Mohammad Reza Fathi, Hamid Rahimi and Mehrzad Minouei
The main purpose of this paper is to predicate financial distress using the worst-practice-frontier data envelopment analysis (WPF-DEA) model and artificial neural network.
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this paper is to predicate financial distress using the worst-practice-frontier data envelopment analysis (WPF-DEA) model and artificial neural network.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a neural network technique was used to forecast inputs and outputs in the future time-period. Using a WPF-DEA model, financially distressed companies were identified based on the worst performance, and an improvement solution was provided for those decision-making units.
Findings
This study’s findings show that dynamic WPF-DEA has high predictability in corporate financial distress, and it can be used with high confidence. Based on the future time-period results, JOUSH & OXYGEN was predicted to be a financially distressed company in the two future time-periods.
Originality/value
In recent decades, globalization, technological changes and a competitive space have increased uncertainty in the economic environment. In such circumstances, economic growth certainly depends on correct decision-making and optimal allocation of resources. It can be done by introducing appropriate tools and models for assessing corporate financial conditions, including financial distress and bankruptcy.
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Hamid Mattiello, Omid Alijani, Mohammad Rahimi Moghaddam and Behnam Ameri
This study explores evolving tourist preferences post-COVID-19, focusing on the growing demand for sustainable tourism. Using the X.0 wave/tomorrow age theory when X.0 = 5.0, it…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores evolving tourist preferences post-COVID-19, focusing on the growing demand for sustainable tourism. Using the X.0 wave/tomorrow age theory when X.0 = 5.0, it identifies transformative trends influencing the tourism industry's adaptation to new sustainability expectations.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach combines extensive surveys and interviews with diverse tourist profiles to examine behaviors and preferences. The seven pillars of sustainability (7PS) model frames the analysis.
Findings
Tourism is shifting toward sustainable practices, emphasizing cultural differences, environmental stewardship, social engagement, economic resilience, technological infrastructure, educational methods and political supports. The integration of X.0 wave theory with SME 5.0 concepts highlights the importance of responsible tourism aligned with evolving tourist expectations.
Originality/value
This study pioneers the application of the X.0 wave/tomorrow age theory to tourism, offering a novel framework for sustainable practices. It provides insights for making tourism resilient, ecologically sound and socially responsible, meeting post-pandemic visitor demands.
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Sanaz Vatankhah, Hamid Roodbari, Roya Rahimi and Atrina Oraee
High-skilled employees are crucial for sustained competitive advantage of organisations. In the “war for talent”, organisations must position themselves as attractive employers…
Abstract
Purpose
High-skilled employees are crucial for sustained competitive advantage of organisations. In the “war for talent”, organisations must position themselves as attractive employers. This study aims to introduce a unified framework to systematically identify and prioritise organisational attractiveness (OA) components, focusing on the extreme context of the airline industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Treating OA as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) situation, this study uses the Fuzzy Delphi Method to validate key OA factors and the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process to prioritise them based on experts’ judgements.
Findings
This study identifies 5 criteria and 22 sub-criteria for OA, with job characteristics and person–job fit as most critical. These elements signal employment quality and skill–job alignment, reducing information asymmetry and attracting talent.
Practical implications
This research provides a practical framework for airline managers to identify and prioritise key aspects of OA to enhance their value proposition and attract and retain qualified employees. For policymakers, applying the OA framework supports informed policy decisions on employment standards and workforce development.
Originality/value
This research introduces a fuzzy OA index and a framework that enhances OA. By incorporating signalling theory into a fuzzy MCDM approach, it systematically addresses key OA components, offering a strategic method to boost OA.
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Mohammad Farahbakhsh Kargosha, Abbasali Motallebi, Ebrahim Rahimi, Amir Shakerian and Hamidreza Kazemeini
This study aims to prepare probiotic sodium caseinate-gelatin films containing Lactobacillus paracasei, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus plantarum, and evaluate their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to prepare probiotic sodium caseinate-gelatin films containing Lactobacillus paracasei, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus plantarum, and evaluate their application on the microbiological, chemical, mechanical and sensory properties of rainbow trout fillets during 12 days of refrigerated storage.
Design/methodology/approach
The physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the designed films were assessed. In addition, the rainbow trout fillets were examined for microbiological, chemical parameters and sensory attributes.
Findings
According to the results, a negative correlation was found between the survival of probiotic bacteria and the storage time of the films. The counts of L. paracasei, B. bifidum and L. plantarum showed a decreasing trend during the study, starting from (2.9, 3.9 and 1.9 log CFU/g, respectively) at day 0 and reaching (6.79, 5.84 and 6.14 log CFU/g, respectively) at the end of the study (day 12).
Originality/value
It was observed that the sodium caseinate-gelatin probiotic films delayed the microbial growth in rainbow trout fillets compared to the control group. Furthermore, significant differences in chemical changes were found in all treated fish fillets compared to the untreated group.
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Shumank Deep, Vanita Bhoola, Saumya Verma and Udara Ranasinghe
Construction projects in the real estate sector are important for a nation’s economic growth. However, owing to several constraints and stereotypes, the construction industry is…
Abstract
Purpose
Construction projects in the real estate sector are important for a nation’s economic growth. However, owing to several constraints and stereotypes, the construction industry is suffering from major capital losses. A review of recent literature revealed that risks occurring in real estate construction projects (RECPs) carried out in developing economies can be divided into four categories, i.e. financial risks, design risks, execution risks and sociopolitical risks. This study aims to identify the critical factors that lead to these risk categories and develop a control structure for RECPs.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative method, i.e. a questionnaire-based survey, was used for this study. Using a random sampling technique the questionnaire was distributed to selected, highly experienced project managers. To determine whether the factors identified as part of the literature review strongly influence the categories, the factor analysis of the observations was performed.
Findings
The observations made in this study lead to the identification of six critical risk causing factors, i.e. lack of efficient planning, execution constraints, external constraints, client-induced constraints, project constraints and partner experience. The observations indicated a lack of knowledge of project management, organizational culture and a claims redressal mechanism in RECPs. Also, this study recommends a blockchain-based control structure to control the occurrence of the risk causing factors identified.
Originality/value
This study recommends a blockchain-based control structure for controlling the risks occurring.
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Hamid Reza Nikkhah, Varun Grover and Rajiv Sabherwal
This study aims to argue that user’s continued use behavior is contingent upon two perceptions (i.e. the app and the provider). This study examines the moderating effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to argue that user’s continued use behavior is contingent upon two perceptions (i.e. the app and the provider). This study examines the moderating effects of user’s perceptions of apps and providers on the effects of security and privacy concerns and investigate whether assurance mechanisms decrease such concerns.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts a scenario-based survey with 694 mobile cloud computing (MCC) app users to understand their perceptions and behaviors.
Findings
This study finds that while perceived value of data transfer to the cloud moderates the effects of security and privacy concerns on continued use behavior, trust only moderates the effect of privacy concerns. This study also finds that perceived effectiveness of security and privacy intervention impacts privacy concerns but does not decrease security concerns.
Originality/value
Prior mobile app studies mainly focused on mobile apps and did not investigate the perceptions of app providers along with app features in the same study. Furthermore, International Organization for Standardization 27018 certification and privacy policy notification are the interventions that exhibit data assurance mechanisms. However, it is unknown whether these interventions are able to decrease users’ security and privacy concerns after using MCC apps.
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Hossein Bakhshi, Hiwa Weisi and Nouroddin Yousofi
This paper explores the challenges of conducting qualitative research from ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. candidates' perspectives.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the challenges of conducting qualitative research from ELT (English Language Teaching) Ph.D. candidates' perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The participants of the study consisted of 30 Iranian Ph.D. students majoring in ELT. The semi-structured interview was employed to investigate the heart of experiences, issues and concerns of participants with regard to conducting qualitative research (QLR) challenges. To analyze the collected data, the recorded interviews were transcribed, and then the grounded theory approach was employed (Charmaz, 2006).
Findings
The results revealed that the major challenges of the participants consist of the credibility of QLR in ELT contexts, hermeneutic and fuzzy nature of QLR, qualitative data analysis and interpretation, publishing qualitative findings and the system of measuring professors' productivity.
Originality/value
The findings may help professors, mainly EFL ones, in research mentoring and developing research syllabi for graduate students. In addition, it may motivate Ph.D. candidates to employ QLR methods in their research studies. The pedagogical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed at the end of the paper.
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Mehrdad Vasheghani Farahani, Omid Rezaei and Milad Masoomzadeh
This paper reports on a quasi-experimental research performed in the field of reading comprehension and translation quality. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports on a quasi-experimental research performed in the field of reading comprehension and translation quality. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the comparative effect of explicit vs implicit reading comprehension skills on translation quality of Iranian translation students at BA level.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of this research was quasi-experimental in nature. This design was preferred in this study, as it was impossible to assign random sampling to the subjects and apply a true experimental design. The research in hand was also a comparative group design research in a sense that it was supposed to compare two reading comprehension methods (explicit vs implicit) with different treatments.
Findings
In light of this research, some conclusions can be drawn. It can be concluded that there is a positive and direct relationship between reading comprehension and translation, as the first step of translation is to understand the content of the source text (Reid, 1993).
Research limitations/implications
The reading comprehension ability of translation students should be enhanced in their undergraduate classes so that they can better understand the source text and produce a more fluent translation. In order to teach reading comprehension skills, both implicit and explicit techniques can be applied; however, it is better if the subjects receive explicit instruction, as this technique may have more positive results.
Originality/value
Various researchers have explored explicit and implicit instructions on such areas as reading, speaking and listening (see, e.g. Jalilifar and Alipour, 2007; Vahid Dastjerdi and Shirzad, 2010; Negahi and Nouri, 2014; Khanbeiki and Abdolmanafi-Rokni, 2015; Khoii et al., 2015; Mostafavi and Vahdany 2016; Rahimi and Riasati, 2017). Although the results of these studies have shown the positive impacts of both explicit and implicit teaching, explicit has more positive impacts. However, the review of the literature shows that explicit and implicit reading comprehension skills have not been investigated in relation to teaching translation and their possible impacts on translation quality.
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Mohsen pakdaman, Raheleh akbari, Hamid reza Dehghan, Asra Asgharzadeh and Mahdieh Namayandeh
For years, traditional techniques have been used for diabetes treatment. There are two major types of insulin: insulin analogs and regular insulin. Insulin analogs are similar to…
Abstract
Purpose
For years, traditional techniques have been used for diabetes treatment. There are two major types of insulin: insulin analogs and regular insulin. Insulin analogs are similar to regular insulin and lead to changes in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. The purpose of the present research was to determine the cost-effectiveness of insulin analogs versus regular insulin for diabetes control in Yazd Diabetes Center in 2017.
Design/methodology/approach
In this descriptive–analytical research, the cost-effectiveness index was used to compare insulin analogs and regular insulin (pen/vial) for treatment of diabetes. Data were analyzed in the TreeAge Software and a decision tree was constructed. A 10% discount rate was used for ICER sensitivity analysis. Cost-effectiveness was examined from a provider's perspective.
Findings
QALY was calculated to be 0.2 for diabetic patients using insulin analogs and 0.05 for those using regular insulin. The average cost was $3.228 for analog users and $1.826 for regular insulin users. An ICER of $0.093506/QALY was obtained. The present findings suggest that insulin analogs are more cost-effective than regular insulin.
Originality/value
This study was conducted using a cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate insulin analogs versus regular insulin in controlling diabetes. The results of study are helpful to the government to allocate more resources to apply the cost-effective method of the treatment and to protect patients with diabetes from the high cost of treatment.
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Hamid Keshavarz, Mohammad Reza Esmaili Givi and Mohammad Reza Shekari
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible relationship between knowledge management infrastructures (KMI) and organizational intelligence (OI) in two country-wide…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible relationship between knowledge management infrastructures (KMI) and organizational intelligence (OI) in two country-wide research centers dependent to Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, namely, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IRIIST) and Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS).
Design/methodology/approach
The research is a survey in a descriptive manner. Using two validated questionnaires related to KMI and OI, the research was conducted among 175 faculty members and staffs of the two research centers. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures, collected data were then analyzed by software SPSS and partial least squares.
Findings
Factor analysis showed a high factor loading related to the two main variables and all of the items indicated goodness of fit (GoF) related to the questions. The variance-mean ratio between two variables was higher than 0.5 indicating a high convergent validity. R2 for OI showed fitness of SEM. The GoF for IRIIST was 0.642 lower than IHCS with 0.645. Also, path analysis indicated a significant relationship between two variables by 95 percent degree of confidence accepting the two research hypothesis.
Originality/value
By comparison, KMI was more correlated with OI in IHCS than IRIIST. KMI in IRIIST predicted OI by 0.826 percent while in the IHCS by 0.848 percent.