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1 – 10 of over 10000As China embarks upon a new era of high-quality development, it is increasingly important and imperative for China’s economic development to live up to its real nature, which is…
Abstract
Purpose
As China embarks upon a new era of high-quality development, it is increasingly important and imperative for China’s economic development to live up to its real nature, which is to satisfy people’s growing needs for a better life. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper attempts to discuss the implication of HQD and its related theoretical issues from the basic theory of economics, and literature review. It is necessary to return to Marx’s “dual character of commodity” to check the theoretical foundation of this issue, based on the duality methodology, namely, the duality of the value of use and the value of exchange.
Findings
Moving from HSG phase to HQD phase constitutes a major challenge and an arduous task that is extremely difficult both theoretically and practically. A series of new problems crop out as to the theoretical understanding and practical resolution. Fundamentally speaking, this new dynamic mechanism intrinsically requires a perfect integration of the instrumental rationality of market economy and the value-based rationality of economic development.
Originality/value
This new momentum requires a perfect match between the instrumental rationality of market economy and the value-based rationality of economic development.
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Swaminathan Ramanathan and Raine Isaksson
This paper explores quality science and quality management as a potential pathway to resolve the challenges of corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) by establishing the need…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores quality science and quality management as a potential pathway to resolve the challenges of corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) by establishing the need for a common understanding of sustainability and sustainable development.
Design/methodology/approach
Secondary research on key documents released by regulatory institutions working at the intersection of sustainability, corporate reporting, measurement and academic papers on quality science and management.
Findings
Existing measurement frameworks of CSR are limited. They are neither aligned nor appropriate for accurately measuring a company's ecological footprint for mitigating climate change. Quality for sustainability (Q4S) could be a conceptual framework to bring about an appropriate level of measurability to better align sustainability reporting to stakeholder needs.
Research limitations/implications
There is a lack of primary data. The research is based on secondary literature review. The implications of Q4S as a framework could inform research studies connected to sustainable tourism, energy transition and sustainable buildings.
Practical implications
The paper connects to CSR stakeholders, sustainability managers, company leaderships and boards.
Social implications
The implications of sustainability on people, purpose and prosperity are a part of World Economic Forum's stakeholder capitalism.
Originality/value
This paper fills a research gap on diagnosing and understanding the key reporting challenges emerging from the lack sustainability definitions.
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Jiju Antony, Arshia Kaul, Shreeranga Bhat, Michael Sony, Vasundhara Kaul, Maryam Zulfiqar and Olivia McDermott
This study aims to investigate the adoption of Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) and assess the critical failure factors (CFFs) for its implementation and how its failure is measured.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the adoption of Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) and assess the critical failure factors (CFFs) for its implementation and how its failure is measured.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with quality managers and executives was conducted to establish the CFFs for Q4.0.
Findings
The significant CFFs highlighted were resistance to change and a lack of understanding of the concept of Q4.0. There was also a complete lack of access to or availability of training around Q4.0.
Research limitations/implications
The study enhances the body of literature on Q4.0 and is one of the first research studies to provide insight into the CFFs of Q4.0.
Practical implications
Based on the discussions with experts in the area of quality in various large and small organizations, one can understand the types of Q4.0 initiatives and the CFFs of Q4.0. By identifying the CFFs, one can establish the steps for improvements for organizations worldwide if they want to implement Q4.0 in the future on the competitive global stage.
Originality/value
The concept of Q4.0 is at the very nascent stage, and thus, the CFFs have not been found in the extant literature. As a result, the article aids businesses in understanding possible problems that might derail their Q4.0 activities.
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Wahid Ullah, Takaaki Nihei, Muhammad Nafees, Rahman Zaman and Muhammad Ali
This study aims to investigate risks associated with climate change vulnerability and in response the adaptation methods used by farming communities to reduce its negative impacts…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate risks associated with climate change vulnerability and in response the adaptation methods used by farming communities to reduce its negative impacts on agriculture in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used household survey method of data collection in Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, involving 116 randomly selected respondents.
Findings
Prevalent crops diseases, water scarcity, soil fertility loss and poor socio-economic conditions were main contributing factors of climate change vulnerability. The results further showed that changing crops type and cultivation pattern, improved seed varieties, planting shaded trees and the provision of excessive fertilizers are the measures adapted to improve agricultural productivity, which may reduce the climate change vulnerability at a household level.
Research limitations/implications
The major limitation of this study was the exclusion of women from the survey due to religious and cultural barriers of in Pashtun society, wherein women and men do not mingle.
Practical implications
Reducing climate change vulnerability and developing more effective adaptation techniques require assistance from the government. This help can be in the form of providing basic resources, such as access to good quality agricultural inputs, access to information and extension services on climate change adaptation and modern technologies. Consultation with other key stakeholder is also required to create awareness and to build the capacity of the locals toward reducing climate change vulnerability and facilitating timely and effective adaptation.
Originality/value
This original research work provides evidence about farm-level vulnerability, adaptation strategies and risk perceptions on dealing with climate-change-induced natural disasters in Pakistan. This paper enriches existing knowledge of climate change vulnerability and adaptation in this resource-limited country so that effective measures can be taken to reduce vulnerability of farming communities, and enhance their adaptive capability.
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Fredrik Bååthe, Mia von Knorring and Karin Isaksson-Rø
This study aims to deepen the understanding of how top managers reason about handling the relationships between quality of patient care, economy and professionals’ engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to deepen the understanding of how top managers reason about handling the relationships between quality of patient care, economy and professionals’ engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative design. Individual in-depth interviews with all members of the executive management team at an emergency hospital in Norway were analysed using reflexive thematic method.
Findings
The top managers had the intention to balance between quality of patient care, economy and professionals’ engagement. This became increasingly difficult in times of high internal or external pressures. Then top management acted as if economy was the most important focus.
Practical implications
For health-care top managers to lead the pursuit towards increased sustainability in health care, there is a need to balance between quality of patient care, economy and professionals’ engagement. This study shows that this balancing act is not an anomaly top-managers can eradicate. Instead, they need to recognize, accept and deliberately act with that in mind, which can create virtuous development spirals where managers and health-professional communicate and collaborate, benefitting quality of patient care, economy and professionals’ engagement. However, this study builds on a limited number of participants. More research is needed.
Originality/value
Sustainable health care needs to balance quality of patient care and economy while at the same time ensure professionals’ engagement. Even though this is a central leadership task for managers at all levels, there is limited knowledge about how top managers reason about this.
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Maarit Aakko and Kirsi Niinimäki
Extending the active lifetimes of garments by producing better quality is a widely discussed strategy for reducing environmental impacts of the garment industry. While quality is…
Abstract
Purpose
Extending the active lifetimes of garments by producing better quality is a widely discussed strategy for reducing environmental impacts of the garment industry. While quality is an important aspect of clothing, the concept of quality is ambiguous, and, moreover, consumers may perceive quality in individual ways. Therefore, it is important to deepen the general understanding regarding the quality of clothing.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents an integrated literature review of the recent discussion of perceived quality of clothing and of the links between quality and clothing lifetimes; 47 selected articles and other literature obtained primarily through fashion/clothing/apparel journals were included in this review.
Findings
The main ideas from the articles are thematized into the following sections: the process of assessment, levels involved in assessment, multidimensional cues of assessment, and quality and clothing use times. The paper highlights that perceiving quality is a process guided by both expectations and experience, and assembles the various aspects into a conceptual map that depicts the connections between the conceptual levels involved in assessing quality. It also illustrates connections between quality and clothing use times.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focused on perceived quality on a conceptual level. Further studies could examine and establish deeper links between quality, sustainability and garment lifespans.
Originality/value
The study draws together studies on perceived quality, presenting the foundational literature and key concepts of quality of clothing. It summarizes them in a conceptual map that may help visualize various aspects affecting the assessment of quality and deepen the general understanding of the quality of garments.
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Kimmo Kettunen, Heikki Keskustalo, Sanna Kumpulainen, Tuula Pääkkönen and Juha Rautiainen
This study aims to identify user perception of different qualities of optical character recognition (OCR) in texts. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of different…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify user perception of different qualities of optical character recognition (OCR) in texts. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of different quality OCR on users' subjective perception through an interactive information retrieval task with a collection of one digitized historical Finnish newspaper.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the simulated work task model used in interactive information retrieval. Thirty-two users made searches to an article collection of Finnish newspaper Uusi Suometar 1869–1918 which consists of ca. 1.45 million autosegmented articles. The article search database had two versions of each article with different quality OCR. Each user performed six pre-formulated and six self-formulated short queries and evaluated subjectively the top 10 results using a graded relevance scale of 0–3. Users were not informed about the OCR quality differences of the otherwise identical articles.
Findings
The main result of the study is that improved OCR quality affects subjective user perception of historical newspaper articles positively: higher relevance scores are given to better-quality texts.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this simulated interactive work task experiment is the first one showing empirically that users' subjective relevance assessments are affected by a change in the quality of an optically read text.
Details
Keywords
Baodong Cheng, Sitong Liu, Lichun Xiong, Fengting Wang, Guangyuan Qin, Danmeng Yue, Huaxing Zhang and Chang Yu
China is not only the biggest importing country of the raw materials of forest products, but also the biggest exporting country of intermediate and final forest products. The…
Abstract
Purpose
China is not only the biggest importing country of the raw materials of forest products, but also the biggest exporting country of intermediate and final forest products. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the Khandelwal (2010) method and trade data from 2000 to 2014 of bilateral forest products between China and ten main developed countries to evaluate the quality of China’s forestry imports and exports. Subsequently, the influencing factors of product quality are analyzed.
Findings
The results show that the current export quality of plywood and fiberboard is decreasing, and the export quality of particleboard and paper products is on the rise. A further study finds that several factors have the positive effects on the quality of forestry exports, including gross domestic product of the importing country, forestry export value of the importing country as well as the number of forestry higher education graduates of the exporting country. Moreover, the study also finds that the status of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member has a negative effect on the quality of forestry exports, while the distance cost has a negative influence on fiberboard, paper and paperboard.
Practical implications
The study suggests that China needs to strengthen the research and development investment on forest products, and improve the quality of forest products to promote the trade development of forestry exports.
Originality/value
The existing literature has not shown much research regarding the quality of China’s forestry exports through econometric analysis. Therefore, the research results provide new perspective about the influencing factors on China’s forestry trade activities.
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Iris Wallenburg, Anne Marie Weggelaar and Roland Bal
The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore and conceptualize how healthcare professionals and managers give shape to the increasing call for compassionate care as an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore and conceptualize how healthcare professionals and managers give shape to the increasing call for compassionate care as an alternative for system-based quality management systems. The research demonstrates how quality rebels craft deviant practices of good care and how they account for them.
Design/methodology/approach
Ethnographic research was conducted in three Dutch hospitals, studying clinical groups that were identified as deviant: a nursing ward for infectious diseases, a mother–child department and a dialysis department. The research includes over 120 h of observation, 41 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups.
Findings
The research shows that rebels’ quality practices are an emerging set of collaborative activities to improving healthcare and meeting (individual) patient needs. They conduct “contexting work” to achieve their quality aims by expanding their normative work to outside domains. As rebels deviate from hospital policies, they are sometimes forced to act “under the radar” causing the risk of groupthink and may undermine the aim of public accounting.
Practical implications
The research shows that in order to come to more compassionate forms of care, organizations should allow for more heterogeneity accompanied with ongoing dialogue(s) on what good care yields as this may differ between specific fields or locations.
Originality/value
This is the first study introducing quality rebels as a concept to understanding social deviance in the everyday practices of doing compassionate and good care.
Details
Keywords
M. Sudha and A. Kumaravel
Rough set theory is a simple and potential methodology in extracting and minimizing rules from decision tables. Its concepts are core, reduct and discovering knowledge in the form…
Abstract
Rough set theory is a simple and potential methodology in extracting and minimizing rules from decision tables. Its concepts are core, reduct and discovering knowledge in the form of rules. The decision rules explain the decision state to predict and support the new situation. Initially it was proposed as a useful tool for analysis of decision states. This approach produces a set of decision rules involves two types namely certain and possible rules based on approximation. The prediction may highly be affected if the data size varies in larger numbers. Application of Rough set theory towards this direction has not been considered yet. Hence the main objective of this paper is to study the influence of data size and the number of rules generated by rough set methods. The performance of these methods is presented through the metric like accuracy and quality of classification. The results obtained show the range of performance and first of its kind in current research trend.
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