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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the difference in antioxidant contents of pre‐packed fresh‐cut and whole fruit and vegetables as sold in the market.

Samples of pre‐packed fresh‐cut fruit and vegetables as well as whole produce were collected from the market in Muscat and Oman, and analyzed for vitamin C, lycopene and total carotenoids. Analysis of variance was carried out to determine the level of statistical differences between fresh‐cut and whole fruit and vegetables.

In both fruit and vegetables, vitamin C contents are higher in whole than fresh‐cut produce, with greater reductions in vitamin C contents of fresh‐cut vegetables than fruit. In both fresh‐cut and whole fruit, lycopene content is 30‐36 times higher in watermelon than the contents of other fruit genotypes studied. Similarly, total carotenoids content of watermelon is six to 21 times higher than other types of fruit studied. Both lycopene and total carotenoids content are higher in whole than fresh‐cut fruit, except in pineapple fruit. In both fresh‐cut and whole vegetables, lycopene content of carrot is three to four times higher than cucumber, and four to six times higher than celery. Implications of these results on public health policy are discussed.

Previous studies on quality of fresh‐cut produce are based on controlled experimental studies using samples of produce from the same batch to compare fresh‐cut versus whole produce. However, consumers in retails stores often have to make a choice between pre‐packed fresh‐cut or whole (un‐cut) produce, which are not usually from the same source or batch. It is therefore essential to understand the differences in nutritional value of whole and pre‐packed fresh‐cuts sold in the market.

Fish is subjected to different methods of preparation and a major challenge facing consumers is maintaining and preserving the nutritional quality of cooked fish. This paper aims to examine the effects of different cooking methods (baking, boiling, deep‐frying, pan‐frying, microwaving and grilling) on total carotenoids and lycopene content in muscle and skin fractions of Omani kingfish.

Fresh, commercially harvested kingfish samples were purchased from a supermarket and prepared using six commonly used cooking methods. Raw fish samples were used as control. Muscle and skin fish portions for each cooking method and raw samples were analyzed for total carotenoids and lycopene contents.

The paper finds that cooking methods affected kingfish skin and muscle differently. The positive effects of cooking methods on kingfish muscle scored from high to low are as follows for total carotenoids content: grilling, microwaving, pan‐frying, boiling, deep‐frying and baking; and grilling, microwaving, boiling, deep‐frying, baking and pan‐frying for lycopene content. Baking resulted in the highest increase in both total carotenoids and lycopene contents in the skin, followed by grilling and pan‐frying for total carotenoids. In conclusion, grilling, followed by microwaving, is finds to be the best cooking method for high‐carotenoids content and healthy eating of kingfish.

This is the first paper to be reported on the effects of different cooking methods on total carotenoids content (including lycopene) in skin and muscle of kingfish caught in the warm waters of the Gulf of Oman.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of competitive pressure on financial statements’ comparability (comparability) by analyzing various dimensions of competition.

The authors study the effect of competition on comparability using the comparability measure of De Franco et al. (2011) and various proxies for competition, competition from existing/potential rivals and non-price competition (NPC).

This study documents that competition is positively associated with comparability, and this effect is more (less) pronounced for industry followers (leaders). The authors also document that competition from existing rivals enhances comparability, but competition from potential entrants does not. Moreover, NPC is also a significant determinant of comparability. Furthermore, the competition from existing/potential rivals plays no significant role in the production of comparable financial statements in state-owned enterprises. The results are robust to alternative measures of comparability and methodological approaches.

This study is the first empirical study that documents a new channel (comparability) through which competition affects financial statements. The findings support the argument that competitive pressure acts as a governance mechanism, disciplines management and increases comparability leading to lower information asymmetry (governance view). However, the findings contest the argument that higher competition motivates managers to withhold information (proprietary cost hypothesis). By examining the effect of state ownership, this study might also help to characterize the effects of changes in corporate objectives on managerial decisions related to financial reporting.

To influence consumer pre-purchase decision-making processes, such as brand selection and perceived brand experience, brands are interested in adopting hyperconnected technological stimuli, such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality, social media and tech devices. However, the understanding of different hyperconnected touchpoints remained shallow and results mixed in previous literature, despite the fact that these touchpoints span different technological interfaces/devices and may influence consumer brand selection. This paper aims to solidify the conceptual underpinnings of the role of online hyperconnected stimuli, which may influence consumer psychological reactions in terms of brand selection and experience.

This paper is conceptual and presents a discussion based on extant literature from various international publishers.

The authors revealed different technological stimuli in the online hyperconnected environment that may influence consumer online hyperconnected brand selection (OHBS), perceived online hyperconnected brand experience (OHBE), perceived well-being and behavioral intention.

The conceptual understanding of OHBS and perceived OHBE was mixed and inconsistent in previous studies. This paper brings together extant literature to establish the conceptual understanding of antecedents and outcomes of OHBS, i.e. perceived OHBE, perceived well-being and behavioral intention, and presents a cohesive conceptual framework.

This study aims to investigate the indirect relationship between exploitative leadership (EL) and psychological distress through emotional complexity. This study also predicted that belief in organizational conspiracy theories moderates the association between EL and emotional complexity. Furthermore, forgiveness climate acts as a boundary condition between emotional complexity and psychological distress.

The respondents of this time-lagged study (N = 325) were working in five-star and four-star hotels in three cities located in Pakistan, namely, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore. Data were collected through the questionnaire.

Results revealed that exploitative leaders cause emotional complexity among hotel employees, enhancing their psychological distress. The study further showed that hotel employees who believe in organizational conspiracy theories are more likely to experience emotional complexity under an exploitative leader. Additionally, the perceived forgiveness climate moderates the relationship between emotional complexity and psychological distress.

Hotel managers should avoid hiring those candidates for leadership positions who have a tendency to engage in exploitative behavior. Managers should maintain regular communication with hotel workers to minimize beliefs in organizational conspiracy theories. Managers should also develop a forgiveness climate to minimize psychological distress among hotel employees.

It is one of the few studies investigating the negative consequences of EL, particularly in the hospitality industry. This study has also identified the underlying causes of psychological distress among hotel workers.

This paper aims to investigate how the corporate attributes, namely, company size, age, leverage, profitability and ownership concentration, are associated with corporate social disclosures (CSD). The paper further examines whether there are any moderating effects on the association because of different proxies of corporate attributes.

The study uses 35 articles published between 1996 and 2016 for finding out the integrated results of the previous studies. The study uses the meta-analysis technique developed by Hunter et al. (1982) and Hunter and Schmidt (1990).

The findings of the overall meta-analysis show that company size and ownership concentration are significantly and positively associated with CSD, while age, profitability and leverage indicate an insignificant positive association. Also, the different proxies of explanatory variables moderate the association between corporate attributes and CSD.

This is a unique study that determines the association between corporate attributes and CSD by using meta-analysis. Therefore, it is expected that this investigation solves the inconclusive and mixed results of the prior studies and assists future researchers to develop a theory in that context.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of activation energy with binary chemical reaction for unsteady flow on permeable stretching surface.

The simultaneous effects of multiple slip and magneto-hydrodynamic effects at the boundary are taken into account. The thermal buoyancy parameter and thermal radiation are included in both energy and momentum equations, while expression of activation energy is considered in concentration equation. Three-stage Lobatto IIIa finite difference collocation technique with bvp4c MATLAB package is used to obtained numerical results.

The influence of key elements (Schmidt number, buoyancy force ratio factor, factor of radiation, magnetic element, unsteadiness factor, suction/injection parameter, Prandtl number, activation energy, chemical reaction rate parameter, heat source and sink parameters, velocity, thermal and concentration slips, porosity parameter and temperature difference parameter) on velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are illustrated pictorially. A detailed discussion is presented to see how the graphical aspects justify the physical prospect.

In the best of author’s knowledge, this work is yet not available in existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to build a neural model of an aircraft from flight data and online estimation of the aerodynamic derivatives from established neural model.

A neural model capable of predicting generalized force and moment coefficients of an aircraft using measured motion and control variable is used to extract aerodynamic derivatives. The use of neural partial differentiation (NPD) method to the multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) aircraft system for the online estimation of aerodynamic parameters from flight data is extended.

The estimation of aerodynamic derivatives of rigid and flexible aircrafts is treated separately. In the case of rigid aircraft, longitudinal and lateral-directional derivatives are estimated from flight data. Whereas simulated data are used for a flexible aircraft in the absence of its flight data. The unknown frequencies of structural modes of flexible aircraft are also identified as part of estimation problem in addition to the stability and control derivatives. The estimated results are compared with the parameter estimates obtained from output error method. The validity of estimates has been checked by the model validation method, wherein the estimated model response is matched with the flight data that are not used for estimating the derivatives.

Compared to the Delta and Zero methods of neural networks for parameter estimation, the NPD method has an additional advantage of providing the direct theoretical insight into the statistical information (standard deviation and relative standard deviation) of estimates from noisy data. The NPD method does not require the initial value of estimates, but it requires a priori information about the model structure of aircraft dynamics to extract the flight stability and control parameters. In the case of aircraft with a high degree of flexibility, aircraft dynamics may contain many parameters that are required to be estimated. Thus, NPD seems to be a more appropriate method for the flexible aircraft parameter estimation, as it has potential to estimate most of the parameters without having the issue of convergence.

This paper highlights the application of NPD for MIMO aircraft system; previously it was used only for multi-input and single-output system for extraction of parameters. The neural modeling and application of NPD approach to the MIMO aircraft system facilitate to the design of neural network-based adaptive flight control system. Some interesting results of parameter estimation of flexible aircraft are also presented from established neural model using simulated data as a novelty. This gives more value addition to analyzing the flight data of flexible aircraft as it is a challenging problem in parameter estimation of flexible aircraft.

This study aims to investigate how the presence of female CEOs (FCEOs) affects investment efficiency in emerging economy, where female participation in business activities is limited.

This paper investigates the impact of CEO gender on investment efficiency by using investment efficiency measures proposed by Biddle et al. (2009), Chen et al. (2011) and Chen et al. (2013).

The findings suggest that FCEOs are associated with high level of investment efficiency. FCEOs improve corporate governance, streamline management and reduce inefficient investment decisions. In addition, FCEOs focus more on curbing underinvestment than overinvestment when making investment decisions. Furthermore, high financial reporting quality (FRQ) strengthens the effect of FCEOs on investment efficiency. The results suggest that FCEOs do not ameliorate the investment efficiency of state-owned enterprises.

This study enhances our understanding of the effects of FCEOs on corporate investment decisions in a male-dominated society. Efficient use of resources is vital from corporate and societal perspectives. Emerging economies are characterized by the unstable political and economic environment and low participation of females in decision-making. Hence, these economies require efficient utilization of resources. This study also sheds light on the role of FCEOs in curtailing underinvestment in emerging economies. It proves that FRQ is important in emerging economies because it strengthens the governance role of FCEOs.

This paper aims to explore the moderating role of state ownership variables on the relationship between market concentration (MC) and financial statement comparability (FSC) in Vietnam.

This study uses data from the financial statements of 475 nonfinancial listed companies for the period from 2010 to 2019. This study uses both the system generalized method of moments and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to consider the correlation and causal–effect relationships of the variables in the model.

The results show that MC has a positive relationship with FSC, and MC tends to exert a stronger impact on FSC for firms with higher state ownership. In addition, this study suggests that some combinations help improve FSC. This study has important implications for investors, managers and especially state-owned organizations when market power becomes fierce.

This study contributes to the literature on the comparability of financial statements in the context of developing countries that have not fully adopted International Financial Reporting Standards. Furthermore, this study applies the fsQCA method to complement the linear regression method.