Search results

The construction industry has embraced building information modelling (BIM) as a practical methodology towards digitalisation. However, critics believe BIM has reached a plateau in addressing distinctive construction challenges. As a result, literature has seen an increase in the development and use of BIM-based plugins. Overall, the plugins have been critical in delivering custom-built solutions to longstanding construction challenges. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate this trend and the potential barriers undermining the wider development of BIM plugins, by that contributing to a stimulating research topic and a growing knowledge gap.

Methodologically, this study used a quantitative approach to collect data through a carefully designed questionnaire. This study achieved a sample size of 39 experts who have been involved in developing, experimenting and publishing BIM-based plugins for specific construction activities.

The findings led to the identification of the key barriers to using BIM-based plugins and the identification of the key strategies to overcome them across the three situational awareness (SA) phases. Results also suggest that the development and use of plugins are destined to increase, and the research community can now rely on the insights of this paper as a departure point to address the technological plateau in BIM-related research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically identify and assess the barriers undermining the wider development of BIM-based plugins. This study contributes to theory by building on SA, by challenging existing wisdom and fostering new knowledge around strategies to overcome the evaluated barriers.

The ideology of “Local Architecture” was about the religious experience, social and cultural interpretations non-awareness, and solutions for environmental and social problems. This case aims at producing a compatible architecture for this society. The problem of the paper deals with the absence of the local heritage in contemporary architecture. Most of our buildings reflect western ideologies, and use the local vocabulary, as has happened in most of the Arab architecture, that deals directly with a language of shapes to create compatibility with the public. Hence, the aim of the paper is to link the variables that the contemporary architecture formulated with concepts of local architecture. To meet such aims, the research is pivot around two themes: Firstly, tackling how to extract the forces that lead to the contemporariness of local heritage and formalize the DNA of any local community (Culture, Community Aspiration, Climate, and Technology), as well as discussing some experience that dealt with local architecture. Secondly, discussing some recent trials that learned from the previous attempts through history. The attempts strongly re-activate the local architecture in the contemporary challenges, namely, the use of heritage forms as is to conform to environmental determinants, development of these forms using contemporary materials through the visions of local architecture, and employing high-tech solutions to achieve contemporary appropriateness within traditional ideologies. In the end, the paper presents new ideas of the local architecture that learned from the previous experiences in our Arab societies to meet the needs of today's Arab societies.

The relationship between people, environmental circumstances and the cost of projects in Jordan are focal points of this study, where the problem of low-income housing needs is still increasing, having tripled in the last two decades. The shortage of public housing production and the cost of lands and building materials, mainly controlled by private sector investors, are substantial reasons for the housing crisis in a country of poor economic recourses and high percentage of poverty.

The Jordanian government decided to aid the poorest class of the population, offering free of charge shelters organized in small residential quarters, which became a prototype diffused throughout all the Jordanian regions. This paper analyzes one of these typical quarters, collecting data through face-to-face interviews with the households using a structured questionnaire. The study focuses on the physical components of the quarter, looking at open spaces, paths, streets, volumes, materials, colors in relation with the environmental context. It also investigates the households' requirements, relationships and preferences.

The study discusses also the housing problems at the macro scale level in order to concretely evaluate the shelters' cost, setting some guidelines with respect to the cultural and environmental local conditions.

This study aims to investigate the determinants of the extent and quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) in Jordan. The study examines a number of factors that influence the extent and quality of CSR disclosure, such as corporate characteristics, corporate governance and ownership structure.

A quantitative approach and a content analysis technique is used to measure the extent and quality of CSRD from annual reports. The sample is drawn from the annual reports of 118 Jordanian companies between 2010 and 2015. A CSRD index is constructed, which includes the disclosures of the following categories: environmental, human resources, product and consumers, and community involvement. This is the first study that presents a new measurement for CSR disclosure quality by using images and charts in a seven-point scale measurement.

The result reveals that the extent of CSRD is higher than quality in Jordan. Regarding the determinants of CSR disclosures, the following factors were found to have a significant relationship with both the extent and quality of CSRD: board size, non-executive directors, age of firm, foreign members on the board, number of boards meetings, the presence of audit committees, big 4, government ownership, size of firm and industry type. Non-executive directors was found to have a significant correlation with the extent of CSRD.

The current study has some limitations; first, the study findings are limited to the Jordanian environment. Second, the study adopted a purely quantitative method, and future research could include interviews and questionnaires to gather data from financial managers and chief executive officers (CEOs). Third, the potential influences on the level and quality of CSR are not limited to the variables tested in this study. Future research can be done on new determinants, such as CEO interlocking and profitability. Finally, the sample included companies from two main sectors – the services and industrial sectors; thus, this limited the results to these two main sectors.

Practitioners, as firms, should develop new strategies and ensure that CSR is included in their reports. Thus, companies can achieve legitimacy for their products and activities. Policymakers must consider introducing new laws that mandate CSRDs since it has many advantages for companies and society. In addition, this research suggests amending the law to require companies to have 33% of their directors be non-executives since this will remove the negative effect on CSR disclosure. Investors must pay attention to the social activities of the companies they invest in, as CSR could have a positive effect on their market value.

The study has indicated that Jordanian companies became increasingly more involved in CSR activities, as this growth in CSRD is linked with global increases in CSR. Moreover, the study has revealed that the highest category of CSR disclosures is related to products or services and employee information. On the other hand, the lowest category of CSR disclosures is related to community and other disclosures (extent) and environmental disclosures (quality). Furthermore, the results show that the services sector was found to have more disclosures regarding employees and community, whereas the industrial sector was more concerned about environmental and product information.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that presents a new measurement for CSR disclosure quality by using images and charts in a seven-point scale measurement. This new seven-point scale will be adopted to distinguish between poor and excellent disclosures. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Jordan which examines the determinants of the extent and the quality of CSR for three categories, namely, corporate characteristics, corporate governance and ownership structure.

In spite of the merits of artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing and social media, harm to consumers has prompted calls for AI auditing/certification. Understanding consumers’ approval of AI certification entities is vital for its effectiveness and companies’ choice of certification. This study aims to generate important insights into the consumer perspective of AI certifications and stimulate future research.

A literature and status-quo-driven search of the AI certification landscape identifies entities and related concepts. This study empirically explores consumer approval of the most discussed entities in four AI decision domains using an online experiment and outline a research agenda for AI certification in marketing/social media.

Trust in AI certification is complex. The empirical findings show that consumers seem to approve more of non-profit entities than for-profit entities, with the government approving the most.

The introduction of AI certification to marketing/social media contributes to work on consumer trust and AI acceptance and structures AI certification research from outside marketing to facilitate future research on AI certification for marketing/social media scholars.

For businesses, the authors provide a first insight into consumer preferences for AI-certifying entities, guiding the choice of which entity to use. For policymakers, this work guides their ongoing discussion on “who should certify AI” from a consumer perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to introduce the topic of AI certification to the marketing/social media literature, provide a novel guideline to scholars and offer the first set of empirical studies examining consumer approval of AI certifications.

The purpose of this study include analyzing the conformity between the General Guidelines for the Governance of the Indonesian Sharia Entities (GGG-ISE) and the implementation in the field and proposing a model of corporate governance for Islamic property developers.

This research uses a qualitative method with a case study approach. The researcher used a structured interview method and chose a purposive technique to determine the interviewees. This study has seven interviewees representing three Islamic property developer companies in Jember Regency, East Java, Indonesia. Data collection was conducted from June to July 2023, with a duration of about 60 min for each interviewee. The interviews were conducted face-to-face in each interviewee’s residential office.

The results showed that the companies had implemented several principles of GGG-ISE, namely, ethical and responsible actors, risk management, internal control, compliance, disclosure and transparency by making financial reports, shareholder rights and stakeholder rights, both internal and external stakeholders. Furthermore, this study found that GGG-ISE does not comply with the components of the organizing organ group. This study also found that governance reports have not been implemented in GGG-ISE components. In addition, this study identified a new component that must be present and not found in GGG-ISE, namely, a statement of the use of contracts for mudharib owners and between mudharib owners and stakeholders. Based on these findings, this study proposes a governance model for Islamic property developer companies called the GGG-IPDE.

This research is a pioneer in proposing a corporate governance model for Islamic property developers.

Waqf has the quality of perpetuity so waqf properties cannot be sold, bought or given as a gift to others. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that the property is fully used and properly managed by the Malaysian Islamic councils. To properly manage these properties, it is essential for the councils to have a proper reporting. Unfortunatley, this is not the case in the present situation for waqf. It was found that there is a lack of reporting on waqf matters. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Islamic governance can contribute to the sufficient and adequate of waqf reporting.

This paper described what is being practised at present for waqf reporting. A series of Islamic governance literature was proposed in reinforcing waqf reporting.

This paper fulfils a gap in prior research by discussing several systems in Islamic governance to achieve transparency in waqf reporting. The findings of this paper may provide a significant contribution to any organisation that act as a trustee for waqf.

This paper provides an opportunity for further theoretical approach in defining and describing the role of governance in the reinforcement of waqf reporting. The paper has recommended several strategies towards better governance in Islamic council, and these suggestions can be offered to the councils for improvement.

This research will be of interest to policy makers, especially Government and State Government. Given the current debate in Malaysia on the most appropriate forms of regulation for the Islamic sector, this study aims to provide valuable insights into the role of Islamic governance in the system of regulation.

This paper examined several governance system in Islamic governance to be applied in any Islamic organisation. This paper specifically deals governance issue that should be practised by present councils to prevent lack in waqf reporting. This system discusses the ways Islamic councils should perform since the system was originally implemented by a previous, distinguished caliph, Umar Al-Khattab.

Nowadays, the most important challenge in mechanical engineering, power engineering and electronics is a development of effective cooling systems for heat-generating units. Taking into account this challenge, this study aims to deal with computational investigation of thermogravitational energy transport of pseudoplastic nanoliquid in an electronic chamber with a periodic thermally producing unit placed on the bottom heat-conducting wall of finite thickness under an influence of isothermal cooling from vertical side walls.

The control equations formulated using the Boussinesq approach, Ostwald–de Waele power law and single-phase nanofluid model with experimentally based correlations of Guo et al. for nanofluid dynamic viscosity and Jang and Choi for nanofluid thermal conductivity have been worked out by the in-house computational procedure using the finite difference technique. The impact of the Rayleigh number, nanoadditives concentration, frequency of the periodic heat generation from the local element and thickness of the bottom solid substrate on nanoliquid circulation and energy transport has been studied.

It has been found that a raise of the nanoadditives concentration intensifies the cooling of the heat-generating element, while a growth of the heat-generation frequency allows reducing the amplitude of the heater temperature.

Mathematical modeling of a pseudoplastic nanomaterial thermogravitational energy transport in an electronic cabinet with a periodic thermally generating unit, a heat-conducting substrate and isothermal cooling vertical surfaces to identify the possibility of intensifying heat removal from a heated surface.

This paper aims to delve in an aspect of monetary economics, addressing its Islamic wing in general and dinar advocates in particular.

The paper argues that calls to reinstitution of dinar currencies are not only anachronistic and unnecessary but also counter-productive and potentially un-Islamic.

The paper further posits that regardless of the nature of economy, legal tender fiat money and bank money are of the same genus, and treating them otherwise is not consistent with Islamic jurisprudential precepts.

The study also highlights that mismanagement, avarice and human follies are to blame for financial maladies; regression to metallic currency is a panacea to neither the conundrums nor Islamic.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between political connections, financing decisions and cash holding.

Based on historical data from 181 active non-financial firms listed on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Stock Exchange Markets during the period of 2009–2016, this study uses ordinary least squares and dynamic system-generalized method of moments to test the research hypotheses. The final data set comprises a total of 1,448 firm-year observations from ten major non-financial industry classifications.

This study finds a positive relationship between political connections and each of internal financing proxied by retained earnings ratio and external financing proxied by short- and long-term debt to total asset. The findings also show a positive relationship between political connections and cash holding.

The findings of the study provide a better understanding of the role of politically connected directors in financing decisions and cash holding in the GCC. Investors can consider the presence of royal family members in the board of directors when making investment decision. Policymakers are encouraged to develop more effective policies that encourage listed firms to provide information on the political positions of the board of directors, managers and major shareholders/owners of companies.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the relationship between political connections and financing decisions by focusing on the GCC region. This study also highlights that boards in connected firms in the GCC have lower monitoring role owing to political interventions, and that connected firms face higher agency problems as they have weak governance and boards compared with non-connected firms.