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Adapting to external and internal transformations is a difficult task that managers and scholars must face while attempting to keep their organisations alive and well-established. This chapter explores the various decision-making tools that can assist practitioners and scholars to improve their understanding of the external scenario to determine the contemporary appropriateness of these approaches for analysing the environment and their implications for various types of organisations. The chapter investigates the barriers and drivers of these methods and proposes existing alternative paradigms created by academics and practitioners to analyse and comprehend the context. It demonstrates how these decision-making tools can be implemented by providing examples and case studies.

Developing and developed countries are working to step up the process of digitalization according to their existing capacities. Digital transformation affects all departments from production to marketing and is correlated with important outcomes such as productivity, performance and efficiency. It is thought that this revision can bring disadvantages along with its many advantages. When the studies are evaluated, it's seen that the revision has an effect on employment. Compulsory changes in management and organization structures, necessity of developing new models in product and production alterations are some of the consequences of the risk due to Industry 4.0. Customer satisfaction, cyber-security dangers, monopolization and tax loss in the country must not be ignored. Within this scope, this chapter focusses on dystopic and Industry 4. It is thought that the dystopic effects of Industry 4 will allow the organizations to provide the necessary preliminary preparations. Major basic factors such as employment technical infrastructure and financial resources, and with the right strategies, can be managed to make it easier for a revolutionary change.

This paper aims to examine the impact of information and telecommunication technologies (ICT-proxied by mobile phone subscription and Internet usage) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from 1990 to 2018.

The Cross-section Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) model is employed to address the potential cross-section dependence problem. Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) and Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimators are used to test for robustness of results.

Results reveal contrasting effects of mobile phone subscription and Internet usage on CO2 emissions. While mobile phone penetration helps mitigate CO2 emissions, Internet usage tends to increase the emissions. Findings show that renewable energy is beneficial to the environment while economic growth is harmful to the environment. The effects of financial development and trade openness seem negligible.

This study offers practical implications for policymakers. As different proxies of ICT could have contradictory impact on CO2, governments should be cautious against utilizing ICT to mitigate CO2. Findings point to the benefits of renewable energy in alleviating CO2 emissions. Therefore, governments are strongly advised to implement policies facilitating renewable energy consumption.

Previous studies ignored the problem of cross-section dependence which could lead to biased results and cause misleading inferences. This study aims to fill this void in the literature.

Living walls (LWs), vegetated walls with an integrated growth layer behind, are being increasingly incorporated in buildings. Examining plant characteristics’ comparative impacts on LWs’ energy efficiency-related thermal behavior was aimed, considering that studies on their relative effects are limited. LWs of varying leaf albedo, leaf transmittance and leaf area index (LAI) were studied for Antalya, Turkey for typical days of four seasons.

Dynamic simulations run by Envi-met were used to assess the plant characteristics’ influence on seasonal and orientation-based heat fluxes. After model calibration, a sensitivity analysis was conducted through 112 simulations. The minimum, mean and maximum values were investigated for each plant characteristic. Energy need (regardless of orientation), temperature and heat flux results were compared among different scenarios, including a building without LW, to evaluate energy efficiency and variables’ impacts.

LWs reduced annual energy consumption in Antalya, despite increasing energy needs in winter. South and west facades were particularly advantageous for energy efficiency. The impacts of leaf albedo and transmittance were more significant (44–46%) than LAI (10%) in determining LWs’ effectiveness. The changes in plant characteristics changed the energy needs up to ca 1%.

This study can potentially contribute to generating guiding principles for architects considering LW use in their designs in hot-humid climates.

The plant characteristics’ relative impacts on energy efficiency, which cannot be easily determined by experimental studies, were examined using parametric simulation results regarding three plant characteristics.

This study aims to understand how midwifery students view ethical rights concerning the usage of reproductive technologies.

A series of focus groups were conducted with midwifery students who were asked to discuss four novel scenarios highlighting some of the most controversial issues on the ethics of assisted reproductive technologies. The sample consisted of third-year students studying at the Department of Midwifery of a university in the fall semester of the 2020–2021 academic year. In total, 60 students aged between 20 and 23 participated in the study (mean age 21.5 years).

Four scenarios that may be encountered in the use of assisted reproductive techniques were presented to the students. These scenarios were about IVF treatment, using the preimplantation gender identification technique, surrogate mother and using frozen zygotes. Four themes were identified from the analysis of the focus group data related to all four scenarios. These themes were: female reproduction, sex selection, surrogacy and reproductive cloning.

This study reveals what midwifery students consider essential components of assisted reproduction techniques, focusing on the professional attributes of shared decision-making. The results suggest that student midwives are sensitive to the range of ethical dilemmas associated with the increased use of technology in human reproduction, and construct distinct bound arise in relation to what is considered of benefit or good to the mother, parents, the child and to society. They also expressed their opposition to the excessive use of technological intervention, preferring instead to maintain a more naturalistic approach to reproduction.

This paper evaluates the risk-adjusted returns, selectivity, market timing skills and persistence of the performance of Nigerian pension funds.

Annual return data of 23 pension funds that operated in Nigeria between 2018 and 2022 were obtained from the National Pension Commission (PenCom). Risk-adjusted return was appraised using the Treynor ratio, Sharpe ratio and Jensen alpha, while the Treynor–Mazuy and Henriksson–Merton multiple regression models were applied to decompose selective and timing skills. Performance persistence was assessed using the contingency table and rank correlation models.

Evidence shows that pension funds deliver excess risk-adjusted returns and exhibit selective skills. However, the evidence does not support the presence of timing skills, and there is overwhelming evidence that good (bad) performance does not repeat.

An evaluation of the investment performance of pension funds is crucial for ensuring the financial stability of retirees, maintaining economic stability and making informed investment decisions. It serves the interests of pensioners, pension fund managers, regulators and the broader economy. Our evidence that pension funds generate positive excess returns is a departure from most of the literature on managed funds. We recommend that more Nigerians should leverage the pension fund industry to grow their wealth and prepare for retirement.

This study, to our knowledge, is the first to appraise all the key facets of the investment performance of pension funds in the Nigerian context.

This study aims to ascertain consumption values of Muslim tourists, attitudes, satisfaction and loyalty towards a Muslim-friendly accommodation, which has gained recognition from the Malaysian Government. Subsequently, an overall Muslim-friendly image was examined as a moderating variable within the associated relationship.

A quantitative research design with a purposive sampling technique was chosen through a sample size of 378 people in Malaysia and distributed via social media. The respondents were selected based on the Muslim-friendly accommodation recognition (MFAR) initiatives, a procedure of accreditation which acknowledges Muslim-friendly accommodation for tourists. To obtain data from those travellers, structured questionnaires were used. SmartPLS was used for data analysis in this study.

The values which were found to have an influence on attitude towards a Muslim-friendly accommodation are related to social, emotional, economic, functional, monetary and epistemic elements. On the other hand, hedonic, conditional, Islamic and altruistic values were found to be insignificant in determining the attitude towards a Muslim-friendly accommodation. Subsequently, an overall Muslim-friendly image was found to moderate the relationship between social, monetary and altruistic values and its link concerning attitude towards the accommodation, while the rest of the relationships were not significant. More importantly, attitude seems to have an impact on satisfaction, as well as its loyalty towards a Muslim-friendly accommodation.

Firstly, it begins with understanding Malaysia, one of the developing countries in Southeast Asia. Secondly, data was collected from participants using a survey method, from purposive sampling which may limit the findings’ generalizability. Thirdly, this study focussed exclusively on the perceived value dimensions associated with Muslim-friendly accommodation, thus, disregarding consumers who may associate with other types of tourism and hospitality elements.

The results provide a fresh insight and a better understanding regarding the consumption values and all of its related components towards customer loyalty of the Muslim-friendly accommodation in Malaysia. In addition, the findings deliver new information and a deeper understanding of relevant values in Malaysia’s Muslim-friendly accommodation, which can be used as a standard guideline by industry practitioners, local and abroad.

This research supports service providers in developing effective brand management strategies for their own businesses. Apparently, this study discovers that emotional values tend to be the most important values in determining attitude towards Muslim-friendly accommodation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the studies examining the overall perceived Muslim-friendly image within the consumption values that are relevant from an Islamic viewpoint. It provides policymakers, as well as the industry players, some reliable approaches for enhancing Muslim-friendly accommodation.

This study aims to explore the mechanism by which intellectual capital and corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence the sustainable competitive performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the mediating role of organizational innovation in an emerging economy.

The data collection was conducted through a survey completed by 208 owners and top managers operating in the service, trading and manufacturing sector SMEs, positioned within twin cities of Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for data analysis.

The results of the study suggest that intellectual capital and CSR have a markedly positive influence on the sustainable competitive performance of SMEs. The organizational innovation appears to mediate these relationships.

This study pioneers research on the links between intellectual capital, CSR organizational innovation and sustainable competitive performance of SMEs. The current research contributes to the literature by defining intellectual capital and CSR as an antecedent and organizational innovation as an intervening variable for the sustainable competitive performance of SMEs. In addition, this study underlines the significance of intellectual capital and CSR activities as valuable intangible assets for the achievement of sustainable competitive performance of SMEs.

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of machining parameters on the specific energy consumption in the computerized numerical control lathe turning operation of a hardened alloy steel roll at low cutting speeds. The aim was to minimize its consumption.

The design matrix was based on three variable factors at three levels. Response surface methodology was used for the analysis of experimental results. Optimization was carried out by using the desirability function and genetic algorithm. A multiple regression model was used for relationship build-up.

According to desirability function, genetic algorithm and multiple regression analysis, optimal machining parameters were cutting speed 40 m/min, feed 0.2 mm/rev and depth of cut 0.50 mm, which resulted in minimal specific energy consumption of 0.78, 0.772 and 0.78 kJ/mm³, respectively. Correlation analysis and multiple regression model found a quadratic relationship between specific energy consumption with power consumption and material removal rate.

In the past, many researchers have developed mathematical models for specific energy consumption, but these models were developed at high cutting speed, and a majority of the models were based on the material removal rate as the independent variable. This research work developed a mathematical model based on the machining parameters as an independent variable at low cutting speeds, for a new type of large-sized hardened alloy steel roll. A multiple regression model was developed to build a quadratic relationship of specific energy consumption with power consumption and material removal rate. This work has a practical application in hot rolling industry.

The aim of this study is to question the relationship between architectural ethical codes and faults in earthquakes. Earthquakes have devastating effects on all societies in history and today. And the relationship and importance of the architect and building, one of the most important roles of these destructive effects, is once again revealed in every earthquake. Although there are some restrictions or warnings for architects and the architectural profession to reduce this destructive effect in many regulations and ethical codes, it is possible to see the defects caused by architectural design and the destruction caused by these defects in every new earthquake.

In this study, the most destructive earthquakes in Turkey in the past 20 years (Bingöl, Van, Elazig and Izmir) and the 1999 Marmara earthquake, which was the most destructive earthquake in Turkey’s recent history, and the damages occurred in these earthquakes and their causes were examined. Although the scope of the study is “destructive earthquakes that have occurred in the past 20 years in Turkey”, the Marmara Earthquake, which occurred in 1999, when the destructive effect of the earthquake was seen the most and architectural design errors were intense, was also included in the scope of the study. And to have a more comprehensive understanding of how these defects are examined in terms of ethical codes and to make a more comprehensive comparison, ethical codes from different countries in the world have been researched and a review has been made on topics such as public welfare, human rights and raising the standard of the profession.

This study concludes by reviewing the key factors learned from the examined ethical codes of different countries. Finding ethical codes of different countries was challenging to gain approval. In addition, the study ends with recommendations in terms of questioning the regulations and education curriculum relations on a country basis.

This study, which targets architect candidates who carry out the profession of architecture and continue their architectural education, evaluates the architectural design flaws seen in earthquakes through ethical codes and forms a basis for further studies.