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Kapok was well-known for its oleophilic properties, but its mechanical properties and morphology impeded it from forming suitable absorbent materials. This study aims to demonstrate the process of creating an oil-absorbent web from a blend of treated kapok and polypropylene fibers.

Kapok fibers were separated from dried fruits, then the wax was removed with an HCl solution at different concentrations. The morphological and structural changes of these fibers were investigated using scanning electron microscopy images. The blending ratios of kapok and polypropylene fibers were 60/40, 70/30 and 80/20, respectively. The fiber blends were fed to a laboratory carding machine to form a web and then consolidated using the heat press technique. The absorption behavior of the formed web was evaluated regarding oil absorption capacity and oil retention capacity according to ASTM 726.

The results showed that the HCl concentration of 1.0% (wt%) gave the highest wax removal efficiency without damaging the kapok fibers. This study found that oil absorbency is influenced by the fiber blending ratio, web tensile strength and elongation, porosity, oil type and environmental conditions. The oil-absorbency of the web can be re-used for at least 20 cycles.

This study only looked at three types of oils: diesel, kerosene and vegetable oils.

When the problem of oil spills in rivers and seas is growing and causing serious environmental and economic consequences, using physical methods to recover oil spills is the most effective solution.

This research adds to the possibility of using kapok fiber in the form of a web of non-woven fabric for practical purposes.

Castellated and cellular beams achieved the same strength as solid I-beams with the same depth, resulting in significantly lighter and more economical structures. The purpose of this study is to analyse the bending behaviour of I-beam steel sections with certain web openings by finite element analysis.

The accuracy of finite element results allows extensive numerical analysis of sections with web openings, concentrating on the web opening sizes and web opening positions. These assumptions can increase the induced section load with various shapes of web opening depth and web opening shapes of c-hexagon, hexagon, octagon, circular and square. This also includes spacing distances, with a 50-mm edge and 150-mm centre-to-centre distance and a section with a 100-mm edge and 200-mm centre-to-centre distance. Generally, the adjustment of the opening geometry (by reducing the angle of web pitch or reducing the opening depth depending on analysed parameters) may influence the bending behaviour.

Additionally, Model 2 was found to be the optimum model compared to Model 1, mainly in terms of bending. Moreover, the I-beam with a c-hexagon shape opening exhibited the lowest displacement compared to other sections with other web opening shapes. Section with a different arrangement of web opening, Type E shows the lower displacement while higher displacement is observed for Type A and also higher displacement considered for Type G. The optimum model is associated with Type E, followed by Type D, compared to other types of certain web opening and I-beam.

The use of sections with different arrangements of web opening improved the performance of the perforated section in terms of structural behaviour, compared to typical I-beam, thus leading to economic design.

This paper reviews the extant research on Web3.0 published between 2003 and 2022.

This study uses a topic modeling procedure latent Dirichlet allocation to uncover the research themes and the key phrases associated with each theme.

This study uncovers seven research themes that have been featured in the existing research. In particular, the study highlights the interaction among the research themes that contribute to the understanding of a number of solutions, applications and use cases, such as metaverse and non-fungible tokens.

Despite the relatively small data size of the study, the results remain significant as they contribute to a more profound comprehension of the relevant field and offer guidance for future research directions. The previous analysis revealed that the current Web3.0 technology is still encountering several challenges. Building upon the pioneering research in the field of blockchain, decentralized networks, smart contracts and algorithms, the study proposes an exploratory agenda for future research from an ecosystem approach, targeting to enhance the current state of affairs.

Although topics around Web3.0 have been discussed intensively among the crypto community and technological enthusiasts, there is limited research that provides a comprehensive description of all the related issues and an in-depth analysis of their real-world implications from an ecosystem perspective.

Upon completion of this case study, students will be able to analyze the interplay between small business growth and innovation in sustainable entrepreneurial success; evaluate factors influencing the adoption of technological innovations within startups; and decide on the optimal technological innovation for achieving sustainable growth in a startup.

This case study is about Liliana, a young Colombian entrepreneur. She had to decide how to innovate in her process of providing regulatory compliance and due diligence consulting services. According to Law 1778 of 2016, compliance and due diligence services became mandatory for companies with international operations in Colombia. Lemaître, Liliana’s venture, provided this service in an artisanal way. However, her market required the incorporation of technologies. Liliana must choose what to automate in her process and what to keep traditional. Not innovating meant Lemaître would be unable to grow, causing the sustainability of the business would to be at risk.

This case study is suitable for use for master of business administration students and in executive education short courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This chapter argues that the Americanisation of online policing has questionable impacts in Australian prosecutions involving drugs obtained and distributed through dark web cryptomarkets. The authors describe several Australian prosecutions of mid- and low-level dealers who have accessed drugs through the dark web and contrast these with the United States (US) case against the cryptomarket, AlphaBay. The discussion in this study emphasises how Australian police and courts view the relative weight of dark web activity associated with the domestic and transnational supply of illicit drugs that result in formal prosecutions. The authors suggest that large-scale forms of online and dark web police surveillance undertaken by US enforcement agencies reflect Ethan Nadelmann’s (Cops across borders: the internationalization of US criminal law enforcement, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993) thesis on the Americanisation of global policing through transnational communications networks. The authors then explain how key elements of transnational dark web drug supply appear to have a marginal bearing on criminal investigations into low- and mid-level traffickers in Australia, which rely on conventional surveillance tactics to identify clandestine mail pickups, physical distribution methods, and irregular money trails. However, the authors then illustrate how the Americanisation of online policing that targets high-level entrepreneurs and seeks to dismantle or eliminate dark web cryptomarkets has important implications on Australian reforms aimed at enhancing online surveillance powers to target a range of crimes that are often wrongly associated with illicit drug cryptomarkets. The authors conclude by demonstrating how intensive dark web surveillance has limited direct impact on routine drug policing in Australia, with dark web communications simply another medium for facilitating the physical detection of illicit transnational drug transactions.

This paper aims to empirically explore the influence of website aesthetic attributes (classical and expressive) on customer brand engagement (CBE) intention.

This research develops a framework and a few research hypothesis based on available literature on the concept of aesthetics, aesthetic attribute of websites and CBE, as well as other reliable resources, relevant theories, wherever required and tested it on the data collected from 400 respondents of the Y generation (Gen Y) of India by means of structural equations modelling using SPSS AMOS 21.

The findings indicate that expressive aesthetics of the brand Web pages of the beauty products is positively associated with drawing attention. Expressive aesthetics and classical aesthetics together explained 16% of the variance in attention. This indicates that aesthetic attributes indeed play a role in drawing the attention of the customer. However, mere attention is not sufficient to form the behavioural intention in the customer to engage with that particular brand unless the customer does get fully absorbed with aesthetic attributes of the brand Web pages.

The outcome of this research is based on the view of only 400 Gen Y individuals from the city of Indore in India. This limits its generalizability across India and other country context. This study makes important contribution to brand website aesthetic and CBE literature by empirically investigating the concept of brand website aesthetics as important in interactive marketing approach to initiate CBE intention formation. It further argues that cognitive engagement is the first and foremost engagement dimension and underscores aesthetic attributes as important in forming the customer first perception based on which subsequent CBE behavioural intention develops.

This research adds novel insight in the relationship of the brand website aesthetic attributes and CBE by studying the impact of the aesthetic attribute of brand Web pages on the two cognitive elements, namely, attention and absorption and further its effect on brand behavioural intention taking as sample of Gen Y of India.

Tourism encompasses multiple activities along with actors, locations and roles involved. Thus, tourism development and planning should consider value-added activities that form a tourism value chain (TVC). In the literature, the conceptual and practical understanding of TVC is significantly diverse, making it challenging to comprehend the entire framework. This study aims to synthesize a general TVC framework.

This review uses the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol to search for and select relevant literature in two databases (Scopus® and Web of Science™). Covering six aspects (logic, scope, value, perspective, type and scale), this study systematically analyzes the selected empirical studies to synthesize a functional framework of TVC as the basis to explore insights for effective TVC practices.

The results show that existing empirical studies have adopted four types of logic (supply logic, destination logic, global value chain and tourism global value chain), which complement each other in explaining the entire concept of TVC. Besides, the TVC concept is applicable on various scales and in different types of tourism with slight practical differences. Furthermore, values appear in various forms and offer benefits for suppliers and consumers as primary actors in TVC. Findings for the six aspects form tourism value webs as the functional framework of TVC.

This study offers a wide-ranging review of various empirically implemented TVC concepts for comprehensive TVC-based tourism development and planning. This review sets a theoretical foundation for future studies to improve the body of knowledge of TVC and tourism development and planning in general.

旅游活动横跨多重行动者、地点及不同角色, 因此旅游的发展及规划需考虑各项加值活动, 进而组织旅游价值链（tourism value-chain, TVC）。综观学界对价值链的定义发现, 不同文献在概念上及操作上的理解差异甚大, 本研究之目标即为整合出一套可供一般化的价值链框架。

本研究由系统性文献分析出发, 提出旅游价值链的实用框架, 并以此为基础, 针对有效的旅游价值链实践提供洞见。本文检索两大学术资料库（Scopus® 与Web of Science™）之文献, 并以PRISMA 架构汇整后, 从六大面向进行整合：逻辑、范围、价值、视角、类型及规模。

本研究发现过往研究采用了四种逻辑, 包含供给逻辑、目的地逻辑、全球价值链及旅游全球价值链。既有文献也证实, 旅游价值链的概念可以微调后应用在不同规模及类型的旅游研究。此外, 对于旅游价值链的主要行动者（也就是旅游服务的提供者和消费者）而言, 价值也会以不同类型呈现并为其带来利益。六个方面的调查结果形成了旅游价值网 (TVW) 作为 TVC 的概念框架

本研究广泛回顾了应用旅游价值链概念的研究文献, 并建立全面性的理解框架, 期能为后续旅游价值链、旅游发展及规划相关研究提供知识基础。

El turismo abarca múltiples actividades junto con los actores, los lugares y los roles involucrados. Por lo tanto, el desarrollo y la planificación del turismo deben tener en cuenta las actividades de valor añadido que forman una cadena de valor turístico (TVC). En la literatura, la comprensión conceptual y práctica de la TVC es significativamente diversa, lo que dificulta la comprensión de todo el marco. Este estudio pretende sintetizar un marco general de TVC.

Esta revisión emplea el protocolo PRISMA para buscar y seleccionar la literatura relevante en dos bases de datos (Scopus® y Web of Science™). Abarcando seis aspectos (lógica, alcance, valor, perspectiva, tipo y escala), este estudio analiza sistemáticamente los estudios empíricos seleccionados para sintetizar un marco funcional de la TVC como base para explorar las ideas para las prácticas efectivas de TVC.

Los resultados muestran que los estudios empíricos existentes han adoptado cuatro tipos de lógica (lógica de la oferta, lógica del destino, cadena de valor global (CGV) y cadena de valor global del turismo (TGVC)), que se complementan entre sí para explicar el concepto completo de TVC. Además, el concepto de TVC es aplicable a varias escalas y en diferentes tipos de turismo con ligeras diferencias prácticas. Por otro lado, los valores aparecen de diversas formas y ofrecen beneficios para los proveedores y los consumidores como actores principales de la TVC. Los resultados de los seis aspectos conforman las redes de valor turístico (TVW) como marco funcional de la TVC.

Este estudio ofrece una amplia revisión de varios conceptos de TVC aplicados empíricamente para el desarrollo y la planificación del turismo basados en la TVC. Esta revisión establece una base teórica para que futuros estudios mejoren el conjunto de conocimientos sobre la TVC y el desarrollo y la planificación del turismo en general.

Various designs of corrugated webs include trapezoidal, sinusoidal, triangular and rectangular profiles. The increasing use of curved plates has prompted the creation of I-sections made of steel with a corrugated web design. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of an I-beam steel section that features a perforated-triangular web profile.

In the current study, finite element analysis was conducted on corrugated-perforated steel I-sections using ANSYS software. The study focused on inspecting the design of the perforations, including their shape (circle, square, hexagon, diamond and octagon), size of perforations (80 mm, 100 mm and 120 mm) and layout (the position of web perforation), as well as examining the geometric properties of the section in term of bending, lateral torsional buckling, torsion and shear behavior.

The study revealed that perforations with diamond, circle and hexagon shapes exhibit good performance, whereas the square shape performs poorly. Moreover, the steel section’s performance decreases with an increase in perforation size, regardless of loading conditions. In addition, the shape of the web perforations can also influence its stress distribution. For example, diamond-shaped perforations have been found to perform better than square-shaped perforations in terms of stress distribution and overall performance. This was because of their ability to distribute stress more evenly and provide greater support to the surrounding material. The diagonal alignment of the diamond shape aligns with principal stress directions, allowing for efficient load transfer and reduced stress concentrations. Additionally, diamond-shaped perforations offer a larger effective area, better shear transfer and improved strain redistribution, resulting in enhanced structural integrity and increased load-carrying capacity.

Hence, the presence of lateral-torsional buckling and torsional loading conditions significantly impacts the performance of corrugated-perforated steel I-sections.

In the context of Saudi Arabia, this chapter investigates how clustering promotes knowledge sharing and transfer in an emerging, government-directed industry cluster. It is determined that lateral actors play a key facilitating role, and formal and informal mechanisms and interpersonal links among actors support that cluster knowledge exchange. Limited social capital strength and depth and a lack of trust that prevents knowledge sharing are partially explained by the cluster's limited vertical and horizontal actors.

Cryptomarkets or darknet marketplaces host multiple ‘vendors’ selling a variety of illicit products. The most sold and sought products on such markets are illegal drugs. These markets use cryptocurrencies as a payment system and provide participants with anonymity through their location on the dark web, and in recent years they have seen continuous growth in revenue and exchange. Existing literature has provided various explanations for this growth, but in 2017 the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol concluded in their 2017 ‘Drugs and the Darknet’ report that current interpretations of trends are not sufficient. This chapter will provide an alternative explanation for this phenomenon by considering web-based drug selling and purchasing in terms of trends towards ‘Uberisation’ and ‘McDonaldisation’ and applying Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital to the discussion of the dynamic cultures of consumption and different subcultures of the drug world.