Miguel A. Martínez and Angeles Camara
This work analyzes the economic impact of an economic crisis on consumption in Spanish households, detecting inequalities in household consumption according to the age of the main…
Abstract
Purpose
This work analyzes the economic impact of an economic crisis on consumption in Spanish households, detecting inequalities in household consumption according to the age of the main breadwinner and changes in consumption patterns. In particular, the effects of the financial crisis of 2008 on household consumption are studied and divided according to the main breadwinner's age group to obtain the economic impact of the fall in consumption in young households.
Design/methodology/approach
The input–output tables of the Spanish economy during the years 2005 and 2015 and data on household consumption based on age group have been used. Economic impact is estimated through multisector modeling, specifically a demand model expressed in monetary terms. This model allows us to obtain the direct impact on the sectors offering the demanded services and the indirect impact due to increase in intermediate demand from these sectors on the rest of them.
Findings
The results obtained show the changes in household consumption and its effects on different productive sectors, highlighting the following sectors: real estate activities, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, accommodation and food service activities and manufacturing.
Originality/value
This study measures the impact of an economic crisis on the consumption of young households, analyzing all groups of households according to the main breadwinner's age, with the added value of studying the impact of this variation on household consumption and quantifying the positive and negative impact on the different sectors of activity of the Spanish economy.
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Xavier Camara-Turull, María Ángeles Fernández-Izquierdo and M. Teresa Sorrosal-Forradellas
This paper aims to analyses the capital structure of the Spanish chemical industry during the period between 1999 and 2013, with a twofold objective. First, to determine whether…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyses the capital structure of the Spanish chemical industry during the period between 1999 and 2013, with a twofold objective. First, to determine whether the assumptions of pecking order theory are fulfilled throughout the study's timeframe. Second, by using data covering the years before the crisis and the worst years thereof, this study shows how the crisis has affected the capital structure of the companies included in this sample.
Design/methodology/approach
A particular kind of unsupervised neural network, self-organizing maps, is applied. This methodology allows to cluster firms avoiding the need to establish relationships between the different variables involved in the problem beforehand.
Findings
Companies are clustered into groups with different degrees of accomplishment of the pecking order theory. The hypothesis about risk is the one that experience a greater variation in the period before and after the crisis. Moreover, companies' capital structure has been lightly disrupted by the crisis.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in applying an unprecedented methodology to the problem of capital structure. Therefore, the capital structure problem can be approached without setting any function relationship previously.
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Anurodhsingh Khanuja and Rajesh Kumar Jain
The conceptualization of integration is built on intra- and inter-organizational relationship to manage the entire supply chain. Despite the growing number of research studies…
Abstract
Purpose
The conceptualization of integration is built on intra- and inter-organizational relationship to manage the entire supply chain. Despite the growing number of research studies, there is a lack of consensus in current literature to define and conceptualize supply chain integration (SCI) and its drivers. The purpose of this paper is to provide comprehensive views on SCI, thereby contributing to existing literature by providing taxonomy to drivers and sources, dimensions and outcome of SCI.
Design/methodology/approach
The systematic approach to literature review has been adopted to carry out this research. The study cites 154 articles, out of which 110 articles have been thoroughly reviewed, covering drivers and sources of SCI, SCI dimensions and SCI outcome.
Findings
For the conceptualization of SCI dimensions, two major themes have been identified: first, internal integration, customer integration and supplier integration; second, information sharing, process coordination and strategic alliance. The authors also found that desire to improve and environmental factors prompt organizations to integrate with their partners to realize the desired outcome. Additionally, the paper identifies that integration plays a significant role in enhancing performance; nevertheless, maturity of integration may have a direct relationship with performance, and the same has been suggested as propositions for further study.
Research limitations/implications
This paper has taken the systematic perspective to review existing studies and projected propositions, which is entirely based on collective views that may require empirical support.
Originality/value
The paper is a unique contribution that reviews the research articles on SCI systematically. The paper also provides a distinct perspective and food for thought to practitioners, as the proposed framework may serve as a reference point to assess current SCI practices in the organizations.
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Gerard Gibson, Elena Apostolaki and Melissa Blackie
Monsters, from ghouls and zombies to shoggoths and Cthulhu, have always fascinated humans and have a prominent presence in cultural production. This is made clear by how much…
Abstract
Monsters, from ghouls and zombies to shoggoths and Cthulhu, have always fascinated humans and have a prominent presence in cultural production. This is made clear by how much people enjoy Halloween events and dressing up as their favourite monster or the most recent trend of horror themed escape rooms, that include haunted houses, a zombie apocalypse or Lovecraftian monsters. Monstrous creatures represent the fears and desires of society and often embody the allure of danger, transgression and power. Monsters have long been used to construct certain images of the different/unconventional and thus represent anything diverse as the Other. Monsters, however, can be employed to invert or even overturn this relationship by empowering the Other and thus provide us with a more critical view on society in regard to our values, fears and attitudes. The stories and folklore about monsters and the monstrous that incite fear and remind us to always check under our beds before we sleep have also found their way into our everyday lives. Within the mainstream media, criminality is indicative of moral corruption, and is attributed with notions of monstrosity. These monsters do not have claws, instead, they are unpredictable, different and deviate from social and cultural norms. Like the mythical creatures in folklore, monstrosity in its human form reminds us to fear the future, the unknown, Others and society. The monstrous is centrally defined by its unfixedness, its resistance to conformity or to convenient schematic identification. It is somatically and intellectually uneasy, a restless disturbing embodied thought that unsettles, and whose greatest value to us is its very indeterminacy. This chapter illustrates the shifting shapes of the monstrous, their makers, and offers insight about what we can learn from studying these cautionary noetic chimeras. Drawing on the diversity of our academic backgrounds, ideological perspectives and the research from our individual chapters, we address the contemporary narrative of the figure of the monster. Rather than an essay style examination, our chapter explores this narrative through a question and answer format. The flexibility of this format allows readers an intimate glimpse into the ways in which the monstrous can be conceptualised and understood in various frameworks.
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Geographic information systems (GIS) are used in business and government and have potentially powerful applications to the library, specifically “interior GIS” mapping of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Geographic information systems (GIS) are used in business and government and have potentially powerful applications to the library, specifically “interior GIS” mapping of the collection itself. This paper seeks to argue for the implementation of GIS software in library collection analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explains GIS history, the technology, design with spreadsheet and ILS database, statistical advancements, power of the GIS connection, and the importance of “democratizing” technology for libraries.
Findings
GIS is a powerful tool for any business or organization that keeps inventory and monitors transactional usage. GIS is going to be implemented in libraries sooner rather than later. The libraries that implement GIS early will have an intellectual advantage over those coming on‐board late. GIS should be part of collection librarian technology.
Practical implications
Librarians can benefit from visually analyzing the collection and its use trends. GIS will allow librarians to forecast demand for future allocations, uncover collection strengths and weaknesses, and monitor statistics in a way that is impossible with current spreadsheets. Managers will be able to track interlibrary loan trends, branch and neighborhood use volumes and will be able to match use maps with building layout and design for better functionality and loss prevention.
Social implications
GIS will revolutionize statistical analysis in every field it enters. It is argued in the paper to be the first modern tool for the twenty‐first century librarian, the first piece of technology to serve the librarian first, with system and user as beneficiary of the product of GIS analysis.
Originality/value
This paper introduces GIS to a new audience and to those familiar with GIS, applies GIS in a new direction, to the interior space of the library and its items as subject.
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Jhon Wilder Zartha Sossa, Nolberto Gutiérrez Posada, Adriana María Zuluaga Monsalve, Liliana Valencia Grisales, Elisa Hernández Becerra, Gina Lía Orozco Mendoza, Juan Carlos Palacio Piedrahita, Carlos Alberto Guarnizo Gómez and John Fredy Moreno Sarta
This paper aims to identify future scenarios and convergent technologies regarding the plantain chain in the region of Quindío, Colombia. It proposes the definition of key…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify future scenarios and convergent technologies regarding the plantain chain in the region of Quindío, Colombia. It proposes the definition of key variables, convergent technologies, future objectives, future scenarios and hypotheses based on stakeholders’ and experts’ opinions collected through questionnaires, surveys and workshops.
Design/methodology/approach
The present analysis seeks to identify and anticipate the future routes for the improvement of scientific, technological, innovative and skills management of the plantain agroindustrial chain in the region of Quindío, Colombia using the foresight-by-scenarios and, Delphi methodologies and finally validating the results with artificial intelligence code and natural language processing.
Findings
After the analysis of 100 initial variables, the results suggested the identification of five key variables defined by the stakeholders and matrix-based multiplication applied to a classification (MICMAC) analysis such as “weather,” “financing and economy,” “grouping and associativity,” “crop” and “territorial planning and raw material.” Moreover, the definition of four future objectives along with the matrix of alliances and conflicts, tactics, objectives and recommendations (MACTOR) analysis suggested scenarios according to the probability. The most possible, probable and desirable scenario, was the cooccurrence of the five proposed hypotheses. Furthermore, the Delphi analysis allowed us to define nine subgroups from 116 subtopics including: “plantain varieties,” “plantain agroindustry,” “waste use” and “crop,” among others.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the specificity of the analyzed agro-chain, the study only encompasses the plantain and banana sectors. However, the implications are related to the generation of projects in the selected technologies.
Practical implications
This paper includes implications for the development of prospective studies combining two or more different methodologies such as foresight-by-scenarios and Delphi method at the same time and further comparing the results with artificial intelligence analysis.
Social implications
The generation of public policies in the sector and input for governmental analysis and tools for decision-making with a well-grounded, systematic and rational point of view.
Originality/value
This work describes for the first time, the implementation of the Delphi method regarding an important agroindustry sector such as plantain and banana prospective study. Furthermore, it explains the alignment of two methodologies; foresight-by-scenarios and the Delphi method related to the sectorial approaches, and convergent technologies and innovations, respectively. Moreover, a complementary bibliometric analysis with global terms related to the plantain or banana agroindustry was also included. In a novel way, we also applied an artificial intelligence code using Python software to contrast the results previously obtained in the foresight-by-scenarios method.
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Drawing on findings from the project ‘Walking around with our cameras’ (2014–16), this chapter explores educative and methodological implications of arts-based research. The…
Abstract
Drawing on findings from the project ‘Walking around with our cameras’ (2014–16), this chapter explores educative and methodological implications of arts-based research. The project on which this chapter is based was conducted in Bilbao (Spain) by two local organizations: Sala Rekalde, a contemporary art gallery; the Institute of Human Rights of Deusto University, a local artist and a group of migrant women. Analysis of this project offers insights into the ways that artistic practices afforded unique opportunities for migrant women to reconstruct and represent their migratory experiences. This chapter sheds light on the ways that participatory arts-based research can move across disciplines and enhance effective achievement on collaborative projects that work to give voice to the voiceless.
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This chapter examines the relationship between news media in Cinema Novo films to underscore the impact of their shared discourse on the history of Brazilian films.The author…
Abstract
This chapter examines the relationship between news media in Cinema Novo films to underscore the impact of their shared discourse on the history of Brazilian films.
The author discusses the emplotment of news media within representative Cinema Novo films whose narratives speak to an ongoing debate concerning the role of print and televisual journalism in the increasingly repressive political environment of the military dictatorship installed in the 1960s. Interpretations on the level of film narrative, of specific scenes, and of shot and shot-sequencing contribute to the discussion, situated within the broader historical context of the established laws and commissions of 1960s Brazil.
Together, the analyzed films’ various interventions in Brazilian cultural and political history offer a complex representational fabric simultaneously constituting and critiquing national discourse.
The present research is limited to films of the 1960s but has implications for the interpretation of many Brazilian films and for Brazilian film history writ large. The overlap of film and news media is abundantly evident in the films of the Retomada and New Millennial Brazilian Cinema, but they do not fit within the scope of this chapter.
This analysis discusses a major canonical film (Entranced Earth) alongside lesser-known films (Threatened City, Freedom of the Press). When considered together in the light of their shared reflections concerning news media, these films bring up previously underexamined issues within the respective fields of Communication Studies and Brazilian Film Studies.
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Film provides an alternative medium for assessing our interpretations of cultural icons. This selective list looks at the film and video sources for information on and…
Abstract
Film provides an alternative medium for assessing our interpretations of cultural icons. This selective list looks at the film and video sources for information on and interpretations of the life of Woody Guthrie.