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Article
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Taeho Park, Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu, Kofi Agyekum, Anita Odame Adade-Boateng, Patrick Manu, Emmanuel Adinyira and Selorm Adukpo

This paper aims to investigate the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management practices of construction companies in South Korea to ascertain specific components and…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management practices of construction companies in South Korea to ascertain specific components and practices that need improvement for successful OSH performance.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research strategy was adopted. A close-ended questionnaire survey covering 45 OSH management practices was sent to 324 contractors; 108 responses were gathered, representing a response rate of 33.3%. Data were analysed using simple descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and Pearson’s chi-square test.

Findings

The findings revealed that there is a moderate level of implementation of OSH management practices among construction firms in South Korea. However, there is a significant disparity in terms of implementation between large enterprises on the one hand and small to medium enterprises on the other. Furthermore, a few of the business characteristics (i.e. the size of companies and certification to OHSAS 18001) were closely associated with the extent of the implementation of OSH management practices.

Practical implications

This research uncovers the OSH management practices that are poorly implemented and lays the foundation for appropriate measures to improve OSH in South Korean construction companies. It suggests an effective strategy for communicating health and safety issues to workers, training safety managers, reviewing risk assessments, reviewing the health and safety plan, incentivising workers by rewarding good behaviour and having a penal mechanism for employees not adhering to the rules.

Originality/value

The study provides insights into an under-investigated South Korean construction industry topic. It offers additional insight into state-of-the-art health and safety management practices in the construction industry in South Korea. Furthermore, it establishes which components of OSH management practice require improvement in the Korean context. This is also one of the few studies in OSH which establishes the association between the construction business characteristics and OSH management in the South Korean construction domain.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2024

Nunzia Nappo, Damiano Fiorillo and Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera

There is extensive literature on the determinants of job tenure insecurity. However, very little is known about the individual drivers of labour market insecurity. Additionally…

Abstract

Purpose

There is extensive literature on the determinants of job tenure insecurity. However, very little is known about the individual drivers of labour market insecurity. Additionally, while a piece of literature shows that volunteering improves workers' income, no study considers volunteering as an activity which could help workers to feel more confident about their perception of labour market insecurity if they lost or resigned their jobs. Therefore, purpose of this paper is to study whether workers who volunteer are less likely to perceive labour market insecurity.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper employs data from the sixth European working conditions survey which provides a great deal of information on working conditions. For the empirical investigation, probit model as well as robustness analysis have been implemented.

Findings

Results show that employees who do voluntary activities have a greater likelihood of declaring perceived labour market insecurity, which is nearly 3 percentage points lower, than employees who do not volunteer. Findings suggest that governments need to improve the relationship between for-profit and non-profit sectors to encourage volunteering.

Originality/value

This is the first study which considers volunteering as an activity which could help workers to feel more confident about their perception of “labour market insecurity”. Most of the studies on “labour market insecurity” do not focus on the workers individual characteristics but mainly on the labour markets institutional characteristics and welfare regimes differences.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 January 2024

Sanjeev Kumar Ningombam and Sudeshna Bordoloi

This study aims to examine the political, economic, social and technological (PEST) factors of women empowerment in the context of rural development under the initiatives of the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the political, economic, social and technological (PEST) factors of women empowerment in the context of rural development under the initiatives of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).

Design/methodology/approach

The unit of analysis for this study is 459 samples. Non-probability sampling technique has been used for this study. Schedule/questionnaires have been circulated among the women in each block cluster. Frequencies have been used to represent the data against each statement. Non-parametric chi-square test has been used to examine the relationship between empowerment and political, economic, social, technological factors and interpersonal skills.

Findings

Statistical analysis shows that the Deendayal Antayodaya Yojana (DAY)-NRLM scheme has brought significant changes and development to women in political, social, economic and technological areas. It was observed that women are economically empowered and contribute to the economic upliftment of the family. Most of the respondents strongly felt that after being associated with DAY-NRLM, they were empowered to contribute efficiently to the social development process and activities.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study highlight the impact of DAY-NRLM implementation at block levels of a district in India. Subsequent research may be carried to measure the effectiveness of the capacity-building program conducted under the banner of DAY-NRLM.

Practical implications

Women empowerment is not limited to awareness, whereas it needs a complete set of initiatives backed with support systems. Few critical interventions could be building strong networks, enhancing financial management, encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship among self-help group workers, providing easy access to credit, mentoring, handholding, continuous monitoring and evaluation.

Social implications

This study focuses on the impact of the DAY-NRLM scheme on women’s empowerment in the Morigaon district. The inferences from the study throw light on the empowerment of women vis-à-vis political, economic, social and technological factors.

Originality/value

This study is a primary study conducted in the Morigaon District of Assam. This is a new line of policy research that approaches the women empowerment with the PEST parameters.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2023

Feler Bose and Arkadiusz Mironko

This study aims to try and understand under what cultural conditions entrepreneurship will thrive and prosper, whether under shame or guilt cultures.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to try and understand under what cultural conditions entrepreneurship will thrive and prosper, whether under shame or guilt cultures.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use basic game theory to model the conditions under which entrepreneurship will thrive. The authors anticipate that guilt cultures allow for the development of a rules-based culture that allows for the development of impersonal exchange, whereas shame cultures, which are relationship-oriented, focus on strong ties and hence lack the means to expand firms from small and medium family/clan-based businesses.

Findings

Empirical results are completed to see whether guilt-dominating cultures are more conducive to having larger firms and whether guilt-dominating cultures have less informality. The authors find support for the latter but lack the right data to test the former.

Originality/value

The authors use a new measure of culture to see how it impacts entrepreneurship.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, vol. 12 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2045-2101

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 May 2023

Kais Baatour, Khalfaoui Hamdi and Hassen Guenichi

Illicit trade is pervasive in many nations and may be influenced by the level of national IQ. The current interdisciplinary paper aims to study the association between national…

Abstract

Purpose

Illicit trade is pervasive in many nations and may be influenced by the level of national IQ. The current interdisciplinary paper aims to study the association between national intelligence and illicit trade across nations.

Design/methodology/approach

The illicit trade index scores for 84 countries, developed by the Economics Intelligence Unit, are used to measure the dependent variable. The independent variable is national intelligence, while economic development, unemployment and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are the control variables. Two-level hierarchical linear models (HLMs) are used to empirically test the above-mentioned association.

Findings

The empirical results suggest that the higher the degree of national intelligence, the lower is the degree of illicit trade across nations. In addition, economic development, unemployment and national culture play an important role in explaining cross-country differences in illicit trade.

Practical implications

Regulatory authorities should find the results of this cross-national research useful in evaluating the likelihood of illicit trade from a cognitive perspective, and in implementing reforms to curb this type of economic crimes.

Originality/value

This interdisciplinary study makes novel contributions to the literature on economic and financial crimes. First, for the first time to the best of the authors’ knowledge, an association between national intelligence and illicit trade is examined. A second original contribution of this study compared to earlier research is related to the use of two-level HLMs. Third, the investigation of the association between intelligence and illicit trade takes a new control variable into consideration, i.e. unemployment, a variable which is found to have a significant effect on illicit trade and that has not been used directly in relationship with illicit trade so far.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 30 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2023

Talib Hussain and Shahid Hussain

The global COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly overwhelmed our societies, shocked the global economy and disturbed normal business operations. While such impacts of COVID-19 are…

Abstract

Purpose

The global COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly overwhelmed our societies, shocked the global economy and disturbed normal business operations. While such impacts of COVID-19 are becoming clearer, the effects of the disease on business operations are more common. This study mainly focuses on identifying the factors that affect the smooth operation of businesses during a pandemic situation.

Design/methodology/approach

Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to rate the result index. A total of 40 professionals and experts of different businesses were listed on stock exchanges, and asked to rank the key variables with relative indices and weighting methods.

Findings

The results of the AHP successfully assigned weighting scores to all key important factors during the COVID-19 pandemic situation that businesses should focus on, with economic factors receiving the highest score of 60%. Likewise, the other factors that impact values for business operations are reported as social (22%), legal (12.2%), technological (5.16%) and political (0.57%). The results of this study also match with the current policies adopted by different government and nongovernment agencies like the guidelines of the World Health Organization and some most recent research results.

Originality/value

In the hectic and growing environment under COVID-19 pandemic, more contributions are not enough, and it is helpful for the whole business industry and society by stipulating more views. This study aims to overview the global impacts and challenges of COVID-19 pandemic on business operations.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 53 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 October 2023

Amin Foyouzati and Fayaz Rahimzadeh Rofooei

This Study aims to present the seismic hazard assessment of the earthquake-prone eastern of Iran that has become more important due to its growing economic importance. Many cities…

Abstract

Purpose

This Study aims to present the seismic hazard assessment of the earthquake-prone eastern of Iran that has become more important due to its growing economic importance. Many cities in this region have experienced life and financial losses due to major earthquakes in recent years. Thus, in this study the seismic hazard maps and curves, and site-specific spectrums were obtained by using probabilistic approaches for the region.

Design/methodology/approach

The seismotectonic information, seismicity data and earthquake catalogues were gathered, main active seismic sources were identified and seismic zones were considered to cover the potential active seismic regions. The seismic model based on logic tree method used two seismic source models, two declustered catalogues, three choices for earthquake recurrence parameters and maximum considered earthquakes and four ground motion predicting (attenuation) models (GMPE).

Findings

The results showed a wide range of seismic hazards levels in the study region. The peak ground acceleration (PGAs) for 475 years returns period ranges between 0.1 g in the north-west part of the region with low seismic activity, to 0.52 g in the south-west part with high levels of seismicity. The PGAs for a 2,475-year period, also ranged from 0.12 to 0.80 g for the same regions. The computed hazard results were compared to the acceptable level of seismic hazard in the region based on Iran seismic code.

Originality/value

A new probabilistic approach has been developed for obtaining seismic hazard maps and curves; these results would help engineers in design of earthquake-resistant structures.

Details

World Journal of Engineering, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1708-5284

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2023

Bijoy Kumar Dey, Gurudas Das and Ujjwal Kanti Paul

This paper aims to estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and its determinants in the handloom micro-enterprises of Assam (India) using the double-bootstrap data envelopment…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to estimate the technical efficiency (TE) and its determinants in the handloom micro-enterprises of Assam (India) using the double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a random sample of 340 handloom micro-entrepreneurs from the three districts of Assam in India. The double-bootstrap DEA was used to calculate the TE and its determinants.

Findings

The findings reveal that handloom enterprises are only 60% technically efficient, suggesting room for improvement. The bootstrap truncated regression results demonstrate that the handloom firms’ TE is influenced by both entrepreneur-specific and firm-specific factors.

Practical implications

The implication lies in the fact that the management of a firm may figure out how much it can reduce its input utilization to produce the existing amount of output so that it can move along the TE ladder. Moreover, it can crosscheck the factors to weed out inefficiency.

Originality/value

This paper has made two significant contributions to the extant literature. Firstly, it fills the gap by way of accounting the TE of handloom micro-enterprises, which has so far been neglected. Secondly, it used the bootstrap approach, which otherwise is very rare in the discourse on the Indian manufacturing industry, let alone in the micro, small and medium scale enterprises sector.

Details

Indian Growth and Development Review, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8254

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 17 August 2023

Niklas Wiesweg

German (corporate-) real estate management departments have been facing the challenge of poor data quality for years. This holds them back from generating efficiency potentials…

Abstract

Purpose

German (corporate-) real estate management departments have been facing the challenge of poor data quality for years. This holds them back from generating efficiency potentials via the use of new methods from the field of digitalisation and from coping with the increasing requirements from the ESG context. The purpose of this paper is to explore why German (corporate-) real estate managements (do not) share data with their real estate service providers to address the data quality challenge and identify possible solutions.

Design/methodology/approach

To answer the research question, the reasoned action approach, an established theory from psychology for predicting human behaviour, is used. The relationships between the constructs are determined using linear regression. The study participants are almost exclusively from Germany.

Findings

The organisational milieu (perceived behavioural control) has a significant impact on the behaviour of sharing data with real estate service providers. Especially the change of contractual arrangements (data-driven contracts) seems to be crucial for the improvement of information logistics.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, for the first time, the reasoned action approach is used within the German real estate industry to predict organisational behaviour in the context of digitalisation.

Details

Journal of Corporate Real Estate , vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-001X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 July 2023

Aziz Yousif Shaikh, Robert Osei- kyei, Mary Hardie and Matt Stevens

This paper systematically reviewed research work on drivers of teamwork, which will reinforce construction work teams to enhance workers’ safety performance. This study adds to…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper systematically reviewed research work on drivers of teamwork, which will reinforce construction work teams to enhance workers’ safety performance. This study adds to the existing but limited understanding of teamwork drivers on construction workers’ safety performance. This paper presents scholars and industry-based professionals with critical initiatives that have to be implemented in organisations to get positive results in safety while working in teams with an emphasis on systems drivers of teamwork on safety performance at the organisational level, which will help in providing information on the functioning of the teams and contribute towards improved safety performance of team workers.

Design/methodology/approach

This study aims to systematically examine the existing body of knowledge on drivers of teamwork by analysing 53 publications from the years 1997–2021. The Scopus search engine was used to conduct a systematic review and germane publications were collated.

Findings

According to the findings of the review, since 1997, there has been a burgeoning concern in the research of drivers of teamwork and its impact on workers’ safety performance. After performing a systematic review, 37 drivers of teamwork were identified. The top five drivers are effective communications, team workers’ relations, leadership, shared knowledge and information, and team training. Moreover, it was noted that the United States and Australia have been the international regions of focus for most of the research in the area of drivers of teamwork from the years 1997–2021. The 37 drivers of teamwork are distributed into six major socio-technical components: people drivers; culture drivers; metrics drivers; organisational and management practices and procedures drivers; infrastructure drivers and technology drivers.

Practical implications

The results reported present research scholars and professional practitioners with an overview of the drivers of teamwork that could be implemented in the construction industry to streamline potential implementations and improve safety performance of construction workers.

Originality/value

A list of teamwork drivers has been developed to ratify potential empirical research in the area of construction safety. The results would contribute to the existing but restricted understanding of drivers of teamwork in the construction industry.

Details

International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-4708

Keywords

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