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Recently, there has been a shift toward the embodied energy assessment of buildings. However, the impact of material service life on the life-cycle embodied energy has received little attention. We aimed to address this knowledge gap, particularly in the context of the UAE and investigated the embodied energy associated with the use of concrete and other materials commonly used in residential buildings in the hot desert climate of the UAE.

Using input–output based hybrid analysis, we quantified the life-cycle embodied energy of a villa in the UAE with over 50 years of building life using the average, minimum, and maximum material service life values. Mathematical calculations were performed using MS Excel, and a detailed bill of quantities with >170 building materials and components of the villa were used for investigation.

For the base case, the initial embodied energy was 57% (7390.5 GJ), whereas the recurrent embodied energy was 43% (5,690 GJ) of the life-cycle embodied energy based on average material service life values. The proportion of the recurrent embodied energy with minimum material service life values was increased to 68% of the life-cycle embodied energy, while it dropped to 15% with maximum material service life values.

The findings provide new data to guide building construction in the UAE and show that recurrent embodied energy contributes significantly to life-cycle energy demand. Further, the study of material service life variations provides deeper insights into future building material specifications and management considerations for building maintenance.

Although the theoretical arguments provide several channels through which innovation affects export, empirical validation of this relationship is scarce. Further, the impact of the diverse channels of domestic and foreign research and development (R&D) on export is assessed in isolation by previous studies. This paper empirically investigates the impact of technological innovation on export capacity and intensity of industrial enterprises in emerging countries by considering three channels of domestic innovation and foreign R&D spillovers, namely internal R&D, embodied knowledge and disembodied knowledge in a unified framework.

Data on China's industrial enterprises in the manufacturing sector are extracted from the China National Bureau of Statistics (NBSC), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MST) and the UN Comtrade database for the period from 1998 to 2020. The instrumental variables two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) and three-stage least squares (IV-3SLS) methods are used to control for the possible endogeneity bias and the problem of cross-equation correlation between residuals.

The results show that internal R&D is a critical factor to enhance the export performance of enterprises in emerging countries, while the effect of embodied spillovers and public–private collaboration on export capacity and intensity of industrial enterprises is substantial. Further, disembodied knowledge that is acquired through licensing of technology from advanced countries does not directly contribute to the export performance of enterprises but requires a threshold level of internal R&D capability. This study’s results also report a greater effect of embodied knowledge spillovers on export capacity and export intensity than internal R&D in emerging countries. The results are consistent to changes in the sample period and the estimation methods. The findings of the paper suggest that developing countries can speed up the process of export upgrading by relying on both domestic and foreign R&D efforts.

The findings would help policymakers to keep in mind the relative importance of internal R&D and embodied and disembodied knowledge spillovers for export performance before formulating a catch-up strategy and the outcome would encourage them to consider prior related knowledge in terms of internal R&D capability while acquiring external technology.

This study fills the gap in the existing literature by providing empirical validation of the innovation–export interplay and simultaneously assessing the effect of three diverse channels of technological innovation on the export performance of industrial enterprises. This paper enunciates important policy lessons for emerging countries' smooth transition to a knowledge-based economy.

Using the canvas of the author’s sojourn with the Islamic preaching group Tablighi Jamaat, this study aims to exhibit reflections on how spaces can be categorized as more sacred or less sacred according to a specific religious worldview. The paper extends the conversation on Mary Douglas’s concepts of purity and danger by sharpening the focal lens on place in Douglas’s theoretics. The paper also proffers the idea of a sojourn as a vehicle of purification.

This paper depicts findings from the author’s multi-sited ethnographic field notes carried out from a 40-day sojourn with the Islamic preaching group Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan.

The study unveils the concept of relative sacredness or how some spaces can be considered more sacred than others. The differential sacred status of these variegated spaces, each with its own etiquettes, meaning and consumption rituals is a means for purification for sojourners.

This paper prioritizes a focus on place in Mary Douglas’s arguments on purity and impurity in a religious consumption context. The thesis argues that place is a significant concept associated with metaphorical cleanliness/sacredness, which in religious terms guides consumer action.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming part of the hospitality industry. In times of staff shortages, AI used in the industry can have advantages, but it also brings with it the possibility of customer backlash. The purpose of this paper is to understand the potential response of millennial guests to the potential applications of AI in the hotel industry. The emphasis was on which hotel service encounter categories are most suited to replacing employees with AI in the context of the millennial guest experience.

This quantitative research used a survey questionnaire for the data collection. Responses from 169 millennials from six continents were analysed using a combination of descriptive statistics, t-tests, MANOVA tests and Bonferroni tests.

Four service encounter categories were studied: (i) “Check-in”, (ii) “Reception Services (excl. check-in)”, (iii) “Wellness” and (iv) “Food and Beverage Services”. The results showed that of these four categories, “Food and Beverage Services” is more suited to replacing employees with AI than “Wellness”.

The findings of this research are important as they contribute to the body of knowledge related to the implementation of AI in the hospitality industry and provide useful information to policymakers and hotel managers who may wish to identify suitable areas for investment related to AI in their operations.

This study offers useful insight on a cutting-edge topic of AI application for service encounters within the hospitality sector and confirms the suitability of some encounters.

The climate change effects on agricultural output in different regions of the world and have been debated in the literature of emerging economies. Recently, the agriculture sector has influenced globally through climate change and also hurts all sectors of economies. This study aims to examine and explore the impact of global climate change on agricultural output in China over the period of 1982-2014.

Different unit root tests including augmented Dickey–Fuller, Phillips–Perron and Kwiatkowski, Phillips, Schmidt and Shin are used to check the order of integration among the study variables. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration and the Johansen cointegration test are applied to assess the association among the study variables with the evidence of long-run and short-run analysis.

Unit root test estimations confirm that all variables are stationary at the combination of I(0) and I(1). The results show that CO₂ emissions have a significant effect on agricultural output in both long-run and short-run analyses, while temperature and rainfall have a negative effect on agricultural output in the long-run. Among other determinants, the land area under cereal crops, fertilizer consumption, and energy consumption have a positive and significant association with agricultural output in both long-run and short-run analysis. The estimated coefficient of the error correction term is also highly significant.

China’s population is multiplying, and in the coming decades, the country will face food safety and security challenges. Possible initiatives are needed to configure the Chinese Government to cope with the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture and ensure adequate food for the growing population. In concise, the analysis specifies that legislators and policy experts should spot that the climate change would transmute the total output factors, accordingly a county or regional specific and crop-specific total factor of production pattern adaptation is indorsed.

The present empirical study is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to investigate the impact of global climate change on agricultural output in China by using ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration and Johansen cointegration test.

This study aims to enhance our understanding of sustainable water management in construction through a life-cycle embodied water assessment of a villa in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It provides insights and recommendations for improving the water efficiency by identifying areas for potential embodied water saving and reduction in environmental impacts in the construction industry.

This study uses a life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach and focuses on a UAE villa as a case study. It analyses the embodied water consumption during construction (initial embodied water) and maintenance (recurrent embodied water) using an input–output-based hybrid analysis. Additionally, it compares the embodied water observations with the operational water usage and comprehensively evaluates the water consumption in the villa’s life-cycle.

The initial (28%) and recurrent embodied water (42%) represent significant proportions of a building’s life-cycle water demand. The structural elements, predominantly concrete and steel, contribute 40% of the initial embodied water consumption. This emphasises the importance of minimising the water usage in these materials. Similarly, internal finishes account for 47% of the recurrent embodied water. This emphasises the importance of evaluating the material service life.

These findings indicate the efficacy of using durable materials with low embodiment and water-efficient construction methods. Additionally, collaborative research between academia, industry, and the government is recommended in conjunction with advocating for policies promoting low embodied-water materials and transparency in the construction sector through embodied water footprint reporting.

Previous studies focused on the operational water and marginally addressed the initial embodied water. Meanwhile, this study highlights the significance of the initial and recurrent embodied water in the life-cycle water demand. It emphasises on the need for adaptable buildings with reduced embodied water and more durable materials to minimise the requirement for frequent material replacements.

The aim of this study is to investigate the serially mediating effect of knowledge management (KM) practices (namely, knowledge creation, storage and sharing) on the organizational learning (OL) and organizational performance (OP) relationships during a crisis.

Based on theories-of-action, knowledge-based and resource-based theories, this study proposed a sequential mediation model where OL underlying mechanisms through which KM practices have facilitated OP during the crisis. The sample dataset contains 440 responses collected from the managers of the software development companies in Pakistan. The authors used Hayes Process macro with SPSS to test the study hypotheses.

The results of the study reveal that knowledge creation, storage and sharing serially mediate the relationships between OL and OP. These findings strengthen the argument suggesting that OL plays the key role in KM that helps software companies to mend their performance in times of crisis.

This study contributes to the KM literature in two ways: (1) grounded on the study's proposed framework, organizations can improve and manage their businesses in times of crisis and (2) learn how to generate new knowledge in response to business crises.

本研究擬探討在危機中,知識管理做法(即知識的創造、儲存和分享),如何連續地在組織學習與組織績效之間的聯繫上起著仲介效應

研究以行為理論、知識基礎理論和資源基礎理論之論據,提出了一個系統化的仲介模型,闡釋知識管理如何在危機中、透過以組織學習為基礎之機制,去促進組織之績效。數據集為取自在巴基斯坦的軟件開發公司工作的主管的440個調查答覆;我們以 Hayes, A. F. 的 PROCESS macro、並附以 SPSS,去測試我們的研究假設。

研究結果顯示、知識的創造、儲存和分享,會在組織學習與組織績效之間的聯繫上,起著連續性的仲介效應。知識管理被認為可幫助軟件公司在危機中改善其表現不足之處,而組織學習在知識管理上或許扮演著關鍵的角色。研究結果強化了肯定這個角色的論據。

本研究對知識管理文獻有兩方面的貢獻: (一)若以本研究提出的框架為基礎,組織可於危機中改善及管理其業務; (二)組織可學習如何創造新的知識,以能應對業務上極其困難的時刻。

組織學習、知識管理做法、組織績效、行為理論、2019冠狀病毒疫情危機、軟件開發產業.

While previous studies find innovation to be an essential driver of export growth, the existing literature has neglected the role of different dimensions of technological innovation in export performance, especially in emerging countries. In particular, much less attention has been provided to investigate how enhancing innovation activities in more technical industries influence the relationship between technological innovation and export. Purpose of this paper is to present a unified framework to empirically investigate the integrated impact of the various technological innovation dimensions on export performance of industrial enterprises in China.

Using a panel dataset of enterprise-level data classified into China’s two-digit capital- and technology-intensive manufacturing industries for the 1998–2016 period and applying system-GMM regressions to control for the problem of endogeneity, the authors empirically investigate the integrated impact of a variety of the dimensions of technological innovation on export.

The authors find that: (1) Domestic R&D efforts and technology spillovers from foreign investment are critical determinants for capital- and technology-intensive exports. (2) External technology may not automatically contribute to export success whereas the interaction of external technology with domestic skill and expertise is a necessary condition for global competitiveness. (3) There exists complementarity between domestic and foreign innovation efforts when they jointly determine export. (4) Chinese government’s trade and innovation policies have significantly contributed to its export growth. Also, the authors examine that the extent of the effect of innovation on export depends upon the type of industry and it is found to be greater in capital- and technology-intensive industries.

This paper fills the research gap in existing literature by distinguishing between different dimensions of technological innovation and integrating them into a unified framework to empirically investigate their impact on export performance of industrial enterprises in emerging countries. The study provides important insights for policymakers.

This study aims to investigate the long-run relationship between financial inclusion and agricultural growth in Pakistan for the period of 1960–2018.

The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach, the Johansen co-integration test and the dynamic ordinary least squared (DOLS) method are used for the evaluation.

The results show that in both short- and long run, domestic credit has a significantly negative impact on the agricultural growth, while broad money and cropped area positively affected the agricultural growth in Pakistan in both cases.

The government and policymakers need to develop strategies that bring together agriculturalists on a single platform so that the government can clearly distinguish the interests of these farmers and can obtain precise information for allocating agricultural expenditure and easing access to credit for small-scale agriculturalists.

This is the first study to evaluate the impact of financial inclusion on the agricultural growth in Pakistan by using different econometric techniques, including the ARDL-bound approach, Johansen co-integration test and DOLS method.

This study aims to identify the essential elements impacting the adoption of blockchain technology (BCT) in supply chain management (SCM) by integrating the technology acceptance and information system success (ISS) models.

Questionnaire-based data was collected from 236 supply chain professionals from Beijing. The proposed research framework was evaluated using structural equation modeling (SEM) by using SPSS 23 and AMOS 24 software.

The empirical findings specify the positive influence of total quality on perceived usefulness and compatibility. Further, perceived ease of use positively influences perceived usefulness, compatibility and behavioral intention. Moreover, perceived usefulness positively impacts compatibility and behavioral intention. Compatibility positively influences behavioral intention. Finally, technology trust was found to be a significant moderator between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention and between perceived ease of use and adoption intention to use BCT in SCM.

This study empirically develops the second-order construct of total quality, representing the ISS model. Furthermore, this study established how the ISS and technology acceptance models influence behavioral intention through compatibility. Finally, this study confirmed the moderating role of technology trust among perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and behavioral intention.