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1 – 10 of 92Zengxian Liang, Hui Luo and Chenxi Liu
The subject of “well-being” has attracted attention from tourism scholars, but differences and misuses in approach have meant that academic contributions and knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
The subject of “well-being” has attracted attention from tourism scholars, but differences and misuses in approach have meant that academic contributions and knowledge accumulation to the tourism literature remain relatively little. This paper attempts to clarify the theoretical source of subjective well-being, and critically reflect on the problems existing in the study of well-being when applied to tourism. It is suggested that subjective well-being belongs to the category of “quality of life” and has multiple philosophical foundations and theoretical sources including theories of hedonism, expectation, happiness and various itemised lists of emotions. A hybrid research method is suggested when applying the concept to tourism.
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Hui Zhang, Chao Zhang, Sufen Zhu, Feng Zhu and Yan Wen
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem which imposes a significant financial burden not only on patients but also on the healthcare systems, especially…
Abstract
Purpose
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem which imposes a significant financial burden not only on patients but also on the healthcare systems, especially under the pressure of the rapid growth of the elderly population in China. The purpose of this paper is to examine the hospitalization costs of patients with CKD between two urban health insurance schemes and investigate the factors that were associated with their inpatient costs in Guangzhou, China.
Design/methodology/approach
This was a prevalence-based, observational study using data derived from two insurance claims databases during the period from January 2010 to December 2012 in the largest city, Guangzhou in Southern China. The authors identified 5,803 hospitalizations under two urban health insurance schemes. An extension of generalized linear model – the extended estimating equations approach – was performed to identify the main drivers of total inpatient costs.
Findings
Among 5,803 inpatients with CKD, the mean age was 60.6. The average length of stay (LOS) was 14.4 days. The average hospitalization costs per inpatient were CNY15,517.7. The mean inpatient costs for patients with Urban Employee-based Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) scheme (CNY15,582.0) were higher than those under Urban Resident-based Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) scheme (CNY14,917.0). However, the percentage of out-of-pocket expenses for the UEBMI patients (19.8 percent) was only half of that for the URBMI patients (44.5 percent). Insurance type, age, comorbidities, dialysis therapies, severity of disease, LOS and hospital levels were significantly associated with hospitalization costs.
Originality/value
The costs of hospitalization for CKD were high and differed by types of insurance schemes. This was the first study to compare the differences in hospitalization costs of patients with CKD under two different urban insurance schemes in China. The findings of this study could provide economic evidence for understanding the burden of CKD and evaluating different treatment of CKD (dialysis therapy) in China. Such useful information could also be used by policy makers in health insurance program evaluation and health resources allocation.
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Peiqing Li, Taiping Yang, Hao Zhang, Lijun Wang and Qipeng Li
This paper aimed a fractional-order sliding mode-based lateral lane-change control method that was proposed to improve the path-tracking accuracy of vehicle lateral motion.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aimed a fractional-order sliding mode-based lateral lane-change control method that was proposed to improve the path-tracking accuracy of vehicle lateral motion.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper the vehicle presighting and kinematic models were established, and a new sliding mode control isokinetic convergence law was devised based on the fractional order calculus to make the front wheel turning angle approach the desired value quickly. On this basis, a fractional gradient descent algorithm was proposed to adjust the radial basis function (RBF) neuron parameter update rules to improve the compensation speed of the neural network.
Findings
The simulation results revealed that, compared to the traditional sliding mode control strategy, the designed controller eliminated the jitter of the sliding mode control, sped up the response of the controller, reduced the overshoot of the system parameters and facilitated accurate and fast tracking of the desired path when the vehicle changed lanes at low speeds.
Originality/value
This paper combines the idea of fractional order calculus with gradient descent algorithm, proposed a fractional-order gradient descent method applied to RBF neural network and fast adjustment the position and width of neurons.
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Hui Ma, Shenglan Chen, Xiaoling Liu and Pengcheng Wang
To enrich the research on the economic consequences of enterprise digital development from the perspective of capacity utilization.
Abstract
Purpose
To enrich the research on the economic consequences of enterprise digital development from the perspective of capacity utilization.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of listed firms from 2010 to 2020, this paper exploits text analysis of annual reports to construct a proxy for enterprise digital development.
Findings
Results show that enterprise digital development not only improves their own capacity utilization but also generates a positive spillover effect on the capacity utilization of peer firms and firms in the supply chain. Next, based on the incomplete information about market demand and potential competitors when making capacity-building decisions, the mechanism tests show that improving the accuracy of market forecasts and reducing investment surges are potential channels behind the baseline results. Cross-sectional tests show the baseline result is more pronounced when industries are highly homogeneous and when firms have access to less information.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the research related to the economic consequences of digital development. With the development of the digital economy, the real effects of enterprise digital development have also triggered extensive interest and exploration. Existing studies mainly examine the impact on physical operations, such as specialization division of labor, innovation activities, business performance or total factor productivity (Huang, Yu, & Zhang, 2019; Yuan, Xiao, Geng, & Sheng, 2021; Wang, Kuang, & Shao, 2017; Li, Liu, & Shao, 2021; Zhao, Wang, & Li, 2021). These studies measure the economic benefits from the perspective of the supply (output) side but neglect the importance of the supply system to adapt to the actual market demand. In contrast, this paper focuses on capacity utilization, aimed at estimating the net economic effect of digital development by considering the supply-demand fit scenario. Thus, our findings enrich the relevant studies on the potential consequences of digital development.
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Chuan-Chung Hsieh, Yu-Ran Chen and Hui-Chieh Li
This study examined the impact of school leadership on teacher professional collaboration, with collective teacher innovativeness and teacher self-efficacy (TSE) playing the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined the impact of school leadership on teacher professional collaboration, with collective teacher innovativeness and teacher self-efficacy (TSE) playing the mediating role. Two most commonly used leadership styles, instructional leadership (IL) and distributed leadership (DL), were analyzed using a multilevel design, i.e. teachers are nested within schools.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model was validated using data of Taiwan TALIS 2018 collected from both teachers and principals and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling.
Findings
Results showed that IL and DL influence teacher professional collaboration through different paths. IL had a significant direct impact on teacher professional collaboration alone, while DL had a significant direct impact on both teachers' collective innovativeness and their professional collaboration. While TSE had a direct effect on collective teacher innovativeness, TSE and collective teacher innovativeness had a direct effect on teacher professional collaboration.
Originality/value
This study highlights the significant impact of principal leadership as both principals and teachers work in the same environment and culture co-shaped through the interaction and collaboration. Research evidence regarding the effects of IL and DL on teacher professional collaboration is limited; this is even less evidential when the indirect effects of variables mediating between school leadership and teacher outcomes, including teacher collective innovativeness and TSE, are added to the total effects. The present findings provide useful references for principals and teachers when promoting professional collaboration to achieve desired outcomes in school and student improvement.
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Pushkar Dubey and Kailash Kumar Sahu
Providing quality education with the help of technologies in order to create global competitiveness among the students is the current trend in the education field. This research…
Abstract
Purpose
Providing quality education with the help of technologies in order to create global competitiveness among the students is the current trend in the education field. This research attempts to investigate following objectives: (1) the effect of students' perceived benefits and adoption intention of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) on their satisfaction; (2) the effect of students' perceived benefits of TEL on their adoption intention of TEL; (3) the mediating and moderating effect of students' perceived benefits of TEL in the link between students' adoption intention and satisfaction to TEL.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data were collected from 600 undergraduate and postgraduate students, particularly those who are using TEL for at least one year. The authors used purposive sampling technique with “criterion variable”.
Findings
Results indicated that students' perceived benefits and adoption intention of TEL have significant and positive influence on their satisfaction. Direct effect was also found between perceived benefits and adoption intention of students. Authors also concluded that mediating and moderating effect of students' perceived benefits of TEL in the link between students' adoption intention and satisfaction for TEL was found significant and positive.
Originality/value
There is a huge lack of empirical studies available in the knowledge domain explaining the significance and implication of TEL in higher education in the state of Chhattisgarh, India.
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Xiaogang Cao, Hui Wen and Bowei Cao
In this paper, the authors study the production and pricing decisions of a remanufacturing supply chain composed of a supplier, an assembler and a remanufacturer, in which the…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors study the production and pricing decisions of a remanufacturing supply chain composed of a supplier, an assembler and a remanufacturer, in which the remanufacturing of components requires patent licensing from the supplier.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors consider three different models with government subsidy for remanufacturing: (1) no government subsidies; (2) the government subsidizes the remanufacturing behavior of the supplier and (3) the government subsidizes the remanufacturing behavior of the remanufacturer and use the Stackelberg game model to solve and analyze the equilibrium wholesale prices of components and the equilibrium outputs of new and remanufactured products under three subsidy modes.
Findings
The results show that the equilibrium wholesale prices of two kinds of components decrease with the unit patent licensing fee and the unit government subsidy, and the equilibrium quantity of the remanufactured products under the three modes is obviously higher than that of the new products.
Originality/value
Finally through numerical simulation, it is found that the equilibrium profits of the supplier, the manufacturer and the supply chain increase monotonously in relation to the unit government subsidy, while the optimal profit of the assembler in relation to the unit government subsidy tends to decrease first and then increase.
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Tereza Jandásková, Tomas Hrdlicka, Martin Cupal, Petr Kleparnik, Milada Komosná and Marek Kervitcer
This study aims to provide a framework for assessing the technical condition of a house to determine its market value, including the identification of other price-setting factors…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a framework for assessing the technical condition of a house to determine its market value, including the identification of other price-setting factors and their statistical significance. Time on market (TOM) in relation to the technical condition of a house is also addressed.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary database contains 631 houses, and the initial asking price and selling price are examined. All the houses are located in the Brno–venkov district in the Czech Republic. Regression analysis was used to test the influence of price-setting factors. The standard ordinary least squares estimator and the maximum likelihood estimator were used in the frame of generalized linear models.
Findings
Using envelope components of houses separately, such as the façade condition, windows, roof, condition of interior and year of construction, brings better results than using a single factor for the technical condition. TOM was found to be 67 days lower for houses intended for demolition – as compared to new houses – and 18 days lower for houses to refurbishment.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original in the substitution of specific price-setting factors for factors relating to the technical condition of houses as well as in proposing the framework for professionals in the Czech Republic.
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Rolf Barlindhaug and Berit Irene Nordahl
This paper aims to investigate whether developers’ ask lower prices on homes in redevelopment sites than they do on similar units in smaller developments completed over a shorter…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether developers’ ask lower prices on homes in redevelopment sites than they do on similar units in smaller developments completed over a shorter time span. It also investigates whether developers price units differently at different stages of the redevelopment process. The development of designated redevelopment areas often consists of multiple projects spread across several years, some in parallel, some sequential. New units are put on the market in a piecemeal fashion, and infrastructure, shared green spaces and shared facilities are installed successively.
Design/methodology/approach
A hedonic price model is used to analyse sales prices of 7,000 new apartments in Oslo sold between 2011 and 2015, all else being equal. The paper distinguishes between infill as one-stage projects, and multi-staged competitive and multi-staged monopolistic redevelopments.
Findings
Dwellings in redevelopment projects sell at a lower price than similar dwellings in infill projects. In competitive redevelopments, those in charge of the last projects put a slightly higher price on apartments. In redevelopments involving only one developer, the last stages ask the lowest prices.
Research limitations/implications
This research expands our understanding of developers’ pricing behaviour. Developers supplying housing for the private market through redevelopments land are willing to take risks particularly in the initial stage.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that credit institutions financing developers’ projects need to take into account the structure of selling prices, including lower prices and higher risk of pursuing redevelopment projects.
Social implications
Gaining a better understanding of developers’ pricing behaviour deepens our insights into the dynamics of market-led urban brownfield developments; this knowledge may moreover inform policies on sustainable urban growth.
Originality/value
An original investigation of housing transactions in urban brownfield sites in Oslo provides fresh insights into developers’ pricing behaviour.
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Cheng-Wei Lin, Wan-Chi Jackie Hsu and Hui-Ju Su
The shipper selects a suitable shipping route and plans for a voyage in order to import and export cargo on the basis of published sailing schedules. The reliability of the…
Abstract
The shipper selects a suitable shipping route and plans for a voyage in order to import and export cargo on the basis of published sailing schedules. The reliability of the sailing schedule will influence the shipper’s logistics expense, which means that the logistics costs will depend on the reliability of schedules published by container shipping companies. Therefore, it is important to consider factors which can cause delays would for container ships sailing on sea routes. The reliability of published sailing schedules can be affected by a number of different factors. This study adopts the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method to estimate the importance of the delaying factors in a sailing schedule. In addition, the consistent fuzzy preference relations (CFPR) method is applied to identify the subjective importance (weights) of the delaying factors. The entropy weight method combined with the actual performance of the container shipping company are both used when estimating the objective importance (weights) of the delaying factors. According to the analysis results, the criteria can be divided into four quadrants with different management implications, which indicate that instructions for chase strategy, sailing schedule control, fleet allocation, transship operation arrangement and planning for ports in routes are often ignored by container shipping companies. Container shipping companies should consider adjusting their operational strategies, which would greatly improve their operational performance.
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