The need for strategic alignment within HR management increased managers' concern about individual behavior and how this behavior was related to the achievement of goals. In public management, effectively managing employees' performance has been necessary since Weber's bureaucratic administration. The individual performance appraisal is the right tool to assess employees' competencies. Thus, we proposed the following research question: Which factors, as pointed out by theory, have the most significant influence on the individual performance appraisal process? The quantitative method was applied to answer this question, developing and testing a scale via EFA and a hypothetical model via SEM-CB. The results indicated a scale with 25 items able to access the main points of the IPA process and a hypothetical model with 7 constructs that indicate the influence on employee engagement. The main finding is the significant influence of feedback on the whole process. The main theoretical contribution was the construction of the MIPAS scale, and the practical contribution was to identify the points where managers should focus on improving the IPA process with their subordinates.

The porous carbon/Ni nanoparticle composite was prepared by a freeze-drying method using NaCl as the template. It was applied in the effect of the concentration, adsorption time, and temperature of adsorption on the adsorption behavior. The kinetic model and the adsorption isothermic fitting results show that the adsorption behavior fits with the pseudo-secondary dynamics and the Langmuir isothermal model, indicating that the adsorption process is monolayer adsorption. Thermodynamic results indicate that the adsorption process is spontaneous physicochemical adsorption. The fitting showed that the porous carbon/Ni nanoparticle composites reach 217.17 mg·g^-1, at 313 K indicates good adsorption for Congo red.

This research examines intangible assets or intellectual capital (IC) performance of tourism-related industries in an underexplored area which is a tourism intensively-dependent country. In this study, VAIC which is a monetary valuation method and also the most widely applied measurement method, is utilized as the performance measurement method for quantifying IC performance to monetary values. Moreover, to better understand performance, the standard efficiency levels are further applied for classifying the performance levels of tourism industries. The sample sizes of study are 20 companies operating in the tourism-related industries in the world top travel destination or Thailand, and the companies’ data are collected from 2012 to 2021. Therefore, finally, there are 187 firm-year observations. The utilization of VAIC could assess IC performance of tourism firms and industries, and the standard efficiency levels further support the uniform interpretation of IC efficiency levels. The obtained results show the strong performance of both human and structural capital of the focused tourism dependent country especially in the logistics industry that directly supports and connects to the tourism attractions. Moreover, the finding also highlights the significance of human capital which plays as a major contributor for overall IC performance in this tourism dependent economy. This study contributes the new exploration of IC in the high impact industries and also specifically in the top significant tourism country. Moreover, the application of VAIC also confirms a practical application for management. The limited number of studied countries is a limitation of study. However, these new obtained data and information could be further applied for making comparisons or in-depth or statistical analysis in the future works.

Studies to evaluate the response of passion fruit seedlings in terms of emergence, nursery, and early field growth to growing media and mulching were carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm of Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University Makurdi between July and December 2018. Treatments consisted of five media, composted from readily available substrates. The five nursery media were; medium 1:1:2:3 (SB) composed of top soil + poultry manure + river sand; medium 2:1:2:3 (RHB) – rice hull + poultry manure + river sand; medium 3:2:3:1 (RHB) – rice hull + poultry manure + river sand; medium 4:1:4:3 (SDB) – sawdust + poultry manure + river sand and medium 5:1:2:3 (SDB) – sawdust + poultry manure + river sand. For the nursery experiment, treatments were the five potting media, while the field trial was a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement consisting of the five growing media and mulching status (mulch and no mulch). In both cases, treatments were laid out in randomized designs that were replicated three times. Results showed that there were no significant differences in all the emergence traits evaluated. However, medium M5 (sawdust based) showed superior performance in most of the seedling characters evaluated. Under field conditions, the sawdust based media (M4 and M5) gave the best growth of passion fruit seedlings compared to the other potting media. Application of mulch, however, did not elicit any significant response in plant growth. It is therefore conclusive that sawdust based growing media could be used to produce high quality passion fruit seedlings with the prospect of excellent performance under field conditions.

In today’s manufacturing sector, high-quality materials that satisfy customers’ needs at a reduced cost are drawing attention in the global market. Also, as new applications are emerging, high-performance biocomposite products that complement them are required. The production of such high-performance materials requires suitable optimization techniques in the formulation/process design, not simply mixing natural fibre/filler, additives, and plastics, and characterization of the resulting biocomposites. However, a comprehensive review of the optimization strategies in biocomposite production intended for infrastructural applications is lacking. This study, therefore, presents a detailed discussion of the various optimization approaches, their strengths, and weaknesses in the formulation/process parameters of biocomposite manufacturing. The report explores the recent progress in optimization techniques in biocomposite material production to provide baseline information to researchers and industrialists in this field. Therefore, this review consolidates prior studies to explore new areas.

This study examines conditions that impact PPP delivery success or failure in the roadways sector in India using Qualitative Comparative Analysis. QCA is well-suited for problems where multiple factors combine to create pathways leading to an outcome. Past investigations have compared PPP and non-PPP project delivery performance, but this study examines performance within PPPs by uncovering a set of conditions that combine to influence the success or failure road PPP project delivery in India. Based on data from 21 cases, pathways explaining project delivery success or failure were identified. Specifically, PPPs with high concessionaire equity investment and low regional industrial activity led to project delivery success. Projects with lower concessionaire equity investment and low reliance on toll revenue and with either: (a) high project technical complexity or (b) high regional industrial activity, led to project delivery failure. The pathways identified did not have coverage values that they were extremely strong. Coverage strength was hindered by lack of access to information on additional conditions that could be configurationally important. Further, certain characteristics of the Indian market limit generalization. Identification of combinations of conditions leading to PPP project delivery success or failure improves knowledge of the impacts of structure and characteristics of these complex arrangements. This study is one of the first to use fuzzy QCA to understand project delivery success/failure in road PPP projects. Moreover, this study takes into account factors specific to a sector and delivery mode to explain project delivery performance.