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1 – 10 of over 9000Colin C Williams and Ioana Alexandra Horodnic
The purpose of this paper is to advance a new way of explaining and tackling the illegitimate wage practice where employers pay their employees an undeclared (envelope) wage in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance a new way of explaining and tackling the illegitimate wage practice where employers pay their employees an undeclared (envelope) wage in addition to their formal salary. Drawing upon institutional theory, it is here proposed that envelope wages result from the lack of alignment of a society’s formal institutions (i.e. the codified laws and regulations) with its informal institutions (i.e. the socially shared unwritten understandings which reflect citizens’ norms, values and beliefs).
Design/methodology/approach
To evaluate this, data are reported from a 2013 Eurobarometer survey involving 1,738 face-to-face interviews with formal employees in four Baltic countries, namely, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Findings
The finding is that the greater is the asymmetry between the formal and informal institutions (i.e. the level of disagreement of citizens with the codified laws and regulations of formal institutions), the higher is the propensity to pay envelope wages. This is the case at both the individual- and country levels.
Practical implications
To reduce the prevalence of envelope wages, the resultant argument is that the values of employers and employees need to be aligned with the formal institutions. This requires alterations not only in the informal institutions, using measures such as tax education, awareness raising campaigns and normative appeals, but also changes in formal institutions so as to improve trust in government by fostering greater procedural justice, procedural fairness and redistributive justice.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to apply institutional theory to explaining and tackling envelope wages in the Baltic Sea region.
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Takuma Hino and Takeshi Tsuchiya
The purpose of this research is to propose a novel method to plan paths of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formations. This is to make use of the aerodynamic advantage of formation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to propose a novel method to plan paths of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formations. This is to make use of the aerodynamic advantage of formation flight to reduce energy consumption of UAVs.
Design/methodology/approach
The method proposed in this research make use of the fact that, under certain conditions, the regions where if a UAV rendezvous or separates with another UAV would save energy by formation flying can be analytically calculated. The intersections of these regions are used to decide which UAV are to fly in the same formation. This combination of which UAV are to fly together and what order they join/part from the formation is called the topology of the problem.
Findings
The proposed method was proved to be effective in identifying efficient topologies, with the majority of the topologies selected falling below 5 percent error rate in terms of energy.
Originality/value
The originality of this research lies in the fact that the proposed method is completely visualised – all the necessary information to organise formations is visualised in the envelopes. Still, the proposed method was proved to be effective in selecting efficient topologies.
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This paper aims to evaluate the prevalence in Europe of a so far little discussed wage practice in which employers pay their declared employees two wages, one declared and the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate the prevalence in Europe of a so far little discussed wage practice in which employers pay their declared employees two wages, one declared and the other an undeclared (“envelope”) wage.
Design/methodology/approach
To evaluate the pervasiveness of envelope wages in Europe, a 2007 Eurobarometer survey on undeclared work is reported involving 26,659 face‐to‐face interviews which included a section on whether employees are paid an additional envelope wage by their declared employer.
Findings
The finding is that one in 20 employees receive some of their wage from their employer as an undeclared “envelope wage” and on average this amounts to two‐fifths of their wage packet. This payment arrangement, however, is more prevalent in some businesses, places and populations than others. Smaller businesses and construction firms are more likely to pay envelope wages. Men, younger persons and the lower paid are more likely to receive such wages. And geographically, envelope wages are more common in East‐Central Europe, where such payments are more likely to be for regular employment hours, whilst in Continental Europe and Nordic countries envelope wages are less common and received more for overtime or extra work conducted.
Practical implications
Through an evaluation of its prevalence, this paper displays the need for action to tackle this illegitimate wage practice and briefly reviews a range of policy options and measures.
Originality/value
This is the first extensive evaluation of the commonality of envelope wages in Europe.
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Amneh Hamida, Abdulsalam Alsudairi, Khalid Alshaibani and Othman Alshamrani
Buildings are responsible for the consumption of around 40% of energy in the world and account for one-third of greenhouses gas emissions. In Saudi Arabia, residential buildings…
Abstract
Purpose
Buildings are responsible for the consumption of around 40% of energy in the world and account for one-third of greenhouses gas emissions. In Saudi Arabia, residential buildings consume half of total energy among other building sectors. This study aims to explore the impact of sixteen envelope variables on the operational and embodied carbon of a typical Saudi house with over 20 years of operation.
Design/methodology/approach
A simulation approach has been adopted to examine the effects of envelope variables including external wall type, roof type, glazing type, window to wall ratio (WWR) and shading device. To model the building and define the envelope materials and quantify the annual energy consumption, DesignBuilder software was used. Following modelling, operational carbon was calculated. A “cradle-to-gate” approach was adopted to assess embodied carbon during the production of materials for the envelope variables based on the Inventory of Carbon Energy database.
Findings
The results showed that operational carbon represented 90% of total life cycle carbon, whilst embodied carbon accounted for 10%. The sensitivity analysis revealed that 25% WWR contributes to a significant increase in operational carbon by 47.4%. Additionally, the efficient block wall with marble has a major embodiment of carbon greater than the base case by 10.7%.
Research limitations/implications
This study is a contribution to the field of calculating the embodied and operational carbon emissions of a residential unit. Besides, it provides an examination of the impact of each envelope variable on both embodied and operational carbon. This study is limited by the impact of sixteen envelope variables on the embodied as well as operational carbon.
Originality/value
This study is the first attempt on investigating the effects of envelop variables on carbon footprint for residential buildings in Saudi Arabia.
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Shazmin Shareena Ab. Azis, Ibrahim Sipan, Maimunah Sapri, Rohaya Abdul Jalil and Izran Sarrazin Mohammad
The purpose of this paper is to identify green envelope building components of residential buildings applicable under hot and humid climates and to analyze the effect of these…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify green envelope building components of residential buildings applicable under hot and humid climates and to analyze the effect of these components on building value.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors place an emphasis on green envelope components that influence building value and which are derived based on their integration into a building envelope structure that is applicable under hot and humid climates. This is performed through identification of green benefits of each green envelope component based on literature reviews and in relation to green criteria listed by the Malaysia Green Building Index (GBI). Consequently, a quantitative analysis has been conducted to determine the effect of these green envelope components on building value by means of a questionnaire distribution among 550 property valuation practitioners in Malaysia. However, in order to certify respondents’ credibility, the authors analyzed questionnaires answered by property valuation practitioners with experience in green valuation.
Findings
The findings show that there are ten green envelope components currently certified under GBI Malaysia and applicable for hot and humid climates. There are three green envelope components that can increase property values, specifically: solar photovoltaic, green living wall and green roof. However, eight of the green envelope components have no effect on building value.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the relative immaturity of the green building market in Malaysia, the authors were unable to analyze the actual percentage of increment on building value as conveyed by each green envelope component.
Originality/value
This paper aims to provide understanding of the effect of individual green envelope components on building value rather than merely the value of green buildings in general. It proves that green building envelope components do in fact contribute to an increase in green building values. As the green building market in Malaysia is still in its infancy, this study is significant in that it prepares the Malaysian green building market to attain a new level by providing valuation practitioners with awareness of green building values and new knowledge concerning the effect of individual green components on building values. Hence, it is anticipated that this study can assist property valuation practitioners in conducting valuations of green buildings in the future.
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Serban Iliescu, Paul Fazio and Krishnan Gowri
An important part of the knowledge required for designing the envelope of a new building is based on experience. Confronted with a building envelope design problem, a human expert…
Abstract
An important part of the knowledge required for designing the envelope of a new building is based on experience. Confronted with a building envelope design problem, a human expert adds to well‐established domain knowledge his/her own experience or the experience of others, to support his/her reasoning process, and to guide him/her in stereotypical situations. Based on that observation, we can conclude that the building envelope design fits well the description associated with the so‐called “weak theory domains”, and is a prime candidate for adopting a case‐based reasoning (CBR) approach. Proposes strategies to encode, organize, and compare prototypical building envelope cases within a CBR framework for selecting the construction alternatives during the preliminary stage of the building envelope design. The methodology presented aims to find the most suitable design alternative for a new building envelope from a library of prototypical building cases.
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Virgiliu Fireteanu, Bernard Paya, Jacques Nuns, Yves Neau, Tiberiu Tudorache and Alexandru Spahiu
Analysis and development of a high efficiency, induction heated chemical reactor, medium frequency supplied (1,000‐2,000 Hz), able to be equipped with efficient cooling circuits.
Abstract
Purpose
Analysis and development of a high efficiency, induction heated chemical reactor, medium frequency supplied (1,000‐2,000 Hz), able to be equipped with efficient cooling circuits.
Design/methodology/approach
The numerical investigations of the technical solutions proposed in this paper are based on 3D finite element models that are experimentally validated.
Findings
Solutions to increase the transparency of the cooling envelope of the reactor tank with respect to magnetic field. The positions of envelope regions characterized by high values of power losses are experimentally confirmed by infrared temperature measurements.
Practical implications
The numerical analysis and the experimental investigations, show the possibility to implement efficient cooling circuits in chemical reactors without affecting the performances of the induction heating process. By designing properly the metallic envelope of the tank the global efficiencies of the chemical reactors increase at around 90 percent with reduced impact on the working environment and with low costs.
Originality
This paper proposes an innovative chemical reactor medium frequency induction heated with efficient cooling circuits and with high global efficiency, higher than the actual induction heated chemical reactors.
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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate in the Baltic Sea region the prevalence of an illegitimate wage arrangement whereby formal employers pay their formal employees both an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate in the Baltic Sea region the prevalence of an illegitimate wage arrangement whereby formal employers pay their formal employees both an official declared wage as well as a supplementary undeclared (envelope) wage.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2007 Eurobarometer survey is reported that evaluates envelope wage practices in 27 European Union (EU) member states. This paper focuses upon the 4,031 face‐to‐face interviews conducted in four countries from the Baltic Sea region that are now member states of the EU, namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Findings
Some one in eight formal employees in these four countries from the Baltic Sea region received an undeclared “envelope” wage from their formal employer during the past 12 months which on average amounted to 45 per cent of their gross wage packet. Although this practice is concentrated in smaller businesses, the construction industry, and amongst younger people, manual workers and lower income groups in these four countries, it is by no means confined to specific pockets of the economic landscape. Rather, it exists throughout these countries in all business types and employee groups.
Research limitations/implications
The existence and commonality of envelope wages reveals the need to transcend the dichotomous depiction of formal and informal jobs as always separate and discrete and to recognise how they can be inextricably interwoven.
Practical implications
This paper outlines a range of potential policy measures for tackling envelope wages and calls for their piloting and evaluation.
Originality/value
The first cross‐national evaluation of the incidence and nature of envelope wages in the Baltic Sea region and what needs to be done to tackle this practice.
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Natee Singhaputtangkul, Sui Pheng Low and Ai Lin Teo
The purpose of this study is to present the importance of integrating common features between the Green Mark Scheme (GMS) and the Buildable Design Appraisal System (BDAS…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to present the importance of integrating common features between the Green Mark Scheme (GMS) and the Buildable Design Appraisal System (BDAS) requirements in building envelopes.
Design/methodology/approach
The study presents the common features that influence both the GM score of the building envelope and the buildability score of the wall system. A case study is developed to show the effects of varying the value of a representative common feature in the GM score and the buildability score.
Findings
The study finds that lengths of window and wall, and wall materials are the common features that can influence the GM score of the building envelope and the buildability score of the wall system. The case study suggested that the window‐to‐wall ratio (WWR), which is the representative common feature, shows negative relationship with the GM score of the building envelope and positive relationship with the buildability score of the wall system.
Research implications/limitations
The results show that varying the WWR influences the GM score of the building envelope more strongly than the buildability score of the wall system. This seems to imply that building professionals when determining the WWR may have to concern themselves with the GM score of the building envelope more as compared to the buildability score of the wall system.
Originality/value
The study suggests that integrating the common features between GMS and BDAS requirements with other relevant factors such as cost, social and environmental impacts of design can help to save workload, time and budget, as well as facilitate the delivery of more reliable design, planning and management from a practical viewpoint.
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In the design of anisotropic materials, such as advanced fibre‐reinforced composites, the failure envelope has a crucial role. A geometrical representation of the envelope is of…
Abstract
In the design of anisotropic materials, such as advanced fibre‐reinforced composites, the failure envelope has a crucial role. A geometrical representation of the envelope is of particular value to investigate the highly anisotropic nature of the strength of the material. This provides the design engineer with a visualization of the failure envelope by graphically representing it using a CAD package. Use is made of both stress‐based and strain‐based polynomial failure criteria and examples are given of changes in the failure envelope due to changes in fibre orientation for a high strength graphite/epoxy composite lamina.