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Revitalizing Sustainable Reshoring Brands: Understanding the Customer Perspective on the Roles of Motivation Attributions and the Institutionalization Process
No full textYesReshoring can be theorized as a brand revitalizing process for fostering companies’ ability to create value in the home country. The question of how to maintain sustainable reshoring implementation strategies by developing favorable brand responses is an important but underexplored field. Given that reshoring brand meanings are socially constructed and causally inferenced by consumers, we advocate that a reshoring brand revitalization should begin by understanding what constitutes customers’ attributions to reshoring motives. We identify values-driven, stakeholder-driven, and strategic-driven attributions as determinants of the sense of the institutionalization process (brand authenticity, legitimacy, and sustainability). These institutional logics comprise drivers that influence brand love and brand advocacy. We conduct an empirical study (n=1043) in China. The findings indicate that institutionalized reshoring branding activity is significantly influenced by customers’ attributions to underlying reshoring decisions. Reshoring brands that achieve institutional recognition are more likely to generate brand love and advocacy. In addition, our study provides empirical evidence that nostalgia (1) strengthens the influences of stakeholder-driven attributions on brand authenticity and sustainability, (2) inhibits the influence of values-driven attributions on brand authenticity, and (3) inhibits the influence of strategic-driven attributions on brand authenticity, legitimacy, and sustainability. Reshoring brand managers should consider these connections when designing their reshoring implementation strategies in the home country.Major Humanities and Social Sciences Research Projects in Zhejiang higher education institutions (Grant No. 2023QN033), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72101131,71972112) and Zhejiang Soft Science Programme (Grant No. 2022C35003)The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 30 Jun 2025
Modelling, Simulation, Optimisation and Thermodynamic Analysis of Multistage Reverse Osmosis Process based Brackish Water Desalination
Full text linkThe Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has been considered to be one of the most widely utilised techniques for brackish water desalination for its capabilities to produce high-quality water.
The RO process characterised by its low energy consumption compared to thermal distillation processes, leading to reduced overall water production cost. To systematically understand the transport phenomena of solvent and solutes via the
membrane texture, several mathematical models were developed. This interestingly aids to conduct a huge amount of simulation and optimisation studies to judge the influence of control variables on the performance indexes and to adjust the key variables at optimum values to realise optimum production indexes. In this research, a specific accurate model for a single spiral wound RO process has been successfully developed and used to build accurate models for the multistage brackish water RO desalination process of two different designs.
The robustness of the model developed was confirmed via validation against the experimental data collected from simple design of RO system and complicated design of RO system of Arab Potash Company (APC). This is followed by a thorough simulation of the RO process to explore the influence of operating conditions on the process performance indicators. Recently, several contributions were made in this thesis that specifically comprises the improvement of the original design of brackish water RO desalination process. The influence of a retentate recycle design is investigated on the process performance. Moreover, evaluation and minimisation of specific energy consumption (expressed in kWh/m3 of freshwater production) is carried out on the simple and complicated designs of RO process by implementing an energy recovery device. Also, the most suitable brand of membranes was explored for the RO system from a set of different brands of membrane to attain the highest-performance rejection at lowest energy consumption compared to the original membrane. Furthermore, a single optimisation framework was developed to mitigate the specific energy consumption of simple and complicated designs of brackish water RO desalination process. Finally, a thermodynamic limitations and exergy analysis of the complicated design of RO system are outlined via a thoroughly study to investigate the locations of high exergy destruction. These contributions were verified as they promoted the separation performance at a significant energy saving.Mutah University, JordanThe full text file of this PhD Thesis is not publicly available. The full text will only be available at the end of the embargo period: 6th June 203
Three Essays on Financial Inclusion
Full text linkThis thesis comprises three empirical studies. The first study assesses the multidimensional concept of financial inclusion with an objective to segregate the
key determinants, from a range of potential influencing factors. Using a large cross-country sample of developing countries, over a 14-year period from 2004 to 2017, findings suggest that physical access to banking services, advances in financial technology, government effectiveness and rural population are significantly associated with financial inclusion and should be the principal focus of policy initiatives. Sub-sample analysis shows considerable differences in the key determining factors of financial inclusion across six regions and three income groups. The second study empirically investigates the complex relationship between financial inclusion and financial stability for the period and sample considered in the first study, by employing instrumental Variables Two Stage Least Squares (IV 2SLS) estimation and Difference-in-Differences (DID)
methods. Results show that financial inclusion has a significant positive impact on financial stability. Also, countries that actively implement policies to promote
financial inclusion experience an enhanced positive impact on stability, as compared to other countries. The third study constructs a Financial Inclusion Index (FII) for 23 Indian states over a 44-year period and then uses the composite measure to examine the impact of financial inclusion on economic growth.
Unconditional Quantile Regression (UQR) estimates reveal a positive impact of inclusion on growth, with richer states in the west and the south benefitting more in terms of higher income caused by a higher level of financial inclusion than the poorer states in the north and the east, thus widening the income gap. While, liberalisation augments the financial inclusion induced income inequality, the proportion of the rural population reduces it.Scholarship from the Faculty of Management, Law and Social SciencesThe full text will be available at the end of the embargo: 18th June 203
Balancing Global Value Chain Resilience and Environmental Sustainability Tensions in Multinational Enterprises: Towards an Integrative Framework
No full textNoThe full text will be available at the end of the embargo: 6th May 2030
Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Chemical Probes Incorporating Aldehyde Dehydrogenase (ALDH) Recognition Motifs and Fluorescent Properties. An Investigation Towards the Development of ALDH-Affinic Fluorophores for Hypoxia Cell Tracking
No full textThe full text will be available at the end of the extended embargo: 21st Mar 202
Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel nucleotide prodrugs targeting polysialyltransferase
No full textThe full text will be available at the end of the embargo: 2nd Oct 202
Addressing Food Waste and Loss in Nigerian Food Supply Chain: Use of Lean Six Sigma and Double-Loop Learning
Full text linkThe purpose of this research is to explore how double Loop Learning (DLL) and Lean Six Sigma tool (i.e. DMAIC-Defined, Measure, Analysis, Improvement, and Control) can be used to reduce Food Waste and Loss (FWL) in the processing and distribution units of the Food Supply Chain (FSC) in the developing countries. This study is motivated base on the identified research problem of which about one-third of every food produce is wasted yearly, which equates to 1.3 billion tonnes of food throughout the entire food supply chain, with up to 50% of FWL occur at the pre-consumption stage of FSC in the developing countries. The economic values of FWL in Sub-Saharan Africa amount to $230 billion yearly. Therefore, the focus has been on how to reduce the magnitude of FWL at the pre-consumption stage of the FSC in the developing countries while promoting continuous improvement practices. Though technological, environmental, and Supply Chain Strategies (SCS) aimed at reducing FWL are effective in some parts of the world but the effectiveness of those strategies in some countries is hindered by poor supply chain activities. This research adopted a qualitative research method through the use of multiple case study strategies, with the aid of semi-structured interviews, observation, and documents to
explore the perception, understanding, and experience of the FSC stakeholders on how DMAIC-DLL can be used to reduce FWL. The findings of this study show that with the DMAIC-DLL framework, the root causes of FWL at the pre-consumption stage
were identified. The study found that some Lean tools, employee improvisation, learning practices are some of the strategies that could be used in reducing FWL. The findings suggest that experiential learning, collaborative learning, and on-job training are effective learning mechanisms that could be used to promote learning in the adoption of DMAIC-DLL in the FSC.
Therefore, this research contributes towards the ongoing debate on how to reduce FWL as well as the wider debate learning mechanisms that support continuous improvement practices. Future research should explore how DMAIC-DLL can be extended to other settings other than the food industry.Federal Government of Nigeria through the Petroleum Trust
Development Fund (PTDF)The full text will be available at the end of the embargo period: 13th Jan 2028
Development of a Novel Targeted Cytotoxic Chemotherapy for Prostate Cancer
No full textThe full-text will be available at the end of the embargo: 2nd Oct 202
Single agent and combination treatment in 2D and 3D rhabdomyosarcoma models
No full textThe full text will be available at the end of the embargo: 20th Jan 202
Drug repurposing and engineering nanotechnology-based delivery systems: A strategy to overcome chemoresistance in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
No full textThe full text will be available at the end of the embargo: 2nd Dec 202