Diverse Literature Research Articles

Empirical nexus of corporate social responsibility, service quality, corporate reputation and brand preference: evidence from Iranian healthcare industry

PurposeResearchers have widely explored and associated corporate social responsibility with firm success. Measuring the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), service quality, corporate reputation, and brand preference by drawing on the stakeholder theory in healthcare industry and developing countries remains a substantial research gap.Design/methodology/approachBased on quantitative research and convenience sampling, data for the study were collected from 320 patients who have undergone treatments in 5 different private hospitals in Tehran, Iran. We analyzed the data using the Smart PLS 3.0 structural equation modeling technique.FindingsThe survey revealed that service quality and CSR are positively linked with corporate reputation, leading to brand preference in the healthcare sector. In addition, the mediating role of brand reputation in the relationship between corporate social responsibility, service quality and brand preference were confirmed.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey was performed in the context of the healthcare industry; however, additional studies are necessary to extrapolate the results to other fields, such as education and food. This research helps guide policymakers, administrators, healthcare managers, and researchers by highlighting the contribution and role of service quality, corporate social responsibility, and corporate reputation in achieving a hospital’s performance.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study also extends research in the diverse literature by examining the relationship between CSR, service quality, corporate reputation, and brand preference by illustrating the stakeholder theory in the context of the healthcare sector.

LitAI: Enhancing Multimodal Literature Understanding and Mining with Generative AI.

Information processing and retrieval in literature are critical for advancing scientific research and knowledge discovery. The inherent multimodality and diverse literature formats, including text, tables, and figures, present significant challenges in literature information retrieval. This paper introduces LitAI, a novel approach that employs readily available generative AI tools to enhance multimodal information retrieval from literature documents. By integrating tools such as optical character recognition (OCR) with generative AI services, LitAI facilitates the retrieval of text, tables, and figures from PDF documents. We have developed specific prompts that leverage in-context learning and prompt engineering within Generative AI to achieve precise information extraction. Our empirical evaluations, conducted on datasets from the ecological and biological sciences, demonstrate the superiority of our approach over several established baselines including Tesseract-OCR and GPT-4. The implementation of LitAI is accessible at https://github.com/ResponsibleAILab/LitAI.

Integrating Dimensions in Predictive Risk Models for Construction Projects

Abstract This review explores the evolution of predictive risk models in construction, emphasizing the integration of key dimensions—quality, safety, schedule delay, cost overrun, and environmental risk. Synthesizing diverse literature, it highlights findings, methodologies, and implications. From a historical perspective, it outlines criteria and search strategies, addressing limitations. Thematic sections delve into individual risk dimensions, and cross-theme analysis identifies overarching trends. Methodological approaches are scrutinized, challenges and controversies are discussed, and future directions suggest areas for exploration. In conclusion, the paper advances holistic risk management, aiding researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders in construction project risk assessment.

Intergenerational Storytelling and Positive Psychosocial Development: Stories as Developmental Resources for Marginalized Groups

Academic We articulate an intergenerational model of positive psychosocial development that centers storytelling in an ecological framework and is motivated by an orientation toward social justice. We bring together diverse literature (e.g., racial-ethnic socialization, family storytelling, narrative psychology) to argue that the intergenerational transmission of stories about one’s group is equally important for elders and youth, and especially important for groups who are marginalized, because stories provide a developmental resource for resistance and resilience in the face of injustice. We describe how storytelling activities can support positive psychosocial development in culturally dynamic contexts and illustrate our model with a case study involving LGBTQ+ communities, arguing that intergenerational storytelling is uniquely important for this group given issues of access to stories. We argue that harnessing the power of intergenerational storytelling could provide a culturally safe and sustaining practice for fostering psychosocial development among LGBTQ+ people and other equity-seeking populations. Public Understanding one’s identity as part of a group with shared history and culture that has existed through time is important for positive psychological functioning. This is especially true for marginalized communities for whom identity-relevant knowledge is often erased, silenced, or distorted in mainstream public discourses (e.g., school curricula, news media, television, and film). To compensate for these limitations around access, one channel for the transmission of this knowledge is through oral storytelling between generations of elders and youth. Contemporary psychological science has often assumed that such storytelling occurs within families, but when families cannot or would not share such knowledge, youth suffer. We present a model of intergenerational storytelling that expands our ideas around who counts as “family” and how knowledge can be transmitted through alternative channels, using LGBTQ+ communities as a case example.

Empirical Approaches to the Rule of Law: Contours and Challenges of a Social Science that Does Not Quite Yet Exist

In the past, the rule of law was largely overlooked by sociologists and other social scientists. However, recent years have seen an increasing number of empirical studies of the rule of law. I survey that diverse literature and identify three generations of empirical research, each based on a different approach: (a) the rule of law in action, (b) the rule of law index, and (c) the living rule of law. These studies give us a detailed, but often sobering, view of the rule of law in the real world. I critically review the emerging field and discuss challenges for future research. Developing a more coherent social science of the rule of law is important because it helps us to understand that the rule of law is defined not only by formal institutions and legal documents but also by the place of law in people's everyday lives.

Moving from the Business Case Towards an Equity-Based Approach: Theorizing Diversity and Inclusion in Open Strategy

A growing number of organizations open their strategy processes by including a more diverse set of actors. This has drawn scholarly interest and led to a field of research known as open strategy. In this paper, we problematize how open strategy research deploys diversity and inclusion without engaging with the diversity and inclusion literature that offers a more differentiated understanding of these concepts. We build on this literature to elucidate how most open strategy studies follow a business case approach wherein inclusion, and implicitly also diversity, are theorized based on their impact on strategy outcomes. We show how engaging with the diversity and inclusion literature allows open strategy scholars to move from the business case towards an alternative, equity-based approach. Adopting an equity-based approach widens the themes addressed in open strategy research to the reproduction of power relations and sustained inequalities in strategy making and thus contributes to a more societally meaningful and relevant understanding of diversity and inclusion in the strategy field.

De facto health governance policies and practices in a decentralized setting of Ghana: Implication for policy making and implementation

BackgroundCurrent Universal Health Coverage (UHC) considerations confirm the need for strong governance in improving health sector performance. However, empirical evidence on the effects of decentralized health system governance remains limited in Low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper assesses the de facto health governance policies and practices of the decentralized health system of Ghana and its implications, for better policy formulation and implementation. Material and methodsThe study employed a cross-sectional design, comprising of systematic literature review (SLR) and in-depth interviews on health governance components. The literature review (n=103) was performed to document the factors that affect health governance management and policy uptake. A total of 32 purposively sampled key health system actors were individually interviewed face-to-face between January and February, 2018. Thematic content analyses of literature and interviews were done. ResultsTension regarding power relationships exists between the policies governing the health sector of Ghana, which has rendered the decentralization reform effort in health governance policies and practices uncoordinated, incoherent and sometimes contradictory. Implication of the de facto decentralized health governance policies and practice include: limited involvement of sub-national level in policy development; weak interaction between policy formulators and implementers; and political interference in policy implementations compromising evidence-based policy formulation. Originality/valueDrawing on diverse literatures and opinions of key health actors, this paper contributes to knowledge on health governance practices in a decentralized and resource constrained health system, and offers practical accounts of the implications of the de facto health governance system of Ghana for health policy formulation and implementation.

A Systematic Review on Technology Resource Management in Education

Technology plays a pivotal role in modern education, revolutionizing teaching and learning processes. Effective management of technology resources in educational settings is crucial for maximizing their potential benefits. This systematic review aims to examine the challenges, impact, and best practices associated with technology resource management in education. Hence, this systematic review researched diverse literatures concerning resource management, particularly focusing on technology resource management, utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework as its guiding methodology. These studied a selection of literatures published in English and conducted between 2020 and 2024, were sourced from Google Scholar. Out of 293 records identified from database searching, 11 articles from eight countries revealed three themes for the challenges, namely: insufficient fund, teachers adaptability skills in new technology and lack of connectivity. In terms of the impact, the analysis showed two themes for namely: improve the quality of teaching and technology advancements. Meanwhile, three themes appeared for the best practices such as routine evaluation and review, keep abreast of technological developments and flexibility and scalability of the plan. Finally, this systematic review highlights the significance of technology resource management in education and provides insights into the challenges, impact, and best practices associated with it. By synthesizing current literature, this review contributes to a deeper understanding of how educational institutions can effectively influence technology to support teaching and learning initiatives. Future research should continue to explore innovative strategies for overcoming challenges and maximizing the benefits of technology in education.

Communication in organizations: An overview and provocations

AbstractThe role that communication plays in social organization and processes of organizing has received considerable scholarly attention from multiple disciplines over several decades. This paper provides a review of the diverse literature that has sought to contribute to the understanding of communication and its implication for management and organization studies. An analysis of the SCOPUS database for the period 1980–2022 enabled us to cluster reference material and identify five perspectives which emerge from a review of the literature: communication as transfer, discourse, conversation (analysis), narrative, and Communicative Constitution of Organizations. These categories are not intended to be exhaustive, but they do provide a useful critical heuristic for navigating a field of study that might otherwise appear overwhelming. To map the terrain's theoretical underpinnings, our study also adopted a problematizing approach to the review which revealed various conspicuous conceptual and empirical absences at a ‘field level’ which merit further attention. The paper offers provocations and suggestions that we expect will inform future studies of organizational communication. Possibilities for developing the field include paying attention to: (a) paralinguistic dimensions of communication; (b) communication in relation to actual work practices; (c) monologic communication and (d) organizational communication in non‐Western contexts.

Come cambia il lavoro organizzato nell’epoca della digitalizzazione. Una lettura eliasiana

This paper contributes to the debate on the relationship between managerial control and organizational autonomy of employees, by highlighting the general directions in which this relationship has developed over time since the post-Fordist turn of half a century ago. These changes are accelerated and made more evident by the processes that go by the names of automation (1980s-1990s), informatization (mid-1990s-early 2000s), and digitization/Fourth Industrial Revolution. To this end, primary research data will not be analyzed here; instead, a rather diverse literature will be reviewed, both theoretical and empirical, addressing key themes for interpreting the changing situations of organized labor. The interpretative framework is primarily constituted by some conceptual categories borrowed from Norbert Elias’ processual sociology, summarized in the following points: a) the processual conception of social reality; b) power relations; c) the process of civilization; d) the relationship between I-identity and We-identity in contemporary society. Digitalization in organized work accentuates a most general trend, already clearly observable in the past but especially from the post-Fordist turn, towards forms of managerial control based more on employees self-control and assessment of outcomes than direct supervision of the work processes.

Evolving legitimacy of the public library in the 21st century

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to comprehensively describe the legitimacy of the public library in the 21st century.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved a comprehensive literature review using the Library and Information Science s (LISA) database with keywords “Library” and “Legitimacy”, combined with citation searches and additional collections. In total, we analysed 159 research articles primarily from the 21st century, with some comparative analysis of pre-2,000 works. The final phase of the research investigated libraries’ legitimisation efforts across various dimensions, examining how they employ rhetoric and theories to maintain legitimacy amidst challenging circumstances.FindingsThrough this research process, five dimensions of public library legitimacy emerged; (1) Democracy, (2) Culture and History, (3) Communication and Education, (4) Economy and (5) Librarianship, with the most diverse literature being related to democracy, and its subsections intellectual freedom, neutrality, the public sphere, social justice and social capital.Originality/valueThe outcome of our results indicates that the evolving legitimacy of the public library in the 21st century has become multifaceted, compared to the elements of legitimacy in the 20th century. Contemporary public libraries can continue to utilise the dimensions of legitimacy identified in this study and can reconstruct their legitimacy accordingly.

The gender effects on corporate social responsibility decoupling of the hospitality and tourism firms

ABSTRACT From the risk preference perspective of gender stereotype, this study investigates the impacts of female CEOs and female directors on corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling using data from Chinese listed hospitality and tourism firms spanning 2009–2020. The results obtained through the cluster-adjusted fixed effects regression method show that female CEOs are negatively correlated, suggesting that firms with a female CEO are unlikely to engage in CSR decoupling, while female directors are positively correlated, indicating that firms with a higher proportion of female directors are more likely to pursue CSR decoupling. And performance shortfall strengthens the negative impact of female CEOs. These findings could contribute to the gender diversity literature, CSR decoupling literature, and the behavioural theory of the firm, and offer practical insights for both firm decision-makers and policymakers.

NCPbook: A comprehensive database of noncanonical peptides.

Noncanonical peptides (NCPs) are a class of peptides generated from regions previously thought of as noncoding, such as introns, 5' UTRs, 3' UTRs, and intergenic regions. In recent years, the significance and diverse functions of NCPs have come to light, yet a systematic and comprehensive NCP database remains absent. Here, we developed NCPbook (https://ncp.wiki/ncpbook/), a database of evidence-supported NCPs, which aims to provide a resource for efficient exploration, analysis, and manipulation of NCPs. NCPbook incorporates data from diverse public databases and scientific literature. The current version of NCPbook includes 180,676 NCPs across 29 different species, evidenced by MS, ribosome profiling, or molecular experiments. These NCPs are distributed across kingdoms, comprising 123,408 from 14 plant species, 56,999 from 7 animal species, and 269 from 8 microbial species. Furthermore, NCPbook encompasses 9,166 functionally characterized NCPs playing important roles in immunity, stress resistance, growth, and development. Equipped with a user-friendly interface, NCPbook allows users to search, browse, visualize, and retrieve data, making it an indispensable platform for researching NCPs in various plant, animal, and microbial species.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION TOWARDS ORGANISATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS

Diversity and inclusion in the workforce are thought to benefit organizations because they increase the breadth of perspectives and areas of expertise. The aim of this research is to consolidate the diverse literature on workforce diversity and inclusion and to provide insights into potential future directions for workforce diversity management research. The review of workforce diversity and inclusion in the paper makes use of secondary data that was collected. The evaluation made it quite evident what the modern period means for diversity and inclusion in the workforce. The review's conclusions indicate that a substantial amount of study has been done on diversity and its effects. Further Since inclusion is a relatively new area of study, more research is required to fully understand its consequences. This study looks at how well literature reviews work to expand on what is already known about a particular topic and help researchers come up with ideas for new research directions. Originality/value: This study offers a theoretical framework for managing important diversity and building diverse companies. Quantitative data was collected using the non probability, self administated questionnaire that consisted of influencing factors are identified and also using parametric test (ANOVA, correlation) and non parametric test (U test, correlation,Run test) analysis tools suitable interpretation was found it make positive change. Key words: Diversity and inclusion, dimension, environmental challenges, strategies adoption, inclusive practices, engagement.

Financial Literacy and other Factors Influencing Investment Behaviour of Individual Investor: A Review of Literature

Indian investor’s behavior has been changing drastically in the post-economic reforms era in investment activity, preferences in selecting various financial instruments, evaluating and in analyzing the investment avenues. In this paper the diverse literature available worldwide on individual investor behavior has been explored. Its main objective is to understand individual investor behavior.

Quantify the Influence of Coral Reef Bleaching on Tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

As global climate change keeps deteriorating, adverse effects have emerged, including global warming, rising sea levels, and extreme weather. From diverse literature, we summarized that these effects have triggered irretrievable damage to coral reefs worldwide and indirectly influenced tourism in small island developing states (SIDS). Since the economy depends drastically on tourism, we propose the study to quantify the effect caused by coral bleaching, a by-product of global warming, on tourism in SIDS. We schedule to find the relationship between coral bleaching rate and tourism development in targeted areas via a panel data model and a regression model. We expect our result can contribute to part of the ministries' legislation in SIDS

The Effect of Military Expenditure on Economic Prosperity in Croatia

The objective of this study was to empirically evaluate the impact of military spending on the economic well-being of the Croatian economy. The objective of the study was as well to find out if military expenditure could bolster the economic growth. Croatia has been among the European nations with significant military expenditures over the past three decades. However, these expenses have substantially decreased due to successful peace initiatives and the country's accession to the European Union. Reflecting on Croatia's history, notably during the Croatian War of Independence, the government significantly augmented its military expenditures. The sample period of the study was for 40 years from 1981 to 2020. An applied econometrics methodology called the 2-Stage Least Squares with Instrumental Variables was utilised in the study. In the first stage, instrumental variables were used to instrument for the endogenous regressors. In the second stage, the predicted values obtained from the first stage were used as explanatory variables in the main regression equation. The study found that the effect of military expenditure on the economic prosperity of Croatia was positive and highly statistically significant. The study addressed an empirical gap in the literature by integrating distinctive characteristics into the model concerning the long-term relationship between Croatia's military expenditure and economic growth. These factors enhanced empirical accuracy and instilled confidence in the broader and diverse literature concerning military expenditure and economic growth. The implication of this study is that investing in the military provides an enabling environment for economic growth to increase.

Effects of female CEO and female CFO on internationalization and firm performance

PurposeThe study aims to examine the influence of female chief executive officer (CEO) and female chief financial officer (CFO) on the linkage between internationalization and firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study used 2926 firm-year observations of nonfinancial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange over the period 2012–2021. This study used ordinary least squares regression method to test the hypotheses, and additionally, generalized method of moments estimation and fixed effect analysis were used to check for the robustness of the results.FindingsUsing the framework of upper echelons theory and resource dependence theory, this study reports that internationalization has a positive impact on firm performance. Moreover, the results show that the presence of female CEO and female CFO strengthens the positive relationship between internationalization and firm performance. The results add to the gender diversity literature by highlighting the positive role of female CEOs and female CFOs on the internationalization and performance of firms in a male-dominated society.Originality/valueThis study adds to the limited literature on the internationalization of businesses in an emerging market and provides empirical support to upper echelons theory and resource dependence theory by highlighting the benefits brought to the firm through female CEOs and female CFOs.

EXPRESS: Gender and Serious Drug Recalls: a Textual Sentiment Analysis of Drug Reviews on WebMD

Consumers taking prescription drugs have limited ability to ascertain drug quality before taking the drug. After drug use, however, consumers frequently report their personal experiences with prescription drugs on one of the world’s largest medical websites: WebMD. Drug reviews on WebMD are a potentially rich source of free-form text that can be utilized to inform firms, consumers, researchers, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the quality and safety of prescription drugs. Additionally, because men and women communicate in starkly different ways, the gender of the reviewer may play a key role in drug reviews signaling drug quality problems. We examine if drug review textual sentiment is associated with the hazard of a serious drug recall and whether this relationship varies depending on the gender of the reviewer. We analyze textual sentiment on drug reviews from WebMD along with 13 years of drug recall data using several hazard models. We find that the more negative the drug review sentiment, the greater the hazard of a serious recall on that drug. This relationship is completely explained by drug reviews written by females; reviews written by males have no explanatory power. Our findings are confirmed by numerous robustness checks. In post-hoc analysis, we explore possible mechanisms by comparing female and male adverse events on the recalled drugs in our study. Our contributions to gender diversity and drug quality literature leads to implications for the FDA, WebMD, and firms that manufacture prescription drugs.

Traversing the Unknown in Research through Art and Design

In the ongoing discussion about the nature of research through art and design, one defining factor has been acknowledged: The objective of this research is not the generalization of formal knowledge, but rather the pursuit of an entirely different way of knowing. This is developed through practice-centered research, necessarily subjective and complex, and in many ways unknown. The practitioner-researcher’s unique role in this research—a reliance on traversing unknowns—merits re-imagining. This paper examines diverse literature, as well as the author's own technical origami practice, to re-envision the work of the practitioner-researcher through the framework of fiction-building.