Search results

Although prior research has found that employee participation is key to successfully implementing quality management initiatives (Baird et al., 2011; de Menezes, 2012; Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005), little research in operations management exists that investigates which management actions and behaviors lead to employee commitment to such initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the operations management literature by investigating which influence tactics are the most effective in soliciting employee commitment to continuous improvement tasks. The paper also examines how influence tactics affect the supervisor-subordinate relationship and the manager’s effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement initiatives.

A survey instrument was used to measure supervisor-subordinate relationship quality, usage of influence behaviors and participants’ task commitment to continuous improvement initiatives.

The results indicate that five of the 11 influence tactics identified in the prior literature, i.e., collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion, are significant and strong predictors of employee commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Further, analyses show that these influence tactics are significant drivers of the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, which was found to partially mediate the relationship between influence tactics and the supervisor’s effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement projects.

Since the extant CI and Total Quality Management literature has looked at the plant or program level rather than the worker-level as in the research, the findings offer one explanation as to why earlier studies investigating the relationship between quality management programs and increased organizational performance reported mixed results.

Increasing managers’ awareness and usage of influence tactics may increase the success rate of continuous improvement projects as well the quality of the relationship with the manager’s subordinates.

While the extant literature has argued that management support and employee commitment are key components of a continuous improvement project implementation, little has been written about the specific management actions and behaviors that lead to success.

A procedure for plotting load paths and load flow in structures from a finite element analysis is described. The load flow is indicated by pointing vectors and the load paths are determined by plotting contours tangent to these vectors. The procedure is applied to assembled structures. An explanation is given for “eddies” that can appear in regions not contributing to the load path.

Design engineers use the term load path to describe, in general terms, the way in which loads path through a structure from the points of application to the points where they are reacted. In contrast, stress trajectories are more clearly identified by the direction of the principal stress vectors at a point. The first author proposed a simple definition of the term load path in 1995 and proposed procedures to determine load paths from two‐dimensional finite element solutions. In this paper, the concept of load paths will be further explored and related to stress trajectories and Michell structures. The insight given when determining the load transfer near a pin‐loaded hole will be demonstrated. In addition a cantilevered beam will be considered and an introduction to plotting load paths in three‐dimensional structures is given.

In recent years, a novel method for computing loadflow orientations and loadpaths, which is based on iterative solutions of non‐linear equations and finite element results, has emerged in the literature. In the present investigation, the prior formulation and approach has been enhanced by deriving explicit expressions for computing loadflow orientations. The new equations produce more accurate loadflow orientations and improve the fidelity of calculated loadpaths. In particular, for a typical loaded plate containing a hole, the density of loadflow lines is also shown to provide accurate values of stress concentration factor. Subsequently, loadflow visualisation for biaxially loaded plates containing non‐optimal and optimal holes is undertaken to identify key features of the stress distributions. It is found that regions of “recirculation” are apparent for non‐optimal hole shapes, whereas no recirculation zones are present for optimal shapes. In general, it is considered that loadflow visualisation is a simple but powerful tool for use by structural designers and analysts.

The electronics industries are relying increasingly on robotics for their production. Wafer handling robots are used to transfer wafers between wafer processing stations. A pick‐measure‐place method is typically utilized to transfer wafers accurately. The measurement step is performed using an aligner, which is time‐consuming. To increase wafer transfer efficiency, it is desirable to speed up the measurement process or place it in parallel with other operations. To solve the problem, optic sensors are installed at each station to estimate the wafer eccentricity on‐the‐fly. The eccentricity values are then applied to control the robot to place the wafer directly onto another station accurately without using the aligner. However, current methods face problems to achieve high accuracy requirements to meet the electronic manufacturing needs. The purpose of this paper is to develop a technique to improve the wafer handling performance in semiconductor manufacturing.

The kinematics model of the wafer handling robot is developed. Two sensor location calibration algorithms are proposed. Method I is based on the wafer handling path. Method II uses the offset paths from the wafer handling path. The results from these two methods are compared. To compute the wafer eccentricity on‐the‐fly, a wafer eccentricity estimation technique is developed.

The developed methods are implemented using a wafer handling robotic system in semiconductor manufacturing. The wafer eccentricity estimation errors are greatly reduced using the developed methods. The experimental results demonstrate that Method II achieves better results and can be used to improve the wafer handling accuracy and efficiency.

The proposed technique is implemented and tested many times on a wafer handing robotic system. The notch alignment in the wafer handling needs further research.

The developed method is validated using a system in semiconductor manufacturing. Hence the developed method can be directly implemented in production if the notch of a wafer can be identified.

This paper provides techniques to improve the wafer handling accuracy in semiconductor manufacturing. Compared with the results using other methods, Method II greatly increases the wafer handling accuracy to satisfy the semiconductor manufacturing needs.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the nature of consumers' relationship with a brand influences brand evangelism, which represents an intense form of brand support behavior. Specifically, the study investigates the influence of two consumer-brand relational constructs, brand trust and brand identification, on brand evangelism. Brand evangelism, conceptualized as an amalgam of adoption and advocacy behaviors, is operationalized in terms of three supportive behaviors: purchase intentions, positive referrals, and oppositional brand referrals.

Drawing from prior research on consumer-brand relationships, a framework of brand relationships and brand evangelism is developed. To provide a more robust test of theory, consumers' extraversion, gender, and brand experience are included as control variables. Structural equation modeling is used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal that consumer-brand relationships influence brand evangelism, albeit in different ways. Whereas brand trust influences purchase intentions and positive referrals, brand identification influences positive and oppositional brand referrals. Overall, the findings reveal the power of consumer-brand relationships in engendering brand evangelism, relative to other factors such as extraversion, gender, and brand experience.

In today's consumption society, where it is increasingly easier for consumers to demonstrate extreme devotion and derision toward brands, it is important for marketers to understand the drivers of behaviors directed toward brands. This study suggests that marketers can cultivate brand evangelism by building brand trust and brand identification.

Marketing researchers and practitioners are only recently beginning to understand brand evangelism. This study demonstrates that consumer-brand relationships, rather than personality, gender, and usage experience, trigger brand evangelism and offers directions for future researchers to further explicate brand evangelism.

This paper aims to identify the factors that motivate parents to adopt internet monitoring software (aka parental control software [PCS]) to curb problematic internet usage and safeguard their children online. By doing so, the authors are able to curb problematic internet usage and keep children safe online.

An online survey was conducted using a representative sample of 330 parents in the USA with children ages 10 to 15. Results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This research combines two theories, namely, technology acceptance model (TAM) and protection motivation theory (PMT) to factors that motivate parents to adopt internet monitoring software to help their children. Perceived severity, perceived vulnerability from PMT and personal innovativeness (PI) from TAM, which is related to self-efficacy and the belief that future technologies will require less effort to adopt, are key factors that influence parents’ perceived usefulness of PCS. Perceived usefulness and PI both positively predict parents’ purchase intention for internet monitoring software.

The study establishes that there are personal, technology and situational factors that motivate the adoption of PCS. These determinants have implications for how marketers identify potential users and how they might improve the promotion of internet monitoring technologies.

The paper extends the application of the technology acceptance model and PMT to predict technology adoption aimed at helping others. Findings show that personal and perceptual factors motivate parents’ adoption of internet monitoring software to curb problematic internet usage and keep children safe online. This paper is the first to combine the technology acceptance model and PMT to explain the adoption of software solutions to protect others online. By doing so, a more thorough account of parents’ technology adoption to protect their children is offered.

The objectives of this paper are twofold: to add to the debate regarding conceptualisation and operationalisation of value within a professional service domain, and to contribute to the relatively sparse literature dealing with the functional relationship between determinants and outcomes of value with specific emphasis on the value to satisfaction and intention to re‐purchase relationship in professional services.

A theoretically grounded model has been developed that comprises three antecedents of value (conceptualised as a higher order construct of six dimensions) and satisfaction both of which impact on intention. The model has been tested, using partial least squares, on 78 responses obtained through an email survey carried out amongst executives of the top 300 UK‐based companies listed in the Times 1,000.

The results indicate that although perceived value is a multi‐dimensional construct treating value as a unified construct may lead to confounding effects. Although further research is needed it is suggested that different dimensions of value act at different levels of the value hierarchy and differentially reflect process and outcome value creation forces in professional services.

This paper adds to the debate surrounding conceptualisations of the value construct by offering empirical support as to its formative nature. Furthermore, this is the first attempt to examine differences in the nomological relationships of value when it is treated as a single higher order construct and when the higher order structure of value is relaxed allowing its dimensions to directly interact with antecedents and consequences.

Special purpose companies issue stocks to raise money to finance development of real estate and infrastructure. The advantage of a stock issue is that it does not entail financial cost such as interest on a loan. However, financing obtained in this way has been insufficient due to low interest by investors because of the large variability of the stocks’ earnings rates. The purpose of this paper is to propose methods to improve investment earnings rate for financing.

The proposed methods are Markowitz’s model and a combination of Markowitz’s model and Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed methods were verified by comparison with actual earnings rate.

The earnings rate was increased by as much as 23 percent over the actual value. Then, earnings rate compared with risk was analyzed using the Sharpe ratio which is a method to measure investment performance. The performance was also increased by as much as 23 percent over the actual value. The proposed method can help activate investment by increasing investors’ interest in the stock issue.

This study verified that Markowitz’s portfolio model, which is used for econometrics, could be applied for financing of construction project. It is valuable because the previous studies did not propose the method for financing.

The purpose of this paper is to classify the main barriers related to the implementation of lean supply chain management (LSCM) and prioritize its main practices. A case study approach was conducted to obtain values for the intensity of the relationship between LSCM practices and barriers to mitigate or even anticipate difficulties in its implementation.

The case study in a company in southern Brazil that is in lean implementation is used for conducting this research. The methodology was structured in three steps, namely, classification of the main barriers through risk analysis, selection of LSCM practices appropriate to the company context and ranking and prioritization of the main practices of LSCM related to the barriers to lean implementation.

As a result, with the combination of two approaches, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and analytical hierarchical process (AHP), it was possible to obtain values for the intensity of the relationship between LSCM practices and barriers. From the 12 barriers, 5 reached a high-risk degree that can be mitigated, and among the 18 practices found, 7 have the potential to be implemented.

This research allows direct efforts to continuously improve the supply chain to mitigate or even anticipate difficulties in its implementation. The proposed methodology, combining FMEA and AHP is easy to apply and understand, allowing managers and professionals to replicate it in the context of their supply chain and verify results similar and comparable to those obtained here.