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RBS Research Seminar
1- How to Write Good Quality Manuscripts To Target High Ranked Journals
Yogesh K. Dwivedi, School of Management, Swansea University, UK, June 22, 2022
2- Quantitative Data Analysis Using Process-Macro (SPSS-Plugin)
Vikas Arya, RBS, UIR, Morocco, June 22, 2022
3- Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)- SMART PLS: A Hands-on Approach
Ahmed Tariq, RBS, UIR, Morocco, June 22, 2022
4- How to Drive Practice Driven Research
V.G. Venkatesh, EM Normandie Business School, France, June 21, 2022
5- Access to Data, How to Create Better Impact, Testing of Models and Frameworks
Nasser Jamalkhan, University of Hertfordshire, UK, March 23, 2022
5- Access to Data, How to Create Better Impact, Testing of Models and Frameworks
Nasser Jamalkhan, University of Hertfordshire, UK, March 23, 2022
6- Assessment of the Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on the Prospects of E-Learning in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs): The Mediating Role of Academic Innovativeness and Technological Growth
Abdul Bashiru JIBRIL, RBS, UIR, Morocco, February 23, 2022
We assessed the antecedents geared toward the implementation of e-learning strategy in the HLI’s of a developing country amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The study again espouses the enabling factors that influence the e-learning system usage during the Covid-19 pandemic in a less digitalized economy (Ghana). In doing so, the authors relied wholly on a quantitative research paradigm by leveraging on structural equation modelling (SEM) technique to achieve the study goal(s). The findings from five-hundred and sixty-three (563) valid responses showed that the outbreak of the novel Covid-19 has positively and significantly strengthened the adoption of e-learning strategies across HLI’s in Ghana. It also revealed that ‘academic innovativeness’ and ‘technological growth & development’ have a significant mediation effect on the relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and the adoption of e-learning strategy. In practice, the study offers contributions for universities’ management and policymakers to understand the relevant factors needed urgently by students and instructors of HLI’s for ensuring the successful usage of e-learning systems. The conclusion and future research direction have been presented in the paper.
Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, Academic innovativeness, technology, e-learning, HLIs, Ghana.
7- Bad Bosses: Does organizational justice help to reduce the effects of bad supervision on work and non-work-related outcomes?
Muhammad Farrukh Moin, RBS, UIR, Morocco, February 9, 2022
8- Integrated Production and Financial Planning in Supply Chains
Oussama Kajjoune, RBS, UIR, Morocco, February 2022
9- Integer programming formulations for the parallel machine scheduling problem with a single server
Abdelhak EL IDRISSI, RBS, UIR, Morocco, February 9, 2022
In this seminar, we consider the problem of scheduling independent jobs on identical parallel machines with a single server to minimize the makespan. This important problem raises in flexible manufacturing systems, automated material handling, healthcare, and many other industrial fields, and has been little studied up to now. Mixed integer programming (MIP) formulations are proposed to solve optimally this problem. Each formulation reflects a specific concept on how the decision variables are defined. Moreover, we present valid inequalities that can be used to improve those formulations. A computational study is performed on benchmark instances from the literature to compare the proposed MIP formulations with other known formulations from the literature. It turns out that our proposed time-indexed variables formulation outperforms by far the other formulations. In addition, we present a very efficient MIP formulation to solve a particular case of the problem with a regular job set. This formulation is able to solve all regular instances for the case of 500 jobs and 5 machines in less than 5.27 min, where all other formulations are not able to produce a feasible solution within 1h.
Keywords: Scheduling, Scheduling with a single server, Parallel machines, Integer programming, valid inequalities.
10- HENRY’s Love in the Lens of AR – Enhancing the Luxury Brand Attachment in the Presence of Brand Warmth and Competence
Vikas Arya, RBS, UIR, Morocco, January 26, 2022
Customers’ engagement with luxury brands on social media platforms is increasing post-Covid-19; however, there is still a lack of in-depth studies on consumers’ synergy with luxury brands through social networking sites and how it triggers HENRYs (High-Earners-Not-Rich-Yet) attachments with luxury brands. Thus, this study exposes a research gap using the descriptive research method and investigates avid or highly engaged social networking site users’ luxury brand-related engagement. Using social presence theory (SPT), this study explores how brand warmth and competence helps in framing consumers’ brand attachments as they now interact with luxury brands virtually. This study is relevant to the post-Covid-19 market as consumers specially HENRYs are unwilling to shop in stores for a luxury brand. The results confirm online consumer engagements with luxury brands have a favourable effect on consumer brand attachment, particularly when consumers’ virtual engagement and brand attachment are positively mediated by brand warmth and competence. Based on these findings, we offer managerial recommendations aimed at improving brands’ digital marketing strategies that dynamically track HENRYs virtual engagement with luxury brands.
Keywords: Social networking sites; consumer brand attachment; social presence theory; brand warmth; brand competence.
11- Strategic improvisation as a dynamic capability in responding to organizational anomalies
Diorgenes Falcão Mamédio, RBS, UIR, Morocco, January 12, 2022
Managing organizations in a VUCA world (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) requires new dynamic capabilities to face, above all, organizational anomalies. Recognized in contradictions, ambiguities, deviant decisions, and counterproductive behaviors, these anomalies are inherent in uncontrollable environments. This study explores “How does strategic improvisation function as a dynamic capability in nonlinear environments?” The SI concept does not intend to solve anomalies but presents itself as an effective DC to deal with contexts considered unmanageable. We carried out the first study that empirically evidenced the SI as a DC at the organizational level. Our findings revealed a multipurpose SI framework integrated by articulation focused on alignment, adaptation for process optimization, experience building process to support innovation initiatives and a capacity for wayfindings. This framework leads to our definition of SI dynamic capability as the strategic ability to act impromptu-deliberately in an attempt to provide outcomes to integrate, reconfigure and build resources as a way to create value in nonlinear environments. A new and, according to the results, promising approach for organization studies.
Keywords: dynamic capability; strategic improvisation; organizational anomalies; organization studies; strategic management; nonlinear environments.
12- Financial crisis of 2008 and outward foreign investments from China and India
Muhammad Saad Baloch, RBS, UIR, Morocco, December 8, 2021
We show that outward investment by Chinese firms with resource and asset seeking motives and Indian firms with market-seeking motives diverged after the financial crisis of 2008, due to different motives and the underlying financing structure of their outward investments. Indian firms faced export market contraction externally and cut back on outward investments as sales revenues shrank. In contrast, Chinese firms that relied on debt finance to seek out international assets expanded investment as investment targets became cheaper and the reliance on leverage inured Chinese firms to the fluctuations of stock markets and other financial implications of the crisis.
Keywords: Financial crisis, Outward foreign investment, Emerging Economies, Financial Constraints, Motives for FDI
13- Investigating Digital Strategies with the Help of Corpus Linguistics – Examples from the Insurance Industry
Albrecht Fritzsche, RBS, UIR, Morocco, December 1st, 2021
With a growing awareness for the potential of innovation emerging from digital technology, many companies have recently implemented strategies for the digital transformation of their business activities. I show how these strategies can be investigated using simple forms of corpus linguistics, using recent work in the insurance industry. The main part of the talk is dedicated to a keywords-in-context study on annual reports of European insurers, documenting the importance of comprehensive agendas for digital transformation. After presenting the findings, the method of topic modeling is discussed as a potential alternative to conduct such studies and the advantages and disadvantages of both methods are critically reviewed.
Keywords: Digital Innovation, Industry 4.0, Shareholder Value, Advanced Text Analytics.
14- Modelling Eligibility for Humanitarian Aid Distribution: The Case of Syrian Refugees in Turkey
Qing Lu, RBS, UIR, Morocco, November 17, 2021
In the field of humanitarian logistics, humanitarian supply chain management responding to refugees is an important but understudied topic. This study is thus initiated to explore the aid distribution problem, a critical aspect of humanitarian aid operations. We have solved an aid distribution problem for Syrian refugees resided in Turkey by developing a mathematical programming model, which could optimize the aid distribution in the field. Using five different scenarios to simulate the aid distribution in the field, it is found that our model is effective in practice, reaching at least 70% of families and beneficiaries. The model is versatile, applicable to different settings and allows for multiple objectives. The study may help aid agencies to make more informed decisions in their aid distributions. The model allows them to test various scenarios to balance multiple objectives for fairer and more effective supports to beneficiaries in needs.
Keywords: Syrian refugee, aid distribution, utility, eligibility criteria, humanitarian logistics, optimization modelling.
15- Why perceived motivators and barriers matter: Points of consideration for entrepreneurship development policy
Tariq Ahmed, RBS, UIR, Morocco, April 07, 2021
The macro-micro link between entrepreneurship development policy and entrepreneurial mindset among graduating university students is rarely studied. This study provides insight into this link by uncovering perceived motivators and barriers to entrepreneurship and examining their relationship to entrepreneurial intention among graduating students in Malaysia, a country that established entrepreneurship education programs among policies to accelerate national development. The study tests propositions derived from the theory of planned behaviour and data from 317 students who were near graduation from entrepreneurship programs. The findings show how, while contextual factors can positively affect entrepreneurial intention, young entrepreneurs may not be willing to risk new venture creation if they perceive the contextual environment as hostile. At the same time, favourable attitudes can inspire intentions for self-employment and business creation among graduating students who have the self-confidence to perceive environmental conditions favourably.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial intention, contextual and environmental factors, perceived entrepreneurial barriers and motivators, Malaysia.
16- A quay crane productivity predictive model for building accurate quay crane schedules
Kaoutar Chargui, RBS, UIR, Morocco, March 31, 2021
The efficient management of maritime logistics operations improves the performance of global supply chains. An important issue in container terminal operations is the scheduling of quay cranes (QCs), which is affected by the productivity rate of QCs. This productivity rate depends on the type of tasks to be completed by QCs on any given vessel. In this study, we propose an artificial neural network (ANN) model with a variable neighborhood search (VNS) as a training algorithm to build a productivity rate predictive model. This model considers several predictors depending on the type of containers in the vessel and the expected equipment downtime. We also study how QC scheduling is impacted by the productivity rate of QCs. The proposed predictive model and a moving average model are used to estimate the productivity rate, which is then taken as input to the QC scheduling optimization model. Results show that when the proposed predictive model is used, QC schedules are closer to those generated using real data obtained from our container terminal partner.
Keywords: Quay crane productivity; neural networks; quay crane scheduling.
17- Building Marketing Capabilities Through Networks
Mesay Sata Shanka, RBS, UIR, Morocco, February 10, 2021
This study empirically investigates the contribution of network connections to the development of a firm’s marketing capabilities. Using a survey and archival data obtained from 186 firms operating in the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, this study reveals how external network partners contribute to the development of focal firms’ marketing capabilities. I find that diversity in firm–firm and firm–government networks produced comparable results, but cohesion in these two networks produce different results. Besides, the effect of network connections on marketing capabilities is contingent upon environmental dynamism and knowledge tacitness. Cohesive networks contribute to the development of marketing capabilities under a high level of knowledge tacitness. Diverse networks provide knowledge relevant to build marketing capabilities in dynamic environments. The findings also reveal that marketing capabilities mediate the effect of the firm–firm network on sales growth. This research provides new insights for marketing researchers and managers on how to make the most out of their network connections to develop marketing capabilities and how investments in developing marketing capabilities contribute to firm performance.
Keywords: Marketing Capabilities, Firm-Firm Network, Firm-Government Network, Sales Growth.
18- Understanding the key motivations to download and use mobile contact tracing apps (MCTA) in efforts to contain community spread of COVID-19
Christian Nedu Osakwe, RBS, UIR, Morocco, February 03, 2021
To contribute scientific knowledge to the emerging phenomenon of mobile contact tracing apps (MCTA) which can potentially reduce the community transmission of the novel coronavirus, this study, based on the extended theory of planned behavior (TPB), investigates the key determinants of individuals’ attitudes and willingness to use MCTA. Our research findings show that perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and institutional trust positively and directly influence the formation of strong attitudes towards MCTA. Furthermore, attitude, besides directly contributing to the use intentions of MCTA, was confirmed to mediate the influence of perceived behavioral control, subjective norms and institutional trust on MCTA’s use intentions. Contrary to the literature and our initial predictions, privacy concern has a minimal influence on both attitudes and use intentions of MCTA, implying that concern over privacy might be inconsequential, especially given the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, our expanded TPB model explains more than 30 and 60 percent proportion in public attitudes and use intentions, respectively. Taken together, this research validates the predictive utility of (extended) TPB theory and allows us to provide relevant guidance to policymakers about the possible ways to modify the expected behavior of citizens towards using MCTA.
Keywords: Mobile contact tracing mobile apps; COVID-19; institutional trust; privacy concern; theory of planned behavior; voluntary adoption.
19- Leverage versus volatility: Evidence from the capital structure of European firms
Abdelkader El Alaoui, RBS, UIR, Morocco, January 06, 2021
The impact of leverage on financial market stability and the relationship with the real economy is a key concern among researchers. This paper makes an initial attempt to investigate the relationship between a firm’s leverage, return and share price volatility from an Islamic finance perspective and capital structure theory. A multi-country dynamic panel framework and the mean-variance efficient frontier are applied to 320 sample firms from eight European countries, divided into portfolios of low and high debt using the Shari’ah screening threshold of 33%. We find that the firm’s return and volatility change with changes in the capital structure. Islamic compliant stocks show, in most cases, less volatility than non-compliant stocks but are no different in terms of return. Finally, our results tend to imply a case for limiting debt beyond certain levels.
Keywords: Volatility, Leverage, Islamic stocks, Mean-variance efficient frontier, Dynamic GMM, Wavelet time–frequency coherence analysis.
20- Refinement and Validation of a Multidimensional Destination Brand Equity Scale for Inbound and Outbound Chinese Travelers: A Cross-National Perspective
Martin YONG HO HYUN, RBS, UIR, Morocco, December 2, 2020
Destination brand equity (DBE) consists of five tourism dimensions and differs from generic customer-based brand equity, which theoretically comprises four dimensions. This study partially adopts Yoo and Donthu’s methodological approach to cross-validate a DBE scale between three groups of tourists: Korean (KJ) and Chinese visitors to Jeju Island (CJ) and Chinese visitors to Zhangjiajie (CZ). Accordingly, data were collected from 256 KJ, 217 CJ, and 257 CZ respondents. Two empirical studies incorporate a multigroup analysis to examine whether the five key dimensions of DBE can be identically applied to the three groups. The first study extracted 15 items from the original 23 in the DBE scale; the second identified the different measures commonly applicable to the three groups. External validity is achieved by testing nomological validity and cross-validation. The findings’ implications are subsequently discussed and suggestions for future research provided.
Keywords: Multidimensional DBE scale, multigroup analysis, destination branding, etic-emic approach, external validity.
21- Bulk port related supply chains optimization
Issam KRIMI, RBS, UIR, Morocco, 25, 2020
During the last few decades, tremendous progress in maritime transportation has been noticed. In this emerging era of international trading, port-related supply chains have attracted much attention. Indeed, several works have been proposed to study both seaside and yard side decision problems in container terminal context. However, few researchers have investigated these problems for bulk ports. In this work, we were interested in proposing a set of mathematical models and heuristics to optimize port-related supply chains. This study is guided by a real case of an integrated bulk port owned by OCP group. Several use cases were presented and tested to study the efficiency of our decision support system.
Keywords: Bulk Ports, Mathematical Programming, Metaheuristics.
22- Differentiate or not? A Multi-level Investigation of Within-Group Differentiation in Paternalistic Leadership
Alper Erturk, RBS, UIR, Morocco, November 11, 2020
The existing literature on leadership has established that leaders differentiate among their followers. However, the focus of these studies has been on theories developed in the West, neglecting paternalistic leadership which is a prevalent leadership style in Eastern contexts. This paper proposes within-group differentiation on two dimensions of paternalism (authoritarianism and benevolence) as a boundary condition while studying the effects of paternalistic leadership on team experiences. We hypothesize that authoritarian (AL) and benevolent leadership (BL) differentiation will interact with corresponding team-level dimensions of paternalism in predicting team cohesion, which in turn, will influence team-level (team innovative performance and team goal achievement) and individual-level performance (in-role, extra-role and innovative performance). Results based on multi-source cross-level data from 381 employees of 63 teams working in 19 organizations revealed that both BL and AL differentiation emerged as significant moderators. Contrary to our expectation, AL differentiation reduced the strength of the negative relationship between team-level AL and team cohesion. BL differentiation, however, was found to hurt team cohesion especially when team-level BL was low. Team cohesion, in turn, enhanced both team innovative performance and team goal accomplishment, as well as individual-level in-role and extra-role performance. Key implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords: Paternalistic leadership differentiation; benevolent leadership differentiation; authoritarian leadership differentiation; in-role performance; extra-role performance; innovative performance; accomplishment of team goals.
23- Satellite Big Data Analytics for Ethical Decision Making – Case of Farmers Insurance Claim Settlement in India
Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy, University of Liverpool Management School, UK, July 10, 2020
Farmers submit claims to insurance providers when affected by sowing/planting risk, standing crop risk, post-harvest risk, and localized calamities risk. Decision making for settlement of claims submitted by farmers has been observed to comprise of type-1 and type-II errors. The existence of these errors reduces confidence in agri-insurance providers and government in general as it fails to serve the needy farmers (type-I error) and sometimes serve the ineligible farmers (type-II error). The gaps in currently used underlying data, methods and timelines including anomalies in locational data used in crop sampling, inclusion of invalid data points in computation, estimation of crop yield, and determination of the total sown area create
barriers in executing the indemnity payments for small and marginal farmers in India.
In this paper, we present a satellite big data analytics-based case study in a region in India and explain how the anomalies in the legacy processes can be addressed to minimize type-I and type-II errors and thereby make ethical decisions while approving farmer claims.
Our study demonstrates what big data analytics can offer to increase the ethicality of the decisions and the confidence at which the decision is made, especially when the beneficiaries of the decision are poor and powerless.
Keywords: Big data analytics, Satellite imagery, Ethical decision making, Agriculture, Farmer, Insurance, India
24- Optimizing sustainable and renewable energy portfolios using a fuzzy interval goal programming approach
Noureddine Kouaissah, RBS, UIR, Morocco, April 22, 2020
Determining the most sustainable renewable energy (RE) source portfolio that meets decision-maker preferences is a complicated and uncertain multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The RE selection process involves meeting decision-makers’ (DMs) preferences wherein several conflicting criteria are present, such as environmental, societal, and economic. Fuzzy goal programming (FGP) is one of the most well-known techniques for dealing with uncertainty existing in MCDM problems. However, conventional FGP techniques suppose only one single coefficient (or parameter) for each decision variable. This paper proposes a novel multi-objective decision-making model called fuzzy interval goal programming (FIGP) to release the restrictions of FGP with single-coefficient modeling. The proposed model can formulate an interval coefficient for each decision variable. To formulate such a model, this study adopts the concept of multi-choice aspiration levels (MCALs) from the revised multi-choice goal programming (RMCGP) technique. Specifically, the integrated model considers various types of fuzzy goals in real-world problems and offers DMs more flexibility to express and formulate their preferences in terms of fuzzy interval goals. The proposed method is illustrated by selecting the optimal RE portfolio for electricity generation in Italy. The relevant renewables are biomass, solar photovoltaic (PV), tidal currents, and wind energy. An empirical analysis shows that the proposed methodology is capable of assisting the DMs in ascertaining the optimal portfolio of RE under a high level of uncertainty and in imprecise environments.
25- Weighted-additive fuzzy multi-choice goal programming (WA-FMCGP) for supporting renewable energy site selection decisions
Amin Hocine, RBS, UIR, Morocco, April 22, 2020
This paper proposes a novel weighted-additive fuzzy multi-choice goal programming (WA-FMCGP) model for the imprecise decision context wherein several conflicting goals are present but each goal has multiple-choice aspiration levels (MCALs) and, around them, the fuzzinesses are expressed in terms of membership functions (MFs). The main contribution of this model is its use of an objective function that minimises the weighted-additive summation of the normalised deviations; thus, the model can adopt any minimisation process from any goal programming (GP) variant. The advantages of this FGP-MCGP (fuzzy GP – multi-choice GP) model are shown by using it to solve a numerical example from F-MODM (fuzzy MODM) literature and comparing the results with those of a recent FP-MCGP (fuzzy programming – multi-choice GP) study. The application of the model is also verified using real data (i.e., it can model and support renewable energy site selection (RESS) where the decision context is imprecise). As WA-FMCGP is largely a MODM model, through its application, this study also provides a supplementary method in contrast to the multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) model applications used thus far for RESS.
26- Mobile banking and consumers intention
Walid Chaouali, RBS, UIR, Morocco, April 15, 2020
27- Lean Six Sigma model efficiency
Raja Sreedharan V, February 26, 2020
28- Design of an integrated and sustainable palm date value chain in Morocco
Ismail Badraoui, February 26, 2020
29- The direct relationship between P E fit and retirement intentions
Khaled Lahlouh, January 22, 2020
30- Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Service Motivation and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Public Sector
Moustafa Abdelmotaleb, RBS, UIR, Morocco, January 22, 2020
31- An Introduction to Tourism Marketing: A Research Path from Consumer Behavior to Network Science
Mujde Bideci, RBS, UIR, Morocco, November 27, 2019
32- International asset allocation in presence of systematic cojumps
Mohamed Arouri, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, France, October 30, 2019
33- An old wine in new shari’a compliant bottles? A time-frequency wavelet analysis of the efficiency of monetary policy in dual financial systems
Amine Ben Amar, September 25, 2019
34- Immature Stock Markets: Analysis, Modelling and Simulation
Mhamed Ali EL Aroui, RBS, UIR, Morocco, September 25, 2019
35- The fintech transformation of banking: Governance dynamics and socio-economic outcomes in spatial contexts
Piotr Łasak, Jagiellonian University, Institute of Economics, Finance and Management, Poland, November 9, 2022
Objective: The objective of the research is to identify and systemize the governance dynamics and related socio-economic consequences of the fintech transformation in banking while acknowledging spatial contexts.
Research Design & Methods: The research framework comprised Global Production Networks (GPN), Global Value Chain (GVC), and co-evolutionary approaches to guide a systematic literature review in the Scopus, Web of Science, and Taylor & Francis databases for 2016-2021. The final sample comprised 76 sources that became the basis for selective coding and the synthesis of the results.
Findings: Fintech impacted banking governance by creating a dual and interrelated system of global financial networks and a ‘mosaic’ of territorial financial ecologies and ecosystems, where incumbent banks held an important but not exclusive position. The fintech-enhanced governance transformations had both positive socio-economic effects (improved efficiency, expanded range of services, and inclusion of unbanked or under-served customers) and negative effects (over-indebtedness, surveillance, and exclusion of some customers). Wider socioeconomic consequences refer to sustainable development and changes in economic and social behaviour.
Implications & Recommendations: A research framework and agenda for future studies related to the dynamics of fintech-driven governance in banking have been elaborated. The article derives the immediate and wider economic and social consequences of fintech-driven transformations. The results can also be applied in public policies oriented towards sustainable socio-economic development.
Contribution & Value Added: The research provides theoretical and policy-relevant contributions. Firstly, it broadens the research on the transformation of banking governance in the spatial context. Secondly, it contributes theoretically by proposing a research framework of GVC and GPN governance augmented by a co-evolutionary perspective. Thirdly, the study informs policy that seeks financial inclusion for cohesive and sustainable development.
Keywords: banking sector, fintech, governance, global production networks, global value chains.
