I. Introduction The emphasis on the concept of ‘economic man’ for a long period of time has led to important outcomes each of which has serious welfare implications. First, there…
Abstract
I. Introduction The emphasis on the concept of ‘economic man’ for a long period of time has led to important outcomes each of which has serious welfare implications. First, there has been a relentless glorification of the principle of pursuit of self‐interest. It is only now that all the negative spillover effects of our wealth creating and consuming activities are being acknowledged and evaluated. Since most of these costs are costs to society rather than to a particular individual, these costs do not play any role in our production or consumption decisions. As a result, quality of life has not improved as much as the recent rise in per capita real income suggests. Second, for a long time welfare has been treated as a monotonically increasing function of the amounts of goods and services consumed. There has been a total disregard for the fact that at a given point in time an individual can afford only a fraction of the total amount of goods and services available in the society. This explains at least in part why even in the most affluent societies people are no happier today than they were in the past. And third, although the idea of interdependent welfare is not new in economics as evidenced by relative income hypothesis which shows that present consumption and hence welfare is also a function of one's past consumption and consumption of others in the society, economic analysis by and large has been carried out on the assumption of independence. Feelings like envy, jealousy, and avarice are real and powerful and play an important role in the way people perceive their welfare. Just because they cannot be conveniently incorporated in simple analytical model is a poor excuse for neglecting them.
Amir Norouzzadeh, Mohammad Faraji Oskouie, Reza Ansari and Hessam Rouhi
This paper aims to combine Eringen’s micromorphic and nonlocal theories and thus develop a comprehensive size-dependent beam model capable of capturing the effects of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to combine Eringen’s micromorphic and nonlocal theories and thus develop a comprehensive size-dependent beam model capable of capturing the effects of micro-rotational/stretch/shear degrees of freedom of material particles and nonlocality simultaneously.
Design/methodology/approach
To consider nonlocal influences, both integral (original) and differential versions of Eringen’s nonlocal theory are used. Accordingly, integral nonlocal-micromorphic and differential nonlocal-micromorphic beam models are formulated using matrix-vector relations, which are suitable for implementing in numerical approaches. A finite element (FE) formulation is also provided to solve the obtained equilibrium equations in the variational form. Timoshenko micro-/nano-beams with different boundary conditions are selected as the problem under study whose static bending is addressed.
Findings
It was shown that the paradox related to the clamped-free beam is resolved by the present integral nonlocal-micromorphic model. It was also indicated that the nonlocal effect captured by the integral model is more pronounced than that by its differential counterpart. Moreover, it was revealed that by the present approach, the softening and hardening effects, respectively, originated from the nonlocal and micromorphic theories can be considered simultaneously.
Originality/value
Developing a hybrid size-dependent Timoshenko beam model including micromorphic and nonlocal effects. Considering the nonlocal effect based on both Eringen’s integral and differential models proposing an FE approach to solve the bending problem, and resolving the paradox related to nanocantilever.
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Mohammad Fahim Ansari and Gautam Sarkhel
The purpose of this study is to improve the coating properties of shellac–epoxidised novolac blends by treatment with melamine formaldehyde resin (MF) at ambient temperature for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to improve the coating properties of shellac–epoxidised novolac blends by treatment with melamine formaldehyde resin (MF) at ambient temperature for its use as a coating material.
Design/methodology/approach
Epoxidised-novolac resin was synthesised by epoxidation of novolac resin with epichlorohydrin. Novolac resin was synthesised by reaction of phenol with formaldehyde in acidic medium. Shellac was blended with the epoxidised-novolac resin in solution in varying ratios and treated the blends with MF resin in fixed ratio. Coating properties of the treated compositions were studied using a standard procedure. The compositions were characterised with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) spectroscopy.
Findings
Treatment of shellac–epoxidised-novolac blends with MF resin improved water and alkali resistance of the blends, besides enhancing gloss. Gloss in all the blends was uniformly increased on treatment with MF resin. Water resistance of the blends tremendously improved after treatment with MF resin. Contact angle of the blends against water increased while decreased against ethylene glycol and dioxane. The compositions were more resistant to polar solvent than non-polar ones, suggesting that the compositions shifted to hydrophobic (lipophilic) nature on treatment with the MF resin.
Research limitations/implications
A specified concentration of MF resin was used in the study. Different concentrations of the MF resin can also be tried for treatment of shellac–epoxidised-novolac blends to see the effect of the resin on the blends.
Practical implications
Treatment of shellac–epoxidised-novolac blend with MF resin improved the coating properties of the blends. The formulation SeNB-64 is the best with high gloss, good impact, scratch hardness and water resistance, and hence can be used as coating material for metal surfaces.
Originality/value
Blending of shellac with epoxidised-novolac resin and treatment of the blends with the MF resin was done for the first time. The formulation SeNB-64 can be used as coating material for metal surfaces.
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Seyed Hadi Arabi, Mohammad Hasan Maleki and Hamed Ansari
The purpose of this study is to identify the drivers and future scenarios of Iran’s Social Security Organization.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify the drivers and future scenarios of Iran’s Social Security Organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is applied in terms of orientation and mixed in terms of methodology. In this research, the methods of theme analysis, root definitions, fuzzy Delphi and Cocoso were used. The theoretical population is the managers and senior experts of the social security organization, and the sampling method was done in a judgmental way. The tools of data collection were interviews and questionnaires. The interview tool was used to extract the main and subdrivers of the research and develop the scenarios.
Findings
Through theme analysis, 35 subdrivers were extracted in the form of economic, sociocultural, financial and investment, policy, marketing, environmental and legal themes. Due to the large number of subdrivers, these factors were screened with fuzzy Delphi. Eleven drivers had defuzzied coefficient higher than 0.7 and were selected for final prioritization. The final drivers were prioritized with the CoCoSo technique, and the two drivers of social security holdings governance and state of government revenues had the highest priority. Based on these two drivers, four scenarios of prosperity, resilient social security, unstable development and collapse have been developed.
Originality/value
Some of the suggestions of the research are: using the capacity of FinTechs and financial startups to invest the government revenues of the organization, using digital technologies such as business intelligence for more efficient decisions and developing corporate governance in the organization.
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Mohd Arshad Ansari, Mohammad Rais Ahmad, Pushp Kumar, Arvind Kumar Yadav and Rajveer Kaur Ritu
This study aims to examine the impact of oil consumption on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and total factor productivity (TFP) in highly oil-consuming countries of the world from…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of oil consumption on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and total factor productivity (TFP) in highly oil-consuming countries of the world from 1995 to 2019.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) are applied.
Findings
FMOLS and DOLS models reveal that oil consumption, human capital, population, trade openness and nonrenewable energy have a significant positive effect on CO2 emissions. While information and communication technology (ICT), as proxied by mobile and natural resources, has a significant negative effect on CO2 emissions. In the case of TFP, oil consumption, ICT and natural resources have a significant positive effect on the TFP. On the other hand, trade openness, population, human capital and nonrenewable energy have a significant negative effect on TFP. The results of this study can help to provide policy recommendations to reduce CO2 emissions in studied highly oil-consuming countries of the world.
Originality/value
Due to the threat to sustainable development, climate change has become a major topic for debate around the world. The influence of oil consumption on CO2 emission and TFP is less known in the available literature. Another significance of this study is that many researchers considered aggregate energy consumption to study this relationship, but the authors have studied the effect of energy consumption, particularly from oil in the top oil-consuming countries, which is a significant shortcoming of the present research.
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Reihaneh Alsadat Tabaeeian, Majid Mohammad Shafiee and Azarnoush Ansari
This paper aims to develop a validated scale that can help in measuring the gamified e-service quality (GE-SQ) in the e-retailing industry.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a validated scale that can help in measuring the gamified e-service quality (GE-SQ) in the e-retailing industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a mixed-method approach to develop and validate a scale for GE-SQ. First, reviewing the literature and interviewing with 14 experts were conducted to explore the initial items and themes. A sample of 215 participants was collected from online customers in Iran. Explanatory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to this sample to validate the categorized themes. Next, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the validity of the established dimensions by a sample of 549 online customers.
Findings
The results extracted 26 items and categorized them to 6 dimensions. “Ease of use”, “reliability”, “emotional appeal”, “interactivity”, “security” and “visual appeal” have been identified as the dimensions of the GE-SQ scale in the e-retailing industry. The validity of the developed scale containing 6 dimensions and 26 items was confirmed.
Originality/value
This research identified GE-SQ as a valid and reliable scale with six dimensions for measuring e-service quality in e-retailing. This finding has made significant academic contributions to the service quality and the retailing literature.
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Mohammad Shahid, Zubair Ashraf, Mohd Shamim and Mohd Shamim Ansari
Optimum utilization of investments has always been considered one of the most crucial aspects of capital markets. Investment into various securities is the subject of portfolio…
Abstract
Purpose
Optimum utilization of investments has always been considered one of the most crucial aspects of capital markets. Investment into various securities is the subject of portfolio optimization intent to maximize return at minimum risk. In this series, a population-based evolutionary approach, stochastic fractal search (SFS), is derived from the natural growth phenomenon. This study aims to develop portfolio selection model using SFS approach to construct an efficient portfolio by optimizing the Sharpe ratio with risk budgeting constraints.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a constrained portfolio optimization model using the SFS approach with risk-budgeting constraints. SFS is an evolutionary method inspired by the natural growth process which has been modeled using the fractal theory. Experimental analysis has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of the proposed model by making comparisons with state-of-the-art from domain such as genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing and differential evolution. The real datasets of the Indian stock exchanges and datasets of global stock exchanges such as Nikkei 225, DAX 100, FTSE 100, Hang Seng31 and S&P 100 have been taken in the study.
Findings
The study confirms the better performance of the SFS model among its peers. Also, statistical analysis has been done using SPSS 20 to confirm the hypothesis developed in the experimental analysis.
Originality/value
In the recent past, researchers have already proposed a significant number of models to solve portfolio selection problems using the meta-heuristic approach. However, this is the first attempt to apply the SFS optimization approach to the problem.
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Abbas Doulani, Nasim Ansari, Seyedeh Zahra Mirezati and Mohammad Karim Saberi
The aim of this study is to identify the status of managing gray literature (GL) in medical science libraries in terms of three dimensions, collection development, organization…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to identify the status of managing gray literature (GL) in medical science libraries in terms of three dimensions, collection development, organization and dissemination.
Design/methodology/approach
In this survey study, a structured questionnaire was used. The questionnaire consisted of 30 questions and consisted of six sections (demographic characteristics, the use of the term GL, types of GL, collection development, organization and dissemination). In total, 50 librarians from 15 medical science libraries participated in this study. The questionnaires were distributed manually to librarians by visiting libraries. All the librarians filled in the questionnaires. It should be noted that descriptive statistics and Excel and SPSS software were used for data analysis.
Findings
The results of using the term GL showed that 68 per cent of librarians use the source name itself. Most GL in libraries were theses (94 per cent). Moreover, a review of the status of GL collection showed that 60 per cent of libraries had written instructions for providing these resources. A total of 62 per cent of librarians stated that there is a GL selection committee in their library and the librarian is the most important member of the collection department. A total of 40 per cent of libraries were weeding GL. The most common way of obtaining GL was through deposition. The analysis of the status of GL organization indicated that 80 per cent of libraries had GL organization. A total of 90 per cent of libraries had digitized GL, and that librarians played a large role in organizing such resources. Evaluation of the dissemination of GL showed that all libraries have enabled users to access GL. In most libraries, users were only allowed to use GL in the library, and it was not possible to copy GL. Students and faculty members were the most important users of GL. Informing through the library website and the parent organization was the most important way of informing about these resources.
Originality/value
GL is one of the most important resources in medical and non-medical academic libraries. In this study, for the first time, the status of GL management in Iranian libraries of medical sciences was investigated. The results of this study can be useful for policymakers and managers of medical and non-medical libraries.
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Noora Lari, Mohammad Al-Ansari and Engi El-Maghraby
In patriarchal settings, cultural barriers continue to influence women’s participation in positions of leadership and political authority. This paper aims to explore these…
Abstract
Purpose
In patriarchal settings, cultural barriers continue to influence women’s participation in positions of leadership and political authority. This paper aims to explore these findings in light of the theoretical concepts of “hegemonic masculinity” and “patriarchy,” which explain gender disparities in the occupancy of political power and leadership positions in Qatar.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from original face-to-face national surveys conducted among subjects in Qatar were used, including 1,611 completed household interviews.
Findings
The findings were consistent with the prevailing patriarchal beliefs present in Qatari society and Arab Gulf States. The analysis showed that there was greater significant support for men holding key leadership and authority positions than women. Individual-level factors were found to have a significant association with attitudes favoring women. Compared to respondents who had never attended school, those who had completed secondary school and those who had partaken in higher education favored having women in leadership roles.
Practical implications
As a means to fix the gender imbalance within the occupancy of positions of political power in Qatar, this study recommends putting substantial efforts into increasing the number of interventions underpinning gender equality through social awareness programs that may improve the public’s perceptions. Furthermore, gender-equitable affirmative actions are needed to promote the inclusion of women in power and increase their presence in leadership roles.
Originality/value
This study is among the very few that have theoretically and empirically addressed the issue of women’s authority and involvement in key leadership roles in the context of Qatar.
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Mohammad Shahin Alam, Kelly Williams-Whitt, DuckJung Shin and Mahfooz Ansari
This study develops and tests a comprehensive model that examines whether dimensions of supervisors’ job demands and resources influence their work motivation through their job…
Abstract
Purpose
This study develops and tests a comprehensive model that examines whether dimensions of supervisors’ job demands and resources influence their work motivation through their job strain levels while managing disability accommodation (DA).
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model leverages the assumptions of established job demand and resources theories, including demand-ability fit, job demand-control, job demand-control-support, and effort-reward balance models. Then, we tested with the quantitative data from 335 British, Canadian, American, Australian, Dutch, and German supervisors with recent DA experience.
Findings
This study found support for the proposed model. Job control and social support directly affected work motivation, while job strain did not mediate the relationship between job control and social support and work motivation. The results suggest that employers looking to improve the likelihood of DA success should focus on providing adequate job control, social support, and rewards to supervisors responsible for accommodating employees with disabilities.
Practical implications
This research enhances our understanding of how additional DA responsibilities impact supervisors and aids in the development of effective DA management policies and interventions, providing robust support for practitioners.
Originality/value
This study contributes to extending the DA literature by testing the applicability of different theoretical models to explain the effect of the additional DA responsibility on supervisors’ job demand, strain, and motivation levels and identify the resources to mitigate them.