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The authors examine the influence of planning and execution capability (PEC) and operational improvement capability (OIC) on small-and-medium-sized firms’ (SMEs) attainment of different innovation outcomes under the conditions of exports and formal business networks, based on the capability-based perspective and organisational learning literature.

The authors analyse time-series data about UK SMEs, extracted from the 2015 and 2016 UK Longitudinal Small Business Surveys (LSBS).

The authors failed to find any direct effects of PEC and OIC on product innovation outcomes. However, the authors discovered that OIC supports the generation of process innovation outputs more strongly than PEC. Additionally, exports and formal business networks provide SMEs with different learning opportunities. The authors find limited support that exports amplify the beneficial effect of PEC on product innovation outcomes more than formal business networks. On the other hand, formal business networks strengthen the effect of PEC on process innovation outcomes more than exports. As a result, exports reduce the beneficial effect of OIC on product innovation outcomes more than formal business networks. However, formal business networks weaken the beneficial effect of OIC more than exports.

The authors distinguish between two types of organisational capabilities – PEC and OIC – and examine their impact on SMEs in achieving innovation outcomes. The authors also identify SMEs’ involvement in exports and formal business networks as the important boundary conditions for such effects. xD; xA; xD; xA;

Stage models have benefited global managers by seeing internationalization as an evolutionary and learning process that involved making careful and incremental changes. What the stage models lack, however, are specification of internal problems and hurdles that managers will face during this organizational change process. We attempted to fill this knowledge gap by exploring types of managerial dilemmas that organizations will confront as they internationalize. This adaptive choice process of internationalization was discussed in this paper through the case of a domestic company during its overseas expansion. Our research shows that the internationalization process often creates managerial dilemmas for organizations in terms of strategic, structural, and human resource changes. There are also strong interactions among these dilemmas such that the decision regarding one dilemma may often impact how other dilemmas can be resolved Firms that are able to resolve these dilemmas, while considering their interactions, can become more successful in their internationalization process. These findings were developed into propositions regarding how companies can manage the process of internationalization more successfully. We also addressed specifically how the adaptive choice model would complement the stage models and enrich our understanding of the corporate internationalization process.

The aim of this paper is to obtain optimal corrosion resistance of certain differently treated samples by investigation of their electrochemical properties.

Nanocrystalline plasma electrolytic carbonitriding (PEC/N) treatments were applied on the surface of commercially pure titanium in a glycerol bath with different additives. The carbonitriding process was performed in a glycerol bath with different additives such as carbamide, natrium nitrate and triethanolamine. The effects of electrolyte composition on chemical composition and corrosion resistance of the PEC/N films were examined by means of X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in a Ringer solution.

The results showed that the PEC/N films obtained in solutions with triethanolamine (T‐film) had better corrosion resistance. All coated samples had a better electrochemical behaviour compared with the untreated substrate. Different nano‐structures and morphologies were obtained by different additives in electrolyte.

The results obtained in this research into nanocrystalline PEC/N can be used wherever good corrosion and wear resistance with the highest efficiency is required.

The speed of treatment by this technique makes this method very suitable for the industrial surface treatment of different components.

This paper investigates the impact of family influence measured by the F-PEC scale on private enterprise (both family firms and lone founders) leadership succession strategy.

The research dataset is comprised of 390 private enterprises whose head offices were situated in the voivodeships of Lower Silesia and Wielkopolska in Poland. The authors collected data through CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) method, as well as through comprehensive, structured interviews with company owners. Data were analysed using hierarchical logistic regression for each type of succession strategy.

The results suggest that increased family influence does not necessarily lead to intra-family leadership succession in private enterprises. Importantly, a range of findings contradicted authors' predictions. The relationship between the overall F-PEC scale values signifying the multi-faceted family influence over the business and the choice of internal successor was weakly negative for the total sample; also, the higher the overlap between family and business values and the higher the commitment to family business, as evidenced by the Culture subscale, the lower was the occurrence of intra-family successor choice in the population of lone founders. The Culture subscale also increased the prevalence of lack of succession planning in the sample of lone founders.

While several studies suggests that family firms may be more prone to choose an intra-family succession scenario, it remains unclear how lower levels of business and succession experience, may influence the successor choice. Indeed, some studies suggest that a strong family influence over a business, may stimulate family firms to choose a family outsider as a business leader. Therefore, the key contribution of this study is contextualizing the response to an ongoing succession debate. This study investigates the strategic choices of companies in the first generation of ownership operating in Poland, which serves as an example of a post-transition economy. While the characteristics of this economic environment may be unique, the authors discuss how the surprising findings may add to the understanding of the general succession processes present in private enterprises.

The paper aims to focus on: implementation of the fast‐multipole method (FMM) to open perfect electric conductors (PEC) problems involving triangular type wire‐to‐surface junctions; investigation and analysis of the effect of wire‐to‐surface junction configuration on the conditioning of the linear systems; application of the preconditioning technique to improve the efficiency of the FMM scheme on such problems.

A complete set of formulations is proposed to evaluate the far‐field terms of the impedance matrix that represent the couplings between the wire‐to‐surface junction and standard wire and PEC surfaces. The formulations are derived in a convenient form suitable for the application of the FMM. An iterative scheme is adopted to estimate the condition number of the linear systems arising from open‐PEC problems with wire‐to‐surface junctions and to investigate the effect of wire‐to‐surface junction configuration on the conditioning of the linear systems. The Crout version of ILU (ILUC) preconditioning strategy is applied to improve the convergence rate of the iterative solver on such problems.

The solutions show that the proposed formulations have accurately evaluated the far‐field terms that represent the couplings between the wire‐to‐surface junction and standard wire and PEC surfaces. The investigation of the conditioning of open‐PEC problems with junctions shows that the effect of the wire‐to‐surface junction configuration induced to the conditioning of the linear systems is negligible. The convergence records of several open‐PEC problems involving wire‐to‐surface junctions show that the ILUC preconditioning strategy is suitable to apply to such problems, as it significantly improves the performance of the iterative solver.

The proposed FMM strategy can be applied to many practical large‐scale open‐PEC problems that involve wire‐to‐surface junctions, such as antenna arrays and electromagnetic compatibility problems, to effectively speed up the overall electromagnetic simulation progress and overcome the bottleneck associated with the dense impedance matrix of the method‐of‐moments.

The application of the FMM to open‐PEC problems that involve wire‐to‐surface junctions has yet to be reported, which has been addressed in this work. This work also investigates the conditioning of such problems and analyzes the effect of wire‐to‐surface junction configuration on the conditioning of the linear systems. In addition, the performance of the ILUC preconditioner on such problems has not been reported, which has also been included in this report.

Treats GPs’ perceptions of their level of influence in designing the primary care development scheme as a litmus test of their professional involvement in driving NHS policy and whether a corporate role for e´lite practitioners affords increased influence over rank‐and‐file colleagues. Documenting medical involvement in policy formulation distinguishes the response of those GPs who perform a management role on the professional executive committee (PEC) from those concentrating on clinical practice. The research findings are based on the responses of a sample of 27 GPs who were interviewed across two PCT sites in northern England. A form of restratification was evident from the pattern of consultations with a select group of GPs who mediated policies. The attitudes of rank‐and‐file practitioners towards the e´lite stratum of GPs reinforced notions of a new division in general practice. Incentive scheme proposals may have been rejected in their entirety by rank‐and‐file GPs and medical representative bodies, had it not been for the intervention of PEC GPs who played a vital role in promoting acceptance of PCT policies. Yet PEC GPs also experienced a sense of disempowerment vis‐a`‐vis managers.

The purpose of the present work is to fabricate composite with strong absorbing nature and with more strength. The usage of wireless communication is increasing day by day, electromagnetic absorbing material is required to reduce this pollution. In the present experimental investigation, composites were fabricated for zero and 45° fiber orientation and as a filler material of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) for the proposed percentage in the composites. Microwave absorbing properties were investigated for both perfect electric conductor (PEC)-backed composites and without PEC-backed composites.

The electromagnetic absorbing performance was analyzed based on complex permeability, complex permittivity, dielectric tangent and magnetic tangent losses. The experimentation was done by Vector Network Analyzer in the frequency range of 8.2 to 12.4 GHz by X-band. The surface morphological study was done. The mechanical and thermal properties are also investigated for these composites.

By investigating the experimental values, the induced percentage of MWCNTs and PEC of composites affects the electromagnetic and microwave absorption properties of the composites. The microwave absorption properties improved when the composites were able to absorb wide bandwidth and low reflection loss. The best results are obtained for PEC-backed composites for 5%, which is about −43.56 dB at 11.1 GHz compared to without PEC-backed composites. The reflection loss is developed by the dielectric loss initiated from MWCNTs and by PEC.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no work was reported on hand lay-up method and PEC-backed composites in electromagnetic absorption properties with regression analysis.

Investigate the fire performance of eccentrically loaded concrete partially encased column (PEC), using the advanced calculation method (ANSYS 18.2, 2017) and the simple calculation method in Annex G of Eurocode 4 (EN 1994-1-2, 2005). This work examines the influence of a range of parameters on fire behaviour of the composite column including: eccentricity loading, slenderness, reinforcement, fire rating and fire scenario. In this study, ISO-834 (ISO834-1, 1999) was used as fire source.

Currently, different methods of analysis used to assess the thermal behaviour of composite column exposed to fire. Analytical method named simplified calculation methods defined in European standard and numerical simulations named advanced calculation models are treated in this paper.

The load-bearing capacity of the composite column becomes very weak in the presence of the fire accident and eccentric loading, this recommends to avoid as much as possible eccentric loading during the design of construction building. The reinforcement has a slight influence on the temperature evolution; moreover, the reinforcement has a great contribution on the load capacity, especially in combined compression and bending. When only the two concrete sides are exposed to fire, the partially encased composite column presents a high load-bearing capacity value.

The use of a three-dimensional numerical model (ANSYS) allowed to describe easily the thermal behaviour of PEC columns under eccentric loading with the regard to the analytical method, which is based on three complex steps. In this study, the presence of the load eccentricity has found to have more effect on the load-bearing capacity than the slenderness of the composite column. Introducing a load eccentricity on the top of the column may have the same a reducing effect on the load-bearing capacity as the fire.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Conscious Discipline’s (CD) Parenting Education Curriculum (CD PEC), the parenting component of CD’s research-based social and emotional learning program. CD aims to change child behavior by changing how adults understand and manage their own behaviors and emotions. Researchers explored CD PEC’s association with improved parenting skills, parent–child relationships and child behavior and emotion management.

During pre- and post-site visits, parents in four Head Start programs completed the Attentive Parenting Survey (n=25) and interviews (n=19); and 20 staff were also interviewed.

Parents reported that CD PEC shifted their perspectives and practices for managing children’s challenging behaviors, improved parent–child relationships and resulted in decreased child behavior problems.

The study was correlational, based on self-report, and had a small sample with no comparison group.

This study supports CD PEC as a means of shifting parenting practices, relationships and child behavior by focusing on adult social-emotional skills and self-regulation.

This study provides preliminary evidence that addressing the social-emotional needs of adults is a viable step to helping children improve their social skills, emotion regulation and general behavior, which have all been linked to later academic and life success.

The paper studies improvements in parents’ emotion recognition and self-regulation before disciplining their children.

The purpose of this study is to analyze a new idea for external flow over a cylinder to increase the heat transfer and reduce pressure drop. Using wedge-shaped porous media in the front and wake regions of the cylinder can improve its hydrodynamic, and the rotating flow in the wake region can enhance the heat transfer with increased porous–liquid contact. Permeability plays a vital role, as a high-permeable medium improves heat transfer, whereas a low-permeable region improves the hydrodynamic.

Therefore, in the current research, external forced convection of nanofluid laminar flow over a bundle of cylinders is simulated using a two-phase mixture model. Four cases with different porous blocks around the cylinder are assessed: rectangular porous; wedge shape in trailing edge (TEP); wedge shape in leading and trailing edges (LTEP); and no porous block case. Also, three different lengths of wedge-shaped regions are considered for TEP and LTEP cases.

Results are presented in terms of Nusselt (Nu), Euler (Eu) and the performance evaluation criterion (PEC) numbers for various Reynolds (Re) and Darcy (Da) numbers.

It was found that in most situations, LTEP case provides the highest Nu and PEC values. Also, optimal Re and porous medium length exist to maximize PEC, depending on the values of Da and nanofluid volume fraction.