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Work crew productivity and the application of limited resources are necessary elements in construction duration delay analysis. This study thus proposes a method to analyze construction delays and resource reallocation based on work crew productivity and resource constraints. The study also presents an economic feasibility analysis that maximizes economic effect by reducing construction duration, the cost of resource reallocation, delay liquidated damages (DLDs) and incentives for reducing contractual duration.

The proposed method involved three steps. First, work crew characteristics such as productivity, unit price and workload helped analyze delay information, including delay duration, reducible duration and daily reduced cost. Next, a goal programming method assessed resource reallocation based on the priority (as determined by decision-makers) of each constraint condition, such as the available number of workers, cost, goal workload and statutory working hours. Lastly, the level of reallocation was analyzed based on the results of the economic feasibility analysis and decision-makers’ delay attitudes.

A case study was performed to test the proposed method's applicability. Its involved sensitivity analysis indicated proposing to decision-makers a scenario based on the prioritization of economic feasibility. The proposed method's applicability proved high for decision-makers, as they can determine whether to reduce construction duration per the proposed data.

The proposed method's main contribution is the reallocation of resources to reduce construction duration based on work crew productivity and the prioritization of limited resources. The proposed method can analyze the differences in productivity between the plan and actual progress, as well as calculate the necessary number of workers. Decision-makers can then reduce the appropriate level of contractual duration based on their own delay attitude, constraint condition prioritization and results from daily economic feasibility analyses.

The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of qualitative and quantitative informational signals within the merger and acquisition (M&A) press releases on deal completion and duration. A significant percentage of deals by emerging market acquirers get abandoned before completion, and those that are completed have a longer duration. The limited information about the operations of acquirers from emerging markets creates suspicion among the stakeholders involved in deal resolution, hindering the completion of deals. Thus, using the signal-feedback paradigm, authors investigate how informational signals in the M&A press release impact the deal resolution.

The study employs content analysis on M&A press releases announced by firms from five emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The technique is applied based on the exploration-exploitation framework developed by March (1991) to categorize the announced deal motives (qualitative information). Next, the authors identify the percentage of relevant quantitative information disclosed in the press release, following which results are obtained using logistic and ordinary least square regressions.

The study reports that deals with declared exploratory motives take longer to complete. Additionally, deals disclosing higher percentage of quantitative disclosure exhibit lower completion rate and increased deal duration.

This is the first study to provide evidence that familiarity bias impacts deal duration as relative to exploitation deals that are familiar to the stakeholders; exploratory deals take longer to conclude. Further, our analysis indicates that a greater percentage of quantitative disclosure may not always reduce information risk but rather be interpreted negatively in the form of the acquirer’s overconfidence in the deal’s potential.

The present study investigates human behavioral and emotional experiences based on human-built environment interaction with a specific interest in urban graffiti displaying fear and pleasure-inducing facial expressions. Regarding human behavioral and emotional experience, two questions are asked for the outcome of human responses and two hypotheses are formulated. H1 is based on the behavioral experience and posits that the urban graffiti displaying fear and pleasure-inducing facial expressions elicit specified behavioral fear and pleasure responses. H2 is based on emotional experience and states that the urban graffiti displaying fear and pleasure-inducing facial expressions elicit specified emotional fear and pleasure responses.

The research design is developed as a multi-method approach, applying a lab-based experimental strategy (N:39). The research equipment includes a mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) and a Virtual Reality (VR) headset. The behavioral and emotional human responses concerning the representational features of urban graffiti are assessed objectively by measuring physiological variables, EEG signals and subjectively by behavioral variables, systematic behavioral observation and self-report variables, Self-assessment Manikin (SAM) questionnaire. Additionally, correlational analyses between behavioral and emotional results are performed.

The findings of behavioral and emotional evaluations and correlational results show that specialized fear and pleasure response patterns occur due to the affective characteristics of the urban graffiti's representational features, supporting our hypotheses. As a result, the characteristics of behavioral fear and pleasure response and emotional fear and pleasure response are identified.

The present paper contributes to the literature on human-built environment interactions by using physiological, behavioral and self-report measurements as indicators of human behavioral and emotional experiences. Additionally, the literature on urban graffiti is expanded by studying the representational features of urban graffiti as a parameter of investigating human experience in the built environment.

A robust body of scholarship has attached unintended childbearing, cohabitation, and stepfamily living arrangements to a greater risk of union instability in the United States. These aspects of family life, which often co-occur, are overrepresented among disadvantaged populations, who also have an independently higher risk of union instability. Existing scholarship has modeled these family experiences as correlated events to better understand family and union instability, yet the authors assert a direct effort to test whether or how unintended childbearing differs across marital and stepfamily statuses makes important contributions to established research on relationship stability. Drawing on the 2006–2017 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the authors test potential moderating effects to better understand the linkages between unintended childbearing and union dissolution among 7,864 recent, higher-order births to partnered mothers via discrete-time, event history logistic regression models. Findings confirm that unintended childbearing, cohabitation, and stepfamily status are all linked with a greater risk of dissolution. However, unintended childbearing is differentially linked to instability by marital status, with unintended childbearing being associated with a higher risk of dissolution for married couples relative to cohabiting couples. Unintended fertility does not seem to increase the risk of instability across stepfamily status. Findings provide more evidence in support of selection, rather than causation, in explaining the association between unintended childbearing and union instability among higher-order births. Results suggest that among higher-order births, unintended childbearing may reflect underlying relationship issues.

The study aims to yield evidence on the relation between the quality of governance characteristics and the firms' financial credibility involved in financial violations.

The study uses annual data ranging from 2000 to 2018. The sample consists of 154 nonfinancial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange, comprising 77 fraudulent and 77 non-fraudulent companies. To examine the relationship between improvements in the governance structure and financial credibility of the firms, hypotheses are tested using the univariate analysis and multivariate regression model through the ordinary least square method.

The results affirm that fraud firms are possessed with poor governance structure compared to control firms in the pre-fraud year. The findings further imply that an improved governance structure brings foremost performance in stock price. The results of the study divulge that board of directors characteristic i.e. change in outside directors' percentage has a significant positive impact (β = 0.015, p = 0.05) on the financial credibility of the firms. The governance variables in terms of CEO-COB joint position has a significant negative (β = −0.824, p = 0.05) association with the financial credibility, which means that whenever CEO-COB joint position enhances, the financial credibility of the firms decreases. However, governance variables in the context of blockholders percentage has a significant positive (β = 0.13, p = 0.01) impact on financial credibility. The results of the study overall indicate that the governance structure has a significant influence on the financial performance of firms in the stock market.

The study provides an understanding of how fraudulent firms rehabilitate their governance structure and accrue economic benefits by the means of financial credibility after when the fraud is made public. It also adds to the literature in the area of corporate frauds specifically the role of governance structure in the financial performance of fraudulent firms in the stock market; this field is in its initial stage, even in developed countries, while, in developing countries, little work has been done.

This paper aims to examine the origins of value co-creation (VCC) knowledge streams, vis-a-vis their progression over the past 18 years. The study explores how knowledge of this discipline emerged across the tripartite strategic paradigms of business transformation.

Co-citation analysis (CCA) and co-word analysis (CWA) are used as bibliometric techniques, for which, a group of articles is retrieved using Scopus’s usual keyword-based search. The initial collection consists of 3,431 research articles published in business and management publications. By explaining the article clusters generated through CCA and keyword connections generated through CWA, the findings outline the origins and development of VCC research. A CWA-based chronological study adds further insights to the development of VCC research themes.

The results depict that VCC research has grown multifold in the past 18 years, whereby it has shifted its attention from a dyadic interaction approach to a multistakeholder ecosystem-based approach detailing the phenomenological instances of resource integration and institutional processes. Notably, extant research in this field has grown at a much faster rate since 2008. In fact, a stronger concentration of research emerged in the experience domain, particularly in terms of hedonic services. Development of engagement platforms has been driven by research into technologies such as IoT and artificial intelligence.

The theoretical framework of the VCC paradigm is used to describe the aggregation of co-creation research around the three strategic pillars. This framework is useful for business strategy and to track VCC research over time.

This work identifies the practices and strategies of VCC at three different levels: capacity, platform and experience. The study offers insights into a variety of co-creation practices at their respective levels, incorporating micro-level dyadic interactions and macro-level processes in a service ecosystem.

This study uses different bibliometric methodologies to investigate the development of this scientific field over time. “Document co-citation” analysis, a more preferred bibliometric technique under CCA, is used to construct the cluster of theoretical cores of this area. The results are classified under the strategic framework of the co-creation paradigm (Ramaswamy and Ozcan, 2014).

Restorative experiences relieve fatigue or stress, leading people to feel more energetic. Activation theory and the nature–dose framework hold travel duration as a crucial influence on restorative effects, yet these factors may not demonstrate a simple linear relationship. This paper, thus, aims to explore the relationship between travel duration and restoration based on a survey conducted during a seven-day holiday (the longitudinal data spanned two months); and explore the reasons for this relationship and the mechanisms for lasting restorative effects based on diary analysis.

Mixed methods were used in this study. Questionnaires regarding restorative effects were administered to 232 people at six time points before, during and after a holiday. Participants were also asked to keep a diary during their trips. Data were first tested for common method bias and were then processed via independent sample t-tests, analysis of variance and time-series analysis.

Restorative effects were consistently higher in the travel group than in the non-travel group. Additionally, an inverted U-shaped relationship emerged between travel duration and the restorative effects of a holiday; a moderate duration had stronger restorative effects than a duration that was too long or too short. More importantly, the study found that participants who traveled for a moderate duration (longer or shorter) engaged in non-judgmental challenging (relaxing) activities at least once. They also demonstrated greater eudaimonism (hedonism) and stronger, more sustained restoration versus the original set point. In addition, results revealed how travel activities, emotions, moderators and restorative effects were constructed.

Longitudinal data indicated an inverted U-shaped relationship between travel duration and restoration. Achieving lasting restorative effects requires effort and non-judgmental challenging activities for a moderate travel duration and frequency. The study uncovered mechanisms influencing the relationship between travel experiences and restorative effects. The results offer guidance for research on “travel prescriptions” and for the health and stress relief market.

Inverted U-shaped curve for different travel durations and restorative effects at T3.

The non-judgmental challenging group showed lasting and stronger restorative effects over the next two months.

恢复性体验是指从疲劳或压力状态恢复到感觉更好或更有活力的状态。基于激活理论和自然剂量框架, 旅行停留时长是恢复效果的一个关键变量, 但两者之间可能并不是简单的线性关系。本文旨在（1）基于两个月的纵向数据, 探讨固定假期旅行停留时长与恢复效果之间的关系; （2）根据假期日记内容进一步分析以上关系产生的可能原因及达到持久恢复效果的作用关系。

该研究采用了混合方法。在度假前、度假中和度假后的六个纵向时间点, 对232人进行了与恢复效果有关的问卷调查。且参与者在整个假期中每天记日记。对数据进行了常见方法偏倚、独立样本t检验、方差分析和时间序列分析。

（1）在整个调查期间, 旅行组的恢复效果始终高于非旅行组; （2）旅行停留时长与恢复效果之间的关系呈倒U型, 适度的旅行停留时长可以得到更好的恢复效果; （3）适度（太长或太短）旅行停留时长的参与者更多地参与非评判的挑战性（享乐性）的活动, 表现出更大的实现主义（享乐主义）倾向, 并获得了更强、更持久的恢复效果。进一步地, 研究结果揭示了旅游活动类型、情绪、调节变量和恢复性效果之间的作用关系。

纵向数据分析表明旅行停留时长和恢复效果之间呈现倒U型, 要实现持久的恢复效果需要努力参与非评判的挑战性活动。这项研究揭示了旅行体验和恢复效果之间的关系, 研究结果为促进旅游成为健康和压力缓解市场的处方提供了理论基础和实践指导。

Las experiencias reparadoras alivian la fatiga o el estrés, haciendo que las personas se sientan con más energía. La teoría de la activación y el marco naturaleza-dosis sostienen que la duración del viaje es una influencia crucial en los efectos reconstituyentes que provocan en las personas, aunque estos factores pueden no demostrar una relación lineal simple. Así pues, este artículo pretende 1) explorar la relación entre la duración del viaje y la recuperación de las personas, a partir de una encuesta realizada durante unas vacaciones de 7 días (los datos longitudinales abarcaron dos meses); y 2) explorar las razones de esta relación y los mecanismos de los efectos reparadores duraderos a partir del análisis de diarios.

En este estudio se utilizaron métodos mixtos. Se administraron cuestionarios sobre los efectos reconstituyentes a 232 personas en seis momentos antes, durante y después de unas vacaciones. También se pidió a los participantes que llevaran un diario durante sus viajes. En primer lugar, se comprobó que los datos no presentaran sesgos por métodos comunes y, a continuación, se procesaron mediante pruebas t de muestras independientes, análisis de la varianza y análisis de series temporales.

Los efectos reparadores fueron sistemáticamente mayores en el grupo que viajó que en el que no viajó. Además, surgió una relación en forma de U invertida entre la duración del viaje y los efectos reconstituyentes de las vacaciones; una duración moderada tuvo efectos reparadores más fuertes que una duración demasiado larga o corta. Por último, los participantes que viajaron durante una duración moderada (más larga o más corta) realizaron más actividades estimulantes no perjudiciales (relajantes). También demostraron un mayor eudaimonismo (hedonismo) y una recuperación más fuerte y sostenida en comparación con el punto de partida inicial. Los resultados revelaron cómo se relacionaban las actividades de viaje, las emociones, los moderadores y los efectos reparadores.

Los datos longitudinales indicaron una relación en forma de U invertida entre la duración del viaje y la recuperación de las personas. Lograr efectos reparadores duraderos requiere esfuerzo y actividades para una duración moderada del viaje. El estudio descubrió mecanismos que influyen en la relación entre las experiencias de viaje y los efectos reconstituyentes. Los resultados ofrecen orientaciones para la investigación sobre las “recetas de viaje” y para el mercado de la salud y el alivio del estrés.

This study investigates the impact of the fire decay phase on structural damage using the sectional analysis method. The primary objective of this work is to forecast the non-dimensional capacity parameters for the axial and flexural load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) sections for heating and the subsequent post-heating phase (decay phase) of the fire.

The sectional analysis method is used to determine the moment and axial capacities. The findings of sectional analysis and heat transfer for the heating stage are initially validated, and the analysis subsequently proceeds to determine the load capacity during the fire’s heating and decay phases by appropriately incorporating non-dimensional sectional and material parameters. The numerical analysis includes four fire curves with different cooling rates and steel percentages.

The study’s findings indicate that the rate at which the cooling process occurs after undergoing heating substantially impacts the axial and flexural capacity. The maximum degradation in axial and flexural capacity occurred in the range of 15–20% for cooling rates of 3 °C/min and 5 °C/min as compared to the capacity obtained at 120 min of heating for all steel percentages. As the fire cooling rate reduced to 1 °C/min, the highest deterioration in axial and flexural capacity reached 48–50% and 42–46%, respectively, in the post-heating stage.

The established non-dimensional parameters for axial and flexural capacity are limited to the analysed section in the study owing to the thermal profile, however, this can be modified depending on the section geometry and fire scenario.

The study primarily focusses on the degradation of axial and flexural capacity at various time intervals during the entire fire exposure, including heating and cooling. The findings obtained showed that following the completion of the fire’s heating phase, the structural capacity continued to decrease over the subsequent post-heating period. It is recommended that structural members' fire resistance designs encompass both the heating and cooling phases of a fire. Since the capacity degradation varies with fire duration, the conventional method is inadequate to design the load capacity for appropriate fire safety. Therefore, it is essential to adopt a performance-based approach while designing structural elements' capacity for the desired fire resistance rating. The proposed technique of using non-dimensional parameters will effectively support predicting the load capacity for required fire resistance.

The fire-resistant requirements for reinforced concrete structures are generally established based on standard fire exposure conditions, which account for the fire growth phase. However, it is important to note that concrete structures can experience internal damage over time during the decay phase of fires, which can be quantitatively determined using the proposed non-dimensional parameter approach.

Completing Right-of-Way (ROW) acquisition process on schedule is critical to avoid delays and cost overruns on transportation projects. However, transportation agencies face challenges in accurately forecasting ROW acquisition timelines in the early stage of projects due to complex nature of acquisition process and limited design information. There is a need of improving accuracy of estimating ROW acquisition duration during the early phase of project development and quantitatively identifying risk factors affecting the duration.

The quantitative research methodology used to develop the forecasting model includes an ensemble algorithm based on decision tree and adaptive boosting techniques. A dataset of Georgia Department of Transportation projects held from 2010 to 2019 is utilized to demonstrate building the forecasting model. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is performed to identify critical drivers of ROW acquisition durations.

The forecasting model developed in this research achieves a high accuracy to predict ROW durations by explaining 74% of the variance in ROW acquisition durations using project features, which is outperforming single regression tree, multiple linear regression and support vector machine. Moreover, number of parcels, average cost estimation per parcel, length of projects, number of condemnations, number of relocations and type of work are found to be influential factors as drivers of ROW acquisition duration.

This research contributes to the state of knowledge in estimating ROW acquisition timeline through (1) developing a novel machine learning model to accurately estimate ROW acquisition timelines, and (2) identifying drivers (i.e. risk factors) of ROW acquisition durations. The findings of this research will provide transportation agencies with insights on how to improve practices in scheduling ROW acquisition process.

Foreign fighters (FFs) appeared in at least approximately one-fourth of conflicts over the past 200 years. This study aims to reveal the impact of FFs in conflicts, whether they resolve the conflict faster or they drag out the conflict, and investigate the single and simultaneous impacts of ethnic conflict (EC) and FFs on conflict duration (CD).

The data set consisting of 352 conflicts from 1818 to 2022 was collected from different sources. Logarithmic Linear Regression with Dummy Variables and the Cox Regression models were used to check the hypotheses.

One of the key findings of this analysis is that the use of FFs extends the duration of conflicts. Similarly, conflicts involving EC increase CD. Additionally, the simultaneous effect of FFs and EC together increases the CD much more, and it is noted CD significantly varies regionally.

As this study focused on the factors that affect the duration of the conflict in the hypotheses, the findings only can contribute to explaining the duration rather than factors such as the number of casualties and economic losses. The authors believe that policy and key decision-makers can benefit from the results and think twice before deciding to use FFs in conflicts.

This study offers a separate and simultaneous effect of EC and FFs on CD, which provides some empirical contributions to conflict management by filling the gap in this area.