Q-Bot, the Quarantine Robot: Joint-media engagement between children and adults about quarantine living experiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 121 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 401-409
Author(s):  
Sonia Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Design ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Cdc Guidelines ◽  
Open Coding ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Information about the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine can be challenging to communicate to children. The purpose of this study is to understand how a children’s eBook can help facilitate conversations between children, families and educators about the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach A children’s eBook Q-Bot: The Quarantine Robot was shared by the researcher with parents and teachers through social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). The story provides information (based on CDC guidelines) on the best health and hygiene practices to avoid catching the virus, while also drawing attention to the hardworking people who are helping us through this experience. Data was collected as public comments on the eBook. Secondary data included other children’s eBooks available on the same theme and their public reviews. Findings Through open coding of comments, the researcher found that the children’s eBook helped in facilitation of discussion between children, parents and teachers; around the pandemic’s effects on health and hygiene practices; and remote learning experiences. A content analysis of other children’s books on this theme revealed a set of guidelines for designing helpful eBooks for pandemic quarantine situations in general. Research limitations/implications Education, media and health researchers may find this study helpful in understanding the potential of children’s eBooks as probes, prompts or communication tools. Practical implications Experts in pandemic-related issues, educators, illustrators and authors may find this study helpful in understanding guidelines for creating educational children’s eBooks for similar situations in the future. Originality/value Both theoretical and practical values are addressed through this study, as it provides helpful literature from past research, offers new insights from current study and guidelines for future work in narrative media design for the pandemic and other similar situations.

The “Halalification” of tourism

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faiza Khan ◽  
Michelle Callanan
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Market Segment ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Primary Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the confusing use of terminology associated with tourism undertaken by Muslims and to identify key concerns associated with this type of tourism. Design/methodology/approach This is an exploratory study and adopts a critical review of literature following the evolutionary concept analysis method. Content analysis of popular UK media, UK-based tour operators’ websites and tourism strategies of destinations popular with Muslim tourists were conducted to examine the use of terminology. Findings There is no clear difference between the various terms (halal, Muslim friendly, Islamic, etc.) used. Overall, academia uses the term Islamic tourism, while the industry and media use various terms. Among destinations, however, there is no clear and consistent use of terminology. A key concern of Islamic tourism is the role of certification in assuring travellers and the lack of standardisation of halal certification. Research limitations/implications The paper is based on literature review and secondary data analysis. It lacks primary research. Practical implications This study highlights the need for consistent use of terminology across industry. Another implication is the issue surrounding halal certification of food and the importance of trust in the seller/service provide. Another trend that industry providers need to consider is the growth of the Muslim millennial traveller and the needs of this market segment. Originality/value The paper highlights the importance of studying the Muslim tourist market and provides a starting point for further research. It highlights several issues such as the need to develop a typology of Muslim tourists. Of particular interest is the concern whether halal values in danger of being commodified in the absence of a universal agreed criterion for halal certification.

To disclose or not to disclose? Fashion brands' strategies for transparency in sustainability reporting

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iva Jestratijevic ◽  
James Ohisei Uanhoro ◽  
Rachel Creighton
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Study ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Strategic Thinking ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Strategic Disclosure ◽  
Sustainability Disclosure ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this quantitative study is to identify disclosure strategies for transparency in sustainability reporting to support strategic thinking around transparency in the fashion industry. This research has two specific research objectives: to capture progress towards greater transparency across sustainability reporting areas, across fashion brands and years, and to identify strategic approaches for transparency in sustainability reporting by revealing common patterns in business disclosure.Design/methodology/approachThe authors cross-sectionally analyzed secondary data using four consecutive Fashion Transparency Indices (2017–2020). Brands' strategies for transparency in sustainability reporting were examined through the stakeholder theory lens.FindingsFindings confirm the presence of four approaches to disclosure: measurable, ambiguous, policy-only and secretive strategy. The disclosure was disproportionally distributed between 30% brands as transparency leaders and 70% brands as transparency laggards. The most transparent brands were not necessarily those rated highest by the index but those whose progress toward transparency was traceable over the years.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has overcome the limitation of the verifiability approach, supporting the requirement for diachronic and strategic disclosure assessments.Practical implicationsAs most brands hesitantly disclose sustainability information, stakeholders cannot know whether business policies equate to more than a corporate wish list. If there is no inspection for mandatory business disclosure, and if there is no penalty for disclosure violations, some fashion retailers will continue to generate profits while operating in an uncompliant and “opaque” manner.Originality/valueThe framing of disclosure strategies for transparency in sustainability reporting is the first scholarly effort to investigate diachronically sustainability disclosure among a big sample of major fashion brands.

Need to pioneer Islamic tourism in tourist resorts in Maldives

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 895-916
Author(s):  
Aishath Muneeza ◽  
Zakariya Mustapha ◽  
Fathimath Nashwa Badeeu ◽  
Aminath Reesha Nafiz
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Financing Structure ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to formulate ways in which Maldives could pioneer Islamic tourism on a befitting framework and financing structure as a leverage to develop its tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach The research uses qualitative approach whereby primary and empirical data on tourism practices as well as relevant laws and guidelines, issued in Maldives and in other Muslim jurisdictions of the Muslim, are analyzed. Doctrinal approach is used in analyzing secondary data on the subject. Findings The research reveals the potential of Islamic tourism in Maldives as well as the challenges that have constrained its development in the country. Certainty is needed in halal products, services and conducts. Codifying extant Maldives Halal Tourism Standards will establish legal framework for a standard Shariah-compliant tourism industry. Islamic financing structure enables mobilizing required funds and address financing constraints. Practical implications This research presents an insight into establishing and developing Islamic tourism industry in the Maldives. Harmonizing tourism regulations with Shariah shall bring about the required consciousness on Shariah compliance in target tourists and their desires. Private individuals can contribute in mobilizing the much needed Shariah-compliant resources to finance Islamic model resorts befitting an Islamic tourism industry. Originality/value The research puts forward proposal that identifies and recognizes a more viable Islamic financing alternative as well as Shariah-compliant regulations to pioneer the development of Islamic tourism in Maldives. The research recommends how to overcome related challenges helps government understand the proposed strategies for establishing Islamic tourism industry.

Defining and developing a scale to measure strategic thinking

foresight ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Dhir ◽  
Swati Dhir ◽  
Payel Samanta
Keyword(s):  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Strategic Thinking ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Strategic Decision Making ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Bias ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis study aims to derive a sound definition of strategic thinking by horizontal analysis of past research and discussions with professionals.Design/methodology/approachThe research design includes three broad stages: item generation, scale development and assessment of scale’s psychometric properties.FindingsThe eclectic composition cuts across vocations, religions, sex and age strengthen the flexibility of application of the scale. The resulting scale shows strong psychometric properties and is expected to be useful for academics, practitioners and organizations alike.Research limitations/implicationsThe information on strategic thinking was self-reported through strategic thinking questionnaire (STQ) and is consequently at risk to be influenced by self-bias.Practical implicationsUsing the scale of strategic thinking will empower strategic thinkers to draw a more extensive scope of strategies at all levels. This will additionally bring about higher-quality procedures, increased performance and greater competitive advantage.Social implicationsThe study represents to be an imperative predecessor to strategic decision-making and may give a key to better comprehend authoritative change marvels and at last survival.Originality/valueAs the sample for our STQ has been collected from all across the country cross-sectioning different culture, gender and position of responsibility, the scale has significant robustness and implicative potential.

Segmenting, targeting and positioning in Islamic marketing

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mominul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Shape Segmentation ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This study aims to conceptualize the basic Islamic marketing (IM) process according to Shari’ah, addressing some of the queries raised by scholars on halal and marketing. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach and content analysis have guided to shape segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) with the help of secondary data from conventional and IM. Required Qur’anic verses and hadiths have been galvanized to shape STP in line with empirical evidence, showing potential marketing implications. Findings This study has accepted Islamic resources to segment markets, mentioning mankind, non-Muslims, Muslims, generic, halal and Islamic products. It has proposed to target mankind, non-Muslims markets with generic and halal products. Muslim marketers can target the pious Muslim consumers with Islamic products. For positioning, the halal certification has been suggested for the non-Muslim marketers and Islamization is for Muslim marketers. The whole process has been conceptualized in a single framework. Practical implications Marketers can have many product development ideas and basic guidelines and scholars may be able to sense some queries as to IM. Social implications This study has shown how inter-religious relationships can be harmonized with carrying out marketing functions to keep the social fabric following the Qur’anic verses. Originality/value This study has outlined the IM process as per Muslim and non-Muslim marketers’ needs under Shari’ah. Besides, it has answered some questions on halal and IM that has been hardly addressed before.

Multisensory rooms: essential characteristics and barriers to effective practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Joanna Grace
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Effective Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
User Groups ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to identify the characteristics practitioners consider essential to effective multisensory rooms and the barriers they experience when trying to realise the potential of such rooms. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents semi-structured interviews with 27 multisensory room practitioners from a range of backgrounds followed by analysis to identify key characteristics and barriers. Findings Eleven positive room characteristics were identified. The three deemed most significant were that the rooms are dark, activity associated and uninterrupted spaces. Two negative room characteristics were identified: inaccessible design and broken equipment. Ten barriers to effective multisensory room practice were identified and grouped according to themes of logistics, suboptimal usage and practitioner capabilities. Research limitations/implications The research focuses on a small self-selecting sample, coded by one person acting independently of any institution. This is an under researched area which would benefit from further more rigorous investigation. Practical implications This research enables practitioners to remove barriers to effective multisensory room practice and to focus on the characteristics most significant in generating benefits for room users. Understanding of the essential characteristics and potential barriers to effective practice will allow practitioners to better exploit limited resources of time, money and staffing. Originality/value Past research into multisensory rooms has focused on specific user groups or specific multisensory environments. This research examined multisensory room practice across both a range of environments and a range of users, giving an original overview of current multisensory room usage in the UK.

A neural observer for sensorless speed control of servomotors

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1668-1678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenq-Ruey Horng ◽  
Ming-Shyan Wang ◽  
Tai-Rung Lai ◽  
Sergiu Berinde
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Neural Networks ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Elman Neural Network ◽  
Content Type ◽  
On Line ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Neural Speed

Purpose – Extensive efforts have been conducted on the elimination of position sensors in servomotor control. The purpose of this paper is to aim at estimating the servomotor speed without using position sensors and the knowledge of its parameters by artificial neural networks (ANNs). Design/methodology/approach – A neural speed observer based on the Elman neural network (NN) structure takes only motor voltages and currents as inputs. Findings – After offline NNs training, the observer is incorporated into a DSP-based drive and sensorless control is achieved. Research limitations/implications – Future work will consider to reduce the computation time for NNs training and to adaptively tune parameters on line. Practical implications – The experimental results of the proposed method are presented to show the effectiveness. Originality/value – This paper achieves sensorless servomotor control by ANNs which are seldom studied.

Benchmarking of best practices: an overview of the academic literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 750-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinicius Ferreira de Castro ◽  
Enzo Morosini Frazzon
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pagerank Algorithm ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to overview the academic literature on benchmarking of best practices tracking the most important articles and understanding the similarity between studies. Design/methodology/approach The most relevant articles were identified using techniques such as the PageRank algorithm and co-citation maps. An analysis of the most relevant articles presents the main concepts, methods and updated discussions on this research field. Findings The analysis of academic output substantiates the increase in the production of articles on this research topic. There were identified two main clusters of co-cited articles, one related to data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other that presents a wide variation of methods for benchmarking. There are important critiques towards the past research on benchmarking of best practices, yet, new DEA approaches seem to address most of the criticized issues. Practical implications From time to time, a review of the literature of a certain field of knowledge is useful for other researchers to identify and organize its main theories, new trends, most relevant works, influent authors and important publications. Originality/value This paper delivers two important values: the updated discussion on benchmarking of best practices, clearing both DEA and non-DEA studies; and the methods adopted to systematically review the literature, which is original on this field of research.

The firm as a function of deals

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-332
Author(s):  
Demetri Kantarelis
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Random Variable ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Theoretical Paper ◽  
Verbal Arguments ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt a justification as to why a profit-making firm may be viewed as a function of its nucleus expertise and a risky portfolio of deals. Design/methodology/approach – This is a theoretical paper relying on mathematics, graphs and verbal arguments to describe concepts. Findings – A profit-making firm can gain even more if it reduces the risk of its portfolio of deals. In its effort to reduce such a risk, the firm needs to know each deal’s profit share and be able to estimate each dealing partner’s reliability (a random variable). Research limitations/implications – The proposed hypotheses are not empirically tested, an exercise left to future work. Practical implications – Pragmatically, a profit-making firm may be viewed as a function of its strategic nucleus and its strategic federation. The firm may increase its gains by minimizing deals’ risk through a portfolio of deals diversification. The more the firm considers factors such as mediation, optimal commitments and the like, the more effective and efficient becomes the management of the portfolio of deals. Social implications – As explained through examples and illustrations, viewing the firm as a function of deals benefits the parties in such deals as well as other stakeholders (community, region, nation, etc), e.g. less costly deals contribute to more profit and more growth. Originality/value – A profit-making firm is viewed as an entity that manages a risky portfolio of promisor- and promisee-type deals. The ideas in this paper may be of value to today’s global, knowledge-based, outsourcing/insourcing firms which may find it increasingly difficult to rely on conventional contracts.

Investor relations measurement: an industry survey

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Ragas ◽  
Alexander V. Laskin ◽  
Matthew Brusch
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Share Price ◽  
Investor Relations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
External Assessment ◽  
Program Success ◽  
Measurement And Evaluation ◽  
Relationship Assessment ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – Publicly-held companies collectively allocate tens of millions of dollars each year to investor relations, yet little research has been conducted into how investor relations officers (IROs) try to determine the effectiveness of this investment. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the above issues. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study is based on a survey (n=384) of IROs who are members of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), the world's largest professional investor relations association. Findings – Respondents strongly rebuked using share price as a valid measure of investor relations performance. A factor analysis revealed that IROs use four factors to measure program success (listed in order of stated importance): first, international C-suite assessment; second, relationship assessment; third, outreach assessment; and fourth, external assessment. IROs at large-cap companies place significantly more importance on both C-suite assessment and relationship assessment than their peers at small-caps. Research limitations/implications – These results may not be generalizable to IROs who are non-NIRI members or investor relations consultants. Cross-cultural studies on this topic are needed. Practical implications – The evaluative factors that emerged in this study may be used by IROs to develop and refine their evaluation metrics relative to their peers. Originality/value – This is one of the first and largest studies to specifically examine program measurement and evaluation in the context of investor relations. These findings help set the stage for future work in this area.

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