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Stiffness control of redundant robot arm, aimed at using extra degrees of freedom (DoF) to shape the robot tool center point (TCP) elastomechanical behavior to be consistent with the essential requirements needed for a successful part mating process, i.e., to mimic part supporting mechanism with selective quasi-isotropic compliance (Remote Center of Compliance – RCC), with additional properties of inherent flexibility.

Theoretical analysis and synthesis of the complementary projector for null-space stiffness control of kinematically redundant robot arm. Practical feasibility of the proposed approach was proven by extensive computer simulations and physical experiments, based on commercially available 7 DoF SIA 10 F Yaskawa articulated robot arm, equipped with the open-architecture control system, system for generating excitation force, dedicated sensory system for displacement measurement and a system for real-time acquisition of sensory data.

Simulation experiments demonstrated convergence and stability of the proposed complementary projector. Physical experiments demonstrated that the proposed complementary projector can be implemented on the commercially available anthropomorphic redundant arm upgraded with open-architecture control system and that this projector has the capacity to efficiently affect the task-space TCP stiffness of the robot arm, with a satisfactory degree of consistency with the behavior obtained in the simulation experiments.

A novel complementary projector was synthesized based on the adopted objective function. Practical verification was conducted using computer simulations and physical experiments. For the needs of physical experiments, an adequate open-architecture control system was developed and upgraded through the implementation of the proposed complementary projector and an adequate system for generating excitation and measuring displacement of the robot TCP. Experiments demonstrated that the proposed complementary projector for null-space stiffness control is capable of producing the task-space TCP stiffness, which can satisfy the essential requirements needed for a successful part-mating process, thus allowing the redundant robot arm to mimic the RCC supporting mechanism behavior in a programmable manner.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the use of Quick Response (QR) code application among the tourists on their satisfaction at a destination regarding information about restaurants’ offer.

A quantitative method was implemented in this study. The field study was conducted in 2019 in the two most visited urban destinations in Serbia. The proposed model was examined using partial least squares, and the model fits, composite reliability and convergent validity were assessed. The direction and significance of the relationships were determined by testing all of the hypotheses.

The results showed that there was a positive effect of using QR codes. However, the study showed that a QR code cannot completely affect the overall satisfaction at a destination. The analysis of the control variables (age and economic status) showed that individual, demographic and economic factors must be taken into consideration to predict individuals’ behaviour.

To enable the generalization of the results, it is advised to conduct research on cross-cultural levels. Future studies related to the topic could be conveyed in other forms of tourism, as well as in other industries, which would provide a better insight into the application of this technology in the future.

The study enables managers of tourism businesses, especially in hospitality, to better understand the importance of the use of a QR code at a destination as an important marketing tool for getting information, and thus to satisfy guests’ expectations.

The starting premise of this study is that women's empowerment is the goal for self-realization and that the support that comes from local tourism stakeholders represents an adequate base. In many rural areas, women have established self-help groups (SHGs), which facilitate the interaction with a wide range of stakeholders. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of SHGs on female entrepreneurship and self-employment in tourism.

To examine the research question, this study adopted a quantitative research that included a sample of 513 women in a less-advanced rural area in Serbia. For the data analysis, the generalized linear regression model (GLM) was used.

According to the results, self-employment is the leading goal of women's empowerment.

The main limitation in the research and the authors’ suggestion for future research is to increase the sample size of female respondents, so examination of their attitudes and role in the travel business in their local settings might reach higher significance. The second issue that the authors would like to point out is a highly local character of our study, so the future research should involve other rural areas in the country and from abroad (e.g. similar undeveloped countryside with noticeable, active women's role in local entrepreneurship).

The most important practical implications of this paper are twofold: (1) the results of the research have shown that the tourist potential of rural areas can be enhanced through local tourism stakeholders' support; (2) women without professional interest or jobs in rural areas, especially in the areas where the population is traditionally dominated by men (husband/brother/father), have a chance to earn and to be economically more independent. This research can affect future studies to investigate other aspects of empowerment depending on the difference of regions, from one side, and also alternative opportunities for tourism and local development in less-advanced rural areas, from another side.

The study analyzes the tourism potential of the rural areas (which are less advanced and mostly very poor in developing countries, such as Serbia). In this case, there are opportunities to increase employment, social inclusion of women, development of new tourism strategies, implementation of destination marketing, etc. Moreover, it contributes to future research in the field of stakeholders in tourism strategies.

The aim of the research was to analyse the image of Vojvodina's cuisine and tourist satisfaction with food experience as part of a rural tourism offer in Vojvodina province (Serbia). This chapter is based on research carried out among 891 foreign tourists who visited villages in Vojvodina. The obtained results were examined via exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) and T-test. The obtained results indicated that factors like food uniqueness and cultural heritage, food quality and price, nutrition and health benefits of food and affective image of food influence the image of local cuisine. The results showed that local cuisine (food) can serve as a tool for building destination's brand identity. The study pointed out the role and significance of the image of local cuisine on rural tourist attractions but also on tourist satisfaction with food experience. Also, the contribution of the research is reflected in three aspects: theoretical implication, methodological and practical contribution.

The presented research proposes a method aimed to improve a case retrieval phase of the case-based reasoning (CBR) system through optimization of feature relevance parameters, i.e. feature weights.

The improvement is achieved by applying the metaheuristic optimization technique, called electromagnetism-like algorithm (EM), in order to appropriately adjust the feature weights used in k-NN classifier. The usability of the proposed EM k-NN algorithm is much broader since it can also be used outside the CBR system, e.g. for solving general pattern recognition tasks.

It is showed that the proposed EM k-NN algorithm improves the baseline k-NN model and outperforms the appropriately tuned artificial neural network (ANN) in the task of predicting the case (data record) output values. The results are verified by performing statistical analysis.

The proposed method is currently adjusted to deal with numerical features, so, as a direction for future work, the variant of EM k-NN algorithm that deals with symbolic or some more complex types of features should be considered.

EM k-NN algorithm can be incorporated as a case retrieval component inside a general CBR system. This is the future direction of the investigation since the authors intend to build a complete specialized CBR system for construction project management. The overall CBR with incorporated EM k-NN will have significant implication in the construction management as it will be able to produce more accurate prediction of viability and the life cycle of new construction projects.

The electromagnetism-like algorithm is applied to the problem of finding feature weights for the first time. EM potential for solving the problem of weighting features lies in its internal structure because it is based on the real-valued EM vectors. The overall EM k-NN algorithm is applied on data sets generated from real construction projects data corpus. The proposed algorithm proved its efficiency as it outperformed baseline k-NN model and ANN. Its applicability in more complex and specialized CBR systems is high since it can be easily added due to its modular (black-box) design.

This research examines the likelihood that Panamanian and Colombian banks listed on their respective stock exchanges voluntarily disclose intangible liabilities based on such variables as their size, profitability, indebtedness, age and growth. The presented findings concur with agency theory, signalling theory and the owner-cost theory.

The authors propose a probabilistic model to test the influence of size, profitability, indebtedness, age and growth on the disclosure of intangible liabilities. The dependent variable, the disclosure index, was constructed from a dichotomous approach using Harvey and Lusch's (1999) model, which has 24 characteristics, plus six that we added in our research. These were grouped into four categories: procedures, human activity, information and organisational structure.

Banks in Panama and Colombia with a larger size, higher profitability, lower age and higher growth are more likely to disclose more information about their intangible liabilities. However, indebtedness does not serve as a determinant of the disclosure of these liabilities, even though its relationship is negative.

The limitation of the research was the voluntary disclosure of information about these liabilities on firms' websites.

The contributions of this research are as follows. First, we used an intangible asset disclosure methodology to verify the disclosure of intangible liabilities, in line with Harvey and Lusch's model, as well as providing another six indicators, thereby producing an extended model. Second, being the first empirical research to study the disclosure of intangible liabilities in Panama and Colombia opens a door to future research on this topic.

This research provides a significant practical contribution to society because banks listed on public stock markets, understanding that undisclosed intangible liabilities lead to opportunity costs in their profitability, might tend to disclose more information, thus promoting greater transparency in the market.

The main contribution of this research is applying an intangible asset disclosure methodology to the disclosure of intangible liabilities, following Harvey and Lusch's (1999) model, as well as the creation of an expanded model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of length of service and ethical ideologies on cognitive moral development (CMD) and ethical behavioral intentions among public sector tax auditors in Brazil.

The research data were collected via survey questionnaires from a sample of 625 auditors who work for the Brazilian tax authority. Participants voluntarily complete an online instrument which included three scenarios with context-specific moral dilemmas, questions about the specific scenarios and an ethics position questionnaire. Multinomial logistic and ordinary least squares regressions were used to analyze the data.

The findings reveal that public sector tax auditors with shorter length of service are more likely to be at higher stages of moral development; relativistic ideology among public sector auditors is positively associated with more lenient ethical behavioral intention; idealistic ideology among public sector auditors is positively associated with stricter ethical behavioral intention; public sector auditors classified as absolutists are stricter in their ethical behavioral intentions; and public sector auditors classified as absolutists with length of service between 5 and 15 years are more likely to be at higher stages of moral development when compared to public sector tax auditors with longer length of service.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is one of the first studies that attempt to understand the effects of length of service and ethical ideology on CMD and ethical behavioral intention among public sector auditors. Additionally, it examines these issues in the context of Latin America.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of online hotel reviews (OHRs) on the fit between strategy and use of the management control system (MCS) in small- and medium-sized hotels in Brazil. The study analyzed the influence of the variable OHR on the fit between the deliberate strategy and emergent strategy, as well as the diagnostic use and interactive use, of MCS.

The study was carried out with the application of a questionnaire in small- and medium-sized hotels in Brazil. The analyses are based on 78 responses from Brazilian hotels. The analysis used the modeling of structural equations by parts (SmartPLS).

The results show the influence that external variables have in the adjustment of management systems. Specifically, the authors present quantitative evidence that OHR plays an important role in the adjustment between the deliberate strategy and the diagnostic use of MCS.

The results have several implications for research and practice.

The results have several implications for research and practice. A practical implication of this work is to understand how external variables (e.g. OHR) can be important in the fit of management systems. This study offers value for managers in that it supports the argument that hotels can benefit from the use of OHR in the MCS fit.

This study provides evidence for the influence of external variables, such as OHR, on the fit between strategy and MCS use. The study contributes to the literature by providing new evidence of the role of guest evaluations in aligning strategies with the use of MCS.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze sustainability of the constructed projects (Djerdap 1 and 2) and feasibility of the planned ones (Djerdap 3) on the river Danube in the region of Iron Gate, with multi-criteria focus on technical, economical and environmental parameters.

The main objectives were achieved by using the methodology of a holistic multi-criteria approach. Electra method was applied. The design of the three projects on the international Danube River were analyzed, from technical, economical and environmental point of view, with the goal to manage a higher involvement of renewable resources.

The results of the research imply that the most profitable technical solutions cannot reach its realization and construction if the environmental quality criteria are not fulfilled and included in the multi-criteria optimization model. At the same time, the most sustainable and environmentally friendly technical solutions, such as the renewable hydro pump storage scheme, cannot be realized without proper project management and investment.

The results and conclusions are valid for all the structures and projects of renewable resources, where there is a conflict to the environment. This research has implications to all decision-making processes focusing on holistic analyses of conflicted techno-economical and environmental parameters.

The value of the paper and research is in proving the necessity of simultaneous analyses of technical, economical and environmental impacts on the projects. All the results of the research are beneficial for stakeholders who intend to invest in renewable hydro energy resources, in the function of sustainable development.