Search results

Research was conducted on parents’ experience of caring for a child living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The focus of this research was on the key psychological aspects of the process of adjustment to the illness of their child (family and spousal relationship, daily life, emotions, career, spirituality, and coping strategies). There was evidence throughout the study of gender‐specific differences in constructing the different aspects of the shared experience. The main findings included major differences in the initial reaction and coping styles between mothers and fathers. These differences could be perceived as a threat or could serve as a source of isolation between parents. Additional findings included the unequal sharing of caregiving tasks between partners: the primary caregiving role usually being assumed by the mother, with the father playing a supportive role. The unique contribution of this study in further describing the lived experience of parents of a child with DMD is its attention to the internal dynamic of the relationship between mothers and fathers. This dynamic is highly dependent on the respective roles of primary and secondary caregiver. This research has implications for the design and implementation of intervention strategies aimed at couples caring for a child with DMD, or with other severe, chronic, and uniformly fatal illnesses.

The mechanical characterization of selective laser melting (SLM) parts is an industrial challenge. This paper aims to propose a methodology to control the fatigue life of 17-4Ph stainless steel by selecting the most relevant manufacturing parameters: i.e. laser power, laser travel speed, hatch spacing and laser defocusing.

A rough and refined design of experiment (DOE) is carried out to target the best combination of process parameters. A response surface model is then constructed to predict the parameter combination that optimizes the fatigue performance.

This study results show that the fatigue limit of the specimens manufactured by SLM (471.7 MPa at 107 cycles) has reached near 90% of the value found in samples machined from a bar. This demonstrates the applicability of the method proposed to optimize the SLM process and control the fatigue life of 17-4Ph stainless steel. The study results are compared with other research works and provide an increase of 18% to the fatigue limit.

This study showcases a DOE methodology to optimize the SLM parameters to achieve fatigue performance as great as that of solid 17-4Ph stainless steel.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how queueing theory has been applied to derive results for a Sparre Andersen risk process for which the claim inter‐arrival distribution is hyper Erlang.

The paper exploits the duality results between the queueing theory and risk processes to derive explicit expressions for the ultimate ruin probability and moments of time to ruin in this renewal risk model.

This paper derives explicit expressions for the Laplace transforms of the idle/waiting time distribution in GI/HE_r(k_i,λ_i)/1 and its dual HE_r(k_i,λ_i)/G/1. As a consequence, an expression for the ultimate ruin probability is obtained in this model. The relationship between the time of ruin and busy period in M/G/1 queuing system is used to derive the expected time of ruin.

The study of renewal risk process is mostly concentrated on Erlang distributed inter‐claim times. But the Erlang distributions are not dense in the space of all probability distributions and therefore, the paper cannot approximate an arbitrary distribution function by an Erlang one. To overcome this difficulty, the paper uses the hyper Erlang distributions, which can be used to approximate the distribution of any non‐negative random variable.

This study aims to examine the impact of two dimensions of agile work practices (i.e. agile taskwork and agile teamwork) on team efficacy and creativity. Further, it examines the mediating effect of team efficacy in the relationship between two dimensions of agile work practices and team creativity.

The data were collected from 563 professionals working in 290 information technology (IT) companies in India using a self-reporting structured questionnaire. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized model.

The results demonstrate that agile taskwork and agile teamwork positively impact team creativity and team efficacy, and team efficacy positively impacts team creativity. Furthermore, team efficacy partially mediates the impact of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team creativity.

This study shows the importance of agile work practices and team efficacy to enhance team creativity. The research offers managers strategies to boost team creativity.

There is a dearth of research examining the distinct effects of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team efficacy and team creativity. Also, this study is one of its kind that examines the mediating mechanisms that explain the effect of agile taskwork and agile teamwork on team creativity.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the green consumer’s profile in Greece, during a period in which the country faces economic difficulties because of crisis. A further investigation of the respondents’ attitude toward environment is attempted. Finally, the role of several socio-demographic characteristics is analyzed, along with the environmental principles in green consuming behavior.

Primary data were collected through door-to-door interviews of 250 residents in the metropolitan area of Athens by using a structured questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 20.0 and qualitative analysis through NVivo 11.

The present study confirms that although consumers became more price sensitive after crisis, they maintain their environmental values. High environmental principles lead to green purchases and several socio-demographic characteristics are closely related to green consumption.

The sample strictly originated in the metropolitan area of Athens. Several variables as a measure of behavioral intention might be questionable. The empirical findings could have significant implications in green government policies and in relevant campaigns

The study provides important evidence toward consumers’ participation in certain green habits and also confirms that the environmental values, along with several socio- characteristics, are a consistent predictor of the green consuming attitude. The above findings could contribute to the redefinition of green campaigns and policies, to improve the penetration of green products in the markets.

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers’ buying intentions (BIs) towards sustainable properties with green living concept (GLC). It also aims to examine the dynamic relationships between environmental advertisements (EAd), green brand positioning (GBP), attitude towards environmental responsibility (ER) and consumers’ sustainable properties BI in the Malaysian context.

Data were collected via online questionnaire survey, which yielded 143 completed usable responses. Structural equation modelling–partial least squares (Smart PLS, version 3) was used to analyse the data.

The findings of this study revealed that EAd and GBP significantly affect consumers’ attitude towards ER, which in turn affects consumers’ BI of the sustainable properties with GLC.

This study suggests that without inculcating a positive attitude towards the environment among consumers, it becomes a daunting task to drive consumers to purchase sustainable properties in Malaysia. Thus, the marketers should focus on green promotional activities to attract more customers to buy sustainable properties with GLCs. Moreover, it is suggested to target the right market segment to secure more sales.

The findings of this study will enable the government and the social marketers to understand the drivers of buying sustainable properties with GLC, which in turn will contribute to the higher environmental welfare.

This study is among the pioneers to examine consumers’ sustainable property purchase intention. It provides significant insights for the social marketers and policymakers to understand how to motivate consumers to purchase sustainable properties with GLCs. Moreover, this study has investigated few comparatively new links such as the direct effect of EAd and GBP on attitude towards environmental responsibility and the mediating effect of attitude towards environmental responsibility between environmental stimuli and consumer’s sustainable properties BI.

This paper considers a Sparre Andersen risk process for which the claims inter‐arrival distribution is Generalized Exponential. The purpose of this paper is to find explicit expressions for the moments of time to ruin when a penalty is imposed at ruin.

The study is focused on the function ϕ_δ(u), the expected discounted penalty, which is due at ruin and may depend on the deficit at the time of ruin and also on the surplus prior to ruin. It shows that ϕ_δ(u) satisfies an integro‐differential equation which is solved using Laplace transforms.

The authors have chosen a penalty function, which is independent of the surplus immediately before ruin, and a closed form expression is obtained for ϕ_δ(u), and then solved for the moments of time to ruin.

New results are derived, many of which have mathematical and probabilistic interpretations, and additional insight is gained for the results in the renewal risk model.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether artists create research outcomes in a revolving (or spiraling) process? This can be a catch-22 where their work is responding to and forecasting change, while the artist’s voice is often seen as too qualitative to provide research impact for university societies or to be compared with the quantitative data that scientists use.

Where will research methods, qualitative and quantitative overlap? The author knows that both methods are important for ongoing observations about creative arts practice. The qualitative is part of Holmes’ (2011/2012) query about how “knowledge involved in artistic thinking should […] include the issue of how mental images are given creative form, but this is a process that remains obscure in current art research” (p. 2).

For Holmes, “the knowledge product of art research cannot be considered separate from the researcher’s psychic processes; and the currently obscure relationship between artistic production and subjectivity might lead to one of the unique contributions to be made by art research” (Holmes, 2011/2012, p. 2). Holmes’ suggestion provides a strategic link to the way arts and sciences might overlap. “How do artists and scientists find a way to match issues, ideas and theories?” This may be especially so in relation to the integral use of image to empower a message.

This paper offers an original look at how artists empower with image.

Drawing on financial slack resources theory, stakeholder theory and signaling theory, the purpose of this study is to explore the two-way causality between liquidity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by using the cash conversion cycle (CCC) as liquidity proxy and composite and individual CSR metrics.

The data were retrieved from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database covering the period between 2013 and 2019 and 20,016 firm-year observations affiliated with ten business sectors and 60 countries. The fixed-effects panel regression analysis is executed in the empirical part.

The results indicate that firms with greater liquidity proxied by shorter CCC engage with greater CSR initiatives. They also reveal that firms with greater liquidity proxied by CCC do not regard all the dimensions of environmental and social performance equivalently; they do discriminate them. In the environmental pillar, firms funnel their cash derived from shorter CCC toward eco-innovation and resource use, respectively, but not to emissions reduction. In the social pillar, higher liquidity fosters community and human rights dimensions, respectively, but not workforce and product quality. These outcomes are largely robust to alternative CSR measurement, alternative sampling and endogeneity concerns. The reverse causality confirmed that CSR promotes higher liquidity (shorter CCC). Thus, the bidirectional relationship between CSR and liquidity is confirmed.

Although the authors wanted to consider a longer study period, they were obliged to choose 2013 as the starting period because particularly CCC data together with environmental, social and governance (ESG) data were not available in the earlier years.

Among environmental indicators, fueling eco-innovation most with greater liquidity shows that firms make a strategic choice for their long-term growth and legitimacy. Besides, greater liquidity induces greater community development and more respect for human rights rather than investing in workforce and product quality. Although this might be an outcome of the realization of a deliberate strategy and good for the society, not investing in the workforce and product quality may impair the long-term survival and competitive position of the firm in the long-run in the marketplace. The implication of reverse causality is that customers purchase products and services of firms that do good for the ecology and the community and they pay faster to those companies.

This study highlights that liquidity management and CSR are closely interrelated confirming a chicken and egg story. Firms with better liquidity management are more likely to care environment and community. Besides, doing good for society pays back in the form of enhanced firm liquidity triggering customer sympathy.

This research provides new insight by examining the two-way causality of the relationship between CSR performance and liquidity, which helps highlight the impact of CSR performance on the company’s ability to manage its cash and the benefits of having high liquidity on enhancing the company’s concern about the society and environment.

This study aims to examine the impact of big data management on green service production (GSP) and environmental performance (ENPr) while considering green HRM practices (GHRM) in healthcare emergencies.

The authors collected primary data from major healthcare organizations in India by surveying healthcare professionals. The data analysis through structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) reveals several significant relationships to extricate the underlying dynamics.

Grounded in the theories of service production and natural resource-based view (NRBV), this study conceptualizes GSP with its three dimensions of green procurement (GP), green service design (GSD) and green service practices (GSPr). The study conducted in India's healthcare sector with a sample size limited to healthcare professionals serving in COVID-19 identifies the positive and significant impact of big data management on GSP and ENPr that organizations seek to deploy in such emergencies. The findings of the study explain the moderating effects of GHRM on GSP-ENPr relationships.

The study was conducted in the healthcare sector in India, and its sample size was limited to healthcare professionals serving in COVID-19. The practical ramifications for healthcare administrators and policymakers are suggested, and future avenues of research are discussed.

This paper develops a holistic model of big data analytics, GP, GSD, GSPr, GHRM and ENPr. This study is a first step in investigating how big data management contributes to ENPr in an emergency and establishing the facets of GSP as a missing link in this relationship, which is currently void in the literature. This study contributes to the theory and fills the knowledge gap in this area.