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Taking a cognitive perspective of internal auditor independence, the purpose of this study is to develop measures for the concepts of commitment to independence, role conflict and role ambiguity in the context of the internal auditor's work environment, in order to provide evidence of the effects of role conflict and ambiguity, and their sub‐dimensions, on the internal auditor's commitment to independence.

To measure these concepts, scales are developed for a questionnaire by drawing on measures established in the organizational behavior literature and adapting these to the internal auditor's context. The questionnaire is sent to a sample of internal auditors drawn from the database of the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia in which listed companies with an in‐house internal audit function are extracted. There are 101 useable responses.

The results reveal that both role ambiguity and role conflict are significantly negatively related to commitment to independence. The underlying dimensions found to have the greatest impact on commitment to independence are: first, ambiguity in both the exercise of authority by the internal auditor and time pressure faced by the internal auditor; and second, conflict between the internal auditor's personal values and both management's and their profession's expectations and requirements.

The results extend the literature on internal auditor independence and provide insights for auditing standards setters and corporate governance designers.

Literature reveals that there is a paucity of instruments to measure multidimensional top management support (TMS). The multidimensionality and the complexity of the TMS cannot be reflected by a single-dimensional construct. The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument for the measurement of multidimensional TMS.

In this cross-sectional study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to check the validity and model fitness based on sample data collected from the PMI community. Ordinary least square and structural equation modeling techniques were used to test the research hypotheses and validate multidimensional TMS.

The findings revealed a significant positive correlation among all dimensions of top management and their significant influence on project success, especially on project efficiency and team dimensions.

Based on the existing knowledge through a coherent and refined process, the development and validation of a top management support questionnaire (TMSQ) made a significant contribution to theories and research methods.

Multidimensional TMS provides an opportunity to ensure provision of apt assistance throughout the implementation of projects for improving organizational performance across the industries.

This study targeted a sample size of 300 to develop and validate an instrument, which is in line with previous research studies on the development and validation of a reliable instrument. To operationalize TMSQ, this study adopted an online survey and received 208 responses (69 percent) from the PMI community.

Based on the developed personal pleasure fashion design model (PPFDM), the authors have developed six fashion trend alternatives. The purpose of this paper is to use the fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) to select the best fashion trend alternative.

To rationalize uncertainty associated with fuzzy, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) is proposed in this work to calculate the weight for the criteria. The synthetic evaluation is used to calculate the score for each criterion from the best non‐fuzzy performance (BNP) values and the weight of the criterion. The scores for each criterion are summed up to rank the importance of the alternatives.

The results show that the preferred trend of the alternatives is in the order of Romantic hippy, followed by Greek goddess, then Black knight, Urban punk, Country yappy, and Sporty academy. The multiple dimension scale (MDS) is used to visualize the preferred fashion trend alternatives; it reveals that the preference image goes from romantic to urban, to country, and finally to sporty.

The paper offers important criteria for the selection of fashion trend alternatives. The calculation examples provide insight into the complicated fuzzy AHP and MDS methods to clarify each step in fuzzy MCDM. This study, through using MDS, uncovers that material‐oriented consumers will purchase products or brands that are congruent with their inner femininity desire to create their personal identity and self‐image. Moreover, the developed framework has proven to be useful in improving the quality of fashion design decision.

This exploratory study aims to examines the multidimensional aspects of perceived value (functional value, financial value, emotional value, social value, epistemic value and conditional value) in relation to purchase intention in ecotourism. The study evaluates the influence of trust and perceived risk as mediators on perceived value.

Data for this exploratory study stem from online survey responses of 314 participants and are analyzed using descriptive analyses, factor analyses and multiple regressions.

The study findings show that four significant predictors influence ecotourism purchase intention: emotional value, functional value, boredom alleviation value and epistemic value. Trust partially affects the relationship between perceived values and purchase intention. Meanwhile, there is no mediation effect of perceived risk in the relationship between perceived value and purchase intention. This study concludes that perceived values influence ecotourism purchase intention, with emotional value providing the strongest relation to purchase intention.

The sample is based on selected criteria for a convenient sampling technique instead of a random sampling technique. However, criteria are in accordance with other ecotourism studies.

While multidimensional perceived values have been examined before, few papers have provided support for the emotional value dimension in ecotourism.

Even though scholars have proposed multiple dimensions to measure corporate reputation, the relationship between these dimensions and service provider selection has received a dearth of research. Moreover, the moderating role of brand image on this relationship has hardly been considered. The purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps in the literature.

The study employed a quantitative approach, collecting data from 540 retail bank customers using surveys. Results were analyzed using structural equation modelling in AMOS.

The study found out that emotional engagement, corporate performance, customer centricism and service quality directly predicted customer selection of retail banks in Ghana. The results further indicated that brand image moderates the relationship between social and ethical engagement, which was not directly significant and bank selection.

The findings of the study indicate that some of the dimensions of corporate reputation have a direct impact on bank selection by customers, and that brand image could also be used to improve social and ethical dimension of corporate reputation to ensure bank selection by retail customers. The study thus provides practical guidelines for managing corporate reputation to achieve retail bank selection in Ghana.

The paper provides support to some of the prior studies on corporate reputation in the retail banking sector. Thus, the study provides useful insights into how corporate reputation can be managed to ensure service provider selection by retail bank customers.

This paper aims to present a new master’s programme for promoting energy access and energy efficiency in Southern Africa.

A transdisciplinary approach called “participatory integrated assessment of energy systems” (PARTICIPIA) was used for the development of the curriculum. This approach is based on the two emerging fields of “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance”, which bring innovative concepts and methods.

The application of the PARTICIPIA methodology to three case studies reveals that the proposed transdisciplinary approach could support energy and development policies in the region. The implementation of the PARTICIPIA curriculum in three higher education institutions reveals its ability to respond to the needs of specific contexts and its connection with existing higher education programmes.

Considering energy issues from a transdisciplinary approach in higher education is absolutely critical because such a holistic view cannot be achieved through engineering curricula. Deliberate and greater efforts should be made to integrate methods from “multi-scale integrated assessment” and “science for governance” in higher education curricula to train a new breed of modern-day energy planners in charge of coming up with solutions that are shared by all relevant stakeholders.

This paper presents an innovative higher education curriculum in terms of the attention given to energy access and energy efficiency that affect the southern Africa region and the nature of the methodology adopted to face these issues.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the extent to which there is shared meaning of the concept of auditor independence between the three major groups of parties on the demand and supply sides of the audit services market – auditors, financial report preparers and financial report users.

The paper utilises the measurement of meaning framework (semantic differential analysis) originally proposed by Osgood et al. in 1957. The framework is used to investigate the extent to which there is shared meaning (agreement in interpretations) of the independence concept, in response to alternative audit engagement case contexts, between key parties to the financial reporting communication process. The study's research data was collected in the period March 2004‐May 2005.

Findings indicate a robust and stable single‐factor cognitive structure within which the research participants interpret the connotative meaning of the auditor independence concept. An analysis of the experimental cases finds similarities in connotations (interpretations) of an audit firm's independence for the participant groups for most cases, with the exception of cases involving the joint provision of audit and non‐audit (taxation) services.

The usual external validity threat that applies to experimental research generally applies to the study. That is, the results may not be generalisable to settings beyond those examined in the study. An important implication of the study is that it emphasises the continuing problematic nature of the joint provision of audit and non‐audit services, even in situations where the non‐audit services comprise only traditional taxation services.

The study is the first to examine the concept of auditor independence by means of the Osgood et al. measurement of meaning research framework using, as research participants, the three major groups on the demand and supply sides of the audit services market.

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of failing to psychometrically test questionnaire instruments when measuring university students’ attitudes towards plagiarism. These issues are highlighted by a psychometric evaluation of a commonly used (but previously untested) plagiarism attitudinal scale.

The importance of psychometric testing is shown through an analysis of a commonly used scale using modern techniques (e.g. Rasch analysis) on 131 undergraduate education students at an Australian university.

Psychometric analysis revealed the scale to be unreliable in its present form. However, when reduced to an eight-item subscale it became marginally reliable.

The main implication of this paper is that questionnaire instruments cannot be assumed to function as they are intended without thorough psychometric testing.

The paper offers valuable insight into the psychometric properties of a previously untested but commonly used plagiarism attitudinal scale.

The paper offers a straightforward and easy to understand introduction to researchers in higher education who use questionnaires/surveys in their research but lack an understanding of why psychometric testing is so critical. While similar papers have been written in other fields which advocate psychometric approaches, such as Rasch analysis, this has not been the case in higher educational research (or mainstream educational research for that matter).

This aim of this paper, from a systems perspective, is to focus on the effects of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology adoption and information sharing within a manufacturing facility on the just-in-time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM) practices and the subsequent impact on operational performance of manufacturing firms.

Data were collected from 104 manufacturing managers, supervisors and quality professionals and analyzed using a path analysis methodology.

RFID technology utilization and supply chain information sharing combine to enhance a manufacturing organization’s JIT and TQM capabilities which lead to improve operational performance.

Although the sample size is large enough to support path analysis, it is not of sufficient size to support structural equation modeling. This limitation precludes assessing the model as a whole. Direct and indirect effects are assessed, however.

Manufacturing managers are provided with a framework for assessing the synergistic impact of combining RFID technology and information sharing on the JIT and TQM capabilities and the subsequent impact on the operational performance of the firm.

A systems approach to assessing the impact of a combination of RFID technology and information sharing on operations programs is developed and tested. The results verify the importance of implementing RFID technology within an information sharing environment and support the proposition that RFID technology enhances both JIT and TQM capabilities.

Tourists must possess technological competence, as technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous in travel. However, few studies have investigated tourists’ technological competence (TTC). Thus, this study aims to develop a valid and reliable scale for measuring TTC.

In the development of the scale, the authors first reviewed the literature and consulted experts to formulate an initial set of items. The items were then reduced using exploratory factor analysis, and the measures were validated through confirmatory factor analysis. Two distinct sets of data were collected to develop and validate the TTC scale.

The final scale has 21 items and five factors: searching and booking for travel information online, using self-service systems, operating VR/AR technologies, using apps for travel and using technology at tourist destination. After analyzing the reliability, construct validity, criterion-related validity and known-group validity, the TTC scale has been established as a measurement tool with acceptable reliability and validity.

The authors proposed the concept of technological competence in tourists and developed a scale to measure it. In addition to filling research gaps, understanding the items relating to TTC can help promote tourism education in the digital and technological age and provide reference for those developing technological services at tourist destinations.

随着科技在旅行中的应用普及, 游客必须具备科技使用能力。然而, 关于游客科技使用能力（TTC）的研究很少。因此, 本研究开发了一个有效可靠的量表来衡量TTC。

在量表的开发中, 我们首先回顾了文献, 并咨询专家, 制定了一组初始测量项目。然后通过探索性因素分析缩减项目, 并通过验证性因素分析验证了测量。我们收集了两组不同的数据来开发和验证TTC量表。

最终的量表包含21个项目和5个因子：在线搜索和预订旅行信息, 使用自助服务系统, 操作虚拟现实/增强现实技术, 使用旅行应用程序, 以及在旅游目的地使用科技。在分析可靠性、构造效度、标准相关效度和已知群体效度后, TTC量表已被确定为具有可接受的可靠性和效度的测量工具。

我们提出了游客的科技使用能力概念, 并开发了一个用于衡量的量表。除了填补研究空白外, 了解与游客科技使用能力相关的项目可以帮助推动数字化和技术时代的旅游教育, 并为那些开发旅游目的地科技服务的人提供参考。