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China is a large country with different regions due to regional differences and project characteristics, and the selection of prefabricated building technology according to local conditions is the key to its sustainable development in China. The purpose of this paper is to develop the suitability evaluation system of prefabricated building technology from the perspective of the suitability concept and to analyze the selection path of prefabricated building technology and to provide a reference for selecting and developing prefabricated building technology schemes that meet regional endowments.

Based on relevant literature, technical specifications, and standards, this paper constructs an index system for analyzing the technical suitability of prefabricated buildings. It includes 23 indicators, 7 dimensions, and 3 aspects through the semantic clustering method. Following this, the comprehensive weight of each index is determined using the order relation method (G1) and the continuous ordered weighted averaging (COWA). The selection of technical schemes is comprehensively evaluated using Visekriterjumska Optimizacija Ikompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method.

 (1) The technical suitability of prefabricated buildings is influenced by 7 core factors, such as adaptability of resources and environment, project planning and design level, and economic benefit; (2) When selecting the appropriate technology for prefabricated buildings, economic suitability should be considered first, followed by regional suitability, and then technical characteristic; (3) The prefabricated building technology suitability evaluation model constructed in this paper has high feasibility in the technical suitability selection of the example project.

The comprehensive evaluation model of prefabricated building technology suitability constructed in this paper provides technical selection support for the promotion and development of prefabricated buildings in different regions. In addition, the model can also be widely used in areas related to prefabricated building consulting and decision-making, and provides theoretical support for subsequent research.

This study provides a new decision support tool for prefabricated building technology suitability selection, which helps decision makers to make more rational technology choices.

This study has a positive impact on the advancement of prefabricated building technology, the improvement of construction industry standards, and the promotion of sustainable development.

The contribution of this study is twofold: (1) Theoretically, this paper provides technical evaluation indicators and guidelines for provincial and regional governments to cultivate model cities, plan industrial bases, etc. (2) In practice, it offers project-level appropriate technology system solutions for the technology application of assemblers in various regions.

The purpose of this paper is to interpret Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Regulatory Notice 13-31, which provides practical advice to member firms about how FINRA will be examining for compliance with the rule, some findings about failures to comply and a set of best practices for compliance.

The paper explains the three suitability obligations set forth in Rule 2111, the mechanics of FINRA's suitability examinations, overall findings from FINRA's recent suitability examinations, and some measures and practices FINRA has highlighted that could bolster a firm's suitability-focused supervisory and compliance procedures.

The Notice provides a wealth of information on the types of approaches, systems, procedures and practices that member firms have been using and that FINRA has determined to be most effective in ensuring compliance with the suitability rule.

Although other ways to comply with the rule certainly exist, member firms should review the Notice and consider incorporating the practices discussed or practices likely to achieve similar outcomes.

The paper provides practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.

The aim is to provide details of selected Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Regulatory Notices and Disciplinary Actions issued in March, April and May 2012.

The paper provides Regulatory Notice 12‐17, April 2012, “Telemarketing: SEC Approves Consolidated Telemarketing Rule,” and Regulatory Notice 12‐25, May 2012, “Suitability: Additional Guidance on FINRA's New Suitability Rule”.

Notice 12‐17: FINRA Rule 3230 (Telemarketing) updates exiting NASD and NYSE rules that require member firms to maintain and consult do‐not‐call lists, limit the hours of telephone solicitations and prohibit members from using deceptive and abusive acts and practices in connection with telemarketing, and adopts provisions that are substantially similar to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules that prohibit deceptive and other abusive telemarketing acts or practices. Notice 12‐25: The new FINRA Rule 2111 requires, in part, that a broker‐dealer or associated person “have a reasonable basis to believe that a recommended transaction or investment strategy involving a security or securities is suitable for the customer, based on the information obtained through the reasonable diligence of the [firm] or associated person to ascertain the customer's investment profile.” In general, the new rule retains the core features of the previous NASD suitability rule, codifies several important interpretations of the predecessor rule and imposes a few new or modified obligations.

These are direct excerpts designed to provide a useful digest for the reader and an indication of regulatory trends.

Modular integrated construction (MiC) is a modern construction method innovating and reinventing the traditional site-based construction method. As it integrates advanced manufacturing principles and requires offsite production of volumetric building components, several factors and conditions must converge to make the MiC method suitable and efficient for building projects in each context. This paper aims to present a knowledge-based decision support system (KB-DSS) for assessing a project’s suitability for the MiC method.

The KB-DSS uses 21 significant suitability decision-making factors identified through literature review, consultation of experts and questionnaire surveys. It has a knowledge base, a DSS and a user interface. The knowledge base comprises IF-THEN production rules to compute the MiC suitability score with the efficient use of the powerful reasoning and explanation capabilities of DSS.

The tool receives the inputs of a decision-maker, computes the MiC suitability score for a given project and generates recommendations based on the score. Three real-world projects in Hong Kong are used to demonstrate the applicability of the tool for solving the MiC suitability assessment problem.

This study established the complex and competing significant conditions and factors determining the suitability of the MiC method for construction projects. It developed a unique tool combining the capabilities of expert systems and decision support system to address the complex problem of assessing the suitability of the MiC method for construction projects in a high-density metropolis.

This article provides a comprehensive look at suitability rules, first in the traditional brokerage context and then in terms of their application to online brokerages in general. It outlines the arguments made by the online brokerages to differentiate their world from traditional broker‐dealers, and offers hypothetical scenarios in which suitability concepts may apply in the online brokerage setting. The authors suggest that online brokerages should be allowed time to determine the appropriate rules in light of how the technology itself evolves over the next several years.

Hiring managers commonly rely on system-justifying motives and attitudes during résumé screening. Given the prevalent use of modern résumé formats (e.g. LinkedIn) that include not only an applicant's credentials but also headshot photographs, visible sources of information such as an applicant's race are also revealed while a hiring manager simultaneously evaluates a candidate's suitability. As a result, such screening is likely to activate evaluation bias. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of a hiring manager's perceptions of race-system justification, that is, support for the status quo in relations between Black and White job candidates in reinforcing or mitigating hiring bias related to in-group and out-group membership during résumé screening.

Drawing from system justification theory (SJT) in a pre-selection context, in an experimental study involving 174 human resource managers, the authors tested two boundary conditions of the expected relationship between hiring manager and job candidate race on candidate ratings: (1) a hiring manager's affirmative action (AA) attitudes and system-justifying attitudes and (2) a job candidate's manipulated suitability for a position. This approach enabled us to juxtapose the racial composition of hiring manager–job candidate dyads under conditions in which the job candidate's race and competency for a posted position were manipulated to examine the conditions under which White and Black hiring managers are likely to make biased evaluations. The authors largely replicated these findings in two follow-up studies with 261 students and 361 online raters.

The authors found that information on a candidate's objective suitability for a job resulted in opposite-race positive bias among Black evaluators and same-race positive bias among White evaluators in study 1 alone. Conversely, positive attitudes toward AA policies resulted in in-group favoritism and strengthened a positive same-race bias for Black evaluators (study 1 and 2). We replicated this finding with a third sample to directly test system-justifying attitudes (study 3). The way in which White raters rated White candidates reflected the same attitudes against systems (AA attitudes) that Black raters rating Black candidates exhibited in the authors’ first two studies. Positive system-justifying attitudes or positive attitudes toward AA did not, however, translate into the elevation of same-race candidate ratings of suitability above those of opposite-race candidates.

Although the size of the sample is on par with the percentage of Blacks nationwide in private-sector managerial-level positions ideally, the authors would have preferred to oversample Black HR managers. Given the scarcity of focus on Black HR managers, future researchers, using diverse samples of evaluators should also consider not only managers' and candidates' race but also their social dominance orientation. Moreover, it is important that future researchers use more racially diverse samples from other industries to more fully identify the ways in which the dynamics of system-justifying processes can emerge to influence evaluation bias during résumé screening.

Advances in technology pose new challenges to HR hiring practices. This study attempts to fill a void regarding the unintended effects of bias during digital résumé screening. These trends have important HR implications. Initial screening of a job applicant's credentials while concurrently viewing the individual's photograph is likely to activate subconscious evaluation bias, produces inaccurate applicant ratings. This study's findings should caution hiring managers about the potential for bias to arise when viewing job candidates' digital résumés and encourage them to carefully examine various boundary conditions on racial similarity bias effects on applicant pre-screening and subsequent hiring decisions.

The study’s results suggest that bias might be attenuated as organizational leaders engage in efforts to understand their system-justifying motives and examine perceptions of the workplace social hierarchy (i.e. responses to status hierarchies) linked to perceptions of the status quo. For example, understanding how system justifying motives influence evaluation bias will inform how best to design training and other interventions that link discussions of workforce diversity to the relationships among groups within the organization's social hierarchy. This line of research should be further explored to better understand the complex forces at work when hiring managers adopt system-justifying motives during hiring evaluations.

The authors address the limitations of prior research by examining interactions between boundary conditions in a real-world context using real human resources hiring managers and more contemporary personnel-screening practices to test changes in the direction and strength of the relationship between hiring manager–job candidate race and hiring manager evaluations. Thus, the authors’ findings have implications for hiring bias and understanding of system-justification processes, particularly regarding how, when and why hiring managers support the status quo (i.e. perpetuate inequity) even if they are disadvantaged as a result.

This study aims to construct models to classify independent smallholder farmers’ (ISFs) plantation suitability and its competitiveness index. It proposes the models with the objective to accommodate ISFs as the main source of raw material for the palm oil industry. It was predicted that the supply of oil palm fresh fruit bunch would depend on ISFs’ plantations due to the government policy that restricts the expansion of the plantations.

The study was designed using a geographic information system approach and analytical hierarchy process for mapping the suitability of smallholder farmers’ oil palm plantation in the Kampar Regency. The competitiveness index was measured using a modified Diamond Porter framework and competitiveness index quantification. The model was conducted on 177 respondents from five districts in Kampar Regency.

The results indicated that it mapped 128,936.759 hectares area of ISFs’ oil palm plantation in the Kampar Regency. The results of plantation suitability showed that only 13.88% of plantations owned by ISFs were potential, 71.21% of them were in the developing category and 14.91% of plantations were non-potential. The competitiveness index showed there were only 7.91% of them at the developed competitive position, 73.45% at developing a competitive position and 18.64% at the least-developed position.

The paper includes implications for developing ISFs’ capacity building and best practice management for oil palm optimization, resulting in bargaining positions and social well-being.

The study had succeeded to visualize ISFs’ plantation area suitability and competitiveness at Kampar Regency, Riau Province. The model provides a brisk understanding and valuable information about ISFs’ conditions spatially. It offers specific outcomes and becomes important in optimize and develop the existing plantations at the right time and exact location.

With reference to the global financial crisis and lessons learned, advocacy for distributing suitable financial products by financial intermediaries remain key if consumers, especially the illiterate in underdeveloped financial markets, are to be absorbed into the formal financial system. Financial intermediaries such as microfinance banks should provide suitable financial products, with full disclosure of information and customer protection relating to distribution of all financial products within the financial market to prevent financial vulnerability. The main purpose of this study is to establish the mediating role of financial product suitability in the relationship between access to microfinance products and survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda.

SmartPLS with bootstrap based on 5,000 samples was used to test for the mediating role of financial product suitability in the relationship between access to microfinance products and survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda.

The results revealed that financial product suitability improves access to microfinance products by 29 percentage points to promote survival of women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda. In reality, delivering suitable financial products that suit the economic condition of poor women micro-agribusiness borrowers, can allow them to use these products to generate income to meet timely repayment obligations and business demands.

The current study selected samples from only women micro-agribusinesses operating in rural Uganda, with a specific focus on the northern region. Thus, studies involving samples selected from other rural developing countries may be necessary in future. Additionally, while the findings are significant, the data were collected from only women microenterprises who are clients of microfinance banks. Future studies focusing on women microenterprises who are clients of other financial institutions may offer insightful comparative data.

The findings from this study offer strategies for managers of microfinance banks to invent and design financial products that suit the economic status and condition of different microcredit clients, especially the women micro-agribusinesses. This can help them to solve the problem of defaults in loan repayment and delinquency common while lending to the rural poor. In fact, microfinance banks should adopt a customized loan pricing model that can promote the operational sustainability and commercial viability of women micro-agribusinesses in the current situation of mission adrift.

The current study uses the suitability rule and economic theory to elucidate the importance of microfinance product suitability to increase microfinance inclusion of women micro-agribusinesses in rural areas in developing countries. The novelty in this paper is in combining the suitability rule and economic theory with microfinance theory to promote access to microcredit by the women micro-agribusinesses in rural Uganda under the situation of mission adrift. This is limited in the existing microfinance literature and theory, especially in developing countries like Uganda.

This study investigates the perceived suitability of the international accounting standards among the Jordanian preparers, users and auditors. Multivariate analysis and non‐parametric statistics are applied to test hypotheses. The t‐test was used to measure the suitability of IAS to the Jordanian environment. The results indicated that IASC is a neutral body and therefore is capable of producing neutral and relevant accounting standards that might be applied by developing countries. The ANOVA and the Chisquare tests were applied to test variation in the perceived suitability of IAS to the Jordanian environment. The results indicated that the type of audit firm, years of experience and type of experience affected the respondents’ views towards the suitability of IAS to Jordan. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the most influential factor affecting the adoption of IAS in Jordan. The results indicated that the local need for foreign investments and international audit firms were the most influential factors while local and foreign investors in addition to the international audit firms are the biggest beneficiaries of that adoption. Finally, this study found that no attempt had been made by the Jordanian regulators to benefit from the past experience of other developing countries. The respondents believed that in order to increase the reliability of Jordanian financial information IAS were quickly adopted without any discussion as to whether each IAS was suitable to the Jordanian context.

The purpose of this paper is to explain two new FINRA rules: Rule 2090 (Know Your Customer) and Rule 2111 (Suitability).

The paper explains the two rules, the expanded requirements in the new suitability rule, and an expansion in the list of factors an associated person is required to consider as part of a customer's investment profile before making a recommendation.

FINRA's new suitability rule is notable for three reasons: the revised rule covers investment strategies and explicit recommendations to hold securities; it expands the necessary factors for making a suitability determination; and it includes definitions for three specific suitability evaluations.

Prior to the effective dates of the new rules, most likely in the Fall of 2011, firms may want to consider whether to develop additional procedures to gather customer “investment profile” information and whether to memorialize that information in written form.

This paper provides practical guidance from experienced financial services lawyers.