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1 – 10 of over 2000The purpose of this study is to investigate whether repeated alliances between two members of a patent pool boost enterprise innovation. Furthermore, this paper intends to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether repeated alliances between two members of a patent pool boost enterprise innovation. Furthermore, this paper intends to determine whether the innovation performance becomes higher or lower based on the partnership characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
In this empirical study, hierarchical regression is used to analyze the longitudinal data obtained from 12 patent pools managed by MPEG LA during a time period ranging from 2006 to 2018. The members of patent pools comprise research institutions, firms and universities. Research analyses are performed based on a sample of 68,400 member pairs who had established repeated alliances. The information regarding such pairs is gathered from public databases.
Findings
Repeated alliances positively correlate with enterprise innovation performance in patent pools; this performance is higher when the two enterprises have exploratory collaborations. Conversely, the performance is lower when the partners have a similar technology base and are engaged in a technological competition (competitive learning and patent litigation). Moreover, the performance is lower when one partner demonstrates higher network centrality and richer structural holes than the other partner.
Originality/value
Patent pools play an instrumental role in eliminating patent-licensing barriers, thereby allowing mutual acquisition of complementary technologies, and cooperatively strengthening technology development. From the perspective of theories of coopetition, knowledge management and social network, this study explores the impact of patent pools on enterprise innovation performance and ascertains the moderating roles of technology coopetition, technology similarity and network position, thereby expanding the scope of innovation effect in the context of patent pools.
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Yang Zhou, Zhong Li, Yuhe Huang, Xiaohan Chen, Xinggang Li, Xiaogang Hu and Qiang Zhu
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) in-situ alloying is a recently developed technology that provides a facile approach to optimizing the microstructural and compositional…
Abstract
Purpose
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) in-situ alloying is a recently developed technology that provides a facile approach to optimizing the microstructural and compositional characteristics of the components for high performance goals. However, the complex mass and heat transfer behavior of the molten pool results in an inhomogeneous composition distribution within the samples fabricated by LPBF in-situ alloying. The study aims to investigate the heat and mass transfer behavior of an in-situ alloyed molten pool by developing a three-dimensional transient thermal-flow model that couples the metallurgical behavior of the alloy, thereby revealing the formation mechanism of composition inhomogeneity.
Design/methodology/approach
A multispecies multiphase computational fluid dynamic model was developed with thermodynamic factors derived from the phase diagram of the selected alloy system. The characteristics of the Al/Cu powder bed in-situ alloying process were investigated as a benchmark. The metallurgical behaviors including powder melting, thermal-flow, element transfer and solidification were investigated.
Findings
The Peclet number indicates that the mass transfer in the molten pool is dominated by convection. The large variation in material properties and temperature results in the presence of partially melted Cu-powder and pre-solidified particles in the molten pool, which further hinder the convection mixing. The study of simulation and experiment indicates that optimizing the laser energy input is beneficial for element homogenization. The effective time and driving force of the convection stirring can be improved by increasing the volume energy density.
Originality/value
This study provides an in-depth understanding of the formation mechanism of composition inhomogeneity in alloy fabricated by LPBF in-situ alloying.
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Yuan Liu, Chang Dong, Xianzhang Wang, Xiao Sang, Liran Ma, Xuefeng Xu and Yu Tian
The purpose of this study is to reveal the underlying mechanism in film formation of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to reveal the underlying mechanism in film formation of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on the film forming characteristics of O/W emulsion between the surface of a steel ball and a glass disc coated with chromium. The lubricant film thicknesses of O/W emulsion with various mechanical stirring strength were discussed, which were observed by technique of relative optical interference intensity.
Findings
The authors directly observed the oil pool in the contact area, finding the size of oil pool was closely related to the film-forming ability of emulsion. Enrichment phenomenon occurs in oil pool, which was caused by phase inversion. Further investigations revealed that the emulsion is stable with strong stirring strength, resulting in a smaller oil pool size and worse film forming ability.
Originality/value
With the wide usage of O/W emulsion in both biological and industrial systems, the ability of emulsion film formation is considered as an important factor to evaluate the lubrication effectiveness.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-12-2022-0354/
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Yu-Xiang Wang, Chia-Hung Hung, Hans Pommerenke, Sung-Heng Wu and Tsai-Yun Liu
This paper aims to present the fabrication of 6061 aluminum alloy (AA6061) using a promising laser additive manufacturing process, called the laser-foil-printing (LFP) process…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the fabrication of 6061 aluminum alloy (AA6061) using a promising laser additive manufacturing process, called the laser-foil-printing (LFP) process. The process window of AA6061 in LFP was established to optimize process parameters for the fabrication of high strength, dense and crack-free parts even though AA6061 is challenging for laser additive manufacturing processes due to hot-cracking issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The multilayers AA6061 parts were fabricated by LFP to characterize for cracks and porosity. Mechanical properties of the LFP-fabricated AA6061 parts were tested using Vicker’s microhardness and tensile testes. The electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) technique was used to reveal the grain structure and preferred orientation of AA6061 parts.
Findings
The crack-free AA6061 parts with a high relative density of 99.8% were successfully fabricated using the optimal process parameters in LFP. The LFP-fabricated parts exhibited exceptional tensile strength and comparable ductility compared to AA6061 samples fabricated by conventional laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes. The EBSD result shows the formation of cracks was correlated with the cooling rate of the melt pool as cracks tended to develop within finer grain structures, which were formed in a shorter solidification time and higher cooling rate.
Originality/value
This study presents the pioneering achievement of fabricating crack-free AA6061 parts using LFP without the necessity of preheating the substrate or mixing nanoparticles into the melt pool during the laser melting. The study includes a comprehensive examination of both the mechanical properties and grain structures, with comparisons made to parts produced through the traditional LPBF method.
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In construction projects, engineering variations are very common and create breeding grounds for opportunistic claims. This study investigates the complementary effect between an…
Abstract
Purpose
In construction projects, engineering variations are very common and create breeding grounds for opportunistic claims. This study investigates the complementary effect between an inspection mechanism and a reputation system in deterring opportunistic claims, considering an employer with limited inspection accuracy and a contractor, which can be either reputation-concerned or opportunistic.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies a signaling game to investigate the complementary effect between the employer's inspection and a reputation system in deterring the contractor's possible opportunistic claim, considering the information-flow influence of claiming prices.
Findings
This study finds that in the exogenous-inspection-accuracy case, the employer does not always inspect the claim. A more stringent reputation system complements a less accurate inspection only when the inspection cost is lower than a threshold, but may decline the employer's surplus or social welfare. In the optimal-inspection-accuracy case, the employer always inspects the claim. However, only a sufficiently stringent reputation system can guarantee the effectiveness of an optimal inspection in curbing opportunistic claims. A more stringent reputation system has a value-stepping effect on the employer's surplus but may unexpectedly impair social welfare, whereas a higher inspection cost efficiency always reduces social welfare.
Originality/value
This article contributes to the project management literature by combing the signaling game theory with the reputation theory and thus embeds the problem of inspection mechanism design into a broader socio-economic framework.
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Sima Fortsch, Elena Khapalova, Robert Carden and Jeong Hoon Choi
The objective of this study is to mitigate the risks of a blood shortage. The authors designed two simulation studies to identify the superior methodology that can decrease the…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this study is to mitigate the risks of a blood shortage. The authors designed two simulation studies to identify the superior methodology that can decrease the impact of a massive national donor shortage.
Design/methodology/approach
The simulation designs are triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first simulation examines the company’s choice of strategic partners (regionally and nationally), and the second inspects creating a national coordinated effort to organize a pooled blood inventory that would require blood centers to contribute a small percentage of their monthly donations to become a member.
Findings
The results indicate that both methods can significantly manage the risk of stockouts regardless of the availability of safety inventory in a blood center; however, although more effective in reducing the number of shortages per month, creating a national blood pool causes the shortages to be recognized earlier than desired.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the literature by focusing on the potential risk of blood shortage because it directly impacts healthcare, hospitals’ costs and their ability to provide care. Though a handful of researchers have targeted the study of the blood supply chain, there is not any article that is similar to this study.
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Hui Shi, Drew Hwang, Dazhi Chong and Gongjun Yan
Today’s in-demand skills may not be needed tomorrow. As companies are adopting a new group of technologies, they are in huge need of information technology (IT) professionals who…
Abstract
Purpose
Today’s in-demand skills may not be needed tomorrow. As companies are adopting a new group of technologies, they are in huge need of information technology (IT) professionals who can fill various IT positions with a mixture of technical and problem-solving skills. This study aims to adopt a sematic analysis approach to explore how the US Information Systems (IS) programs meet the challenges of emerging IT topics.
Design/methodology/approach
This study considers the application of a hybrid semantic analysis approach to the analysis of IS higher education programs in the USA. It proposes a semantic analysis framework and a semantic analysis algorithm to analyze and evaluate the context of the IS programs. To be more specific, the study uses digital transformation as a case study to examine the readiness of the IS programs in the USA to meet the challenges of digital transformation. First, this study developed a knowledge pool of 15 principles and 98 keywords from an extensive literature review on digital transformation. Second, this study collects 4,093 IS courses from 315 IS programs in the USA and 493,216 scientific publication records from the Web of Science Core Collection.
Findings
Using the knowledge pool and two collected data sets, the semantic analysis algorithm was implemented to compute a semantic similarity score (DxScore) between an IS course’s context and digital transformation. To present the credibility of the research results of this paper, the state ranking using the similarity scores and the state employment ranking were compared. The research results can be used by IS educators in the future in the process of updating the IS curricula. Regarding IT professionals in the industry, the results can provide insights into the training of their current/future employees.
Originality/value
This study explores the status of the IS programs in the USA by proposing a semantic analysis framework, using digital transformation as a case study to illustrate the application of the proposed semantic analysis framework, and developing a knowledge pool, a corpus and a course information collection.
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Tao Pang, Wenwen Xiao, Yilin Liu, Tao Wang, Jie Liu and Mingke Gao
This paper aims to study the agent learning from expert demonstration data while incorporating reinforcement learning (RL), which enables the agent to break through the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the agent learning from expert demonstration data while incorporating reinforcement learning (RL), which enables the agent to break through the limitations of expert demonstration data and reduces the dimensionality of the agent’s exploration space to speed up the training convergence rate.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, the decay weight function is set in the objective function of the agent’s training to combine both types of methods, and both RL and imitation learning (IL) are considered to guide the agent's behavior when updating the policy. Second, this study designs a coupling utilization method between the demonstration trajectory and the training experience, so that samples from both aspects can be combined during the agent’s learning process, and the utilization rate of the data and the agent’s learning speed can be improved.
Findings
The method is superior to other algorithms in terms of convergence speed and decision stability, avoiding training from scratch for reward values, and breaking through the restrictions brought by demonstration data.
Originality/value
The agent can adapt to dynamic scenes through exploration and trial-and-error mechanisms based on the experience of demonstrating trajectories. The demonstration data set used in IL and the experience samples obtained in the process of RL are coupled and used to improve the data utilization efficiency and the generalization ability of the agent.
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This paper analyzes the role that the climate change concern (CCCi) has on the willingness to accept an environmental tax. The author aims to grasp how individual general tax…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyzes the role that the climate change concern (CCCi) has on the willingness to accept an environmental tax. The author aims to grasp how individual general tax preferences can differ with respect to the specific (environmental) tax. He focuses attention to the Italian case since it has been argued that the potential acceptability of a carbon tax in Italy is relatively high, and this topic has been scarcely explored so far among Italian citizens (Rotaris and Danielis, 2019).
Design/methodology/approach
The author conducted an online survey among 514 Italian economics students.
Findings
The CCCi positively influences the environmental tax morale (ETMi). The general tax morale (TMi) positively affects the specific (environmental) TMi. The CCCi alters individual tax preferences. The author evidenced that also subjects with low TMi turned out to be willing to pay an environmental tax if aware of the environmental issues.
Research limitations/implications
Although the author used a common methodology in this strand of research, he is aware that in an online survey individuals can be influenced by the self-reporting and hypothetical choice bias (see Swamy et al., 2001), that in turn can characterize their reported preferences. Moreover, even if economics university students are commonly used as a subject pool in experimental economics settings, and although several studies showed that the behavioral responses of students are largely the same as those of nonstudents in identical experiments (for a discussion see Alm, 2012; Choo et al., 2016), there is awareness that in this case, they are not taxpayers yet (Barabas and Jerit, 2010).
Practical implications
The author’s results remark the importance of increasing climate change awareness among people to let them be more willing to pay the environmental tax, for instance through investments in sensibilization campaigns on the importance of energy source usage and climate-related topic. Then, an increase in the general TMi leads to an increase in the specific (environmental) TMi. The author’s evidence showed that people with high tax morale logically recognize the positive impact of paying an environmental tax when the CCCi increases, since the more the theme becomes important, the larger the willingness to pay the specific tax. For this reason, policymakers should carry on campaigns to increase the general level of TMi to increase the overall tax compliance level and the relative tax revenues, following the guidelines given by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019) to support taxpayer education programs, such as including TMi research and analysis into education programs, improving the ease of paying taxes or strengthening revenue–expenditure links to build the social contract.
Social implications
It should be paramount to increase awareness about environmental topics among people in general and among those who are relatively tax immoral. The author’s results remark on the importance of targeting energy and environmental tax policies to groups rather than to individuals. According to this evidence, we support the use of nonmonetary tools to nudge people in the environmental transition by changing their behavior in energy use, for instance through the taxation on fuel and other nonrenewable energy resources.
Originality/value
It is the first empirical study that analyzes the impact of CCCi on the environmental TMi in Italy, in particular controlling for the role of the general willingness to pay taxes (TMi). To obtain individual attitudes toward tax payment, most of the empirical studies in behavioral economics employ international surveys. For studies across citizens living in European countries, the European Social Survey (ESS) and European Values Study (EVS) represent the most used ones (see, for instance, Martinez-Vazquez and Torgler (2009) in Spain; Torgler and Werner (2005) in Germany; Nemore and Morone (2019) in Italy). However, these surveys do not allow to study the relationship between the environmental and general TMi across the same subject pool. In fact, despite the ESS (2016) provides individual responses about the willingness to pay an environmental tax, it does not provide information about the general individual attitude toward tax payment (this information is contained only in the ESS wave of 2004, hence referring to a different subject pool). On the contrary, each wave of the EVS (i.e. 2008, 2017) provides information about the general individual attitude toward tax payment, but this survey does not provide a question regarding the willingness to pay an environmental tax. Therefore, to obtain information about the willingness to pay both general and environmental taxes, across the same subject pool, it is needed to carry out a survey.
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Mohammad Zamani, Zahra Sohrabi, Ladan Aghakhani, Kimia Leilami, Saeed Nosratabadi, Zahra Namkhah, Cain Clark, Neda Haghighat, Omid Asbaghi and Fatemeh Fathi
Previous research indicates that vitamin D and omega-3 co-supplementation may benefit overall health, but current evidence regarding its effects on lipid profile remains unclear…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research indicates that vitamin D and omega-3 co-supplementation may benefit overall health, but current evidence regarding its effects on lipid profile remains unclear. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the effects of vitamin D and omega-3 co-supplementation on lipid profile (total cholesterol [TC], low-density lipoprotein [LDL], triglyceride [TG] and high-density lipoprotein [HDL]) in adults.
Design/methodology/approach
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, relevant studies were obtained by searching the PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases (from inception to January 2022). Weighted mean differences and 95% confidence intervals were estimated via a random-effects model. Heterogeneity, sensitivity analysis and publication bias were reported using standard methods.
Findings
Pooled analysis of six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) revealed that vitamin D and omega-3 co-supplementation yielded significant reductions in TG (p = 0.631). A pooled analysis of five trials indicated a significant association between omega-3 and vitamin D treatment and reductions in TC (p = 0.001) and LDL (p = 0.001). Although, pooled analyses of omega-3 and vitamin D did not significantly affect HDL.
Originality/value
The findings suggest that vitamin D and omega-3 co-supplementation lowers TG, TC and LDL in adults. Future, large-scale, RCTs on various populations are needed to elucidate further beneficial effects of vitamin D and omega-3 co-supplementation on lipid profile and establish guidelines for clinical practice.
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