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The construction sector has significantly evolved in recent decades, in parallel with a huge increase in the amount of data generated and exchanged in any construction project. These data need to be managed in order to complete a successful project in terms of quality, cost and schedule in the the context of a safe project environment while appropriately organising many construction documents.

However, the origin of these data is very diverse, mainly due to the sector’s characteristics. Moreover, these data are affected by uncertainty, complexity and diversity due to the imprecise nature of the many factors involved in construction projects. As a result, construction project data are associated with large, irregular and scattered datasets.

The objective of this chapter is to introduce an approach based on a fuzzy multi-dimensional model and on line analytical processing (OLAP) operations in order to manage construction data and support the decision-making process based on previous experiences. On one hand, the proposal allows for the integration of data in a common repository which is accessible to users along the whole project’s life cycle. On the other hand, it allows for the establishment of more flexible structures for representing the data of the main tasks in the construction project management domain. The incorporation of this fuzzy framework allows for the management of imprecision in construction data and provides easy and intuitive access to users so that they can make more reliable decisions.

Despite the privatization of its various components, the bidding process and the preparations for the Olympics are still initiated and tightly managed by central governments. Moreover, intentionally and unintentionally, governments use mega sports events such as the Olympics as a soft power medium in which to pursue their goals such as economic development and social integration and a lot of literature has already reviewed the economic and sociocultural impact of hosting the event. This chapter argues that the Olympics have been used as the medium to assist in the formation of legitimacy for a weakened authoritarian leader in the early phase of democratization in Korea. In addition, the chapter tries to explain how the bureaucracy contributed to the success of the national event and how it eventually impacted political modernization and the attitude of bureaucrats. To these ends, first, this chapter explores the influence of soft power on international competition by providing an empirical statistical analysis. Specifically, the chapter analyzes the process by which countries compete with one another for the privilege of hosting the Olympic Games as an important field of global interaction between political actors Further, the chapter discusses which components of soft power can affect international competition. To investigate the explanatory power and concrete applicability of soft power theory, the chapter looks at the influence of democratic and government dimensions of soft power on the selection of Olympic host cities and the role of bureaucracy during that process.

This chapter examines various conditions for optimality in financial inclusion. The optimal level of financial inclusion is achieved when basic financial services are provided to members of the population at a price that is affordable and that price is also economically sufficient to encourage providers of financial services to provide such financial services on a continual basis. Any level of financial inclusion that does not meet these conditions is sub-optimal and incentive-inefficient both for users and providers of financial services.

Due to its contribution to poverty reduction, which is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, inclusive finance is an issue of discussion. By using a bibliometric analysis approach, this study conducts performance analysis and keyword co-occurrences analysis under VOS viewer to synthesize the characteristics and essential dimensions of financial inclusion in Asia. This research studies 1,072 articles contributed by 1,928 authors, during the years 2005–2022. Numerous figures and networks are provided in order to comprehend publication trends, influential authors and their affiliations and countries, influential publications, and keyword occurrences. Six clusters were discovered, and financial inclusion is in the same cluster as financial literacy and financial service. This research will provide valuable insights for governments, regional authorities, and academic researchers, enabling them to enhance their comprehension of Asian financial inclusion and identify prospective avenues for future research. Ahead of this research, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of financial inclusion in Asian countries has not been conducted, as far as the authors’ knowledge goes. The study offers a comprehensive overview of financial inclusion in Asia and reveals insights into the field’s crucial messages. Future researchers can use this knowledge to obtain a deeper understanding of the field.

Purpose: This purpose of this chapter is to present several theories of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is the ease of access to, and the availability of, basic financial services to all members of the population. Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs in a responsible and sustainable way. Financial inclusion practices vary from country to country, and there is need to identify the underlying principles or propositions that can explain the observed variation in financial inclusion practices. These set of principles or propositions are called theories.

Methods: The chapter uses conceptual discussions to formulate alternative theories of financial inclusion.

Findings: The study shows that financial inclusion theories are explanations for observed financial inclusion practices. It also shows that the ideas and perspectives on financial inclusion can be grouped into theories to facilitate meaningful discussions in the literature.

Originality/value: Currently, there are no observed or elaborate theories of financial inclusion in the policy or academic literature. This chapter is the first attempt to develop theories of financial inclusion. The theories are intended to be useful to researchers, academics and practitioners. The resulting contributions to theory development are useful to the problem-solving process in the global financial inclusion agenda.

Instagram is a social media platform that has quickly evolved from a photo-sharing application to a successful marketing tool. It holds various business opportunities, and its rapid growth helps showcase the business offerings. Its innovative use of adverts entices clients, and its visual nature complements the social media marketing strategy. Thus, looking at the dynamic nature and growth of the platform, this chapter outlines the past research trends in the literature of Instagram marketing as the primary objective. This structured review undertakes the study of 76 articles based on defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and analyzes the literature in different contexts. This chapter includes the hybrid review (narrative and framework-based), and findings from the literature highlight a significant influence of Instagram marketing on users. During the brief description of the literature in a different context, the numerous research gaps are outlined with future research directions based on the ADO framework. Lastly, it also presents a broader overview of the managerial and theoretical implications based on the literature of Instagram marketing.

This chapter provides a survey of alternative methodologies for measuring and comparing productivity and efficiency of airlines, and reviews representative empirical studies. The survey shows the apparent shift from index procedures and traditional OLS estimation of production and cost functions to stochastic frontier methods and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methods over the past three decades. Most of the airline productivity and efficiency studies over the last decade adopt some variant of DEA methods. Researchers in the 1980s and 1990s were mostly interested in the effects of deregulation and liberalization on airline productivity and efficiency as well as the effects of ownership and governance structure. Since the 2000s, however, studies tend to focus on how business models and management strategies affect the performance of airlines. Environmental efficiency now becomes an important area of airline productivity and efficiency studies, focusing on CO₂ emission as a negative or undesirable output. Despite the fact that quality of service is an important aspect of airline business, limited attempts have been made to incorporate quality of service in productivity and efficiency analysis.