Search results

This study aims to investigate the relationship between geopolitical risk (GPR) and gold price bubbles to determine whether rising GPR can drive deviations in the fundamental value of gold, thus leading to speculative bubbles.

Using a data set that spans from January 2002 to December 2023 and covers both GPR data and gold price data, this study applies the log-periodic power law singularity (LPPLS) model to identify gold price bubbles. The analysis explores the effects of GPR and its sub-indices – geopolitical risk–acts (GPRA) and geopolitical risk–threats (GPRT) – on gold price bubbles. The causal relationships are examined through logistic regression, Tobit modelling and machine learning, with a focus on different countries, including major gold producers and consumers.

The results indicate a significant relationship between GPR and gold price bubbles, particularly with GPRA, which exerts a stronger influence than GPRT does. Peaks in GPR often align with the formation of gold price bubbles, both positive and negative. Additionally, geopolitical instability in Russia has a significant effect on US gold price bubbles.

The findings provide valuable insights for investors and policymakers by emphasizing the importance of GPR in shaping gold price dynamics. Investors are advised to consider the nuanced roles of GPRA and GPRT when using gold as a hedge during periods of heightened geopolitical tension.

Understanding the role of GPR in gold price bubbles can help mitigate the financial risk associated with speculative bubbles, thereby offering a better framework for managing assets during geopolitical crises.

This study extends existing research by directly linking GPR with gold price bubbles via the LPPLS model, with a novel emphasis on the differentiation between GPRA and GPRT, providing new perspectives on the safe-haven role of gold during geopolitical uncertainty.

Although the financial shared service (FSS) mode has become a well-established organizational arrangement, current information system (IS) research remains limited and mixed. The purpose of this study is to narrow research gaps in the literature on shared services from an FSS practice perspective. The following research questions guide this study: (1) what are the important antecedents of FSS implementation? (2) what is the impact of FSS implementation on firm performance?

Drawing on the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework and previous innovation studies, this study explores the impact of FSS implementation on firm performance. A questionnaire survey was conducted on Chinese firms using partial least squares (PLS) for data analysis.

The authors find technological, organizational and environmental factors affect the extent and depth of FSS implementation. The empirical results show that relative advantage, compatibility, top management support, managerial obstacles and competitive pressure significantly affect FSS implementation, but bandwagon pressure does not have a direct impact on it. Top management support is the most important factor, and managerial obstacles and compatibility are controllable and manageable factors for firms. The study confirms that FSS improves the financial and non-financial performance of firms significantly, and the degree of improvement in non-financial is greater than that in financial performance.

A comprehension of the key factors influencing FSS implementation will help companies predict weaknesses in their implementation plan and design suitable strategies to handle deployment to achieve these benefits. Managers can make a comprehensive decision regarding the long-term development of combining FSS and the suitability of companies.

The findings contribute to the shared services implementation theory by identifying a set of theoretical factors that shape a firm's shared service implementation. This study provides empirical support to gauge the impact of FSS implementation on firm performance and provides new evidence for a shared-service payoff study. Moreover, the study extends the applicability of the TOE framework and the balanced scorecard (BSC) viewpoint to the FSS implementation field.

This paper aims to develop carbon dots using whey as a valuable resource and to create a sustainable and biocompatible nanomaterial with potential applications in a variety of fields owing to its unique optical properties and antimicrobial capabilities, which are frequently used as sensing agents for detecting specific molecules in food, environmental and biomedical applications. Versatility of carbon dots (CDs) allows the utilization of these dots for a wide range of applications in areas such as food safety, antibacterial properties, production of composite polymers for food packaging, treatment of different diseases and detection of food-borne pathogens. Owing to their high brightness, low toxicity and excellent biocompatibility, CDs have attracted significant interest in food safety. This is also a cutting-edge technology that bids new ideas for treating various diseases.

Literature review related to using whey as the carbon source for synthesis of CDs was collected and studied from different sources like Google Scholar, Research Gate, online journals available at library of Banaras Hindu University, Web of Science and Scopus. A database of more than 100 scientific sources from different sources was made as per the headings and sub headings of the paper.

Whey generated as a by-product from the cheese industry contained a good amount of carbon and nitrogen that can be used for the fabrication of CDs. CDs produced using whey exhibited great photostability, high sensitivity and outstanding biocompatibility and also showed that Fe3+ ions could be quickly, sensitively and extremely selectively detected in an aqueous solution of CDs, with a revealing limit of 0.409 µM in the linear range of 0–180 µM. CDs are a promising area of study to a key component of next-generation multifunctional nanomaterials, promoting creativity, sustainability and useful solutions across a variety of industries, including health care and energy. The susceptibility of S. typhimurium (Gram-negative) was found to be higher than that of L. monocytogenes (Gram-positive) bacteria with MIC and MBC of 500  and 1000 µL/mL, respectively.

Whey-derived CDs are an environmentally beneficial substitute for conventional additives and their biocompatibility guarantees that they adhere to food safety regulations. In light of the future, the green volarization of dairy waste for the synthesis of CDs is consistent with the increasing worldwide focus on environmental responsibility and sustainability.

BIM technology has a huge potential for improving the renovation efficiency for as-built buildings. However, due to the absence of raw design drawings and the complex interior environment, it is difficult to implement 3D reconstruction of building interiors in interior renovation projects. Therefore, this study proposes a 3D reconstruction framework of building interiors, with an aim to generate building interiors building information modeling (BIM) models quickly and accurately based on scan-to-BIM and generative design.

The proposed framework begins by reconstructing interior structured elements based on the scan-to-BIM process including collecting accurate information of as-built buildings by laser scanning, obtaining point clouds of structured elements through deep learning and developing an efficient dynamo algorithm workflow for generating structured elements BIM model. For unstructured elements, intelligent layout design and efficient BIM generation are conducted by combining the BIM tools and generative design.

The successful implementation of the proposed framework in a conference room demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed framework. The semantic segmentation scheme based on deep learning also exhibited excellent recognition and high efficiency for interior structured elements. Furthermore, it is proved that the combination of scan-to-BIM and generative design has high application value in the 3D reconstruction of building interiors.

On one hand, a feasible framework is proposed to generate BIM model of building interiors, improve interoperability among different software tools, streamline the complexity of the scan-to-BIM process and meet the reconfiguration requirement of unstructured elements layout scheme in interior renovation projects. On the other hand, the use of BIM and various emerging technologies can drive digital transformation and further advance the industrialization process of interior renovation in as-built buildings.

This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the interdisciplinary literature on drones in last-mile delivery (LMD) to extrapolate pertinent insights from and into the logistics management field.

Rooting their analytical categories in the LMD literature, the authors performed a deductive, theory refinement SLR on 307 interdisciplinary journal articles published during 2015–2022 to integrate this emergent phenomenon into the field.

The authors derived the potentials, challenges and solutions of drone deliveries in relation to 12 LMD criteria dispersed across four stakeholder groups: senders, receivers, regulators and societies. Relationships between these criteria were also identified.

This review contributes to logistics management by offering a current, nuanced and multifaceted discussion of drones' potential to improve the LMD process together with the challenges and solutions involved.

The authors provide logistics managers with a holistic roadmap to help them make informed decisions about adopting drones in their delivery systems. Regulators and society members also gain insights into the prospects, requirements and repercussions of drone deliveries.

This is one of the first SLRs on drone applications in LMD from a logistics management perspective.

This study aims to investigate the impact of sustainable supply chain practices on sustainability performance in North American and Canadian firms in a business-to-business (B2B) context, specifically focusing on the mediating role of emerging technologies. It aims to deepen the understanding of this complex relationship, contributing to both theoretical knowledge and practical applications.

This study collected data from supply chain managers in the USA and Canada using a mixed-methods approach that includes partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), necessary condition analysis (NCA) and importance-performance map analysis (IPMA). PLS-SEM was utilized to model the relationships between sustainable practices, emerging technologies and sustainability performance. NCA identified the essential conditions required for sustainability performance, while IPMA was used to assess the importance and performance of different constructs, helping to pinpoint areas where the managerial focus can yield the most significant improvements.

This study reveals that sustainable supply chain practices (SSCP) alone do not directly lead to enhanced sustainability performance. SSCP includes product design, procurement, investment recovery and social sustainability. Sustainability performance includes economic, environmental and social performance. Instead, adopting specific emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, wearable devices and virtual reality, is crucial. A significant threshold identified is these technologies’ 80% adoption rate for substantial performance improvements. Furthermore, this study distinguishes the varying impacts of different technologies on economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability.

This research offers new insights by showing that emerging technologies fully mediate the relationship between SSCP and performance. It expands on existing literature by detailing the specific impacts of various technologies, moving beyond the generalized approach seen in prior research. Specific impacts of emerging digital technologies on SSCP and performance remain underexplored in a B2B environment, and this research aims to address this gap.

In the brain imaging based on electrical impedance tomography, it is sometimes not able to attach 16 electrodes due to space restriction caused by craniotomy. As a result of this, the number of boundary measurements decreases, and spatial resolution of reconstructed conductivity distribution is reduced. The purpose of this study is to enhance reconstruction quality in cases of limited measurement.

A new data expansion method based on the shallow convolutional neural network is proposed. An eight-electrode model is built from which fewer boundary measurements can be obtained. To improve the imaging quality, shallow convolutional neural network is constructed which maps limited voltage data of the 8-electrode model to expanded voltage data of a quasi-16-electrode model. The predicted data is compared with the quasi-16-electrode data. Besides, image reconstruction based on L1 regularization method is conducted.

The results show that the predicted data generally coincides with the quasi-16-electrode data. It is found that images reconstructed with the data of eight-electrode model are the poorest. Nevertheless, imaging results when the limited data is expanded by the proposed method show large improvement, and there is a minor difference with the images recovered with the quasi-16-electrode data. Also, the impact of noise is studied, which shows that the proposed method is robust to noise.

To enhance reconstruction quality in the case of limited measurement, a new data expansion method based on the shallow convolutional neural network is proposed. Both simulation work and phantom experiments have demonstrated that high-quality images of cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral ischemia can be obtained when the limited measurement is expanded by the proposed method.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of corporate governance structure corporate governance on a firm’s performance in the Palestinian business environment between 2016 and 2023. The specific environment of the developing Palestinian economy is the main motivation and emphasis of this investigation.

Data were gathered from 49 financial and non-financial firms listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange between 2016 and 2023. While the random and fixed effects estimates were utilized to be the most suitable for this particular investigation, they were used to undertake the data analysis procedure. The study employed two-stage least squares (2SLS) to assess the robustness and correctness of data to bolster the findings and subsequent implications.

The findings show that the return on equity, a measure of corporate performance, was positively but not significantly impacted by the presence of women on the executive boards of Palestinian companies. This suggests that the variable in question had no bearing on the success of the firms. In terms of moderating influence, corporate governance structure had no bearing on the link between dual chief executives, institution ownership, government ownership, independent directors and firm performance. Family ownership and board size had negative, significant impacts on performance.

The research limitations of this study are that it focuses exclusively on manufacturing firms listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX) over a seven-year period, which limits its generalizability to other industries and regions. Furthermore, due to a lack of data, the model did not account for global diversity on boards of directors.

The findings of this research help managers understand how management structures impact business success and provide regulatory authorities with insights into gender diversity and corporate governance legislation in Palestine. It suggests enhancing company performance, competitiveness and capital acquisition by improving governance information quality, building investor confidence, raising standards and reforming governance systems.

This study contributes to the literature by enhancing the understanding of how corporate governance and gender diversity affect the financial performance of listed firms, addressing a research gap in the Palestinian market. It is one of the few studies examining company performance during political turmoil, specifically focusing on the increased role of women on Palestinian boards.

This study aims to investigate the effects of board cultural diversity (BCD) and board gender diversity (BGD) of the board of directors on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the European banking sector using resource-based view (RBV) theory. In addition, this study analyses the linkages between BCD and BGD and knowledge sharing on the board of directors to improve ESG performance.

This study selected a sample of European-listed banks covering the period 2021. ESG and diversity variables were collected from Refinitiv Eikon and analysed using the ordinary least squares model. This study was conducted in the European context regulated by Directive 95/2014/EU, which requires sustainability disclosure. The original population was represented by 250 banks; after missing data were excluded, the final sample comprised 96 European-listed banks.

The findings highlight the positive linkages between BGD, BCD and ESG scores in the European banking sector. In addition, the findings highlight that diversity contributes to knowledge sharing by improving ESG performance in a regulated sector. Nonetheless, the combined effect of BGD and BCD negatively impacts ESG performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to measure and analyse a regulated sector, such as banking, and the relationship between cultural and gender diversity for sharing knowledge under the RBV theory lens in the ESG framework.

Despite the growing interest in bibliometric studies within tourism management, there remains a gap in understanding the current research trends within the domain of tourism supply chain management (SCM). Therefore, this study aims to examine the publication trends, identify the most active stakeholders and highlight the most influential publications and major themes in the field of tourism SCM during the period 2001–2023. The main results reveal several themes, including “exploring inclusive growth and poverty reduction through tourism supply chain and value chain analysis,” “sustainable SCM and competition in tourism: a tour operator’s perspective,” “tourism SCM in different facets,” and “sustainability and information technology in tourism SCM.” Additional themes include “competitive strategies and medical tourism SCM,” “culinary tourism and performance measurement in tourism value chains,” and “performance measurement in tourism SCM”.