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1 – 10 of 200Sina Abdollahzade, Sima Rafiei and Saber Souri
This purpose of this study was to investigate the role of nurses’ resilience as an indicator of their mental health on sick leave absenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
This purpose of this study was to investigate the role of nurses’ resilience as an indicator of their mental health on sick leave absenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in 2020 to identify the predictors of absenteeism among 260 nurses working in two training hospitals delivering specialized services in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Data was collected through the use of standard questionnaires including demographic information, nurses’ resilience, intention for job turnover and absenteeism from the workplace. To predict sick leave absenteeism, regression analyses were implemented.
Findings
Study results revealed that the most influencing features for predicting the probability of taking sick leave among nurses were marital status, tenacity, age, work experience and optimism. Logistic regression also depicted that nurses who had less faith in God or less self-control were more likely to take sick leave.
Practical implications
The resilience of nurses working in the COVID-19 pandemic was relatively low, which needs careful consideration to apply for organizational support. Main challenge that most of the health systems face include an inadequate supply of nurses which consequently lead to reduced efficiency, poor quality of care and decreased job performance. Thus, hospital managers need to put appropriate managerial interventions into practice, such as building a pleasant and healthy work environment, to improve nurses’ resilience in response to heavy workloads and stressful conditions.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine such a relationship, thus contributing findings will provide a clear contribution to nursing management and decision-making processes. Resilience is an important factor for nurses who constantly face challenging situations in a multifaceted health-care system.
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Libiao Bai, Xiaoyan Xie, Yichen Sun, Xue Qu and Xiao Han
Assessing project criticality in a project portfolio (PP) is of great practical significance to improve robustness from damage. While project criticality assessment has increased…
Abstract
Purpose
Assessing project criticality in a project portfolio (PP) is of great practical significance to improve robustness from damage. While project criticality assessment has increased diversity in approaches, the understanding of vulnerable project impacts is still limited. To promote a better understanding of assessing project criticality, a vulnerability measurement model is constructed.
Design/methodology/approach
First, integrating the tasks, projects and corresponding relationships among them, a project portfolio network (PPN) is constructed. Second, the project's vulnerability is measured by combining the topological structure and functional attributes. Third, project criticality is assessed by the vulnerability measurement results. Lastly, the proposed model is applied in a numerical example to illustrate its suitability and effectiveness.
Findings
For academia, this study provides a novel perspective on project vulnerability measurement and expands project criticality assessment tools. For practitioners, the straightforward model provides an effective tool for assessing project criticality and contributes to enhancing project portfolio management (PPM).
Originality/value
The impact of the task on the project is considered in this study. Topological structure and functional attributes are also integrated for measuring project vulnerability due to the impact of random attacks in an uncertain environment, providing a new perspective on the requirements of project criticality assessment and the measurement of project vulnerability.
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Mehmet Emin Bakir, Tracie Farrell and Kalina Bontcheva
The authors investigate how COVID-19 has influenced the amount, type or topics of abuse that UK politicians receive when engaging with the public.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigate how COVID-19 has influenced the amount, type or topics of abuse that UK politicians receive when engaging with the public.
Design/methodology/approach
This work covers the first year of COVID-19 in the UK, from March 2020 to March 2021 and analyses Twitter abuse in replies to UK MPs. The authors collected and analysed 17.9 million reply tweets to the MPs. The authors present overall abuse levels during different key moments of the pandemic, analysing reactions to MPs by gender and the relationship between online abuse and topics such as Brexit, the government’s COVID-19 response and policies, and social issues.
Findings
The authors have found that abuse levels towards UK MPs were at an all-time high in December 2020. Women (particularly those from non-White backgrounds) receive unusual amounts of abuse, targeting their credibility and capacity to do their jobs. Similar to other large events like general elections and Brexit, COVID-19 has elevated abuse levels, at least temporarily.
Originality/value
Previous studies analysed abuse levels towards MPs in the run-up to the 2017 and 2019 UK General Elections and during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The authors compare previous findings with those of the first year of COVID-19, as the pandemic persisted, and Brexit was forthcoming. This research not only contributes to the longitudinal comparison of abuse trends against UK politicians but also presents new findings, corroborates, further clarifies and raises questions about the previous findings.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-07-2022-0392
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Clara Martin-Duque, Juan José Fernández-Muñoz, Javier M. Moguerza and Aurora Ruiz-Rua
Recommendation systems are a fundamental tool for hotels to adopt a differentiating competitive strategy. The main purpose of this work is to use machine learning techniques to…
Abstract
Purpose
Recommendation systems are a fundamental tool for hotels to adopt a differentiating competitive strategy. The main purpose of this work is to use machine learning techniques to treat imbalanced data sets, not applied until now in the tourism field. These techniques have allowed the authors to analyse the influence of imbalance data on hotel recommendation models and how this phenomenon affects client dissatisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
An opinion survey was conducted among hotel customers of different categories in 120 different countries. A total of 135.102 surveys were collected over eleven quarters. A longitudinal design was conducted during this period. A binary logistic model was applied using the function generalized lineal model (GLM).
Findings
Through the analysis of a representative amount of data, the authors empirically demonstrate that the imbalance phenomenon is systematically present in hotel recommendation surveys. In addition, the authors show that the imbalance exists independently of the period in which the survey is done, which means that it is intrinsic to recommendation surveys on this topic. The authors demonstrate the improvement of recommendation systems highlighting the presence of imbalance data and consequences for marketing strategies.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the current work is to apply to the tourism sector the framework for imbalanced data, typically used in the machine learning, improving predictive models.
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Carmen Pedreño-Peñalver, Irene Huertas-Valdivia and Alicia Orea-Giner
The purpose of this study is to explore the paranormal tourist experience on ghost tours, taking into account the participants’ perceptions and their prior knowledge of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the paranormal tourist experience on ghost tours, taking into account the participants’ perceptions and their prior knowledge of the paranormal, in order to determine the principal components of the future of paranormal tourist experience.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is divided into two phases. The first phase is based on participant observation during a ghost tour. The second phase is based on a previously published framework for paranormal tourism. It introduces a qualitative adaptation of the orchestra model to look in-depth at how experiences with paranormal tours might shape the future of tourism as a major subtype.
Findings
Paranormal tourism has external (situational-enchantment, historical, mystical, ghostly and unsolved mysteries) and internal (affective, cognitive, sensory, behavior and relationship) components that are inter-linked. Future paranormal tourist experiences (FPTEs) must be focused on enhancing these aspects in order to offer an immersive experience.
Originality/value
Consequently, this paper proposes the FPTE model.
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Juan Gabriel Brida, Bibiana Lanzilotta and Lucia Rosich
From these data, the authors construct an uncertainty index through the use of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to measure the impact of uncertainty on GDP, controlling for…
Abstract
Purpose
From these data, the authors construct an uncertainty index through the use of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to measure the impact of uncertainty on GDP, controlling for inflation, which may affect macroeconomic performance. Results indicate that uncertainty is negatively correlated with the economic cycle and the inter-annual variation of the biannual average product.
Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically explores the dynamics of expectations of the Uruguayan manufacturing firms about industrial economic growth. This study explores the dynamics of the industrial economic growth expectations of Uruguayan manufacturing firms. The empirical research is based on firms' expectations data collected through a monthly survey carried out by the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay (CIU) in 2003–2018.
Findings
Granger causality tests show that uncertainty Granger-causes industrial production growth and a one standard deviation shock on uncertainty generates a contraction in the industrial production growth rate. Finally, the authors use statistical and network tools to identify groups of firms with similar performance on expectations. Results show that higher uncertainty is associated with smaller, more interconnected groups of firms, and that the number of homogeneous groups and the distance between groups increases with uncertainty. These findings suggest that policies focused on the coordination of expectations can lead to the development of stable opinion groups.
Originality/value
The paper introduces new data and new methodologies to analyze the dynamics of expectations of manufacturing firms about industrial economic growth.
Highlights
An empirical approach to compare expectations of firms is introduced.
The occurrence of groups of opinion is tested.
Central companies in the network of expectations are detected.
More uncertainty implies a higher degree of discrepancy between the overall firm’s opinions and more compact opinion groups.
An empirical approach to compare expectations of firms is introduced.
The occurrence of groups of opinion is tested.
Central companies in the network of expectations are detected.
More uncertainty implies a higher degree of discrepancy between the overall firm’s opinions and more compact opinion groups.
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Keywords
Wenqiang Li, Juan He and Yangyan Shi
Marketing is a hot topic, and the purpose of this study is to investigate how shareholding strategies can be applied to achieve strategic synergy between firms in vertical supply…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketing is a hot topic, and the purpose of this study is to investigate how shareholding strategies can be applied to achieve strategic synergy between firms in vertical supply chains to improve retailers’ marketing efforts from a long-term perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This study constructs Stackelberg models to analyze the operating mechanisms of shareholding supply chains under forward, backward and cross-shareholding strategies. The authors analyze the effects of shareholding on prices, marketing efforts and profits, and explore the strategic preferences and outcomes of different supply chain members.
Findings
Forward/backward shareholding plays the same role as cross/nonshareholding in supply chains because the effect of the retailer’s shareholding is offset by the power status of the manufacturer, and the retailer can still profit when wholesale prices are higher than selling prices in certain cases. A manufacturer’s shareholding in a retailer can benefit consumers and improve marketing efforts by reducing retailers’ marketing costs, while a retailer’s shareholding in a manufacturer has no such effect. None of all shareholding strategies can coordinate the interests of all members; however, an effective rebate policy can resolve this problem.
Originality/value
The results reveal the operational mechanism of shareholding supply chains and provide reference values for managers who want to improve marketing efforts and economic performance using a shareholding strategy.
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Eunice Yarce-Pinzón, Yenny Vicky Paredes-Arturo, Andrea Florez-Madroñero, Daniel Camilo Aguirre-Acevedo and Diego Mauricio Diaz-Velásquez
The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with functionality, a clinical criterion that could predict frailty in the elderly people in a rural context.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with functionality, a clinical criterion that could predict frailty in the elderly people in a rural context.
Design/methodology/approach
This project is a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of 342 adults of age >60 years who are residents of Putumayo province in Colombia. Information regarding demographic characteristics, medical history, health perception and current illness was collected. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) protocol was used to perform cognitive evaluation; the Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale was used to establish depressive symptoms; and the Hamilton Rating Scale was used to assess anxiety level. Questionnaire was used to evaluate performance on instrumental activities of daily living that lead to functional independence [daily life questionnaire (DLQ)]. The medical outcomes study scale was used to assess social parameters.
Findings
A moderate and negative correlation was found between the DLQ score and age (r = −0.49; 95% CI: −0.57 to −0.47), whereas a positive correlation was found with education (r = 0.17; 95% CI: 0.07–0.27). Older adults with economic independence achieved a higher score in functional performance than those with economic dependence (standardized mean difference = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.33–0.77). This study observed a moderate correlation a moderate correlation between the MMSE cognitive performance (r = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.48−0.63) and the depressive symptomatology of Yesavage Scale (r = −0.36, 95% CI: −0.44 to −0.26). Finally, the structural model determined that age (r = −0.37), economic dependence (r = −0.383) and cognitive state (r = 0.309) determine the functional component.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides empirical support about older adults living in rural contexts, around the functionality variable from a multidimensional approach, highlighting the sociodemographic and cognitive variables. Consequently, the policy of social support in older adults must be oriented toward the development of a range of divergent intervention strategies.
Originality/value
The study deals with the assessment of functionality in the elderly people from an interdisciplinary approach in the rural setting which presents a greater risk of physical and socioeconomic vulnerability. Therefore, the community, the health professionals and the government entities should help implement active aging programs for this population.
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Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Diana Saiki and Juan del Pozo Severino
This study examined perceived brand attractiveness of and identification with fashion luxury brands given different levels of sexuality in advertisements. Sex in advertisements…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined perceived brand attractiveness of and identification with fashion luxury brands given different levels of sexuality in advertisements. Sex in advertisements has become increasingly more common to generate attention and interest in fashion luxury products, with limited research on its influence on the consumer. However, the use of sexuality in luxury advertisements may counter the ethical expectations of brands by the current consumer in the United States.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 1,266 males and females completed a survey on brand attractiveness and identification after examining an advertisement of a luxury fashion product. Participants were assigned an advertisement that featured a same-gendered model at one of four levels of sexuality (fully clothed to nude). IBM SPSS Statistics was used to analyze the data which included descriptive statistics and a two-way multivariate analysis of variance followed by an analysis of variance.
Findings
The results indicated that less sexuality in luxury advertisements was better in generating attractiveness to and identification with the brand. The advertisements with models fully clothed were rated highest on brand attractiveness and identification. These relationships were statistically significant among groups of men and women.
Originality/value
These findings are important to scholars and marketers of luxury brands as sexuality in luxury brands continues to increase and becomes more provocative, as well as socially conscious.
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Guiselle M. Romero-Lora, Juan C. Rivero-Isla and Brenda E. Lopez-Chavez
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Local Educational Management Units (UGELs), the key government stakeholders in the provision of education services in Peru, implemented responsive…
Abstract
Purpose
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Local Educational Management Units (UGELs), the key government stakeholders in the provision of education services in Peru, implemented responsive interventions. This paper analyses the relationship between UGEL organisational resilience and their responses during this period.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to measure UGEL management practices, with 251 valid responses from directors and managers. Based on organisational resilience theory, 67 questions were grouped into 13 factors and 3 components: (1) leadership and organisational culture, (2) preparation for change, and (3) networks building on the Organisational Resilience Index (ORI). These factors correlated with the number of interventions and the impact of those interventions implemented by UGELs.
Findings
The findings indicated that of all ORI components, leadership and organisational culture ranked the highest. Moreover, the ORI is positively associated with the number of interventions and the perceived impact produced by those interventions. Interestingly, it was found that when the gender variable is included in the correlation between the ORI and the number of interventions, women leading UGELs display a higher number of interventions than their male counterparts; and the coefficient increases even more when women lead a UGEL in a more challenging context (i.e., when the UGEL is located in a low-income area and operates under scarce resources).
Originality/value
This is the first study in Peru which analyses organisational resilience in the education sector, specifically about UGELs during the COVID-19 pandemic. It may help set priorities for institutional strengthening initiatives aimed at improving organisational resilience, which is particularly important in such uncertain and changing contexts.
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