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After noting several limiting features and procedural disadvantages of typical game theoretic studies of coalition formation, a new measurement procedure based on fuzzy set theory is described. A generalized Tanimoto coefficient measuring attitudinal similarity provides the fundamental basis for location and analysis of potential coalitions in a group decision‐making task. The results of a pilot study using fuzzy preference matrices and α‐level sets to determine the existence and structural evolution of coalitions over time are presented. Finally, some conjectures concerning the definition and future study of coalitions are advanced.

Most decision-making problems in construction are complex and difficult to solve, as they involve multiple criteria and multiple decision makers in addition to subjective uncertainties, imprecisions and vagueness surrounding the decision-making process. In many instances, the decision-making process is based on linguistic terms rather than numerical values. Hence, structured fuzzy consensus-reaching processes and fuzzy aggregation methods are instrumental in multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems for capturing the point of view of a group of experts. This chapter outlines different fuzzy consensus-reaching processes and fuzzy aggregation methods. It presents the background of the basic theory and formulation of these processes and methods, as well as numerical examples that illustrate their theory and formulation. Application areas of fuzzy consensus reaching and fuzzy aggregation in the construction domain are identified, and an overview of previously developed frameworks for fuzzy consensus reaching and fuzzy aggregation is provided. Finally, areas for future work are presented that highlight emerging trends and the imminent needs of fuzzy consensus reaching and fuzzy aggregation in the construction domain.

Attracting and retaining highly skilled information technology (IT) professionals has been a difficult task for IT managers since the early 1980s. With over 400,000 unfilled IT positions in the USA today, many IT professionals are moving from job to job looking for higher salaries and more satisfying working arrangements. Since men and women often perceive their professional and domestic roles and responsibilities differently, more flexible working arrangements, which permit them to accomplish these roles and responsibilities in a more satisfactory manner, can be an important motivation for accepting and remaining in a given IT position. The purpose of this study was to investigate the similarities and differences between men and women in the IT industry in terms of their motivations to telecommute, and to discuss the implications for managing IT professionals.

Social media platforms, along with networked devices and applications, enable their user base to produce, access and circulate large volumes of data. On the one hand, this development contains an empowering potential for users, who can make otherwise obscured aspects of social life visible, and coordinate social action in accordance. Yet the preceding activities in turn render these users visible to governments as well as the multinational companies that operate these services. Between these two visions lie more nuanced accounts of individuals coordinating via social data for reactionary purposes, as well as policing and intelligence agencies struggling with the affordances of big data.

This chapter considers how individual users as well as police agencies respectively actualise the supposedly revolutionary and repressive potentials associated with big data. It briefly considers the broader social context in which ‘big data’ is situated, which includes the hardware, software, individuals and cultural values that render big data meaningful and useful. Then, in contrast to polarising visions of the social impact of big data, it considers two sets of practices that speak to a more ambivalent potentiality. First, recent examples suggest a kind of crowd-sourced vigilantism, where individuals rely on ubiquitous data and devices in order to reproduce law and order politics. Second, police agencies in various branches of European governments report a sense of obligation to turn to social data as a source of intelligence and evidence, yet attempts to do so are complicated by both practical and procedural challenges. A combination of case studies and in-depth interviews offers a grounded understanding of big data in practice, in contrast to commonly held visions of these technologies.

First, big data is only ever meaningful in use. While they may be contained in databases in remote locations, big data do not exist in a social vacuum. Their impact cannot be fully understood in the context of newly assembled configurations or ‘game-changing’ discourses. Instead, they are only knowable in the context of existing practices. These practices can initially be the sole remit of public discourse shaped by journalists, tech-evangelists and even academics. Yet embodied individual and institutional practices also emerge, and this may contradict or at least complicate discursive assertions. Secondly, the range of devices and practices that make up big data are engaged in a bilateral relation with these practices. They may be a platform to further reproduce relations of information exchange and power relations. Yet they may also reconfigure these relations.

This research is limited to a sample of respondents based in the European Union, and based at a particular stage of big data and social media monitoring uptake. Subsequent research should look at how this uptake is occurring elsewhere, along with the medium to long-term implications of big data monitoring. Finally, subsequent research should consider how citizens and other social actors are coping with these emerging practices.

This chapter considers practices associated with big data monitoring and draws from cross-national empirical data. It stands in contrast to overly optimistic as well as well as totalising accounts of the social costs and consequences of big data. For these reasons, this chapter will be of value to scholars in internet studies, as well as privacy advocates and policymakers who are responsive to big data developments.

The total defence (TD) concept constitutes a joint endeavour between the military forces and civil defence structures within a TD state. Logistics is essential for such joint collaboration to work; however, the mismatch between military and civil defence logistics structures poses challenges for such joint collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to identify logistics concept areas within the TD framework that allow for military and civil defence collaborations from a logistics operations perspective.

Pattern-matching analysis is used to compare patterns found in the investigated case with those prescribed from the literature and predicted to occur. The study seeks to identify logistics concepts within TD from the literature and from the events describing the Swedish response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Pattern matching thus allows for the reconciliation of logistics concepts from the literature to descriptions of how the response was handled, albeit under a TD framework.

Findings show quite distinct foci between the theoretical and observational realms in terms of logistics applications. While the theoretical realm identifies four main logistics concepts, the observational realm identifies five logistics conceptual themes. This goes on to show an incongruence between the military and civil parts of the TD.

This study provides basis for further research into the applications and management of logistics activity within TD and emergency response.

Logistics applications within TD have not, until now, received much attention in the literature. Given this knowledge gap, this study is of original value.

Purpose: The concept of a blue economy is gaining importance. 40% of the world’s population lives near coastal areas, and 80% of world trade is achieved using the seas. Sustainable financing for the blue economy is an emerging scope in climate finance. To date, little research has been published on this topic. Shiiba et al. (2022) proposed a conceptual framework for a blue finance mechanism; however, this approach was incomplete as it referred only to ocean sustainability and overlooked financial instruments and various financial models and schemes determined by a financial system, such as those in the United States, Germany, and Japan.

Methodology: The chapter aims to show the state of the art in sustainable financing in a blue economy and provide recommendations to improve the existing financial model.

A critical literature review, network approach, and case study.

Findings: The diversity and often uniqueness of blue economy projects underline the necessity for their financing system to be based on established regulatory frameworks in this area. However, specific solutions (e.g. the structure of acquired capital) should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Limitations: Challenges include competition with government-owned sectors, infrastructure limitations, and limited public awareness of sustainable blue economy opportunities. Additionally, constraints like risk-averse local financial institutions and a lack of innovative business models hinder financing and entrepreneurship.

The majority of previous studies on parental feeding practices have focused on the effect of controlling feeding strategies on child eating and weight (i.e. parental influence on children). The present study turns the arrow in the opposite direction, and it aims to test a child-responsive model by exploring the process in which child weight status might influence parental feeding practices, addressing potential mediating effects of parental concern for child weight (i.e. child influence on parents).

A cross-sectional survey was performed among parents of 10- to 12-year olds (n = 963). The survey questionnaire included measures of parental feeding practices and parents’ reports of child weight and height. Stepwise regressions were performed to reveal potential mediating effects of parental concern for child weight status on the associations between child BMI and a wide range of parental feeding practices.

Our results suggest a mediating effect of parental concern for child overweight on the associations between child body mass index and controlling feeding practices such as restriction for weight and health purposes and responsibility for determining child portion sizes.

This study provides an extension of previous research on parental feeding–child weight relationship. It includes a wider spectrum of feeding variables, and integrates parental concern for both child who is overweight and child who is underweight as potential mediators of the associations between child weight and parental feeding practices. Moreover, it has its focus on preadolescent children, while previous studies have focused on infants and young children.

The aim of this study is twofold, first, to estimate the prevalence of multiple disabilities among the older population in India; second, to examine the socio economic determinants of multiple disabilities among the older population.

This study used the India Human Development Survey Data (IHDS) for the analysis. Bivariate, multinomial logit regression and multiple classification analysis are used as methods for the study. Disability score is constructed for measuring the multiple disabilities among the older population.

The results of disability prevalence show, a high prevalence of multiple disabilities among the older population in India. Further, disability prevalence varies considerably by age and socio‐economic characteristics of the older population. Among all the socioeconomic factors, economic factor emerged as a dominant predictor of prevalence of disabilities among the older population in India. The findings of the dimension specific assessment reveal that the disability in walking is the highest among all the disabilities. The distribution of disabled older population by living arrangement and the social network indicates that a large proportion of disabled older population lives with their children. In addition, only a few of the disabled older people have social networks. The distribution of disabled older people by employment and financial source reveal that there is a meager government support to the disabled older population in India. This study evidently suggests that a significant number of older populations in India are suffering from multiple disabilities. The number of multiple disabilities increases with the decrease in the socioeconomic status. The living arrangement and financial security assessment suggest that there is an increasing need of children and government support to the disabled older population.

The distinctiveness of this study can be primarily found in the type of the data used, the assessment of additional disability dimensions, and the inclusion of differentials such as living arrangement, social network and work status as part of the analysis. Overall, the study with its robust statistical assessment provides a number of key insights into the social, economic security, and health care needs of the disabled older population in India.

The chapter presents a very general overview of the new (2010) United States–Russia nukes reduction treaty and a brief analysis of the failure of the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen (2009). The revival of the term of “competitive coexistence” as a description of United States–Russia relations is discussed. The author also suggests that present-day China–India relations can be considered as an example of the newly emerged version of a regime of “competitive coexistence.”

Organizations are increasingly confronted with legitimacy threats related to the perceived social costs of their business activities. Despite a significant amount of research on the responses of individual organizations, surprisingly limited attention has been paid to the collective activities firms may engage to address such issues. In this paper, we use institutional theory as a lens for an exploratory case study of Issue-Based Industry Collective (IBIC) action in the alcohol industry. Our findings identify a new organizational form, the IBIC and inspire new research avenues at the intersection of business collective action, social issues, and institutional theory.