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The globalisation of markets, emerging concepts of sustainable development, and circular economy have defined the boundaries within which organisations must compete and address the needs of key stakeholders. As circumstances change, boundaries are often replaced by the relationships between companies and the communities they serve. Consequently, strategy has become a central aspect of sustainable leadership and the foundation for implementing strategic management in a dynamic system of relationships. Every company is born and grows within social and economic ecosystems. Drawing on the metaphor of biology, ecosystems are described as dynamic interconnections among various elements that influence and foster entrepreneurship. Interconnections between players (such as marketplaces, organisations, governments, and universities) create a flow of expertise, abilities, knowledge, experience, and tangible resources. Economic and social ecosystems involve various actors and components that continuously coexist and interact, leading to the creation of numerous mutual relationships. Consequently, it is crucial for managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the internal and external environments. Various decision-making tools and strategies can be used to achieve this goal. These tools were developed to assist managers, researchers, and consultants in making informed decisions under complex scenarios. This chapter presents several decision-making strategies and tools, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, General Electric (GE) matrix, Balanced Scorecard (BSC), PEST, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to present the influence of inter-turn short circuit faults (ITSF) on electromagnetic vibration in high-voltage line-starting permanent magnet synchronous motor (HVLSPMSMS).

In this paper, the ampere–conductor wave model of HVLSPMSM after ITSF is established. Second, a mathematical model of the magnetic field after ITSF is established, and the influence law of the ITSF on the air-gap magnetic field is analyzed. Further, the mathematical expression of the electromagnetic force density is established based on the Maxwell tensor method. The impact of HVLSPMSM torque ripple frequency, radial electromagnetic force spatial–temporal distribution and rotor unbalanced magnetic tension force by ITSF is revealed. Finally, the electromagnetic–mechanical coupling model of HVLSPMSM is established, and the vibration spectra of the motor with different degrees of ITSF are solved by numerical calculation.

In this study, it is found that the 2np order flux density harmonics and (2 N + 1) p order electromagnetic forces are not generated when ITSF occurs in HVLSPMSM.

By analyzing the multi-harmonics of HVLSPMSM after ITSF, this paper provides a reliable method for troubleshooting from the perspective of vibration and torque fluctuation and rotor unbalanced electromagnetic force.

For the provision of smart library services to end users, tools of the Internet of Things (IoT) play a significant role. The study aims to discover the factors influencing the adoption of IoT in university libraries, investigate the impact of IoT on university library services and identify challenges to adopt IoT applications in university libraries.

A systematic literature review was carried out to address the objectives of the study. The 40 most relevant research papers published in the world’s leading digital databases were selected to conduct the study.

The findings illustrated that rapid growth in technology, perceived benefits, the networked world and the changing landscape of librarianship positively influenced the adoption of IoT in university libraries. The study also displayed that IoT supported library professionals to initiate smart library services, assisted in service efficiency, offered context-based library services, provided tracking facilities and delivered effective management of library systems. Results also revealed that a lack of technical infrastructure, security and privacy concerns, a lack of technological skills and unavailability of policy and strategic planning caused barriers to the successful adoption of IoT applications in university libraries.

The study has provided theoretical implications through a valuable addition to the current literature. It has also offered managerial implications for policymakers to construct productive policies for the implementation of IoT applications in university libraries for the attainment of fruitful outcomes. Finally, the study provides a baseline for understanding the adoption of IoT in academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a variable distance pneumatic gripper with embedded flexible sensors, which can effectively grasp fragile and flexible objects.

Based on the motion principle of the three-jaw chuck and the pneumatic “fast pneumatic network” (FPN), a variable distance pneumatic holder embedded with a flexible sensor is designed. A structural design plan and preparation process of a soft driver is proposed, using carbon nanotubes as filler in a polyurethane (PU) sponge. A flexible bending sensor based on carbon nanotube materials was produced. A static model of the soft driver cavity was established, and a bending simulation was performed. Based on the designed variable distance soft pneumatic gripper, a real-time monitoring and control system was developed. Combined with the developed pneumatic control system, gripping experiments on objects of different shapes and easily deformable and fragile objects were conducted.

In this paper, a variable-distance pneumatic gripper embedded with a flexible sensor was designed, and a control system for real-time monitoring and multi-terminal input was developed. Combined with the developed pneumatic control system, a measure was carried out to measure the relationship between the bending angle, output force and air pressure of the soft driver. Flexible bending sensor performance test. The gripper diameter and gripping weight were tested, and the maximum gripping diameter was determined to be 182 mm, the maximum gripping weight was approximately 900 g and the average measurement error of the bending sensor was 5.91%. Objects of different shapes and easily deformable and fragile objects were tested.

Based on the motion principle of the three-jaw chuck and the pneumatic FPN, a variable distance pneumatic gripper with embedded flexible sensors is proposed by using the method of layered and step-by-step preparation. The authors studied the gripper structure design, simulation analysis, prototype preparation, control system construction and experimental testing. The results show that the designed flexible pneumatic gripper with variable distance can grasp common objects.

Independent directors are important corporate decision participants and makers. Based on the Chinese cultural background, this paper interprets the listing order of independent directors as independent directors’ status, exploring their influence on the corporate research and development (R&D) behavior.

This paper studies A-share listed firms in China from 2008 to 2018 as the sample. The main method is ordinary least square (OLS) regression. We also use other methods to deal with endogenous problems, such as the firm fixed effect method, change model method, two-stage instrumental variable method, and Heckman two-stage method.

(1) Higher independent directors’ status attribute to more effective exertion of supervision and consultation function, and positively enhance the corporate R&D investment. The increase of the independent director’ status by one standard deviation will increase the R&D investment by 4.6%. (2) The above effect is more influential in firms with stronger traditional culture atmosphere, higher information opacity and higher performance volatility. (3) High-status independent directors promote R&D investment by improving the scientificity of R&D evaluation and reducing information asymmetry. (4) The enhancing effect of independent director’ status on R&D investment is positively associated with the firm’s patent output and market value.

This paper contributes to understanding the relationship between the independent directors’ status and their duty execution from an embedded cultural background perspective. The findings of the study enlighten the improvement of corporate governance efficiency and the healthy development of the capital market.

In most economies, there are rules from the market regulators or government to sell at an equal wholesale price (EWP). But when one upstream channel is facing a negative demand disruption and another positive, EWP can create extra pressure on the disadvantageous supply chain partner, which faces negative disruption. The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of EWP and the scope of the discriminatory wholesale price (DWP) during disruptions.

For the study, the authors used a dual-channel supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, online retailer (OR) and traditional brick-and-mortar (BM) retailer. Stackelberg game is used to model the interaction between the upstream and downstream channel partners, and the horizontal Nash game to analyse the interaction within downstream channel partners. For modelling asymmetric disruption, the authors took instances from the lock-down and post-lock-down periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, where consumers flow from BM retailer to OR store.

By analysing the disruption period, the authors found that this asymmetric disruption is detrimental to the BM channel, favourable to OR and has no impact on the manufacturer. But with DWP, the authors found that the profit of the BM channel and manufacturer can be increased during disruption. Though the profit of the OR decreased, it was found to be higher than in the pre-disruption period. Under DWP, the consumer surplus increased during disruption, making it favourable for the customers also. Thus, DWP can aid in creating a win-win strategy for all the supply chain partners during asymmetric disruption. Later as an extension to the study, the authors analysed the impact of the consumer transfer factor and found that it plays a crucial role in the optimal decisions of the channel partner during DWP.

Very scant literature analyses the intersection of DWP and disruptions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study, for the first time uses DWP as a tool to help the disadvantageous supply chain partner during asymmetric disruptions. The study findings will assist the government, market regulators and manufacturers in revamping the wholesale pricing policies and strategies to help the disadvantageous supply chain partner during asymmetric disruption.

Due to its high leverage nature, a bank suffers vitally from the credit risk it inherently bears. As a result, managing credit is the ultimate responsibility of a bank. In this chapter, we examine how efficiently banks manage their credit risk via a powerful tool used widely in the decision/management science area called data envelopment analysis (DEA). Among various existing versions, our DEA is a two-stage, dynamic model that captures how each bank performs relative to its peer banks in terms of value creation and credit risk control. Using data from the largest 22 banks in the United States over the period of 1996 till 2013, we have identified leading banks such as First Bank systems and Bank of New York Mellon before and after mergers and acquisitions, respectively. With the goal of preventing financial crises such as the one that occurred in 2008, a conceptual model of credit risk reduction and management (CRR&M) is proposed in the final section of this study. Discussions on strategy formulations at both the individual bank level and the national level are provided. With the help of our two-stage DEA-based decision support systems and CRR&M-driven strategies, policy/decision-makers in a banking sector can identify improvement opportunities regarding value creation and risk mitigation. The effective tool and procedures presented in this work will help banks worldwide manage the unknown and become more resilient to potential credit crises in the 21st century.

The main aim of this study is to explore the relationship between information system flexibility and dynamic capabilities to build sustainable and net zero supply chains under the influence of environmental dynamism.

We have formulated a self-administered survey, with 359 participants contributing responses. Prior to delving into foundational assumptions, such as homoscedasticity and normality, a nonresponse bias analysis was executed. The integrity of the data, in terms of reliability and construct validity, was gauged using confirmatory factor analysis. Subsequent regression outputs corroborated all the proposed assumptions, fortifying the extant scholarly literature.

The empirical findings of this research underscore a positive correlation between Information system flexibility, dynamic capabilities and a net zero supply chain, especially in the context of environmental dynamism. Data sourced from the cement manufacturing sector support these observations. We also found that environmental dynamism moderates the relationship between data analytics capability and sustainable supply chain flexibility but does not moderate the relationship between Resource flexibility and sustainable supply chain flexibility. Additionally, this research strengthens the foundational principles of the dynamic capability theory.

The conceptual framework elucidates the interplay between information system flexibility, dynamic capabilities, and sustainable supply chain flexibility, emphasizing their collective contribution towards achieving sustainable chain net zero, introducing environmental dynamics as a moderating variable that augments the scholarly discourse with a nuanced layer of analytical depth.

This paper aims to investigate the moisture diffusion behavior in a system-in-package module systematically by moisture-thermalmechanical-coupled finite element modeling with different structure parameters under increasingly harsh environment.

A finite element model for a system-in-package module was built with moisture-thermal-mechanical-coupled effects to study the subsequences of hygrothermal conditions.

It was found in this paper that the moisture diffusion path was mainly dominated by hygrothermal conditions, though structure parameters can affect the moisture distribution. At lower temperatures (30°C~85°C), the direction of moisture diffusion was from the periphery to the center of the module, which was commonly found in simulations and literatures. However, at relatively higher temperatures (125°C~220°C), the diffusion was from printed circuit board (PCB) to EMC due to the concentration gradient from PCB to EMC across the EMC/PCB interface. It was also found that there exists a critical thickness for EMC and PCB during the moisture diffusion. When the thickness of EMC or PCB increased to a certain value, the diffusion of moisture reached a stable state, and the concentration on the die surface in the packaging module hardly changed. A quantified correlation between the moisture diffusion coefficient and the critical thickness was then proposed for structure parameter optimization in the design of system-in-package module.

The different moisture diffusion behaviors at low and high temperatures have seldom been reported before. This work can facilitate the understanding of moisture diffusion within a package and offer some methods about minimizing its effect by design optimization.

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of different brand positions (underdog vs top dog) and comparative advertising on consumers’ brand attitudes. Additionally, this study also aims to demonstrate the effects of inspiration, self-relevance and empathy on the relationship between brand positioning and comparative advertising.

A two-by-three factorial design was employed with brand positions (underdog vs top dog) and three types of comparative advertising (noncomparative, indirect comparative and direct comparative) as the independent variables. Inspiration serves as the mediator, while self-relevance and empathy act as moderators and brand attitude is the dependent variable.

The results show that different brand positions significantly affect brand attitudes, with respondents having a better brand attitude toward the underdog brand. Brand attitude is partially mediated by inspiration. Self-relevance moderates the relationship between brand positioning and brand attitude. However, brand positioning, comparative advertising and empathy do not have interaction effects.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the effect of psychological variables on brand positioning and comparative advertising.

The results suggest that the underdog setting requires a real and honest story because consumers will spot a fake underdog story, which will damage consumer trust in the brand and harm the brand image.

There is a lack of research using psychological variables to demonstrate the effect of being the underdog brand. This study contributes to the literature by employing psychological variables to illustrate the effect of underdog positioning. These findings can help brands develop branding positioning strategies.