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Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2024

Courtney Dress

Body weight has a long history of functioning as a symbol of one’s beauty, social status, morality, discipline, and health. It has also been a standard inflicted much more…

Abstract

Body weight has a long history of functioning as a symbol of one’s beauty, social status, morality, discipline, and health. It has also been a standard inflicted much more intensely on women than men. While US culture has long idealized thinness for women, even at risky extremes, there is growing evidence that weight standards are broadening. Larger bodies are becoming more visible and accepted, while desire for and approval of a thin ideal has diminished. However, the continued widespread prevalence of anti-fat attitudes and stigma leaves uncertainty about just how much weight standards are changing. This study used an online survey (n = 320) to directly compare evaluations of thin, fat, and average size women through measures of negative stereotypes, prejudicial attitudes, and perceptions about quality of life. Results indicated that, as hypothesized, thin women were perceived less favorably than average weight women. However, fat women were perceived less favorably than both average and thin women. Men were harsher than women in their evaluations of only fat women. Additionally, participants being underweight or overweight did not produce an ingroup bias in their evaluations of underweight and overweight targets, respectively. That is, participants did not rate their own group more favorably, with the exception of overweight participants having lower prejudice toward overweight targets. These findings add to the emerging evidence that women’s weight standards are in transition, marked by an increasingly negative perception of thin women, though not necessarily growing positivity toward fat women. This evidence further points toward the need for more extensive research on attitudes of people across the entire weight spectrum.

Details

Embodiment and Representations of Beauty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-994-3

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 December 2023

Rick Hardcopf and Rachna Shah

This study investigates whether a firm that has experienced an environmental accident (EA) is less likely to conduct a product recall. If true, it would indicate that EAs tempt…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates whether a firm that has experienced an environmental accident (EA) is less likely to conduct a product recall. If true, it would indicate that EAs tempt firms to hide operational problems that need to be revealed. The logic is that both events are operational failures that damage a firm's reputation and share price. Following an EA, a firm may avoid a discretionary product recall to avoid providing additional evidence of operational incapability and social irresponsibility and thereby triggering amplified reputational and market penalties.

Design/methodology/approach

The dataset is compiled from several public and private sources and includes 4,355 product recalls, 153 EAs and 120 firms from the industries that often recall products, including automotive, pharma, medical device, food and consumer products. The study timeframe is 2002–2013. Empirical models are evaluated using hazard modeling.

Findings

Results show that EAs reduce the probability of a product recall by 32%, on average. Effect sizes are larger when accidents are more frequent or more severe and when recalls are less severe. Through post hoc analyses, the study finds support for the proposed mechanism that firms avoid recalls due to reputational concerns, provides evidence that EAs can have a lengthy impact on recall behavior, and shows that firms are more likely to avoid recalls managed by the CPSC and NHTSA than recalls managed by the FDA.

Originality/value

Prior studies in operations management (OM) have not examined the impact of one negative event on another. This study finds that EAs tempt firms to hide operational problems that need to be revealed. While recalling fewer defective products is of concern to consumers and regulators, should EAs influence a broader set of discretionary operational decisions, such as closing/relocating a production facility, outsourcing production or conducting a layoff, study implications increase significantly.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 44 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 September 2024

Vidya Lawton, Verity Pacey, Taryn M. Jones and Catherine M. Dean

Australian physiotherapy programs incorporate work-integrated learning within curriculum, with the aim to produce work-ready graduates. Recent research in physiotherapy has…

Abstract

Purpose

Australian physiotherapy programs incorporate work-integrated learning within curriculum, with the aim to produce work-ready graduates. Recent research in physiotherapy has identified six domains of work readiness. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between university performance, paid work and work readiness, and explore the perceived contributions of university curriculum, work and life experiences to work readiness in those individuals transitioning into practice.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed-methods design was used incorporating an online survey, and linked university performance data of completing students and recent graduates. The survey included personal and work data, a work readiness scale and Likert scales measuring perceived contributions to work readiness from university curriculum (academic and clinical), work and life experiences. University performance was calculated as the Course Weighted Average Mark. Correlation analysis examined the relationship between university performance, paid work and work readiness. Perceived contributions from university curriculum, and work and life experiences for work readiness domains were calculated as percentages of each Likert response.

Findings

Analysis included 129 surveys (51 completing students and 78 recent graduates). There was no association between university performance, work (paid and unpaid) and perceived work readiness (all p-values > 0.05). There was a high consistent trend that university academic curriculum (range 71–97%), clinical curriculum (range 89–99%) and work and life experiences (range 67–94%) contributed to all work readiness domains.

Originality/value

This study highlights the significant influence of university curriculum, work and life experiences on perceived readiness for practice.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 August 2024

Teresa Sanchez-Chaparro, Victor Gomez-Frias, Fernando Onrubia and Maria Jesus Sanchez-Naranjo

This study aims to explore the emerging trend of business-wide Sustainability Third-Party Labels (STPLs), exemplified by entities like B-Corp. These labels are awarded to…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the emerging trend of business-wide Sustainability Third-Party Labels (STPLs), exemplified by entities like B-Corp. These labels are awarded to organizations committed to a distinctive approach to business, typically embracing the triple-bottom-line (TBL) framework, prioritizing not only financial performance but also social and environmental impact. The research investigates whether these labels enhance trust and influence perceptions of sustainability information quality among young consumers in Spain.

Design/methodology/approach

A factorial experiment has been conducted among a convenience sample of individuals belonging to the Z-generation (n = 126). The experiment involved randomly exposing the participants to different versions of an informational brochure from a fictional company in the agricultural sector (with and without label). Following the experiment, a focus group with 15 participants was conducted to assist in interpreting the results.

Findings

The results of this study suggest that the use of a nonsector specific label across various sectors with distinct sustainability challenges can lead to confusion among Z-generation consumers. Especially within sectors grappling with environmental concerns, such labels may be susceptible to being perceived as manifestations of greenwashing. Additionally, the study adds supporting evidence to the existing body of literature asserting gender differences in the interpretation of sustainability signals, including labels.

Originality/value

As far as this research is concerned, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that studies the perception of Z-generation members regarding business-wide STPLs. Focusing on studying, the attitudes toward sustainability of younger generations and how they respond to signals like business-wide STPLs are relevant, as they not only possess the longevity to drive substantial change but are also more susceptible to behavioral shifts, thereby holding significant potential in shaping a sustainable future. The study combines both qualitative and quantitative perspective and provides critical insights, relevant to stakeholders within business-wide STPL ecosystems, emphasizing the need for strategic coherence and transparency in label implementation.

Details

Young Consumers, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-3616

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2024

Arti Chandani, Smita Wagholikar, Mohit Pathak, Prashant Ubarhande and Ankita Bhatia

The pandemic brought by COVID-19 in March 2020 shook the entire world, compelling everyone to remain indoors. Most B-Schools were unprepared for such a situation and did not have…

Abstract

Purpose

The pandemic brought by COVID-19 in March 2020 shook the entire world, compelling everyone to remain indoors. Most B-Schools were unprepared for such a situation and did not have the resources to carry out the teaching and learning activities. B-schools then adopted online and hybrid modes of learning to impart education to their students. The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting the quality of education along with lessons learnt and lessons to be left behind, using qualitative method.

Design/methodology/approach

The factors affecting the quality of education were drawn from the literature, and 18 faculty members were interviewed. The study uses a descriptive method, where interviews were conducted, and each interview was recorded, with an explicit permission of respective faculty member and coded and categorized to identify themes.

Findings

The significant contribution of this study is that it highlights? Through the learnings and experiences of the pandemic? What will work in the future for business schools. The use of online teaching-learning sessions and softwares, namely, Turnitin and Grammarly will not fade away. Faculty will use various engagement tools such as quizzes and simulations to improve the learning and quality of education in the post-pandemic era. Various interactive and online tools emerged during the pandemic which allowed faculty to use diagrams and infographics in their teaching, and this helped the faculty to cater to students with different learning styles.

Originality/value

This study will provide B-Schools, faculties and leaders an input for improving the quality of online education. The present study provides an empirical contribution to the factors affecting online education and its quality, by highlighting the perspective of faculty members with the help of qualitative study. These factors make a clear and strong indication that education in the future will be partly online, wherein a lot of e-learning resources will be used by faculty to impart quality education.

Details

Journal of International Education in Business, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-469X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 July 2024

Ziling Chen, Chengzhi Zhang, Heng Zhang, Yi Zhao, Chen Yang and Yang Yang

The composition of author teams is a significant factor affecting the novelty of academic papers. Existing research lacks studies focusing on institutional types and measures of…

Abstract

Purpose

The composition of author teams is a significant factor affecting the novelty of academic papers. Existing research lacks studies focusing on institutional types and measures of novelty remained at a general level, making it difficult to analyse the types of novelty in papers and to provide a detailed explanation of novelty. This study aims to take the field of natural language processing (NLP) as an example to analyse the relationship between team institutional composition and the fine-grained novelty of academic papers.

Design/methodology/approach

Firstly, author teams are categorized into three types: academic institutions, industrial institutions and mixed academic and industrial institutions. Next, the authors extract four types of entities from the full paper: methods, data sets, tools and metric. The novelty of papers is evaluated using entity combination measurement methods. Additionally, pairwise combinations of different types of fine-grained entities are analysed to assess their contributions to novel papers.

Findings

The results of the study found that in the field of NLP, for industrial institutions, collaboration with academic institutions has a higher probability of producing novel papers. From the contribution rate of different types of fine-grained knowledge entities, the mixed academic and industrial institutions pay more attention to the novelty of the combination of method indicators, and the industrial institutions pay more attention to the novelty of the combination of method tools.

Originality/value

This paper explores the relationship between the team institutional composition and the novelty of academic papers and reveals the importance of cooperation between industry and academia through fine-grained novelty measurement, which provides key guidance for improving the quality of papers and promoting industry–university–research cooperation.

Details

The Electronic Library , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2024

Calum G. Turvey, Morgan Paige Mastrianni, Shuxin Liu and Chenyan Gong

This paper investigates the relationship between climate finance and climate ergodicity. More specifically the paper examines how climate ergodicity as measured by a…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper investigates the relationship between climate finance and climate ergodicity. More specifically the paper examines how climate ergodicity as measured by a mean-reverting Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process affects the value of climate-linked bonds.

Design/methodology/approach

Bond valuation is evaluated using Monte Carlo methods of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process. The paper describes climate risk in terms of the Hurst coefficient and derives a direct linkage between the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process and the Hurst measure.

Findings

We use the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck mean reversion relationship in its OLS form to estimate Hurst coefficients for 5 × 5° grids across the US for monthly temperature and precipitation. We find that the ergodic property holds with Hurst coefficients between 0.025 and 0.01 which implies increases in climate standard deviation in the range of 25%–50%.

Practical implications

The approach provides a means to stress-test the bond prices to uncover the probability distribution about the issue value of bonds. The methods can be used to price or stress-test bonds issued by firms in climate sensitive industries. This will be of particular interest to the Farm Credit System and the Farm Credit Funding Corporation with agricultural loan portfolios subject to spatial climate risks.

Originality/value

This paper examines bond issues under conditions of rising climate risks using Hurst coefficients derived from an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process.

Details

Agricultural Finance Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-1466

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 July 2024

Mustafa Karabacak and Onder Turan

The purpose of this study is to perform an off-design analysis of the inverted Brayton cycle engine.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to perform an off-design analysis of the inverted Brayton cycle engine.

Design/methodology/approach

The off-design analysis equations of the inverted Brayton cycle engine were first derived in this study and the control parameters of the inverted Brayton cycle engine were first determined and investigated.

Findings

It is observed that by controlling the total temperature decrease in cooling section, it is possible to adapt the engine for low specific fuel consumption working conditions or high thrust working conditions. Specific fuel consumption is reduced by 27.1 % by stopping cooling in the cooling section and thrust is increased by 27.6 % by working with full load of the cooling section (500 K temperature decrease in cooling section). It is observed that thrust depending on the flight Mach number increases with an increase in flight Mach number and reaches a peak value at 5.21 flight Mach number and reduces by 80.8 % at 6 flight Mach number relative to the peak value. The specific fuel consumption increases rapidly as the Mach number increases, and the specific fuel consumption is 49.0 g/[kN.s] at Mach 1, reaches 70.4 g/[kN.s] at Mach 5 and increases to 412 g/[kN.s] at Mach 6. The specific fuel consumption increases from 68.1 to 73.0 g/(kN.s) and the thrust decreases from 16.5 to 13.3 kN as the total preburner exit temperature increases from 1,500 to 2,000 K. Specific fuel consumption decreases from 83.1 to 64.8 g/(kN.s) and thrust increases from 4.60 to 11.08 kN depending on afterburner exit total temperature increase from 1,800 to 2,500 K.

Research limitations/implications

The cooling section reduces total temperature of the gas flow to lower values to increase the compressor total pressure ratio. The compressor increases the total pressure of the gas flow to the optimum total pressure ratios to increase the nozzle exit Mach number and gain more thrust. The afterburner increases the total temperature of the gas flow to increase the sound speed in the nozzle exit to increase thrust. The nozzle expands the gas flow to reduce the static pressure of the gas flow to near the optimum value, atmosphere pressure, to increase thrust and reduce specific fuel consumption.

Practical implications

Hypersonic and supersonic air vehicles can use the current engine model for the its own propulsion systems.

Social implications

After first heavier than air flight, aero engines was designed for only used for aero vehicle. Internal combustion engines were used for propelled propeller aircraft at the first term of aircraft. However, propeller-propelled aircrafts are not sufficient to increase aircraft velocity to supersonic Mach numbers due to the shock losses of propeller, so the supersonic era was only introduced by revolution in propulsion systems with new concept. A jet engine was developed to be candidate for supersonic flight.

Originality/value

Off-design analysis equations of an inverted Brayton cycle engine were first derived in this study. Furthermore, the control parameters of the inverted Brayton cycle engine were first determined and investigated in this paper.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 96 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 August 2024

Thanh Tiep Le, Quynh Phan Vo Nhu and Abhishek Behl

The study investigated the relationship between digital supply chain (DSC) and sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via the…

Abstract

Purpose

The study investigated the relationship between digital supply chain (DSC) and sustainable supply chain performance (SSCP) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) via the lens of supply chain integration (SCI) and information sharing (IS). This study concentrates more on the mediating role of SCI and IS in the link between DSC and SSCP that no research has mentioned before.

Design/methodology/approach

This research figures out how the DSC impacts the performance of the organization and the supply chain. By employing a carefully designed questionnaire to gather data, a quantitative methodology was employed. Managers at the senior and medium levels were the responders who were targeted. There are 467 valid replies gathered from the primary survey. The data results were used in the analysis using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings

The findings imply that SCI’s function in the information-sharing process is crucial as it fosters cooperation, coordination and connectivity throughout the DSC. Furthermore, the study’s conclusions offer helpful information on how businesses might enhance supply chain performance through information exchange. Businesses are constantly concentrating on the role that the DSC plays as a catalyst for sustainable growth and are improving supply chain performance through SCI and information exchange.

Originality/value

This study highlights the gaps and unexplored themes in the existing literature, catalogs the DSC published in the main logistics journals and helps people recognize and appreciate this kind of work. It also has the potential to contribute to future research on SSCP. Moreover, the novelty research is further reinforced by the coverage of the newfound mechanism, where SCI and IS mediate the relationship between DSC and SSCP, directly and positively enhancing SSCP.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 June 2022

XiYue Deng, Xiaoming Li, Zhenzhen Chen, Mengli Zhu, Naixue Xiong and Li Shen

Human group behavior is the driving force behind many complex social and economic phenomena. Few studies have integrated multi-dimensional travel patterns and city interest points…

Abstract

Purpose

Human group behavior is the driving force behind many complex social and economic phenomena. Few studies have integrated multi-dimensional travel patterns and city interest points to construct urban security risk indicators. This paper combines traffic data and urban alarm data to analyze the safe travel characteristics of the urban population. The research results are helpful to explore the diversity of human group behavior, grasp the temporal and spatial laws and reveal regional security risks. It provides a reference for optimizing resource deployment and group intelligence analysis in emergency management.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the dynamics index of group behavior, this paper mines the data of large shared bikes and ride-hailing in a big city of China. We integrate the urban interest points and travel dynamic characteristics, construct the urban traffic safety index based on alarm behavior and further calculate the urban safety index.

Findings

This study found significant differences in the travel power index among ride-sharing users. There is a positive correlation between user shared bike trips and the power-law bimodal phenomenon in the logarithmic coordinate system. It is closely related to the urban public security index.

Originality/value

Based on group-shared dynamic index integrated alarm, we innovatively constructed an urban public safety index and analyzed the correlation of travel alarm behavior. The research results fully reveal the internal mechanism of the group behavior safety index and provide a valuable supplement for the police intelligence analysis.

Details

Data Technologies and Applications, vol. 58 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9288

Keywords

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