Job satisfaction and employee turnover determinants in high contact services: Insights from Employees'Online reviews

We explore a special case of electronic word of mouth that of employees' online reviews to study the determinants of job satisfaction and employee turnover. We perform our analysis using a novel dataset of 297,933 employee online reviews from 11,975 US tourism and hospitality firms, taking advantage of both the review score and text. Leadership and cultural values are found to be better predictors of high employee satisfaction, while career progression is critical for employee turnover. One unit increase in the rating for career progression reduces the likelihood of an employee to leave a company by 14.87%. Additionally, we quantify the effect of job satisfaction on firm profitability, where one unit increase leads to an increase between 1.2 and 1.4 in ROA. We do not find evidence supporting the reverse relationship, that growth on firm profitability increases job satisfaction. The feedback to management in employee reviews provides specific managerial implications

Assessment of consumers' motivations to purchase a remanufactured product by applying Fuzzy Delphi method and single valued neutrosophic sets

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Environmental issues have been worldwide matters of concern especially in the recent decade and have made many firms implement end-of-life strategies such as remanufacturing. In prior studies, the supply side of remanufacturing supply chain has been vastly brought into focus compared to the demand side. Motivational factors that encourage consumers to purchase remanufactured products are getting firms attentions in developing effective marketing strategies to assist them being more productive in the current competitive market. However, consumer acceptance of remanufactured products has been regarded as one of the main reasons why remanufacturing has remained a majorly untapped opportunity for improving supply chain productivity. This study aims at exploring the major motivational factors for buying a remanufactured bike based on the consumers' and experts' opinions. Firstly, twelve motivations identified by scrutinising the literature. Secondly, single valued trapezoidal neutrosophic numbers (SVTNN) and trapezoidal neutrosophic weighted arithmetic averaging (TNWAA) operator were employed to obtain seven significant motivations using the survey data collected from potential customers. This method is applied owing to its capability in capturing the uncertainty of consumers' subjective judgements. Thirdly, the resulted seven motivations are prioritised in accordance with the experts' judgements utilising a proposed modified fuzzy Delphi (FD) method. Ultimately, the most significant motivation to purchase a remanufactured bike identified as quality that suggests quality is the major factor affecting purchase decision of a remanufactured bike. It indicates remanufacturers should focus on quality and attempt to improve the quality of products to gain more competitive advantage. The other six factors that should be stressed by remanufacturer's marketing strategies are prioritised as warranty, price, information provision, remanufacturer's reputation, value-added services and retailer's reputation respectively

A neutrosophic enhanced best–worst method for considering decision-makers’ confidence in the best and worst criteria

The best–worst method (BWM) is a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) method for evaluating ≤a set of alternatives based on a set of decision criteria where two vectors of pairwise comparisons are used to calculate the importance weight of decision criteria. The BWM is an efficient and mathematically sound method used to solve a wide range of MCDM problems by reducing the number of pairwise comparisons and identifying the inconsistencies derived from the comparison process. In spite of its simplicity and efficiency, the BWM does not consider the decision-makers’ (DMs’) confidence in their pairwise comparisons. We propose a neutrosophic enhancement to the original BWM by introducing two new parameters as the DMs’ confidence in the best-to-others preferences and the DMs’ confidence in the others-to-worst preferences. We present two real-world cases to illustrate the applicability of the proposed neutrosophic enhanced BWM (NE-BWM) by considering confidence rating levels of the DMs

ICT entertainment appliances' impact on domestic electricity consumption

Increased electricity consumption and environmental impacts of Information Communication Technology (ICT) have been subjects of research since the 1990s. This paper focuses on consumer electronics in households, in particular TVs, computers and their peripherals. ICT accounts for almost 15% of global domestic electricity use, including waste energy from devices left on standby which is estimated in the EU-27 to contribute 6% of residential energy demand. In Europe, the household electricity consumption from small electronic appliances, including ICT, increased by 2.5 times in 2011 compared to 1990. Similarly, in the UK, energy demand from electronic devices accounted for 23% of total household electricity use in 2012, compared to 12% in 1990. This is an outcome of the market saturation of new, cheaper ICT entertainment devices, facilitated by marketing strategies which identify new needs for consumers, as charted by the review of market growth in this paper. New increasingly portable laptops, smart phones and tablets with wireless connectivity allow householders to perform a wider range of activities in a wider range of locations throughout the home, such as social networking while the television is active. We suggest that policies which consider how to increase the energy efficiency of ICT devices alone are unlikely to be successful since effective strategies need to address how the drivers which have developed around the use of ICT can be adapted in order to conserve electricity in households. A range of policy solutions are discussed, including feedback, public information campaigns, environmental education, energy labelling, bans of, or taxation on the least efficient products as well as the use of a TV as central hub to perform the existing functions of multiple devices

Μέτρα Ρίσκου: Υλοποίηση με χρήση αγλορίθμων έρευσης ρίζας και μετασχηματισμό Fourier.

Στη παρούσα διπλωματική, παρουσιάζουμε αρχικά τα διάφορα μέτρα ρίσκου και μελετάμε ιδιαίτερα το utility-based shortfall risk. Η υλοποίησή του θα γίνει με τη χρήση στοχαστικών και ντεντερμινιστών μεθόδων και εν συνεχεία θα πραγματοποιηθεί η μεταξύ τους σύγκριση για να διαπιστώσουμε ποιός ειναι καλύτερος ώς προς την σύγκλιση και την ταχύτητα εκτέλεσης. Τέλος, μελετάμε τον υπολογισμό της μέσης τιμής, που ειναι ενσωματωμένος στα προβλήμα έρευσης ρίζας, με χρήση μετασχηματισμού Fourier και προσομοίωση Monte Carlo. Υπολογιστικά, μελετάμε και τη χρήση του παράλληλου προγραμαμτισμού, ο οποίος καθίσταται εφικτός λόγω της χρήσης στοχαστικών μεθόδων.In this thesis, we begin by reviewing the characteristics of different risk measures and we are drawn particularly for convex risk measures. One of these is the utility-based shortfall risk whose value we will try to determine by employing deterministic and stochastic root- finding algorithms, which will give us the opportunity to study the latter algorithms as well. Then we will compare them in order to see which one is better in terms of speed and convergence. On the implementation side, we will take a step further by using parallel programming for the stochastic case. This feature proves to be quite interesting in terms of speed. Then we will compare and contrast the Fourier transform with the Monte Carlo simulation, regarding the computation of the expected value, which is embedded into the root-finding problem. Our ambition is to test whether stochastic scheme is faster than deterministic ones and whether direct computation of the integral (i.e. Fourier transform) is indeed faster than simulation (i.e. Monte Carlo).Χαρης Κ. Χαλβατζή

A socio-economic and environmental vulnerability assessment model with causal relationships in electric power supply chains

The electric power industry is uniquely vulnerable to natural and human-made risks such as natural disasters, climate change, and cybersecurity. This study proposes a vulnerability assessment framework to identify and assess the risks associated with the electric power supply chain in the United Kingdom and study the causal relationship among them with the neutrosophic revised decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (NR-DEMATEL) method. We further introduce a novel hesitant expert selection model (HESM) to assist decision-makers with expert selection and weight determination. We present a case study in the United Kingdom power supply chain to demonstrate the applicability and efficacy of the proposed method in this study. This is the first comprehensive risk interdependence analysis of the United Kingdom's power supply chain. The findings reveal natural disasters and climate change are the most crucial risks followed by industrial action, affordability, political instability, and sabotage/terrorism

Isolated orbital fibrous dysplasia associated with ipsilateral keratoconus

Introduction: Fibrous dysplasia is a primary orbital bone tumor, described as a benign disorder in which proliferation of fibrous tissue and osteoid replaces and distorts the bone from which it derives. Unilateral keratoconus is a rare entity. Herein, we report a case of an extensive ethmoidal fibrous dysplasia associated with ipsilateral keratoconus, and review the literature on the subject. Materials and methods: A 22-year-old man presented with left painless proptosis evolving over 10 years. There was associated ipsilateral epiphora and gradual visual loss. On examination his visual acuity was 20/20 OD and CF OS. His left globe was displaced lateraly 12mm, with 9mm of proptosis. The extraocular movements were normal. Left nasolacrimal duct obstruction was noted. Clinical signs of keratoconus were present only in the left cornea. High resolution corneal topography confirmed unilateral keratoconus and a CT scan showed an ovoid mass with a well defined sclerotic margin arising from the left ethmoid sinus and invading the orbit. Results: The patient underwent resection of the lesion via a modified Lynch incision. Complete regression of proptosis was observed immediately after surgery. Histopathological examination revealed irregular trabeculae of woven bone in different levels of maturation in a moderately cellular fibrous matrix without nuclear atypia. Trabeculae were without osteoblastic rimming or osteoclastic resorption. There has been no recurrence over a 2-year follow-up period. Conclusion: To our knowledge, the coexistence of unilateral isolated craniofacial fibrous dysplasia with ipsilateral keratoconus has not been reported so far. Copyright © 2010 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc

Analyzing blockchain adoption barriers in manufacturing supply chains by the neutrosophic analytic hierarchy process

Tools established for managing information flow in supply chain management and logistics should match digital transformations. This issue is particularly salient for developing nations that hope to achieve sustainable development goals in a globalized era. Modern technologies are required to ensure a secure, transparent, and traceable path of information flow in global supply chains; however, it is not always straightforward for businesses in developing economies to adopt new digital technologies while sustaining productivity. One of the foundational technologies that can be used to create a basis for economic and social systems and to affect manufacturing supply chains in developing economies is blockchain. In this study, we analyze the barriers to blockchain technology adoption in manufacturing supply chains using the neutrosophic analytic hierarchy process (N-AHP). We propose an action plan framework for the validation of blockchain technology in a developing economy. The findings demonstrate that “transaction-level uncertainties” comprise the most critical barrier and have the highest weight in the final ranking followed by “usage in the underground economy”, “managerial commitment”, “challenges in scalability”, and “privacy risks”. This paper can assist industrial managers and experts in emerging economies to more clearly identify barriers to the implementation of blockchain technology and show them how to successfully employ blockchain technology in their supply chains

The Multiple Role of Energy Storage in the Industrial Sector : Evidence from a Greek Industrial Facility

AbstractAccording to Directive 2012/27/EU concerning energy efficiency, emphasis should be given on the promotion of best energy practices in the industrial sector. Acknowledging this, the objective of the current study is to demonstrate the multiple role of industrial energy storage. More precisely, load management and arbitrage strategies are investigated through the development of a simulation algorithm. Considering also the characteristics of the Greek electricity market, results obtained from the application of the proposed algorithm to a Greek industrial facility designate the need for revising current electricity price rates and/or developing novel financial tools for the support of industrial energy storage