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The suitability of assets-backed money has been the subject of considerable debate, although hampered in part by lack of theoretical and empirical evidence. Therefore, the motivation of this research is to investigate the perceptions of Shari’ah scholars and financial experts on the concepts and salient features of Shari’ah-compliant precious metal backed crypto-currency (PMC). To achieve this, this study adopted a qualitative method using semi-structured interview based on saturation technique. The results from Shari’ah advisors and financial experts indicated that the informants have differences of views on the assets-backed money, but they agreed that it ensures stability of money and adding the cryptocurrency technology is found to be desirable and recommendable. It is also found that PMC would be subjected to financial regulation challenges and using blockchain technology will increase the transparency. The informants agreed that PMC is closer to Maqāsid al-Shari’ah and there is some form of justice and equality compared to the current interest-based financial system. Therefore, the informants recommended the implementation of PMC.

This paper reports on a comparative quasi-experiment of how perceptions of entrepreneurial growth strategies differ between students, managers and technology entrepreneurs. The differences in perceptions as to what critical factors drive three strategies: no growth, market share growth and annual profit growth across to stages: start-up and take-off are measured. The ranks of the critical success factors are the dependent measures and the strategies and the phases the independent variables. Results show that experience impacts the ability to distinguish between strategies. Results also show that the perceptions of the critical success factors significantly differ between the groups. Hence even experience will yield quite different cognitive maps.

This study examines the perception of non-accounting business major students about the managerial accounting course. The knowledge of these perceptions will help determine whether educators need to be concerned about inspiring certain groups of students to be more aggressive in learning the material. We found that all non-accounting majors, regardless of their major field of study think the managerial accounting course is interesting and has real-world application. The finance and management major students think that the course is related to their field of study and it should be made a required course, but not the MIS and marketing major students. The higher the academic skills and the more the work experience, the greater is the student's perception that managerial accounting should be a required course and has real-world application. Based on the results, we suggest that development of teaching materials aimed at reinforcing the importance of managerial accounting topics to all business majors, particularly MIS and marketing majors may overcome some barriers to learning the subject. This research also has implications for Pacific Basin business schools as our findings indicate that Pacific Basin business schools that do not require non-accounting majors to take managerial accounting course should make it a required course for all undergraduate non-accounting majors.

This paper proposes and validates an e-service quality (eSQ) evaluation model for B2C websites in the textile-and-fashion (TF) sector in Spain. The research allows to represent the positioning of the main websites of this sector according to different utilitarian and hedonic quality dimensions and to establish the global ranking of these websites by using the F-TOPSIS methodology. After a thorough bibliographic review of the most common attributes used to evaluate eSQ of B2C websites, an expert panel has assisted in both, their precise wording and grouping them into the factors and latent dimensions of the proposed model. Later, model validation was carried out through the psychometric analysis of a survey conducted over a sample of 405 users searching/buying on TF industry online sales platforms. The paper already shows the perceptual maps for the eSQ dimensions analyzed for different TF B2C websites. Finally, in order to be able to process the intrinsic uncertainty inherent to the valuations given by the users, the F-TOPSIS method was used to sort the main TF websites. The study has demonstrated the validity of the proposed model, making it replicable in other countries and allowing to obtain the positioning and ranking of the six main websites analyzed in Spain, where Asos and Zara were the leaders.

This paper examines how China has successfully translated its economic might into political clout in Laos and Cambodia. The country’s role as a major trading partner, foreign investor, and provider of aid to both countries has contributed substantially to their national development. This massive influx of Chinese investment and aid has also yielded positive results, as both countries have demonstrated a more accommodating attitude toward Beijing on a variety of issues. However, Chinese economic statecraft has had differing degrees of influence on the foreign policymaking of Laos and Cambodia, particularly with regard to their foreign policies toward Vietnam, a critical secondary state in Southeast Asia. While Cambodia has been less hesitant to bandwagon with China, Laos is still seeking to balance between China and Vietnam. This paper argues that Laos and Cambodia’s existing perceptions of Vietnam dictate in part how they respond to China’s economic inducements and affect the outcomes of Chinese economic statecraft.

This paper addresses the disparity and conflict between scientific meaning and the contextualised interpretation of (predominately) empirical indicators. This disparity arises due to the difficulty that the scientific community experiences when attempting to communicate with the political and planning community whose perspective remains outside the scope of both the indicator and the tools used.

We suggest that for empirical science to be communicated effectively to a policy oriented audience it must be transformed through both theoretical and virtual contexts. The significance of this approach is that at every stage communication becomes possible through a common negotiated reference point, or set of reference points. We highlight a mismatch between the science and the response, emphasising the value of an integrative approach to assessing environmental change and the need for accessible decision support tools in formulating responses to changes in the human-environmental balance.

We propose a framework which directly addresses the perceptual, empirical, theoretical and virtual dimensions of indicators and through which the conflicts between the science and the interpretation of socio-natural change may be overcome.

This paper presents results of a project, funded by the British Academy, on perceptions of SEA effectiveness in two countries with formal SEA requirements, but with very different planning and decision-making traditions: the UK and China. Similarities and differences are described, based on a questionnaire survey, conducted at two workshops with local and regional authority representatives, private consultants and academics; at Liverpool University (October 2006) and at Nankai University (March 2007). Whilst many similarities in perceptions are found, some differences are established, particularly regarding the SEA process (which Chinese representatives think should be more flexible versus UK representatives who mostly think it should be more rigorous) and regarding current shortcomings (lack of real influence and non-existence of relevant baseline data for China; too much unused baseline data for the UK). Overall, there was a more positive perception of many Chinese respondents regarding SEA's potential to lead to more effective decision making, greater efficiency of tiered decision making and an ability to enable more effective involvement.

This special issue examines the impact of climate on agriculture as well as the economics of farmer adaptation in South-East Asia. An extensive survey was undertaken of small farmers in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Ricardian studies were undertaken to measure the likely impact of climate change on these farmers. Adaptation studies were undertaken to measure how farmers would likely change their behavior (choices) as climate changed. Perceptions were asked to gauge farmer awareness of climate change and their plans to adapt. The overall study provides many useful analyses into the climate sensitivity of agriculture in the region as well as how farmers might adapt to climate changes.

Does salient information on social media influence individuals’ economic decisions and beliefs? Using aggregated data from Facebook and a difference-in-differences strategy, I show that individuals who are socially connected to someone affected by Hurricane Harvey are more likely to purchase flood insurance policies after the event. This effect is stronger in areas at higher risk of flooding. Being socially connected to someone affected by Hurricane Harvey also influences individuals’ perceptions of global warming.

Confucius Institutes (CIs) are an important strategic instrument in promoting China’s soft power and public diplomacy. However, the establishment of the CIs in the West has been controversial because they receive financial and administrative support from China’s Ministry of Education. The primary concerns are that the presence of CIs on university campuses might “interfere” with academic freedom and that China’s chief goal of establishing CIs is to promote its political soft power. This paper adopts qualitative content analysis and longitudinal analysis to examine the Australian mainstream media’s perceptions of CIs. The findings reveal both positive and negative views on CIs. The positive views include recognition of CIs as a valuable source of funding and resources that provide opportunities to engage with China. The negative views focused on the possibility of China “interfering” in academic independence and exerting undue influence. Australian media views on CIs thus mirror their appreciation of China’s economic strength on one hand and their fear of China’s rise on the other.

In May 2017, Department of Science, Technology and Standards, MEP, China held the first training conference of “2017 CCUS environmental risk assessment technology”. After the conference, specially designed questionnaires were sent to the participants so as to collect the professional opinions to improve the guideline in the next revision. Basic information of participants, knowledge of capture, utilization and geological storage (CCUS), and attitude to the CCUS environmental risk are contained in the questionnaires. The 82 questionnaires were issued to the participants, and 77 valid questionnaires were collected with the response rate of 93.9%. According to the data mining, (a) nearly one third of the participants had not heard of the CCUS before the training; (b) the attitude to CCUS environmental impact and risk is influenced by the knowledge of CCUS; (c) the severities of the three aspects of capture component are medium; (d) for onshore CCUS projects, underground water, atmosphere, soil, and human health were considered the highest sensitivity receptors; (e) the enterprises were very concerned of the CCUS environmental management policies, three most important policies were conducting environmental monitoring across the whole chain, clarifying the environmental management responsibilities, and establishing emergency plans for environmental accidents. The result of this survey would provide the guidance for the improvement of the technical guideline which planned to be released during the official version in 2020.

This research paper aims to explore the perceptions of Saudi women about their legal awareness with regards to domestic violence (DV) laws. While there has been an increasing interest in the ‘common place of law’, there is a dearth of research on women's views about their legal consciousness of DV laws, both in Saudi Arabia and internationally. The study aims to bridge this gap and contribute to our understanding of how women's awareness, individually and collectively, of their legal rights enhances the implementation of laws and the elimination of DV in matrimonial homes. Thematic analysis was utilised to highlight recurring themes in the interviews and map major themes in the literature. The findings reveal a lack or minimal awareness of DV laws among Saudi women. This was attributed to simplistic views of DV and the legal treatment adopted by the state, socio-cultural influences and the absence of women's voices in the legal discourse.

We show how the basic Bellman and Zadeh's (1970) model of multistage decision making (control) in a fuzzy environment can be extended to account for human perceptions concerning its basic elements, i.e. the fuzzy constraints and fuzzy goals, by introducing objective (related more to measurements) and subjective (related more to perceptions) fuzzy constraints and fuzzy goals. To illustrate the extended, perception based model, we present a fuzzy socioeconomic sustainable regional development model initiated by Kacprzyk and Straszak (1984), and further developed by Kacprzyk (1997), Kacprzyk, Romero and Gomide (1999), etc. Life quality indicators are crucial elements of this model, and (the satisfaction of) their attainment is strongly related to human perception. The model may be viewed as as example of how fuzzy logic, or – more generally – the computing with words paradigm, can help devise new more human consistent, perception based models.

The agency problem between patients and doctors has long been emphasized in the health economics literature, but the empirical evidence on whether patients can evaluate and respond to better quality care remains mixed and inconclusive. Using household data linked to an assessment of village doctors’ clinical competence in rural China, we show that there is no correlation between doctor competence and patients’ health care utilization, with confidence intervals reasonably tight around zero. Household perceptions of quality are an important determinant of care-seeking behavior, yet patients appear unable to recognize more competent doctors — there is no relationship between doctor competence and perceptions of quality.

Public Libraries can surely play a significant social, cultural and economic role. Improvements on quality however are a necessary prerequisite. On the other hand, quality is a complex and subjective concept, which should incorporate at any given time the true (expressed and implied) needs of all interested parties. This paper investigates and empirically assesses the current perceptions for quality in Greek public libraries in order to suggest a way forward for quality management implementation. For that purpose a survey based on semi-structured interviews with the directors of Greek public libraries has been constructed and the results are presented.