Tianyu Ying, Jun Wen, Edmund Goh and Shaohua Yang
The relationship between sex and tourism remains ambiguous in the tourism literature. Few studies have examined the underlying motivations behind sex-driven travel, and little is…
Abstract
Purpose
The relationship between sex and tourism remains ambiguous in the tourism literature. Few studies have examined the underlying motivations behind sex-driven travel, and little is known about factors inhibiting tourists' procurement of commercial sex when traveling. Therefore, this study explored male Chinese tourists' perceived constraints during decision-making and developed a comprehensive scale to assess constraints to commercial sex consumption overseas.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from male Chinese tourists purchasing commercial sex while traveling overseas. This study involved a four-stage process as recommended by Churchill (1979) for scale development research. In Stage 1, preliminary items were generated through a comprehensive review of the constraints literature and in-depth interviews with 16 sex tourists, which generated an initial 26 items. During the second stage to purify the measurement items, six items were eliminated, resulting in 20 items. Stage 3 involved exploratory factor analysis (N = 275) to extract the scale's underlying factor structure. Results revealed a five-factor structure with sufficient evidence of internal reliability given Cronbach's alpha coefficients between 0.722 and 0.843. The final stage included confirmatory factor analysis (N = 259) to verify the scale's reliability and validity.
Findings
Ultimately, 20 items were developed to measure sex tourists' perceived constraints toward engaging in commercial sex services overseas based on five factors: structural constraints, intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints, value conflicts and service supply–related constraints.
Originality/value
This study advances the scope of sex tourism research by verifying how these five constraints are independent, generalized and can influence the procurement of sexual services overseas. This study is the first in sex tourism research to explore the difficulties facing sex tourists. Results offer marketers important insight on how to better address these constraints while providing a safe and legal sex tourism experience.
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Ying An, Xiaomin Sun, Kai Wang, Huijie Shi, Zhenzhen Liu, Yiming Zhu and Fang Luo
Why do some employees choose to prolong their working hours excessively? The current study tested how core self-evaluations (CSEs) might lead to workaholism and how perceived job…
Abstract
Purpose
Why do some employees choose to prolong their working hours excessively? The current study tested how core self-evaluations (CSEs) might lead to workaholism and how perceived job demands might mediate this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Insights from the extant literature underpin the hypotheses on how CSEs would affect the development of workaholism through perceived job demands. A sample of 421 working people in China completed the online surveys, and the mediation model was tested using Mplus 7.0 (Muthén and Muthén, 1998–2012).
Findings
This study found that different components of CSEs influence workaholism in different ways. Specifically, generalized self-efficacy positively predicts workaholism, whereas emotional stability negatively predicts workaholism. Moreover, most aspects of CSEs (generalized self-efficacy, emotional stability and locus of control) influence workaholism via perceived job demands, specifically via perceived workload but not via perceived job insecurity.
Originality/value
The current study is the first to explore how individuals' fundamental evaluations of themselves (i.e. CSEs) relate to workaholism. The results are helpful for the prevention and intervention of workaholism in organizations.
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Yu-Ying An, Guangbiao Xu and Hua Shen
To understand the thermal insulation of four common structures of sleeping bags and factors influencing the thermal insulation as well as the thermal comfort of people who use…
Abstract
Purpose
To understand the thermal insulation of four common structures of sleeping bags and factors influencing the thermal insulation as well as the thermal comfort of people who use four kinds of sleeping bag structures.
Design/methodology/approach
Four samples corresponding to four common sleeping bag structures were made and their thermal properties were investigated through a combination of objective instrument measurement and subjective human subject tests.
Findings
The porosity of the samples and the length of the interlining had a main impact on the thermal resistances of the four sleeping bag structures. The thermal sensation ratings and the thermal resistances had good consistency. There was a strong correlation between human physiological parameters and thermal sensation evaluation. The male and female have significant differences in thermal sensation of different structures of sleeping bags.
Originality/value
Instrument measurement and human subject tests were combined to study the thermal properties of sleeping bag structures, which had little attention in the past in research fields.
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Mine Ucok Hughes, Giana Eckhardt, Karen Kaigler-Walker and Zelda Gilbert
The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of urban Chinese women’s fashion consumption practices in light of major recent socio-historical events and to demonstrate…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of urban Chinese women’s fashion consumption practices in light of major recent socio-historical events and to demonstrate that changes in fashion are not necessarily continuous, but rather can be discontinuous in the wake of radical disturbances.
Design/methodology/approach
A phenomenological study was conducted that included group interviews with Chinese women belonging to three age cohorts who experienced different radical changes in recent Chinese history.
Findings
This study provides insights into how fashion develops when radical economic and social shifts result in a discontinuous rather than continuous fashion evolution. In China, it can be seen that these radical ideological shifts had discontinuous effects on notions of beauty and how identity is expressed through fashion. The changes seen in the past 60 years or so – from the advent of communism in 1949 until now – cannot be explained by theories of imitation and distinction alone. The changes are also anchored to key socio-historic events, and were not necessarily an outgrowth of the period before, or class-based practices, but rather a response to social upheavals.
Originality/value
This study provides a nuanced understanding of how tumultuous socio-cultural events affect how fashion is experienced in China, which allows us to contribute to the growing understanding of Chinese consumer culture, and demonstrate that the understanding of how fashion evolves needs to accommodate the upheavals in society over the past sixty years.
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– The purpose of this paper is to determine how best to reduce, reuse and dispose of household waste medicines in the National Health Service (NHS) (UK).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine how best to reduce, reuse and dispose of household waste medicines in the National Health Service (NHS) (UK).
Design/methodology/approach
Through a combination of literature review and empirical work, this research investigates the existing household waste medicines reverse logistics (RL) system and makes recommendations for improvement by benchmarking it against household waste batteries RL. The viability and feasibility of these recommendations are evaluated through in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals and end user surveys.
Findings
The batteries RL system appears to be a more structured and effective system with more active engagement from actors/stakeholders in instigating RL practices and for this very reason is an excellent comparator for waste medicines RL practices. Appropriate best practices are recommended to be incorporated into the waste medicines RL system, including recapturing product value, revised processing approaches, system cooperation and enforcement, drivers and motivations and system design and facilitation.
Research limitations/implications
This study offers academics and professionals an improved insight into the current household waste medicines RL system and provides a step towards reducing an existing gap in this under-researched area. A limitation is that only a small sample of healthcare professionals were involved in subjectively evaluating the feasibility of the recommendations, so the applicability of the recommendations needs to be tested in a wider context and the cost effectiveness of implementing the recommendations needs to be analysed.
Practical implications
Reducing, reusing and properly disposing of waste medicines contribute to economic sustainability, environmental protection and personal and community safety. The information retrieved from analysing returned medicines can be used to inform prescribing practice so as to reduce unnecessary medicine waste and meet the medicine optimisation agenda.
Originality/value
This paper advocates learning from best practices in batteries RL to improve the waste medicines RL design and execution and supports the current NHS agenda on medicine waste reduction (DoH, 2012). The recommendations made in the paper not only aim to reduce medicine waste but also to use medicines effectively, placing the emphasis on improving health outcomes.
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Suby Khanam, Faisal Talib and Jamshed Siddiqui
The purpose of this study is to identify and rank total quality management (TQM) enablers and information technology (IT) resources to provide a reliable and valid measurement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify and rank total quality management (TQM) enablers and information technology (IT) resources to provide a reliable and valid measurement instrument for evaluation in Indian information and communications technology (ICT) organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review of TQM enablers and IT resources, 17 factors are identified, of which, 9 are TQM enablers and 8 are IT resources. The empirical data, retrieved from 801 ICT organizations, is tested by descriptive analysis and factor analysis (FA). FA is used to ensure that items in each scale sufficiently reflect the scope of each factor.
Findings
This paper has developed an instrument that can be used to evaluate items to implement TQM enablers and IT resources. The instrument identifies 17 reliable and valid factors, out of which 16 are input factors, while 1 is an outcome factor.
Practical implications
This instrument will provide a practical understanding to enable the monitoring of TQM enabler and IT resource activities in ICT organizations. Along with this, these instruments will help to build models related to constructs that will further achievement of customer satisfaction (CS).
Originality/value
This paper presents an instrument which validates the different items of TQM enablers and IT resources. It also shows the relationship between the two in terms of CS.
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Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and employee outcomes, i.e. job satisfaction and affective commitment, and to propose ways of increasing the positive effects of high-performance work systems on firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from 370 employees in the Chinese manufacturing industry during 2010. The Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) method was used to test each of the eight hypotheses deriving from the conceptual framework.
Findings
The paper finds that: employee perspectives of high-performance work systems have a positive effect on both job satisfaction and affective commitment; and breadth of behavioural script and level of autonomy mediate the relationship between employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and their attitudes towards that organisation (job satisfaction and affective commitment); however, skill variety did not mediate the relationship between employee perspectives of high-performance work systems and employees’ attitudes in the data set used.
Practical implications
The findings of the paper suggest that managers can improve employees’ attitudes by integrating effective high-performance work systems in their working environment. Even more interestingly, it appears that by encouraging broad behavioural scripts or allowing employees more freedom to apply their skills, managers can improve employees’ attitudes more significantly than by encouraging employees to acquire a variety of skills.
Originality/value
Using signalling and psychological-contract theory, the paper shows the dominant influence of employees’ perceived high-performance work systems on employees’ attitudes via behavioural scripts and autonomy.
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Thiago Dias Monteiro, Otavio Próspero Sanchez and Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes
The current scenario shows increased adoption of off-chain voting applications in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to avoid complexity and costs for user engagement…
Abstract
Purpose
The current scenario shows increased adoption of off-chain voting applications in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to avoid complexity and costs for user engagement in their governance. This paper aims to comprehend the trends and patterns within the DAO community with off-chain voting systems and blockchain usage.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study uses a two-pronged quantitative approach, combining descriptive statistical analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Input data from different DAO proposals and votes were analyzed.
Findings
Results indicate that the 179 DAOs analyzed account for 26,538 proposals and 1,268,474 followers of the entire Snapshot base in January 2023, showing high concentration in engagement. The preferred social media communication channels are Twitter and GitHub, showing a decrease of Ethereum as a main chain, with Polygon and Binance Smart Chain already accounting for 22%. Basic voting can lead to greater user involvement in the voting process.
Research limitations/implications
This study complements the traditional governance theory perspective and advances in the emerging literature on DAOs and blockchain with an empirical analysis.
Practical implications
As blockchain technology gains increasing adoption, comprehending trends and patterns within the DAO community becomes pivotal in identifying opportunities and challenges for innovation and improvement.
Social implications
Findings can facilitate the development of improved governance models and decision-making processes for DAOs, leading to a more robust and sustainable ecosystem.
Originality/value
This study presents a broader IT-based governance foresight via blockchain while providing an understanding of the voting process, technology features and governance mechanisms for social community engagement and decision-making in DAOs.