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Material extrusion additive manufacturing processes inevitably produce bead-shaped surface patterns on the walls of parts, which create stress concentrations under load. This study aims to investigate the influence of such stress concentrations on the strength along the build direction (“Z-strength”).

This work consists of two main parts – an experimental demonstration to show the significance of stress concentrations on the Z-strength, followed by numerical modeling to evaluate the theoretical stress concentration factors (k_t) for such shapes. Meso-scale finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to evaluate k_t at the roots of the intersecting bead shapes. The critical bead shape parameters influencing k_t were identified, and parametric FEA studies were performed on different bead shapes by varying the normalized parameters.

The experimental results showed that up to a 40% reduction in the effective Z-strength could be attributed only to the presence of surface bead shapes. Bead overhang and root radius were identified as critical shape parameters influencing k_t. The results of the parametric FEA studies were used to generate a single empirical equation to determine k_t for any bead shape.

Predictive models for Z-strength often focus on crystallization kinetics and polymer chain interdiffusion to predict interlayer adhesion strength. The authors propose that the results of such studies must be combined with surface bead-shape induced stress concentration factors to obtain the combined, “effective” Z-strength.

Although multi-brand loyalty (MBL) in consumer markets has been identified in previous brand loyalty research, empirical studies have not yet explored the facets of its different types. This paper aims to have a deeper understanding of MBL by investigating its different types and facets.

This study uses a sequential, qualitatively driven mixed-method design consisting of in-depth interviews and supplementary survey research.

The findings of this study suggest that mood congruence, identity enhancement, unavailability risk reduction and market competition are the most important facets that explains the two types of MBL (complementary-based and product substitutes). Furthermore, the findings show that the family factor can motivate consumers to be multi-brand loyal by adding brands to an initially family-endorsed brand.

This study advances the conceptual foundations of MBL and extends previous research on brand loyalty. Some of the findings may be limited to the economic and cultural context of relatively affluent countries with an abundance of market offers.

Marketing managers gain insights into how to manage brand loyalty and how to transition from MBL to single-brand loyalty.

The study generates novel insights into the facets of different types of MBL.

In recent days, there has been an increasing interest towards achieving sustainable tourism objectives globally and specifically in Saudi Arabia. The benefits can be maximized if the government is successful in attracting current pilgrims and influence their future intention to revisit the country as tourists. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to measure pilgrims’ revisit intentions to understand more about the possibility of their potential contribution towards the Saudi tourism and hospitality industry in the evolving circumstances.

This paper uses configuration theory to identify the “ideal” type of the pilgrims and compares this to the rest to establish if they differ and if that difference matters. Data were collected from 278 visitors to the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, to perform Umrah.

The findings show that a large deviation from the “ideal pilgrim” is negatively related to revisiting intentions and dissemination of positive word of mouth (PWOM).

The development of profiles gives a better understanding of organizations or people across several dimensions looked at holistically. Fundamental to the theory is that there are only a limited number of configurations that achieve optimal performance (however defined).

The analytical approach adopted in this paper leads to achieving verbal and statistical correspondence in tests of “gestalts”. The interest is in establishing whether this difference matters to intentions to revisit and providing PWOM.

Today, financial viability and the creation of social value form the main axis for the operation of inclusive firms. However, depending on who offers the ideas for inclusive enterprises, there can be questionable presumptions regarding what is promised in relation to poverty. One dubious premise is that all poverty can be solved by the market. Markets may be a prerequisite but not sufficient condition for resolving social problems. Financial inclusion through microfinance is a crucial facet of social inclusion. At the World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) in March 1995, governments made a commitment to eradicate poverty on a global scale, citing it as a moral, social, political and economic imperative. One of the three main objectives of the WSSD was the eradication of poverty. Microfinance provides financial services for persons living below the poverty line and for small businesses that lack access to traditional banking services and related products. Microcredit is the lending of small amounts of money to underserved consumers. Microfinance succeeded where institutional financing failed, but its viability is in question. An all-encompassing approach is required to support the growth of the new microfinance sector and manage the balance that must be struck between outreach and sustainability. It is well known that only efficient institutions can greatly lower the long-term expense of serving irregular and low revenues.

This study aims to explore the relationship between foreignness and CEO pay.

This study combines cross-sectional and time series observations analyzed with panel data methodology in a sample of 59 firms listed in the Spanish IBEX-35 index between 2006 and 2020.

International ownership influences CEO underpayment and foreign sales influence CEO overpayment.

CEO pay is susceptible to being influenced by foreign non-American variables. An appropriate understanding of these factors can contribute to discussing policies that balance the level of CEO payment in large public firms.

Research on internationalization and CEO pay is scarce. A handful of studies confirm the link between Americanization and executive compensation in Europe. However, the authors still do not know if the level of CEO pay is influenced by non-American exposure. To do this, the authors test the effect of firm – ownership, sales, board – and individual – CEO – exposure to international, non-US environments on the level of over/underpayment of CEOs in a sample of Spanish firms.

Explorar la relación entre la extranjería y la remuneración de los CEO.

Combinamos observaciones transversales y de series temporales analizadas con metodología de datos de panel en una muestra de 59 empresas del índice IBEX-35 español entre 2006 y 2020.

La propiedad internacional influye en la remuneración insuficiente de los CEO y las ventas en el extranjero influyen en la remuneración excesiva de los CEO.

La investigación sobre la internacionalización y la remuneración de los CEO es escasa. Un puñado de estudios confirman el vínculo entre la americanización y la remuneración de los ejecutivos en Europa. Sin embargo, todavía no sabemos si el nivel de remuneración de los CEO está influenciado por la exposición no estadounidense. Para ello, probamos el efecto de la exposición de la empresa (propiedad, ventas, consejo) y del individuo (CEO) a entornos internacionales, no estadounidenses, sobre el nivel de sobre/insuficiente remuneración de los CEO en una muestra de empresas españolas.

La remuneración de los CEO es susceptible de verse influenciada por variables extranjeras no estadounidenses. Una comprensión adecuada de estos factores puede contribuir a discutir políticas que equilibren el nivel de remuneración de los CEO en las grandes empresas públicas.

Explorar a relação entre estrangeirismo e remuneração de CEO.

Combinamos observações transversais e de séries temporais analisadas com metodologia de dados em painel em uma amostra de 59 empresas listadas no índice espanhol IBEX-35 entre 2006 e 2020.

A propriedade internacional influencia o sub pagamento de CEO e as vendas no exterior influenciam o super pagamento de CEO.

Pesquisas sobre internacionalização e remuneração de CEO são escassas. Alguns estudos confirmam a ligação entre americanização e remuneração de executivos na Europa. No entanto, ainda não sabemos se o nível de remuneração de CEO é influenciado pela exposição não americana. Para fazer isso, testamos o efeito da exposição da empresa - propriedade, vendas, conselho - e individual - CEO - a ambientes internacionais, não americanos, no nível de super/sub pagamento de CEOs em uma amostra de empresas espanholas.

A remuneração de CEO é suscetível a ser influenciada por variáveis estrangeiras não americanas. Uma compreensão adequada desses fatores pode contribuir para discutir políticas que equilibram o nível de remuneração de CEO em grandes empresas públicas.

This paper applies the directional distant function and the meta-frontier to analyze the efficiency and technology gap ratio (TGR) of 20 publicly traded restaurant companies based on the stock market of the United States (US) from 2009 to 2016. The efficiency scores and TGRs are first computed by restaurant types (i.e. quick-service and full-service) and then by marketing strategies (i.e. single-brand and multi-brand). There are three major findings. First, employee utilization has the greatest room for improvement, and restaurant owners and managers should prioritize the improvement of this input. Second, the average TGR of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) is higher than that of full-service restaurants (FSRs), indicating that the inputs of FSRs need to be adjusted in comparison to QSRs. Third, the average TGR is higher in restaurants with a multi-brand strategy in comparison to a single-brand strategy, and the inputs of multi-brand strategy restaurants need to be adjusted accordingly.

The purpose of this research is to provide a deeper, constructivist account of multi-brand loyalty. Previous literature has acknowledged the existence of multi-brand loyalty, but described it from a narrow, rational and primarily utilitarian point of view.

The study is based on open-ended, depth interviews. Data were labeled, coded and classified into different topics, and thematic analysis was used to identify three dominant themes.

Multi-brand loyalty emerged in three forms: biased, specialized and perfect substitutes. These relationships may undergo dynamic transformations over time. Further, family tradition and perceived freedom were identified as two important motivations for consumers to be loyal to more than one brand. The managerial implications address suggestions on how companies can avoid that consumers become loyal to several brands instead of maintaining single-brand loyalty.

The study is the first to address multi-brand loyalty based on a qualitative research approach and provides preliminary insights into occurrences and motivations related to the construct.

In Ghana, the adoption and application of green building concepts and technologies have not been fully explored. The study aimed to look into the key barriers and how they affect this.

Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select a total of 292 construction industry stakeholders in Ghana who provided information via a questionnaire survey used for the data collection. Exploratory factor analysis and Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) were used for computing the data analyses.

According to the study findings, the top five most critical barriers to the uptake of green building concepts and technologies (GBCs and Ts) in Ghana are: lack of government incentives/supports for implementing green building technologies (GBTs), lack of knowledge and awareness of GBTs and their benefits, lack of GBTs databases and information, Lack of green building (GB) expertise/skilled labour and Higher costs of GBTs. Principal Component Factor Analysis was used to further analyse the data, which allowed for the reduction of the 27 (27) factors to just four (4) underlying critical barriers: (1) government and knowledge-associated barriers, (2) technical barriers, (3) cost and finance barriers and (4) stakeholders’ attitude barriers. PLS-SEM techniques were used to analyse this collection of barriers, and the results showed that stakeholders’ attitude-associated barriers and cost and finance-related barriers have a significant negative influence on the uptake of GBCs and Ts in Ghana. This study’s findings have provided empirical evidence of the critical barriers to the uptake of GBCs and Ts from all stakeholders. Stakeholders desirous of implementing GBCs and Ts would work against the negative influences on the uptake of GBCs and TS.

Although there has been an abundance of research to examine the critical barriers to GB, however, the uniqueness of this study is nested in modelling the influence of the barriers on the adoption of GBCs and Ts using the PLS-SEM path modelling.

The rise of digital technologies has led to the emergence of born digitals, which are firms distinguished by their digital business models and an early digitalization of their value chains. Despite the growing importance of these firms, their internationalization strategies, including the crucial choice of the most-suited foreign entry mode, have only been analyzed marginally by the extant literature. This paper aims to examine how born digitals select their entry mode and which context-specific modes are preferred.

By advancing the institutional entry mode approach of Meyer et al. (2009) with the digitalization conditions of the target market, the authors propose a theoretical entry mode framework for born digitals, in which the institutional market support and the digitalization degree simultaneously affect the entry mode decision.

The authors conclude with two main propositions, arguing that a joint venture and a digital entry are preferable under weak institutions and acquisitions and greenfield projects otherwise. Depending on a high digitalization degree, digital and greenfield entry modes are beneficial.

This paper contributes to the literature by creating an entry mode framework for born digitals and by introducing a digital entry mode.

The study aims to examine the impact of intellectual and social capital in funding businesses.

The study made use of fixed-effects panel data models with a sample of 142 countries from the five continents during the period 1998–2018.

It was found that human capital (HC), relational capital, structural capital and social capital play a role in investors’ decisions to fund a business. The study revealed that investors’ funding decisions in low human development index countries are based mainly on education, while those in high human development index countries are based mainly on the creativity component of HC and on relational, structural and social capital.

The study needs to be replicated using firm-level data within each country. Moreover, the search for new proxies for intellectual and social capital (although the list of variables is exhaustive) both at the country and firm level, constitutes an interesting avenue for future research.

Countries should pay attention to intellectual and social capital to encourage business activity. In particular, low human development countries should strengthen HC, such as the school enrollment rate, with early entrepreneurial training and increase research and development investments, while high human development countries should continue to foster strategic alliances, protect intellectual property and maintain or increase the level of trust in the country.

The study contributes to literature by being the first to explore such a variety of intellectual and social capital variables from a country-level perspective.

El estudio tiene como objetivo examinar el impacto del capital intelectual y social en la financiación de las empresas.

Utilizamos modelos de datos de panel de efectos fijos con una muestra de 142 países de los cinco continentes durante el periodo 1998-2018.

Encontramos que el capital humano (CH), el capital relacional, el capital estructural y el capital social juegan un papel en las decisiones de los inversionistas para financiar un negocio. Encontramos que las decisiones de financiamiento de los inversionistas en los países con bajo índice de desarrollo humano se basan principalmente en la educación, mientras que las de los países con alto índice de desarrollo humano se basan principalmente en el componente de creatividad del CH y en el capital relacional, estructural y social.

Sugerimos replicar el estudio utilizando datos a nivel de empresa dentro de cada país. Por otra parte, la búsqueda de nuevos indicadores de capital intelectual y social (aunque nuestra lista de variables es exhaustiva) tanto a nivel de país como de empresa, constituye una vía interesante para futuras investigaciones.

Los países deben prestar atención al capital intelectual y social para fomentar la actividad empresarial. En particular, los países con bajo desarrollo humano deberían fortalecer el CH, como la tasa de matriculación escolar, con una formación empresarial temprana y aumentar las inversiones en investigación y desarrollo, mientras que los países con un alto nivel de desarrollo humano deberían seguir fomentando las alianzas estratégicas, proteger la propiedad intelectual y mantener o aumentar el nivel de confianza en el país.

El estudio contribuye a la literatura al ser el primero en explorar tal variedad de variables de capital intelectual y social desde una perspectiva a nivel de país.