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Statistical modeling has been successfully applied to integrated circuit (IC) solder joint inspection. However, there are some inherent problems in previous statistical modeling methods. This paper aims to propose an adaptive statistical modeling method to further improve the inspection performance for IC solder joints.

First, different pixels in the IC solder joint image were modeled by different templates, each of which was composed of the hue value of the pixel and a proposed template significance factor. Then, the potential defect image was obtained by adaptive template matching and the potential defect threshold for each pixel. It was noted that the number of templates, matching distance threshold, potential defect threshold and updating rate were adaptively updated during model training. Finally, the trained statistical model was used to inspect the IC solder joints by means of defect degree.

Experimental results indicated that the proposed adaptive schemes greatly contributed to the inspection performance of statistical modeling. Also, the proposed inspection method achieved better performance compared with some state-of-the-art inspection methods.

The proposed method offers a promising approach for IC solder joint inspection, which establishes different numbers of templates constructed by pixel values and template significance factors for different pixels. Also, some important parameters were adaptively updated with the updating of the model, which contributed to the inspection performance of the model.

This paper reports results of analyses made at an all-female Gulf Arab university measuring the nature and extent of biases in students' evaluation of faculty. Comparisons are made with research reporting the nature of similar relationships in North America. Two issues are investigated: 1) What variables (if any) bias faculty evaluation results at an all-female Arab university? 2) Are biasing variables different in nature or magnitude to those reported at North America universities? Using the population of 13,300 faculty evaluation records collected over two school years at Zayed University, correlations of faculty evaluation results to nine potentially biasing factors are made. Results show biases to faculty evaluation results do exist. However, biases are small, and strikingly similar in nature to those reported at North American universities.

Purpose: Risk is a multifaceted concept, and its identification requires complex approaches that are often misunderstood. The consequence is that decisions are based on limited perception rather than the full value and meaning of what risk is, as a result, the way it is being tackled is incorrect. The individuals are often limited in their perceptions and ideas and do not embrace the full multifaceted nature of risk. Regulators and individuals want to follow norms and checklists or overuse models, simulations, and templates, thereby reducing responsibility for decision-making. At the same time, the wider use of technology and rules reduces the critical thinking of individuals. We advance the automation process by building robots that follow protocols and forget about the part of risk assessment that cannot be programed. Therefore, with this study, the objective of this study was to discover how people define risk, the influencing factors of risk perception and how they behave toward this perception. The authors also determine how the perception differed with age, gender, marital status, education level and region. The novelty of the research is related to individual risk perception during COVID-19, as this is a new and unknown phenomenon. Methodology: The research is based on the analysis of the self-administered purposely designed questionnaires we distributed across different social media platforms between February and June 2020 in Europe and in some cases was carried out as a interview over communication platforms such as “Skype,” “Zoom” and “Microsoft Teams.” The questionnaire was divided into four parts: Section 1 was designed to collect demographic information from the participants; Section 2 included risk definition statements obtained from literature and a preliminary discussion with peers; Section 3 included risk behavior statements; and Section 4 included statements on risk perception experiences. A five-point Likert Scale was provided, and participants were required to answer along a scale of “1” for “Strongly Agree” to “5” for “Strongly Disagree.” Participants also had the option to elaborate further and provide additional comments in an open-ended box provided at the end of the section. 466 valid responses were received. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze the interviews and the open-ended questions, while the questionnaire responses were analyzed using various quantitative methods on IBM SPSS (version 23). Findings: The results of the analysis indicate that individuals evaluate the risk before making a decision and view risk as both a loss and opportunity. The study identifies nine factors influencing risk perception. Nevertheless, it must be emphasized that we can continue to develop models and rules, but as long as the risk is not understood, we will never achieve anything.

Scaling up smart city infrastructure projects will require a large financial investment. Using public–private partnerships is one of the most effective ways to address budget constraints. Numerous factors have varying degrees of influence on the performance of Public private partnerships (PPP) projects; certain PPP factors are more crucial to the success of a smart city infrastructure project than others, and their influence can be greatly increased when they are fulfilled collectively. This study aims to find out what factors are unique to smart city PPP initiatives, as well as how these factors work together, so that successful smart city infrastructure PPP projects can be scaled up.

The methodology included three sequential stages: identifying the critical success factors (CSF) of PPP for smart cities based on an extensive literature review, collecting data from a sample of 90 PPP practitioners using a Likert scale questionnaire and estimating interrelationships among the CSF and their emergent clusters using structural equation modelling.

The best fit model developed in this study demonstrated the significance of each factor and their interrelationships within their categories in enhancing the performance of PPPs in smart city infrastructure projects. Five categories of critical success factors for PPPs in smart city infrastructure projects have been established: partnership and collaboration; financial sustainability; contractual duties and outsourcing; smart integration; and contract governance.

The proposed model represented the causal interrelationships among relevant critical success factors derived from literature, which may help in directing the organization’s attention and resources to more critical areas, leading to the effective fulfilment of the smart city infrastructure project’s objectives. In addition to the theoretical and methodological contributions, this study produced a usable and readily adaptable list and clusters of critical success factors for research in the area of the implementation of PPP in smart city infrastructure projects.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify PPP critical success factors and their themed clusters for smart city infrastructure projects.

Adequate reliable property market data are critical to the production of professional and ethical valuations as well as better real estate transaction decision-making. However, the availability of reliable property market information represents a major barrier to improving valuation practices in Ghana and it is regarded as a key challenge. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources and reliability of property market information for valuation practice in Ghana. The aim is to provide input into initiatives to address the availability of reliable property market data challenges.

A mixed methods research approach is used. The study, thus, relies on a combination of a systematic identification and review of literature, a stakeholder workshop and a questionnaire survey of real estate valuers in Accra, Ghana’s capital city to obtain requisite data to address the aim.

The study identifies seven property market data sources used by valuers to obtain market data for valuation practice. These are: valuers own database; public institutions; professional colleagues; property owners; estate developers; estate agents; and the media. However, access to property market information for valuations is a challenge although valuers would like to use reliable market data for their valuations. This is due to incomplete and scattered nature of data often borne out of administrative lapses; non-disclosure of details of property transactions due to confidentiality arrangements and the quest to evade taxes; data integrity concerns; and lack of requisite training and experience especially for estate agents to collect and manage market data. Although professional colleagues is the most used market data source, valuers own databases, was regarded as the most reliable source compared to the media, which was considered as the least reliable source.

Findings from the study imply a need for the development of a systematic approach to property market data collection and management. This will require practitioners to demonstrate care, consciousness and a set of data collection skills suggesting a need for valuers and estate agents to undergo regular relevant training to develop and enhance their knowledge, skills and capabilities. The establishment of a property market databank to help in the provision of reliable market data along with a suitable market data collection template to ensure effective and efficient data collection are considered essential steps.

The study makes a significant contribution to the extant knowledge by providing empirical evidence on the frequency of use and the reliability of the various sources of market data. It also provides useful insights for regulators such as the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and other stakeholders such as the Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE) and the Government to improve the provision of reliable property market information towards developing valuation practice not only in Ghana, but across the Sub-Saharan Africa Region. Also, based on these findings, the study proposes a new property market data collection template and guidelines towards improving the collection of effective property market data. Upon refinement, these could aid valuation practitioners to collect reliable property market data to improve valuation practice.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model that uses “organizational attention” as an explanatory factor of knowledge transfer, and apply it to firms pursuing a replication strategy – like McDonalds or Starbucks.

Data were collected from three coffee chains, empirical findings that operationalize and illustrate their different attention profiles are presented, and differences in their replication outcomes are demonstrated. The paper concludes with some qualitative analyses of the linkages between attention and replication success.

Each chain has a different attention profile, reflected in varying attention to knowledge sources and domains. These profiles are found to be consistent with each three outcome measures of each chain's replication strategy – namely uniformity, accuracy, and distinctiveness.

The paper extends prior understanding of the knowledge based view of the firm, organization, learning, cognitive limits, attention, and templates into an explanatory model of the process of knowledge flows, selection, and effectiveness in implementing replication strategies in service firms.

The proposed model is a pioneering examination of the influence of organizational attention on exploiting knowledge as a strategic resource; and specifically on three indications of the success of the replication strategy, namely accuracy, uniformity, and distinctiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to address the research-practice gap in management and advocate the need for an independent organization, called the evidence-based management (EBMgt) collaboration to facilitate generation and dissemination of knowledge that is rigorous, relevant, and actionable.

The authors use a theory-building approach to collaboration. They identify existing challenges in the research-practice gap literature and argue that EBMgt offers the most viable alternative to narrow this gap. They offer a theory of collaboration with supporting propositions that engages the generators, disseminators, and users of management knowledge in an ongoing sustainable collaboration toward EBMgt.

The authors envision evidence at the center of the EBMgt collaboration. They offer a process model of EBMgt incorporating a collaboration that ensures the fusion of rigor, relevance, and actionability of management knowledge toward the production of strong evidence that is of value to a decision maker. They suggest that the collaboration generate evidence in the form of a systematic review (SR) using a standard template and make it available online to management decision makers around the world in real time. They outline the parameters of the SR and offer details on the design of the Template.

The theory of collaboration brings together various competing ideas and recommendations made over the past few decades to close the research-practice gap in management. The theory can be used as a guideline to establish and maintain the operation of an EBMgt collaboration.

The authors offer details on the format and content of a standardized SR along with a template to execute it. They believe it would appeal to a practicing manager to know the state-of-the-art knowledge that applies to a decision that he or she is about to make in real time.

The work provides a theoretical platform for the idea of EBMgt collaboration that was not available before. The authors add value to the research-practice gap literature by addressing critical concerns including the identification of relevant research questions, evaluating and grading evidence, fostering communication between researchers and practitioners, and translating research to practicing managers. The integration of research and organizational knowledge in the form of an SR that provides decision support to a practicing manager is of significant value to the profession. The conceptualization of the collaboration, not as a research method but as a separate social system that links key management knowledge stakeholders together adds originality to collaboration research.

Because of the education sector’s evolution, accounting initiatives are required regarding competitiveness. Activity-based costing’s (ABC) neglected potential as a cost strategic tool initiated this research, which aims to identify administrative and operational factors that support or hinder its implementation in educational institutions as a predictor of competitiveness.

A theoretical model was proposed and tested through structural equation modeling to identify relationships between accounting departments, cost procedures, the transmissibility of information and competitiveness. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, a scale of items was derived, denoting an institute’s cost strategy and ABC implementations and returned from 417 Greek education institutes.

An accounting department’s role in accurate data transmissibility and an institution’s organizational structure significantly affect cost-related competitiveness. The importance of information sharing is strengthened by current cost allocation capabilities and the accounting department’s influence on management.

ABC’s limited implementation in the Greek education sector complicated the theoretical model’s construction, as a variety of geographical and institutional factors were taken into consideration.

Customer value provides a competitive advantage and constitutes the basis of solid price strategies. Research demonstrates ABC’s importance for education institutions’ competitiveness and resource exploitation.

Education’s commercialization urges costing strategy prioritization. ABC could benefit competitiveness and attract long-term funds and investments. To create value institutions, the allocation of incurred costs to added-value activities is crucial.

This study sheds light on vague issues institutions face when dealing with ABC. Understanding accounting departments’ influence shows ABC’s feasibility even for smaller or less efficiency-oriented education institutions.

Digital Service innovation (DSI) plays a fundamental role in the successful transition from product manufacturer or traditional service provider to a provider of digitally-enabled service solutions. Multiple impediments make managing this transformation using digital technologies difficult for firms, their customers and wider ecosystems. Extant knowledge of these digital technology impediments requires synthesizing and mapping.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. DSI tools and terminology are synthesized via thematic analysis. Subsequently, impediments to DSI for servitization (covering barriers, challenges and tensions) faced by actors across three key innovation phases: strategic planning, design planning and implementation, and four interaction levels (Micro, Meso, Macro-environment, Macro-ecosystem) are mapped via template analysis.

Six impediment categories (external environmental factors, internal firm factors, capabilities, business models and processes, value creation and interaction) encompassing 28 unique impediment types to DSI during servitization are identified. A framework enabling impediment comparison across innovation phases and ecosystem/network interaction levels, revealing that the majority of barriers can be framed as “challenges” was developed.

Whilst literature is emerging relating to digital servitization, there is a lack of research on the role DSI plays in facilitating digital servitization and no comprehensive study of DSI impediments exists. Additionally, consensus around the cross-disciplinary terminologies used is lacking. This study is a structured attempt to map the domain, summarizing the terms, identifying and clarifying impediment categories and providing recommendations for researchers and managers in tackling the latter.

This paper seeks to explain how team training in template construction and maintenance is achieved to improve the performance of individuals and teams on the job. The aim is to explain the training model in detail and to present the theory base for the model. Also, another important purpose is to demonstrate how the model is actually used in the field.

The methodology consists of two major features: the explication of how the template approach is applied, in general; and then the performance of teams and groups of employees is compared following training. It shows that one group was trained in the template approach, while the other group was trained using more conventional methods.

The hypotheses stated that in comparing the differently trained teams/groups there would be no difference in performance on these measures: gross sales attained; manager rating of employee performance; and customer satisfaction with regard to sales representatives; product knowledge; helpfulness in the business context; and overall performance. Significant differences were noted for manager rating, product knowledge, and overall performance. The groups could be compared; however, the teams were too small to rely on standard statistical tools for analysis.

The study was exploratory in nature with a limited range of performance measures. The sample sizes (teams) were not large; however, the groups were large enough to make comparisons. The use of different pairs of trainers for the sub‐samples helps to dampen trainer bias but also creates differences in training conditions that could influence employee learning and performance.

The results demonstrate that the training approach has merit and warrants further study. The study depicts how a partnership among trainers, managers, and employees can lead to successful training outcomes. Another implication is that it is possible to involve trainers, teams and managers, cooperatively, to create models of training and performance improvement.

There are only a few templates or script‐based approaches reported in the training literature; hence this work adds to the literature. The template approach helps team members leverage their learning and also improve performance.