable levels. This can be a result of imitating the actions or judgments of a larger group, which is not systematically proven yet. Therefore, this study systematically investigates the applicability of herding behavior in the NFT market.

Design/methodology/approach

This research employs cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) of returns and ordinary least squares (OLS) to test herding behavior with moving time windows of 10, 20 and 30 days based on the sales data collected from public interface of OpenSea between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022. Additionally, NFT-related keyword usage analysis is done for the detected herding periods.

Findings

As per the results of the data analyzed, herding behavior was evidenced using 10-, 20- and 30-day time windows from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022because of media movement. The findings revealed that this behavior was present and aligned with the overall behavior of the market.

Originality/value

This study introduces CSAD to examine herding behavior patterns within the NFT market. Complementing this method, keyword count-based analysis is employed to identify the underlying causes of herding behavior. Through this comprehensive approach, this study not only uncovers the roots of herding behavior but also offers an assessment of the time windows during which it occurs, considering the plausible socioeconomic contexts that influence these trends.

Details

China Finance Review International, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1398

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2023

Karen M. DSouza and Aaron M. French

Purveyors of fake news perpetuate information that can harm society, including businesses. Social media's reach quickly amplifies distortions of fake news. Research has not yet…

Abstract

Purpose

Purveyors of fake news perpetuate information that can harm society, including businesses. Social media's reach quickly amplifies distortions of fake news. Research has not yet fully explored the mechanisms of such adversarial behavior or the adversarial techniques of machine learning that might be deployed to detect fake news. Debiasing techniques are also explored to combat against the generation of fake news using adversarial data. The purpose of this paper is to present the challenges and opportunities in fake news detection.

Design/methodology/approach

First, this paper provides an overview of adversarial behaviors and current machine learning techniques. Next, it describes the use of long short-term memory (LSTM) to identify fake news in a corpus of articles. Finally, it presents the novel adversarial behavior approach to protect targeted business datasets from attacks.

Findings

This research highlights the need for a corpus of fake news that can be used to evaluate classification methods. Adversarial debiasing using IBM's Artificial Intelligence Fairness 360 (AIF360) toolkit can improve the disparate impact of unfavorable characteristics of a dataset. Debiasing also demonstrates significant potential to reduce fake news generation based on the inherent bias in the data. These findings provide avenues for further research on adversarial collaboration and robust information systems.

Originality/value

Adversarial debiasing of datasets demonstrates that by reducing bias related to protected attributes, such as sex, race and age, businesses can reduce the potential of exploitation to generate fake news through adversarial data.

Details

Internet Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 December 2022

K.V. Sheelavathy and V. Udaya Rani

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network, which provides the connection with various physical objects such as smart machines, smart home appliance and so on. The physical objects are…

Abstract

Purpose

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network, which provides the connection with various physical objects such as smart machines, smart home appliance and so on. The physical objects are allocated with a unique internet address, namely, Internet Protocol, which is used to perform the data broadcasting with the external objects using the internet. The sudden increment in the number of attacks generated by intruders, causes security-related problems in IoT devices while performing the communication. The main purpose of this paper is to develop an effective attack detection to enhance the robustness against the attackers in IoT.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, the lasso regression algorithm is proposed along with ensemble classifier for identifying the IoT attacks. The lasso algorithm is used for the process of feature selection that modeled fewer parameters for the sparse models. The type of regression is analyzed for showing higher levels when certain parts of model selection is needed for parameter elimination. The lasso regression obtains the subset for predictors to lower the prediction error with respect to the quantitative response variable. The lasso does not impose a constraint for modeling the parameters caused the coefficients with some variables shrink as zero. The selected features are classified by using an ensemble classifier, that is important for linear and nonlinear types of data in the dataset, and the models are combined for handling these data types.

Findings

The lasso regression with ensemble classifier–based attack classification comprises distributed denial-of-service and Mirai botnet attacks which achieved an improved accuracy of 99.981% than the conventional deep neural network (DNN) methods.

Originality/value

Here, an efficient lasso regression algorithm is developed for extracting the features to perform the network anomaly detection using ensemble classifier.

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: 15 August 2023

Zul-Atfi Ismail

At the beginning of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a digitalized construction environments surfaced in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC…

Abstract

Purpose

At the beginning of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a digitalized construction environments surfaced in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in the form of a modern delivery system called demand controlled ventilation (DCV). Demand controlled ventilation has the potential to solve the building ventilation's biggest problem of managing indoor air quality (IAQ) for controlling COVID-19 transmission in indoor environments. However, the improper evaluation and information management of infection prevention on dense crowd activities such as measurement errors and volatile organic compound (VOC) generation failure rates, is fragmented so the aim of this research is to integrate this and explore potentials with machine learning algorithms (MLAs).

Design/methodology/approach

The method used is a thorough systematic literature review (SLR) approach. The results of this research consist of a detailed description of the DCV system and digitalized construction process of its IAQ elements.

Findings

The discussion revealed that DCV has a potential for being further integrated by perceiving it as a MLAs and hereby enabling the management of IAQ level from the perspective of health risk function mechanism (i.e. VOC and CO2) for maintaining a comfortable thermal environment and save energy of public and private buildings (PPBs). The appropriate MLA can also be selected in different occupancy patterns for seasonal variations, ventilation behavior, building type and locations, as well as current indoor air pollution control strategies. Furthermore, the conceptual framework showed that MLA application such as algorithm design/Model Predictive Control (MPC) integration can alleviate the high spread limitation of COVID-19 in the indoor environment.

Originality/value

Finally, the research concludes that a large unexploited potential within integration and innovation is recognized in the DCV system and MLAs which can be improved to optimize level of IAQ from the perspective of health throughout the building sector DCV process systems. The requirements of CO2 based DCV along with VOC concentrations monitoring practice should be taken into consideration through further research and experience with adaption and implementation from the ventilation control initial stage of the DCV process.

Details

Open House International, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 September 2023

Rasha Kassem and Kamil Omoteso

Using a qualitative grounded theory approach, this study explores the methods experienced external auditors use to detect fraudulent financial reporting (FFR) during standard…

Abstract

Purpose

Using a qualitative grounded theory approach, this study explores the methods experienced external auditors use to detect fraudulent financial reporting (FFR) during standard audits.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 experienced external auditors to explore the methods they used to detect FFR successfully during standard external audits.

Findings

The authors find 58 methods used for FFR detection, out of which the following methods are frequently used and help in detecting more than one type of FFR: (1) specific analytical procedures, (2) positive confirmation, (3) understanding of the client's business and industry, (4) the inspection of specific documents, (5) a detailed analysis of the audit client's anti-fraud controls and (6) investigating tip-offs from suppliers, employees and customers.

Research limitations/implications

Based on the grounded theory approach, the authors theorise that auditors must return to the basics and focus on specific audit procedures highlighted in this study for effective fraud detection.

Practical implications

The study provides practical guidance, including 58 methods used in audit practice to detect FFR. This knowledge can improve auditors' skills in detecting material misstatements due to fraud. Besides, analytical procedures and positive confirmation helped external auditors in this study detect all forms of FFR, yet they are overlooked in the external audit practice. Therefore, audit firms should emphasise the significance of these audit procedures in their professional audit training programmes. Audit regulators should advise auditors to consider positive confirmation instead of negative confirmation in financial audits to increase the likelihood of FFR detection. Moreover, audit standards (ISA 240 and SAS 99) should explicitly require auditors to conduct a detailed analysis of the client's anti-fraud controls.

Originality/value

This is the first study to identify actual, effective methods used by external auditors in detecting FFR during the ordinary course of an audit.

Details

Journal of Accounting Literature, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-4607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 January 2024

Margarida Rodrigues, Rui Silva, Ana Pinto Borges, Mário Franco and Cidália Oliveira

This study aims to address a systematic literature review (SLR) using bibliometrics on the relationship between academic integrity and artificial intelligence (AI), to bridge the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to address a systematic literature review (SLR) using bibliometrics on the relationship between academic integrity and artificial intelligence (AI), to bridge the scattering of literature on this topic, given the challenge and opportunity for the educational and academic community.

Design/methodology/approach

This review highlights the enormous social influence of COVID-19 by mapping the extensive yet distinct and fragmented literature in AI and academic integrity fields. Based on 163 publications from the Web of Science, this paper offers a framework summarising the balance between AI and academic integrity.

Findings

With the rapid advancement of technology, AI tools have exponentially developed that threaten to destroy students' academic integrity in higher education. Despite this significant interest, there is a dearth of academic literature on how AI can help in academic integrity. Therefore, this paper distinguishes two significant thematical patterns: academic integrity and negative predictors of academic integrity.

Practical implications

This study also presents several contributions by showing that tools associated with AI can act as detectors of students who plagiarise. That is, they can be useful in identifying students with fraudulent behaviour. Therefore, it will require a combined effort of public, private academic and educational institutions and the society with affordable policies.

Originality/value

This study proposes a new, innovative framework summarising the balance between AI and academic integrity.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 August 2022

Anjali More and Dipti Rana

Referred data set produces reliable information about the network flows and common attacks meeting with real-world criteria. Accordingly, this study aims to focus on the use of…

Abstract

Purpose

Referred data set produces reliable information about the network flows and common attacks meeting with real-world criteria. Accordingly, this study aims to focus on the use of imbalanced intrusion detection benchmark knowledge discovery in database (KDD) data set. KDD data set is most preferably used by many researchers for experimentation and analysis. The proposed algorithm improvised random forest classification with error tuning factors (IRFCETF) deals with experimentation on KDD data set and evaluates the performance of a complete set of network traffic features through IRFCETF.

Design/methodology/approach

In the current era of applications, the attention of researchers is immersed by a diverse number of existing time applications that deals with imbalanced data classification (ImDC). Real-time application areas, artificial intelligence (AI), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), etc. are dealing ImDC undergo with diverted classification performance due to skewed data distribution (SkDD). There are numerous application areas that deal with SkDD. Many of the data applications in AI and IIoT face the diverted data classification rate in SkDD. In recent advancements, there is an exponential expansion in the volume of computer network data and related application developments. Intrusion detection is one of the demanding applications of ImDC. The proposed study focusses on imbalanced intrusion benchmark data set, KDD data set and other benchmark data set with the proposed IRFCETF approach. IRFCETF justifies the enriched classification performance on imbalanced data set over the existing approach. The purpose of this work is to review imbalanced data applications in numerous application areas including AI and IIoT and tuning the performance with respect to principal component analysis. This study also focusses on the out-of-bag error performance-tuning factor.

Findings

Experimental results on KDD data set shows that proposed algorithm gives enriched performance. For referred intrusion detection data set, IRFCETF classification accuracy is 99.57% and error rate is 0.43%.

Research limitations/implications

This research work extended for further improvements in classification techniques with multiple correspondence analysis (MCA); hierarchical MCA can be focussed with the use of classification models for wide range of skewed data sets.

Practical implications

The metrics enhancement is measurable and helpful in dealing with intrusion detection systems–related imbalanced applications in current application domains such as security, AI and IIoT digitization. Analytical results show improvised metrics of the proposed approach than other traditional machine learning algorithms. Thus, error-tuning parameter creates a measurable impact on classification accuracy is justified with the proposed IRFCETF.

Social implications

Proposed algorithm is useful in numerous IIoT applications such as health care, machinery automation etc.

Originality/value

This research work addressed classification metric enhancement approach IRFCETF. The proposed method yields a test set categorization for each case with error reduction mechanism.

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: 3 June 2022

Dan Wu and Shutian Zhang

Good abandonment behavior refers to users obtaining direct answers via search engine results pages (SERPs) without clicking any search result, which occurs commonly in mobile…

Abstract

Purpose

Good abandonment behavior refers to users obtaining direct answers via search engine results pages (SERPs) without clicking any search result, which occurs commonly in mobile search. This study aims to better understand users' good abandonment behavior and perception, and then construct a good abandonment prediction model for mobile search with improved performance.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, an in situ user mobile search experiment (N = 43) and a crowdsourcing survey (N = 1,379) were conducted. Good abandonment behavior was analyzed from a quantitative perspective, exploring users' search behavior characteristics from four aspects: session and query, SERPs, gestures and eye-tracking data.

Findings

Users show less engagement with SERPs in good abandonment, spending less time and using fewer gestures, and they pay more visual attention to answer-like results. It was also found that good abandonment behavior is often related to users' perceived difficulty of the searching tasks and trustworthiness in the search engine. A good abandonment prediction model in mobile search was constructed with a high accuracy (97.14%).

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore eye-tracking characteristics of users' good abandonment behavior in mobile search, and to explore users' perception of their good abandonment behavior. Visual attention features are introduced into good abandonment prediction in mobile search for the first time and proved to be important predictors in the proposed model.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2023

Abinash Mandal and Amilan S

This study aims to examine how auditors perceive the influence of crucial fraud prevention factors in deterring financial statement fraud within the corporate sector…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how auditors perceive the influence of crucial fraud prevention factors in deterring financial statement fraud within the corporate sector. Additionally, this research explores the mediating effect of fraud awareness in elucidating the impact of ethical leadership and internal control systems on preventing financial statement fraud.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used an online survey, targeting a sample of 141 professionally qualified auditors with at least one year of practical experience in the field. The researchers used “Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)” to examine relationships between latent variables using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The study investigated the impact of whistleblowing systems, fraud awareness, ethical leadership, internal control systems and corporate governance on fraud prevention.

Findings

This research finding provides evidence to the corporate sector by establishing the significance of fraud awareness as the most influencing factor in preventing financial statement fraud. Furthermore, the combined explanatory variables account for 77.4% of the overall variance in financial statement fraud prevention. The study reveals a partial mediation effect of fraud awareness on the relationship between the internal control system and financial statement fraud prevention.

Practical implications

This research finding may assist in developing an effective fraud prevention programme to mitigate fraud instances and improve financial reporting quality. In the corporate sector, each organisation should clearly specify the policies on whistleblowing systems, fraud awareness training, internal control systems and corporate governance. To foster a comprehensive fraud prevention programme, the leaders should enforce these policies with employee support.

Originality/value

This research integrated crucial elements to develop a new theoretical framework for investigating financial statement fraud prevention within the corporate context. Accordingly, this research framework provides a more in-depth explanation of preventing financial statement fraud from an auditor’s perspective. Additionally, this research is the first to explore the mediating role of fraud awareness in influencing the effectiveness of the internal control system in preventing financial statement fraud.

Details

Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1985-2517

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 1000