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1 – 10 of 478Md.Tanvir Ahmed, Hridi Juberi, A.B.M. Mainul Bari, Muhommad Azizur Rahman, Aquib Rahman, Md. Ashfaqur Arefin, Ilias Vlachos and Niaz Quader
This study aims to investigate the effect of vibration on ceramic tools under dry cutting conditions and find the optimum cutting condition for the hardened steel machining…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effect of vibration on ceramic tools under dry cutting conditions and find the optimum cutting condition for the hardened steel machining process in a computer numerical control (CNC) lathe machine.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research, an integrated fuzzy TOPSIS-based Taguchi L9 optimization model has been applied for the multi-objective optimization (MOO) of the hard-turning responses. Additionally, the effect of vibration on the ceramic tool wear was investigated using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).
Findings
The optimum cutting conditions for the multi-objective responses were obtained at 98 m/min cutting speed, 0.1 mm/rev feed rate and 0.2 mm depth of cut. According to the ANOVA of the input cutting parameters with respect to response variables, feed rate has the most significant impact (53.79%) on the control of response variables. From the vibration analysis, the feed rate, with a contribution of 34.74%, was shown to be the most significant process parameter influencing excessive vibration and consequent tool wear.
Research limitations/implications
The MOO of response parameters at the optimum cutting parameter settings can significantly improve productivity in the dry turning of hardened steel and control over the input process parameters during machining.
Originality/value
Most studies on optimizing responses in dry hard-turning performed in CNC lathe machines are based on single-objective optimization. Additionally, the effect of vibration on the ceramic tool during MOO of hard-turning has not been studied yet.
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Palitha Konara, Zita Stone and Alex Mohr
The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk makes a firm more likely to acquire an IJV but less likely to divest an IJV. The study also investigates how IJV age moderates the effects of a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs competing risks analyses to examine the drivers of different termination outcomes using a dataset consisting of 459 IJVs in the People's Republic of China, of which 110 were either acquired or divested by their foreign parent.
Findings
The study finds that changes in environmental risk and partner-related risk affect how firms terminate their IJVs in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, the authors find that the effect of exogenous and endogenous risk are more pronounced for the acquisition of IJVs than for the divestment of IJVs.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to international marketing research by complementing options logic with transaction cost economics to provide a theoretical explanation of the different ways in which IJVs in the People's Republic of China are terminated.
Practical implications
IJVs continue to be an important yet often unstable method to serve international markets. Our findings increase managers' awareness of the effect that two important sources of risk may have on the termination of IJVs in the People's Republic of China.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights into the effect that changes in exogenous and endogenous risk have on a firm's choice of termination mode drawing on novel data on the different ways in which foreign firms have terminated their IJVs in the Peoples' Republic of China.
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Azemeraw Tadesse Mengistu and Roberto Panizzolo
This paper aims to identify and empirically analyze useful and applicable metrics for measuring and managing the sustainability performance of small and medium-sized enterprises…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify and empirically analyze useful and applicable metrics for measuring and managing the sustainability performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the objective of the paper, potential metrics were adopted from previous research related to industrial sustainability and an empirical analysis was carried to assess the applicability of the metrics by collecting empirical data from Italian footwear SMEs using a structured questionnaire. The SMEs were selected using a convenience sampling method.
Findings
The results of the within-case analysis and the cross-case analysis indicate that the majority of the metrics were found to be useful and applicable to each of the SMEs and across the SMEs, respectively. These metrics emphasized measuring industrial sustainability performance related to financial benefits, costs and market competitiveness for the economic sustainability dimension; resources for the environmental sustainability dimension; and customers, employees and the community for the social sustainability dimension.
Research limitations/implications
Apart from the within-case analysis and cross-case analysis, it was not possible to conduct statistical analysis since a small number of SMEs were accessible to collect empirical data.
Originality/value
The findings of the paper have considerable academic, managerial and policy implications and will provide a theoretical basis for future research on measuring and managing industrial sustainability performance. By providing a set of empirically supported metrics based on the triple bottom line approach (i.e. economic, environmental and social metrics), this paper contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of industrial sustainability performance measurement.
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Azemeraw Tadesse Mengistu and Roberto Panizzolo
The lack of suitable indicators tailored to manufacturing industries’ needs, particularly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has been the major challenge to measure and…
Abstract
Purpose
The lack of suitable indicators tailored to manufacturing industries’ needs, particularly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has been the major challenge to measure and manage industrial sustainability performance. This paper aims to empirically analyze and select the useful and applicable indicators to measure sustainability performance in the context of SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review was carried out to identify potential sustainability indicators from the literature. A questionnaire was designed based on the identified indicators and then pretested with the selected industrial experts, scholars, and researchers to further refine the indicators before data collection from the Italian footwear SMEs. Fuzzy Delphi method with consistency aggregation method was applied to analyze and select the final indicators.
Findings
The study’s findings show that the selected indicators emphasized measuring progress toward achieving industrial sustainability goals in terms of increasing financial benefits, reducing costs, improving market competitiveness, improving the effectiveness of resources utilization, and promoting the well-being of employees, customers and the community. In doing so, Italian footwear SMEs can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by promoting health and well-being, promoting sustainable economic growth, providing productive employment and decent work, and ensuring responsible consumption and production.
Social implications
The results of this study have significant social implications in terms of promoting the well-being of employees, customers, and the community.
Originality/value
By providing empirically supported indicators tailored to measure and manage sustainability performance in the context of SMEs, this paper contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of industrial sustainability performance measurement. Furthermore, it links the selected indicators to their respective SDGs to provide policy implications.
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Pittawat Ueasangkomsate and Kamonchanok Suthiwartnarueput
This paper aimed to examine the relationship between green logistics management (GLM) practices and export intensity of Thai SMEs in food and drinks manufacturing. The research…
Abstract
This paper aimed to examine the relationship between green logistics management (GLM) practices and export intensity of Thai SMEs in food and drinks manufacturing. The research involved carrying out in-depth interviews with ten experts to shed light on factors of GLM practices. The authors used a questionnaire to survey the data amongst 89 SME exporters through purposive sampling with valid 52 responses. The managerial issues related to export intensity, GLM practices, with regards to whether firms followed ISO 14001 and whether they had an employee(s) responsible for environmental management. The findings suggest that greater GLM practices being applied lead to higher export intensity in SME. The results indicate that most SMEs apply GLM practices in all dimensions to gain the benefits from the export market. It also emerged that those following ISO 14001 and/or having an employee(s) were associated with having higher export intensity than those who did not engage in these practices.
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Intuitionistic linguistic fuzzy information (ILFI), characterized by linguistic terms and intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), can easily express the fuzzy information in the process…
Abstract
Purpose
Intuitionistic linguistic fuzzy information (ILFI), characterized by linguistic terms and intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs), can easily express the fuzzy information in the process of muticriteria decision making (MCDM) and muticriteria group decision making (MCGDM) problems. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of aggregation operators (AOs) and applications of ILFI.
Design/methodology/approach
First, some meaningful AOs for ILFI are summarized, and some extended MCDM approaches for intuitionistic uncertain linguistic variables (IULVs), such as extended TOPSIS, extended TODIM, extended VIKOR, are discussed. Then, the authors summarize and analyze the applications about the AOs of IULVs.
Findings
IULVs, characterized by linguistic terms and IFSs, can more detailed and comprehensively express the criteria values in the process of MCDM and MCGDM. Therefore, lots of researchers pay more and more attention to the MCDM or MCGDM methods with IULVs.
Originality/value
The authors summarize and analyze the applications about the AOs of IULVs Finally, the authors point out some possible directions for future research.
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At present, China’s forestry development is mainly driven by the traditional production factors such as forestry labor force, land resources and capital and thus the top priority…
Abstract
Purpose
At present, China’s forestry development is mainly driven by the traditional production factors such as forestry labor force, land resources and capital and thus the top priority of forestry development is to optimize forestry production factors. Scientific and effective forestry labor input has a significant role in promoting the development of forestry industry. Given that the actual input to forestry labor is not clear, the accuracy of the forestry industry development may be slightly affected. Based on the monitoring project of collective forest tenure reform (RCFT), this paper uses the survey data of 3,500 rural households in seven provinces of China from 2010 to 2014 and 2016 to 2017 to measure the actual labor force in China, and empirically analyzes and studies the factors influencing the development of forestry industry based on the provincial data of forestry in China, and further discusses the heterogeneous impact of forestry production factors on the development of forestry industry.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the generalized least squares estimation model is used to calculate the actual number of forestry labor in China, and then the Cobb–Douglas production function is selected to explore the influencing factors of forestry industry development.
Findings
The results show that the actual number of forestry labor force in China continues to decline and the degree of reduction varies from different regions. The forestry labor is a major factor that promotes the development of the forestry industry, but this promotion is affected by the low matching degree between the forestry production factors and thus further inhibits the development of the forestry industry. Due to the time lag of the reform, the implementation of RCFT first weakens and then promotes the development of forestry production. Further on, the forestry labor input is heterogeneous in land resource endowment, forestry investment source and the proportion of management personnel.
Originality/value
Therefore, researches show that the feasible way to promote the development of forestry industry is to expand the scale of forestry labor force, optimize the mutual allocation of forestry production factors, enhance the input of human capital in forestry and deepen the RCFT.
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As environmental awareness becomes more widespread, the issue of making manufacturing more sustainable has gained increasing attention. The natural-resource-based view (NRBV) sets…
Abstract
Purpose
As environmental awareness becomes more widespread, the issue of making manufacturing more sustainable has gained increasing attention. The natural-resource-based view (NRBV) sets out to explain how firms can reduce their environmental footprint while simultaneously improving their financial performance. Drawing on the NRBV and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) literature, this study examines the relationship between pollution prevention, risk-taking and financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 303 Swedish manufacturing firms were collected through a survey.
Findings
The findings reveals a positive relationship between pollution prevention and financial performance, and this relationship is found to be negatively moderated by risk-taking; that is, pollution prevention reduces the requisite for risk-taking in the achievement of financial performance.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore how risk-taking moderates the relationship between a pollution prevention strategy and financial performance.
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Jorge Aníbal Restrepo-Morales, Osmar Leandro Loaiza and Juan Gabriel Vanegas
This paper aims to study the influence of innovation on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) performance in Colombia through the 403 MSMES survey analysis. In…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the influence of innovation on micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) performance in Colombia through the 403 MSMES survey analysis. In particular, this paper measures the effect of participation in R&D alliances, product innovation and process innovation on it.
Design/methodology/approach
MSME performance is measured through a composite index, estimated through principal components analysis using polychoric correlations, which is based on eight self-reported assessments of MSME performance. Then, this measure of performance is related to MSME participation in R&D alliances and the product and process development stance of the MSME based on an adaptation of the Miles and Snow business classification scheme, by means of an ANOVA and a linear regression.
Findings
Colombian SMEs are not significantly benefitted from participation on R&D alliances. Instead, their performance appears to be dependent upon their internal innovation efforts directed to product development. Moreover, the results suggest that imitators get a performance almost as high as innovators.
Originality/value
Innovation activities in Colombian SMEs are carried out informally, as they are mostly uninterested to engage in R&D activities and to develop new products by own initiative. Moreover, few of them have an R&D department. In regard to technology, results suggest that almost half of SMEs are classified as followers, namely, they use the same technology as competitors.
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Linlin Xie, Ting Xu, Tianhao Ju and Bo Xia
The alienation of megaproject environmental responsibility (MER) behavior is destructive, but its mechanism has not been clearly depicted. Based on fraud triangle theory and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The alienation of megaproject environmental responsibility (MER) behavior is destructive, but its mechanism has not been clearly depicted. Based on fraud triangle theory and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method, this study explored the combined effect of antecedent factors on alienation of MER behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the fraud triangle theory and literature review, eight influencing factors associated with the alienation of MER behavior were first identified. Subsequently, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was used in this study to reveal configurations influencing alienation of MER behavior.
Findings
The study found nine configurations of MER behavioral alienation antecedent factors, integrated into three types of driving modes, i.e. “economic pressure + learning effect,” “institutional defect + moral rejection,” and “information asymmetry + economic pressure + expectation pressure.”
Originality/value
By analyzing the configuration effects of various induced conditions, this study puts forward a comprehensive analysis framework to solve the alienation of MER behavior in the megaprojects and a practical strategy to control alienation of MER behavior.
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