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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between government expenditure and economic growth in Botswana over the period 1985‒2016. The study employed the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach in investigating the nexus. The study makes the argument that the effectiveness of public spending should be assessed not only against the amount of the expenditure but also by the type of the expenditure. The empirical findings showed that aggregate expenditure has a negative short-run and positive long-run effect on economic growth. When expenditure is disaggregated, both forms of expenditures have a positive short-run effect on economic growth, whereas only a long-run positive impact of recurrent expenditure is observed. The study suggests the need to prioritize scarce resources in productive recurrent and development spending that enables increased productivity.

This study examined the effectiveness of government spending in Botswana, within an ARDL framework from 1985 to 2016. To achieve this, the analysis is carried out on both an aggregate and disaggregated level. Government spending is divided into recurrent and development expenditures.

This study examined the effectiveness of government spending in Botswana, within an ARDL framework from 1985 to 2016. To achieve this, the analysis hinged on both the aggregate and disaggregated levels. The results of the aggregate analysis suggest that total public expenditure has a negative impact on economic growth in the short run; however, its impact becomes positive over the long run. On disaggregating government spending, the results show that both recurrent and development expenditures have a significant positive short-run impact on growth; however, in the long run, the significant positive impact is only observed for recurrent expenditure.

The results provide evidence of the diverse effects of government expenditure in the country. In the period under investigation, 73 percent of total government expenditure in Botswana was recurrent in nature, whereas 23 percent was related to development. From the results, it can be observed that although the recurrent expenditure has contributed to increased growth and must be encouraged, it is also pertinent for the Botswana Government to endeavor to place more emphasis on productive development expenditure in order to enhance short- and long-term growth. Further, there is a need to strengthen the growth-enhancing structures and to prioritize the scarce economic resources toward productive spending and ensuring continued proper governance over such expenditures.

The study provides empirical evidence on the effectiveness of government spending in a small open, resource-reliant middle-income SSA economy and argues that the effectiveness of public spending must be assessed not only against the amount of the expenditure but also on the type or composition of the expenditure. The study contributes to the scant empirical literature on Botswana by employing the ARDL approach to cointegration technique in estimating the long- and short-run impact of government expenditure on economic growth between 1985 and 2016.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for common mental health problems that affect children, young people and adults. The suitability of CBT for children has been questioned because it requires children to think about their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which cognitive and affective capacities predict children’s ability to relate thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

A total of 59 typically developing children aged between 8 and 11 years took part in the study. CBT skills were assessed on a story task that required children to relate the character’s thoughts to their feelings and behaviours. Children also completed an assessment of IQ, a feeling-of-knowing metamemory task that assessed metacognition, and a higher-order theory of mind task. Furthermore, parents rated their child’s empathy on the children’s empathy quotient.

The findings suggest that CBT is developmentally appropriate for 8–11 year old children; however, young children and children with mental health problems may have impaired metacognition and CBT skills. Metacognition and empathy may moderate the efficacy of child CBT and warrant further investigation in clinical trials.

This study provides evidence for the cognitive and affective skills that might predict the outcome of CBT in children. Metacognition and empathy predict children’s ability to relate thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and therefore may moderate the efficacy of CBT.

Turbulent hypercompetitive market conditions make small and medium enterprises (SMEs) vulnerable to abrupt crises caused by unexpected competitor moves. In these situations, enterprise risk management (ERM) can serve as a dynamic capability (DC) to overcome the impending crisis and improve SMEs' survival rates. To explore this capacity, which has only been vaguely addressed in prior research, we conduct an exploratory, abductive study to update the extant (ERM and DC) literature with empirical evidence from expert interviews.

We conduct an exploratory, abductive study using empirical evidence from expert interviews.

Our findings reveal ERM as a second-order DC in the micro-foundational components of competitive intelligence gathering, alliance building and integrative capabilities. We find that competitive intensity and government policy moderate the effects of these foundational capabilities. Finally, our study proposes a survivability model that provides new valuable knowledge of ERM as a DC for SMEs to deal with competition-driven crises.

This research survivability model shows how ERM as DC can facilitate the survivability of SMEs against competitive surprises. Although restricted to crises arising out of competitive surprises, this study provides valuable knowledge to the literature on what type of DCs are useful for specific situations. The study findings not only extended Teece's (2007) DCs framework to competitive crises but also placed it within a hierarchy of capabilities. The research findings indicate that an ERM culture in SMEs promote the growth and development of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities, vital for tiding competitive crises.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of products' characteristics on the performance of three distribution strategies: traditional warehousing (TW), cross-docking pick by line (XDPL) and cross-docking pick by store (XDPS).

Based on a case study of an FMCG “Fast Moving Consumer Goods” company and a major French retailer, we empirically analyse the impact of the products' characteristics on the performance of the three distribution strategies. We consider a three-echelon supply chain composed of one supplier DC, one retailer DC and multiple retailer stores. The inventory at each echelon is controlled according to an order-up-to (OUT) level policy. The demand is forecasted by means of a single exponential smoothing method. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to analyse the impact of the supply chain parameters on the comparative performance of the strategies when the parameters' values deviate from the empirical base case.

The empirical investigation shows that the use of XDPL results leads to an increase in the supply chain total cost, whereas XDPS reduces the cost. Moreover, we show that for a service-level target, cross-docking strategies should be selected for products with low variability, high shelf space, low value and short lead-time. For an inventory reduction target, these strategies should be selected for products with high demand volume. We also propose a managerial framework for choosing the right strategy for each product.

This paper fills a gap in the literature by presenting empirical results based on a real business case of a multi-echelon supply chain. Both cost and service are used to evaluate the performance of the strategies.

Our work has the limitation to ignore the transportation cost implications when selecting the right distribution strategy. Hence, including such cost in the analysis would constitute an interesting extension of this work. Moreover, our empirical analysis represents a practical rich context that makes the scope for transferability of findings learned from this article substantial. However, for the generalisability of the findings, larger datasets in the retail supply chain would be interesting to consider

Digital transformation is a foundational change in how firms operate and deliver value to customers by using digital technologies to create new business opportunities. The purpose of this study is to offer a conceptual framework by reorganizing the elements of digital transformation, including resources, technology, capabilities and performance, into a workable process and investigating how firms integrate these resources, build new capabilities and transform them into enhanced performance.

This framework builds three blocks: resource integration, organizational capabilities and outcomes, exploring the impact of resource integration on outcomes through organizational capabilities. For resource integration, this study adopts a resource-based view (RBV) and service-dominant logic (SDL) to integrate organizational resources, including information technology (IT)-based resources, which play a role in moderating the effect of resource integration. Moreover, the author argues that firms’ capabilities have two levels: higher-order capabilities and lower-order capabilities, which will convert these resources through the capabilities into organizational performance.

This framework is built to understand the process of digital transformation and its antecedents for firms’ performance in business environments. Drawing on RBV, it provides a more holistic perspective that has been linked to resource integration, organizational capabilities and outcomes at the firm level. In this way, the theoretical basis for diminishing implicitness associated with the current perspective of digital transformation can be strengthened.

This paper offers a coherent discussion of digital transformation and explains the process of digital transformation, thus advancing prior work. The major contribution is connecting the process of digital transformation through which firms integrate resources, i.e. digital technologies and valuable, rare, inimitable and nonsubstitutable (VRIN) and nonVRIN resources as well, to build organizational dynamic capabilities based on RBV and SDL.

The purpose of this paper was to empirically integrate the structural and perceptual control programs in the identity theory. This integration involved examining how the structural concepts of prominence and salience moderate the impact that the perceptual control process of nonverification has role-specific self-esteem.

We use survey data from normative and counter-normative conditions in the parent and spouse identities to test a series of structural equation models. In each model, we test the direct impacts of prominence, salience, and nonverification on worth, efficacy, and authenticity. We also test interaction effects between prominence and nonverification as well as salience and nonverification on the three self-esteem outcomes.

Out of the 24 possible interaction effects, only three were significant. By contrast, the expected positive effects of prominence on worth were supported among all identities, while the expected positive effects of salience on self-esteem were supported only among normative identities. Also as expected, the negative effects of nonverification on self-esteem were supported, though most strongly among counter-normative identities.

Our findings indicate that the structural and perceptual control concepts have independent effects on self-esteem. Thus, future research should incorporate both programs when examining identity processes on self-esteem. However, depending on the normativity or counter-normativity of the identities of interest, research may find it useful to focus on concepts from one program over the other.

This paper is a test of integration of the two research paradigms in the identity theory, which addresses the micro–macro problem in a unique way.

The paper aims to develop expressions for calculating the mutual impedance between isolated conductors buried in homogeneous earth. The conductors have finite length and arbitrary position.

The conductors are represented by the use of elementary electric dipoles. Well‐known existing expressions are employed for the electric field of these dipoles. The induced voltages are evaluated and the final expressions for the mutual impedance are derived. The resulting expressions involve infinite double integrals, evaluated by using adaptive quadratures that are, however, time consuming. Therefore, an alternative approach is followed involving Sommerfeld integrals (SI) for representing the electric field of a dipole and a recently devised method for computing the SI, in the spatial domain, by using calculation of discrete complex images.

Final expressions for parallel and perpendicular conductors were derived and numerical results for several values of frequency, conductors' length and horizontal distance between them, were produced. Comparison to results produced with the well‐known Pollaczek formula showed excellent agreement.

For future research, it is possible to use the developed expressions for earthing systems study, where the grounding grid is discretized and the moment method is invoked.

Currently, the formulas used for calculating mutual impedance are valid for parallel conductors of infinite length. With the present work, accurate expressions are given for finite length and arbitrary horizontal positioned conductors. In addition, the use of SI and the discrete complex image method results in a rapid and efficient tool for massive impedance calculations.

With the growing popularity of digital engagement, this study explores the interrelationships among digital engagement, interactivity and engagement strategies from the perspective of practitioners.

Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 practitioners who have been involved in marketing communication activities in Hong Kong.

It was found that practitioners interpreted digital engagement mainly from the cognitive and behavioral dimensions and organizations engaged with their target audiences with either transactional or transitional communications. Functional interactivity and medium interactivity were perceived as the basis of digital engagement.

This qualitative analysis enriches the extant literature in marketing and public relations by delineating the relationships between interactivity and the use of different levels of digital engagement strategies, as well as guiding practitioners in setting effective digital engagement strategies.

Corrosion inhibition by some thiourea derivatives of zinc in hydrochloric acid was measured using hydrogen evolution and weight loss techniques. The tested compounds affect the dissolution rate in one of two manners: (a) inhibition throughout all concentrations added and (b) inhibition at lower concentration and acceleration at higher ones. The effect of structural changes in these compounds on their inhibition efficiency has been discussed.