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1 – 10 of 119Kristian Kannelønning and Sokratis K. Katsikas
Cybersecurity attacks on critical infrastructures, businesses and nations are rising and have reached the interest of mainstream media and the public’s consciousness. Despite this…
Abstract
Purpose
Cybersecurity attacks on critical infrastructures, businesses and nations are rising and have reached the interest of mainstream media and the public’s consciousness. Despite this increased awareness, humans are still considered the weakest link in the defense against an unknown attacker. Whatever the reason, naïve-, unintentional- or intentional behavior of a member of an organization, the result of an incident can have a considerable impact. A security policy with guidelines for best practices and rules should guide the behavior of the organization’s members. However, this is often not the case. This paper aims to provide answers to how cybersecurity-related behavior is assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
Research questions were formulated, and a systematic literature review (SLR) was performed by following the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. The SLR initially identified 2,153 articles, and the paper reviews and reports on 26 articles.
Findings
The assessment of cybersecurity-related behavior can be classified into three components, namely, data collection, measurement scale and analysis. The findings show that subjective measurements from self-assessment questionnaires are the most frequently used method. Measurement scales are often composed based on existing literature and adapted by the researchers. Partial least square analysis is the most frequently used analysis technique. Even though useful insight and noteworthy findings regarding possible differences between manager and employee behavior have appeared in some publications, conclusive answers to whether such differences exist cannot be drawn.
Research limitations/implications
Research gaps have been identified, that indicate areas of interest for future work. These include the development and employment of methods for reducing subjectivity in the assessment of cybersecurity-related behavior.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first SLR on how cybersecurity-related behavior can be assessed. The SLR analyzes relevant publications and identifies current practices as well as their shortcomings, and outlines gaps that future research may bridge.
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Consumer psychology research has established the importance of customer satisfaction as a determinant of customer repurchasing intention…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumer psychology research has established the importance of customer satisfaction as a determinant of customer repurchasing intention. Nonetheless, even satisfied customers switch brands. Also, even dissatisfied customers have repurchasing intentions. This means that customer repurchasing behaviour is extremely difficult to predict, necessitating additional research to identify additional factors that can help organizations better understand the methods to predict customer repurchasing intention. To fill this knowledge gap, this study examined the mediating effects of brand love (BL) and positive word of mouth (PWOM) on psychological contract fulfilment (PCF) and customer repurchasing intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a cross-sectional study. The study used structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse relationships from a sample size of 400 beauty salon customers. Also, a process macro mediation test was used to analyse the mediating effects of BL and PWOM on the relationship between PCF and customer repurchase intentions.
Findings
The findings indicate that transactional and relational psychological contracts have a positive and significant relationship with BL and PWOM. As well, BL and PWOM positively and significantly influence customer repurchase intentions. Finally, the findings indicate that BL and PWOM mediate the relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and customer repurchase intentions.
Research limitations/implications
This survey sampled beauty salons solely. Given that each type of organization may have a unique way of fulfilling psychological contracts, future studies may include more categories such as restaurants and craftsmanship to broaden the sample. Additionally, this study utilized female beauty salons. Therefore, future research could include salons that cater to women and men to boost the sample's generalizability. Finally, this study concluded that BL and positive recommendations are the most effective variables for resolving consumer satisfaction challenges. However, additional factors can probably amplify this fact by focusing on additional elements to broaden the arguments.
Originality/value
Past studies have extensively covered customer repurchasing intention in relation to customer satisfaction. However, it was noted that even some satisfied customers could switch to other brands, and those who were dissatisfied could repurchase the brand. Given that little is known about how other factors than customer satisfaction can affect repurchasing intentions, this study examines the mediating effects of BL and PWOM on PCF and customer repurchase intentions.
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Hai-Yen Chang, Li-Heng Liang and Hui-Fun Yu
This study aims to understand the impact of market power and competition on earnings management, particularly discretionary accruals, in the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the impact of market power and competition on earnings management, particularly discretionary accruals, in the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism industries. China and Taiwan differ not only in their political and social systems but also in their economic systems. The research aims to provide managers and investors with stock selection strategy in the decision-making process.
Design/methodology/approach
Accounting data consisted of 60 publicly traded travel companies in China and Taiwan from 2000 to 2014. Methodology included correlation matrix for the variables, univariate and multivariate regression and competition analysis.
Findings
Based on empirical results, the authors found a significant negative correlation between market power and discretionary accruals and market concentration (or lower market competition) and discretionary accruals in both the Chinese or Taiwanese markets. Although the Chinese travel companies enjoyed higher market power and market concentration, they engaged in less earnings manipulation than their Taiwanese counterparts as a result of the Chinese Government regulation.
Research limitations/implications
Based on listed travel companies, generalization of the research results to entire tourism industry is limited. This study compares the travel companies’ practices of smoothing out earnings between China and Taiwan, thus helping managers and investors in making their financing, investment decisions.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the earnings management literature by examining a specific industry of tourism. This paper is original in two ways. The authors linked market power and market competition with earnings management simultaneously and then compared the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism industries in manipulating earnings.
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Yang Li, Zhicheng Zheng, Yaochen Qin, Haifeng Tian, Zhixiang Xie and Peijun Rong
Drought is the primary disaster that negatively impacts agricultural and animal husbandry production. It can lead to crop reduction and even pose a threat to human survival in…
Abstract
Purpose
Drought is the primary disaster that negatively impacts agricultural and animal husbandry production. It can lead to crop reduction and even pose a threat to human survival in environmentally sensitive areas of China (ESAC). However, the phases and periodicity of drought changes in the ESAC remain largely unknown. Thus, this paper aims to identify the periodic characteristics of meteorological drought changes.
Design/methodology/approach
The potential evapotranspiration was calculated using the Penman–Monteith formula recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, whereas the standardized precipitation evaporation index (SPEI) of drought was simulated by coupling precipitation data. Subsequently, the Bernaola-Galvan segmentation algorithm was proposed to divide the periods of drought change and the newly developed extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition to analyze the periodic drought patterns.
Findings
The findings reveal a significant increase in SPEI in the ESAC, with the rate of decline in drought events higher in the ESAC than in China, indicating a more pronounced wetting trend in the study area. Spatially, the northeast region showed an evident drying trend, whereas the southwest region showed a wetting trend. Two abrupt changes in the drought pattern were observed during the study period, namely, in 1965 and 1983. The spatial instability of moderate or severe drought frequency and intensity on a seasonal scale was more consistent during 1966–1983 and 1984–2018, compared to 1961–1965. Drought variation was predominantly influenced by interannual oscillations, with the periods of the components of intrinsic mode functions 1 (IMF1) and 2 (IMF2) being 3.1 and 7.3 years, respectively. Their cumulative variance contribution rate reached 70.22%.
Research limitations/implications
The trend decomposition and periods of droughts in the study area were analyzed, which may provide an important scientific reference for water resource management and agricultural production activities in the ESAC. However, several problems remain unaddressed. First, the SPEI considers only precipitation and evapotranspiration, making it extremely sensitive to temperature increases. It also ignores the nonstationary nature of the hydrometeorological water process; therefore, it is prone to bias in drought detection and may overestimate the intensity and duration of droughts. Therefore, further studies on the application and comparison of various drought indices should be conducted to develop a more effective meteorological drought index. Second, the local water budget is mainly affected by surface evapotranspiration and precipitation. Evapotranspiration is calculated by various methods that provide different results. Therefore, future studies need to explore both the advantages and disadvantages of various evapotranspiration calculation methods (e.g. Hargreaves, Thornthwaite and Penman–Monteith) and their application scenarios. Third, this study focused on the temporal and spatial evolution and periodic characteristics of droughts, without considering the driving mechanisms behind them and their impact on the ecosystem. In future, it will be necessary to focus on a sensitivity analysis of drought indices with regard to climate change. Finally, although this study calculated the SPEI using meteorological data provided by China’s high-density observatory network, deviations and uncertainties were inevitable in the point-to-grid spatialization process. This shortcoming may be avoided by using satellite remote sensing data with high spatiotemporal resolution in the future, which can allow pixel-scale monitoring and simulation of meteorological drought evolution.
Practical implications
Under the background of continuous global warming, the climate in arid and semiarid areas of China has shown a trend of warming and wetting. It means that the plant environment in this region is getting better. In the future, the project of afforestation and returning farmland to forest and grassland in this region can increase the planting proportion of water-loving tree species to obtain better ecological benefits. Meanwhile, this study found that in the relatively water-scarce regions of China, drought duration was dominated by interannual oscillations (3.1a and 7.3a). This suggests that governments and nongovernmental organizations in the region should pay attention to the short drought period in the ESAC when they carry out ecological restoration and protection projects such as the construction of forest reserves and high-quality farmland.
Originality/value
The findings enhance the understanding of the phasic and periodic characteristics of drought changes in the ESAC. Future studies on the stress effects of drought on crop yield may consider these effects to better reflect the agricultural response to meteorological drought and thus effectively improve the tolerance of agricultural activities to drought events.
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The brake controller is a key component of the locomotive brake system. It is essential to study its safety.
Abstract
Purpose
The brake controller is a key component of the locomotive brake system. It is essential to study its safety.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper summarizes and analyzes typical faults of the brake controller, and proposes four categories of faults: position sensor faults, microswitch faults, mechanical faults and communication faults. Suggestions and methods for improving the safety of the brake controller are also presented.
Findings
In this paper, a self-judgment and self-learning dynamic calibration method is proposed, which integrates the linear error of the sensor and the manufacturing and assembly errors of the brake controller to solve the output drift. This paper also proposes a logic for diagnosing and handling microswitch faults. Suggestions are proposed for other faults of brake controller.
Originality/value
The methods proposed in this paper can greatly improve the usability of the brake controller and reduce the failure rate.
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Osku Torro, Henri Pirkkalainen and Hongxiu Li
The purpose of the paper is to examine how media synchronicity facilitates the emergence of social exchange (i.e. trust and reciprocity) in organizations’ information and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to examine how media synchronicity facilitates the emergence of social exchange (i.e. trust and reciprocity) in organizations’ information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated interactions. A model of media synchronicity in organizational social exchange (MSiOSE) is proposed.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper has a design and review approach. The theoretical analysis is based on social exchange theory (SET) and media synchronicity theory (MST).
Findings
The authors propose that, in general, social exchange benefits from both asynchronous and synchronous communication processes. However, media synchronicity has different boundary conditions (i.e. pros and cons) in relation to the emergence of social exchange, determined in accordance with the mutually interacting patterns of trust and reciprocity predicted by SET. The authors provide testable theoretical propositions to support the analysis.
Originality/value
Social exchange is a critical business factor for organizations due to its well-known positive outcomes, such as the strengthening of social ties. The need for successful social exchange in remote work conditions is particularly emphasized. However, with regard to the communication and behavioral patterns that lead to social exchange via ICT, the theoretical understanding is limited. The study reveals previously unmapped heuristics between social exchange and physical media capabilities. Thus, the study's propositions can be used to study and analyze social exchange in the ever-changing media landscape. As a practical contribution, the study helps organizations to improve their communication strategies and use of ICT.
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In the 21st Century, a region 's growth and prosperity will depend upon its intermodal transportation infrastructure and its ability to efficiently move goods, materials, and…
Abstract
In the 21st Century, a region 's growth and prosperity will depend upon its intermodal transportation infrastructure and its ability to efficiently move goods, materials, and people within the system whether it be from origin to destination; from supplier to customer through the various levels of the supply-chain; or from point to point within the system. Planning for the future focuses on improving a region 's intermodal transportation system efficiencies and infrastructure, its connection to other economies, and on the development of logistics institutions and facilities.
With China 's rapidly developing economy and society, record numbers of new modern facilities such as airports, ports, highways, logistics parks and warehouses are being built. Along with this, companies have made extensive investments in information technologies and software to support the tremendous growth that has taken place in the logistics industry. The development and improvement of China's historic inland water transport system is essential to their continued future growth and prosperity. In Korea, past and present National Governments have emphasized the importance of developing a North East Asian Logistics and Business Hub in their region and have worked on strategies, which include water transport, as part of an important national agenda to that end.
This article looks at how trade flows in the Yangtze and Yellow Sea Regions and between China and South Korea might be enhanced by application of improved shipping methods in marine commerce that will promote economic growth in the region. The application of logistics practices and use of barges is explored for the movement of containers on inland and coastal waterways as well as in short sea shipping which could greatly facilitate the region 's situation with respect to future economic growth.