bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Failure investigation of an underground low voltage XLPE insulated cable
Authors: Ul-Hamid Anwar , Soufi Khaled Y. , Al-Hadhrami Luai M. , Shemsi Ahsan M. 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– This paper aims to determine the effect of exposure of underground electrical cables to chemically contaminated water.

Design/methodology/approach
– Visual inspection and photography were carried out to record the appearance of electrical cables. Failed and un-failed cable samples were collected and analyzed using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Sand and water samples were chemically tested for contaminants.

Findings
– Underground low-voltage 0.6/1-kV cross-linked polyethene insulated cables belonging to a chemical production plant suffered failure after four years of service. Excavation of the cable trench revealed that the cables were buried in sand polluted with chemically contaminated water. The cables were discolored and covered with corrosion deposits. Experimental results indicated that the cable insulation was heavily degraded and the outer jacket of polyvinyl chloride exhibited cracks that had penetrated through its thickness. Water and sand surrounding the cable were found to have high concentrations of ammonia. Mechanical testing of the cables indicated high values of stiffness that could contribute to the formation of cracks at the surface.

Practical implications
– It was concluded that contamination in the water had degraded the cable, resulting in the development of a network of branched cracks within the cable insulation through which water could permeate, leading to eventual failure of the cable. Accelerated degradation took place due to exposure to the contaminated environment, which promoted aging and brittleness. Continued exposure of electric cables to contamination would lead to power failures and plant shutdowns.

Originality/value
– This paper provides an account of a failure investigation of low-voltage electrical cable buried underground. It discusses the role of contaminated environment in the eventual failure of electrical cable due to corrosion. This information will be useful for plant engineers and project managers working in any industry that makes use of chemicals.
Revisiting the construction project failure factors in Vietnam
Authors: Nguyen Tan Phat , Chileshe Nicholas 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The Vietnam construction industry has considerably developed since 1986 as a result of “Doi Moi” or all-round renovation process. However, despite the pace of economic reforms, a number of challenges continue to plague the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the factors causing construction project failure in Vietnam. Some of the selected best practices from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa (CIVETS) are discussed.Design/methodology/approach– Using a mixed method approach, data were collected from construction stakeholders in Vietnam using a postal survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data were subjected to descriptive statistics using ranking and frequencies analysis, and qualitative data employed content analysis.Findings– Despite the lack of systematic approach to managing projects risks, there is a high level of acknowledgement regarding the importance of risk management practices. The highly ranked critical factors still causing construction project failure in Vietnam are: disregard of the significance of project planning process and project planning; lack of experience in executing complicated project; poor design capacity and frequent design changes; lack of knowledge and ability in managing construction projects; lack of financial capacity of owner; poor performance of contractors; lack of a systematic approach to managing the project and entire organisation; corruption and bribery in construction projects; the delays in payment; and economic volatility and high inflation.Practical implications– The identified and revisited project failure factors could be used as a “road map” for the revaluation, and development of appropriate project management practices.Originality/value– The construction sector has undergone through significant structural changes following “Doi Moi”. This study provides the opportunity to realign the strategies for addressing project failure factors and learning from comparative studies in BRICS and CIVETS countries.
Comparative analysis of back-to-back subcontracts in the construction and telecommunications industries
Authors: Nielsen Lars-Henrik Kvist , Akanmu Abiola , Anumba Chimay J. 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– “Back-to-back” contracts are widely used in the engineering and construction industry and are recently spreading into the telecommunication industry. In back-to-back contracts, the principals require the main contractors to assume majority of the liability in delivering a project and in turn, the main contractors try to allocate most of that liability to their subcontractors. The successful delivery of the projects hinges on how the contracts are drafted and risks are allocated between the parties involved. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a comparative analysis of “back-to-back” subcontracts in the telecommunication and construction industries.

Design/methodology/approach
– By examining contracting practices and texts from contract documents for the telecommunication and construction industries, this paper reveals how certain aspects of “back-to-back” contracts lose their meaning when seen out of context. Using comparative research method, this paper discusses reasons why the adoption of “back-to-back” contracts should be a matter of degree, based on the business strategy and relevance to the intended transactions rather than on the typical model of “back-to-back” contracts.

Findings
– Good contracting practices should be such as to enable parties negotiate the contract terms to ensure clarity and common understanding before commencing the project. Construction universally adopts back-to-back even for minor straightforward works, an approach supported by readily available industry model contracts as well as the traditional tender process (design before construction). In telecoms, back-to-back is mainly desired where the subcontractor has a major part of the scope, whereas minor subcontractor scope is considered “leverage commodity” where suppliers are engaged using in-house contract templates, often in a frame contract arrangement, to satisfy corporate strategies for supplier management and pricing.

Originality/value
– This paper provides value by presenting an insightful review of the nature of back-to-back contracting practices in the telecommunication and construction industries. The paper outlines advantages, disadvantages and opportunities for improving “back-to-back” contracting practices in the telecommunication and construction industries.
Job involvement, organizational commitment, professional commitment, and team commitment
Authors: Singh Ajay , Gupta Bindu 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among job involvement, organizational commitment, team commitment and professional commitment and to explore generational differences for these variables.Design/methodology/approach– It used structured questionnaire survey approach for which data were collected from 477 full-time employees of 13 organizations from diverse sectors in India. Respondents were categorized into four generational cohorts following the classification reported in Robbinset al.(2011).Findings– The findings of the study indicated that professional commitment is negatively related with job involvement, affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, and team commitment. Job involvement, affective and normative organizational commitment, and team commitment were positively correlated. Differences were observed among Generation Y, Generation X, Liberals, and Socialist for job involvement, affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, professional commitment, and team commitment. Generation Y, for example, was found high in professional commitment, while Socialist were found higher on affective organizational commitment compared to other generations.Practical implications– Findings suggests that there is a decrease in job involvement, affective organizational commitment, normative organizational commitment, and increase in professional commitment in young generations. Organizations need to take consideration this while designing the HR policies for employees’ engagement.Originality/value– The contribution of the study lies in examining the employees’ attitude to different dimensions of work life and differences among Indian generations.
Surgical services efficiency by data envelopment analysis
Authors: Ketabi Saeedeh , Ganji Hamid , Shahin Samireh , Mahnam Mehdi , Soltanolkottabi Marzieh , Hadian Zarkesh Moghadam Shirin Alsadat 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– Different surgical services demand operating rooms (OR) to treat elective patients, each competing for a limited supply of OR time. The purpose of this paper is to obtain empirical measures of performance in the management of OR. The current research compares technical efficiency of 11 specialties in elective operating theatre of Alzahra Hospital in Isfahan, Iran in autumn of 2009.Design/methodology/approach– Data envelopment analysis (DEA) can be used as tools in management control and planning. First, the input oriented and variable returns to scale model of DEA technique has been applied and separate benchmarks for possible reductions in resources used has been derive, and significant savings are possible on this account.Findings– The efficiency scores of inefficient specialties are between 0.62 and 0.96. Neurosurgery and general surgery are the best and the worst units. DEA results determine by how much hospitals can increase elective inpatient surgeries for each specialty.Originality/value– The originality of this study is to obtain empirical measures of performance in the management of OR. DEA has not been applied to measure the efficiency of different department in an organization. The measures are common in different units and have been collected in a similar way.
Consistency of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures
Authors: Meybodi Mohammad Z. 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the consistency of benchmarking performance measures and to investigate the impact of organizational size and managerial positions on the deployment of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures.

Design/methodology/approach
– A set of eight hypotheses was used to examine the consistency of the benchmarking performance measures and the impact of organizational size and managerial positions on selection of strategic and tactical benchmarking performance measures. A questionnaire-based survey data were used to test the hypotheses. The target population was manufacturing firms in Midwestern USA; the sample covers organizations in a variety of industries. Out of 91 completed surveys received, 84 surveys were usable resulting in a response rate of 17 percent.

Findings
– The paper found evidence of misalignment between organizational goals and objectives and proactive development of organizational core capabilities. The result also indicates that managers with high-level positions as well as managers from large organizations placed higher emphasis on strategic benchmarking performance measures.

Research limitations/implications
– Research is general and not industry specific.

Practical implications
– Effective performance measurement is a critical element of organizational success. It requires a thorough understanding of organizational strategy and deployment of the strategy into consistent sub-strategies.

Originality/value
– For effective benchmarking, managers must develop a complete understanding of their own business strategy and choose long-term and short-term benchmarking performance measures that are consistent with organizational strategy.
Efficiency assessment of banking sector in Yemen using data envelopment window analysis
Authors: Shawtari Fekri Ali , Ariff Mohamed , Abdul Razak Shaikh Hamzah 
Published: August 2015

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the banking industry’s efficiency using the case of Yemen.Design/methodology/approach– The paper utilises two-stage analysis to evaluate the efficiency adopting Data Envelopment Window Analysis (DEWA) in the first stage for the period 1996-2011. Furthermore, the paper addresses, in two-dimensional matrix, the stability and efficiency of the banking sector in order to assess their ability for survival. In the second stage, panel data analysis is applied to regress a set of bank-specific and macro-economic variables on the efficiency of the banking sector in Yemen in a comparative fashion between Islamic and conventional banks.Findings– The findings of the investigation indicate that the Yemeni banking industry in general was on a declining efficiency’s trend with increased instability during the later period of the investigation. In addition, the study shows that most conventional banks were relatively stable, though inefficient, while Islamic banks were more efficient over the time. The results of panel data regression further suggest that efficiency is related to a number of determinants. Loan/financing, and profitability are the common key determinants of efficiency for both Islamic and conventional banks. However, other determinants have impacted differently for Islamic and conventional banks, which could reflect the uniqueness of their operation and structure.Research limitations/implications– The present study provides a basis for the regulators and bankers to assess the viability of the banking sector and proposes policies to restructure the industry in order to enhance the performance of the whole industry.Originality/value– The paper presents new empirical findings on the efficiency of Islamic and conventional banks in Yemen.
The moderating effect of bureaucratic quality on the pricing of policy instability
Authors: Lam Swee-Sum , Zhang Weina 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how policy instability is priced in interest rates. Policy instability refers to the likelihood that the current policy will be changed in the future in the absence of political power shifts.

Design/methodology/approach
– Chinese government’s experimental policy-making approach provides an ideal set of frequent policy flip-flops which allows us to identify the effect of policy changes.

Findings
– Conditional on the bureaucratic quality of policymaking, a good-quality policy reversal is related to reductions in interest rate term spread and volatility; a bad-quality policy reversal is related to increases in the spread and volatility. The bureaucratic quality is multi-dimensional and the moderating effect is stronger on interest rates when it is measured more precisely.

Originality/value
– First, we can use the interest rate dynamics to infer the policy risk premium, which is a more objective market indicator of the bureaucratic quality of the policy change. Second, the study is among the first that documents the pricing of policy instability can be moderated by the bureaucratic quality. The results indicate that it is important for a government to be responsive and consistent in liberalizing the financial market. It will lead to reduced cost of capital and volatility for investors and firms in the economy. Third, given that the bureaucratic quality is multi-dimensional and produces stronger impact jointly, a country shall continue to improve on different aspects of the bureaucratic quality. Although the study is based on the empirical evidence from Chinese policy environment, the results can be broadly applied to any developing economies that intend to liberalize the market to spur economic growth.
The employees’ self-interest and the underwriter reputation effects
Authors: Liu Bo , Wang Kemin 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– Prior research on underwriter reputation treats underwriters as the unit of analyzing, while the purpose of this paper is to analyze underwriter reputation effects after introducing discretion of underwriters’ employees. Specially, this paper investigates the damage on underwriter reputation effects when underwriters’ employees tolerate issuers’ earnings management for their self-interest.

Design/methodology/approach
– In 2004, a Chinese security regulation introduced two professional employees from the lead underwriter, known as sponsors, to work as individual financial intermediaries. This paper tests whether the ability of reputable underwriters in restraining issuers from manipulating earnings decreases after the 2004 regulation, given that the regulation encourages sponsors to exchange for their private benefits by ignoring issuers’ earnings management.

Findings
– The inverse relation between underwriter reputation and issuers’ earnings management is weakened after the 2004 regulation, especially when underwriters do not employ enough sponsors. Sponsors who have tolerated issuers’ earnings management will win more business in the following years. The influence of underwriter reputation on issuers’ underpricing and post-initial public offering performance is also less significant after the regulation.

Originality/value
– This work extends literatures on underwriter reputation from a completely different aspect that emphasizes the self-interest of underwriters’ employees. This paper also has direct policy implications for regulators, especially in the current reform climate that Chinese government is trying to carry out the Registration System.
Stock dividends policy and liquidity of ex ante announcement
Authors: Ye Zhiqiang , Zhang Zhi , Tang Songlian 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between stock dividends policy and liquidity of ex ante announcement to improve the traditional stock dividends liquidity hypothesis.

Design/methodology/approach
– The authors examine a sample of 2,088 which matching stocks between having stock dividends policy and having no dividends policy during 1999-2012 in Chinese listed firms. Using the multiple liner regression, the authors empirically tests the relationship between the possibility, payout ratio and timing choice of stock dividends and the liquidity of ex ante announcement.

Findings
– The authors find that the possibility of stock dividends policy has negative relationship with liquidity, and the relationship of stock dividends and liquidity of ex ante announcement is influenced by the time choice of stock dividends.

Originality/value
– This paper study the reason of stock dividends policy from the perspective of liquidity and improve the traditional stock dividends liquidity hypothesis.
Block trading, information asymmetry, and the informativeness of trading
Authors: Pan Ningning , Zhu Hongquan 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how block trading and asymmetric information contribute to the firm-specific information measured by the stock return synchronicity. Based on China stock market which is dominated by individual investors, this study focus on whether traders of block trading, which are usually institutional investors, are “information trader.”

Design/methodology/approach
– Based on the high frequency data, the paper constructs two measures of information asymmetry, intraday measure and inter-day measure. Then the paper constructs a multiple regression model and examine how block trading and information asymmetry contribute to the firm-specific information measured by the stock return synchronicity.

Findings
– The results show that: on the one hand, block trading transmits more firm-specific information, and can reduce the synchronicity; on the other hand, when the degree of information asymmetry is higher, block trading contains more firm-specific information and has a stronger effect on synchronicity. The effect of information asymmetry specifically displays as: block trading during the first half-hour of the trading day has a stronger effect on synchronicity; and block trading occurred in the days with publicly announced trading information has greater impact on synchronicity.

Practical implications
– The conclusions have important practical implications: for market regulators, monitoring for block trading can improve the recognition and prevention of insider trading; for individual investors, especially the risk aversion investors, recognition of intraday and inter-day information asymmetry is beneficial for them to avoid the risk of asymmetric information.

Originality/value
– First, the domestic and foreign research mostly concentrated impact of block trading on stock prices. However, reasons of stock price changes include the information effect and non-information effect, this paper selects stock return synchronicity as firm-specific information measure, and mainly focus on the information effect of block trading. Second, based on the high frequency data, the paper constructs two measures of information asymmetry, intraday measure and inter-day measure. Compared with general measure of information asymmetry, such as firm size, earnings quality, the two measures based on high frequency data are more precisely.
How productive is the agricultural sector across Indian states?
Authors: Tan Khee Giap , Rao Kartik , Rajan Ramkishen 
Published: August 2015

Purpose
– This paper aims to provide an up-to-date analysis of the productivity in the agricultural sector within the states and union territories of India. Despite agriculture’s diminishing role as a share of overall gross domestic product (GDP) in India, it plays a crucial role by providing a large proportion of jobs to the workforce. Recognising agriculture’s central role in the economy as well as the significant diversity between the states in terms of resources, this paper estimates the total factor productivity (TFP) for Indian crops at the state level from 2000 to 2010 using both the growth accounting and the Malmquist Index Data Envelopment Analysis methodologies. The results highlight the possibility of increasing production with existing technologies by focusing on efficient resource deployment and enhanced management techniques.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper utilizes both growth accounting and the Malmquist Index Data Envelopment Analysis methodologies to estimate the growth of TFP at the regional level at the sub-national level (for states and union territories).

Findings
– The results highlight the wide variations in the performance of states with respect to growth in TFP for the period 2000-2010. At the regional level, the Western region experienced the largest TFP growth, while the Eastern region experienced the lowest. At the state level, Gujarat registered the highest TFP growth, while Bihar emerged as a laggard with the lowest growth in TFP.

Practical implications
– The results highlight the possibility of increasing production with existing technologies by focusing on efficient resource deployment and enhanced management techniques.

Originality/value
– Although most of the existing literature focuses on national level analysis for India, this paper provides an up-to-date analysis of the productivity in the agricultural sector within the states and union territories of India. Correspondingly, the results are more applicable for these sub-national economies and offer more relevant policy implications.