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This study aims to investigate the factors that influence South African customers to potentially switch from one bank to another. Instead of using established models and survey techniques, the research measured social media sentiment to measure threats to switch.

The research involved a 12-month analysis of social media sentiment, specifically customer threats to switch banks (churn). These threats were then analysed for co-occurring themes to provide data on the reasons customers were making these threats. The study used over 1.7 million social media posts and focused on all five major South African retail banks (essentially the entire sector).

This study concluded that seven factors are most significant in understanding the underlying causes of churn. These are turnaround time, accusations of unethical behaviour, billing or payments, telephonic interactions, branches or stores, fraud or scams and unresponsiveness.

This study is unique in its measurement of unsolicited social media sentiment as opposed to most churn-related research that uses survey- or customer-data-based methods. In addition, this study observed the sentiment of customers from all major retail banks across 12 months. To date, no studies on retail bank churn theory have provided such an extensive perspective. The findings contribute to Susan Keaveney’s churn theory and provide a new measurement of switching threat through social media sentiment analysis.

This paper aims to investigate current trends in selected management systems and analyses their mutual synergy effects to remaster contemporary enterprise performance management systems in the business sphere.

This research involves assembling key academic texts and other literature on the subject of changes in management systems worldwide and their influence on remastering contemporary enterprise performance management systems. The literature is reviewed using a systematic approach. More than 3,000 papers and studies are identified and content analysed.

The main trends and emerging themes of management practices in the current business world and their synergy effects are identified, reviewed and classified.

The field of performance management systems and their remastering based on individual corporate needs is an emergent area of study. This paper is relevant to academics, as well as the corporate world, because it introduces summarized results from an extensive number of published studies on the topic of trends in current management systems, their mutual synergy effects and their influence on performance management systems.

The inclusion of heritage dwellings in the UK decarbonization policies can contribute to cut operational carbon emissions from the building stock; this needs to be made a priority if net zero carbon targets are to be achieved. However, the energy and carbon savings potential of suitable retrofit interventions on this part of the stock is extremely variable and strictly intertwined with the range of baseline conditions of such dwellings. This study aims to propose a framework for interventions in traditional listed dwellings (TLDs) to improve their energy performance utilizing dynamic energy simulation (DES) of selected case studies (CSs) in the city of Brighton and Hove (South-East England).

To achieve this aim, the study established a baseline scenario which provides a basis for the assessment of energy performance and thermo-hygrometric behaviour pre- and post-interventions and allows for comparison between different CSs under comparable conditions.

Presenting a brief overview of the methodology adopted in this study, the paper describes the approach devised to generate such baseline scenario. The paper then compares the results obtained from simulation of normalized and baseline models with the status-quo energy consumption of the dwellings investigated (based on meter readings).

This analysis finally allows to highlight some key physical determinants of the baseline HEC which, in the following stage of research, proved to have a considerable effect also on the amount of energy and carbon savings achievable post retrofit interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing contemporary Japanese business environment mainly in the field of strategic management and, therefore, having influence on corporate performance and its measurement in selected manufacturing companies located in Japan in respect to their key business perspectives focused on people, processes and systems, innovations, finance, social responsibility and ecology, and that in relation to ongoing economic crises and a fundamental transformation of mature societies (in particular in USA, Japan and Western Europe).

The research involved assembling key academic and other literature on the subject of trends in strategic management and performance measurement in Japan as well as semi-structured interviews with managers within manufacturing companies located in Japan that deal with performance measurement, finance, strategic management, etc. and a review of various internal management reports.

The research has been useful in identifying companies that respond to current changes and trends the fastest and the most effective.

Among the limitations of the conclusions belongs rather a small sample of companies involved in the research. Moreover, the respondents may have seen their own company more favourably than an objective outsider would have done.

This paper shares insights on current trends influencing Japanese business environment and how these trends are implemented, used and updated in a selected sample of companies located in Japan.

Community-based tourism (CBT) is known as a strong strategy and tool to promote community development and conservation of natural resources through its various virtues in both developing and developed economies. Local people's active and functional participation is considered as the focal point in CBT practice and development. However, their functional participation doesn't always come instinctively; rather, it requires proper extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in the form of both tangible and intangible, which ultimately help them to influence their behavior and pursuit of goals that may ensure their participation in CBT and to receive various benefits. These benefits are linked to the sustainability of CBT development including community development. Therefore, strategic CBT planning and its implementation are essential to ensure sustainable CBT which can also safeguard the link between the local community people and their guests as well as other stakeholders including internationals to facilitate local community development. This chapter focuses on various theories and concepts of motivation from various fields of research, and efforts have been taken to apply those in the field of CBT development to explore its optimum potential for the sake of human welfare. Moreover, attempts have been taken to use various CBT initiatives in Bangladesh to relate these theories and concepts to evaluate these initiatives as well as to provide some suggestive measures to improve the performance of CBT and to facilitate more community development as a whole.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the processes that occur between entrepreneurs’ primary attribution for failure and the emergent learning dimensions from failure, in the context of regenerative failures.

The study focusses on 21 entrepreneurs operating in the producing services sector, a major subsector of the Irish Information and Communication Technology industry. All the entrepreneurs experienced business failure and subsequently re-entered the entrepreneurial sphere at a later date. A qualitative approach examines their attributions for failure, responses to failure, and learning dimensions from failure.

Regenerative entrepreneurs’ primary attributions for business failure are examined in detail; four types of failure attributions are uncovered – internal individual level; external firm level; external market level; and hybrid attributions. Entrepreneurs’ attributions impact their responses to the failure; this in turn affects entrepreneurial learning. When failure is primarily attributed to internal factors, the entrepreneur’s response is affective, leading to deep, personal learning about oneself. External attributions (both firm level and market level) result in a primarily behavioural response, with learning focussed on the venture, and networks and relationships. Those primarily attributing failure to hybrid factors have a largely cognitive response and they learn about venture management.

This study is a retrospective analysis of business failure.

The study contributes to the growing literature on entrepreneurs’ attributions for business failure by focussing on regenerative failure; it links attributions to – responses to, and learning from, failure. The key contribution to knowledge emerges from the development of a model of the underlying processes affecting learning from failure for regenerative entrepreneurs. The research also establishes and identifies clear links between attributions, responses, and lessons learned in the context of regenerative failure.

Communication plays an important role in the quality of the relationship, trust and collaboration among construction project teams. Literature suggests that effective communication is vital for achieving improved project performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the barriers to effective communication in the Nigerian construction industry, using attribution theory paradigm.

Questionnaires detailing 15 barriers to effective communication were administered to consultants and contractors engaged in the Nigerian construction sector. In total, 100 valid responses were analysed using mean score, factor analysis and factor score.

Unclear project objectives, ineffective reporting systems and poor leadership were ranked as the most significant barriers to effective communication. Factor analysis uncovered that the principal reasons responsible for ineffective communication include: managerial and technical barriers and credibility and background barriers.

The results provide information on barriers which needs to be addressed in order to improve communication in construction projects in Nigeria. There is a need to conduct post-completion reviews of construction projects so that project team members can learn and share knowledge on past experiences. Although the present study was conducted in the Nigerian context, it is envisaged that the research outcome will be widely applicable to other developing countries.

The study provides insights on the perceived barriers to effective communication in Nigerian construction projects. The paper presents the direction for further research aimed at improving communication in construction projects in Nigeria.

Accounting can affect and determine power relations. Previous studies have emphasized how accounting has been used by “central” powers; less is known from the perspective of “local” power and its capacity to resist and protect its interests. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the Archbishop’s Seminary of Siena (ASS) (local) and Roman ecclesiastic institutions (central). This study contributes to filling the existing gap in the literature regarding how accounting could be used as a tool for deception in local/central power relations.

The research methodology is based on a case study and archival research. The ASS case study was analyzed through its archive, made up for the most part of accounting books. As to the approach adopted, the authors used the Foucault framework to observe power relations in order to identify possible ways in which accounting can be employed as a factor of deception.

Power relations between the ASS and Roman ecclesiastic institutions were maintained through a system of reporting that limited the influence of the ecclesiastical power of Rome over the Seminary’s administration and control. The relationship thus runs contrary to the findings in previous studies. The accounting system was managed as a factor of deception in favor of local interests and the limitation of central ecclesiastic power.

This study contributes to enhancing the existing literature on governmentality, proposing a different perspective in which power relations are based on the use of accounting. The Foucaldian approach demonstrates its validity, even though the power relations under consideration have the unusual feature of occurring within the context of religious institutions.

This study on the ASS has allowed the identification of two relevant points: the local/central dichotomy is consistent with the logic of power relations as theorized by Foucault, even in cases where it highlights the role of a local power in limiting the flow of information to a central one; and the ASS accounting system was used as a factor of deception.

This chapter proposes a methodology to develop a tool aimed at helping tourists moving sustainably in Rome, focusing on the “last mile” of their transport experience, that is, walking trips. The methodology consists of the development of a stated preference survey, where tourists’ preferences are elicited with respect to alternative configurations of walking paths. This is performed by taking into consideration path accessibility, interference with other modes of transport, and thermal comfort aspects. Besides, georeferenced data are collected and systematized with the overall aim to create a geographical information system of the first municipality of Rome with useful information to evaluate the status of the walking network. The results of the analysis help to understand the relevant factors affecting tourists’ walking behavior. Additionally, the chapter provides the preliminary considerations needed for the definition of a “tourist walking satisfaction indicator” related to their walking experience with two aims: first, it provides useful information for policy-makers on how to design and manage walking networks; second, it provides a framework for a tourist traveler information system (a “StreetsAdvisor”) that can guide them in the city on the base of their heterogeneous preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how social media (SM) influence performance measurement systems (PMS), examining changes in measurement methods, performance indicators and their application.

The framework of the research was constructed to cover the technical component of PMS (measurement methods and indicators) and the use of the information obtained from SM. Empirically, the study is based on a set of case studies in eight companies.

The study findings offer a theoretical and empirical framework to evaluate PMS in the era of SM. It provides a classification of SM metrics, key performance indicators correlated to their use within different departments belonging to eight companies, highlighting the benefits and threats of SM information for PMS.

The limitation of this study is the diversity of industries included into the multiple-case study. The authors choose cases with the aim of providing a broader view on the impact of SM on PMS. However, the results show the dependency of use and type of measurement on certain industries, requiring future research focused on specific sectors or PMS aspects.

The paper provides a map of SM information measurement methods and use, which allows companies to position themselves and examine PMS evolution.

The results of the paper propose a holistic model, employing SM as a new variable in PMS.