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1 – 10 of 64Suling Zhang and Jerry Fjermestad
Platform‐independent low‐cost instant messaging (IM) may allow small businesses with limited financial and technical resources to communicate and collaborate internally and…
Abstract
Purpose
Platform‐independent low‐cost instant messaging (IM) may allow small businesses with limited financial and technical resources to communicate and collaborate internally and externally. Little research has been done investigating IM in the small business context. This study seeks to address this research gap and to investigate how small businesses respond to and actively exploit the opportunities brought by IM.
Design/methodology/approach
Two comparative case studies were conducted with two US small businesses. The research sites were selected based on the companies' IM usage pattern. Multiple data collecting methods were used including observation, interview, and IM transcripts. Open coding and qualitative data analysis were employed to get rich descriptive findings about IM usage.
Findings
IM was found beneficial to small businesses in several ways. The IM usage management is more a managerial issue than a technical one and a set of organizational and managerial factors were identified critical to the achievements of these benefits.
Originality/value
This paper addresses a research gap and investigates the under‐researched IM management issue. The study shows that creative and constructive usage of IM could bring a variety of organizational benefits to small businesses. The findings of this study provide guidance to IM researchers and small business practitioners as to how small businesses can manage IM to exploit its benefits. The comparative study method employed by this study also identifies situations where the utility of IM usage could be limited.
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According to the unique style and historical significance, Chinese ancient architecture which has a long history, plays an important role in world architecture. Most of Chinese…
Abstract
According to the unique style and historical significance, Chinese ancient architecture which has a long history, plays an important role in world architecture. Most of Chinese ancient architecture uses wooden frame as a load-bearing system, however, a unique combination of components has emerged in its development. Due to the well-preserved ancient buildings and a long historical and cultural background of Qijiang ancient town, the paper takes the Qijiang ancient town as an example through field measurement and investigation. The composition of the external environment of the building, architectural characteristics and building monomer composition were analyzed and studied. The unique architectural art charm of Qijiang ancient town was showed. Moreover, the delimitation of the protection scope mainly includes the scope of protected areas and the scope of the construction control zone. Among them, the protected areas are generally divided into key protected areas and general protected areas; the construction control zones are generally divided into Type I of construction control zone and Type II of construction control zones. Ancient buildings are the most existing heritage types in China and are an important part of the immovable cultural relics in China. The group layout of ancient buildings is an important feature in the layout of ancient buildings in China, which is conducive to the realization of the overall protection of heritage.
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This research draws on social identity literature and intersectionality to examine the social construction of race, gender, and sexuality within hip-hop music and how this shapes…
Abstract
This research draws on social identity literature and intersectionality to examine the social construction of race, gender, and sexuality within hip-hop music and how this shapes the identity development of college students. Data were collected from 26 college students through semi-structured interviews. Participants described men as being portrayed as hyper-masculine and identified lyrics that supported toxic masculinity. Participants reported that the dominant theme in hip-hop today centered on “trappin” or selling drugs and glamorized that life. African American men, in particular, described how this theme in music shaped the narrative around race and masculinity, how others saw them as Black men, and how they had to counter that image and stereotype as college students. Participants described the negative portrayal of women in hip-hop. However, women participants were more conflicted in their perception of women in hip-hop and said that when women were the artists this illustrated more agency and was liberating even if the images and lyrics were sexualized. Participants were adamant that constructions of gender and sexuality within hip-hop music and videos shaped expectations within relationships. Despite the criticisms of hip-hop, participants described how raising consciousness through hip-hop affected their own identities. This research contextualizes the findings with a discussion of how popular culture shapes identity around race, gender, and sexuality and shapes the expectations within relationships. Further, the research concludes with a discussion of intersectionality and how this provides a better understanding of the effects of identity development among marginalized groups.
Om Raj Katoch, Romesh Sharma, Sarita Parihar and Ashraf Nawaz
People with energy poverty are denied the modern energy services such as cooking, lighting, heating, cooling and communication. These needs are all crucial to maintaining an…
Abstract
Purpose
People with energy poverty are denied the modern energy services such as cooking, lighting, heating, cooling and communication. These needs are all crucial to maintaining an acceptable level of living standards. This paper aims to examine the effects of energy poverty on health and education.
Design/methodology/approach
This systematic review was conducted using the 2009 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were used to search the studies conducted between 2012 and 2022. Studies included in this review were searched with some combinations of keywords and saved in Mendeley Desktop for review and referencing. Of 1,745 articles retrieved after removing the duplicates from the databases, 22 met the inclusion criteria.
Findings
Out of the total 22 studies reviewed, six were conducted in Asia, six in Europe, four in Africa, three in developing countries and one each in North America, Australia and at global level. Results indicated that impacts of energy poverty on health and education were negative. Efforts should be made to improve the economic conditions of the population in order to allow them access to energy services to achieve higher levels of living.
Practical implications
As this systematic review excludes non-peer-reviewed literature, case studies, reports and theses, and only includes studies published between 2012 and 2022 in English language only, consequently, it may not provide an exhaustive overview of the literature on topic.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review to investigate the relationship between energy poverty, health and education conducted here. The search methodologies involve systematic searches of databases and other manual searches. Considering the wide inclusion criteria, this review is useful as a general overview of the issues and identifies particular gaps in the existing evidence.
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Sevgi Balıkçıoğlu Dedeoğlu, Duygu Eren, Nilufer Sahin Percin and Şule Aydin
The primary purpose of this study is to reveal how the local food consumption intentions of international tourists are influenced by core variables of the theory of planned…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this study is to reveal how the local food consumption intentions of international tourists are influenced by core variables of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The secondary purpose is to explore the moderating role of responsible tourist behavior in these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
The present research was conducted on international tourists visiting Antalya, Turkey. The research data, collected from a total of 457 respondents, were tested and analyzed via partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
Attitudes toward local food and perceived behavioral control have a positive and significant impact on local food consumption intention. Also, responsible tourist behavior has a moderating effect on both the relationship between attitude toward local food and local food consumption intention and the relationship between subjective norms and local food consumption intention.
Practical implications
In their advertising campaigns, destination management organizations (DMOs) and local restaurants should prepare more sentimental advertising content by further focusing on nonrenewable limited resources of the destination and addressing tourists’ role in consuming the limited resources in question. Thus, tourists’ sense of responsibility toward destinations may be increased, possibly stimulating enhancement in their local food consumption intentions.
Originality/value
This study explores the role of responsible tourist behavior in the construct of local food consumption through the lens of TPB. Said construct was included in the local food consumption intention model. This endeavor has paved the way for unraveling the interaction between responsible tourist behavior, attitudes and subjective norms, all of which are fundamental elements of the TPB toward increasing local food consumption intentions. This constitutes a remarkable contribution in understanding the local food consumption behavior of tourists. Moreover, because local food will be consumed in local restaurants located in the destinations, understanding the local food consumption intentions of tourists will enable local restaurants to develop innovative products by focusing on local food.
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Sine Yılmaz, Nevin Sanlier, Pınar Göbel, Büşra Açıkalın, Sule Kocabas and Akif Dundar
Staying at home for a prolonged period, the stress during COVID-19 quarantine may affect sleep quality, night eating behaviours of individuals. This paper aims to identify the…
Abstract
Purpose
Staying at home for a prolonged period, the stress during COVID-19 quarantine may affect sleep quality, night eating behaviours of individuals. This paper aims to identify the relationship between night eating behaviour, sleep quality, perceptions of health locus of control in women during the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
An anonymous, Web based, cross-sectional study was conducted for the duration of a month (April-May, 2020). The study evaluated the nutritional habits of the participants. Anthropometric measurements were noted. Night Eating Syndrome Questionnaire (NESQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Multi-dimensional Health Locus of Control-A were used for data collection.
Findings
With a mean age of 33 ± 8 years, 529 women participated in the study. The mean NESQ score was 14.4 ± 4.7, PSQI score was 6.4 ± 2.9. Higher night eating scores were observed in participants with chance locus of control (CLC) perception when compared to participants with internal health locus of control (IHLC) perception (p < 0.05). Lower sleep quality was observed in obese participants compared to normal/overweight participants (p < 0.05). It was also found that night eating behaviours significantly predicted sleep quality (R = 0.36, R2 = 0.13; p < 0.01), explaining about 13.3% of total variance of sleep quality.
Research limitations/implications
Only internet users and women participated in the study, and the questionnaire form was applied online; the information was obtained in the form of the participants' own statements.
Practical implications
It was found that night eating behaviour significantly predicted sleep quality during the pandemic. It was also determined that the individuals with high chance locus of control perception had higher NES scores than the individuals with high internal locus of control perception.
Originality/value
The night eating behaviours significantly predict sleep quality, individuals with a high perception of CLC had a higher night eating score than individuals with high perception of IHLC during the pandemic.
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Senol Kurt, Feven Zewdie Assefa, Sule Erdem Tuzlukaya and Osman M. Karatepe
The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the research conducted on hospitality and tourism articles published in Q1 category journals from 1990 to 2023. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the research conducted on hospitality and tourism articles published in Q1 category journals from 1990 to 2023. This study also aims to measure the topic prevalence in selected journals throughout the years, their change over time and similarities of journals.
Design/methodology/approach
Latent dirichlet allocation algorithm is used as a topic modeling method to identify and analyze topics in hospitality and tourism research over the past 30 years.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that hospitality and tourism research has recently focused on topics such as employee behavior, customer satisfaction, online reviews, medical tourism and tourist experience. However, the results also indicate a negative trend in topics such as hotel management, sustainability, profession, economic growth and tourist destination.
Practical implications
This study can be used to examine the evolution of research patterns over time, find hot and cold themes and uncover untapped or understudied areas. This can aid academics in their investigations and practitioners in making sound strategic decisions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a new approach and comprehensive analysis of hospitality and tourism research topics. It delineates an overview of the progression of hospitality and tourism research over the past 30 years, identifies the trending topics and explores the potential impacts that these identified topics may have on future studies.
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Umar Habibu Umar, Abubakar Isa Jibril and Sulaiman Musa
This study aims to examine the effects of audit committee attributes on corporate philanthropic donations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of audit committee attributes on corporate philanthropic donations before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The study targets Nigeria’s listed firms between 2019 and 2020. We hand-collected the data from the available published annual reports of 141 and 128 firms for 2019 and 2020, respectively. Therefore, the authors used a total of 269 firm-year observations for the study. The authors used ordinary least square regression to analyze the data and Tobit regression to establish the robustness of the results.
Findings
The results indicate that the frequency of audit committee meetings has a significant positive relationship with corporate philanthropic donations before and during COVID-19. In the case of audit committee independence, it has only a significant positive relationship with corporate philanthropic donations during the pandemic. However, the findings reveal that audit committee size and foreign directors on the audit committee do not influence corporate philanthropic donations before and during COVID-19.
Research limitations/implications
The study considers audit committee characteristics out of the corporate governance mechanisms that can influence the philanthropic donations of the listed firms in Nigeria over two years from 2019 and 2020.
Practical implications
The findings have practical implications for encouraging the audit committee to support philanthropic donations for the welfare of the poor and the needy, particularly in difficult times like the COVID-19 period. The results could also help regulators and policymakers to provide regulations and policies that can encourage firms to participate actively in philanthropic activities to their best ability.
Social implications
Motivating firms to provide philanthropic donations for the welfare of underprivileged persons could strongly support the government’s effort to minimize the socioeconomic problems caused by COVID-19.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the scant literature that establishes the impact of audit committee attributes on firm philanthropic donations toward helping the poor and the needy in difficult periods.
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