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Studies on developed economies showed that imposing taxes on animal-based foods could effectively reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (AGHGEs), while this taxation may not be appropriate in developing countries due to the complex nutritional status across income classes. Hence, this study aims to explore optimal tax rate levels considering both emission reduction and nutrient intake, and examine the heterogenous effects of taxation across various income classes in urban and rural China.

The authors estimated the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System model to calculate the price elasticities for eight food groups, and performed three simulations to explore the relative optimal tax regions via the relationships between effective animal protein intake loss and AGHGE reduction by taxes.

The results showed that the optimal tax rate bands can be found, depending on the reference levels of animal protein intake. Designing taxes on beef, mutton and pork could be a preliminary option for reducing AGHGEs in China, but subsidy policy should be designed for low-income populations at the same time. Generally, urban residents have more potential to reduce AGHGEs than rural residents, and higher income classes reduce more AGHGEs than lower income classes.

This study fills the gap in the literature by developing the methods to design taxes on animal-based foods from the perspectives of both nutrient intake and emission reduction. This methodology can also be applied to analyze food taxes and GHGE issues in other developing countries.

Product returns are a major challenge for e-businesses as they involve huge logistical and operational costs. Therefore, it becomes crucial to predict returns in advance. This study aims to evaluate different genres of classifiers for product return chance prediction, and further optimizes the best performing model.

An e-commerce data set having categorical type attributes has been used for this study. Feature selection based on chi-square provides a selective features-set which is used as inputs for model building. Predictive models are attempted using individual classifiers, ensemble models and deep neural networks. For performance evaluation, 75:25 train/test split and 10-fold cross-validation strategies are used. To improve the predictability of the best performing classifier, hyperparameter tuning is performed using different optimization methods such as, random search, grid search, Bayesian approach and evolutionary models (genetic algorithm, differential evolution and particle swarm optimization).

A comparison of F1-scores revealed that the Bayesian approach outperformed all other optimization approaches in terms of accuracy. The predictability of the Bayesian-optimized model is further compared with that of other classifiers using experimental analysis. The Bayesian-optimized XGBoost model possessed superior performance, with accuracies of 77.80% and 70.35% for holdout and 10-fold cross-validation methods, respectively.

Given the anonymized data, the effects of individual attributes on outcomes could not be investigated in detail. The Bayesian-optimized predictive model may be used in decision support systems, enabling real-time prediction of returns and the implementation of preventive measures.

There are very few reported studies on predicting the chance of order return in e-businesses. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to compare different optimization methods and classifiers, demonstrating the superiority of the Bayesian-optimized XGBoost classification model for returns prediction.

This study analyzes the performance implications of adopting blockchain to support supply chain business processes. The technology holds as many promises as implementation challenges, so interest in its impact on operational performance has grown steadily over the last few years.

Drawing on transaction cost economics and the contingency theory, we built a set of hypotheses. These were tested through a long-term event study and an ordinary least squares regression involving 130 adopters listed in North America.

Compared with the control sample, adopters displayed significant abnormal performance in terms of labor productivity, operating cycle and profitability, whereas sales appeared unaffected. Firms in regulated settings and closer to the end customer showed more positive effects. Neither industry-level competition nor the early involvement of a project partner emerged as relevant contextual factors.

This research presents the first extensive analysis of operational performance based on objective measures. In contrast to previous studies and theoretical predictions, the results indicate that blockchain adoption is not associated with sales improvement. This can be explained considering that secure data storage and sharing do not guarantee the factual credibility of recorded data, which needs to be proved to customers in alternative ways. Conversely, improvements in other operational performance dimensions confirm that blockchain can support inter-organizational transactions more efficiently. The results are relevant in times when, following hype, there are signs of disengagement with the technology.

This research examined the effect of information literacy (IL) on academic engagement (AE), cognitive engagement (CE) and academic performance among business students in Pakistan.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from business students, recruited through a proportionate stratified convenient sampling technique, of the top 13 business institutions in Pakistan. The questionnaire was personally administered by visiting each institution with permission for data collection. A total of 554 responses were received and analyzed using the partial least squire-structural equation modeling approach.

The results exhibited that these business students perceived themselves as information literate. Furthermore, IL of business students appeared to predict positively their AE, CE and academic performance.

These results provided empirical and pragmatic insights for business educators, business librarians and accreditation bodies about IL effectiveness in academia. These findings may also inform policy and practice for IL instruction programs being carried out in business-related educational institutions not only in Pakistan but also in other countries of South Asia as they share similar characteristics.

This research would be a great contribution to the existing literature on IL, especially in the academic context as the interrelationship between IL, AE, CE and academic performance has not been investigated so far.

Over the past century, office designers have adapted to changing work conditions across various industries by creating workspaces that cater to the needs of modern workers. As a result, a range of office layouts have been developed, from traditional private offices to open-plan setups. The choice of layout can significantly impact communication, social interaction and overall performance. This study aims to explore the social and mental well-being of employees working in open-plan offices in the public sector in South Africa.

The research was conducted in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa, focusing on five governmental departments. Using purposive sampling, employees working in open-plan offices were identified. A structured online interview form with open-ended questions was distributed to all selected employees between May and September 2021, resulting in 54 responses. Thematic content analysis using ATLAS.ti was used to analyze the data.

The findings suggest that while open-plan offices can enhance teamwork, communication, accessibility and inclusivity, their design can negatively affect employees’ perceptions of social and mental health in the workplace. Specifically, open-plan designs are perceived to compromise privacy, shorten attention spans, lower productivity and increase stress levels. Interestingly, absenteeism was not reported by employees in this study, which contradicts previous research and requires further investigation.

These findings can be valuable for human resource managers, facilities managers and office space designers.

This research contributes to the ongoing conversation surrounding the impact of open-plan offices on the mental and social well-being of employees in the public sector within the South African context. The contribution of this paper thus lies in the South-African context and the public sector angle plus a more in-depth insight on well-being through an extensive set of 54 interviews.

This study aims to explore the auditors’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt, with a focus on how their demographic characteristics – specifically gender, work experience and audit firm size – affect their ability to identify key audit matters (KAMs).

The study used exploratory factor analysis to develop an index for evaluating auditors’ proficiency in distinguishing KAMs from non-KAMs, followed by multivariate regression analysis to analyze the impact of auditors’ demographics on this ability.

The study’s findings are significant as they highlight the influence of auditors’ gender and work experience on their capability to correctly classify KAMs. However, the size of the audit firm showed no significant effect on the auditors’ decision-making efficacy in identifying KAMs.

While the study illuminates critical aspects of audit judgment during unprecedented times, it acknowledges limitations, including its geographical focus on Egypt and reliance on self-reported data. The implications stress the need for audit firms and regulators to consider auditors’ demographic characteristics when formulating policies to enhance audit quality and reliability during crises.

This research breaks new ground in the auditing literature by shedding light on the distinct role of auditor demographics in shaping audit opinion during crises. It is one of the pioneering studies to quantitatively assess the impact of auditors’ gender, experience and firm size on KAM identification in a global health crisis. It provides a unique perspective on audit practices in emerging economies.

Today’s competitive business world presents unanticipated challenges to enterprises worldwide. So, the well-being of the employees may be a sustained competitive edge for corporations in improving employee performance. Positive psychology served as the foundation for this study, investigating the interplay between employee well-being and task performance by incorporating organizational-specific factors like organizational virtuousness (OV) and individual-specific factors such as Psychological Capital (PsyCap).

In total, 639 dyadic responses were gathered from the banking sector, encompassing employees in both private and public banks in India, along with their immediate supervisors. The hypotheses were subsequently examined by applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).

OV and PsyCap are considerably associated with the well-being of employees and task performance, according to the findings. Employee well-being mediates the relationships between the perceptions of Organizational Virtuousness (OV) and task performance, as well as between PsyCap and task performance.

The intense competition and series of scandals in Indian banks urge the introduction of some behavioral precautionary measures. Banks need to understand and intervene in positive organizational behavior and help the employees build strong PsyCap to enhance their well-being and task performance to gain a competitive edge.

The present study integrated Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) and Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) to enhance work performance.

Pre-pandemic research demonstrated the challenges of the nursing workforce and the provision of quality of patient care. Such challenges have been significantly intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, not least in the workplace and fear of staff catching and transmitting COVID-19. We draw on conservation of resources (COR) theory to examine the impact of the fear of COVID-19 on nurses and the role of well-being-HRM (WBHRM) in negating the fear of COVID-19 and its impact on job stress and perceived quality of patient care.

We collected data from 260 nurses (treating COVID-19 patients) employed in US hospitals across two-waves. Data were analyzed using mediated regression and moderated mediation.

The results indicated that when nurses report higher levels of fear of COVID-19, this translates into higher levels of nursing job stress. This, in turn, reduces nurses’ perceptions of quality of patient care they can provide. As previous research has found, decreased perceptions of quality of patient care is a significant factor driving intentions to leave the profession. The results demonstrated that WBHRM practices buffer the negative impact of fear of COVID-19 on job stress, and in turn, the perceived quality of patient care.

Our paper contributes to new knowledge for healthcare managers on WBHRM bundles and their efficacy in buffering the effects of fear on job stress and quality of patient care. We contribute new knowledge on fear at work and how to manage employees’ fear through WBHRM practices.

Taking the subordinates’ perspective, this paper aims to explore the supervisor-subordinate relationships and how daily interactions, personal ties and connections with the supervisors contribute more significantly, positively or negatively, to the subordinates’ well-being.

This exploratory study is based on the thematic analysis of data collected from two rounds of in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 participants in a Portuguese utility company.

The subordinates’ perceptions of the nature and quality of their relationships with supervisors were found to have considerable effects on well-being. Positive effects were identified when subordinates feel emotionally supported and believe that supervisors truly care about them and are genuinely willing to listen to their concerns, but the most significant effects on the subordinates’ well-being are produced when the perceived authenticity of the supervisor allows the relationship to evolve into a state of relational closeness, and the subordinates connect with the person-as-real, the human being behind the mask who is playing the supervisory role. These findings reflect features of the cultural setting where the study was conducted.

The study provides evidence to support the argument that a better understanding of supervisor-subordinate relationships and their effects on well-being requires an integrated approach that considers the valuable contributions of different literatures and theoretical frameworks and the multiple dimensions of that relationship, including personal and non-work dimensions. This approach is particularly relevant in cultural contexts where these dimensions might play a critical role in work relations.

Tomando la perspectiva de los subordinados, el artículo explora las relaciones supervisor-subordinado y cómo las interacciones diarias, los vínculos personales y las conexiones con los supervisores contribuyen de manera más significativa, positiva o negativamente, al bienestar de los subordinados.

Este estudio exploratorio se basa en el análisis temático de los datos recopilados en dos rondas de entrevistas semiestructuradas en profundidad con veintiún participantes en una empresa de servicios públicos portuguesa.

Se encontró que las percepciones de los subordinados sobre la naturaleza y calidad de sus relaciones con los supervisores tienen efectos considerables en el bienestar. Se identificaron efectos positivos cuando los subordinados se sienten apoyados emocionalmente por los supervisores y creen que realmente se preocupan con elles y están genuinamente dispuestos a escuchar sus preocupaciones. Los efectos más significativos en el bienestar de los subordinados se producen cuando la autenticidad percibida de los supervisores permite que la relación evolucione hacia un estado de cercanía relacional, y los subordinados se conectan con la persona real, el ser humano detrás de la máscara, que es el supervisor.

Este estudio proporciona evidencia que respalda la idea de que una mejor comprensión de las relaciones supervisor-subordinado y sus efectos en el bienestar requiere un enfoque integrado que tenga en cuenta las valiosas contribuciones de diferentes literaturas y marcos teóricos y las múltiples dimensiones de esa relación, incluidas las dimensiones personales y no laborales, para dar sentido a las relaciones supervisor-subordinado en contextos culturales donde podrían desempeñar un papel fundamental.

A partir da perspectiva dos subordinados, o artigo explora as relações supervisor-subordinado e como as interações diárias, os laços pessoais e as ligações com os supervisores contribuem de forma mais significativa, positiva ou negativamente, para o bem-estar dos subordinados.

Este estudo exploratório baseia-se na aplicação da análise temática aos dados recolhidos em duas rondas de entrevistas semiestruturadas e em profundidade a vinte e um participantes, em exercício de funções em empresa portuguesa de serviços públicos.

Os dados recolhidos permitem concluir que as percepções dos subordinados sobre a natureza e a qualidade das suas relações com os supervisores têm efeitos consideráveis no bem-estar. Foram identificados efeitos positivos quando os subordinados sentem que os supervisores os apoiam emocionalmente e realmente se preocupam com os subordinados e estão genuinamente dispostos a ouvir as suas preocupações. Os efeitos mais significativos no bem-estar são obtidos quando dos subordinados percepcionam a autenticidade do supervisor, permitindo que o relacionamento evolua para um estado de proximidade relacional, e os subordinados se conectam com a pessoa real, o ser humano por detrás da máscara: o supervisor.

O estudo fornece evidência que permite sustentar o argumento segundo o qual uma melhor compreensão das relações supervisor-subordinado e dos seus efeitos no bem-estar exige uma abordagem integrada que tenha em conta as contribuições valiosas de diferentes literaturas e quadros teóricos e as múltiplas dimensões da relação supervisor-subordinado, incluindo a dimensão pessoal e não profissional, particularmente relevantes em contextos culturais em que estas podem desempenhar um papel crítico.