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Ant Colony Optimization and Particle Swarm Optimization represent two widely used Swarm Intelligence (SI) optimization techniques. Information processing using Multiple-Valued Logic (MVL) is carried out using more than two discrete logic levels. In this paper, we compare two the SI-based algorithms in synthesizing MVL functions. A benchmark consisting of 50,000 randomly generated 2-variable 4-valued functions is used for assessing the performance of the algorithms using the benchmark. Simulation results show that the PSO outperforms the ACO technique in terms of the average number of product terms (PTs) needed. We also compare the results obtained using both ACO-MVL and PSO-MVL with those obtained using Espresso-MV logic minimizer. It is shown that on average, both of the SI-based techniques produced better results compared to those produced by Espresso-MV. We show that the SI-based techniques outperform the conventional direct-cover (DC) techniques in terms of the average number of product terms required.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of perceived quality and customer engagement on perceived value and satisfaction in a model to evaluate loyalty in users of fitness centres.

Through an online questionnaire, the study uses a large sample of 6,584 users from 44 low-cost fitness centres from different cities in Spain. After validating the measurement model, the hypotheses were tested through structural equation (SEM) modelling technique, noting the existence of significant relationships.

The results showed that two dimensions of perceived quality have a positive influence on perceived value (employees) and satisfaction (facilities). However, the enthused participation dimension of customer engagement also indicated an important impact on perceived value and satisfaction, thus confirming the influence of this dimension in the context of sports services for users' loyalty.

With a large sample, the importance of this study lies in the use of strategies to achieve a greater influence on perceived value and satisfaction, with the aim of increasing customer loyalty in fitness centres. This is why, in addition to the service quality, the influence of the customer engagement dimensions is included, which have not been previously analysed in this emerging business model.

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar la influencia de la calidad percibida y el compromiso del cliente sobre el valor percibido y la satisfacción en un modelo para evaluar la lealtad en usuarios de centros de fitness.

A través de un cuestionario online, el estudio utiliza una muestra amplia de 6.584 usuarios de 44 centros de fitness low-cost de diferentes ciudades de España. Tras validar el modelo de medida, las hipótesis fueron contrastadas utilizando análisis de ecuaciones estructurales, observándose la existencia de relaciones significativas.

Los resultados mostraron que dos dimensiones de la calidad percibida tienen una influencia positiva en el valor percibido (empleados) y la satisfacción (instalaciones). Sin embargo, la dimensión de participación entusiasta del compromiso del cliente también indicó un impacto importante en el valor percibido y la satisfacción, lo que confirma la influencia de esta dimensión en el contexto de los servicios deportivos para la fidelización de los usuarios.

Con una extensa muestra, la importancia de este estudio radica en el uso de estrategias para lograr una mayor influencia en el valor percibido y la satisfacción, con el objetivo de fidelizar a los clientes de los centros de fitness. Por eso, además de la calidad del servicio, se incluye la influencia de las dimensiones del compromiso con el cliente, que no han sido analizadas previamente en este modelo de negocio emergente.

This study aims to investigate the impact of regular Kung Fu and Taekwondo practice on the health and quality of life among elderly individuals in the Maule region, Chile.

The authors designed a 12-week Kung Fu and Taekwondo workshop with activities suitable for their age. Through semistructured interviews (at the beginning and the end of the workshop), along with periodic monitoring of vital signs and cardiovascular components, the authors observed an improvement in participants’ physical (strength, speed of reaction and flexibility) and psychological conditions (self-esteem and resilience), quality of life (relationships with family and friends and ability to deal with stressful events in working life) and health (waist circumference, percentage of oxygen saturation in blood, blood pressure, among other values).

From these results, the authors affirm that this workshop improves health and physical condition and helps the participants develop the coping capacity to deal with stressful situations and complicated interpersonal relationships. In this sense, the authors conclude that Kung Fu and Taekwondo as regular sports activities can benefit senior citizens’ aging process.

This research is based on an original study project.

All entrepreneurs face challenges during their venture start-up process, but immigrant entrepreneurs face additional and distinctive challenges due to their contextual newness. This paper focuses on understanding the intertwined journeys of nascent entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation of immigrants in a small Western European country where immigrant entrepreneurship is still a relatively new phenomenon.

The induction-driven, 18-month longitudinal empirical inquiry focused on six early-stage nascent entrepreneurs. Qualitative methods included participant observation during an enterprise program, qualitative interviews and ongoing informal communication.

The data uncovered the interplay between the nascent immigrant entrepreneurship and cross-cultural adaptation. This led to the development of a novel conceptual framework which highlights how the cross-cultural adaptation domain links with the process of recognition, evaluation and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities by immigrant entrepreneurs. While varying temporarily and contextually, cross-cultural adaptation was found to create both enabling and constraining tensions within the nascent entrepreneurial experiences of immigrants.

It is recognized that undertaking just six cases may present a significant limitation of the research, but a close examination of even one individual's lived experience can yield valuable insights. It is hoped that future work will test the highlighted research propositions and other findings in different empirical contexts, and so add to the emerging conceptual framework on nascent immigrant entrepreneurship within the context of cross-cultural adaptation.

No previous qualitative studies have been undertaken seeking to understand how cross-cultural adaptation interacts with the early stages of nascent immigrant entrepreneurial activity. By integrating new venture creation and cross-cultural adaptation theories, this research contributes to the conceptualisation of early stages of nascent entrepreneurial activities of immigrants in a new host environment. The implications of the research are also relevant to enterprise support bodies, policymakers and practitioners who support immigrant entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle (<150 min of physical exercise/week) and associated factors of this behavior in Brazil.

An observational study was conducted through an online questionnaire in August–September 2020 (5.5 months after the beginning of the pandemic in the country). Socioeconomic, lifestyle, anthropometric, dietary and perceived stress data were evaluated as possible related factors to a sedentary lifestyle through multiple logistic regression analysis.

A total of 1,347 individuals were evaluated (median of 31 years old, 80.1% women), of whom 76.7% were considered sedentary. Associated factors to a sedentary lifestyle were being overweight; a greater difference between current weight and prepandemic weight; female sex; lower percentage of home-cooked meals; greater increase in the frequency of consumption of alcoholic beverages; higher frequency of consumption of cereals, sausages and sweets during the pandemic; and higher score of perceived stress.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have aimed to reveal the associated factors to a sedentary lifestyle during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Protective factors against a sedentary lifestyle were eating breakfast, being a student, living with parents, a higher frequency of fruit consumption, a higher rate of alcohol consumption and a higher cognitive restriction of food intake during the pandemic. Most of the study participants were sedentary, especially women. A sedentary lifestyle was associated with worse lifestyle/eating habits and stress. Such findings encourage an interdisciplinary approach because habits and lifestyle have numerous interferences.

The paper provides a step-by-step guide in the guise of a roadmap for service improvement initiatives using importance performance map analysis (IPMA).

To empirically illustrate how IPMA can be applied to any service industry, three sectors are considered; sports and fitness (study A), hospitality (study B) and higher education (study C). Following the proper selection of measuring instruments and their evaluation using structural equation modeling-partial least squares (Smart-PLS), IPMA is applied to identify those attributes having strong total effects (high importance) over the targeted construct (satisfaction) but which also have low average latent variable scores (low performance).

For sports and fitness (study A), the physical aspects and programme quality require managerial attention. For the hospitability sector (study B), it is service commitment, interaction quality and internal sense of happiness. Whereas for higher education (study C), it is administrative quality as well as the element of transformative quality, namely the university’s role in adding to its students’ emotional stability, which needs the attention of the top management.

This study provides researchers and practitioners with a roadmap for applying PLS-SEM and IPMA for continuous service quality improvement. The roadmap extends upon Ringle and Sarstedt’s (2016) work. It highlights critical decisions that need to be considered in the pre-analytical stages of the IPMA application, i.e. at the research design phase in selecting the most appropriate service quality measurement model specifications. It not only contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence to advance theory development in the quality management field but also has implications for the practitioners in any service sector on where to focus their attention for an effective service improvement.

The user experience during the use of activities and services is a fundamental aspect for sports managers and can provide a competitive advantage. The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of experiential quality and the relationship of this construct with customer trust and customer satisfaction in achieving behavioral intention.

Using a convenience sampling technique, a total of 322 gym users in Turkey participated. A two-step approach was used to test both the model and the research hypotheses [confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM)].

The interaction quality, physical environmental quality, outcome quality and enjoyment quality were positively related to experiential quality. Similarly, the experimental quality was positively related to customer satisfaction and customer trust. Finally, customer satisfaction was related to behavioral intentions.

This study provides empirical evidence about the importance of experiential quality to gain a competitive advantage in the context of fitness centers.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of brand attribution on consumer behaviour. The authorsare interested in finding out if consumers are more likely to purchase a new sports product when it is attributed to a brand. The authors are interested in finding out if the brand positively influences the consumer's appreciation of the product in the case of the launch of a new product.

The authors completed a quantitative survey with 320 people who are familiar with the toning concept, aged between 20 and 45 years old. The questionnaire was conducted face to face in six large cities in France.

Main results show that belief in the effectiveness of the product is positively correlated with purchase intention. However, the attribution of the product to the brand does not guarantee belief in the effectiveness of the product nor does it guarantee purchase intention. Brand credibility has a positive impact on belief in the effectiveness of the product. Furthermore, exposure to advertising allows the product to be attributed to the brand. Yet, it does not have an impact on belief in the product's effectiveness or purchase intention.

Whereas studying consumer behaviour is not new, analysing consumer perceptions of innovative products and how these perceptions relate to the product brand can provide interesting implications both for consumer behaviour research and from a practical perspective for brands. Indeed, this paper shows the importance of exposure to advertising for a product to be attributed to a brand but this is not enough to induce its purchase. It is the credibility of the brand in the product category as well as the belief in the effectiveness of the product that can lead consumers to buy it.

The purpose of this study was to provide an outline of the process of developing an on-road driving test route and rating form. Comprehensive evaluation of medical fitness to drive should comprise of an off-road and an on-road assessment. Much research attention has focussed on the off-road phase of assessment, while there is less standardisation evident in the completion and measurement of the on-road phase of fitness-to-drive assessment.

A scholarship of practice approach was used to inform the development of an on-road test route and an associated generic on-road assessment tool that was guided by research evidence and best practice recommendations.

A step-by-step guide, outlining seven recommended phases in the development of an on-road route for the assessment of fitness to drive that aligns with best practice recommendations, was developed. A preliminary generic on-road assessment tool (the Maynooth–Trinity Driving Test) that includes higher-order cognition alongside element of strategic, tactical and operational driving ability was developed and piloted alongside the newly developed on-road test route.

This paper offers an overview of an approach to developing evidence-based on-road test routes and an associated generic assessment tool that may assist occupational therapists and on-road driving assessors establish a standard practice for testing on-road behaviour as part of a comprehensive approach to evaluate fitness to drive.

This paper aims to explore factors impacting wearable fitness tracking (WFT) device continued usage intention from perspectives of technology attributes (autonomy benefits), health attributes (self-health management benefits, diet-control benefits and health self-efficacy), and consumer attributes (age, gender, technological innovativeness, symbolic benefits, social benefits and hedonic benefits).

The study integrates constructs from the technology acceptance theories and the health promotion model to develop the research model and hypothesis. The empirical analysis was conducted using data from 217 respondents from India. Logistic regression was used to identify factors that discriminate between groups with low and high continued usage intentions.

Results indicate higher continued usage intention for WFT devices is driven by perceived benefits-health, autonomy, social and hedonic, and individual characteristics-technological innovativeness and perceived health self-efficacy. Further, perceived symbolic benefits, diet control benefits, age, and gender does not discriminate between the groups with low and high continued usage intentions.

The results may be limited to the context of the sample and the factors considered. The study suggests future research areas.

The paper offers insights for marketers, governments, insurance firms, and related healthcare services on promoting higher usage of WFT devices to yield dual benefits of preventive healthcare and higher profitability.

The study extends existing research by examining factors across consumer, health, and technological domains in a single framework and adds to the limited research in the context of usage of WFT devices in developing countries.