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Application environments of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) include heterogeneous nodes with different packet sizes, transmission abilities and tolerable delay times. This study aims to design a reasonable network topology and transmission timing for these heterogeneous nodes to improve the quality of service (QoS) of networks.

In this paper, the authors treat node urgency and data packets as the basis of network clustering and to extend the network lifetime. The flow, energy consumption and residual energy of a node are included in the cluster head election. We also propose a delay evaluation function.

All the nodes in the network are guaranteed to transmit to the sink nodes efficiently by planning the transmission order in each cluster.

The simulation results show that the proposed method can balance node urgency and data packets path planning, which not only extends the lifetime of the network but also decreases network delay and improves the overall efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to build a research model to examine the effects of business planning on the new venture emergence, as well as to examine the moderating effects of innovativeness of products.

Four hypotheses are put forward and examined by hierarchical binary logistic regression. The data of this paper are based on the first two waves of data from Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics project.

Results show that engaging in business planning has a positive effect on the new venture emergence, and the timing of business planning does not affect the new venture emergence significantly. This study also finds that the innovativeness of products has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the timing of business planning and the new venture emergence.

This study has some limitations. The innovativeness of products is measured by a single indicator, which may not completely reflect the meaning of the attribute. Moreover, this study explores new ventures only in the nascent stage.

The study is useful for entrepreneurs to realize the importance of business planning. First, engaging in business planning in early start-up stage is a very valuable activity, because business planning can help new ventures reduce the loss caused by trial and error learning. Second, engaging in business planning is more likely to ensure high innovative products quickly be accepted by the market. Because in the process of new venture emergence, the legitimacy signal to stakeholders can be transmitted and new products can be promoted to get support and recognition from stakeholder through the business plan.

This paper focuses on the early stage of new venture life cycle and the contextual factors to explore the influence of business planning on the new venture emergence under the logic of legitimacy. This paper could enrich business planning research from the perspective of legitimacy theory by inspiring scholars to focus on the differences between new ventures and mature enterprises and to offer proposals of legitimation strategies suitable for new ventures. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the understanding of the contextual factors of business planning. And it discusses the impact of the attribute in business planning on the new venture emergence, which helps scholars to get a deep thought about the value of business planning in entrepreneurial process.

The purpose of this paper is to build a research model from the perspectives of entrepreneur and entrepreneurial opportunity examining the effects of entrepreneurial growth aspiration and the innovativeness of entrepreneurial opportunity and their interactive effect on the business planning in the new venture emergence.

Six hypotheses are put forward and examined by hierarchical multiple linear regression and multiple logistic regression. The data of this paper are based on the first two rounds of survey data from Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics.

The empirical results show that entrepreneurial growth aspiration has significant positive effects on the business planning, namely, compared to the comfortable size entrepreneurs, the growth-oriented entrepreneurs are more likely to do the business planning in the new venture emergence. Different from prior discoveries, the innovativeness of opportunity has no effect on the business planning, but it positively influences the time of doing business planning, and entrepreneurial growth aspiration has a positive moderate effect on this relationship.

Entrepreneurial growth aspiration in this paper is divided into growth-oriented entrepreneur and comfortable size entrepreneur from the single perspective of scale. Future research should define growth aspiration as a continuous variable in light of several dimensionalities.

The findings are useful for entrepreneurs to make rational and effective decisions whether to do business planning and when to do on the basis of their growth aspiration and the innovativeness of opportunity. The growth-oriented entrepreneur should do the business planning in the new venture emergence. The higher innovative the opportunity is, the latter the entrepreneur had better do the business planning. Besides, it provides the theoretical foundation for entrepreneurship training courses about business planning offered by governments, educational institutions and social training institutions.

This paper absorbs growth aspiration into the analysis framework about business planning based on expectancy theory, making up for deficiencies that prior researches excessively focus on entrepreneurial experience and opportunity. Additionally, the study will inspire scholars to research the mechanism of action relative to business planning from the interactive relationship between entrepreneur and entrepreneurial opportunity.

This study examines the significance of time as a paradoxical factor and value in 21^st century public policy, management, and planning. Five areas are considered: (1) time as a strategic and moral concern, (2) examples of planning and time in public environments ranging from the individual level to the agency, policy, process, and contextual levels, (3) time in recent social and administrative theory, (4) time as a cognitive capability, and (5) the connection between time, planning, and learning. Conclusions and implications are developed to highlight the paradoxical status of planning and time in todayʼs public environment, and to suggest that, for public administrators, serving the public interest, near-term and long-term, is the heart of assuring that time becomes a central strategic and moral concern for public administration today.

The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions:

The main purpose of this paper is to document the research on development of a conceptual framework for the supply chain. The aims of the research were to develop an integrated framework, and to provide a methodology for planning of many components in the supply chain such as suppliers, materials, resources, warehouses, activities and customers. The proposed framework is based on the unitary structuring technique where bills of materials, bills of warehouses, project networks and operations routings, in both manufacturing and distribution networks, are combined into a single structure.

The framework is described along with illustrated numerical examples in the manufacturing and distribution environments.

The numerical testing has shown that each network in the supply chain provides an integrated approach to planning and execution of many components, and is capable of providing visibility, flexibility and maintainability for further improvement in the supply chain environment.

The framework and planning approach developed in this research are new in the area of supply chain management and provide a foundation for planning, control and execution in supply chain in various industries.

The aim of this paper is to conceptualize time as an important dimension of institutions and, more specifically, to develop the analysis of institutions, time, and temporal misfits. The paper explores these matters in the context of an inter‐institutional project where actors, who represent different organizational fields and respond to different institutional requirements with regards to time and timing, need to collaborate.

The paper centers on three critical incidents taken from a study of a large‐scale telecom project in Norway. The paper is based on an analysis of public documents and 35 interviews with key stakeholders and managers in the focal project.

This research shows that temporal misfits are a critical, yet understudied, element of project organizing. The paper suggests and discusses three primary measures – detecting, correcting, and escaping – that project management makes use of to resolve temporal misfits among the actors involved. To advance the analysis of problems facing projects in institutionally‐bounded settings, the paper proposes a typology of temporal misfits (phase and tempo) and different types of complexity (analyzable and systemic).

Although purposeful in many instances, especially in collaborations across institutional boundaries, timing norms may cause profound organizational problems due to temporal misfits among the actors involved. The paper argues that project managers need to identify and be prepared for such organizational problem by being equipped with a repertoire of resolution strategies to handle them. New concepts and approaches are needed to identify and deal with temporal misfits among important stakeholders in projects.

A number of previous studies on project organizing have emphasized the critical aspects of studying institutions and time; but to date, no comprehensive efforts have been made to combine these ideas in empirical investigations. This study emphasizes the criticality of timing norms and temporal misfits to enhance our understanding of the linkages between projects, institutions, and time.

Purpose: This chapter introduces a choice modeling framework that explicitly represents the planning and action stages of the choice process.

Methodology: A discussion of evidence from behavioral research is followed by the development of a discrete choice modeling framework with explicit planning and action submodels. The plan/action choice model is formulated for both static and dynamic contexts; where the latter is based on the Hidden Markov Model. Plans are often unobservable and are treated as latent variables in model estimation using observed actions.

Implications: By modeling the interactions between the planning and action stages, we are able to incorporate richer specifications in choice models with better predictive and policy analysis capabilities. The applications of this research in areas such as driving behavior, route choice, and mode choice demonstrate the advantages of the plan/action model in comparison to a “black box” choice model in terms of improved microsimulations of behaviors that better represent real-life situations. As such, the outcomes of this chapter are relevant to researchers and policy analysts.

Relatively few studies about retirement transition examine economies, where a public pension system is absent. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature.

The present study draws on the stratification and risk society approach, as well as results from unstructured interviews with 12 Chinese in Hong Kong.

The analyses show that the retirement transition involves moving between different forms of wage work and non-work status. These moves were undertaken because of not only financial needs but also a strong desire to be a financially self-reliant and intrinsic commitment to employment. The authors argue that the desire and commitment to employment are shaped by the underdeveloped pension system, practical orientation towards traditional Chinese filial piety norms and personal work history.

The current research covers only a very small sample and uses retrospective interviewing instead of a larger and/or representative sample using prospective panel interview. Nevertheless, the research carries theoretical and policy implications of the study on retirement transition and protection.

Few local studies track retirement transitions in the way similar to the current studies. Existing studies are mostly about advanced Anglo-Saxon economies with a long history of public pension, albeit reformed in recent year, in place. The current study adds to the general literature on retirement studies.

The paper seeks to describe the state‐of‐the‐art, reasons for selecting various material planning methods, and modes of applying methods for initiating inventory replenishment of purchased items. It also identifies trends from 1993 to 2005.

Empirical survey data are collected from Swedish manufacturing companies in 1993, 1999 and 2005. The MRP, re‐order point, fixed interval ordering, run‐out time, and Kanban methods are studied.

MRP is the most commonly used method and its position has strengthened since 1993. A common way of determining parameters such as order quantities and safety stocks is to use judgment and experience. Parameters used in material planning methods are reviewed relatively infrequently. The planning frequency has increased, with daily planning now being typical.

The major limitation is that different data collection techniques were used in 1993 compared with 1999 and 2005. An important research implication is that the state‐of‐the‐art applications differ from theoretically appropriate application modes. The trends are towards less appropriate modes among the most widespread applications.

The frequency of reviewing planning variables is relatively low in industry, and should in most situations be increased. The paper implies that more user‐friendly software applications need to be developed and implemented. It could serve as guidelines when designing and developing training and education programs and function as a benchmark.

The paper provides a longitudinal state‐of‐the‐art description of materials planning usage and identifies application modes with positive and negative performance impact.