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Outside the US and Europe, to establish a good government requires more than Western-style democracy. Adopting universal suffrage fully from the Western model is no longer a panacea to reach the ultimate goal of good governance in the East, i.e., to keep promoting socio-economic renovation can be noted as a prerequisite to have further meaningful political advancement in an Asian polity. The purpose of this paper is to explain how to establish a good but authoritarian government in the East.

Given the good of comparative historical analysis, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore and Deng Xiaoping in China are selected as both cases for “method of agreement.” Further including “argument based on the contrary” to form a context for macro-historical analysis, this paper outlines two characteristics of the duo’s authoritarian leadership, namely, Ideologies and Policy-making; and Political Modernization, and hence provides a more balanced reevaluation of their governance.

Apart from noting how these two Asian giants more or less contributed to their good but authoritarian governments for long in the twentieth century, such a word of authoritarianism to the duo was quite positive to help legitimize their governance, which was far different from many negative views of the Western world.

As theories put forward by Western academics could not entirely justify modernization among Asian societies in the twentieth century, this paper attempts to answer one question: Does the meaning of authoritarianism remain unchanged in the discourse of the East and the West?

The purpose of this paper is to bring out the possibility of selecting good leaders in Asian countries, i.e., China and Singapore.

Since comparative historical analysis enhances the objectivity for academic discussion, Deng Xiaoping’s and Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership successions have been chosen as the cases for studies by virtue of “method of agreement”. Incorporating “argument based on the contrary” into the context for macro-historical analysis, this paper characterises the duo’s successful (at least quite successful) leadership successions, thus offering an alternative paradigm beyond Western-style democracy.

Both cases of post-Mao China and the independent Singapore indicate that in quite a number of Asian countries, good leaders could still be selected beyond universal suffrage as practised among Western Electoral Democracies, mainly because of the elites-driven context. As to the duo’s succession results, Deng Xiaoping’s selection of leaders was somewhat successful, while Lee Kuan Yew’s was phenomenal.

This paper offers readers a glance over the possibility of selecting good leaders in Asian countries not fully based on Western-style democracy. Learning from the duo’s leadership successions, the West may treat elite politics as the supplement under Western Electoral Democracies in order to avoid their countries falling into the trap of populism. The West could meanwhile consider the exceptional criteria prized by the duo for leadership successions. Considering such interactions among elites in the real-life context, it could serve as an alternative model to Western-style democracy.

The purpose of this study is to further investigate the potential benefits brought about by the development of modern technology in the steel construction industry. Specifically, the study focuses on the optimization of tapered members for pre-engineered steel structures, aligning with Eurocode 3 standards. By emphasizing the effectiveness of material utilization in construction, this research aims to enhance the structural performance and safety of buildings. Moreover, it recognizes the pivotal role played by such advancements in promoting economic growth through the reduction of material waste, optimization of cost-efficiency and support for sustainable construction practices.

Structural performance at initial analysis and final analysis of the selected critical frame were carried out using Dlubal RSTAB 8.18. The structural frame stability and sway imperfections were checked based on MS EN1993-1-1:2005 (EC3). To assess the structural stability of the portal frame using MS EN 1993-1-1:2005 (EC3), cross-sectional resistance and member buckling resistance were verified based on Clause 6.2.4 – Compression, Clause 6.2.5 – Bending Moment, Clause 6.2.6 – Shear, Clause 6.2.8 – Bending and Shear, Clause 6.2.9 – Bending and Axial Force and Clause 6.3.4 – General Method for Lateral and Lateral Torsional Buckling of Structural Components.

In this study, the cross sections of the web-tapered rafter and column were classified under Class 4. These involved the consideration of elastic shear resistance and effective area on the critical steel sections. The application of the General Method on the verification of the resistance to lateral and lateral torsional buckling for structural components required the extraction of some parameters using structural analysis software. From the results, there was only 5.90% of mass difference compared with the previous case study.

By classifying the web-tapered cross sections of the rafter and column under Class 4, the study accounts for important factors such as elastic shear resistance and effective area on critical steel sections.

This study aims to find out various dimensions of the risk and benefit perceptions of the consumers of street food vendors. It will identify the reasons which affect consumer’s attitude and consumption patterns towards street foods, which bring about changes in their behavioural intentions (repurchase intention and word of mouth intention).

Five risk and two benefit factors were tested on a factor model by exploratory factor analysis using 26 constructs. Two-step approach was followed in which measurement model, having six constructs with 17 measurement items, were assessed, followed by the structural model. This study explained that the consumer attitude is affected by perceived risks and benefits. Further, the risk perception negatively affects the behavioural intentions. A conceptual model was framed to depict the relationships among variables and was empirically tested.

The results indicate that risk and benefit perception of consumers are not only inter-related but also responsible for their changes in attitudes towards the street foods. In the factorial analysis, it was found that perceived benefit factors, i.e. convenience and value, are responsible for positively influencing the attitude of consumers towards street food. The findings indicate that reducing risk perception and increasing benefit perception will positively change the patron’s attitude.

The data collection was done through a structured questionnaire specifically drafted to collect the relevant data for the study from the 658 street food consumers in Delhi. To examine the factorability of 26 items of risk/benefit perception, 586 observations were used.

The present study investigated organizational resilience (OR) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE’s) energy sector to identify impactful technological and human variables and assess the hermeneutic effect of digital transformation on value co-creation and OR. The study also investigates the mediating role of value co-creation on a few covariates of OR.

The questionnaire was sent out to 311 professionals in the energy sector, all affiliated with governmental organizations, using quota sampling. A total of 206 collated responses corresponding to the tested variables regarding the influences of digital transformation, employee resilience, innovation readiness, cyber resilience and value co-creation on OR were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Accordingly, a model of eight constructs and their 27 indicators was tested.

Instituting flexibility and adaptability to technological advancements, as well as cyber resilience, was found to enhance digital transformation. The sense of self-efficacy of the professionals who participated in the study led them to develop innovation readiness and thus embrace creativity and encourage co-creation while maintaining collaborative efforts with customers and stakeholders. This mediated several technological and human variables, such as the importance of managers' understanding of customer needs, preferences and pain points, which involves actively seeking and valuing customer feedback to inform decision-making.

When iterative prototyping, continuous learning, and OR are integrated into an organization’s culture, they create a robust foundation for a customer-centric mindset. This mindset becomes ingrained in how employees approach their work and make purposeful decisions.

The present study drew empirical insights into OR in the UAE’s energy sector from a resource-based theory perspective. By identifying potential vulnerabilities and implementing appropriate mitigation measures, organizations can reduce the likelihood and impact of disruptions, which can ultimately help them maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the connection between the degree of religiosity and the product involvement level in determining the various constructs of consumer behavior.

On the basis of a small survey, clothes were selected as a high involvement product, and snacks were selected as a low involvement product. A modified version of Sproles and Kendal's Customer Style Inventory scale was used to profile the behaviour of consumers, using confirmatory factor analysis approach. Worthington et al.'s Religious Commitment Inventory scale was used to measure the religiosity levels. Data were collected from students of five universities located in different regions of Pakistan.

Consumer behaviour varies with the level of involvement and the degree of religiosity. In the case of high involvement product category, the highly religious group was found to be less recreational, fashion conscious and impulsive in their shopping orientations. It was also determined that the higher religious group was more socially influenced in making purchase decisions, more conscious about their lifestyle and less confused by information over choice, as compared to the less religious group. In the case of the low involvement product category, it was determined that religiosity negatively influenced the brand consciousness of consumers. The results indicated that higher religious consumers were less impulsive and did not give much consideration to advertisements in making purchase decisions; but it was opposite for the less religious consumers. Highly religious consumers in the low involvement product category were also found to be more socially influenced and not as confused by excessive information in making their purchase decisions. Overall, it was established that in order to better understand the intricacies of the behaviour of consumers, their purchasing habits should be studied in the context of varying levels of religiosity and product involvement.

This study focused on youth only, so results derived might not be generalized to the other segments of the population.

The current study aims to understand how religiosity and involvement level complement each other in determining the behaviour of consumers and whether the level of religiosity equally determines the behaviour of consumers in the low involvement product category and high involvement product category or not. No previous study has been conducted to explore this dimension of consumer behaviour, and this paper categorically strives to fill this gap.