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This study aims to proposed that blockchain helps the organization improve supply chain (SC) performance by improving integration, agility and security through real-time information sharing, end-to-end visibility, transparency, data management, immutability, irrevocable information and cyber-security platforms.

This study has made an initial effort toward proposing a framework that shows the problems and challenges for the O&G SC under its segments (upstream, midstream and downstream) and provides the interlink among blockchain properties for SCM problems. SC managers were selected for survey questionnaires from the Pakistan O&G industries.

This study analyzes the impact of blockchain-enabled SC on firm performance with an understanding of the SC robustness capabilities as a mediator. The result revealed that the SC manager believes that the blockchain-enabled SC has a positive and significant on firm performance and robustness capabilities.

Blockchain technology is reflected as high-tech to support the firm process, responses and methods. The technology helps eliminate bottlenecks, avoid uncertainties and improve decision-making, leading to improved SC functions. This study guides managers about the potential problems of existing SC and how blockchain solves SC problems more effectively.

The oil and gas (O&G) sectors are neglected by researchers, and there are limited studies on O&G supply chain management (SCM). Additionally, no empirical evidence suggests implementing blockchain for O&G as a solution for potential problems. Furthermore, present the roadmap to other industries those having complex SC networks for the implication of blockchain to improve the SC performance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in night eating status according to adolescents’ body mass index (BMI).

This was a cross-sectional study that included a total of 688 middle-school students. The subjects were categorized as underweight, normal weight and overweight according to their BMI, and their night eating intake patterns, night eating menu preference and intake frequency were compared and analyzed.

With regard to their night eating frequency, 39.8 per cent replied almost never, while 24.3 per cent replied once a week and less and 22.5 per cent replied two to three times a week. Among 11 night eating menus, the preference for fast foods, confectioneries, street foods and noodles was significantly higher in the underweight group than in the overweight group. The intake frequency of night eating menus such as fast foods, confectioneries and breads increased in the following order: overweight, normal and underweight group. The underweight group had a higher frequency of night eating, and they preferred to eat snacks more frequently from their night eating menu.

In conclusion, it is necessary to form positive dietary habits including nighttime eating for proper dietary management of adolescents.

There is significant amount of literature tackling different issues related to the port industry. The present chapter focuses on a single business unit of seaports aiming at the documentation of works related to container terminals.

An effort to review, collect and present the majority of the works present in the last 30 years, between 1980 and 2010, has been made in order to picture the problems dealt and methods used by the authors in the specific research field. To facilitate the reader, studies have been grouped under five categories of addressed problems (productivity and competitiveness, yard and equipment utilization, equipment scheduling, berth planning, loading/unloading) and four modelling methodologies (mathematics and operations research, management and economics, simulation, stochastic modelling).

The analysis shows that most works focus on productivity and competitiveness issues followed by yard and equipment utilisation and equipment scheduling. In reference to the methodologies used managerial and economic approaches lead, followed by mathematics and operations research.

In reference to future research, two fields have been identified where there is scope of significant contribution by the academic community: container terminal security and container terminal supply chain integration.

The present chapter provides the framework for researchers in the field of port container terminals to picture the so far works in this research area and enables the identification of gaps at both research question and methodology level for further research.

Why employees stay or leave their organization in Republic of Korea (South Korea) can be better understood by taking into account the idiosyncratic institutional and cultural contexts. In this chapter, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of employee turnover research in South Korea and discuss its implications for research. Specifically, we explain how employee turnover decisions may be affected by the characteristics of South Korean labor market (duality, polarization, and intergenerational issues) and cultural environments (collectivism, high power distance, and high-performance orientation). The review shows that organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and on-the-job embeddedness are three key mechanisms explaining employee turnover in South Korea. Building upon the review, we conclude the review by suggesting future research directions: (a) examining turnover behavior as a key outcome, (b) developing a theoretical framework for social identity and embeddedness, and (c) understanding intergenerational issues.

This study examines acquirers' earnings management in intragroup mergers to investigate whether stock-for-stock mergers between affiliated firms within the same family-controlled business group facilitate the controlling shareholder's rent seeking. Specifically, it investigates the acquiring firm's incentive to inflate premerger-announcement earnings in intragroup mergers given the controlling shareholder's relative equity holdings in the target and acquiring firms. The authors also examine how creditor monitoring affects premerger-announcement earnings in intragroup mergers compared to mergers between independent firms.

Using univariate analysis, panel regression based on accruals and cross-sectional regression based on discretionary accruals, the authors compare earnings management in mergers between affiliated firms with that in mergers between independent firms in the context of Korean business groups. The authors also compare the effects of creditors on earnings management in both cases.

Acquirers' premerger-announcement positive abnormal accruals are less evident in mergers between affiliated firms than in mergers between independent firms. These accruals decrease with high financial leverage only in the latter case, suggesting that creditor monitoring mitigates earnings management only in independent firm mergers.

The authors examine intragroup mergers, unlike previous studies, which focus on unaffiliated firm mergers. They also contribute to the literature on stock-for-stock mergers, showing that lender monitoring can mitigate the acquiring firm's premerger earnings management in unaffiliated firm mergers but not in intragroup mergers. These findings suggest that stock-for-stock mergers between affiliated firms may facilitate the controlling shareholders' rent seeking, which has policy implications for emerging markets with large family-controlled business groups.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the influences of fat content and storage temperature on the quality of frozen pork patties during storage to evaluate the shelf life set by the manufacturer.

Changes in moisture content, acid value, peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid value, total volatile basic nitrogen content, and the sensory score of frozen pork patties with 10 and 15 percent fat contents during storage at −5, −15, and −23°C for six months.

Although microbiological quality remained unchanged, moisture content decreased, and lipid rancidity and protein putrefaction increased significantly during storage. More rapid deterioration in quality was observed in patties stored at −5°C than those stored at lower temperatures. Lipid rancidity and protein putrefaction increased more rapidly (but not significantly) in patties with 15 percent fat than those with 10 percent fat. Overall acceptance of the sensory properties was closely correlated with the above quality indicators, except thiobarbituric acid value. Acceptable qualities of the samples were maintained for the first two, four, and six months under storage at −5, −15, and −23°C, respectively.

The current shelf life of frozen pork patties set by manufacturers, assuming a storage temperature of −18°C, needs to be readjusted considering practical storage temperatures.

No studies have comprehensively explored the effects of fat content and storage temperatures on the quality of ground meat products during frozen storage. These approaches to determine quality changes may be useful for manufacturers to predict and control the quality of their products.

Guided by social exchange theory and signaling theory, this chapter investigates the relationship between individual perceptions of high-performance work systems (HPWS), union instrumentality, and employees’ turnover intention. The results obtained from a multilevel and multisource sample of more than 1,300 employees in 37 multinational corporation based in China show that, in contrast to our hypothesis, union instrumentality is not directly related to turnover intention; rather, the results from the post hoc mediation analysis show that union instrumentality is indirectly and negatively related to turnover intention through affective organizational commitment. Consistent with our hypothesis, the results of our analysis show that union instrumentality serves as an important contingent factor in the relationship between HPWS and employee turnover intention. The relationship between HPWS and turnover intention becomes positive when employee union instrumentality is low.

This research applied Homer and Kahle's (1988) theoretical framework, which describes the hierarchical relations of personal values, attitude and behavior to test the moderated mediation model. The major focus of this study was to evaluate how individual characteristics such as fashion involvement and materialism influenced the formation of socially responsible attitudes and ethical fashion purchasing intentions. By focusing on fashion aficionados and materialists, this research examines each step of the hierarchical model by exploring the relation between values and attitude and evaluating the attitude–behavior gap. The main finding highlights the critical role that attitude plays in ethical fashion consumption.

Different sets of latent models with each ethical quality such as ethical concern and ethical obligation were tested to explore if those consumer characteristics had any moderating effects on both front-end (IV-M) and back-end (M-DV) relations of Homer and Kahle's (1988) hierarchical model.

Both ethical values failed to instill a socially responsible mindset in individuals who were heavily immersed in fashion or materialism. Once such attitudes were formed, however, those who were fashion-conscious or materialistic were more likely to purchase ethical apparel than those who were less interested in fashion or materialism.

Previous research has mainly identified external or situational factors that create the attitude or intention and behavior gap in ethical consumption. Given the lack of understanding about psychological factors in understanding the gap, this study added to the literature by identifying fashion involvement and materialism as critical factors positively influencing attitude and behavioral intention associations.

The Chinese housing market has witnessed rapid growth during the past decade and the significance of housing price forecasting has undoubtedly elevated, becoming an important issue to investors and policymakers. This study aims to examine neural networks (NNs) for office property price index forecasting from 10 major Chinese cities for July 2005–April 2021.

The authors aim at building simple and accurate NNs to contribute to pure technical forecasts of the Chinese office property market. To facilitate the analysis, the authors explore different model settings over algorithms, delays, hidden neurons and data-spitting ratios.

The authors reach a simple NN with three delays and three hidden neurons, which leads to stable performance of about 1.45% average relative root mean square error across the 10 cities for the training, validation and testing phases.

The results could be used on a standalone basis or combined with fundamental forecasts to form perspectives of office property price trends and conduct policy analysis.

The Chinese housing market has gone through rapid growth during the past decade, and house price forecasting has evolved to be a significant issue that draws enormous attention from investors, policy makers and researchers. This study investigates neural networks for composite property price index forecasting from ten major Chinese cities for the period of July 2005–April 2021.

The goal is to build simple and accurate neural network models that contribute to pure technical forecasts of composite property prices. To facilitate the analysis, the authors consider different model settings across algorithms, delays, hidden neurons and data spitting ratios.

The authors arrive at a pretty simple neural network with six delays and three hidden neurons, which generates rather stable performance of average relative root mean square errors across the ten cities below 1% for the training, validation and testing phases.

Results here could be utilized on a standalone basis or combined with fundamental forecasts to help form perspectives of composite property price trends and conduct policy analysis.