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1 – 10 of 26Xu Ren, Xiaofang Deng and Lihua Liang
This paper aims to investigate how project nature affects the effectiveness of knowledge transfer between projects in project-based organizations (PBOs) and to analyze the roles…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how project nature affects the effectiveness of knowledge transfer between projects in project-based organizations (PBOs) and to analyze the roles of inter-project communication, transfer intention and information technology (IT) in the influencing process.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopted a questionnaire survey method to collect data from construction enterprises in China and subsequently proceeded to structural equation modeling analysis with a total of 261 samples.
Findings
The results indicate that the similarity of projects could promote the inter-project communication and improve transfer intention, which further influences knowledge transfer effectiveness positively within PBOs. The urgency of projects has a negative impact on inter-project communication and transfer intention. The temporality of projects also negatively affects inter-project communication. They consequently hinder the knowledge transfer behaviors between projects. Additionally, the application of IT improves the frequency of communication and makes up for the negative impact of geographical distance between projects on knowledge transfer.
Practical implications
Based on the results, a series of strategies is recommended to improve knowledge transfer effectiveness between projects, including standardizing project management, promoting information construction, establishing a post-project evaluation system and creating a shared culture, so that the competitive advantages of PBOs could be improved.
Originality/value
The study explores the factors influencing knowledge transfer between projects from the perspective of project nature and provides guidance for enhancing knowledge management and project management practices.
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Grounded in the structural and relational inertia literature, this paper aims to investigate how two types of founding conditions – prior state ownership and a founder’s state…
Abstract
Purpose
Grounded in the structural and relational inertia literature, this paper aims to investigate how two types of founding conditions – prior state ownership and a founder’s state career history – may individually and interactively affect the resource acquisition and organizing capability of firms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a unique, large-scale survey of 480 manufacturing firms in China.
Findings
The findings show that prior state ownership is positively related to a firm’s resource acquisition, and the founder’s state career history moderates the relationship between prior state ownership and a firm’s organizing capability such that a founder with a state career history can help a privatized firm overcome its structural inertia and achieve superior organizing capabilities. However, it is found that a founder’s state career history is not associated with a firm’s resource acquisition or organizing capability.
Research/limitations/implications
First, this study is cross-sectional. Second, this paper refocuses on Chinese manufacturing firms in two regions only. Third, the authors do not have information on how long founders had been in state sector. Fourth, the measure of resource acquisition and organizational capability is a self-reported perceptual measure.
Practical implications
First, this study suggests that founders’ state career history does not benefit firms in resource acquisitions. Once founders do not work for government organizations, they can lose the associated resource benefits. The founders may have to actively maintain their historical connections with the current government officials to continue to receive various information and resource benefits. Second, this study indicates that it is possible for privatized firms to have resource acquisition advantages resulting from their historical heritage and at the same time overcome the inferior organizing capabilities from their histories by having a founder with a prior state career history. Such founders tend to have the ability to overcome the unfavorable imprinting effect of previous histories and to help private firms develop better strategies and structures to fit the dynamic and competitive environment.
Social implications
This study indicates that it is possible for state-owned enterprises to become efficient if they can employ capable managers with superior managerial skills.
Originality/value
Current literature on the effect of government affiliations on firm behavior and outcomes typically focuses on existing government affiliations and their benefits on a firm’s economic and information resources, legitimacy and new venture performance. This study is one of the first to examine how historical government affiliations may affect both the resource acquisition and organizing capability of a firm. In addition, existing studies have rarely studied simultaneously how a firm’s and a founder’s historical government affiliations may independently and interactively affect a firm’s ability to acquire resources and develop capabilities critical for a firm’s performance and survival. This study fills this gap.
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Liang Ruixin, Joanne Yip, Winnie Yu, Lihua Chen and Newman Lau
The breasts are mainly fatty and connective tissues with no muscles that directly support them, so wearing sports bras is one of the most effective means of alleviating the…
Abstract
Purpose
The breasts are mainly fatty and connective tissues with no muscles that directly support them, so wearing sports bras is one of the most effective means of alleviating the discomfort of breast movement and potential injury during vigorous physical exercise. However, the design and development processes of traditional sports bras are time-consuming and costly. Hence, a novel method of simulating the static contact pressure between a sports bra and women’s body based on the finite element (FE) and artificial neural network (ANN) models is developed in this study to contribute to the design considerations of sports bras.
Design/methodology/approach
Three-dimensional FE models of a female subject and sports bras with different fabric properties are developed to determine the amount of contact pressure exerted onto the body. The FE results are then verified by measuring the amount of pressure exerted by the sports bra on the skin with pressure sensors. The Taguchi technique is used to effectively reduce the number of trials from 625 to only 25 cases. These 25 results obtained through FE modelling are then used to provide the training set for the ANNs. Finally, a comparison between the FE and ANN results is carried out.
Findings
A novel model of the static contact pressure between a sports bra and human subject based on the FE and ANN methods is presented in this paper. The root mean square error values show that there is only a small difference between the FE and ANN results.
Originality/value
The ANN function established in this study can be used to predict the mechanical behaviours of breasts and has a fundamental impact on the computer-aided design of functional garments in general.
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Yalin Wang, Yaokuang Li, Juan Wu, Lihua Fu and Ruixin Liang
Emerging evidence regarding crowdfunding challenges long-standing “gender gap” views of traditional entrepreneurial financing and indicates that female entrepreneurs may have an…
Abstract
Purpose
Emerging evidence regarding crowdfunding challenges long-standing “gender gap” views of traditional entrepreneurial financing and indicates that female entrepreneurs may have an advantage in crowdfunding. Yet, the literature primarily focuses on influences at the individual level, largely overlooking the interaction between gender and higher-level culture. Drawing on Hofstede's cultural dimensions, this paper aims to investigate the associations among entrepreneurs' gender, culture and crowdfunding performance, particularly in how entrepreneurs' gender and culture interact to affect crowdfunding performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Leveraging a sample of 21,730 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns and combining these data with data from Hofstede's study, the World Bank (WB) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), this study applies multilevel models to empirically investigate this question across 22 countries/regions.
Findings
This study confirms that the advantageous effect, that female entrepreneurs are likely to obtain better fundraising performance over their male counterparts, does exist in crowdfunding. Furthermore, the findings reveal that this advantageous effect of female entrepreneurs on crowdfunding performance would be reinforced when cultures of individualism and indulgence are high and culture of long-term orientation is low.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on gender gaps in crowdfunding and entrepreneurial financing by adding an important culture-related boundary condition to the gender preference reported in earlier crowdfunding work. Moreover, the paper extends the knowledge about the impact of culture on crowdfunding performance and enlightens future research on leveraging multilevel modeling approach to examine the complex interplay between individuals and situations in crowdfunding.
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Hsien-Cheng Lin, Xiao Han, Tu Lyu, Wen-Hsien Ho, Yunbao Xu, Tien-Chih Hsieh, Lihua Zhu and Liang Zhang
Research in tourism and hospitality industry marketing has identified many highly effective applications of social media. However, studies in the existing literature do not enable…
Abstract
Purpose
Research in tourism and hospitality industry marketing has identified many highly effective applications of social media. However, studies in the existing literature do not enable a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon because they lack a theoretical foundation. Therefore, this study systematically reviewed the literature from the perspective of the task-technology fit (TTF) theory. The purpose of this paper is to map out what is known about social media use in tourism and hospitality marketing and what areas need further exploration.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive cumulative review of the literature obtained 99 articles published in tourism and hospitality journals from 2010 to 2019.
Findings
The analysis suggests that to understand social media use in tourism marketing, researchers and practitioners in the industry must clarify the following four issues: the control variables, longitudinal analyzes and TTF concepts that should be used in future studies; the fitness of social media platforms for tourism marketing; how various social media platforms differ in terms of performance outcome; and the digital divide in the use of social media for tourism.
Originality/value
An integrated framework was developed to identify constructs and to understand their relationships. Recent studies in this domain are discussed; theoretical and practical suggestions and implications for future research are given.
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Zheyuan Wang, Yuxiang Luan and Lihua Zhang
Despite the detrimental effects of supervisor knowledge hiding on employees and organizations, little research has focused on how subordinates cope with it. Drawing on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the detrimental effects of supervisor knowledge hiding on employees and organizations, little research has focused on how subordinates cope with it. Drawing on the impression management theory, this study proposes a mediated moderation model to explain who and how cope with supervisor knowledge hiding.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 340 full-time participants in various organizations and industries in China, the proposed model was tested using ordinary least squares regression with the PROCESS 3.5.
Findings
The results support the mediated moderation model, indicating that proactive subordinates are motivated to manage their impression towards supervisors and engage in upward ingratiation to cope with supervisor knowledge hiding. In contrast, subordinates with low level of proactive personality trait have less impression management motive and engage in fewer upward ingratiatory behaviors.
Originality/value
Based on the impression management theory, the current paper contributes to the literature on supervisor knowledge hiding by expanding the consequences of supervisor knowledge hiding, identifying a boundary condition of supervisor knowledge hiding on subordinate’s subsequent behaviors and enriching the mechanism underlying the effect of supervisor knowledge hiding with proactive personality.
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Lihua Gong, Qing Xing and Huihuang Wang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of welding procedure on the corrosion behaviors of weathering steel 09CuPCrNi in marine atmospheric environment. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of welding procedure on the corrosion behaviors of weathering steel 09CuPCrNi in marine atmospheric environment. The corrosion processes of weathering steel 09CuPCrNi and its welded joints in marine atmospheric environment were simulated by a salt spray dry-wet test.
Design/methodology/approach
The corrosion behaviors of the base metal and the welded joints at corrosion times of 2, 4, 8, 12, 24 weeks were investigated by weight loss test, electrochemical techniques, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA). The corrosion rates, as well as the morphologies and electrochemical characteristics of corrosion products, the distribution of major alloying elements in rust layer were obtained. The influence of welding on the atmospheric corrosion of 09CuPCrNi was studied.
Findings
The results indicate that the corrosion rate of the 09CuPCrNi welded joints decreases gradually with the corrosion time, and the major alloying elements are enriched in the inner rust layer, which are similar to that of the base metal. In the early stage during the corrosion process, the welded joints with inhomogeneous structure show the poorer corrosion resistance than that of the base metal. However, it looks the opposite way around in the late corrosion stage, when the uniform corrosion products with even thickness of the base metal tend to detach from the substrate easier and earlier and resulting in cracks, which increase the corrosion rate comparatively with that of the welded joints.
Originality/value
09CuPCrNi low alloy steel is a kind of typical weathering steel developed in China which is similar to Corten A developed by USA. Nowadays, 09CuPCrNi low alloy steel is widely adopted in many fields which require welding processes. In the past years, the research of weathering steel welded joints was mainly concentrated on the strength, toughness and weldability. Less work has been done to investigate the difference of corrosion evolution and characteristics between the base metal and its welded joints. Thus, the main objective of the present work was to analyze the influence of welding on the atmospheric corrosion.
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Dongju Chen, Lihua Dong, Ri Pan, Jinwei Fan and Qiang Cheng
The purpose of this study is to investigate the coupling effects of the velocity slip, rarefaction effect and effective viscosity of the gas film on the performance of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the coupling effects of the velocity slip, rarefaction effect and effective viscosity of the gas film on the performance of the aerostatic guideway in micro-scale and improve the analysis precision of the static performance of aerostatic guideway.
Design/methodology/approach
The corresponding model of the gas film flow with consideration of the velocity slip, rarefaction effect and effective viscosity of the gas film in micro-scale is proposed. By solving the corresponding model, the bearing capacity and the stiffness of the aerostatic guideway are obtained through the pressure distributions of the air cavity. Through comparing the bearing capacity and the stiffness in different situations, the couple effects of the three factors are analyzed. Finally, the experimental results about the stiffness are obtained and the contrast between the simulation stiffness and the tested stiffness is achieved.
Findings
Through comparing the coupling effects of the micro scale factors under different conditions on the performance of the aerostatic guideway, it was found that when comparing the effects of a single factor, the effect of the first-order slip is the largest. When two factors are randomly combined, velocity slip and viscosity of the gas film is the largest, but these coupling effects are less than the effect of considering three factors simultaneously.
Originality/value
It is essential to consider the first-order velocity slip, the flow factor Q and the effective viscosity when analyzing the static performance of the aerostatic guideway in micro-scale. This makes studying the performance of the aerostatic guideway in micro-scale feasible and improves the machine’s accuracy.
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Yaqiao Liu, Yifei Liang and Yilan Guo
The marketisation of higher education fosters the notion of students as consumers, highlighting the shifting dynamics of student–teacher relationships. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The marketisation of higher education fosters the notion of students as consumers, highlighting the shifting dynamics of student–teacher relationships. This paper aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about students as consumers and their involvement in pedagogical practices. We explore students’ experiences in short-term study abroad (SA) programmes that involve collaborative learning, examining how a consumerism-oriented approach affects students’ perceptions of their pedagogical identities and student–teacher pedagogical relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to capture students’ rich and subjective perceptions and experiences. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 Chinese undergraduate students who participated in a short-term SA programme at a UK university. Following data translation and transcription, a thematic analysis approach facilitated our exploration.
Findings
Chinese students engage in SA programmes as a strategic investment in personal growth and transformation, with their consumer-oriented identity fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with educators and group members. This consumer mindset appears to enhance active student engagement and, to some extent, create reciprocal student–teacher interactions through power sharing and collaborative involvement.
Originality/value
This study presents empirical data exploring the impact of consumer identity on the dynamics of student–teacher relationships in the SA context. It provides recommendations for implementing pedagogical approaches designed to mediate the influence of consumerism on student engagement, particularly in shaping collaborative student–teacher relationships. This study offers insights for future research on the effects of consumerism in higher education within cross-cultural contexts.
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Lin Xiao, Jian Mou and Lihua Huang
Despite the various benefits of social networking services (SNSs), users have begun to experience fatigue in recent years, as evidenced by a decline in active user numbers. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the various benefits of social networking services (SNSs), users have begun to experience fatigue in recent years, as evidenced by a decline in active user numbers. This relatively new phenomenon has only recently received significant managerial and academic attention. The antecedents of SNS fatigue are still unclear in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors causing SNS fatigue, based on a socio-technical approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors empirically tested this research model with 424 SNS users via an online survey. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results showed that the social factors of social comparison, social interaction overload, social surveillance and social information overload, and the technical factor of system complexity are significantly related to SNS fatigue.
Practical implications
This research benefits SNS providers by allowing them to better understand how to effectively design social networking platforms to retain and attract more users. It also benefits users by providing guidance on how to actively manage their own behavior to avoid potential negative outcomes induced by SNS usage.
Originality/value
This study focuses on the “dark side” of SNS from the perspective of fatigue, extending existing research on technostress. It also extends the applicability of the socio-technical approach to the phenomenon of SNS fatigue. Moreover, it enriches SNS fatigue research by addressing the importance of both social and technical factors in causing SNS fatigue.
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