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This paper presents a methodology based on Multiobjective Genetic Algorithms (MOGAs) for the design of electrical engineering systems. MOGAs allow one to optimize multiple heterogeneous criteria in complex systems, but also simplify couplings and sensitivity analysis by determining the evolution of design variables along the Pareto‐optimal front.

To illustrate the use of MOGAs in electrical engineering, the optimal design of an electromechanical system has been investigated. A rather simplified case study dealing with the optimal dimensioning of an inverter – permanent magnet motor – reducer – load association is carried out to demonstrate the interest of the approach. The purpose is to simultaneously minimize two objectives: the global losses and the mass of the system. The system model is described by analytical model and we use the MOGA called NSGA‐II.

From the extraction of Pareto‐optimal solutions, MOGAs facilitate the investigation of parametric sensitivity and the analysis of couplings in the system. Through a simple but typical academic problem dealing with the optimal dimensioning of a inverter – permanent magnet motor – reducer – load association, it has been shown that this multiobjective a posteriori approach could offer interesting outlooks in the global optimization and design of complex heterogeneous systems. The final choice between all Pareto‐optimal configurations can be a posteriori done in relation to other issues which have not been considered in the optimization process. In this paper, we illustrate this point by considering the cogging torque for the final decision.

We have proposed an original quantitative methodology based on correlation coefficients to characterize the system interactions.

Faltung equations (closed cycle type) have a wide range of biological applications, nonetheless, they are poorly studied. We use a Volterra‐Kostitzin model (which is a Faltung equation) to study the dynamics of a certain species, where the integral term represents a residual action. The complexity of resolution of this non‐linear equation using classical numeric methods is here solved with the Adomian decomposition method. Our method provides the same graphic solution as others do, such as the numeric method Miladie. However, the decomposition method of Adomian has the advantage that neither time nor space are considered discontinuous and that it gives an analytical solution with a reliable approximation.

The global imperative for sustainable infrastructure management has intensified the focus on facility retrofitting as a key strategy for reducing environmental impact and enhancing operational efficiency. However, the complex interplay of factors influencing stakeholders’ willingness to pay (WTP) for such interventions remains inadequately understood, impeding effective policy formulation and resource allocation. This study aims to examine the motivational factors influencing the adoption of green retrofits in Lagos, Nigeria.

This study used a stated preference discrete choice experiment conducted with 425 decision-makers of corporate facilities in Lagos, Nigeria. A multinomial logit model was used to compare retrofitting choice sets and a status quo option.

The study revealed that education level, reputation concerns, income, incentives and corporate social responsibility awareness significantly predicted WTP for basic heating ventilation air-conditioning, and lighting upgrades. Regulatory compliance, awareness, education, income and reputation emerged as key drivers for more comprehensive retrofits incorporating renewables.

The research findings, by revealing which motivators resonate strongest, offer an evidence-based roadmap that directs practitioners to look beyond price incentives and emphasize complementary non-price interventions integrated with policy. The study’s emphasis on the significance of noneconomic WTP drivers equips program administrators with actionable strategies to optimize the uptake of retrofits based on individuals’ motivational structures.

This is one of the very few studies that have investigated the motivational factors influencing the adoption of green facility retrofitting in emerging markets, focusing on Lagos, Nigeria.

This study aims to explore the degree to which the editorial policies of business and management journals explicitly or implicitly discourage replication studies.

The paper examines differences in editorial policy toward replication studies relative to journal quality, age and sub-discipline area. A total of 600 journals (listed as Q1 and Q2 in Scopus) were selected for the current study.

The results reveal that out of 600 selected journals, only 28 (4.7%) were explicitly open to considering replication studies, while 331 (55.2%) were neutral, being neither explicitly nor implicitly dismissive of replication studies. A further 238 (39.7%) were implicitly dismissive of replication studies, and the remaining 3 (0.5%) journals were explicitly disinterested in considering replication studies for publication. CiteScore and Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) of neutral journals were significantly lower than those of journals, which were implicitly discouraging replication research. With regard to the journals implicitly discouraging replications (238), journals in the subcategory of business and international management (51) had the highest percentage (21.4%) followed by strategy and management 30 (12.6%) and Organizational Behavior (OB) and Human Resource (HR) 25 (10.5%).

The available literature does not explore the degree to which the editorial policies of business and management journals explicitly or implicitly discourage replication studies. The current study attempts to address this gap in the literature. Given the lack of support for replications among business and management journals, the current paper sets forth the suggested steps which are deemed crucial for moving beyond the replication crisis in the business and management field.

Business ethics provide a potent source of competitive advantage, placing increasing pressure on organizations to create and maintain an ethical workforce. Nonetheless, ethical breaches continue to permeate corporate life, suggesting that there is something missing from how we conceptualize and institutionalize organizational ethics. The current effort seeks to fill this void in two ways. First, we introduce an extended ethical framework premised on sensemaking in organizations. Within this framework, we suggest that multiple individual, organizational, and societal factors may differentially influence the ethical sensemaking process. Second, we contend that human resource management plays a central role in sustaining workplace ethics and explore the strategies through which human resource personnel can work to foster an ethical culture and spearhead ethics initiatives. Future research directions applicable to scholars in both the ethics and human resources domains are provided.

Current publication practices in the scholarly (International) Business and Management community are overwhelmingly anti-Popperian, which fundamentally frustrates the production of scientific progress. This is the result of at least five related biases: the verification, novelty, normal science, evidence, and market biases. As a result, no one is really interested in replicating anything. In this essay, the author extensively argues what he believes is wrong, why that is so, and what we might do about this. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This is an essay, combining a literature review with polemic argumentation.

Only a tiny fraction of published studies involve a replication effort. Moreover, journal authors, editors, reviewers and readers are not interested in seeing nulls and negatives in print. This replication crisis implies that Popper’s critical falsification principle is actually thrown into the scientific community’s dustbin. Behind the façade of all these so-called new discoveries, false positives abound, as do questionable research practices meant to produce all this allegedly cutting-edge and groundbreaking significant findings. If this dismal state of affairs does not change for the good, (International) Business and Management research is ending up in a deadlock.

A radical cultural change in the scientific community, including (International) Business and Management, is badly needed. It should be in the community’s DNA to engage in the quest for the “truth” – nothing more, nothing less. Such a change must involve all stakeholders: scholars, editors, reviewers, and students, but also funding agencies, research institutes, university presidents, faculty deans, department chairs, journalists, policymakers, and publishers. In the words of Ioannidis (2012, p. 647): “Safeguarding scientific principles is not something to be done once and for all. It is a challenge that needs to be met successfully on a daily basis both by single scientists and the whole scientific establishment.”

Publication practices have to change radically. For instance, editorial policies should dispose of their current overly dominant pro-novelty and pro-positives biases, and explicitly encourage the publication of replication studies, including failed and unsuccessful ones that report null and negative findings.

This is an explicit plea to change the way the scientific research community operates, offering a series of concrete recommendations what to do before it is too late.

Urban community gardens (UCGs) are important sources of community, food and greenspaces in urban environments. Though UCGs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) of Ontario, Canada, were considered essential during the COVID-19 lockdowns and therefore open to gardeners, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and UCG use among garden members and managers is not fully understood.

This was an exploratory qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven managers and eight members of nine gardens in the GTA. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

The results suggest that UCGs helped participants be resilient to COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors through the provision of cultural ecosystem services. Therefore, this study supports the current literature that UCGs can help foster resilience during crises. While participants in this study did not end up being food insecure, participants did express concern about community food security.

Results contribute to the current body of literature, and can be used to further update and develop UCG policies, as well as help develop UCG infrastructure and management strategies for future crises.

The impacts of the pandemic on Canadian UCGs are not well understood. This research paper investigated the impact of the pandemic on UCG use and food security, as well as the link between UCG use and increased resilience to COVID-19-related stressors.

This study aims to investigate the generalizability of Daniela Weismeier-Sammer’s (2011) replication study on entrepreneurial behavior and extended the model by considering the adoption of a technology platform as a moderator in the Indian family entrepreneurship community.

The earlier replication study was conducted in Austria, and this one has been conducted in India with 372 respondents of Indian family firms. The study has used the structural equation modeling technique for analysis purposes. The study has also used multi-group analysis for understanding the moderator impact.

Willingness to change, generational involvement, perceived technological opportunities and corporate entrepreneurship for the Indian family business community, along with strategic planning, as a moderating factor, formed the earlier model. In the context of strategic planning, this study observes a similarity, but due to the consideration of the additional moderator, the role of generational involvement has become insignificant.

This study adds value to the overall body of literature on the family business community, digital entrepreneurship and technology adoption in the family business community. The study provides valuable inputs on the digital entrepreneurship and family business firms which could be used by entrepreneurs, policymakers and practitioners for different purposes. The sample size is small and India specific so the proposed model cannot be generalizable.

This study has used replication and validation techniques in the digital entrepreneurship community and new venture creation in the Indian context. Very few studies have explored the digital entrepreneurship phenomenon in the Indian family business community context. Also, the use of adoption of technology platform as a moderator enhances the model from the earlier study. Thus, this study is deemed to be a unique research study.

Using the industry as an approximation of the external environment of companies, Dess and Beard proposed the construct organizational task environment (OTE). If the precision of the definition of industry is desirable, it involves a multiplicity of elements that restrict the ability of generalization. This paper aims to contribute by identifying clusters of industries with similar environmental profiles. As the discriminant validity of the OTE construct was tested only by Harris in US manufacturing industry, not supporting it, this study also seeks to contribute by assessing the OTE construct validity for the Brazilian manufacturing industry.

Authors collected data from all manufacturing sectors in Brazil, between 1996 and 2003; they used confirmatory factor analysis with the multi-trait multi-method matrix approach to assess the construct validity and ran environmental dimensions' factorial scores through the cluster analysis to find out natural groupings of industries.

The results support the convergent and discriminant validity of the construct OTE, suggesting that further replication should be conducted in the US economy and in different economic contexts.

The study identified four groups of industries with similar environmental conditions, increasing possibilities of generalization of researches. The limitations stem from measurement in an extended period of time and not measuring changes in the environment.

To expand the analytical capabilities of managers for decision making on the sharing of skills between businesses in different industries.

The main contributions of this work are to further discussions on the validity of the OTE construct and to identify industrial clusters of homogeneous environments.

The purpose of this paper is to address the use of Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ) to investigate the learning style preferences of undergraduate students at the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) culture. It also investigates whether there are significant differences across the four dimensions of learning styles due to students’ demographics.

Questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 200 undergraduate students at AURAK in the UAE. The majority of students were Arabic native-speakers. Descriptive statistics were used to present the main characteristics of respondents and the results of the study. The independent samples t-test, Mann–Whitney test and Kurskal–Wallis test were used to find out if there are significant differences across the four dimensions of learning styles due to students’ demographics.

The results of the study illustrated that undergraduate students at AURAK have preferences for the reflector (15.0), pragmatist (14.2), theorist (13.9) and activist (12.3) learning styles. Moreover, there are only significant differences between Emirati and non-Emirati students across the four learning styles and between single and married students in the theorist learning style.

This study has a number of limitations. First, the findings of the study are based on the data collected from only one university. Second, the sample is limited to undergraduate students and, therefore, it excludes graduate students who might have different experiences. Third, the results are based on a self-reported questionnaire which might affect the reliability of the results. On the other hand, it has a number of implications for educators and students. Educators will benefit from the results of this study in the sense that they need to adopt teaching styles and strategies that match the learning styles of the majority of their students. Students themselves will benefit from knowing their own learning style.

The present study validates a learning style theory developed in a western culture in an Arabic culture.