Mercy Toni, K.K. Jithina and K.V. Thomas
The main purpose of this paper is to outline the antecedents of patient satisfaction in the field of medical tourism (MT) applying extant literature and to develop a conceptual…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this paper is to outline the antecedents of patient satisfaction in the field of medical tourism (MT) applying extant literature and to develop a conceptual model based on the review.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a thorough review of prior studies related to the antecedents of patient satisfaction in the MT sector. Moreover, it provides the theoretical base that helped the researcher to identify significant relationship between the patient satisfaction and its antecedents.
Findings
The researchers identified the prominent antecedents of patient satisfaction and present the potential interrelationships between different antecedents of patient satisfaction such as treatment quality, cost attractiveness, destination image and service quality with patient satisfaction based on the review.
Practical implications
The results have momentous practical implications as they will help researchers to better understand the antecedents of patient satisfaction and their potential inter linkages with patient satisfaction in MT sector. The conceptual model derived from the review may guide the actions of researchers as well as practitioners in the MT industry as a whole. The present study provides insights for further research in the MT sector and thereby helps to further enrich the existing theoretical base of the MT.
Originality/value
The study brings together the scattered knowledge from the broad and extensive range of medical or health tourism and cognate literature which indicate ideological differences among various aspects of MT as well as potential factors determining patient satisfaction in MT sector (antecedents of satisfaction). The newly developed model incorporates a new construct called “treatment quality” as different from “service quality,” which is a widely used construct to explain customer satisfaction. The antecedents of patient satisfaction and their inter-linkages with patient satisfaction provide a sound theoretical foundation for the future studies.
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Ebony M. Duncan-Shippy, Sarah Caroline Murphy and Michelle A. Purdy
This chapter examines the framing of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement in mainstream media. An analytic sample of 4,303 articles collected from the Dow Jones Factiva database…
Abstract
This chapter examines the framing of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement in mainstream media. An analytic sample of 4,303 articles collected from the Dow Jones Factiva database reveals variation in depth, breadth, and intensity of BLM coverage in the following newspapers between 2012 and 2016: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera English. We review contemporary literature on racial inequality and employ Media Framing and Critical Race Theory to discuss the implications of our findings on public perceptions, future policy formation, and contemporary social protest worldwide.
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This article aims to develop a measurement scale for assessing agripreneurial competencies relevant to emerging economies in alignment with the SDG2 of the UN Sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to develop a measurement scale for assessing agripreneurial competencies relevant to emerging economies in alignment with the SDG2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
Design/methodology/approach
The scale development procedure includes item development and refinement, data collection, reliability and validity tests and scale purification with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).
Findings
The validated scale carries eight dimensions of competencies: Agreeableness (AG), Technological Competency (TC), Competitive Spirit (CS), Innovativeness (IN), Self-Confidence (SC), Social Responsibility (SR), Conscientiousness (CO) and Leadership (LS). The analysis puts forth a good and fit model, and the new scale reports sufficient convergent and discriminant validity.
Research limitations/implications
This study is focused on the agripreneurial competencies of individual agripreneurs; institutional agripreneurs are excluded from the study.
Social implications
Identifying prominent agripreneurs using the scale developed from this study will aid in allocating various government and non-governmental organisations' assistance to agripreneurs. Since developing economies rely heavily on agriculture, any positive contribution can help alleviate poor economic growth, end hunger, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG 2 of 2030).
Originality/value
Though several scales for measuring entrepreneurial competencies are available, there is no standard scale to measure agripreneurial competencies. This article presents the development and validation of a measurement scale to assess the major competencies of agripreneurs that influence agripreneurship performance.
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Tessa Withorn, Joanna Messer Kimmitt, Carolyn Caffrey, Anthony Andora, Cristina Springfield, Dana Ospina, Maggie Clarke, George Martinez, Amalia Castañeda, Aric Haas and Wendolyn Vermeer
This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering various library types, study populations and research contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2019.
Findings
The paper provides a brief description of all 370 sources and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians, researchers and anyone interested as a quick and comprehensive reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Mohammed Muneerali Thottoli, Essia Ries Ahmed and K.V. Thomas
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of emerging technology (technology adoption, perceived benefits, technological challenges and ease of use) and the auditing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of emerging technology (technology adoption, perceived benefits, technological challenges and ease of use) and the auditing practice of accounting professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary method of data collection was a questionnaire directed to newly practicing chartered accountants who are partners of sole proprietorship or partnership firms in India. The data were analyzed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The findings revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between characteristics of emerging technology (technology adoption, technological challenges and ease of use) and auditing practice, while factors of the perceived benefits had a negative relationship with auditing practice.
Research limitations/implications
The study model would aid technology enabled audit research by giving a platform for a new study to investigate further detailed solutions to emerging information technology determinants.
Practical implications
This study illustrates how tools technique perceived benefit motivates sole proprietorship practicing auditors to adopt emerging technology- enabled auditing software for auditing client's financial statements. Further, this study has added to the information technology auditing literature and might add benefits to the numerous other audit firms to adopt in emerging technology tools their audit firm.
Social implications
Audit firms, generally sole proprietorship and partnership firms, should be given enough awareness about the latest audit software tools to carry out their audit tasks efficiently.
Originality/value
The study findings highlight benefits of emerging technology-enabled auditing practice among owners/partners of the sole proprietorship or partnership firms, which is not extensively discussed in the prior studies. Furthermore, it broadens knowledge of perceived benefit, technological challenges and ease of use in technology-enabled audit software in the auditing and accounting literature.
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Mohammed Muneerali Thottoli and Thomas K.V.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between characteristics of information communication technology (ICT, adoption, confidence, competency and training…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between characteristics of information communication technology (ICT, adoption, confidence, competency and training) and auditing practices. The paper further explained the significance of the auditing practices, evaluated the relationship between ICT characteristics (adoption, confidence, competency, training) and auditing practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a quantitative approach, where a set of questionnaires was developed by making necessary adaptations to available scales/items. Data were collected from practicing chartered accountants in Kerala targeting 89 respondents from various professional auditing firms. The results were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and structural equation modelling-partial least squares statistical tools.
Findings
The findings confirmed that there is a positive relationship between three components of ICT factors on audit practice, namely, ICT adoption, ICT competency and ICT training, whereas the factor, ICT confidence has a negative relationship with audit practice. Thus, the availability of ICT-competent staff, their practical ICT knowledge, sufficient and adequate ICT training assist audit firms from doing audit by implementing customized audit software for audit practice.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of the study is that limited variables of ICT on audit practice are taken in the model. Refinement of the model and the variables (such as ICT challenges), ICT perceived benefits and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model used provide an opportunity for future research.
Practical implications
The barriers facing by non-big four audit firms (especially sole proprietorship and limited liability partnership firms) faces ICT challenges requires intense management interventions to be self-equipped for the current information technology (IT) world and to facilitate and to ensure fairness of financial statements to the stakeholders that strongly links auditors advance IT skills and available firms resources to investment and adopt audit software for the benefits of the audit firms.
Originality/value
The paper upstretched some of the ICT challenges that will assist as points, which have been helpful for future researchers, and have provided accounting and auditing professionals, auditing professional institutions and their management, government, tax officials, policy makers, auditing software vendors and other stakeholders the bases for encouraging ICT adoption.
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Jonathan A. Rhoades and Josh A. Arnold
The purpose of the present studies was to derive an integrative taxonomy of responses to social conflict. In Study 1, we had college‐age participants sort 33 responses to…
Abstract
The purpose of the present studies was to derive an integrative taxonomy of responses to social conflict. In Study 1, we had college‐age participants sort 33 responses to conflict, taken from various research domains, according to their similarities. From this, we generated two different classification systems: a very simple low‐dimensional system, obtained through multi‐dimensional scaling; and a complex high‐dimensional system, obtained through cluster analysis. To aid in the interpretation of the structures, in Study 2 we collected a set of ratings on each of the conflict responses. The results from Study 2 indicated that many of the labels used to describe conflict responses in past research could be used to describe some aspects of these taxonomies. However, no dimension or set of dimensions was sufficient to describe all classes of conflict responses. The results are discussed in terms of their larger theoretical and practical implications.
Mohammed Muneerali Thottoli and K.V. Thomas
The primary objective of this study is to examine how students' technological factors affect remote access (RA) in smart learning (SL) environments. Additionally, the paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary objective of this study is to examine how students' technological factors affect remote access (RA) in smart learning (SL) environments. Additionally, the paper explores the moderating effect of students' technical skills (TS) on RA and SL.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applied a quantitative research approach and collected 125 valid questionnaires from students in Oman's higher education institutions (HEIs). A structural equation model (SEM) was employed for data analysis using the Smart PLS 4 version to examine the influence of technological factors on RA in SL environments.
Findings
It was found that the use of cloud-based RA in SL is influenced by students' use of technology, technology competitiveness and the availability of institutional software (IS). Moreover, students' TS were found to play a crucial role in moderating RA and SL, as well as technical knowledge (TK) and SL. These findings highlight the importance of technical competencies and software availability in shaping students' RA experiences.
Research limitations/implications
The study's findings should be interpreted with caution due to the limited sample size, which may restrict the generalizability of the results.
Practical implications
The study suggests the technological learning capabilities of HEIs, which significantly improved by prioritizing critical technical factors, including knowledge and use of technology, availability of institutional software and RA antecedents in SL environments.
Originality/value
This paper offers practical and actionable directions for HEIs, universities, colleges and educators looking to incorporate technology into their practices in the dynamic and ever-evolving Fourth Industrial Era.
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Mohammed Muneerali Thottoli and K.V. Thomas
The current study seeks to examine the impact of web marketing (through the company's website) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firms' performance across companies…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study seeks to examine the impact of web marketing (through the company's website) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firms' performance across companies listed in the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX), Oman.
Design/methodology/approach
This research analyses qualitative and exploratory data taken from companies' website, annual reports (the financial year 2019), Google search and CSR report from 69 out of total 117 listed companies in the MSX to analyze the impact of web marketing on CSR and firms' performance proxied by return of assets (ROA), return of equity (ROE) and Tobin's Q (TQ).
Findings
Web marketing on CSR positively affects firms' performance. Especially, the positive effect of web marketing on firms' performance is stronger for listed companies. Web marketing enhances financial performance proxied by ROA, ROE and TQ.
Practical implications
The research findings provide new insights that are able to enlighten governing bodies in Oman to make standardized compulsory CSR spending (say, 0.5% on profit after tax) by listed companies in MSX.
Originality/value
This research presents evidence that web marketing on CSR can increase firms' performance and brand image among stakeholders. This is the first study to examine the impact of web marketing on CSR and firms' performance using empirical data in Oman.
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H. Binner, M.S. Setty, P. Collander and C.H. Garnett
A recent meeting involved co‐operation with the organisers of the Canadian High Technology Show and the local Chapter of the SMTA. The programme included an inspiring keynote…
Abstract
A recent meeting involved co‐operation with the organisers of the Canadian High Technology Show and the local Chapter of the SMTA. The programme included an inspiring keynote address by Mr Frank J. Pipp, Xerox Corporation. The topic of the address was ‘Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Control and the Evaluation of Total Quality Control in Xerox Corporation.’