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1 – 10 of 952Bo Chen, Sayed Saghaian and Mark Tyler
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between US farmers’ adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, both of which are increasingly important…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between US farmers’ adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, both of which are increasingly important practices in the US agricultural and food sector. In addition, the effects of the two practices on farm income are evaluated.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses the Agricultural and Resource Management Survey from the US Department of Agriculture. Farmers’ adoption of the two practices is modeled with a simultaneous linear probability model, which accounts for the possible linkage between the adoption of the two practices in farmers’ decision-making process. Farm income is modeled with a linear regression model, accounting for the possible endogeneity of the adoption of the two practices.
Findings
The main finding is that farmers’ adoption of organic farming decreases their probability of adopting direct marketing, whereas the reverse effect is insignificant. In addition, organic farming helps to improve gross farm income, whereas the effect of direct marketing is insignificant.
Practical implications
These results facilitate better coordination among numerous government programs aimed at promoting organic farming or direct marketing in the US.
Originality/value
This paper extends previous literature by specifically accounting for the possible linkage between farmers’ adoption of organic farming and direct marketing, and demonstrates that farmers do not make the decision to adopt one particular practice in isolation.
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Both foreign and local companies frequently name their brands in foreign language on the market of developing countries, and some of them choose to disclose the brands'…
Abstract
Purpose
Both foreign and local companies frequently name their brands in foreign language on the market of developing countries, and some of them choose to disclose the brands' country of origin to consumers. The purpose of this research is to investigate the joint effects between the practices of disclosing the actual country of origin of the brands and the language of the brand names on consumers' purchase intention for foreign brands and local brands in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed hypotheses were tested in two studies, namely an experiment and a field experimental survey, with stimuli from two product categories.
Findings
The results of the two empirical studies with Chinese participants consistently demonstrate that revealing the actual country of origin of the brands undermines consumers' purchase intention for local brands that use foreign brand names, but does not impact consumers' purchase intention for foreign brands that use local brand names.
Originality/value
This research first investigates the effects of adapting the brand names into local language of developing countries for brands from developed countries on consumers' purchase intention, which provides new insight into the literature on foreign branding and country of origin effects as well as practical implications for brand managers.
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Bo Chen, Yongzhen Yao, Yuhua Huang, Wenkang Wang, Caiwang Tan and Jicai Feng
This paper aims to explore the influences of different process parameters, including laser power, scanning speed, defocusing distance and scanning mode, on the shape…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the influences of different process parameters, including laser power, scanning speed, defocusing distance and scanning mode, on the shape features of molten pool and, based on the obtained relationship, realize the diagnosis of forming defects during the process.
Design/methodology/approach
Molten pool was captured on-line based on a coaxial CCD camera mounted on the welding head, then image processing algorithms were developed to obtain melt pool features that could reflect the forming status, and it suggested that the molten pool area was the most sensitive characteristic. The influence of the processing parameters such as laser power, traverse speed, powder feed rate, defocusing distance and the melt pool area was studied, and then the melt pool area was used as the characteristic to detect the forming defects during the cladding and additive manufacturing process.
Findings
The influences of different process parameters on molten pool area were explored. Based on the relationship, different types of defects were accurately detected through analyzing the relationship between the molten pool area and time.
Originality/value
The findings would be helpful for the quality control of laser additive manufacturing.
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The aim of this research is to study the influence of laser additive manufacturing process parameters on the deposit formation characteristics of Inconel 718 superalloy…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to study the influence of laser additive manufacturing process parameters on the deposit formation characteristics of Inconel 718 superalloy, the main parameters that influence the forming characteristics, the cooling rate and the microstructure were studied.
Design/methodology/approach
Orthogonal experiment design method was used to obtain different deposit shape and microstructure using different process parameters by multiple layers deposition. The relationship between the processing parameters and the geometry of the cladding was analyzed, and the dominant parameters that influenced the cladding width and height were identified. The cooling rates of different forming conditions were obtained by the secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS).
Findings
The microstructure showed different characteristics at different parts of the deposit. Cooling rate of different samples were obtained and compared by using the SDAS, and the influence of the process parameters to the cooling rate was analyzed. Finally, micro-hardness tests were done, and the results were found to be in accordance with the micro-structure distribution.
Originality/value
Relationships between processing parameters and the forming characteristics and the cooling rates were obtained. The results obtained in this paper will help to understand the relationship between the process parameters and the forming quality of the additive manufacturing process, so as to obtain the desired forming quality by appropriate parameters.
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Bo Chen, Yuhua Huang, Tao Gu, Caiwang Tan and Jicai Feng
Additive manufacturing is a fabrication technology with flexibility and economy. 18Ni300 is one of maraging steels with ultra-high strength, superior toughness, so it is…
Abstract
Purpose
Additive manufacturing is a fabrication technology with flexibility and economy. 18Ni300 is one of maraging steels with ultra-high strength, superior toughness, so it is an excellent candidate of structural material. This paper aims to explore the feasibility of using direct laser metal deposition method to fabricate18Ni300, and the evolution of its microstructure and defects is studied.
Design/methodology/approach
The experiments were conceived from single-trace-single-layer (STSL) test to multi-trace-multi-layers (MTML) test via single-trace-multi-layers (STML) test. The microstructure, defects and mechanical properties were analyzed.
Findings
The STML results showed that the columnar/equiaxed transformation occurred at the top part and the grain size increased with the layer number increasing, and it was explained by an innovative attempt combining columnar/equiaxed transformation model and the change of grain size. The MTML test with the interlayer orthogonal parallel reciprocating scanning pattern resulted in the grain growing along orthogonal directions; with the increase of overlap rate, the length and the area of the columnar grain decreased. What is more, the later deposition layer had lower micro-hardness value because of heat history.
Originality/value
Direct laser metal deposition method was a novel additive manufacturing method to manufacture 18Ni300 components, as 18Ni300 maraging steel was mainly manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) method nowadays. It was useful to manufacture maraging steel parts using direct laser deposition method because it could manufacture larger parts than SLM method. Influence of processing parameters on forming quality and microstructure evolution was studied. The findings will be helpful to understand the forming mechanism of laser additive manufacturing of 18Ni300 components.
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The last few decades have seen the rapid emergence of two transformative streams in large firms. The first is the development of project management, aimed at improving the…
Abstract
Purpose
The last few decades have seen the rapid emergence of two transformative streams in large firms. The first is the development of project management, aimed at improving the performance of innovation management, while the second, the internationalization of innovation organizations and processes in response to strategies of redeployment toward emerging countries. Both streams have been closely analyzed in the fields of project management and international management, respectively. However, the links between the two have been less studied. The purpose of this paper is to consider the hypothesis that a firm’s projectification might have an important impact on its pattern of internationalization in innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
First, we present the models of internationalization of innovation processes used in the multinational corporation literature. This field essentially focuses on the components of permanent organizations: global internationalization strategy and legacy, R&D footprint, characterization of local subsidiaries and the role of central head offices. Projects figure only as a context in which those elements operate, not as a structuring variable of the global innovation process pattern. The authors challenge this view by exploring whether the specificities of the firm’s projectification pattern can influence how it builds its global innovation process. The paper is based on a longitudinal case where the authors analyze the organizational transition within the Renault group, an emblematic case of a multinational that implemented a spectacular internationalization transition in the 2000s.
Findings
Our results demonstrate project organizing’s major impact on the internationalization patterns of innovation processes within the firm. They show how the deployment of a polycentric innovation footprint has been the consequence of a specific projectification transition, giving the project and program functions the autonomy to transgress centralized product development norms to adapt their project to the local environment; use the initial breakthrough project as the foundation for a new and specific global product development network through a lineage logic; and sustain this innovation global network as a permanent process of the firm.
Research limitations/implications
The paper demonstrates the importance of the organization’s projectification characteristics as an important vector for successfully implementing the most advanced internationalization strategies (i.e. reverse innovation) and innovation processes models (i.e. integrated networks).
Practical implications
The paper characterizes project management related conditions that can govern the success of innovation strategies in high-growth emerging countries: the autonomy and empowerment of project functions; colocation and integration of teams; existence of a program function; and HR policies capable of supporting lineage management and project-to-project learning processes.
Originality/value
Bridging project management literature with multinational management literature. Demonstrate the key impact of projectification on internationalization pattern of the firm. Longitudinal analysis of a firm internationalization transition on a ten-year period.
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The Communist revolution in China has led to the appearance in this country of increasing numbers of Chinese books in Russian translation. The Chinese names in Cyrillic…
Abstract
The Communist revolution in China has led to the appearance in this country of increasing numbers of Chinese books in Russian translation. The Chinese names in Cyrillic transcription have presented many librarians and students with a new problem, that of identifying the Cyrillic form of a name with the customary Wade‐Giles transcription. The average cataloguer, the first to meet the problem, has two obvious lines of action, and neither is satisfactory. He can save up the names until he has a chance to consult an expert in Chinese. Apart altogether from the delay, the expert, confronted with a few isolated names, might simply reply that he could do nothing without the Chinese characters, and it is only rarely that Soviet books supply them. Alternatively, he can transliterate the Cyrillic letters according to the system in use in his library and leave the matter there for fear of making bad worse. As long as the writers are not well known, he may feel only faintly uneasy; but the appearance of Chzhou Ėn‐lai (or Čžou En‐laj) upsets his equanimity. Obviously this must be entered under Chou; and we must have Mao Tse‐tung and not Mao Tsze‐dun, Ch'en Po‐ta and not Chėn' Bo‐da. But what happens when we have another . . . We can hardly write Ch'en unless we know how to represent the remaining elements in the name; yet we are loth to write Ch'en in one name and Chėn' in another.
This study especially concerns the causal relationship between official defense expenditure and economic development for mainland China from 1953 to 2007 by employing a…
Abstract
This study especially concerns the causal relationship between official defense expenditure and economic development for mainland China from 1953 to 2007 by employing a combination of VAR models and the Granger Causality Test. The final conclusions are diverse in varied time periods where no evidence showing the Chinese economy had an effect on its military development or the reverse. Nevertheless, military spending benefited the economy after 1989 when the development of defense was running on a new path. This study also includes a proxy series of Western estimated data, say SIPRI, which has a result that resembles Chinese official data over the period 1989–2007.