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This paper aims to empirically investigate the role of market-based transformative service initiatives (TSIs) during the refugee crisis and shed light on how such TSIs increase inclusion of refugees in service systems by using market forces while creating broader benefits for service organizations themselves.

This paper uses the case of the World Food Program’s (WFP) Dalili smartphone application targeting Syrian refugees in the context of Lebanon. A mixed-methods approach, including in-depth interviews with the retail managers of the local supermarkets and statistical cross- and intra-regional analysis on the retailing mix elements of the local supermarkets was adopted for the empirical investigation.

The results show that the WFP’s Dalili TSI increases service inclusion of refugees by facilitating their access to the essential food services easier and at affordable prices and helps them integrate into the host community. Furthermore, such market-based TSIs were shown to have broader benefits for other stakeholders in the food retail ecosystem including retailers and nonrefugee shoppers as they are successful in improving the retailing management standards of the participating supermarkets by decreasing the average retail price of the merchandise, increasing their variety and assortment, increasing promotional offers and improving the customer service level.

This research fills the gap in the literature for empirical investigation on the impact mechanism of market-based TSIs on service inclusion and well-being of refugees. In contrast to the majority of TSIs studied in the literature that are designed by governments or nonprofit organizations in the areas such as higher education, health care and humanitarian aids, this study focuses on the case of TSIs developed by supranational organizations using market forces in the food retail ecosystem. Furthermore, the findings suggest that TSIs could also benefit the service organizations that offer such initiatives.

The findings of this paper have implications for service organizations and policymakers and their ability to design effective market-based TSIs during the refugee crisis.

The studied case in the context of TSIs in the food retail ecosystem and the empirical approach used are academically novel. Moreover, focusing on the refugee crisis in the Middle East region is rather understudied in the service research literature.

This paper aims to investigation of processes for Pb²⁺ elimination from water/wastewater as a significant public health issue in many parts of world. The removal of Pb²⁺ ions by various nanocomposites has been explained from water/wastewaters. ZnO-based nanocomposites, as eco-friendly nanoparticles with unique physicochemical properties, have received increased attention to remove Pb²⁺ ions from water/wastewaters.

In this review, different ZnO-based nanocomposites were reviewed for their application in the removal of Pb²⁺ ions from the aqueous solution, typically for wastewater treatment using methodology, such as adsorption. This review focused on the ZnO-based nanocomposites for removing Pb²⁺ ions from water and wastewaters systems.

The ZnO-based nanocomposite was prepared by different methods, such as electrospinning, hydrothermal/alkali hydrothermal, direct precipitation and polymerization. Depending on the preparation method, various types of ZnO-based nanocomposites like ZnO-metal (Cu/ZnO, ZnO/ZnS, ZnO/Fe), ZnO-nonmetal (PVA/ZnO, Talc/ZnO) and ZnO-metal/nonmetal (ZnO/Na-Y zeolite) were obtained with different morphologies. The effects of operational parameters and adsorption mechanisms were discussed in the review.

The findings may be greatly useful in the application of the ZnO-based nanocomposite in the fields of organic and inorganic pollutants adsorption.

The present study is novel, because it investigated the morphological and structural properties of the synthesized ZnO-based nanocomposite using different methods and studied the capability of green-synthesized ZnO-based nanocomposite to remove Pb²⁺ ions as water contaminants.

The current review can be used for the development of environmental pollution control measures.

This paper reviews the rapidly developing field of nanocomposite technology.

This study aims to introduce and evaluate a model of host community support for sustainable tourism development (SSTD) based on the influential factors contributing to community support in a biosphere reserve.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3 software is applied to analyze data collected from 473 residents of the Miankaleh Biosphere Reserve, Iran.

The findings reveal that the locals’ community support is affected by their level of environmental awareness, opportunity and attitudes toward SSTD. However, the results do not reveal an influence of environmental knowledge and community attachment on SSTD. The findings enrich the existing literature on community attitude predictors by showing that locals’ SSTD level is not consistently based on common predictors. Such support strongly depends on host communities’ attitudes toward supporting tourism, which is definitely not the same among residents. It is imperative to know whether people’s attitudes arise from a desire to protect the area or for reasons of self-interest.

The findings provide further support for the tenets of the segmentation approach and challenge existing knowledge on host communities’ attitudes about factors influencing residents toward SSTD. The findings have several practical implications regarding community participation for regional and national authorities and destination policymakers.

采用SmartPLS3软件建立偏最小二乘结构方程模型, 对从伊朗米安卡莱生物圈保护区的473名居民获得的数据进行分析。

本研究旨在介绍和评估基于影响促进生物圈保护内社区支持的可持续旅游发展(SSTD)的东道社区支持模型。

结果表明, 本地社区的环境意识水平、机会和对SSTD的态度影响着社区支持。然而, 研究结果并没有揭示环境知识和社区依恋对SSTD的影响。

这一发现丰富了现有的关于社区态度预测因子的文献, 表明当地人的SSTD并不一致基于共同的预测因子。这种支持很大程度上取决于东道社区对支持旅游的态度, 这在居民中肯定是不一样的。有必要了解人们的态度是出于保护该地区的愿望还是出于自身利益的原因。此外, 研究结果为细分方法的原则提供了进一步的支持, 并挑战了关于东道社区对影响居民SSTD态度的现有认知。

Se aplica un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por mínimos cuadrados parciales con el programa SmartPLS 3 para analizar los datos recogidos de 473 residentes de la reserva de la biosfera de Miankaleh (Irán).

Esta investigación pretende introducir y evaluar un modelo de apoyo de la comunidad anfitriona al desarrollo del turismo sostenible (SSTD) basado en los factores que contribuyen al apoyo de la comunidad en una reserva de la biosfera.

Los resultados revelan que el apoyo de la comunidad local se ve afectado por su nivel de concienciación medioambiental, sus oportunidades y sus actitudes hacia el desarrollo del turismo sostenible. Sin embargo, los resultados no muestran una influencia del conocimiento medioambiental y el apego de la comunidad sobre el desarrollo turístico sostenible.

Los resultados enriquecen la literatura existente sobre predictores de la actitud de la comunidad al mostrar que el nivel de desarrollo turístico sostenible de los autóctonos no se basa únicamente en factores tradicionales. Dicho apoyo depende en gran medida de las actitudes de las comunidades anfitrionas hacia el apoyo al turismo y éste no es el mismo entre los residentes. Es necesario conocer si la actitud de los individuos surge de un deseo de proteger la zona o por razones de interés propio. Además, los resultados corroboran los principios del enfoque de segmentación y retan los conocimientos existentes sobre las actitudes de las comunidades anfitrionas acerca de los factores de los residentes sobre el desarrollo turístico sostenible.