Quality Of Matter Research Articles

Does institutional quality matter for renewable energy promotion inOECDeconomies?

AbstractThis study examines the effect of institutional quality on renewable energy promotion in OECD economies. The study employs annual data from 1980 to 2014 on 18 OECD economies. The robust panel unit root tests show that all the considered variables have a similar order of integration, indicating that they are nonstationary at their levels but stationary at the first‐order differences. The panel cointegration test with structural breaks and cross‐section dependence confirms a long‐run equilibrium association between institutional quality, renewable energy consumption and control variables. The analysis of long‐run estimations displays that better institutional quality makes a unique and substantial contribution to promoting renewable energy consumption. Overall, the study findings offer important policy implications highlighting the importance of institutional quality for the growth of renewable energy and a sustainable world.

Closing the clean cooking gap: Which policies and institutional qualities matter?

Access to clean energy is vital for fostering economic development and promoting shared prosperity. Yet, billions of people in the developing world continue to lack access to clean cooking fuels and technologies, creating a growing clean cooking gap. Achieving universal access to clean cooking requires integrated policies and quality institutions. However, attempts to examine the policies and institutional qualities that matter are missing. We take up this task and study the role of public policies and institutional qualities in closing the clean cooking gap using a generalized method of moment and a dynamic panel threshold model for 65 developing countries covering the period between 2005 and 2022. Our result confirms that economic management policies and policies for social inclusion and equity were critical to closing the clean cooking gap. Also, structural policies, except for a few dimensions, were found to minimize the clean cooking gap. However, we find an unintended adverse effect of a strict public sector management and institution on the clean cooking gap. Our study recommends the need for targeted interventions involving subsidies, tax incentives, and credit guarantees carried out under a flexible regulatory framework.

Assessing the Moderating Role of Supervisor Support in Amplifying Total Quality Management Practices and Project Performance within Pakistan’s Manufacturing Sector Post-Covid19: An Empirical Study

This empirical research investigates the interplay between Total Quality Management (TQM), Project Performance (PP), and Supervisor Support (SS) within the context of post-Covid-19 pandemic manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The study involved the development and distribution of a questionnaire to manufacturing industries located in federal area of Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and northern Punjab, Pakistan. Upon scrutinizing the collected data, the research revealed a noteworthy and positive correlation between Total Quality Management and Project Performance. Out of 195 distributed questionnaires, 131 responses were received. Interestingly, while global literature commonly asserts that Supervisor Support serves as a beneficial moderator in the relationship between Total Quality Management and Project Performance, the study’s findings in the Pakistani manufacturing sector suggested a different reality. Specifically, supervisors were perceived as providing insufficient support to their subordinates in matters of quality. Some employees also highlighted that their organizations struggled to implement TQM practices fully, occasionally breaching cost and time constraints in projects; nevertheless, these organizations remained highly profitable. Overall, it suggests that manufacturing industries in Pakistan may benefit from prioritizing Supervisor Support within the framework of Total Quality Management to enhance their overall performance and production efficiency.

International Nursing doctoral education: quality matters

International Nursing doctoral education: quality matters

A Brief Review of Artificial Intelligence Robotic in Food Industry

Artificial Intelligent Robotic (AI Robotic) is the formal term for an ‘intelligent induced’ robot that can operate with vision (eye) to detect a product defect, or a control operating system to assist robot to differentiate good and reject product during production. A number of cutting-edge manufacturing automation technologies have been developed, including automatic inspection, autonomous robots, additive manufacturing, ubiquitous manufacturing, cloud manufacturing, and cyber-physical systems. Intelligent and automation technologies for worker assistance have been considered feasible. As knowledge-driven industries develop in terms of artificial intelligence and robotic automation, and to upgrade the existing and next generation of workforce, higher and further education is needed to advance a better understanding of robotic automation in manufacturers who face endless challenges such as labor shortages, high turnover labor force, product innovation, quality matters, and many others. This paper provides a general view of food supply chain challenges when faced with labor issue, environmental disaster and production problems. AI Robotic application would be a good source of problem solving in food manufacturing, food processing and food handling process.

International Nursing doctoral education: quality matters

International Nursing doctoral education: quality matters

Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?

This paper seeks to investigate the role of housing quality on the relationship between maternal education and child malnutrition using the 2018 Cameroonian demographic and health survey. We employed the control function modelling and the non-self-cluster mean/proportion identification strategies to address potential endogeneity and sample selection concerns. Results indicate that: (a) women with less than ten years of schooling are more likely to have malnourished children than their counterparts with more years; (b) a percentage improvement in housing quality reduces the risk of a child being malnourished by about nine percentage points, and enhances the likelihood that mother's education will reduce child malnutrition; and (c) the mediation role of housing quality on the mother's education-child nutrition nexus is significant overall, but heterogeneous when we consider the different agroecological zones. These findings suggest the need for policy interventions on housing quality as a possible channel to enhance the direct effect of maternal education in reducing the probability of child malnutrition, and the potency of this channel would be increased if agroecological and cultural specificities are accounted for.

On the government revenue on economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa: Does institutional quality matter?

As studies report inconclusive results, the linkage between government revenue and economic growth remains a topic of debate in economic literature. This study investigates the effect of government revenue on the economic growth of Sub-Saharan African countries with the main objective of whether institutional quality matters. The panel data for 43 SSA countries were obtained from dependable data sources: World Development Indicator and Heritage Economic Freedom Index for the period of 2012–2022. The result from system GMM estimation reveals that government revenue adversely affects economic growth while institutional quality positively enhances economic growth before interacting with each other. However, the interactive coefficient of government revenue and economic growth positively affected the real GDP growth rate of SSA countries over the study periods. Precisely, before interacting with institutional quality, a percentage change in government revenue, keeping all other things constant, leads to a 0.0866% decline in economic growth while it marks a 0.2329% upsurge in economic growth in the presence of institutional quality. The result of the study further revealed that government revenue promotes the economic growth of the region when combined with institutional quality. On the other hand, foreign direct investment and openness to trade were the key sources of economic growth whereas the population growth rate adversely impacted economic growth in SSA countries during the study period under consideration. The policy implication of the study is that SSA needs to strengthen government revenue management. Further, the finding of the study implies that SSA countries need to improve institutional quality through promoting efficiency of the regulatory quality and the size of the SSA governments. In addition to this, the fast real GDP growth rate of SSA countries demands improved institutional quality indicators such as the rule of law and extended access to the open market.

Does governance quality matter in financial intermediation? A comparison between bank and insurance companies

Does governance quality matter in financial intermediation? A comparison between bank and insurance companies

Managing social commerce: does customer review quality matter?

On social commerce, customers frequently exchange product reviews. A deeper understanding of customer review quality is essential for managing social commerce more effectively. The current study examines the effects of customer review quality on social commerce satisfaction, trust in social media, and trust in social commerce consumers. Participants in the study comprised 272 individuals. This study found customer review quality influences social commerce satisfaction, trust in social media, and trust in social commerce consumers. Additionally, trust in social media, but not trust in social commerce consumers, influences social commerce satisfaction.

Creative quality matters: Teaching early-career scientists to think in multiple directions

Divergent thinking (DT) is an essential cognitive ability to nurture creativity and is often used as an indicator of creative potential. This study examined early-career scientists’ ability to generate ideas in multiple directions during a 10-week creativity course. Three alternate-form exercises of two formats (“Many uses” and “What is”) – conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of the course – were used to assess DT evolution of biology PhD students (n = 21). Responses to these exercises were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using traditional DT scores, and theory-driven dimensions representing the ideational hyperspace. Results showed that PhD students’ fluency, originality, and peak originality greatly increased from Exercise 1 to Exercise 2, however, in Exercise 3, which involved the “What is” task, growth was not statistically significant in any of the three DT scores. Although overall fluency increased, correlations with originality and peak originality became weaker as the course advanced and not significant in the last exercise. The ideational hyperspace analysis revealed that PhD students generated ideas mostly on six conceptual categories: Practical, Serious, Non-Synthetic, NEMBL, Feasible, and Domain-General; five of which had been negatively correlated with originality. Findings suggested that DT should be supported with the practice of cognitive flexibility and deliberately thinking about specific cognitive processes to improve early-career scientists’ ability to generate both more and highly original ideas. Considerations for teaching creativity to scientists are discussed.

Aesthetic quality matters: The visual effect of review helpfulness evaluation

Both photos and text are essential components of online reviews that jointly influence subsequent consumers’ decision-making. While the cognitive appeals of review text are widely investigated, the visual appeals of review photos are often overlooked. Based on the elaboration likelihood model, this study explores the interactive impact of photos and text, as peripheral and central cues respectively, on the perceived review helpfulness. A Deep Convolutional Neural Network model is applied to assess the aesthetic quality of over 126 K review photos, which is further revealed to significantly drive review helpfulness via the peripheral route. Such an effect is particularly strong when the review text is subjective and has a neutral sentiment. In addition, while it is the aesthetic quality of review photos that mainly drives the helpfulness of positive reviews, helpful negative reviews are expected to present objective arguments and distinct sentiment positions. The highlighted effects of photo aesthetics conditioning on textual features and review types largely inform the strategic management of visual content within online reviews.

Renewable energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission and financial stability: does institutional quality matter?

ABSTRACT In the context that countries around the world are making efforts to reduce carbon emissions and promote the use of renewable energy, the impact of these issues on the economy is becoming more and more concerned. Our study investigates the impact of renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions on financial stability and the role of institutional quality in mitigating these effects. Using panel data from 147 countries, including both developed and developing countries, and applying the quantile regression method, this study found that both renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions reduce financial stability. Moreover, the negative effects of carbon dioxide emissions on financial stability intensify in countries with higher financial stability. Additionally, institutional quality was found to play an important role in mitigating the negative impacts of renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions on financial stability, especially in countries with high levels of financial stability; the impact was insignificant in developing countries with low levels of financial stability. Our results can be useful for regulators in both developed and developing countries to control the negative impacts of carbon emission reduction and renewable energy policies on financial stability.

Do innovation, financial development and institutional quality matter in managing carbon risk?

Do innovation, financial development and institutional quality matter in managing carbon risk?

THE EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS IN GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN TRADE

The current empirical literature shows that logistics plays a vital role in increasing the total volume of international trade. However, there is scarce literature on the impact of logistics performance on global value chain trade. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of logistics performance on global value chain trade, measured by the value-added exports. The empirical specification of this paper is based on the structural gravity model of international trade. The analysis is based on biennial panel data on bilateral trade flows for the EU-15, CEE, and the Western Balkans and covers the period from 2010 to 2018. The model is estimated with a Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood Estimator. The results show that logistics performance appears to have significant positive effects on global value chain trade and that the logistics performance of the partner country plays a more critical role than the logistics performance of the reporting country. Institutional quality matters greatly for global value chain trade. Individual differences in the observed variables were found between selected groups of countries. The need to improve logistics performance and invest in knowledge and technology will help countries improve in value chains, along with adequate institutional support.

Extraction-depended and thermally-modulated physical and chemical properties of powders produced from cranberry pomace extracts

Recovering bioactives from botanical by-products in the form of powders has been attempted through a number of multidirectional approaches. Yet understanding the processing of such plant formulations requires dedicated research owing to the manifold factors shaping the quality of powders. Therefore, the study aimed at production of cranberry powders from pomace extracts and to evaluate how different solvent type, carriers and drying techniques modulate their physico-chemical properties. Freeze- and vacuum drying significantly differentiated samples in terms of physical properties, while the extraction solvent and carrier type had substantial impact on chemical ones. For carrier-added products pomace extraction with acidified 50% ethanol resulted in the highest content of identified phenolics in powders (up to 5.87 g · 100 g−1 dry matter), while 30% acetone in the lowest (on average, 3.94 g · 100 g−1 dry matter). Acetone extraction strengthened the formation of hydroxymethyl-L-furfural that was higher when compared to acidified 50% ethanol, while trace amounts were reported for non-acidified counterpart. Similar observation was made in the case of flavan-3-ols. Addition of carriers during powders production led to the lower hydroxymethyl-L-furfural formation even down to 74% with regard to carrier-free samples. The study confirmed feasibility of managing cranberry pomace into high-value powders in extraction-depended and thermally-modulated quality matter.

Transitions towards green productivity in Africa: Do sovereign debt vulnerability, eco‐entrepreneurship, and institutional quality matter?

AbstractImproving green productivity (GP) is critical for achieving global sustainable green development. Yet, past efficiency studies on the African continent have ignored Africa's GP, estimation, and driving factors. Specifically, the role of sovereign debt vulnerability, environmental entrepreneurship, and institutional quality in ensuring Africa's green productivity development is lacking. Therefore, this study built a meta‐frontier biennial weighted modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate green productivity across resource‐intensive and non‐resource‐intensive African countries from 2010 to 2019. Further, the study adopted the global Malmquist‐Luenberger productivity index (GML) to investigate the dynamic changes in African green productivity growth. The results suggest that only a few African countries are efficient, implying more room for improvement for the other countries. The heterogeneity of green productivity across the resource's classification exhibits significant disparity. The technology gap also prevails among the two resource classifications of African countries. The GML index indicates that Africa's green productivity is mainly explained by technical change instead of efficiency change. The bootstrap truncation regression suggests an inverted U‐shaped nexus between growth and green productivity in Africa and resource‐intensive countries (RIC). Green environmental entrepreneurship positively affects green productivity in Africa. On the components of institutional quality, we observed that the rule of law positively influences green productivity in non‐resource‐intensive countries (NRIC) and the whole of Africa. In contrast, political stability, government effectiveness, voice and corruption negatively affected green productivity in NRIC. Also, foreign direct investment (FDI) and sovereign debt vulnerability negatively correlate to green productivity in Africa as a whole and NRIC, respectively. The findings of this study aid in raising awareness of green productivity in developing countries, which is crucial in boosting global green development.

DISTRIBUTION AND DIVERSITY OF BIVALVIANS IN THE INTERTIDAL ZONE REGION OF VILLAGE ANAK SETATAH, KEPULAUAN MERANTI REGENCY

This study was conducted from May to June 2022 to know the species, abundance, diversity, and distribution patterns in the tidal areas of Anak Setatah Village. As supporting data in this study, several environmental parameters were also measured, including water quality, sediment type, and sediment organic matter content. The study method was a survey method, where sampling used the quadrat transect method. The results found that there were three species of bivalves. Where the abundance among stations ranged from 0.49 to 0.74 and/m2. The value of the species diversity index ranged from 0.91 to 1.41, which was classified as moderate, and the matter of the distribution pattern ranged from 6.28 to 9.71 with a clumped distribution pattern

Energizing Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises for environmental sustainability in poor Europe: Do green finance and bureaucratic quality matter?

AbstractThe sacrosanct role played by small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in shaping economic realities in Europe resonates the accompanying impact of their activities on the environment. Furthermore, the unequal access to green finance across various sizes of small and medium enterprises alongside low level of bureaucratic quality in low‐income nations in Europe further complicates the attainment of climatic targets by 2050. The study investigates the SME‐environmental sustainability link amidst the moderating role of green finance and bureaucratic quality in selected low‐income nations in Europe. Findings show that SMEs increased carbon emissions across all quantiles in the selected countries. The results from the interaction towed double‐ends; interaction between SMEs and green finance reduced carbon emissions significantly from lower to upper quantiles. The interaction between SMEs and bureaucratic quality aggravates the level of carbon emission across all quantiles. Relevant policy recommendations were proffered to the sovereign governments and relevant EU agencies within the manuscript.

The determinants of sustainable transportation in East Asian countries: Does the moderating role of institutional quality matter

Transportation has a profound effect on the environment, aggravating air pollution, climate change, and natural resource depletion. Additionally, the construction and maintenance of transportation infrastructure contribute to deforestation and habitat loss. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the correlation between c02 emissions, natural resource depletion, trade, FDI inflow and transportation in a chosen number of eastern Asian countries, with a unique perspective of examining the influence of institutional qualities as a moderator among these factors. The analysis involves the utilization of CS-ARDL and dumitrescu-hurlin causality test to examine the data. The findings suggest that institutional qualities have a positive impact on the relationship between c02 emissions and transportation, reversing the negative association. Additionally, trade has a negative correlation with transportation, this can be explained by the fact that weak institutional quality can lead to corruption and a lack of transparency, which can discourage foreign investment and trade in the transportation sector. On the other hand, resource depletion and FDI inflows affect negatively the transportation services in East Asian countries. Therefore, the study highlights the significance of effective governance, regulation, and management of institutions in promoting better transportation planning and coordination, ultimately leading to sustainable transportation service.