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Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Aiming at the positioning accuracy control problem in the running of the assembly machine for assembled camshaft, a kind of position controller based on the feedforward‐feedback control of speed and acceleration is designed.

It combines feedforward‐feedback control with the quartic displacement curve acceleration/deceleration algorithm.

The axial dimension and the phase angle of the cam obtained after being assembled is checked. The result shows that for each type of camshaft, the error of the axial dimension of the cam is less than ±0.2mm and the error of the phase angle of the cam is less than ±30′. In addition, production efficiency is greatly improved (the assembling time is 90‐120S/piece).

The paper combines feedforward‐feedback control with the quartic displacement curve acceleration/deceleration algorithm for the first time.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the historical pattern of environmental cost due to grain production in China and to provide further implications of technologies and policies for the transformation of China’s agricultural development toward sustainable intensification.

The data sets about grain production, arable land and chemical fertilizer use in China were collected from FAO, NBSC, and IFA. Greenhouse gas emissions were estimated using life cycle assessments. The policies concerning grain production and the environment were collected from the Ministry of Agriculture, and the State Council of China.

China has produced enough food to feed its growing population, but has neglected the resource-environmental costs of grain production since 1978. Consequently, China’s grain production is always accompanied with a high cost of resource and environment sustainability. However, from 2006 to 2015, the growth rate of grain production has surpassed that of chemical fertilizer consumption, resulting in improvement in nutrient use efficiency and decreasing trends of environmental cost for grain production. This could be partially attributed to technology innovations, such as Soil-Testing and Fertilizer-Recommendations (STFR), soil quality and crop management improvement, and so on, and policy supports (policies of STFR, soil quality improvement, and high-yield construction). This indicated that China’s grain production is starting to transform from high-input and high-output model to “less for more.”

This study is the first to determine the detailed, historical role of technological innovation and agri-environmental policy on the sustainability of grain production in China. The findings should have significant implications for technology and policy for the transformation of China’s agriculture development to sustainable intensification.

This chapter explores the key role of industry partners in the adoption of challenge-based learning (CBL) in higher education institutions (HEIs). Considering that one defining feature of CBL is the use of real-world challenges situated within an authentic real-world context or scenario, partnerships that include students, academics, and industry partners are often established. These partnerships usually involve students, academics, and industry partners working together to define challenges, create and implement solutions, and provide feedback. Existing CBL literature has largely focused on the evaluation of challenges and benefits for students and academics, including disciplinary knowledge acquisition and the development of competencies and soft skills. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the expected input from industry partners, as well as their perceptions and benefits that they can gain from CBL partnerships. Thus, the focus of this chapter is on discussing industry partners' perceptions of the practical challenges, as well as potential opportunities that can translate into benefits, stemming from CBL partnerships. Based on empirical evidence, the chapter summarizes the current challenges of CBL within the context of HEIs. We discuss industry partners' perceptions of the practical challenges and the potential opportunities emerging from the CBL partnership, and whether these translate into benefits. We consider the practicalities of working across academia, industry, and government on the implementation of CBL, and the lessons for HEIs seeking to develop CBL activities to support innovation in their regions.

This chapter is aimed at reflecting technologies as the key resources of modern regions, identifying the essence and modelling the digital inequality of Russian regions, as well as forming the methodological foundation for the consistent resolution of conflicts in the regional economy of Russia. Through the example of the regional economy of modern Russia, the method of the variation analysis is used for the analysis of differences between regions that are individually investigated in relation to the level of digitalization, and their regression dependence on the level of technological development is determined. As a result, it has been found that Russian regions are characterized by a number of conflicts due to their multi-aspect inequality; these include innovation conflicts, investment conflicts and quality of life conflicts. The abovementioned conflicts are mainly caused by differences in the provision of technological resources to regions (in their digitalization). The novelty and fundamental significance of this chapter consist in the clarification of the cause of spatial inequality through differences in the provision of technological resources to regions. The unique character of this chapter consists in justification of the technology factor of the emergence of inequality and conflicts of regions. This chapter proves that technological inequality exacerbates other aspects of inequality and conflicts of regions. Originality and practical relevance of this chapter consist in the evaluation of the prospects and development of recommendations for conflict management in Russian regions through overcoming differences in their technological support and accelerating the pace of their digitalization.

In recent years, negative spokesperson incidents have raised significant concerns in academia and industry. While several studies have addressed celebrity endorser scandals, comprehensive analyses of current knowledge are lacking. Therefore, this study systematically reviewed the related literature to better understand trends and suggest future research directions for advancing this field.

This study employs the theory–context–characteristics–methodology (TCCM) framework to examine 76 articles on celebrity endorser scandals.

Utilizing the TCCM framework, this study presents a comprehensive research framework, revealing that (1) the celebrity endorser scandal effect primarily includes associative learning, attribution of responsibility, and moral reasoning; (2) entertainment celebrities and athletes have received significant research attention; (3) both individual- and relationship-level characteristics serve as crucial moderators, with focal brand and related brand being the primary outcome variables. Additionally, this study outlines enterprise response strategies, encompassing the reformation of existing spokesperson relationships and the establishment of future spokesperson connections; and (4) quantitative approaches dominate the field.

This study integrates and expands existing research on celebrity endorser scandals while proposing future research opportunities to advance the field.

Due to the coupling between the direct-axis current, quadrature-axis current and rotor speed, the dynamic response could be strongly nonlinear. Besides, if the working condition is severe, the loading is no longer constant and multiple harmonics could be introduced. In this paper, the periodic motions for brushless motor will be solved, and accurate analytic solution will be obtained through the proposed method. The purpose of this study is to provide accurate analytic solution of periodic motions for brushless motor with fluctuated loading, which is a dynamic system with strong nonlinearity.

A newly developed semi-analytic algorithm called discrete implicit maps is used to give analytic solutions for both stable and unstable motions for such a motor.

The accurate analytic expressions for stable and unstable periodic motions have been obtained. For unstable motion, it can stay on the unstable orbit for many periods without any controller. Through bifurcation analysis, the parameter sensitivity has been obtained which can be a suggestion for design and operation.

This paper provides all possible analytical solutions for period-1 motion as well as the unstable motions in a range of system parameters. It offers a chance to control the unstable motion for such a motor.

System dynamics is a whole-system modelling and learning approach, useful for tackling non-linear problems, such as sustainable urban development. The purpose of this paper is to review system dynamics applications in the simulation of sustainable urban development over a period from 2005 to 2017.

The analysis reveals that the number of applications of system dynamics modelling in the area of urban sustainable development increased in the analysed period. Research has changed its focus from the modelling of environmental problems to more complex models, portraying the multidimensional socio-economic processes that have an impact on the sustainability of urban development. Analysed case studies most often use the behaviour reproduction test for model validation, but without a unified approach. In most cases, modelling has been done in China, Germany and the USA, while urban development in the Eastern European countries, Africa and Latin America has not often been investigated. This paper indicates the knowledge gaps and suggests future research directions.

Papers that report the use of system dynamics modelling reveal a wide range of applications in urban sustainability. The analysis shows significant emphasis on environmental problems, while the interest for modelling social problems has been increasing during the last several years. Most of the modelled problems examine the sustainability of resources (land, water) and waste management, which are used for insights into the reasons for the system behaviour, forecasting future behaviour and policy testing.

The presented models were developed in most cases for the purpose of understanding the phenomena examined, as well as the future use of the models in policy planning. This brings us back to the need for greater stakeholder involvement, not only in the initial phase, but also during the whole modelling process, which could increase understanding, use and ownership of the models in the future, and thus increase their practical application.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of different micro additives to new compositions of electrically conductive adhesives (ECA) on their printing properties as well as electric parameters expressed in resistivity of joints cured in low temperatures and obtain recommendations for elaboration of ECA appropriate for printing electronic applications.

The three different types of silver flakes and two types of micro powders were added to basic matrix of ECA to create ECA composition for investigation. The ECA were printed via stencil on elastic substrate creating the special designed samples which next were cured in 25°C, 50°C or 80°C. The SEM with EDS analysis was utilized for assessment of shapes and sizes of the input materials for ECA. The microscopic observation and resistivity measurements of samples by four-probe method were used for assessment of the influence of ECA compositions on prints quality as well as on electric parameters of adhesives joints.

The results show that the quality of the prints made with the use of elaborated adhesive compositions is related mainly with the amount and type of filler used in ECA. The electrical properties of joints were dependent from type of silver flakes and amount of micro-additives as well as curing temperature.

It is suggested that further studies are necessary for the confirmation of the practical application, especially of the mechanical and reliability properties of the joints obtained with the use of final composition of the elaborated ECA.

The presented results of analyses provide information regarding the correlation between the composition of ECA, properties of elements creating them and the results of printing and electric parameters of joints produced of them. It showed positive impact of small carbon micro powder addition both on printing results and resistivity of joints. It pointed out also that the purity of silver components of ECA influences significantly on resistivity of ECA's joints. It is valuable information for ECA's designers as well as end-users, from the practical point of view.