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The unethical practices of quantity surveyors (QSs) are affecting quality of construction projects, leading to projects’ time and cost overruns. However, the unethical practices of QSs specifically from contractor and consultant firms are currently understudied. Therefore, this research aims to investigate and categorize the unethical practices of QSs.

A questionnaire survey was employed and distributed to the QSs who work in the contractor and consultant firms. Ninety-five responses were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U-test, factor analysis and partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings unveiled disparity between the QSs who work in the consultant and contractor firms, as evidenced by 16 out of the 33 practices displaying statistical significance. The factor analysis results grouped 24 practices into seven components. The PLS-SEM analysis revealed that “contractors ‘collusion and consultants’ biased tender evaluation” had the most significant impact on the perceptions of ethical standards’ declination.

The findings could serve as guideline for the management of consultant and contractor firms with QSs for better management procedures to avoid any intentionally or unintentionally unethical practices that may impact negatively on projects’ time, cost and quality.

This is one of the first studies investigating the perspectives of QSs from the contractors and consultancy firms’ perspective by employing factor analysis and PLS-SEM. The findings could contribute to the body of knowledge in tackling the ethical transgressions specifically related to contractors’ or consultants’ QSs.

The industrial revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) signifies technological advancements and digitalization. The fragmented and labour-intensive nature of the construction industry inherently possesses difficulties for IR4.0 adoption compared to other industries. This paper aims to investigate the perspectives of quantity surveying students on the challenges of IR4.0 implementation in the construction industry.

A questionnaire survey were distributed to a population of 191 quantity surveying students, with 96 valid responses returned. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were employed to analyse the collected data.

Factor analysis revealed eight components as the key challenges for IR4.0 implementation, which revolved around resistance to change, data security issues, etc.

The findings could provide a guideline to higher education institutions on certain IR4.0-related areas to be incorporated into the syllabus, in ensuring that the students are equipped with such skills and knowledge, in meeting market demands. The construction stakeholders' could look into the identified challenges for strategizing the organizations in moving towards IR4.0 adoption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate quantity surveying students' perspectives on the challenges of IR4.0 implementation in the construction industry by employing factor analysis method. The findings contribute to the body of knowledge in relation to the opinions of a younger generation who has more exposure towards technology on the hindrance of IR4.0 adoption.

Given the difficulties in finding significant exchange rate exposure in the extant literature, this paper attempts to resolve the so-called “exposure puzzle” by investigating whether currency movements have any significant impact on international industry returns.

This paper utilizes the multivariate Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) methodology to estimate both symmetric and asymmetric exchange rate exposures for each industry common across 12 countries simultaneously.

The empirical results show that exchange rate exposure is not only statistically significant but also economically important based on the estimation of an asymmetric three-factor exposure model using MGARCH methodology. This is an extremely important finding as it suggests that the “exposure puzzle” may not be a puzzle at all once a better methodology is utilized in the estimation.

Because this study tries to resolve the exchange rate exposure puzzle by focusing on whether exchange rate movements affect ex-post returns as opposed to ex ante expected returns and given the significant exposures with respect to different risk factors found in the study, it is interesting to see if any of these risk factors commands a risk premium. In other words, a natural extension of this study is to test whether any of these risk factors is priced in international industry returns.

The findings of the study have interesting implications for international investors who would like to diversify their portfolios across different industries and are concerned about whether the unexpected movements in the bilateral exchange rates will affect their portfolio returns in addition to its interest rate and world market risk exposures.

The study utilizes the MGARCH methodology, which has not been fully exploited in the exchange rate exposure literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the historical background of genealogical records and analyze the value of Chinese genealogical research through the study of names and genealogical resources.

The paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records, with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names used by the people living in Guilin. The highlight of this paper includes the analysis and evolution of the Islamic Chinese names commonly adopted by the local people in Guilin. It concludes with the recommendations on emphasizing and making the best use of genealogical records to enhance the research value of Chinese overseas studies.

The paper covers the history of Islam and describes how the religion was introduced into China, as well as Muslims' ethnicity and identity. It also places focus on the importance of building a research collection in Asian history and Chinese genealogy.

This research study has a strong subject focus on Chinese genealogy, Asian history, and Islamic Chinese surnames. It is a narrow field that few researchers have delved into.

The results of this study will assist students, researchers, and the general public in tracing the origin of their surnames and developing their interest in the social and historical value of Chinese local history and genealogies.

The study of Chinese surnames is, by itself, a particular field for researching the social and political implications of contemporary Chinese society during the time the family members lived.

Very little research has been done in the area of Chinese local history and genealogy. The paper would be of value to researchers such as historians, sociologists, ethnologists and archaeologists, as well as students and anyone interested in researching a surname origin, its history and evolution.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on how 1999–2001 dot-com crisis and 2007–2009 subprime crisis affect the gains from international diversification from the perspective of US investors.

A conditional international CAPM with asymmetric multivariate GARCH-M specification is used to estimate international diversification gains.

The authors find that over the entire sample period, the average gains from international diversification is statistically significant and about 1.253 percent per year. During the subprime crisis period, the average gains decreases to about 0.567 percent per year, but it increases to 2.829 percent per year during the dot-com crisis.

These research findings although confirm the conjectures that international financial turmoil tends to increase the co-movements among global financial markets, are in contrast to the conjectures that international diversification does not work during the financial crisis as evidence from the dot-com crisis. Therefore, future research on international diversification should not just focus on the correlation among international financial markets and should adopt a fully parameterized asset pricing model to study this research topic.

Given the empirical results found in this paper that international diversification gains may be decreasing or increasing during the financial crisis, as long as investors are not able to predict international financial crises, it is the average gains from international diversification over the longer periods that should encourage investors to diversify, regardless of potentially lower benefits over the shorter periods of time.

The major value of this paper is that although the increase in the conditional correlation during the financial turmoil is consistent with previous studies, the empirical results clearly show that the impact of a financial crisis on the gains from international diversification cannot be solely determined by the correlation between domestic and world stock market returns since the gains also depend on the unsystematic risk from the domestic stock market. Consequently, it is premature for previous studies to conclude that the gain from international diversification is diminishing due to an increasing correlation among international stock markets during the financial crisis.

Whether stock returns are linked to exchange rate changes and whether foreign exchange risk is priced in a domestic context are less conclusive and thus still subject to a great debate. The purpose of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on these two inter‐related issues, which are critical to investors and corporate risk management.

This paper applies two different econometric approaches: Nonlinear Seemingly Unrelated Regression (NLSUR) via Hansen's Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) and multivariate GARCH in mean (MGARCH‐M) to examine the exchange rate exposure and its pricing.

Using industry data for Japan, similar to previous studies, foreign exchange risk is not priced based on the test of an unconditional two‐factor asset pricing model. However, strong evidence of time‐varying foreign exchange risk premium and significant exchange rate betas are obtained based on the tests of conditional asset pricing models using MGARCH‐M approach where both conditional first and second moments of industry returns and risk factors are estimated simultaneously.

The strong empirical evidence found in this study implies that corporate currency hedging not only results in more stable cash flows for a firm, but also reduces its cost of capital, and hence is justifiable.

This paper conducts an in‐depth investigation regarding the exchange rate exposure and its pricing by utilizing two different econometric approaches: NLSUR via Hansen's GMM and MGARCH‐M. In doing so, a more reliable conclusion about the exchange rate exposure and its pricing can be drawn.

Restaurants’ outdoor signage plays an irreplaceable role in attracting potential diners, as it conveys important functional and symbolic meanings of the businesses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of typographic design elements of outdoor signage on consumers’ perceptions of authenticity. This study also tests the linkage between authenticity and willingness to dine, as well as the moderating effect of frequency of dining in ethnic restaurants on the relationship.

Using a 2 (simplified vs traditional Chinese characters) × 2 (calligraphy vs computer font) × 2 (vertical vs horizontal text flow) between-subject design, the authors did two experiments with 786 Chinese diners. Restaurant authenticity and willingness to dine are dependent variables, and openness to ethnic cuisine is the control variable.

Display characters and text flow significantly affect restaurant authenticity. Furthermore, the results of this study demonstrate that display characters interact with typeface to influence restaurant authenticity. Consumers’ perceived authenticity significantly increases their willingness to dine. The frequency of dining in ethnic restaurants moderates the relationship between restaurant authenticity and willingness to dine.

Ethnic restaurateurs should pay attention to the outdoor signage design, as it affects potential consumers’ authenticity perceptions. Specifically, in Mainland China, traditional Chinese characters and vertical text direction increase potential consumers’ authenticity perceptions.

This study extends the semiotic theory and applies the cue–judgment–behavior model in the hospitality literature. This study also provides new understanding of authenticity by identifying the influence of typographic design on authenticity, which confirms the semiotic theory that certain semiotic cues affect consumers’ judgments.

Among developing countries, the Republic of China in Taiwan (hereinafter Taiwan) has been experiencing economic growth accompanied by improving income distribution. Between 1964 and 1980, the average annual growth rate of the real gross national product was 9.92 per cent (Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), 1982, p. 23). In the same period, the income ratio between the top 20 per cent and the bottom 20 per cent of families dropped from 5.33 to 4.17 and the Gini coefficient decreased from 0.36 to 0.30 (CEPD, 1982, p. 54; Directorate‐General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, 1980, (DGBAS), p. 44). To put it somewhat dif‐ferently, in 1964 the lowest fifth of households received 7.71 per cent of total personal income, and the highest fifth 41.07 per cent. But in 1980, the income share of the lowest fifth increased to 8.82 per cent while that of the highest fifth decreased to 36.80 per cent. The condition of greater equality in income distribution appears more obvious in the capital city of Taipei. In 1981, for instance, its Gini coefficient was estimated to be only 0.28 (Taipei Bureau of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, 1981, (TBBAS), P. 24).

Due to the increasing size and complexity of construction projects, construction engineering and management involves the coordination of many complex and dynamic processes and relies on the analysis of uncertain, imprecise and incomplete information, including subjective and linguistically expressed information. Various modelling and computing techniques have been used by construction researchers and applied to practical construction problems in order to overcome these challenges, including fuzzy hybrid techniques. Fuzzy hybrid techniques combine the human-like reasoning capabilities of fuzzy logic with the capabilities of other techniques, such as optimization, machine learning, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) and simulation, to capitalise on their strengths and overcome their limitations. Based on a review of construction literature, this chapter identifies the most common types of fuzzy hybrid techniques applied to construction problems and reviews selected papers in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique to illustrate their capabilities for addressing construction challenges. Finally, this chapter discusses areas for future development of fuzzy hybrid techniques that will increase their capabilities for solving construction-related problems. The contributions of this chapter are threefold: (1) the limitations of some standard techniques for solving construction problems are discussed, as are the ways that fuzzy methods have been hybridized with these techniques in order to address their limitations; (2) a review of existing applications of fuzzy hybrid techniques in construction is provided in order to illustrate the capabilities of these techniques for solving a variety of construction problems and (3) potential improvements in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique in construction are provided, as areas for future research.

By incorporating the resource-based view with the dynamic capability view, this study aims to examine the link between corporate political networking strategy and firm performance in transition economies by focusing on the mediating role of corporate entrepreneurship and the moderating role of dysfunctional competition.

A large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,300 senior managers from 650 enterprises in China, and valid survey data were obtained from 401 enterprises.

Empirical results demonstrate that political networking strategy is positively related to firm performance and that this relationship is fully mediated by corporate entrepreneurship. Moderated path analysis indicates that dysfunctional competition strengthens the direct effect of political networking strategy on corporate entrepreneurship and its indirect effect on firm performance via corporate entrepreneurship.

This research is among the first to examine the mediating mechanism underlying the relationship between political networking strategy and firm performance in the context of transition economies. In addition, existing research has seldom discussed the effects on corporate entrepreneurship of external resource acquisition from government sources. This research fills this important gap and identifies the condition under which political networking benefits corporate entrepreneurship.