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Aluminium-doped zinc oxide thin films exhibit interesting optoelectronic properties, which make them suitable for fabrication of photovoltaic cell, flat panel display electrode, etc. It has been shown that aluminium dopant concentration and annealing treatment in reduced atmosphere are the major factors affecting the electrical and optical properties of aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) film. Here, the authors report the structural, optical and electrical properties of aluminium-doped zinc oxide thin films fabricated by dip coating technique and annealed in air atmosphere, thereby avoiding hazardous environments such as hydrogen. The aim of this paper was to systematically investigate the effect of annealing temperature on the electrical properties of dip-coated film.

Aluminium-doped ZnO thin films were prepared on corning substrates by dip coating method. Aluminium concentration in the film varied from 0.8 to 1.4 mol per cent. Films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy and Hall measurements. The deposited films were heat treated at 450-600°C, in steps of 50°C for 1 h in air to study the improvement in electrical properties. Films were also prepared by annealing at 600°C in air for durations of 1, 2, 4 and 6 h. Envelope method was used to calculate the variation of the refractive index and extinction coefficient with wavelength.

The electrical resistivity is found to decrease considerably when the annealing time is increased from 1 to 4 h. The films exhibited high transmittance (>90 per cent) in the visible range, and the optical band gaps were found to change as per the Moss–Burstien effect, and this was consistent with the observed changes in the carrier concentration.

The study shows the effect of annealing in air, avoiding hazardous reduced environment, such as hydrogen, to study the improvement in electrical and optical properties of aluminum-doped zinc oxide films. Envelope method was used to calculate the variation of optical constants with wavelength.

In search of creating an extraordinary experience for customers, services have gone beyond the means of a transaction between buyers and sellers. In the event industry, where purchasing tickets online is a common procedure, it remains unclear as to how to enhance the multifaceted experience. This study aims at offering a snapshot into the most valued aspects for consumers and to uncover consumers' feelings toward their experience of purchasing event tickets on third-party ticketing platforms.

This is a cross-disciplinary study that applies knowledge from both data science and services marketing. Under the guise of natural language processing, latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling and sentiment analysis were used to interpret the embedded meanings based on online reviews.

The findings conceptualized ten dimensions valued by eventgoers, including technical issues, value of core product and service, word-of-mouth, trustworthiness, professionalism and knowledgeability, customer support, information transparency, additional fee, prior experience and after-sales service. Among these aspects, consumers rated the value of the core product and service to be the most positive experience, whereas the additional fee was considered the least positive one.

Drawing from the intersection of natural language processing and the status quo of the event industry, this study offers a better understanding of eventgoers' experiences in the case of purchasing online event tickets. It also provides a hands-on guide for marketers to stage memorable experiences in the era of digitalization.

Total risk score (TRS) is considered one of the main indicators for risk evaluation. Several studies attempted to employ different types of risk indices for the evaluation of cost overrun causes. Hence, this study aims at performing a comparative analysis to evaluate the efficiency of three different approaches for TRS calculation.

Thirty-eight unique causes of cost overrun in urban-related construction projects were identified and a survey was conducted among construction professionals in Iran. The TRS for each cost overrun cause is calculated using single-attribute (SA), double-attribute (DA), and multiple-attribute (MA) approaches, and eventually, causes were ranked. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA), logistic regression analysis (LRA), and K-means clustering are utilized to compare the differences in the generated TRS using different approaches.

The results revealed that the TRS generated through the MA approach demonstrated the highest efficiency in terms of generating correlation between causes and their identified latent constructs, prediction capability, and classification of the influential causes in the same group.

The originality of this study primarily stems from the adoption of statistical approaches in the evaluation of the recently introduced TRS calculation approach in comparison to traditional ones. Additionally, this study proposed a modified application of the relative importance index (RII) for risk prioritization. The results from this study are expected to fulfill the gap in previous literature toward exploring the most efficient TRS calculation approach for those researchers and practitioners who seek to utilize them as a measure to identify the influential cost overrun causes.

The principle of microwave characterization of dielectric materials using open-ended coaxial line probe is to link the dielectric properties of the sample under test to the measurements of the probe admittance (Y(f) = G(f)+ jB(f )). The purpose of this paper is to develop an alternative inversion tool able to predict the evolution of the complex permittivity (ε = ε′ – jε″) on a broad band frequency (f from 1 MHz to 1.8 GHz).

The inverse problem is solved using adaptive network based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) which needs the creation of a database for its learning. Unfortunately, train ANFIS using f, G and B as inputs has given unsatisfying results. Therefore, an inputs selection procedure is used to select the three optimal inputs from new inputs, created mathematically from original ones, using the Jang method.

Inversion results of measurements give, after training, in real time the complex permittivity of solid and liquid samples with a very good accuracy which prove the applicability of ANFIS to solve inverse problems in microwave characterization.

The originality of this paper consists on the use of ANFIS with input selection procedure based on the Jang method to solve the inverse problem where the three optimal inputs are selected from 26 new inputs created mathematically from original ones (f, G and B).

This study aims to synthesize and integrate findings from diverse research on the antecedents and moderators of customer loyalty in the banking sector. Through a comprehensive meta-analysis, the research seeks to understand the primary drivers of bank loyalty and the potential cultural, economic and social indicators that might influence these relationships.

A rigorous meta-analysis was conducted, analyzing 275 studies with 1,365 effect sizes involving over 134,000 bank customers from more than 50 countries. The research evaluated the effect sizes of the main relationships between loyalty antecedents and consequences and assessed the influence of cultural, economic and social moderators.

The study identified key antecedents of bank loyalty, with responsiveness, privacy, commitment, trust and empathy being paramount. Cultural dimensions, such as individualism and masculinity, significantly moderate the relationships between trust and loyalty. The human development index (HDI) was also identified as a significant economic moderator, particularly influencing the relationship between satisfaction and bank loyalty.

This research offers a holistic view of bank loyalty, bridging gaps from conflicting findings in prior literature. Examining a vast array of studies across diverse cultural and economic contexts provides empirical generalizations about bank loyalty behavior, offering valuable insights for academia and the banking industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate delay factors within private housing construction in Northern Ireland. Delays are inherent throughout the construction industry and create major difficulties in terms of project performance and client satisfaction. Whilst a voluminous body of international literature has investigated pertinent delay factors within construction projects, there is a relative paucity of research which offers a more delineated exploration of delay factors affecting private housing development schemes, particularly in the UK context.

This study applies questionnaire survey research to examine the relative importance of 75 delay attribute factors for housing construction projects in Northern Ireland. The approach applies both a relative rank and principal component analysis to distil the key factors impinging upon the delay process in housing construction.

The key finding from this research is that delays within the housing construction sector in Northern Ireland can be attributed to deficiencies in site management, ineffective communication strategies and a lack of coordination between key stakeholders involved in the construction process.

The study adds to the existing knowledge base and provides stakeholders with information on factors, which, if properly risk assessed and understood, can improve housing construction performance. The findings are of relevance to construction industry practitioners, policy makers and researchers with lessons learned serving as a basis for future policy development as well as affording an information platform for improving the efficiency and expediency of housing provision internationally.

Construction projects within Malaysia are plagued by time overruns that can transform what should have been successful projects, into those incurring additional costs, disagreements, litigation and in some cases abandonment. To help better understand this problem, the purpose of this paper is to investigate Malaysian project characteristics in relation to time overruns.

In total, 150 Malaysian quantity-surveying organisations provided data relating to recent projects they have worked on. Project characteristics considered in analysis are new build and refurbishment, public and private sectors, procurement methods used, nature of projects and tendering methods.

Public sector projects were found more prone to overruns than those in the private sector; refurbishment projects experienced better time performance than new build; construction management demonstrated better time performance than design-build or traditional procurement; and infrastructure projects/negotiated tendering, performed better than selective/open tendering, respectively. The study also developed a linear model to predict project duration, based on contract period.

The study adds a geographically specific detailed analysis to the extant literature of project performance generally and to that of time overruns more specifically.

Findings provide stakeholders with information that may help mitigate the frequency of project delays among construction projects, especially in Malaysia.

The analysis and modelling of time overrun in relation to Malaysian project characteristics in this way is novel.

This study aims to focus on identifying the business risks that cause a delay in the oil and gas projects and suggest the way forward toward the better development of the city gas distribution (CGD) sector in India by suggesting the appropriate mitigation strategies.

The study is a systematic review of literature on risks causing a delay in oil and gas projects. Comprehensive literature was carried out following a seven-step model to develop an exhaustive list of risk classifications and factors, risk identification methods and strategies to mitigate the risks. Weighted average ranking method is used to identify the top ten risks affecting oil and gas projects.

This research identifies the top ten risks frequently impacting the oil and gas projects, which are project cost, improper project management, change in economic parameters, currency exchange rate, government regulations and laws, contractor and subcontractors issues, lack of skilled labor, delay in approvals, health and safety issues and force majeure. These risks are primarily responsible for cost overrun and project delay. Additionally, this study recommends the implementation of joint risk management to avoid CGD project delay.

The CGD industry is in the growing stage with many projects under construction. However, there is a lack of research to manage risks in the CGD project. This study contributes to the limited literature available on risk management in oil and gas projects. Additionally, it highlights the need for further research to explore the different risks factors affecting the CGD business and its operations and subsequently develop appropriate mitigation strategies.

In this paper, the dominant techno-rational view of studying delays in projects is challenged. In so doing, the purpose of this paper is to urge for more attention paid to studying the intentionalities of the planners involved in planning the schedule for projects.

In this paper, the authors take a critical approach to review a range of literatures related to the concept of project delays. Through this review, the authors render the relative absence of acknowledging intentionality in the study of delays problematic. Therefore, the authors inject fresh insights into how intentionality can play a crucial role in advancing the understanding of project delays.

Prevailing research tends to assume the primacy of the project plan and conceptualise delays as a consequence of flawed execution. The review offers three possibilities for reconceptualising delays as a consequence of flawed plans. In so doing, the authors refocus the attention on how intentionality could play a crucial role in shaping “inaccurate” plans, which in turn could lead to the creation of delays.

As a consequence of this review paper, the authors invite scholarship into project delays to move away from finding “cause-and-effect” mechanisms to attend more closely to the role intentionality plays in creating delays, whether intended, unintended, or imagined.

This paper brings intentionality to the fore to challenge the assumptions over the nature of delays. In so doing, the review expands the understanding of project delays by incorporating unintended, intended, and imaginary perspectives.

Foreign direct investment in the infrastructure (FDII) of developing countries has a history of at least four decades. Bullish demand for foreign infrastructure services in developing countries, in combination with unstable political environments, has buoyed attention in political risk management (PRM). Even so, research into PRM of FDII remains fragmented and unmapped. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the current body of knowledge in this area, uncover deficiencies and lay the foundation for further practical PRM research in FDII.

This paper offers a bibliometric-qualitative review of current literature on political risk in foreign infrastructure in developing countries. A 36-year period is identified, from 1983 to 2018. Publication year, area of focus, author(s), institution and country are classified and analyzed through the medium of social network analysis. The tools used are VOSviewer, CiteSpace and Gephi to analyze citation networks of 345 published papers. Out of 345 papers, 94 highly related studies were selected for further content analysis.

The study identified the research trends in related areas of PRM in infrastructure (e.g. PRM in international construction and foreign direct investment) by bibliometric analysis, which includes scattered researcher collaboration, wide-ranging and unfocused journal selection, unsystematic and discontinuous research themes. The specific research weakness in PRM in FDII is recognized by qualitative analysis from the perspective of PRM process, which reveals a lack of understanding of the impact of political risk factors, subjective risk estimations, lacking application of mature political risk database in FDII, combined with a shortage of complete and effective strategies for PRM in FDII in developing countries.

This paper is the first of its kind, providing a comprehensive benchmark survey of the research to date in PRM in foreign infrastructure investment in developing countries. It proposes a framework of future research agenda on PRM in FDII, including special issues on this topic, identification and assessment of political risk factors with objective methods, proposition of PRM strategies on FDII with proactive and active approaches, completing strategies of PRM with reactive strategies from the perspectives of whole life cycle of infrastructure projects, political risk factors and stakeholders. It also addressed the need to investigate the suitable literature databases for researching in this area.