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To show how the analytical and visualization capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS) can enhance the communication, understanding and utility of data and information to be used in marketing planning, as compared with their conventional presentation as text and tables.

A digital map of the study area was generated and a set of market zones. A multiple regression model for predicting sale of the product under study was then developed, taking into account sales figures from specific distribution outlets and the demographic and socio‐economic characteristics of the population served by the distribution outlets in the identified market zones. Optimum routes and times between the manufacturing plant and the distribution outlets were derived.

Combining geospatial methods with conventional marketing techniques enables users to visualize the spatial distribution of data in maps, complemented by various statistical graphs and diagrams. This form of presentation yields better insights into the nature of the distribution process and better understanding of the diverse markets served.

This is a single case study of the solution to a logistical question in one district of one city in an African country. The findings must therefore be applied to other contexts with due caution.

The study nevertheless vividly demonstrates the important role that GIS can play in sales and marketing planning.

An application of planning technology normally encountered in applications beyond the marketing discipline, readily transferable with care to more familiar situations and settings.

This paper aims to assess the current and future dynamics of land cover transitions and analyze the vegetation conditions in Abuja city since its establishment as the capital of Nigeria in 1991.

A random forest classifier embedded in the Google Earth Engine platform was used to classify Landsat imagery for the years 1990, 2001, 2014 and 2020. A post-classification comparison was used to detect the dynamics of land cover transitions. A hybrid simulation model that comprised cellular automata and Markovian was used to model the probable scenario of land cover changes for 2050. The trend of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was examined using Mann–Kendall and Theil Sen’s from 2014 to 2022. Nighttime band data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were obtained to analyze the trend of urbanization from 2014 to 2022.

The findings show that built-up areas increased by 40%, while vegetation, bare land and agricultural land decreased by 27%, 7% and 8%, respectively. Vegetation had the highest declining rate at 3.15% per annum. Built-up areas are expected to increase by 17.1% between 2020 and 2050 in contrast with other land cover. The proportion of areas with moderate vegetation improvement is estimated to be 15.10%, while the proportion of areas with no significant change was 38.10%. The overall proportion of degraded areas stands at 46.8% due to urbanization.

The findings provide a comprehensive insight into the dynamics of land cover transitions and vegetation variability induced by rapid urbanization in Abuja city, Nigeria. In addition, the findings provide valuable insights for policymakers and urban planners to develop a sustainable land use policy that promotes inclusivity, safety and resilience.

Grounded in the principal-agent theory, this study aims to develop and test hypotheses too, investigate how the firm’s strategic orientations, namely, innovation, growth, differentiation and cost leadership impact the chief information officer (CIO) reporting relationship and structure.

The study uses content analysis to analyze a data set of press releases collected from the LexisNexis Academic wire index. The press releases were issued by firms when they hired CIOs between 2003 and 2007, yielding 128 firms, which had specific information about the CIO reporting relationship and structure.

The results reveal that firms seeking an innovation, growth or differentiation strategy have their CIOs reporting to the chief executive officer.

The current study is motivated by the desire to replicate and extend the works of previous researchers who have assessed various CIO issues. Replication takes several forms such as the use of similar or different data sets, different research environments or reinvestigating research concepts through a different theoretical lens. This study makes use of a multi-firm data set spanning five years and the principal-agent theory as the theoretical framework to explore the CIO reporting relationship and structure. Although this study focuses on the hiring trends and the strategic orientations of the firms, future studies should explore other characteristics associated with the CIOs that might have an impact on the reporting relationship such as the years of experience, age, educational background of CIOs and information technology budgets.

The existing literature has not settled the debate as to whom the CIO should be reporting to and understanding the reporting relationships is important because, in many firms, the organizational structures and the reporting relationships are indicative of the power dynamics and how the organizational resources are controlled and shared.

Replication studies are important because they confirm, reinforce, extend and provide reliability to the paradigms and knowledge in the discipline, as well as offer reliability of the results upon which scientific progress is based.

This paper aims to review the elements of facilities condition index (FCI) as one of the most widely used metrics for describing the physical condition of facilities and as a measure of financial indicator related to maintenance activity. This research will benefit future studies that focus on implementation of FCI and encourage the best practice when assessing the physical condition to evaluate the performance of facilities as well as to plan for maintenance action to be taken and financial implication involved based on the findings from FCI.

A total of 33 studies from 2012 to 2022 were identified and extracted from four academic databased, named Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Mendeley. These published studies were selected because it matches with the inclusion requirements for research question, “What are the elements of facilities condition index discussed in the literature from 2012 to 2022?”. To answer the research question, the studies in ATLAS.ti were grouped into five major themes based on the codes and categories found.

This paper presents the findings of a thematic analysis of the current literature discussed about FCI. A total of 33 studies from 2012 to 2022 were identified and extracted from four academic databased, named Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Mendeley. A themed review was conducted, and five themes were identified as elements of FCI, which are named as follows: “Condition Assessment”, “Deferred Maintenance”, “Facilities Performance”, “Financial and Fund Allocation” and “Decision Making”.

This paper fulfils the fundamental elements on current FCI practices as well as intended to highlight existing practices that are essential to evaluate facilities performance and planning for maintenance strategies.

This paper aims to focus on the application of multi-attribute decision-making methods (MADMs) to ascertain the optimal machining parameters while turning Ti-6Al-4V alloy under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) conditions using Jatropha-curcas oil (JCO) bio-based lubricant.

The experiments were designed and performed using Taguchi L27 design of experiments methodology. A total of 27 experiments were performed under MQL conditions using textured carbide cutting tools on which different MADMs like Analytic hierarchy process (AHP), Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and Simple additive weighting (SAW) were implemented in an empirical manner to extract optimize machining parameters for turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy under set of constrained conditions.

The results evaluated through MADMs exhibit the optimized set of machining parameters (cutting speed V_c = 80 m/min, feed rate f = 0.05 mm/rev. and depth of cut a_p = 0.10 mm) for minimizing the average surface roughness (Ra), maximum flank wear (Vbmax), tangential cutting force (Fc) and cutting temperature (T). Further, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and traditional desirability function approach was applied and results of TOPSIS and SAW methods having optimal setting of parameters were compared as well as confirmation experiments were conducted to verify the results. A SEM analysis at lowest and highest cutting speeds was performed to investigate the tool wear patterns. At the highest speed, large cutting temperature generated, thereby resulted in chipping as well as notching and fracturing of the textured insert.

The research paper attempted in exploring the optimized machining parameters during turning of difficult-to-cut titanium alloy (Ti-6AL-4V) with textured carbide cutting tool under MQL environment through combined approach of MADMs techniques. Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been extensively used in important aerospace components like fuselage, hydraulic tubing, bulk head, wing spar, landing gear, as well as bio-medical applications.

Since the start of seed and other market reforms in the 1990s, the annual number of improved varietal releases for maize in Kenya has increased substantially. Prior to the reforms, private firms were restricted in introducing new varieties, could not protect their intellectual property and farmers had to rely exclusively on improved seeds developed and marketed by the public sector. Reforms have resulted in not only private firms entering the market and releasing improved varieties, but also an increase in varietal releases by the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the key policy reforms related to maize in Kenya, and their impacts on varietal development and yields.

The authors estimate a yield model that relates national maize yields to a number of input policy variables. The authors employ a two-stage least square regression, as one of the explanatory variables – the number of varietal releases – is likely endogenous with yield. The authors use policy variables such as public R&D, the number of plant breeder’s rights issued, and the years since private varieties have been introduced as instrument variables to estimate their influence new varietal releases directly, and then new varieties, inputs and other policies to measure their impact on yields.

The results show that policy changes such as the introduction of intellectual property rights had an important impact on the number of improved maize varieties released. However, the outcomes of the policy change such as the number of varieties and the share of area under improved varieties has no impact on increasing maize yields. The authors argue that this is because farmers continue to use older improved varieties because of the dominance of a parastatal in the maize, seed market and that newer improved varieties may not have the assumed yield advantage. Future policy and programs should be directed toward increasing the adoption of improved varieties rather than simply releasing them.

This paper provides evidence that while policy change may lead to new varietal development and release, its aggregate productivity impacts may be limited without additional reforms and intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the content of nutrients and minerals in various cultivars of Cucurbita maxima.

This is preliminary study, so eight samples from each cultivar of pumpkin used in this study were obtained from local farms from Poland. The following pumpkin cultivars were used: Australian butter, Flat white boer, Garbo, Golden delicious, Golden nugget, Hokkaido, Solor and Zapallito de tronco. In pumpkins elements, dry matter, ash and crude protein were determined. All elements were determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer. Content of dry matter, ash and crude protein according to AOAC methods.

The fruit of Cucurbita maxima, irrespective of cultivar, is a good means of supplementing the diet with highly beneficial fibre, and minerals such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulphur, silicon, iron and zinc. The pumpkins richest in minerals are those of the Australian butter cultivar (calcium, manganese, iron), Flat white boer (sodium, silicon, chromium, nickel), Hokkaido (potassium, phosphorus, zinc, chromium) and Solor (magnesium, sulphur, copper), while the Garbo, Golden Delicious and Zapallito de tronco cultivars had the lowest concentrations of minerals.

The results obtained indicate that depending on the consumer’s expectations, pumpkins of various cultivars can be a dietary component that corrects deficiencies in the diet. Pumpkins grown in Poland have been characterised in terms of the content of mineral elements. These vegetables have become an important component of local food in Poland.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the trends of climate change and their impact on businesses in Kenya’s Public Listed Companies (PLCs).

Out of 66 PLCs, the researchers interviewed 10 companies, and therefore obtained a 15% sample. The methodology was utilization of both primary and secondary data and by use of a combination of the structured and unstructured interviews.

The findings indicated that, although climate change issues are mentioned or implied in strategic plans and core values, they rarely however, translate to normal or day-to-day conversation or operation of the businesses. PESTEL factors are cited as having a very positive impact on businesses that are technological and economic, contrary to environmental/climate change factors which have a more negative than positive effect on the business. Electricity outages/shortages will have serious impact, while agricultural, tourism, insurance, and aviation sectors are likely to be most severely affected by climate change. The hypothesis that climate change is affecting all businesses was accepted while that stating that climate change is significantly impacting businesses negatively rather than positively by increasing operating costs which may result to closure if not mitigated by 2030 was rejected.

Companies should not adopt a “business as usual” attitude but invest in training on effects and strategies for mitigation as well as adaptation and translate climate issues into action as well as create synergy in tackling climate change issues.

The research is valuable to environmentalists, meteorologists, business community, academicians, as well as scientists and scholars alike both nationally and internationally.

The fastest growing industry in the world is in the hospitality field that focuses on customer satisfaction. Part of this is the food service industry that has been improving its existence for the past years. In the hospitality industry, there are various kinds of businesses and one of them is street cuisine, which is not properly sanitised yet affordable and delicious. The researchers used various approaches to understand the tourists' perception on street cuisine, which are descriptive and quantitative. This research was conducted with millennial visitors in George Town Street, Penang, by using a survey questionnaire. Based on the results, the researchers found out that there are some differences in the perception on street cuisine stalls based on their demographic profile. This study confirmed that street cuisine in George Town Street, Penang, is recognised with its level of hygiene in preparation and with high consideration for its cleanness. In addition, this study also shows that street cuisine in the post-COVID-19 period in George Town Street, Penang, is recognised to have a high commercial value; therefore, more efforts must be engaged to boost its competitiveness in the market. Therefore, there is a need of full support from the Malaysian government, local authorities and local people in maintaining its quality and the preferences of George Town street in Penang as a tourism destination that provides heavenly street cuisine to all tourists in the world.