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The technology adoption propensity (TAP) index is a parsimonious yet robust tool for measuring an individual’s willingness to accept new technologies. However, further investigation is still needed to evaluate its merits in non-Western countries. With this task in mind, this study assesses the psychometric properties and predictive capabilities of TAP in Turkey.

The researchers utilized an iterative process of forward-backward translation and three rounds of piloting to ensure the cross-cultural, conceptual and linguistic equivalence for the chosen tool. The final survey was conducted online on a convenience sample of 352 academics and in person for 2 other convenience samples that comprised a total of 259 municipal officers and 300 individuals.

TAP’s four-subscale structure was confirmed by a principal component analysis (PCA), and A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed an acceptable fit across all samples. The total composition of the optimism, proficiency, dependence and vulnerability subscales was found to have adequate internal consistency and discriminant validity. Measurement invariance testing further demonstrated that TAP’s factorial organization was invariant across gender, age and income at configural, metric, scalar and strict levels. Finally, logistic and ordinary leas squares (OLS) regression analyses revealed that the TAP scores were predictive of prior technology adoption and use frequency.

Although these results are still preliminary, the confirmation and replication of TAP in Turkey clearly suggest that TAP is a dependable tool for assessing technology readiness that can be utilized well across different cultures.

This paper investigates the degree of competitiveness within the Turkish cement industry, employing firm-level quarterly data spanning from 2008 to 2016.

To assess the level and trajectory of competition among Turkish cement firms, we employ the Boone indicator (β) as formulated by Boone (2008). This indicator, rooted in the concept of relative profit differences (RPD), serves as a robust metric for gauging competitive dynamics. According to the ß indicator, firms exhibiting higher relative efficiency are expected to secure greater profits and market shares in a fiercely competitive market. Additionally, we utilize concentration indices for the purpose of revealing comparable findings.

Empirical findings reveal that an enhancement in firms' efficiency corresponds to a proportionally modest increase in either market share or profits, implying a lower degree of competition within the Turkish cement industry. Although the specific magnitudes of ß estimates exhibit temporal fluctuations, we may conclude that the Turkish cement industry does not conform to the ideals of perfect competition. The concentration indices calculated on the sample also support this result.

This research is limited to the Turkish cement companies over the period 2008–2016.

The studies measuring the level of competition in the Turkish cement sector are generally based on concentration ratios. In this study, we assess the competition level by using a different methodology based on parametric procedures.

Changes are required to improve the performance of Sharia banking in Indonesia. Using dynamic capability theory, this study aims to analyze organizational learning, change process and change context (OCC) in Bank Syariah Indonesia as influenced by market orientation (competitor and customer orientation) and moderated by religiosity and its impact on organizational performance (Maqashid Sharia) using a multilevel perspective.

To test the hypothesis, this research surveyed by distributing online questionnaires to managers and employees at 62 branch offices of Bank Syariah, the largest Sharia bank in Indonesia. Data processing involved multilevel structural equational modeling with Mplus analysis software.

Market orientation determines an organization’s ability to change significantly, which leads to organizational performance being significantly moderated by religiosity. In OCC, organizational learning influences change context through change processes, ultimately influencing organizational performance (Maqashid Sharia).

This research used a multilevel perspective by combining market orientation and OCC variables moderated by religiosity and its impact on Maqashid Sharia. This study was conducted at the largest Sharia bank in Indonesia, Bank Syariah Indonesia.

This paper aims to focuses on by investigate the heat transmission and free convective flow of a suspension of nano encapsulated phase change materials (NEPCMs) within an enclosure. Particles of NEPCM have a core-shell structure, with phase change material (PCM) serving as the core.

The enclosure consists of a square chamber with an insulated wall on top and bottom and vertical walls that are differently heated. The governing equations are investigated using the finite element technique. A grid inspection and validation test are done to confirm the precision of the results.

The effects of fusion temperature (varying from 0.1 to 0.9), Stefan number (changing from 0.2 to 0.7), Rayleigh number (varying from 10³ to 10⁶) and volume fraction of NEPCM nanoparticles (changing from 0 to 0.05) on the streamlines, isotherms, heat capacity ratio and average Nusselt number are investigated using graphs and tables. From this investigation, it is found that using a NEPCM nano suspension results in a significant enhancement in heat transfer compared to pure fluid. This augmentation becomes more important for the low Stefan number, which is around 16.57% approximately at 0.2. Secondary recirculation is formed near the upper left corner as a result of non-uniform heating of the left vertical border. This eddy expands notably as the Rayleigh number rises. The study findings indicate that the NEPCM nanosuspension has the potential to act as a smart working fluid, significantly enhancing average Nusselt numbers in enclosed chambers.

The NEPCM particle consists of a core (n-octadecane, a phase-change material) and a shell (PMMA, an encapsulation material). The host fluid water and the NEPCM particles are considered to form a dilute suspension.

Using NEPCMs in energy storage thermal systems show potential for improving heat transfer efficiency in several engineering applications. NEPCMs merge the beneficial characteristics of PCMs with the enhanced thermal conductivity of nanoparticles, providing a flexible alternative for effective thermal energy storage and control.

This paper aims to explore the free convective flow and heat transmission of NEPCM water-type nanofluid in a square chamber with an insulated top boundary, a uniformly heated bottom boundary, a cooled right boundary and a non-uniformly heated left boundary.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate mobile apps developed to prevent food waste from the perspective of responsible production and consumption.

The study employs qualitative methods, and the dataset consists of the 1,382 content and online reviews and comments for 11 mobile apps in addition to 30 in-depth interviews conducted with consumers and restaurant managers/owners using the apps.

Mobile apps are proving to be popular with people, inviting users to fight food waste in a sustainable and responsible way. While users' main motivations for becoming food waste fighters are responsibility, positive emotions and economic sensitivity, restaurants' motivations are different, such as social responsibility, innovative business models, attracting new customers and cost orientation.

Creating digital value and contributing significantly to sustainability in the food industry, mobile apps offer different opportunities to the market. By supporting and encouraging the use of these apps, businesses can reduce food waste, prevent financial losses and offer consumers more choice and variety.

The present study aims to address this lack of empirical research based on a holistic perspective by providing a multidimensional assessment. Such an approach should contribute to a thorough understanding of the motivations that drive users and restaurants to become food waste fighters.

Although cloud storage services can bring users valuable convenience, they can be technically complex and intrinsically insecure. Therefore, this research explores the concerns of academic users regarding cloud security and technical issues and how such problems may influence their continuous use in daily life.

This qualitative study used a semi-structured interview approach comprising six main open-ended questions to explore the information security and technical issues for the continuous use of cloud storage services by 20 undergraduate students in Hong Kong.

The analysis revealed cloud storage service users' major security and technical concerns, particularly synchronization and backup issues, were the most significant technical barrier to the continuing personal use of cloud storage services.

Existing literature has focused on how cloud computing services could bring benefits and security and privacy-related risks to organizations rather than security and technical issues of personal use, especially in the Asian academic context.

This study identifies benefits and challenges of PL partnerships, and recommendations to improve the PL partnership process.

Qualitative data was collected via semi-structured interviews (n = 8) with Irish PL retail buyers (n = 4) and producers (n = 4). Data was coded and thematically analysed.

Three key themes were identified. Theme 1 provides an overview of the benefits of PL partnerships for producers (e.g. volume driven orders, increased efficiencies) and for retailers (e.g. unique products, meeting consumer demand). Theme 2 presents challenges of PL partnerships specific to small and large producers (e.g. small producers may need significant investment to upgrade facilities, while larger producers may require significant volume to justify adaptation of production lines). Challenges common to both (e.g. risks related to short-term contracts, concerns about brand identity) are also discussed. Theme 3 summarised recommendations for successful PL partnerships generally (e.g. setting clear expectations and goals, building rapport and trust), and recommendations specific to producers and buyers specifically (e.g. producers should diversify customers to reduce risk, and retailers should communicate needs and direction).

There is currently limited research on PL partnerships between producers and retailers. This study addresses this gap by identifying key aspects for producers to consider when entering PL partnerships and key aspects for retailers to be aware of to help improve the attractiveness and success of these partnerships.

This study investigates the determinants of net interest margin (NIM) and tests the decoupling hypothesis in Turkey's Islamic and conventional banks.

This study has employed a panel quantile model (PQM) to assess the net interest margin (NIM) and test the decoupling hypothesis in the dual banking system of Turkey.

The empirical results show that the impact of equity is positive for both Islamic and conventional banks but relatively more robust for Islamic banks. Moreover, it is observed that return on assets has a positive association with NIM in both types of banking systems. Interestingly, the impact increases from lower to higher quantiles, but a higher acceleration rate is observed for Islamic banks. The study also finds that, as bank stability increases, NIM decreases for both groups of banks but more stably for Islamic banks, resulting in lower margins than conventional banks. Thus, the paper confirms the decoupling hypothesis and suggests that, to increase profit margins, Islamic banks need to increase assets and equity.

The paper confirms the decoupling hypothesis and suggests that to increase profit margin, Islamic banks need to increase assets and equity.

Since both equity and assets contribute positively to interest margins, policymakers in the industry need to increase the size of equity and assets to get maximum returns.

This is one of the first studies to investigate NIM's determinants and test the decoupling hypothesis in the Turkish dual banking system using a non-parametric MCMC panel quantile regression (QRM) model.

The performance of solid fins inside a differentially heated cubical cavity is numerically studied in this paper. The main purpose of the study is to make an optimization to reach the maximum heat transfer in the enclosure having the solid fins with studied parameters.

The considered domain of interest is a differentially heated cube having heat-conducting solid fins placed on the heated wall while an opposite wall is a cooled one. Other walls are adiabatic. Governing equations describing natural convection in the fluid filled cube and heat conduction in solid fins have been written using non-dimensional variables such velocity and vorticity taking into account the Boussinesq approximation for the buoyancy force and ideal solid/fluid interfaces between solid fins and fluid. The formulated equations with appropriate initial and boundary conditions have been solved by the finite difference method of the second of accuracy. The developed in-house computational code has been validated using the mesh sensitivity analysis and numerical data of other authors. Analysis has been performed in a wide range of key parameters such as Rayleigh number (Ra = 10⁴–10⁶), non-dimensional fins length (l = 0.2–0.8), non-dimensional location of fins (d = 0.2–0.6) and number of fins (n = 1–3).

From numerical methods point of view the used non-primitive variables allows to perform numerical simulation of convective heat transfer in three-dimensional (3D) regions with two advantages, namely, excluding difficulties that can be found using vector potential functions and reducing the computational time compared to primitive variables and SIMPLE-like algorithms. From a physical point of view, it has been shown that using solid fins can intensify the heat transfer performance compared to cavities without any fins. Fins located close to the bottom wall of the cavity have a better heat transfer rate than those placed close to the upper cavity surface. At high Rayleigh numbers, increasing the fins length beyond 0.6 leads to a reduction of the average Nusselt number, and one solid fin can be used to intensify the heat transfer.

The present numerical study is based on hybrid approach for numerical analysis of convective heat transfer using velocity and vorticity that has some mentioned advantages. Obtained results allow intensifying the heat transfer using solid fins in 3D chambers with appropriate location and length.

This study aims to operationalize consumer decision-making styles as higher-order constructs and investigates the influence of two distinct subdimensions of consumer vanity – namely, appearance vanity and achievement vanity – on consumer decision-making orientations (CDMO).

Using data from an online survey of 319 young adults, the authors construct a higher-order structural model capturing the following three orientations: social/conspicuous, utilitarian and undesirable. The partial least squares structural equation modeling approach was used to test the validity of the higher-order structural model and the hypothesized relationships.

Results, confirming the higher-order structure of consumer decision-making styles, highlight the distinctive impacts of the vanity dimensions on different CDMOs. Specifically, appearance vanity predominantly affects social and undesirable orientations, and achievement vanity influences utilitarian orientation.

While several theoretical classifications of consumer decision-making styles have been proposed in the past, none of the earlier studies leveraged those classifications as higher-order models. Addressing this literature gap, this study provides empirical evidence associating CDMOs with a specific consumer trait – vanity – thereby validating the higher-order nature of consumer decision-making styles.