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This study aims to analyze the use of virtual reality and gamification in education by examining the existing literature. In addition to virtual reality, this study focuses on gamified virtual reality learning environments which refer to virtual reality learning environments that integrate gamification elements and mechanisms. Based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, a systematic literature review was carried out. No limitations were set regarding educational level, type of study, subject, and publication year. The related articles were retrieved from 5 databases (ERIC, Google Scholar, IEEE, SCOPUS, and Web of Science). A total of 112 articles were included, 16 research questions were explored, and a thematic analysis was conducted. To evaluate the quality of the articles included, the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used. According to the findings, gamification and virtual reality support several pedagogical theories and approaches. Their adoption to and integration into education can enrich and transform traditional teaching and learning and were assessed positively by students and teachers. Gamification elements significantly affected students’ achievements. In comparison to traditional learning environments, gamified virtual reality learning environments were more motivating, engaging, and interactive and offered more opportunities for personalized and collaborative learning. Through the realistic and interactive experiences offered, students’ immersion and social presence can be enhanced, knowledge acquisition can be improved, and material comprehension can be facilitated. Positive changes in student attitude, behavior, and mentality as well as improved cognitive, physical, and social–emotional development were observed. When using learning environments that integrate both virtual reality and gamification, students’ learning outcomes, motivation, engagement, and self-efficacy were increased. Additionally, students’ academic performance, active involvement, and satisfaction were improved. Students’ curiosity, imagination, focus, and interest were enhanced and their skills and competences were developed. Finally, gamified virtual reality emerged as an effective educational tool that can improve learning at all educational levels, subjects, and contexts.

In recent years, online retailers (also called e-tailers) have started allowing manufacturers direct access to their customers while charging a fee for providing this access, a format commonly referred to as agency selling. In this paper, we use a stylized theoretical model to answer a key question that e-tailers are facing: When should they use an agency selling format instead of using the more conventional reselling format? We find that agency selling is more efficient than reselling and leads to lower retail prices; however, the e-tailers end up giving control over retail prices to the manufacturer. Therefore, the reaction by the manufacturer, who makes electronic channel pricing decisions based on their impact on demand in the traditional channel (brick-and-mortar retailing), is an important factor for e-tailers to consider. We find that when sales in the electronic channel lead to a negative effect on demand in the traditional channel, e-tailers prefer agency selling, whereas when sales in the electronic channel lead to substantial stimulation of demand in the traditional channel, e-tailers prefer reselling. This preference is mediated by competition between e-tailers—as competition between them increases, e-tailers prefer to use agency selling. We also find that when e-tailers benefit from positive externalities from the sales of the focal product (such as additional profits from sales of associated products), retail prices may be lower under reselling than under agency selling, and the e-tailers prefer reselling under some conditions for which they would prefer agency selling without the positive externalities. This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Issue Title: Special Issue on Personalized Learning; Guest Editor: Kinshuk

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to examine how operating efficiencies from incentive alignment compensate for rent extraction in family firms. The author asks whether ownership (1) improves operating efficiencies to increase firm value, (2) positively affects related-party transactions (RPTs), or (3) destroys firm value. Finally, the author assesses whether the incentive effect dominates the entrenchment effect.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a panel of 333 listed family firms (and 185 nonfamily firms) and handles endogeneity using a dynamic panel system GMM and panel VAR.FindingsOwnership decreases discretionary expenses and increases asset utilization to add firm value. The efficiency gains generate more value in family firms, especially majority-held ones, than in nonmajority ones. However, ownership is also related to increased RPTs (especially dubious loans/guarantees), reducing firm value. RPTs destroy value more severely in the family (or group) firms than in nonfamily (nongroup) firms. It could be why ownership's positive impact on value is lower in family firms than in nonfamily firms. Overall, the incentive effect dominates the entrenchment effect and is robust to controlling private benefits of control in the dynamic ownership-value model.Research limitations/implications(1) A family firm's ownership may not be optimal. (2) The firm's long-term commitment as a dynasty limits the scale of expropriation yet sustains impetus for long-term value creation. The paradox partly explains why large family holdings and firm-specific investments endure over generations. (3) This way, large ownership substitutes weak investor protection in India despite tunneling as skin in the game provides necessary investor confidence. (4) Future studies can examine whether extraction varies with family generations and how family characteristics affect the incentive effects.Practical implications(1) Concentrated ownership may not be a wrong policy choice in emerging markets to draw firm-specific investments. (2) Investors, auditors, or creditors must pay closer attention to loans/guarantees. (3) More vigorous enforcement, auditor scrutiny, and board oversight are needed.Social implicationsFamily firms are not necessarily a bad organization type that destroys investor wealth. They can be valuably efficient due to their ownership and wealth concentration, and frugality. They matter in the economic growth of a developing market like India.Originality/value(1) Extends ownership-performance research to family firms and shows that although ownership facilitates tunneling, the incentive effect dominates; (2) family ownership is not impacted by firm value; (3) family ownership levels reduce discretionary expenses and increase asset utilization to create added value, especially in majority-held family firms; (4) RPTs and loans/guarantees increase with ownership; (5) value erosion from RPTs is higher in family (group) firms than in other firms.

Background In medical diagnosis and clinical practice, diagnosing a disease early is crucial for accurate treatment, lessening the stress on the healthcare system. In medical imaging research, image processing techniques tend to be vital in analyzing and resolving diseases with a high degree of accuracy. This paper establishes a new image classification and segmentation method through simulation techniques, conducted over images of COVID-19 patients in India, introducing the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) in medical practice. Methods This study establishes a prototype model for classifying COVID-19, comparing it with non-COVID pneumonia signals in Computed tomography (CT) images. The simulation work evaluates the usage of quantum machine learning algorithms, while assessing the efficacy for deep learning models for image classification problems, and thereby establishes performance quality that is required for improved prediction rate when dealing with complex clinical image data exhibiting high biases. Results The study considers a novel algorithmic implementation leveraging quantum neural network (QNN). The proposed model outperformed the conventional deep learning models for specific classification task. The performance was evident because of the efficiency of quantum simulation and faster convergence property solving for an optimization problem for network training particularly for large-scale biased image classification task. The model run-time observed on quantum optimized hardware was 52 min, while on K80 GPU hardware it was 1 h 30 min for similar sample size. The simulation shows that QNN outperforms DNN, CNN, 2D CNN by more than 2.92% in gain in accuracy measure with an average recall of around 97.7%. Conclusion The results suggest that quantum neural networks outperform in COVID-19 traits’ classification task, comparing to deep learning w.r.t model efficacy and training time. However, a further study needs to be conducted to evaluate implementation scenarios by integrating the model within medical devices.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to understand a family firm's choice of related-party transaction (RPT) types and analyze their value impacts to separate the abusive from benign RPTs.Design/methodology/approachIt uses a 10-year panel of BSE-listed 378 family (and 200 non-family) firms. The fixed effects, logit and difference-in-difference (DID) models help examine value effects, propensity and persistence of harmful RPTs.FindingsLoans/guarantees (irrespective of counterparties) destroy firm value. Capital asset RPTs decrease the firm value but enhance value when undertaken with holding parties. Operating RPTs increase firm value and profitability. They improve asset utilization and reduce discretionary expenses (especially when made with controlled entities). Family firms have larger loans/guarantees and capital asset volumes but have smaller operating RPTs than non-family firms. They are less likely to undertake loans/guarantees (and even operating RPTs) and more capital RPTs vis-à-vis non-family firms. Family firms persist with dubious loans/guarantees but hold back beneficial operating RPTs, despite RPTs being in investor cross-hairs amid the Satyam scam.Research limitations/implicationsRent extractability and counterparty incentives supplement each other. (1) The higher extractability of related-party loans and guarantees (RPLGs) dominates the lower extraction incentives of controlled parties. (2) Holding parties' bringing assets, providing a growth engine and adding value dominate their higher extraction incentives (3) The big gains to the operational efficiency come from operating RPTs with controlled parties, generally operating companies in the family house. (4) Dubious RPTs seem more integral to family firms' choices than non-family firms. (5) Counterparty incentives behind the divergent use of RPTs deserve more research attention. Future studies can give more attention to how family characteristics affect divergent motives behind RPTs.Practical implicationsFirst, the study does not single out family firms for dubious use of all RPTs. Second, investors, auditors or creditors must pay close attention to RPLGs as a special expropriation mechanism. Third, operating RPTs (and capital RPTs with holding parties) benefit family firms. However, solid procedural safeguards are necessary. Overall, results may help clarify the dilemma Indian regulators face in balancing the abusive and business sides of RPTs.Originality/valueThe study fills the gap by arguing why some RPTs may be dubious or benign and then shows how RPTs' misuse depends on counterparty types. It shows operating RPTs enhance operating efficiencies on several dimensions and that benefits may vary with counterparty types. It also presents the first evidence that family firms favor dubious RPTs more and efficient RPTs less than non-family firms.

The authors study how a consumer optimally allocates attention to favorable and unfavorable product-related information before making the purchase decision, when information processing is costly. They find that attention allocation depends on, among other factors, the consumer's prior belief about whether the product matches their needs and their unit information processing cost. A consumer processes both \"confirmatory\" and \"disconfirmatory\" information to their prior belief, but to different degrees under different conditions. In general, if the consumer has an extreme prior, or if the unit cost of processing information is high such that only a small amount of information is optimally processed, they process more confirmatory than disconfirmatory information; this offers a rational explanation for the phenomenon known as \"confirmation bias.\" The authors also find that a seller can benefit by influencing the consumer's attention allocation by strategically choosing how much favorable and unfavorable information to make available for the consumer to process and by influencing the information processing cost, where the optimal strategy depends on the seller's ability to adjust product price. Surprisingly, a seller has a lower incentive to suppress unfavorable information when the consumer has a worse prior belief about product fit. The authors illustrate their model with an application to information provision in product reviews.

Research regards related party transactions (RPTs) and control-ownership divergence (wedge) as expropriation mechanisms manifesting severe agency conflict in emerging markets. Since corporate governance greatly influences firms' investments and strategic behavior, this study examines how different RPTs and the wedge affect cross-border acquisition (CBA) size and returns. In line with agency theory, opportunistic RPTs like loans/guarantees reduce CBA returns. However, operating RPTs are positively related to returns as the market seems to link these RPTs with benefits to firms. The CBA performance of wedge firms varies with RPT types. While loans/guarantees by wedge firms reduce returns due to combined tunneling incentives, operating RPTs impact returns positively, reflecting more economic benefits in wedge firms. The wedge or RPTs are also positively related to CBA size. But increased tunneling incentives restrain wedge firms that give loans/guarantees from large CBAs. Finally, family firms or large group affiliates that provide loans/guarantees or sustain the wedge reduce returns yet make larger CBAs. Overall, agency costs of expropriation mechanisms depend on RPT types and receive further impetus in family firms or group affiliates with extensive intra-group linkages.

Digital advertising markets are growing and attracting increased scrutiny. This article explores four market inefficiencies that remain poorly understood: ad effect measurement, frictions between and within advertising channel members, ad blocking, and ad fraud. Although these topics are not unique to digital advertising, each manifests in unique ways in markets for digital ads. The authors identify relevant findings in the academic literature, recent developments in practice, and promising topics for future research.

The authors study multiperiod sales force incentive contracting in which salespeople can engage in effort gaming, a phenomenon that has extensive empirical support. Focusing on a repeated moral hazard scenario with two independent periods and a risk-neutral agent with limited liability, the authors conduct a theoretical investigation to understand which effort profiles the firm can expect under the optimal contract. The authors show that various effort profiles that may give the appearance of being sub-optimal, such as postponing effort exertion (\"hockey stick\") and not exerting effort after a bad or a good initial demand outcome (\"giving up\" and \"resting on laurels,\" respectively) may indeed be induced optimally by the firm. This is because, under certain conditions that depend on how severe the contracting frictions are and how effective effort exertion is in increasing demand, the firm wants to concentrate rewards on extreme demand outcomes. Doing this induces gaming and reduces expected demand but also makes motivating effort cheaper, thus saving on incentive payments. On introducing dependence between time periods, such as when the agent can transfer demands between periods, this insight continues to hold and, furthermore, \"hockey stick,\" \"giving up,\" and \"resting on laurels\" can be optimal for the firm even under repeated short time horizon contracting. The results imply that one must carefully consider the setting and environmental factors when making inferences about contract effectiveness from dynamic effort profiles of agents.