bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Comparing levels of use of project plans and performance of traditional contract and design‐build construction projects in Nigeria
Authors: Idoro Godwin 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThe prominent role of traditional contract and design‐build methods in the procurement of projects and the importance of planning in the success of the projects prompt this study. The study evaluates the levels of use of project documents and their influence on the outcome of projects procured by the two methods. The purpose of this paper is to assist stakeholders in comparing the documents prepared and the performance of projects procured by traditional contract and design‐build methods.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a questionnaire survey approach to achieve its purpose. A field survey of 84 projects made up of 42 traditional contract projects and 42 design‐build projects selected by purposive sampling was conducted. Three categories of variables namely: procurement method, project planning and project outcome were used. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires and analysed to derive and compare the levels of use of selected project plans, levels of project inception, design, tendering, construction and overall planning in projects procured by traditional contract and design‐build methods using percentage, mean and t‐test.FindingsThe results reveal that the levels of project stage and overall planning in projects procured by the two methods investigated are the same. However, the levels of use of specific plans and project outcome in the two categories of projects are significantly different. The study considers the difference in the levels of use of project plans to be responsible for the lower delivery time and cost of projects procured by traditional contract method and higher quality standards in projects procured by design‐build method.Originality/valueThe paper has revealed the level of efforts put into the planning of projects procured by traditional contract and design‐build methods and their influence on the performance of the projects. The results will make project stakeholders aware of how to improve their efforts, thereby improving the outcome of the projects.
Trading costs around M&A announcements
Authors: Mai Liuqing 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine trading costs of both acquiring firms and target firms differentiated by method of payment, mode of acquisition, and deal attitude around merger and acquisition (M&A) announcements. The author calculates four spread measures of trading costs: quoted spread, percentage quoted spread, effective spread, and percentage effective spread.Design/methodology/approachDifferences in spreads differentiated by M&A characteristics are calculated and two‐sample t‐tests applied. A linear regression model is developed to test whether changes in trading costs are related to acquiring firm's post‐merger price performance. The regression is estimated by OLS method.FindingsIt is found that various methods of payment affect the spreads of target firm differently on certain days around M&A announcement. For acquiring firms, significant differences are found in spreads between cash offers and stock offers, and between stock offers and mix offers. Significant difference was not found in spreads between cash offers and mix offers. The mode of acquisition affects the bid‐ask spreads of target firms only, but not those of acquiring firms. Deal attitudes affect the spreads of target firms on and after M&A announcements. It was also found that all four spread measures are significantly linked to acquiring firms’ post‐merger daily returns.Research limitations/implicationsFurther study can be done on mechanisms through which M&A characteristics impact trading costs.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that M&A characteristics affect firms’ spreads and that changes in spreads need to be accounted for in explaining acquiring firms’ post‐merger daily returns.Originality/valueThe paper fills in an important gap in existing literature by examining trading costs of acquiring firms around M&A announcements. It provides additional evidence on the anomaly of acquiring firm's negative post‐merger returns. The paper is intended to help improve the understanding of trading costs and the behavior of the market participants in response to a major corporate event.
A new term‐weighting scheme for naïve Bayes text categorization
Authors: Mendoza Marcelo 
Published: March 2012

PurposeAutomatic text categorization has applications in several domains, for example e‐mail spam detection, sexual content filtering, directory maintenance, and focused crawling, among others. Most information retrieval systems contain several components which use text categorization methods. One of the first text categorization methods was designed using a naïve Bayes representation of the text. Currently, a number of variations of naïve Bayes have been discussed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate naïve Bayes approaches on text categorization introducing new competitive extensions to previous approaches.Design/methodology/approachThe paper focuses on introducing a new Bayesian text categorization method based on an extension of the naïve Bayes approach. Some modifications to document representations are introduced based on the well‐known BM25 text information retrieval method. The performance of the method is compared to several extensions of naïve Bayes using benchmark datasets designed for this purpose. The method is compared also to training‐based methods such as support vector machines and logistic regression.FindingsThe proposed text categorizer outperforms state‐of‐the‐art methods without introducing new computational costs. It also achieves performance results very similar to more complex methods based on criterion function optimization as support vector machines or logistic regression.Practical implicationsThe proposed method scales well regarding the size of the collection involved. The presented results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the approach.Originality/valueThe paper introduces a novel naïve Bayes text categorization approach based on the well‐known BM25 information retrieval model, which offers a set of good properties for this problem.
Brand network maps
Authors: Saunders Sarena , Rod Michel 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThis paper aims to augment traditional investigations of consumer‐brand relationships and suggest alternative ways to consider these interactions. Specifically, the paper employs consumer associative networks for the purpose of uncovering how various stakeholders perceive the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand brand subsequent to the implementation of a programme designed to enhance consistency of its brand.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilises semi‐structured interviews in a focus group setting to solicit attitudes, opinions and general feedback regarding a new service concept called the Supporting Independent Living (SIL) Program, recently developed by the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (PGNZ). Results are interpreted utilising community branding and network approaches, such as associative network theory.FindingsThe importance of utilising an associative network approach in investigating brand‐customer relationships is supported. This helps to identify the relationships between firms and their brands and the impact that this has on the brand development of existing, or newly‐created services.Originality/valueThe managerial implications include the suggestion of using a stakeholder approach once the SIL concept is fully operational; particularly focusing on how the brand association information is flowing back to the PGNZ parent brand and how various stakeholders (based on their salience) perceive their relationship with the brand.
Government driven model of institutional change through adoption of new technology
Authors: Li Mingzhi , Reimers Kai 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThis paper reflects on the evolution of China's drug distribution industry from the planned economy era to the most recent dramatic shift, with a major focus on the analysis of the government's efforts of centralizing the drug distribution channel through adoption of e‐bidding platforms. In a broader sense, the Chinese government's effort is a showcase of the so‐called “Chinese model” of implementing institutional change: the government initiates a project and counts on its fiat to gain compliance and support from the involved stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the limitations and problems of this mode of implementing institutional change.Design/methodology/approachThe analytical framework draws upon Williamson's theory of the mechanism of governance and insights from new institutional economics on institutional changes. The information used in this study is based on the authors' more than 40 interviews with a variety of pharmaceutical industry stakeholders, including government agencies, hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and electronic bidding platforms providers.FindingsThe failure of implementing third party electronic platforms based drug procurement practices shows the importance of aligning the mode of governing transactions with the macro level institutional environment and the micro level individual behavioral traits, and the government's decision of taking over the ownership of transaction platforms has further corroborated this logic.Originality/valueThis paper is an effort to analyze the logic behind the Chinese model of implementing institutional change: the government initiates a project and counts on its fiat to gain compliance and support from the involved stakeholders. From the academic perspective, this paper contributes to literature on the analysis of the interaction of technology adoption and institutional change.
Research on transition of China's resource cities: a case study of Pingxiang
Authors: Fu Zheng 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to address the specific challenges with which resource‐based cities are faced when they begin along the path of industrial transformation and to employ empirical studies to determine whether relevant reforms in resource‐based cities (taking Pingxiang, one of the first round of resource‐exhausted cities acting as pilot cities in the national sustainable development transformation program, as an example), promoted by local government in recent years, have brought significant changes to their development modes and facilitated the real transition.Design/methodology/approachThe paper carried out some empirical studies from different angles: employing the “vertical table graph” method, to turn Pingxiang's statistical data (1997‐2010) into a graph that visually shows Pingxiang's economic and social development; comparing several major economic and social development indicators (especially the energy consumption per unit of GDP) of 11 cities within Jiangxi Province in order to learn Pingxiang's relative positions; based on time series data from 1997 to 2009, calculating the change rates, the variation coefficients and the shift‐share indexes of industrial structure so as to measure the quality of Pingxiang's structural transformation; comparing the above results with the cities of Jiaozuo, Benxi and Dalian; and comparing economic and social development state of 16 resource‐based cities (which are all among the list of 44 national resource‐exhausted cities) from the perspective of “green GDP”.FindingsAlthough Pingxiang has gained great progress in economic development, its industrial structure is not rational enough, and shows great dependence on mining industry with a too high share of the secondary industry and a too small proportion of the tertiary industry. Its heavy dependence on resources and investment does not suggest a fundamental change in development modes. Accordingly, the city's development idea should be switched from GDP‐orientation to sustainable development. It should proceed with the optimization of the industrial structure adjustment, increase manpower capital investment and develop new green substitutable industries, so as to catalyze the success of transition.Originality/valueThis integration of empirical analysis methods from three angles in multivariate statistical analysis, environmental economics, and industrial economics is novel in the field of research on resource‐city and industry change. It not only could be of some help in decision making for Pingxiang municipal government, but also could provide reference for other cities dependent on resource exploitation.
Taiwan's MICE visitors: business, leisure and education dimensions
Authors: Chiang Che‐Chao , King Brian , Nguyen Thu‐Huong 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThis study seeks to examine the motivational and socio‐demographic characteristics of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) visitors to Taiwan in order to identify salient market subgroups or segments. The aim is to establish results with relevance to Asian destinations and with some more general applicability.Design/methodology/approachBased on the literature and expert input a questionnaire was designed and pretested. Using convenience sampling, data were collected from MICE visitors to Taipei (Taiwan). Principal components, hierarchical cluster, K‐means, chi‐square and ANOVA analyses of the data provide information about MICE visitors and their segments.FindingsThree motivation‐based MICE segments are identified. Variable values suggest the following segment names – value seekers, no‐value seekers, and education seekers. Significant socio‐demographic differences are found between the segments. Results provide insight into MICE visitor decision making showing the role of business, education and leisure‐related motives. Discussion focuses attention on implications of the results for the development of tourism strategies.Originality/valueThe findings enhance understanding of the motivations of MICE visitors. The information adds to the knowledge that destination marketers can consider in developing a competitive edge. Since Taipei's MICE visitors should be similar to those of Asian competitors, results contribute to a better understanding of MICE business, education and leisure‐related motives and activities in Asia.
Understanding British youth behaviors on holiday in Ibiza
Authors: Briggs Daniel , Turner Tim 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThe behavior of British youth abroad has caused considerable concern over recent years. This is because many British youth engage in binge drinking, drug use, sex behavior and other risk behaviors – especially in the Balearics, Spain. While research has documented levels of alcohol use, drug use, risk and sex behaviors on these islands, it tends to rely on survey data. This article aims to offer some contextualization to the British youth holiday experience and to examine why such behaviors might take place.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses ethnographic methods (observation, open‐ended focus groups) with British youth in San Antonio, Ibiza. Over the course of one week in July 2010, 17 focus groups were undertaken (n=97 aged between 17 and 31). Observations were conducted in bars, clubs, beaches, and general tourist areas.FindingsThe data suggest that young people engage in these behaviors not only to escape the constraints of work and family but also because they are exciting. The data also indicate that these behaviors appeared to help British youth construct life biographies which were integral to their identity construction. The findings are also considered within the social context of Ibiza which also played a role in promoting these behaviors.Originality/valueNo ethnographic research exists on the topic of British youth and their behaviors abroad. Previous research is mostly epidemiological survey research which does not adequately consider the social meaning and context for the behavior of British youth abroad.
Developing and animating enterprising individuals and communities
Authors: Smith Robert 
Published: March 2012

PurposeSocio‐economic decline in rural areas is a pervasive and debilitating phenomenon in terms of regional development, particularly when former models of economic growth which once stimulated business generation and regeneration can no longer be counted on to do so. In these austere times, models of social and community enterprise are becoming more important. This corresponds to the emergence of theories of community‐based entrepreneurship and social enterprise as explanatory variables. Such theories are used to label enterprising behaviour enacted within our communities, even when the theoretical arguments underpinning these re‐conceptualisations require to be stretched to permit this. Often the resultant explanations are not entirely convincing. The purpose of this paper is to challenge existing conceptualisations of community‐based entrepreneurship and social enterprise.Design/methodology/approachUsing a case study methodology, the paper reports on the activities of the Buchan Development Partnership (BDP) – a community‐based project situated in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland – demonstrating how individual and community enterprise can be utilized to develop enterprising individuals and communities by growing enterprises organically. The case articulates this process, as it occurred in a rural development partnership using a narrative‐based case study methodology to examine activities and growth strategies.FindingsThe case bridges issues of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial process, community and regional development and tells a story of community regeneration through the process of “Community Animateurship”.Research limitations/implicationsResearch, practical and social implications are discussed but in particular the need to adopt a more holistic “bottom up” approach.Originality/valueThis case challenges existing conceptualisations of community‐based entrepreneurship and social enterprise.
Practical difficulties encountered in attempting to implement a partnering approach
Authors: Aarseth Wenche , Andersen Bjørn , Ahola Tuomas , Jergeas George 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present practical difficulties in attempting to implement a partnering approach.Design/methodology/approachThe paper comprises empirical evidence from case studies in Norway and Canada and an extensive literature review on partnering.FindingsThe authors identified a lack of shared understanding of key partnering concepts, missing initial effort to establish shared ground rules, communication difficulties in inter‐organizational relationships and unclear (perceived) roles and responsibilities. In existing partnering literature, a large number of construction studies have identified conceptual partnering models. However, studies that describe partnering models to take these practical difficulties into account have not been found and the paper develops a practical model that outlines the phases of a typical partnering effort.Research limitations/implicationsPartnering has both a legal/contractual side and a management/collaboration side. This paper looks at the management and collaboration aspects of partnering only.Practical implicationsThe paper will be a very useful source of information and advice for project managers who are attempting to implement partnering in projects.Originality/valueThe paper presents organizational challenges and difficulties in attempting to implement partnering and a practical model which takes these difficulties into account.
Supply chain capital in construction industry: coining the term
Authors: Khalfan Malik M.A. , Maqsood Tayyab 
Published: March 2012

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the concept of supply chain capital, which is formed through managing knowledge in supply chains on a long‐term basis.Design/methodology/approachThe development of a conceptual model describing supply chain capital is achieved through extensive literature review, past research carried out by the authors, and past experiences of the authors within the construction industry.FindingsThe paper develops a conceptual model that provides a link between construction organisations and their learning activities as part of a project supply chain, resulting in creation of a learning organisation and a learning supply chain. The model shows that the learning supply chains consist of learning organisations which would create supply chain capital in order to promote innovation and creativity by managing knowledge in supply chains on a long‐term basis.Practical implicationsIn addition to the establishment of the model, the paper suggests that the learning organisations would also establish a virtual knowledge transfer among themselves and the supply chains in which they are involved. The paper also suggests that, as unit of competition changes from organisation verses organisation to chain verses chain under supply chain management, supply chain capital will become increasingly important for sustaining competition within the construction industry. Therefore, supply chain capitals are to be created through managing knowledge in supply chains on a long‐term basis, using the proposed conceptual model. The model also facilitates innovation and creativity, essentially required to thrive in the downturned business environment of today in many countries in different parts of the world.Originality/valueThe paper's authors are the first to come up with the term “supply chain capital” in the research domain and to have developed the conceptual model for the construction industry.
Adjuvant lithium improves the efficacy of radioactive iodine treatment in Graves' and toxic nodular disease
Authors: Martin Niamh M. , Patel Miraj , Nijher Gurjinder M.K. , Misra Shivani , Murphy Elaine , Meeran Karim 
Published: March 2012

SummaryContextLithium increases iodine retention in the thyroid gland and inhibits thyroid hormone release. Although lithium has been reported to improve the efficacy of radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment in Graves' disease, its role as an adjunct to RAI treatment of hyperthyroidism, particularly in toxic nodular disease, remains contentious.ObjectiveTo assess whether adjuvant lithium increases the efficacy of a fixed dose RAI regimen in Graves' and toxic nodular hyperthyroid patients.Design and settingRetrospective cohort study in a tertiary referral centre. Two hundred and four hyperthyroid patients (163 Graves' disease, 26 toxic multinodular goitre and 15 solitary toxic thyroid adenoma).InterventionOne hundred and three patients received RAI alone (median dose 558 MBq). One hundred and one patients received RAI (median dose 571 MBq) with adjuvant lithium (800 mg/day for 10 days).Main outcome measureProportion of patients cured at any time over a 1‐year period following RAI treatment. Cure was defined as sustained (two or more sequential time points) biochemical euthyroidism or hypothyroidism during the follow‐up period.ResultsThe likelihood of cure at any time was 60% greater in all hyperthyroid patients (Graves' plus toxic nodular disease) receiving adjuvant lithium (n = 204, P = 0·003). In patients with Graves' disease receiving RAI + lithium, there was a similar occurrence in cure (n = 163, P = 0·006). Cure was twice as likely in patients with toxic nodular (non‐Graves') disease receiving RAI + lithium compared with RAI alone (n = 41, P = 0·01).ConclusionsThis study supports the use of adjuvant lithium to improve the efficacy of RAI in the treatment of Grave's disease and suggests a novel role in the management of toxic nodular (non‐Graves') disease.