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Based on definition and characteristic analysis, this paper seeks to propose a formation mechanism of knowledge rigidity, which is constituted by the effects of three precipitating factors: time‐effectiveness of knowledge, reinforcing effectiveness, and sunk cost effect in knowledge selection mechanism.

By presenting knowledge time‐effectiveness model, reinforcing effectiveness model, and knowledge selection mechanism, the paper theoretically analyzes firms' rigid behavior of knowledge application. Theories of increasing returns and sunk cost are introduced to explain the formation process of knowledge rigidity in firms. Two cases are presented to analyze the knowledge rigidity in industrial firms basing on the proposed models and mechanism.

First, the lifecycle of knowledge rigidity is dynamically defined by knowledge time‐effectiveness. Second, the degree of rigidity and firm's dependence on specific knowledge are enhanced by reinforcing effectiveness during the process of application. At the end of the life cycle, the sunk cost mainly hinders a firm's decision making to replace ineffective knowledge.

Quantitative research is needed to further explore the formation mechanism of knowledge rigidity and to present operational approaches for practitioners. The proposed models and mechanism are useful for understanding the knowledge rigidity and analyzing its formation mechanism in firms.

This paper provides theoretical support to realize knowledge rigidity in KM practice. Three indicators were proposed to evaluate the rigidity and action suggestions were given to help control knowledge rigidity in firms.

Causal analysis models and a formation mechanism are proposed to show how knowledge rigidity forms.

This study evaluates the implementation of ISO 9001 using total quality management on the engineering, procurement and construction phases in the Jordanian construction sector.

A quantitative design has been employed with a total of 132 project team members selected from 5 construction organizations working in Jordan. A close-ended questionnaire was used to gather data which was later evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results show a significant role in project performance, customer satisfaction, project quality, cost-effectiveness, time effectiveness, shared cooperation and motivation of employees. It emphasizes the role of engineering in achieving the ISO 9001 standard. Quality standards in the construction project were also endorsed by 46.2% of participants, while 33.3% responded neutrally. The time effectiveness aspects of ISO 9001 endorsed by 38.5% participants 33.3% participants disagreed. Majority of the managers (61.5%) agreed that poor planning is a major barrier in the engineering phase (p-value, 0.011), followed by the incomplete design (56.4%) as the prime impeding factors linked to the decline of the quality in the construction sector.

With the integration of the ISO 9001 quality standard, project managers can improve the project quality and make it cost-effective. The successful adaptation of the ISO 9001 certification allows the company to not only market its product/service but also internally audit itself for the possible deficits in its work capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay of the internet and the spatial designs of the bricks‐and‐mortar contexts within which face‐to‐face services are provided.

Focuses on the travel, the banking and book‐selling industries; the methods involve interviews, observation and visual material of the new physical spaces within which customer‐sales representatives interact face‐to‐face.

The internet has not reduced the importance of physical space; on the opposite, this study argues, it has revalorised and emphasized the significance of space.

The study's explorative nature does not allow for generalization. Whereas space and time are traditionally regarded as contextual factors, this study recognizes their dynamic nature, regarding spacing and timing as economic phenomena. However, further studies may seek to establish more thoroughly such economic effects.

Changes in spatial layouts of a work place leads to novel spatial practices, which require new personnel competencies. For example, employees' more intimate interactions with customers entail new demands on employees' interpersonal skills and competence. By the same token, new metrics are required for measuring the performance and efficiency of employees.

Highlights the relationship among new technologies, changes in the nature of face‐to‐face services, spatial layouts, and change in time orientation, namely a change from time effectiveness towards interaction effectiveness.

This study aims to explore how to apply and integrate the performance management (PM) process in humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) among and between humanitarian organizations (HOs) and donors so as to improve cost-efficiency (CE) and lead-time effectiveness (LTE) in the stage of natural disaster preparedness.

This study adapts and operationalizes a framework for the PM process used in commercial supply chains to assess HSCs. A multiple-case study with two types of actors – six HOs and three donors—is used to describe the applications of the PM process and analyze the level of integration between the actors.

The activities in the PM process could sometimes be only vaguely described. Both actors emphasized improving CE, with less emphasis on LTE. Both actors have a low level of integration in each PM process activity, decreasing the CE and LTE. Therefore, guidelines for improving the level of PM process integration are provided.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to combine literature on HSCs and PM process integration, thereby contributing to both literature fields. The concrete contribution of this study is a framework for PM process application and integration among and between HOs and donors.

The PM process framework can be used to assess PM process application, as well as current and increased level of integration, to improve CE and LTE. The current applications can also inspire other HOs and donors.

Previous studies indicate the lack of frameworks in the PM domain of HSCs, especially in the stage of natural disaster preparedness.

Recently the route connecting the trans-Korean railway and the trans-Siberian railway has become of particular interest for many academics and policy-makers in East Asian countries. The extensive review of previous studies, however, reveals that literature on the subject is lacking solid analytical framework. Most studies are one-sided, focusing on the political aspects of the issue or paying little attention to the economic aspects of the problem.

This study intends to develop an analytical framework through which the most efficient route among four major alternative routes connecting the trans-Korean and trans-Siberian railways can be identified. It attempts to assign priorities to the four alternative routes according to their level of economic efficiency.

This study utilizes a simple cost-benefit analysis in evaluating the four routes. Cost side, transportation time, effectiveness of customs procedures, and gauge difference are selected as the main economic factors. The volume of cargo, industrial production in adjacent regions, access to natural resources, and market size and foreign investment climate are used to evaluate the benefits of the routes.

The study concludes that Route 3, which connects ‘Busan - Seoul (South Korea) –Pyongyang -Sinuiju (North Korea) –Shenyang –Beijing - Erenhot (China) –Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) –Ulan-Ude - Moscow (Russia)’ is the most efficient route.

The rising operating cost of providing healthcare is of concern to health care providers. As such, measurement of procurement performance will enable competitive advantage and provide a framework for continuous improvement. The objective of this paper is to develop a procurement performance measurement system.

The paper reviews the existing literature in procurement performance measurement to identify the key areas of purchasing performance. By studying the three components in the supply chain collectively with the resources, procedures and output, a model is been developed. Additionally, a balanced scorecard is proposed by establishing a set of generic measures and six perspectives. A case study conducted at the Singapore Hospital applies the conceptual model to describe the purchasing department and the activities within and outside the department.

The results indicate that the material management department has already made a good start in measuring the procurement process through the implementation of the balanced scorecard.

There are many data that are collected but not properly collated and utilized. Areas lacking measurement include cycle time of delivery, order processing time, effectiveness, efficiency and reliability. Though a lot of hard work was involved, the advantages of establishing a measurement system outweigh the costs and efforts involved in its implementation.

Results of balanced scorecard measurements provide decision‐makers with critical information on efficiency and effectiveness of the purchasing department's work.

The measurement model developed could be used for any hospital procurement system.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of trust and perceived value (PV) in customer intentions to adopt mobile money application (MMA) services. Trust and PV were broken down into various dimensions. This study investigated the two-component base trusts, namely, economic and service, and also PV as an antecedent.

This study involved 402 respondents selected through the interception and online survey approach and had five hypotheses. The structural equation model was used to test the hypothesis of this study.

The findings showed that the PV was related to the customer’s intention to use MMA services and economy-based trust. Trust in service providers and economic-based trust were positively related to customer intentions to use MMA services.

Although the concept of MMA has been explored in several literatures, the role of trust and PV in the use of MMA has not been of much concern among researchers. In addition, this study described PV as a construction with five supporting dimensions. The current literature showed that the integration of PV with construct trust was still lacking in attention from researchers especially the study of MMA.

For practitioners, these findings confirmed that MMA service providers need to convince customers of protection to money and personal information. Also, providers need to ensure that the use of MMA provides cost and time effectiveness. Besides, it is important to ensure the services provided to customers are the fastest way to carry out financial transactions, in this case, including payment and retail purchases. This finding also showed that PV related to MMA services needs to be studied from a customer perspective, focusing on four aspects of ethics, playfulness, customer return of investment and excellent service. Therefore, handling PV in these services requires specific strategies to deal with these various aspects.

This study integrated two dimensions of trust, thus economic trust and service trust, the authors also integrated dimension of PV as the antecedent of two dimensions of trust, to understand the dimension of intention use MMA.

In the present work a rigid‐plastic finite element formulation using a dynamic explicit time integration scheme is proposed for numerical analysis of sheet metal forming processes. The rigid‐plastic finite element method, based on membrane elements, has long been employed as a useful numerical technique for the analysis of sheet metal forming because of its time effectiveness. The explicit scheme, in general, is based on the elastic‐plastic modelling of material requiring large computation time. The resort to rigid‐plastic modelling would improve the computational efficiency, but this involves new points of consideration such as zero energy mode instability. A damping scheme is proposed in order to achieve a stable solution procedure in dynamic sheet forming problems. In order to improve the drawbacks of the conventional membrane elements, BEAM (abbreviated from Bending Energy Augmented Membrane) elements, are employed. Rotational damping and spring about the drilling direction are introduced to prevent a zero energy mode. The lumping scheme is employed for the diagonal mass matrix and linearizing dynamic formulation. A contact scheme is developed by combining the skew boundary condition and a direct trial‐and‐error method. Computations are carried out for analysis of complicated sheet metal forming processes such as forming of an oilpan and a front fender. The numerical results of explicit analysis are compared with the implicit results, with good agreement, and it is shown that the explicit scheme requires much shorter computational times, especially when the problem becomes more complicated. It is thus shown that the proposed dynamic explicit rigid‐plastic finite element enables an effective computation for complicated sheet metal processes.

The study explores the perspectives of college students on the pedagogical shift as well as frequent transitions between online and offline learning modes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala, the most literate state in India.

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,366 college students in Kerala during December 2021. A pre-tested questionnaire was sent using Google Forms to students of arts and science colleges. The authors analyzed quantitative data using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using thematic content analysis.

The reported advantages of online learning were increased technical skill, flexibility in study time, effectiveness in bridging the gap of the missed academic period and provision of attending more educational webinars. Students expressed concerns of increased workload, difficulty in concentration due to family circumstances, academic incompetency, uncleared doubts and addiction to mobile phones and social media during the online classes. The main advantages reported for switching to an offline learning mode were enhanced social interaction, effective learning, better concentration and reduced stress. The reported challenges of offline classes were fear of getting the disease, concern of maintaining social distancing and difficulty in wearing masks during the classes. The shift in offline to online learning and vice versa was perceived as a difficult process for the students as it took a considerable time for them to adjust to the switching process of learning.

Students' concerns regarding transition between different learning modes provide important information to educators to better understand and support the needs of students during the pandemic situations.

Project management tools and techniques have been widely adopted in the construction industry; however, its combination with Six Sigma and application in construction procurement has not been widely researched. This paper explores the use of Six Sigma Project Procurement (SSPP) and its potential applications in public sector construction procurement.

The role of Six Sigma and project management in construction is critically evaluated using three case studies to demonstrate their application in public procurement.

The use of SSPP by public sector organisations creates efficient and effective construction procurement processes by addressing delays. The proposed timelines for competitive tendering in the Ghanaian Public Procurement Manual are not realistic.

This paper contributes to and broadens the limited body of evidence and knowledge of applying SSPP to public procurement processes and identifies areas for further research.

Project management will continue to expand in the global construction industry. However, what will eventually determine if SSPP is embraced by public sector construction depends on the leadership and success of its execution. The application of SSPP to public construction procurement will address delays and lead to significant time reduction of the process. This will eliminate the major issue (delay) accounting for deficiencies in the process.

The paper yields immense value to construction project management researchers and practitioners, especially in the public sector. It recommends the inclusion of Six Sigma to promote focus on actual instead of perceived problems and advocates for decisions-making based on facts which will ensure continuous improvement.