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This paper investigates the suitability of fuzzy-logic-based support tools for initial screening of manufacturing reshoring decisions.

Two fuzzy-logic-based support tools are developed together with experts from a Swedish manufacturing firm. The first uses a complete rule base and the second a reduced rule base. Sixteen inference settings are used in both of the support tools.

The findings show that fuzzy-logic-based support tools are suitable for initial screening of manufacturing reshoring decisions. The developed support tools are capable of suggesting whether a reshoring decision should be further evaluated or not, based on six primary competitiveness criteria. In contrast to existing literature this research shows that it does not matter whether a complete or reduced rule base is used when it comes to accuracy. The developed support tools perform similarly with no statistically significant differences. However, since the interpretability is much higher when a reduced rule base is used and it require fewer resources to develop, the second tool is more preferable for initial screening purposes.

The developed support tools are implemented at a primary-criteria level and to make them more applicable, they should also include the sub-criteria level. The support tools should also be expanded to not only consider competitiveness criteria, but also other criteria related to availability of resources and strategic orientation of the firm. This requires further research with regard to multi-stage architecture and automatic generation of fuzzy rules in the manufacturing reshoring domain.

The support tools help managers to invest their scarce time on the most promising reshoring projects and to make timely and resilient decisions by taking a holistic perspective on competitiveness. Practitioners are advised to choose the type of support tool based on the available data.

There is a general lack of decision support tools in the manufacturing reshoring domain. This paper addresses the gap by developing fuzzy-logic-based support tools for initial screening of manufacturing reshoring decisions.

This paper aims to propose a one-layer Mamdani hierarchical fuzzy system (HFS) to navigate autonomously an omnidirectional mobile robot to a target with a desired angle in unstructured environment. To avoid collision with unknown obstacles, Mamdani limpid hierarchical fuzzy systems (LHFS) are developed based on infrared sensors information and providing the appropriate linear speed controls.

The one-layer Mamdani HFS scheme consists of three fuzzy logic units corresponding to each degree of freedom of the holonomic mobile robot. This structure makes it possible to navigate with an optimized number of rules. Mamdani LHFS for obstacle avoidance consists of a number of fuzzy logic units of low dimension connected in a hierarchical structure. Hence, Mamdani LHFS has the advantage of optimizing the number of fuzzy rules compared to a standard fuzzy controller. Based on sensors information inputs of the Mamdani LHFS, appropriate linear speed controls are generated to avoid collision with static obstacles.

Simulation results are performed with MATLAB software in interaction with the environment test tool “Robotino Sim.” Experiments have been done on an omnidirectional mobile robot “Robotino.” Simulation results show that the proposed approaches lead to satisfied performances in navigation between static obstacles to reach the target with a desired angle and have the advantage that the total number of fuzzy rules is greatly reduced. Experimental results prove the efficiency and the validity of the proposed approaches for the navigation problem and obstacle avoidance collisions.

By comparing simulation results of the proposed Mamdani HFS to another navigational controller, it was found that it provides better results in terms of path length in the same environment. Moreover, it has the advantage that the number of fuzzy rules is greatly reduced compared to a standard Mamdani fuzzy controller. The use of Mamdani LHFS in obstacle avoidance greatly reduces the number of involved fuzzy rules and overcomes the complexity of high dimensionality of the infrared sensors data information.

Specialist physicians, specialist nurses and personnel in the intensive care unit (ICU) work to treat patients. Compared with other hospital units, ICUs are full-fledged and provide 24-h services. However, patients are admitted to this unit because of conditions such as severe trauma, organ failure or dysfunction and poisoning. The life expectancy of such patients is considerably low.

This study developed a reduced rule-based expert system to determine life expectancy. The purpose of this study is to determine the life expectancy of patients using ten variables. The rules were determined by evaluating 210 = 1,024 results. These rules were minimized using Boolean rules for simplification.

Conclusions were drawn by evaluating the minimized cases rather than evaluating 1,024 different cases. ICU patients were evaluated using this method, and the mean success rate was 63.75 per cent.

No rule-based expert system has been designed to determine the death risks of patients in the ICU.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a general method to simplify the structure of fuzzy controllers' rule base using integrated methodology for reducing the number of fuzzy rules based on modelling and simulation.

The paper considers the problem of developing effective methods and algorithms for optimization of fuzzy rules bases of Sugeno‐type fuzzy controllers that can be applied to control of dynamic objects, including objects with non‐stationary parameters. The proposed approach based on calculating the impact of each of the rule on the formation of control signals for different types of input signals provides optimization of a linguistic rules database by using exclusion mechanism for rules with negligible influence. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is investigated using a fuzzy PID controller for control of a non‐stationary object of second order.

In this paper, the authors argued that different aggregation models can be used for structural optimization of fuzzy controllers and not all the rules are actually required in the fuzzy controllers' rule base. Eliminating some of the rules does not necessarily lead to a significant change in the fuzzy controller's output. The proposed integrated approach based on combination of different kinds of reference input signals for fuzzy controllers modelling and simulation is able to provide guidelines to the users which rules are required and which can be eliminated. The results obtained from the case studies demonstrate that the proposed integrated approach is able to reduce the number of rules required and, at the same time, to have the desired values of quality control indices.

In order to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, only control object of second order with PID fuzzy controller of Sugeno‐type is chosen. Future studies can advance this research by applying the proposed approach in different types of fuzzy systems.

The proposed integrated approach is able to simplify the structural optimization methodology and make it possible to be implemented in real processes of the fuzzy controllers' design.

The value of the current paper is on the proposal of an integrated approach for rule reduction to enhance the practical use of modelling and simulation in a design of fuzzy controllers.

This study tests the effect of accounting standards precision on financial restatements and the influence of accounting standards precision on different types of restatements (including errors and irregularities). What is more, the heterogeneity between accounting standards precision and financial restatements is verified in this paper. In the further analyses, the authors also examine the mediating roles and moderating roles on the correlation between accounting standards precision and financial restatements.

The focus is placed on an unbalanced panel of 18,766 samples over the period of 2007–2017.

The authors find that firms' restatements decrease when standards are more principles-based (low accounting standards precision). Especially, irregularities significantly decrease when firms' standards are more principles-based. What's more, the negative relationship between principles-based standards and restatements is more significant in “big four” accounting firms. Moreover, from the mediating effect results, the authors find that low accounting standards precision decreases a firm's financial reporting complexity and increases equity restriction, which in turn can help decreasing its financial misreporting. From the moderating effect results, the authors find that the higher the TOP1 and the more analysts following the firm, the higher the benefit of accounting standards precision to misstatements.

The results of this study provide a theoretical reference for accounting standard setters and are helpful to inform investors and regulators about the influence of Chinese accounting standards on restatements.

Malaria is one of the most sinister life-threatening disease and generally transmitted by the bite of an Anopheles mosquito which was infected. These mosquitoes carry the Plasmodium parasite. Worldwide risk of malaria thread is very hard to deal, because of extreme temperature and climate changes which lead to uncontrolled changes in the mosquito population, as many deaths from malaria occur outside the healthcare system and other infections might be misdiagnosed as malaria unless a diagnostic test is done. The purpose of this study is creating a system which is early diagnosing malaria for settlements adequate healthcare units and non-immune travellers.

In this study’s system, the authors developed a new medical expert system (MES) process using the decreased rule base to detect malaria. The authors’ purpose was to successfully identify the illness by taking all symptoms of malaria into consideration in the MES (six basic signs, 64 different conditions). In the proposed MES process, in place of inspecting all the malaria-related signs, the authors used the decreased rule bases.

So as to take the lessen decreased bases, Boolean functions are used in a two-level simplification method. Using this method, decreased cases were evaluated by taking six symptoms of malaria into account instead of assessing 64 individual conditions.

The system can be used in diagnosis of asthma and chronic obstructive respiratory disease.

The system can be used in absence of adequate healthcare units. Thus, malaria can be diagnosed early.

The authors hope that the system they have developed will be useful for settlements in the absence of adequate healthcare units and non-immune travellers.

The current study uses an advanced machine learning method and aims to investigate whether auditors perceive financial statements that are principles-based as less risky. More specifically, this study aims to explore the association between principles-based accounting standards and audit pricing and between principles-based accounting standards and the likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion.

The study uses an advanced machine-learning method to understand the role of principles-based accounting standards in predicting audit fees and going concern opinion. The study also uses multiple regression models defining audit fees and the probability of receiving going concern opinion. The analyses are complemented by additional tests such as economic significance, firm fixed effects, propensity score matching, entropy balancing, change analysis, yearly regression results and controlling for managerial risk-taking incentives and governance variables.

The paper provides empirical evidence that auditors charge less audit fees to clients whose financial statements are more principles-based. The finding suggests that auditors perceive financial statements that are principles-based less risky. The study also provides evidence that the probability of receiving a going-concern opinion reduces as firms rely more on principles-based standards. The finding further suggests that auditors discount the financial numbers supplied by the managers using rules-based standards. The study also reveals that the degree of reliance by a US firm on principles-based accounting standards has a negative impact on accounting conservatism, the risk of financial statement misstatement, accruals and the difficulty in predicting future earnings. This suggests potential mechanisms through which principles-based accounting standards influence auditors’ risk assessments.

The authors recognize the limitation of this study regarding the sample period. Prior studies compare rules vs principles-based standards by focusing on the differences between US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS) or pre- and post-IFRS adoption, which raises questions about differences in cross-country settings and institutional environment and other confounding factors such as transition costs. This study addresses these issues by comparing rules vs principles-based standards within the US GAAP setting. However, this limits the sample period to the year 2006 because the measure of the relative extent to which a US firm is reliant upon principles-based standards is available until 2006.

The study has major public policy suggestions as it responds to the call by Jay Clayton and Mary Jo White, the former Chairs of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to pursue high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards to ensure that investors continue to receive clear and reliable financial information globally. The study also recognizes the notable public policy implications, particularly in light of the current Chair of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) Andreas Barckow’s recent public statement, which emphasizes the importance of principles-based standards and their ability to address sustainability concerns, including emerging risks such as climate change.

The study has major public policy suggestions because it demonstrates the value of principles-based standards. The study responds to the call by Jay Clayton and Mary Jo White, the former Chairs of the US SEC, to pursue high-quality, globally accepted accounting standards to ensure that investors continue to receive clear and reliable financial information as business transactions and investor needs continue to evolve globally. The study also recognizes the notable public policy implications, particularly in light of the current Chair of the IASB Andreas Barckow’s recent public statement, which emphasizes the importance of principles-based standards and their ability to address sustainability concerns, including emerging risks like climate change. The study fills the gap in the literature that auditors perceive principles-based financial statements as less risky and further expands the literature by providing empirical evidence that the likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion is increasing in the degree of rules-based standards.

The purpose of this paper is to use the framework of rule-based and relation-based governance to examine the evolution of governance environment in the East Asian region including China, South Korea and Taiwan.

Both qualitative and quantitative evidences are presented to demonstrate the paths these East Asian countries take in their transitions from relation-based governance to rule-based governance. Based on the framework, this analysis sheds light on the debate on whether East Asian economies will eventually move away from relation-based governance to rule-based societies.

The authors find that relation-based governance has helped East Asian countries achieve rapid economic growth in the early stages of their development. However, as the scale and scope of East Asian economies expand, continuing to rely on it may hinder their further development and therefore these countries should adopt a rule-based governance system in order to be efficient and competitive in the world market. While South Korea and Taiwan have made substantial progress in this transition, China has just embarked on the process.

This paper is among the first to systematically review the theories and evidence of the transition and the challenges East Asian countries face during the process.

In order to ensure the uninterrupted supply of items, the purchasing manager needs to evaluate suppliers' performance periodically. The evaluation process typically consists of identifying the attributes and factors relevant to the decision, and measuring the performance of a supplier by considering the relevant factors. Linguistic assessment of suppliers may be carried out based on several criteria. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the suppliers' performance by adopting an evolutionary fuzzy system. One of the key considerations in designing the proposed system is the generation of fuzzy rules. A genetic algorithm‐based methodology is developed to evolve the optimal set of fuzzy rule base, and a fuzzy inference system of the MATLAB fuzzy logic toolbox is used to assess the suppliers' performance. The proposed methodology, illustrated with the data collected in a process plant, provides acceptable results in determining the suppliers' performance score.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether principles-based vs rules-based accounting standards have an effect on measures of financial reporting quality and earnings management strategies.

This study uses a firm-year-specific variable that captures the extent to which firms’ accounting and operating behavior is affected by the characteristics of a specific standard in the USA. Measures of absolute accruals, financial misconducts, signed abnormal accruals and abnormal cash flows are used to assess the effects.

The results show that absolute magnitude of accruals and probability of financial misconduct is lower, and accrual earnings management is higher when firms’ standards are more based on principles. The study also suggests that potentially costlier real earnings management is a consequence of rules-based standards.

This study relies heavily on measures from the prior accounting literature, hence, care has been exercised in generalizing the findings.

This study has direct implications for a number of stakeholders, including standard setters, policymakers, securities regulators, researchers, investors, financial statement preparers and auditors. For example, the future development of accounting standards can be supported by the empirical conclusions in this study together with previous standard-setting ambitions, commentaries, experiments and analytical work.

This study extends prior single-country studies on reporting quality and cross-country studies on transition effects of firms switching from local to International Accounting Standards by observing the impact of accounting standard characteristics on additional measures of reporting quality and accrual as well as real earnings management when holding institutional factors constant. The study also offers archival evidence complementing prior commentaries, experiments and analytical work.