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Beyond just equalizing opportunities, ‘levelling up’, ‘inclusive growth’ and ‘no child left behind’ policy initiatives require inequality measurement from a different perspective than conventional measures provide. Whereas standard inequality measures quantify normalized aggregate distance from some centrality parameter or distribution, these imperatives demand equalization towards targets that are not necessarily a centrality parameter or distribution dependent upon the underlying egalitarian philosophy. Here, Inequality Modulated Success Indices are proposed in the face of Utilitarian, Prioritarian and Sufficientarian Imperatives. The techniques meet the challenges of both continuously measured and ordered categorical environments and are exemplified in a study of human capital acquisition in Spain over the 2009–2015 period. When such considerations are introduced in the final analysis, wellbeing improvement is no longer universally observed across the three imperatives. Whilst, under a First Order wellbeing indicator, Utilitarians and Egalitarians see an improvement in wellbeing whereas Prioritarians do not, under a second order indicator Utilitarians see an improvement whereas both Egalitarians and Prioritarians see a deterioration.

The author develops a bilateral Nash bargaining model under value uncertainty and private/asymmetric information, combining ideas from axiomatic and strategic bargaining theory. The solution to the model leads organically to a two-tier stochastic frontier (2TSF) setup with intra-error dependence. The author presents two different statistical specifications to estimate the model, one that accounts for regressor endogeneity using copulas, the other able to identify separately the bargaining power from the private information effects at the individual level. An empirical application using a matched employer–employee data set (MEEDS) from Zambia and a second using another one from Ghana showcase the applied potential of the approach.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of social presence in enhancing positive behaviors in the virtual reality (VR)-based wine tourism context through an innovative approach.

Two sequential experimental studies were conducted to test proposed hypotheses using Web and head-mounted display (HMD) VR formats. Specifically, Study 1 probed the influence of social presence on mental imagery, which subsequently impacted destination visit intention, drinking intent and memorable experience. Study 2 used a field experiment to explore the boundary effects of environmental cues (nature versus social) on social presence and a series of behavioral intentions using an HMD format.

The findings represent one of the first efforts to unravel the influence of social presence on positive behaviors through mental imagery and the moderating role of environmental cues.

This research enhances the understanding of wine tourism, drawing upon social presence theory and stimulus-organism-response framework.

The outcomes provide valuable insights for wine tourism marketers in developing innovative marketing strategies by addressing the usage of social presence and environmental cues in a VR setting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to enrich the existing knowledge of wine tourism by exploring the role of social presence and environmental cues in both Web and HMD VR formats.

To overcome the limitations of traditional multi-attribute decision making (MADM) methods, which only provide deterministic rankings of decision objects, this paper proposes a novel multi-attribute 3WD model. This model presents three-parameter interval grey number decision-theoretic rough sets (TPIGNDTRSs), aiming to offer a reasoned interpretation of loss functions in grey environments and ensure objective assessment of conditional probabilities.

Firstly, the traditional equivalence relation is replaced with the probabilistic dominance relation (PDR), categorizing decision objects into two state sets in DTRS for more objective conditional probabilities. Secondly, as the three-parameter interval grey number (TPIGN) introduces the most probable value on the basis of the traditional two-parameter interval grey number, it provides a more comprehensive method for describing grey information. Consequently, integrating TPIGN into DTRS refines the interpretations of loss functions in grey environments. Finally, by utilizing two main sorting techniques, relative kernel and degree of accuracy ranking and possibility ranking, two types of 3WD rules with TPIGNDTRSs, are constructed.

This study has successfully developed and validated a new multi-attribute 3WD model. The model was tested in two distinct domains: evaluating innovation efficiency in high-tech enterprises and recommending movies in a practical case. The findings reveal that the model can effectively integrate relevant information of high-tech enterprises, provide the government with enterprise-level assessments, and gather consumer preferences to recommend the most suitable movies.

This study treats the loss function as grey information in the 3WD model but overlooks the grey nature of evaluation values, limiting its applicability. Additionally, the model’s reliance on subjective expert judgments and historical data to establish the loss function may affect its objectivity. The implications of this research are that the novel model overcomes traditional MADM limitations, enhancing decision-making quality and efficiency in complex and grey scenarios. The model’s successful application in evaluating high-tech enterprises and recommending movies illustrates its dual value in both theory and practice.

Initially, the model proposed in this study is of significant importance for the development of the 3WD field, as it successfully addresses the challenges of uncertain loss functions and unknown conditional probabilities in grey information environments. Moreover, by integrating the 3WD model with MADM problems, it has broken through the bottlenecks of traditional MADM methods, offering new perspectives and strategies for solving MADM issues. Therefore, this research not only advances theoretical research but also provides powerful tools for practical applications.

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of Inequalities of Opportunity (IOP) among the young in Cameroonian labour market. IOP are the differences in outcomes which are explained by the circumstance factors, meaning that the variables which are beyond individual controls. For this purpose, this study performs the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) in order to quantify the IOP among employee over 10- to 25-year-olds. Using the data from the Fourth Cameroon Household Survey (FCHS4) carried out in 2014 by Statistical National Institute, IOP is quantified for each of 14 Cameroonian’s geographical areas. Based on the Dissimilarity index (D-Index) value, two main trends are outlined: a spatial subgroup including North-West, East and the urban regions which is characterized by a higher D-Index; meaning that IOP is relatively significant. In contrast, a more homogeneous subgroup with a lower IOP is found in rural, North and East regions. Moreover, regarding on the one hand the Shapley-Shorrock’s decomposition method, it appears that the mayor circumstances contributing to the D-index are socio-professional category, primary education and religious obedience of the household head which explain from 51% to 79% the overall IOP. While on the other hand, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition shows that 80% of the gap in D-Index is explained by disparities in circumstances, rather than individual efforts. Finally, our conclusions argue in favour of effective decentralization, for a more inclusive employment policy that takes into account local labour market features.

Divers were contracted to carry out a detailed baseline survey which will form the Environmental Impact Assessment. This report presents information about the biodiversity of Cawsand Bay and the impact of installing a subsea tidal energy module. Subsequently, this addresses some of the SDG14 targets: 14.5, conserve coastal and marine areas; 14.7, increase the economic benefits from the sustainable use of marine resources to small island developing states and less developed countries; and 14.8, increase scientific knowledge, research and technology for ocean health. Contracted from November to December 2021 over a four-week period, five SCUBA divers conducted baseline transects over regular intervals of five meters at Cawsand Bay in each cardinal direction. Water and sediment samples were analysed to better understand the habitat and benthos at Cawsand Bay. Sediment samples established the biotope by identifying the benthos: sublittoral seagrass beds (SS.SMp.SSgr.Zmar). The data also revealed Zostera marina, commonly known as eelgrass (seagrass), is the most abundant species in the area, resulting in a high oxygen content within the water samples. In turn, this helps establish an environment capable of sustaining high levels of biodiversity for this time of year and is a more efficient support ecosystem.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of social contract theory (SCT) utilization in cybersecurity literature, elucidating the current state of research, identifying major applications and themes and highlighting gaps, particularly in empirical studies, and the integration of emerging technologies. The study also maps the contractual parties and governance tools discussed in SCT and cyberspace interactions.

This study uses a systematic literature review to investigate the application of SCT within the cybersecurity domain. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative content analysis with the Grounded Theory strategy, over 30,000 documents were initially screened. The final data set comprised 873 peer-reviewed papers from multiple databases. MAXQDA software facilitated coding and thematic analysis to identify key SCT applications, governance tools and research gaps.

The review revealed the following: emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are sparsely researched within the SCT-cyberspace intersection, yet they offer solutions to various SCT-related issues; empirical studies are underrepresented, with theoretical explorations dominating the discourse; there is a notable gap in integrating emerging technologies such as AI within SCT frameworks; governance tools discussed are varied, including economic incentives, regulatory measures and informational strategies.

This study synthesizes SCT applications in cybersecurity, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature and potential for richer theoretical integration. By systematically mapping the literature, it identifies crucial gaps and offers a foundation for future empirical and theoretical research. The findings emphasize the importance of considering traditional SCT themes and contemporary technological contexts, contributing to the development of more robust frameworks for cyberspace governance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the consequences of retaliations and our evidence indicates that retaliations are beneficial for firms with supranormal earnings by making their higher earnings more persistent, but harmful for firms with subnormal earnings by slowing the recovery of their earnings.

This paper use annual Compustat files based on Fama-French 48 industry. The time-varying competitive reactions (CRs) for each firm are captured using quarterly rolling-window estimation across 41 windows with five years (i.e. 20 observations) in each window. This paper measure earnings persistence as the slope coefficient (ß1) from regressing future earnings on current earnings. The result remains qualitatively similar to the main findings when alternative measures of earnings persistence.

Abnormal earnings are expected to dissipate in the long run owing to competitive forces, but this paper show that more retaliatory CRs increase earnings persistence. This is good news for supranormal firms as they can sustain high profitability. However, it will be harder to revert subnormal earnings to the industry mean if such firms conduct more retaliatory CRs. This paper also show that these associations are stronger for less competitive industries.

First, high earnings persistence per se would not be a major consideration in the firm’s strategic decisions but a natural by-product of such decisions spanning an extended period of operations. Second, though this paper focus on the period of 2004–2018 that includes the rebound after financial crisis in 2008, an extension of the observation period over a longer economic cycle would verify our results.

CRs are regarded as an evolving portfolio of dynamic marketing decisions and tools for strategic decisions in our study. It helps how firms manage competition over time to lengthen the superior performance. Also it helps the low-profitability firms attempting to improve profitability by showing nonretaliation may be a more appropriate strategy than retaliation.

Firms in financial distress suffer from illiquidity, survival of firms is contingent on meeting their financial obligations, thus need for turnaround decisions. However, retaliations under financial distress can mitigate the effect of such turnaround decisions and thereby aggravate the situation.

Greater persistence extends the benefits of superior earnings, thus increasing the opportunities for value exploitation, but it may also restrict earnings recovery. This paper finds that the way that firms react within the competition explain the differences in earnings persistence. Although a large body of research has examined the static drivers (e.g. firm size and diversification) of the differential persistence of earnings, there has been little research on dynamic drivers that explicitly recognize the erosion process for earnings.

This study aims to measure and compare consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of several US and global wine tourism destinations from an American market point of view.

An online randomized experimental design was used to assign respondents to different wine tourism destination contexts and measure their perceptions and intentions. A structured survey was designed with CBBE scale items related to the most commonly studied components of CBBE, namely, familiarity, perceived quality, image, consumer value, brand value and brand loyalty.

The study revealed that respondents were unfamiliar with multi-regional and global wine-growing destinations and their wines, implying that wine tourists belong to different market segments that seek different experiences. Among the US wine tourism destinations, Napa Valley is the destination with the strongest CBBE, with the highest overall ratings in all five CBBE components, on average. In terms of country-level wine tourism destinations, the US has the strongest CBBE, with the highest overall ratings in familiarity and brand loyalty.

Wine tourism destination CBBE is shown to include components that may not relate exclusively to wine and variations in perceptions concerning global wine-growing regions may be associated with consumer familiarity. Future studies may include respondents from different countries to determine the generalizability of the current findings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to assess consumer-based brand equity of wine tourism destinations in the US and globally from a US resident perspective.

Over the last years, powerful advances in the area of dynamic games have enriched game theory and made it more applicable to the modeling of real-world competitive strategies. The study of strategic behaviors of firms in an oligopoly market has received little attention, even though real firms have been shown to compete in output and in price in a single industry. The purpose of this study is to propose a game-theoretic approach to studying strategic behaviors of firms in an oligopoly market structure.

This approach was developed to study market dynamics and pricing strategic behavior of firms that have the possibility of deciding to be one of the two types (price-maker or price-taker) and reconsider the choice overtime on the basis of their current insights and knowledge and their experience. Firms try to improve their performance in the competitive market in a strategic way, by considering their steady-state profits and choosing the best type given the other firms’ types, actions and interactions.

The results of the present study confirm the previous study that the Cournot market is a stable market, where each firm can be a price-maker and enjoy individual learning as well as social learning. On the contrary, the market with price-takers only is never stable, and, therefore, the Walrasian equilibrium may not be supported in some instances. The Cournot market loses its stability as the number of firms in the market increases due to the fact that it will be more profitable for a firm to switch to price-taking when the number of firms is high enough. In such a situation, when the number of price-takers increases, there are no stable markets and price dynamics are destabilized.

The study and modeling of real-world competitive strategies would enhance the understanding of oligopoly markets. The study of strategic behaviors of firms in an oligopoly market has received little attention, even though real firms have been shown to compete in output and in price in a single industry as price-takers and price-makers.