VGTU Journals (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University - Vilnius Tech)
Not a member yet
12536 research outputs found
Sort by
New creative perspective on existential and social undercurrents in British Gothic novels
No full textChanges that occur often in the world around us in accordance with each period’s change. It is a common trend in writing to introduce new tendencies, and the Gothic subgenre exhibits this tendency. The term Gothic has its roots in the early 16th century and refers to a mysterious quality that appears in some metaphysical items. This paper is a humble attempt to explore the history of the Gothic novel and demonstrate how mystery alone recreates this genre in British literature. The ability of intangible components to incite fear in readers was lessened with the rise of the mysterious portrayal of a story in day-to-day life. As the Gothic novel began to examine reality, readers’ desire to learn the truth increased. This paper investigates to understand the reasons for the abrupt disappearance of metaphysical components and increased focus and importance on existential and social issues by examining a few randomly chosen modern novels and comparing them to the earlier Gothic classics. It highlights the differences occurring in readers’ views according to the various times while also evaluating the variance occurring within the Gothic genre
Padmarajan’s creative illustration of masculinities
No full textPadmarajan is an eminent personality of Indian cinema whose passionate and exquisite oeuvre of films grappled with the minds of viewers in India but remains underexplored in international academia. This article focuses on the creative representation of masculinities by Padmarajan with the aid of varied masculinity theories starting from the foundational masculinity ideas of Raewyn Connell to the alternate masculinity concepts rooted in the South Asian socio-cultural milieu. The paper examines how skilfully Padmarajan presents different forms of masculinity primarily subverting the traditional depictions in his select films
Youths’ word-of-mouth in a developing country: roles of green promotion and green brand loyalty
No full textPurpose – This paper investigates the mediating role of green brand loyalty between green brand image and word-of-mouth (WoM) and the moderating role of green promotion and brand social responsibility among Vietnamese youth.
Research methodology – Using an online questionnaire from 1st October 2022 to 31st December 2022, 740 valid responses were collected.
Findings – The study reveals that green brand loyalty mediates the relationship between brand trust and WoM. Additionally, green promotion significantly moderates the relationship between brand trust and green brand loyalty. The study concludes that green promotion is vital in influencing consumers’ trust in the brand, subsequently increasing their loyalty.
Research limitations – This study has not categorized the groups of environmentally friendly products used by young Vietnamese to see if there is a difference.
Practical implications – These results provide significant implications for brand managers to enhance the effectiveness of WoM.
Originality/Value – Green promotion is an effective strategy for brands to regain consumers’ loyalty and maintain a close relationship between consumers and green brands. Additionally, green brand loyalty emphasizes the significance of green promotion for developing green companies and can serve as a conduit between customers and brands
Leveraging financial literacy into sustainable business performance: a mediated-moderated model
No full textPurpose – The current study evaluates the linkage between financial literacy and the sustainable business performance model with access to finance and fintech adoption. Further, the moderating role of top management support in the linkage between financial literacy toward access to finance and fintech adoption was verified.
Research methodology – This research was conducted in the SME sector in Indonesia. The sample frame were 261 SMEs and 783 respondents from three levels of management. Data was collected in the October-December 2023 period. Data were obtained utilizing Likert-scaled questionnaires and analyzed using SmartPLS.
Findings – The results demonstrate that financial literacy is an instrumental driver of access to finance and fintech adoption that promotes sustainability performance. Subsequently, the study highlights the critical role of access to finance and fintech adoption as the mediator and top management support as moderator.
Research limitations – The study is solely performed on the SME sector in one country; thus, the findings’ generalization is lacking.
Practical implications – SME managers need to upgrade their financial literacy because financially knowledgeable managers are keenly informed of the costs, benefits, and risks related to funding schemes to encourage sustainable performance.
Originality/Value – Empirical research that explores the implication of financial literacy on access to finance and fintech adoption in promoting sustainability performance is lacking, reported solely on manufacturing companies and banks. Meanwhile, the SME sector, especially in developing countries, is understudied. Consequently, the initial study leads the examination of financial literacy’s role in enhancing access to finance and fintech adoption to foster the sustainability performance of SMEs
Mediating effects of creative home environment and self-directed learning ability on the relationship between creative personality and creative achievement intention
No full textThis study verified the mediating effects of creative home environment and self-directed learning ability on the relationship between creative personality and creative achievement intention of university students. Creative personality was set as independent variable, creative home environment and self-directed learning ability as mediating variables, and creative achievement intention as dependent variable. This study was conducted from June 10 to July 10, 2019 in Seoul, South Korea, and the participants were 587 university students. Data was collected through an online–offline test and analysed using SPSS Statistics 25.0. Creative personality affected creative achievement intention through the medium of creative home environment. However, self-directed learning ability had no mediating effect in the influence of creative personality on creative achievement intention. Therefore, creative home environment is important to improve the creative achievement intention of university students. Further, that the family’s environmental support affects the creative achievement intention to express creativity in course of development bears implications for parent education
The effect of problem-based learning assisted with concept mapping founded on cognitive style on the creativity of writing exposition text
No full textThe aim of this research is to obtain another point of view with collaborative problem-based learning to increase writing creativity in the field of scientific work in the form of exposition text by investigating cognitive style as an individual character and using concept mapping media. This study uses descriptive research methods and multivariate analysis is used to provide a clear picture of writing creativity that considers the use of learning methods, concept mapping media, and students’ cognitive style backgrounds. The research subjects were students of the second-semester Islamic religious education study program from the Islamic Senior High School Diniyah Putri Pekanbaru, Indonesia. Sample selection was done by means of cluster random sampling. The sample was divided into two, the experimental class which collected 30 people, and the control class with a number of 30. The cognitive style must be considered in the application of the learning method. Students with field-dependent cognitive styles are more adaptable in collaborative learning. The use of media mapping to foster writing creativity was evident during the research. Concept mapping, which involves higher-order thinking skills, stimulates students to continue to involve the imagination in their creative process. Several educational implications are discussed and can be used as future research directions. The interpretation results are obtained by considering the relevant literature findings
Smart city management from the perspective of inhabitants as the creative consumers of urban space
No full textThe purpose of this article is to assess the perception of the idea of about the smart city management by its creative inhabitants. In operationalising the adopted objective, the focus is on the perception of the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of Internet of things technologies and devices in urban space, based on the residents’ convictions and attitudes. The study was conducted using an online survey technique. The most important advantages related to the implementation of Internet of things solutions in the field of smart cities are improved convenience in everyday life (easier access to public services), optimised allocation of urban resources, creating the image of the city as a modern city and economic benefits. On the other hand, the most important disadvantages are unethical use of personal data by public administration representatives, excessive surveillance of residents, increased costs of purchasing public services, loss of control over devices/systems, and increased feeling of insecurity among residents. The variable that differentiates to some extent the advantages and disadvantages perceived by inhabitants is their age
Effectiveness of fiscal policy measures in different public debt regimes
No full textThe aim of the research is to illustrate how the degree of effectiveness of fiscal policy measures varies depending on the level of public debt within a group of Central and Eastern European (CEE) states. To this end, a T-SVAR (Threshold Structural Vector Autoregressive) model was implemented, based on two regimes, calibrated as a function of the evolution of public debt. The results illustrate that, in most of the countries analysed, increasing government expenditure generates a stronger increase in economic growth under the low public debt regime in comparison with the situation at the level of the high public debt regime. Thus, the effectiveness of fiscal policy measures declines as the level of government debt rises. Another result obtained within the analysis highlights that the positive effect of public debt reduction on economic growth is more strongly felt in the higher public debt regime than under a low public debt regime. On the basis of these results, it is recommended that the CEE countries continue their efforts to reduce public debt in order to increase the effectiveness of fiscal policy measures
Improving prediction accuracy of open shop scheduling problems using hybrid artificial neural network and genetic algorithm
No full textScheduling issues are typically classified as constrained optimization problems that examine the allocation of machines and the sequence in which tasks are processed. Regarding the existence of one machine, identification of works processing sequence forms a complete time schedule. Therefore, following a review of previous works, the goal of the present study is designing a mathematical model for open shop scheduling (OSS) problems using different machines aiming at minimizing the maximum time required to complete the works using an artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA). The research data were driven from a Shoe company carried out between the years 2019 and 2020. The GA and ANN methodologies were employed to analyze and forecast the scheduling of activities within the shoe manufacturing sector. The findings indicated that the probability associated with the third population of the GA was 0.15. Furthermore, an examination of the average values of standard error revealed that the neural network model outperformed in terms of predictive accuracy. The estimated minimum time necessary for task completion, as determined by the neural network, was calculated to be 0.96699, facilitating an optimal condition for meeting the established objectives
SMEs as victims of competition violations in the EU: an empirical investigation
No full textThis paper investigates the nature and extent of competition violations experienced by SMEs in the EU-27 countries. Using data from the Flash Eurobarometer 510 Survey, this study employs a Heckman sample selection model to correct for potential selection bias. The findings reveal that while most SMEs do not face significant competition problems, those that do mainly struggle with high prices and powerful suppliers imposing unfair conditions. Interestingly, SME size and age do not significantly affect exposure to antitrust offenses, but industry sector and geographical location do. The paper emphasizes the potential roles of SMEs in competition authorities’ market oversight activities, given their unique market position and ability to detect competition violations early. Finally, the article calls for continuous engagement with SMEs by policymakers, regulators, and competition authorities to improve market competition