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1 – 10 of 66Sudhir Rama Murthy, Thayla Tavares Sousa-Zomer, Tim Minshall, Chander Velu, Nikolai Kazantsev and Duncan McFarlane
Advancements in responsive manufacturing have been supporting companies over the last few decades. However, manufacturers now operate in a context of continuous uncertainty. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Advancements in responsive manufacturing have been supporting companies over the last few decades. However, manufacturers now operate in a context of continuous uncertainty. This research paper explores a mechanism where companies can “elastically” provision and deprovision their production capacity, to enable them in coping with repeated disruptions. Such a mechanism is facilitated by the imitability and substitutability of production resources.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive study was conducted using Gioia methodology for this theory generation research. Respondents from 20 UK manufacturing companies across multiple industrial sectors reflected on their experience during COVID-19. Resource-based view and resource dependence theory were employed to analyse the manufacturers' use of internal and external production resources.
Findings
The study identifies elastic responses at four operational levels: production-line, factory, company and supply chain. Elastic responses that imposed variable-costs were particularly well-suited for coping with unforeseen disruptions. Further, the imitability and substitutability of manufacturers helped others produce alternate goods during the crisis.
Originality/value
While uniqueness of production capability helps manufacturers sustain competitive advantage against competitors during stable operations, imitability and substitutability are beneficial during a crisis. Successful manufacturing companies need to combine these two approaches to respond effectively to repeated disruptions in a context of ongoing uncertainties. The theoretical contribution is in characterising responsive manufacturing in terms of resource heterogeneity and resource homogeneity, with elastic resourcing as the underlying mechanism.
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Atul Varshney, Vipul Sharma, T. Mary Neebha and N. Prasanthi Kumari
This paper aims to present a low-cost, edge-fed, windmill-shaped, notch-band eliminator, circular monopole antenna which is practically loaded with a complementary split ring…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a low-cost, edge-fed, windmill-shaped, notch-band eliminator, circular monopole antenna which is practically loaded with a complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) in the middle of the radiating conductor and also uses a partial ground to obtain wide-band performance.
Design/methodology/approach
To compensate for the reduced value of gain and reflection coefficient because of the full (complete) ground plane at the bottom of the substrate, the antenna is further loaded with a partial ground and a CSRR. The reduction in the length of ground near the feed line improves the impedance bandwidth, and introduced CSRR results in improved gain with an additional resonance spike. This results in a peak gain 3.895dBi at the designed frequency 2.45 GHz. The extending of three arms in the circular patch not only led to an increase of peak gain by 4.044dBi but also eliminated the notch band and improved the fractional bandwidth 1.65–2.92 GHz.
Findings
The work reports a –10dB bandwidth from 1.63 GHz to 2.91 GHz, which covers traditional coverage applications and new specific uses applications such as narrow LTE bands for future internet of things (NB-IoT) machine-to-machine communications 1.8/1.9/2.1/2.3/2.5/2.6 GHz, industry, automation and business-critical cases (2.1/2.3/2.6 GHz), industrial, society and medical applications such as Wi-MAX (3.5 GHz), Wi-Fi3 (2.45 GHz), GSM (1.9 GHz), public safety band, Bluetooth (2.40–2.485 GHz), Zigbee (2.40–2.48Ghz), industrial scientific medical (ISM) band (2.4–2.5 GHz), WCDMA (1.9, 2.1 GHz), 3 G (2.1 GHz), 4 G LTE (2.1–2.5 GHz) and other personal communication services applications. The estimated RLC electrical equivalent circuit is also presented at the end.
Practical implications
Because of full coverage of Bluetooth, Zigbee, WiFi3 and ISM band, the proposed fabricated antenna is suitable for low power, low data rate and wireless/wired short-range IoT-enabled medical applications.
Originality/value
The antenna is fabricated on a piece (66.4 mm × 66.4 mm × 1.6 mm) of low-cost low profile FR-4 epoxy substrate (0.54
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The purpose of this paper is to present an up-to-date survey on the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique with co-operative strategy, a fast-evolving fifth-generation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an up-to-date survey on the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technique with co-operative strategy, a fast-evolving fifth-generation (5 G) technology. NOMA is used for serving many mobile users, both in power and code domains. This paper considers the power-domain NOMA, which is now discussed as NOMA.
Design/methodology/approach
The first part of the paper discusses NOMA-based cooperative relay systems using different relay strategies over different channel models. In various research works, the analytical expressions of many performance metrics were derived, measured and simulated for better performance of the NOMA systems. In the second part, a brief introduction to diversity techniques is discussed. The multiple input and multiple output system merged with cooperative NOMA technology, and its future challenges were also presented in this part. In the third part, the paper surveys some new conceptions such as cognitive radio, index modulation multiple access, space-shift keying and reconfigurable intelligent surface that can be combined with NOMA systems for better performance.
Findings
The paper presents a brief survey of diverse research projects being carried out in the field of NOMA. The paper also surveyed two different relaying strategies that were implemented in cooperative NOMA over different channels and compared several performance parameters that were evaluated and derived in these implementations.
Originality/value
The paper provides a scope for recognizable future work and presents a brief idea of the new techniques that can be united with NOMA for better performance in wireless systems.
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Chenchen Weng, Martin J. Liu, Dandan Ye, Jimmy Huang and Paul C.Y. Liu
This paper explores how platforms reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve marketing agility in international markets.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores how platforms reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve marketing agility in international markets.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw on a case study of a Chinese digital platform to explore the processes and mechanisms of reconfiguring during marketing agility development. Data from different sources are collected, including interviews, informal dialogue and archival data.
Findings
Versatile digital resources create productive applications for previously less amendable marketing and nonmarketing resources to be malleable, editable and reconfigurable in marketing agility development. This study identifies and clarifies three versatile digital resource-enabled reconfiguration activities in marketing agility building: recombining digital artifacts, repurposing human capital and cross-pollinating markets.
Research limitations/implications
Since our study adopts a case study method, future research can extend our insights by using quantitative methods to test and verify our theoretical framework.
Practical implications
First, we provide insights into how organizations can reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve the benefits of marketing agility in international markets. Second, while recruiting new employees during internationalization is vital, we suggest that assisted by digital artifacts, firms can repurpose the existing workforce, such as via multitasking, swift task-switching and flexible job redirecting to satisfy dynamic international business requirements with lower adjustment costs. Third, we offer two localization approaches in which firms can use digital artifacts as the enabler to remix sociocultural elements with local adaptations to develop glocal content and decentralize content production to generate inclusive local content.
Originality/value
We provide a process model that specifies how platforms reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve marketing agility in international markets. Furthermore, we provide novel insights into the literature on marketing agility in international markets and localization.
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Arifa Tanveer, Shihong Zeng and Wei Tian
This study aims to examine whether and how corporate sustainability capability influences energy efficiency through competitive intensity and slack resource availability.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether and how corporate sustainability capability influences energy efficiency through competitive intensity and slack resource availability.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied a two-wave research design and administered a survey questionnaire to senior-level managers of 78 ISO-14001 and ISO-50001 certified manufacturing companies. The authors use a multi-method approach for data analysis. AMOS 23 software was applied for covariance-based structural equation modeling. In addition, SPSS 25 software was applied for hierarchical regression analysis to examine the causal relationships in the model.
Findings
The finding reveals that corporate sustainability capabilities, which include energy-saving opportunities, seizing energy-saving opportunities and resource reconfiguration, significantly improve firms’ energy efficiency. In addition, competitive intensity and slack resource availability positively moderated the relationship between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the link between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency in developing countries such as Pakistan. Although the influence of various corporate sustainability capabilities on sustainable performance has been widely examined in the literature, the role of corporate sustainability capability has been limitedly explored with energy efficiency. This study extends the literature by adding to the knowledge of corporate sustainability capability that enhances boundary conditions in developing countries.
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Iqra Masroor and Jamshed Aslam Ansari
Compact and wideband antennas are the need of modern wireless systems that preferably work with compact, low-profile and easy-to-install devices that provide a wider coverage of…
Abstract
Purpose
Compact and wideband antennas are the need of modern wireless systems that preferably work with compact, low-profile and easy-to-install devices that provide a wider coverage of operating frequencies. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel compact and ultrawideband (UWB) microstrip patch antenna intended for high frequency wireless applications.
Design/methodology/approach
A square microstrip patch antenna was initially modeled on finite element method-based electromagnetic simulation tool high frequency structure simulator. It was then loaded with a rectangular slit and Koch snowflake-shaped fractal notches for bandwidth enhancement. The fabricated prototype was tested by using vector network analyzer from Agilent Technologies, N5247A, Santa Clara, California, United States (US).
Findings
The designed Koch fractal patch antenna is highly compact with dimensions of 10 × 10 mm only and possesses UWB characteristics with multiple resonances in the operating band. The −10 dB measured impedance bandwidth was observed to be approximately 13.65 GHz in the frequency range (23.20–36.85 GHz).
Originality/value
Owing to its simple and compact structure, positive and substantial gain values, high radiation efficiency and stable radiation patterns throughout the frequency band of interest, the proposed antenna is a suitable candidate for high frequency wireless applications in the K (18–27 GHz) and Ka (26.5–40 GHz) microwave bands.
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Anurag Tiwari and Priyabrata Mohapatra
The purpose of this study is to formulate a new class of vehicle routing problem with an objective to minimise the total cost of raw material collection and derive a new approach…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to formulate a new class of vehicle routing problem with an objective to minimise the total cost of raw material collection and derive a new approach to solve optimization problems. This study can help to select the optimum number of suppliers based on cost.
Design/methodology/approach
To model the raw material vehicle routing problem, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem is formulated. An interesting phenomenon added to the proposed problem is that there is no compulsion to visit all suppliers. To guarantee the demand of semiconductor industry, all visited suppliers should reach a given raw material capacity requirement. To solve the proposed model, the authors developed a novel hybrid approach that is a combination of block and edge recombination approaches. To avoid bias, the authors compare the results of the proposed methodology with other known approaches, such as genetic algorithms (GAs) and ant colony optimisation (ACO).
Findings
The findings indicate that the proposed model can be useful in industries, where multiple suppliers are used. The proposed hybrid approach provides a better sequence of suppliers compared to other heuristic techniques.
Research limitations/implications
The data used in the proposed model is generated based on previous literature. The problem derives from the assumption that semiconductor industries use a variety of raw materials.
Practical implications
This study provides a new model and approach that can help practitioners and policymakers select suppliers based on their logistics costs.
Originality/value
This study provides two important contributions in the context of the supply chain. First, it provides a new variant of the vehicle routing problem in consideration of raw material collection; and second, it provides a new approach to solving optimisation problems.
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Zhixiu Wang, Lifeng Shi and Haiqian Cui
The operation mode of enterprises will affect its resource commitment in the host country, involving different costs and time, as well as risks. Yet, the current state of…
Abstract
Purpose
The operation mode of enterprises will affect its resource commitment in the host country, involving different costs and time, as well as risks. Yet, the current state of knowledge about how the institutional environment affects the operation mode change of international construction enterprises is equivocal. This study aims to explore the impact of a host country's institutional environment on the operation mode change of international construction enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
First, this study proposes a model on the impact of the institutional environment on the operation mode change of international construction enterprises. Second, this study used the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) published by the World Bank and a questionnaire survey to collect data. Finally, the study employs a multiple regression methodology to test the hypothesis and discusses the results.
Findings
Results highlight that the important impact of the institutional environment on the operation mode change of international construction enterprises. The results showed that enterprises are more willing to increase resource commitments under the condition of stable institutional environment. In addition, enterprises' market-specific experience and general international experience, as moderating variables, weaken the impact of the institutional environment on the operation mode change. However, general international experience has no significant moderating effect.
Practical implications
The findings of this study provide practical implications for the investment risk assessment of international construction enterprises. Enterprises need to consider the change in institutional quality and institutional instability of the host country, as well as their own international experience when changing operation mode.
Originality/value
This study extends internationalization theory to the international construction field and provided theoretical guidance for the mechanism of operation mode change of international construction enterprises.
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Ruchi Mishra, Rajesh Kr Singh and Malin Song
The study aims to identify the central paradoxical tensions existing in developing resilience in organisations. The main thrust of this study is to develop a thorough…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to identify the central paradoxical tensions existing in developing resilience in organisations. The main thrust of this study is to develop a thorough understanding of diverse conflicting tensions in building resilience and develop the possible strategies to surmount these tensions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the case study approach, the study applied theory-elaboration strategy as this study is based on well-established literature from both digitalisation and resilience. The study uses the paradox theory lens in a case study to reconcile both theories with contextual idiosyncrasies.
Findings
The paradox theory lens provides perspectives to understand tensions during resilience development and the role of digital transformation in this process. It assesses the potential solutions for surmounting tensions in resilient operations. The mapping of workable solutions with different paradoxes and propositions has been proposed for future empirical research.
Research limitations/implications
The study suggests that practitioners should not consider resilience and sustainability as mutually exclusive; instead, managers must embrace ongoing tensions to bring solutions to address these two essential organisational priorities.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study that applies paradox theory to understand how an organisation can build resilience while confronting several paradoxes. The study findings support that resilience practices can move in tandem with environmental sustainability goals rather than being usually mutually exclusive.
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Naresh Kattekola, Amol Jawale, Pallab Kumar Nath and Shubhankar Majumdar
This paper aims to improve the performance of approximate multiplier in terms of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and quality of the image.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to improve the performance of approximate multiplier in terms of peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and quality of the image.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes an approximate circuit for 4:2 compressor, which shows a significant amount of improvement in performance metrics than that of the existing designs. This paper also reports a hybrid architecture for the Dadda multiplier, which incorporates proposed 4:2 compressor circuit as a basic building block.
Findings
Hybrid Dadda multiplier architecture is used in a median filter for image de-noising application and achieved 20% more PSNR than that of the best available designs.
Originality/value
The proposed 4:2 compressor improves the error metrics of a Hybrid Dadda multiplier.
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