International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics indexed by Clarivate's Emerging Sources Citation Index

Inderscience is pleased to announce that the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics has been indexed by Clarivate's Emerging Sources Citation Index.

The journal's Editor in Chief, Dr. Denis A. Coelho, says, "Publishing a journal is a joint effort and, therefore, acceptance of the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics for indexing in the prestigious and renowned ESCI within Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science is necessarily a shared accomplishment. The acknowledgement list is long and not necessarily exhaustive. Many committed professionals at Inderscience Publishers and associated partners have contributed with their skills and professionalism, along with the hundreds of authors of manuscripts (including those authors of manuscripts that ended up not being published; we need to have a gradient of submissions in a sizeable amount in order to have the opportunity to publish the highest quality ones in a steady flow), and also the reviewers and Editorial Board Members who ensure via a shared process that what does get published is a testament to IJHFE's mission."

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Electronic Finance

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

• Collaborative attitudes and perceived usefulness to increase the intentions to use internet banking
• Do changes in earnings signal future prospects after the global financial crisis and emergence of COVID-19? Evidence from Kazakhstan
• CAPM model applied to the Portuguese stock market
• Role of mobile banking in financial inclusion: evidence from agri traders of India
• Mapping social media in the theoretical field of behavioural finance: a bibliographic analysis
• Effectiveness of food traceability system: Chinese consumer food purchase intention during the pandemic

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:

• Supervised learning software model for the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy
• Obstacle detection technique to solve poor texture appearance of the obstacle by categorising image's region using cues from expansion of feature points for small UAV
• A modified Coye algorithm for retinal vessel segmentation
• DDVM: dual decision voting mechanism for brain tumour identification with LBP2Q-SVM type classifier
• Automated inspection of spur gears using machine vision approach
• Facial expression recognition based on convolutional block attention module and multi-feature fusion
• Image enhancement based on skin-colour segmentation and smoothness

Research pick: AI advances healthcare - "Competitive advantage in healthcare based on augmentation of clinical images with artificial intelligence: case study of the ‘Sambias’ project"

In the world of healthcare artificial intelligence (AI), the SAMBIAS project from Casa di Cura Tortorella s.p.a. in Salerno, Italy, is an important case study. The project takes a pragmatic approach to data sharing, according to a paper in the International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, focusing on a web-based platform designed to enhance the competitiveness of healthcare organizations, particularly in the context of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models.

SAMBIAS primarily addresses the need for abundant and reliable datasets in the healthcare domain. By using data from healthcare information systems, the platform can provide augmented sets of clinical situations, thereby contributing to more efficient performance within healthcare organizations.

This new study aligns well with earlier insights and emphasizes the importance of integrating innovative technologies in AI applications, especially in areas like radiology. The focus of the project is on the analysis of medical images using ML and DL models and represents an important step forward in data analysis from a clinical perspective.

Alessandra D’Amico of the Department of Radiology at Tortorella and colleagues point out that one key aspect is the role of AI in balancing high-quality medical treatment with operational efficiency within a healthcare organization. The work suggests that the ongoing debate about the validity and reliability of AI in the medical field will likely shift towards optimizing its use to enhance the overall effectiveness of global healthcare processes.

While the adoption of AI in healthcare is a potential source of competitive advantage for healthcare organizations, the study underscores the need to maintain a primary focus on patient health. The SAMBIAS project envisions a future where discussions about AI in healthcare move beyond the kind of scepticism and cynicism seen in the media hyperbole and reactionary observations to practical considerations about how to harness its potential for the ongoing of improvement in healthcare.

D’Amico, A., Di Capua, M., Di Nardo, E., Rosak-Szyrocka, J., Tortorella, G. and Festa, G. (2024) ‘Competitive advantage in healthcare based on augmentation of clinical images with artificial intelligence: case study of the ‘Sambias’ project’, Int. J. Managerial and Financial Accounting, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.1–16.

Free open access article available: "The effect of leadership and organisational culture on organisational innovation"

The following paper, "The effect of leadership and organisational culture on organisational innovation" (International Journal of Services Technology and Management 28(5/6) 2023), 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 Biometrics

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

• Effect of facial expression in face biometry for a multimodal approach
• Performance enhancement of symmetric hashed fingerprint template using dynamic threshold matching algorithm
• Robust perceptual fingerprint image hashing: a comparative study
• Improving face recognition using deep autoencoders and feature fusion
• Revocable iris templates using partial sort and randomised look-up table mapping
• Machine learning-based iris liveness identification using fragmental energy of cosine transformed iris images

Research pick: Retaining bankers - "Successful employee retention practices: characteristics found in Danish and Icelandic banks"

A recent in-depth examination of employee retention within the banking sector has revealed various actionable strategies that might be used to address this persistent challenge. The study, published in the International Journal of Business Information Systems, emphasizes the imperative of a nuanced approach to understanding the factors influencing retention rates, particularly at the specialist level.

The research by Unnar Theodorsson, Svala Gudmundsdottir, and Thorhallur Gudlaugsson of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, shows that there are subtle variations between the banking landscapes of Iceland and Denmark.

The team explains how the findings underscore the need to undertake comprehensive talent management and strategic human capital to redress the shortages of specialists in the banking sector. This might entail a sustained commitment to investment in employees, such as improved continued professional development, active engagement in educational initiatives, inclusive communication practices, strategic recognition, and better promotion structures. Moreover, it would involve a more meticulous approach to managerial recruitment practices, focusing on the identification and cultivation of managerial talent.

One of the big challenges highlighted in the research is the banking sector’s ongoing struggle to cultivate an environment conducive to retaining specialists. To surmount this, the study recommends sustained efforts in workforce planning, development, and financing. It suggests placing a heightened emphasis on leadership capabilities among those managers at the mid-level of the corporate hierarchy, a better approach to the recognition and acknowledgement of the efforts of employees, as well as fostering an improved working environment through inclusive and constructive communication.

The study also pinpoints key policy issues that are pivotal for successful retention initiatives, such as the establishment of transparent career progression plans, fair promotional procedures, a well-defined system for filling posts and carrying out employee transfers, as well as the empowerment of local management for effective governance. If these various insights are banked by the industry, then the researchers propose that ongoing studies be carried out to assess their long-term effects and to identify how they might be improved if problems come to light.

Theodorsson, U., Gudmundsdottir, S. and Gudlaugsson, T. (2023) ‘Successful employee retention practices: characteristics found in Danish and Icelandic banks’, Int. J. Business Information Systems, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp.161–179.

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining

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

• Application of a record linkage software to identify mortality of enrolees of large integrated healthcare organisations
• Using unstructured logs generated in complex large-scale micro-service-based architecture for data analysis
• A widespread survey on machine learning techniques and user substantiation methods for credit card fraud detection
• Building a hybridised meta-heuristic optimisation algorithm for efficient cluster analysis
• Identification of authorship and prevention of fraudulent transactions/cybercrime using efficient high performance machine learning techniques
• A survey on adoption of blockchain in healthcare
• DAMIAN – data accrual machine intelligence with augmented networks for contextually coherent creative story generation
• A deep regression convolutional neural network using whole image-based inferencing for dynamic visual crowd estimation
• Forecasting with information extracted from the residuals of ARIMA in financial time series using continuous wavelet transform
• Effect of IT integration on firm performance
• Approaches to parallelise Eclat algorithm and analysing its performance for K length prefix-based equivalence classes
• Hybrid automation of student activity records in virtual learning environments in semi-dark scenarios
• Performance evaluation of oversampling algorithm: MAHAKIL using ensemble classifiers

First issue: International Journal of the Energy-Growth Nexus (free sample issue available)

 

The energy-growth nexus is a major field of energy economics and econometrics that informs the transition to green energies, which must happen at a pace that will not retard economic growth. The energy-growth nexus can contribute tremendously to government energy policies and energy company resilience. The International Journal of the Energy-Growth Nexus is dedicated to research in the energy-growth nexus field that generates clear and continuously testable results for new energy policy making, which in turn affect economies and societies and their sustainable futures.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

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:

• The effect of organisational culture on interorganisational relationship and firm performance
• Factors affecting the organisational commitment of employees at social service organisations - empirical evidence from Hanoi Capital of Vietnam
• Formation of human potential of industrial enterprises: model and information technology
• Work engagement and organisation performance: the mediating role of innovative work behaviour and moderating role of perceived distributive fairness in manufacturing industry of Pakistan
• Modelling of critical success factors of AMT implementation using TISM and SEM
• Evaluation of key performance indicators of Indian airlines using fuzzy AHP method

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy

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

• Moderation of innovation capability on innovation performance relationship
• Strategic impact of technological competencies on manufacturing performance of Indian manufacturing industries
• Entrepreneurial intention of accounting students: role of opportunity identification traits using SEM
• Paradigm busters: researchers into stomach ulcers and corporate psychopaths
• Digital empathy and supply chain cybersecurity challenges: concept, framework and solutions for small-medium enterprises

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems

The following sample articles from the International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems are now available here for free:

• Grey prediction-based energy-aware opportunistic routing in WSN
• A rapidly-exploring random tree-based intelligent congestion control through an alternate routing for WSNs
• Cat swarm optimisation-based mobile sinks scheduling in large-scale wireless sensor networks
• Research on an optimised encryption algorithm for network information security communication
• An investigation on teletraffic attributes for channel selection of IoT objects in cognitive radio internet of things networks towards 5G

Research pick: Unlearning and forgetting - "The impact of organisational crisis on forgetting and relearning: an empirical study of unlearning in the Japanese electrical industry"

A study in the International Journal of Technology Management has looked at the notion of unlearning, forgetting, and relearning in the wake of organisational crises within industry. The work takes the Japanese electrical industry as a focus and looks at the triggers in a company’s top management team (TMT) that affect performance.

Pingsong Qian and Akitsu Oe of Tokyo University of Science in Japan explored the TMT dynamics among more than two hundred listed companies. They used multiple linear regression analysis with a random-effects model to examine the data they obtained on those companies in this context.

Unlearning can be thought of as the deliberate discarding or modification of a companies knowledge base, practices, and strategies during a crisis. It involves a conscious effort to reassess and adjust established ways of thinking and operating with the aim of adapting to the challenges posed by the crises and potentially overcoming the problems and improving organizational performance.

The team found that TMT unlearning could indirectly enhance organizational performance by nudging the company’s research and development (R&D) department into an unlearning phase. This R&D unlearning process seems to have a positive effect whereas neglectful loss or abandoning of knowledge, forgetting, as it were, simply had a negative impact. The inadvertent loss of insights and practices could not be a positive force in the same way as deliberate unlearning can be.

This work fills several gaps in our understanding of organizational learning and change. It goes beyond earlier studies that focused primarily on single-level unlearning and demonstrates how organizational forgetting and unlearning can positively influence TMT. The study also addresses a gap in empirical research by utilizing archival data, providing a solid foundation for identifying factors influencing unlearning and forgetting and their impact on organizational performance. Importantly, the work makes clear the distinction between those two often conflated terms – forgetting and unlearning. In practical terms, a company in decline must find a way to unlearn problematic knowledge and approaches and not simply forget or abandon them.

Qian, P. and Oe, A. (2024) ‘The impact of organisational crisis on forgetting and relearning: an empirical study of unlearning in the Japanese electrical industry’, Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 94, No. 1, pp.135–155.

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:

• Does hostile environment encourages abusive supervision and deviant work behaviours: a mediation approach
• Implementation of whistleblowing policies: the case of listed companies in Spain
• Evidence of ethics and misconduct in a multinational corporation: motives for growth of corrupt environments in today's business world
• Implementing mandatory corporate social responsibility in India: assessing progress made by corporates and NGOs
• A cross-cultural comparison of attitudes towards business ethics

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:

• Board dynamics, dividend pay-out policy and banking efficiency in an emerging market context
• Effects of credit rating announcements on risk perception of financial markets in emerging countries
• How do political connection and intellectual capital affect the debt usage of majority shareholders? Evidence in Indonesia
• COVID-19 outbreak and performance of financial markets: evidence from the stock market, the foreign exchange market and cryptocurrencies market in Nigeria

Free sample articles newly available from International Journal of Automation and Control

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

• Control of three-links robot arm based on fuzzy neural Petri nets
• Numerical integration-like algorithm for time-optimal trajectory optimisation of multi-axis motion system based on iterative learning
• Globally linearising control of linear time-fractional diffusion-advection-reaction systems
• H∞ stabilisation of uncertain discrete time-delayed system with actuator saturation by using Wirtinger inequality
• Development of modified LQG controller for mitigation of seismic vibrations using swarm intelligence
• Lyapunov-based MPC for nonlinear process with online triggered linearised model

Research pick: Leading innovation - "The effect of leadership and organisational culture on organisational innovation"

A study in the International Journal of Services Technology and Management has investigated the effects of leadership style and organisational culture on innovation within companies. The research used qualitative interviews across diverse organizations in Sweden and Sri Lanka and suggests a nuanced relationship between leadership, organizational culture, and innovation and hints at how these might be nudged to boost innovation.

Ruzlin Akter, Shashiprabha Rathnayaka, and Zahra Ahmadi of the University of Gävle in Gävle, Sweden, surveyed six different organisations and found from their analysis of the results that specific organizational cultures, such as process- and job-oriented cultures, and certain leadership styles, like transactional leadership, can have either a positive or a negative effect on the development of innovation within those companies. However, they demonstrated that result-oriented, employee-oriented, and a pragmatic organisational culture when combined with transformational leadership can be much more effective in fostering innovation.

Of particular interest, in Sweden is that there can be a unique influence of organizational culture and leadership on specific companies as was found to be the case with one Swedish outlier when compared with its global counterparts. Indeed, whereas many companies have adapted their organizational cultures and leadership styles to enhance innovation, this outlier has adhered to a staid and traditional approach to management and organisational culture and has suffered the negative impact of such a stance on how well it innovates when compared with more forward-looking companies elsewhere.

From a managerial perspective, the team suggests that the study underscores the part leaders can play within a company as role models. Companies benefit, it seems from a management style that emphasizes openness, flexibility, appreciation of ideas, and the encouragement of employee creativity and empowerment.

These insights might be used to offer companies that are less innovative, but nevertheless aspirational, a practical approach to the identification of obstacles to innovation within their organisation. This could help them improve their management style by removing constraining processes, unlocking communication channels, improving transparency, and removing any culture of fear of change and mistakes. Such an approach should stand any company in good stead for becoming more competitive, more innovative, and making a greater contribution to the economy.

Akter, R., Rathnayaka, S. and Ahmadi, Z. (2023) ‘The effect of leadership and organisational culture on organisational innovation’, Int. J. Services Technology and Management, Vol. 28, Nos. 5/6, pp.360–388.

Inderscience journals newly listed by Cabells

Inderscience's Editorial Office is pleased to announce that the following Inderscience journals have been newly listed in the Cabells database:

• International Journal of Big Data Management
• European Journal of Industrial Engineering
• International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems
• International Journal of Design Engineering
• International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
• International Journal of Environment and Waste Management
• International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems
• International Journal of Materials and Product Technology
• International Journal of Power Electronics
• International Journal of Vehicle Performance

Research pick: A happy workforce, is a productive workforce - "Impact of workplace happiness on employee engagement: a comparative study of IT and non-IT sector employees"

Research in the International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management has investigated workplace happiness and its impact on productivity within and outside the information technology sector in Delhi. Their findings shed light on the significant impact of workplace happiness on employee engagement and emphasize its universal relevance.

Sana Vakeel and Sunita Shukla of the ITS Engineering College and Vikas Singh of ITS – The Education Group, all in Greater Noida, India, statistical analyses such as Karl Pearson’s correlation and regression methods to glean information from employees surveyed about their jobs and happiness. The analysis found that between a fifth and a quarter (23.7% variance) of employee engagement could be attributed to their happiness in the workplace.

This degree of statistical significance thus underscores the integral role of employee happiness in fostering organizational success. This points to a need for managers and employers to be aware of their employees’ psychological well-being not only as part of an inclusive approach to employment but also for the benefit of the organisation’s own well-being.

Interestingly, the positive correlation observed between workplace happiness and employee engagement holds true in both the IT sector and in other areas of work. The variance in the IT sector was 23.1 percent and slightly lower at 22.8 percent in the non-IT sector, although these two figures are close enough to suggest a universality of workplace happiness influencing employee engagement.

The team points out that the research corroborates earlier findings that looked at various other factors alongside happiness and job characteristics with regard to employee engagement. The results underscore the strategic importance of prioritizing workplace happiness for the mutual benefit of employee and employer. As businesses grapple with an ever-changing economic environment and a constantly shifting social landscape, it becomes increasingly important to consider factors such as employee happiness.

Vakeel, S., Shukla, S. and Singh, V. (2023) ‘Impact of workplace happiness on employee engagement: a comparative study of IT and non-IT sector employees’, Int. J. Public Sector Performance Management, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.482–496.

Research pick: Flushed with success: IoT cleans up lavatorial hygiene - "A system to prevent toiletry (lavatory)-based diseases such as norovirus, staphylococcus, escherichia and streptococcus through IoT and embedded systems"

In the wake of a pandemic caused by an airborne pathogen, it is easy to forget that many other pathogens are transmitted through very different routes. For instance, many diseases that cause serious and sometimes lethal illness are transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces and thence to the nose and mouth, other orifices, or even cuts and wounds. Research in the International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms has looked at whether or not the Internet of Things (IoT) might be used to help combat the spread of disease commonly associated with poor lavatorial hygiene.

R. Giridhararajan, Ikram Shah, and S. Karthikeyan of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, the Armita University in Coimbatore, and colleagues Shriram K. Vasudevan of the K. Ramakrishnan College of Technology in Trichy, and S.N. Abhishek of the Cognitive Technology and Innovation Centre in Karnataka, India, point out that there are many remote locations with public toilet facilities. Such facilities may not necessarily come under conventional or frequent cleaning and maintenance schedules and so can be a source of hazardous pathogens.

In addition, there are also toilets at airports, railway stations, on ships, and other modes of transport to consider. While some may be regularly cleaned and well-maintained there is always the potential for this not to be the case and for a toilet to become a hub through which many people become infected with a given pathogen.

The team points out that microbes such as staphylococcus, escherichia, and streptococcus as well as norovirus and other viruses can cause serious health problems. Children, older people, and those with pre-existing health conditions may be most at risk of sickness and even death.

A frugal IoT-based system has now been developed by the team that could be used to monitor and help with the hygiene of lavatories. The system uses various sensor inputs, allowing real-time monitoring, data collection, and user feedback on lavatory conditions. Automated alerts generated by the system prompt necessary cleaning and maintenance as required. Such a system ensures quality levels can be maintained and reduces the burden from frequent cleaning to necessary cleaning where facilities have been used little. While, ideally, all lavatories would be cleaned frequently and thoroughly, where staff and budget are constrained, IoT monitoring could ensure that hygiene issues are addressed in a timely manner at well-used and toilets that have become unacceptably dirty while reducing the urgency of cleaning facilities that are little used and generally clean.

The researchers add that integrating machine learning into the system could improve efficiency still further by predicting usage and soiling patterns over time.

Giridhararajan, R., Vasudevan, S.K., Shah, I., Karthikeyan, S. and Abhishek, S.N. (2023) ‘A system to prevent toiletry (lavatory)-based diseases such as norovirus, staphylococcus, escherichia and streptococcus through IoT and embedded systems’, Int. J. Advanced Intelligence Paradigms, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp.158–170.