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Saving energy is an essential issue in the world to attenuate climate change. To achieve the goal, energy-saving appliances such as refrigerators should be promoted. This study aims to analyze the conditions enabling Japanese households to purchase such appliances, focusing on the relation with preferences for renewable energy as one of the non-monetary incentives.

A conjoint analysis is used. A random parameter logit model and nested logit model are used for estimation. Data were collected through an online questionnaire of the Rakuten Insight service.

Households will purchase energy-saving appliances when renewable energy is used for electricity generation. This implies that households will purchase energy-saving appliances with electric power generators by renewable energy such as solar panels and home micro-wind generators.

The response rate and attributes of respondents and non-respondents are not shown to researchers in the web-questionnaire service.

Promoting energy-saving appliances and renewable energy is essential in Japan (as in other countries) to save energy and to attenuate climate change. Based on the results, both energy-saving appliances and renewable energy will be widely used.

Although many studies have analyzed households’ preferences for energy-saving appliances and the effects of non-monetary incentives, studies that mentioned the relation with preferences for renewable energy are few. This study analyzes the relation and proposes policy recommendations to promote both energy-saving appliances and renewable energy.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of sport fans' team identification on their emotional experiences (i.e. vitality and game satisfaction) using two-wave data in a specific sport event during the declaration of the emergency statement in Japan. The study also aims to test the moderating effects of risk perceptions about COVID-19 and the game outcome on the relationship between team identification and vitality/game satisfaction.

The present research was conducted in the context of a sport event in Tokyo (the Japanese Rugby Top League 2020–2021 Season Playoff Tournament Final) during the declaration of the emergency statement period in Japan. The data were collected through a two-wave design (before and after the game) from the spectators of the event.

Team identification significantly predicted higher vitality after the game but not game satisfaction. Additionally, the moderation test found that sport fans with high social risk perception about the COVID-19 showed a positive relationship between team identification and vitality but not for the fans with low social risk perception.

The present results suggest that sport events can be advertised for sport fans as a tool to increase physical and psychological energy in their daily lives during the pandemic.

The present study demonstrated that team identification predicted greater vitality after the spectatorship during the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, higher social risk perception was a significant catalyst to improve vitality after the game.

Focusing on small houses has become one of the recent trends in housing design in Japan, as has been observed in many house design works. Periodical coverage can tell that the number of such works has clearly been increasing since the 90s, as compared with the 70s and 80s. The trend of small houses was also observed in the 50s. In those postwar years of economic growth, it was driven by the conditions of the time, such as supply and housing shortages and urban centralization. Today’s social conditions are significantly different from those in the 50s, and naturally, the whole concept of small houses has greatly changed from the past.

In this research, we evaluate the experiments of small houses, from the view of the idea of sustainability and open building concept. Specifically, the study compares the small houses of the 50s and those after 1990 to examine their differences or similarities in terms of size, structure and building systems. And thus clarify how industrialization and standardization reflect on these experiments.

The former period, most were constructed on wood, with traditional construction method. The purpose of design was rather how to adapt the industrialization to the traditional construction and how to realize the modern way of living in the smallest space, than fulfillment of flexibility. Moreover, low cost was also included in the design purpose. In latest examples, the “small” means “small building area” rather than “small space for life and minimal cost for construction” The experimental projects were conducted by the intention exploring new possibilities and diversities of space design, with various highly industrialized materials. The small houses after 1990 can be regarded as experimental efforts to explore new approaches to skeletons within the context of urban tissue.

Discusses the 6th ITCRR, its breadth of textile and clothing research activity, plus the encouragement given to workers in this field and its related areas. States that, within the newer research areas under the microscope of the community involved, technical textiles focuses on new, ‘smart’ garments and the initiatives in this field in both the UK and the international community at large. Covers this subject at length.

This paper gives a review of the finite element techniques (FE) applied in the area of material processing. The latest trends in metal forming, non‐metal forming, powder metallurgy and composite material processing are briefly discussed. The range of applications of finite elements on these subjects is extremely wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore the aim of the paper is to give FE researchers/users only an encyclopaedic view of the different possibilities that exist today in the various fields mentioned above. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on finite element applications in material processing for 1994‐1996, where 1,370 references are listed. This bibliography is an updating of the paper written by Brannberg and Mackerle which has been published in Engineering Computations, Vol. 11 No. 5, 1994, pp. 413‐55.

Looks at the eighth published year of the ITCRR and the research, from far and near, involved in this. Muses on the fact that, though all the usual processes are to the fore, the downside part of the industry is garment making which is the least developed side. Posits that the manufacture of clothing needs to become more technologically advanced as does retailing. Closes by emphasising support for the community in all its efforts.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into any country, especially ASEAN countries, is affected by any improvement in the institutional quality (IQ) of competitors such as China. As generally investors make decisions by comparing two countries’ IQ, the ratio of two countries’ IQ matters more than a single country’s IQ. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the role of IQ on FDI inflows in ASEAN countries for the period 1996-2013.

With limited information on IQ, this study pools eight ASEAN countries as the sample for analysis from 1996 until 2013. A panel dynamic approach – namely, dynamic ordinary least square and fully modified ordinary least square – is utilized.

This study confirmed that relative IQ significantly affects FDI inflows into ASEAN countries. The low effect is more reflective of the small portion of world FDI inflows into the ASEAN region.

This study observes the crucial relationship between IQ and FDI – that the relative effectiveness of IQ in attracting FDI inflows depends heavily on the changes in both countries’ IQ. Hence, the effort of ASEAN countries to improve IQ and use it as a means to lure FDI inflows should go beyond a mere improvement. Focus should be on significant improvement of IQ so that multinational corporations will comfortably remain or inject new FDI into the country.

Every ASEAN country should double their efforts toward improving their IQ in order to attract future FDI.

Several studies have confirmed the role of IQ on FDI inflows. However, the majority of these studies have investigated the effect of IQ exclusively for a specific country even though some of them have used a panel of several countries’ data. On the other hand, investors normally evaluate their decision on whether or not to invest based on the relative terms, comparing several potential locations of investment at once. This study can be considered the first to explore the potential effect of IQ after taking into account the possibility of each ASEAN country’s IQ being easily offset by changes in the IQ of China.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of working capital management on firm valuation, profitability and risk.

The paper uses a panel data set of 497 firms covering the period 2007 to 2016. The authors test the effects of working capital management on firm valuation, profitability and risk using the panel data methodology that includes firm and year fixed effects regressions.

The authors find a significantly negative relationship between net working capital (NWC) and firm valuation, profitability and risk. The results suggest that, in managing working capital, firm managers must make a trade-off between their objectives for profitability and risk control. Working-capital management is of particular importance in firms with less access to capital; it is also important when firms are expanding their investments during periods of economic recovery.

This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, to my knowledge, it provides the most comprehensive investigation, to date, on the relationship between working capital management and firm valuation, profitability and risk in an emerging market. Second, this study documents the existence of an optimal level of NWC in an emerging market. Third, firm performance, as measured in both market and accounting value, can be improved with efficient working capital management. Finally, the study includes the impact of the business cycle in an analysis of the effects of working capital management on firm performance.

The purpose of the study is to examine the moderating impact of absorptive capacity on the foreign direct investment (FDI)–growth link using the data for the period 1995–2019.

The authors apply the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and threshold analysis for empirical analysis.

The findings indicate that the link between FDI and economic growth is influenced indirectly by absorptive capacities, such as financial development, institutional quality, technological capability, and trade openness. However, while examining the linear FDI–growth nexus, the authors noticed that human capital and infrastructure did not affect the relationship; when the non-linearity in the link is considered, the authors noted that all absorptive capacities (including human capital and infrastructure), when interacted with FDI, have a positive effect on growth. Furthermore, FDI stimulates growth if the absorptive capacities have exceeded a certain threshold level.

From a practical standpoint, it is reasonable to conclude that improving absorptive capacities is critical in order to perceive FDI as a growth driver.

India has been able to position itself as a preferred destination for FDI (when the major economies are facing a sharp decline in FDI inflows) despite the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it still suffers from low growth. Although much of the literature admits that absorptive capacity is crucial for FDI to promote growth, no study in the case of India examines FDI–growth nexus conditioned upon absorptive capacity. Moreover, the authors have used threshold analysis for assessing the non-linearities in FDI–growth nexus contingent on absorptive capacity.

This paper empirically examines the relationship between foreign direct investment, financial development and other macroeconomic variables like trade openness, domestic investment and labour force and that of GDP per capita in select South Asian countries, i.e. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan for the period 1990–2018.

The study uses various econometrics tools such as Pedroni, Kao and Johansen–Fisher panel cointegration test, Panel FMOLS and DOLS and Granger causality in order to analyse the long-run and short-run dynamics among the variables under consideration.

The results of the panel data estimation techniques employed imply that there is a short-run causality running from GDP per capita to FDI and financial development, and results from FMOLS and DOLS indicate that FDI and financial development have positive impacts on GDP per capita in the countries under consideration.

In this paper, we use a dynamic macroeconomic modelling framework to examine the effect of FDI and financial development on per capita income in three major south Asian economies, which are categorized as three Non-Least Developed Contracting States under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), 2006, established with an aim to facilitate free trade among them. Considering the diversity of the level of growth experienced by these economies, the study uses appropriate panel regression techniques. Therefore, in addition to proper formulation of policies directed towards scaling up of export and import levels, the respective authorities should also take care that the political stability and institutional quality are maintained.