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1 – 10 of over 4000Malihe Ashena, Hamid Laal Khezri and Ghazal Shahpari
This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between global economic uncertainty and price volatility, specifically focusing on commodity, industrial materials…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between global economic uncertainty and price volatility, specifically focusing on commodity, industrial materials and energy price indices as proxies for global inflation, analyzing data from 1997 to 2020.
Design/methodology/approach
The dynamic conditional correlation generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model is used to study the dynamic relationship between variables over a while.
Findings
The results demonstrated a positive relationship between commodity prices and the global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU). Except for 1999–2000 and 2006–2008, the results of the energy price index model were very similar to those of the commodity price index. A predominant positive relationship is observed focusing on the connection between GEPU and the industrial material price index. The results of the pairwise Granger causality reveal a unidirectional relationship between the GEPU – the Global Commodity Price Index – and the GEPU – the Global Industrial Material Price Index. However, there is bidirectional causality between the GEPU – the Global Energy Price Index. In sum, changes in price indices can be driven by GEPU as a political factor indicating unfavorable economic conditions.
Originality/value
This paper provides a deeper understanding of the role of global uncertainty in the global inflation process. It fills the gap in the literature by empirically investigating the dynamic movements of global uncertainty and the three most important groups of prices.
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This study investigates the impact of uncertainty on the mean-variance relationship. We find that the stock market's expected excess return is positively related to the market's…
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of uncertainty on the mean-variance relationship. We find that the stock market's expected excess return is positively related to the market's conditional variances and implied variance during low uncertainty periods but unrelated or negatively related to conditional variances and implied variance during high uncertainty periods. Our empirical evidence is consistent with investors' attitudes toward uncertainty and risk, firms' fundamentals and leverage effects varying with uncertainty. Additionally, we discover that the negative relationship between returns and contemporaneous innovations of conditional variance and the positive relationship between returns and contemporaneous innovations of implied variance are significant during low uncertainty periods. Furthermore, our results are robust to changing the base assets to mimic the uncertainty factor and removing the effect of investor sentiment.
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Chengyong Xiao, Boyana Petkova, Eric Molleman and Taco van der Vaart
Technology uncertainty poses significant challenges to manufacturers, as rapid changes in product and/or process standards and specifications can disrupt the smooth flow of…
Abstract
Purpose
Technology uncertainty poses significant challenges to manufacturers, as rapid changes in product and/or process standards and specifications can disrupt the smooth flow of materials in extended supply chains. Practitioners and researchers alike who take a relational perspective widely regard supplier involvement as a potentially effective strategy to cope with technology uncertainty, as focal manufacturers can tap into their upstream supply networks for complementary resources and capabilities. However, the literature lacks a nuanced understanding of the supplier involvement processes. Specifically, the role of resource dependence for supplier involvement has yet to be systematically understood. To fill this gap, this study aims to combine the relational perspective with the resource-dependence perspective to explore how buyer dependence, supplier dependence and buyer–supplier interdependence influence buyers’ decision-making on tapping into upstream supply networks for coping with technology uncertainty.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypotheses, a survey is conducted among Dutch firms with more than 50 employees in the discrete manufacturing industries (ISIC 28-35), resulting in a sample of 125 manufacturers.
Findings
First, there is a significantly positive relationship between technology uncertainty and supplier involvement, giving support to the expectation that buyers are indeed involving their key suppliers in the product/process design and improvement, as a response to technology uncertainty. Second, buyer dependence and interdependence are found to be positively moderating the relationship between technology uncertainty and supplier involvement. In contrast, supplier dependence has a negative moderating effect on the baseline relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The authors contribute to a relational view on buyer–supplier relationships by showing that the validity of this view, in the context of technology uncertainty, is contingent on the resource dependence between buyers and suppliers, and the authors contribute to the supply chain management literature more generally by combining a relational perspective with a resource-dependence perspective.
Practical implications
The findings provide several nuanced insights into the effect of resource dependence (buyer dependence, supplier dependence and interdependence) on supplier involvement for coping with technology uncertainty.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the supply chain management research by going beyond the benefits of supplier involvement and highlights the circumstances under which supplier involvement is likely to occur.
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Juliana Keiko Sagawa and Marcelo Seido Nagano
Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack of integration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack of integration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the relationships among integration, uncertainty, IQ and performance, in the context of the production planning and control function. The literature lacks in-depth studies that consider these factors altogether, showing how they interact and how they contribute to improve business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors introduce the variable of planning performance, which represents the quality of the production plans/planning process and is related to the frequency and causes of modifications to these plans. The relationships among the mentioned constructs are investigated by means of multiple case studies.
Findings
The results illustrate that integration is positively related to planning performance, and this relationship is mediated by IQ and moderated by uncertainty.
Originality/value
The presented analysis may help practitioners to foster interfunctional integration, better cope with uncertainty and improve information management, aiming to achieve better planning performance. The managers can choose integration and IQ improvement mechanisms that better fit to their environment/reality, using the four different cases as a benchmark. Moreover, this research contributes to the literature exploring this contingency perspective by means of in-depth case studies, considering that most of the existing research adopting this perspective is survey-based.
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Ruth Elias and Ismail Abdi Changalima
The study investigates the effect of behavioural uncertainty on the environmental sustainability of restaurant businesses in Tanzania. Also, the study examines the moderating role…
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates the effect of behavioural uncertainty on the environmental sustainability of restaurant businesses in Tanzania. Also, the study examines the moderating role of purchasing technical knowledge on the main relationship between the study variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The quantitative approach was used and cross-sectional data were collected at a specific time from restaurant businesses in Dodoma, Tanzania. The PROCESS macro was used to analyse the relationships between behavioural uncertainty, purchasing technical knowledge and environmental sustainability.
Findings
Behavioural uncertainty has a significant and negative effect on the environmental sustainability of restaurant businesses. Purchasing technical knowledge, on the other hand, has a positive and significant effect on the environmental sustainability of restaurant businesses. Finally, purchasing technical knowledge has a positive and significant moderating effect on the relationship between behavioural uncertainty and environmental sustainability such that the negative effect of behavioural uncertainty is reduced with increasing purchasing technical knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
This study considers purchasing skills in terms of purchasing technical knowledge as a moderating variable; hence, other studies may take into account other moderating variables to extend this study. Also, the study considered only environmental sustainability and hence is limited in terms of other dimensions of sustainability and provide an avenue for further research in social and economic sustainability.
Practical implications
Since purchasing technical knowledge reduces the negative effect of behavioural uncertainty on the relationship with environmental sustainability, restaurant managers should be encouraged to improve their purchasing technical knowledge by attending short- and long-term training on purchasing functions in the restaurant industry.
Social implications
The social implications of the investigated link between behavioural uncertainty, purchasing technical knowledge and environmental sustainability in the restaurant industry include raising awareness, promoting sustainable practises and fostering an environmentally responsible culture. By addressing behavioural uncertainty, leveraging purchasing technical knowledge and embracing sustainability the industry can contribute to a more environmentally conscious society.
Originality/value
By providing empirical evidence from Tanzania, the study extends literature on examining the environmental sustainability of restaurant businesses. The study also establishes the interaction effect of purchasing technical knowledge as an important skill in reducing the negative effect of behavioural uncertainty on enhancing environmental sustainability in restaurant businesses.
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Andrea Runfola, Matilde Milanesi and Simone Guercini
This paper aims to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the interaction in a business-to-business (BtoB) setting and the emerging relational dynamics. The COVID-19…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the interaction in a business-to-business (BtoB) setting and the emerging relational dynamics. The COVID-19 pandemic is having a strong impact on BtoB markets in terms of the stop of production, the difficulty of coping with payments, restrictions on the flows of people and goods within national and international markets. The paper discusses that the effects of worldwide lockdowns, social distancing and other related restrictions undermine one of the salient features of business relationships, namely interaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper relies on a qualitative interpretivist approach based on the data collected from in-depth interviews with key informants and secondary sources. The fashion industry is taken as an emblematic case, given the relevance of BtoB relationships, especially those between global fashion brands and their suppliers, and the dramatic impact of the pandemic.
Findings
The paper shows four effects in terms of relational dynamics. The freezing effect is the maintaining of interaction at minimum operating levels capable of ensuring survival for both interacting actors. The ripple effect can be conceived as a negative effect of the pandemic related to the weakening of the freezing effects in interactions along the supply chain. The rebound effect is a sudden increase in interactive processes among existing relationships. The vicious effect is a negative effect of the pandemic on the interaction that refers to the decay of existing interaction and their ending.
Originality/value
This study fits into the current period of the COVID-19 pandemic to stress the role of interaction involving people and businesses as a key to restart. The paper suggests managerial implications to respond to the pandemic in the short term and to set the basis for future opportunities.
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This study explores the response of consumer confidence in policy uncertainty in the Japanese context. The study also considers the dynamism of stock market behavior and financial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the response of consumer confidence in policy uncertainty in the Japanese context. The study also considers the dynamism of stock market behavior and financial stress and its impact on consumer confidence, which has remained unaddressed in the literature. The role of these control variables has important implications for policy discussions, particularly when other countries can learn from Japanese experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
The nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model postulated by Shin et al. (2014) was used for studying the asymmetric response of consumer confidence to policy uncertainty. This method has improved estimates compared to traditional linear cointegration methods.
Findings
The findings confirm the asymmetric impact of policy uncertainty on the consumer confidence index in Japan. The impact of the rise in policy uncertainty is greater than that of a fall in asymmetry on consumer confidence in Japan. Furthermore, the Wald test confirmed asymmetric behavior.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study is threefold. First, this study contributes to the extant literature by analyzing the asymmetric response of consumer confidence to policy uncertainty, controlling for both the financial stress and stock price indices. Second, to test the robustness of the exercise, the study utilized different frequencies of observations. Third, this study is the first to utilize the concept of Arbatli et al. (2017) to formulate a combined index of uncertainty based on economic policy uncertainty index, along with uncertainty indices such as fiscal, monetary, trade and exchange rate policies to study the overall impact of policy uncertainty.
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Anushree Tandon, Amandeep Dhir and Matti Mäntymäki
The association between social media and jealousy is an aspect of the dark side of social media that has garnered significant attention in the past decade. However, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The association between social media and jealousy is an aspect of the dark side of social media that has garnered significant attention in the past decade. However, the understanding of this association is fragmented and needs to be assimilated to provide scholars with an overview of the current boundaries of knowledge in this area. This systematic literature review (SLR) aims to fulfill this need.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors undertake an SLR to assimilate the current knowledge regarding the association between social media and jealousy, and they examine the phenomenon of social media-induced jealousy (SoMJ). Forty-five empirical studies are curated and analyzed using stringent protocols to elucidate the existing research profile and thematic research areas.
Findings
The research themes emerging from the SLR are (1) the need for a theoretical and methodological grounding of the concept, (2) the sociodemographic differences in SoMJ experiences, (3) the antecedents of SoMJ (individual, partner, rival and platform affordances) and (4) the positive and negative consequences of SoMJ. Conceptual and methodological improvements are needed to undertake a temporal and cross-cultural investigation of factors that may affect SoMJ and acceptable thresholds for social media behavior across different user cohorts. This study also identifies the need to expand current research boundaries by developing new methodologies and focusing on under-investigated variables.
Originality/value
The study may assist in the development of practical measures to raise awareness about the adverse consequences of SoMJ, such as intimate partner violence and cyberstalking.
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Ehtisham Ali, Liu Jianhua, Mohsin Rasheed and Ahsan Siraj
This study empirically tests a conceptual framework that shows how integration practices are significantly associated with supply chain (SC) performance. This study also intends…
Abstract
Purpose
This study empirically tests a conceptual framework that shows how integration practices are significantly associated with supply chain (SC) performance. This study also intends to achieve the following purposes: first, how the performance is influenced by the integration practices, i.e. internal and external; second, to measure the mediating effect of organizational antecedents (market orientation, learning orientation) between integration practices and firm’s SC performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In a noncontrived study environment, a cross-sectional study design was used with a questionnaire. The study used a stratified proportionate random sample of 205 managers from manufacturing firms in China. Six hypothesized relationships were examined using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS software, and five were shown to be valid. The proposed model was validated through various techniques.
Findings
Results of this study indicate that both external and internal integration influence SC performance and confirms the mediating role of organizational antecedents between integration practices and SC performance. According to the findings, five out of the six hypotheses are accepted. Findings of this research also offer very expedient insights for the companies’ management which can help them to ensure optimal output by giving due importance to external as well as internal integration.
Research limitations/implications
The data for the study were only obtained from one province, which was Henan Province, and one industry, which was manufacturing; this constrained the generalizability of the study. The findings may be further validated in the future by expanding the scope of the studies to include various cultural contexts and types of businesses. Second, this study used data from a cross-sectional analysis; however, future research may potentially make use of a longitudinal design in order to more thoroughly confirm the findings.
Practical implications
Findings of this study offer substantial managerial insights suggesting various ways to develop better internal as well as external integration to get better results. Management of the company should focus and give more importance to job rotation, trainings and management commitment as part of internal integration. Moreover, management should strive for improving the capabilities of integration in internal functions prior to external integration as internal collaboration, teamwork and interaction within the company are considered as a precondition to maintain integration with external stakeholders. It is also a social process which needs to be built up over a longer period of time.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the literature by experimentally evaluating the effects of integration practices on SC performance using a conceptual model drawn from current theories. The study also offer additional empirical evidence for Han et al. (2007), who found that SCI enhances firm performance through quality management in their analyses of the relationships between SCI, quality management practices and firm performance.
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Edoardo Ramalli and Barbara Pernici
Experiments are the backbone of the development process of data-driven predictive models for scientific applications. The quality of the experiments directly impacts the model…
Abstract
Purpose
Experiments are the backbone of the development process of data-driven predictive models for scientific applications. The quality of the experiments directly impacts the model performance. Uncertainty inherently affects experiment measurements and is often missing in the available data sets due to its estimation cost. For similar reasons, experiments are very few compared to other data sources. Discarding experiments based on the missing uncertainty values would preclude the development of predictive models. Data profiling techniques are fundamental to assess data quality, but some data quality dimensions are challenging to evaluate without knowing the uncertainty. In this context, this paper aims to predict the missing uncertainty of the experiments.
Design/methodology/approach
This work presents a methodology to forecast the experiments’ missing uncertainty, given a data set and its ontological description. The approach is based on knowledge graph embeddings and leverages the task of link prediction over a knowledge graph representation of the experiments database. The validity of the methodology is first tested in multiple conditions using synthetic data and then applied to a large data set of experiments in the chemical kinetic domain as a case study.
Findings
The analysis results of different test case scenarios suggest that knowledge graph embedding can be used to predict the missing uncertainty of the experiments when there is a hidden relationship between the experiment metadata and the uncertainty values. The link prediction task is also resilient to random noise in the relationship. The knowledge graph embedding outperforms the baseline results if the uncertainty depends upon multiple metadata.
Originality/value
The employment of knowledge graph embedding to predict the missing experimental uncertainty is a novel alternative to the current and more costly techniques in the literature. Such contribution permits a better data quality profiling of scientific repositories and improves the development process of data-driven models based on scientific experiments.
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