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Monitoring urban sprawl is a controversial topic among scholars. Many studies have tried to employ various methods for monitoring urban sprawl in cases of North American and Northern and Western European cities. Although numerous methods have been applied with great success in various developed countries, they are predominantly impractical for cases of developing Mediterranean European cities that lack reliable census data. Besides, the complexity of the methods made them difficult to perform in underfunded situations. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new multidimensional method that researchers and planners can apply readily in developing Mediterranean European cities. The new method was tested in the Famagusta region of Northern Cyprus, which has been experiencing unplanned growth for the past half-century. In support of this proposal, a detailed review of the existing literature is presented with an emphasis on urban sprawl characteristics. Four characteristics were chosen to monitor urban sprawl’s development in the Famagusta region. The method was structured based on a time-series (2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016) dataset that used remote sensing data and geographical information systems to monitor the urban sprawl. Based on the findings, the Famagusta region experienced rapid growth during the last 15 years. The lack of a masterplan resulted in the uncontrolled expansion of the city in the exurban areas. The development configuration was polycentric and linear in form with single-use composition. Together, the expansion and configuration manifested as more built-up area, scattered development, and increased automobile dependency.

We examine how interlocking directorates influence innovation performance differentials between firms. Our study offers a new perspective of the effect of interlocking directorate ties upon innovation performance, focusing on network effects on interfirm performance. Using a sample of China’s listed companies for the period 2012–2016, we empirically examined the relationship between board interlocks and interfirm innovation performance differentials. The results demonstrate that the presence of board interlocks reduces interfirm innovation performance differentials and leads to a convergence of innovation performance between the connected companies. Furthermore, cross-level analysis found that the relationship between board interlocks and interfirm innovation performance differentials is moderated by the interfirm industry attributes and demographic characteristics of the board. This study expands the existing research in explaining the driving mechanism of enterprise innovation performance as affected by interlocking directorate ties.

We explored the contribution and effectiveness of state and non-state institutions in rural development efforts in highlands (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KPK] province) of Pakistan. This study employed mixed-methods research design and data were collected from 300 household heads, randomly selected from six villages from two purposively selected districts Mansehra and Nowshehra. Findings showed people in KPK were deprived of due to conflicts, conspiracies and terrorism, poor governance, small landholdings and subsistence farming followed by sluggish marketing system, insufficient education and training for people, and inadequate employment opportunities. Regarding contribution, non-state institutions had more contribution as compared to state institutions. T-test analysis showed that the non-state institutions had an effective provision of agricultural extension and forestry advisory services, education, health services in remote areas, skill development, and provision of microcredit schemes. The results of F-test statistics showed highly significant difference among the perceived effectiveness of rural development activities of different types of non-state actors (localite, cosmopolite, and religious/faith-based) working in the research area. This study recommends state-owned rural development departments revisit their working mechanism and develop synergistic working relationship with the non-state institutions in discharging rural development efforts.

Cross-border venture capitals (CBVCs) are increasingly prevailing in recent decades, inter alia in emerging markets like China. The venture capital (VC) firms investing outside their home countries are faced with foreignness which is broadly regarded as liability. The primary aim of this article is to contribute to our understanding how foreignness affects VC’s strategy when entering emerging markets, particularly with respect to the foreignness originated from cultural distance. The data consist of over 5,000 CBVC deals taking place in China mainland from 1988 to 2016. Our empirical study shows that, with foreignness growing, it turns from liability into advantage in the context of CBVCs. We find an inverse U-shape relationship between foreignness and syndication, with VC firm’s reputation as the moderator. Besides, foreign VC firms establish local subsidiary when faced with foreignness, which serves as alternative to syndication. The key contribution of this article is that foreignness turns from liability into advantage in emerging markets, which exerts a curvilinear impact on the entry strategy of VC firms. This study advances the knowledge of foreignness and VC strategy, and sheds new light on entrepreneurial activities in emerging markets.

In developing world, most decisions by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to adopt social media marketing technology (SMMT) rely heavily on study findings from the Western World without much recourse to cross-context differences in structure and managerial capabilities. Thus, the lack of inquiries that provide complete guideline on the adoption of SMMT in developing economies hinders the development of integrated framework(s) that explains MSMEs’ successful adoption. The study used technology–organization–environment (T-O-E) framework as the theoretical basis to examine the critical factors that stimulate MSMEs adoption of SMMT in Nigeria. The adopted methodological choice was qualitative, involving interviews with 20 participants selected from the online directories via purposive and snowball sampling techniques. However, thematic analysis was the data treatment technique; and the study extended the T-O-E framework to provide an understanding into the dominant factors that specifically influence MSMEs’ adoption, without losing sight of vendors who would rely on the extended framework to get audiences continually satisfied.

University education in different countries, including Yemen, has the burden of providing the proper supply that meets the job market demands, including information technology (IT). In the accounting education context, the qualification of students to the job market regarding IT is still one of the notable issues that seem to have been overlooked in many of the curricula of most universities. This study utilizes the Yemeni context to identify and evaluate the current status of accounting education at Yemeni universities. It mainly focuses on (a) whether the current accounting curriculum meets the job market demands regarding IT and (b) whether the inclusion of relevant IT in the accounting curriculum meets the job market demands. To achieve this, the current accounting curriculum of Yemeni universities was analyzed, and a questionnaire survey was administrated to a large sample of practitioners and newly graduated students. The study provides evidence that the current university accounting curriculum is not in line with market expectations regarding IT due to the full focus on theoretical aspects. The study further confirms that the inclusion of relevant IT in the accounting curriculum could meet the job market demands of IT. The questions related to relevant IT subjects desired in practitioners and newly graduated students showed that general computer skills (e.g., Windows, internet, spreadsheets) were the most desired followed by accounting software, Excel software applications in accounting, E-commerce, and communications software (e.g., Outlook), respectively. The study findings have implications for Yemeni professional accounting bodies, accounting instructors and students, and researchers.

This study investigated how employees’ information technology (IT) competency is associated with employee agility via perceived task structure. Most scholar’s emphasis is on the impact of IT competency on individual work performance; however, it seems as if no attention has been given to explore the relationship between IT competency on employee’s agility through perceived task structure. This research offers and tests a new comprehensive model that links the individual’s IT competency with perceived task structure and employee agility. Data were gathered from 167 representatives who used various IT applications for daily work routines in the organization. Findings showed that IT competency is positively related to task interdependence and autonomy. Task autonomy also has significant effect on employee agility; however, task interdependence has shown insignificant effect on employee agility. Furthermore, work expertise positively moderates the relationship between IT competency and perceived task structure. Theoretical and managerial implications of study are also discussed in the last section.

Although many studies have investigated writing apprehension among students of different education levels during the last decades, several of its aspects have remained uninvestigated in different contexts. One of these contexts is North Cyprus. For this reason, this study aimed to measure the level of writing apprehension experienced by English as a foreign language (EFL) postgraduate students at this particular context when writing in English. The study also tried to explain whether variables such as age, gender, academic level, and socioeconomic status were correlated with writing apprehension. To achieve these aims, the researchers adopted Daly and Miller’s questionnaire called Writing Apprehension Test. A total of 37 EFL postgraduate students belonging to different ages, genders, academic levels, and socioeconomic statuses took part in the study. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS program to reveal whether there was a significant correlation between the aforementioned variables. Mean scores, standard deviations, Pearson correlation, frequencies, and percentages were employed to reveal the results. The study demonstrated that, though almost nearly half of the students were highly apprehensive, the majority of them experienced a moderate level of apprehension when writing in English and the relationship between writing apprehension levels and the variables was not statistically significant, that is, the results showed that age, gender, academic level, and socioeconomic status did not have any influence on writing apprehension.

The contemporary integration policies (Community Cohesion Agenda [CCA]) of the United Kingdom have been criticized for their foundational weaknesses, conceptual inadequacies, myopic views with regard to the complexity of the issue, lack of evidence, and so on. Vast majority of the studies conducted to verify this discourse have been done in the line of theoretical arguments of diversity management rather than exploring their connections to a target community in reality. This study aims at establishing a linkage between the growing theoretical arguments of the integration discourse with empirical data in light of the policy framework of the CCA. We have selected the fastest growing Bangladeshi community of the CCA-adapted Aston City of Birmingham as the representative group of the ethnic minority communities of the United Kingdom. Qualitative data collection approach has been followed, where primary in-depth interviews were conducted on various policy actors, social workers, faith leaders, and Bangladeshi residents of Aston. The entire policy instrument, starting from its broad purposes to operational strategies, has been severely challenged by both residents of the community and relevant policy-implementing bodies in Aston. CCA policies appear to be largely inclined toward the interculturalism/communitarianism ideology rather than to multiculturalism. However, the empirical evidence shows that the need for multiculturalism, to be more specific—Bristol School of Multiculturalism, as a political theory remains in the integration discourse in the context of the United Kingdom. Findings are expected to have implications on practitioners and policy makers in designing diversity management policy instruments by having a wider synthesized view on both theoretical argument and empirical data.

Using data from 450 public sector faculty members, a job demand–resource model of antecedents of satisfaction with work–family balance (balance satisfaction) was tested using PLS SEM. To understand the factors and processes that shape up balance satisfaction, the mediating variables in the model were psychological capital, work-to-family conflict, and work-to-family enrichment. Hypothesized partial mediation model was a better fit when we added cross-over paths between job demands and work-to-family enrichment and between job resources and work-to-family conflict. Job demands had both direct effect as well as an indirect effect on balance satisfaction via work-to-family conflict and work-to-family enrichment but not via psychological capital as a single mediator or one of the two serial mediators. Job resources had a direct effect and an indirect effect on balance satisfaction via work-to-family enrichment and work-to-family conflict and psychological capital. However, cross-over indirect effect was lower than differential salient hypothesized relationships. Importance performance analysis revealed work-to-family enrichment, job demands, psychological capital, and job resources as the most important predictors of balance satisfaction, work-to-family conflict, work-to-family enrichment, and psychological capital, respectively. The study found the importance of psychological capital as a developable personality resource along with contextual factors in shaping work–family outcomes. Several implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

In this article, we argue that sick leave and its management within the university involves exchanges of moral capital. The circulation of moral capital supports a moral economy, in turn underpinning the political economy of the corporate university. The forms of moral capital are diverse, sometimes easily recognized as such, more often hidden in plain sight. Like other forms of capital, moral capital can be accrued, depleted, and exchanged as it is paid forward. The exchanges between employers and employees within this moral economy represent trading of moral capital over and above contractual exchanges of income and other benefits for labor. Sick leave transactions illustrate the many forms this moral capital can take: values and principles, entitlements and accruals of sick leave, bureaucratic compliance, discretion, vulnerability and deservingness, employment history, and work ethic.

This case study investigates two Chinese children’s shared reading experiences in both home and preschool contexts. The parents and the educators were interviewed about their general attitudes and practices relating to shared reading for promoting the Chinese children’s bilingual development. Detailed observations were undertaken to record the parents and the educators’ interactions with the children during shared reading. The language use of the parents and the educators was analyzed with systemic functional linguistic theories. The findings demonstrate significant differences between the two cases, although the two children shared the same cultural and language learning background. The educators played a critical role in shaping the children’s shared reading experiences in the preschool and the nature of educator–parent cooperation. The mothers provided rich language learning opportunities for their children through active interactions in shared reading; however, the positive home learning experiences could not contribute to the children’s language learning in their preschools without effective educator–parent cooperation. This study suggests there are significant opportunities and strategies for the parents and the educators to capitalize on the educational functions of shared reading for facilitating Chinese children’s bilingual development based on mutual understanding and close cooperation.

The degree of accessibility significantly influences regional tourism flow and the performance of the global tourism industry. However, the tourism industry itself comprises many sectors, and accessibility measurements may not comprehensively incorporate the simultaneous accessibility of corresponding destinations. Moreover, perspectives are still lacking in the analysis of tourism origin countries. Therefore, this study provides a new approach based on network data envelopment analysis and social network analysis to identify potential opportunities among origin countries for accessibility to a given tourism destination. This study focuses on Taiwan as a tourism destination and measures the efficiency of 32 of its acknowledged tourism origin countries. The main finding is that the involvement of tourism intermediaries (such as tour operators and travel agents) is a key factor influencing most tourism origin countries’ performance. However, tourists make the largest contribution to shared output (i.e., tourism expenditures) for most tourism origin countries. Given the expanding knowledge of tourism management, understanding the accessibility of a destination can help destination managers and governments identify tourism opportunities and execute appropriate strategies.

This systematic literature review is designed to evaluate the current state of knowledge in rural homestays and tourism academic literature. With reference to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart, we reviewed 94 studies published in the selected journals from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020. Our review explores how sustainable rural homestays have been previously researched in terms of the context, topic, sample, method, geographical location, and theoretical framework. The review provides insights on sustainability and rural homestay tourism from the perspective of co-occurrence beside highlighting the valuable content addressed by authors and suggesting future research directions. In a sustainable rural tourism context, only 51% of the reviewed studies had considered homestay as the core and independent area of inquiry. This review notes an increasing number of researchers from developing countries are working on community-based rural homestays, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Unfortunately, important topics—like homestay branding, homestay and entrepreneurship, homestays and information and communication technology (ICT) competency, homestay operator’s training and development about sustainability—are rarely addressed in the existing literature.

Ε-petitions, the digital version of printed petitions, are increasingly being used as complimentary means of nonconfrontational, online citizen mobilization/protest. They attract considerable research interest because they provide (big) data to study e-petitioning and the political and other aspects of socio-spatial issues. E-petition studies lack discussion of ontology, of “what is an e-petition,” implicitly treating e-petitions as “systems-as-a-whole” or, seldom, as relational formations. Acknowledging the foundational role of ontology, Assemblage Thinking (AT) is argued to beget a more judicious approach when e-petitions are employed as research instruments to study the “who-what-when-where-and-how” of a socio-spatial issue and, concurrently, their situated contribution to issue-related decision-making. After presenting the reductionist/essentialist and the nonreductionist/relational approaches to the study of e-petitions and introducing ΑΤ, an assemblage-based framework is proposed that conceptualizes e-petitions as multiplicities comprising assemblages, dynamic compositions emerging from processes of heterogeneous components coming together to serve a purpose. A concomitant methodology is outlined and an illustrative example is offered. The advantages of assemblage-based over reductionist/essentialist approaches for the situated co-analysis of socio-spatial issues and e-petitions are discussed, indicating how they address prominent concerns of the literature, and future research directions are suggested.

Historically, academic inquiry regarding student mobility was conceptualized within an East-to-West paradigm. However, the number of Americans studying in Thailand increases annually. The United States and Thailand differ in terms of academic culture and sociocultural norms. As such, the visiting American students encounter a variety of academic and cultural adjustment issues. This qualitative study focuses on identifying and examining various cultural adjustment barriers that American students face when studying at a Thai university. The aim of this article is to identify the major cultural adjustment issues. Face-to-face in-depth interviews with 22 Americans were audio recorded and thematically analyzed. This case study of participants at a major international college in Thailand identified five primary themes: (a) The “ Farang” Bubble, (b) Language Barriers, (c) Traveling Within the Region, (d) University Life, and (e) Local Transportation. Specific recommendations regarding how universities and study abroad companies can provide better services to facilitate cultural adjustment and overall student experience as well as which additional services are needed are addressed.

This article selects A-share state-owned listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2007 to 2018 as samples and uses OLS together with intermediary effect tests to study the impact of state-owned enterprise’ (SOEs) policy burdens on credit resources and their allocation efficiency. The research finds that the heavier the policy burden SOEs assume, the more credit resources they obtained. However, they are also more likely to make inefficient investments after obtaining the credit resources, and these credit resources have a negative effect on the value of the SOEs which bear the policy burden. These negative impacts are more significant in SOEs with low degree of marketization in the region, low level of government control, and low information transparency. The path analysis elaborates that the policy burden of SOEs reduces the efficiency of resource allocation by increasing management agency costs and reducing financing constraints. The conclusions enrich the understanding of the consequences of policy burdens under the background of Chinese system, further broaden the analytical framework of the efficiency of credit resource allocation, and unveil the importance of relevant government departments that can optimize the efficiency of credit resource allocation.

This research uses satellite remote sensing data to measure the urban spatial form and analyzes the impact of changes to urban spatial structure on the income gap between urban and rural residents. The results indicate that the compactness of the urban spatial form is positively correlated with the income gap between urban and rural residents. However, there is no statistically significant relationship between the urban spatial extension rate and the urban–rural income gap. A subsequent analysis of the control variables shows that fiscal policy is positively correlated while urbanization is negatively correlated with the income gap between urban and rural residents. These conclusions provide the basis for formulating policies to narrow the urban–rural income gap. Appropriately reducing the spatial compactness of cities can narrow the income gap. In addition, changing excessive preferences for urban fiscal policy and increasing the level of urbanization can also promote a reduction in the income gap between urban and rural residents.

Since MTB has been deemed as the business model of 21st century but its long-term sustainability depends on level of consumer satisfaction with its applicability in their everyday life. Therefore, current research aims to highlight factors which could shape consumers’ satisfaction and further trigger their intuition to recommend it in their circle of influence. Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (utaut2) was modified and extended to fit the purpose. Data were collected from prevailing MTB users and analyzed in PLS-SEM. Results reveal that utaut2 factors signify their effects on consumer satisfaction which further trigger their instinct to recommend MTB. Current research modified utaut2 with mediating role of consumer satisfaction with MTB which further stimulates their instinct to recommend it. The modified framework adds value to the theoretical horizon of utaut2 and further extends its applicability in a novel setting like MTB. The study offers insightful implications to MTB companies for effective design and implementation of future strategies. Moreover, limitations and suggestions for future researchers are also discussed.

Textbooks are an important source of knowledge input on which the transmission of academic knowledge often relies, especially in the early stages of academic learning. Adopting a corpus-based approach, this study evaluates the text difficulty of science textbooks used in secondary English-medium instruction schools in Hong Kong, with a focus on their lexical coverage and readability. It compares the English language used in English-medium science textbooks with that in English as a foreign language textbooks. The analysis reveals that the text difficulty of the English-medium science textbooks is inappropriate in terms of the coverage of academic words and the readability level. The results also show that the coverage of words from the Academic Word List (AWL) and the General Service List (GSL) as well as the text readability levels, vary across scientific topics. These findings will inform textbook design and the development of pedagogical strategies to facilitate students’ learning of subject content in the medium of English.

This study aims to examine whether competent members produce good performance from the social identity theory perspective. Specifically, it investigates the moderating effect of perceived team performance and group cohesiveness in the competency–performance relationship. Data from 427 employees with multi-source at a manufacturing company were used for a hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that competency has a positive effect on the individual performance, and competent individuals with a highly perceived team performance tend to demonstrate better performance. Unlike the results of the perceived team performance, group cohesiveness has a negative interactive effect with competency regarding performance.

This article examines venture capital composite impact on innovation. For this purpose, we made venture capital index using principal component analysis methodology to test the composite impact of venture capital impact on innovation. We constructed our sample of 41 countries on the basis of venture capital fundraising from 2006 to 2016. First, we empirically tested index individual component, for which we used ordinary least square regression with robust standard error. In the second stage, we made VC index using principal component analysis methodology to analyze the composite effect of VC on patents generation. Empirical results show strong significant venture capital investment impact on patents generations. Overall, our findings suggest that venture capital investment significantly spur innovation, when we analyzed the individual factors of the index as well as compositely. These results encourage governments and policy makers to promote innovation through facilitating venture capital investment which provide an alternative source of finance to startups which find hard to raise fund in conventional fund market. This also suggest that policy maker should consider the composite effect of the venture capital in an economy to robustly encourage innovation.

This study explored oncologists’ compassion fatigue in their practice with cancer patients and families. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted. A purposeful sample of nine oncologists was recruited from three hospitals in Korea. We used a hybrid of the theory-driven deductive approach and data-driven inductive approach based on the transactional model of physician compassion. Oncologists shared contexts from which their compassion fatigue stems based on four categories: physician factors, clinical factors, patient and family factors, and environmental and institutional factors. Given the nature of their job, oncologists should receive interventions that improve resilience and reduce compassion fatigue. We suggest interventions that promote appropriate levels of compassion and reduce interfering barriers.

This paper explores factors associated with intergenerational differences in home-based acculturation (HBA) and the attitude of Chinese college students and their parents toward intercultural marriage with a focus on China’s cultural context where parents have a strong influence on child’s decisions. In two related studies, we recruited a total of 749 Chinese college students and parents (387 in Study 1 and 362 in Study 2; all are living in China) to participate in the survey. The results indicate that (a) online intercultural contact is positively associated with HBA; (b) HBA is a strong predictor of attitude of intercultural marriages by Chinese parents and college students and the socioeconomic status has a divergent effect on the two groups; and (c) Chinese college students and parents differ in terms of their HBA and online intercultural contact. Findings from the research add knowledge to our understanding of the impact of globalization and digitalization on acculturation and Chinese residents’ perspectives on intercultural marriage.

This study aims to identify the tourists’ expectation and satisfaction of destination attributes from the perspective of senior tourists in Malaysia. Two groups of tourists were chosen as the study sample, that is, future seniors (40–54 years old) and seniors (55 years old and above). It is hoped that, through recognizing and raising awareness on the need for equal traveling opportunities, senior tourists and future senior tourists will be encouraged to undertake more tourism activities. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) and paired sample t tests were employed to investigate senior tourists’ perceptions of senior-friendly destination attributes. Measures of destination attributes included the “4As” (i.e., attractions, accessibility, amenities, and ancillary services). The findings from a survey of 227 respondents revealed that the most important attributes for a senior-friendly destination are safety and cleanliness. Other attributes deemed important by senior tourists include the availability of leisure facilities and barrier-free public transportation. The findings also highlight attributes that tourism industry practitioners may use to improve tourists’ satisfaction and develop into competitive advantages against other tourist destinations. Both theoretical and practical implications of these important findings are discussed.

The aim of this article was to propose a framework based on the theory of self-congruity and on Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance. The framework was to combine destination personality, self-congruity, uncertainty avoidance, and tourists’ revisit intention. The present conceptual paper proposed an integrated model of self-congruity which incorporates the effect of uncertainty avoidance. More importantly, the uncertainty avoidance was introduced as a moderator between self-congruity and revisit intention. Based on the theoretical framework proposed in this article, the estimated results affirmed the applicability of the theory of self-congruity for tourism research. Moreover, by extending the theoretical model through the incorporation of a variable of uncertainty avoidance in the context of tourism, this article offers a significant contribution to the tourism literature. It is important to understand how the theory of self-congruity applies across a broad cultural spectrum. This article also offers several implications for destination marketing organizations from a practical perspective.

This study examines the language practices in educational settings in Pakistan, taking the multilingual groupings in society into account. In Pakistan, each province is linked to the single or multiple identities of its people and the languages spoken by the majority. The national language Urdu is limited to educational settings and its function as a lingua franca. English serves people in authority, in offices, and in educational settings. Through discourse-ethnographic analysis, this study examines the individual and joint actions of policymakers and teachers to understand the role of language in educational policy and its practice in educational settings. The interview data identified issues regarding the relationship between language, identity, nation, region, religion, power, and personal attainment in regional, national, and international settings. Moreover, the power of national education policy to produce adequate results is limited by the regional discourses that policymakers ignore. This study concludes by arguing that policy practices for language-in-education in multilingual societies require thoughtful planning which should be informed by local conditions and requirements for its better implementation.

This study aims to examine the mediating effect of job crafting on the relationship between job autonomy and career commitment, as well as the moderating effect sense of calling has on job crafting and career commitment. The data for this three-wave study were collected from 350 R&D engineers at 25 high-tech companies in Guangdong Province, China. The PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to analyze the proposed hypotheses. The results revealed that (a) job crafting mediates the positive relationship between job autonomy and career commitment and (b) sense of calling moderates the indirect effect of job autonomy and career commitment through job crafting, such that the indirect effect is stronger in people with higher sense of calling than those with lower sense of calling. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Leadership style impacts on the manner and frequency of feedback transmission. However, communication challenges between superiors and subordinates originate from cultural differences, which undermine the usefulness of feedback. The study tested leadership style’s effect on self-efficacy through a moderated mediation approach, examined through the lens of the cross-cultural adaptation theory. Path analysis conducted on data from 281 foreign teachers in Chengdu, China, revealed that there is a positive effect of Chinese supervisors’ leadership styles on foreign teacher’s self-efficacy. Leadership style similarly has an influence on the nature of feedback. And the nature of feedback in turn mediates leadership style and self-efficacy. We establish in particular that transactional and transformational leadership styles, through the nature of feedback, influence self-efficacy of foreign teachers. Moreover, the association between the nature of feedback and self-efficacy is moderated by the perceived value of feedback. Employees’ perceptions are also found to be crucial in determining the value of feedback. It is thus imperative for supervisors and managers working with foreigners as subordinates to figure out when and how to provide valuable feedback. We conclude with suggested areas for further research.

There is a considerable amount of research on the effect of income on happiness, but only a limited number of studies have considered how the spending of income works out on one’s happiness. In this article, we take stock of the scattered findings on the relation between consumption and happiness. We cover 379 research findings observed in 99 empirical studies. We use a new method of research synthesis, in which research findings are first described in a comparable format and then entered in an online “findings archive” (World Database of Happiness). This technique allows a condensed presentation of the many research findings, while providing readers access to the full results through hyperlinks from the text. Our systematic review reveals some unexpected findings, but does not provide a conclusive answer to the question of what patterns of consumption provide the most happiness for what type of people. Suggestions for further research are provided.

Stimulated by the uses-and-gratification approach, this study examined the joint relation of several consumer characteristics to news interest. In total, 1,546 German-speaking participants rated their interest in 15 major news categories and several personal characteristics, including gender, age, the Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, as well as general positive and negative affect. Regression analyses examined the amount of interindividual variance in news interest that can be explained by this set of consumer characteristics. Overall, the amount of explained variance differed remarkably across news categories, ranging from 4% for entertainment-related news to 25% for news about technology. The most powerful explaining variables were participants’ gender, age, openness to experiences, and their amount of general positive affect. The results suggest that news interest should be defined and operationalized as a concept with multiple facets covering a huge range of content. Also, the results are important for media producers and journalists with respect to the conflict between increased need gratification of consumers and information filtering via personalized news content.

The present study has concentrated on online crisis response strategies that stimulate online purchase and the acceptance of online purchase intention (OPI) in the marketplace. However, few studies have examined the online crisis response strategies undertaken to alleviate the online crisis. Therefore, on the basis of the Stimulus Organism Response framework and online crisis response strategies, this study offered and tested a model that inspected the effect of online crisis response strategies on OPI through online brand attitude (OBA). Brand perceived usefulness (BPU) was observed as a borderline condition between OBA and OPI. We recruited 392 working professionals undertaking the Master of Business Administration program at a large public university in China. The results suggest that OBA mediates the association between online crisis response strategies and OPI. Similarly, BPU moderates the association between OBA and OPI. The responses with high BPU maximize the effect of online crisis response strategies on OBA. On the basis of the study outcomes, contributions to theory and practice, limitations, and future guidelines are well discussed.

We strived to examine the combined effects of drivers and consequences of customers’ satisfaction particularly in quick-meal restaurants besides examining the interaction effect of social trust on the association between customers’ satisfaction and brand loyalty. Offline survey was conducted to approach the respondents of fast-food visitors. The valid data were assessed and analyzed through structural equation modeling and moderation step-by-step approach. The findings demonstrate that restaurant stimuli—food, service, atmosphere, location, price, and a variety of food—have robust effects on customers’ satisfaction and eventually on brand loyalty. Social trust has rigorous effect on the association between customers’ satisfaction and brand loyalty. Customers with high social trust have a positive strong bonding with restaurants than those holding low social trust. Theoretical and practical implications have been deliberated and offer some valuable recommendations along for future scholars.

This study discusses the fulfillment of value forms by examining the virtue of school leadership. The virtue of school leadership stresses character traits in leaders that focus on the pursuit of excellence, appear as a value form, comprise paths to fulfilling values, reinforce leaders’ positive motivation, and foster reform in schools. To investigate this phenomenon, a qualitative method was adopted to interview 18 leaders from schools in northern Taiwan. The analysis of the findings suggests that staff who exhibit the virtue of school leadership focus on leading by example, satisfying others, surmounting failures, and adhering to ideals, which involve three paths to fulfilling value forms.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has set Vision 2030 to reduce the total dependency of the country oil sectors, diversifying the economy and achieving sustainable food security. This necessitated conducting this study which aimed at estimating and analyzing the association and impact of selected agricultural subsectors (dates, honey, fish, chicken, and cattle) on Agricultural Growth Domestic Product (AGDP) of KSA, and identifying the leading subsector in the economy that might substantially affect AGDP and other subsectors. Unit root test, Johansen co-integration, vector error correction model (VECM), multiple regression techniques, and impulse test were used in analyzing the secondary data that covered the period from 1985 to 2017. Results revealed the presence of long-run co-integration between designated variables. Only the coefficient of adjustment parameter for dates (as dependent variable) is negative (−5.42) and significant (critical t value = −2.52 with p = .02), meaning that the model was able to correct its past-time disequilibrium. Furthermore, short-run causality was noticed between few variables. The regression analysis results indicated the existence of positive and significant relationships between the dependent (AGDP) and each of the independent variables: cattle (0.83; p = .00), honey (50.05; p = .06), and chicken (0.07; p = .00). On the contrary, results of the impulse tests showed that the cattle subsector is leading in the economy. Accordingly, cattle, honey, and chicken subsectors should be given high priority in the government investment policy.

The present study explores the impact of the age-diverse workforce (young and old employees) on organization’s performance (financial and non-financial) and how job crafting mediates the relationship between age-diverse workforce and organization’s performance. By following the administrative survey approach, a total of 450 questionnaires were distributed to the employees of the Pakistan Post Office; however, 288 properly filled questionnaires (64%) were received back. The partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for data analyses. The outcomes of this study explain that there is a significant relationship between both age groups of employees (young and old) and an organization’s financial and non-financial performance. In addition, job craft partially mediates the relationship between young-age employees and organization’s financial and non-financial performance. However, job crafting fails to mediate the association between old-age employees and organization’s financial and non-financial performance. Implications, limitations, and future direction are discussed in the last sections of this study.

This study aims to build and examine a model of sustainable supply management (SSM) practices and sustainability performance (SP) from a dynamic capability perspective. More precisely, this article examines whether SSM practices have an affect on SP, and this relation is mediated by supply chain risk management (SCRM) and network capability (NC), and moderated by firm size. We collected data from 436 supply management professionals through a survey instrument from six manufacturing and logistics companies in China. The hypothesized direct and indirect linkages were tested through structural equation modeling. Our findings highlight that SSM practices positively affect SCRM, NC, and SP. The link between SSM practices and SP is mediated by SCRM and NC. The results indicate that firm size moderate the hypothesized relationships differentially based on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) versus large enterprises. Our study is novel in establishing empirically how SSM practices influence SP as an integrative model bringing together firm size, SCRM, and NC. Our empirical results have critical implications for both supply chain management literature and supply management professionals.

Arab intra-regional trade in agro-food accounts for more than half of the total Arab agro-food trade, displaying strong “trade-intensity” over the past decade. This indicates the potential of developing agro-food regional production networks aligning with the region’s comparative advantage in agro-food products. However, intermediates trade, as an indicator of value chain integration, has been low and sluggish due to various structural and policy factors. This article aims to analyze the determinants of trade in agro-food intermediates in the Arab region, focusing on the role and significance of regional trade arrangements and trade facilitation. The Broad Economic Category (BEC) classification is used to categorize goods into intermediate and final goods. Our analysis, using the gravity model, shows that regional trade arrangements in their current form do not significantly affect regional trade (except in the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC]). We also reveal that timeliness in export delivery is an important determinant of trade in agro-food intermediates. Thus, Arab countries should simplify their customs clearance procedures and engage in a deeper form of regional integration to help build trade corridors and enhance regional value-added chains (RVCs).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the personal, interpersonal, and organizational factors associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention behavior among office workers using an ecological model. A total of 221 office workers working in areas such as personnel, design, and accounting, and who work in offices, completed the survey. Health Perception Questionnaire, General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) Scale, the Korean Occupational Stress Scale–Short Form (KOSS-SF), and Social Environment Influencing Health form were used to measure each factor. Health perception (β = .207, p = .003), family support (β = .185, p = .005), and organizational health culture (β = .175, p = .012) were found to have a significant association with the CVD prevention behaviors of office workers. Comprehensive and multidimensional intervention is essential to enhance the CVD prevention behaviors of office workers. This study informs the development of a workplace-based intervention program to prevent CVD among office workers.

A bidimensional (cognitive-emotional) novel survey, the Emotional and Cognitive Scale of the Human-Nature Relationship (ECS-HNR), was designed and validated to measure Ecological Awareness (EAW) and Ecological Affectiveness (EAF) as vital aspects of the human-nature relationship. Data were collected in Chile between July and October 2019 from 474 participants ranging between 6 and 85 years old, using the snowball sampling technique. To examine the properties of the ECS-HNR we analyzed the results in terms of its content validity, reliability, factor structure, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The ECS-HNR comprises 24 items divided into two subscales with three subscales each (EAF: Empathy, Enjoyment, and Connectedness; EAW: Understanding, Appreciation, and Perception). The results demonstrated that the ECS-HNR is a reliable instrument, as items (the two scales and their subscales) exhibited an acceptable internal consistency. Our findings demonstrate that the ECS-HNR allows the integration of both dimensions of the human–nature relationship and is appropriate to evaluate attitudes and feelings toward nature. Fil: Mundaca, Enrique A. Universidad Católica del Maule; Chile. Fil: Lazzaro-Salazar, Mariana. Universidad Católica del Maule. Vicerrectoría de Investigación y Postgrado; Chile. Fil: Pujol-Cols, Lucas J. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina. Fil: Muñoz-Quezada, María Teresa. Universidad Católica del Maule; Chile.

The study examined the relationship between language use and perception of group processes. In an experiment, participants discussed their views about climate change in a group chat. Afterward, participants ( n = 239) filled out their perception of themselves and group processes. Participants who perceived more similarity among group members used less complex language (cognitive processes language) and more assenting language. As participants felt more knowledgeable and credible about the topic, their use of “we” pronouns and word count increased and use of “I” pronouns decreased. Replicating past research, participants with more extreme opinions used more “you” pronouns, and participants who reported engaging in more perspective-taking used more complex language and “we” pronouns. Results are integrated within an input–process–output model of group processes and suggest that language is reflective of individual inputs and perception of group processes.

The combination of live-streaming technology and tourism is an important development in the evolution of tourism experiences. Research on live-streaming tourism is becoming popular, but empirical studies on the relationship between live streaming and travel intention remain underexplored. The aim of this article is to determine whether live streaming has an impact on travel intention. This article collects 614 questionnaires and uses structural equation models (SEMs) to test the relevant hypotheses. This study makes some contributions to the literature on live-streaming tourism. First, it explains the relationship between live streaming and travel intention from the perspective of social presence: The presence of a destination image, the presence of an interaction, and the presence of production can effectively improve people’s trust and, in return, influence their travel intention. Second, this article verifies the role of trust in tourism management. This article is one of the earliest studies on the relationship between live streaming and travel intention, which has significance for the development of tourism management–related theories and practical management.

The aim of this study was to adapt the Turkish version of the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Questionnaire in a sample of Turkey. Study I was conducted to prove the reliability and validity of the results obtained as a result of the adaptation of the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures (ECR-RS) Questionnaire to Turkish culture. The study showed that the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Questionnaire and its subscales were reliable and valid. The study showed that the ECR-RS subscales correlated with the Relationship Questionnaire, the Relationship Styles Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Subscale, the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale, the Contact with parents and the Relationship experience, denoting content validity of the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Questionnaire. According to the research results, the Experiences in Close Relationships–Relationship Structures Questionnaire are a reliable and valid measurement tool that can be used for the purpose of evaluating attachment representation in Turkish culture. In addition, this study provides attachment researchers with a basis for reviewing the assumption that dimensional models overlap with categorical models. It is suggested that The Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures Questionnaire be adapted to different relationship structures (e.g., therapist, god, ideological groups), retested on different age groups and its relationship with personality traits and psychological problems be investigated.

This article aims to review how existing instruments to measure stigma affecting people who use drugs have been developed, which domains of stigma are measured, as well as metrics used to validate these instruments. Using the Whittemore and Knafl’s process for conducting an integrative review, six studies published between January 2002 and April 2019 were systematically analyzed. Overall, all the studies included had good methodological qualities. The results showed that the instruments measured one or more domain of stigma. However, most of these studies use already pre-validated instrument to measure stigma in mental health and adapt to fit the people who use drugs context. Based on the findings we therefore recommend that more studies exploring the experience of people who use drugs regarding stigma, and the perceptions of service provides rendering care to people who use drugs should be undertaken to develop relevant and context-specific stigma instruments.

Exposure to risk may be seen as one of the many dimensions of poverty. Household exposure to risk consequent upon different types of shocks often leads to undesirable welfare outcomes. A shock can push an already income-poor household further into poverty or drive a non-poor household below the income poverty line. Risk appears to be one of the major challenges many households face in developing economies especially in the Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, these issues have become central in the policy agenda not only in these countries but also in the international multilateral institutions. This study examines the exposure to risks in urban and rural areas and its effect on household vulnerability to poverty in Nigeria. The study applied the framework that computes vulnerability as expected poverty on the Nigeria General Household Survey for 2015 and the cross-sectional data and three-stage feasible generalized least squares analysis were employed. Findings show that exposure to risks such as job loss, business failure, harvest failure, livestock death, dwelling demolition, increase and decrease in input and output prices, and other similar risks significantly drive households into poverty but differ across households in rural and urban areas, both in characteristics and regions. These findings suggest that social safety nets should be designed to take care of not only the current poor households but also the non-poor households who are likely to be vulnerable in the future.

In the present scenario, services have the largest domination in consumers’ lives and constitute a large part of the world economy. The researchers and practitioners have given limited research attention to transformative consumer research which affects consumer well-being. In this study, a causal relationship among the factors influencing the performance of an organization providing the transformative services has been analyzed using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM). The factors influencing the services have been identified through the literature review. After identifying the factors, TISM has been used to interpret the direct as well as significant transitive linkages among the factors. The empirical results suggest that top management plays a big role in consumer well-being along with the welfare of society. Devotion toward the well-being of the broader level of society depends on the top management’s commitment toward corporate social responsibility and respect for the rule of laws. These are the major factors influencing the performance of the organization other than employee satisfaction, excellent service quality, use of information technology and e-commerce, and so on.

This study expanded the research on service climate to the perspective of customers in the hospitality context and explicated the influence mechanism of service climate on customer citizenship behavior. Service climate traditionally perceived by employees has been well studied, but only limited studies focused on the customer perspective service climate. Based on the existing literature, customer perceived service climate in the hospitality industry was operationalized and its influence on customer citizenship behavior was proposed. After the measurement purification with exploratory factor analysis based on the pilot data using IBM SPSS 20, data collection was conducted in the hotels in Wuhan, China. A total of 432 valid questionnaires were collected and the data were analyzed for hypotheses testing, using Mplus 7.4. The research results indicate that each factor of customer service climate has a positive impact on customer citizenship behavior, with the strength of effects being different. Customer psychological empowerment plays a partial mediating role between some factors of service climate and customer citizenship behavior. The findings provide implications for service enterprises in terms of service climate design and customer citizenship behavior facilitation.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and debilitating disorder characterized by hypervigilance and recurrent, intrusive memories of the traumatic event. Estimates for lifetime prevalence of PTSD diagnoses for United States military personnel vary widely from 10% to more than 30%. The current study aimed to investigate the attitudes and beliefs regarding PTSD and its diagnosis and treatment within U.S. military service members and their families. An online survey was administered to current and former members of the U.S. military and members of their immediate families. The results revealed low levels of mental health stigma and positive attitudes toward treatment for PTSD. However, survey respondents also communicated a belief that the current health care system does not adequately meet the mental health needs of the U.S. military. A clear understanding of the specific attitudes and thought processes surrounding PTSD and its diagnosis may aid mental health professionals in effectively communicating with those in need of their services.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of dietary habits on early childhood caries (ECC) in preschool children. We recruited 153 children between 30 and 71 months of age who applied to a state hospital dental clinic in Ankara, Turkey. The decayed-missing-filled teeth (dmft) index was calculated with a questionnaire that investigated the number of decayed, missing, and/or filled milk teeth. Participants formed three separate groups according to their caries history (Group 1: caries-free children, Group 2: children with ECC, Group 3: children with severe ECC [S-ECC]). The mean dmft score was 4.0 ± 3.9, and 20.2% of children were in caries-free group ( n = 31), 45.8% were in ECC group ( n = 70), and 34.0% were in S-ECC group ( n = 52). The carbonated beverage consumption and the dmft index score was directly proportional ( p < .05). Besides, there was a significant correlation between anti-cariogenic foods such as milk and eggs and dmft index score ( p < .05). S-ECC was associated with higher consumption of French fries (β = .052; 95% Cl −0.141, 1.827) and lower consumption of egg (β = −0.052; 95% Cl −0.103, 0.001). Consequently, the fast-food-style Western diet was closely related to tooth decay, and healthy dietary habits such as the Mediterranean-style diet may provide crucial protection against dental caries in preschool children.

To assess the time-varying dynamics in value-at-risk (VaR) estimation, this study has employed an integrated approach of dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) and generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) models on daily stock return of the emerging markets. A daily log-returns of three leading indices such as KSE100, KSE30, and KSE-ALL from Pakistan Stock Exchange and SSE180, SSE50 and SSE-Composite from Shanghai Stock Exchange during the period of 2009–2019 are used in DCC-GARCH modeling. Joint DCC parametric results of stock indices show that even in the highly volatile stock markets, the bivariate time-varying DCC model provides better performance than traditional VaR models. Thus, the parametric results in the DCC-GRACH model indicate the effectiveness of the model in the dynamic stock markets. This study is helpful to the stockbrokers and investors to understand the actual behavior of stocks in dynamic markets. Subsequently, the results can also provide better insights into forecasting VaR while considering the combined correlational effect of all stocks.