Search results

One of the most well-known, seminal models in the tourism field is the one proposed 50 years ago by Stanley C. Plog. His venturesomeness model has been widely cited in journal articles, textbooks, and has also been used as a reference for planning and designing tourism marketing projects. However, empirical research using Plog's psychographics has yielded varied results, some of which have corroborated his model, while others have found partial or no support for some postulates. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to offer an exhaustive review of 47 studies in the literature which have employed Plog's venturesomeness concept to examine travelers' personality traits, attitudes, and behavior, synthetizing empirical findings and drawing conclusions from the cumulative results. A discussion of the model's contribution to the current body of knowledge, managerial implications for tourism practitioners, and directions for future research are presented.

Recent years have seen the development of new approaches to the study of gender and sexuality in childhood, with attention given to socio-historical, cultural and political contexts. This chapter aims to contribute towards a limited field of research on queer childhood and youth in Central Asia by considering how narratives of queer childhood in Kazakhstan are culturally produced. This chapter draws on the material from in-depth interviews of 11 queer people living in Kazakhstan, focussing on their narratives of childhood. The study exposes the effect of silence about non-heteronormative identities in Kazakhstan on queer children. Narratives of bullying and managing school violence are explored along with narratives of queer childhood within the families of origin. Lastly, the chapter foregrounds instances of agency and resilience, considering how queer children manage to steer themselves away from being an ‘impossible subject’ and contest dominant societal attitudes and discourses.

This study aims to focus on the main materials used in consolidation processes of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather binding.

For each material, chemical structure, chemical composition, molecular formula, solubility, advantages, disadvantages and its role in treatment process are presented.

This study concluded that carboxy methyl cellulose, hydroxy propyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, cellulose acetate, nanocrystalline cellulose, funori, sturgeon glue, poly vinyl alcohol, chitosan, chitosan nanoparticles (NPs), gelatin, aquazol, paraloid B72 and hydroxyapatite NPs were the most common and important materials used for the consolidation of illuminated paper manuscripts. For the leather bindings, hydroxy propyl cellulose, polyethylene glycol, oligomeric melamine-formaldehyde resin, acrylic wax SC6000, pliantex, paraloid B67 and B72, silicone oil and collagen NPs are the most consolidants used.

Illuminated paper manuscripts with leather binding are considered one of the most important objects in libraries, museums and storehouses. The uncontrolled conditions and other deterioration factors inside the libraries and storehouses lead to degradation of these artifacts. The brittleness, fragility and weakness are considered the most common deterioration aspects of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather binding. Therefore, the consolidation process became vital and important to solve this problem. This study presents the main materials used for consolidation process of illuminated paper manuscripts and leather bindings.

The purpose of this study is to describe the design and validation of a three-dimensional (3D)-printed phantom of a uterus to support the development of uterine balloon tamponade devices conceived to stop post-partum haemorrhages (PPHs).

The phantom 3D model is generated by analysing the main requirements for validating uterine balloon tamponade devices. A modular approach is implemented to guarantee that the phantom allows testing these devices under multiple working conditions. Once finalised the design, the phantom effectiveness is validated experimentally.

The modular phantom allows performing the required measurements for testing the performance of devices designed to stop PPH.

PPH is the leading obstetric cause of maternal death worldwide, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. The proposed phantom could speed up and optimise the design and validation of devices for PPH treatment, reducing the maternal mortality ratio.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the 3D-printed phantom represents the first example of a modular, flexible and transparent uterus model. It can be used to validate and perform usability tests of medical devices.

The purpose of this article is to explore the association of the Relational Capital (RC) embedded in a medical specialist’s social–professional network with the specialist’s economic performance based on social network analysis (SNA).

Using health insurance claims data regarding ∼108,000 physicians treating ∼72,000,000 patients, social–professional networks (patient-sharing-networks (PSNs)) of ∼26,000 medical specialists were simulated. To explore the correlation of the network's characteristics (degree centrality, density, relative betweenness centrality and referrer concentration) with economic performance, ordinary-least-squares (OLS)-regression models were estimated for ten common specialties (gynecology, internal medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology, urology, neurology, radiology and rehabilitative medicine).

The study confirms the applicability and strong explanatory power of SNA metrics for RC measurement in ambulatory healthcare. Degree centrality and relative betweenness centrality correlate positively with economic performance, whereas density and referrer concentration exhibit negative coefficients. These results confirm the argument that RC has a strong association with the economic performance of medical specialists.

The study pioneers SNA for RC measurement in healthcare. It is among the first publications on specialists' PSNs. Questions for future research are proposed.

Sustainable development involves companies on an individual, organizational and social level requiring the adoption of business models or innovations capable of privileging the co-creation of mutual value with a view to sustainability. From an organizational perspective, this paper aims to show that knowledge brokers, by making explicit their roles as mediators of interactions and acting on dynamic capabilities (DCs), can generate a proactive approach to the three dimensions of sustainability and specifically allows capabilities to positively impact the propensity toward sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices.

This study offers an empirical analysis of 200 companies in the agro-food sector participating in a knowledge brokerage system activated by protection consortia. It uses a multiple regression technique that allows for observing relationships between DCs and SSCM.

Absorptive, adaptive and innovative capabilities, when understood and brokered, have a positive and direct impact on the SSCM.

As there have rarely been frameworks developed that correlate knowledge brokerage, DCs and sustainability, this paper suggests that DCs, when adequately valued by the knowledge broker, allow for identifying the requirements of the various stakeholders regarding sustainability and changes in market scenarios to generate sustainability practices along the supply chain.

Only data from developed countries were used to estimate the sexual orientation difference in wages. This paper is the first, which aims to identify the wage discrimination of gay men in Russia – a country where institutional discrimination and ignorance against gay men are known to present.

Gays are identified as men who reported having sex with other men in several waves of the national household survey. A wage equation is used to estimate the gay wage penalty. Extending the wage equation to implement a difference-in-difference design, the paper also evaluates the effect of the gay-propaganda law of 2013 on gay wages.

No wage discrimination is identified. The law also has no adverse effect on gay wages.

Cross-country comparison and theoretical generalizations are premature, and better identification strategies are needed to understand sexual orientation differences.

Policymakers should be aware that in both discriminatory and equitable environments, there may be hidden inequality even if researchers do not detect it.

The findings are implausible and add to existing evidence that gay discrimination measured with wage equation suffers from endogeneity and should be interpreted with caution. Particular caution should be exercised in cross-sectional and time-series comparisons, as a tendency to report the orientation honestly and unobserved confounders vary by location and time.

Waiting for a bus may represent a period of intense exposure to traffic particles in hot and noisy conditions in the street. To lessen the particle load and tackle heat in bus stops a shelter was equipped with an electrostatic precipitator and a three-step adiabatic cooling system capable of dynamically adjust its operation according to actual conditions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Airbitat Oasis Smart Bus Stop, as the shelter was called, to provide clean and cool air.

The particle exposure experienced in this innovative shelter was contrasted with that in a conventional shelter located right next to it. Mass concentrations of fine particles and black carbon, and particle number concentration (as a proxy of ultrafine particles) were simultaneously measured in both shelters. Air temperature, relative humidity and noise level were also measured.

The new shelter did not perform as expected. It only slightly reduced the abundance of fine particles (−6.5%), but not of ultrafine particles and black carbon. Similarly, it reduced air temperature (−1 °C), but increased relative humidity (3%). Its operation did not generate additional noise.

The shelter's poor performance was presumably due to design flaws induced by a lack of knowledge on traffic particles and fluid dynamics in urban environments. This is an example where harnessing technology without understanding the problem to solve does not work.

It is uncommon to come across case studies like this one in which the performance and effectiveness of urban infrastructure can be assessed under real-life service settings.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between employee training and bank risk to verify whether and to what extent an increase in employee training, as a soft component of total quality management (TQM), affects bank risk.

The research adopts a panel regression, based on a unique dataset of a sample of Italian banks over the period 2011–2018, to test whether employee training affects bank risk, measured alternatively in terms of Z-score, a proxy of bank stability and non-performing loans (NPLs)/gross loans ratio as a proxy of credit risk.

Research findings reveal that increasing employee training leads to growing bank stability. In contrast, credit risk is not affected by employee training. However, by investigating training heterogeneity, this study found that the increase in the number of managerial training hours, as a proxy for soft skills training, negatively impacts credit risk. Therefore, an increase in soft skills leads to a reduction in bank credit risk.

This study provides empirical evidence in support of the relationship between employee training and bank risk, which seems novel in the literature. From a managerial point of view, this study highlights the need for banks to pay attention to the skills, particularly soft skills, that banks' employees must possess to effectively manage bank risk and, more specifically, the core bank risk.

Empirical evidence on the relationship between employee training, soft/hard skills and bank risk appears limited if not absent. Therefore, the findings provide insights for a more nuanced interpretation of variables that affect bank risk.