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1 – 10 of 53Samuel Sekyi, Philip Kofi Adom and Emmanuel Agyapong Wiafe
This study examined the influence of income and health insurance on the health-seeking behaviour of rural residents, addressing the concerns of endogeneity and heterogeneity bias.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined the influence of income and health insurance on the health-seeking behaviour of rural residents, addressing the concerns of endogeneity and heterogeneity bias.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-stage residual inclusion was utilised to correct self-selection-based endogeneity problems arising from health insurance membership.
Findings
This study provides support for Andersen's behavioural model (ABM). Income and health insurance positively stimulate rural residents' use of modern healthcare services, but the effect of insurance risks a downward bias if treated as exogenous. Further, the effect of health insurance differs between males and females and between adults and the elderly.
Originality/value
This study advances the literature, arguing that, within the ABM framework, enabling (i.e. income and insurance) and predisposing factors (i.e. age and gender) complement each other in explaining rural residents' use of modern health services.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2023-0223
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The purpose here is to show how the “shadow” economy has grown in scale and impetus in recent years, though even before modern times it has been present (e.g. the City of London…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose here is to show how the “shadow” economy has grown in scale and impetus in recent years, though even before modern times it has been present (e.g. the City of London, Shaxson, 2011) since at least the middle ages. The reasons for this have become complicated, but we can identify some “deep structures” that are common. Firstly, “globalisation” made it easier for multinationals to escape national regulatory regimes. Secondly, one of the ways neoliberal trading regulations allowed such actors to augment their assets was by means of what they initially called “transfer-pricing” but which now is officially known as “profit shifting” through tax havens. Thirdly, the growth in international trade in legal and illegal ways caused money laundering – even by otherwise respectable banks – to grow across borders. Conversely, from the supply-side, tax haven status was increasingly accessed by jurisdictions that sought to achieve economic growth by supplying tax haven services, both Delaware and Ireland as exemplars of a “developmental” fiscal policy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a “pattern recognition” design, an approach that is abductive, meaning interpretive, as shown in the observation that explanation can be valid or reliable without direct observation. This is shown in the indirect observation that “rain fell because the terrace has puddles” or “ancient glaciers once carved this valley”.
Findings
Reviewing the European Union’s (EU) list of non-co-operating jurisdictions in support of the OECD’s review of base erosion and profit-shifting activity, Collin concluded the EU’s listing “moved the needle” somewhat but was only a modest success. This is because of its reluctance to sanction its own members or large economies like the USA. Data on foreign direct investment and offshore banking assets suggest listed jurisdictions did not suffer notably from being named and shamed. In all cases studied, this contribution found legally damaging, fraudulent, conflict of interest and corrupt practice activities everywhere.
Originality/value
The originality is found in three spheres. Firstly, the pattern recognition method was vindicated in yielding hard to research results. Secondly, the “assemblage-thirdspace” theory was found advantageous in demonstrating the uneven geography of tax haven clusters and their common history in turbocharging economic development. Finally, the empirics showed the ruses executed by cluster members in tax havens to circumvent the law from global management consultancies to micro-firms consisting of tax lawyers and other experts interacting in knowledge supply chains of dubious morality.
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Damion Waymer and Theon E. Hill
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to science communication literature by further highlighting the underexplored role of organizational and corporate perspectives in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to science communication literature by further highlighting the underexplored role of organizational and corporate perspectives in science communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of a conceptual article that uses two illustrative vignettes to highlight the power of corporate science communication.
Findings
The key argument is that corporate science communication is a compound ideology that results from merging the hegemonic corporate voice with the ultimate/god-term science (see the work of Kenneth Burke) to form a mega-ideological construct and discourse. Such communication can be so powerful that vulnerable publics and powerful advocates speaking on their behalf have little to no recourse to effectively challenge such discourse. While critiques of corporate science communication in practice are not new, what the authors offer is a possible explanation as to why such discourse is so powerful and hard to combat.
Originality/value
The value of this paper is in the degree to which it both sets an important applied research agenda for the field and fills a critical void in the science communication literature. This conceptual article, in the form of a critical analysis, fills the void by advocating for the inclusion of organizational perspectives in science communication research because of the great potential that organizations have, via science communication, to shape societal behavior and outcomes both positively and negatively. It also coins the terms “compound ideology” and “mega-ideology” to denote that while all ideologies are powerful, ideologies can operate in concert (compound) to change their meaning and effectiveness. By exposing the hegemonic power of corporate science communication, future researchers and practitioners can use these findings as a foundation to combat misinformation and disinformation campaigns wielded by big corporate science entities and the public relations firms often hired to carry out these campaigns.
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As innovations introduce novel benefits to customers, they would need to be positioned in a way that sets them apart in the market. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel…
Abstract
Purpose
As innovations introduce novel benefits to customers, they would need to be positioned in a way that sets them apart in the market. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel approach for the positioning of innovations with the use of the customer imagination and, specifically, mental movies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the schema approach as this study’s theoretical framework, the author proposes that innovations could be positioned using moving pictures (i.e. mental movies) instead of mental pictures (the approach traditionally taken).
Findings
A new conceptual framework for the positioning of innovations using mental movies is presented. In the framework, this study outlines how innovations can be positioned with the use of mental movies, and why such an approach would be beneficial. The framework outlines mixed reality, i.e. augmented reality, augmented virtuality and virtuality, as well as the metaverse and gaming as avenues for positioning innovations using mental movies. On the benefit side, the framework identifies successful market introductions, engagement and stickiness, memorability and positive emotions, uniqueness and differentiation and market share as the concrete benefits that can be achieved with this type of positioning.
Originality/value
The framework provides a novel approach for the positioning of innovations. It departs from existing literature by proposing that innovations can be positioned using mental movies. The framework also identifies why this approach would be beneficial for marketers and managers and provides concrete guidelines for how such a positioning can be achieved in the market.
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Guillermo Monrós, Mario Llusar and José Antonio Badenes
The purpose of this study is the synthesis and characterization of a CMYK palette (cyan of Cr-BiVO4, magenta of Pr-CeO2, yellow of Bi-(Ce,Zr)O2 composite and black of YMnO3) as an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is the synthesis and characterization of a CMYK palette (cyan of Cr-BiVO4, magenta of Pr-CeO2, yellow of Bi-(Ce,Zr)O2 composite and black of YMnO3) as an eco-friendly polyfunctional palette that combines (a) high near-infrared reflectance (cool pigments) that allows moderate temperatures in indoor environments and the urban heat island effect; (b) photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic contaminants of emerging concern of substrates in solution (such as Orange II or methylene blue) and gaseous (NOx and volatile organic compounds such as acetaldehyde or toluene); (c) X-ray radiation attenuators associated with bismuth ions; and (d) biocidal effect combined with co-doping with bactericidal agents.
Design/methodology/approach
Pigments were prepared by a solid-state reaction and characterized by X-ray diffraction, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, photocatalytic activity over Orange II and scanning electron microscopy.
Findings
The behaviour of the proposed palette was compared to that of a commercial inkjet palette, and an improvement in all functionalities was observed.
Social implications
The functionalities of pigments allow the building envelope and indoor walls to exhibit temperature-moderating effects (with the additional effects of moderating global warming and increasing air conditioning efficiency), purification and disinfection of both indoor and outdoor air, and radiation attenuation.
Originality/value
The proposed palette and its polyfunctional characterization are novel.
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Wantao Yu, Qi Liu, Roberto Chavez and Linchang Zheng
Many firms are now pursuing large-scale change initiatives to accelerate their digital transformation (DT) and sustainable development. However, the success rate of DT projects is…
Abstract
Purpose
Many firms are now pursuing large-scale change initiatives to accelerate their digital transformation (DT) and sustainable development. However, the success rate of DT projects is still low, and the extent to which DT enables firms to improve environmental sustainability (ES) remains unclear. Recently, researchers have argued that DT is more about people transformation rather than technology. Based on the contingent resource-based view, this study investigates how DT influences ES and examines the moderating role of training provision (TP).
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data gathered from manufacturers in China were analysed to test the proposed theoretical framework.
Findings
The results indicate that DT has a positive impact on ES, and that this effect is positively moderated by TP.
Practical implications
The empirical findings provide insights for managers to understand the success of digital sustainability transformation requires necessary digital knowledge and skills derived from TP.
Originality/value
This study provides an initial examination of digital sustainability, which is a new stream of literature for the digital age, and further extends existing knowledge by demonstrating the importance of people (i.e. TP) in strengthening the effectiveness of DT on ES.
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The crude oil market plays a key role in addressing the issue of energy economics. This paper aims to detect the causality relationship between the crude oil market and economy…
Abstract
Purpose
The crude oil market plays a key role in addressing the issue of energy economics. This paper aims to detect the causality relationship between the crude oil market and economy based on the financial system.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used the static and dynamic Hatemi-J Bootstrap Toda–Yamamoto and Diebold–Yilmaz connectedness index. The Hatemi-J Bootstrap Toda-Yamamoto approach allows researchers to use nonstationary data and that method is robust to nonnormal distribution and heteroscedasticity. The Diebold–Yilmaz connectedness index model provides researchers to detect the power of connectedness besides linkage direction. The analyzed period is the span from January 3, 2005 to October 3, 2022.
Findings
The results show bidirectional causality in the full sample but unidirectional causality before and after the 2008 financial crisis. During the 2008 financial crisis period and the COVID-19 period, there was a bidirectional and unidirectional causality, respectively. The connectedness approach indicates that the crude oil market affects financial stress through investors’ risk preferences.
Research limitations/implications
The Diebold–Yilmaz spillover index model is based on vector autoregression methods with a stationarity precondition. However, some of the five dimensions that constitute the financial stress index (FSI) are nonstationary in level. Therefore, the authors takes the first difference of the nonstationary data.
Practical implications
The linkage between the crude oil market and the FSI provides useful information for investors and policymakers. For instance, this paper indicates that an investor wanted to forecast future value of the crude oil (financial stress) should consider the current and past values of financial stress (crude oil). Moreover, policymaker should consider the crude oil market (FSI) to make a policy proposal for financial system (crude oil market).
Originality/value
Recently, indicators of economic activity levels (economic policy uncertainty, implied volatility index) have begun to be considered to analyze the relationship between energy and the economy but very little is known in the literature about the leading and lagging roles of data in subsample periods and the linkage channel. The other originality of this research is using the new econometric approaches.
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S. Balasubrahmanyam and Deepa Sethi
Gillette’s historically successful “razor and blade” business model (RBM) has been a promising benchmark for multiple businesses across diverse industries worldwide in the past…
Abstract
Purpose
Gillette’s historically successful “razor and blade” business model (RBM) has been a promising benchmark for multiple businesses across diverse industries worldwide in the past several decades. The extant literature deals with very few nuances of this business model notwithstanding the fact that there are several variants of this business model being put to practical use by firms in diverse industries in grossly metaphorically equivalent situations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the 2 × 2 truth table framework from the domains of mathematical logic and combinatorics in fleshing out all possible (four logical possibilities) variants of the razor and blade business model for further analysis. This application presents four mutually exclusive yet collectively exhaustive possibilities on any chosen dimension. Two major dimensions (viz., provision of subsidy and intra- or extra-firm involvement in the making of razors or blades or both) form part of the discussion in this paper. In addition, this study synthesizes and streamlines entrepreneurial wisdom from multiple intra-industry and inter-industry benchmarks in terms of real-time firms explicitly or implicitly adopting several variants of the RBM that suit their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of evolution in situations that are grossly reflective of the metaphorically equivalent scenario of razor and recurrent blades. Inductive method of research is carried out with real-time cases from diverse industries with a pivotally common pattern of razor and blade model in some form or the other.
Findings
Several new variants of the razor and blade model (much beyond what the extant literature explicitly projects) have been discovered from the multiple metaphorically equivalent cases of RBM across industries. All of these expand the portfolio of options that relevant entrepreneurial firms can explore and exploit the best possible option chosen from them, given their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of growth.
Research limitations/implications
This study has enriched the literature by presenting and analyzing a more inclusive or perhaps comprehensive palette of explicit choices in the form of several variants of the RBM for the relevant entrepreneurial firms to choose from. Future research can undertake the task of comparing these variants of RBM with those of upcoming servitization business models such as guaranteed availability, subscription and performance-based contracting and exploring the prospects of diverse combinations.
Practical implications
Smart entrepreneurial firms identify and adopt inspiring benchmarks (like razor and blade model whenever appropriate) duly tweaked and blended into a gestalt benchmark for optimal profits and attractive market shares. They target diverse market segments for tied-goods with different variants or combinations of the relevant benchmarks in the form of variegated customer value propositions (CVPs) that have unique and enticing appeal to the respective market segments.
Social implications
Value-sensitive customers on the rise globally choose the option that best suits them from among multiple alternatives offered by competing firms in the market. As long as the ratio of utility to price of such an offer is among the highest, even a no-frills CVP may be most appealing to one market segment while a plush CVP may be tempting to yet another market segment simultaneously. While professional business firms embrace resource leverage practices consciously, amateur customers do so subconsciously. Each party subliminally desires to have the maximum bang-to-buck ratio as the optimal return on investment, given their priorities ceteris paribus.
Originality/value
Prior studies on the RBM have explicitly captured only a few variants of the razor and blade model. This study is perhaps the first of its kind that ferrets out many other variants (more than ten) of the razor and blade model with due simplification and exemplification, justification and demystification.
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Fabian Maximilian Johannes Teichmann and Chiara Wittmann
This paper aims to elucidate the practical and theoretical mechanisms which contribute to the perception of an economic sanction’s effectiveness as a foreign policy tool.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to elucidate the practical and theoretical mechanisms which contribute to the perception of an economic sanction’s effectiveness as a foreign policy tool.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is divided into three sections, the first two of which are heavily based on the current academic literature and media presentation of sanctions. The third section is rooted in the empirical approach presented in the first author’s exploratory work, Methods of Money Laundering (2021).
Findings
Economic sanctions cannot be perceived as effective when the standard for efficacy remains undefined and sanction circumvention remains feasible. The public perception of sanctions is characterized by a series of assumptions as well as conflict foreign policy objectives, which cultivate an economic theory that is benefited by a practical exploration of the routes of circumvention.
Originality/value
The efficacy of economic sanctions is not a stable equation, but rather the application of an economic tool which is dependent on its context. Paths of sanction circumvention remain open due to weaknesses in compliance regulation. These paths continue to undermine the credibility of sanctions and, ultimately, their efficacy.
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Eslam Taha, Mostafa Attia Mohie, Mahmoud Sayed Korany, Naglaa Aly, Alaa Ropy and Mosaad Negem
This study aims to investigate profoundly the protection of oil painting from deterioration using molybdenum trisulphide quantum dots (MoS3 QDs) against microbe, dirt accumulation…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate profoundly the protection of oil painting from deterioration using molybdenum trisulphide quantum dots (MoS3 QDs) against microbe, dirt accumulation and ultraviolet (UV) degradation.
Design/methodology/approach
The protection of painting against different deterioration factors necessitates the sustainable methods and advanced techniques. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy have been used to investigate the morphological structure of the painting and MoS3 QDs, respectively, and optical microscopy was used to examine antibacterial activity of MoS3 QDs towards different types of bacteria. To investigate the protection of painting against deterioration, the Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to investigate the paintings left in open air for a year. Chemical composition and crystal structure of MoS3 QDs have been studied using X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, respectively.
Findings
The addition of MoS3 nanoparticles into painted coatings enhances the durability of linseed oil-based paintings toward UV ageing regarding the change in colour which confirmed by FTIR analysis. The protection of oil painting opposed to various deterioration factors was developed by involving of MoS3 QDs in the coating of the painting. Antibacterial effect of MoS3 QDs was tested against different types of bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa confirming that the MoS3 QDs involved in the coatings of oil paintings produces a high protection layer for the paintings against several microbial attacks. In addition, coatings containing MoS3 QDs reduce the accumulation of dirt on oil paintings when subjected to open air for a year.
Originality/value
The novel MoS3 QDs was used to form a protective and transparent coating layer for the oil painting to overcome the deterioration, displays the promising protection and can be applied for different oil paintings.
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