Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Procurement Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Procurement Management are now available here for free:

• Studying the critical success factors of ERP in the banking sector: a DEMATEL approach
• Economic order quantity model for two generation consecutive technology products under permissible delay in payments
• The perceived value of public procurement and contract management certification
• A theoretical framework of socially responsible supply chain for future research: from a literature study perspective
• A performance evaluation model for Iran's special economic zones through export marketing

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Data Mining

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Data Mining are now available here for free:

• Gender classification based on similarity features through SURF and SVM
• The discovery of normality of body weight using principal component analysis: a comparative study on machine learning techniques using different data pre-processing methods
• Selection of optimal hot extrusion processing parameters for AA6061 using fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS
• Real-world credit scoring: a comparative study of statistical and artificial intelligent methods
• SharY: a dynamic ridesharing and carpooling solution using advanced optimised algorithm

Research pick: "A Rothbardian approach for the assignment of property rights on the Antarctica continent"

Antarctica is a mysterious continent, we have barely scratched its icy surface in terms of exploration and within this frozen realm, there are unimagined resources that remain untapped. The continent lies without state, nations stake claims to chunks of it but its legal status is frozen like its vast wildernesses. Now, a new paper in the International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management suggests an approach based on the anarcho-capitalist and heterodox-economist philosophy of Murray Newton Rothbard (1926-1995) that could allow the international community to assign equitable but limited property rights to Antarctica.

Of course, having a framework for the carving up of a continent might be perceived as a modern form of imperialism. Rothbard argued that all services provided by the “monopoly system of the corporate state” could be done far more effectively by private enterprise, he even argued that the state is “the organization of robbery systematized and writ large”. How the notion of assigning state ownership to portions of Antarctica sits with such a view may well require its own standalone philosophy.

José Antonio Peña-Ramos of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile in Providencia, Chile and Dmitri Amirov-Belova of the Pablo de Olavide University in Sevilla, Spain, explain that due to its isolated location and perhaps its extreme temperatures and climatic conditions, there is no indigenous population or government. This contrasts starkly with the Arctic in the north, of course. They point out that several nations have territorial claims on the continent – Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. There are several thousand people each year who spend time on the continent for scientific and other purposes.

The team offers much food for thought for those concerned for the future of Antarctica. Primarily, they suggest that a non-state-centric view of international relations may be needed to answer the questions we must act about this frozen continent.

Peña-Ramos, J.A. and Amirov-Belova, D. (2021) ‘A Rothbardian approach for the assignment of property rights on the Antarctica continent’, Int. J. Technology, Policy and Management, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.333–343.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Power Electronics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Power Electronics are now available here for free:

• Soft-switched high step-up DC/DC boost converter for distributed generation
• Regulation of hybrid micro grid under transient operations
• Analysis, design and implementation of a fixed frequency PWM-based sliding-mode controller for quadratic buck converter
• Conventional inverter emulation-based DTC strategy dedicated to delta inverter
• A comparison of different DC-DC converter topology for electric vehicle charging
• Analysis and design of IMC-PI controller with faster set point tracking and disturbance rejection for interleaved DC-DC SEPIC converter-based power factor correction

Research pick: Analysing online social networking - "Comprehensive survey of user behaviour analysis on social networking sites"

A comprehensive review of the various approaches to social networking user behaviour analysis is reported in the International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology by a team from India. Pramod Bide and Sudhir Dhage of the Computer Engineering Department at the Sardar Patel Institute of Technology in Mumbai, Maharashtra, explain that various approaches can be used for gender prediction, the identification of malicious users, real-time user preference determination, and emotion detection.

Online social networks have been with us for many years now and they each have their pros and cons for their billions of users. For researchers and other observers they are a major source of data that can be used to glean insights into human behaviour and the interactions and responses of users to others and to commercial, political, and other concerns that hope to engage with those users. As such, numerous analytical approaches have been tested that might extract insights from the various online social networks, each with its own successes and failures.

The team explains that hybrid techniques and ones that can be used to analyse behaviour between networks can be the most powerful tools. The results that such approaches are able to glean about the networks’ users can be useful to marketing departments, political campaigners, advocacy groups, and many other so-called “stakeholders” looking to make the most of the online world to fulfill their own agendas.

The team concedes that the vast majority of analytical tools focus on text-based updates on social networks, but some can take images and videos into consideration too, and even audio in some instances. Indeed, they suggest that the next step will be to survey tools that focus specifically on audio-visual content.

Bide, P. and Dhage, S. (2021) ‘Comprehensive survey of user behaviour analysis on social networking sites’, Int. J. Computer Applications in Technology, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp.1–18.

Special issue published: "Intelligent Healthcare Systems for Sustainable Development"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 66(2) 2021

• Dermoscopic image segmentation method based on convolutional neural networks
• Prediction of diabetic patients using various machine learning techniques
• Multisensor fusion approach: a case study on human physiological factor-based emotion recognition and classification
• LabVIEW-based cardiac risk assessment of foetal ECG signal extracted from maternal abdominal signal
• Impact of feature extraction techniques on cardiac arrhythmia classification: experimental approach
• Artificial intelligence-based algorithm to track the probable COVID-19 cases using contact history of virus infected person
• IoT-based automatic intravenous fluid monitoring system for smart medical environment
• Prevention of autopsy by establishing a cause-effect relationship between pulmonary embolism and heart-failure using machine learning
• Prediction of cardiac disease using online extreme learning machine
• RC-DBSCAN: redundancy controlled DBSCAN algorithm for densely deployed wireless sensor network to prolong the network lifespan
• Coronary artery disease diagnosis using extra tree-support vector machine: ET-SVMRBF
• Tool-based persona for designing user interfaces in healthcare
• Digitisation of paper-ECG using column wise-median approach

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Optimisation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Optimisation are now available here for free:

• Guiding iterative optimisation methods to a predefined kind of optima for unconstrained optimisation problems
• Global stability of a fractional order eco-epidemiological system with infected prey
• Modelling biological control dynamics of the banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar) by generalist predators in a banana agroecosystem
• Marine reserve and its consequences in a predator-prey system for ecotourism and fishing

Special issue published: "Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Cognitive Radio Networks"

International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications 13(1) 2022

• Assessing opinion polarity using machine learning by correlated attributes impact fitness
• Design of a constant-bandwidth variable-gain amplifier for 5G receivers
• Design and analysis of tagged-T antenna for 5G applications
• Architectures and circuit design techniques of receivers suitable for AI-enabled IoT applications
• Design of inset fed circular dual band patch antenna for WLAN frequencies

Additional papers

• Narrowband internet of things: analysis of frame structure, NPSS sequence generation and detection
• Performance comparison of multipath routing protocols for mobile ad hoc network

Research pick: Predicting COVID-19 infection spikes - "Hull-WEMA: a novel zero-lag approach in the moving average family, with an application to COVID-19"

A comparison of two approaches to the popular moving average forecasting method in time series analysis could allow researchers to make more accurate predictions of COVID-19 infections in the short term. Details are published in the International Journal of Management and Decision Making.

Seng Hansun of the Informatics Department at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara in Tangerang, Indonesia, Vincent Charles of the School of Management at the University of Bradford, Tatiana Gherman of the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Northampton, UK, and Vijayakumar Varadarajan of the School of Computer Science and Engineering at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, discuss the weighted exponential moving average (WEMA) and the Hull moving average (HMA). WEMA was first introduced in 2013 and is now widely used, but suffers from lags. To overcome this issue, the team has developed a novel zero-lag Hull-WEMA method that combines HMA and WEMA.

As a proof of principle, of this new hybridised approach, the team has used COVID-19 time-series data from ten different countries with the highest number of cases on the last observed date. Their results show that the new model has much greater accuracy than HMA and WEMA used separately. Indeed, the team’s success points to the possibility of a general “white-box” forecasting method that could be used to make short-term predictions about how the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in a given region will change.

Given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and how quickly healthcare systems can be overcome by sudden spikes in infection rates and sickness, an accurate forecasting method should allow providers and the authorities to make better calls on what staffing levels and equipment will be needed over a short time-frame in order to cope with those spikes and to free up resources when the model predictions that the number of infections are set to fall.

The team concludes that their work allows them to “join the recent research efforts made by the community of researchers to assist governments, policymakers, and other relevant stakeholders by providing forecasts that can be used as a tool towards making better decisions and taking appropriate actions to contain or curb the spread of the coronavirus.”

Hansun, S., Charles, V., Gherman, T. and Varadarajan, V. (2022) ‘Hull-WEMA: a novel zero-lag approach in the moving average family, with an application to COVID-19’, Int. J. Management and Decision Making, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp.92–112.

Free open access article available: "The impact of divorce on the family business system in SMEs - patterns of coping strategies, commitment and ownership regulations"

The following paper, "The impact of divorce on the family business system in SMEs - patterns of coping strategies, commitment and ownership regulations" (International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 44(4) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Systems, Control and Communications are now available here for free:

• PAPR reduction of MIMO-OFDM using galaxy inspired swarm-based PTS strategy
• Evaluation of symbol error probability using a new tight Gaussian Q approximation
• Supervisory control design for congestion control and bandwidth management
• Efficient algorithm design on hybrid CPU-FPGA architecture for high performance computing
• Effective decoding and ambient backscattering phase cancellation mitigation in tag-to-tag communication
• Fractional order PID controller for the stabilisation of chaotic systems using Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model

Free open access article available: "Driving health technologies towards performance: a contextualisation within the hospital setting"

The following paper, "Driving health technologies towards performance: a contextualisation within the hospital setting" (International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management 21(4) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Sustainable Economy

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Sustainable Economy are now available here for free:

• Design orientation as a source of sustainable company performance
• Credit access and the performance of non-farm household enterprises: evidence from Nigerian data
• International credit rating agencies in Africa: perceptions, trends and challenges
• The impact of risk indicators on sustainability (ESG) and broad-based indices: an empirical analysis from Germany, France, Indonesia and Turkey
• Innovation and competitiveness in the European Union countries

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Management in Education

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Management in Education are now available here for free:

• The intention of using Facebook by postgraduate students for knowledge sharing: an empirical study
• Perceived leadership style and job satisfaction of teachers in public and private schools
• Measuring valuable antecedents of instructional leadership in educational organisations
• Relationships between work-related hazards and occupational burnout among academics: are active coping strategies important?
• Academics' life satisfaction: the role of perceived stress, organisational justice and self-efficacy

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions are now available here for free:

• Blockchain application in supply chain chemical substance reporting - a Delphi study
• Robust transcoding-resilient H.264 watermarking
• An evaluation of identity and access management systems
• Cluster-based optimal sink repositioning technique for WSNs using an improved glowworm swarm optimisation and S* position search algorithm
• Factors influencing Bitcoin investment intention: the case of Oman

Special issue published: "Innovative Business and Organisational Transformation Practices"

International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise 9(1) 2022

• Workplace spirituality and employees' readiness for change as precursors to innovative work behaviour: an empirical examination
• Impact of organisational justice on perception of ability-job-fit in a changing environment
• Analysing the entrepreneurial intentions through intellectual capital: evidences from India
• Economic, political and institutional determinants of foreign direct investment inflow in emerging and developing Asia
• Price discovery and volatility transmission in the spot and futures market of pepper: an empirical analysis

Additional papers

• The impact of corporate governance on banks' earnings management
• A formal design in the generation of an array PIN using a Petri net model and implementation for secure transactions

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Reliability and Safety

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Reliability and Safety are now available here for free:

• A system dynamics simulation model for environmental risk assessment at strategic level in power plants
• Optimal design of accelerated degradation test plan under modified ramp-stress loading
• A log-third order polynomial normal transformation approach for high-reliability estimation with scarce samples
• Complementary optimal age maintenance (COAM) policy for repairable systems

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Innovation and Learning

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Innovation and Learning are now available here for free:

• Is teaming possible for enhancing a teaching style towards developing Thai undergraduates' learning and performance behaviour?
• Group learning: an analysis of individuals in software development teams who perform interdependent tasks
• Determinants of innovative development and their importance for small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland
• Human resource development and spiritual intelligence: an investigation amongst management students in Delhi NCR
• The impact of management method on IT projects success
• Innovativeness in Brazilian startups: the effect of the absorptive capacity and environmental dynamism

Free open access article available: "Technology for improved operating room scheduling - a case of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center of Tanzania"

The following paper, "Technology for improved operating room scheduling - a case of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center of Tanzania" (International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology 16(1) 2022), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise are now available here for free:

• Monetary policy in tough times - case study approach
• Impact of price control on pharmaceutical sector with reference to India
• Factors influencing the consumer buying behaviour in the competitive era: an empirical study of consumer durable in Vietnam
• Word sense disambiguation in Tamil using Indo-WordNet and cross-language semantic similarity
• A new dominant point detection technique for polygonal approximation of digital planar closed curves
• A new approach to multi-objective transportation problem forbinding relationship between warehouse to consumer and consumer to consumer
• The evaluation pattern of Indian investors on role of stockbrokers to determination of investment decision
• Topological properties of multigranular rough sets on intuitionistic fuzzy approximation spaces

Research pick: Predicting political flux from emotional Twitter updates - "Modelling and visualising emotions in Twitter feeds"

Predictive analytics on social media has become an important tool and research in the International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management looks at how it might be used to extract emotional context from the information-rich data streams on the micro-blogging platform Twitter.

Satish Srinivasan and Ruchika Chari of the School of Graduate Professional Studies at Penn State Great Valley in Malvern, Pennsylvania and Abhishek Tripathi of the School of Business at The College of New Jersey, in Ewing, USA, suggest that large-scale data mining might be used not only to trap emotions at the individual user level but across large groups of users.

Training a naïve Bayes multinomial system and using random forest classifiers on different training datasets can be used to extract an emotional classification for tweets related to a particular topic. The team has successfully demonstrated proof of principle using Twitter updates associated with the 2016 US presidential elections. With this approach, they were able to classify Twitter updates, so-called “tweets” according to one of four basic emotion types: anger, happiness, sadness, and surprise. They were then able to portray the flux in the emotional landscape during this disruptive and divisive period of modern American history.

The analysis of this particular data set shows how Twitter users were generally happier with Clinton earlier in the campaign but as election day approached there was a gradual increase in happiness with Trump’s candidature and a dwindling of “surprise” associated with the details of his campaign. The result, of course, is history, but the algorithms wielded by the team corroborate the reality we saw and, of course, may well be applied to a future scenario to make predictions about an outcome based on the classified emotions inherent in Twitter updates pertaining to that scenario.

Srinivasan, S.M., Chari, R. and Tripathi, A. (2021) ‘Modelling and visualising emotions in Twitter feeds’, Int. J. Data Mining, Modelling and Management, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.337–350.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology are now available here for free:

• Characterisation of humic acids in fen peat
• Evaluation of arbuscular mycorrhiza inoculation potential for sustainable production of aerobic rice var. MR1A
• Economic impact of community forest management on farmers: an Indonesian perspective
• AgriRobot: implementation and evaluation of an automatic robot for seeding and fertiliser microdosing in precision agriculture
• Modelling the effect of some operational parameters on grain loss in mechanised rice harvesting: a case study in Malaysian paddy fields
• Agro-tech ontology: a solution for accelerating agricultural productivity in the state of Rajasthan, India

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Management and Decision Making

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Management and Decision Making are now available here for free:

• Informal reasoning fallacies: answered and unanswered questions from a decision-making perspective
• What motivates the accountants' awareness of their impact on corporate reputation?
• Enabling manufacturer selection and an equitable order allocation amongst textiles and apparel manufacturers
• Goal-directed emotions nudge R&D investment decisions
• The positive conformity experiment: judgments and decisions in cohesive groups under the pressure of positive attitudes

Free open access article available: "Can exporting SMEs benefit from extending longer payment periods?"

The following paper, "Can exporting SMEs benefit from extending longer payment periods?" (International Journal of Export Marketing 4(3) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Economics and Accounting

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Economics and Accounting are now available here for free:

• Assessing internal audit function and public sector performance in Nigeria
• Nippon economic thinking during the Meiji restoration
• Corporate social responsibility as an element of good corporate governance - a chronology of its historical and contemporary development
• Analogue valuation of micro companies belonging to the retail sector in Mexico using key financial indicators
• Does accounting quality impact the cost of capital? An empirical study on the German capital market

Research pick: Energy trees and energy ships - "On the transition to global renewable energy by mid-century"

Wind and solar power must be maximised if we are to make the transition to global renewable energy by the middle of the century. That is the assertion of Max Platzer of AeroHydro Research and Technology Associates in Pebble Beach, California, USA, writing in the International Journal Sustainable Aviation. Hybrid wind-solar power-generation technology could be one key to this aspiration without requiring us to use more land resources or disturbing the wider environment. An energy tree would add a third dimension to solar panels and wind turbines. Additionally, the “energy ship” concept would allow us to exploit vast wind resources across our oceans as well as extract carbon dioxide from seawater to produce renewable aviation fuel.

Despite many diverse efforts to home in on a solution to the problems of climate change, no consensus on how we might address the issues has been found. A switch from fossil fuels is seen as an important transition, provided we can preclude net carbon emissions.

“The possibility of irreversible climate change onset within the next 30 years requires an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to transition to almost complete emission-free power generation,” writes Platzer. To that end, we need energy technologies that can be implemented around the world easily as well as methods to produce fuels that are ultimately carbon neutral. The energy ship concept would be for the time being an interim solution given that the fuels it produces would still be burnt and thus release captured carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Platzer, M.F. (2021) ‘On the transition to global renewable energy by mid-century’, Int. J. Sustainable Aviation, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp.285–292.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business and Systems Research

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business and Systems Research are now available here for free:

• A hybrid systems approach to determine effective factors on the growth of marine industries in developing countries
• Musculoskeletal health problems and relationship of risk factors among manual clay brick sector workers
• An integrated model for formulation, alignment, execution and evaluation of business and IT strategies
• Exploring the impact of multi-class teams in an immersive learning environment on student learning experience and engagement
• Leadership models in the gamification context - case study
• Recommender systems: an overview, research trends, and future directions
• Covid-19, economy and the 'drop of honey effect' metaphor - a note on the Portuguese case. Situation and measures

Free sample articles newly available from Electronic Government, an International Journal

The following sample articles from the Electronic Government, an International Journal are now available here for free:

• Website performance: evaluation in Ngawi District Government websites
• Development of a framework for a collaborative and personalised voice assistant
• Exploring critical dimensions for measuring service quality in government to employee
• Motives to use online news and the impact on satisfaction with the government and vote choice
• The trust in the intermediaries and the intention to use electronic government services: a case of a developing country
• Challenges and prospects of e-governance in Poland and Spain

Special issue published: "The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Transforming Businesses"

International Journal of Business Performance Management 23(1/2) 2022

• Market perception of efficient light source technologies: a case study on sustainable energy transitions in Sri Lanka
• Towards a new model of productive Islamic financial mechanisms
• Micro-foundations as a grounding for readiness-for change in knowledge sharing initiatives
• The readiness of workforce for the world of work in 2030: perceptions of university students
• Cultural distance or cultural similarity? A study of academic expatriates in the UAE
• Impact of authentic leadership on employee engagement in the banking sector of Karachi
• Relationship and causality between cryptocurrencies, commodities, currencies, indexes and web search results during and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic
• The impact of the Dubai International Airport's activity volume on the Emirati stock market
• The impact of political connections on the level of cash holdings: evidence from Tunisian listed firms
• The inter-relationship between foreign direct investments and unemployment: case study of China, India and Singapore
• Designing online communication mix for machinery manufacturers

Additional papers

• Predictors of turnover intention among multinational corporation employees
• Exploring the correlation between diversity and financial performance: an empirical study

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Integrated Supply Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Integrated Supply Management are now available here for free:

• Recycle system design for end-of-life electronics in developing countries
• Flows optimisation of industrial symbiosis based on bi-objective mathematical modelling
• A measurement model of value of data for decision-making in the digital era
• Integrated operational supply chain planning in Industry 4.0
• The impact of intelligent automation in internal supply chains

Research pick: Commodities and cryptocurrencies in the time of COVID-19 - "Relationship and causality between cryptocurrencies, commodities, currencies, indexes and web search results during and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic"

What relationships might we extract from an examination of the changes in values of cryptocurrencies and commodities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. New work published in the International Journal of Business Performance Management, looks at the relationship and causality between cryptocurrencies, commodities, currencies, indexes and web search results over this period. The team demonstrated that they could model the effects with up to 95% accuracy for the price of the cryptocurrencies they examined – Bitcoin and Ethereum. Moreover, they obtained strong evidence that web search traffic correlates with the prices of those two cryptocurrencies while the price of gold affects Bitcoin and the value of the Euro affects Ethereum. The web is perhaps the main source of information with respect to cryptocyurrency investments so this is perhaps not surprising.

Deni Memic, Mohamed Noor, and Saif Almehairi of the Higher Colleges of Technology at Academic City, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Selma Skaljic-Memic of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Sarajevo, used high-frequency data for prices of the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ehtereum and two “traditional” commodities Crude Oil WTI futures and Gold futures. In addition, they examined the Euro versus US Dollar and the Euro versus Swiss Franc exchange rates, and an equity index represented by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Google Trends data gave them a measure of search results on the worldwide web pertinent to the cryptocurrencies of interest.

“Our goal was to observe the relationship and causality between cryptocurrencies on one, and commodities, currencies, equity indexes and web search results on the other side,” the team writes. It was quickly apparent that the average prices of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and gold during the COVID-19 period of 2020 were all above their historical averages, suggesting that investors turned to those “safe havens” or defensive assets in the pandemic crisis. However, somewhat surprising is that Bitcoin too was at an above average price during this period despite its reputation as a riskier investment option than stocks and gold. The team found that all assets with the exception of crude oil offered positive returns in the period before COVID-19 but most assets gave significant negative returns during the COVID-19 period studied. Volatility was very high during this period.

Conventional assets have been the subject of much research for many years. The advent of cryptocurrencies adds another branch to what academics and practitioners alike need to focus on to understand the broader financial markets and the shifting world of investment. The emergence of a pandemic offered opportunities for some and retrospective analysis could be used to guide predictions and responses in finance to subsequent crises.

Memic, D., Skaljic-Memic, S. and Almehairi, M.N.S.M.N.S. (2022) ‘Relationship and causality between cryptocurrencies, commodities, currencies, indexes and web search results during and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic’, Int. J. Business Performance Management, Vol. 23, Nos. 1/2, pp.99–117.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Electronic Healthcare

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Electronic Healthcare are now available here for free:

• An analysis of a closed COPD online health community: identifying information needs and credibility of sources
• Investigation of the cellular and soluble markers of inflammation for the assessment of cardiovascular risk in patients with acute coronary syndrome in Bangladesh
• Ranking the access control models for secured sharing of EHR using fuzzy TOPSIS technique
• Reminders for medication adherence: a review and research agenda
• Requirement specification of an ontology-based semantic recommender system for medical prescriptions and drug interaction detection

Special issue published: "Biometrics: Challenges And Applications"

International Journal of Biometrics 14(1) 2022

• Face detection and recognition system based on hybrid statistical, machine learning and nature-based computing
• Experimental results on palmvein-based personal recognition by multi-snapshot fusion of textural features
• Euclidean distance versus Manhattan distance for skin detection using the SFA database
• Identifying age group and gender based on activities on touchscreen
• A robust and efficient fingerprint minutiae extraction in post-processing algorithm

Additional paper

• Applications of deep learning algorithms in biomedical signal processing - pros and cons

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology are now available here for free:

• Analysis, identification and design of robust control techniques for ultra-lift Luo DC-DC converter powered by fuel cell
• The graph SSG(2) is odd graceful and odd harmonious
• Multi-objective optimisation of tube hydroforming process on IF steel using Taguchi-based principal component analysis
• A hybrid approach of firefly and genetic algorithm for solving optimisation problems
• The rapid development of knowledge bases using UML class diagrams
• Quantifying wind-driven rain on a heritage facade through computational fluid dynamics
• A new bio-inspired algorithm: lizard optimisation

Special issue published: "Intelligent Evaluations On Resource Management Techniques In Fog Computing"

International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing 12(4) 2021

• Web data mining algorithm based on cloud computing environment
• Neural network classifier based on genetic algorithm image segmentation of subject robot optimisation system
• Deep learning-based comprehensive monitor for smart power station
• Power transmission line anomaly detection scheme based on CNN-transformer model
• Intelligent manufacturing system based on data mining algorithm
• Visualisation technology in digital intelligent warehouse management system
• Image recognition technology based on neural network in robot vision system
• High-performance polar decoder for wireless sensor networks
• Rapid analysis and detection algorithm and prevention countermeasures of urban traffic accidents under artificial intelligence
• Mechanical fault detection method of weighing device sensor faced on internet of things
• A medical specialty outpatient clinics recommendation system based on text mining

Research pick: Forgiveness and wellbeing at work - "Refusing to forgive is your own loss: relationship between forgiveness and employee happiness"

A new theoretical contribution to the research literature published in the International Journal of Business Excellence looks at workplace “forgiveness” and employee wellbeing and happiness. The analysis of the various factors linking forgiveness to wellbeing and the role gender plays was carried out by Rinki Dahiya of the Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur, in Himachal Pradesh, India. It leads the author to offer some useful guidance for managers hoping to boost employee morale, happiness and nurture wellbeing.

The concept of positive organisational behaviour has emerged in recent years as a component of understanding how to improve business practices with a focus on the wellbeing of the employees of the business in question. Over the years, researchers have thus looked at psychological wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, subjective wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and prosocial behaviour in various environments and contexts. Moreover, recent research has homed in on the idea that determinants of life satisfaction can be seen in the context of optimism, humour, forgiveness, and finding meaning in life. The present paper looks at how forgiveness relates to happiness and wellbeing.

Dahiya found that forgiveness at work act is a predictor of happiness and also gender has a role as a moderator in this regard. The “findings suggest a need for psychological interventions to foster forgiveness and cultivate happiness in the organisational context,” she writes.

Organisations might increase mistake tolerance and introduce earlier interventions when needed as well as promoting forgiveness in the workplace in order to cultivate happiness. If managers and supervisors can create a more forgiving work environment, then employee wellbeing should improve to the benefit of the workforce as a whole and to the organisation’s goals, and ultimately its outputs and profit margins.

Dahiya, R. (2021) ‘Refusing to forgive is your own loss: relationship between forgiveness and employee happiness’, Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp.261–276.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Performance Management

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business Performance Management are now available here for free:

• Decision making in FMS by COPRAS approach
• Organisational flourishing and performance: research with professors from a public university
• Being a state-owned bank is not a fatality: an Algerian case study
• An investigation of the interrelationship between corporate social responsibility and sustainability in manufacturing organisations: an empirical study
• A case study on performance assessment framework for Agile processes

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Learning and Change

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Learning and Change are now available here for free:

• Embracing balance in early childhood education: the case of awakening to languages pedagogy
• Evaluation of the disciplinary competences of the students of the Bachelor's degree in Nursing at 'Sapienza' University of Rome through the TECO: a cross-sectional study
• Economic crisis effects on SME dynamic capabilities
• Do social support and self-efficacy correlate with academic resilience among adolescence?
• Dimensionality of prosocial tendencies on Minangkabau early adolescents
• Linking entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions: an interactive effect of social and personal factors
• Cultural aspects of pedagogical acmeology

Special issue published: "Intelligent Optimisation Methods for Scheduling Problems"

International Journal of Automation and Control 16(1) 2022

• Research of local shadow MPPT of photovoltaic array based on EV-IKMTOA
• An evolutionary algorithm for a hybrid flowshop scheduling problem with consistent sublots
• Bi-level programming model for post-disaster emergency supplies scheduling with time windows and its algorithm
• Scheduling problems with rejection and piece-rate maintenance to minimise the total weighted completion time
• Research on steelmaking-continuous casting production scheduling problem with uncertain processing time based on Lagrangian relaxation framework

Additional papers

• Minimising weighted completion time on a single machine under uncertain weights
• A new analytical approach for phase-margin specification-based target-loop selection for different class of dead-time processes

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Biometrics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Biometrics are now available here for free:

• Research on facial expression recognition of video stream based on OpenCV
• Research on the application of convolutional-deep neural networks in parallel fingerprint minutiae matching
• Research on fingerprint feature recognition of access control based on deep learning
• Research on fingerprint image recognition based on convolution neural network
• Unconstrained online handwritten Uyghur word recognition based on recurrent neural networks and connectionist temporal classification
• Research on facial feature-based gender intelligent recognition based on the Adaboost algorithm
• Method for accurately identifying local fuzzy features of sprinting video images
• Research on fast identification technology of forged fingerprints based on the improved K-means algorithm
• Feature recognition method for similar key points of human face based on adaptive median filter

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making are now available here for free:

• Smart city in Europe: comparative analysis between Italy and Germany development
• Natural urban farming as a mean to connect community to sustainable food: the case of demonstration garden in Tor Mancina
• Water management below the outlet - a survey-based analysis on the Indus Basin irrigation system in Pakistan
• Business model innovation for the energy management of building networks in smart cities
• Review of rainwater harvesting policies in Ghana: lessons for developing countries

Free open access article available: "Destination country and export performance of agri-food products during the COVID-19 crisis"

The following paper, "Destination country and export performance of agri-food products during the COVID-19 crisis" (International Journal of Export Marketing 4(3) 2021), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Vehicle Performance

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Vehicle Performance are now available here for free:

• Dynamic behaviour modelling of an internal combustion engine water pump transmission belt drive
• Model-based simulation of dynamic behaviour of electric powertrains and their limitation induced by battery current saturation
• A dynamic model of a Cardan joint to evaluate the effect of elasticity and manufacturing errors
• Simulation and experiments on three-wheeled vehicle on different tracks
• Out-of-plane flexible ring tyre model development and validation
• Performance evaluation of different centrifugal pendulum morphologies through multibody dynamics simulation
• Research on hierarchical control strategy of electromagnetic active mounting system
• Study the dynamic behaviour of seven DOF of full car model with semi-active suspension system
• Wheel-rail wear simulation and rail cant optimisation based on railway vehicle dynamics

Special issue published: "Decision Support for Transport: Methodologies, Tools and Applications"

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences 13(4) 2021

• Perishable food distribution in the last mile: a multi-objective VRP model
• Multi-criteria location of multi-modal terminals in integrated public transport systems
• Sustainable development and morphological analysis: a multi-level strategic planning for the transport sector
• Decision making on sea: an expert system for risk assessment in maritime using data mining
• Selection and assessment of pedestrian areas in urban environments: a model - and expert-opinion-based approach
• Low data intensive models for supporting taxi policy making: a case study in Cyprus

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies are now available here for free:

• The denial of right to freedom of association and collective bargaining: breach of labour rights causing the consequential violation of human rights
• Procedures for the review of constitutionality of constitutional amendments in the Spanish legal system
• Judicial review of constitutional amendments: a legitimate defence of democracy through a counter-majoritarian power?
• When backlashes and overrides do not scare: the power to review constitutional amendments and the case of Brazil's Supreme Court
• Amending by interpreting: the constitutional jurisdiction as amendment power
• Constitutional reform: reflections from the principle of equality between men and women in the framework of the 1978 Spanish Constitution
• The process of reform of the Spanish Constitution and parliamentary minorities
• Direct citizen participation in the constitutional reform
• We the people: federalism and constitutional reform

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets are now available here for free:

• Influence of sales representative characteristics on customer purchase behaviour
• Policies versus politics: which is the more important determinant of public sector supplier selection decisions in Nigeria?
• Factors that drive the perceived success of franchises in South Africa
• Examining the effect of message characteristics, popularity, engagement, and message appeals: evidence from Facebook corporate pages of tourism organisations
• Examining the weak-form efficiency and opportunities for technical analysis in the foreign exchange market: a new insight from trading partners of Pakistan

Special issue published: "Smart Use of Resources and Strategies for Sustainable Development: Part II"

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development 21(1/2) 2022

• Design of four-bar mechanism for vibratory tillage cultivator using five precision position method for path generation problem
• A comparative analysis of game theory techniques for study of energy interactions in interconnected microgrids
• Grid tied inverters for renewable energy systems - a review
• A review on production processes, performance and emissions analysis of hydrogen as a fuel in I.C. engines
• A review on hybrid nanofluid: current research and sustainable development for turning operation
• A review of different configuration of hybrid energy systems with case study analysis
• Study on physico-chemical treatment of effluents from biomass gasifier power generation system
• Forest waste to energy in the Himalayan region: technical and economic evaluation
• A building bio-climatic design tool incorporating passive strategies in residential dwellings design of composite climate of India
• Enhancement of quality of polypropylene by optimisation of injection moulding parameters with genetic algorithm
• Analysis of biochar from carbonisation of wheat straw using continuous auger reactor
• Effect of B20 and B30 jatropha biodiesel blends on combustion characteristics of mullite coated LHR DI diesel engine
• Wind speed trend analysis along the Indian coast for 40 years

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Automotive Composites

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Automotive Composites are now available here for free:

• Fatigue life prediction of composite material's adhesive joints in automotive applications
• An evaluation of polymer composites for car bumper beam
• Investigations into electrical discharge machining of fabricated AA 6061/10% Al2O3 aluminium-based metal matrix composite using OFAT approach
• Suitability assessments for advanced composite-metal hybrid material systems in automotive crash structural applications
• Draping simulation-supported framework for cost- and weight- effective composite design

Research pick: New normal nudged us online - "Societal transformations through web-based communities during and after the global lockdown from an ethnographic perspective"

The various national and local lockdowns put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to re-evaluate the way they lived and worked. Research published in the International Journal of Web Based Communities looks at how different activities were relocated to the virtual world during lockdown and how this affected people’s wellbeing and their social interactions.

Iryna Sekret of StartinForun International in Turkey explains how her ethnographic study is based on observations of changes in the realms of education and business during the COVID-19 lockdown around the world. Given the paradigm shift in our attitudes and behaviour that have been wrought by the pandemic, the world community is unlikely to ever return to the way things once were. The “new normal” is here to stay. Sekret’s analysis provides new pointers to how teaching and commerce might be revitalised in the online environment.

There are some distinctions to be seen between the world of reporting of events and changes in the research literature and how the media represented the new normal, of course. Sekret details the shift from classroom teaching and bricks-and-mortar business to the online models. However, it is difficult to make predictions as to how the new normal will evolve, she concedes. We are yet to fully reflect on our experience of almost two years of living with the pandemic and its impact on our social lives, education, and business.

Regardless of how it is reported, 2020 marked a turning point for a large proportion of the world’s population, if not all of it. Social media communities and other online communication platforms have been with us for many years. But, in the last couple of years, they have extended their reach to people who previously never entered such virtual spaces. They have given many of those people a new dimension in which to live their lives in ways some may well have never previously imagined existed and for those who knew about them all along have expanded way beyond even their imagination. This new study offers a template for how we might study the changes that have taken place and offer some clues as to how new strategies can be used to adjust our lives and behaviour in this pandemic and any future crises that nudge us into the online environment and out of the offline world.

Sekret, I. (2021) ‘Societal transformations through web-based communities during and after the global lockdown from an ethnographic perspective’, Int. J. Web Based Communities, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp.247–261.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development are now available here for free:

• Utilisation of oil-based waste for biosurfactant production
• The role of energy efficiency in the management of water resources of the Syr Darya River basin
• Examining the motivational factors of green IT intention in Malaysia
• Impacts of health and economic costs on street children working as waste collectors in Dhaka City
• Management of climate change risks in Indian organisations: a proposed framework

Free open access article available: "A trust-based crowdfunding campaign marketing framework: theoretical underpinnings and big-data analytics practice"

The following paper, "A trust-based crowdfunding campaign marketing framework: theoretical underpinnings and big-data analytics practice" (International Journal of Big Data Management 2(1) 2022), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from Middle East Journal of Management

The following sample articles from the Middle East Journal of Management are now available here for free:

• Designing an interpretative structural model for human resource agility
• Transformational leadership and its impact on customer satisfaction. Measuring mediating effects of organisational citizenship behaviours
• Ethical leadership, effectiveness and team performance: an Islamic perspective
• Governmental intervention and entrepreneurs' personal values: qualitative evidence from Saudi Arabia
• Emotional intelligence and conflict management: an execution of organisational learning, psychological empowerment and innovative work behaviour in Chinese higher education

Research pick: Social entrepreneurs in a pandemic

Research in Bangladesh reported in the International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation suggests that social entrepreneurship increased there during the COVID-19 pandemic. Areas that benefited from this activity were primarily in food, healthcare, employment, and education, the team writes. They suggest that managers should focus on these four sectors when we are faced with the next major crisis.

Entrepreneurs by definition create and endeavour to profit from novel business ventures, there is a well-known element of innovation associated with entrepreneurship. Commonly, those who are successful evaluate an emerging set of circumstances that might require a novel response, service or product and plan, act on those plans, and re-evaluate their impact and the whole process and ultimately offer something that the consumers want or need.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, social distancing, the closure of business, and, of course, the very sickness and deaths wrought by the disease, there has been, for many, little opportunity for entrepreneurship. For others, however, they have risen to the enormous challenges the pandemic has presented. Moreover, given the problems so many people have faced during the pandemic, the notion of more altruistic endeavours have come to the fore. The social entrepreneur who hopes to solve a societal problem by offering a novel product or service is the champion needed in many areas of society where the focus is solving the problem rather than worrying about profit margins and the fiscal bottom line.

Work by others in 2020 had already shown how active and swift social entrepreneurs could be in a time of crisis. The new work from S.M. Sadrul Huda of the North South University, and Syeda Raisa Maliha of Re-think, Re-search, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, demonstrates how in the midst of a crisis our inner humanity emerges. The team delves into the details of some extraordinary entrepreneurial activities in Bangladesh carried out by social entrepreneurs as we live through the pandemic. Among the entrepreneurial endeavours are efforts to provide protective gear and food to the poor, employment opportunities for rickshaw pullers, free online education, free laptops for students, shopping and home delivery of groceries, supplying oxygen cylinders, as well as the use of various digital tools and services such as PeaceMaker Studio, iFarmer, and Shuttle.

Huda, S.M.S. and Maliha, S.R. (2021) ‘Rise of social entrepreneurship during COVID-19 pandemic’, Int. J. Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.63–71.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Economics and Business Research

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Economics and Business Research are now available here for free:

• On the resilience and the risk spillovers in innovation clusters
• Nexus between assets structure and profitability of Croatian banking system
• Risk management considerations for artificial intelligence business applications
• Assessment of reputational risk impact on commercial banks financial performance
• Alternative capital requirement for insurers: possibilities and issues
• Scenario planning combined with probabilities as a risk management tool - analysis of pros and cons
• Risk assessment of business models driven by Industry 4.0

Free open access article available: "Aspirational yet precarious: compliance of New Zealand refugee settlement policy with international human rights obligations"

The following paper, "Aspirational yet precarious: compliance of New Zealand refugee settlement policy with international human rights obligations" (International Journal of Migration and Border Studies 3(1) 2017), is freely available for download as an open access article.

It can be downloaded via the full-text link available here.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics are now available here for free:

• To buy or not to buy organic food: evaluating the moderating effect of gender using PLS-MGA
• Voluntary disclosures by family French firms
• Central bank regulation, religious governance and standardisation: evidence from Malaysian Islamic banks
• Exploring the activities of audit committees to effectively discharge their responsibilities: the case of a small to medium-size publicly-listed company
• Corporate governance and market performance of European banks: analysing differences and similarities between one-tier and two-tier models
• An ethical reading of the political marketing mix through a Habermasian lens: theory of communicative action

Research pick: Wine, new and old vs emerging and established - "An update of the worlds of wine: the emerging countries’ influence"

The vanguard of emerging winemakers

For decades the primary division in the world of wine was between the “Old World” of European wines and the “New World” of North America, Australia ND New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere. There is a need to update this for the modern age where emerging nations are creating products to compete in the global market with the old vanguard.

Indeed, work published in the International Journal of Economics and Business Research, suggests that we should have a new division, not between old and new but between “developed” and “emerging” so that we can describe, analyse, and define wines with a 21st-century perspective rather than one borne of the colonial thinking of history.

Emiliano Villanueva of Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, Connecticut, USA, and Gustavo Ferro of the Universidad del CEMA in Buenos Aires, Argentina, point out that for much of the past two millennia, wine was a European product. European imperial expansionism took the grape to the far corners of the globe, planting vines, and making vintners across the so-called new world. By 2006, production from the three original large-scale wine-making nations, France, Italy, and Spain, finally fell below 50 percent of the world market. As new world producers increased their market share and new old-world producers also made inroads. However, emerging nations have also been growing grapes and making wine for many years now, and their share of the market is increasing too.

The old versus new classification carries with it the bias of European colonialism and given globalisation and the rapid development of many nations with a penchant for wine, such as Chile and Argentina, a new system is needed. A new system that offers a demarcation between the wine production of developed and emerging nations would be useful, but perhaps only for a short time. The very nature of emerging and developing nations is their inexorable changing fortunes and circumstances that will ultimately lead them to be just as “developed” as the notion of developed versus emerging can be. Moreover, with climate change, the Mediterranean nations are not even the only ones in Europe making a lot of wine with England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden all taking their place in the market.

We no longer need the division between old and new worlds but the proposed division between developed and emerging nations will be a transient theme. Perhaps the best division should simply be between established and emerging winemakers. But even then, perhaps worrying about the label has always been a poor way to choose wine. Wine should be chosen for its characteristics and fundamentally whether it is good or bad.

Villanueva, E.C. and Ferro, G. (2022) ‘An update of the worlds of wine: the emerging countries’ influence’, Int. J. Economics and Business Research, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp.113–129.

Free sample articles newly available from World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development

The following sample articles from the World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development are now available here for free:

• A non-formal education approach of medicinal plant sellers
• A review article on vermibiotechnology and waste management
• Sustainable coastal zone management of Strymonikos Gulf: implementation of the analytic hierarchy process through an application designed using the programming language C# (sharp)
• Sustainable management approaches for underground heritage structures threatened by the environment and the human presence
• Innovative method for linking anthropisation process to vulnerability

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics are now available here for free:

• Improving the prediction accuracy of low back pain using machine learning through data pre-processing techniques
• Analysis and monitoring of a sensor-pill using DQPSK, with advanced virtual instrumentation
• Real-time estimation of hospital discharge using fuzzy radial basis function network and electronic health record data
• Identification of region of interest for assessment of knee osteoarthritis in radiographic images
• An efficient ALO-based ensemble classification algorithm for medical big data processing
• Non-invasive assessment of fractional flow reserve using computational fluid dynamics modelling from coronary angiography images
• Bone metastatic tumour minimisation due to thermal cementoplasty effect, clinical and computational methodologies
• A novel feature set for bone fixator classification from post-operative X-ray images
• Knee pathology diagnosis based on muscle activation intervals detection and the relationship between knee flexion and surface EMG
• Classification and comparison of malignancy detection of cervical cells based on nucleus and textural features in microscopic images of uterine cervix

Special issue published: "Security, Privacy and Trust in Cognitive-Inspired Computing and Applications"

International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications 12(5/6) 2021

• Safety evaluation on central separation opening of reconstructed freeway based on surrogate safety assessment model
• An improved sensorless strategy on the basis of improved PI regulator
• The cryptologic characteristics of circulant matrices
• Application of EPC internet of things and radio frequency identification technology in logistics
• The effects of green product trust and perception on green purchase intention in China
• Terrain frames classification based on HMC for quadruped robot
• Energy efficiency optimisation for heterogeneous cellular networks-based small cell power allocation
• Structural equation modelling and numerical simulation on the entire process of e-commerce model
• Research on the evaluation system of smart tourism projects based on user experience
• Development of microcomputer protection and measuring-control device for 35 kV distribution line
• Research on the sponge city smart platform of Wenzhou high-speed railway new city
• Shuang Han; Meng Li
• An efficient and reliable approach based on adaptive threshold for road defect detection

Research pick: Nebulous knowledge management - "Why is there no consensus on what knowledge management is?"

Knowledge management is one of those nebulous phrases that means different things to different people. Multiplicity of meaning and ambiguity of definition leads to much debate among those involved in organisational life charged with planning strategy, managing information, and in other areas broadly related to the term. A new bibliographic survey published in the International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies reveals why there is no consensus on the meaning of this term and looks outward with a new definition that might be adopted widely.

Technical terms and jargon can become meaningless in organisational use where there is no objective definition. Moreover, with use there is abuse and one organisation’s definition may well conflict with that of another, so where research across disciplines and organisations is carried out a buzzword or technical phrase used in one context may be invalid in another. Ambiguity and confusion arise and the research literature becomes sullied and distorted by subjectivity.

Fábio Corrêa of FUMEC University in Brazil, and colleagues, explain how when isolated technical terms are simplified, their full meaning is often lost and so when two or more such terms are then brought together, the neologism that is born is also oversimplified and so can have even less meaning or be wholly ambiguous. The phrase knowledge management suffers from this simplification phenomenon.

Knowledge can be a true and justified belief, a set of experiences, values, contextual information and insights, a personal abstraction of an experience. Management is synonymous with administration but is also about the execution of roles and the fulfillment of objectives in many different spheres. Bring the two together and the phrase is diffuse, to say the least. The researchers’ through their survey of the literature suggest that we need to take a step back from the phrase and define more subjectively its components in order to allow ourselves to redefine in a more objective, rather than wholly subjective, manner the phrase. By taking such an approach it might then be possible to reach a consensus on exactly what we mean by “knowledge management”.

Corrêa, F., Paula, C.P.A.d., Carvalho, D.B.F. and Anastácio, M.F. (2022) ‘Why is there no consensus on what knowledge management is?’, Int. J. Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp.90–109.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Information and Communication Technology

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology are now available here for free:

• Self-adaptive process optimisation method for SBS cloud application based on reinforcement learning
• Cross-domain single sign-on authentication of information security in network environment
• Research on stability modelling of high speed electronic communication based on hierarchical optimal mining algorithms
• The research of human interaction recognition based on fusion features of key frame feature library
• Lightweight information integration model of IOT based on VMware cluster technology
• LoRaWAN possible attacks, proposed countermeasures and enhanced solution
• Fast road scenarios recognition of intelligent vehicles by image processing

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Education Economics and Development

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Education Economics and Development are now available here for free:

• Are the student migrants satisfied with life? Effect of acculturative stress and perceived discrimination
• Remittance and education in recipient countries: an interdependence
• Assessing the effectiveness of using western movies in elucidating economic concepts
• Exploring the professional identities of pre-service teachers' studying at the University of Ghana
• Implications of smartphone addiction on university students in urban, suburban and rural areas
• Socio-economic status and tertiary academic performance in Enugu State, Nigeria

Free sample articles newly available from European Journal of Industrial Engineering

The following sample articles from the European Journal of Industrial Engineering are now available here for free:

• Hub location problem with balanced round-trip flows on hub links
• Two-phase differential evolution for solving emergency response supplies optimisation problem
• A multi-objective approach in expanding the pre-positioning warehouse networks in humanitarian logistics
• Service capacity procurement in logistics service supply chain with demand updating and reciprocal behaviour
• A systematic literature review of the design of intermodal freight transportation networks addressing location-allocation decisions

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Quality and Innovation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Quality and Innovation are now available here for free:

• Exploration of quality dimensions that influence customer perceptions of service performance: insights from higher education
• The road to project success: the role of risk awareness and risk management in managing overconfidence among project managers
• Innovation and knowledge spillover: insights from the Ethiopian manufacturing industry
• How can we generate innovative ideas for new product development?
• Second-career academics and the quality of business education

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development are now available here for free:

• Managing sustainable development of government link companies (GLCs) in Malaysia through emotional intelligence and organisational politics
• The process of innovation as a determinant factor of sustainable development in companies
• Intellectual human capital, corporate social innovation and sustainable development: a conceptual framework
• Business models as framework for sustainable value-creation: strategic and operative leadership challenges
• Intellectual treatment of the normative notion 'sustainability'
• Key enabling technologies and measuring of the company performance in relation to sustainable development: evaluation model design

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology are now available here for free:

• Effect of roughness coefficient on discharge and flow depth by using hydraulic model for Nethravathi River Basin, India
• A hybrid model to assess the hydropower potential for rivers
• Application of web enabled open source geospatial technologies in generation of water resource development plan
• Assessment of climate variability and short-term land use land cover change effects on water quality of Cahaba River Basin
• GIS-based impact analysis of revitalisation of dried rivulets in Pampa River Basin, Kerala, India
• Determination of distance advanced by the waterfront in a border strip land using Laplace transformation
• The analysis of the most important climatic parameters affecting performance of crop variability in a changing climate

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Web and Grid Services

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Web and Grid Services are now available here for free:

• QoS-prioritised media delivery with adaptive data throughput in IoT-based home networks
• Association between alcohol consumption and telomere length
• A quadratic fusion estimating model based on the clustering kernel for real-time data in web of things
• Data analysis of simulated WoT-based anti-crime scenario

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Structural Engineering

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Structural Engineering are now available here for free: 

• Effect of masonry infill wall with opening on reinforced concrete frame due to seismic loading: parametric study
• Performance improvement of rigid connection by reduced web section with cellular beam and column subjected to cyclic loading
• Element damage assessment in semi rigid connected structures using modal domain data
• Evaluation of linear visco-elastic model of quintuple friction pendulum isolator
• Prediction of temperature distribution and fire resistance of RC slab using artificial neural networks

Research pick: Detecting the malicious broadcast receivers - "Enhancing malware detection in Android application by incorporating broadcast receivers"

How might we enhance the detection of malware on the Android operating system commonly used to run mobile phones and tablets? Research published in the International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity looks to the concept of broadcaster receivers as one possible answer to that question.

Halil Bisgin of the University of Michigan-Flint, in Flint, Rachael Havens of AVL Test Systems Inc., in Plymouth, Michigan, Vincent Nwobodo of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, in Rockville, Maryland, USA, and Fadi Mohsen of the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, explain that the Android operating system has a large share of the mobile market and as such is a target for malware creators and other third parties who would manipulate the system for personal gain.

There are numerous malware detection methods employed on the Android system that monitor permission requests to the AndroidManifest.xml file. However, one aspect of the workings of malicious apps that has not been considered in detail is the exploitation of the Android broadcast receivers (ABR). ABRs are used heavily by malware and might well correlate with permissions granted to such unwanted apps. Monitoring access to ABRs could improve the accuracy of malware detection without needing to use disproportionate amounts of computer resources in the device as may well be the case with other malware detection approaches.

Each year there are billions of instances of mobile apps installed on devices around the globe. They represent a vast market and business opportunity for legitimate companies but also for the criminal world. The amount of malware increases year by year and as with every aspect of security involves security companies always playing catch-up with the creators of malware.

The team explains that malware detection based on the behaviour of software on a device is very effective but uses a lot of the device’s resources. In contrast, signature-based solutions are light on resource usage but do not necessarily detect all malware. The team’s focus has been on the component that lets apps register to listen to system events such as when a text message is received, calls are made, etc. This component, the team says, is vital in detecting malicious behaviour in an app. The team explains that correlation values suggest that malware shows slightly stronger ties between the actions it registers to listen to and the permissions it requests and this characteristic can be exploited to reveal the presence of malware.

Bisgin, H., Mohsen, F., Nwobodo, V. and Havens, R. (2021) ‘Enhancing malware detection in Android application by incorporating broadcast receivers’, Int. J. Information Privacy, Security and Integrity, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.36–68.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation are now available here for free:

• Unusual entrepreneurs for unusual entrepreneurship
• Success factors of FinTech start-ups in Hong Kong
• The state-of-the-art of corporate social responsibility reporting practices and their contribution to sustainable development. Analysing CSR patterns framed by sustainable development theories as benchmark for modern entrepreneurs
• Global Mamas: confronting the challenges of marketing fair trade apparel to female millennials
• Influence of entrepreneurial competencies and motivations on social entrepreneurship intention: an empirical study related to Tunisia
• Preschool remodelling through systemic (ex)change

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital are now available here for free:

• Intellectual capital and financial performance: evidence from Portuguese banks
• Strategic factors of network organisations and their influence on inter-organisational learning
• Intellectual capital and intellectual imperatives of higher education sector: an emerging economy perspective
• The role of green intellectual capital and green innovation on competitive advantage of SMEs
• Partnership between the employer and the staff as a vital factor for knowledge sharing

Special issue published: "Innovating Business Models Through Digitalisation: Advances, Challenges and Opportunities"

International Journal of Quality and Innovation 6(1) 2022

• How is digitalisation changing the business model of FinTech companies? The case study of an Italian non-bank financial institution
• Improving business models through augmented reality applications: evidence from history, theory, and practice
• How big data innovates an organisation's business model: a systematic literature review
• BMI and digitalisation: a contribution to the bibliometric debate

Additional paper

• Innovation value chain: a systematic and narrative review

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies are now available here for free:

• Understanding the communication and collaboration challenges encountered by technology managers
• Innovation and economic complexity in BRICS
• The impact of organisational knowledge management on competitive performance of entrepreneurial firms
• Participatory methods to support knowledge management systems design in educational environments
• Impact of knowledge leadership on the challenges and innovative performance of virtual teams: an empirical examination in oil sector companies

Research pick: Making your website stickier - "Website stickiness: role of customer value, satisfaction, trust and habit"

A competitor is usually just one click away, so how to companies make their websites stickier and so retain their potential buyers and persuade them to make a purchase? Writing in the International Journal of Technology Marketing, a team from India has investigated the role of customer values, satisfaction, trust, and habits and how those characteristics related to their sticking with a given website.

Terjani Goyal of the Institute of Rural Management in Jaipur and Kirti Dutta of Rishihood University in Haryana, found that trust is the biggest mediator of a website’s stickiness. First and foremost, if a putative customer does not trust the company nor the website on which they land, then they are not likely to stay for long and will surf off to a rival post haste. The team suggests that by managing the factors that determine customer trust as best they can, a company can enhance satisfaction and help form new habits with visitors that leads to them buying from the website rather than their sticking with a competitor.

Online shopping has become a major part of commerce and was essential for many people during the periods of COVID-19 lockdowns and self-isolation. The team writes that there is a concept of website stickiness that is partly driven by a user’s fear of venturing on to a new site to buy the goods and services they have purchased from trusted sources previously. The paradigm for garnering new business is for a previously unused site to somehow make its site sticky to new users who land on it from a search engine, word-of-mouth recommendation or marketing and advertising campaigns. Once a new habit is thus formed, customers will stick with that website for subsequent purchases.

Indeed, the new research shows that “online retailers need to work for not only customer satisfaction but also build trust as these ultimately lead to formation of habit and once a customer is habitual of purchasing from the same website, they will not look for product or price information.” This implies that once a company has the trust of new customers and the website is sticky, they can push their profit margin by nudging prices higher without fear of losing those newly loyal customers. The key is to get those new customers in the first place.

The researchers add that the companies “need to be true to the product that they are offering and the information that they are sharing so that they can build customer trust and more important the customer’s habit of returning to their website for all their purchase needs.”

Goyal, T. and Dutta, K. (2021) ‘Website stickiness: role of customer value, satisfaction, trust and habit’, Int. J. Technology Marketing, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp.426–447.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing are now available here for free:

• Effects of consumer personal characteristics and psychological factors on nostalgia marketing
• Facebook usage intensity and compulsive buying tendency: the mediating role of envy, self-esteem, and self-promotion and the moderating role of depression
• A conjoint analysis of customers' preferences for e-banking channels
• Perceived diagnostics of virtual try-on technologies and attitudes toward men's suits
• Which are online shopping determinants? Analysing ease and convenience to use, prior shopping experience, online benefits, social influence in India
• How to satisfy him and her, and get loyalty in mobile commerce shopping application

Inderscience journals increasing issue frequency in 2022

Inderscience is pleased to announce that the following journals are increasing their issue frequency from 2022:

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning
Increasing from 4 to 6 issues per year

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital
Increasing from 4 to 6 issues per year

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation
Increasing from 4 to 6 issues per year

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies
Increasing from 6 to 8 issues per year

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising
Increasing from 6 to 8 issues per year

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics
Increasing from 6 to 8 issues per year

International Journal of Trade and Global Markets
Increasing from 6 to 8 issues per year

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics are now available here for free:

• Guidance-based improved depth upsampling with better initial estimate
• Taylor rate-distortion trade-off and adaptive block search for HEVC encoding
• Mathematical variable detection in scientific document images
• Extended COCOMO: robust and interpretable neuro-fuzzy modelling
• HADEM-MACS: a hybrid approach for detection and extraction of objects in movement by multimedia autonomous computer systems
• Incremental approach for multi-modal face expression recognition system using deep neural networks

Research pick: A little trouble in big data - "General analytics limitations with coronavirus healthcare big data"

Statistics based on so-called “big data” may not always be as reliable as we might hope, according to a study published in the International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management. The research analysed a manageable subset of time-stamped dynamic information from the internet pertinent to COVID-19 infections. Study author Kenneth David Strang of W3-Research in Saint Thomas in US Virgin Islands writes that the results were “surprising” and revealed some limitations to conventional statistical techniques. Strang’s work suggests that using general analytics tools for healthcare big data may not be reliable.

Strang points out that while the study is pertinent to our understanding and approach to big data in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has broader implications for how big data is analysed using statistical tools and whether there needs to be a paradigm shift in our approach and seemingly conflicting ideas that big data can be handled just as we do any other scientific data or whether such scientific evidence warrants a different approach entirely simply by virtue of the scale of that evidence manifest in big data.

“More research will certainly be needed to verify these reliability problems with healthcare big data since only the coronavirus case study was used here,” says Strang. He points out that the nature of big data and a researcher’s access to such vast repositories and the processing power needed to analyse them may offer inherent limitations and how much new information and insight can be readily extracted. Moreover, it is difficult to run checks to prove that any such analysis is valid simply because of the scale of the data and those limitations. Strang offers a hypothetical approach that might allow such validation by using a control data set for a given experiment that is not itself “big” data.

It is almost an aside of the study’s findings regarding our approach to big data that Strang was able to demonstrate that there were some “fascinating potential relationships between foreign property ownership in Australia near the two biggest cities, with links to China, and thereby, potential vulnerabilities to future pandemic outbreaks.”

Strang, K.D. (2021) ‘General analytics limitations with coronavirus healthcare big data’, Int. J. Healthcare Technology and Management, Vol. 18, Nos. 3/4, pp.153–167.