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Ports handle a significant portion of international cargo, so the performance of ports plays a major role in the economic development of a country. This paper aims to study how port performance depends on various interdependent factors and how it requires a holistic approach, which accounts for all the necessary criteria that contribute to the overall efficiency and performance.

An integrated fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS approach with an objective to evaluate the operational capability and financial performance of the ports is proposed. A case study is presented with an analysis of the major South Indian ports to assess port operational performance and evaluate various financial ratios to assess financial performance.

Through a review of the literature and based on the inputs from experts, six criteria affecting the operational performance and six financial criteria were identified. The debt coverage ratios turned out to be the most important, while the liquidity ratios were the least important. The six operational criteria have almost similar importance. The final results indicate a consistent overall performance by the Ennore Port, except during one financial year.

The proposed solution approach helps to identify and concentrate on the criteria that affect port performance. It will also help to evaluate and understand the dynamics involved in the performance of ports.

This work highlights the key measurable operational and financial criteria that affect the efficiency of ports. The integrated fuzzy DEMATEL-TOPSIS approach provides a better way to evaluate and benchmark port performance.

The hiring process for information technology (IT) personnel, given its high stakes and intricacies, demands an objective, methodical and nuanced approach. The multifaceted nature of IT roles necessitates a comprehensive evaluation methodology to identify and prioritize pertinent skills and competencies. Therefore, this study aims to devise and implement a robust multi-criteria decision-making model integrating the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for assessing and ranking the skills required for IT personnel.

This study integrates expert opinions and insights from the literature to identify five key criteria and 21 sub-criteria essential for IT personnel selection. The fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to determine the relative importance of each criterion and sub-criterion. These weighted criteria were then utilized in the fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to systematically rank five candidate alternatives based on their suitability for IT roles.

Results identified “Objective of factors” to be the most significant criteria, whereas “Assessment Centre Score” as the most viable sub-criterion. Using the integrated model results of fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS candidate, A3 was the most fitted IT personnel, whereas Candidate A4 has emerged as the poor/ unsuitable fit.

This research helps firms and policymakers use their limited resources efficiently. Furthermore, this study acts as a guideline for future researchers to empirically investigate the impact of listed skills on employee performance.

This study is a pioneering effort in integrating fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS to address the challenges in IT personnel selection, catering to the intricate layers of human evaluative judgments. Its extended applicability and innovative approach makes it a valuable contribution to the existing body of knowledge, serving as a benchmark for future endeavors in related domains.

Increased demand for new batteries and strict government protocols have stressed the battery industries to collect and recycle used batteries for economic and environmental benefits. This scenario has forced the battery industries to collect used batteries and establish the formal battery recycling plant (BRP) for effective recycling. The starting of BRP includes several strategic decisions, one of the most critical decisions encountered is to find the best sustainable location for BRP. Hence, this paper aims to address the complexity of the issues faced during the BRP location selection through a hybrid framework.

In this study, the criteria are identified under socio-cultural, technical, environmental, economic and policy and legal (STEEP) dimensions through literature review and experts' opinions. Then, the hybrid methodology integrating fuzzy decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), best worst method (BWM) and technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) has been proposed to find the inter-relationship between criteria, the weights of criteria and the best alternative.

The identified five main criteria and 26 sub-criteria have been analyzed through fuzzy DEMATEL, and found that the policy and legal criteria have more inter-relationship with other criteria. Then from BWM results, it is found that the support from government bodies has attained the maximum weightage. Finally, the second alternative has been identified as a more suitable location for establishing BRP using TOPSIS. Further, it is found from the results that the support from government bodies, the impact of emissions, availability of basic facilities and community health are the essential criteria under STEEP dimensions for establishing BRP.

In addition to the various existing sustainable criteria, this study has also considered a set of policy and legal criteria for the evaluation of locations for BRP. Further, the hybrid MCDM method has been proposed in this study for selecting the best alternative. Thus, this study has yielded more insights to the decision-makers in choosing a sustainable location for BRP.

In Industry 4.0 era, many existing port logistics systems are inconsistent, old and ineffective and it restricts the effective operations of port logistics. The study aims to understand the issues faced by the players/actors of port logistics in the Industry 4.0 era for emerging economies and to develop a conceptual framework for managing the port logistics issues associated with it and by providing their possible solutions.

The study is divided into two parts, first part deals with identifying the major port logistics issues in Industry 4.0 era for emerging economies. It is achieved by conducting a semi-structured interview during the field visit to one of the major container handling ports in India. Second, the study adopts Soft System Methodology (SSM) to understand the issues and challenges faced by various actors of port logistics in the Industry 4.0 era and uses CATWOE analysis to identify the root causes.

Issues related to loading/unloading, transit, storage (warehouse), customs clearance, regulatory authorities, port management unit and inland transport connection providers are considered in the study and using SSM a final implementable model has been developed. This study focuses on analyzing and understanding the complete communication and organization structure of the port logistics system. The study identifies the major issues, various inefficiencies and root causes faced by various actors of port logistics during information sharing, cargo movement, the arrangement of the cargo shipments, etc. Further, the study develops a final implementable model by combining the delivery system, criteria system and Industry 4.0-enabled system.

The study enables concerned authorities like state government, central government and policymakers to have a profound understanding of the issues faced by the actors of the port logistics system. The study brings out valuable insights that help managers and stakeholders to make informed decisions for managing the port logistics issues and develop necessary policies aimed to deliver the cargoes in right place at right time. The current study also has some limitations because of sensitivity associated with concerned areas, due to its confidentiality, lack of availability of complete data and the nonsharing attitude of respondents. Further, the study was conducted only for private container shipping terminals and public container terminals were not included.

This research analyzes the port logistics sector as a whole system through SSM to identify issues and challenges faced by various actors of port logistics for emerging economies in the Industry 4.0 era. The study develops a comprehensive and integrated framework for reducing the unpredictability of costs and time for key processes. Further, the framework creates a transparent platform and helps in bringing standardization to ports.

Proposing a strengths-based perspective for innovative work behaviour (IWB), the purpose of this paper is to explore character strengths (CS) as antecedents to IWB. Extending the literature and operating in the framework of positive organisational behaviour, this paper considers creative self-efficacy a crucial link between CS and IWB. The role of growth mindset and learning organisation in facilitating IWB, presented as a conceptual model, contributes to the theory in this field, aiding in developing an overarching theory to understand IWB.

A narrative literature review was performed on the CS, IWB and positive organisational behaviour literature to adapt theories and develop propositions for the conceptual model.

This paper develops a conceptual framework proposing direct relationships between CS and IWB. This study posits creative self-efficacy (CSE) as the mediator between this relationship and growth mindset, learning organisation as the moderators for the link between CS and CSE and CSE and IWB.

The paper presents a conceptual framework focusing on the positive personality traits of employees, precisely their CS. This study explores how leveraging these strengths can enhance their capacity for IWB. The suggested model also prompts additional research in understanding IWB.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the conceptual framework proposed is the first to explore the diverse individual differences factors and the role of contextual facilitation in enhancing employees’ IWB. This study contributes to the growing field of positive organisational behaviour and assists HR managers in tapping into employees’ internal resources. This paper’s theoretical and practical discourse can inspire future research and encourage a strengths-based view of workplace processes.

A porous medium saturated with a nanofluid based on pure water and copper nanoparticles is used for cooling a hemispherical electronic device contained in an annulus space. The disc of the cavity could be inclined at an angle ranging from 0 ° (horizontal disc with dome facing upwards) to 180° (horizontal disc with dome facing downwards). The important surface heat flux generated by the dome leads to high Rayleigh number values reaching 7.29 × 10^10. The purpose of this work is to examine the influence of the nanofluid saturated porous medium on the free convective heat transfer.

Heat transfer occurring between this active component and the isothermal passive cupola is quantified by means of a three-dimensional numerical study using the control volume method associated to the SIMPLE algorithm.

The work shows that heat transfer in the annulus space is improved by interposing a porous medium saturated with the water-copper nanofluid.

New correlation is proposed to calculate the Nusselt number for any combination of the inclination angle, the fraction volume, the Rayleigh number and the ratio between the thermal conductivities of the porous medium and the fluid. The wide ranges corresponding to these parameters allow the thermal design of this electronic equipment for various configurations.

The theoretical concepts and frameworks from the following literature are brought in to discuss the case situation. Freeman’s stakeholder framework, Yukl’s Influence Tactics, Johnson and Scholes’ Power-Interest Matrix Please see: Freeman, R. E. (2010). Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Pitman Publishing Inc. Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in Organizations. Prentice-Hall. Johnson, G. and Scholes, K. (1999). Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. Prentice-Hall.

Information required for the case was primarily collected from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussorie, India, where the newly recruited civil service officers (probationary trainees) of India are trained. The main protagonist, a senior officer in the Indian Administrative Services was interviewed by one of the authors. Secondary data from contemporary newspaper reports and government orders were also made use of.

Palakkad District Magistrate Gayathri Nair was tasked with acquiring 130 hectares of land for a government-sponsored public-private partnership project to set up a railway coach factory in Palakkad. After taking the landowners into confidence and fast-tracking the administrative process through the line departments, she successfully acquired 93 hectares of land for Phase I of the project. However, the intervention from local politicians and activists halted the next phase. Gayathri was pressured by her bosses to solve the standstill in four weeks. Unable to make the owners realize the benefits of the project, she witnessed a showdown between the agitating masses and the district administration. The entire episode is worsened by the partisan media coverage. The only options open to Gayathri, as the head of the district administration, are either to go ahead with forceful land acquisition and thereby, risk the wrath of the public or abandon the project and bury the months-long back-breaking teamwork. How could Gayathri handle the situation better? What steps could she take at various stages to ensure a balanced outcome for all the stakeholders in the project?

This case is applicable for the courses/sessions in training programmes for executives, and undergraduate courses related to project management, strategic management, leadership and public policy. It is also useful for courses and training programmes on stakeholder mapping and conflict management.

The paper aims to examine the boundary layers of a three-dimensional stagnation point flow of Al-Cu nanoparticle-suspended water-based nanofluid in an electrically conducting medium. The effect of magnetic field on second-order slip effect and convective heating is also taken into account.

The thermophysical properties of alloy nanoparticles such as density, specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity are computed using appropriate formula. The non-linear parabolic partial differential equations are transformed to ordinary differential equations and solved by shooting technique.

The influence of compositional variation of alloy nanoparticle, nanoparticle concentration, magnetic effect, slip parameters and Biot number are presented for various flow characteristics. Interesting results on skin friction and Nusselt number are obtained for different composition of aluminium and copper.

A novel result of the analysis reveals that impact of magnetic field near the boundary is suppressed by the slip effect.

The first section will be the introduction which discusses the global scenario of wellness tourism after the pandemic. The second section of this study is wellness tourism after the pandemic in Sri Lanka. This title is an overview based on the homestays which are practicing wellness tourism at the Veludvara Wellness Stay, 98 Acres Resort and Spa and Ella Yoga Hub, and it examines the tourist perspective on wellness tourism after the pandemic. The third section discusses global best practices and policy development in this regard. The fourth section of this study focuses on demand and trends that can be promoted to future wellness tourism and conclude with recommendations. This study followed a qualitative method which is carried out with interviews, observation and secondary data such as books, websites, research papers, articles and other published materials. The impact of this research work is focused on stakeholders in wellness tourism, such as service providers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and other relevant authorities to fulfil gaps in the wellness tourism sector. Furthermore, this will be a good overview for tourists who are willing to get the experience of wellness tourism after the pandemic and identify its future values and demands.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the development and testing of an innovative mobile application using design-based research.

This paper reports on the process of transformation of existing printed course material into digitized content through design-based research where design, research and practice were concurrently applied through several iterations of the mobile application. For this transformation, one session each from BSc in Nursing, Bachelor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Sciences was selected. In the first phase of the design-based research, the main research question was formulated. In the second phase, a mobile learning application (OUSL MLearn) was designed and developed to address the research question. In the third phase, this application was evaluated by five groups of stakeholders: content experts to validate the content; educational technologists to check the alignment of technical and pedagogical features; novice users to check the overall effectiveness of the application; developer to develop the application, to check the ease of usage; and researchers to identify the impact of this innovation. These stakeholders were closely involved throughout the whole process which lasted over a period of four months. At the end of this development phase, the results were reflected upon and used for further enrichment.

It was observed that the developed mobile application was accessible, appealing and pedagogically constructive for users. However, optimization, development time, technical and organizational issues, workload of academics and production costs were identified as major challenges.

This study was based on the findings of a small sample of potential users.

The findings have implications for designing culturally adaptive interactive mobile applications.

This study will benefit practitioners to design culturally sensitive mobile learning courses and researchers to conduct design-based research.