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Article
Publication date: 3 July 2024

Raja Nurul Waheeda Raja Zilan, Adi Irfan Che-Ani and Siti Rashidah Hanum Abd Wahab

This paper aims to review the elements of facilities condition index (FCI) as one of the most widely used metrics for describing the physical condition of facilities and as a…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to review the elements of facilities condition index (FCI) as one of the most widely used metrics for describing the physical condition of facilities and as a measure of financial indicator related to maintenance activity. This research will benefit future studies that focus on implementation of FCI and encourage the best practice when assessing the physical condition to evaluate the performance of facilities as well as to plan for maintenance action to be taken and financial implication involved based on the findings from FCI.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 33 studies from 2012 to 2022 were identified and extracted from four academic databased, named Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Mendeley. These published studies were selected because it matches with the inclusion requirements for research question, “What are the elements of facilities condition index discussed in the literature from 2012 to 2022?”. To answer the research question, the studies in ATLAS.ti were grouped into five major themes based on the codes and categories found.

Findings

This paper presents the findings of a thematic analysis of the current literature discussed about FCI. A total of 33 studies from 2012 to 2022 were identified and extracted from four academic databased, named Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Mendeley. A themed review was conducted, and five themes were identified as elements of FCI, which are named as follows: “Condition Assessment”, “Deferred Maintenance”, “Facilities Performance”, “Financial and Fund Allocation” and “Decision Making”.

Originality/value

This paper fulfils the fundamental elements on current FCI practices as well as intended to highlight existing practices that are essential to evaluate facilities performance and planning for maintenance strategies.

Details

Journal of Facilities Management , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-5967

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 November 2024

Rossella C. Gambetti and Robert V. Kozinets

This study aims to expand understanding of the diversity of virtual influencer forms by investigating their nonhuman-like, animal and graphic or cartoon variations.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to expand understanding of the diversity of virtual influencer forms by investigating their nonhuman-like, animal and graphic or cartoon variations.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-year multisite longitudinal netnography studied 174 virtual influencers and spanned ten social media platforms. Typological categories were constructed from the data set, focusing on 14 influencers located across quadrants. In-depth findings were then developed for eight illustrative cases.

Findings

Findings deepen the knowledge of the virtual influencer sphere by highlighting diversity in human-like, nonhuman-like, imaginative and realistic forms. The authors postulate four types of virtual influencers: hyper-human, antihuman, pan-human and alter-human. These forms are linked to specific personalities and communication styles, addressing various consumer needs. Imaginatively represented virtual influencers may prompt audiences to reevaluate beliefs, values and behaviors. These findings challenge prior work’s focus on attractive, hyperreal and human-like virtual influencers, encouraging consideration of divergent types engaged in novel meaning-shaping activities and targeting different segments.

Research limitations/implications

This research paves the way for consumer and marketing researchers and practitioners to broaden their representations of virtual influencers beyond the human-like, beyond the commercial and into new worlds of fantasy, imagination and posthuman possibility.

Practical implications

Different types of virtual influencers speak to diverse audiences and convey marketing messages in subtly different ways. Some forms of virtual influencers fit into roles like defiant voices, oppositional characters, activists, educators, entertainers and change leaders. As the universe of virtual influencers diversifies, this research opens new avenues of marketing for brands.

Originality/value

This study pioneers comprehensive qualitative research across the universe of virtual influencers and their communities, exploring links to popular culture. It offers connections between virtual influencer forms and communication strategies for marketers.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 58 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 July 2024

Larry W. Isaac, Daniel B. Cornfield and Dennis C. Dickerson

Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend…

Abstract

Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend sociological knowledge about how movements (sometimes) diffuse and amplify insurgent actions, that is, how movements move. We extend movement diffusion theory by drawing a conceptual analogue with military theory and practice applied to the case of the organized and highly disciplined nonviolent Nashville civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We emphasize emplacement in a base-mission extension model whereby a movement base is built in a community establishing a social movement school for inculcating discipline and performative training in cadre who engage in insurgent operations extended from that base to outlying events and campaigns. Our data are drawn from secondary sources and semi-structured interviews conducted with participants of the Nashville civil rights movement. The analytic strategy employs a variant of the “extended case method,” where extension is constituted by movement agents following paths from base to outlying campaigns or events. Evidence shows that the Nashville movement established an exemplary local movement base that led to important changes in that city but also spawned traveling movement cadre who moved movement actions in an extensive series of pathways linking the Nashville base to events and campaigns across the southern theater of the civil rights movement. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 September 2022

Zarin Khan Moon and Md. Mahedi Hasan

This study aims to explore whether the working parents' perception about the necessity of childcare centres for their work efficiency is associated with their anxieties and…

2499

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore whether the working parents' perception about the necessity of childcare centres for their work efficiency is associated with their anxieties and concerns related to their dual responsibilities, i.e. providing proper parental childcare and maintaining work efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of 100 employed parents, from the Jashore region of Bangladesh, was surveyed, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

Findings

It was revealed that there is a strong association between the perceived negative impact on job performance, childcare, child development, work efficiency and perceived need for a childcare centre.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of this study is that it was confined to Jashore University of Science and Technology. The results may differ from those of the study conducted outside this study area and the methodology used here.

Practical implications

This study has significant practical implications for employers, childcare service providers and policy makers, especially in Bangladesh. The employers will be able to understand the demand for childcare services centres among the employed parents in respective organizations. It will draw attention of employers of knowledge intensive industries and grants commission to the issue of conflict of work and childcare-related responsibilities of employed parents. This will also make employers conscious about the dilemma that is undergone by employed parents motivating them to take actions for minimizing such conflicts to ensure better job performance of working parents.

Social implications

Based on this study, childcare providers and other policy makers will be able to ascertain the potential size of the childcare market and determine the requirement for investment in childcare-related human resources development. As the work and childcare responsibilities compete for limited time of working parents, either childcare or job performance suffers. This causes concerns, anxieties or remorse, which again hampers the job performance further. Therefore, this study may motivate the university authority around the world, specifically those in Bangladesh, to provide childcare facilities for its faculties, students and other employees.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on growing demand for centre-based childcare services in an emerging economy context. It provides evidence of high demand for on- and off-site childcare centres to enhance work efficiency of working parents.

Details

South Asian Journal of Marketing, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2719-2377

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2024

Thuy D. Nguyen, Majed Yaghi, Gopala Ganesh, Charles Blankson, Audhesh K. Paswan and Robert Pavur

Diversity, equity and inclusion ideology is the latest appeal of individual compassion, institutional legitimacy and enlightened society. Specific to higher education, diversity…

Abstract

Purpose

Diversity, equity and inclusion ideology is the latest appeal of individual compassion, institutional legitimacy and enlightened society. Specific to higher education, diversity, equity and inclusion is an honorable ideology, value and mission. This paper aims to (1) empirically recognize the differences in the level of importance between the university’s and faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, (2) identify the diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes, such as university brand image and student intention to engage postgraduation, (3) uncover the moderating role of university brand preference attainment and (4) validate the mediating role of student identification in diversity, equity and inclusion literature.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey of 1,027 usable responses was employed to perform two moderations, four mediations and two confidence interval analyses.

Findings

The university’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are significantly more rewarding than the faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for the university brand image and students’ intention to engage postgraduation. Findings uncover the mediating role of student identification and the moderating role of brand preference attainment.

Practical implications

Focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion at the institutional level is more impactful than at the faculty level. In industries where frontline employees have significant autonomy, such as higher education, the positive brand performance outcomes are related to the faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion awareness, not the faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion advocacy. Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives should align with the student’s shared values.

Originality/value

The study relies on institutional theory to underscore the asymmetric importance of the university’s and faculty’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in achieving perceived brand image and engagement.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 33 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 December 2023

Foster B. Roberts, Milorad M. Novicevic and John H. Humphreys

The purpose of this study is to present ANTi-microhistory of social innovation in education within Robert Owen’s communal experiment at New Harmony, Indiana. The authors zoom out…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to present ANTi-microhistory of social innovation in education within Robert Owen’s communal experiment at New Harmony, Indiana. The authors zoom out in the historical context of social innovation before zooming into the New Harmony case.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used ANTi-microhistory approach to unpack the controversy around social innovation using the five-step procedure recently proposed by Mills et al. (2022), a version of the five-step procedure originally proposed by Tureta et al. (2021).

Findings

The authors found that the educational leaders of the New Harmony community preceded proponents of innovation, such as Drucker (1957) and Fairweather (1967), who viewed education as a form of social innovation.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the history of social innovation in education by exploring the New Harmony community’s education society to uncover the enactment of sustainable social innovation and the origin story of humanistic management education.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2024

Robert P. Singh and Melvin T. Miller

Racial wealth inequality is a significant and growing issue in the USA. Improving the lagging rate of black new venture creation and successful entrepreneurship could help close…

Abstract

Purpose

Racial wealth inequality is a significant and growing issue in the USA. Improving the lagging rate of black new venture creation and successful entrepreneurship could help close the gap. The purpose of this paper is to focus needed attention on the financial challenges resulting from institutional and systemic discrimination that black entrepreneurs must deal with. Following this literature review, the paper makes recommendations and broad public policy suggestions.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducts a literature review and discusses the myriad of reasons black entrepreneurs struggle with inadequate access to capital, with special emphasis on weaker entrepreneurial ecosystems that have resulted from systemic racism.

Findings

The paper sheds light on several factors which continue to directly impede successful black entrepreneurship including discrimination in lending, distrust in institutions, over-reliance on (inadequate) personal capital and declining black-owned banking and financial institutions, as well as community banking options in black communities.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is conceptual and relies on prior literature. The proposed solutions are just a starting point and are certainly not meant to be all-inclusive or comprehensive. Much future research, particularly longitudinal research, is needed to further develop theory and specific public policies which can close the disparities this study has discussed. This study outlines several key areas in need of further quantitative and qualitative studies to better understand black entrepreneurship.

Practical implications

The US economy will increasingly suffer if the nearly 15% of population (and growing) made up of black communities continues to struggle. The broad-based policy solutions proposed in this paper would allow for increased access to capital that would address the long-term deficiencies and help to close the racial wealth gap.

Social implications

Through this study’s broad-based potential solutions, entrepreneurial ecosystems can be strengthened to build the environment for successful new venture creation in black communities. The longer-term benefit would be increased tax revenues, improved communities with fewer individuals needing support through government assistance and greater social stability as economic gaps between various racial groups are closed.

Originality/value

Using a broader entrepreneurial ecosystem framework and a systemic racism theory lens, this study discusses the limited capital black entrepreneurs have access to. Following this literature review, this study offers broad-based policy solutions that can strengthen ecosystems and directly address the issues raised in the paper.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 December 2023

Robert Mwanyepedza and Syden Mishi

The study aims to estimate the short- and long-run effects of monetary policy on residential property prices in South Africa. Over the past decades, there has been a monetary…

1061

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to estimate the short- and long-run effects of monetary policy on residential property prices in South Africa. Over the past decades, there has been a monetary policy shift, from targeting money supply and exchange rate to inflation. The shifts have affected residential property market dynamics.

Design/methodology/approach

The Johansen cointegration approach was used to estimate the effects of changes in monetary policy proxies on residential property prices using quarterly data from 1980 to 2022.

Findings

Mortgage finance and economic growth have a significant positive long-run effect on residential property prices. The consumer price index, the inflation targeting framework, interest rates and exchange rates have a significant negative long-run effect on residential property prices. The Granger causality test has depicted that exchange rate significantly influences residential property prices in the short run, and interest rates, inflation targeting framework, gross domestic product, money supply consumer price index and exchange rate can quickly return to equilibrium when they are in disequilibrium.

Originality/value

There are limited arguments whether the inflation targeting monetary policy framework in South Africa has prevented residential property market boom and bust scenarios. The study has found that the implementation of inflation targeting framework has successfully reduced booms in residential property prices in South Africa.

Details

International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, vol. 17 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8270

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 26 March 2024

Thembekile Debora Sepeng, Ann Lourens, Karl Van der Merwe and Robert Gerber

The purpose of this paper is to show that third-party quality audits (TPQAs) facilitate performance improvement and give confidence to organisations concerning the process quality…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show that third-party quality audits (TPQAs) facilitate performance improvement and give confidence to organisations concerning the process quality of services and products. However, because of inconsistencies and unethical practices often observed in the industry, organisations question the significance of TPQA. A perception exists that its initial purpose as an impartial tool ensuring quality of deliverables is no longer upheld. Hence, the need to determine and explain the influence of the ISO 19011 standard interpretation on the application of the audit guidelines in performing TPQA, to promote consistency in the audit process.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employed document analysis of the ISO 19011 standard, followed by semi-structured interviews with certification managers (CBs) to gain insight related to their interpretation and application of the ISO 19011 guidelines.

Findings

The CBs interpret the ISO 19011 guidelines differently; hence, their application of the standard to compile their audit documents differ. Adherence to the principles of auditing particularly, integrity and independence were found as the core of the audit process while their disregard reflects failure of the real intent of auditing. The inconsistencies in the audit procedures and documents developed for auditors are ascribed to some CBs’ personal interpretations.

Originality/value

The study explores how the different interpretations of the ISO 19011 standard prevail and are perceived by the CBs and auditors. The findings aim to support standardisation and reduce the variations across and amongst the different CBs and auditors.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2024

Barbara Czarniawska

This paper argues for an increased volume of references to Gabriel Tarde and Georg Simmel in the field of organization sociology. The text emphasizes the importance of these two…

Abstract

This paper argues for an increased volume of references to Gabriel Tarde and Georg Simmel in the field of organization sociology. The text emphasizes the importance of these two sociologists in understanding the role of imperfection in organizing and the phenomena of fashion and imitation in contemporary organizations. Tarde’s theory challenged the antinomy between continuity and discontinuity, considering finite entities as cases of infinite processes and stable situations as transitory. Simmel’s theory of fashion explores the democratic and democratizing nature of fashion, which satisfies the demand for social adaptation and differentiation. They both saw fashion as a selection mechanism for organizational forms and managerial practices. Furthermore, referring to Tarde and Simmel can help counter the overemphasis on identity construction and the neglect of alterity in social sciences. The construction of identity often overlooks the inevitability of difference and alterity, which are essential aspects of collective projects. Lastly, this paper discusses Simmel’s concept of the stranger and its relevance in analyzing the experiences of foreigners and their potential advantages as “double strangers” in academia and society. The conclusion is that Tarde and Simmel’s contributions offer valuable insights for understanding the dynamics of management, organizing, and social interactions in contemporary organizations.

Details

Sociological Thinking in Contemporary Organizational Scholarship
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83549-588-9

Keywords

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