Reviews the content of the scholar Chanakya’s treatise, Arthasastra (economics). Written in the period 321‐296bc, it sets forth a framework for the economic management of India…
Abstract
Reviews the content of the scholar Chanakya’s treatise, Arthasastra (economics). Written in the period 321‐296bc, it sets forth a framework for the economic management of India. Examines the Arthasastra’s teachings in the areas of agriculture, forestry, wildlife, mining and industries, and transport and trade. Reports that the economy was based on a system of coinage that had made barter of secondary importance and lists the prescribed sources of revenues such as taxes and fines and at the main heads of expenditure such as the maintenance of an army, a bureaucracy, social security measures and the upkeep of the King, his family and his court. Concludes that Chanakya’s Arthasastra is a monumental treatise of the ancient world that possesses great importance in the history of economics.
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Rinki Dahiya and Santosh Rangnekar
The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychometric properties of the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) in a sample of employees working in Indian manufacturing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the psychometric properties of the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) in a sample of employees working in Indian manufacturing and service sector organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through self-administered structured questionnaire from 53 employees for the pilot study and 383 employees for the final study. For the psychometric evaluation of the PANAS, item analysis, reliability, exploratory factor analysis, convergent–discriminant validity and confirmatory factor analysis were performed.
Findings
Results reveal that the two-factor model of affect (positive and negative affects) is valid in the Indian manufacturing and service sector organisations.
Originality/value
Despite being the largest skilled labour facilitator for the work economy and second largest populated country, India lags behind in studies evaluating affect at work when compared to western nations. The present study was taken up to validate an instrument to measure affect at work in Indian manufacturing and service sector organisations, which is a new contribution in the field. Validation of this instrument would help in promoting studies on affect at work in India and comparative studies across cultures.
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YooHee Hwang, Xiaolin (Crystal) Shi and Xingyu Wang
This systematic review synthesizes the recent literature (2010–2020) on hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods. This study has three objectives: to clarify the…
Abstract
Purpose
This systematic review synthesizes the recent literature (2010–2020) on hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods. This study has three objectives: to clarify the definitions of emotions, affect and moods; to explain how theories are integrated into understanding hospitality employees’ emotions, affect and moods; and to assess how emotions, affect and moods are measured.
Design/methodology/approach
Using seven major databases, the authors selected 61 peer-reviewed academic journal articles published in hospitality outlets for review. We based our study on five stages of conducting a systematic review: scoping, planning, identification, screening and eligibility.
Findings
Affect is an umbrella term encompassing moods and emotions. Emotions are distinct from emotion-laden constructs, such as emotional labor and emotional intelligence. Theories on conservation of resources, emotional labor and social exchange have been most frequently used to understand hospitality employees’ emotions. However, they overlooked the dynamic nature of emotions when using these theories. Hospitality researchers often used a subset of the positive and negative affect scale and did not discuss back-translation.
Practical implications
Hospitality employees’ emotions lead to far-reaching consequences in attitudes, intentions and behaviors in work and non-work domains. Effective practices (e.g. creating a supportive climate) that help evoke positive employee emotions and reduce negative employee emotions are thus desirable.
Originality/value
Our findings crystallize the understanding of emotions, affect and moods of hospitality employees. We further provide a roadmap for future research on hospitality employees’ emotions. Data triangulation, cross-cultural research and mixed emotions are novel opportunities for future research.
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Wendy Moody, Peter Kinderman and Pammi Sinha
This study sets out to explore the application of psychological research methods (as yet not applied) in the fashion arena. The aim of this project is to quantify, formalise and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study sets out to explore the application of psychological research methods (as yet not applied) in the fashion arena. The aim of this project is to quantify, formalise and explore the causal relationships between clothing style, preference, personality factors, emotions and mood with a view to a better understanding of the psychological profile of the fashion consumer.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a uniformly composed sample of females, explorative quantitative research was carried out. Two sets of questionnaires were administered to the sample to examine emotion, mood and personality before trying on a set of eight garments categorized according to style; and again afterwards to examine emotion and mood while wearing each outfit. Photographs of participants were taken wearing each of the outfits. Participants then ranked the eight outfits in order of preference. SPSS analysis identified relationships and preference indicators.
Findings
The results indicated strong relationships between mood and significant relationships between three out of five personality factors and clothing style preference; mood was a significant predictor of preference, whilst personality was moderate.
Research limitations/implications
The research methodology necessitated lengthy time commitments from the participants and therefore limited the sample size, making generalization difficult. Based on the findings, the research requires further exploration of methods for practical application with a larger sample size.
Practical implications
Personality, emotion and mood were shown to be managed and reflected through clothing with implications for assistance in consumer clothing decisions, service training, and strategies for personal shoppers, market segmentation and design.
Originality/value
The methodology derived from a combination of research methods coupled with actual wearing experience, previously not studied together. This is original and demonstrates how important this combination is in order to fully appreciate the psychological profile of the fashion consumer.
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Sumrina Razzaq, Muhammad Zahid Iqbal, Malik Ikramullah and Jan-Willem van Prooijen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the occurrence of rating distortions under raters’ different mood conditions and at different levels of interpersonal affect of raters…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the occurrence of rating distortions under raters’ different mood conditions and at different levels of interpersonal affect of raters towards ratees, and further its association with ratees’ perceptions of distributive and interpersonal fairness.
Design/methodology/approach
For the scenario-based experiment, the study recruited 110 undergraduate students as participants. Of them, 22 raters appraised the video-taped buyer-seller negotiation performance of 88 ratees. Repeated measures analysis was employed to analyse data.
Findings
Results revealed that under different mood conditions (pleasant and sad) and at different levels of interpersonal affect towards ratees (high and low), raters distorted ratings (inflated and deflated, respectively). These rating distortions shaped ratees fairness perceptions in such a way that ratees who received inflated ratings due to raters’ pleasant mood and high interpersonal affect perceived more distributive and interpersonal fairness than ratees who received deflated ratings due to raters’ sad mood and low interpersonal affect.
Originality/value
The paper is a step towards integrating the affect infusion model with distributive and interpersonal fairness theory. This integration can be of value for enhancing our understanding of how rater-centric rating errors take place, which subsequently shape ratees’ fairness perceptions.
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The paper aims to provide a structured framework for comparing different productivity estimation methodologies and evaluate their sensitivity to operational coefficients variation…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to provide a structured framework for comparing different productivity estimation methodologies and evaluate their sensitivity to operational coefficients variation for excavation operations.
Design/methodology/approach
Two process‐oriented methodologies were analysed in a deterministic fashion in terms of their input requirements and their respective outputs. A phase‐oriented framework was presented to enable their comparison. The research methodology allows the estimation of excavation productivity in relation to the selected operational coefficients.
Findings
The system productivity is significantly influenced by operational conditions, such as the digging depth and the swing angle from the excavation front to the dumping position. Each methodology presents a differing sensitivity to every operational factor. Since the excavator is considered as the system's leading resource, the variation on productivity has direct implications for the truck fleet size and the unit cost of operations.
Originality/value
The proposed approach is useful in analyzing process‐oriented productivity estimation methodologies under a given set of operational coefficients when no historical data is available. Thus, it provides an alternative to intuitive estimates based solely on personal judgment. The concept of “baseline reference” conditions is introduced, so as to enable the transformation of any operational scenario into equivalent mathematical models that allow comparisons between different estimation methodologies and computational approaches.
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Fatima Zohra Ennaji, Abdelaziz El Fazziki, Hasna El Alaoui El Abdallaoui, Djamal Benslimane and Mohamed Sadgal
The purpose of this paper is to bring together the textual and multimedia opinions, since the use of social data has become the new trend that enables to gather the product…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bring together the textual and multimedia opinions, since the use of social data has become the new trend that enables to gather the product reputation traded in social media. Integrating a product reputation process into the companies' strategy will bring several benefits such as helping in decision-making regarding the current and the new generation of the product by understanding the customers’ needs. However, image-centric sentiment analysis has received much less attention than text-based sentiment detection.
Design/methodology/approach
In this work, the authors propose a multimedia content-based product reputation framework that helps in detecting opinions from social media. Thus, in this case, the analysis of a certain publication is made by combining their textual and multimedia parts.
Findings
To test the effectiveness of the proposed framework, a case study based on YouTube videos has been established, as it brings together the image, the audio and the video processing at the same time.
Originality/value
The key novelty is the implication of multimedia content in addition of the textual one with the goal of gathering opinions about a certain product. The multimedia analysis brings together facial sentiment detection, printed text analysis, opinion detection from speeches and textual opinion analysis.
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Xinmin Liu, Yanan Zhang and Liu Fan
This study aims to investigate the influence of three key categories of perceived entrepreneurial obstacles (perceived loss of financial resources, perceived loss of customer…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the influence of three key categories of perceived entrepreneurial obstacles (perceived loss of financial resources, perceived loss of customer demand and perceived loss of social support) on entrepreneurial behavior tendency through fear of failure and negative emotion to shed light on why Chinese entrepreneurship has fallen into a decline from the individual level.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 256 Chinese makers who were achieving their innovative ideas in makerspaces was used to test the research model. Then, the structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that fear of failure is the strongest psychological barrier to entrepreneurial behavior tendency and the strongest trigger for negative emotion; both negative emotion and fear of failure are affected by entrepreneurial obstacles of perceived loss of financial resources and perceived loss of social support. However, perceived loss of customer demand is not the inducement for both fear of failure and negative emotion.
Originality/value
This study adopts stressor-strain-outcome framework in studying entrepreneurship to help understand what prevent potential entrepreneurs from stepping into entrepreneurship. In addition, this study offers a new insight into entrepreneurship by emphasizing the decisive impact of inhibitive factors on personal entrepreneurship.
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Yomi Babatunde and Low Sui Pheng
The purpose of this paper is to design and test a model integrating the attributes of national culture and total quality management (TQM) principles for successful TQM…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design and test a model integrating the attributes of national culture and total quality management (TQM) principles for successful TQM implementation in international projects involving Chinese construction firms in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the culture-specific relationship between TQM implementation and national culture and ISO 9001 being a stepping stone to TQM implementation, a model in the form of a matrix was designed integrating Hofstede’s five national cultural dimensions (NCD) and ISO 9001 eight quality management principles. The model was then tested through a three-phase research process including cross-sectional surveys of the Chinese (n=48) and the Nigerians (n=80) (Phase 1), Delphi study involving TQM experts (n=12) (Phase 2), and case studies of Chinese projects in Nigeria (n=6) (Phase 3).
Findings
The model predicts important attributes of national culture and TQM principles for achieving good-quality performance, the management of which leads to a Chinese firm being perceived as delivering good or poor-quality services in Nigeria. Statistical testing using κ statistics revealed significant agreement between two perceived good-quality Chinese firms on the important attributes and significant disagreement between perceived good-quality and poor-quality Chinese firms in Nigeria.
Research limitations/implications
The model designed is based on ISO 9001: 2008 version.
Practical implications
International businesses in Africa will benefit from this study’s findings.
Social implications
Overseas Chinese firms’ service quality perceptions can be better managed.
Originality/value
This empirical study presents a model for successful TQM implementation through ISO 9001.
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Use of hydrotreated, hydrocracked and catalytically dewaxed base oils in hydraulic and industrial applications is increasing on a global scale. The hydrogenation and dewaxing…
Abstract
Use of hydrotreated, hydrocracked and catalytically dewaxed base oils in hydraulic and industrial applications is increasing on a global scale. The hydrogenation and dewaxing processes involved in the manufacture of these products can result in base oils of exceptionally low aromatic content and sulphur level and raised viscosity index (VI). The aromatic content, sulphur level and VI are parameters used by the American Petroleum Institute (API) to categorize the base oils as Group II or Group III. The performance of additives in these Groups II and III base stocks differs from that in Group I base stocks. In addition, different processes used by different manufacturers will not only create different base stock oxidative stability and solvency from that of Group I base stocks, it will also create differences between Group II base stocks and between Groups II and III base stocks. Several different base stocks have been examined using methods including mass spectrometry and aniline point. Variations in properties, such as aromatic content, cycloparaffinic content and aniline point, appear to relate to differences in oxidation stability and solvency. With the improved response of Groups II/III base stocks to antioxidants, a performance level of 10,000 hours or greater in the ASTM D 943 is common. This necessitates addition of specific antioxidants which result in extended oxidation performance but lead in some cases to the formation of insoluble degradation products in Group II/III base stocks, and more so in Group I base stocks. Phenolic‐ containing and phenolic‐free antioxidant systems have been identified that allow for extended oxidation stability in a wide range of Group II base stocks without sludge formation in either Group I, II or III base stocks.