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Article
Publication date: 22 March 2024

Mohitul Ameen Ahmed Mustafi, Ya-Juan Dong and Md Sajjad Hosain

Effective green supply chain management (GSCM) has become a potentially valuable tool of securing competitive advantage and improving operational performance (OP) as competition…

Abstract

Purpose

Effective green supply chain management (GSCM) has become a potentially valuable tool of securing competitive advantage and improving operational performance (OP) as competition is no longer exists between the firms but within green supply chains. The aim of this empirical study is to determine the link between GSCM practices (GSCMPs) and OP within the manufacturing sector of Bangladesh mediated by perceived competitive advantage (PCA). GSCMPs were divided into three further dimensions: green eco-design (GED), green supply chain partnering (GSCP) and internal green orientation (IGO).

Design/methodology/approach

The study selected 376 individuals as respondents who work as the top-level managers and the members of the Board of Directors at different Bangladeshi manufacturing firms through purposive sampling. A partial least square-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to identify the relationships between the three dimensions of, GSCMPs, and the single dependent variable, OP.

Findings

The study identified that two factors, GED and GSCP, have significant positive relationships with OP. On the other hand, another factor, IGO has a statistically insignificant relationship with OP. Regarding the mediating effects, the study identified that PCA can fully mediate the insignificant relationship between IGO and OP, and partially mediate the significant relationship between GSCP and OP. On the contrary, PCA has no mediating effect on the relationship between GED and OP.

Originality/value

This empirical study is an effort that examined the role of GSCMPs on the OP in the Bangladeshi manufacturing context. It is believed that this empirical investigation will prompt future theoretical studies and empirical experiments to enrich academia. Further, the findings of this study can serve as foundational guidance for policymakers and/or managers studying the formulation and implementation of GSCMP-related policies and strategies.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2023

Isah Shittu and Ayoib Che-Ahmad

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of selected corporate governance (CG) variables on the equity value multiple (EVM) of listed firms in Nigeria.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of selected corporate governance (CG) variables on the equity value multiple (EVM) of listed firms in Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

The research used data obtained from 100 firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) from 2014 to 2018. A generalized method of moment was used to estimate the relationship, whereas principal component analysis was used to generate composite values of EVMs.

Findings

Findings reveal a significant association between board size, board independence, board gender diversity, managerial shareholding, audit committee independence, disclosure of CG information and EVM at a 1% level of significance.

Research limitations/implications

This study was limited to firms that disclosed information on CG and EVMs.

Practical implications

These empirical findings lend support to agency theory, which suggests the use of various CG variables as a way of reducing principal-agent conflicts. It also lends support to resource dependency theory from a gender diversity perspective.

Originality/value

The study is a pioneering effort toward unlocking the relationship between some CG variables and the EVMs, focusing on firms listed on the NSE.

Details

Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2022

Jung Ran Park, Erik Poole and Jiexun Li

The purpose of this study is to explore linguistic stylometric patterns encompassing lexical, syntactic, structural, sentiment and politeness features that are found in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore linguistic stylometric patterns encompassing lexical, syntactic, structural, sentiment and politeness features that are found in librarians’ responses to user queries.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 462 online texts/transcripts comprising answers of librarians to users’ questions drawn from the Internet Public Library were examined. A Principal Component Analysis, which is a data reduction technique, was conducted on the texts and transcripts. Data analysis illustrates the three principal components that predominantly occur in librarians’ answers: stylometric richness, stylometric brevity and interpersonal support.

Findings

The results of the study have important implications in digital information services because stylometric features such as lexical richness, structural clarity and interpersonal support may interplay with the degree of complexity of user queries, the (a)synchronous communication mode, application of information service guideline and manuals and overall characteristics and quality of a given digital information service. Such interplay may bring forth a direct impact on user perceptions and satisfaction regarding interaction with librarians and the information service received through the computer-mediated communication channel.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the stylometric features encompassing lexical, syntactic, structural, sentiment and politeness using Principal Component Analysis have not been explored in digital information/reference services. Thus, there is an emergent need to explore more fully how linguistic stylometric features interplay with the types of user queries, the asynchronous online communication mode, application of information service guidelines and the quality of a particular digital information service.

Details

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, vol. 73 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9342

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 February 2024

John Hyland, Maeve Mary Henchion, Oluwayemisi Olomo, Jennifer Attard and James Gaffey

The aim of this paper is to better understand European consumers' behaviour in relation to Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), so as to provide insights to support their development…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to better understand European consumers' behaviour in relation to Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), so as to provide insights to support their development as part of a sustainable food system. Specifically, it aims to analyse consumer purchase patterns, motivations and perceived barriers and to identify patterns of behaviour amongst different consumer groups.

Design/methodology/approach

An online consumer survey was conducted in 12 European countries (n = 2,419). Quantitative data analysis, including principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis, was undertaken using SPSS.

Findings

Four consumer clusters are named according to their behavioural stage in terms of SFSC engagement: Unaware Unengaged, Aware Unengaged, Motivationally Engaged and Executively Engaged. Unaware Unengaged and Aware Unengaged are in the non-engagement phase of behaviour. Motivationally Engaged are motivationally activated to engage in the behaviour but fail to do so consistently. Executively Engaged is the fully engaged cluster, being motivated to act and purchasing local food on a frequent basis. The results show an interesting interplay between motivations and barriers, i.e. higher scores for motivations and lower scores for barriers do not necessarily translate into higher purchase frequency.

Originality/value

The research gleans insights into the contextual factors that may inhibit SFSC purchases in different consumer segments. It offers practical implications for policymakers and others seeking to develop SFSCs as part of a sustainable food system.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 June 2023

Abena Owusu and Aparna Gupta

Although risk culture is a key determinant for an effective risk management, identifying the risk culture of a firm can be challenging due to the abstract concept of culture. This…

Abstract

Purpose

Although risk culture is a key determinant for an effective risk management, identifying the risk culture of a firm can be challenging due to the abstract concept of culture. This paper proposes a novel approach that uses unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify significant features needed to assess and differentiate between different forms of risk culture.

Design/methodology/approach

To convert the unstructured text in our sample of banks' 10K reports into structured data, a two-dimensional dictionary for text mining is built to capture risk culture characteristics and the bank's attitude towards the risk culture characteristics. A principal component analysis (PCA) reduction technique is applied to extract the significant features that define risk culture, before using a K-means unsupervised learning to cluster the reports into distinct risk culture groups.

Findings

The PCA identifies uncertainty, litigious and constraining sentiments among risk culture features to be significant in defining the risk culture of banks. Cluster analysis on the PCA factors proposes three distinct risk culture clusters: good, fair and poor. Consistent with regulatory expectations, a good or fair risk culture in banks is characterized by high profitability ratios, bank stability, lower default risk and good governance.

Originality/value

The relationship between culture and risk management can be difficult to study given that it is hard to measure culture from traditional data sources that are messy and diverse. This study offers a better understanding of risk culture using an unsupervised machine learning approach.

Details

International Journal of Managerial Finance, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1743-9132

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2023

Sabrina Sgambati and Luís Carvalho

This paper aims to investigate the competitive potential of different classes of municipalities within larger metropolitan areas, considering three dimensions of place…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the competitive potential of different classes of municipalities within larger metropolitan areas, considering three dimensions of place competitiveness, associated to contemporary economic recovery agendas: the “dual transition” (green and digital) and socio-economic resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed methodology is divided in two stages, the first aiming at developing a new Index of Urban Competitiveness, based on three key dimensions of place development, by using principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis; the second intends to identify municipalities’ main competitive assets, throughout the examination of the existing links between the overall competitiveness index and intra-metropolitan place conditions in each dimension. This methodology is applied to the metropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon.

Findings

The analysis shows a weak link between population size and urban competitiveness, suggesting that economic recovery investments primarily targeting larger municipalities will not necessarily lead to greater metropolitan competitive advantages. On the contrary, taking into consideration place-based interventions for different “clubs” of municipalities would more likely contribute to enhance competitive performance and valorise territorial assets. Furthermore, while the relationship between competitiveness and environmental performance appears to be non-linear, digitalization and economic and social resilience prove to be key for urban competitive potential.

Originality/value

By drawing on contemporary notions of urban competitiveness, the work proposes a revised method to evaluate competitiveness, latent qualities and intrinsic features of places, constituting an initial step to conceive suitable metropolitan development and investment strategies for economic recovery.

Details

Journal of Place Management and Development, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 April 2023

Abdul Rashid, Muhammad Akmal and Syed Muhammad Abdul Rehman Shah

This study aimed at exploring the differential effects of different corporate governance (CG) indicators on risk management practices in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) and…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed at exploring the differential effects of different corporate governance (CG) indicators on risk management practices in Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) and conventional financial institutions (CFIs) of Pakistan. It also investigated the moderating role of institutional quality (IQ) in shaping the effects of CG practices on financial institutions of Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 57 financial institutions including commercial banks, insurance companies and Modarba companies over the period 2006–2017 is used to carry out the empirical analysis. The authors applied the robust two-step system-generalized method of moments estimator, which is also called the dynamic panel data estimator. They also built the PCA-based composite index of CG and IQ by using different indicators to investigate the moderating role of IQ. They used three proxies for risk taking, five for CG and one for Shari’ah governance. To test the validity of the instruments, they applied the Arellano and Bond’s (1991) AR (1) and AR (2) tests and the J-statistic of Hansen (1982).

Findings

The results provided strong evidence that several individual characteristics of CG and the composite index are significantly related to the operational risk, the liquidity risk and the Z-score (a proxy for solvency risk). The results also revealed that IQ significantly and substantially contributes in reducing the level of risks. Finally, the estimation results indicated that the effects of CG on risk management are significantly different at IFIs and CFIs. This differential impact is mainly attributed to the fundamental differences in business models, operational strategies and contractual obligations of both types of institutions.

Practical implications

The findings of this study are important for enhancing our understanding of how CG relates to risk taking in Islamic and conventional financial services industries and how good quality institutions are important for formulating the governance effects on the risk-taking behavior of financial institutions. The findings suggest that a suitable size of board should be chosen to manage the risk effectively. As the findings show that the risk-taking behavior of IFIs differs from that of CFIs, the regulators and international standard setting bodies should tailor the regulatory frameworks accordingly.

Originality/value

This paper is different from the existing studies in four aspects. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation in Pakistan, which does the comparison of IFIs and CFIs while examining the impacts of CG on risk management. Second, the paper constructs the composite index of CG by considering several different indicators of governance and examines the combined effect of governance indicators on risk management process. Third, this paper adds to the growing literature on the role of IQ by investigating whether it acts as a moderator between CG structures and risk management and if yes, then whether this moderating role is different for IFIs and CFIs. Finally, the paper builds upon the existing research work on the CG effects for different types of financial institutions by proposing a single regression based analytical framework for comparing the effects across two different types of institutions, harvesting the benefits of higher degrees of freedom and avoiding/minimizing the measurement error.

Details

Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-0817

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 March 2024

Elisa Gonzalez Santacruz, David Romero, Julieta Noguez and Thorsten Wuest

This research paper aims to analyze the scientific and grey literature on Quality 4.0 and zero-defect manufacturing (ZDM) frameworks to develop an integrated quality 4.0 framework…

Abstract

Purpose

This research paper aims to analyze the scientific and grey literature on Quality 4.0 and zero-defect manufacturing (ZDM) frameworks to develop an integrated quality 4.0 framework (IQ4.0F) for quality improvement (QI) based on Six Sigma and machine learning (ML) techniques towards ZDM. The IQ4.0F aims to contribute to the advancement of defect prediction approaches in diverse manufacturing processes. Furthermore, the work enables a comprehensive analysis of process variables influencing product quality with emphasis on the use of supervised and unsupervised ML techniques in Six Sigma’s DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) cycle stage of “Analyze.”

Design/methodology/approach

The research methodology employed a systematic literature review (SLR) based on PRISMA guidelines to develop the integrated framework, followed by a real industrial case study set in the automotive industry to fulfill the objectives of verifying and validating the proposed IQ4.0F with primary data.

Findings

This research work demonstrates the value of a “stepwise framework” to facilitate a shift from conventional quality management systems (QMSs) to QMSs 4.0. It uses the IDEF0 modeling methodology and Six Sigma’s DMAIC cycle to structure the steps to be followed to adopt the Quality 4.0 paradigm for QI. It also proves the worth of integrating Six Sigma and ML techniques into the “Analyze” stage of the DMAIC cycle for improving defect prediction in manufacturing processes and supporting problem-solving activities for quality managers.

Originality/value

This research paper introduces a first-of-its-kind Quality 4.0 framework – the IQ4.0F. Each step of the IQ4.0F was verified and validated in an original industrial case study set in the automotive industry. It is the first Quality 4.0 framework, according to the SLR conducted, to utilize the principal component analysis technique as a substitute for “Screening Design” in the Design of Experiments phase and K-means clustering technique for multivariable analysis, identifying process parameters that significantly impact product quality. The proposed IQ4.0F not only empowers decision-makers with the knowledge to launch a Quality 4.0 initiative but also provides quality managers with a systematic problem-solving methodology for quality improvement.

Details

The TQM Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2731

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2024

Wenqian Feng, Xinrong Li, Jiankun Wang, Jiaqi Wen and Hansen Li

This paper reviews the pros and cons of different parametric modeling methods, which can provide a theoretical reference for parametric reconstruction of 3D human body models for…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper reviews the pros and cons of different parametric modeling methods, which can provide a theoretical reference for parametric reconstruction of 3D human body models for virtual fitting.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, we briefly analyze the mainstream datasets of models of the human body used in the area to provide a foundation for parametric methods of such reconstruction. We then analyze and compare parametric methods of reconstruction based on their use of the following forms of input data: point cloud data, image contours, sizes of features and points representing the joints. Finally, we summarize the advantages and problems of each method as well as the current challenges to the use of parametric modeling in virtual fitting and the opportunities provided by it.

Findings

Considering the aspects of integrity and accurate of representations of the shape and posture of the body, and the efficiency of the calculation of the requisite parameters, the reconstruction method of human body by integrating orthogonal image contour morphological features, multifeature size constraints and joint point positioning can better represent human body shape, posture and personalized feature size and has higher research value.

Originality/value

This article obtains a research thinking for reconstructing a 3D model for virtual fitting that is based on three kinds of data, which is helpful for establishing personalized and high-precision human body models.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2024

Ali Fazli and Mohammad Hosein Kazemi

This paper aims to propose a new linear parameter varying (LPV) controller for the robot tracking control problem. Using the identification of the robot dynamics in different work…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a new linear parameter varying (LPV) controller for the robot tracking control problem. Using the identification of the robot dynamics in different work space points about modeling trajectory based on the least square of error algorithm, an LPV model for the robotic arm is extracted.

Design/methodology/approach

Parameter set mapping based on parameter component analysis results in a reduced polytopic LPV model that reduces the complexity of the implementation. An approximation of the required torque is computed based on the reduced LPV models. The state-feedback gain of each zone is computed by solving some linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) to sufficiently decrease the time derivative of a Lyapunov function. A novel smoothing method is used for the proposed controller to switch properly in the borders of the zones.

Findings

The polytopic set of the resulting gains creates the smooth switching polytopic LPV (SS-LPV) controller which is applied to the trajectory tracking problem of the six-degree-of-freedom PUMA 560 robotic arm. A sufficient condition ensures that the proposed controller stabilizes the polytopic LPV system against the torque estimation error.

Practical implications

Smoothing of the switching LPV controller is performed by defining some tolerances and creating some quasi-zones in the borders of the main zones leading to the compressed main zones. The proposed torque estimation is not a model-based technique; so the model variation and other disturbances cannot destroy the performance of the suggested controller. The proposed control scheme does not have any considerable computational load, because the control gains are obtained offline by solving some LMIs, and the torque computation is done online by a simple polytopic-based equation.

Originality/value

In this paper, a new SS-LPV controller is addressed for the trajectory tracking problem of robotic arms. Robot workspace is zoned into some main zones in such a way that the number of models in each zone is almost equal. Data obtained from the modeling trajectory is used to design the state-feedback control gain.

Details

Industrial Robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

Keywords

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