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Applying stakeholder theory in the trade show industry, this paper aims to examine the effects of the key stakeholders’ perceptions on trade show exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention.

This study used a 46-item measurement scale on exhibitors’ satisfaction to predict positive behavioral intention. Three dimensions were proposed to account for three key stakeholders in the trade show industry: satisfaction with self-performance, satisfaction with organizers and satisfaction with visitors. Data were collected from 594 exhibitors at three trade shows.

This study found that satisfaction with self-performance, satisfaction with organizers and satisfaction with visitors are significantly and positively related to exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention. All three dimensions in combination explained approximately two-thirds of the variance in exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention.

This study introduced a new way of predicting exhibitor’s positive behavioral intention. Satisfaction with organizers was found to be the dominant predictor of exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention, which challenges the notion that exhibitors attend trade shows only for sales activities.

Trade show organizers and exhibitors could use the three determinants as a diagnostic tool for future improvement and benchmark their performances across different time periods and/or against their competitors.

Although the three key stakeholder types have been studied previously, the factors that theoretically lead to exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention have not been simultaneously addressed. For the first time, the model proposed in this study showcased the importance of considering all three key stakeholders when studying exhibitors’ positive behavioral intention.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate the relationship between human resource management (HRM) competency and firm performance. Drawn upon the resource-based view and alignment theory, HRM competency is expected to be related to the adoption of high performance work systems (HPWS) and the achievement of external fit in HRM, which in turn contribute to firm performance.

The data for this study were collected via a survey of in 157 Chinese enterprises located in the high technology development zone of three large cities. Two different respondents from each firm provided information about organizational characteristics, HRM policy and practices, and firm performance. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypotheses.

Results indicate that HRM competency has a significant and positive effect on firm performance. Such an effect is found to be mediated by the achievement of external fit, but not the adoption of HPWS.

Limitations of the study include cross-sectional data, perceptual measure of firm performance, omission of external variables, and restricted sample. This study highlights the importance of HRM competency in strategic HRM, and provides evidence about how this construct is linked to firm performance.

This is the first study that explores the effect of HRM competency on the adoption of HPWS and the achievement of external fit. It further reveals that the achievement of external fit mediates the relationship between HRM competency and firm performance, and hence contributes to the HRM literature.

Research and debate on the value and deployment of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has become contentious. While many agree that it is something that is both threatened and valuable, there are enormous conceptual difficulties encountered in framing what, exactly, it is that IK proponents should be fighting to preserve. This chapter uses insights from James C. Scott’s work on legibility and Bruno Latour’s work in the sociology of knowledge to privilege what we call relative epistemological performativity. This framework stands in contrast to attempts to privilege problematic essentialist views of “indigenous,” “Western,” or “scientific” knowledge. With this framework we are able to challenge some of the “antipolitics” implicit in educational development agenda that promote cultural and cognitive homogeneity as well as find space for hybrids like using ICT to strengthen IK. Finally, we conclude that the profound differences in conceptualizing the epistemology and ontology of IK should not detract from widespread agreement on the need for pedagogical practices that protect threatened local languages, cultures, and ecological knowledge.

There is a clear consensus of opinion that virtual environments and virtual currencies pose a money laundering and terrorism financing threat. What is less clear, however, is the level of risk that they pose. This paper aims to clarify the suitability of virtual environments for conducting money laundering and terrorism financing activities.

A number of experiments were conducted to estimate the quantity of funds that could be moved through these environments. These experiments took into account a number of factors such as the number of accounts that would need to be opened to launder/raise a specific amount of funds, the amount of funds that could be placed within a certain timeframe and the transaction limits imposed by each of the massively multiplayer online games and online financial service providers involved in the money laundering and terrorism financing scenarios.

The findings of this research show that money laundering and terrorism financing can take place inside virtual environments. Virtual money laundering and terrorism financing offer high levels of anonymity, potentially low levels of detection, and remove many of the risks associated with real-world money laundering and terrorism financing activity. However, this comes at the cost of ease, time and, in some cases, the amount of funds laundered. Large sums (millions of dollars) can be laundered in virtual environments, but this exponentially increases the level of effort involved in setting up accounts and placing, layering and integrating funds.

A number of authors have described potential virtual money laundering scenarios, but some of these are out-of-date due to closed loopholes, all are rudimentary and make no attempt to discuss the practicality or feasibility of using these scenarios. This research addresses those issues.

This paper aims to examine the use of a commercial pyrometer to measure the surface temperature of workpieces as machining takes place. The pyrometer readings are to be compared with model predictions.

The pyrometer was mounted on an industrial milling machine and the temperature of the workpiece was measured behind the cutting tool as it traversed the workpiece. A mathematical spreadsheet model was used to predict the temperatures at the point measured by the pyrometer and at the point where cutting took place.

It was found by selecting the “partition ratio” of the power being transmitted to the workpiece that agreement could be found between measured and predicted results.

The work was mainly carried out on aluminium samples, which exhibited low cutting temperatures.

The paper describes a method of finding the partition ratio of heat going into the workpiece.

The confidence in the qualifications and independence of the audit activities and professionals has been lost due to the financial scandals that have arisen over time. These scandals in the accounting and auditing fields caused both enterprises and investors to suffer from large amounts of losses and thus the need for reliable financial statements and corporate governance increased.

Both investors and decision-makers need independent assurance to achieve transparent, reliable, and impartial financial information. The fulfillment of this requirement is possible through independent auditing activity and independent audit firms. Business management shall carry out the selection of independent auditors based on various criteria (fee, reputation, audit team, relations, etc.). In addition, it may also be necessary to periodically change an independent audit firm due to rotation or other reasons (fee, disputes, relationships, etc.).

In this study, a ranking of the importance level of the evaluation criteria, for the selection and change of the independent audit firm in an enterprise in Borsa İstanbul (BIST) 100 in Turkey, was conducted. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is one of the multicriteria decision-making techniques, was used for ranking. In the hierarchy established for the selection of the independent audit firm, the main criteria of the “audit fee” and the “reputation and qualifications of the audit firm” have been established. According to the findings obtained as a result of binary comparisons, the first four ranks among sub-criteria are “provision of international service,” “quality of technical expertise of audit firm,” “industry expertise of audit firm,” and “suitability of fee offered by audit firm.”

For the change of audit firm, four main criteria “audit fee,” “disputes arising during the audit process,” “relations with the audit firm,” and “rotation” are taken into consideration. For sub-criteria, first four criteria were “rotation of independent audit firm,” “rotation of independent auditor,” “audit firm’s inability to adequately practice proactive audit approaches,” and “inadequate communication.”

This research examines the lodging experience in the context of environmentally friendly hotels by discovering the underlying guest segments. A mixed-method approach is deployed, which first reveals three lodging experience dimensions entailing, functionality, hedonism and social responsibility via in-depth interviews. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey is conducted which gathers responses from 326 guests staying at seven certified green hotels. A cluster analysis based on green lodging experiences is performed that evokes three distinct guest segments labeled as (1) spontaneous guests, (2) active guests, and (3) devoted guests. The study notes that social responsibility is the most important lodging experience across the three resultant segments. The study also finds about 31% of respondents tend not to pay much attention to green lodging operations. It leads to a suggestion that the implementation of green operations may be accomplished in a way not notably compromising certain service expectations by those not profusely aspiring of the notion of green operations. Even though meeting the needs of core customers is a vital task.

The construction industry is an enabler of economic growth in developing countries, but its performance is governed by the professional behaviour of construction professionals. Unethical behaviour (UB) breaches codes of practice and undermines economic performance hence, ubiquitous academic attention has been given to understanding this phenomenon. This paper aims to contribute to the ensuing discourse by reporting upon the most critical ethical behaviours (EBs and UBs) of professionals in the Ghanaian construction industry (GCI).

The study compounded identified factors into a closed-ended questionnaire in a quantitative research strategy. Data analysis was conducted using the relative importance index and one sample t-test. To measure the reliability of the scale, Cronbach’s alpha was used, which indicated that all measured items were reliable for further analysis.

The study confirmed that professionals within the GCI are aware of the existence of UBs and revealed that the most prevalent ethical conducts exhibited, namely, level of accuracy, accountability, honesty, reliability, fairness and respect for colleagues. Common unethical conducts exhibited included: favouritism, bribery and corruption, professional negligence, falsification, fraud and overbilling.

The study reported on the dominant ethical conduct among built environment professionals. The claims put forward in the analysis are, thus, affected by Ghana’s social, economic and political environments, which could restrict the generalization of the findings.

Incipient findings presented from this research will guide stakeholders to develop and device strategies that will aid alleviate persistent ethical issues within the built environment.

The study highlights individuals’ perspectives on ethical issues persistent in the built environment. The findings suggest individuals adhere to ethical practices in a project environment by the evidence presented.

This pioneering study is a novel assessment on EBs and UBs of built environment professionals in the GCI. The study supplementary adds value to the literature on ethical and unethical practices. By identifying these practices, construction firms have a competitive edge in combating UB and promoting EB among built environment professionals in the GCI.

Foreign firms have certain advantages which may spillover to domestic firms in the form of improvements in total factor productivity (TFP) growth. The purpose of this paper is to empirically observe the presence of TFP spillovers of foreign direct investment (FDI) to domestic firms through analyzing source of TFP growth in Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry.

This paper examines the sources of TFP spillovers of FDI in Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry over the period 1999 to 2014. The data of 304 firms has been used for estimation of the growth rates of TFP and its sources under stochastic frontier analyses based Malmquist productivity index framework. For frontier estimation, the Wang and Ho (2010) model has been executed using translog form of production function.

The results show that there exists significant TFP spillover effect from the presence of foreign equity in drugs and pharmaceutical industry of India. The results also show that the major source of TFP fluctuations in the said industry is managerial efficiency that has been significantly affected by FDI spillover variables. In sum, the phenomenon of significant Intra-industry (horizontal) efficiency led productivity spillovers of FDI found valid in case of Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry.

The number of foreign firms is very less to imitate the significant impact of foreign investment on TFP growth of Indian pharmaceutical industry at aggregated level; and the Wang and Ho (2010) model is failing to capture direct impact of FDI on technological change under Malmquist framework.

Since, there exists dominance of domestic firms in Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry, the planners should follow the policy which not only attract FDI but also benefit domestic firms; for example, developing modern infrastructure and institution which will further help domestic firms to absorb spillovers provided by the Multinational Corporations and also accelerate the growth and development of the economy.

In no case, the foreign firms should dominate the market share otherwise the efficiency spillover effect will be negative and the domestic firms will be destroyed under the self-centric approach of foreign firms protected by the recent patent laws.

The study is a unique attempt to discuss the production structure and sources of TFP spillovers of FDI in Indian drugs and pharmaceutical industry with such a wide coverage of 304 firms over a period of 16 years under Wang and Ho (2010) model’s framework. The existing studies on TFP spillovers are using either a small sample size of firms or based upon traditional techniques of measuring spillover effects.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds his own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The findings of this research show that money laundering and terrorism financing can take place inside virtual environments. Virtual money laundering and terrorism financing offer high levels of anonymity and potentially low levels of detection, and remove many of the risks associated with real-world money laundering and terrorism financing activity. However, this comes at the cost of ease, time and, in some cases, the amount of funds laundered. Large sums (millions of dollars) can be laundered in virtual environments, but this exponentially increases the level of effort involved in setting up accounts and placing, layering and integrating funds.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers’ hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and an easy-to digest format.