Search results

This study aims to identify the motivations, challenges and desires of the various actors working in contemporary downtown revitalization in mid-sized cities.

Using Spokane, Washington, as a case study, 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key players in downtown redevelopment, including public administrators, private developers and non-profit representatives.

Results indicate that those conducting renewal projects are primarily motivated by economics, but additionally cite heritage preservation values and community development as significant factors. Moreover, contemporary renewal projects are found to be small-scale endeavours, undertaken by individual private investors, as government involvement has significantly diminished. Revitalizers tended to express frustration with a lack of investor and public awareness regarding renewal opportunities, suggesting that increased information dissemination might promote further renewal work within mid-sized urban downtowns.

Findings provide insight into issues with neoliberal policies in addressing contemporary urban issues, and suggest a more nuanced understanding of contemporary urban development processes beyond the narrowly defined profit-driven paradigm.

Despite the growing body of literature demonstrating the role of communication in educational settings, there are limited up-to-date studies exploring the use of an instant messaging (IM) tool and its impacts on students’ learning outcomes, especially in the tertiary education in Vietnam. This study approached IM as an out-of-class communication (OCC) approach in computer-mediated communication. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ perceived quality of information received and its influence on their perceived performance proficiency as a result of their lecturers’ clarification of their enquiries through an online instant message application, namely Remind (www.remind.com/).

The target groups were first-year business students in an international university in Vietnam. The analysis of the data gathered from the questionnaire was carried out using a measurement model and a structural equation model.

The findings indicate that using OCC technology creates social bonding between students and lecturers by allowing students to clarify the ambiguity of concepts learnt in class and create a sense of connection with their lecturers which leads to better student engagement and hence improved learning outcomes.

The authors highlight the evidence of effective usage of IM tool by university students as a meaningful communication tool and the need to integrate technology into all educational settings.

The rise of the global economy has been an essential element in the international business (IB) agenda since the 1980s, and the topic of globalisation has not failed to captivate the attention of IB researchers and practitioners alike. Globalisation has impacted on such diverse issues as trade relations, geopolitical boundaries, social class, human rights, environmental commitments, religion, ethnicity, sovereignty and conservation of culture. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the current state of IB research on the topic of globalisation and to guide researchers who are new to IB research as to which journals and authors to consult when studying this phenomenon.

The paper presents a bibliometric analysis using the Web of Science database. A multiple correspondence analysis provides a map of keywords and authors, as well as a framework to track the globalisation literature over the 26-year period, 1993–2018.

The findings identify several fundamental themes and significant gaps in the extant literature; the most alarming gap centres around the effect of globalisation on social issues and, consequently, the rise of the anti-globalisation crusaders.

The literature review produced 529 articles listed only in the Web of Science Core Collection in the period 1993–2018.

A distinctive contribution of this study is that it investigates the intersection between globalisation and IB. This paper seeks to expose the intellectual structure of globalisation research, identify existing and emerging themes of globalisation research and discuss future research streams.

The findings show the rise of the globalisation sceptic and reveal the mounting concerns regarding the unequal benefits of globalisation.

There are two key benefits of this review. First, the theory extends by identifying a swing from an alignment with the transformationalist theory to sceptical theory. Second, the review has the potential to guide scholars on precisely what needs to be explored in IB globalisation research.

Customer Relationship Marketing has been described as a concept that not only relates to sales, marketing and services automation, but also increasingly embraces enterprise‐resource planning applications as well as the tracking of relationships, which organisations have with their customers and their suppliers. Accordingly, the concept has attracted such attention from the academic and professional arena that in contemporary terms CRM may indeed adequately be referred to as a major trend. Yet, in spite of extensive coverage, much confusion and cynicism have also surrounded the concept. Likewise the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has not only attracted much interest, but also much uncertainty and even scepticism. Although the prevailing dichotomy within this discourse arguably resides in whether as concepts, CSR and CRM, should in fact be regarded as ethical standpoints or merely as business strategies, this paper docs not intend to look upon these two concepts with such a binary polarity. Instead, this paper builds upon the similarities between the two concepts to suggest a third kind of ethos; albeit clichéd yet plausible.

As government organizations step hopefully into a new century, among the challenges they face will be the demands of the “New Purchasing” and persistent pressure to redefine the role of the purchasing practitioner in government. Reengineering of purchasing activities was a constant feature of the 1990s in many government jurisdictions. Those who manage the function usually influence a large share of organizational expenditure and must also cope with the demands of e-commerce, devolution of responsibility, partnering and strategic alliances, and the implications of globalization within the context of an accountable public sector. Applying some theoretical, functionalist models of a profession, this paper seeks to establish professional credentials for purchasing practitioners.

The construction industries at present are focusing on designing sustainable concrete with less carbon footprint. Considering this aspect, a Fibre-Reinforced Geopolymer Concrete (FGC) was developed with 8 and 10 molarities (M). At elevated temperatures, concrete experiences deterioration of its mechanical properties which is in some cases associated with spalling, leading to the building collapse.

In this study, six geopolymer-based mix proportions are prepared with crimped steel fibre (SF), polypropylene fibre (PF), basalt fibre (BF), a hybrid mixture consisting of (SF + PF), a hybrid mixture with (SF + BF), and a reference specimen (without fibres). After temperature exposure, ultrasonic pulse velocity, physical characteristics of damaged concrete, loss of compressive strength (CS), split tensile strength (TS), and flexural strength (FS) of concrete are assessed. A polynomial relationship is developed between residual strength properties of concrete, and it showed a good agreement.

The test results concluded that concrete with BF showed a lower loss in CS after 925 °C (i.e. 60 min of heating) temperature exposure. In the case of TS, and FS, the concrete with SF had lesser loss in strength. After 986 °C and 1029 °C exposure, concrete with the hybrid combination (SF + BF) showed lower strength deterioration in CS, TS, and FS as compared to concrete with PF and SF + PF. The rate of reduction in strength is similar to that of GC-BF in CS, GC-SF in TS and FS.

Performance evaluation under fire exposure is necessary for FGC. In this study, we provided the mechanical behaviour and physical properties of SF, PF, and BF-based geopolymer concrete exposed to high temperatures, which were evaluated according to ISO standards. In addition, micro-structural behaviour and linear polynomials are observed.

This research aims to provide insight on the interactive effects of service quality and e-service quality on perceptions of retailer brand equity and also extend and test the efficacy of Baker ' s service environment typology in both offline and online service experiences.

A within-subjects, simulated shopping experience immerses consumers in both offline and online shopping environments and, subsequently, consumers are surveyed regarding both offline and online quality as well as aggregated evaluations of retailer brand equity.

Results demonstrate that consumer perceptions of offline and online service quality have a positive effect on retailer brand equity and service quality and e-service quality interact, such that e-service quality has a stronger effect on brand equity offline quality is low. The results also support the application of offline service environment frameworks for online retailing.

The results demonstrate the applicability of Baker ' s typology in both online and offline environments and reveal that customer perceptions of offline and online operations can interact to affect global attitudes toward the retailer.

The results suggest that retailers can improve quality perceptions by enhancing both their offline and online service environments and that these quality improvements can result in enhanced consumer perceptions of brand equity.

This study provides a first look at the applicability of offline frameworks for the service environment in an online context. Moreover, the results provide an initial assessment of how consumers update global attitudes toward a brand by consolidating perceptions across both offline and online interactions.

Examines issues related to the successes and failures of Internet businesses. Recent literature has stressed the value of microeconomic models of markets to analyze e‐business models and strategy. The concepts of transaction costs, switching costs, network externalities and product versioning are especially useful in understanding business strategy in the new information economy. These concepts are reviewed and analyzed. A deeper assessment of Internet‐based businesses, both successes and failures, reveals a number of other constructs that are relevant for analysis, viz. infrastructure investment models, user experience models and models of revenue generation. These constructs reveal the inherent complexity of the electronic medium for conducting business and point to the subtle issues that determine success or failure. Case studies and examples are used to illustrate the usefulness of these constructs.

Unlike the traditional bricks‐and‐mortar marketplace, the online environment includes several distinct factors that influence brand trust. As consumers become more savvy about the Internet, the author contends they will insist on doing business with Web companies they trust. This study examines how brand trust is affected by the following Web purchase‐related factors: security, privacy, brand name, word‐of‐mouth, good online experience, and quality of information. The author argues that not all e‐trust building programs guarantee success in building brand trust. In addition to the mechanism depending on a program, building e‐brand trust requires a systematic relationship between a consumer and a particular Web brand. The findings show that brand trust is not built on one or two components but is established by the interrelationships between complex components. By carefully investigating these variables in formulating marketing strategies, marketers can cultivate brand loyalty and gain a formidable competitive edge.

The purpose of this study is to interpret consumers' emotion in their consumption experience in the context of mobile commerce from an experiential view. The study seeks to address concerns about the experiential aspects of mobile commerce regardless of the consumption type. For the purpose, the authors aims to propose a stimulus‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) based model that incorporates both utilitarian and hedonic factors of consumers.

A survey study was conducted to collect data from 293 mobile phone users. The questionnaire was administered in study classrooms, a library, or via e‐mail. The measurement model and structural model were examined using LISREL 8.7.

The results of this research implied that emotion played a significant role in the mobile consumption experience; hedonic factors had a positive effect on the consumption experience, while utilitarian factors had a negative effect on the consumption experience of consumers. The empirical findings also indicated that media richness was as important as subjective norms, and more important than convenience and self‐efficacy.

Few m‐commerce studies have focused directly on the experiential aspects of consumption, including the hedonic experience and positive emotions among mobile device users. Applying the stimulus‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) framework from the perspective of the experiential view, the current research model is developed to examine several utilitarian and hedonic factors in the context of the consumption experience, and indicates a comparison between the information processing (utilitarian) view and the experiential (hedonic) view of consumer behavior. It illustrates the relationships among six variables (i.e. convenience, media richness, subjective norms, self‐efficacy, emotion, and consumption experience) in a mobile commerce context.