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The path analysis technique was introduced in educational research relatively recently. It is very effective for conceptualizing research and for linking theory and the “real world”. Major advances are possible if more researchers in education would adopt this technique. However, the outward complex appearance of path analysis diagrams with their many variables, straight and curved arrows and numerical coefficients, and the terminology such as “residuals” and “recursive” associated with discussions of the technique tend to deter researchers. In this article the author gives an overview of the technique in simple terms. Its strengths and weaknesses are discussed and suggestions are made about how to commence use of the technique. Several examples of path analysis used in educational research are presented. The discussion is of an introductory nature with the hope that readers will develop a confidence to investigate the technique further. The intention of the author here is not to debate the many specific, provocative and complex issues about definition, terminology and interpretation surrounding the technique which methodology specialists continue to discuss as the use of the technique grows.

The technique of Critical Path Analysis (CPA) and its applications are described. A simple example is used to illustrate the method. The use of CPA in the implementation of an automated lending system at Teesside Polytechnic Library is described.

The purpose of this article is to conduct a main path analysis of 627 articles on the theme of Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) in the Web of Science (WoS) from 2013 to 2020, to provide a conclusive and comprehensive analysis for researchers in this field, and to provide a study on preliminary understanding of PFSs.

The research topic of Pythagorean fuzzy fields, through keyword extraction and describing the changes in characteristic themes over the past eight years, are firstly examined. Main path analysis, including local and global main paths and key route paths, is then used to reveal the most influential relationships between papers and to explore the trajectory and structure of knowledge transmission.

The application of Pythagorean fuzzy theory to the field of decision-making has been popular, and combinations of the traditional Pythagorean fuzzy decision-making method with other fuzzy sets have attracted widespread attention in recent years. In addition, over the past eight years, research interest has shifted to different types of PFSs, such as interval-valued PFSs.

This paper implicates to investigate the growth in certain trends in the literature and to explore the main paths of knowledge dissemination in the domain of PFSs in recent years.

This paper aims to identify the topics in which researchers are currently interested, to help scholars to keep abreast of the latest research on PFSs.

This empirical investigation examines the causal relationship between public libraries, literacy level, and economic productivity measured by gross domestic product per capita using path analysis. It is hypothesized that public libraries along with school libraries contribute to countries' literacy levels which in turn contribute to economic productivity. Cross‐country data were gathered from a number of sources including the Statistical Abstract of the World and Unesco's Statistical Yearbook. The results show that the path coefficients of public libraries and literacy levels are statistically significant at the 0.05 and 0.0001 levels respectively, strongly confirming the hypothesis. This study demonstrates that public libraries contribute to economic productivity through their various literacy programs and argues that cutting financial support for public libraries as practiced by many municipal governments is a short‐sighted policy and will adversely affect economic productivity of countries in the long run.

Educational institutes must embrace the principles of total quality management (TQM) if they seek to remain competitive, and survive and succeed in the long run. An educational institution must embrace the principles of quality management and incorporate them into all of their activities. Starting with a theoretical background, the paper outlines the results of a study conducted on both internal and external customers of the educational system, with select engineering and management institutes as foci of study. The study is an attempt toward developing an integrated customer-centric model of quality management in education, through the use of multiple methodologies so as to be able to evaluate service quality; prioritize improvement of service; and guide and develop educational services by incorporating the voice of the customer (VOC). The purpose of this paper is to establish the prioritization for improvement of service design of an educational system through incorporation of the VOC, be it internal or external customers, through the use of multiple methodologies, leading to generalization of results.

The study uses multiple methodologies with various techniques for analysis through the application of the SERVQUAL; quality function deployment (QFD); interpretive structural modeling (ISM); and path analysis. The SERVQUAL was applied to identify the gap and determine the level of service quality. Following this, QFD, ISM and path analysis were used to identify the set of minimum design characteristics/quality components that would meet the requirements the various internal and external customers of the educational system. The QFD was used to identify the set of minimum design characteristics/quality components that meet the requirements of the various internal and external customers of the educational system. The ISM and path analysis were used to identify and prioritize the design characteristics/quality components that would meet the requirements the various internal and external customers of the educational system.

The findings from the various techniques were amalgamated, and proposed as an integrated model of TQM in higher education. The study helped identify with a customer perspective, the quality components which would help design TQM for higher education institutions in India.

The paper could be useful to government bodies, funding agencies, policy makers and administrators in developing a system that could lead to satisfaction of both internal and external customers of the educational system.

The study includes within its scope the varied customers of the educational system, namely, internal and external customers of the educational system; the internal customers being the faculty and the administrative staff, and the external customers being the students and the industry (as the employer). This is yet to be seen in other research studies. Also, the integration of the multiple tools and their application to the field of higher education in India, has not yet been made available in the literature.

This chapter combines quantitative studies of the connections between stressors and performance in accounting settings and identifies the mediators and moderators of stressors–performance relationships. Using meta-analyses and path analyses, this research compiles 72 studies to investigate the relationships of stressors with accountant and auditor performance. As hypothesized, bivariate meta-analyses results indicate that work-related stressors negatively affect performance, and burnout and stress are negatively related to performance, whereas motivation is positively related to performance. Moreover, a meta-analytical structural equation modeling indicates that role stressors have significant direct and indirect effects (through burnout and stress) on job performance. Accumulation of multiple samples through meta-analysis bolsters statistical power compared to single-sample studies and thus reveals the sign of residual direct effects of role stressors on job performance in accounting settings.

The enormous amount of waste generated and the scarcity of natural resources worldwide have encouraged societies and industries to adopt the Circular Supply Chain (CSC) concept. With a focus on zero-waste generation, Circular Economy (CE) mimics the ecosystem cycle as an alternative to the traditional linear economic model. This paper aims to investigate the evolution of research themes in this research area, hence, trace the trajectory of development in the field of CSC.

The authors conduct scientometric analysis using Pajek and VOSviewer software to identify key themes in the Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM) field. The Citation Path Analysis (CPA), including Main Path and Local Path analysis, has been followed by a critical review of the papers. This paper includes highlighting the interrelationships between the information flows in the topic of study as well as an analysis of keywords co-occurrence.

The analysis of keywords co-occurrence revealed that the earlier years of research in CSC were more inclined toward value chain, stakeholders and green supply chains, whereas, in recent years, topics like logistics, Industry 4.0 and food supply chain have been more focused upon. Further, the Main Path Analysis (MPA) revealed an evolving trajectory that examines challenges and opportunities in CSC, the economic aspects of implementing CSC, the impact on the firm's revenue growth and collaboration between multiple echelons of a supply chain and Industry 4.0.

The adoption of scientometrics analysis unveils the hidden flow of information, various themes of research and their interconnections. The development of research trajectories and progressive attention paid to certain topics is also discovered. The research findings could be used by researchers for further theoretical and research development.

This paper traces the path of development in the field of CSC and its emerging trends and provides a thorough understanding of the same. It enables research scholars to conduct an in-depth study in the CSC domain, adding to the body of literature.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing knowledge system of lean supply chain management (LSCM), i.e. by using main path analysis, and the authors extract the main development track of LSCM. It is advantageous for relevant scholars to deepen their understanding of this academic field from a bibliometrics view to grasp the future directions better.

Structuring a citation network with the processed data set containing 866 papers and relevant information collected from Web of Science (WoS). Conducting review analyses aiming at the main paths that are extracted from the above citation network.

There are two different evolution paths in LSCM field, i.e. improving corporate sustainability performance through combining lean and green practices, and seeking the balance between lean and agility to structure leagile supply chain for specific industries. LSCM research studies mainly focus on five aspects: (1) establishment and development of LSCM theory; (2) structuration of lean supply chain; (3) research studies of the relationship between LSCM and corporate performance; (4) supply chain evaluation system; and (5) review and vista of LSCM field. The intersection of two knowledge evolute routes would be Industry 4.0, which is an integrated theory system combining lean, agility, green and other supply chain thinking.

The data set collected from WoS cannot contain all the research studies about LSCM is the main research limitation. Sustainability, as represented by environmental performance, will continue to be a major pursuit of this field. Integrating LSCM in Industry 4.0 will be the next hotspot in LSCM field.

Providing the main research contents and common methods of LSCM field. It is conducive to deepening the understanding of relevant practitioners and scholars to LSCM field from a dynamic perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time to reveal the knowledge diffuse trajectories of LSCM under different view with main path analysis. This study is unique that it provides a new view to understand the field of LSCM.

In the past few years, process orientation (PO) as an integral part of enterprise system (ES) implementation has been the center of attention among practitioners and academics. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the role of PO in ES implementation through an empirical study of Canadian and US firms.

A comparative analysis of ES implementation was performed based on the data collected from a sample of large Canadian and US firms. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with constructs of the research model. Moreover, path analysis approach was employed to conduct comparative analysis across the two samples.

The findings indicate that PO significantly reduces the challenges of ES implementation. Moreover, PO has been shown to have a positive effect on the successful implementation and utilization of ES under certain conditions. However, the level of PO at different phases is observed to have diverse effects on different aspects of ES implementation as a result of opposite forces of change. In addition, the path analysis confirms the validity of measurement of PO at three phases of ES implementation.

No database of managers who have been involved in all three phases of ES implementation exists; hence, the respondents are asked to answer the questionnaire only if they are involved in all three phases of ES implementation. This places a limitation on the respond rate.

This paper is the first paper that measures PO at three phases of ES implementation and explores the effect of PO on different dimensions of ES implementation. This approach provides a novel insight into understanding of the role of PO in ES implementation. This paper offers two major contributions toward a further understanding of the business processes in organizations. The first contribution of this paper is the development of measurement systems for assessing the level of PO and various dimensions of ES implementation. The second major contribution of this paper is unveiling the role of PO in ES implementation through the comparative analysis across Canadian and US firms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which organizational level of functionality is affected by its leadership, its staff, the way task is performed in the organization (culture), and the structural and governance makeup of organizations. This study also determined the direct and indirect impacts of these variables on organizational functionality in general and drawing lessons to educational organizations in specific.

This is a quantitative study. Data from 185 participants were analyzed using SPSS software version 24. The data analysis procedure for this study followed various steps. First, multiple factor analysis was conducted to narrow the long list of items and to create a manageable list of construct variables for analyses. Then path analysis, using a series of multiple regression, was conducted to identify the degree of relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Finally, a path model coefficient diagram was created.

Using path analysis, a new model that depicts the level of interactions among the proposed variables and the extent and direction of influence of each variable on organizational level of functionality has been created. In addition, a path diagram that illustrates the model is provided and explained. This study also determined the direct and indirect impacts of these variables on organizational functionality. Finally, conclusions and implications of the study for educational organizations were presented.

It should be noted that path analysis studies, by nature, are based on assumptions provided by the researchers. Hence, future studies using different variables and different assumption may not necessarily generate the same result. In addition, this study looked at a broader view of organizations rather than a specific type.

This study expanded the use of organizational diagnosis frameworks, beyond studying organizational performance, to study organizational level of functionality which can be used to diagnose the level of function (or dysfunction) of organizations in a holistic manner.

The present study contributes to the body of literature in organizational diagnosis in various ways; chief of which is the creation of a new path model which shows the direct and indirect effects of specific variables in numeric terms.

Unlike previous studies on the topic, this study suggests that organizational level of functionality should be studied using variables internal to the organization, because any two organizations of similar purpose and capacity, located in similar environment, could function differently due to factors internal to the organizations. Investigating organizational level of functionality using variables internal to the organization is assumed to provide a deeper diagnosis and self-assessment as it minimizes the noises created by variables external to the organization. All the variables in this study are therefore carefully selected to be internal to organizations.