No abstract

Purpose Given the competitive environment and complicated relationships in supply chains in the modern era, it is important to take into account internal and external risks. In addition, proper methods must be designed to evaluate these risks correctly. The purpose of this paper is to provide a suitable map based on the artificial neural network technique to assess and classify the risk levels of retailers who have interconnected rules in the downstream of the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach In this research, a model for risk assessment with a hexagonal grid and 2D self-organizing map was applied. Findings According to the results, the model used in the study can provide a basis for classification of retailers based on the specified risk levels defined by the experts and risk managers of the company. Also with the model’s visual output, managers can have a better understanding of the distribution of the risk level of retailers. Practical implications The proposed methodology can be adopted by managers to assess the risk of members involved in the supply chain, helping them to formulate the risk mitigation strategies based on the risk levels. Originality/value As a part of the risk management process, organizations can use this developed method to reduce the existing risks imposed by the members or customers on the company.

It is now increasingly accepted that metadiscourse as one of the significant rhetorical features of research articles is context-sensitive and subject to change in response to the historically developing practices of academic communities. Motivated by such an understanding, the current research drew on a corpus of 914679 words taken from three leading journals of applied linguistics in order to trace the diachronic evolution of stance markers in discussion sections of research articles from 1996 to 2016. The analysis revealed a substantial decline in the overall frequency of stance markers in the discussion section, with devices in all categories, except self-mention which increased dramatically over the past 20 years. Approaching the interactional dimension of academic writing from such a diachronic perspective, it might be argued that academic writing reflects, and in turn constitutes, social and institutional practices derived from contexts that are continually changing. Hence, training in academic writing needs to be a process of raising students’ consciousness of the choices they can make and the consequences of making those choices in particular contexts.

Despite the continuously growing body of research on metadiscourse markers in different genres and through various perspectives for over 20 years, very little is known of how these features have evolved over time in response to the historically developing practices of academic communities. Motivated by such an ambition, the current research drew on a corpus of 4.3 million words taken from three leading journals of applied linguistics in order to trace the diachronic evolution of stance markers of research articles from 1996 to 2016. Hyland's model of metadiscourse was adopted for the analysis of the selected corpus. The data were explored using concordance software AntConc. Moreover, a Chi-Square statistical measure was run to determine statistical significances. The analysis revealed a significant decline in the overall frequency of stance markers, with devices in all categories, except self-mention which increased dramatically over the past 20 years. The paper has been concluded by offering some suggestions for teaching academic writing.

The literature on the generic structure of acknowledgment has revealed that, beyond the role it plays in academic gift giving and self-presentation, the textualization of gratitude reveals the effect of disciplinary, sociocultural and contextual variations on shaping this genre (Hyland, 2003;Giannoni, 2002;Yang, 2012). However, there is relatively scant research on the ways that acknowledgements in different genres are characterized by their distinctive communicative purposes. To fill this gap, this study analyzes through two phases the acknowledgment sections of various genres (20 MA & 20 PhD theses, 20 textbooks, and 20 research articles) written by native speakers of English (n=40) and Iranian (n=40) in applied linguistics. The results of move analysis phase which insights was from Swales' (1990) model, showed that genre of acknowledgment was constituted of a main "Thanking" move framed by two optional "Reflecting" and "Announcing" moves in theses, two optional "Framing" and "Announcing" moves in textbooks, and one optional "Framing" move in research articles. Despite observing the "Thanking move" in acknowledgment sections of all genres, cross-generic differences were also found in the type and frequency of constituent steps used to realize this move and other optional moves. These differences indicate how the contextual, cultural, and institutional forces influence the production and reception of academic genres.