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The paper adopts a simplified two‐dimensional approach to deal with convective heat and mass transfer in laminar flows of humid air through wavy finned‐tube exchangers. The computational domain is spatially periodic, with fully developed conditions prevailing at a certain distance from the inlet section. Both the entrance and the fully developed flow region are investigated. In the fully developed region, periodicities in the flow, temperature and mass concentration fields are taken into account. The approach is completely general, even if the finite element method is used for the discretizations. In the application section, velocity, temperature, and mass concentration fields are computed first. Then apparent friction factors, Nusselt numbers, Colburn factors for heat and mass transfer, and goodness factors are evaluated both in the entrance and in the fully developed region.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimal geometry parameters in a dimple/protrusion-pin finned channel with high thermal performance.

The BSL turbulence model is used to calculate the flow structure and heat transfer in a dimple/protrusion-pin finned channel. The optimization algorithm is set as Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). The high Nusselt number and low friction factor are chosen as the optimization objectives. The pin fin diameter, dimple/protrusion diameter, dimple/protrusion location and dimple/protrusion depth are applied as the optimization variables. An in-house code is used to generate the geometry model and mesh. The commercial software Isight is used to perform the optimization process.

The results show that the Nusselt number and friction factor are sensitive to the geometry parameters. In a pin finned channel with a dimple, the Nusselt number is high at the rear part of the dimple, while it is low at the upstream of the dimple. A high dissipative function is found near the pin fin. In the protrusion channel, the Nusselt number is high at the leading edge of the protrusion. In addition, the protrusion induces a high pressure drop compared to the dimpled channel.

The originality of this paper is to optimize the geometry parameters in a pin finned channel with dimple/protrusion. This is good application for the heat transfer enhancement at the trailing side for the gas turbine.

The objective of this study was to develop and test a structural model of psychological wellness of human resource employees in a platinum and steel production environment in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was utilized in this study. An availability sample (N=465) was taken from human resource employees in a platinum and steel production environment. The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Frankfurt Emotion Work Scale, Greek Emotional Intelligence Scale, and Social Support Scale were administered. The results obtained from structural equation modeling showed that emotional intelligence and social support are negatively related to emotion work and burnout, and positively related to engagement, which means that employees with emotional intelligence and social support will be less likely to experience negative effects of emotion work and burnout and more likely to experience work engagement. Results also indicated that emotion work is positively related to burnout, meaning that emotion work leads to burnout.

Before the CETSCALE can be used as a measure of consumer ethnocentrism on an international basis, it is necessary to assess its validity and reliability in as many countries and different conditions as possible. In this sense, the main purpose of this paper is to validate the CETSCALE as a measure of Spanish consumers’ ethnocentric tendencies. This was achieved by means of confirmatory factor analysis. We adopted a competing models strategy. Initially, two alternative models were formulated: a single‐factor model and a two‐factor model. Since both models equally fit the empirical data and after carrying out an in‐depth analysis of the estimated parameters, we considered a third model with two uncorrelated factors. After estimating this new model, the goodness‐of‐fit indices indicated a poor fit compared to the one‐factor model, therefore proving that the scale measures a unidimensional construct and that the measurement error is quite acceptable.

The paper seeks to focus on the concept of total quality management (TQM) in a specific sector: the food sector. The purpose of this paper is to factorize the TQM concept by analyzing the TQM practices implemented and the results achieved from implementing such practices. It also aims to determine the means by which the quality management results are optimized.

A research project was carried out in 92 Greek food companies that were certified to ISO 9001:2000 and ELOT 1416 standard (hazard analysis critical control points, HACCP system certification). The data collection method used in this study was that of the questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to assess the reliability and validity of the latent constructs/factors (unobserved variables) of the TQM practices implemented and the respective results. The latent constructs/factors that had significant impact on the results achieved were determined through multiple linear regression analyses.

The analysis revealed four latent constructs/factors regarding the TQM practices and three latent constructs/factors regarding the results achieved through implementing such practices. According to the findings, a company's quality improvement is equally influenced by the adoption of quality practices by the top management as well as process and data quality management. A company's quality improvement was found to be the factor that primarily contributes to customer satisfaction, while the customer focus is proved to be of secondary significance. Finally, the findings showed that market benefits are derived from customer satisfaction and a company's internal quality improvement.

The small sample size of the food companies participating in this study, the observed variables that were removed from the analysis for the benefit of the measurement model validity (convergent and discriminant) and finally the subjective character of the data collected are the limitations of the present study. However, these limitations suggest future research orientations.

The determination of reliable and valid latent constructs/factors of the TQM practices implemented may help food companies to focus their efforts in specific directions, in order to build and implement a robust TQM model. Furthermore, detecting reliable and valid latent constructs/factors of the results achieved through TQM practices implementation may motivate the food companies to strengthen their efforts in broadening their management system towards the TQM philosophy and business excellence. This may help food companies withstand the current business downturn.

The paper describes in a reliable and valid manner a framework that consists of the main pillars of the TQM practices implemented and the results achieved in a specific sector: the food sector.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the quality culture and workforce performance in the Malaysian higher education sector. The study also aims to test and validate the psychometric properties of the quality culture and workforce performance instruments used in the study.

A total of 267 academic staff from the International Islamic University Malaysia completed the survey questionnaires. A principal component analysis (PCA) technique was performed to extract the underlying factors, followed by the application of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test factorial validity of the constructs.

The analysis yielded a nine‐factor‐indexed quality culture construct, while the workforce construct constituted two factors. The findings of the study postulate statistically significant correlation between quality culture and workforce performance.

The findings of the study suggest that a quality culture initiative can be used effectively in the context of the Malaysian higher education sector to enhance academic staff performance.

The results are important since there have been few published studies on quality culture that examine its effects on academic staff performance in the Malaysian higher education sector.

In Taiwan, higher education institutions formulate and implement employment policies and strategies. The purpose of this paper is to examine university students’ employment performance in Taiwan. Importance-performance analysis (IPA) provides resource managers with easy-to-understand student preferences and employability performance.

Using the IPA method, the author can establish guidelines for employability strategies for higher education institutions. The research was carried out in spring 2017 at 16 universities in Taiwan, and the findings were drawn from 723 respondents. Data were entered and analyzed by using the SPSS statistical software package version 22.0, and the raw data from each participant’s responses were coded numerically. Three types of quantitative data analysis were conducted: descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and IPA.

Through IPA, the author concluded that the factor considered most important for student performance in higher education institutions was “professional attitude.” The factors of career planning and professional knowledge were considered less important for performance.

By confirmatory factor analysis, various goodness-of-fit indices were obtained from this data. The data are analyzed through IPA. It can help school managers to identify which attributes or factors should be improved to increase student satisfaction.

Human resources have become a key issue in relation to the strong competition between service firms. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between high-performance human resource management (HRM) within this field to firm performance, making a useful attempt to explore the “black box” of enterprise human resources management effect on firm performance.

In order to validate the relationship between high-performance HRM and firm performance, Chinese service industry samples were collected. Structural equation modeling and regression are adopted to estimate the direct effect of high-performance HRM on firm performance and the mediating role of innovation.

The results show that the impacts of high-performance HRM on firm performance are significant. Moreover, innovation plays a partial mediating role between them. Training, work analysis and employee participation has a significantly positive impact on firm performance, while effects of profit sharing, employee development and performance evaluation on enterprise performance is not significant. The results strongly support the hypothesis that innovation holds intermediary variables between high-performance HRM and firm performance.

Studying the relationship between high-performance HRM and firm performance can help Chinese enterprises more reasonable and effective learning foreign advanced management ideas and methods. And then can help Chinese enterprises to establish a high-performance HRM system that is suitable for Chinese enterprises; the research can help enterprises to identify meaningful practice of human resources management, outstanding keys, and perfect the HRM system of enterprises; research on innovation and innovative thinking is conducive to develop employees’ innovation motive, promote employee’ innovative behavior, and improve firm performance.

This paper takes innovation as a mediating variable into the model and studies the intermediary role of innovation.

Many important constructs of business and social sciences are conceptualized as composites of common factors, i.e. as second-order constructs composed of reflectively measured first-order constructs. Current approaches to model this type of second-order construct provide inconsistent estimates and lack a model test that helps assess the existence and/or usefulness of a second-order construct. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel three-stage approach to model, estimate, and test second-order constructs composed of reflectively measured first-order constructs.

The authors compare the efficacy of the proposed three-stage approach with that of the dominant extant approaches, i.e. the repeated indicator approach, the two-stage approach, and the hybrid approach by means of simulated data whose underlying population model is known. Moreover, the authors apply the three-stage approach to a real research setting in business research.

The study based on simulated data illustrates that the three-stage approach is Fisher-consistent, whereas the dominant extant approaches are not. The study based on real data shows that the three-stage approach is meaningfully applicable in typical research settings of business research. Its results can differ substantially from those of the extant approaches.

Analysts aiming at modeling composites of common factors should apply the proposed procedure in order to test the existence and/or usefulness of a second-order construct and to obtain consistent estimates.

The three-stage approach is the only consistent approach for modeling, estimating, and testing composite second-order constructs made up of reflectively measured first-order constructs.