bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Nonlinear impact of online retail characteristics on customer satisfaction and loyalty
Authors: Tontini Gerson , da Silva Júlio Cesar , Beduschi Eliane Fátima Strapazzon , Zanin Elis Regina Mulinari , Marcon Margarete de Fátima 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to consider the nonlinear impact of online retail stores’ quality dimensions on general customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach
– Using a quantitative approach, 429 online users answered a closed questionnaire regarding their present satisfaction with 26 service attributes, their general satisfaction and loyalty. Using factorial analysis with Varimax rotation, five service-quality dimensions are studied: service accessibility/speed, fault recovery, buying reliability, service and site flexibility and site interaction/feedback. Penalty and reward contrast analysis identifies the Kano model classification of the service-quality dimensions, and the nonlinear impact of these dimensions, and customer satisfaction, on customer loyalty.

Findings
– The results show that there is a nonlinearity between quality dimensions, customer satisfaction and loyalty. The dimension “service accessibility/speed” has a one-dimensional impact on customer satisfaction, but with higher reward impact than penalty impact. “Fault recovery” is a “must-be”, “buying reliability” and “service flexibility” are “attractive” and “site interaction/feedback” is one-dimensional. Besides, the dimension “service accessibility/speed” has also a direct impact on loyalty if achieving above-average performance, thus reinforcing general customer satisfaction.

Originality/value
– Few previous papers explore this nonlinearity in online retail services. So, future studies should lead to a theoretical and practical understanding of managing these services. Understanding this nonlinearity may help companies to better identify what improve or offer to customers.
Service quality and customer satisfaction in liner shipping
Authors: Yuen Kum Fai , Thai Vinh Van 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– This paper aims to identify the dimensions of service quality (SQ) in liner shipping and examine their effects on customer satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach
– The indicators of SQ in liner shipping were identified from reviewing the literature and interviewing six qualified industry practitioners. An online survey was then administered to 183 liner shippers in Singapore. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis were conducted.

Findings
– SQ in liner shipping can be represented by four key quality dimensions. In descending order of their impact on customer satisfaction, they are reliability, speed, responsiveness and value. Service differentiation by time-related attributes results in greater customer satisfaction than practising cost leadership in liner shipping.

Research limitations/implications
– Allocation of resources to develop SQ in liner shipping should mirror the priorities established in this research. In addition, the developed measurement model for SQ can serve as a reference for liner shipping firms to assess the quality of their services.

Originality/value
– A parsimonious and updated set of variables can now be used to represent SQ in the liner shipping sector. The paper also identifies the key drivers of customer satisfaction in liner shipping.
Measuring education for sustainable development
Authors: Tierney Aisling , Tweddell Hannah , Willmore Chris 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore how education for sustainable development (ESD) was measured in the taught curriculum at the University of Bristol (UoB), providing comparison to other methods of measurement and how measurements were used to engage academics in considering the visibility of the penetration of sustainable development into their teaching.

Design/methodology/approach
– The process of designing a quantitative and comparative method of reviewing ESD utilising a reflective process at the UoB is considered, which can be applied by other institutions. The UoB decided on an in-house method of assessment using the Unit and Programme Catalogue, a list of all taught units. Initially this revealed that some information relating to ESD was not clearly articulated. A school ESD review refined the data along with the release of key information set data, a nationally published data set which identifies mandatory, typical and optional diets taken by students on programmes.

Findings
– Text-based methods of assessing ESD penetration into programmes of study have limited use as direct measures of sustainability visibility in programmes, but can be improved by using interpretative methodologies. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies can produce data, which is a useful catalyst for academic reflection. Most importantly, it provides a tool for engagement while also enabling the targeting of resources and support. The UoB has avoided the pitfalls of manipulatable text count methods, and shown that comparative methods can be combined effectively with real engagement with academics and students for a measurement method that showcases good practice.

Originality/value
– Increasingly, universities and the higher education sector more widely are looking to embed ESD. To assess progress, systems of measurement and monitoring are required. This case study shares a replicable methodology combining quantitative and qualitative methods developed at the UoB which has been used by academics as a reflective tool to change their practice.
Gaps in sustainability education
Authors: Fisher P. Brian , McAdams Erin 
Published: June 2015

Purpose– This paper aims to examine how both the amount and type of coursework impact students’ conceptualizations of sustainability. Previous research demonstrates that academic coursework influences students’ environmental attitudes, yet few studies have examined the impact of coursework on how students conceptualize “sustainability”.Design/methodology/approach– Data are examined from the 2011 Sustainability Survey, which yielded a sample of 552 students at a medium-sized university in the southeastern USA. A series of four linear regression models estimate the impact of academic coursework on students’ conceptualizations of sustainability (ecosystems/nature, eco-efficiency, community/well-being and systemic change/innovation).Findings– The results indicate that the type of course that students take significantly impacts the way in which students conceptualize this term; the number of courses taken has no statistically significant impact. This suggests that mere exposure to a particular theme in a class, rather than continued exposure to courses related to sustainability, is more important in shaping students’ perceptions.Originality/value– This study expands on previous research by examining the influence of the number and type of academic coursework on students’ conceptions of sustainability and provides a framework for understanding the varied ways in which sustainability is defined. This has important implications for how students approach ways to achieve a sustainable future. The results suggest that students may be exposed to particular messages within an academic division that encourage students to emphasize particular elements of sustainability. While not problematic on its face, the data demonstrate that students lack an integrated or holistic understanding of sustainability. They usually view sustainability through the same prism as the academic division where their coursework was located, and this has implications for students’ continued perceptions of sustainability, academic programming of sustainability and the practice of it.
Fraud awareness survey of private sector in Indonesia
Authors: Siregar Sylvia Veronica , Tenoyo Bayu 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– The purpose this study is to investigate the level of fraud awareness of the private sector in Indonesia, as well as steps that have been taken by corporations to detect or prevent fraud.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper presents a descriptive survey. In total, 67 respondents returned the questionnaires, which can be considered suitable for a descriptive survey. Some descriptive (included percentages, means) and inferential statistics (mean differences test) are used to summarize and analyze the questionnaire results.

Findings
– It was found that majority of respondents agree that fraud is a major concern for businesses in Indonesia and that corporations have enough level of fraud awareness. Poor internal control and lack of ethical values are ranked as the most likely reasons why entities are being threatened by fraud, and a sound ethical policy and code of conduct is perceived as the most important fraud risk management process. Corporations have implemented several tools to detect or prevent fraud, such as internal audit and internal control. They also have a system in place for anonymous reporting of suspicions of fraud, corruption or misconduct.

Originality/value
– Private sector fraud awareness in emerging countries, especially in Indonesia, is still rarely examined in extant literature.
The global anti-bribery collaboration in evolution
Authors: Liu Lianlian 
Published: June 2015

Purpose– The purposes of this paper are to organize historical, solved questions and recent, unsolved questions in a coherent, progressive way; explore the key question to be answered under this systematic framework; and reflect on an alternative analytical perspective to the current “problem-solving-oriented” approach. Transnational bribery regulation, with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention as the central governing legal instrument, is on the top agenda of international governance. However, its complex nature makes theoretical viewpoints on this topic rather fragmented. This fragmentation is used to help understand the wisdom of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) approach in the early years. However, as the FCPA approach was internationalized and evolves to its current phase, in which individual inquiries become path-dependent and interdependent, the fragmentation causes more confusion than makes contribution.Design/methodology/approach– Sections 2 and 3 retrospect the historical trajectory of academic research on the global regulation of transnational bribery, systemizes relevant theoretical insights and illustrates how people’s understandings of the wisdom of the FCPA approach in early years affect their evaluations of the effect of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in the contemporary era. Given that, at present, the most popular viewpoint is that the Convention is “ineffective”, Section 4 systemizes the diverse causal attributions of the “problem” in current academic literature, sorts out the roots causes and points out the key question for the next step forward under the version of the “problem-solving-oriented” analysis. Section 5 has a reflection on the inherent limitation of a “problem-solving-oriented” approach for our understanding of the effects of the Convention.Findings– Under the version of a “problem-solving-oriented” approach, the key question to be solved is how to establish a mechanism to cope with the surreptitious nature of transnational bribery and the self-sacrificed nature of the FCPA-style approach simultaneously. The popular “problem-solving-oriented” approach has an inherent limitation to create new knowledge on the multilateral anti-bribery collaboration. A reality-based, historical analytical perspective is a good alternative to it.Originality/value– The paper presents a personal, original organization of the conventional theoretical insights to the operation of the global anti-bribery collaboration and the underlying logics of these viewpoints. The paper also presents the author’s personal analysis of the “technical omission” and “inherent limitation” of a problem-solving-oriented approach to analyze the performance of the global anti-bribery collaboration, and the power of a historical analytical perspective as an alternative.
Dynamic credit scoring using B
&
B with incremental-SVM-ensemble
Authors: Sun Jie , Li Hui , Chang Pei-Chann , Huang Qing-Hua 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– Previous researches on credit scoring mainly focussed on static modeling on panel sample data set in a certain period of time, and did not pay enough attention on dynamic incremental modeling. The purpose of this paper is to address the integration of branch and bound algorithm with incremental support vector machine (SVM) ensemble to make dynamic modeling of credit scoring.

Design/methodology/approach
– This new model hybridizes support vectors of old data with incremental financial data of corporate in the process of dynamic ensemble modeling based on bagged SVM. In the incremental stage, multiple base SVM models are dynamically adjusted according to bagged new updated information for credit scoring. These updated base models are further combined to generate a dynamic credit scoring. In the empirical experiment, the new method was compared with the traditional model of non-incremental SVM ensemble for credit scoring.

Findings
– The results show that the new model is able to continuously and dynamically adjust credit scoring according to corporate incremental information, which helps produce better evaluation ability than the traditional model.

Originality/value
– This research pioneered on dynamic modeling for credit scoring with incremental SVM ensemble. As time pasts, new incremental samples will be combined with support vectors of old samples to construct SVM ensemble credit scoring model. The incremental model will continuously adjust itself to keep good evaluation performance.
Price forecast valuation for the NYISO electricity market
Authors: Kalczynski Pawel , Zerom Dawit 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– Following the deregulation of electricity markets in the USA, independent power producers operate as for-profit entities. Their profit depends on the price of electricity and an accurate forecast is critical in making bidding decisions on the electricity and reserve markets or engaging in bilateral contracts. Competing price forecasts have their accuracy expressed in statistical terms but producers need to determine the long-term value of using a given forecast. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by presenting a method of electricity price forecast valuation which compares forecast models using financial rather than statistical measures.

Design/methodology/approach
– The objectives of this paper are achieved by mathematical modeling of thermal power plants and price forecast information available to market participants and simulating the operation of a thermal power plant using various price forecasts and perfect information (as a baseline). The operating profit calculated over a long period was used for ranking forecast models.

Findings
– The framework can be used to estimate the value of a new price forecast as well as to determine if potential gains from developing or acquiring a new forecast will justify the expenses. The results show that an improvement in terms of statistical forecast accuracy measures does not guarantee increased profit.

Practical implications
– This paper presents a new method for comparing electricity price forecast models. It can be adapted to various types of thermal power plants that operate on liberalized electricity markets and utilize price-based dynamic economic dispatch models.

Originality/value
– This paper presents a simulation-based valuation framework for short-term electricity price. The approach described in this paper can be utilized by independent power producers for different types of generators, operating on deregulated electricity markets.
Adaptive combination forecasting model for China’s logistics freight volume based on an improved PSO-BP neural network
Authors: Cheng Zhou , Juncheng Tao 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– To accurately forecast logistics freight volume plays a vital part in rational planning formulation for a country. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to developing a novel combination forecasting model to predict China’s logistics freight volume, in which an improved PSO-BP neural network is proposed to determine the combination weights.

Design/methodology/approach
– Since BP neural network has the ability of learning, storing, and recalling information that given by individual forecasting models, it is effective in determining the combination weights of combination forecasting model. First, an improved PSO based on simulated annealing method and space-time adjustment strategy (SAPSO) is proposed to solve out the connection weights of BP neural network, which overcomes the problems of local optimum traps, low precision and poor convergence during BP neural network training process. Then, a novel combination forecast model based on SAPSO-BP neural network is established.

Findings
– Simulation tests prove that the proposed SAPSO has better convergence performance and more stability. At the same time, combination forecasting models based on three types of BP neural networks are developed, which rank as SAPSO-BP, PSO-BP and BP in accordance with mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and convergent speed. Also the proposed combination model based on SAPSO-BP shows its superiority, compared with some other combination weight assignment methods.

Originality/value
– SAPSO-BP neural network is an original contribution to the combination weight assignment methods of combination forecasting model, which has better convergence performance and more stability.
A managerial application of system dynamics modeling to outsourcing
Authors: Ojugbele Hammed , Bodhanya Shamim 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to use modeling and simulation to investigate the puzzling performance problems that plagued the project outsourcing in term of poor quality and delivery delay, and apply the appeal and power of system dynamics modeling as a managerial approach to improve learning and intervention in complex situations to South African context where little or no such attempt had been made.

Design/methodology/approach
– This work is based on exploratory use of system dynamics modeling to study a web of quality and productivity problems that plagued a company as a result of adopting outsourcing as a policy to bolster productivity and service delivery.

Findings
– A significant finding from this research is that outsourcing has the propensity to perpetuate any trend it dominantly generates as a result of strong positive feedback loops. It also made explicit the dynamic processes that lead to certain observations that have been made in conventional management literature about the effects of outsourcing.

Research limitations/implications
– The major limitation to this study is availability of information in form of certain operating data need for calibration thus imposing few aggregations on the model.

Originality/value
– The authors believe that this work has a degree of originality as it applies system dynamics modeling to public sector outsourcing which not being done before. It also made a significant finding by uncovering possible counteractive effect of outsourcing on internal staff.
A fuzzy MCDM algorithm and practical decision aid tool to determine the best ROV design alternative
Authors: Ülker Birol 
Published: June 2015

Purpose
– Proposing a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) algorithm that is able to incorporate the heterogeneousness effect of DM group into the decision process, in order to determine the best remotely operated vehicle (ROV) design alternative to manufacture and developing a practical decision aid tool based on this algorithm. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– An algorithm utilizes fuzzy AHP Buckley’s approach for modeling heterogeneousness of the DM group, fuzzy AHP Chang’s extent analysis to calculate the priority values of criteria and Chen’s fuzzy TOPSIS for ranking the alternatives and finally group working technique for initiation issues is developed. MATLAB is used to implement the algorithm and generate a decision aid tool. Real life application and sensitivity analysis is performed by the help of generated tool. Literature and background explanations are also provided.

Findings
– A MCDM algorithm that incorporates the heterogeneousness effect of the DM group into the decision process is introduced. Sensitivity analysis suggested the independence of the final result from DM group and criteria set. A practical decision aid tool is generated for ROV manufacturing companies.

Practical implications
– A computerized MCDM aid tool that incorporates heterogeneousness of the DM group into the decision process is generated. Tool let ROV manufacturing companies to evaluate ROV design alternatives with respect to qualitative and quantitative criteria and determine proper choice.

Originality/value
– Determination of the proper ROV design alternative to manufacture gap within the literature filled with an algorithm that provides more reliable results due to its incorporation the heterogeneousness of the DM group into the decision process characteristic. A practical decision aid tool is generated.
Analysis on evolving model with modular growth of urban roadway network topology structure
Authors: Zou Zhiyun , Liu Peng , Zhou Saisai , Xiao Yao , Xu Xuecai , Gao Jianzhi 
Published: June 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolving mechanism of urban roadway network. With the consideration of self-organization effect and planning effect during evolution, the authors try to demonstrate the impact of preferential attachment, module scale and module structure on the evolving network model.Design/methodology/approach– The roadway network is built in the form of abstract network by dual approach. By using the evolving model of modular growth, the authors analyze the effects and mechanism of the evolving process. Then through numerical analysis, the impact of evolving effects on urban roadway network topology structure is discussed from the aspects of preferential attachment, module scale and module structure.Findings– The module structure property, small-world property and scale-free property of roadway network can be affected with various degrees by the change of preferential attachment and module scale. However, the impact of module structure on network properties is small, which can be ignored. Therefore, in practice, the self-organization effect and planning effect of evolving network can be reached by changing the preferential attachment and module scale, so as to generate the network structure with specific properties.Research limitations/implications– Some local events, such as road extensions, road demolition and intersection rebuilding, exist during the evolving process under real-world situation. While those cases have not been considered in preferential attachment. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to take these factors into consideration in further research.Practical implications– The paper has implications for practice in urban transportation planning and roadway constructions, which can help to guide the planning of urban roadway and to adjust or restore partial network when broken down according to the evolving law.Originality/value– The impact of preferential attachment, module scale and module structure on the evolving network model is measured. And the relationship between different network properties can be used to build some patterns of network. From this point of view, the development of urban roadway network can be predicted and intervened.