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1 – 10 of 15IpKin Anthony Wong, Jingwen Huang, Zhiwei (CJ) Lin and Haoyue Jiao
Have you been to a smart restaurant, and how were its services? A common limitation of hospitality studies stems from the lack of research on how service quality is shaped within…
Abstract
Purpose
Have you been to a smart restaurant, and how were its services? A common limitation of hospitality studies stems from the lack of research on how service quality is shaped within smart technology. This study aims to fill this literature void not merely to reiterate the importance of technology but also to recast service quality through the lens of information technology. It synthesizes the 5-S model of smart service quality (AKA SSQ) as a new conceptualization of service quality application in smart hospitality contexts such as smart restaurants.
Design/methodology/approach
This study undertook a qualitative research design based on theoretical synthesis from service quality, information technology and attention restoration. Drawing from online review comments and semistructured interviews from smart restaurants, the authors improvised the SSQ model to identify the essence of smart service in smart dining establishments.
Findings
“5-S” reflects an extension of the literature to denote a new SSQ abstraction pertinent to s-servicescape, s-assurance, s-responsiveness, s-reliability and s-empathy. A nomological network was posited to better understand the importance of smart design and consequence of SSQ.
Research limitations/implications
The emergence of smart dining gives rise to smart restaurants, which puts technology at center stage. As consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with self-service technology, auto-payment and ordering systems and robotic services, technology in foodservice will continue to play an essential role to better serve diners. Geared with advanced innovations and intelligent devices, smart restaurants are now more than mere eateries. It is a trend and a lifestyle.
Originality/value
This novel SSQ concept adds new nuances to the literature by acknowledging the technological essence in today’s hospitality industry. By integrating smart technology into the service quality paradigm, the authors are able to observe several interesting behaviors exhibited during smart dining, including tech-induced restoration, which opens a new avenue to understand how attention restoration could be attained through immersion in a technologically advanced setting. By synthesizing theoretical essence from service quality, attention restoration and information technology, the authors are able to create a new dialog that should warrant a forum of discussion in future studies.
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IpKin Anthony Wong, Ya Xiao, Zhiwei (CJ) Lin, Danni Sun, Jingwen (Daisy) Huang and Matthew Liu
This paper aims to answer questions pertinent to whether or not services provided by smart hotels are really what customers are looking for, as well as to ascertain what are some…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to answer questions pertinent to whether or not services provided by smart hotels are really what customers are looking for, as well as to ascertain what are some unintended experiences guests may encounter. In essence, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first in the field to acknowledge the paradox of smart service.
Design/methodology/approach
This inquiry adopts a qualitative approach with data-driven from online customer reviews and semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis was undertaken to interpret review comments.
Findings
Results point to a new phenomenon, which is coined as the smartness paradox. In particular, customers on one hand enjoy an array of smart-infused experiences that jointly offer patrons a sense of a futuristic lifestyle. On the other hand, smart devices superimpose a number of hindrances that bring guests dismay and annoyance.
Research limitations/implications
This investigation brings smart service failure to the fore to highlight several key failure themes that could jeopardize the entire operation with debased customers’ satisfaction and loyalty inclination.
Originality/value
The smartness-paradox framework used in the present inquiry entails both approach and avoidance consequences customers enact depending on their smart experiences.
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To explore how student teachers (re)construct their professional identities, this chapter contextualizes two student teachers’ practicum experiences in China. The overarching…
Abstract
To explore how student teachers (re)construct their professional identities, this chapter contextualizes two student teachers’ practicum experiences in China. The overarching question is how the student teachers (re)construct their professional identities in the practicums, especially where their teacher knowledge and subject matter knowledge meet. By analyzing a flexible matrix of paired stories, the research highlights the collective influences of the multiple instructional contexts: nation-wide Free Teacher Education program policy, recent national curriculum reform in China, and the characteristics of the placement schools. The chapter finds that the student teachers’ professional identities are dynamic and evolving on the professional knowledge landscape. The (re)construction of professional identities involves developing practical knowledge and metaphors by negotiating the tensions the student teachers encountered in the practicums. Meanwhile, the student teachers experienced reflective turns (Schön, 1991) in the practicums, which caused the tension between teacher knowledge and subject matter knowledge and contributed to the formation of their professional identities.
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Qiang Wen, Lele Chen, Jingwen Jin, Jianhao Huang and HeLin Wan
Fixed mode noise and random mode noise always exist in the image sensor, which affects the imaging quality of the image sensor. The charge diffusion and color mixing between…
Abstract
Purpose
Fixed mode noise and random mode noise always exist in the image sensor, which affects the imaging quality of the image sensor. The charge diffusion and color mixing between pixels in the photoelectric conversion process belong to fixed mode noise. This study aims to improve the image sensor imaging quality by processing the fixed mode noise.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an iterative training of an ergoable long- and short-term memory recurrent neural network model, the authors obtain a neural network model able to compensate for image noise crosstalk. To overcome the lack of differences in the same color pixels on each template of the image sensor under flat-field light, the data before and after compensation were used as a new data set to further train the neural network iteratively.
Findings
The comparison of the images compensated by the two sets of neural network models shows that the gray value distribution is more concentrated and uniform. The middle and high frequency components in the spatial spectrum are all increased, indicating that the compensated image edges change faster and are more detailed (Hinton and Salakhutdinov, 2006; LeCun et al., 1998; Mohanty et al., 2016; Zang et al., 2023).
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors use the iterative learning color image pixel crosstalk compensation method to effectively alleviate the incomplete color mixing problem caused by the insufficient filter rate and the electric crosstalk problem caused by the lateral diffusion of the optical charge caused by the adjacent pixel potential trap.
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Xu Ren, Zi Yan, Zhaojing Wang and Jingwen He
Numerous studies highlight the importance of knowledge transfer between projects, but the influence factors are still debated. As a contribution to the identified gap, the purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Numerous studies highlight the importance of knowledge transfer between projects, but the influence factors are still debated. As a contribution to the identified gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of organizational context, project characteristics and social relations in the inter-project knowledge transfer within the project-based organizations (PBOs).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper collects the data through 268 sample questionnaires from Chinese construction sectors and applies the structure equation modeling to analyze knowledge transfer between projects in PBOs.
Findings
The results indicate the organizational context (meeting system, reward system and shared culture) and project characteristics (similarity and urgency) are antecedents affecting social relations (communication, trust and reciprocity) between project teams, and their social relations further influence the effectiveness of inter-project knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
The study highlights the role of organizational context and effect of social relations for inter-project knowledge transfer in PBOs, and provides valuable suggestions for knowledge and project management in PBOs.
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Guiqing An, Yanru Chen, Yanping Fang and Jingwen Liu
Lesson study (LS) is generally regarded as a pathway for teachers' professional development and a method for teachers' instructional research. LS has been regarded as having the…
Abstract
Purpose
Lesson study (LS) is generally regarded as a pathway for teachers' professional development and a method for teachers' instructional research. LS has been regarded as having the potential to drive large-scale reform but little is known about how it does so from a district level. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal how lesson study promote district education reform.
Design/methodology/approach
This study offers an in-depth case study of how District Y of Shanghai, China, took LS as the primary method in promoting its District Project of Building Curriculum Leadership in Schools. By analyzing the key project documents and achievements in project promotion, and interviews with the major Project leaders at District and school levels, this study explored the practice and impact of LS as a tool to promote district reform.
Findings
In the District Project, LS has been a medium to address each individual school's real problems of practice and turn them into reform vision and reform will in alignment with District goals. Five levels of school curriculum texts have been planned, designed, translated, implemented, reflected on, updated and mutually adjusted systematically through LS to ensure consistency in transforming District reform vision into classroom practice. Different models of teaching-research community building were found in sampled project schools and professional expertise was built with district support to promote reform. The curriculum leadership development through LS has shaped reform leader schools and formed a collection of LS exemplars circulated in schools as high-quality curriculum packages, which laid the foundation for district-wide reform.
Originality/value
The innovative practice of LS in China's education reform has expanded its reach from within one classroom to the entire district curriculum system and made it an important tool to drive large-school district-based education reform.
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Yuxuan Zhang, Jingwen Wang, Rafiq Ahmad and Xinming Li
In response to increasing demand for a fully customized and individualized home environment, mass customization (MC) has been suggested as an effective strategy to fulfill the…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to increasing demand for a fully customized and individualized home environment, mass customization (MC) has been suggested as an effective strategy to fulfill the customer’s customization needs while keeping production cost-effectiveness. However, in current practice, the implementation of the MC in the industrialized housing industry has not achieved an ideal level. Little effort was devoted to customer value generation and achieving lean production in a multi-disciplinary MC environment. In this concern, a highly efficient and flexible production information system is expected to capture accurately the customer’s demand and efficiently perform work planning for encouraging customer involvement and mass efficiency production.
Design/methodology/approach
To gain an insight into the development of the MC production information system for the housing industry and to depict the interaction among system modules, this study used a design science research methodology for a case study of customized cabinet production information system development.
Findings
A prototype of the production information system was proposed in this paper, supported by three information technologies to facilitate the MC implementation in the millwork manufacturer. A focus group discussion method was carried out for evaluating the system feasibility and the subsequent survey analysis on the virtual reality (VR) interface experiment. The evaluation process results showed that the VR interface is an effective medium for design information communication and encourages customer involvement. Most participants believed that the proposed production information system could generally benefit the MC implementation and improve production efficiency.
Originality/value
This study integrated lean production principles along with building information modelling, VR and discrete-event simulation in the production information system to assist the manufacturer in effectively handling variant product information and enabling quicker reactions in response to diverse customer requirements in housing industries. The coordination among system modules and the managed information flow could be a valuable reference for future MC production system development in housing industries.
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Di Xie, Hui Chen, Siyi Yin, Feisen Wang, Jingwen Chen and Sifei Ai
Laser cleaning, as a new type of cleaning technology, has the advantages of environment-friendliness, better selectivity, better controllability and higher efficiency compared to…
Abstract
Purpose
Laser cleaning, as a new type of cleaning technology, has the advantages of environment-friendliness, better selectivity, better controllability and higher efficiency compared to traditional chemical cleaning or grinding. This paper aims to use ultra-fast surface laser cleaning equipment built in laboratory to study the influence of different energy density (7.6, 11.5 and 15.3 J/cm2) on corrosion resistance of the aluminum alloy A7N01P-T4, a high-speed train body material.
Design/methodology/approach
SEM, white light interferometer, EDS and XPS were used to analyze the surface morphology, roughness, element content and oxide layer composition of aluminum alloy before and after cleaning. The corrosion resistance was studied by electrochemical experiments and exfoliation corrosion experiments.
Findings
The results showed that new oxide scale was formed on the surface after laser cleaning. The changes of surface roughness and chemical composition of oxide scale made a significant influence on corrosion behaviors. Better corrosion resistance was obtained with the energy density increased, and at the energy density of 11.5 J/cm2, aluminum alloy exhibited the best corrosion resistance.
Research limitations/implications
The paper only studies specific aluminum alloys and is not universal. Laser cleaning equipment is set up for the laboratory and has not yet been put into industrial production.
Practical implications
This paper indicated that ultra-fast laser processing was a new direction for the development of industrial equipment surface cleaning and carried out ultra-fast laser of aluminum alloy surface cleaning had certain research significance for its corrosion resistance.
Social implications
Compared with the conventional cleaning methods such as air abrasives grinding or chemical cleaning, laser cleaning has advantages of environment-friendliness, better selectivity, better controllability and higher efficiency. Laser cleaning can not only protect the environment, but also improve cleaning efficiency.
Originality/value
Changes in the surface of aluminum alloys after ultra-fast surface laser treatment were found, and the mechanism of changes in aluminum alloy corrosion properties was clarified.
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Huazhou He, Pinghua Xu, Jing Jia, Xiaowan Sun and Jingwen Cao
Fashion merchandising hold a paramount position within the realm of retail marketing. Currently, the purpose of this article is that the assessment of display effectiveness…
Abstract
Purpose
Fashion merchandising hold a paramount position within the realm of retail marketing. Currently, the purpose of this article is that the assessment of display effectiveness predominantly relies on the subjective judgment of merchandisers due to the absence of an effective evaluation method. Although eye-tracking devices have found extensive used in tracking the gaze trajectory of subject, they exhibit limitations in terms of stability when applied to the evaluation of various scenes. This underscores the need for a dependable, user-friendly and objective assessment method.
Design/methodology/approach
To develop a cost-effective and convenient evaluation method, the authors introduced an image processing framework for the assessment of variations in the impact of store furnishings. An optimized visual saliency methodology that leverages a multiscale pyramid model, incorporating color, brightness and orientation features, to construct a visual saliency heatmap. Additionally, the authors have established two pivotal evaluation indices aimed at quantifying attention coverage and dispersion. Specifically, bottom features are extract from 9 distinct scale images which are down sampled from merchandising photographs. Subsequently, these extracted features are amalgamated to form a heatmap, serving as the focal point of the evaluation process. The authors have proposed evaluation indices dedicated to measuring visual focus and dispersion, facilitating a precise quantification of attention distribution within the observed scenes.
Findings
In comparison to conventional saliency algorithm, the optimization method yields more intuitive feedback regarding scene contrast. Moreover, the optimized approach results in a more concentrated focus within the central region of the visual field, a pattern in alignment with physiological research findings. The results affirm that the two defined indicators prove highly effective in discerning variations in visual attention across diverse brand store displays.
Originality/value
The study introduces an intelligent and cost-effective objective evaluate method founded upon visual saliency. This pioneering approach not only effectively discerns the efficacy of merchandising efforts but also holds the potential for extension to the assessment of fashion advertisements, home design and website aesthetics.
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This study investigates how reward type (single vs. plural), reward characteristic (utilitarian vs. hedonic) and product involvement (high vs. low) affect the design of reward…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how reward type (single vs. plural), reward characteristic (utilitarian vs. hedonic) and product involvement (high vs. low) affect the design of reward programs.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 ✕ 2 ✕ 2 fractional factorial experimental design is constructed to explore the main factors influencing the effectiveness of reward programs on a sample of 436 Chinese customers.
Findings
The results indicate that reward type is an important determinant of customers' preference toward reward programs. Plural rewards are preferable to a single reward when the alternatives provide the same benefits, particularly in the low level of product involvement. In the high level of product involvement, reward characteristic has a significant effect on customers' preference. Hedonic rewards are more effective in building a program's value than utilitarian rewards. Moreover, reward characteristic interacts with reward type, positively impacting customers' preference toward reward programs.
Originality/value
This study suggests that managers should consider the effects of reward type, reward characteristic and product involvement to formulate attractive reward programs for sustainable business in China.
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