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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 March 2024

Chongjun Wu, Yutian Chen, Xinyi Wei, Junhao Xu and Dongliu Li

This paper is devoted to prepare micro-cone structure with variable cross-section size by Stereo Lithography Appearance (SLA)-based 3D additive manufacturing technology. It is…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper is devoted to prepare micro-cone structure with variable cross-section size by Stereo Lithography Appearance (SLA)-based 3D additive manufacturing technology. It is mainly focused on analyzing the forming mechanism of equipment and factors affecting the forming quality and accuracy, investigating the influence of forming process parameters on the printing quality and optimization of the printing quality. This study is expected to provide a µ-SLA surface preparation technology and process parameters selection with low cost, high precision and short preparation period for microstructure forming.

Design/methodology/approach

The µ-SLA process is optimized based on the variable cross-section micro-cone structure printing. Multi-index analysis method was used to analyze the influence of process parameters. The process parameter influencing order is determined and validated with flawless micro array structure.

Findings

After the optimization analysis of the top diameter size, the bottom diameter size and the overall height, the influence order of the printing process parameters on the quality of the micro-cone forming is: exposure time (B), print layer thickness (A) and number of vibrations (C). The optimal scheme is A1B3C1, that is, the layer thickness of 5 µm, the exposure time of 3000 ms and the vibration of 64x. At this time, the cone structure with the bottom diameter of 50 µm and the cone angle of 5° could obtain a better surface structure.

Originality/value

This study is expected to provide a µ-SLA surface preparation technology and process parameters selection with low cost, high precision and short preparation period for microstructure forming.

Details

Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing and Special Equipment, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2633-6596

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 February 2024

Frank Nana Kweku Otoo

The efficiency of each of an organization’s individual workers determines its effectiveness. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource management (HRM…

2948

Abstract

Purpose

The efficiency of each of an organization’s individual workers determines its effectiveness. The study aims to explore the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational effectiveness with employee performance as a mediating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 800 police officers in the Greater Accra and Tema regions. The data were supported by the hypothesized relationship. Construct reliability and validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that career planning and employee performance were significantly related. Self-managed teams and employee performance were shown to be nonsignificantly related. Similarly, performance management and employee performance were shown to be nonsignificantly related. Employee performance significantly influenced organizational effectiveness. The results further indicate that employee performance mediates the relationship between HRM practices and organizational effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications

The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s police service focus and cross-sectional data.

Practical implications

The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for the police administration in the adoption, design and implementation of well-articulated and proactive HRM practices to improve the abilities, skills, knowledge and motivation of officer’s to inordinately enhance the effectiveness of the service.

Originality/value

By evidencing empirically that employee performance mediates the relationship between HRM practice and organizational effectiveness, the study extends the literature.

Details

IIM Ranchi Journal of Management Studies, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-0138

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 May 2020

Paula Bitrián, Isabel Buil and Sara Catalán

Gamification is a tool with great potential to motivate individuals to increase their physical activity. That is why sport apps for mobile devices, such as Nike+ or Strava, have…

13509

Abstract

Purpose

Gamification is a tool with great potential to motivate individuals to increase their physical activity. That is why sport apps for mobile devices, such as Nike+ or Strava, have integrated game elements. There is, however, little evidence of gamification's effectiveness in this field. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to analyze the impact of game elements included in gamified sports' apps on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (i.e. competence, autonomy and relatedness). Similarly, the research analyzes the impact of these needs on autonomous motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve these goals, data were collected from users of gamified sport apps, using an online questionnaire. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results showed that interaction in the app with achievement-related game elements satisfied the needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness; social-related elements satisfied the need for relatedness; and immersion-related elements satisfied the needs for competence and autonomy. Similarly, satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and relatedness while using the app is crucial to experience autonomous motivation.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide guidelines for practitioners and app developers.

Originality/value

Based on self-determination theory, the paper provides new insights into the relationship between game elements included in sport apps and individuals' basic psychological needs and motivation.

目的

遊戲化在推動人們增加其體力活動方面是有極大潛能的。因此,設於流動通訊設施的運動應用程式如耐克(Nike)及Strava等都結合了遊戲的元素。唯遊戲化在這領域的功效方面的證明並不多。因此,本研究的目的,在於分析遊戲化運動應用程式內的遊戲元素,對滿足基本心理需要的影響 (即是說,能力水平、自主及關聯性)。同樣地,本研究分析這些需要對自主積極性的影響。

研究設計/方法/理念

要達到這些目標,數據以一項網上問卷調查方法取自遊戲化運動應用程式的使用者。數據並以偏最小二乘結構方程模型進行分析。

研究結果

研究結果顯示、在帶有成就相關的遊戲元素的應用程式內的互動滿足了能力水平、自主和關聯性的需要; 與社交有關的元素滿足了關聯性的需要,而與沉浸相關的元素則滿足了能力水平和自主的需要。同樣地,使用應用程式時,要能體驗自主動機、關鍵在於自主及相關性的需要得到滿足。

實務方面的含意

本研究結果為執業者及應用程式開發商提供了指引。

研究的原創性/價值

以自決理論為基礎,本研究為運動應用程式包含的遊戲元素與個人的基本心理需要和動機之間的關係提供新的見解。

Details

European Journal of Management and Business Economics, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2444-8451

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 October 2022

Sophie E. Jané, Virginie Fernandez and Markus Hällgren

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon how encountering trauma unexpectedly in the field informs the doing of fieldwork.

1311

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon how encountering trauma unexpectedly in the field informs the doing of fieldwork.

Design/methodology/approach

A reflexive essay approach was adopted to explore traumatic incidents in extreme contexts. Written vignettes, interviews, field notes and information conversations served as the bases for reflections.

Findings

Four themes arose from the reflections (Bracketing, Institutional Pressure, Impact on Research and Unresolvedness). It was suggested that researchers engaged in extreme context research, and management and organization studies scholars engaged in dangerous fieldwork more broadly, are under institutional pressure to continue work that may put themselves in harm's way. Traumatic experiences also shape and reflect the researcher's identity, which informs choices about current and future research projects.

Research limitations/implications

It was suggested that scholars will benefit from reading the accounts of others to reduce the burden of isolation that can accompany traumatic field experiences.

Originality/value

Exploring single traumatic events enabled in engaging with trauma encountered unexpectedly and directly in the field. The reflections reveal the effects of psychological and physical trauma on researchers, and highlight how trauma impacts the research process.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 April 2020

Steffen Lehmann

The “unplannable” is a welcomed exception to the formal order of urban planning. This opinion article explores some examples of informal urbanism and discusses its ambiguous…

1578

Abstract

The “unplannable” is a welcomed exception to the formal order of urban planning. This opinion article explores some examples of informal urbanism and discusses its ambiguous relationship to public space and unplanned activities in the city. The informal sector offers important lessons about the adaptive use of space and its social role. The article examines the ways specific groups appropriate informal spaces and how this can add to a city’s entrepreneurship and success. The characteristics of informal, interstitial spaces within the contemporary city, and the numerous creative ways in which these temporarily used spaces are appropriated, challenge the prevalent critical discourse about our understanding of authorised public space, formal place-making and social order within the city in relation to these informal spaces.

The text discusses various cases from Chile, the US and China that illustrate the dilemma of the relationship between informality and public/private space today. One could say that informality is a deregulated self-help system that redefines relationships with the formal. Temporary or permanent spatial appropriation has behavioural, economic and cultural dimensions, and forms of the informalare not always immediately obvious: they are not mentioned in building codes and can often be subversive or unexpected, emerging in the grey area between legal and illegal activities.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 June 2020

Mhamed Biygautane, Stewart Clegg and Khalid Al-Yahya

Existing public–private partnership (PPP) literature that explicitly adopts neo-institutional theory, tends to elucidate the impact of isomorphic pressures and organizational…

3356

Abstract

Purpose

Existing public–private partnership (PPP) literature that explicitly adopts neo-institutional theory, tends to elucidate the impact of isomorphic pressures and organizational fields and structuration on PPP projects. This paper advances this literature by presenting the institutional work and micro-level dynamics through which actors initiate and implement a new form of project delivery. The authors show how actors enact responses to institutional structuration in the expansion and transformation of an airport from a public entity into a PPP in Saudi Arabia.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a single case study design that offers an empirically rich and thick description of events such as the dynamic processes, practices and types of institutional work carried out by actors and organizations to deliver the project under investigation.

Findings

Religious symbolic work as social integration triggered system integration work, which expanded the power capabilities of individual actors leading the project. Repair work then followed to alleviate the negative effects of disempowering the agency of actors negatively affected by the PPP model and to streamline the project implementation process.

Practical implications

This research offers several practical implications. For PPPs to operate successfully in contexts similar to the Gulf region, policymakers should provide strong political support and be willing to bear a considerable risk of losses or minimal outcomes during the early phases of experimentation with PPPs. Also, policymakers should not only focus their attention on technical requirements of PPPs but also associate new meanings with the normative and cultural-cognitive elements that are integral to the success of PPP implementation. In order to design strategies for change that are designed to fit the unique cultural and sociopolitical settings of each country, policymakers should empower capable individual actors and provide them with resources and access to power, which will enable them to enforce changes that diverge from institutionalized practices.

Social implications

This research connected the PPP literature with theoretical frameworks drawn from neo-institutional theory and power. It would be valuable for further research, however, to connect ideas from the PPP literature with other disciplines such as psychology and social entrepreneurship. PPP research examines a recent phenomenon that can potentially be combined with non-traditional streams of research in analyzing projects. Expanding the realm of PPP research beyond traditional theoretical boundaries could potentially yield exciting insights into how the overall institutional and psychological environments surrounding projects affect their initiation and implementation.

Originality/value

The paper contributes new insights regarding the roles of religious symbolic work, allied with social and system integration of power relations in implementing PPP projects. It suggests a theoretical shift from structures and organizational fields – macro- and meso-levels of analysis – to individuals – micro-level – as triggers of new forms of project delivery that break with the status quo.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 December 2022

Son Nghiem and Xuan-Binh (Benjamin) Vu

Basic income (BI) is predicted to be the major economic intervention in response to raising income inequality and accelerating technological progress. Financing is often the first…

1135

Abstract

Purpose

Basic income (BI) is predicted to be the major economic intervention in response to raising income inequality and accelerating technological progress. Financing is often the first question that arises when discussing a BI. A thorough answer to this question will determine the sustainability of any BI program. However, BI experiments implemented worldwide have not answered this question. This paper explores two options for a BI program in Australia: (1) BI and (2) top-up basic income (TBI).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ “back-of-the-envelope” calculations with the latest publicly available data on income distribution, the poverty line and the share of income tax in the government revenue to estimate the costs of implementing BI in Australia.

Findings

Even without any change in the current tax regulations, the TBI option, which requires a contribution of 2–3% disposable income from net contributors, will guarantee that no Australian family lives under the current national poverty line. The BI for all options is not financially feasible under the current tax and transfer regulations because it requires an additional tax rate of at least 42% of disposable income from net contributors.

Practical implications

The results of this study can serve as inputs for the design and implementation of BI options in Australia and similar countries.

Originality/value

This is the first paper that examines the macroeconomic effects of BI options in Australia.

Details

Journal of Economics and Development, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1859-0020

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 25 January 2024

Masoome Abikari

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between consumers’ emotions towards emerging e-banking technology, perceived risk and subsequent intention to adopt…

2099

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between consumers’ emotions towards emerging e-banking technology, perceived risk and subsequent intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology.

Design/methodology/approach

An online questionnaire was used to collect data, which were analysed in a quantitative study. The final sample of 224 educated young consumers, familiar with emerging e-banking technology, allowed testing of the research hypotheses by applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM).

Findings

The empirical results indicate that deterrence emotions and hedonic motivation are associated with consumers’ perceived risk and, subsequently, their intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology. Additionally, analysing the moderating role of hedonic motivation in the association between consumers’ deterrence emotions towards emerging e-banking technology and their perceived risk highlights the significant association of deterrence emotions with perceived risk, regardless of the presence of hedonic motivation.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates the association between consumers’ emotions, perceived risk and subsequent intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology whilst underscoring the importance of distinguishing between different types of emotions and their corresponding appraisals.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 July 2024

Gonzalo Lizarralde, Benjamín Herazo, David Smith, Lisa Bornstein, Kevin Gould, Elsa Monsalve, Nicolás Ordoñez, Adriana López, Oswaldo López, Roberto Burdiles, Claudio Araneda and Andrés Olivera

Disaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however…

Abstract

Purpose

Disaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however, rarely respond to the needs and expectations of citizens and local leaders living in these settlements. Even though these agents constantly attempt to reduce risks in their own way, we know very little about their activities, motivations and effective impact on risk reduction. Here we seek to conceptualize bottom-up initiatives to better grasp their origins, limitations and success.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a four-year action-research project in Colombia, Cuba and Chile, we theorize about the production of change by local agents. Through detailed case studies we explored the activism of 17 local leaders. Through narrative analysis we studied their motivations and explanations. Finally, by documenting 22 initiatives, we revealed effective changes in space.

Findings

In the face of risk and disasters, residents and leaders in informal settings engaged in symbolic, physical and social spaces of interaction. Their actions were guided by trust, emotions, time cycles and activism. Local agency was justified by narratives about risk and climate change that differ from those of authorities and scholars.

Research limitations/implications

There is still limited understanding of bottom-up initiatives in informal settings. It is crucial to conceptualize their origins, limitations and success. The focus on three specific countries necessitates further research for broader applicability and understanding.

Practical implications

A better comprehension of bottom-up actions is crucial for informing policies and programmes aimed at reducing risk in informal settings. Stakeholders must recognize the political, social and cultural roles of these actions for more impactful climate action.

Originality/value

We borrow Simon’s concept of “artefact” to introduce the notion of “Artefacts of Disaster Risk Reduction”, providing insights into the multifaceted nature of bottom-up initiatives. We also emphasize the simultaneous political and phenomenological character of these actions, contributing to a deeper understanding of their origins and impact.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 August 2024

Chetwynd Carlos Osborne, Leandra Cho-Ricketts and Jané Salazar

Mangrove forests are one of the most bio-diverse and productive wetland environments on earth. However, these unique tropical forest environments that occupy coastal areas are…

Abstract

Purpose

Mangrove forests are one of the most bio-diverse and productive wetland environments on earth. However, these unique tropical forest environments that occupy coastal areas are among the most threatened habitats globally. These threats include logging, conversion of land for agriculture and mariculture and degradation due to pollution over the past 50 years. The large population of resilient mangroves occupying the Turneffe Atoll area in Belize faces growing anthropogenic threats such as permanent clearing of land for housing, infrastructural development and pollution and natural factors (climate change). Given the few formal studies done to evaluate mangrove resilience at Turneffe Atoll, the purpose of this study was to evaluate mangrove resilience and nursery functions in the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve (TAMR).

Design/methodology/approach

Mangrove fish abundance and forest structure was assessed by means of a visual census and the point-centred quarter method (PCQM) for 11 sites that span across conservation and general use zones.

Findings

This study found that the more resilient mangroves (lower vulnerability ranks, higher standing biomass and higher fish biomass and abundance) exist in general use zones and warrant the need for improved mangrove conservation measures for these areas by Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association (TASA).

Research limitations/implications

Limitations of the methods for data collection included accessibility within mangrove forests stands when establishing PCQM, observer bias among data collectors, sites without surrounding mangroves were not captured to serve as a true control group and poor visibility underwater affected the estimation of fish species and size. The timeline for this research was only three months based on available funding, and no follow-up study was done to make a true comparison.

Originality/value

The findings of this research have a guiding role in the formulation of conservation measures such as better waste management, a robust framework for mangrove management, a communication strategy to guide public awareness and long-term monitoring surveys.

Details

Marine Economics and Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-158X

Keywords

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