bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Effect of ownership concentration on capital structure: evidence from the MENA region
Authors: Farooq Omar 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– This paper aims to document how does ownership concentration, a proxy for agency conflicts, affect capital structure of firms in emerging markets. Agency relationship between insiders and outsiders has the potential to influence corporate decision-making which, in turn, impacts firm characteristics such as leverage.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper uses pooled regression analysis to document the effect of ownership concentration on capital structure in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (Morocco, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain), during the period between 2005 and 2009.

Findings
– The authors show that ownership concentration negatively affects capital structure. The results also show that for a given level of ownership concentration, the proportion of debt in capital structure goes up as information asymmetries decrease. Finally, the results show that for a given ownership concentration, it is the growth firms with low information asymmetries that have a higher proportion of debt in capital structure.

Research limitations/implications
– The authors argue that information asymmetries associated with ownership concentration minimize the ability of firms to raise debt, thereby resulting in a negative relationship between ownership concentration and capital structure. Furthermore, reluctance on the part of controlling shareholders to accumulate excess leverage to minimize non-diversifiable risk also negatively influences capital structure.

Originality/value
– Most of the prior studies on the relationship between ownership concentration and capital structure have been conducted in relatively more developed markets. An important market that has failed to attract attention regarding this issue is the MENA. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by documenting the relationship between the two in the MENA region.
A case study of an integrated manufacturing performance measurement and meeting system
Authors: Olivella Jordi , Gregorio Rubén 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is, first, to expose an integrated manufacturing performance measurement and meeting system implemented to focus the organization on value streams and, by doing it, to improve performance, and, second, to analyze the results obtained.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper is based on an exploratory case study carried out at Delphi Diesel Systems (DDS) plant in Sant Cugat (Spain).

Findings
– The integrated manufacturing performance measurement and meeting system implemented by DDS Sant Cugat resulted in being very successful and appropriate to obtain the established objectives: focus the organization on value streams; and, by doing it, to improve performance, particularly the overall equipment effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications
– Considering the limited amount of research on the subject this kind of exploratory research is considered to be appropriate. The main limitation is that a single manufacturing plant was analyzed. Even though the characteristics of the plant and the problems addressed are common and, in consequence, it can be thought that the experience is replicable, further research should be conducted to verify it.

Practical implications
– For the management community, this paper provides a new way of designing and using manufacturing performance measurement systems.

Originality/value
– The presented case confirms previous works stating the importance of how performance measures and meetings are used and the need of involvement of the whole organization. The joint planning of the performance measures and the meeting system that has been presented had not previously been analyzed by the literature.
Organisational ambidexterity within process improvement
Authors: Matthews Rupert L. , Tan Kim Hua , Marzec Peter E. 
Published: April 2015

Purpose– Organisational ambidexterity has emerged as a new research paradigm that is relevant for promoting long-term firm performance however, research within practice-oriented domains has been limited. The purpose of this paper is to explore process improvement through the theoretical lens of organisational ambidexterity to understanding the conflicting aims of variation increasing and decreasing forms of operational process improvement.Design/methodology/approach– Drawing on reviews of both operations and strategic management literature, the paper employs a case study methodology to unpack critical aspects of ambidextrous process improvement across a range of organisational environments.Findings– The research shows that while the companies engaged in qualitatively different forms of improvement, by interpreting practices from an ambidextrous perspective, the complimentary nature of the two forms of improvement could be appreciated. The diversity of firms involved in the research also allowed findings to be considered in relation to a range of operational contexts.Research limitations/implications– The research highlights the relevance of an organisational ambidexterity perspective on operational process improvement, although the selection of companies the research draws from, limits it relevance to non-project-oriented organisations.Practical implications– Provides practitioners with a framework to inform their views and aims when engaging in process improvement activities.Originality/value– This is one of the first articles exploring process improvement from an ambidextrous perspective. This will help re-conceptualise process improvement away from wholly focusing upon quality improvement and variation reducing activities to help account for a more dynamic operating environment.
Green marketing programs as strategic initiatives in hospitality
Authors: Rosenbaum Mark Scott , Wong Ipkin Anthony 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– This paper aims to investigate a guest’s subjective appraisal of a hotel’s green marketing program, or green equity, along with value, brand and relationship equities on guest loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach
– Study 1 presents three models to explicate the role of a luxury hotel’s green initiatives in influencing guest loyalty. By means of structural equation modeling, one model emerges with the best fit. Study 2 examines how tourists assign economic value to a hotel’s green programs.

Findings
– Green equity plays a significant role in customers’ overall assessment of a hotel’s marketing programs; however, the effect is weaker when compared with the other indicators, including a hotel’s value proposition, brand image and loyalty programs. Furthermore, the results reveal that tourists are willing to pay a price premium for a hotel’s green marketing programs.

Research limitations/implications
– The paper links green marketing to the customer equity model and clarifies the impact of green marketing programs on loyalty and profitability. However, the study was conducted among luxury hotel guests and tourists in Macau, a leading gambling destination; thus, these customers might not have been concerned with green marketing initiatives.

Practical implications
– The results show that green initiatives are beneficial as long as managers include these initiatives in their overall strategic marketing programs that also promote firm value propositions, brand images and reputation.

Originality/value
– The paper clarifies the role of green marketing programs in hospitality and shows how hotels can benefit from enhanced guest loyalty and decreased operational expenses by implementing green initiatives.
Social capital’s role in the development of volunteer-led cooperatives
Authors: Richards Adam , Reed John 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to evaluate how social capital is developed in a third sector organisation based in the north-west of England, a small food cooperative run by volunteers. Social capital comprises the bonds, bridges and linkages that hold together societal members, and it can be considered to be a precursor of economic capital.

Design/methodology/approach
– Qualitative data were collected through interviews with key informants, observations and documents. Data were analysed using either a template or a thematic analysis to identify aspects of social capital development.

Findings
– A model of the interactions between and within the three main stakeholder groups involved in the cooperative is presented. This model shows how these interactions can develop social capital, and it discusses how potential deficits in social capital can occur.

Research limitations/implications
– The findings have practical and theoretical implications, in that they may better equip third-sector organisations to understand how social capital is developed.

Originality/value
– This is one of few practical studies of social capital development in a social enterprise and provides valuable insights into the processes by which this is done.
Snow reliability and climate elasticity: case of a Slovak ski resort
Authors: Demiroglu O. Cenk , Kučerová Jana , Ozcelebi Oguzhan 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The aim of this paper is to present the relationship between climate and tourism development data as an example of an emerging winter and ski tourism destination in Slovakia.

Design/methodology/approach
– The method aims to discover the relationship through snow-reliability and regression analyses and to further implicate the consequences of such established relationship under a changing (warming) climate.

Findings
– As a result of the research, the authors can predict that a 1 per cent fall in snow depth and visibility would erode the ski demand by 1.2 and 0.12 per cent, respectively, a 1°C rise of the mean temperature, on the other hand, would indicate a 6 per cent loss of skipass sales. The latter finding translates into a further 6.6 to 19.2 per cent loss of sales on account of the anticipated temperature increases for the twenty-first century. The capacity of the resort for the utmost adaptation strategy, snowmaking, is also to deteriorate with the daytime/fulltime annual good quality production range to reduce from 33/45 days to 10-26/14-34 days, according to the emissions-related warming scenarios and in terms of the commonly available current technology.

Practical implications
– The results of the study can help the management of ski resorts to adopt strategies for the future development by taking into account the predicted climatic changes.

Originality/value
– This study is the first type of study performed in Slovakia and can contribute to the better understanding of the relationship between climate change and the performance of the ski tourism resorts. It also delivers innovation by considering wet-bulb temperature in snow-reliability analyses and also by coining the “climate elasticity” concept.
The tourism led growth hypothesis: the Lebanese case
Authors: Bassil Charbel , Hamadeh Mohamad , Samara Nisrine 
Published: April 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to study the direction of the causality between tourism development and economic growth in Lebanon between 1995 and 2013, after taking into consideration terrorist incidents and their intensities. These are considered as exogenous shocks that affect tourism development and economic growth instantaneously and with a lag.Design/methodology/approach– To reach the objectives, the authors estimate a vector auto regressive model with exogenous variables, applying a series of unit root tests with and without structural breaks and the Granger causality test.Findings– The findings suggest a positive unidirectional causality running from tourism development to economic growth in the short run. Thus, the authors find evidence for the tourism-led growth hypothesis (TLGH) in Lebanon despite the exposure of the country to frequent terrorist incidents. The impulse response functions reveal that tourism development (economic growth) responds positively to a positive shock to economic growth (tourism development).Practical implications– The findings call for Lebanese policy makers aiming at promoting growth to design policies that encourage tourism, such as implementing tourism marketing policies and building the needed tourism infrastructure. Such policies will have positive but transitory effects on economic growth. The findings may also be useful for regional representatives of intergovernmental organizations and the offices of statistics of United Nations World Tourism Organization and the World Bank to better understand the tourism industry in Lebanon and similar countries suffering from instabilities.Originality/value– This paper contributes to the existing literature in three points: despite the importance of the tourism industry to the Lebanese economy, this topic did not receive careful attention in the literature; it takes into consideration the presence of structural breaks and possible nonlinearities in the number of tourist arrivals; and it investigates the TLGH after accounting for instability in the country.
Power and empowerment in community-based tourism: opening Pandora’s box?
Authors: Simons Ilja , de Groot Ellen 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to highlight the different realities blended together in community-based tourism, and how storytelling can help us understand the resulting entanglement of actors and power. This paper combines a discussion of power and empowerment in community-based tourism with storytelling.

Design/methodology/approach
– The fictional narrative of Pandora’s box is used as a metaphor for power and empowerment in community-based tourism, which can leave communities worse off than before the introduction of tourism.

Findings
– However, the last thing remaining in Pandora’s box after all hardships had flown out, was hope. This paper also presents a hopeful perspective for community-based tourism in the form of another metaphor: the rhizome, which puts power and empowerment in a more dynamic and holistic frame. Just like in the original story of Pandora’s “jar” which gave voice to Pandora herself, within a rhizome, other players are regarded as valuable sources of tacit contextual knowledge.

Originality/value
– Storytelling and dialogue are recommended methods to obtain this knowledge. Using a storytelling perspective can encourage untold and unheard stories within a dialogue to be heard.
Intergenerational relationships and food consumption: the stories of young adults leaving home
Authors: Gram Malene , Hogg Margaret , Blichfeldt Bodil Stilling , MacLaran Pauline 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to address the meaning of food consumption practices in maintaining intergenerational relationships between young university students and their parents.

Design/methodology/approach
– Student food consumption has been mainly studied through quantitative methods, treating students as a homogenous group, more or less living in a vacuum, and often with the focus on nutrition. This paper gives voice to young adults to unpack the significance of cooking and food consumption in relation to maintaining or changing family ties. The study is based on 12 qualitative interviews, five focus groups and a workshop, with Danish and international students in Denmark. Theoretically, the study draws on family, consumption and transition research.

Findings
– The authors identify four realms of intergenerational relationships in the context of food. The relationships range from a wish either to maintain the status quo in the relationship, or to change and rethink the relationship, and importantly, the act of maintaining or changing the family relationships may be initiated either by the grown-up child or by the parent. The study concludes that the act of moving away from home is a period of intense (re)construction of food consumption habits and skills, which draw several threads back to the family home, and relationships undergo change in various ways.

Research limitations/implications
– The limitations of this study are that it has been carried out only in a Danish context.

Originality/value
– The contributions of the study are capturing the children’s view of this transition, and providing insights into how apparently mundane consumption can be full of symbolic meaning. The paper will be of interest for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand intergenerational relations and consumption.
Online environments in children’s everyday lives: children’s, parents’ and teachers’ points of view
Authors: Tuukkanen Terhi , Wilska Terhi-Anna 
Published: April 2015

Purpose
– This article aims to explore the role of online environments in children’s everyday life. We examine the meanings that children aged 11-13, parents and teachers derive from their understanding of online environments and make a typology of the perceived opportunities and risks of the online environments for children. The research questions are: how do children, parents and teachers experience the effect of online environments on children’s everyday lives, what opportunities and risks for children are noticed in online environments and what similarities and differences are there in children’s, parents’ and teachers’ point of views in terms of opportunities and risks? The theoretical framework of the study consists of the discussion on opportunities and risks of using online environments.

Design/methodology/approach
– The data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews in Finland in 2012. Altogether, 27 interviews were conducted with children, parents and primary school teachers. The interview data were analysed with content analysis.

Findings
– As a result, we found four types of perceived effects that represent opportunities and risks: learning and socialization, sense of community and empowerment, antisocial behaviour and threat to security. According to this study, children, parents and teachers agree with each other in many issues concerning children’s use of the online environments. On the other hand, children also have issues and problems that parents and teachers may not be aware of, or they do not view them as important.

Originality/value
– This qualitative study focused on how children, parents and teachers described their subjective feelings about the effects of using the online environments. Thus, this study provides a new viewpoint on the research that has mostly relied on querying parents or teachers about children’s use of the Internet, neglecting children’s often different perspectives on the risks of the Internet.
The usefulness of semi‐solid medium in the isolation of highly virulent Leptospira strains from wild rats in an urban area of Fukuoka, Japan
Authors: Saito Mitsumasa , Villanueva Sharon Y. A. M. , Masuzawa Toshiyuki , Haraguchi Yusuke , Ita Shuhei , Miyahara Satoshi , Ozuru Ryo , Yamaguchi Takayoshi , Yoshimura Michinobu , Ikejiri Mami , Aramaki Natsumi , Amran Muhammad Yunus , Muslich Lisa Tenriesa , Iida Ken‐ichiro , Yanagihara Yasutake , Gloriani Nina G. , Yoshida Shin‐ichi 
Published: April 2015

ABSTRACTLeptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis. The importance of urban leptospirosis is recognized in Japan: urban rats carry pathogenic leptospires and people acquire these pathogens through contact with surface water or soil contaminated by the urine of the infected animals. To determine the current Leptospira carriage rate in urban rats, 29 wild rats were trapped in the central area of Fukuoka and strains isolated from their kidneys and urine analyzed. When semi‐solid Korthof's medium containing 0.1% agar was used for isolation, 72.2% and 30.8% of the kidney and urine cultures, respectively, were found to be Leptospira‐positive. The isolates belonged to Leptospira interrogans, and were classified into two groups (serogroups Pomona and Icterohaemorrhagiae) based on the results of gyrB sequence analysis and microscopic agglutination testing (MAT). Strains belonging to serogroup Icterohemorrhagiae grew well in liquid medium. On the other hand, serogroup Pomona isolates multiplied very little in liquid medium, but did grow in a semi‐solid medium. Although strains belonging to serogroup Pomona have not been recognized as native to Japan, this strain may be widely distributed in urban rats. Representative strains from each group were found to be highly pathogenic to hamsters. Our findings should serve as a warning that it is still possible to become infected with leptospires from wild rats living in inner cities of Japan. Furthermore, the use of semi‐solid medium for culture will improve the isolation rate of leptospires from the kidneys of wild rats.
Reducing soil erosion by improving community functional diversity in semi‐arid grasslands
Authors: Zhu Huoxing , Fu Bojie , Wang Shuai , Zhu Linhai , Zhang Liwei , Jiao Lei , Wang Cong 
Published: April 2015

Summary

Great efforts have been made to control soil erosion by restoring plant communities in degraded ecosystems world‐wide. However, soil erosion has not been substantially reduced mainly because current restoration strategies lead to large areas of mono‐specific vegetation, which are inefficient in reducing soil erosion because of their simple canopy and root structure. Therefore, an advanced understanding of how community functional composition affects soil erosion processes, as well as an improved restoration scheme to reduce soil erosion, is urgently needed.

We investigated the effect of community functional composition on soil erosion in restored semi‐arid grasslands on the Loess Plateau of China. Community functional composition of 16 restored grasslands was quantified by community‐weighted mean (CWM) and functional diversity (FD) trait values, which were calculated from nine plant functional traits of thirteen locally dominant plant species. Species richness and evenness were also measured. Soil erosion rates were measured using standard erosion plots. The multimodel inference approach was used to estimate the direction and the relative importance of these biodiversity indices in reducing soil erosion.

A robust and strong negative effect of functional divergence (FDiv) on soil erosion was found. The prevalence of particular trait combinations can also decrease soil erosion. The greatest control over soil erosion was exerted when the community mean root diameter was small and the root tensile strength was great.

Synthesis and applications: These findings imply that community functional diversity plays an important role in reducing soil erosion in semi‐arid restored grasslands. This means that current restoration strategies can be greatly improved by incorporating community functional diversity into restoration design. We propose a trait‐based restoration framework for reducing soil erosion, termed ‘SSM’ (Screening–Simulating–Maintaining). SSM aims to translate the target of community functional diversity into community assemblages that can be manipulated by practitioners. Based on this framework, a comprehensive procedure, highlighting functional diversity as the primary concern in determining optimal community assemblages, was developed to meet the pressing need for more effective restoration strategies to reduce soil erosion.