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This study aims to offer a better understanding of supply side of bribery and corruption in an international business perspective by conceptualizing it in the narrower concept of misconduct in business (MIB) derived from the deontological perspective to business ethics.

The authors use a case study methodology of professionals working within Canadian mining multinational corporations operating in Africa. The authors conducted 2 focus groups, 25 in-depth interviews, document search and an open-ended questionnaire to 15 professionals. Further, they drew on a combination of the classic relationalist sociological framework and its recent revision, that they named the relationalism-substantialism framework to analyze the data.

The triangulated empirical data show that the reason why MIB in the form of bribery supply occurs is not exclusively tied to any given perspective, whether the individual, the organization or the wider societal context. Rather, these different layers are tightly intertwined and interact with each other for the supply of bribery to occur.

Although the three siloed perspectives of MIB have been studied in the literature, they have not been addressed in relation to one another, and even less with a relationalism-substantialism framework. Yet, this perspective contributes compellingly to the understanding of the supply side in bribery. The authors propose a net of conceptually related constructs that intervene in the process of bribery supply occurrence, namely relationality influenced by institutional dysfunctionality and conflation and substantiality through agency and culture.

An application development framework for a software project based on fusion as an object‐oriented application development method is presented. An object‐oriented approach has been adopted for the design and implementation of the prototype interactive visual modelling system for building a visual presentation of a refinery process and creation of linear programming model for optimizing production decision variables. The main reason for this selection is the consideration of object‐oriented programming (OOP) as an obvious vehicle for the development of complex visual interactive modelling systems. The main dimensions of the framework are as follows: OO approach, fusion method, computer‐aided software engineering (CASE) tool, application development tool, GUI development tool, and C++ as an implementation language.

This study examines the contingent impact of corporate anti-corruption policies on multinational enterprises’ foreign investment strategy. The authors propose that the differences in foreign investment motives will moderate the assumed deterrent effect of anti-corruption policies. Our analysis of overseas production investments by Japanese firms (2011–2017) supports some of the hypotheses. The authors find that the deterrent effect of anti-corruption policies may be diminished when a new subsidiary has an efficiency-seeking purpose. Conversely, the deterrent effect is more prominent when a new subsidiary has a competence-creating purpose. These results not only contribute to the research on control of corruption in international business, but also have implications for research on corporate self-regulation more generally.

The purpose of this paper is to develop energy optimizer (ENEO) – a model‐based decision support system (DSS) for an existing European chemical plant with a multi‐stage continuous production process. The system comprises two modules – energy cost minimization and joined energy cost minimization and output maximization. Following the description of the researched production, the paper presents a gist of the underlying formulations. Then, it tests the DSS on real data instances with a focus on its configuration, practical implications and implementation challenges.

The design of the planning tool is consistent with that of the model‐based DSS and based on the existing information systems. The defined research problems are explored with the use of quantitative methods – the operations research methodology.

The findings show that ENEO reflects the essence of the researched production process and can provide benefits in practical business operations.

Both the proposed system configuration and the formulated models lay a foundation to further research within the described industrial setting.

The system can be utilized in daily operations to provide substantial cost savings, improved capacity utilization and reactivity.

This paper contributes to research by bridging the gap between theory and practice. On the one hand, it describes an unexplored problem and its subsequent solution embodied in the DSS. On the other hand, it emphasizes the importance of applying the operations research methodology to the real‐world issues. Therefore, this work is valuable to both academics and practitioners.

This study was designed with the aim of assessing the energy and nutrient intakes of male university students before and during Ramadan and comparing it with the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) of Malaysia.

A total of 30 male students aged between 19‐24 years from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Kuantan Campus were recruited before Ramadan. The height, weight, waist and hip circumferences were recorded on day one of Ramadan and also recorded on day 21 of Ramadan to assess the changes. From the weight and height, the body mass index was calculated and from the waist and hip circumference, the waist‐to‐hip ratios were calculated. The respondents were requested to keep three days food record in household measurements; once prior to fasting and once during the third week of Ramadan. The records were then analyzed using Malaysian Food Composition Table and Food Atlas to get the averages of energy and macronutrients intakes of the subjects.

After 21 days of Ramadan, the results revealed that there was reduction in the body weight and there was significant (P<0.05) improvement in the waist‐to‐hip ratio of the subjects. The effect was more prominent in the normal‐weight compared to overweight respondents. The mean energy and protein intakes were significantly (P<0.001) lower than the RNI for Malaysians of similar age group. However, mean energy and protein intakes increased during Ramadan compared to the first day of Ramadan. This study indicates that Ramadan fasting does not affect energy and macronutrients intake but only the routine of intake is affected.

This research was limited to a specific group of normal and overweight students who were residing on campus of the IIUM. Their intakes might not be consistent with those at home or living outside the university campus. Another thing is that the students might have over‐reported their energy and macro‐nutrients intakes compared to what they have consumed in reality. So, the self‐reported intakes could not be ascertained. The stated factors might have confounding effects on the finding of this research.

Most research argues that the body weight loss during Ramadan fasting is due to reduced energy consumption; however, this is not true in all cases. This study infers that there is no reduction in the total energy consumption, rather there is a change in the pattern of energy intake. This brief study would help researchers planning to conduct research on Ramadan fasting and will caution fasting readers about the intakes.

This study indicates that during Ramadan fasting does not affect energy and macro‐nutrients intake but only the schedule of intake is affected.

The failure of organizations to adopt CASE tools has been an area of interest to business researchers for over a decade. The purpose of this study is to test whether the previous research provides a basis for predicting the current adoption of CASE tools by organizations. This study uses a neural network methodology to predict CASE tool adoption using factors that were previously identified in the literature. The model consisted of six variables: IS department stability, need to improve IS department performance, use of external sources of knowledge, job rotation, pressure to reduce development time, and CASE champion. The study found that all the variables were relevant in the prediction of CASE tool adoption with an average accuracy of 71.43 percent.

This study aims to identify the impact of commercial issues (CIs), financial issues (FIs) and corporate affairs (CAs) on operational excellence (OE) of the mining industry.

A purposive sample of size 321 was collected from Indian mining executives with more than ten years of exposure to the mining field. Factors are identified and confirmed with the use of confirmatory factor analysis. The structural equation modeling technique was then applied to understand the unique as well as the complex relationships between FI, CI, CA and OE.

The results indicate that all three issues, CI, FI and CA, have an influence on OE in the Indian mining industry. Among the variables of the issues considered in this study, marketing products and size and quality of products (from CI); scale of economies (from FI); risk management (from CA); and transportation and machine operation (from OE) are the highest influencing variables.

This study has its limitations in sampling, the timing of sample collection and their mode. The samples were collected from only massively deposited large mines.

Business managers of the mining industry will be more vigilant and aware of those indirect variables such as marketing products, size and quality of products, scale of economies and risk management, which can influence OE apart from major influencing variables such as transportation and machine operations and production scheduling.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in the mining industry to evaluate the impact of these three issues on OE. The originality of this research lies in testing the CI, FI and CA of the mining industry with OE, which is completely new to this field.

Since its inception, cost accounting has provided data to managers for the development of internal organizational performance measures. In the mid 1980s, Dr Eli Goldratt introduced a new management philosophy called the theory of constraints (TOC). This philosophy contained a new set of performance measures which linked together the strategic objectives and operational capabilities of the organization. This linkage allows for the maximization of profits. Since its introduction, there has been a growing amount of evidence documenting TOC’s ability to more tightly link local decisions to organizational performance than those of traditional cost accounting. This research used a simple Gedunken experiment to evaluate the difference between strategy driven product‐mix decisions based on TOC accounting and traditional cost accounting. In all cases, the constraint‐based approach to costing outperformed the traditional approach based on cost accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to compare energy and macro‐nutrients intake in university hostel students in two countries of Asia.

Female students from the hostels of International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM), Kuantan Campus and NWFP, Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan were assessed for energy and macro‐nutrients intake. A total of 140 students were registered who volunteered to participate in this study. The age range of the registered students was 22‐26 years. On the day of the registration, age, height and weight were recorded; also, food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) were provided. The participants were asked to record alternately for three days whatever they ate during the prescribed week. Out of 140 students 139 returned the FFQs. From the anthropometry, the BMI was used to assess the under, ideal, over‐weight and obese students. From the FFQs, energy and nutrient intakes were calculated using the food composition tables for Malaysia and Pakistan and compared with the recommended nutrients intakes (RNIs).

The body weight for the required height among the Malaysian students was lower by 7.81 per cent than the reference value, whereas the body weight of Pakistani students matched to the reference weight for height. The Malaysian students were 28.0, 61.0, 5.5 and 0.9 per cent under, ideal, over‐weight and obese, respectively, whereas Pakistani students were 100 per cent in the category of ideal‐body weight. The total energy consumption was higher among Malaysian students by 9.93 per cent compared to the reference requirements, whereas the Pakistani students claimed to meet the requirements. In terms of nutrients balancing the Malaysian students were having the ideal combination of the macro‐nutrients and it was within the recommended range of 55‐60, 15‐20 and 25‐30 per cent for carbohydrates, protein and fat, respectively; whereas the balancing of the macro‐nutrients was poor among the Pakistani students and met the energy requirements at the expense of fat consumption.

The paper suggests that there is imbalance in macro‐nutrients intake among the students.