Sani Mashi, Kabir Idris and Isa Abubakar Yakubu Kazaure
Development of a disaster response plan at a national level is regarded as the best way to undertake country-level disaster management in a well-coordinated manner, involving all…
Abstract
Purpose
Development of a disaster response plan at a national level is regarded as the best way to undertake country-level disaster management in a well-coordinated manner, involving all stakeholders in well-built networks. Where developed national disaster response plans (NDRPs) are to be subjected to evaluative assessments from time to time to establish their strengths and weaknesses in disaster response processes. Only about 20 of the world's 195 countries have NDRPs, and only three of them have undergone some form of evaluation. This paper contributes toward filling this gap by evaluating the NDRP of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Lessons from the implementation of this NDRP will help guide the development of the plans in countries where they do not yet exist.
Design/methodology/approach
Network and qualitative content analysis was employed to subject the Nigerian NDRP to critical evaluation using standards already established in the literature for the development of management networks and their use in disaster response. The experiences of other countries with developed NDRPs were also used to guide an effective evaluation process.
Findings
Findings of the study show that the Nigerian NDRP is deficient in many respects, particularly in the areas of weak development of networks, absence of roles-differentiation for various stakeholders, lack of specified achievable and hence monitorable targets, objectives and outcomes and absence of detailed response plans for specific disaster types. The plan needs to therefore be subjected to a detailed multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder review to get it strengthened.
Originality/value
This is the first attempt to conduct an evaluative assessment of Nigeria's NDRP and the 4th in the world. The study's findings can help not only to strengthen Nigeria's NDRP, but also to develop similar plans in other countries around the world.
Prasenjit Biswas, Deepak Patel, Archana Mallik and Sanjeev Das
The purpose of this paper is to develop a concept and design to cast Al alloys/metal matrix composites (MMCs) by continuous casting process. The various steps involved in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a concept and design to cast Al alloys/metal matrix composites (MMCs) by continuous casting process. The various steps involved in the evolution of the design have been reported and discussed in this study.
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of developed design concept, initial prototype design has been prepared in this study. The casting process's melt flow pattern was studied via computer simulation, and the resulting changes were implemented in the original design. The single-phase fluid flow pattern through bottom feeding technique is studied. The equipment was fabricated based on computer simulation and water modelling studies. Finally, validation was performed for the preparation of Al alloys/ MMCs after parameter optimisation. The results were observed in the optical metallography to confirm the alloying and Al MMC preparation.
Findings
The developed continuous casting process with bottom feeding technique for the addition of constituent particles shows more efficiency in comparison to the existing batch processes. The final manufactured setup demonstrates effective Al alloy/MMC production as the basis for final fabrication has been accomplished by both computer simulation and water model test. In addition, the microstructure exhibits homogeneous distribution, validating the reliability of the setup.
Originality/value
Integrating continuous casting with continuous reinforcement or master alloy addition is novel in this area. The constraints that batch production had that have been rectified will also lower the contemporary cost of production.
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Idris A. Adediran, Raymond Swaray, Aminat O. Orekoya and Balikis A. Kabir
This study aims to examine the ability of clean energy stocks to provide cover for investors against market risks related to climate change and disturbances in the oil market.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the ability of clean energy stocks to provide cover for investors against market risks related to climate change and disturbances in the oil market.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts the feasible quasi generalized least squares technique to estimate a predictive model based on Westerlund and Narayan’s (2015) approach to evaluating the hedging effectiveness of clean energy stocks. The out-of-sample forecast evaluations of the oil risk-based and climate risk-based clean energy predictive models are explored using Clark and West’s model (2007) and a modified Diebold & Mariano forecast evaluation test for nested and non-nested models, respectively.
Findings
The study finds ample evidence that clean energy stocks may hedge against oil market risks. This result is robust to alternative measures of oil risk and holds when applied to data from the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, the hedging effectiveness of clean energy against climate risks is limited to 4 of the 6 clean energy indices and restricted to climate risk measured with climate policy uncertainty.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by providing extensive analysis of hedging effectiveness of several clean energy indices (global, the United States (US), Europe and Asia) and sectoral clean energy indices (solar and wind) against oil market and climate risks using various measures of oil risk (WTI (West Texas intermediate) and Brent volatility) and climate risk (climate policy uncertainty and energy and environmental regulation) as predictors. It also conducts forecast evaluations of the clean energy predictive models for nested and non-nested models.
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Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured…
Abstract
Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.
The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.
The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.
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Mohammad Kabir Hassan, Muneer Maher Alshater, Mamunur Rashid and Sutan Emir Hidayat
This paper aims to study the performance of the Journal of Islamic Marketing (JIMA). This study identifies the influential scientific actors and identifies the major dimensions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the performance of the Journal of Islamic Marketing (JIMA). This study identifies the influential scientific actors and identifies the major dimensions and themes of the journal.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a bibliometric method. A total of 483 articles and 27 reviews of the journal were collected from the Scopus database. This paper analyses the data using RStudio, VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel. Analyses were divided into three main categories: general performance indicators, citations analysis and cross-dimensional keywords analysis.
Findings
Islamic marketing establishes itself as an industry of its own, not as a cohort of Islamic finance. This study finds that JIMA played an active role in that respect. Islamic marketing has been primarily an Asian-dominated industry. Malaysia has led the development and publication of resources on Islamic marketing, followed by recent initiatives in Indonesia, Iran and Pakistan. There are also unique cases of Islamic marketing growth in non-Asian Muslim-minority countries, including the USA, the UK and Australia. Finally, loyalty, religiosity, halal food and intention of the Muslim consumers are the key dimensions covered by JIMA authors. This paper expects that JIMA will cater to the growing needs of Islamic marketing in diversified sectors, Islamic social marketing analytics, post-purchase attributes and multidimensional integration of Islamic marketing research in the dominance of diverse leadership styles and ownership structures.
Originality/value
The study provides an objective evaluation of the journal’s progress through a decade of its operation; it highlights the achievements and discusses the progress and contribution of the journal to the scientific community.
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Noor Mahinar Abu Bakar, Norhashimah Mohd Yasin, Siti Salwani Razali and Ng See Teong
This chapter aims to examine Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) approach in fulfilling its financial consumer protection mandate from unfair contract terms and the statutory framework…
Abstract
This chapter aims to examine Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) approach in fulfilling its financial consumer protection mandate from unfair contract terms and the statutory framework relevant for consumer protection in the domestic market. This is a qualitative-based research. Using content analysis, this study analyses BNM’s Financial Stability and Payment Systems Report from 2012 to 2016, specifically on the ‘market conduct and consumer empowerment’ to explore BNM’s prudential regulatory, supervisory and consumer protection roles in protecting bank consumers from unfair contract terms. It is found that even if a number of standards and guidelines have been issued by BNM in improving ‘fairness and transparency’, the potential risk facing bank consumers from unfair terms in standard consumer contracts of Islamic banks especially where terms may be unfair or unclear remains unchanged. This study recommends that BNM as the Central Bank and financial regulator of Malaysia promotes self-regulation of the Islamic banks by adopting value-based banking of a consumer-focussed culture in delivering an effective protection for consumers from unfair contract terms and empowering them in their dealings with Islamic banks in Malaysia. This study will be helpful in bringing a policy formulation by BNM in identifying their weak areas and suggesting improvements in pursuing a strong consumer protection agenda from unfair contract terms.
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Hasnae Zerouaoui, Ali Idri and Omar El Alaoui
Hundreds of thousands of deaths each year in the world are caused by breast cancer (BC). An early-stage diagnosis of this disease can positively reduce the morbidity and mortality…
Abstract
Purpose
Hundreds of thousands of deaths each year in the world are caused by breast cancer (BC). An early-stage diagnosis of this disease can positively reduce the morbidity and mortality rate by helping to select the most appropriate treatment options, especially by using histological BC images for the diagnosis.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study proposes and evaluates a novel approach which consists of 24 deep hybrid heterogenous ensembles that combine the strength of seven deep learning techniques (DenseNet 201, Inception V3, VGG16, VGG19, Inception-ResNet-V3, MobileNet V2 and ResNet 50) for feature extraction and four well-known classifiers (multi-layer perceptron, support vector machines, K-nearest neighbors and decision tree) by means of hard and weighted voting combination methods for histological classification of BC medical image. Furthermore, the best deep hybrid heterogenous ensembles were compared to the deep stacked ensembles to determine the best strategy to design the deep ensemble methods. The empirical evaluations used four classification performance criteria (accuracy, sensitivity, precision and F1-score), fivefold cross-validation, Scott–Knott (SK) statistical test and Borda count voting method. All empirical evaluations were assessed using four performance measures, including accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score, and were over the histological BreakHis public dataset with four magnification factors (40×, 100×, 200× and 400×). SK statistical test and Borda count were also used to cluster the designed techniques and rank the techniques belonging to the best SK cluster, respectively.
Findings
Results showed that the deep hybrid heterogenous ensembles outperformed both their singles and the deep stacked ensembles and reached the accuracy values of 96.3, 95.6, 96.3 and 94 per cent across the four magnification factors 40×, 100×, 200× and 400×, respectively.
Originality/value
The proposed deep hybrid heterogenous ensembles can be applied for the BC diagnosis to assist pathologists in reducing the missed diagnoses and proposing adequate treatments for the patients.
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Magnus Osahon Igbinovia, Omorodion Okuonghae and John Oluwaseye Adebayo
The continuous spread of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has generated public health concern with avalanche of information accompanied by series of fake news…
Abstract
Purpose
The continuous spread of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has generated public health concern with avalanche of information accompanied by series of fake news. Thus, this study examined the effect of Information Literacy Competency (ILC) in curtailing the spread of fake news among Library and Information Science (LIS) undergraduates in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey research design of the descriptive type was used to generate data from a group of LIS undergraduates online. The population of the study consisted of 138 LIS undergraduate students who participated in the survey (thus, n = 138). The data retrieved was subjected to descriptive analysis.
Findings
The study revealed that the students had high level of ILC (x ¯ = 3.42), and there was low prevalence level of COVID-19 pandemic fake news (x ¯ = 2.35) among them. The major causes of COVID-19 fake news were too much information in circulation concerning COVID-19 (x ¯ = 3.44) and the resultant inability to discern or spot fake news from verified and authentic news (x ¯ = 3.28). The study also revealed that ILC had a significant effect in curtailing the spread of COVID-19 fake news with a grand mean of 3.28 against the criterion mean of 2.5. It is implied that LIS undergraduates are educationally position to acquire ILC which is crucial to their identification of fake news and helps to curtail its spread.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited in its use of online group for data elicitation within a limited period of three weeks. Also, in its adoption of self-evaluation scale to measure ILC instead of standard information literacy test. Also, the high chances of social desirability bias in sections C and E serve as a limitation to the study.
Practical implications
The study reinforces the need to enhance structures that flags fake news on social media platforms and integrating IL into schools’ curriculum at all levels.
Originality/value
This study seeks to pioneer a new area of focus on the relevance of ILC to different global issues that concern the health and well-being.
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Solabomi Omobola Ajibolade and Collins Sankay Oboh
The purpose of this paper is to attempt an empirical examination of government budgeting and expenditure processes in Nigeria, a developing country. It examines the current state…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to attempt an empirical examination of government budgeting and expenditure processes in Nigeria, a developing country. It examines the current state of budgeting and public funds management (PFM) in Nigeria. It also examines the extent to which the government has used the budgetary mechanism to effectively manage the nation’s economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper employed simple regression estimation technique for data analysis. Time series data set of budgetary information was constructed from different archival sources over a 16-years period (2000-2015), majorly the national Appropriation Acts, press releases, regulatory and governmental reports, reports of Transparency International, World Bank and Central Intelligence Agency.
Findings
The findings confirm that the nation’s annual budgeting approach is defective and lags in achieving its fiscal objectives. The budget indicates a state of poor accountability and transparency in PFM. Findings also suggest that the level of economic development in Nigeria is not commensurate with the size of government expenditure.
Practical implications
The paper draws the attention of the government to the need to restructure its approach to budgeting and adopt a more resilient approach that suits its environment and economic peculiarities in effort to ensure efficient management and accountability of public funds. The paper also offers value to other developing countries. It provides empirical evidence that explains an aspect why the African continent remains underdeveloped hitherto.
Originality/value
This paper lends a voice to the call for a restructuring of the Nigerian budgetary system and its implementation strategy. It advocates for the adoption of an alternative budgeting approach that matches Nigeria economic realities. The paper demonstrated that the traditional budgetary approach being used by many developing countries is limited in certain ways and could hinder sustainable development.