Supply-side Perspective Research Articles

Drivers Affecting Internal Audit Consulting Services: Contrasting Views from Demand-Side and Supply-Side Perspectives

demand-side (external auditors and audit committees) and supply-side (chief audit executive and senior and middle-level internal auditors) perspectives on the drivers of internal auditor consulting services. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: An independent sample t-test was conducted using the SPSS to determine views on the differences between the two groups. The study collected the perceptions of 258 respondents, including 123 on the demand side (57 audit committee members and 66 external auditors) and 135 respondents on the supply side (60 heads of internal audit and 75 internal auditors). Research finding: On the demand side, there are significant differences in the perceptions of audit committee members and external auditors, except on senior management support, risk-based internal audits, and auditor skills and competencies. On the supply side, there are no significant differences between chief audit executives and internal auditors’ views, except on organisational culture and data analytics. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This study extends internal audit research based on the resource-based view (RBV) theory, considering various influencing drivers (internal resources) from the perspectives of various stakeholders that affect internal auditors consulting services. Practitioner/ Policy implication: To improve the consulting services of the internal auditors, audit committees, external auditors, chief audit executives and internal auditors should develop an understanding of these conflicting views. Research limitation: Only listed companies in Bangladesh, which are better governed and regulated, were considered for data collection. Future research can focus on other developing countries and on unlisted companies. In addition, perceptions of other stakeholders, such as regulators and senior management, can also be taken into consideration.

Seed market dynamics and diffusion of new wheat varieties in Bihar, India: a supply-side perspective

An examination of the dynamics of seed markets in Bihar, India, reveals a paradox—despite an influx of wheat varieties bred by public and private sectors and the proliferation of seed market networks in rural villages, older wheat varieties remain prevalent—necessitating a thorough investigation of the seed distribution system. Unlike most empirical studies that examine the adoption of new and improved crop varieties from a farmer's perspective, our study shifts the focus to the seed supply side. We analyse data collected from 200 private seed dealers who cater to the needs of over 163,000 farmers spread across 10 districts in Bihar. We use descriptive statistics alongside dealer-level and varietal-level regression models to examine the relationship between seed sales and varietal age. Findings indicate that the number of varieties available with a dealer (varietal richness) is positively associated with the number of seed buyers (dealer’s reach) and the total quantity of seeds sold. Private varieties are in demand despite their higher prices. Dealer-level models showed that varietal age affects neither the reach nor the sales, allowing older public-sector varieties to coexist with more recent private-sector ones. However, the varietal-level regression models show that dealers rank the new varieties higher as the ones being sold more. To explore the potential of private seed markets to reduce the proliferation of old wheat varieties that are more susceptible to evolving biotic and abiotic stress factors, we recommend strengthening the varietal registration and seed certification processes, implementing better seed traceability systems, and fostering public–private partnerships in variety development and seed dissemination. Investing in market experiments to incentivize seed dealers to engage in quality assurance can help refine strategies and ensure efficient and inclusive dissemination of promising wheat varieties.

The benefits and costs of all-inclusive system from hoteliers’ point of view: a supply-side perspective

PurposeAll-inclusive (AI) packages and meal plans have been an essential component of leisure tourism and received a corresponding attention from the literature, particularly in the case of package tours. However, the existing body of research focuses on the motivations, attitudes and behaviors of tourists, thereby neglecting the supply-side perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and costs of AI systems from the perspective of hoteliers.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through 27 semi-structured interviews with lodging professionals through purposive sampling. This study adopted a qualitative research design and used thematic content analysis to explore the benefits and costs of AI system.FindingsThe thematic content analysis produced two main themes as facility-related factors and destination-related factors, which further classified as benefits and costs for the hotels and destinations.Originality/valueThis study extends current knowledge by providing a more comprehensive understanding of the benefits and costs of AI systems based on the hoteliers’ point of view, which reflects the supply-side perspective. The findings also offer valuable implications for industry practitioners and destinations to assess and manage the benefits and costs of the system.

Digital Financial Capability Towards Improving Entrepreneurial’s Business Performance

Digital financial, play a vital role for the country growth, provides the prospects for encouraging economic development during the looming economic downturn. Entrepreneurs play a significant role in economic growth and development. Today, digital financial become a large portion among entrepreneurship to increase their business performance. The objectives of this research to study the capability of financial digitalization towards entrepreneurial business. Therefore, on the base of previous literature, we developed hypothesis digital financial, and data collected through structured questionnaires among entrepreneurs. The findings of this research endeavour to shed light on developing and popularizing digital financing by providing services which are cheap, secure, and low risk from a supply-side perspective, as well as adopting and adjusting digital financing by enhancing financial literacy, which would be necessary from the demand-side perspective. Therefore, to facilitate entrepreneurial success and improvement in entrepreneurial industry, it is important to provide entrepreneurs with financial education. Meanwhile, improvements to the financial environment should also be considered.

Marketing Strategies for Olive Oil: A Supply-Side Perspective from Spain

Marketing Strategies for Olive Oil: A Supply-Side Perspective from Spain

Nurses' preferences for working in Uber-style ‘Internet plus’ nursing services: A discrete choice experiment

BackgroundChina's ‘Internet Plus’ nursing services, which are Uber-style home care services with an ‘online application, offline service’ approach, have been evolving over the past five years. Registered nurses' preference for these Uber-style Internet Plus nursing services are crucial for improving human resource management and service efficiency, yet research in this area remains scarce. ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore registered nurses' preferences for Uber-style Internet Plus nursing services and provide optimization recommendations from a supply-side perspective. DesignA cross-sectional study utilising a discrete choice experiment. Setting(s)Two public tertiary hospitals located in Tianjin, China, which have implemented Internet Plus nursing services. Participants211 registered nurses who participated in Internet Plus nursing services. MethodsThe survey was conducted anonymously using an online survey platform. Respondents were presented with choices between two alternatives, based on five key attributes: income, safety and security, patient and family cooperation, commute time, and service type. Mixed logit models estimated the stated preferences for attributes. Relative importance scores, willingness-to-pay estimates, and simulations of service-type uptake rates were calculated. Subgroup analysis and seemingly unrelated regression estimation were performed to examine heterogeneity in preferences. ResultsA total of 3202 choice observations were generated. When sorted by the strength of preference, the five attributes related to registered nurses' choice of Uber-style Internet Plus nursing services, measured by their relative importance scores, are as follows: safety and security (30.89 %), income (27.41 %), patient and family cooperation (18.47 %), service type (11.96 %), and commuting time (11.27 %). Elevating safety and security from low to high levels has the same utility as a 31.81 % increase in monthly income, equivalent to 2586.14 yuan. Subgroup analysis showed that senior nurses place more value on safety and security than junior nurses (β = 1.421 vs.β = 0.725; P = 0.011), and unmarried nurses had a stronger preference for family and caregiver cooperation (β = 1.105 vs.β = 0.314; P = 0.023). ConclusionsThe strength and heterogeneity of registered nurses' preferences should be highlighted in the dispatch algorithms model of Uber-style Internet Plus nursing services, thereby enhancing the efficiency and humanity of Uber-style Internet Plus nursing services. Tweetable abstractRegistered nurses prioritise safety and security, acknowledging heterogeneous preferences in Uber-style Internet Plus nursing services.

The factors that contribute to Da Nang's competitiveness as a tourism destination in Vietnam

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. However, after the Covid-19 pandemic, this industry has been severely affected worldwide. To recover the tourism sector and attract tourists back to destinations, it is important to consider whether a destination has any notable competitive advantages compared to others. The opinions and perspectives of tourists in evaluating the attractiveness of a destination are crucial because they directly influence their decision to visit that destination. However, currently, the number of studies based on the demand-side perspective is relatively scarce compared to the supply-side perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the impact of resources and capabilities in enhancing the destination competitiveness of Da Nang City from the tourists’ perspective. The research conducted a survey of 415 domestic tourists visiting Da Nang City through an online survey on social networks, namely Facebook and Instagram. The research provides an in-depth understanding of specific factors and their influence on the destination competitiveness of Da Nang City. These findings will be valuable for marketing strategies and destination management to enhance the competitiveness of Da Nang City as a tourist destination.

Exploring the affordances of service robots and the effects on frontline employees in China: a qualitative research in hotels

探讨服务机器人在中国酒店的可供性及其对一线员工的影响：定性研究研究目的本研究旨在调查酒店中服务机器人（SR）的可供性及其对一线员工（FLEs）的影响。研究方法本研究采用目的性和推荐抽样方法, 对酒店一线员工进行了28次半结构化访谈, 并根据扎根理论对转录的手稿进行了分析。研究发现本研究确定了服务机器人的六个可供性维度：物理、感官、任务、安全、社会和情感可供性。服务机器人可供性对一线员工的主要影响包括减少工作压力和心理疲劳, 以及在心理方面增加积极情绪。在行为方面, 观察到任务优先级的变化和服务机器人使用行为的增强。因此, 研究揭示了一种机制框架, 通过一线员工与服务机器人的直接和间接互动, 服务机器人可供性影响一线员工。研究创新本文从供给侧视角扩展了机器人研究, 是少数几篇研究酒店业中服务机器人可供性的研究之一。本研究结果为设计和实施服务机器人以支持酒店一线员工的日常工作提供了实践指南。

Formal financial institutions’ financing of women-owned small and medium enterprises in South Africa: a supply-side perspective

Formal financial institutions’ financing of women-owned small and medium enterprises in South Africa: a supply-side perspective

Determining the drivers of sustainable ecotourism destination competitiveness from a supply-side perspective: a case of UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia

Over the last decade, a new segment of the tourism market has been established following the shift in global visitors’ preferences. Individuals have directed their travel course towards another form of travel, namely ecotourism. Nonetheless, the sustainability and progression of ecotourism destinations are often debated. This study involves local industry players’ perspectives, primarily to identify their perceptions towards the impacts of destination core and supporting resources on destination marketing efforts and destination competitiveness (DC). This study gathered 132 valid responses and the proposed model was evaluated using SmartPLS 4.0. Through partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the findings showed that core resources (natural resources and cultural heritage attraction) have substantial positive associations with destination marketing efforts. Supporting resources (tourism infrastructure and quality of tourism services) were found to be significantly and positively associated with DC. Interestingly, this study has revealed the absence of significant relationships between destination marketing efforts and ecotourism DC. These findings enable tourism practitioners to better understand the impacts of resources on sustainable development of ecotourism competitiveness, specifically from suppliers’ perspectives. The implications are further discussed in the paper.

Informal Institutions and Audit Pricing: Cross-Country Evidence of National Culture and Audit Fees

Synopsis The research problem In this study, we examined the effect of an important informal institution, namely, national culture, on audit fees in an international context. Motivation In recent years, extant literature has increasingly focused on country-level differences in the audit environment, as these might have a significant influence on how financial statement audits are conducted across the globe. We contribute to this stream of literature by investigating the impact of national culture on audit fees. The test hypotheses Based on the demand- and supply-side perspectives of audit fees, we hypothesized that national culture dimensions — namely, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity — affect audit fees. Target population We used a sample of 27,670 firm-year observations across 22 countries over the 2002–2019 period. Adopted methodology We used ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions as baseline technique and entropy-balanced method (EBM) and system-generalized method of moments (GMM) to address endogeneity concerns. Analyses We examined the impact of Hofstede’s four national culture dimensions — uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity — on audit fees. We also tested the robustness of results using alternative measures of national culture, subsample analyses, and additional firm-level factors. Findings Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that audit fees are higher (lower) in countries with higher uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity (power distance) scores. Our further analyses reveal that earnings management proxied by abnormal accruals does not impact the relationship; however, country-level creditor rights influence audit fees in high power distance and masculine cultures. We also note that national culture influences auditor choice and audit opinion. Our main findings are robust to alternate proxies and subsample analysis, as well as to address potential endogeneity concerns. Overall, our findings offer important implications for firms operating in global markets and for the audit profession.

Oxygen evolution and its drivers in a stratified reservoir: A supply-side perspective for informing hypoxia alleviation strategies

Hypoxia in stratified waters greatly threatens aquatic ecology and societal development owing to enhanced nutrient discharge and increasing global temperature. Current research predominantly alleviates hypoxia by reducing dissolved oxygen (DO) consumption or conducting hypolimnetic oxygenation, yet their implementation has encountered bottlenecks. Therefore, this study explores the potential of increasing the inherent DO supplies in stratified reservoirs to mitigate hypoxia. High-frequency in situ observations and massive modeling experiments are integrated to discern the DO supply mode and the dominant driver of DO evolution. Results indicate that periodic thermodynamic conditions determine the DO supply relationships between oxygen sources (inflow carriage, reaeration, and photosynthesis) for different water layers. Thermal stratification causes the hypolimnion to rely mostly on the inflow for DO supply, leading to a fragile budget prone to hypoxia. However, episodic hydrodynamic events (turnover, wind stir, density current, and flood) can promote DO supply and inhibit hypoxia. Temperature and DO regimes are primarily driven by outflow conditions, followed by inflow and meteorology conditions. Furthermore, hypolimnetic hypoxia can be regulated by altering inflow volume, outflow volume, and outlet elevation. These findings highlight the importance of longitudinal solute exchange in DO evolution in stratified reservoirs, providing a basis for alleviating hypoxia through cascade reservoir operations.

Agent Banking, Mobile Money Operation and Financial Inclusion in Nigeria: Supply Side Perspective

Background: The inability to achieve optimum financial inclusion in Nigeria has necessitated the review of various policies and instruments meant to reduce the level of financial exclusion. Objective: Hence this study investigates the impact of agent banking and mobile money operation on financial inclusion in Nigeria, focusing on the supply side. Method: Descriptive research design was adopted and secondary data ranging from 2013 to 2021 were obtained from the World Bank Global Financial database and e-payment statistics of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Ordinary least squares repression was used to analyse the data. Results: Findings revealed that at 5% significance level, point-of-sale and mobile money operations have a positive impact on financial inclusion while web/internet banking plays a limited role in achieving financial inclusion. Conclusion: The study concluded that both agent banking and mobile money operations impact on financial inclusion in Nigeria; the study, therefore, recommends that more off-site automated teller machine and licensed agents should be encouraged to cater for the rural residents and ultimately improve financial inclusion. Keywords: Agent Banking, Financial inclusion, Mobile Money Operation

Demand-side effects of urban green spaces: How attractiveness helps overcome subjective barriers to health behaviours

The contribution of Urban Green Spaces (UGSs) to public health is a critical topic. Existing research predominantly examines the relationship between enhanced UGSs characteristics — such as availability, accessibility, and usability — and residents’ health, highlighting how these attributes can mitigate objective barriers to health behaviours in UGSs from a supply-side perspective. However, few studies have explored the demand-side effects of UGSs, particularly in how potential visitors overcome subjective barriers to health behaviours. This study hypothesizes that Perceived UGSs Quality (PUGSQ), including attractive qualities like environmental aesthetics and open space publicness, promotes health behaviours in UGSs (HB_UGS) by enhancing residents’ self-efficacy in overcoming subjective barriers (OBSE). An online cross-sectional study was conducted in China in 2020, employing covariance structure analysis to examine the mediating role of OBSE between PUGSQ and HB_UGS. The findings indicate that augmenting PUGSQ bolsters potential visitors’ belief in their ability to overcome subjective barriers to visiting UGSs or participating in activities therein, thereby promoting sustained and regular health behaviours. The mediation model is applicable across varying activity intensities and whether activities are undertaken alone or in groups. OBSE demonstrates a partial mediating effect in the low-activity-intensity group, and full mediating effects in the medium-high-activity-intensity group, the lone activity group and the collective activity group. These results suggest that, in addition to the well-documented passive role of UGSs in health promotion from a supply-side perspective — which predominantly engages visitors’ willpower resources — UGSs can also assume a more active role from a demand-side perspective. This active role involves mobilizing visitors’ desire resources and potentially lessening the strain on their willpower resources, thus offering a more nuanced understanding of UGS’s influence on health behaviours. The position of UGSs in health promotion thus rises from ‘just nice to have’ to ‘essential to have’.

Tourists’ perceptions of the competitive destination

Much of the work on destination competitiveness adopts a supply-side perspective that ignores how tourists perceive competitiveness. This paper examines destination competitiveness from the tourist's perspective, by assessing factors they feel make a destination appealing and, in a post-COVID-19 world, safe. Focus groups and personal interviews were conducted with 73 participants from mainland China and Hong Kong. Content analysis revealed four classes of competitive destinations. Ideal destinations are both appealing and safe, and thus highly competitive. Mundane destinations are somewhat competitive due to their perceived safety but lack of unique appeal. Enigmatic destinations are somewhat uncompetitive because of safety concerns, even though they have a certain amount of appeal. Fiasco destinations are very uncompetitive, because they are seen to be unappealing and unsafe. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

Managing Coins for Depository Institutions in Coin Supply Chains for Improved Circulation

We study the U.S. Coin Supply Chain from both the demand and supply side perspectives to improve coin circulation in the economy. More specifically, we provide an operating policy for Depository Institutions (DIs) to improve their efficiency in packaging, distributing, coordinating, and managing the inventory of coins. We further propose a new policy (via a Rewards Program) to increase coin circulation in the economy and optimally determine a reward price, which, if implemented by the Federal Reserve System (FRS), can incentivize DIs to process the coins themselves and/or frequently deposit excess coins at the FRS. We identify the structures of DIs’ best response to the reward price and FRS’s optimal pricing policy. The results and insights developed in this study can be beneficial to both the FRS and DIs in increasing the efficiency of the nation’s coin circulation and thereby reducing their operating costs. Additionally, to estimate the societal benefit from the Rewards Program, we formulate the coin flow for an entire FRS region as an optimization problem from the supply side perspective and quantify the societal costs (and benefits) with and without the reward. We show via numerical experiments that both the FRS and Dis reduce their operating costs as a result of the program and produce a surplus benefit for the society. The reward price that maximizes this surplus is determined optimally. We also propose a robust optimization framework to help DIs and the FRS to manage their inventory under uncertain demand while attaining their cost reduction goals.

They shall not pass? The role of supply-side factors in the electoral breakthrough of VOX and Chega

ABSTRACT No country is immune to the electoral success of populist radical right (PRR) parties: Spain and Portugal seemed to be the exception to this rule because, for decades, PRR parties remained relegated to the margins of the Iberian political systems. However, in 2019 VOX and Chega gained parliamentary representation: how did they manage to obtain their historic electoral breakthrough? From a supply-side perspective, we use the Party Manifesto dataset to show that VOX and Chega chose to position themselves within the existing political space and cleavages in ways that set them apart from the competition. VOX exploited the Spanish centre-periphery cleavage insisting on strong nationalist elements while advocating for increased centralization, while Chega insisted on personal freedom and welfare limitation to break the ties with the political system born out of the Carnation Revolution.

Inclusive Finance for SMEs in Pakistan: A Supply-Side Perspective

Objective: Inclusive finance aims to escalate the access and usage of financial services among SMEs and individuals as well. Therefore, it is mainly concerned with efforts towards financial inclusion, which means easy access and usage of a wide range of affordable financial products and services by everyone, provided by a variety of sound, responsible, and sustainable financial institutes. In Pakistan, SMEs face severe issues towards access to formal finance and bound to meet their financial needs by using informal finance. This study aims to highlight the supply-side factors impacting SME's access to finance in Pakistan. Methodology: This quantitative research has been conducted in the five big cities of Punjab province. By using a stratified sampling technique SMEs from three main sectors have been included in this study manufacturing, services and trading. Findings: In line with prior research study concluded that for inclusive growth and development, provision of resources, favourable policies and regulatory reforms, financial and other national institutions, international bodies support can bring significant change in the status of SMEs in Pakistan. Implications: Current study will be helpful for policy makers and financial institutions to formalize their structure and strategies to facilitate SMEs in Pakistan.

Grid-scale crop dynamic layout optimization model considering stakeholders' cropping preferences and practice behaviours

Rapid population growth has led to an increasing demand for food, accompanied by an increase in the resources invested in producing food, and the extensive food production practices have placed a huge burden on the environment. There is an urgent desire of need to find a sustainable model of food production. Therefore, this study attempted to develop a dynamic regional grid-scale crop layout model (ABCAMODP-Crop) combining agent-based model, multi-objective programming, dynamic programming and cellular automata model to promote more sustainable food production from a supply-side perspective. The model can: (1) take into account the planting preferences and practical behaviours of government and farmer as stakeholders in crop layout; (2) further weigh the conflicts among the various objectives that stakeholders are concerned with from resource, environmental, nutritional and economic dimensions; (3) consider the impact of the previous year's crop layout on the next year's crop placement; and (4) obtain grid-scale accurate crop layout solutions by considering the spatial variability of optimization parameters and the neighborhood effects of crop layout cells. The model was applied to the Shiyang River Basin in China to verify its usefulness. Over the entire planning period, crop layout schemes optimized with the objective of integrating irrigation water productivity, environmental impact, nutrient availability and economic benefits have higher comprehensive benefits than the original scheme, with an increase in average irrigation water productivity per unit area of 14.55%, an increase in total yield of 14.45%, an increase in total carbohydrate availability of 7.39%, an increase in total calcium availability of 18.74%, an increase in total net carbon sequestration of 8.05%, an increase in total net benefit of 20.08%. The model developed allows for a holistic view of crop layout and guides decision-makers in a rational distribution of regional crops, thus promoting more sustainable food production. It can equally be extended to other regions as a generic modelling framework.

Evolving water, energy and carbon footprints in China's food supply chain

Food-supply related activities are depleting water resources, wasting energy and aggravating climate change to feed the swelling population. How the water, energy and carbon footprints (WECFs) transfer in the entire food supply chain (FSC) and evolve driven by socioeconomic effects remains elusive. Herein, we propose adapted models of structural path analysis (SPA) and structural decomposition analysis (SDA) specifically for the FSC based on input-output analysis. Beyond evaluating the WECFs in China's FSC induced by household consumption during 2007–2017, we track their transfer through the supply chain, and unravel their key evolutionary characteristics and socioeconomic drivers. With the WECFs increasing in aggregate magnitude, their growth rates decelerate, while the urban household consumption ascends to over 70% of the total household consumption. Except the food sector itself (Agriculture and Food processing), Chemicals and Electricity and heat are the key sectors, whose dominance is weakened by the surging contribution of Transportation and Services. Chemicals → Agriculture → Food processing → Household food consumption is a critical shared path for three footprints. From supply-side perspective, the path length for WECFs is lengthening over time, with a general 5%–8% increase in the share of paths associated with second-order production layers. Increased premium food consumption imposes pressure on the WECFs, which is non-negligible besides per capita consumption effect and intensity effect. The findings inform policies required for synergetic control of WECFs along FSC and optimized decision-making on FSC management.