bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Conceptual Framework for a Sustainable Halal SPA Business in the Gulf of Thailand
Authors: Chanin Oraphan 
Published: August 2020

This article aims to provide discussions on the sustainable halal spa business in the Gulf of Thailand by providing the framework indicating the factors affecting the service business offered to the Moslem tourists. The article highlights the high potential of halal spa business, although it may have a negative connotation for Moslem tourists, by providing for the needs of Moslem tourists in the Gulf of Thailand and the services offered by a number of spa operation that claim to be halal spa business. The article discusses and provides the theoretical concept and practices by highlighting the potential factors affecting those halal spa businesses, from the perspective Thailand spa operators. Focusing on the internal and external elements, the factors affecting the service of halal spa businesses in the Gulf of Thailand for Moslem tourists are presented within the common components of product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. It is suggested that the potential for halal spa business in the Gulf of Thailand is high and the information provided can improve the promotion and sustainability of the halal spa business model in enhancing the tourism sector in Thailand. Keywords: Sustainability, Halal spa business, Moslem tourist, Gulf of Thailand.
THE ROLES OF PERCEIVED RISKS AND PRICE ON THE PURCHASE INTENTION OF CHINA-MADE HOME APPLIANCES AMONG CAREER WOMEN IN MALAYSIA
Authors: Hashim Noor Azmi , Husin Zolkafli , Lebai Othman Ismail , Md Zain Ali Yusob 
Published: August 2020

The purpose of this research paper is to report on the purchase intention of China-made home appliances among career women in Malaysia. The purchase intention is hypothesised to be influenced by the price and preference of today’s career women who are indifferent to the product’s country of origin and brand. Data were collected by random sampling from 430 career women in selected states in Malaysia in 2016 and were used to test the hypotheses. Survey questionnaires were used to collect the data by utilising a self-administrated method. The relationships between price, perceived risks, attitude toward brand, and purchase intention were tested in this study. The results showed that price is the main factor being considered by the career women in Malaysia when they decide to purchase China-made home appliances. This study implied that marketers need to capitalise on pricing strategy in order to market their home appliances among career women. Keywords: China-made, Purchase intention, Perceived risk, Attitude towards brand, Malaysia.
AN APPLICATION OF ‘BUILDING BLOCKS OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE’ APPROACH TO THE U.S. CEREAL MARKET LEADERS
Authors: Kang Hyungu 
Published: August 2020

In the strategic management field, the study of building and sustaining competitive advantage for businesses has been one of the most important research areas. Although there are various attempts to explain the processes of building and sustaining competitive advantage, it has continued to be a poorly defined and operationalized construct. This paper focuses on the application of a strategic analytical approach, “Building Blocks of Competitive Advantages”, to analyze and compare the sources of competitive advantage for two market leaders in the U.S. breakfast cereal industry, Kellogg’s and General Mills. Various literature were reviewed in order to gain an understanding of the industry, and the roles played by these companies. As expected, Kellogg’s and General Mills have similar sources of competitive advantage, however, these companies have shown different ways of developing competitive advantage. This study was carried out in an attempt to stimulate efforts and provide direction on the conceptual development of the sources for competitive advantage. Keywords: Building blocks of competitive advantage, Sources of competitive advantage, Internal strengths and weaknesses, U.S. Breakfast Cereal Market, Kellogg’s, General Mills.
THE EFFECTS OF EMOTIONAL REGULATION AND POLITICAL PERCEPTION ON JOB SATISFACTION: AN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH STUDY IN THE TURKISH HEALTH SECTOR
Authors: Mengenci Cengiz , Gokce Sinem Guravsar , Arslan Vakkas , Emhan Abdurrahim 
Published: August 2020

This study aims to find out the relationship between emotion regulation, political perception and job satisfaction by using the Structural Equation Model and to examine whether demographic factors have an effect on this relationship. To test the model, other than the demographic variables, a 19-question scale was applied to 699 employees in the health sector in Diyarbakır, which is located in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. To analyze the collected data, Structural Equation Modeling method was used with the aid of AMOS 18.0 software. A positive linear relationship between emotion regulation and job satisfaction and a negative relationship between political perception and job satisfaction were determined. Besides these two latent variables, emotion regulation and political perception; it was found that age, sector and title contributed to explain variances in the job satisfaction variable which was at 34%. Additionally, some differences in terms of demographic variables were found. The job satisfaction of employees working in private hospitals was higher than those working in public hospitals; the emotion regulation ability of employees working in public hospitals was higher than those working in private hospitals; the emotion regulation ability of employees between the age 41 and 50 was higher than those who were younger; the emotion regulation ability of employees who had undergraduate degrees was higher than those who had graduate degrees. Keywords: emotion regulation, political perception, job satisfaction, structural equation model, health sector.
A STUDY OF STRATEGIC GROUP BASED ON MAIN MELODY ANALYSIS – APPLICATION ON AN INDUSTRY IN CHINA
Authors: Zhao Xinan , Kim Jongho 
Published: August 2020

At present, the tremendous change in the industrial environment affects both enterprise and industry, while the core values of strategic management are also being transformed into innovation, collaboration and common development in line with the idea of sustainable development. In this paper, a method of studying strategic group was proposed on the basis of current thinking about the relationship between enterprises in industry and corporate strategic behavior and subsequently its application was illustrated in the performance data of 41 listed companies in an industry in China in 2012–2016. The main melody analysis based on synergy and Jingyou theory was used to classify and analyze the strategic groups in industry. Results obtained from this study such as the distributive features of strategic groups in industry, the main developing mode of industry, the main strategic group, the benchmark and synergistic partner will be of significance in the development of strategic group theory and the practice of modern strategic management. Keywords: Jingyou, main melody analysis, organizational values, strategic group, synergy.
DOES THE NEED FOR COGNITION, NEED FOR AFFECT AND PERCEIVED HUMOUR INFLUENCE CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ADVERTISED BRANDS?
Authors: Omar Zaki Hafizah , Kamarulzaman Yusniza , Mohtar Mozard 
Published: August 2020

Cognition has long been known as a mechanism to process message besides forming desirable attitude. However, the engagement of emotions that has been limited in its discussions to the message processing theory such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) could also function as influencer to message processing and contributor to attitude formation. Hence, the purpose of this research is to examine the effects of need for cognition (NFC), need for affect (NFA) and perceived humour on consumers’ attitude towards the brands advertised. The research engaged three main studies and has adopted a quantitative basic experimental design with a random selection and distribution of participants into treatment groups. Result of study 1 showed that advertising attitude mediates between NFC and brand attitude. Study 2 found that NFA moderates between NFC and brand attitude. Study 3 revealed that NFA moderates between perceived humour and brand attitude. Finally, the results also determined that NFC, NFA, and perceived humour influence the processing of advertising message in the low and high involvement conditions of message elaborations. The findings encourage future researchers to further assess consumers’ attitude towards brand in various advertising contexts in more detail. The study contributes to the advertising guidelines for advertising firms and policy makers. In addition, the study contributes to the theoretical establishment of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) that can be used for future research extension. Keywords: Brand attitude, involvement, need for cognition, need for affect, perceived humour.
SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION AND SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE: THE ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING AS A MEDIATOR
Authors: Mat Isa Rosmah , Mohammad Al Dweiri Mohammad Ahmed 
Published: August 2020

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of knowledge sharing in the relationship between supply chain integration and supply chain performance. This study used a survey questionnaire for a sample size of 277 managers from various sectors in the manufacturing industry in Jordan. This study utilised PLS Structural Equation Modeling for testing the hypothesis. The finding indicates a significant positive relationship between supply chain integration and supply chain performance and that knowledge sharing plays partial mediation in this relationship. This study provides an important implication on the role of knowledge sharing. The performance of the supply chain can be maximised if the supply chain partners share knowledge among them. This will expedite the process of delivering the products to the customers. Awareness among partners on the importance to share and utilise knowledge better should be raised. The study contributes to the research on supply chain management by advancing the understanding of the role of knowledge sharing that can increase the performance of the supply chain partners. Keywords: Supply chain integration, supply chain management, knowledge sharing, supply chain performance, supplier integration.
MOTIVASI PEMBELAJARAN SEBAGAI PEMBOLEH UBAH PENGANTARA DALAM PERHUBUNGAN ANTARA BIMBINGAN PENYELIA DENGAN MOTIVASI KERJA (Learning Motivation as a Mediating Variable in the Relationship between Supervisory Guidance and Job Motivation)
Authors: Mohamad Nur Izzaty , Ismail Azman , Mohd Shariff Mohd Nor 
Published: August 2020

Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk menilai perhubungan antara bimbingan penyelia, motivasi pembelajaran dan motivasi kerja. Borang soal selidik telah digunakan untuk mengumpul data daripada pekerja di Agensi-agensi Pusat Kerajaan Persekutuan Malaysia, Putrajaya. Perisian SmartPLS telah digunakan untuk menilai kualiti data borang soal selidik dan menguji hipotesis-hipotesis kajian. Keputusan analisis model laluan SmartPLS menunjukkan bahawa kesan bimbingan penyelia terhadap motivasi kerja dipengaruhi secara tidak langsung oleh motivasi pembelajaran. Dapatan kajian ini menerangkan bahawa keupayaan penyelia mengamalkan bimbingan secara teratur dalam melaksanakan operasi kerja harian dapat membangkitkan motivasi pembelajaran dalam diri pekerja. Natijahnya, motivasi ini boleh pula mendorong mereka meningkatkan motivasi kerja. Dapatan kajian ini boleh digunakan sebagai panduan oleh pengamal untuk memahami kerumitan konsep motivasi pembelajaran dan merangka pelan tindakan strategi untuk meningkatkan kemahiran kejurulatihan kepimpinan bagi mencapai dan mengekalkan matlamat dan strategi organisasi dalam era globalisasi dan ekonomi berasaskan pengetahuan. Kata Kunci: Bimbingan penyelia, motivasi pembelajaran, motivasi kerja, SmartPLS. Abstract The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between supervisors’ coach, learning motivation and job motivation. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data from employees at Malaysian Federal Government Central Agencies, Putrajaya. The SmartPLS was utilised to evaluate the quality of survey questionnaire data and hence test the research hypotheses. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model analysis display that effect of supervisors’ coach on job motivation has indirectly been affected by learning motivation. This outcome explains that the ability of supervisors to appropriately implement coaching in executing daily job operations had strongly invoked employees’ learning motivation. As a result, this motivation could lead to a higher job motivation. Further, this outcome may be used as a useful guideline to assist practitioners in upgrading their understanding of the complexity of learning motivation concept and draw strategic action plans to strengthen managerial coaching in maintaining and enhancing the organisational strategies and objectives in an era of globalisation and knowledge based economy. Keywords: Supervisors’ coach, learning motivation, work motivation, SmartPLS.
AN OBJECT PROPERTIES FILTER FOR MULTI-MODALITY ONTOLOGY SEMANTIC IMAGE RETRIEVAL
Authors: Sulaiman Mohd Suffian , Nordin Sharifalillah , Jamil Nursuriati 
Published: August 2020

Ontology is a semantic technology that provides the possible approach to bridge the issue on semantic gap in image retrieval between low-level visual features and high-level human semantic. The semantic gap occurs when there is a discrepancy between the information that is extracted from visual data and the text description. In other words, there is a difference between the computational representation in machine and human natural language. In this paper, an ontology has been utilized to reduce the semantic gap by developing a multi-modality ontology image retrieval with the enhancement of a retrieval mechanism by using the object properties filter. To achieve this, a multi-modality ontology semantic image framework was proposed, comprising of four main components which were resource identification, information extraction, knowledge-based construction and retrieval mechanism. A new approach, namely object properties filter is proposed by customizing the semantic image retrieval algorithm and the graphical user interface to facilitate the user to engage with the machine i.e. computers, in order to enhance the retrieval performance. The experiment results showed that the proposed approach delivered better results compared to the approach that did not use the object properties filter based on probability precision measurement.
iFREEPHONY: MINIMALISTIC INTERFACE DEVELOPED FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED AND THE ELDERLY COMMUNITY IN BANGLADESH
Authors: Ahmed Nova , Nahar Fajilatun , Haque A.M. Masudul 
Published: August 2020

Touchscreen-based phones can be challenging for people with visual impairment. These phones require special features to cater to their needs when it comes to a developing country’s perspective like Bangladesh. The interface needs to remain simple as well as it must support the required functionalities. It is often observed that touchscreen phones are not desirable for the user community in Bangladesh as it offers a complex set of functions. We have considered visually impaired personnel in terms of physical limitations and the community who falls in the older age limit as our target community. Our user study has confirmed that the visually impaired user community here asks for a simple and functional interface. We have designed, developed, and deployed a simple system ifreePhony that captures the minimalistic features. We have considered both the elderly and the visually impaired community in our user studies. It shows around 36% reduction in search time and around 57% increase in text typing compared to a traditional phone.
A NEW APPROACH TO HIGHWAY LANE DETECTION BY USING HOUGH TRANSFORM TECHNIQUE
Authors: Aminuddin Nur Shazwani , Mat Ibrahim Masrullizam , Mohd Ali Nursabillilah , Ahmad Radzi Syafeeza , Mohd Saad Wira Hidayat , Darsono Abdul Majid 
Published: August 2020

This paper presents the development of a road lane detection algorithm using image processing techniques. This algorithm is developed based on dynamic videos, which are recorded using on-board cameras installed in vehicles for Malaysian highway conditions. The recorded videos are dynamic scenes of the background and the foreground, in which the detection of the objects, presence on the road area such as vehicles and road signs are more challenging caused by interference from background elements such as buildings, trees, road dividers and other related elements or objects. Thus, this algorithm aims to detect the road lanes for three significant parameter operations; vanishing point detection, road width measurements, and Region of Interest (ROI) of the road area, for detection purposes. The techniques used in the algorithm are image enhancement and edges extraction by Sobel filter, and the main technique for lane detection is a Hough Transform. The performance of the algorithm is tested and validated by using three videos of highway scenes in Malaysia with normal weather conditions, raining and a night-time scene, and an additional scene of a sunny rural road area. The video frame rate is 30fps with dimensions of 720p (1280x720) HD pixels. In the final achievement analysis, the test result shows a true positive rate, a TP lane detection average rate of 0.925 and the capability to be used in the final application implementation.
INTELLIGENT RESPONSIVE INDOOR SYSTEM (IRIS): A POTENTIAL SHOPLIFTER SECURITY ALERT SYSTEM
Authors: Mohd Zahari Mohamad Kuzahier , Zaaba Zarul Fitri 
Published: August 2020

Shoplifting can occur at any time and any place. From the big mall to a small shop, many security measures have been put in place as prevention tools. Apparently, there are numbers of shoplifting prevention tools in the market such as the Closedcircuit Television (CCTV), Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) and Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST). However, the cost issues and the ease of use always become the main concerns for the shopkeepers. Therefore CCTV was widely accepted because of the ease and affordable price. Although the CCTV is their main preference, it can be noted that CCTV operates in a static way where it can only records and monitor the incidents. This paper highlights the conventional CCTV issues and proposes the Intelligent Responsive Indoor System (IRiS) the as security crime prevention tool that uses face detection, recognition and behavior analysis to detect potential shoplifting intentions. Six small shop owners were interviewed to understand their insights on the problems and the need to further enhance the current CCTV. In addition, detailed discussions were provided in relation to the development of IRiS. Therefore, it can be suggested that IRiS provides a significant foundation and promises to be a security prevention tool to improve the conventional functions of the CCTV.
NEURAL NETWORK TRAINING USING HYBRID PARTICLEMOVE ARTIFICIAL BEE COLONY ALGORITHM FOR PATTERN CLASSIFICATION
Authors: Mahmood Al Nuaimi Zakaria Noor Aldeen , Abdullah Rosni 
Published: August 2020

The Artificial Neural Networks Training (ANNT) process is an optimization problem of the weight set which has inspired researchers for a long time. By optimizing the training of the neural networks using optimal weight set, better results can be obtained by the neural networks. Traditional neural networks algorithms such as Back Propagation (BP) were used for ANNT, but they have some drawbacks such as computational complexity and getting trapped in the local minima. Therefore, evolutionary algorithms like the Swarm Intelligence (SI) algorithms have been employed in ANNT to overcome such issues. Artificial Bees Colony (ABC) optimization algorithm is one of the competitive algorithms in the SI algorithms group. However, hybrid algorithms are also a fundamental concern in the optimization field, which aim to cumulate the advantages of different algorithms into one algorithm. In this work, we aimed to highlight the performance of the Hybrid Particle-move Artificial Bee Colony (HPABC) algorithm by applying it on the ANNT application. The performance of the HPABC algorithm was investigated on four benchmark pattern-classification datasets and the results were compared with other algorithms. The results obtained illustrate that HPABC algorithm can efficiently be used for ANNT. HPABC outperformed the original ABC and PSO as well as other state-of-art and hybrid algorithms in terms of time, function evaluation number and recognition accuracy.
TOWARDS A MATHEMATICAL LIBRARY FOR UNUMs, AN ALTERNATIVE TO IEEE 754 FLOATING POINT NUMBERS
Authors: Risse Thomas 
Published: August 2020

The 1985 IEEE 754 standard for the representation of and the arithmetic with floating point numbers has been reconsidered. On the one hand today, its technological assumptions are by no means longer valid. On the other hand, the irritating numerical phenomena which have been collected cast a doubt as to whether this much uncertainty in numerical results is fate. Fortunately, around 2015, Gustafson proposed UNUMs, a modification of the IEEE 754 standard with the potential to heal the said shortcomings. Till now, there are some attempts to implement his ideas, both in software and in hardware. With these activities well under way, the other necessity is development of a mathematical library for UNUMs when one wants UNUMs to become the new floating point standard. This paper presented the ideas leading to UNUMs, gave some hints on floating point units for UNUMs and illustrated the difficulties in developing the said mathematical library by the example of approximating zeroes of analytic functions.
IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS OF CUCKOO SEARCH FOR THE BENCHMARK ROSENBROCK AND LEVY TEST FUNCTIONS
Authors: Odili Julius Beneoluchi 
Published: August 2020

This paper presents the implementation analysis of the benchmark Rosenbrock and Levy test functions using the Cuckoo Search with emphasis on the effect of the search population and iterations count in the algorithm’s search processes. After many experimental procedures, this study revealed that deploying a population of 10 nests is sufficient to obtain acceptable solutions to the Rosenbrock and Levy test functions (or any similar problem to these test landscapes). In fact, increasing the search population to 25 or more nests was a demerit to the Cuckoo Search as it resulted in increased processing overhead without any improvement in processing outcomes. In terms of the iteration count, it was discovered that the Cuckoo Search could obtain satisfactory results in as little as 100 iterations. The outcome of this study is beneficial to the research community as it helps in facilitating the choice of parameters whenever one is confronted with similar problems.