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This paper aims to explore the effects of webcare content type and webcare source credibility on perceived fairness, in the presence of reputation of a reviewer as a moderator.

The experiment used a 2 (Webcare content type: Specific vs Vague) × 2 (Webcare source credibility: High vs Low) × 2 (Reviewer reputation: Good vs Bad) between-subjects design. ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses.

A significant main effect and interaction effect of independent variables was found on perceived fairness. The moderating role of reviewer reputation was also found significant in the relationship between content type and perceived fairness. However, reputation of the reviewer did not moderate the relationship between webcare source credibility and perceived fairness.

Marketers should respond to negative reviews by paying attention toward review and webcare attributes highlighted in the paper because doing so might satisfy the consumer.

This paper attempts to study a combination of webcare and review characteristics together on consumers' perceptions of fairness.

This study is part of the valorization of local materials and the reuse of industrial waste in construction. This study aims to improve the physical-mechanical properties of sand concrete. This work is a continuation of previous studies conducted on sand concrete, the purpose of which is to introduce industrial waste into this material. For this purpose, a glass waste in powder form is added.

This study is focused on the effect of adding glass powder (GP) whose mass percentage varies from 0 to 40% with an interval of 10% to target the right composition that ensures the best compromise between the characteristics studied.

The results found show that the workability and density of the studied concretes decreased with increasing GP dosage. Indeed, the optimal addition which constitutes the best compromise between the studied properties is 10% of GP. Improvements of up to about 9% in the case of flexural strength and about 18% in the case of compressive strength. The thermal conductivity has been reduced by 12.74%, the thermal diffusivity which characterizes the notion of thermal inertia has been reduced by about 4% and the specific heat mass has been reduced by 7.80%. Also, the shrinkage has been reduced by about 20%. The microstructure of the studied composite shows a good homogeneity between the aggregates. Finally, the addition of GP to sand concrete gives very encouraging results.

The interest of this study is in two parts. The first one is the exploitation of local materials: dune sand, river sand and limestone filler to meet the growing demand for construction materials. And the second one is the reuse of glass waste, in the form of powder (GP), to solve the environmental problem. All this participates in the improvement of the physical-mechanical properties of sand concrete and the extent of its response to the development of an economical structural concrete.

The elderly are facing many problems in the phase of life in the contemporary times. The problem of suicide among the elderly is one of them. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cause of death due to suicide among the elderly in later life. There are two objectives of the present study. The first objective examines the nature and problem of elderly suicide in Indian society. The second objective explores the factors affecting suicidal tendency among the elderly.

The data have been collected through two newspapers from January 2013 to April 2013. The content of news items has been analysed through content analysis.

The study finds out that the factors such as family problems, chronic diseases, poverty, lack of social status and bankruptcy give rise to feeling of committing suicide among the elderly.

This is an original paper.

This study aims to explore the possibility of using magnetic biochar composite (MBCC) derived from Heglig tree bark (HTB) powder (agricultural solid waste) and cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄, CFO) for oil spill removal from seawater surface.

One-pot co-precipitation route was used to synthesize MBCC. The prepared materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The densities of the prepared materials were also estimated. Crude, diesel engine and gasoline engine oils were used as seawater pollutant models. The gravimetric oil removal (GOR) method was used for removing oil spills from seawater using MBCC as a sorbent material.

The obtained results revealed that the prepared materials (CFO and MBCC) were able to remove the crude oil and its derivatives from the seawater surface. Besides, when the absorbent amount was 0.01 g, the highest GOR values for crude oil (31.96 ± 1.02 g/g) and diesel engine oil (14.83 ± 0.83 g/g) were obtained using MBCC as an absorbent. For gasoline engine oil, the highest GOR (27.84 ± 0.46 g/g) was attained when CFO was used as an absorbent.

Oil spill removal using MBCC derived from cobalt ferrite and HTB. Using tree bark as biomass (eco-friendly, readily available and low-cost) for magnetic biochar preparation also is a promising method for minimizing agricultural solid wastes (e.g. HTB) and obtaining value-added-products.

Personal finance influences everything we buy and is a key driver of all economies. It has attracted significant research attention, mostly grounded in rational economics. However, it has not received adequate research attention in the consumer behavior literature. This study aims to address this gap by looking at some of the consumer-centric antecedents of short- and long-term personal financial planning, i.e. self-other orientation, cognitive style and time orientation.

A self-administered survey was used to collect data from full time employees. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses.

Both short- and long-term financial planning are positively associated with non-impulsive and analytical decision-making styles; whereas self and other orientation are only associated with short-term financial planning. Intuitive decision-making is not associated to either short- or long-term financial planning.

While analytical and long-term orientation are still important for personal finance, in the short run, consumers are also driven by self and other orientation.

The results are relevant for both products and services that have long-term and short-term financial implications for consumers.

This study explores financial planning decision-making from a consumer behavior perspective, and addresses a gap in consumer behavior literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and introduce comprehensive insights into the field of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) by reviewing the existing literature and identifying the research gap. The state of LSS research is assessed by critically examining the field, along with a number of dimensions, including time horizon, year, journal and publisher, university, country, author, geographic analysis, research design, research affairs, research methods, tools/techniques used, focus industries, major research area, benefits gained by LSS, critical success factors and barriers of LSS implementation.

This paper is based on a systematic literature review of 190 articles containing the word LSS in their title, which are published in a well-known database, such as Elsevier ScienceDirect, Taylor and Francis, Emerald Full Text, Springer Link, Wiley InterScience and Inderscience from January 2000 to September 2016.

This analysis reveals 15 significant dimensions to identify the state of LSS research. Authors find a noticeable rise in the attention of LSS research in the available literature. Major findings show that, the empirical research holds greater credibility. Statistics prove that the case study method scores the highest among all the research methods used in the discipline. The largest number of studies have investigated research issues related to implementation and process of LSS. The LSS uses a wide range of tools/techniques/methodologies: the choice of tools is situation-specific. Manufacturing and health-care sectors have been the focus of LSS research, but LSS has also been adopted by other types of industries. The organizations following LSS have improved bottom-line results, improved company profitability and growth and enhanced customer satisfaction. In general the research is more interpretive in nature; there is still a lack of standard in the LSS implementation framework.

This study is limited to reviewing those articles which contain the word LSS appeared in the title.

This study will help understand the current state of research on LSS, various trends in the field, its applicability and future prospects of investigation in the field.

The aim of this analysis is to review the Indian manufacturing organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) tools/techniques with an objective of monitoring the performance of an organization and to develop recommendation for strategies to benchmark organizational operational efficiency.

This study offers insights of the LSS performance measurement aspects of the Indian manufacturing organizations based on Data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The five inputs and two outputs are considered on the basis of literature review and discussed with the practitioners.

In this analysis, the relative efficiency score of 18 Indian manufacturing organizations has been determined in order to assist evaluation of the impact of monetary investment on the outputs. The present analysis not only investigates the optimum level of input variables but also lays down a significant observation that an organization having higher profit and inventory turnover ratio is not necessarily an efficient organization.

The results assist to determine the best practice units, potential source of inefficiency and deliver beneficial data for the consistent enhancement of the operational efficiency. The DEA results assist managers and decision makers to derive appropriate strategies to enhance their performance with reference to the efficient organization and to regard it as their role model.

This analysis renders a DEA based framework of LSS practicing Indian manufacturing organizations. The framework is unique in terms of its input-outputs variable selection and measurement procedure.