C. Clissman, R. Murray, E. Davidson, J. Hands, O. Sijtsma, A. Noordzij, R. Moulton, S. Shanawa, J. Darzentas and I. Pettman
Provides a brief introduction to the UNIverse Project and its major objectives. Continues and completes the overview of the international standards, softwares and systems which…
Abstract
Provides a brief introduction to the UNIverse Project and its major objectives. Continues and completes the overview of the international standards, softwares and systems which will enable bibliographic searching of multiple distributed library catalogues. Part 3 reviews three further areas: ‐ inter library loans protocols; multimedia document delivery and authentication and directory services.
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C. Clissman, R. Murray, E. Davidson, J. Hands, O. Sijtsma, A. Noordzij, R. Moulton, S. Shanawa, J. Darzentas and I. Pettman
Provides a brief introduction to the UNIverse Project and its major objectives. Continues the overview of the international standards, softwares and systems which will enable…
Abstract
Provides a brief introduction to the UNIverse Project and its major objectives. Continues the overview of the international standards, softwares and systems which will enable bibliographic searching of multiple distributed library catalogues. Part 2 reviews three further areas: record syntax conversion which covers UNIMARC, SGML and Dublin Core; result set de‐duplication, covering International Standard Book Number (ISBN), International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), the Universal Standard Bibliographic Code (USBC), Serial Item and Contribution Identifier (SICI), Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and Uniform Resource Names (URN); and multi‐lingual thesauri.
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C. Clissman, R. Murray, E. Davidson, J. Hands, O. Sijtsma, A. Noordzij, R. Moulton, S. Shanawa, J. Darzentas and I. Pettman
Provides a brief introduction to the UNIverse Project and its major objectives. Gives an overview of the international standards, softwares and systems which will enable…
Abstract
Provides a brief introduction to the UNIverse Project and its major objectives. Gives an overview of the international standards, softwares and systems which will enable bibliographic searching of multiple distributed library catalogues including the Z39.50 standard, WWW gateways, the EUROPAGATE project, the Java programming language and the Unicode World‐wide Character Encoding Standard.
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Jasper Hessel Heslinga, Peter Groote and Frank Vanclay
The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to look at the potential synergies between tourism and landscapes and examine the potential contribution of tourism to build social-ecological resilience in the Dutch Wadden.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reveal how a social-ecological systems perspective can be used to conceptualize the Wadden as a coupled and dynamic system. This paper is a conceptual analysis that applies this approach to the Dutch Wadden. The data used for the inquiry primarily comes from a literature review.
Findings
The authors argue that the social-ecological systems perspective is a useful approach and could be used to improve the governance of multi-functional socio-ecological systems in coastal areas. Opportunities for synergies between tourism and landscapes have been overlooked. The authors consider that tourism and nature protection are potentially compatible and that the synergies should be identified.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is only a conceptual application rather than an empirical case study. Further research to actually apply the methodology is needed.
Practical implications
Managers of protected areas should consider applying a social-ecological systems approach.
Social implications
The views of a wide variety of stakeholders should be considered in landscape planning.
Originality/value
The value of this paper lies in the articulation of the social-ecological systems perspective as a way to identify and understand the complex interactions between tourism and landscape, and the potential synergies between them.
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Millicent Njeri, Malak Khader, Faizan Ali and Nathan Discepoli Line
The purpose of this study is to revisit the measures of internal consistency for multi-item scales in hospitality research and compare the performance of Cronbach’s α, omega total…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to revisit the measures of internal consistency for multi-item scales in hospitality research and compare the performance of Cronbach’s α, omega total (ωTotal), omega hierarchical (ωH), Revelle’s omega total (ωRT), Minimum Rank Factor Analysis (GLBfa) and GLB algebraic (GLBa).
Design/methodology/approach
A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to compare the performance of the six reliability estimators under different conditions common in hospitality research. Second, this study analyzed a data set to complement the simulation study.
Findings
Overall, ωTotal was the best-performing estimator across all conditions, whereas ωH performed the poorest. α performed well when factor loadings were high with low variability (high/low) and large sample sizes. Similarly, ωRT, GLBfa and GLBa performed consistently well when loadings were high and less variable as well as the sample size and the number of scale items increased. Of the two GLB estimators, GLBa consistently outperformed GLBfa.
Practical implications
This study provides hospitality managers with a better understanding of what reliability is and the various reliability estimators. Using reliable instruments ensures that organizations draw accurate conclusions that help them move closer to realizing their visions.
Originality/value
Though popular in other fields, reliability discussions have not yet received substantial attention in hospitality. This study raises these discussions in the context of hospitality research to promote better practices for assessing the reliability of scales used within the hospitality domain.
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The research practice in management research is dominantly based on structural equation modeling (SEM), but almost exclusively, and often misguidedly, on covariance-based SEM. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The research practice in management research is dominantly based on structural equation modeling (SEM), but almost exclusively, and often misguidedly, on covariance-based SEM. The purpose of this paper is to question the current research myopia in management research, because the paper adumbrates theoretical foundations and guidance for the two SEM streams: covariance-based and variance-based SEM; and improves the conceptual knowledge by comparing the most important procedures and elements in the SEM study, using different theoretical criteria.
Design/methodology/approach
The study thoroughly analyzes, reviews and presents two streams using common methodological background. The conceptual framework discusses the two streams by analysis of theory, measurement model specification, sample and goodness-of-fit.
Findings
The paper identifies and discusses the use and misuse of covariance-based and variance-based SEM utilizing common topics such as: first, theory (theory background, relation to theory and research orientation); second, measurement model specification (type of latent construct, type of study, reliability measures, etc.); third, sample (sample size and data distribution assumption); and fourth, goodness-of-fit (measurement of the model fit and residual co/variance).
Originality/value
The paper questions the usefulness of Cronbach's α research paradigm and discusses alternatives that are well established in social science, but not well known in the management research community. The author presents short research illustration in which analyzes the four recently published papers using common methodological background. The paper concludes with discussion of some open questions in management research practice that remain under-investigated and unutilized.
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Simon Ofori Ametepey, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
This section describes sustainable development (SD) in relation to infrastructure projects and explains how to evaluate SD. SD is assessed as context-dependent, considering the…
Abstract
This section describes sustainable development (SD) in relation to infrastructure projects and explains how to evaluate SD. SD is assessed as context-dependent, considering the project’s economic, social, and ecological context. Sustainable road infrastructure projects (SRIP) should encapsulate the complete life cycle from idea to development, functionality, and maintenance. SD should be considered as part of the evaluation process prior to project execution, but it can also serve other functions. Sustainability evaluation must start with project appraisal or evaluation and the earliest stages of project decision-making. Sustainable infrastructure projects (SIPs) are evaluated using a variety of techniques and models, such as cost-benefit analysis (CBA), multi-criteria techniques, ecological and societal impact assessments, ranking techniques, models, and evaluation guidelines. Established SD structures and modelling techniques for infrastructure projects are presented from an SD perspective, with the primary objective of investigating how they operate and determining whether existing models provide an effective method for applying the SD idea into infrastructure development. CBA is a widely used strategy for evaluating alternatives to maximize sociocultural well-being. It is based on the likelihood of costing customer advantages and negative impacts and has been discussed in scholarly articles. The multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach is an acceptable methodology for addressing complex matters involving high risk, conflicting objectives, different types of information and data, different concerns and points of view, and the representation of complex and evolving biological, ecological, and financial frameworks. It combines many methodologies and offers various advantages over more conventional ways of decision-making and plan development. It should be used to increase community participation and empower partner organizations and should apply several criteria at the same time, including those that are difficult to adjust and quantify. The key difficulty with this strategy is the usage of weightings, which has been sharply criticized by several researchers. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an adaptive tool used to assess the ecological effects of a particular action, task, or procedure. It is applied globally to decision-making in numerous fields, including transportation, energy, and water, and has become a typical tool for determining the ecological performance of infrastructure projects. However, it has a few flaws and could benefit from improvements to assess SD with greater precision. It is a fragmented mechanism for assessing the three components of SD, but its incorporation into other evaluation approaches is desirable. The evaluation of societal implications has been conducted using a variety of methods and techniques, but there is currently no standard method for assessing the communal and appropriation consequences of infrastructure initiatives. Social life-cycle assessments (SLCAs) are advancing, but consensus remains a challenge. The Evaluation Partnership and the Centre for European Policy Studies identified several obstacles and challenges to implementing an outstanding societal assessment, such as the term ‘societal impacts’ being potentially overbroad and not adequately defined, and the lack of a suitable method for quantitatively evaluating sociological effects. Additionally, a large section of societal assessments is biased and frequently inconsequential. The chapter discussed the theoretical and methodological stances on sustainable road infrastructure, using current SID concepts and evaluation techniques thoroughly.
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Woo-Chul Cho, Kyung Young Lee and Sung-Byung Yang
The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether smartwatches will survive and gain their own niche within the consumer electronics market. Based on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether smartwatches will survive and gain their own niche within the consumer electronics market. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework, this study identifies and validates the impacts of both technological and fashion-related factors (interactivity, autonomy, visual aesthetics and self-expression) on product attachment towards smartwatches through user satisfaction and pleasure derived from their smartwatches.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected the survey data via online surveys from 198 respondents and tested measurement and structural models with the partial least square technique.
Findings
The authors found that both technological characteristics (interactivity and autonomy) and fashion-related characteristics (visual aesthetics and self-expression) have an impact on product attachment through pleasure.
Research limitations/implications
Several other important characteristics of traditional wrist-watches such as durability or workmanship are not considered in this study, but should be included in future studies. The three-item measure of autonomy may be insufficient for more sophisticated wearable devices in the future. In future studies, the impact of product attachment on users’ continued usage should be examined.
Practical implications
This study provides important practical implications for smartwatch makers interested in product development, as users were found to consider fashion-related characteristics to be as important as technological characteristics.
Originality/value
This study is the first study that considers both aesthetic and technological factors for IT acceptance in the context of wearable devices. Also, instead of traditional IT acceptance measures such as continued use, this study investigates users’ product attachment, which is more relevant to the case of wearable devices.