Search results for: retailing sector

Authors: Firano Zakaria, Filali Adib Fatine

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The issue f convergence in theoretical models (classical or Keynesian) has been widely discussed. The results of the work affirm that most countries are seeking to get as close as possible to a steady state in order to catch up with developed countries. In this paper, we have retested this question whether it is absolute or conditional. The results affirm that the degree of convergence of countries like Morocco is very low and income is still far from its equilibrium state. Moreover, the analysis of financial convergence, of the countries in our panel, states that the pace in this sector is more intense: countries are converging more rapidly in financial terms. The question arises as to why, with a fairly convergent financial system, growth does not respond, yet the financial system should facilitate this economic convergence. Our results confirm that the degree of information exchange between the financial system and the economic system did not change significantly between 1985 and 2017. This leads to the hypothesis that the financial system is failing to serve its role as a creator of information in developing countries despite all the reforms undertaken, thus making the existence of an economic demon in the Maxwell prevail.

Keywords: economic convergence, financial convergence, financial system, entropy

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Mohamed Laamim, Abdelilah Rochd, Aboubakr Benazzouz, Abderrahim El Fadili

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Smart grids have recently sparked a lot of interest in the energy sector as they allow for the modernization and digitization of the existing power infrastructure. Smart grids have several advantages in terms of reducing the environmental impact of generating power from fossil fuels due to their capacity to integrate large amounts of distributed energy resources. On the other hand, smart grid technologies necessitate many field investigations and requirements. This paper focuses on the major difficulties that governments face around the world and compares them to the situation in Morocco. Also presented in this study are the current works and projects being developed to improve the penetration of smart grid technologies into the electrical system. Furthermore, the findings of this study will be useful to promote the smart grid revolution in Morocco, as well as to construct a strong foundation and develop future needs for better penetration of technologies that aid in the integration of smart grid features.

Keywords: smart grids, microgrids, virtual power plants, digital twin, distributed energy resources, vehicle-to-grid, advanced metering infrastructure.

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Authors: Gassrm Alfaleh

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The new Law of Universities has many goals, one of them is how each university can be independent financially and educationally. Another goal is to open doors for foreign universities to open branches in the kingdom. This paper focuses on how these goals can create competition between local and foreign universities. And how this new law can bring significant changes in the Kingdom’s higher education sector. The methodology of this study is to compare the new Saudi law to another legal system, especially in Australia. And how this new law can affect the higher education environment and Saudi culture. It covers the view of other different legal jurisdictions and compares it to this new law. The major findings are that the new law of universities can give a chance to Saudi universities to achieve their goals based on empowerment, quality, and participate in developing the educational and research methods. It may allow universities to start their own resources, permit them to create endowments and companies, and may allow them to create their degrees and programs. It will help those universities to increase the efficiency of spending, developing financial resources, and human capabilities for universities in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. As a result, this paper states whether this new law can improve higher education in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: law, education, Saudi legal system, university

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Juliane P. De Oliveira, Carlos H. Dos Santos, Marcia Shoji, Maria E. C. Ferreira, Natalia U. Yamaguchi

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The construction sector is considered a major generator of environmental impacts due to the high consumption of natural resources and waste generation. Thus, this article aims to evaluate the performance of a concrete produced by the partial and total replacement of natural coarse aggregate by recycled coarse aggregate, derived from the concrete residue of buildings and demolitions. The study was made by comparing the compressive strength and absorption of three different concrete traces, keeping the water/cement factor of 0.60 and changing only the proportions of recycled coarse aggregate between 0%, 50% and 100%. Traces 50% and 100% obtained good results by comparing the actual specific mass, because the material used is lighter to the natural coarse aggregate. It was concluded that the concrete produced with recycled aggregates, even with inferior results, can be used where it is not needed a structural function, giving an adequate destination to the construction and demolition waste and consequently reducing the extraction and consumption of natural resources.

Keywords: green concrete, recycled aggregate, recycling, sustainable development

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Authors: Washima Tuleun

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Cybercrime is a global concern, and Nigeria is not immune to its effects. This paper investigates the cybercrimes and significant cyber-attacks that have targeted businesses and institutions in Nigeria, examining their various forms and the financial and economic impacts they have on individuals, businesses, and the nation as a whole. As technological advancements rapidly evolve and online services gain widespread adoption, there has been a corresponding rise in cyber-related attacks. These attacks often target personal data, exploit system vulnerabilities, and result in the theft of sensitive information, leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and broader impacts on organizations. The study conducts a thorough review of existing literature, case studies, and statistical data to provide a comprehensive understanding of Nigeria’s cybercrime landscape. Additionally, it assesses the efforts by both the government and the private sector to address these challenges and offers recommendations for more effective strategies to mitigate and reduce their impact.

Keywords: cybersecurity, telecommunications engineering, information technology, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, computing

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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Public sector organizations, ministries, departments and local government agencies are adopting e-government as a means to provide efficient and quality service delivery to citizens. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the extent to which perceived usefulness (PU) of e-government services moderates between perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) of e-government services and intention to use (IU) e-government services in Ghana. A structured research questionnaire instrument was developed and administered to 700 potential respondents in Ghana, of which 693 responded, representing 99% of the questionnaires distributed. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to capture and analyze the data. The results indicate that even though predictors such as PU and PEOU are main determiners of citizens’ intention to adopt and use e-government services in Ghana, it failed to show that PEOU and IU e-government services in Ghana is significantly moderated by the PU of e-government services. The implication of this finding on theory and practice is further discussed.

Keywords: e-government services, intention to use, moderating role, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, Ghana, technology acceptance model

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Authors: Farah Al-Mutairi, Hadeer Al-Jeeraan, Lima Ali, Raya Al-Dabbous, Sarah Baroun

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Lately, within the middle east, development has taken place in the construction area which increased the demand of a crucial component, where without it; stunning views from skyscrapers cannot been experienced, and natural light would not be able to be viewed from an indoor building. Glass has changed the path of living and building. Float glass is a type of glass that is flat and it is the type used in the construction and automobile sector. Facility design on the other hand is a study that improves the efficiency utilization of people, equipment, material and space. Kuwait's governmental future developing plan bears in mind the need of increase in industries to increase the growth domestic product(GDP) of the country. This project studies the feasibility of two designs of a float glass manufacture in Kuwait. The first Alternative, consists of one production line of capacity 500 tons of glass per day. The second alternative, consists of three production lines, each of capacity 500 tons of glass daily.

Keywords: float glass manufacture, Kuwait, feasibility float glass, facility design, float glass production

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Authors: Kamran Rashid, Tashfeen M. Azhar, Asad-ur-Rahman Wahla

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Current research aims to understand the role of successful buyer-supplier relationship in achieving supply chain competitiveness in a developing country perspective. Five hypotheses are developed to test structural model. Survey data is collected from the manufacturing sector of Pakistan. Analysis is conducted using Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Smart PLS version 2.0 M3. Results demonstrate positive impact of effective supplier selection, buyer-supplier engagement, and information sharing capability on success of buyer supplier relationship. This successful buyer supplier relationship drives the supply chain firm financial and market performance. Additional analyses with large sample sizes are required in other developing countries to cross validate the results. Current study provides empirical evidence of the role of successful buyer supplier relationship in achieving supply chain competitiveness.

Keywords: supply chain management, successful buyer-supplier relationship, supply chain competitiveness, developing country

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Authors: Yan Fang, Jie Yin, Bihu Wu

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The interaction between climate change and tourism is one of the most promising research areas of recent decades. In this paper, a scientometric analysis of 976 academic publications between 1990 and 2015 related to climate change and tourism is presented in order to characterize the intellectual landscape by identifying and visualizing the evolution of the collaboration network, the co-citation network, and emerging trends of citation burst and keyword co-occurrence. The results show that the number of publications in this field has increased rapidly and it has become an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary topic. The research areas are dominated by Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and European countries, which have the most productive authors and institutions. The hot topics of climate change and tourism research in recent years are further identified, including the consequences of climate change for tourism, necessary adaptations, the vulnerability of the tourism industry, tourist behaviour and demand in response to climate change, and emission reductions in the tourism sector. The work includes an in-depth analysis of a major forum of climate change and tourism to help readers to better understand global trends in this field in the past 25 years.

Keywords: climate change, tourism, scientometrics, CiteSpace

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Authors: Sadhvi Gupta, Charulatha S.

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Since the dawn of the early 1950s humans have launched numerous vehicles in space. Be it from rockets to rovers humans have done tremendous growth in the technology sector. While there is mostly upside for it for humans the only major downside which cannot be ignored now is the amount of junk produced in space due to it i.e. space debris. All this space junk amounts from objects we launch from earth which so remains in orbit until it re-enters the atmosphere. Space debris can be of various sizes mainly the big ones are of the dead satellites floating in space and small ones can consist of various things like paint flecks, screwdrivers, bolts etc. Tracking of small space debris whose size is less than 10 cm is impossible and can have vast implications. As the amount of space debris increases in space the chances of it hitting a functional satellite also increases. And it is extremely costly to repair or recover the satellite once hit by a revolving space debris. So the proposed solution is, Actively removing space debris while keeping space sustainability in mind. For this solution a total of 8 modules will be launched in LEO and in GEO and these models will be placed in their desired orbits through Hohmann transfer and for that calculating ΔV values is crucial. After which the modules will be placed in their designated positions in STK software and thorough analysis is conducted.

Keywords: space debris, Hohmann transfer, STK, delta-V

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Authors: Merouane Boudjerda, Bénina Touaibia, Mustapha K Mihoubi

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In Algeria, water resources play a crucial role in economic development. But over the last decades, they are relatively limited and gradually decreasing to the detriment of agriculture. The agricultural irrigation is the primary water consuming sector followed by the domestic and industrial sectors. The research presented in this paper focuses on the optimization of irrigation water demand. Dynamic Programming-Neural Network (DPNN) method is applied to investigate reservoir optimization. The optimal operation rule is formulated to minimize the gap between water release and water irrigation demand. As a case study, Boukerdane dam’s reservoir system in North of Algeria has been selected to examine our proposed optimization model. The application of DPNN method allowed increasing the satisfaction rate (SR) from 34% to 60%. In addition, the operation rule generated showed more reliable and resilience operation for the examined case study.

Keywords: water management, agricultural demand, Boukerdane dam, dynamic programming, artificial neural network

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Authors: Madrakhimova Sakhiba, Matmurotov Bakhtishod, Boltaboyava Zilola, Matchanov Alimjan

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Analyzing the chemical composition of locally consumed food products is one of the urgent problems in the health sector today. Taking this into account, it analyzed the microelement content of Cydonia oblonga Miller (COM) fruit growing in the Republic of Uzbekistan using the ISP MS inductively coupled mass spectrometry method. fruits brought to a constant mass in the analysis were mineralized in a mixture of nitric acid-HNO₃ and hydrogen peroxide-H₂O₂ in a ratio of 3:2. The mineralized extract was diluted to 50 milliliters with double-distilled water and analyzed. The results of the analysis showed that the fruit is rich in micronutrients necessary for the human body, especially potassium-K and phosphorus-P among macroelements, Strontium-Sr and barium-Ba from microelements are more than other microelements. It was observed that the amount of trace elements contained in COM fruit does not exceed the permissible standards. Therefore, it can be recommended to eat this fruit every day to prevent various diseases that occur in the human body.

Keywords: cydonia oblonga miller, macroelement, microelement, inductively coupled mass spectrometry, hydrolysis, mineralization

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Authors: Ojoniyi Oluwafeyekikunmi Okiki

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Notwithstanding advances in disturbing wound care and control, infections remain a main motive of mortality, morbidity, and financial disruption in tens of millions of wound sufferers around the sector. Animal models have become popular gear for analyzing a big selection of outside worrying wound infections and trying out new antimicrobial techniques. This evaluation covers experimental infections in animal models of surgical wounds, pores and skin abrasions, burns, lacerations, excisional wounds, and open fractures. Animal modes of external stressful wound infections stated via extraordinary investigators vary in animal species used, microorganism traces, the quantity of microorganisms carried out, the dimensions of the wounds, and, for burn infections, the period of time the heated object or liquid is in contact with the skin. As antibiotic resistance continues to grow, new antimicrobial procedures are urgently needed. Those have to be examined using popular protocols for infections in external stressful wounds in animal models.

Keywords: surgical wounds, animals, wound infections, burns, wound models, colony-forming gadgets, lacerated wounds

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Authors: N. Rambabu, H. Gururaj, Reynold Washington, Oommen George

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Motivation: Under the USAID Strengthening Health Outcomes through Private Sector (SHOPS-TB) initiative, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) with technical support of Abt associates is implementing a TB prevention and care model in Karnataka State, South India. KHPT is the interface agency between the public and private sectors, and providers and the target community facilitating early TB case detection and enhancing treatment compliance through private health care providers (pHCP) engagement in RNTCP. The project coverage is 0.84 million urban poor from 663 slums in 12 districts of Karnataka. Problem Statement: India with the highest burden of global TB (26%) and two million cases annually, accounts for approximately one fifth of the global incidence. WHO estimates 300,000 people die from TB annually in India. India expanded the coverage of Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course chemotherapy (DOTS) to the entire country as early as 2006. However, the performance of RNTCP has not been uniform across states. While the national annual new smear-positive (NSP) case notification rate is 53, it is much lower at 47 in Karnataka. A third of TB patients in India reside in urban slums. Approach: Under SHOPS, KHPT actively engages with communities through key opinion leaders and community structures. Interpersonal communication, by Outreach workers through house-to-house visits and at aggregation points, is the primary method used for communication about TB and its management and to increase demand for sputum examination and DOTS. pHCP are mapped, trained and mentored by KHPT. ORWs also provide patient and family counseling on TB treatment, side effects and adherence, screen close contacts of index patients especially children under 6 years of age and screen co-morbidities including HIV, diabetes and malnutrition and risk factors including alcoholism, tobacco use, occupational hazards making appropriate accompanied or documented referrals. A treatment ‘buddy’ system for the patients involving close friends or family members, ICT-based support, DOTS Prerana (inspiration) groups of TB patients, family members and community, DOTS Mitra (friend) helpline services are also used for care and support services. Results: The intervention educated 39988 slum dwellers, referred 1731 chest symptomatics, tested 1061 patients and initiated 248 patients on anti-TB treatment within three months of intervention through continuous community engagement. Conclusions: The intervention’s potential to increase access to preferred health care providers, reduce patient and health system delays in diagnosis and initiation of treatment, improve health seeking behaviour and enhance compliance of pHCPs to standard treatment protocols is being monitored. Initial results are promising.

Keywords: DOTS, KHPT, health outcomes, public and private sector

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Authors: Zeljana Aljinovic Barac, Marina Granic, Tina Vuko

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Study investigates the level and extent of voluntary disclosure practice in Croatia. The research was conducted on the sample of 130 medium and large companies. Findings indicate that two thirds of the companies analysed disclose below-average number of additional information. The explanatory analyses has shown that firm size, listing status and industrial sector significantly and positively affect the level and extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual report of Croatian companies. On the other hand, profitability and ownership structure were found statistically insignificant. Unlike previous studies, this paper deals with level of voluntary disclosure of medium and large companies, as well as companies whose shares are not listed on the organized capital market, which can be found as our contribution. Also, the research makes contribution by providing the insights into voluntary disclosure practices in Croatia, as a case of macro-oriented accounting system economy, i.e. bank oriented economy with an emerging capital market.

Keywords: annual report, Croatian companies, disclosure index, voluntary disclosure

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Authors: Maruf Farhan, Abdul Salih, Sikandar Ali Tahir

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Protecting patient information's confidentiality is paramount considering the widespread use of Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets in medical settings. This study's subjects are decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) in conjunction with an OAuth-based authorization framework, as they are the key to protecting IoT healthcare devices. DIDs enable autonomous authentication and trust formation between IoT devices and other entities. To authorize users and enforce access controls based on verified claims, VCs offer a secure and adaptable solution. Through the proposed method, medical facilities can improve the privacy and security of their IoT devices while streamlining access control administration. A Smart pill dispenser in a hospital setting is used to illustrate the advantages of this method. The findings demonstrate the value of DIDs, VCs, and OAuth-based delegation in protecting the IoT devices. Improved processes for authorizing and controlling access to IoT devices are possible thanks to the research findings, which also help ensure patient confidentiality in the healthcare sector.

Keywords: Iot, DID, authorization, verifiable credentials

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Authors: Khedidja Benouis

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Environmental issues in the food industry are related to the water because it consumes water and release large volumes of wastewater. The treatment of such discharges techniques can be adapted to different situations encountered. For dairy effluents, it is necessary and very effective to use a treatment that eliminates much of the pollutant load,thus, to drastically reduce the organic loading rate. This study aims to evaluate the Efficiency and limitations of physicochemical treatment by coagulation - flocculation of liquid effluent from this type of food industry in Algeria, to give an example of the type and the degree of pollution generated by this sector and in order to reduce pollution and minimize its environmental issues. Coagulation - flocculation-sedimentation was carried out using lime without addition of additive (flocculant), the processing efficiency is indicated by the concentration of pollutants in treated water. The results show that treatment is not sufficient to remove organic pollution, but it has significantly reduced the Total suspended solids (TSS), nitrate (NO3-N) and phosphate (PO4-P).

Keywords: Algeria, coagulation-flocculation, dairy effluent, treatment

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Authors: Yousef Abu Nahleh, Alhasan Hakami, Arun Kumar, Fugen Daver

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This study considers the problem of calculating safety stocks in disaster situations inventory systems that face demand uncertainties. Safety stocks are essential to make the supply chain, which is controlled by forecasts of customer needs, in response to demand uncertainties and to reach predefined goal service levels. To solve the problem of uncertainties due to the disaster situations affecting the industry sector, the concept of Emergency Safety Stock (ESS) was proposed. While there exists a huge body of literature on determining safety stock levels, this literature does not address the problem arising due to the disaster and dealing with the situations. In this paper, the problem of improving the Order Quantity Model to deal with uncertainty of demand due to disasters is managed by incorporating a new idea called ESS which is based on the probability of disaster occurrence and uses probability matrix calculated from the historical data.

Keywords: Emergency Safety Stocks, safety stocks, Order Quantity Model, supply chain

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Authors: Sunil Chaudhary, Rajendra Bahadur Thapa, Eleni Berki, Marko Helenius

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The increasing number of Internet and mobile phone users, and essentially those, who use these electronic media to perform online transactions makes Nepal lucrative for phishing attacks. It is one of the reasons behind escalating phishing attacks in the country. Therefore, in this paper we examine various phishing attempts and real scenarios in Nepal to determine the seriousness of the problem. We also want to find out how prepared are the Internet and mobile phone users and how well-equipped are the private sector and government authorities responsible to handle cybercrime in the country. We considered five areas of research study, i.e., legal measures, technical and procedural measures, organizational structure, capacity building and international cooperation. These constitute important factors in cyber security and are recommended by the Global Cyber security Agenda (GCA). On the basis of our findings, we provide essential suggestions to make anti-phishing measures more appropriate to Nepalese State and society.

Keywords: internet banking, mobile banking, e-commerce, phishing, anti-phishing, Nepal

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Authors: Francis Okodede, Edafe Lucky Okotie

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Conventional energy sources based on oil, coal, and natural gas has posed a trait to environment and to human health. Green energy stands as an alternative because it has proved to be eco-friendly. The prospective of renewable energy sources are quite vast as they can, in principle, meet many times the world’s energy demand. Renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, can provide sustainable energy services based on the use of routinely available indigenous resources. New renewable energy sources (solar energy, wind energy, and modern bio-energy) are currently contributing immensely to global energy demand. A number of studies have shown the potential and contribution of renewable energy to global energy supplies, indicating that in the second half of the 21st century, it is going to be a major source and driver in the telecommunication sector. Green energy contribution might reach as much as 50 percent of global energy demands if the right policies are in place. This work suggests viable non-conventional means of energy supply to power a cellular base station.

Keywords: base station, energy storage, green energy, rotor efficiency, solar energy, wind energy

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Authors: Vimi Jham

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The banking sector has undergone tremendous change in all forms of service it provides to its customers. The efforts of the banks is to avoid customer defection and lead to customer satisfaction. The purpose of the study was to examine the linkages among the constructs such as customer perceived service quality, perceived service recovery quality and customer satisfaction in the banking industry. The moderating effect of negative brand perception due to service failure on recovery satisfaction were investigated. Random sampling methods are used to draw the sample from the population. Data was collected from 262 banking customers and were analyzed with the help of structural equation modelling approach using Smart PLS to understand the relationship among variables being studied. The results of the study contribute to the research by proving that customer service recovery satisfaction is dependent on customer perceived service quality and the moderating effect of negative brand perception due to service failure was insignificant.

Keywords: service recovery satisfaction, perceived service recovery quality, perceived service quality, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Danielle Sandler dos Passos, Helder Coelho, Flávia Mori Sarti

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Analysing the world banking sector, we realize that traditional risk measurement methodologies no longer reflect the actual scenario with uncertainty and leave out events that can change the dynamics of markets. Considering this, regulators and financial institutions began to search more realistic models. The aim is to include external influences and interdependencies between agents, to describe and measure the operationalization of these complex systems and their risks in a more coherent and credible way. Within this context, X-Events are more frequent than assumed and, with uncertainties and constant changes, the concept of antifragility starts to gain great prominence in comparison to others methodologies of risk management. It is very useful to analyse whether a system succumbs (fragile), resists (robust) or gets benefits (antifragile) from disorder and stress. Thus, this work proposes the creation of the Banking Antifragility Index (BAI), which is based on the calculation of a triangular fuzzy number – to "quantify" qualitative criteria linked to antifragility.

Keywords: adaptive complex systems, X-Events, risk management, antifragility, banking antifragility index, triangular fuzzy number

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Authors: Saima Nazir, Mustansar Ali Ghazanfar, Sanay Muhammad Umar Saeed, Muhammad Awais Azam, Saad Ali Alahmari

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Terrorism is an important and challenging concern. The entire world is threatened by only few sophisticated terrorist groups and especially in Gulf Region and Pakistan, it has become extremely destructive phenomena in recent years. Predicting the pattern of attack type, attack group and target type is an intricate task. This study offers new insight on terrorist group’s attack type and its chosen target. This research paper proposes a framework for prediction of terrorist attacks using the historical data and making an association between terrorist group, their attack type and target. Analysis shows that the number of attacks per year will keep on increasing, and Al-Harmayan in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qai’da in Gulf Region and Tehreek-e-Taliban in Pakistan will remain responsible for many future terrorist attacks. Top main targets of each group will be private citizen & property, police, government and military sector under constant circumstances.

Keywords: data mining, counter terrorism, machine learning, SVM

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Authors: Pedro A. V. Ramos, Duarte M. S. Albuquerque, José C. F. Pereira

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Global warming mitigation is one of the main challenges of this century, having the net balance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to be null or negative in 2050. Industry electrification is one of the main paths to achieving carbon neutrality within the goals of the Paris Agreement. Microwave heating is becoming a popular industrial heating mechanism due to the absence of direct GHG emissions, but also the rapid, volumetric, and efficient heating. In the present study, a mathematical model is used to simulate the production using microwave heating of two ceramic pigments, at high temperatures (above 1200 Celsius degrees). The two pigments studied were the yellow (Pr, Zr)SiO₂ and the brown (Ti, Sb, Cr)O₂. The chemical conversion of reactants into products was included in the model by using the kinetic triplet obtained with the model-fitting method and experimental data present in the Literature. The coupling between the electromagnetic, thermal, and chemical interfaces was also included. The simulations were computed in COMSOL Multiphysics. The geometry includes a moving plunger to allow for the cavity impedance matching and thus maximize the electromagnetic efficiency. To accomplish this goal, a MATLAB controller was developed to automatically search the position of the moving plunger that guarantees the maximum efficiency. The power is automatically and permanently adjusted during the transient simulation to impose stationary regime and total conversion, the two requisites of every converged solution. Both 2D and 3D geometries were used and a parametric study regarding the axial bed velocity and the heat transfer coefficient at the boundaries was performed. Moreover, a Verification and Validation study was carried out by comparing the conversion profiles obtained numerically with the experimental data available in the Literature; the numerical uncertainty was also estimated to attest to the result's reliability. The results show that the model-fitting method employed in this work is a suitable tool to predict the chemical conversion of reactants into the pigment, showing excellent agreement between the numerical results and the experimental data. Moreover, it was demonstrated that higher velocities lead to higher thermal efficiencies and thus lower energy consumption during the process. This work concludes that the electromagnetic heating of materials having high loss tangent and low thermal conductivity, like ceramic materials, maybe a challenge due to the presence of hot spots, which may jeopardize the product quality or even the experimental apparatus. The MATLAB controller increased the electromagnetic efficiency by 25% and global efficiency of 54% was obtained for the titanate brown pigment. This work shows that electromagnetic heating will be a key technology in the decarbonization of the ceramic sector as reductions up to 98% in the specific GHG emissions were obtained when compared to the conventional process. Furthermore, numerical simulations appear as a suitable technique to be used in the design and optimization of microwave applicators, showing high agreement with experimental data.

Keywords: automatic impedance matching, ceramic pigments, efficiency maximization, high-temperature microwave heating, input power control, numerical simulation

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Authors: Francesco Coraci, Abdul-Hadi G. Abulrub

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Digital technology is transforming the landscape of the industrial sector at a precedential level by connecting people, processes, and machines in real-time. It represents the means for a new pathway to achieve innovative, dynamic competitive advantages, deliver unique customers’ values, and sustain critical relationships. Thus, success in a constantly changing environment is governed by the ability of an organization to revolutionize their business models, deliver innovative solutions, and capture values from big data analytics and insights. Businesses need to re-strategize operations and develop extra capabilities to cope with the necessity for additional flexibility and agility. The traditional “command and control” leadership style is structurally and operationally incompatible with the digital era. In this paper, the authors discuss how transformational leaders can act as a glue in the social, organizational context, which is crucial to enable the workforce and develop a psychological attachment to the digital vision.

Keywords: internet of things, strategy, change leadership, dynamic competitive advantage, digital transformation

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Authors: Jonas Hinker, Lisa Zumholz, Johanna M. A. Myrzik

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Despite strong efforts by the German government to make a transition to higher quality level of building stocks, the rate of renovation continues to remain below the proclaimed level of 2%. As the mandatory standards for residential retrofits are well-balanced in such a way that strict adherence to them guarantees profit from the investment, it becomes difficult to explain the reasons why there are so many people hesitant with their investments. Risks and transaction costs can be understood as socio-technical boundaries and have to be taken into consideration to be able to understand why a worthwhile investment is postponed or rejected. This paper therefore presents a method for investment analyses that is focused on such socio-technical constraints, which helps to reveal the strongest misconceptions of home owners. By depicting sensitivities and risk factors in an integrated and impartial way, such a tool can be utilized by home owners to address reservations and misunderstandings. In the end, this leads to an exploitation of smaller energy efficiency measures that makes up a big demand reduction in the residential sector altogether.

Keywords: energy refurbishment, investment analysis, residential buildings, risk-aware investment strategy

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Authors: María-José Palacin-Sanchez, Filippo Di Pietro, Reyes Samaniego-Medina

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This article examines, in an institutional context such as Spanish one, the corporate board structure characteristics and determinants in entrepreneurial firms to go public. Specifically, it explores these issues through all the initial public offerings in the Spanish Alternative Equity Market (MAB), which is a market segment for smaller growing companies. The results show that: a) firm size, age of the company, and the reputation of the auditor and the nominated advisor and Corporate Governance Code favour a larger and more independent board structure that enhances its monitoring functions; and b) leverage, opportunities of growth, sector risk and ownership by executive directors all lead towards a smaller broad of directors where the role of entrepreneurship provided by executive directors remains crucial. This reflects the delicate balance of power between small-business entrepreneurs and financial equity market forces, which demand more transparency and monitoring in the companies.

Keywords: board composition, board size, corporate governance, IPO, SMEs

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Authors: Yahaya Sulaiman, Ibrahim Muhammad Yakuba, Abubakar Usman

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In this paper, we discuss that Sustainable Development Goals are in consonance with Islamic ethos and philosophy. Islam made emphasize on human well-being from spiritual, physiological, intellectual and economic perspectives. Islamic worldview and values framework strengthens moral consciousness, urge pro-social behaviour and engender environmental ethics which can help in influencing our attitudes towards meeting sustainable development challenges. Islamic social finance institutions like Zakat and Waqf can contribute towards scaling up efforts in commercially non-viable, but socially vital projects and programs. There is much potential for Islamic finance to promote sustainable economic development through such approaches as widening access to finance, financing infrastructure projects, and expanding the reach of Takaful. Real sector based productive enterprise in Islamic finance has positive implications for the ecosystem. Risk-sharing shifts the emphasis from credit-worthiness of the borrower to be placed on the value creation and economic viability of investments that create new wealth. Islamic social finance package can cater to the financially excluded households.

Keywords: assessment, Islamic, economic, sustainable, development

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Authors: Siphiwe P. Mandina, Tinashe Shamuyashe

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Tourism has become a topical issue amongst academics and practitioners due to its potential to contribute significantly towards an economy’s GDP. The problem underpinning this research is the fact that the major attraction, Victoria Falls, is being marketed in neighboring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Zambia with tour operators providing just day trips to the Victoria Falls. This has deprived Zimbabwe of income from tourism with tourists making day trips and actually not spending nights in Zimbabwe. This therefore calls for cutting edge marketing strategies that are superior to or inimitable by competing nations such as South Africa and Zambia. This study proposes a shift towards an experience management paradigm in the tourism sector. A qualitative research was adopted for this study, and findings of this study were generalized across different tourism contexts, therefore making the survey based research design more appropriate. The target population for this study is tourists visiting Zimbabwe over the period 2016 and ZTA visitor database acquired from the Department of Immigration will form the sampling frame for the purposes of this study.

Keywords: tourist experiences, Zimbabwe, tourist arrivals, competitiveness

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Authors: Basil Manos, Thomas Bournaris, Christina Moulogianni

Abstract:

The European agricultural policy supports all member states to apply agricultural development plans for the development of their agricultural sectors. A specific measure of the agricultural development plans refers to young people in order to enter into the agricultural sector. This measure helps the participating young farmers in achieving maximum efficiency, using methods and environmentally friendly practices, by altering their farm plans. This study applies a Multicriteria Mathematical Programming (MCDA) model for the young farmers to find farm plans that achieve the maximum gross margin and the minimum environmental impacts (less use of fertilizers and irrigation water). The analysis was made in the region of Central Macedonia, Greece, among young farmers who have participated in the “Setting up Young Farmers” measure during 2007-2010. The analysis includes the implementation of the MCDA model for the farm plans optimization and the comparison of selected environmental indicators with those of the existent situation.

Keywords: multicriteria, optimum farm plans, environmental impacts, sustainable management

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