Search Results (363)

The purpose of the present research is to analyse the negative outcomes associated with the excessive Instagram dependency of those users that access the application through their smartphones. An empirical study was conducted through online interviews using structured questionnaires, resulting in 342 valid responses, with the target population being young users over 18 years old who access Instagram daily. Research shows that dependency on Instagram is primarily driven by individuals’ need for orientation and understanding, with entertainment being a secondary motivation. The results indicate that dependency on the social network is positively associated with excessive use, addiction, and Instastress. Furthermore, excessive use contributes to personal and social problems and increases both stress levels and mindfulness related to the platform. In turn, this excessive use intensifies addiction, which functions as a mediating variable between overuse and Instastress, mindfulness, and emotional exhaustion. This study offers valuable insights for academics, mental health professionals, and marketers by emphasizing the importance of fostering healthier digital habits and developing targeted interventions. Full article

With the accelerating globalization and rapid development of science and technology, scientific collaboration has become a key driver of knowledge production, yet its patterns vary significantly across disciplines. This study aims to explore the disciplinary differences in scholars’ scientific collaboration patterns and their underlying mechanisms. Data were collected from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, covering papers from four disciplines: mathematics, mechanical engineering, philosophy, and sociology. Using social network analysis, we examined core network metrics (degree centrality, neighbor connectivity, clustering coefficient) in collaboration networks, analyzed collaboration patterns across scholars of different academic ages, and compared the academic age distribution of collaborators and network characteristics across career stages. Key findings include the following. (1) Mechanical engineering exhibits the highest and most stable clustering coefficient (mean 0.62) across all academic ages, reflecting tight team collaboration, with degree centrality increasing fastest with academic age (3.2 times higher for senior vs. beginner scholars), driven by its reliance on experimental resources and skill division. (2) Philosophy shows high degree centrality in early career stages (mean 0.38 for beginners) but a sharp decline in clustering coefficient in senior stages (from 0.42 to 0.17), indicating broad early collaboration but loose later ties due to individualized knowledge production. (3) Mathematics scholars prefer collaborating with high-centrality peers (higher neighbor connectivity, mean 0.51), while sociology shows more inclusive collaboration with dispersed partner centrality. Full article

This study explores the interplay of climate vulnerability and social capital in two rural communities: Brajaballavpur, a high-climate-prone village in the Indian Sundarbans characterized by high ecological fragility, recurrent cyclones, and saline water intrusion affecting water access, livelihoods, and infrastructure; and Jemua, a low-climate-prone village in the land-locked district of Paschim Bardhaman, West Bengal, India, with no extreme climate events. A total of 85 participants (44 in Brajaballavpur, 41 in Jemua) were selected through purposive sampling. Using a comparative qualitative research design grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, data were collected through household interviews, Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs), Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and analyzed manually using inductive thematic analysis. Findings reveal that bonding and bridging social capital were more prominent in Brajaballavpur, where dense horizontal ties supported collective action during extreme weather events. Conversely, linking social capital was more visible in Jemua, where participants more frequently accessed formal institutions such as the Gram Panchayat, local NGOs, and government functionaries that facilitated grievance redressal and information access, but these networks were concentrated among more politically connected individuals. The study concludes that climate vulnerability shapes the type, strength, and strategic use of social capital in village communities. While bonding and bridging ties are crucial in high-risk contexts, linking capital plays a critical role in enabling long-term social structures in lower-risk settings. The study contributes to both academic literature and policy design by offering a relational and place-based understanding of climate vulnerability and social capital. Full article

This study examines how language functions impact linguistic features in academic and entertainment registers. Using multi-dimensional analysis (MDA) and computing entropy values, we analyze a large-scale Chinese corpus consisting of over 19 million tokens from 1000 texts, including academic journals, dissertations, entertainment magazines, and novellas. We identify key language functions that shape linguistic features within these registers. Our results reveal five core dimensions of linguistic functional variation, narrative versus rational discourse, modification, reference, uncertainty, and prudence, which account for over 52% of the variance in language use. Certain linguistic features systematically co-occur in each dimension, forming language functions that underpin broader social networks. Entropy values further confirm the findings of multi-dimensional analysis. This study emphasizes the associations between linguistic features and language functions, offering a theoretical perspective for understanding how language functions impact linguistic features and shape different registers. The findings suggest a language variation perspective on social networks’ communication. Full article

This paper presents a meta-analysis of social research on water, offering a novel methodological contribution to the study of emerging interdisciplinary research fields. We propose and implement a mixed methods framework that integrates quantitative network analysis with qualitative research, aiming to enhance both to give access to new emerging empirical fields and enhance the analytical depth of empirical social research. Drawing on a dataset of publications from the Web of Science over four distinct time intervals, we identify thematic clusters through keyword co-occurrence networks that reveal the evolving structure and internal dynamics of the field. Our findings show a clear trend toward increasing interdisciplinarity, responsiveness to global events, and contemporary challenges such as the emergence of COVID-19 and the continued centrality of topics related to water management and evaluation. By uncovering latent structures, our approach not only maps the field’s development but also lays the foundation for targeted qualitative analysis of articles representative of identified clusters. This methodological design contributes to the broader discourse on mixed methods research in the social sciences by demonstrating how computational tools can enhance the transparency and reliability of qualitative inquiry without sacrificing its interpretive richness. Furthermore, this study opens new avenues for critically reflecting on the epistemic culture of social water research, particularly in relation to its proximity to applied science and governance-oriented perspectives. The proposed method holds potential relevance for both academic researchers and decision makers in the water sector, offering a means to systematically access dispersed knowledge and identify underrepresented subfields. Overall, the study showcases the potential of mixed methods designs for navigating and structuring complex interdisciplinary research landscapes. Full article

This study investigates how differing national research governance models impact academic performance by comparing European Research Council (ERC) grant winners in the social sciences and humanities from France and the Netherlands. Situated within the broader context of centralized versus decentralized research systems, the analysis aims to understand how these structures shape publication trends, thematic diversity, and collaboration patterns. Drawing on Scopus and SciVal data covering 9996 publications by 305 ERC winners between 2019 and 2023, we employed a multi-method approach, including latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling, compound annual growth rate analysis, and co-authorship network analysis. The results show that neuroscience, climate change, and psychology are dominant domains, with language and linguistics particularly prevalent in France and law and political science in the Netherlands. French ERC winners are more likely to be affiliated with national or sectoral institutions, whereas in the Netherlands, elite universities dominate. Collaboration emerged as a key success factor, with an average of four co-authors per publication and network analyses revealing central figures who bridge topical clusters. International collaborations were consistently linked with higher visibility, while single-authored publications showed limited impact. These findings suggest that institutional context and collaborative practices significantly shape research performance in both countries. Full article

The extensive use of digital media among adolescents has raised concerns about its impact on emotional development and mental health. Understanding the psychological factors behind problematic digital media use is essential for effective prevention. This study examined whether the relationships between emotion regulation (negative and positive), compulsive use, cognitive preoccupation, and negative outcomes linked to digital media are consistent across sex and academic year. We used a cross-sectional design with 2357 adolescents (12–16 years old) from Compulsory Secondary Education. Participants completed validated self-report questionnaires assessing problematic digital media use, and associated consequences in four domains: internet, video games, social networking, and messaging. Four structural equation models (SEMs), each focused on a media type, tested whether these relationships remained stable across sex and academic year. All models showed good fit, and differences between groups were minimal, supporting valid comparisons. Results confirm that emotion regulation difficulties and problematic digital media use are consistently associated with negative outcomes in all adolescents, regardless of sex or academic level. Preventive strategies targeting emotional regulation and digital media behaviors may be broadly applied to reduce emotional and functional problems related to excessive media use. Full article

Internet addiction among adolescents has emerged as a significant global health issue, contributing to social isolation, academic difficulties, and emotional disorders, with excessive use of social networks further intensifying these challenges. This study evaluated the effectiveness of an educational intervention grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in reducing Internet addiction and enhancing academic performance among adolescent girls in southern Iran. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 370 female students aged 15–16 years, selected through two-stage cluster random sampling and divided equally into intervention and control groups. The intervention group participated in a five-week TPB-based program, incorporating lectures, group discussions, and parent–teacher meetings, while the control group received unrelated health education. Data were collected using the Yang Internet Addiction Test (IAT), a TPB-based questionnaire, and academic performance scores (grade point average, GPA) before and after the intervention. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant improvements in attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions to reduce Internet use (p < 0.001). Internet addiction scores significantly declined, and GPA improved in the intervention group compared to the control group (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.950). The findings support TPB-based interventions as effective tools for reducing Internet addiction and improving academic outcomes among adolescents. This study was registered with the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT20131014015015N18). Full article

Decentralized desalination systems driven by renewable energy sources have surfaced as a feasible way to alleviate water scarcity in arid and rural areas. This bibliometric study aims to clarify the research trends, conceptual frameworks, and cooperative dynamics in the scientific literature on decentralized renewable-powered desalination techniques. Using a thorough search approach, 1354 papers were found. Duplicates, thematically unrelated works, and entries with poor information were removed using the PRISMA 2020 framework. A selected 832 relevant papers from a filtered dataset were chosen for in-depth analysis. Quantitative measures were obtained by means of Bibliometrix; network visualisation was obtained by means of VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) and covered co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, and citation structures. Over the previous 20 years, the data show a steady rise in academic production, especially in the fields of environmental science, renewable energy engineering, and water treatment technologies. Author keyword co-occurrence mapping revealed strong theme clusters centred on solar stills, thermoelectric modules, reverse osmosis, and off-grid systems. Emphasizing current research paths and emerging subject borders, this paper clarifies the intellectual and social structure of the field. The outcomes are expected to help policy creation, cooperative projects, and strategic planning meant to hasten innovation in sustainable and decentralized water desalination. Full article

The continuous evolution of technology compels higher education leaders to adapt to VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) and BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible) environments through innovative strategies that ensure institutional relevance. While VUCA emphasizes the challenges posed by rapid change and uncertain decision-making, BANI underscores the fragility of systems, heightened anxiety, unpredictable causality, and the collapse of established patterns. Navigating these complexities requires agility, resilience, and visionary leadership to ensure that institutions remain adaptable and future ready. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of digital academic leadership in higher education transformation, examining empirical studies, reviews, book chapters, and proceeding papers published from 2014 to 2024 (11-year period) in the Web of Science—Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Using CiteSpace software (version 6.3. R1-64 bit), we analyzed 5837 documents, identifying 24 key publications that formed a network of 90 nodes and 256 links. The reduction to 24 publications occurred as part of a structured bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace, which employs algorithmic thresholds to identify the most influential and structurally significant publications within a large corpus. These 24 documents form the core co-citation network, which serves as a conceptual backbone for further thematic interpretation. This was the result of a multi-step refinement process using CiteSpace’s default thresholds and clustering algorithms to detect the most influential nodes based on centrality, citation burst, and network clustering. Our findings reveal six primary research clusters: “Enhancing Academic Performance”, “Digital Leadership Scale Adaptation”, “Construction Industry”, “Innovative Work Behavior”, “Development Business Strategy”, and “Education.” The analysis demonstrates a significant increase in publications over the decade, with the highest concentration in 2024, reflecting growing scholarly interest in this field. Keywords analysis shows “digital leadership”, “digital transformation”, “performance”, and “innovation” as dominant terms, highlighting the field’s evolution from technology-focused approaches to holistic leadership frameworks. Geographical analysis reveals significant contributions from Pakistan, Ireland, and India, indicating valuable insights emerging from diverse global contexts. These findings suggest that effective digital academic leadership requires not only technical competencies but also transformational capabilities, communication skills, and innovation management to enhance student outcomes and institutional performance in an increasingly digitalized educational landscape. Full article

Social media have been fundamental in the daily lives of millions of people, but they have raised concerns about content moderation policies, the management of personal data, and their commercial exploitation. The acquisition of Twitter (now X) by Elon Musk in 2022 generated concerns among Twitter users regarding changes in the platform’s direction, prompting a migration campaign by some user groups to the federated network Mastodon. This study reviews the onboarding of users to this decentralised platform between 2016 and 2022 and analyses the migration of 19,000 users who identified themselves as supporters of the platform switch. The results show that the migration campaign was a reactive response to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and was led by a group of highly active academics, scientists, and journalists. However, a complete transition was not realised, as users preferred to straddle their presence on both platforms. Mastodon’s decentralisation made it difficult to exactly replicate Twitter’s communities, resulting in a partial loss of these users’ social capital and greater fragmentation of these user communities, which highlights the intrinsic differences between both platforms. Full article

Disruptions in a single supplier’s operations can trigger cascading effects across the entire supply chain, highlighting the critical importance of effective supplier-focused risk management. While supply chain risk management (SCRM) frameworks encompass diverse dimensions—such as supply, products, demand, and information—risks specifically related to suppliers demand tailored strategies and analytical focus. Despite the growing volume of publications on this topic, the literature still lacks updated conceptual guidance on how to manage these risks, particularly in light of emerging challenges and practices. This study addresses this gap, with the primary objective of developing a contemporary conceptual framework for supplier risk management, reflecting recent academic and practical advances. The research methodology combines bibliometric analysis, the PRISMA systematic review protocol, and visualization tools including CiteSpace and CitNet Explorer. Key findings include the evolution of thematic clusters over time, with “supplier selection” identified as the most dominant theme, and simulation as the prevailing research method. The automotive industry emerges as the most frequently studied empirical context. Moreover, the study expands existing frameworks by introducing two emerging dimensions—environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and information technology (IT)—as key factors in supplier risk management. This framework contributes to theory and practice by offering an updated lens for understanding supplier-related risks and providing decision-makers with structured insights to enhance resilience in complex supply networks. Full article

As Europe is the world’s leading producer of biogas, this article examines how agricultural anaerobic digestion (AD) is organized and governed, and explores the social challenges involved in structuring the sector around a possible “European model”. Following a social science perspective, it presents a systematic review of 64 French- and English-language articles drawn from 16 academic databases. The findings highlight five key dynamics. First, there is a shift from farmer-led to increasingly industrial models of AD. Second, diverse and hybrid business models are emerging, involving new forms of multi-scale coordination. Third, the sector remains structurally dependent on public subsidies and on regulatory frameworks. Fourth, the economic viability of AD for farmers remains uncertain, driving a transition from cogeneration to biomethane injection. Fifth, tensions develop between rural place-based imaginaries and the realities of globalized energy networks. These patterns underscore the complexity of biogas sector-building in Europe and the competing narratives shaping its evolution. We argue that agricultural AD cannot be reduced to a unified trajectory, but reflects ongoing negotiations over energy models, territorial development and socio-technical legitimacy. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of these dynamics for the sustainability and fairness of future biogas trajectories across Europe. Full article

Past and current advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have resulted in a significant impact on business and accounting. Over time, AI has slowly transformed from the 1950s to today, from rule-based systems, also known as expert systems, to the deep learning architectures and sophisticated neural networks of modern generative AI. Early AI accounting applications of expert systems included a GAAP-based expert system to assess the appropriate accounting treatment for business combinations and an expert system to determine the proper type of audit report to issue. Recent accounting expert systems have been developed for document analysis, fraud detection, evaluating credit risk, and corporate default forecasting. The purpose of this study is to examine key events in the history of AI, current applications, and potential future effects pertaining to management accounting and society overall. In addition, the relationship of AI with economic and social factors will be evaluated. The study’s findings will be of interest to management accountants, businesspersons, academic researchers, and others who are concerned with artificial intelligence and its impact on management accounting and society overall. Full article

The emergence of online brokerage platforms, mobile banking applications, and commission-free trading has altered the investment landscape, renewing commercial and scholarly interest in retail investors. In light of these changes, the present study aims to provide a structural overview of the current state of research on the behaviour of retail investors. Based on a dataset of 386 articles sourced from the Web of Science database, this study employs a composite bibliometric approach of a co-word and co-citation analysis as well as a network analysis to determine preceding scientific discourses, current research themes, and potential avenues for future research. The co-word analysis identifies seven distinct research themes: (1) implications for financial performance; (2) information behaviour; (3) behavioural biases and investor characteristics; (4) investor attention; (5) attitudes towards financial risks; (6) socially responsible investing; and (7) complex financial retail instruments. Incorporating applicable research on individual investors, private investors, and household investors from referenced articles, the co-citation analysis reveals nine preceding scientific discourses. Additionally, the network analyses highlight the concepts and publications currently shaping and likely to influence future research in this field. The present study contributes to the academic discourse by mapping the intellectual landscape of retail investor behaviour, suggesting avenues for future research, and offering valuable insights for navigating this dynamic field. Full article