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Abstract

Details

Understanding Intercultural Interaction: An Analysis of Key Concepts, 2nd Edition
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-438-8

Article
Publication date: 31 October 2023

Hong Zhou, Binwei Gao, Shilong Tang, Bing Li and Shuyu Wang

The number of construction dispute cases has maintained a high growth trend in recent years. The effective exploration and management of construction contract risk can directly…

Abstract

Purpose

The number of construction dispute cases has maintained a high growth trend in recent years. The effective exploration and management of construction contract risk can directly promote the overall performance of the project life cycle. The miss of clauses may result in a failure to match with standard contracts. If the contract, modified by the owner, omits key clauses, potential disputes may lead to contractors paying substantial compensation. Therefore, the identification of construction project contract missing clauses has heavily relied on the manual review technique, which is inefficient and highly restricted by personnel experience. The existing intelligent means only work for the contract query and storage. It is urgent to raise the level of intelligence for contract clause management. Therefore, this paper aims to propose an intelligent method to detect construction project contract missing clauses based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and deep learning technology.

Design/methodology/approach

A complete classification scheme of contract clauses is designed based on NLP. First, construction contract texts are pre-processed and converted from unstructured natural language into structured digital vector form. Following the initial categorization, a multi-label classification of long text construction contract clauses is designed to preliminary identify whether the clause labels are missing. After the multi-label clause missing detection, the authors implement a clause similarity algorithm by creatively integrating the image detection thought, MatchPyramid model, with BERT to identify missing substantial content in the contract clauses.

Findings

1,322 construction project contracts were tested. Results showed that the accuracy of multi-label classification could reach 93%, the accuracy of similarity matching can reach 83%, and the recall rate and F1 mean of both can reach more than 0.7. The experimental results verify the feasibility of intelligently detecting contract risk through the NLP-based method to some extent.

Originality/value

NLP is adept at recognizing textual content and has shown promising results in some contract processing applications. However, the mostly used approaches of its utilization for risk detection in construction contract clauses predominantly are rule-based, which encounter challenges when handling intricate and lengthy engineering contracts. This paper introduces an NLP technique based on deep learning which reduces manual intervention and can autonomously identify and tag types of contractual deficiencies, aligning with the evolving complexities anticipated in future construction contracts. Moreover, this method achieves the recognition of extended contract clause texts. Ultimately, this approach boasts versatility; users simply need to adjust parameters such as segmentation based on language categories to detect omissions in contract clauses of diverse languages.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2023

Elaheh Hosseini, Kimiya Taghizadeh Milani and Mohammad Shaker Sabetnasab

This research aimed to visualize and analyze the co-word network and thematic clusters of the intellectual structure in the field of linked data during 1900–2021.

Abstract

Purpose

This research aimed to visualize and analyze the co-word network and thematic clusters of the intellectual structure in the field of linked data during 1900–2021.

Design/methodology/approach

This applied research employed a descriptive and analytical method, scientometric indicators, co-word techniques, and social network analysis. VOSviewer, SPSS, Python programming, and UCINet software were used for data analysis and network structure visualization.

Findings

The top ranks of the Web of Science (WOS) subject categorization belonged to various fields of computer science. Besides, the USA was the most prolific country. The keyword ontology had the highest frequency of co-occurrence. Ontology and semantic were the most frequent co-word pairs. In terms of the network structure, nine major topic clusters were identified based on co-occurrence, and 29 thematic clusters were identified based on hierarchical clustering. Comparisons between the two clustering techniques indicated that three clusters, namely semantic bioinformatics, knowledge representation, and semantic tools were in common. The most mature and mainstream thematic clusters were natural language processing techniques to boost modeling and visualization, context-aware knowledge discovery, probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA), semantic tools, latent semantic indexing, web ontology language (OWL) syntax, and ontology-based deep learning.

Originality/value

This study adopted various techniques such as co-word analysis, social network analysis network structure visualization, and hierarchical clustering to represent a suitable, visual, methodical, and comprehensive perspective into linked data.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 March 2024

Nechama Nadav, Pascale Benoliel and Chen Schechter

This study examines the relationship of principals’ systems thinking (PST) to student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence. The investigation relies on the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the relationship of principals’ systems thinking (PST) to student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence. The investigation relies on the contingency theory, according to which effective leadership is contingent on the nature of the situational influences to which managers are exposed. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of school structure – bureaucratic vs organic – on the relationship between PST and student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence after accounting for students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and principals' demographics.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-source survey design with self-reported and non-self-reported data was used, with a sample of 423 participants from 71 elementary schools in Israel. The sample included senior management team members and teachers. The data were aggregated at the school level of analysis.

Findings

Hierarchical regression analyses showed that organic school structure moderates the relationship between PST and student academic achievement, and bureaucratic school structure moderates the relationship between PST and school violence beyond the impact of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds.

Originality/value

This study provides important evidence for the benefits of aligning PST with school structure for improving student outcomes beyond the impact of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, the study suggests principal system thinking leadership to achieve effective student outcomes that circumvent the effects of inequality on disadvantaged student groups.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 September 2022

Mehdi Hassanzadeh, Mohammad Taheri, Sajjad Shokouhyar and Sina Shokoohyar

This study examines opinion leadership's personal and social characteristics to see which one is more effective in opinion leadership in four different industries: fashion, travel…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines opinion leadership's personal and social characteristics to see which one is more effective in opinion leadership in four different industries: fashion, travel and tourism, wellness and book and literature. The specific subject of this investigation is how largely openness, exhibitionism and competence in interpersonal relationships and status and attitude homophily affect the opinion leadership and the decision-making of opinion leaders' followers.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model was tested with the questionnaire shared via stories featured on Instagram among followers of four micro-influencers in different industries. For the purpose of testing the offered hypotheses of this study, the partial least squares method was used.

Findings

The findings show that openness, exhibitionism and competence in interpersonal relationships have a substantial effect on opinion leadership. It was also evident that status and attitude homophily impact opinion leadership. The model supports the effect of both personal and social characteristics on opinion leadership; however, based on the results, the effect of personal characteristics on opinion leadership is more remarkable, both in a direct relationship and through the mediating role of para-social interaction.

Originality/value

This study is novel in categorizing opinion leaders' attributes in two different extents of personal and social characteristics. The authors defined a model of the effectiveness of each personal and social characteristic on opinion leaders. The model investigates whether the personal or social characteristics have the most effect on opinion leadership, particularly with the mediating role of para-social interaction.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 75 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 February 2024

Liang-Hung Lin and Yu-Ling Ho

This study aims to examine the effect of exploratory innovation offshoring on the level of hierarchical control and how this effect is moderated by transnational and dynamic…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effect of exploratory innovation offshoring on the level of hierarchical control and how this effect is moderated by transnational and dynamic environments.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws on a sample of 148 Taiwanese multinational enterprises to examine their governance decisions on foreign investments.

Findings

Findings show that the more innovation offshoring is exploratory, the higher the level of hierarchical control will be used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and that transnational and dynamic environments have different moderation effects on the positive exploratory innovation offshoring-hierarchical control relationship.

Research limitations/implications

This study has two theoretical implications. First, this study extends the concept of complexity from a transaction attribute level (problem) to an environmental level (transnational environment) and finds that exploratory innovation offshoring and transnational environments interactively impact governance choices. Second, this study distinguishes between two sources of technological uncertainty – uncertainty due to transaction-level attributes (exploratory innovation offshoring) and external environments (dynamic environments) and finds that exploratory innovation offshoring and dynamic environments interactively impact governance choices.

Practical implications

The practical implication of this study lies in the simultaneous consideration of exploratory innovation offshoring and transnational/dynamic environments, which will allow international decision-makers to adjust/select the governance forms most appropriate for speedy responding to and handling environmental changes.

Originality/value

This study employs the theoretical perspectives of transaction cost economics (TCE) and resource-based view (RBV) to analyze and discuss the impact of operational environments – transnational and dynamic environments – on MNEs’ decisions on the governance structure for a given innovation offshoring.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 62 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2023

Kangning Liu, Bon-Gang Hwang, Jianyao Jia, Qingpeng Man and Shoujian Zhang

Informal learning networks are critical to response to calls for practitioners to reskill and upskill in off-site construction projects. With the transition to the coronavirus…

Abstract

Purpose

Informal learning networks are critical to response to calls for practitioners to reskill and upskill in off-site construction projects. With the transition to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social media-enabled online knowledge communities play an increasingly important role in acquiring and disseminating off-site construction knowledge. Proximity has been identified as a key factor in facilitating interactive learning, yet which type of proximity is effective in promoting online and offline knowledge exchange remains unclear. This study takes a relational view to explore the proximity-related antecedents of online and offline learning networks in off-site construction projects, while also examining the subtle differences in the networks' structural patterns.

Design/methodology/approach

Five types of proximity (physical, organizational, social, cognitive and personal) between projects members are conceptualized in the theoretical model. Drawing on social foci theory and homophily theory, the research hypotheses are proposed. To test these hypotheses, empirical case studies were conducted on two off-site construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Valid relational data provided by 99 and 145 project members were collected using semi-structured interviews and sociometric questionnaires. Subsequently, multivariate exponential random graph models were developed.

Findings

The results show a discrepancy arise in the structural patterns between online and offline learning networks. Offline learning is found to be more strongly influenced by proximity factors than online learning. Specifically, physical, organizational and social proximity are found to be significant predictors of offline knowledge exchange. Cognitive proximity has a negative relationship with offline knowledge exchange but is positively related to online knowledge exchange. Regarding personal proximity, the study found that the homophily effect of hierarchical status merely emerges in offline learning networks. Online knowledge communities amplify the receiver effect of tenure. Furthermore, there appears to be a complementary relationship between online and offline learning networks.

Originality/value

Proximity offers a novel relational perspective for understanding the formation of knowledge exchange connections. This study enriches the literature on informal learning within project teams by revealing how different types of proximity shape learning networks across different channels in off-site construction projects.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 December 2022

Zeynep Yeşim İlerisoy and Berru İzel Gökgöz

This study aims to focus on security measures for protecting transportation buildings from vehicle bomb attacks. It discusses ways to mitigate the effects of vehicle bomb…

197

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to focus on security measures for protecting transportation buildings from vehicle bomb attacks. It discusses ways to mitigate the effects of vehicle bomb terrorist attacks through architectural design decisions on transportation buildings.

Design/methodology/approach

The main research topic is the evaluation of architectural design decisions for vehicle bomb attacks at transportation buildings with the multi-criteria decision-making method. First, it was investigated which characteristics the impact of the explosion on the structures depended on. The measures for vehicle bomb attacks regarding the relationship between the urban scale and the building were determined by four main criteria and 17 sub-criteria. Due to the complex and ambiguous nature of architectural design, these criteria were evaluated by the analytic hierarchy processes. After the criteria weights were obtained, the alternative sample buildings, including the train stations and airports, were evaluated with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution method.

Findings

The site security design was determined as the most effective component for vehicle bomb attacks among the main criteria. The most important sub-criterion was the perimeter firewall. In the evaluations of the alternatives, it was determined that airports performed better against vehicle bomb attacks in terms of architectural design requirements than train stations.

Originality/value

This research contributes to the literature for the countries where explosions occur intensively by determining the importance of architectural design parameters for the transportation buildings and surroundings against vehicle bomb attacks. This study provides an evaluation model based on transportation buildings considering the relationship between the urban scale and the building itself.

Details

Open House International, vol. 48 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0168-2601

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 November 2022

Reza Edris Abadi, Mohammad Javad Ershadi and Seyed Taghi Akhavan Niaki

The overall goal of the data mining process is to extract information from an extensive data set and make it understandable for further use. When working with large volumes of…

Abstract

Purpose

The overall goal of the data mining process is to extract information from an extensive data set and make it understandable for further use. When working with large volumes of unstructured data in research information systems, it is necessary to divide the information into logical groupings after examining their quality before attempting to analyze it. On the other hand, data quality results are valuable resources for defining quality excellence programs of any information system. Hence, the purpose of this study is to discover and extract knowledge to evaluate and improve data quality in research information systems.

Design/methodology/approach

Clustering in data analysis and exploiting the outputs allows practitioners to gain an in-depth and extensive look at their information to form some logical structures based on what they have found. In this study, data extracted from an information system are used in the first stage. Then, the data quality results are classified into an organized structure based on data quality dimension standards. Next, clustering algorithms (K-Means), density-based clustering (density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise [DBSCAN]) and hierarchical clustering (balanced iterative reducing and clustering using hierarchies [BIRCH]) are applied to compare and find the most appropriate clustering algorithms in the research information system.

Findings

This paper showed that quality control results of an information system could be categorized through well-known data quality dimensions, including precision, accuracy, completeness, consistency, reputation and timeliness. Furthermore, among different well-known clustering approaches, the BIRCH algorithm of hierarchical clustering methods performs better in data clustering and gives the highest silhouette coefficient value. Next in line is the DBSCAN method, which performs better than the K-Means method.

Research limitations/implications

In the data quality assessment process, the discrepancies identified and the lack of proper classification for inconsistent data have led to unstructured reports, making the statistical analysis of qualitative metadata problems difficult and thus impossible to root out the observed errors. Therefore, in this study, the evaluation results of data quality have been categorized into various data quality dimensions, based on which multiple analyses have been performed in the form of data mining methods.

Originality/value

Although several pieces of research have been conducted to assess data quality results of research information systems, knowledge extraction from obtained data quality scores is a crucial work that has rarely been studied in the literature. Besides, clustering in data quality analysis and exploiting the outputs allows practitioners to gain an in-depth and extensive look at their information to form some logical structures based on what they have found.

Details

Information Discovery and Delivery, vol. 51 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-6247

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 March 2024

Lillian Do Nascimento Gambi and Koenraad Debackere

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of the literature on technology transfer and culture, identifying the main contents of the current body of knowledge…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of the literature on technology transfer and culture, identifying the main contents of the current body of knowledge encompassing culture and technology transfer (TT), thus contributing to a better understanding of the relationship between TT and culture based on bibliometric and multivariate statistical analyses of the relevant body of literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for this study were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. Based on a bibliometric analysis and in-depth empirical review of major TT subjects, supported by multivariate statistical analyses, over 200 articles were systematically reviewed. The use of these methods decreases biases since it adds rigor to the subjective evaluation of the relevant literature base.

Findings

The exploratory analysis of the articles shows that first, culture is an important topic for TT in the literature; second, the publication data demonstrate a great dynamism regarding the different contexts in which culture is covered in the TT literature and third, in the last couple of years the interest of stimulating a TT culture in the context of universities has continuously grown.

Research limitations/implications

This study focuses on culture in the context of TT and identifies the main contents of the body of knowledge in the area. Based on this first insight, obtained through more detailed bibliometric and multivariate analyses, it is now important to develop and validate a theory on TT culture, emphasizing the dimensions of organizational culture, entrepreneurial culture and a culture of openness that fosters economic and societal spillovers, and to link those dimensions to the performance of TT activities.

Practical implications

From the practical point of view, managers in companies and universities should be aware of the importance of identifying those dimensions of culture that contribute most to the success of their TT activities.

Originality/value

Despite several literature reviews on the TT topic, no studies focusing specifically on culture in the context of TT have been developed. Therefore, given the multifaceted nature of the research field, this study aims to expand and to deepen the analysis of the TT literature by focusing on culture as an important and commonly cited element influencing TT performance.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

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