Search results

Quantitative and spatial-explicit flood risk information is of great importance for strengthening climate change adaptation and flood resilience. Shanghai is a coastal megacity at large estuary delta with rising flood risks. This study aims to quantify the overall economic-societal risks of storm flooding and their spatial patterns in Shanghai.

Based on multiple storm flood scenarios at different return periods, as well as fine-scale data sets including gridded GDP, gridded population and vector land-use, a probabilistic risk model incorporating geographic information system is used to assess the economic-societal risks of flooding and their spatial distributions.

Our results show that, from 1/200 to 1/5,000-year floods, the exposed assets will increase from USD 85.4bn to USD 657.6bn, and the direct economic losses will increase from USD 3.06bn to USD 52bn. The expected annual damage (EAD) of assets is around USD 84.36m. Hotpots of EAD are mainly distributed in the city center, the depressions along the upper Huangpu River in the southwest, the north coast of Hangzhou Bay, and the confluence of the Huangpu River and Yangtze River in the northeast. From 1/200 to 1/5,000-year floods, the exposed population will rise from 280 thousand to 2,420 thousand, and the estimated casualties will rise from 299 to 1,045. The expected annual casualties (EAC) are around 2.28. Hotspots of casualties are generally consistent with those of EAD.

In contrast to previous studies that focus on a single flood scenario or a particular type of flood exposure/risk in Shanghai, the findings contribute to an understanding of overall flood risks and their spatial patterns, which have significant implications for cost-benefit analysis of flood resilience strategies.

Necessary conditions represent the factors that cannot be compensated but must be present to aim the desired outcome; if a necessary condition is absent, the outcome will not exist. This logic of necessity causality differs from the conventional logic that has been evaluated by the methods drawing the lines “through the middle of the data” (e.g., regression and SEM). The authors argue that the empirical investigation of necessity causality has been largely ignored in hospitality and tourism literature although the notion of necessary causes for achieving certain outcomes is widespread throughout the studies. Thus, the authors introduce “necessary condition analysis” (NCA) as a suitable analytical method to identify necessary conditions in hospitality and tourism research. This chapter provides details on the underlying logic, key advantages, and an illustrative example of NCA. The chapter concludes by offering a few recommendations for future NCA applications in hospitality and tourism research.

Using a qualitative approach, this cross-disciplinary study integrating modern slavery, tourism and marketing expertise outlines Chinese outbound tourists' perceptions of and reactions to issues related to child sex tourism.

In total, 27 in-depth interviews were conducted, and data were analysed. Manual coding was chosen as an efficient method to process qualitative interview data given the relatively small sample size in this study.

Three main themes emerged from analysis: (1) tourists' negative perceptions of child sex tourism; (2) tourist boycotts against child sex tourism destinations and activities as reactions to this socially deviant and illegal phenomenon and (3) tourist advocacy to enhance public awareness of child sex tourism. These themes suggest that tourists, as key tourism stakeholders, have difficulty accepting that child sex tourism occurs and would like to identify solutions to end illegal activities. Tourist boycotts would positively affect sustainable tourism development by eliminating illegal businesses, including those involving child prostitution, from the tourism industry. The qualitative method is applied here to develop a conceptual framework explaining tourists' perceptions of and reactions to child sex tourism.

A conceptual framework of Chinese individuals' perceptions of and reactions to child sex tourism has been devised using a qualitative approach. Although this framework takes child sex tourism as its focus, it can also be applied to better understand tourists' perspectives of other socially deviant or illegal behaviours within the tourism industry. The findings of this study provide valuable implications for various tourism stakeholders.

The current study makes significant theoretical and practical contributions to an under-researched topic – child sex tourism. A conceptual framework of Chinese individuals' perceptions of and reactions to child sex tourism has been devised using a qualitative approach. Findings from this study may inspire campaigns to protect children from being drawn into sex tourism. Efforts should also be undertaken to rescue children who have already been victimised by illegal businesses.

This study aims to systematically review and critically assess research methods for studying aging populations in tourism and hospitality. It identifies gaps and provides recommendations for advancing methodological innovation in response to emerging research agendas.

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of existing literature on aging populations in tourism and hospitality. Searches were performed in major databases, including Scopus and Web of Science, to collect peer-reviewed, English articles published in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)-indexed tourism and hospitality journals from 1965 to 2025. The methodologies employed in the selected studies were thoroughly analyzed.

A total of 184 articles were included in the final analysis. The review revealed that current research methods predominantly rely on surveys and interviews, with limited methodological diversity. Gaps were identified, and a conceptual model was proposed to advance cross-disciplinary integration and foster innovative methods that could more comprehensively capture the complexities of senior tourists, particularly those with health conditions.

This paper is likely the first to synthesize research methodologies within this specific context, outlining a path forward for researchers to adopt more innovative, multidisciplinary approaches. This study lays the foundation for future empirical investigations into the behaviors and experiences of senior tourists, as well as the potential role of tourism in promoting healthy aging. Additionally, it provides valuable insights for tourism marketing practitioners to better accommodate this growing segment.

Express freight transportation is in rapid development currently. Owing to the higher speed of express freight train, the deformation of the bridge deck worsens the railway line condition under the action of wind and train moving load when the train runs over a long-span bridge. Besides, the blunt car body of vehicle has poor aerodynamic characteristics, bringing a greater challenge on the running stability in the crosswind.

In this study, the aerodynamic force coefficients of express freight vehicles on the bridge are measured by scale model wind tunnel test. The dynamic model of the train-long-span steel truss bridge coupling system is established, and the dynamic response as well as the running safety of vehicle are evaluated.

The results show that wind speed has a significant influence on running safety, which is mainly reflected in the over-limitation of wheel unloading rate. The wind speed limit decreases with train speed, and it reduces to 18.83 m/s when the train speed is 160 km/h.

This study deepens the theoretical understanding of the interaction between vehicles and bridges and proposes new methods for analyzing similar engineering problems. It also provides a new theoretical basis for the safety assessment of express freight trains.

Purpose: This chapter identifies performance factors that have the strongest impact on companies’ sustainable outcomes and compares the obtained results across different sectors.

Methodology: About 3,384 observations were gathered from 2015 to 2022 from companies in communication services, energy, financials, real estate, and utilities sectors that comprise the ‘STOXX Global ESG Leaders Select 50’ index. The multiple regression model is constructed with companies’ ESG scores as dependent variables and independent variables representing operational, financial, and market performance.

Findings: Companies that tend to have higher operational and financial performance in the financial sector are more likely to have higher ESG performance. The financial performance results of companies showed the strongest statistically significant relationship with environmental and the weakest with governance scores.

Implications: Results benefit private and institutional investors aiming to create more sustainable portfolios. The obtained results indicate that these investors should focus on companies operating in the financial and energy sectors with higher performance results. Better ROE, ROA, and Tobin’s Q may have a negative impact on sustainable outcomes for companies operating in the real estate and utility sectors.

Limitations: Firstly, not all ESG index providers disclose information about their index constituents. Secondly, within the chosen ‘STOXX Global ESG Leaders Select 50’ index, not all constituents had complete ESG data available on the Bloomberg platform. When selecting the analysis period, it was observed that the accessible ESG data on Bloomberg covers a relatively short time span, only from 2015 onwards.

Future research: A larger number of companies by choosing a more comprehensive available ESG index.

The rich history and cultural heritage in Africa have been arguably a missed opportunity, which the region is now seeking to leverage following many years of neglect. Evidently, a new direction of travel is warranted, especially as far as the creative economy of Africa is concerned. This chapter provides a background at-a-glance insight into what may seem like disparate fields – that is, international business and the creative industries – bridging them into a single narrative. This fusion is also, in a pioneering effort, taken from the purview of Africa.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has been a good example of a Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) world. Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have faced a massive hit because the jobs in this industry have become unexpected. Considering the most valuable assets ‘Teachers’ crunched in the VUCA crisis, the study intends to determine if personal harmony (PH) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) would enhance teachers’ job satisfaction (JS).

Design/methodology/approach: Data are collected from the teachers of Indian HEIs and teachers who have experienced the impact of the COVID-19 catastrophe (VUCA). Considering the pandemic restrictions, data have been collected through an online survey (N = 364).

Practical Implications: PH is an individual’s internal quality and attribute that cannot be developed on force or situational need. Even in an uncertain situation, teachers have tried their best to contribute through professional service. Hence, people who possess PH contribute their best even though unsatisfied with their jobs.

Originality/value: This study has focused on finding the relationship between two different variables, PH and OCB (which has not been explored in Asian countries, majorly in India, where it has a vast cultural diversity and structure influencing the educational policies) that hinders the factors influencing JS, where these two variables are highly influenced by hygiene factors such as values, culture, ethical standards, personal belief, leadership styles, and fair treatment showcased by the organisations/institutions.

A high-fidelity simulation platform helps to verify the feasibility of the controller and reduce the cost of subsequent experiments. Therefore, this paper aims to design a high-fidelity hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation platform for the tail-sitter vehicles.

The component breakdown approach is used to develop a more reliable model. Thruster dynamics and ground contact force are also modeled. Accurate aerodynamic coefficients are obtained through wind tunnel tests. This simulation system adopts a mode transition method to achieve continuous simulation for all flight modes.

Simulation results are in good agreement with the flight log and successfully predict the state of the vehicle.

First, the effects of the propeller slipstream are considered. Second, most researchers ignore the parasitic drag caused by the landing gear and other appendages, which is discussed in this study. Third, a ground contact model is implemented to allow a realistic simulation of the takeoff and landing phases. Fourth, complete wind tunnel tests are conducted to obtain more accurate aerodynamic coefficients. Finally, a mode transition method is deployed in the HIL simulation system to achieve continuous simulation for all flight modes.

This study aims to expand the reliability and special functions of lightweight materials for high-end equipment and green manufacturing, so that it is the first such research to carry out nano-composite technology of nickel-coated carbon nanotubes (Ni-CNTs)-based titanium-zirconium chemical conversion on aluminum alloy substrate.

Corrosion behavior of various coatings was investigated using dropping corrosion test, linear polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results showed that the corrosion resistance of the nano-composite conversion coatings was significantly improved to compare with the conventional titanium-zirconium conversion coating. The morphology and microdomain characteristics of the nano-composite conversion coatings were characterized by SEM/eds/EPMA, which indicated that the CNT or Ni-CNTs addition promoting the integrity coverage of coatings in a short time.

Surface morphology of titanium-zirconium (Ti-Zr)/Ni-CNT specimens exhibited smooth, compact and little pores. The nano-composite conversion coatings are mainly composed of Al, O, C and Ti elements and contain a small amount of F and Zr elements, which illuminated that CNT or Ni-CNT addition could co-deposit with aluminum and titanium metal oxides.

The study of corrosion resistance of nano-composite conversion coatings and the micro-zone film-formation characteristics would be provided theoretical support for the development of basic research on surface treatment of aluminum alloys.