Search results

The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology based on random demand inventory models and dependence structures for a set of raw materials, referred to as “components”, used by food services that produce food rations referred to as “menus”.

The contribution margins of food services that produce menus are optimised using random dependent demand inventory models. The statistical dependence between the demand for components and/or menus is incorporated into the model through the multivariate Gaussian (or normal) distribution. The contribution margins are optimised by using probabilistic inventory models for each component and stochastic programming with a differential evolution algorithm.

When compared to the non-optimised system previously used by the company, the (average) expected contribution margin increases by 18.32 per cent when using a continuous review inventory model for groceries and uniperiodic models for perishable components (optimised system).

The multivariate modeling can be improved by using (a) other non-Gaussian (marginal) univariate probability distributions, by means of the copula method that considers more complex statistical dependence structures; (b) time-dependence, through autoregressive time-series structures and moving average; (c) random modelling of lead-time; and (d) demands for components with values equal to zero using zero-inflated or adjusted probability distribution.

Professional management of the supply chain allows the users to register data concerning component identification, demand, and stock levels to subsequently be used with the proposed methodology, which must be implemented computationally.

The proposed multivariate methodology allows it to describe demand dependence structures through inventory models applicable to components used to produce menus in food services.

Este trabajo propone una metodología basada en modelos de inventarios con demanda aleatoria y estructura de dependencia para un conjunto de materias primas, denominadas “componentes”, usadas por servicios de alimentación que producen raciones alimenticias denominadas “menús”.

Los margen de contribución de servicios de alimentación que producen menús son optimizados empleando modelos de inventarios con demandas aleatorias dependientes. La dependencia estadística entre demandas de componentes y/o menús es incorporada en el modelado mediante la distribución gaussiana (o normal) multivariada. La optimización de los márgenes de contribución se logra usando modelos de inventarios probabilísticos para cada componente y programación estocástica mediante el algoritmo de evolución diferencial.

El margen de contribución esperado (promedio) aumenta en un 18,32% usando modelos de inventario de revisión continua para abarrotes y modelos uniperiódicos para componentes perecederos (sistema optimizado), en relación al sistema no optimizado usado anteriormente por la compañía.

La metodología multivariada propuesta permite describir estructuras de dependencia de la demanda mediante modelos de inventario aplicables a componentes usados para producir menús en servicios de alimentación.

Una administración profesional de la gestión de la cadena de suministros permite registrar datos de la identificación del componente, su demanda y sus niveles de stock para ser usados posteriormente con la metodología propuesta, la que debe estar implementada computacionalmente.

El modelado multivariado puede ser mejorado (a) utilizando distribuciones probabilísticas univariadas (marginales) distintas a la gaussiana, mediante métodos de cópulas que recojan estructuras de dependencia estadística más complejas; (b) considerando demandas de componentes con valores iguales a cero, mediante distribuciones probabilísticas infladas en cero; (c) usando dependencia temporal, mediante estructuras de series de tiempo autorregresivas y de media móvil, y (d) modelando el lead-time en forma aleatoria.

Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2002), this study first investigates the direct influence of core self-evaluations (CSEs) on work-to-family (W → F) and family-to-work (F → W) conflicts. Second, it tests the mediating impact of Social support from work and home domains in the associations between CSEs and both directions of work-family conflict. This study finally examines the moderating influence of CSEs in the associations between work and home domain social support and both directions of work-family conflict.

Human resources professionals (629), and engineers (169) employed in Canada completed an online survey. Both directions of work-family conflict were measured as well as CSEs, and work and home domain social support.

Results indicate that higher CSEs are associated with lower W → F and F → W conflicts. They also suggest an indirect association between CSEs and W → F conflict through supervisor support. The indirect association between CSEs and F → W conflict through home domain social support was also supported. Besides, it appears that CSEs moderate the association between home support and F → W conflict.

Our findings underscore the relevance of considering both dispositional and environmental factors together in work-life research. Results question within- vs. cross-domain conceptualizations of work-life spillover. They also indicate how both differential choice and effectiveness operate in conjunction with managing work-life domains.

The research presents a comprehensive model linking work-family conflict, social support and CSEs. It draws from an integrative personality framework (Judge et al., 1998) and COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to explore the underlying processes of CSEs, often inferred but not specified or incorporated into work-life research.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the need and resources firefighters have to deal with death and dying (D&D) that they encounter whilst on duty and to present a curriculum to support D&D issues for firefighters.

A qualitative methodology involving focus groups was conducted in two fire stations in Spain. The sample was 38 male participants with a mean age of 46 y/o (range: 30-59 years) and an average tenure of employment of 18 years (range: 6-35 years). Data were subjected to a thematic analysis. Dual coding of the transcripts in addition to member checking enhanced analysis.

Nine themes emerged: witnessing D&D during rescue operations; memories about D&D and trauma; impact on firefighter’s families; decision-making process under stress; teamwork: protective and self-support; inadequate D&D preparation and training; adequate technical and physical training preparation; relationship between equipment, legal-moral obligation, and victims’ outcomes; communication issues: toward the victim and/or their relatives. These themes were subsequently framed into three basic domains: personal impact of D&D, team impact of D&D, and victim impact. Each domain, in its turn, is covered by three curriculum topics. The curriculum’s pedagogy is primarily based on experimental-reflective activities during 16 study-hours.

The absence of female participants. All fire stations were in cities with no more than 150,000 inhabitants.

Individuals who take this curriculum will: increase their ability for self-care and resilience; improve teamwork, leadership skills, and to decrease burnout; provide more effective care for victims; provide skills to cope with compassion fatigue; reduced the levels of post-traumatic stress disorders.

Understanding firefighters’ needs with relation to D&D, and assessing the resources available to mitigate these issues will provide a comprehensive approach to their education and promote health both personally and professionally. A comparable curriculum or proposal has not been previously identified.

This study examines the relationships between green management, perceived barriers to sustainability and innovation performance in Latin American SMEs and how formal and informal institutional factors influence these relationships.

The study used a dataset collected by Iberoamerican small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Observatory in 2022 and included 15 country-specific indicators for Latin American countries published in international data sources to address the formal and informal institutional contexts. Accordingly, the final sample comprises 11,319 SME observations from 16 countries. The analysis involved three phases. First, an R-Type Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Second, a cluster analysis. Third, a testing of the mediation theoretical model between the groups identified in the second study. To this purpose, the analysis included a multigroup analysis for covariance structure by three-stage procedures conducting structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results revealed that both formal institutions (such as government policies and regulations) and informal institutions (such as social norms and cultural values) have a positive impact of green management practices on innovative outcomes in SMEs. However, the magnitude of this impact varies depending on the level of country-specific performance of the context. Additionally, the perceived barriers to sustainability do not play an intermediary role in this relationship within both institutional contexts. However, the effect of perceived barriers to sustainability on SMEs' innovation performance is diminished in the informal institutional context.

These conclusions provide valuable insights for policymakers seeking to promote sustainable development in Latin America, highlighting the importance of institutional support in fostering SMEs' adoption of ecological practices.

Este estudio examina la relación entre la gestión verde, las barreras percibidas a la sostenibilidad y el rendimiento de la innovación en las PYME latinoamericanas y cómo los factores institucionales formales e informales influyen en esta relación.

El estudio utilizó un conjunto de datos recogidos por el Observatorio Iberoamericano de la PYME y se incluyó 15 indicadores de desempeño de países de América Latina publicados en fuentes de datos internacionales para abordar los contextos institucionales formales e informales. Por consiguiente, la muestra de datos final del estudio lo conforman 11,319 observaciones de Pymes de 16 países. El análisis incluyó tres fases. En primer lugar, un análisis factorial exploratorio. Segundo un análisis de conglomerados o clústeres. En tercer lugar, una prueba del modelo teórico de mediación entre los grupos identificados en el segundo estudio. Para ello, el análisis incluyó un análisis multigrupo para la estructura de covarianza mediante un procedimiento de tres etapas por medio de un modelado de ecuaciones estructurales.

Los resultados revelaron que tanto en las instituciones formales (como las políticas y normativas gubernamentales) como en las informales (como las normas sociales y los valores culturales) las prácticas de gestión verde influyen positivamente en desempeño innovador. Sin embargo, la magnitud de este impacto varía según el nivel de desempeño del contexto de estos países. Además, el estudio mostró que las barreras percibidas a la sostenibilidad no tienen un papel de mediación en esta relación, en ambos contextos institucionales. Finalmente, se observó que el efecto de las barreras percibidas a la sostenibilidad sobre el desempeño innovador disminuye en el contexto institucional informal.

El trabajo aporta valiosas ideas para los responsables políticos que buscan promover el desarrollo sostenible en América Latina, destacando la importancia del apoyo institucional para fomentar la adopción de prácticas verdes por parte de las pymes.

This article presents two Brazilian Portuguese corpora collected from different media concerning public security issues in a specific location. The primary motivation is supporting analyses, so security authorities can make appropriate decisions about their actions.

The corpora were obtained through web scraping from a newspaper's website and tweets from a Brazilian metropolitan region. Natural language processing was applied considering: text cleaning, lemmatization, summarization, part-of-speech and dependencies parsing, named entities recognition, and topic modeling.

Several results were obtained based on the methodology used, highlighting some: an example of a summarization using an automated process; dependency parsing; the most common topics in each corpus; the forty named entities and the most common slogans were extracted, highlighting those linked to public security.

Some critical tasks were identified for the research perspective, related to the applied methodology: the treatment of noise from obtaining news on their source websites, passing through textual elements quite present in social network posts such as abbreviations, emojis/emoticons, and even writing errors; the treatment of subjectivity, to eliminate noise from irony and sarcasm; the search for authentic news of issues within the target domain. All these tasks aim to improve the process to enable interested authorities to perform accurate analyses.

The corpora dedicated to the public security domain enable several analyses, such as mining public opinion on security actions in a given location; understanding criminals' behaviors reported in the news or even on social networks and drawing their attitudes timeline; detecting movements that may cause damage to public property and people welfare through texts from social networks; extracting the history and repercussions of police actions, crossing news with records on social networks; among many other possibilities.

The work on behalf of the corpora reported in this text represents one of the first initiatives to create textual bases in Portuguese, dedicated to Brazil's specific public security domain.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships that influence the value co-creation process and lead to consumer comfort with artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile banking (AIMB) service platforms.

A conceptual model was developed to investigate the value-in-use perceptions of AI-based mobile banking applications via five antecedents: baseline perceptions of current bank service delivery; service delivery configuration benefits; general data security; safety perceptions of specific mobile banking services; and perceptions of AI service delivery. Data were collected from 218 respondents and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This study highlights the role and importance of the sequential relationships that impact the assessment of AIMB. The findings suggest that service delivery and the customer’s role in value co-creation change as AI is introduced into a digital self-service technology channel. Furthermore, AIMB offers transaction-oriented (utilitarian) value propositions more so than relationship-oriented (hedonic) value propositions.

The sample consisted on digital natives. Additional age cohorts are needed.

As financial institutions redirect their business models toward digital self-service technology channels, the need for customers to feel comfortable while interacting with an AI agent will be critical for enhancing the customer experience and firm performance.

The authors extend the service-dominant logic (SDL) literature by showing that value co-creation is a function of both firms’ technologies and consumers’ value-in-use, a finding that appears to be unique in the literature. The authors advance the digital transformation literature by evaluating AIMB as an interactive process that requires an understanding of key technology constructs, including perceptions of baseline service relationships, desired service configurations, security and safety issues and whether AI is useful for value co-creation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first SDL framework that investigates interactive and structural relationships to explain value-in-use perceptions of AIMB.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of surface texture with roughness orientation considered on tribological properties under a mixed lubrication state numerically and experimentally.

Based on the average Reynolds equation and asperity contact model, the impacts of surface texture parameters and roughness orientation on lubrication properties have been calculated using finite difference method. Tin–bronze samples with various prescribed surface texture geometric parameters and roughness orientation were fabricated by laser surface texturing technique, and the tribology performance of the textured surface was studied experimentally.

The effects of surface geometric parameters and roughness orientation parameters have been discerned. The experimental observations are in good agreement with the numerical prediction, which suggests that the numerical scheme adopted in this work is suitable in capturing the surface texture and roughness effect under mixed lubrication state.

By meticulously controlling the surface roughness and surface texture geometric characteristics based on the laser surface texturing process, samples with prescribed surface texture parameters and roughness orientation consistent with that in theoretical studies were fabricated and the theoretical model and results were verified experimentally.

This study aims to highlight the theoretical foundations and future research directions in religious tourism and related topics from 2003 to 2023.

A total of 4,143 documents from Web of Science and Scopus databases related to religious tourism and pilgrimage were analysed using VOSviewer software.

The analysis illuminates a steady rise in religious tourism research. The most influential countries are the USA, the UK and Israel. Gendered studies, tourists’ perceptions and technology in religious tourism will be research hotspots, as predicted with keyword co-occurrence analysis.

This study thoroughly evaluates two decades of religious tourism literature through bibliometric and network analysis. It can help researchers comprehend religious tourism study more thoroughly and determine where to focus in future research.

本研究强调了 2003–2023 年宗教旅游及相关主题的理论基础和未来研究方向。

使用 VOSviewer 软件分析了来自 Web of Science 和 Scopus 数据库的与宗教旅游和朝圣相关的总共 4143 份文件。

分析表明宗教旅游研究稳步上升。 最具影响力的国家是美国、英国和以色列。 正如关键词共现分析预测的那样, 宗教旅游中的性别研究、游客感知和宗教旅游技术将成为研究热点。

本研究通过文献计量和网络分析彻底评估了二十年的宗教旅游文献。 它可以帮助研究人员更透彻地理解宗教旅游研究, 并确定未来研究的重点。

Este estudio destaca los fundamentos teóricos y las futuras direcciones de investigación en turismo religioso y temas relacionados entre 2003 y 2023.

Se analizó un total de 4143 documentos de las bases de datos Web of Science y Scopus relacionados con el turismo religioso y la peregrinación utilizando el software VOSviewer.

El análisis ilumina un aumento constante en la investigación del turismo religioso. Los países más influyentes son Estados Unidos, Reino Unido e Israel. Los estudios de género, la percepción de los turistas y la tecnología en el turismo religioso en el turismo religioso serán puntos críticos de investigación como se predice con el análisis de co-ocurrencia de palabras clave.

Este estudio evalúa minuciosamente dos décadas de literatura sobre turismo religioso a través de análisis bibliométrico y de redes. Puede ayudar a los investigadores a comprender el estudio del turismo religioso más a fondo y determinar dónde enfocarse en futuras investigaciones.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the environment surrounding a decision-making event affects whether decision-makers consider the credibility of their advisors and take their advice.

In two experiments, the characteristics of the event and credibility of the advisor were manipulated, the extent to which participants considered the information from the advisor was measured, and whether participants took advice was determined.

Decision-makers are more likely to take advice from advisors when the decision-making event is of low urgency or high criticality because they are more likely to consider information provided by high-credibility advisors.

Within organizations, decision-makers may be making suboptimal decisions when faced with highly urgent decisions or decisions with low criticality. This study suggests that under these conditions, decision-makers are less likely to consider the information provided by high-credibility advisors. Organizations may consider encouraging decision-makers to override their tendency to disregard advice from credible advisors.

This study introduces a contextual factor relevant to managers, event characteristics, which has an effect on whether decision-makers take advice. A unique experimental design was utilized in which credibility was manipulated across two studies with an explicit (Study 1: resume) vs implicit (Study 2: video) method, and advice-taking was measured with a decision that was clearly right or wrong.