Search results

This study aims to investigate the mechanical properties of sustainable recycled polypropylene (rPP) composite materials integrated with spherical silicon carbide (SiC) particles.

A representative volume element (RVE) analysis is employed to predict the Young’s modulus of rPP filled with spherical-shaped SiC at varying volume percentages (i.e. 10, 20 and 30%).

The investigation reveals that the highest values of Young’s modulus, tensile strength, flexural strength and mode 1 frequency are observed for the 30% rPP/SiC samples, exhibiting increases of 115, 116, 62 and 15%, respectively, compared to pure rPP. Fractography analysis confirms the ductile nature of pure rPP and the brittle behavior of the 30% rPP/SiC composite. Moreover, the RVE method predicts Young’s modulus more accurate than micromechanical models, aligning closely with experimental results. Additionally, results from ANSYS simulation tests show tensile strength, flexural strength and frequency within a 10% error range when compared to experimental data.

This study contributes to the field by demonstrating the mechanical enhancements achievable through the incorporation of sustainable materials like rPP/SiC, thereby promoting environmentally friendly engineering solutions.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven marketing has transformed the landscape of consumer interactions, but it also raises ethical concerns regarding perceived manipulation and subsequent unethical young consumer behavior. This study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effects of AI-driven marketing on unethical young consumer behavior, with digital literacy as a moderating variable. The authors introduce and conceptualize a digital literacy construct that influences how young consumers perceive and react to manipulative AI-driven marketing tactics.

Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this research explores how digital literacy influences the reception of AI-driven marketing and moderates the effects of perceived manipulative tactics. This study adopts a three-wave, time-lagged survey method among young consumers in urban Pakistan, integrating measures of AI-driven marketing techniques, perceived manipulation, digital literacy and unethical consumer behavior.

The results reveal that perceived manipulation mediates the relationship between AI-driven marketing and unethical young consumer behavior. Digital literacy significantly moderates this effect, indicating that higher digital literacy levels can mitigate the negative impacts of perceived manipulation. Conversely, lower digital literacy amplifies the negative impacts of perceived manipulation.

The findings underscore the need for marketers to foster transparency and ethical practices in AI-driven strategies. Enhancing consumer digital literacy can serve as a protective factor against unethical marketing practices.

This study contributes to the understanding of digital literacy’s protective role against unethical AI-driven marketing practices. It extends existing models of persuasion and consumer response by demonstrating how digital literacy reshapes traditional consumer response frameworks in the context of AI-driven environments.

This study aims to examine the effect of critical media literacy integration in the context of English language teaching (ELT) in Indonesian high school students on improving students’ creativity and essential literacy skills.

The study was conducted in an Indonesian ELT class consisting of 32 high school students. The methodology involved instructing students to analyze various media sources and articles to demonstrate their critical reading abilities before writing creative argumentative essays. Data collection instruments included students’ argumentative essays, teaching observations and students’ self-reflections on their learning experiences.

The study revealed that students were capable of creating creative and well-structured argumentative essays. However, their conclusions were often unclear and lacked sound judgments. This indicates that Indonesian EFL students require more practice in forming well-rounded judgments. Media analysis and discussion sessions were found to be significantly beneficial for enhancing critical literacy instruction.

One limitation of the study is its focus on a single class of 32 students, which may not be representative of all Indonesian high school students. Future studies should consider expanding the sample size and incorporating diverse educational contexts.

The findings show that integrating critical media literacy (CML) into ELT not only boosts students’ creativity and critical thinking but also helps them tackle real-world challenges, like identifying misinformation in Indonesia’s digital landscape. To make this approach more practical, the study highlights the importance of teacher-led strategies, such as using guiding questions during discussions and modeling how to create media context. These methods align well with Indonesia’s Merdeka Belajar policy, which encourages flexible, student-centered learning. This research provides valuable insights for educators, policymakers and curriculum designers looking to adapt media literacy to the needs of 21st-century learners across Indonesia’s diverse educational settings.

The study highlights the importance of critical media literacy in fostering a more critically aware and socially responsible youth. By enhancing students’ ability to analyze media and creatively develop well-structured arguments critically, critical media literacy integration can contribute to a more informed and engaged citizenry. This is particularly relevant in today’s media-saturated environment, where the ability to discern and evaluate information critically is crucial for democratic participation and social cohesion.

This research contributes to the limited research on the role of media literacy integration in enhancing students’ creativity and critical literacy within ELT. It highlights the importance of teacher-led discussions in fostering critical thinking skills, providing valuable insights for teachers, practitioners and policymakers aiming to improve media literacy instruction in similar contexts.

The present research aims to investigate how lean project management (LPM) and agile project management (APM) affect project performance outcomes in the construction sector in Jordan. This study focuses on six key project performance outcomes, namely cost, time, quality, client satisfaction, innovation and responsiveness.

The present study employed a quantitative approach to achieve the research objectives. Accordingly, a multi-item survey questionnaire was prepared to gather data from 392 project managers from construction companies in Jordan. The study’s model showed acceptable levels regarding reliability, validity, fit indices and discriminant validity. In order to test the hypotheses of this study, path analysis was employed using Amos 24.0 software.

LPM demonstrated a remarkably high positive impact on cost performance. It also positively affected quality performance and client satisfaction. However, LPM insignificantly affected time, innovation and responsiveness performance measures. On the other hand, APM showed a notably high positive impact on innovation and responsiveness. The findings also revealed that APM positively impacted quality performance and client satisfaction. In addition, APM negatively impacted cost performance and insignificantly impacted time performance.

This study is one of the first comprehensive studies to empirically examine the impact of both LPM and APM on various project performance outcomes in the construction industry in the context of a developing country. It reveals some similarities and differences between LPM and APM with regard to their impacts on project management outcomes. The findings are expected to guide managers in selecting the appropriate project management approach based on the desired performance outcomes. Accordingly, it offers important implications for project managers in construction companies.

This study aims to explore the pandemic's opportunities for enhancing the environmental practices of the food and beverages green supply chains and its effect on the supply chains' viability by exploring the relationship between fear and uncertainty of COVID-19, food and beverages green supply chain management (F&B-GSCM) and supply chains’ viability based on the two dimensions (robustness and resilience) and examine the moderating effect of innovative technology adoption like big data analysis (BDA) capabilities and blockchain technologies (BCT) on this relationship.

This study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on a sample of 362 F&B small and medium enterprises (SMEs)’ managers in the Egyptian market for data analysis and hypothesis testing.

The empirical results show that the fear and uncertainty of the pandemic have a significant positive effect on green supply chain management (GSCM). Also, BDA moderates the relationship between fear and uncertainty of COVID-19 and GSCM. However, BCT do not moderate that relationship. Similarly, GSCM positively affects supply chain viability dimensions (robustness and resilience). In addition, F&B-GSCM significantly mediates the relationship between fear and uncertainty of COVID-19 and supply chain viability dimensions (robustness and resilience).

Food and beverages (F&B) managers could develop a consistent strategy for applying BCT and BDA to provide clear information and focus on their procedures to meet their stakeholders' needs during COVID-19. Governments and managers should develop a consistent strategy to apply food and beverages supply chains (F&B SCs)' green practices to achieve F&B SCs' resilience and robustness, especially during the pandemic.

The Egyptian F&B SCs have been linked directly with many European countries as a main source of many basic food and agriculture products, which have been affected lately by the pandemic. Based on the “social-cognitive,” “stakeholder” and “resource-based view” theories, this study sheds light on the optimistic side of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it also brings the concepts of F&B-GSCM, SC resilience, SC robustness and innovative technologies back into the light, which helps in solving F&B SC issues and helps to achieve their viability.

Education focused on the creation of a knowledge base but not on how to bring such knowledge into practice had caused graduate architects to encounter reality shock and fail to perform during building contract administration. Although the effect of performance barriers on competence development is empirically supported, less is known about the mechanisms that explain this effect. Overcoming barriers for graduate architects is crucial while supporting building contract administrators and acquiring professional qualifications. To address this issue, we propose the mediating role of CCA skills as a possible explanation of the relationship between performance barriers and competence development of graduate architects.

A survey was conducted among graduate architects in Klang Valley. In total, one hundred and twenty-seven usable questionnaires were returned and analyzed using descriptive analysis and regression analysis.

Mediation results indicate that performance barriers have a significant positive influence on competence development through CCA skills in claims and legal matters management, project management, communication and relationship management, quality assessment and management, and design management.

The present study contributes to the construction contract administration literature by integrating performance barriers and the CCA skills model. This advances our understanding of performance barriers and CCA skills engendering competence development of graduate architects.

Design of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations expose project management practitioners (PMPs) to poor mental health due to the influence of project organization designs on project management activities assigned to the PMPs. The AEC project organization design comprises the integration of permanent organization, project organization and external environment layers. In spite of the link between project organization design and mental health, limited studies have examined the impact of permanent organization factors, project organization factors and external environmental factors on mental health management practices. Therefore, this study aims to examine the interactive relationships between permanent organization factors, project organization factors, external environment factors and mental health management indicators.

Four organizational theories: institutional theory, agency theory and resource-based theory were integrated to develop a theoretical model guiding the aim of the study. Eighty-two survey data were collected from PMPs in AEC firms in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships between the constructs.

The study found that mental health management indicators are predicted by the interactive and direct effects of permanent organizational factors, project organizational factors and external environmental factors. The results of the interactive effects of the factors and mental health management indicators revealed that 20 of 26 proposed hypotheses were supported. Based on the established hypotheses, economic factors, technological factors, environmental factors, legal factors and organizational culture positively correlated with mental health management indicators. Likewise, human resources management (HRM), corporate governance, project governance and integrated project delivery (IPD) positively impact mental health management indicators. However, political factors, social factors, knowledge management and project management skills negatively impact mental health management indicators. Moreover, political factors, economic factors, technological factors, environmental factors, legal factors and organizational culture are positively related to corporate governance. Additionally, organizational culture positively impacts corporate governance, project governance and HRM, whereas project governance positively correlated with IPD and knowledge management.

The findings provide guidelines to AEC firms on achieving positive mental health management indicators through concentration on project organization design.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether South African real estate investment trusts (REITs) with significant foreign real estate holdings produce better market performance metrics when compared to REITs with larger domestic holdings. The paper also provides a comprehensive overview of the market performance of South African REITs in the decade following the inception of the REIT regime in 2013.

The authors employ the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), using different estimation techniques to determine the stability of the estimated parameters over time. In addition to the CAPM framework, several basic and advanced portfolio performance metrics are computed to assess the performance of the various REIT portfolios.

The results show that REITs with significant offshore allocations produce superior market returns than their counterparts. Across most of the risk measures analysed, the foreign-biased REIT portfolios were found to be riskier. On the whole, foreign-biased REITs performed better on a risk-adjusted basis. The results were consistent across the different sample periods and the performance metrics analysed.

The results suggest that the decision to diversify internationally has implications for the pricing of REITs on stock markets. The differences in the performance metrics for the foreign- and home-biased REIT portfolios also imply an opportunity for investors to further diversify REIT portfolios by holding a mix of home-biased and foreign-biased REITs.

This paper is one of the few to consider the implications of international diversification on stock market performance rather than on more fundamental measures of REIT performance such as the net present value. This study also provides an emerging market (African) perspective to the literature.

This study aims to investigate the complexity factors associated with BIM-enabled projects. BIM has been widely promoted as a potential solution to numerous challenges that hinder productivity in construction projects, owing to its numerous advantages. Nevertheless, it is crucial to acknowledge the heightened complexity it introduces to project workflows, stakeholder coordination and information management.

This study employs the Delphi method to identify and extract complexity factors specific to BIM-enabled projects. A panel of industry and academic experts is engaged to discern and prioritise these factors based on their expertise and knowledge.

The study reveals a comprehensive list of 34 complexity factors that significantly impact BIM-enabled projects. Among the most influential factors are laws and regulations, variety of procurement methods, technical capabilities of teams, project manager competence, information transfer capacity, range of project deliverables and diversity of project locations. The findings highlight the importance of these factors and emphasise the need for proactive and adaptive management to navigate their impact and achieve positive project outcomes.

This study introduces the DEBACCS framework, a metric-based model designed to understand and evaluate complexity within BIM-enabled projects. DEBACCS stands for seven key dimensions: diversity, emergence, belonging, autonomy, connectivity, context and size. These dimensions represent essential aspects for gauging project complexity. By applying the concept of complexity from project management to BIM, the study offers valuable insights for practitioners and researchers. It provides a unique perspective on the challenges and considerations associated with implementing and managing BIM in construction projects. The findings have practical value for practitioners, enabling them to better understand and address the implications of complexity in BIM-enabled projects, ultimately leading to improved project outcomes.

The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the Dark Triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) on consumers’ purchase intentions for counterfeit luxury products via the mediating effect of moral disengagement, drawing on moral disengagement theory. Furthermore, descriptive norms are tested as a moderators of the mediated relationships between the Dark Triad personality traits and purchase intentions via moral disengagement based on trait activation theory.

To test the hypotheses, a survey design is employed to gather primary data from 205 consumers. The final data are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

This study finds that moral disengagement mediates the relationships between (1) Machiavellianism, (2) psychopathy and purchase intentions. Descriptive norms are found to moderate the indirect effect of moral disengagement between psychopathy and purchase intentions.

Dark Triad personality traits are linked to various unethical behaviours. However, no studies have explored how Dark Triad personality traits influence consumers’ purchase intentions for counterfeit luxury products. This study sheds light on how consumers with high Dark Triad personality traits are more likely to be morally disengaged, thereby leading to purchase intentions for counterfeit luxury products, drawing on moral disengagement theory. Furthermore, this study demonstrates descriptive norms as the boundary condition for the mediating relationship between Dark Triad personality traits and purchase intentions via moral disengagement, drawing on trait activation theory. The findings can be used to formulate better strategies to counteract the phenomenon of counterfeit luxury consumption.