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Impulse purchases are a phenomenon of interest in recent years that provides a high revenue stream for companies compared to planned purchases. Airports are a unique shopping…
Abstract
Purpose
Impulse purchases are a phenomenon of interest in recent years that provides a high revenue stream for companies compared to planned purchases. Airports are a unique shopping environment. Travellers usually need to arrive at the airport early and can only utilise limited time to shop at duty-free stores, which makes the shopping experience time-constrained and has the potential to make impulse purchases. The main purpose of this research is to create a model to examine whether “time pressure” and “hedonic shopping motivation” lead to impulse shopping through the formation of “positive emotion” in the context of airport duty-free shops.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in this study. The data collection for this study targeted individuals who had previously used airline services for international travel and visited duty-free shops at international airports. A total of 502 valid subjects participated in this survey.
Findings
The findings indicated that time pressure and consumers’ hedonic motivations have a positive impact on emotions. Positive emotions have a positive impact on the occurrence of impulse purchases. Music and light can moderate the impact of hedonic motivation on emotion but cannot reduce the influence of time pressure on emotion. Social factor significantly moderates the positive association between hedonic shopping motivation and emotion.
Originality/value
The research collected data from various international airports and social media, enabling the findings to be generalised.
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Prosun Mandal, Srinjoy Chatterjee and Shankar Chakraborty
In many of today’s manufacturing industries, such as automobile, aerospace, defence, die and mould making, medical and electrical discharge machining (EDM) has emerged as an…
Abstract
Purpose
In many of today’s manufacturing industries, such as automobile, aerospace, defence, die and mould making, medical and electrical discharge machining (EDM) has emerged as an effective material removal process. In this process, a series of discontinuous electric discharges is used for removing material from the workpiece in the form of craters generating a replica of the tool into the workpiece in a dielectric environment. Appropriate selection of the tool electrode material and combination of input parameters is an important requirement for performance enhancement of an EDM process. This paper aims to optimize an EDM process using single-valued neutrosophic grey relational analysis using Cu-multi-walled carbon nanotube (Cu-MWCNT) composite tool electrode.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes the application of grey relational analysis (GRA) in a single-valued neutrosophic fuzzy environment to identify the optimal parametric intermix of an EDM process while considering Cu-MWCNT composite as the tool electrode material. Based on Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array, nine experiments are conducted at varying combinations of four EDM parameters, i.e. pulse-on time, duty factor, discharge current and gap voltage, with subsequent measurement of two responses, i.e. material removal rate (MRR) and tool wear rate (TWR). The electrodeposition process is used to fabricate the Cu-MWCNT composite tool.
Findings
It is noticed that both the responses would be simultaneously optimized at higher levels of pulse-on time (38 µs) and duty factor (8), moderate level of discharge current (5 A) and lower level of gap voltage (30 V). During bi-objective optimization (maximization of MRR and minimization of TWR) of the said EDM process, the achieved values of MRR and TWR are 243.74 mm3/min and 0.001034 g/min, respectively.
Originality/value
Keeping in mind the type of response under consideration, their measured values for each of the EDM experiments are expressed in terms of linguistic variables which are subsequently converted into single-valued neutrosophic numbers. Integration of GRA with single-valued neutrosophic sets would help in optimizing the said EDM process with the Cu-MWCNT composite tool while simultaneously considering truth-membership, indeterminacy membership and falsity-membership degrees in a human-centric uncertain decision-making environment.
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Edirimuni Nadeesh Rangana de Silva
South Asia is a region urgently seeking development, although it has failed in regional integration. It is the second least integrated region regarding the number of Free Trade…
Abstract
Purpose
South Asia is a region urgently seeking development, although it has failed in regional integration. It is the second least integrated region regarding the number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and can thus be recognised as a missing bloc in the global multilateral system. This study aims to focus on South Asian FTAs and explores the problems of the inter-relations and compatibility between the systemic and regional trade systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The study proposes a framework to benchmark the compatibility of South Asian FTAs with WTO rules. Primary data from 2000 to 2020, including descriptive analyses of reports, legal text of the FTAs, official documents and factual presentations, have been collected and analysed through thematic analysis using the proposed framework.
Findings
The study finds that, although South Asian FTAs meet most of the WTO requirements, they are not progressing toward facilitating and promoting trade. Data from 2000 to 2020 show us that South Asian FTAs have not significantly impacted trade between themselves. The study argues that, although South Asian FTAs fulfil some benchmarks, they show only a lukewarm interest in contributing to the international trading system as building blocs. It is therefore recommended that the case of South Asian trade liberalisation must be understood contextually and be given careful and exclusive attention by the WTO.
Originality/value
As such, this study is the first to claim that South Asian FTAs are not fully compatible with the WTO rules. They remain a missing regional bloc in the multilateral system, rather than a building bloc or a stumbling bloc, delaying the region’s opportunity to develop as a region and within the larger system.
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Md Noor Uddin Milon and Habib Zafarullah
Money laundering (ML) is a major criminal offence stemming from unethical practices by personnel on the ground at Chattogram Port, an important import and export facility in…
Abstract
Purpose
Money laundering (ML) is a major criminal offence stemming from unethical practices by personnel on the ground at Chattogram Port, an important import and export facility in Bangladesh. Because money can be more easily laundered through imports, it is necessary to investigate the dubious process in this sector. This study aims to identify the items most regularly used for easy ML and the factors contributing to their vulnerability.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a qualitative approach and analyses information from primary sources. Data is obtained from customs officials, port authority personnel, importers and customs brokers through semi-structured questionnaires. Although there are many techniques for ML, this study only found three most overwhelming: under-invoicing, over-invoicing and misdeclaration. A few case studies have been used based on newspaper reports and the internet to triangulate the qualitative data.
Findings
Four import items – food products, garments, capital machinery and chemicals – have a higher risk of ML. This study also revealed that money launderers prefer under-invoicing food and garment items. Misdeclaration is more commonly associated with capital machinery and chemical items. Over-invoicing, on the other hand, is only prevalent in government purchases. The port authorities need to pay particular attention to these issues.
Research limitations/implications
As ML is an ongoing activity that changes over time, the findings of this research are circumscribed by the data collected at a single point in time. Additionally, this research did not consider alternative laundering methods.
Practical implications
The research results can provide a basis for creating effective anti-money laundering (AML) strategies to assist with sustainable economic growth.
Social implications
Developing effective AML measures can help combat corruption and establish good governance in the country and support human well-being.
Originality/value
This paper presents original research findings based on technical analysis. The Chattogram Port Authority and the National Board of Revenue have accepted and used the main findings in a collaborative action plan to tackle ML. The Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, has also incorporated the necessary guidelines and regulations into the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012.
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James Turner, Colin Rogers and Ian Pepper
The research aimed to explore the perceptions of aspiring future police officers studying at a university in relation to the actions to be taken with regards to typical posts on…
Abstract
Purpose
The research aimed to explore the perceptions of aspiring future police officers studying at a university in relation to the actions to be taken with regards to typical posts on social media by a fictitious off and on-duty police officer. This in turn would inform future police workforce requirements.
Design/methodology/approach
Policing students who expressed their aspirations as future police officers were recruited. A total of 99 students studying the College of Policing licensed Professional Policing Degree at the University of South Wales, took part in Hydra Immersive Simulations to ascertain their perception of social media posts by a fictitious serving police officer. The students were asked to rate the appropriateness of the social media posts as groups, and as individuals.
Findings
The findings suggest that, whilst the majority of students identified misconduct issues in the social media posts, the response to how the fictitious police officer should be dealt with varied. In addition, it would appear that there may be a need for those involved in policing education to reinforce, in an ongoing basis, knowledge of the College of Policing Code of Ethics, misconduct rules, regulations and increase awareness of unacceptable social media posts.
Research limitations/implications
The research was conducted with professional policing degree (PPD) students from one university.
Practical implications
It is important to reinforce The College of Policing Code of Ethics, expected professional standards and an understanding of what constitutes unacceptable social media posts throughout the education of aspiring police officers. As this has the potential, if recruited, to impact on the service.
Originality/value
Limited research has been conducted in relation to the College of Policing licensed higher education programme, the PPD, equipping aspiring police officers to successfully join the service and influence the cultural change.
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This article aims to provide a new paradigm for thinking about disability, which can be applied to other social groups, historically invisible and whose rights have been violated…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to provide a new paradigm for thinking about disability, which can be applied to other social groups, historically invisible and whose rights have been violated. The Model of Communication and Legitimate Acknowledgement of Disability (MCLAD) tries to break with the logic of continuing to add terms and euphemisms around the issue. The author proposes a new line to think about relationships in democratic societies. Taking the step from inclusion to acknowledgment does not imply another way of naming the disability, but rather addressing the problem from concrete practices of recognition. In order to arrive at the proposal of the MCLAD, the author will make a journey that addresses how disability has been understood throughout history, according to the study of different authors.
Design/methodology/approach
Disability has been perceived over time in many different ways, which led some authors to build models in order to explain certain social approaches to the subject. This article traces a journey from the first model to the present. In turn, it proposes a new one: the MCLAD, which is characterized by a paradigm shift: moving from inclusion to acknowledgment. To substantiate this, three categories are presented: acknowledgment, distance and vulnerability. The different theories and concepts that support the model will also be presented. The purpose of the MCLAD is to deepen the idea of empowering people with disabilities as part of today’s diverse societies and closing historically constructed gaps which are still in force.
Findings
The MCLAD proposes three categories: acknowledgment, distance and vulnerability. In turn, in each of them, there is a link between three axes: person with disability/society/state, analyzing the dynamics of these relationships presented, will provide us with the necessary elements to understand the proposed turnaround.
Research limitations/implications
Although the different models will be presented according to the chronological order of definition over time, all of them still coexist today, in many cases in hybrid and naturalized ways in social practices. Recognizing what practices and conceptions are behind each model, allows us to recognize and resignify the ways of communicating toward people with disabilities (PWD) and on the issue of disability. It also allows other specific recognition practices, such as the legitimization of public policies from the laws that protect them.
Practical implications
To replace the paradigm of inclusion for that of acknowledgment and to recognize how the three categories (acknowledgment, distance and vulnerability) are linked with the three issues (PWD – society and state) allowing specific relationship and practises of legitimate or not acknowledgement. When the author affirms that the MCLAD implies a paradigm shift, the author means that it provides some elements from legitimate acknowledgment to complement aspects which inclusion does not address, and that the other models did not take into account. These are: the self-acknowledgment of people with disabilities and the sense of responsibility linked to empowerment; vulnerability as a category of reconciliation, which is typical of every human being; the contribution of the Phenomenology of the Among to think about how relationships and practices actually occur in society and, finally, the role of the state, which must watch over all its citizens, avoiding the distance between discourse (laws) and practices and, above all, avoiding exclusion from the system due to lack of monitoring of actions.
Social implications
It should be noted that the MCLAD starts from the idea of language as a constructor of realities and conceives communication as an enabler of the acknowledgment of the other, who is also subject to rights. At the same time, it vindicates the voice of people with disabilities as protagonists (“Nothing about us without us”) and fosters the need for PWD themselves to be active in their struggles, promulgating legitimate acknowledgment. At the same time, it points out that the empowerment of PWD implies not only that they are aware of their rights but also that they themselves know and fulfill their duties within the democratic societies of which they are a part of and which, at least discursively, are regulated by laws. In other words, being empowered is also being responsible for living in society.
Originality/value
The main contribution that the MCLAD has to offer is to replace the paradigm of inclusion for that of acknowledgment. And, throughout the path followed in this article, an attempt has been made to establish that the turnaround is not to capriciously install a new concept (acknowledgment), but to demonstrate that the new paradigm involves three categories that sustain and support a model that seeks to be the basis for effective public policies, for a society that values diversity and for people who feel worthy and contribute to dignify others.
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David Phillip Wood, Catherine A. Robinson, Rajan Nathan and Rebecca McPhillips
The need to develop effective approaches for responding to healthcare incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety has been recognised in current national…
Abstract
Purpose
The need to develop effective approaches for responding to healthcare incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety has been recognised in current national policy. However, research into this topic is limited. This study aims to explore the perspectives of professionals in mental health trusts in England about what works well and what could be done better when implementing serious incident management systems.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. In total, 15 participants were recruited, comprising patient safety managers, serious incident investigators and executive directors, from five mental health trusts in England. The interview data were analysed using a qualitative-descriptive approach to develop meaningful themes. Quotes were selected and presented based on their representation of the data.
Findings
Participants were dissatisfied with current systems to manage serious incidents, including the root cause analysis approach, which they felt were not adequate for assisting learning and improvement. They described concerns about the capability of serious incident investigators, which was felt to impact on the quality of investigations. Processes to support people adversely affected by serious incidents were felt to be an important part of incident management systems to maximise the learning impact of investigations.
Originality/value
Findings of this study provide translatable implications for mental health trusts and policymakers, informed by insights into how current approaches for learning from healthcare incidents can be transformed. Further research will build a more comprehensive understanding of mechanisms for responding to healthcare incidents.
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Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, Munish Thakur and Payal Kumar
This chapter addresses one of the most crucial areas for critical thinking: the morality of turbulent markets around the world. All of us are overwhelmed by such turbulent…
Abstract
Executive Summary
This chapter addresses one of the most crucial areas for critical thinking: the morality of turbulent markets around the world. All of us are overwhelmed by such turbulent markets. Following Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2004, 2010), we distinguish between nonscalable industries (ordinary professions where income grows linearly, piecemeal or by marginal jumps) and scalable industries (extraordinary risk-prone professions where income grows in a nonlinear fashion, and by exponential jumps and fractures). Nonscalable industries generate tame and predictable markets of goods and services, while scalable industries regularly explode into behemoth virulent markets where rewards are disproportionately large compared to effort, and they are the major causes of turbulent financial markets that rock our world causing ever-widening inequities and inequalities. Part I describes both scalable and nonscalable markets in sufficient detail, including propensity of scalable industries to randomness, and the turbulent markets they create. Part II seeks understanding of moral responsibility of turbulent markets and discusses who should appropriate moral responsibility for turbulent markets and under what conditions. Part III synthesizes various theories of necessary and sufficient conditions for accepting or assigning moral responsibility. We also analyze the necessary and sufficient conditions for attribution of moral responsibility such as rationality, intentionality, autonomy or freedom, causality, accountability, and avoidability of various actors as moral agents or as moral persons. By grouping these conditions, we then derive some useful models for assigning moral responsibility to various entities such as individual executives, corporations, or joint bodies. We discuss the challenges and limitations of such models.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the rule of law, corporate governance and freedom of expression on the effectiveness of whistleblowing initiatives…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the rule of law, corporate governance and freedom of expression on the effectiveness of whistleblowing initiatives. This study interrogates the effectiveness of whistleblowing as a tool in combating economic and financial crimes, in political and corporate environments where good governance and the rule of law are firmly established and enforceable and where defamation is decriminalised.
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted a comprehensive review of relevant textbooks, focusing on legal theories and concepts related to the research topic. This study analysed scholarly journal articles to gain insights into the current debates and research gaps. The author discussed seminal court decisions that have influenced the legal landscape pertaining to the research topic and reviewed newspaper publications to understand public opinion and societal implications related to the research topic.
Findings
To ensure effective whistleblowing as a tool of gathering information in combating economic and financial crime, good governance must be promoted, supremacy of law must be upheld, freedom of expression must be safeguarded and defamation must be criminalised.
Originality/value
This paper addresses a significant gap in the literature by examining the impact of criminal libel on whistleblowing, an area that has received limited attention in previous studies. The findings of this study have significant implications for policymakers, as they shed light on importance of the rule of law, good governance, freedom of speech and decriminalisation of defamation on effective implementation of an effective whistleblowing laws and policies.
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Jaffar Yakkop Alkhayer and Chander Mohan Gupta
This paper aims to examine the options available to arbitrators when they suspect money laundering during arbitration proceedings, considering their compatibility with fundamental…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the options available to arbitrators when they suspect money laundering during arbitration proceedings, considering their compatibility with fundamental principles and concepts of arbitration.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a doctrinal analysis approach, the paper draws on legal principles, antimoney laundering regulations and relevant literature to explore the topic. It considers relevant international treaties, standards set by the financial action task force on money laundering, cases and arguments from legal analysts and experts.
Findings
The paper identifies three options for arbitrators: disregarding suspicions, initiating an investigation or terminating the proceedings. Disregarding suspicions is deemed inappropriate, as it may facilitate the concealment of financial crimes. Initiating an investigation is seen as a preferable option, aligning with the arbitrator’s role and the public interest in nullifying contracts linked to criminal conduct. Terminating the proceedings is not recommended, as it contradicts the principle of natural justice. The paper emphasizes the importance of reasonable grounds for suspicions, notifying the parties, and allowing them to address the concerns.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the existing literature by comprehensively analyzing the compatibility of these options with arbitration principles and concepts. It underscores the need for clear laws and directives to guide arbitrators in addressing financial crimes within the arbitration process, maintaining a balance between party autonomy and preventing the misuse of arbitration for illicit activities.
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