Search results for: employers perspective

Authors: Ezeni Brzovska, Durdana Ozretic-Dosen

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The purpose of this paper is to deepen the understanding of the product cues that influence purchase decision for a specific product category – chocolate, and to identify demographic differences in the buying behavior. ANOVA was employed for analyzing the significance level for nine product cues, and the survey showed statistically significant differences among different age and gender groups, and between respondents with different levels of education. From the theoretical perspective, the study adds to the existing knowledge by contributing with the research results from the new environment (Southeast Europe, Macedonia), which has been neglected so far. Establishing the level of significance for the product cues that affect buying behavior in the chocolate consumption context might help managers to improve marketing decision-making, and better meet consumer needs through identifying opportunities for packaging innovations and/or personalization toward different target groups.

Keywords: chocolate consumption context, chocolate selection, demographic characteristics, product cues

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Authors: Usman Khan

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The article discusses mass migration, which has been a problem throughout history. People moved for a variety of reasons, including better job opportunities, prosperous, healthy lifestyles, and other basic needs. This research focuses on the issues and challenges that immigrants face when they arrive at their destination countries especially Saudi Arab. Among these issues are the Kapala system, irregular salaries, living conditions, document seizure, and so on. The primary data sources for this qualitative anthropological study include in-depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs). The research was carried out in the villages of Zulam and Shagokas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Dir Lower District. The article concludes by stating that the agents and employers treated labor migrants/workers inhumanely. Throughout the process, they have been subjected to severe exploitation and suffering. Finally, the migrants sent back remittances that aided the region's economic and infrastructure development.

Keywords: Migration, Exploitation, labour, Middle East, Kafala and Tanazol System.

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Authors: Nükhet Konuk, N. Gamze Turan, Yüksel Ardalı

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Cities play a vital role in the social fabric of countries and in national and regional economic growth worldwide; however, the environmental effects of such growth need to be assessed and managed better. The critical and most immediate problems faced by cities of developing countries are the health impacts of urban pollution that derive from inadequate water, sanitation, drainage and solid waste services, poor urban and industrial waste management, and air pollution. As globalization continues, earth's natural processes transform local problems into international issues. The aim of this study is to provide a broad overview of the pollution from urban wastes and emissions in Turkey which is a developing country. It is aimed to underline the significance of reorganizing the institutional tools in a worldwide perspective in order to generate coherent solutions to urban problems, and to enhance urban quality.

Keywords: environmental pollution, developing countries, environmental degradation, urban environmental problems

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Authors: Sampo Tukiainen, Jukka Mattila, Niina Erkama, Erkki Ormala

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During the past decade, calls for more holistic and integrative organizational innovation research have been increasingly voiced. On the one hand, from the theoretical perspective, the reason for this has been the tendency in contemporary innovation studies to focus on disciplinary subfields, often leading to challenges in integrating theories in meaningful ways. For example, we find that during the past three decades the innovation research has evolved into an academic field consisting of several independent research streams, such as studies on organizational learning, project management, and top management teams, to name but a few. The innovation research has also proliferated according to different dimensions of innovation, such as sources, drivers, forms, and the nature of innovation. On the other hand, from the practical perspective the rationale has been the need to develop understanding of the solving of complex, interdisciplinary issues and problems in contemporary and future societies and organizations. Therefore, for advancing theorizing, as well as the practical applicability of organizational innovation research, we acknowledge the need for more integrative and holistic perspectives and approaches. We contribute to addressing this challenge by developing a ‘box transcendent’ perspective to examine interlinkages in and across four key dimensions of organizational innovation processes, which traditionally have been studied in separate research streams. Building on an in-depth, qualitative analysis of 123 interviews of CTOs (or equivalent) and CEOs in top innovative Finnish companies as well as three in-depth case studies, both as part of an EU-level interview study of more than 700 companies, we specify interlinkages in and between i) strategic management, ii) innovation management, iii) implementation and organization, and iv) commercialization, in innovation processes. We contribute to the existing innovation research in multiple ways. Firstly, we develop a cross-dimensional, ‘box transcendent’ conceptual model at the level of organizational innovation process. Secondly, this modeling enables us to extend existing theorizing by allowing us to distinguish specific cross-dimensional innovation ‘profiles’ in two different company categories: large multinational corporations and SMEs. Finally, from the more practical perspective, we consider the implications of such innovation ‘profiles’ for the societal and institutional, policy-making development.

Keywords: holistic research, innovation management, innovation studies, organizational innovation

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Authors: Yan Jia China

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The ruins is a kind of historical intention, which is also the current real existence of developing city. Zen culture of ancient China has a profound esthetic emotion, similarly, the west establish the concept of aesthetics of relic along with the Romanism’s (such as Rousseau etc.) sentiment to historical ruins at the end of 18th century. Nowadays, with the decline of traditional industrial society as well as the rise of post-industrial age, contemporary society must face the ruins and garbage problem which is left by industrial society. Commencing from the perspective of emotion and memory, this paper analyzes the importance for emotional needs as well as their existing status of several projects, such as the Capital Steelworks in Beijing (industrial devastation), the Shibati old section in Chongqing (urban slums) and the Old Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem (ruins of war). It emphasizes urban design which is started from emotion and the sustainable development of city memory through managing the urban ruins which is criticized by people with the perspective of ecology and art.

Keywords: cultural heritage, urban ruins, ecology, emotion, sustainable urban memory

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Authors: Eko Liao, Cheryl Zhang

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Employee job crafting refers to employee’s proactive behaviors of making customized changes to their jobs on cognitive, relationship, and task levels. Previous studies have investigated different situations triggering employee’s job crafting. However, much less is known about what would be the consequences for both employee themselves and their work groups. Guided by conservation of resources theory (COR), this study investigates how employees job crafting increases their objective task performance and promotive voice behaviors at work. It is argued that employee would gain more resources when they actively craft their job tasks, which in turn increase their job performance and encourage them to have more constructive speak-up behaviors. Specifically, employee’s psychological resources (i.e., job engagement) and relational resources (i.e., leader-member relationships) would be enhanced from effective crafting behaviors, because employees are more likely to regard their job tasks as meaningful, and their leaders would be more likely to notice and recognize their dedication at work when employees craft their job frequently. To test this research model, around 400 employees from various Chinese organizations from mainland China joins the two-wave data collection stage. Employee’s job crafting behaviors in three aspects are measured at time 1. Perception of resource gain (job engagement and leader-member exchange), voice, and job performance are measured at time 2. The research model is generally supported. This study contributes to the job crafting literature by broadening the theoretical lens to a resource-based perspective. It also has practical implications that organizations should pay more attention to employee crafting behaviors because they are closely related to employees in-role performance and constructive voice behaviors.

Keywords: job crafting, resource-based perspective, voice, job performance

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Authors: Z. Hamed, K. Sa'deya, E. Abdelrasheed, I. Mahamid

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The construction industry is one of the main sectors that play basic role in the urban and rural development of a society. It provides important ingredients for the development of an economy. However, many construction projects experience extensive cost overrun. This study was conducted to identify the causes of cost overrun in building construction contracts in Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia and test the importance of these causes from contractors' perspective. To achieve the study objectives, a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify and rank cost overrun causes from the perspective of contractors. The findings found that the top five cost overrun causes are: lack of experience in the line of work, lack of labor productivity, delay in payments, rework and material waste. It is hoped that the findings will guide efforts to improve the performance of construction industry in Saudi Arabia and other developing countries.

Keywords: building, contractor, cost increase, cost overrun

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Authors: Per Blomqvist

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The overall aim of this study is to highlight how the degree project-course in teacher education has developed over time at Swedish universities, above all regarding changes in the formative assessment practices in relation to student's opportunities to take part in writing processes that can develop both their independent critical thinking, subject knowledge, and academic writing skills. Theoretically, the study is based on deliberative and transformative perspectives of teaching academic writing in higher education. The deliberative perspective is motivated by the fact that it is the universities and their departments' responsibility to give the students opportunities to develop their academic writing skills, while there is little guidance on how this can be implemented. The transformative perspective is motivated by the fact that education needs to be adapted to the student's prior knowledge and developed in relation to the student group. Given the academisation of education and the new student groups, this is a necessity. The empirical data consists of video recordings of teacher groups' conversations at three Swedish universities. The conversations were conducted as so-called collective remembering interviews, a method to stimulate the participants' memory through social interaction, and focused on addressing issues on how the degree project-course in teacher education has changed over time. Topic analysis was used to analyze the conversations in order to identify common descriptions and expressions among the teachers. The result highlights great similarities in how the degree project-course has changed over time, both from a deliberative and a transformative perspective. The course is characterized by a “strong framing,” where the teachers have great control over the work through detailed instructions for the writing process and detailed templates for the text. This is justified by the fact that the education has been adapted based on the student teachers' lack of prior subject knowledge. The strong framing places high demands on continuous discussions between teachers about, for example, which tools the students have with them and which linguistic and textual tools are offered in the education. The teachers describe that such governance often leads to conflicts between teachers from different departments because reading and writing are always part of cultural contexts and are linked to different knowledge, traditions, and values. The problem that is made visible in this study raises questions about how students' opportunities to develop independence and make critical judgments in academic writing are affected if the writing becomes too controlled and if passing students becomes the main goal of education.

Keywords: formative assessment, academic writing, degree project, higher education, deliberative perspective, transformative perspective

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Authors: Celine Jaspers

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The Belgian legal system is slowly evolving to mandatory mediation to promote ADR. One of the reasons for this evolution is the lack of use of alternative methods in relation to their possible benefits. Especially in divorce cases, ADR can play a beneficial role in resolving disputes, since the emotional component is very much present. When children are involved, a solution provided by the parent may be more adapted to the child’s best interest than a court order. In the first part, the lack of use of voluntary ADR and the evolution toward mandatory ADR in Belgium will be indicated by sources of legislation, jurisprudence and social-scientific sources, with special attention to divorce cases. One of the reasons is lack of knowledge on ADR, despite the continuing efforts of the Belgian legislator to promote ADR. One of the last acts of ADR-promotion, was the implementation of an Act in 2018 which gives the judge the possibility to refer parties to mediation if at least one party wants to during the judicial procedure. This referral is subject to some conditions. The parties will be sent to a private mediator, recognized by the Federal Mediation Commission, to try to resolve their conflict. This means that at least one party can be mandated to try mediation (indicated as “semi-mandatory mediation”). The main goal is to establish the factors and elements that Belgium has to take into account in their further development of mandatory ADR, with consideration of the human rights perspective and the EU perspective. Furthermore it is also essential to detect some dangerous pitfalls other systems have encountered with their process design. Therefore, the second part, the comparative component, will discuss the existing framework in California, USA to establish the necessary elements, possible pitfalls and considerations the Belgian legislator can take into account when further developing the framework of mandatory ADR. The contrasting and functional method will be used to create key elements and possible pitfalls, to help Belgium improve its existing framework. The existing mandatory system in California has been in place since 1981 and is still up and running, and can thus provide valuable lessons and considerations for the Belgian system. Thirdly, the key elements from a human rights perspective and from a European Union perspective (e.g. the right to access to a judge, the right to privacy) will be discussed too, since the basic human rights and European legislation and jurisprudence play a significant part in Belgian legislation as well. The main sources for this part will be the international and European treaties, legislation, jurisprudence and soft law. In the last and concluding part, the paper will list the most important elements of a mandatory ADR-system design with special attention to the dangers of these elements (e.g. to include or exclude domestic violence cases in the mandatory ADR-framework and the consequences thereof), and with special attention for the necessary the international and European rights, prohibitions and guidelines.

Keywords: Belgium, divorce, framework, mandatory ADR

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Authors: Luna Shamieh

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Various players are part of the game in an asymmetric war, all making efforts to provide human security to their own adherents. Although a fragile state is not able to provide sufficient and comprehensive services, it still provides special services and security to the elite; the insurgents as well provide services and security to their associates. The humanitarian organisations, on the other hand, provide some fundamental elements of human security, but only in the regions, they are able to access when possible (if possible). The counterinsurgents (security forces of the state and intervention forces) operate within a narrow band defined by the vision of the responsibility to protect and the perspective of the resolution of the conflict through combat; hence, the possibility to provide human security is shaken at this end. This article examines how each player provides human security from the perspective of freedom from want in order to secure basic and strategic needs, freedom from fear through providing protection against all kinds of violence, and the freedom to live in dignity. It identifies a vicious cycle caused by the intervention of the different players causing a centrifugal force that may lead to disintegration of the nation under war.

Keywords: asymmetric war, counterinsurgency, fragile state, human security, insurgency

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Authors: Hong Chen, Li Heping

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China's urbanization rate has exceeded 60%, and in the long term, China's urbanization development will enter a new stage of transformation and development focusing on quality improvement, and urban renewal has become an important part of China's urban development. In the past, many cities in the process of renewal in order to maximize the pursuit of economic interests, large-scale demolition of the old to build new, accelerating the disappearance of regional history and culture, aggravating the homogenization of the city. With the changes in the economic and social development environment, urban renewal requires a more comprehensive perspective of action. Starting from the perspective of the core of urban management theory, this paper is oriented to culture-enabled urban renewal and takes the urban renewal of Changbin Road Area in Yuzhong District of Chongqing as an example to expound the problems and renewal strategies in its urban renewal, so as to provide references for the urban renewal of other Chinese cities in the new period.

Keywords: Urban management, Urban culture, Urban renewal in mountainous areas, urban renewal

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Authors: Yeongyu Choi, Ju H. Park, Ho-Youl Jung

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In this paper, we propose labeling based RANSAC algorithm for lane detection. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have been widely researched to avoid unexpected accidents. Lane detection is a necessary system to assist keeping lane and lane departure prevention. The proposed vision based lane detection method applies Canny edge detection, inverse perspective mapping (IPM), K-means algorithm, mathematical morphology operations and 8 connected-component labeling. Next, random samples are selected from each labeling region for RANSAC. The sampling method selects the points of lane with a high probability. Finally, lane parameters of straight line or curve equations are estimated. Through the simulations tested on video recorded at daytime and nighttime, we show that the proposed method has better performance than the existing RANSAC algorithm in various environments.

Keywords: Canny edge detection, k-means algorithm, RANSAC, inverse perspective mapping

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Authors: Irfan Mohiuddin, Ahmad Al Mogren

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In recent years, cloud computing has earned substantial attention in the Oil and Gas Industry and provides services in all the phases of the industry lifecycle. Oil and gas supply infrastructure, in particular, is more vulnerable to accidental, natural and intentional threats because of its widespread distribution. Numerous surveys have been conducted on cloud security and privacy. However, to the best of our knowledge, hardly any survey is carried out that reviews cyber security in all phases with a cloud computing perspective. Moreover, a distinctive classification is performed for all the cloud-based cyber security measures based on the cloud component in use. The classification approach will enable researchers to identify the required technique used to enhance the security in specific cloud components. Also, the limitation of each component will allow the researchers to design optimal algorithms. Lastly, future directions are given to point out the imminent challenges that can pave the way for researchers to further enhance the resilience to cyber security threats in the oil and gas industry.

Keywords: cyber security, cloud computing, safety and security, oil and gas industry, security threats, oil and gas pipelines

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Authors: Alex S. Talan

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The introduction of scientific terms for esports can directly affect the quality of the training process. This is a critically important scientific task since esports is a rapidly developing global sport that has only recently begun to receive scientific and methodological consideration. In this report, we evaluate esports from a biomechanical perspective. First, we examine the relationship between physical performance and esports gaming techniques, with consideration toward engineering more effective physical and in-game training methodologies for amateur and professional esports competitors. In addition, we advocate that applying biomechanical research methodologies has the added potential to improve physical performance and endurance in esports athletes. With the budding attention on the esports enterprise globally, scientific research into esports would benefit from standardizing terminologies and methodological approaches that are specifically tailored to assess esports training efficacy to enhance individual and team performance within the esports community.

Keywords: cybersport, esports, biomechanics, sports technique, training standards, dental occlusion, sports engineering, sitting pose

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Authors: Chien-Wen Chen, Nguyen Duong Thuy Trang, Yu-Hsuan Chang

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With the development of information technology, social networking sites are inseparable from life and have become an important way for people to communicate. Nonetheless, privacy issues are raised by the presence of personal information on social networking sites. However, users can benefit from using the functions of social networking sites, which also leads to users worrying about the leakage of personal information without corresponding privacy protection behaviors, which is called the privacy paradox. However, previous studies have questioned the viewpoint of the privacy paradox, believing that users are not so naive and that people with privacy concerns will conduct privacy management. Consequently, this study is based on the view of privacy calculation perspective to investigate the privacy behavior of users on social networking sites. Among them, social benefits and privacy concerns are taken as the expected benefits and costs in the viewpoint of privacy calculation. At the same time, this study also explores the antecedents, including positive feedback, self-presentation, privacy policy, and information sensitivity, and the consequence of privacy behavior of weighing benefits and costs, including self-disclosure and three privacy management strategies by interpersonal boundaries (Preventive, Censorship, and Corrective). The survey respondents' characteristics and prior use experience of social networking sites were analyzed. As a consequence, a survey of 596 social network users was conducted online to validate the research framework. The results show that social benefit has the greatest influence on privacy behavior. The most important external factors affecting privacy behavior are positive feedback, followed by the privacy policy and information sensitivity. In addition, the important findings of this study are that social benefits will positively affect privacy management. It shows that users can get satisfaction from interacting with others through social networking sites. They will not only disclose themselves but also manage their privacy on social networking sites after considering social benefits and privacy management on social networking sites, and it expands the adoption of the Privacy Calculus Perspective framework from prior research. Therefore, it is suggested that as the functions of social networking sites increase and the development of social networking sites, users' needs should be understood and updated in order to ensure the sustainable operation of social networking.

Keywords: privacy calculus perspective, self-disclosure, privacy management, social benefit, privacy concern

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Authors: Saqib Amina, Waqas Mehmoodb, Iftikhar Yasinc

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This study analyzes the robust association between ethnic violence and mental health from a global perspective (201-countries across the world) by using the panel data for the period 1970 to 2020. Mental health has been determined through various dimensions such as mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The empirical findings show that ethnic violence has a significant positive association with all types of mental health indicators, including mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The study also reveals that institutional quality may reduce the effect of mental health disorders in a better way than promoting democracy. This study suggests the non-stigmatizing social form of community-based support services instead of a stigmatizing the concept of mental illnesses that promotes hospitalization and drug treatment.

Keywords: ethnic violence, unemployment, mental health, violence

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Authors: Mukta Avachat-Shirke

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The process of manifestation in art has been studied deeply by various Indian and Western philosophers through times. In the art of painting, ‘Practice’ is always considered as techniques or making and ‘Theory’ is related to intelligence or the ‘conceptual.' The question about the significance of ‘Practice’ in artistic research has been a topic of debate. The aim of this qualitative study is to find the relevance of practice and theory while creating artworks. This study analyzes the thoughts and philosophy of Abhinavgupta, Hegel, and Croce to find a new perspective for looking at practice and theory within artistic research. With the method of grounded theory, the study attempts to establish the importance of both in artistic research. It discusses the issues like stages of creating art, role of tacit knowledge and importance of the decision-making the ability of the artist. This comparative analysis of these three philosophers along with the present systems can be used as a point of reference for further developments in the pedagogy of art research and artists, to understand the psychology and to follow the process of creativity effectively.

Keywords: artistic research, Indian philosophy, practice, Western Philosophy

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Authors: Svetlana Polskaya

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The study deals with the issue of using the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) concept when teaching Master Program students majoring in neuromarketing and entrepreneurship. Present-day employers expect young graduates to conduct professional communication with their English-speaking peers and demonstrate proper knowledge of the industry’s terminology and jargon. The idea of applying CLIL was the result of the above-mentioned students possessing high proficiency in English, thus, not requiring any further knowledge of the English language in terms of traditional grammar or lexis. Due to this situation, a CLIL-type program was devised, allowing learners to acquire new knowledge of entrepreneurship and neuromarketing spheres combined with simultaneous honing their English language practical usage. The case study analyzes CLIL application within this particular program as well as the experience accumulated in the process.

Keywords: CLIL, entrepreneurship, neuromarketing, foreign language acquisition, proficiency level

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Authors: Jianhua Wang, Ying Zhou, Han Guo

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Translation underwent culture turn for more than half a century, which brought translation and its studies beyond intra-texts. Different cultures in recent years have developed towards a translation turn, which made a great contribution to relocate national or local cultures being localized to become regional or global cultures. As China grows quickly economically integrating into the world, it becomes urgent to relate China’s story and disseminate the Chinese culture. Due to the weaknesses and drawbacks of different existing cultural translation theories for Chinese culture to go out, a new perspective on translation turn for the go-out of Chinese culture should be drawn to spread better and disseminate Chinese culture to other countries. Based on the existing cultural translation theories, the equivalence of ideology, style of the translator and agency of the support are proposed to draw a new perspective: an innovative poly-system theory for Chinese culture translation.

Keywords: cultural translation theory, Chinese culture, innovative poly system, global cultures

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Authors: Jyoti Singh, Ahmed Stifi, Sascha Gentes

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The process of construction significantly contributes to high level of risks, complexity and uncertainties leading to cost and time overrun, customer dissatisfaction etc. lean construction is important as it is a comprehensive system of tools and concepts focusing on moving closer to customer satisfaction by understanding the process, identifying the waste and eliminating it. The proposed work includes identification of knowledge areas from lean perspective, lean tools/concepts used in lean construction and establishing a relationship matrix between knowledge areas and lean tools/concepts, thus developing and building up a lean construction body of knowledge (LCBOK), i.e. a guide to lean construction, aiming to provide guidelines to manage individual projects and also helping construction industry to minimise waste and maximize value to the customer. In this study, we identified 8 knowledge areas and 62 lean tools/concepts from lean perspective and also one tool can help to manage two or more knowledge areas.

Keywords: knowledge areas, lean body matrix, lean construction, lean tools

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Authors: Yadi Xu, Qingping Luo

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Currently, there is a great tendency that more and more villages in China are trying to increase income by development of tourism. 'Beautiful Rural Construction' provides an excellent opportunity for the development of tourism. In this context, development orientation, transportation routes, and tourism service facilities are analyzed under the perspective of existing landscape utilization and regional integration based on the development tourism industry of the Nanliangdu Village in Jingxing Town, Shijiazhuang Province as a research object. In the program, the biggest issue is the contradiction between the ecological development and protection of the river and the development of economy. How to deal with the relationship between protection and development is the key to the design of this case. Furthermore, the streets and courtyard space, existing buildings, public environment, specific landscape of the ancient village with a history of thousands of years have strong regional characteristics. The article is actively exploring for suggestions and countermeasures to promote the development premised on protection and based on a regional view.

Keywords: development, integration, protection, rural tourism

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Authors: Ernawati Mustafa Kamal, Hasnanywati Hassan, Atasya Osmadi

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The housing industry is crucial for sustainable development of every country. Housing is a basic need that can enhance the quality of life. Owning a house is therefore the main aim of individuals. However, affordability has become a critical issue towards homeownership. In recent years, housing price in the main cities has increased tremendously to unaffordable level. This paper investigates factors influencing the housing price from developer’s perspective and provides recommendation on strategies to tackle this issue. Online and face-to-face survey was conducted on housing developers operating in Penang, Malaysia. The results indicate that (1) location; (2) macroeconomics factor; (3) demographic factors; (4) land/zoning and; (5) industry factors are the main factors influencing the housing price. This paper contributes towards better understanding on developers’ view on how the housing price is determined and form a basis for government to help tackle the housing affordability issue.

Keywords: factors influence, house price, housing developers, Malaysia

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Authors: Ahlad Neti, Elisa Arch, Martha Hall

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Studies have shown that individuals who use Ankle-Foot-Orthoses (AFOs) have a high level of dissatisfaction regarding their current AFOs. Studies point to the focus on technical design with little attention given to the user perspective as a source of AFO designs that leave users dissatisfied. To design a new AFO that satisfies users and thereby improves their quality of life, the reasons for their dissatisfaction and their wants and needs for an improved AFO design must be identified. There has been little research into the user perspective on AFO use and desired improvements, so the relationship between AFO design and satisfaction in daily use must be assessed to develop appropriate metrics and constraints prior to designing a novel AFO. To assess the user perspective on AFO design, structured interviews were conducted with 7 individuals (average age of 64.29±8.81 years) who use AFOs. All interviews were transcribed and coded to identify common themes using Grounded Theory Method in NVivo 12. Qualitative analysis of these results identified sources of user dissatisfaction such as heaviness, bulk, and uncomfortable material and overall needs and wants for an AFO. Beyond the user perspective, certain objective factors must be considered in the construction of metrics and constraints to ensure that the AFO fulfills its medical purpose. These more objective metrics are rooted in a common medical device market and technical standards. Given the large body of research concerning these standards, these objective metrics and constraints were derived through a literature review. Through these two methods, a comprehensive list of metrics and constraints accounting for both the user perspective on AFO design and the AFO’s medical purpose was compiled. These metrics and constraints will establish the framework for designing a new AFO that carries out its medical purpose while also improving the user experience. The metrics can be categorized into several overarching areas for AFO improvement. Categories of user perspective related metrics include comfort, discreteness, aesthetics, ease of use, and compatibility with clothing. Categories of medical purpose related metrics include biomechanical functionality, durability, and affordability. These metrics were used to guide an iterative prototyping process. Six concepts were ideated and compared using system-level analysis. From these six concepts, two concepts – the piano wire model and the segmented model – were selected to move forward into prototyping. Evaluation of non-functional prototypes of the piano wire and segmented models determined that the piano wire model better fulfilled the metrics by offering increased stability, longer durability, fewer points for failure, and a strong enough core component to allow a sock to cover over the AFO while maintaining the overall structure. As such, the piano wire AFO has moved forward into the functional prototyping phase, and healthy subject testing is being designed and recruited to conduct design validation and verification.

Keywords: ankle-foot orthotic, assistive technology, human centered design, medical devices

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Authors: Lin Dong, Fei Shi

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Based on the railway network and the principles of space syntax, the study attempts to reconstruct the spatial relationship of the passenger network connections from space and time perspective. According to the travel time data of main stations in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration obtained by the Internet, the topological drawing of railway network under different time sections is constructed. With the comprehensive index composed of connection and integration, the accessibility and network operation efficiency of the railway network in different time periods is calculated, while the fairness of the network is analyzed by the fairness indicators constructed with the integration and location entropy from the perspective of horizontal and vertical fairness respectively. From the analysis of the efficiency and fairness of the railway passenger transport network, the study finds: (1) There is a strong regularity in regional system accessibility change; (2) The problems of efficiency and fairness are different in different time periods; (3) The improvement of efficiency will lead to the decline of horizontal fairness to a certain extent, while from the perspective of vertical fairness, the supply-demand situation has changed smoothly with time; (4) The network connection efficiency of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions is higher than that of the western regions such as Anqing and Chizhou; (5) The marginalization of Nantong, Yancheng, Yangzhou, Taizhou is obvious. The study explores the application of spatial syntactic theory in regional traffic analysis, in order to provide a reference for the development of urban agglomeration transportation network.

Keywords: spatial syntax, the Yangtze River Delta, railway passenger time, efficiency and fairness

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Authors: Franziska Schaefer, Marlene Kuhn, Heiner Otten

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In the very near future, digitization will be the main challenge a company has to master to survive in a highly competitive market. Developing the right transformation strategy by considering all relevant aspects determines the success or failure of a company. Especially the digital focus on the customer plays a key role in creating sustainable competitive advantages, also leading to new tasks within the quality management. Therefore, quality management needs to be particularly addressed to support the upcoming digital change. In this paper, we present an analysis of existing digital transformation approaches and derive a transformation strategy from a quality management perspective. We identify and classify different transformation dimensions and assess their relevance to quality management tasks, resulting in a quality-adapted digital transformation model. Furthermore, we introduce applicable and customized quality management methods to support the presented digital transformation tasks. With our developed model we provide a digital transformation guideline from a quality perspective to master future disruptive changes.

Keywords: digital transformation, digitization, quality management, strategy

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Authors: Ivana Tadić, Željana Aljinović Barać, Nikolina Plazonić

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Living today in turbulent business environment forces companies to distinguish from each other, securing sustainable competitive growth and competitive advantage. The best possible solution is to invest (effort and financial resources) within companies’ different practices of human resource management (HRM), more specifically in employees’ knowledge, skills and abilities. Applying this approach companies will create enviable level of human capital securing its economic growth. Employees become human capital for their employers at the moment when they contribute with their own knowledge and abilities in creating material and non-material value of the company. The main aim of this research is to explore the relations between human capital investments and business excellence of Croatian companies. Furthermore, the differences in the level of human capital investments with regard to several companies’ characteristics (e.g. size of the company, ownership and type of the industry) are investigated.

Keywords: business excellence, Croatian industries, human capital investments, human resource management

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Authors: Mehmet Yahsi, Ozkan Ugurlu

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Cabin department among the stewards and cooks on ships, has an important place in terms of a sufficient and qualified nutrition of seafarers. From this perspective, ships must be employed with a sufficient number of cabin department. In this study, in order to research on the Turkish-flagged ships cook and stewards employment; Our national manning regulation compared with international regulations. The data used in this study were collected via visiting of the ships. 3000 gross tonnage and above engaged in international voyages 181 Turkish-flagged ship’s crew lists were compared with Minimum Safety Manning Certificates. According to the findings; employment rates, %95,6 cook, and %50,8 steward. According to the results of the study; Turkish-flagged ships, although it is not obliged to cook and steward, were employed on ships.

Keywords: manning, cabin department, minimum safety manning certificate, Turkish flag

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Authors: Alaa Alshehri

Abstract:

It has been thought that kinship in modernization is moving in a linear Western model; however, the literature shows that different cultures adjust to modernization by preserving its norms and values. Saudi Arabia is a young country experiencing rapid expansion from oil discovery until economic diversification. By conducting 10 interviews from different provinces of the country from the age of 27-47, these anthropological studies suggest that Saudi people adapted to modernization and globalization through unique interactions with extended families by asking the participants to give detailed descriptions of their interactions with their kinship. With almost all the participants noticing the changes within the last few years, this interaction is rooted in their religious beliefs, which they stressed, even with the free choice of life opportunities. They tried to find a balance between individuality and collectivity and connect the gap between the older and younger generations. This study adds to the anthropological debate on kinship definition and ties in modernization and provides a perspective on the social reality of one of the major Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: collectivity, economic diversification, kinship, modernization theory, individuality

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Authors: Ahmad Syauqi

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the permissibility of demonstrations against a leader's decision, policies, as well as statements against Islamic values from an Islamic point of view. Recorded at the end of 2016, a large demonstration in Jakarta involving many people, mostly from Muslim society against the former Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, was considered a form of harm to the value of harmony and the unity of religious communities in Indonesia. Hence, this paper aims to answer the question that became a tough discussion and a long debate among Indonesian Muslims after an immense demonstration known as the 212 movements, ‘how exactly Islam sees such act of demonstration?’. Is there any particular historical source in Islamic history that mention information related to demonstration? A phenomenological qualitative method was implemented throughout the process of this research to study the perspective of various Muslims scholars by reviewing, and comparing their opinions through the classical source of Islamic history and Hadith literature. One of the main roots of this extensive debate is due to the extremist group, which bans all forms of demonstration, assuming that such acts had come from the West and unknown culture in the Islamic history. In addition, they also claim that all the demonstrators are Bughat. While some other groups, freely declare that demonstration can be done anytime and anywhere, without specific terms and regulations associated. The findings of this research illustrate that the protests which we now know of today, in terms of demonstration had existed since ancient times, even from the time of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This paper reveals that there is a strong evidence that demonstration is justified in Islamic law and has a historical root. This can, therefore, be a proposition of such permissibility. However, there are still a number of things one has to be aware of when it comes to the demonstration, and clearly, not all demonstrations are legal from the Islamic perspective.

Keywords: Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, demonstration, Muslim scholars, protest

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Authors: H. Emari, Z. Emari

Abstract:

The main objective of this research was to determine the dimensions of service quality in the banking industry of Iran. For this purpose, the study empirically examined the European perspective suggesting that service quality consists of three dimensions, technical, functional and image. This research is an applied research and its strategy is casual strategy. A standard questionnaire was used for collecting the data. 287 customers of Melli Bank of Northwest were selected through cluster sampling and were studied. The results from a banking service sample revealed that the overall service quality is influenced more by a consumer’s perception of technical quality than functional quality. Accordingly, the Gronroos model is a more appropriate representation of service quality than the American perspective with its limited concentration on the dimension of functional quality in the banking industry of Iran. So, knowing the key dimensions of the quality of services in this industry and planning for their improvement can increase the satisfaction of customers and productivity of this industry.

Keywords: technical quality, functional quality, banking, image, mediating role

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