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Workaholism negatively impacts desired behavioral outcomes. However, understanding the role of workaholism dimensions (excessiveness and compulsiveness) can help differentiate and address employee motivators towards behavioral outcomes. Using conservation of resource theory, this study explores the influence of these workaholism dimensions, as resource-consuming elements, on positive organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Further, work–family conflict (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC) are included as mediators, and time-control as a moderator, and ultimately, a moderated mediation model is tested.

Survey data were collected using a time-lagged data from 306 New Zealand employee respondents. Data were analysed for moderated mediation using the PROCESS macro.

Both dimensions of workaholism positively relate to OCBs but only excessiveness to CWBs. We find significant indirect effects of excessiveness and compulsiveness on CWBs through FWC, where time control acts as a boundary condition, showing moderated mediation effects.

Fundamentally, the unique effects found encourage workaholism researchers to undertake more complex models to provide new insights.

This is a unique study examining time control as a boundary condition. The findings of moderated mediation provide unique insights and show that workaholism effects depend on other factors.

Devolution of fiscal and administrative autonomy to public schools is a global phenomenon now. Various models of school autonomy have been adopted both in developing and developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of devolution of fiscal autonomy to public primary schools through Parent–Teacher Councils (PTCs) on retention of primary school children in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan.

Two sources of data were used to analyze the research question: Education Management Information System for the years 2006–2011 and 2007–2012, and a specially designed survey questionnaire used to compile information about PTCs from 222 public primary schools in the KP Province. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to examine whether PTC reforms are related to retention rates. An education production function approach was used to examine the effect of “inputs” (PTC reform) on “outputs” (retention).

The regression results indicate that reforms in procedural mechanisms to spend PTC budget and schools with separate classrooms for each grade level are significant in improving retention to the last grade of primary. The results also indicate that retention in all-girls’ schools tend to be significantly lower compared to all-boys’ schools.

First, the integration of data sets resulted in a small sample size, 361 schools, out of which the researcher could visit only 222 schools (10 schools per district) due to time and financial constraints. There may be a probability that with a larger sample size the author findings may look slightly different. However, this is the only current data set collected by the researcher in KP, Pakistan. Second, an ideal way of calculating retention is to track each and every child enrolled in a school over a period of five years and to calculate retention at the end of Grade 5 called true cohort model. However, due to unavailability of such kind of data, a more commonly used method, called reconstructed cohort method, is employed. In this method, data on enrollment by grade are used for six consecutive years, with an assumption that the student flow rates will remain unchanged over time and across grades.

The findings of this study provide vital policy input to the Government of Pakistan in particular and other developing countries in general. The study reveals that PTCs have critical impacts on educational outcomes, school productivity and return on public sector educational investment thus providing an impetus for further strengthening of PTC and community participation. Besides, this study offers significant implications as to how school-based management programs will lead to outcomes under resource scarcity in developing countries.

The paper has implications for the role of school leadership and community participation and for how to engender community involvement in marginalized areas where communities often do not have the time, resources or confidence to participate in their schools. Besides, community participation in parent–teacher meetings means that the school budget is spent transparently and with consensus. Hence, the chances of misuse of funds are minimized to a considerable extent, a dilemma faced by many developing countries. Finally, the collection of PTC-related data regularly especially details about budget allocated, spent and, the unutilized budget may result in better record keeping, which was found lacking during the visit.

The uniqueness and originality of this paper can be gauged from the fact that no systematic study exists with regards to the impact of school autonomy on students’ retention to the last grade of primary in KP province – a poor and conflict-ridden region in a low-income country (Pakistan). Also, the data collection from primary and secondary sources was not an easy task. However, the researcher as a civil servant has to use personal contacts to collect primary and secondary data. Hence, this study is unique and first of its kind in nature. No such research has been conducted so far by any researcher, especially in KP.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the effects of perceived transaction convenience (PTC) and perceived transaction speed (PTS) on unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) in the context of m-payment.

A predictive analysis approach was used to examine the PTC and PTS using a two-stage partial least square (PLS) and neural network (NN) analyses.

The findings reveal that only effort expectancy (EE) and facilitating conditions (FC) were discovered to significantly influence BI. More importantly, PTC was found to have positive significant relationship with EE and performance expectancy (PE). Moreover, PTS also supported the positive relationship with BI and EE.

The findings of the study provided further insights to mobile payment service providers, online banking industry players, and all decision makers and stakeholders involved.

Despite of many attempts devoted to understand m-payment adoption, the effects of PTC and PTS on m-payment are not well understood.

The purpose of this paper is to study tuneable positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect in polymer-wax-carbon composite resistors. The resistivity dependence on temperature of composite resistors made of carbon fillers dispersed in an organic matrix is known to be strongly affected by the matrix thermal expansion. High PTC effects, i.e. essentially switching from resistive to quasi-insulating behaviour, can be caused by phase changes in the matrix and the assorted volume expansion, a behaviour that has been previously shown with both simple organic waxes and semi-crystalline polymers. However, waxes become very liquid on melting, possibly resulting in carbon sedimentation, and tuneability of semi-crystalline polymers is limited.

The authors therefore study a ternary polymer-wax-conductor (ethylcellulose-octadecanol-graphite) composite resistor system, where polymer and wax fuse to a viscous liquid on heating, and re-solidify and separate by crystallisation of the wax on cooling.

It is shown that with appropriate formulation, the resulting resistors exhibit strong PTC effects, linked with the melting and crystallisation of the wax component. The behaviour somewhat depends on sample history, and notably cooling speed.

The phase equilibria and transformation kinetics of the polymer-wax system (including possible wax polymorphism), as well as the exact mechanism of the conductivity transition, remain to be investigated.

As many compatible polymer-wax systems with different melting/solidification behaviours are available, ternary polymer-wax-conductor composite PTC resistors allow a high tuneability of properties. Moreover, the high viscosity in the liquid state should largely avoid the sedimentation issues present with binary wax-conductor systems.

Because of its increased absorptance in fluid and reduced heat loss, direct absorption nanofluid (DANF) is receiving intense interest as an efficient way to harvest solar energy. This work aims to investigate, for the first time, the application of DANF in parabolic trough collectors (PTC), a promising collector for solar thermal systems.

A representative flow and heat transfer study of different fluids in a straight tube is conducted, and the basic energy equation and radiative transfer equations are numerically solved to obtain the fluid temperature distribution and energy conversion efficiency. Ethylene glycol (EG) and different concentrations of (i.e., 0.1-0.6 per cent) multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in EG are used as sample fluids. Four cases are studied for a traditional PTC (i.e., using metal tube) and a direct absorption PTC (i.e., using transparent tube) including a bare tube, a tube with an air-filled glass envelope and a tube with vacuumed glass envelop. The numerical results are verified by an experimental study using a copper-glass absorber tube, which reveals the good potential of DANFs.

Compared with a conventional PTC, using DANF shows an increase of 8.6 per cent and 6.5 K, respectively, in thermal efficiency and outlet temperature difference at a volume fraction (0.5 per cent) of nanoparticles. The results also show that the improvement in solar efficiency increases with increasing particle concentrations, and the vacuum insulated case has the highest efficiency.

In all previous studies, an important section was missing as the effect of photons on the direct solar absorption trough collector, which is considered in this study. This paper proposes a new concept of using direct solar absorption nanofluids for concentrated solar collectors and analyzes the performance of both absorptance and transmittance efficiency considerations. To reveal the potential of the new concept, an analytical model based on energy balance is developed, and two case studies are performed.

This chapter discusses the creation, structure, and functioning of the International Criminal Court. It also examines its operations to date and addresses many contemporary criticisms of the court.

The traditional newsvendor model has focused on deriving the optimal order quantity that minimises the balance between stocking too much or too less number of products. However, the managers make inventory decisions based on intuitions and shortcuts, which may involve human errors and biases. The effect of cognitive biases and heuristics influencing the inventory ordering decisions in newsvendor settings is highlighted. The advancement of research associated to the newsvendor biases is reviewed to appreciate the behavioral aspects of the minds underlying this process.

The use of experimental and non-experimental methods to investigate the ordering behaviour of newsvendors is described and we present a framework of the existing literature and highlight the research gaps to point to future research possibilities and priorities.

The proposed framework gives a systematic approach to confirm the existence of a substantial scope of research opportunities and points to specific areas for further research. It synthesizes the existing results of behavioral newsvendor research and will act as a key reference paper. In addition, it will help the practitioners and software tool vendors to comprehend the behavioral perspective of newsvendor preferences and design strategies to mitigate this effect. The insights will be helpful for academicians, researchers and practitioners working in the areas of experimental economics, behavioral economics, behavioral operations, bounded rationality theory, newsvendor modelling and supply chain contracts.

A summary of literature in this evolving area of research is very scarce. Considering the impact of behavioral economics on managerial decisions in the contemporary world, it is highly important to have an educational summary which can act as a tool for the practitioners and researchers in the area of behavioral operations management.

The purpose of this paper is to review quantitative research since 1999 evaluating the effectiveness of democratic therapeutic community (DTC) treatment for individuals with personality disorders (PD) with reference to interpersonal and offending risk outcomes.

A systematic search resulted in the review of ten studies. All of the studies investigated DTCs treating PD in community, inpatient residential and forensic settings. Only peer-reviewed, English-language articles employing a quantitative design were included.

The majority of studies were conducted poorly and of low methodological quality, with limitations located in the representativeness of participants, limited use of control and comparison groups, follow up periods and controls for confounders. Heterogeneity remained in use of measures and limited consideration was given to the validity of interpersonal measures used. While improved interpersonal outcomes post DTC treatment were noted in forensic and residential settings, results were mixed in day and mini TC settings. Inconsistent findings in offending risk outcomes were also indicated. A study with increased methodological rigour indicated residential treatment had limited effects on interpersonal outcomes, when compared to combination treatment (residential TC and step-down treatment).

The study provided an evaluation of the limitations of DTC research across a range of settings and highlighted a combination of residential TC and step-down treatment may achieve superior outcomes to residential TC treatment alone in a community inpatient population. Recommendations are made for future research to contribute to the treatment of PD.

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the biases in inventory decisions, under the umbrella of behavioural operations, considering research findings that used experimental methods. Research in this field has gained traction but, to the best of our knowledge, review articles that summarize these research findings are scarce. Hence, there is a need to synthesize the anomalies and biases reported in inventory decision-making literature to gain a more integrated understanding.

This study reviews themes relevant to inventory and behavioural operations management from the articles published in recognized top-tier journals during the period between 2000 and 2020 with an aim to build a classification framework. Further, using a systematic review procedure, the relevant research studies are divided into sub-sections and appropriate search strategies are adopted to pleat more information on inventory ordering biases.

This study presents a classification framework by highlighting the factors influencing the biases in inventory decisions and describes the effects of utility preferences on the decision-making behaviour. It highlights the inventory ordering pattern under unconventional settings and also for different supply chain settings. This systematic review helps in identifying the research gap and in giving directions for future researchers.

The study presents a systematic review and detailed analysis of the research in inventory decision making through a behavioural lens. The study shows a clear direction of progress over the years, and implies new directions for looking beyond placing orders and for moving towards a more integrated approach while making supply chain decisions. It will be useful for researchers and practitioners working on newsvendor decisions, supply chain contracts, behavioural economics, behavioural operations management, bounded rationality theory and experimental economics.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the behavior of a new nanometric particle NTC thermistor paste and thick films obtained by screen printing.

Nanometric powder of NTC thermistors based on complex spinel was made by calcination of an oxide mixture and ultra fast ball milling. Characterization of the new powder was done on compacts sintered in different conditions. Segmented thermistors were screen printed on alumina substrata, dried and fired in a conveyor furnace at 850°C/10 min. Segmented thermistors were indirectly heated by a glass sealed heater placed between them in the middle. The system was put in a tube with a regulated air flow to serve as a volume thermistor sensor based on heat loss.

The sintered thick film samples and NTC powder compacts measurements could help in choosing the optimal technology conditions during the production of NTC devices. The NTC segmented thermistors were suitable both for heated sensors and self heated sensors.

Low temperature thick film thermistor pastes based on nanometer powder of complex spinel are of interest due to their importance in sensor applications.

This work predicts that high temperature pastes of the same material can be realized with characteristics superior to those of low temperature paste such as NTC 3K3 or similar.