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The purpose of this paper is to present the review of natural fibre composites as well as a specific type of fibre, i.e., sugar palm fibre and its composites.

The approach of this review paper is to present previous work on natural fibres and their composites. Then a review of several important aspects such as history, origin, botanic description, distribution, application and characterisation of sugar palm tree, and its fibre is presented. Finally a review of properties and characterisation of sugar palm composites is presented.

Findings of this review include the potential application of natural fibres and their composites for engineering application, the use of sugar palm and its fibres, as well as the suitability of sugar palm composites in engineering application after conducting review of their performance and characterisation.

The value of this review is to highlight the potential of natural fibres, natural fibre composites, sugar palm, sugar palm fibres and sugar palm composites as materials for engineering applications.

Software reliability models in the past few years attracted researchers to build an accurate model in the software engineering. Testing is an important factor in the software development cycle.

As testing improves quality and reliability of the application by identifying the bugs in it. Also, it defines the behavior and state of the product based on the defined principles and mechanisms. Conventional reliability models use statistical distributions to attain realistic features.

The ability to predict the bugs in the application during development phase itself is a proper testing practice which saves the time and increases the efficiency of the application. Efficient management and timely release of the product is based on this reliability testing and ant colony optimization (ACO)-based testing is an important optimization model which is available for testing the application.

Conventional ant colony optimization used test case generation as its common approach for testing the reliability of the application. ACO uses pheromone activity and it is related in testing of application and provides a simple positive mechanism by identifying the inactivity and precociousness.

This study aims to investigate the influence of organisational culture, specifically O’Reilly et al.’s (1991) six dimensions of the organisational culture profile (respect for people, outcome orientation, team orientation, innovation, attention to detail and stability) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and the subsequent impact of CSR practices on organisational performance from the context of an emerging economy.

The study used a survey of middle- and higher-level managers in Bangladeshi organisations to develop a seven-dimensional model of CSR practices and used structural equation modelling to analyse the developed hypotheses.

The findings provide evidence of the influence of the six different dimensions of organisational culture on the different dimensions of CSR practices. The findings highlight the diverse impacts (i.e. positive and negative) of CSR practices on organisational performance. The study also highlights the direct influence of organisational culture on both financial and non-financial performance. In particular, the outcome and team orientation culture are positively associated with non-financial and financial performance, respectively, while an innovative culture is negatively associated with both non-financial and financial performance.

The findings of the study provide practitioners, internal (i.e. the managers and business owners of both the local and multinational organisations) and external policy-makers, and foreign investors in an emerging economy with new insights into the role of an intra-organisational factor (i.e. organisational culture) in influencing the adoption of CSR practices and the subsequent impact of CSR practices on organisational performance.

Using the 52 guidelines of CSR practices provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, this study provides a unique empirical insight into the influence of organisational culture on CSR practices and the impact of CSR practices on organisational performance. The findings contribute to the limited CSR literature examining the influence of organisational culture on the adoption of CSR practices and its subsequent impact on organisational performance in an emerging economy.

The past decade has witnessed a tremendous and progressive growth in the number of Nigerians who engage in medical tourism from Nigeria to India. Various commentators have advanced diverse reasons for this trend. However, there is a dearth of research that has sought to provide empirical insights. This paper aims to investigate the decision-making process of Nigerian medical tourists and why they prefer medical tourism to India to medical care locally.

Eight Nigerian medical tourists are interviewed on a one-on-one basis with open-ended questions using purposive criterion sampling technique from an interpretivist mind-set.

The paper identifies two major motivators, namely, inadequate medical infrastructure and poor medical, and customer service from health workers in Nigeria, which spurred medical tourism from Nigeria to India. Further, it finds that first timers premise their decisions on advice from reference groups, while previous personal experiences guide decisions on subsequent medical travels. Findings are explained using the template provided by the theory of planned behaviour.

This exploratory nature of this research provides a useful basis to elucidate the course of decision-making of Nigerian patients so that appropriate marketing communication channels can be applied. It improves the process of recruiting and engaging Nigerian patients and nurturing wholesome relationships between Nigerian patients and hospitals.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how chefs working at five star hotels perceive the menu planning process.

Case studies were used to deeply investigate the menu planning process of five star hotels. Data were drawn from in situ interviews and documentation, which were examined via content analysis. After the coding process, themes and categories were extracted and corroborated by direct quotations.

The findings revealed that the menu planning process can be classified into five major categories. The first category consists of the prerequisites of planning a menu. The second category is “key issues” and encapsulates the managerial, consumer, gastronomic, marketing and external aspects of menu planning. The third category highlights key actors’ responsibilities in the menu planning process, while the fourth category, “trial and improvement,” elaborates on the iterative process of menu design and the key players and issues involved with it. Finally, the last category outlines the difficulties of menu planning.

In the existing academic literature, most research conducted about menu planning only provides conceptual framework while empirical information remains unexamined. However, this qualitative study aims to clarify the components of menu planning in more detail in terms of five star hotel firms that offer various food and beverage operations. The present study is an attempt to fill a gap in the existing literature on the subject.

Pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs) need a well-operating and faultless logistics system to successfully store and distribute their medicines. Hospitals, health institutes, and pharmacies must maintain extra stock to respond requirements of the patients. Nevertheless, there is an inverse correlation between the level of medicine stock and logistics service level. The high stock level held by health institutions indicates that we have not sufficiently excellent logistics systems presently. As such, selecting appropriate logistics service providers (drug distributors) is crucial and strategic for PSCs. However, this is difficult for decision-makers, as highly complex situations and conflicting criteria influence such evaluation processes. So, a robust, applicable, and strong methodological frame is required to solve these decision-making problems.

To achieve this challenging issue, the authors develop and apply an integrated entropy-WASPAS methodology with Fermatean fuzzy sets for the first time in the literature. The evaluation process takes place in two stages, as in traditional multi-criteria problems. In the first stage, the importance levels of the criteria are determined by the FF-entropy method. Afterwards, the FF-WASPAS approach ranks the alternatives.

The feasibility of the proposed model is also supported by a case study where six companies are evaluated comprehensively regarding ten criteria. Herewith, total warehouse capacity, number of refrigerated vehicles, and personnel are the top three criteria that significantly influence the evaluation of pharmaceutical distribution and warehousing companies. Further, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis proves the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The proposed multi-attribute decision model quantitatively aids managers in selecting logistics service providers considering imprecisions in the multi-criteria decision-making process.

A new model has been developed to present a sound mathematical model for selecting logistics service providers consisting of Fermatean fuzzy entropy and WASPAS methods. The paper's main contribution is presenting a comprehensive and more robust model for the ex ante evaluation and ranking of providers.

The present study aims to provide a practical and robust assessment technique for assessing countries' investability in global supply chains to practitioners. Thus, the proposed approach can help decision-makers evaluate and select appropriate countries in the expansion process of the global supply chains and reduce risks concerning country (market) selection.

The present study proposes a novel decision-making approach, namely the REF-Sort technique. The proposed approach has many valuable contributions to the literature. First, it has an efficient basic algorithm and can be applied to solve highly complicated decision-making problems without requiring advanced mathematical knowledge. Besides, some characteristics differentiate REF-Sort apart from other techniques. REF-Sort employs the value or value range that reflects the most typical characteristic of the relevant class in assignment processes. The reference values in REF-Sort and center profiles are similar in this regard. On the other hand, class references can be defined as ranges in REF-Sort. Secondary values, called successors, can also be employed to assign a value to the appropriate class. REF-Sort can also determine the reference and successor values/ranges independently of the decision matrix. In addition, the proposed model is a maximally stable and consistent decision-making tool, as it is resistant to the rank reversal problem.

The current papers' findings indicate that countries have different features concerning investment. Hence, the current paper pointed out that only 22% of the 95 countries are investable, whereas 19% are risky. Thus, decision-makers should make detailed evaluations using robust, powerful, and practical decision-making tools to make more reasonable and logical decisions concerning country selection.

The current paper proposes a novel decision-making approach to evaluate. According to the authors' information, the proposed model has been applied to evaluate investable countries for the global supply chains for the first time.

This study aims to examine the potential influence of Nonfungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse on the Halal tourism industry, with a particular emphasis on Halal brands and hotel booking platforms. This study also purpose to uncover the opportunities and challenges associated with the adoption of these technologies in the sector.

A qualitative research approach is employed, encompassing a comprehensive literature review of the halal tourism industry, NFTs and the Metaverse. Furthermore, this study utilizes case studies of brands and hotel-booking platforms that have experimented with or integrated these technologies. This study aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the implications of digital technologies in the context of the halal tourism industry.

The study uncovered several opportunities provided by NFTs and the Metaverse for the Halal tourism industry, such as enhanced authentication and traceability of halal products and immersive experiences tailored to Muslim travelers. However, it also identifies challenges including compliance with Islamic principles, data privacy, cybersecurity and equitable access to technology.

While the study has several significant implications, it acknowledges potential limitations related to the nascent nature of NFTs and the Metaverse. Future research should delve deeper into ethical, legal and socioeconomic issues surrounding the application of these technologies in the halal tourism industry.

The findings of this study have practical implications for halal brands, hotel-booking platforms and regulators. This study provides a roadmap for harnessing the transformative power of NFTs and the Metaverse while addressing potential challenges.

This research underlines the necessity for collaboration among industry stakeholders, technology providers and regulators to ensure equitable access and adherence to Islamic principles. This study preserves a more inclusive and ethically compliant use of these technologies, potentially shaping the future of the halal tourism industry.

This study focuses on the intersection of NFTs, the Metaverse and the Halal tourism industry. It provides fresh insights into the transformative potential of these technologies, aiding halal brands and hotel booking platforms in creating distinctive value propositions and experiences.

An empirical examination of the product elimination decision‐making processes in American and British manufacturing firms was presented. Specifically, two areas of the product elimination decision‐making process are presented: (1) the precipitating circumstances which “triggered” the product elimination decision‐making process to begin; and (2) the variables used to make the elimination/retention are reviewed. It was concluded that the decision making processes were similiar in the two countries.

The purpose of this paper is to categorise the research on environmental sustainability in logistics and transportation on the basis of the main themes and study methods and proposes directions for future research.

The review is based on 72 papers published from 1994 to 2011 in international peer-reviewed journals. The academic papers were analysed and categorised according to both their defining characteristics (i.e. year of publication, journal title, regions addressed, and research methodology adopted) and the themes tackled. Five key themes were examined: sustainability initiatives, reasons for adoption, benefits achieved following adoption, critical issues and barriers to adoption, and the evaluation and measurement of environmental initiatives.

While many studies have addressed the issue of environmental sustainability within the supply chain as a whole, papers focusing specifically on environmental sustainability within logistics and freight transportation are fewer and relatively more recent. Although researchers have started to examine the decision-making process involved in environmental sustainability adoption in recent years, many themes, such as sustainability evaluation and measurement, and the level of adoption of sustainability initiatives in the context of the third-party logistics (3PL) industry are under-represented in the literature. As far as the methodology is concerned, our review revealed that many articles are either conceptual papers or empirical studies (i.e. mostly based on surveys or case studies), while simulation and analytical modelling have rarely been addressed.

While efforts were made to be all-inclusive, some research efforts may have inadvertently been omitted. However, the authors believe that this review provides an accurate representation of the body of research on environmental sustainability in logistics and transportation published during the specified timeframe, and that the resulting assessments are reliable.

The paper offers a guide to the previous research on this topic and identifies the most important issues that need to be addressed in future research.