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The need to change budgeting has been frequently debated. Drawing on the literature on management accounting and budgeting change, this study aims to explore changes in budgeting and whether experienced success of budgeting varied with time and budget type. Changes in the use of the following budget types were investigated: fixed, revised, rolling, flexible and hybrid budgets.

This study uses a mixed research methodology. Survey data was collected from the same business units of large Finnish manufacturing firms in 2004 (Time 1) and 2016/2017 (Time 2) (N = 28). In addition, some of the respondents of the latter survey were interviewed in 2023 (Time 3).

Almost all business units were found to have remained loyal to budgeting. However, changes in budget types were not uncommon and varied considerably. Overall, the use of fixed budgets continued strongly, the use of revised and hybrid budgets declined, and the use of rolling budgets increased over time. Moreover, the joint use of budgets declined. The perceived success of budgetary processes was, initially, weakened by the use of fixed budgets and, later, by the use of revised budgets. The interview data further illustrates some of the patterns of, and reasons behind, the changes.

Longitudinal analysis of change in the same business units was useful in revealing the patterns of change in budgeting and on relationships between the variables analysed over time. Further research could be carried out using more extensive case studies in companies or sector-focused surveys longitudinally.

This study examines fisheries affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 to explore how the collectivism appears during the recovery process.

The author questions the context of collaboration after the disaster among independent small-scale fishers in Miyagi by conducting semistructured interviews with more than 50 local fishers with anthropological observations of boat fishing operations and using local documents and statistics.

The corresponding collaboration among the fishers after the disaster is not a mere “disaster utopia,” but is embedded in the socioecological context of fishing. Fishers have developed individual and group fishing. They have institutionalized competitive distribution for sedentary fish with low resource fluctuation, while outcome-equal distribution is adopted for migratory fish with high resource fluctuation. This forms a fishing continuum that connects competitive individualism with collectivism in the community, which has contributed to resilience for disaster recovery.

The balance between individualism and collectivism is decisively coordinated in socioecological contexts. The multifaceted resource strategy for maritime biodiversity that features family-based occupational differentiation in a community is crucial for disaster recovery of small-scale fishers.

The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative solution for press-fit technology processes, which could improve the precision of the positioning movements and the stiffness of the structural elements.

A concept is presented and the related kinematics is described. Then, preliminary embodiment evaluations have been performed in terms of kinematics, force control and load distribution on the main structural elements.

Thanks to the additional leg, the proposed solution allows a preload that is capable of compensating the backlash of joints. The particular structure with four extendible legs and eight cardan joints ensures the parallelism between the ground and the plate holding the end effector, without any need of additional controls. However, it implies that the legs are not subjected to pure tension–compression stresses.

This work is focused on the conceptual phase of the design process, with only preliminary embodiment analysis that paves the way for subsequent and more detailed design steps. Especially concerning the actual stiffness of the system, comprehensive evaluations could be performed only after the identification of the particular parts/devices used to implement the main functional elements.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research work that comprehensively describes and analyzes the considered kinematics, within a real industrial application context.

The construction of cement asphalt (CA) emulsified mortar can obviously disturb the slab status after the fine adjustment. To decrease or eliminate the influence of CA mortar grouting on track slab geometry status, the effects of grouting funnel, slab pressing method, mortar expansion ratio, seepage ratio and grouting area on China Railway Track System Type (CRTS I) track slab geometry status were discussed in this paper.

Combined with engineering practice, this paper studied the expansion law of filling layer mortar, the liquid level height of the filling funnel, the pressure plate device and the amount of exudation water and systematically analyzed the influence of filling layer mortar construction on the state of track slab. Relevant precautions and countermeasures were put forward.

The results showed that the track slab floating values of four corners were different with the CA mortar grouting and the track slab corner near CA mortar grouting hole had the maximum floating values. The anti-floating effect of “7” shaped slab pressing device was more efficient than fixed-joint angle iron, and the slab floating value could be further decreased by increasing the amount of “7” shaped slab pressing devices. After CA mortar grouting, the track slab floating pattern had a close correlation with the expansion rate and water seepage rate of CA mortar over time and the expansion and water seepage rate of the mortar were faster when the temperature was high. Furthermore, the use of strip CA mortar filling under the rail bearing platform on both sides could effectively reduce the float under the track slab, and it could also save mortar consumption and reduce costs.

This study plays an important role in controlling the floating values, CA mortar dosage and the building cost of projects by grouting CA mortar at two flanks of filling space. The research results have guiding significance for the design and construction of China's CRTS I, CRTS II and CRTS III track slab.

Learning as the way in which labor acquire new knowledge and skills has important strategic implications for the competitive advantage of an organization. The purpose of this paper is to present an agent-based modeling (ABM) approach to investigate the learning behavior of workers. The effect of interactions among different workers as well as the factors affecting the workers’ learning behavior is assessed using the proposed ABM approach.

For this purpose, the processes through which the competency value of worker is changed are understood and the workers’ learning behavior is modeled, taking account of various influencing factors such as knowledge flow, social ability to teach and forgetting factor.

The proposed model is implemented on a real steel structure project to evaluate its applicability and performance. The variation in the competency value of different workers involved in the project is simulated over time taking account of all the influencing factors using the proposed ABM approach.

In order to assess the effect of interactions among welders as well as the welders’ characteristics on their learning behavior, the competence value of different welders is evaluated.

This research presents an ABM approach to investigate the workers’ learning behavior. To evaluate the performance of the proposed ABM approach, it was implemented on a real steel structure project. The learning behavior of different welders (agents) was simulated taking account of their interactions as well as the factors affecting the welders’ learning behavior. The project involved the welding of a 240-ton steel structure. The initial project duration was estimated as 100 days. In this project, it has been planned to execute the welding process using three different welders namely welder A, B and C.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how procurement strategies may be designed to facilitate exploration and exploitation in construction projects.

This paper is based on a literature review of organizational research and construction management literature together with a brief interview study of Swedish clients and contractors.

The theoretical and empirical findings propose that small and simple projects with low uncertainty and scarce resources may focus on exploitation to enhance short-term efficiency through traditional procurement strategies including delivery systems that separate the actors and their activities (i.e. pure design-build- or design-bid-build-contracts), fixed price payment and price focus in bid evaluation. Large complex projects with high uncertainty and customization benefit from combining exploration and exploitation to enhance sustainable performance. This requires collaborative procurement strategies including joint specification through early contractor involvement, cost reimbursement coupled with incentive-based payment, bid evaluation based on multiple criteria and collaborative tools and activities in partnering arrangements.

This paper contributes to organizational learning literature by pinpointing the need for integrating procurement strategies that enhance combination of exploration and exploitation. The main contribution to the construction management literature involves the investigation of how procurement strategies may affect exploration and exploitation, as identified and articulated in the propositions developed in this paper.

From a practical perspective, the findings highlight the importance of tailoring procurement strategies to project characteristics to enhance a suitable balance between exploration and exploitation in construction projects.

The explicit focus on the operational project-level is uncommon but relevant in organizational learning literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a two-degrees-of-freedom wire-driven 4SPS/U rigid‒flexible parallel trunk joint mechanism based on spring, in order to improve the robot’s athletic ability, load capacity and rigidity, and to ensure the coordination of multi-modal motion.

First, based on the rotation transformation matrix and closed-loop constraint equation of the parallel trunk joint mechanism, the mathematical model of its inverse position solution is constructed. Then, the Jacobian matrix of velocity and acceleration is derived by time derivative method. On this basis, the stiffness matrix of the parallel trunk joint mechanism is derived on the basis of the principle of virtual work and combined with the deformation effect of the rope driving pair and the spring elastic restraint pair. Then, the eigenvalue distribution of the stiffness matrix and the global stiffness performance index are used as the stiffness evaluation index of the mechanism. In addition, the performance index of athletic dexterity is analyzed. Finally, the distribution map of kinematic dexterity and stiffness is drawn in the workspace by numerical simulation, and the influence of the introduced spring on the stiffness distribution of the parallel trunk joint mechanism is compared and analyzed. It is concluded that the stiffness in the specific direction of the parallel trunk joint mechanism can be improved, and the stiffness distribution can be improved by adjusting the spring elastic structure parameters of the rope-driven branch chain.

Studies have shown that the wire-driven 4SPS/U rigid‒flexible parallel trunk joint mechanism based on spring has a great kinematic dexterity, load-carrying capacity and stiffness performance.

The soft-mixed structure is not mature, and there are few new materials for the soft-mixed mixture; the rope and the rigid structure are driven together with a large amount of friction and hindrance factors, etc.

It ensures that the multi-motion mode hexapod mobile robot can meet the requirement of sufficient different stiffness for different motion postures through the parallel trunk joint mechanism, and it ensures that the multi-motion mode hexapod mobile robot in multi-motion mode can meet the performance requirement of global stiffness change at different pose points of different motion postures through the parallel trunk joint mechanism.

The trunk structure is a very critical mechanism for animals. Animals in the movement to achieve smooth climbing, overturning and other different postures, such as centipede, starfish, giant salamander and other multi-legged animals, not only rely on the unique leg mechanism, but also must have a unique trunk joint mechanism. Based on the cooperation of these two mechanisms, the animal can achieve a stable, flexible and flexible variety of motion characteristics. Therefore, the trunk joint mechanism has an important significance for the coordinated movement of the whole body of the multi-sport mode mobile robot (Huang Hu-lin, 2016).

In this paper, based on the idea of combining rigid parallel mechanism with wire-driven mechanism, a trunk mechanism is designed, which is composed of four spring-based wire-driven 4SPS/U rigid‒flexible parallel trunk joint mechanism in series. Its spring-based wire-driven 4SPS/U rigid‒flexible parallel trunk joint mechanism can make the multi-motion mode mobile robot have better load capacity, mobility and stiffness performance (Qi-zhi et al., 2018; Cong-hao et al., 2018), thus improving the environmental adaptability and reliability of the multi-motion mode mobile robot.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of the nature of ownership and board characteristics on the investment choices in joint ventures (JVs) from the dimensional point of view, controlling for the effect of JV type and other components of intellectual capital.

The authors study a sample of Italian, Spanish, German and French nonfinancial listed firms over the 2010–2018 period, controlling for the fixed effects of the company's sector of operation and the year. The authors also analyze the effect of family control and influence on JV investment size, taking into consideration certain board characteristics, the type of JV, human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency while also controlling for a firm's profitability and size. To test the hypotheses, GLS panel data was used.

The results indicate that the size of the investment in JVs is smaller for family firms than for nonfamily businesses. The presence of CEO duality has an opposing effect on the size of the investment in joint ventures as it has a lowering effect in family businesses while it exerts an amplifier influence in nonfamily businesses. Moreover, the type of joint venture has a significant effect for family firms: the choice of a link joint venture reduces the size of the investment. The authors find that human capital efficiency increases JV investment size for all firms.

This study is the first to analyze the effect of the main dimension of socioemotional wealth – family control and influence – on a firm's JV investment size. It controls for the effect of JV type – link or scale – and the interplay of the other IC components.

This paper aims to present a human-in-the-loop natural teaching paradigm based on scene-motion cross-modal perception, which facilitates the manipulation intelligence and robot teleoperation.

The proposed natural teaching paradigm is used to telemanipulate a life-size humanoid robot in response to a complicated working scenario. First, a vision sensor is used to project mission scenes onto virtual reality glasses for human-in-the-loop reactions. Second, motion capture system is established to retarget eye-body synergic movements to a skeletal model. Third, real-time data transfer is realized through publish-subscribe messaging mechanism in robot operating system. Next, joint angles are computed through a fast mapping algorithm and sent to a slave controller through a serial port. Finally, visualization terminals render it convenient to make comparisons between two motion systems.

Experimentation in various industrial mission scenes, such as approaching flanges, shows the numerous advantages brought by natural teaching, including being real-time, high accuracy, repeatability and dexterity.

The proposed paradigm realizes the natural cross-modal combination of perception information and enhances the working capacity and flexibility of industrial robots, paving a new way for effective robot teaching and autonomous learning.

The present study's goal is to analyze the impact of audit quality (AQ) on earnings quality (EQ) using different audit attributes. The study shows empirical evidence from India, considered an emerging market.

The sample selected represents the 376 non-financial firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). With a 20-year time frame, the authors used the absolute value of discretionary accruals (McNichols, 2002) (DA) as a proxy for EM, which is inversely related to EQ. The authors analyzed data using OLS, fixed effect (FE), 2SLS and Panel-IV estimators.

The authors found that most audit attributes positively affect EQ. In the Indian context, joint auditor (JA), auditor size (A_SIZE), auditor fee (A_FEE) and auditor tenure (A_TENURE) have a negative association with EM indicating high EQ. In contrast, auditor rotation (A_ROTATON) positively affects EM confirming low EQ.

The present study uses Big-4 and its member firms as a proxy of auditor size (A_SIZE); instead, other bases may be taken for it, like the dominant audit firms in a particular industry in sample data, etc. The authors have started audit tenure from the base year, i.e. 2001, which may ignore the association of auditor and auditee just before 2001.

The study findings would enhance policymakers' willingness to prepare appropriate regulations regarding JAs and auditor rotation, which might improve financial market efficiency and reduce financial fraud among Indian corporates.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to incorporate “Joint Auditor” (JA) as a proxy for audit quality in the Indian context, which might significantly contribute to the literature.