Search results

This study aims to explore the effect of innovation ecosystem stability (IES) on innovation performance of enterprises through the mediating role of knowledge acquisition (KA), and to study how these effects are moderated by unabsorbed slack.

This study draws on data from 327 Chinese enterprises and adopts the multiple linear regression method and bootstrapping method to explore the mediating effect of KA and its moderated mediating effect.

The results demonstrate that IES is positively associated with innovation performance of enterprises, and KA plays a partially mediating role. Moreover, unabsorbed slack negatively moderates the relationship between IES and KA as well as the mediating effect of KA.

This study investigates the relationship between IES and innovation performance, and the mechanism of influence, which has not been previously studied in the field of innovation ecosystem. This study also examines the interaction between unabsorbed slack and IES and further clarifies the mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact of IES on innovation performance.

Complaint service management, aimed at improving customer satisfaction, provides important content for incorporation into studying a closed-loop supply chain. An analysis of the relationship between two provides the basis for probing the role of complaint management (CM) in the closed-loop supply chain to help it perform more efficiently and effectively through the application of advanced technologies. This paper considers how CM can be computed combining computer communication and information technologies. This computing process involves collection, evaluation and disposal. Using computer telephone integration technology, an integrated multi-channel system is designed; complaint and production evaluated through an intelligent decision support system; and CM processing system established to implement corresponding disposal which reflects the utility of CM. This research on the process of incorporating CM into our studies has significance for computing business service in the future. Based on exergoeconomics theory, the closed-loop supply chain is discussed, and the metric about “system negative environment effect” is introduced to system performance in terms of energy expenditures; a case study illustrates the efficacy of the process

This paper aims to operationalise and juxtapose variables related to identity, strategy and communications, and then examine the impact of such integration on organisational stakeholders’ trust, loyalty and commitment by using commitment/trust theory.

This research design utilises explanatory research at the preliminary stage, as informed by the literature and conceptual framework. The subsequent model was examined via a positivist survey carried out among stakeholders in high-end retail stores in London. Structural equation modelling (SEM) via AMOS was conducted to gain insight into the various relevant influences and relationships.

The results indicate that identity and strategy are key drivers of integrated corporate communication, and they serve to build stakeholder trust, loyalty and commitment.

The paper shows that while practitioners have indicated that integrated marketing communication is important for organisations, there are a few other areas of concern with regard to consequences related to trust, loyalty and commitment, especially in a retail context. This paper empirically examined relationships between these constructs by validating a conceptual model by using SEM.

This study aims to investigate the differences in spatial ability between students with a math learning disability and their normal peers.

To investigate these differences two groups, (60 students with a math learning disability) and (60 normal students) from fifth grade with a mean age (10.6 years) were administered with spatial ability test along with an IQ test. Students with a math learning disability were chosen using measures of the following: math learning disability questionnaire developed from learning disability evaluation scale – renormed second edition (LDES-R²) (McCarney and Arthaud, 2007) and the Quick Neurological Screening Test (Mutti et al., 2012), in addition to their marks in formal math tests in school.

Comparison between the two groups in four aspects of spatial ability resulted in obvious differences in each aspect of spatial ability (spatial relations, mental rotation, spatial visualization and spatial orientation); these differences were clear, especially in mental rotation and spatial visualization.

This paper contributes to gain more insights into the characteristics of pupils with a math learning disability, the nature of spatial abilities and its effect on a math learning disability. Moreover, the results suggest spatial ability to be an important diagnose factor to distinguish and identify students with a math learning disability, and that spatial ability is strongly relevant to math achievement. The results have significant implications for success in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics domain.

All those effluent streams having compromised characteristics pose negative effects on the environment either directly or indirectly. Health care facilities and hospitals also generate a large amount of effluent like other industries containing harmful and toxic pharmaceutical residual compounds due to uncontrolled use of drugs, besides others. The occurrence of antibiotic in the environment is of utmost concern due to development of resistant genes. These get mixed up with ground and surface water due to lack of proper treatment of hospital wastewater. The effect of pharmaceutical compounds on human society and ecosystem as a whole is quite obvious. There are no strict laws regarding discharge of hospital effluent in many countries. Contrary to this, the authors do not have appropriate treatment facilities and solution to solve day by day increasing complexity of this problem. Moreover, water discharged from different health facilities having variable concentration often gets mixed with municipal sewage, thus remains partially untreated even after passing from conventional treatment plants. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the occurrences and fate of such harmful compounds, need of proper effluent management system as well as conventionally adopted treatment technologies nowadays all around the globe. This mini-review would introduce the subject, the need of the study, the motivation for the study, aim, objectives of the research and methodology to be adopted for such a study.

Hospital effluents consisting of pathogens, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, etc, including phenols, detergents, toxic elements like cyanide and heavy metals such as copper (Cu), iron (Fe), gadolinium (Gd), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), among others are commonly detected nowadays. These unwanted compounds along with emerging pollutants are generally not being regulated before getting discharged caused and spread of diseases. Various chemical and biological characteristics of hospital effluents are assessed keeping in the view the threat posed to ecosystem. Several research studies have been done and few are ongoing to explore the different characteristics and compositions of these effluent streams in comparison so as to suggest the suitable conventional treatment techniques and ways to manage the problem. Several antibiotic groups such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfa pyridine, trimethoprim, metronidazole and their metabolites are reported in higher concentration in hospital effluent. The aquatic system also receives a high concentration of pharmaceutical residues more than 14,000 μg/L from treatment plants also and other surface water or even drinking water in Indian cities. Many rivers in southern parts of India receives treated water have detected high concentration drugs and its metabolites. As far as global constraints that need to be discussed, there are only selected pharmaceuticals compounds generally analyzed, issue regarding management and detection based on method of sampling, frequency of analysis and observation, spatial as well as temporal concentration of these concerned micropollutants, accuracy in detecting these compounds, reliability of results and predictions, prioritization and the method of treatment in use for such type of wastewater stream. The complexity of management and treatment as well need to be addressed with following issues at priority: composition and characterization of effluent, compatible and efficient treatment technology that needs to be adopted and the environment risk posed by them. The problem of drugs and its residues was not seen to be reported in latter part of 20th century, but it might be reported locally in some part of globe. This paper covers some aspect about the disposal and regulatory standard around the world toward hospital effluent discharge, its managements and treatment technologies that are adopted and best suitable nowadays various industries and monitoring the efficiencies of existing treatment systems. This mini-review would introduce the subject, the need, the motivation and objectives of the study and methodology can be adopted for such a study.

The compiled review gives a complete view about the types of antibiotics used in different health care facilities, their residue formation, occurrences in different ecosystems, types of regulations or laws available in different counties related to disposal, different type of treatment technologies, innovative combined treatment schemes and future action needed to tackle such type of effluent after its generation. The thesis also highlights the use of certain innovative materials use for the treatment like nanoparticles. It also discusses about the residues impact on the human health as well as their bioaccumulative nature. If the authors relate the past to the current scenario of pharmaceutical compounds (PhACs) in the environment, the authors will certainly notice that many diseases are nowadays not curable by simple previously prescribed Ab. Many research projects have been done in European countries that have shown the risk of such residues like Pills, Sibell, Poseidon, No pills, Neptune, Knappe, Endetech, etc. In the previous section, it was mentioned that there are no stringent laws for hospital wastewater and in many countries, they are mixed with domestic wastewater. Many difficulties are there with this research due to complex analysis, detection of targeted Ab, affecting waterbodies rate of flow, nature of treatment varies with season to season. The way nature is being degraded and harmful effect are being imposed, it is important to take immediate and decisive steps in this area. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) serves as a nursery for antibiotic-resistant systems, hence monitoring with great attention is also needed. Many trials with different treatment process, in combination, were considered. Many countries are paying great attention to this topic by considering the severity of the risk involved in it.

Previous studies by several scientists show that the pharmaceutical residues in the discharged effluent displayed direct toxic effects, and sometimes, detrimental effects in the mixture were also observed. The discharge of untreated effluent from hospitals and pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the natural ecosystem poses a significant threat to human beings. The pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, in the aquatic environment, accelerate the development of the antibiotic-resistant genes in bacteria, which causes fatal health risks to animals and human beings. Others, like analgesics, are known to affect development in fishes. They also degrade the water quality and may lead to DNA damage, toxicity in lower organisms like daphnia and have the potential to bioaccumulate. A few commonly used nanoadsorbents for water and wastewater treatment along with their specific properties can also be used. The main advantages of them are high adsorption capacity and superior efficiency, their high reusability, synthesis at room temperatures, super magnetism, quantum confinement effect as well as eco-toxicity. This review will focus on the applicability of different nanoscale materials and their uses in treating wastewater polluted by organic and inorganic compounds, heavy metals, bacteria and viruses. Moreover, the use of various nanoadsorbents and nano-based filtration membranes is also examined.

A number of different pharmaceutical residues derived from various activities like production facilities, domestic use and hospitals have been reported earlier to be present in groundwater, effluents and rivers, they include antibiotics, psycho-actives, analgesics, illicit drugs, antihistamine, etc. In past few years environmental scientists are more concerned toward the effluents generated from medical care facilities, community health centers and hospitals. Various chemical and biological characteristics of hospital effluents have been assessed keeping in the view the common threats pose by them to the entire ecosystem. In this study, seven multispecialty hospitals with nonidentical pretreatment were selected for three aspects i.e. conventional wastewater characteristics, high priority pharmaceuticals and microbial analyses. The present work is to evaluate efficacy of advanced wastewater treatment methods with regard to removal of these three aspects from hospital effluents before discharge into a sewage treatment plant (STP). Based on test results, two out of seven treatment technologies, i.e. MBR and CW effectively reducing conventional parameters and pharmaceuticals from secondary and tertiary treatments except regeneration of microbes were observed in tertiary level by these two treatments.

This review has aimed to identify the emerging contaminants, including pharmaceutical residues, highly consumed chemicals that are present in the hospital effluent, along with their physicochemical and biological characteristics. In this, the main objective was to review the occurrences and fate of common drugs and antibiotics present in effluents from hospital wastewaters. As far as global constraints that need to be discussed, there are only selected pharmaceuticals compounds generally analyzed, issue regarding management and detection based on method of sampling, frequency of analysis and observation, spatial as well as temporal concentration of these concerned micropollutants, accuracy in detecting these compounds, reliability of results and predictions, prioritization and the method of treatment in use for such type of wastewater stream are among the major issues (Akter et al., 2012; Ashfaq et al., 2016; García-Mateos et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2014; Mubedi et al., 2013; Prabhasankar et al., 2016; Sun et al., 2016; Suriyanon et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2016; Wen et al., 2004). This paper covers some aspect about the disposal and regulatory standard around the world toward hospital effluent discharge, its managements and treatment technologies that are adopted and best suitable nowadays.

This study many multispecialty hospitals with nonidentical pretreatment were selected for three aspects i.e. conventional wastewater characteristics high priority pharmaceuticals and microbial analyses. The present work is to evaluate efficacy of advanced wastewater treatment methods with regard to removal of these three aspects from hospital effluents before discharge into an STP. Based on test results, two out of different treatment effectively reducing conventional parameters and pharmaceuticals from secondary and tertiary treatments except regeneration of microbes were observed in the tertiary level by these two treatments were studies followed by ozonation and ultraviolet-ray treatment.

The different dimensions and contexts within which value is co-created has generated varied views of how value is understood or formed. This study aims to examine employee-guest perceived value as important factors for the successful implementation of value co-creation (VCC).

The study employs an interpretive paradigm, using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation in a qualitative design to increase understanding of employee-guest perceived value to aid the implementation of VCC at the dyadic level.

Findings highlight eight value perceptions including value for money, hotel location, physical evidence, mutual respect, appreciation, safety & security, quality & varieties of food and technological characteristics of service as important factors for the successful implementation of VCC at the dyadic level.

Generalisability of the findings is a limitation not only due to the smaller sample size but also due to industry-specific context. The study follows rigorous procedures to minimise biases, yet research limitation is acknowledged from the researcher’s participation in the research process.

The notion that actor’s assess value differently from the same service suggests that diverse service elements might be experienced differently. This study provides insights for hotel managers to recognise not only individuals’ value preferences but also service types that reflect employee-guest collective service preferences for sustainability.

This study integrates and extends extant literature by examining employees’ and guests’ individual and collective views at distinct hotel contexts to gain useful insights into value and VCC. The study proposes a framework that hospitality firms can use to address service failure and competition-related issues.

This study investigates the dynamic causality linkages between fiscal deficits and selected macroeconomic indicators in a panel of five East African Community countries.

The research design is based on panel cointegration tests, panel cross-section dependence tests, panel error correction-based Granger causality tests and panel impulse response functions.

Results show that there is long-run feedback causality among fiscal deficits and each of the variables include gross domestic product (GDP) growth, current account balance, interest rates, inflation, grants and debt service. Short-run Granger causality dynamics indicate that there is feedback causality between fiscal deficits and GDP growth; no causality between fiscal deficits and inflation; no causality between fiscal deficits and current account; no causality between fiscal deficits and interest rates; feedback causality between fiscal deficits and grants; and no causality between fiscal deficits and debt service. Impulse response functions show positive and significant impacts of current account balance, inflation and grants; negative and significant impacts of real GDP growth and lending rates; and insignificant effects of debt service.

While the study examines the dynamic causality between fiscal deficits and selected macroeconomic indicators in the East African Community, the analysis excludes South Sudan due to significant data limitations.

In light of the East African Community's aspirations to achieve convergence on key macroeconomic targets, including the fiscal deficit, this research provides novel insights on fiscal policy determinants and causality dynamics.

The dynamic relationships between fiscal policy and macroeconomic variables may have social implications for welfare, equitable growth and distribution of resources.

With a focus on the East African Community, this paper contributes to the literature on the macroeconomic determinants of fiscal deficits in regional economic communities.

This paper aims to identify ethical challenges of using artificial intelligence (AI)-based accounting systems for decision-making and discusses its findings based on Rest's four-component model of antecedents for ethical decision-making. This study derives implications for accounting and auditing scholars and practitioners.

This research is rooted in the hermeneutics tradition of interpretative accounting research, in which the reader and the texts engage in a form of dialogue. To substantiate this dialogue, the authors conduct a theoretically informed, narrative (semi-systematic) literature review spanning the years 2015–2020. This review's narrative is driven by the depicted contexts and the accounting/auditing practices found in selected articles are used as sample instead of the research or methods.

In the thematic coding of the selected papers the authors identify five major ethical challenges of AI-based decision-making in accounting: objectivity, privacy, transparency, accountability and trustworthiness. Using Rest's component model of antecedents for ethical decision-making as a stable framework for our structure, the authors critically discuss the challenges and their relevance for a future human–machine collaboration within varying agency between humans and AI.

This paper contributes to the literature on accounting as a subjectivising as well as mediating practice in a socio-material context. It does so by providing a solid base of arguments that AI alone, despite its enabling and mediating role in accounting, cannot make ethical accounting decisions because it lacks the necessary preconditions in terms of Rest's model of antecedents. What is more, as AI is bound to pre-set goals and subjected to human made conditions despite its autonomous learning and adaptive practices, it lacks true agency. As a consequence, accountability needs to be shared between humans and AI. The authors suggest that related governance as well as internal and external auditing processes need to be adapted in terms of skills and awareness to ensure an ethical AI-based decision-making.

The study aims to investigate the influence of corporate governance practices on enhancing firm value in manufacturing industries in Bangladesh.

The study sample consists of 131 companies from 10 manufacturing industries listed in Dhaka stock exchange (DSE). Using the multiple regression method, the study analyzed 1,193 firm-year observations from 2012 to 2021.

The outcome reveals that managerial ownership, foreign ownership, ownership concentration, board size, board independence, board diligence and auditor quality have a significant positive influence on firm value. In contrast, audit committee size has no significant influence on firm value.

The practical implications of the current study demonstrated that good corporate governance creates value and must be invigorated for the interest of all stakeholders. Policymakers should formulate specific guidelines regarding firms' ownership structure and audit quality issues.

The internationalization of business has grown the production value chains and created performance challenges for industrial production. Industry 4.0, the digital transformation of industrial processes, promises to deliver performance improvements through smart functionalities. This study investigates how digital transformation translates to performance gain by adopting a systems perspective to drive smartness.

This study uses qualitative research to collect data on the lived experiences of digital transformation practitioners for theory development. It uses semi-structured interviews with industry experts and applies the Gioia methodology for analysis.

The study determined that enterprise smartness is an organizational capability developed by digital transformation, it is a function of integration and the enabler of organizational performance gains in the Industry 4.0 context. The study determined that performance gains are experienced in productivity, sustainability, safety and customer experience, which represents performance metrics for Industry 4.0.

This study contributes a model that inserts smartness in the linkage between digital transformation and organizational outcomes to the digital transformation and production management literature.

The study indicates that digital transformation programs should focus on developing smartness rather than technology implementations, which must be considered an enabling activity.

Existing studies recognized the positive impact of technology on performance in industrial production. The study addresses a missing link in the Industry 4.0 value creation process. It adopts a systems perspective to establish the role of smartness in translating technology use to performance outcomes. Smart capabilities have been the critical missing link in the literature on harnessing digital transformation in organizations. The study advances theory development by contributing an Industry 4.0 value model that establishes a link between digital technologies, smartness and organizational performance.