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The purpose of this paper is to identify 30 government-led critical success factors (CSFs) from both the meso and micro levels in public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure development, measured the importance of these factors, and evaluated the government performance within the Indonesian context.

The authors used weighted gap analysis, the Mann-Whitney test, and the Holland and Copenhaver procedure to support the analysis.

The agreement-adjusted mean scores suggest that the identified CSFs are essential, but that these CSFs underperform in Indonesia. The tests indicated that the gap between performance and importance was significant on both the individual and aggregate level, and no respondent-background bias was observed in the data sets.

This paper provides valuable information for prospective international investors who might be interested in alternative PPP investment opportunities in Indonesia.

This paper enriches the existing body of knowledge on Indonesia’s PPP activities. This is important as, despite the fact that Indonesia offers one of the largest opportunities in Asia for investment in the national infrastructure sector, studies on Indonesia’s PPPs are rarely reported in the literature. This paper also offers a simple, practical, and replicable approach with a sound theoretical basis that can assist governments in identifying and evaluating PPP-specific determinant factors under their control, as well as in measuring their performance on these factors.

In a developing economy like India, the contribution of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the national gross domestic product is significant. This sector creates immense employment opportunities and produces economic products and services. To survive in the globalized marked condition, it is essential for SMEs to be competitive on several fronts such as quality, cost, delivery, lead time, flexibility, etc. Hence, it is imperative for them to have a sound supplier base. Therefore, supplier selection problem (SSP) has a vital role to play in supply chain management of SMEs. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

However, SSP has now become a significant challenge to address due to the complexity, vagueness and various criteria involved in it. Recently, fuzzy Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution method has been widely used to tackle such problems.

The present paper aims at developing an intelligent system for SSP, which can consider the multiple criteria and the uncertainty aspects in the decision process. A case study of a small-scale manufacturing company has been presented.

This study provides a guideline for SME sector to implement intelligent systems for supplier selection decision-making problems. Case application concludes that this model improves firm’s decision making and suppliers’ performance.

The proposed intelligent model can provide the guidelines and directions for the decision makers to effectively choose suppliers in the current competitive environment. And it also provides an opportunity for supplier improvement.

Data was obtained from students from 39 universities in 24 countries, part of a large experiential exercise, X-Culture, who worked remotely in cross-cultural teams to solve business problems. The purpose of this study is to develop and test, using structural equation modeling, a conceptual model that identifies the determinants of satisfaction with teamwork.

Data was obtained from participants, students from universities from 39 universities in 24 countries, in a large experiential exercise, X-Culture, who worked remotely in cross-cultural teams to solve business problems. A conceptual model that identifies determinants of satisfaction with teamwork was developed and tested using structural equation modeling.

Satisfaction with teamwork is related to cultural intelligence (CQ), team identity and team climate. Interestingly, CQ of individual team members does not directly impact satisfaction with teamwork. Team identification and team climate, variables that require personal engagement and goodwill, mediate the effects of CQ on satisfaction.

Results suggest that team identification and team climate are important antecedents and explanatory mechanisms for developing satisfaction with teamwork. Having culturally intelligent team members is a necessary, but insufficient condition for satisfying teamwork. Therefore, to increase satisfaction with global virtual teamwork, teams need more than simply culturally intelligent team members. Increased satisfaction requires that team members identify with their team and develop a favorable team climate. The authors suggest education recommendations for global virtual teams.

When one talks of the return performance one typically refers to an average buy‐and‐hold return, also known as time‐weighted return. However, the returns of investors can be quite different. Investor returns are determined not only by the returns on the underlying assets but also by the timing and magnitude of their capital flows into and out of these assets. To account for the annual‐to‐annual variation in assets under management, a dollar‐weighted return has to be calculated. The difference between time‐weighted returns and dollar‐weighted returns is known as the performance gap. The purpose of this paper will be to investigate this in the UK property market.

Using an approach similar to that of Dichev the authors examine the performance gap in the UK direct property market using historical return data for 45 market‐segments over the time period 1981‐2009.

The results show that the performance gap was negative, i.e. investor returns were greater than asset returns. That is, UK direct property investors have shown greater returns than their underlying investments. This implies that estimates of the performance of the UK property market based on property returns do not reflect the experience of investors as a group.

This study provides the first evidence of the performance gap in the UK direct real estate market.

In line with the IFSB and BCBS methodology, the purpose of this study is to undertake a comparative analysis of dual banking systems for asset-liability management (ALM) practices with the duration gap, in Islamic Commercial Banks (ICBs) and Conventional Commercial Banks (CCBs). Based on the research objective, two research questions are developed: How do the duration gaps of ICBs compare with those of similar sized CCBs? Are there any country-specific and regional differences among ICBs in terms of managing their duration gaps?

The research methodology comprises two-stages: stage one uses a duration gap model to calculate the duration gaps of ICBs and CCBs; stage two applies parametric tests. In terms of the duration gap model, the study determines the duration gap with a four-step process. The study selected a sample of 100 banks (50 ICBs and 50 CCBs) from 13 countries for the period 2009-2015.

The paper provides empirical insights into the duration gap and ALM of ICBs and CCBs. The ICBs have more variations in their mean duration gap compared to the CCBs, and they have a tendency for a higher (more) mean duration gap (28.37 years) in comparison to the CCBs (11.79 years). The study found ICBs as having 2.41 times more duration gap compared to the CCBs, and they are exposed to increasing rate of return (ROR) risk due to their larger duration gaps and severe liquidity mismatches. There are significant regional differences in terms of the duration gap and asset-liability management.

Future studies also consider “Off-Balance Sheet” activities of the ICBs, with multi-term duration measures. A larger sample size of 100 ICBs with 10 years’ data after the GFC would be more beneficial to the industry. In addition, the impact of an increasing benchmark rate (e.g. 100, 200 and 300 bps) on the ICBs as per the IFSB 20 per cent threshold can also be established with the duration gap approach to identify the vulnerabilities of the ICBs.

The study makes profound contributions to the literature and suggests various policy recommendations for Islamic banks, regulators, and standard setters of the ICBs, for identifying and measuring the significance of the duration gaps; and management of the ROR risk under Pillar 2 of the BCBS and IFSB, for financial soundness and stability purposes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a pioneer study in Islamic banking involving a sample of 100 banks (50 ICBs and 50 CCBs) from 13 countries. The results of the study provide original empirical evidence regarding the estimation of duration gap, and variations across jurisdictions in terms of vulnerability of ICBs and CCBs in dual banking systems.

Recent empirical studies have improved methodologies for identifying the causal effects of policies especially on a minimum wage hike. This study identifies causal effects of minimum wage hikes across 47 prefectures in Japan from 2008 to 2010 on employment, average hourly wage, work hours, full-time equivalent employment (FTE), total wage costs, average tenure, separation and new hiring in establishments using a micro dataset of business establishments in restaurant, accommodation, and food takeout and delivery industry. Various regression specifications including controls for time-varying regional heterogeneity are implemented by using the bite of the minimum wage in each establishment. First, this study finds that the effects of a revision of minimum wage on employment and FTE in the establishment are statistically insignificant, but the effects on hourly wages and total wage costs are statistically significant. Subsequently, it considers how the establishments react to the increase in total wage costs caused by the revised minimum wage, and finds that separation from the establishment may decrease, and average tenure of workers may increase.

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

The study aims to reinvestigate the regional urbanization gap in China and some projects are to be presented for reducing the gap.

An innovative weighted kernel density approach is applied for identifying the regional urbanization development with population migration and investment and evaluating the projects.

The regional urbanization gap is 7 and 9 percent with the unconditional estimation, 13 (23) percent and 13 (23) percent with population (investment) weighted estimation between eastern and middle region, eastern and western region, respectively. The project on the interior migration of population by 30 percent and the project on the selective investment enhancement by 30 percent both reduce the regional urbanization gap by about 4 percent between middle and eastern region.

Focus is only on the investigation of urbanization development level with single population migration or investment enhancement; the identifications and projects with joint impact of population and investment are not considered.

The study not only measures the urbanization development with the nonparametric approach but also designs some practicable projects for reducing the regional urbanization gap, which is helpful for the Chinese Government in the policymaking process.

The main objective of the study was to utilize SERVQUAL for identifying gaps in the chain of services provided by the information technology (IT) resources. SERVQUAL was applied to IT services in higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates.

Because of the many concerns and reservations raised with regard to using perception scores or gap scores, the appropriateness of the SERVQUAL measure to verify the anticipated structure of the instrument was also examined. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the structure of the perception scores (performance‐based model) and the gap scores (performance minus expectation‐based model) were examined.

The evaluation of model‐fit provided mixed results, but, in general, the results favored the perception scores. However, some statistical fit‐tests suggested that both models lacked the features necessary for a good fit. On the other hand, based on their feedback, respondents felt that SERVQUAL is a useful indicator for IT center service quality in institutions of higher education. SERVQUAL identified gaps in service quality for the three institutions. Empirical results of SERVQUAL scores for the IT centers in the three institutions are also presented.

The paper reassesses the structure and validity of the SERVQUAL model given its wide use and criticism, and applies the model to an important set of related, yet distinct service organizations such as information technology centers.