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The aim of this chapter is to investigate factors affecting four of the gaps encompassed in the GAP model, which then results in Gap 5, the so-called customer gap, related to the variance between customer expectations and the perception of service quality (SQ). Four predictors were selected based on the literature review – marketing research orientation (MRO), service specification design (SSD), integrated technology (ITC) and integrated communication (ICO) – to examine their relationship with the customer gap. A valid and reliable questionnaire, developed for the purpose of the study, was used to collect data from a sample consisting of 600 employees from six hotels located in Amman, Jordan. The findings show that MRO, SSD, ITC and ICO significantly predict the four gaps in SQ on the provider side, which in turn significantly predict the customer gap. For companies, more attention should be paid to the four gaps that induce the customer gap.

Agency theory motivated this study, posing that leverage mitigates the agency problem. The aim was to examine whether leverage influences the relationship between executive-employee pay gaps (EEPGs) and firm performance. The study was conducted in the mining and retail sectors between 2012 and 2021.

Two EEPGs were featured based on their executive fixed pay and variable incentives accumulation. Proxies of firm performance were headline earnings per share; return on assets; earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; and return on stock price. Data were collected from 76 JSE-listed firms in the retail and mining sectors and analysed using the two-step generalised method of moments.

The results revealed the hybrid implication of the pay gap for firm performance in the retail and mining sectors of South Africa, depending on the performance measures emphasised. More importantly, the study shows that with the moderating effects of leverage, firms can improve their performance while shrinking the pay gap.

The results have implications for policy addressing income inequality, debt management, executive compensation and regulatory reforms in South Africa concerning productivity and remuneration decisions.

The article provides specific literature for retail and mining industries on pay gaps, shows that it is possible to reduce the pay gap without compromising performance and suggests a new measure of performance that is more attuned to pay gap effect measurement.

This paper aims to analyze the potential variables explaining the compliance value added tax (VAT) gap, which basically represents an estimate of the unpaid VAT in the economy. A major component of compliance VAT Gap is represented by tax fraud; there exist other causes too, like insolvencies, bankruptcies, optimizations practices and maladministration. The objective of our paper is to revisit the main determinants of the VAT compliance gap for the European Union (EU)-27 member states. Using econometric modeling, our study identifies the relationship between the VAT gap and various determinants of it.

Our work focuses on the shadow economy, final consumption, VAT revenues, standard VAT rates, differences between the standard and reduced rates, economic prosperity, press freedom, political stability and others, as determinants of European VAT compliance gaps, for the 2005–2020 time interval. The methods include panel data analysis through simple and multiple regression modeling, the combinatorial approach, fixed and random effects.

Our study validates the direct impact of shadow economy and the indirect impact of VAT revenues, economic prosperity and press freedom, upon VAT compliance gaps. Upon subsampling of EU member states within old and new ones, our results estimate a larger positive impact of shadow economy upon old member states, compared to new ones.

The policy implications include leverage effects of governments acting upon a reduction in shadow economy phenomena and boosts of economic development, political stability and press freedom, in order to attain the contraction of compliance VAT gaps.

Our paper sheds light in a poorly explored scientific area, that of the determinants of VAT gap, especially in relationship with financial and economic crime phenomena.

Management is a blended discipline with characteristics of both science and art. The component science is to be learnt and art to be practiced. This art component of management education is the really challenging part, and this is where the management educational institutions build their uniqueness. The present management education needs a paradigm shift in order to fulfill the growing futuristic demands of the industry. The quality gaps identified through review of literature are preach–practice, industry–institution linkages, quality faculty, updated curriculum, soft skills development, research, online platforms and updated pedagogies. The researcher has taken an attempt to do a dyadic study in India.

The researcher has taken an attempt to do a dyadic study in India to analyze the perception of the management faculty and management students toward filling the quality gaps for a futuristic management education. The study has included 125 management faculties and 1200 management students through simple random sampling, and the data are collected through survey method.

The independent “t” test has been applied. The management faculties exhibit high degree of acceptance for filling the quality gaps such as research gaps, online platforms and industry and institution linkages since the mean scores are 4.22, 4.20 and 4.14 respectively. The management students exhibit high degree of acceptance for filling the quality gaps such as online platforms, updated pedagogies and soft skills development since the respective mean scores are 3.87, 3.85 and 3.82.

The research area chosen for the study is reflecting the scenario of management education in developing countries such as India. The scenario may differ to developed countries.

When the quality of the management education is enriched, it will create global management professionals who will contribute qualitatively to the industries and uplift the overall global economic developments.

The present study is enriching the existing literature review, by comparing the perception of both the counterparts, the management faculty and students, about the teaching and learning process. Thus, it can be concluded that the outcome of this study is relevant for the management educational institutions, and the need of the hour for the management education is definitely to fill the quality gaps, and all the management educational institutions have to be prepared enough to overcome the gaps with the support of their well-planned strategies. The futuristic demands are ever growing, even then the gap between the present and future expectations of the industry need to be well considered and bridged. As a result of the paradigm shift, the quality of the management education will be enriched, and it will create global management professionals. As a result of this quality-conscious education, a reputed brand image and set of loyal customers may also be developed (Akareem and Hossain, 2016). The learners of quality management education will contribute qualitatively to the industries and uplift the overall global economic developments. Further research is needed to measure the post impact of filling the quality gaps in the arena of management education.

The quality gaps identified through review of literature are preach–practice, industry–institution linkages, quality faculty, updated curriculum, soft skills development, research, online platforms and updated pedagogies.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of different types of winding configurations on the distribution of leakage field and branch currents for a 330-kVA high-temperature superconducting (HTS) transformer winding.

A three-dimensional electromagnetic model coupled with a circuit model validated by an experiment is developed to calculate the leakage field and current uniformity under four different types of secondary winding configurations. The four types of gaps between secondary windings are uniform gap, arithmetic progression (AP) gap, six sections with three different gaps and eight sections with four different gaps. A coefficient named as uneven degree is used to define the current nonuniformity.

The simulation results show that the currents and leakage field of double pancakes (DPs) on both sides are larger than those of the other DPs, and the currents of several middle DPs are smaller than the average rated current with an ISOB gap and larger than the average rated current with an IBOS gap. For any one of the four types of winding configurations, the type with the ISOB gap can prohibit the current nonuniformity more effectively, whereas the IBOS gap can decrease the leakage field more. The AP with the ISOB gap is a wise choice for decreasing the uneven degree and leakage field.

There is an optimal winding configuration for decreasing the leakage field and uneven degree of branch currents. The results and numerical model are very useful for the design of a HTS transformer.

The leakage field distribution and branch currents nonuniformity for 25 parallel DPs are investigated and optimized.

Describes a study which examined the relationship of employment gaps to measures of work outcomes and emotion wellbeing. Data were collected from a diverse sample of 792 managerial and professional women using questionnaires completed anonymously. Managerial women with more employment gaps were older, more likely married, had more children if married, earned less income and worked fewer hours and extra‐hours per week. Women with more employment gaps also reported less career satisfaction, less job involvement and less optimistic career prospects. Employment gaps were not, however, related to psychological wellbeing. Women reporting more employment gaps earned less income though having more work experience and similar educational qualifications and credentials.

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of the dynamics of gaps in buyer‐seller relationships. Increasingly complex, fast changing, and dynamic business environments provide a rich research environment for analysing dynamics of gaps in business relationships. Traditionally gaps have been examined from the static and single party perspective. However, dyadic buyer‐seller relationships can be revealed, described, and analysed in new ways by viewing intraorganisational and interorganisational gaps longitudinally as chains of interactions in relationships and from the perspectives of several parties. The dynamic gaps of the relationships are described and analysed longitudinally from the perspective of gaps for the first time.

A test procedure was developed to assess the capillary flow wettability of solders inside a confined geometry. The test geometry comprised two parallel plates with a controlled gap of constant thickness (0.008 cm, 0.018 cm, 0.025 cm and 0.038 cm). Capillary flow was assessed by: (1) the meniscus or capillary rise of the solder within the gap; (2) the extent of void formation in the gap; and (3) the time dependence of the risen solder film. Tests were performed with the lead‐free solders 95Sn‐5Sb, 96.5Sn‐3.5Ag, and 91.84Sn‐3.33Ag‐4.83Bi. The capillary rise of the lead‐free solders was less than that observed with the 63Sn‐37Pb control. Reducing the solder surface tension and contact angle improved capillary flow. Void formation by the non lead solders increased as the gap became smaller. The extent of voiding was determined primarily by the gap size rather than the wettability parameters (contact angle or surface tension) of the individual alloys.

Nowadays, to simplify manufacture process and improve fault-tolerant capability, more and more modular electrical machines are being applied in industrial areas. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a novel modular single-sided flat permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM), which adopts segmented armature with the required flux gaps between segments to enhance the performance.

Using 2D finite element analysis, the performances, such as open-flux linkage, back-EMF, average thrust force, thrust ripple, etc., are compared in different values of flux gaps, as well as different slot/pole number combinations (mainly odd numbers of poles). Finally, to show the difference of linear motor from rotary one, the detailed comparison is made between modular PMLSM and rotary PMSM.

Due to flux gaps, it is found the electromagnetic performances are worsened along with flux gap width increasing to modular PMLSMs having slot number higher than pole number, but some aspects of performances such as winding factor, open-circuit flux linkage, back-EMF and average thrust can be improved to those having slot number lower than pole number. Due to the end effect of linear format, the thrust ripple is not significantly improved.

It is concluded the proper flux gaps can be chosen to improve the performance of PMLSM with certain slot/pole combinations. A new structure of 12-slot-13-pole (hereinafter referred to as 12s/13p) PMLSM with fractional slot and alternative-teeth wound winding is designed.

Investors and financial statement users may have differing beliefs about the responsibility of an independent accounting firm performing an audit of a client's financial statements. This study aims to investigate the existence of an audit expectation gap between auditors and financial statement users in Egypt.

The research method adopted in this study is identical to that used by Schelluch, Best et al. and Fadzly and Ahmed.

The results found evidence of a wide audit expectation gap in Egypt in the areas of auditor responsibilities for fraud prevention, maintenance of accounting records, and auditor judgment in the selection of audit procedures. To a lesser extent, an expectation gap was found concerning the reliability of audit and audited financial statements, and the usefulness of audit.

The different economic and cultural conditions in Egypt may restrict the generalisability of this study.

In order to reduce the expectation gap and improve decision‐making by financial statement users, the results of this study support the adoption of the long‐form audit report, augmentation of the auditing framework, strengthening of the auditor's integrity, and finally educating users on the nature and functions of audit.

This paper contributes to the understanding of the diverse nature of the expectations gap by examining the different economic and cultural setting of Egypt.