Search results

The purpose of this research is to review the regulatory framework for natural ventilation design affecting the health of residents, to identify the relationship between the main components of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and current building designs, and to propose improvements to the design standards or guidelines especially for those related to natural ventilation controls.

Building designs can influence the IEQ and therefore, legislation regulating such designs should be reviewed beforehand. Afterwards, site measurements to vacant residential building blocks on two different sites are carried out to collect radon levels contained in the air within the buildings. The major purpose of this measurement is to find out the relationship between radon concentration and residential building designs.

It is found that there is room for improvement in the building laws in Hong Kong regulating building designs which affect natural ventilation and IEQ.

This paper contributes to the understanding of the practical needs of the construction industry and may remedy any lack of consideration of commercial reality in the research process.

The aim of this paper is to examine how crises can be triggered online, how different social media tools escalate crises, and how issues gain credibility when they transit to mainstream media.

This exploratory study uses the multiple case study method to analyze five crises, generated online, throughout their life-cycles, in order to build analytic generalizations (Yin).

Crises are often triggered online when stakeholders are empowered by social media platforms to air their grievances. YouTube and Twitter have been used to raise issues through its large user base and the lack of gatekeeping. Facebook and blogs escalate crises beyond the immediate stakeholder groups. These crises are covered by mainstream media because of their newsworthiness. As a result, the crises gain credibility offline. Mainstream media coverage ceases when traditional news elements are no longer present.

If crises are increasingly generated online, this study aims to apply a framework to manage the impact on organizations.

How practitioners can use different new media tools to counter crises online and manage the transition of crises to mainstream media.

This is one of the first few studies that analyses how organizational crises originate online, gain traction and get escalated onto mainstream media. Understanding what causes crises to trigger online and gain legitimacy offline will enable practitioners to engage in effective crisis management strategies.

This study aims to examine the effect of the auditor-client relationship (ACR) on related party transaction (RPT) types of disclosure, either RPT-efficient or RPT-conflict. This study also examines whether family controlling shareholders (FCS) negatively affect the ACR in RPT types of disclosure.

This study uses multivariate regression on 2,203 year-observations of companies listed in Malaysia during the period 2014–2017.

This study finds weak evidence that auditors can mitigate companies’ RPT type (RPT-efficient and RPT-conflict) disclosure while maintaining a close ACR. However, an interaction between FCS and ACR reduces the RPT-conflict disclosure. Additionally, the Big 4 auditors slightly increase the RPT-conflict disclosure, however, the relationships are inversed if the close ACR involves the FCS. The Big 4 auditors also increase RPT-efficient disclosure although in a close ACR with FCS. Meanwhile, an interaction between non-Big 4 auditors and FCS in close ACR reduces both types of RPT disclosures.

The findings suggest that a close relationship between auditors and clients in firms with significant family control could compromise auditor’s skepticism. The FCS can easily influence the auditors to agree with the ways they treat the RPT disclosure. Therefore, policymakers may have to revisit auditors’ rotation policies in Malaysia, especially those involving FCS.

Trust, familiarity and future fee dependency are significant threats to auditor independence in a close ACR. This study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of a close ACR on RPT types of disclosure from a network theory perspective.

In this chapter, we discuss initiatives that aim to improve children’s literacy in low- and middle-income (LMI) countries through m-learning. These projects, predominantly introduced by governments and international aid organisations, often involve the provision of e-books and apps including game-based apps, to be used either inside or outside school. In some cases, lesson plans and content for teachers in poorly resourced schools are also delivered via mobile devices. After a general overview, we briefly describe a selection of projects with reference to m-learning and literacy theory and research. It is indicated in this chapter that the use of mobile devices to improve literacy opportunities for children in LMI countries has a great deal of potential but that, in many cases, there are limitations in pedagogical design and implementation practices, not to mention restricted views of what literacy is and might be for children in these locations.

Perceived value and customer loyalty have been studied jointly in most of services literature but mainly through SEM models. This paper aims to draw on the literature on the multidimensional richness of perceived value, to adopt a segmentation approach and explore segments of loyal consumers towards the service provider based on their value perceptions.

A survey was conducted among 460 Spanish consumers interviewed at the store exit of seven retail chains in two sectors (grocery and home furnishing). A CHAID analysis was performed on loyalty responses, through nine value dimensions (efficiency, service quality, product quality, emotional value, value for money, social value, aesthetic value, escapism and ethics).

Results show the existence of different groups of loyal customers based on the nine value types. Efficiency is prioritised by the most loyal customers in grocery but not for home furnishing. Emotional value and aesthetics, along with product quality determine the most loyal segments.

Retailers should focus on enhancing those value dimensions that better explain customer loyalty towards retail stores in their area of specialisation, combining not only tangible and intangible elements but also functional and emotional elements.

The paper adds to the prolific research on perceived value in services with a diachronic graphical review of value dimensions in retailing; furthermore, the range of value dimensions studied here is wider than most of previous works using dimensions of value in services.

Worldwide approximately 200 national economies are competing in the destination market. In 2006, global government and capital expenditure exceeded US$1,480 billion making destination branding an important concept that still remains fragmented and unplanned. Dubai, an emirate of the UAE in the Middle East has been chosen as a case study to explain some elements of successful destination branding. This paper aims to apply a framework developed by Balakrishnan to explain areas of caution when competing in an international market where success is also partially dependent on the macro‐environment.

The framework was developed by reviewing literature on destination, place, corporate, product portfolio and service branding. The framework was tested using case study methodology. Secondary research was primarily used to develop the case.

There is a strong fit with the model suggesting that destinations can use this as a basis for continuity in strategy even as governments change. Based on the analysis and review; a checklist for destination branding strategy was recommended.

Since, this study depends on secondary research there is some limitations as data in this region is not easily available.

Destination branding differs in challenges vis‐à‐vis product and service branding. This paper depicts steps essential for creating a successful branding strategy which can be applied in a real world context to maximize returns for the destination.

This study aims to examine differences in the perceived value of luxury as drivers of luxury purchase intentions between individualist and collectivist cultures (at a country level) and consumers of Muslim versus Christian religious backgrounds. Moreover, this study investigates how consumers’ acculturation to the global consumer culture (AGCC) impacts their perceived luxury values.

The authors conducted two online survey studies. The first study compares Muslim consumers in Kuwait versus Muslims consumers in the UK. The second study compares the UK Muslim sample to a UK Christian sample. The authors collected data from 600 and 601 respondents, respectively. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test this study’s research hypotheses.

The perceived personal values of luxury primarily drive consumers’ luxury purchase intentions. The hedonic value of luxury impacts luxury purchase intentions significantly more for Muslims in the UK than in Kuwait. No significant differences were observed between religions. Consumers’ AGCC exerts a positive impact on all included perceived luxury values and more strongly impacts perceived uniqueness for Muslims than for Christians.

The paper builds on an integrative luxury values framework to examine the impact of luxury values on consumers’ purchasing intentions by studying the moderating effect of culture and religion on these relationships. The study is partly set in Kuwait, an understudied country, and investigates a Muslim minority in the UK.

This study aims to provide empirical findings of the extent to which the ambidexterity found in innovation and social networks will mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance (FP). This study also compares the ambidextrous strategy between the balanced dimension (BD) and combined dimension (CD) and examines their contribution to the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs’) performance.

The current study used an explanatory research design by surveying a total of 205 fashion firms’ owners/managers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, using a semi-structured questionnaire. Path analysis with mediating tests and independent t-tests were used.

The results revealed that innovation and social network ambidexterity mediate the relationship between EO and the SMEs’ performance. One ambidextrous strategy, the BD strategy, is superior to the CD one. The study makes an interesting discovery: the CD strategy apparently dominates FP when EO does not exist.

The study suggests that no ambidextrous strategy (i.e. BD and CD) used by the SMEs can fit all situations. In detail, the study provides four different strategies for SMEs to build organizational ambidexterity, namely, innovate and sustain; elevate; expand; and collaborate and survive. It is also suggested that the SMEs consider two main principles when dealing with an ambidextrous strategy, “anything that is too much is not always good” and “one size does not fit all.” By doing so, the SMEs are expected to be able to use internal and external resources and choose the most appropriate ambidextrous strategy to respond to the relevant situation (e.g. the changes of consumer behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Using a dynamic capability approach by integrating two perspectives, i.e. the internal (resource-based theory) and external (resource-dependency theory) perspectives, makes the study relevant and valuable to better understand the role and type of ambidexterity among SMEs as a mediating factor between EO and FP. This paper breaks new ground by confirming a paradoxical phenomenon concerning organizational ambidextrous practices within SMEs. Additionally, four strategies for ambidextrous were developed to respond to the anomaly.

Travel and tourism is the second largest global industry with daily international revenues of approximately US$2 billion, and investments of 12 percent of world GDP. Though this is a highly competitive industry, there is a paucity of academic research on destination branding. This paper aims to present a branding framework for designing successful destination strategies. This exploratory study seeks to determine key factors that affect the strategic branding of destinations.

Similar fields like place marketing, destination marketing, services, product and corporate branding were reviewed along with destination case studies. Based on this review and its extrapolation to the “destination context”, a framework for strategic branding of destinations was formulated.

Successful strategic branding of destinations is dependent on several inter‐related components, which are discussed. The paper highlights key issues in destination branding and provides a platform for future research.

The value of the paper is high as it provides a practical framework for governing bodies to consider when investing time, money and effort when creating a global destination.

The potential for the adoption of a knowledge management system (KMS) is becoming a crucial matter in small and medium enterprises (SMEs); however, there is a scarcity of studies related to KMS adoption in SMEs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to advance further our understanding of the factors that influence the KMS adoption process among SMEs.

The collected sample size was 247 respondents. For statistical analysis, Smart partial least square (PLS) (a structural model-based tool) was used to build, run and validate the process model. PLS regression techniques were used to analyze the latent constructs. Smart PLS exhibits both the measurement model and the structural model.

The results indicate that knowledge management capabilities, knowledge sharing, organizational learning capabilities and IT capabilities are the significant factors which influence KMS adoption. This study also identifies some unexpected results.

The number of responses obtained from the survey was rather small. However, a larger number of responses would probably have resulted in a more accurate finding. Additionally, this study should be verified via a larger sample to increase its generalization.

The result of this study will provide SMEs with valuable guidelines to better understand what factors should be considered as highly important and thus providing decision makers and managers with valuable insights to increase the adoption level of KMSs.

The study addresses the research gap by developing and empirically validating a research model of KMS adoption from a different perspective that incorporates critical issues which have never been simultaneously examined.