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1 – 10 of 12Chamari Pamoshika Jayarathna, Duzgun Agdas and Les Dawes
Despite the wide use of quantitative assessment to identify the relationship between green logistics (GL) practices and the sustainability performance (SP) of firms, results of…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the wide use of quantitative assessment to identify the relationship between green logistics (GL) practices and the sustainability performance (SP) of firms, results of these studies are inconsistent. A lack of theoretical foundation has been cited as a potential reason for these contradictory findings. This study aims to explore the relationship between GL practices and SP qualitatively and to provide a theoretical foundation for this link.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a multi-methodology approach, the authors used the grounded theory method (GTM) to investigate perceived relationships through qualitative analysis and adopted the system thinking (ST) approach to identify causal relationships using causal loop diagrams (CLDs).
Findings
The authors identified different sustainability practices under three major categories: logistics capabilities, resource-related practices and people-related practices. This analysis showed the relationships among these practices are non-linear. Based on the results, the authors developed three propositions and introduced a theoretical foundation for the relationship between GL practices and SP.
Practical implications
Managerial personnel can use the theoretical foundation provided by this study when making decisions on GL practices adoption. This theoretical foundation suggests applying a holistic approach that can help optimize SP by selecting suitable practices. On the other hand, researchers can use a multi-methodology approach suggested by this study to explore complex social issues.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the knowledge from a methodology perspective as no previous studies have been conducted to identifying the relationship between GL practices and SP by combining GTM and ST approaches. This combination can be extended to build system dynamics models for sustainable logistics impacts bringing novelty to the research field of sustainable logistics.
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Shanshan Zhang, Fengchun Huang, Lingling Yu, Jeremy Fei Wang and Paul Benjamin Lowry
Researchers continue to address the concept of self-disclosure because it is foundational for helping social networking sites (SNS) function and thrive. Nevertheless, the authors'…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers continue to address the concept of self-disclosure because it is foundational for helping social networking sites (SNS) function and thrive. Nevertheless, the authors' literature review indicates that uncertainty remains around the underlying mechanisms and factors involved in the self-disclosure process. The purpose of this research is to better understand the self-disclosure process from the lens of dual-process theory (DPT). The authors consider both the controlled factors (i.e. self-presentation and reciprocity) and an automatic factor (i.e. social influence to use an SNS) involved in self-disclosure and broaden The authors proposed a model to include the interactive facets of enjoyment.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model was empirically validated by conducting a survey among users of WeChat Moments in China.
Findings
As hypothesized, this research confirms that enjoyment and automatic processing (i.e. social influence to use an SNS) are complementary in the SNS self-disclosure process and enjoyment negatively moderates the positive relationship between controlled factor (i.e. self-presentation) and self-disclosure.
Originality/value
Theoretically, this study offers a new perspective on explaining SNS self-disclosure by adopting DPT. Specifically, this study contributes to the extant SNS research by applying DPT to examine how the controlled factors and the automatic factor shape self-disclosure processes and how enjoyment influences vary across these processes – enriching knowledge about SNS self-disclosure behaviors. Practically, the authors provide important design guidelines to practitioners concerning devising mechanisms to foster more automatic-enjoyable value-added functions to improve SNS users' participation and engagement.
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Jie Li, Zui Tao and Nadilai Aisihaer
This study investigates whether the visualization of agricultural products influences consumers’ purchase intentions in the context of farmer-assisted livestreaming in China…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates whether the visualization of agricultural products influences consumers’ purchase intentions in the context of farmer-assisted livestreaming in China. Moreover, it explores the moderating effect of packaging functionality and the mediating effect of consumer trust.
Design/methodology/approach
Consumers in China from multiple social media platforms participated in this survey, which yielded 333 valid responses for analysis.
Findings
The results revealed a positive relationship between the video presentation about the agricultural production process and consumers’ purchase intention, which is mediated by consumers’ trust. Meanwhile, packaging functionality moderates the relationship between agricultural product visualization and consumers’ purchase intentions as well as the indirect effect of consumers’ trust.
Originality/value
This study extends the application of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model to the field of farmer-assisted livestreaming. By building a more detailed model, this study adds to knowledge on the influencing mechanisms of consumers’ purchase intentions in farmer-assisted livestreaming.
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Cevdet Bulut and Philip Fei Wu
Agriculture is one sector where the Internet of things (IoT) is expected to make a major impact. Yet, its adoption in the sector falls behind expectations. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Agriculture is one sector where the Internet of things (IoT) is expected to make a major impact. Yet, its adoption in the sector falls behind expectations. The purpose of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art of IoT in agriculture and investigate its slow adoption in the sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have undertaken a systematic review and a synthesis of 1355 relevant publications over the last decade.
Findings
This literature review reveals that the “big three” barriers for the overall sector are cost, skills and standardization. The lack of connectivity and data governance are two key reasons why most of the proposed IoT solutions are standalone systems of limited scope, while the majority of commercial IoT efforts focus on practices in the protected indoor environment. Lastly, the analysis of past research along the five layers of the IoT system architecture reveals limited attention to barriers and solutions at the business layer, which represents a research opportunity for information systems scholars.
Research limitations/implications
It is possible that some of relevant publications were missed in the literature search, although the search queries were kept as broad as possible to avoid the exclusion of any relevant work. Any publication written in any other language other than English was excluded from the review. Given the geographical distribution of the reviewed English publications (see section 4.1), it is highly likely that important works written by Chinese and European scholars in their native language were overlooked.
Practical implications
This study provides practical insights into the technical and organisational challenges on the ground. It is the hope that this literature review lays the groundwork for IS researchers who are well positioned to investigate technology adoption challenges in the relatively understudied agriculture sector.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review of adoption barriers and solutions across all five layers of the IoT system architecture.
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Mianzhi Yang, Qing Hui, Qingru Yang, Mengwei Fan and Xin Li
China has recently introduced a new audit law that aims to increase the scope of audit supervision and raise the standards for preventing risks in auditing national public…
Abstract
Purpose
China has recently introduced a new audit law that aims to increase the scope of audit supervision and raise the standards for preventing risks in auditing national public projects. This paper presents a systematic research study on the causes of audit risks in national public projects and discusses the process by which these causes contribute to the emergence of such risks. Furthermore, the paper investigates the core risk sources in various types of national construction project audit. This paper aims to provide theoretical support for auditors of national construction projects in risk avoidance when conducting audits.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors carefully selected five national public audit projects from China and performed a comprehensive analysis of 85 relevant audit documentation. The textual analysis was conducted using Nvivo12 software, and the grounded theory approach was adopted for generalization purposes.
Findings
Based on the research results, the findings suggest that there are five key causes contributing to the audit risk of national construction projects: professional competence, risk awareness, management capacity, level of attention and deliberate fraud. The most critical factor identified is management capability, with 59.93% of the data supporting this view. This conclusion was based on an analysis of state-owned enterprises, administrative organs and public institutions. Building upon this, a framework titled “the mechanism of audit risk factors with management capability as the core” was constructed.
Originality/value
This paper employs qualitative analysis methods to examine national construction projects in China, contributing new literature to the theoretical study of audit risk management. The article also provides practical recommendations for auditors on how to mitigate audit risks and improve the quality of audit services in national project governance.
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Jia Jin, Yi He, Chenchen Lin and Liuting Diao
Social recommendation has been recognized as a kind of e-commerce with large potential, but how social recommendations influence consumer decisions is still unclear. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Social recommendation has been recognized as a kind of e-commerce with large potential, but how social recommendations influence consumer decisions is still unclear. This paper aims to investigate how recommendations from different social ties influence consumers’ purchase intentions through both behavior and brain activity.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing behavioral (N = 70) and electroencephalogram (EEG) (N = 49) experiments, this study explored participants’ behavior and brain responses after being recommended by different social ties. The data were analyzed using statistical inference and event-related potential (ERP) analysis.
Findings
Behavioral results show that social tie strength positively impacts purchase intention, which can be fitted by a logarithmic model. Moreover, recommender-to-customer similarity and product affect mediate the effect of tie strength on purchase intention serially. EEG findings show that recommendations from weak tie strength elicit larger N100, N200 and P300 amplitudes than those from strong tie strength. These results imply that weak tie strength may motivate individuals to recruit more mental resources in social recommendation, including unconscious processing of consumer attention and conscious processing of cognitive conflict and negative emotion.
Originality/value
This study considers the effects of continuous social ties on purchase intention and models them mathematically, exploring the intrinsic mechanisms by which strong and weak ties influence purchase intentions through recommender-to-customer similarity and product affect, contributing to the applications of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model in the field of social recommendation. Furthermore, our study adopting EEG techniques bridges the gap of relying solely on self-report by providing an avenue to obtain relatively objective findings about the consumers’ early-occurred (unconscious) attentional responses and late-occurred (conscious) cognitive and emotional responses in purchase decisions.
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Long Li, Shuqi Wang, Saixing Zeng, Hanyang Ma and Ruiyan Zheng
Social responsibility (SR) has become critical in facilitating the sustainability of new infrastructure construction (NIC) and is also a nonnegligible aspect in its management…
Abstract
Purpose
Social responsibility (SR) has become critical in facilitating the sustainability of new infrastructure construction (NIC) and is also a nonnegligible aspect in its management. Although studies attempting to explore this issue from various and disparate perspectives have become increasingly popular, no consensus has yet been reached regarding what SR factors affect NIC management. This paper aims to establish an inventory of SR factors for NIC and reveal a comprehensive framework for SR of NIC (NIC-SR) management through an in-depth analysis of the relationships among factors.
Design/methodology/approach
This article proposes a mixed-review method that combines the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and content analysis methods as a solution.
Findings
From 62 chosen publications on NIC-SR published in peer-reviewed journals between 2010 and 2022, a total of 44 SR factors were found. These 44 SR factors were divided into 4 interconnected categories: political, ethics-environmental, legal and economic. Based on the interactions among SR factors and incorporating the impact of the four categories of SR factors on NIC management, an integrated framework from micro to macro was developed.
Originality/value
This paper educates researchers and practitioners about the SR factors that must be considered to improve the sustainability of NIC management and provides practical implications for architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) practices. Furthermore, it serves as an impetus for governments to improve their programs and policies and fulfill social responsibilities.
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Abdul Alem Mohammed and Zoltan Rozsa
The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention to use smartphone diet applications within the emerging market. Specifically, it focuses on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention to use smartphone diet applications within the emerging market. Specifically, it focuses on the Privacy Calculus Model constructs, encompassing perceived risk and perceived benefit, as well as the pivotal elements of trust and self-efficacy. It also explores the moderating influence of experience on the influencing factors and intention to use a diet application.
Design/methodology/approach
In a survey with 572 respondents, data analysis was conducted using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings reveal that perceived risk exerts a significant negative influence on behavioral intention. Conversely, perceived benefit, trust and self-efficacy exhibit a positive impact on behavioral intention. Moreover, the study delves into the moderating role of users' experience, which is found to significantly influence these relationships, suggesting that user experience plays a pivotal role in shaping the adoption dynamics of diet applications.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this study may include the sample size and the specific focus on the emerging market of Saudi Arabia. The implications of the findings are relevant for scholars, developers, marketers, and policymakers seeking to promote the use of smartphone diet applications.
Originality/value
This study adds value by exploring the determinants of behavioral intention in the context of smartphone diet applications, and it is a first attempt to test the moderating role of users' experiences, providing valuable insights for various stakeholders in the field.
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Patrick Amfo Anim, Emmanuel Arthur and George Kofi Amoako
This study examines the role of social media adoption (SMA), opportunity recognition (OR) and opportunity exploitation (OE) in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the role of social media adoption (SMA), opportunity recognition (OR) and opportunity exploitation (OE) in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the performance of newly established small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies, with a particular emphasis on Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a post-positivist philosophical stance and uses a quantitative approach and a survey design. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 336 SME owners and managers from Ghana’s manufacturing, trading and service sectors. Questionnaires were administered to source the empirical data for this study. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results reveal that EO positively and significantly influences the performance of new-born SMEs. SMA, OR and OE partially mediated this relationship.
Practical implications
This study is a wakeup call to policymakers, practitioners, managers and owners of recently established businesses. Policymakers should provide support and resources for newly established SMEs to adopt effective social media marketing strategies, bolstering their online presence and customer engagement. Simultaneously, they should invest in entrepreneurship education and create an environment conducive to innovation to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset among fresh SMEs. Business owners and managers should proactively monitor market trends and consumer preferences, adapting their strategies to identifying and seizing emerging opportunities.
Originality/value
This study introduces a significant novelty to previous literature and one of the first to employ the dynamic capability theory to examine the interplay between EO, SMA, OR and OE in influencing the performance of new SMEs in the context of emerging markets. Furthermore, it extends the scope of understanding of the mechanisms through which SMEs can prosper in these dynamic environments. This unique combination of theoretical framework, comprehensive variables and contextual focus sets this study apart from existing research, enriching the literature on SME performance in emerging markets.
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Yangze Liang and Zhao Xu
Monitoring of the quality of precast concrete (PC) components is crucial for the success of prefabricated construction projects. Currently, quality monitoring of PC components…
Abstract
Purpose
Monitoring of the quality of precast concrete (PC) components is crucial for the success of prefabricated construction projects. Currently, quality monitoring of PC components during the construction phase is predominantly done manually, resulting in low efficiency and hindering the progress of intelligent construction. This paper presents an intelligent inspection method for assessing the appearance quality of PC components, utilizing an enhanced you look only once (YOLO) model and multi-source data. The aim of this research is to achieve automated management of the appearance quality of precast components in the prefabricated construction process through digital means.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins by establishing an improved YOLO model and an image dataset for evaluating appearance quality. Through object detection in the images, a preliminary and efficient assessment of the precast components' appearance quality is achieved. Moreover, the detection results are mapped onto the point cloud for high-precision quality inspection. In the case of precast components with quality defects, precise quality inspection is conducted by combining the three-dimensional model data obtained from forward design conversion with the captured point cloud data through registration. Additionally, the paper proposes a framework for an automated inspection platform dedicated to assessing appearance quality in prefabricated buildings, encompassing the platform's hardware network.
Findings
The improved YOLO model achieved a best mean average precision of 85.02% on the VOC2007 dataset, surpassing the performance of most similar models. After targeted training, the model exhibits excellent recognition capabilities for the four common appearance quality defects. When mapped onto the point cloud, the accuracy of quality inspection based on point cloud data and forward design is within 0.1 mm. The appearance quality inspection platform enables feedback and optimization of quality issues.
Originality/value
The proposed method in this study enables high-precision, visualized and automated detection of the appearance quality of PC components. It effectively meets the demand for quality inspection of precast components on construction sites of prefabricated buildings, providing technological support for the development of intelligent construction. The design of the appearance quality inspection platform's logic and framework facilitates the integration of the method, laying the foundation for efficient quality management in the future.
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