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The purpose of this paper is to propose and analyze the use of local surrogate models to improve differential evolution’s (DE) overall performance in computationally expensive problems.

DE is a popular metaheuristic to solve optimization problems with several variants available in the literature. Here, the offspring are generated by means of different variants, and only the best one, according to the surrogate model, is evaluated by the simulator. The problem of weight minimization of truss structures is used to assess DE’s performance when different metamodels are used. The surrogate-assisted DE techniques proposed here are also compared to common DE variants. Six different structural optimization problems are studied involving continuous as well as discrete sizing design variables.

The use of a local, similarity-based, surrogate model improves the relative performance of DE for most test-problems, specially when using r-nearest neighbors with r = 0.001 and a DE parameter F = 0.7.

The proposed methods have no limitations and can be applied to solve constrained optimization problems in general, and structural ones in particular.

The proposed techniques can be used to solve real-world problems in engineering. Also, the performance of the proposals is examined using structural engineering problems.

The main contributions of this work are to introduce and to evaluate additional local surrogate models; to evaluate the effect of the value of DE’s parameter F (which scales the differences between components of candidate solutions) upon each surrogate model; and to perform a more complete set of experiments covering continuous as well as discrete design variables.

This study aims to investigate how relational resources, such as the buyer’s trust in its suppliers and the level of supplier involvement, affect the level of tacit knowledge integration capabilities (TKICs) of the firm, which, in turn, is hypothesized to affect business performance.

Based on the dynamic capabilities theory and the relational view, this paper examines how TKIC, a special case of dynamic capability, influences business performance. The research context is the Brazilian automobile industry, in which firms are currently experimenting with modular production and increasing their interactions with suppliers. Using a sample of automobile suppliers, this investigates how relational resources, such as the buyer’s trust in its suppliers and the level of supplier involvement, affect the level of TKIC, which, in turn, is hypothesized to affect business performance. In addition, this paper examines the moderating effect of various communication media on the TKIC-business performance relationship. The findings confirm the importance of relational resources and TKIC on business performance. Finally, this paper explores various theoretical and managerial implications to encourage future research.

The results suggested that the two relational resources (supplier involvement and buyer’s trust) are important drivers of TKICs and that the level of supplier involvement in the production process mediates the relationship between buyer’s trust and TKIC. Moreover, this study found that TKIC leads to superior firm performance, but the degree of media naturalness does not seem to facilitate knowledge transfer. The results confirm that supplier involvement is a pivotal process in that the buying firm’s internal resources and the major suppliers’ resources and capabilities are combined to achieve a competitive advantage – TKIC.

This study is subject to the typical limitations inherent in cross-sectional research designs using subjective measures. That said, this still has some important implications indicating that relational resources, such as buyer’s trust and supplier involvement, are critical in developing TKIC that “seize” opportunities from interfirm relationships and integrate knowledge across and within firm boundaries. Moreover, while knowledge management tools can resemble face-to-face interactions to the largest extent, the research suggested that it cannot substitute face-to-face communications in transferring tacit knowledge.

Managers deal with complex interactions and linkages due to tacit knowledge from components, systems and modules, which are critical in developing organizational capabilities. Relational resources are important strategic assets facilitating resource combination and coordination. Managers must coordinate among multiple sources of learning and partner with their suppliers at an earlier stage to develop the relational capabilities and efficiently steer the process of boundary redefinition. Finally, managers must have the ability to manage tacit knowledge within the interface with suppliers using organizational mechanisms (i.e. TKIC) to help them absorb external knowledge from their supplier network and integrate it with specific internal competences.

Recent disruptive technological developments pressure organizations to become more flexible by requiring firms to adapt quickly to constantly changing markets and to have the ability to apply different resources and capabilities to specific unique situations. All this with a huge impact on the firm’s employees and society in general. Thus, interfirm relationships and the role of knowledge integration is especially crucial, given the current industry trend in favor of experimenting with innovative production methods (e.g. flexible manufacturing and modular production) that can help managers to rethink work conditions in a more meaningful and flexible for society.

While prior research treats integrative capability mainly as a mechanism that explains superior firms’ performance in an interfirm relationship, few research efforts have explicated what shapes TKICs. By examining the relationship between relational resources, TKIC and performance, this study fills this research gap and develops and tests a theoretical framework.

Interorganizational collaboration has been a major source of exploratory innovation. Despite much research, the authors’ understanding about how partner cultural distance is harnessed for exploratory innovation is limited. The authors’ conceptual framework aims to address this gap by explaining the social-psychological processes between perceived partner cultural distance and exploratory innovation.

Drawing on research in organizational learning and culture mixing, the authors propose a multilevel model with two parallel processes – cultural brokering and cultural defense. If managers are engaged in the former and are protected from the latter, then the partnership will produce more exploratory innovation. Cultural brokering is encouraged by prompting a learning mindset, while cultural defense is preempted by dampening social categorization across organizational boundaries.

Cultural brokering can be encouraged by building operational-level managers' (OLMs') collaborative strength through developing a learning orientation, allowing them delivery for exploration, cultivating mutual trust with partners. Cultural defense can be preempted by protecting OLMs from intergroup anxieties through providing organizational support to the OLMs, bridging social categorization faultlines and setting shared collaborative goals. Whether an alliance can unleash its potential depends on not just how cultural brokering is enabled but also how cultural defense is curtailed.

This paper takes a microfoundational approach and considers micro-level processes in a partnership. Furthermore, the model takes the operational managers' perspective and defines culture at the organizational level. All these differences allow us to provide a nuanced picture of how diverse partnerships can be harnessed for exploratory innovation through a few easily-implementable measures.

The focus of this paper is to further improve the implementation safeguard measures of the National Plan for Main Functional Zones of Ocean (NPMFZO) based on the implementation status of the national marine main functional area plan after the promulgation of the existing marine planning implementation safeguard measures, aiming at the problems existing in the implementation of the plan, to help the implementation of the plan more effective.

This paper reviews the historical process of the preparation and implementation of NPMFZO, analyzes the problems existing in the implementation of this plan, and puts forward some measures and suggestions under the background of the new national territory planning system.

In the new period, the authors should focus on building the evaluation system of planning implementation, strengthening the coordination with other plans, improving the supporting policies of planning and ensuring the effective implementation of the main functional zoning of oceans under the territorial spatial planning system.

This paper reviews some problems existing in the implementation of the NPMFZO and puts forward policy suggestions to ensure the implementation of the plan in the new period.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of research and development (R&D) investment and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance on green innovation performance. This paper also investigates the moderating effect of ESG performance between R&D investment and green innovation performance.

The study uses the data of 223 Chinese listed companies over the period 2015–2018. The ESG indices issued by SynTao Green Finance are used to measure ESG performance. Green innovation performance is measured by the total number of green patents, the number of green invention patents and the number of green non-invention patents. Finally, multiple regression analysis is applied to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that R&D investment has a positive impact on green innovation performance and ESG performance can increase the number of green invention patents. In addition, ESG performance moderates the relationship between R&D investment and green innovation performance.

The findings may help managers and policymakers in developing countries to make ecological innovation strategies to achieve corporate sustainability.

This is the first study to examine the impacts of R&D investment and ESG performance on green innovation performance in the context of China, an emerging market.

Due to volatile changes and crises in the business environment, frontline service employees (FSEs) are faced with increasing work stressors in the new service marketplace. Of these, customer incivility has been found to negatively affect their work outcomes. This study aims to examine the moderating effect of experiencing an imminent environmental crisis (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic) on the relationship between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting, using pre- and postpandemic samples.

The authors administered two-wave surveys to 276 FSEs (prepandemic sample) in July and October 2019 and to 301 FSEs (postpandemic sample) in March and April 2020.

Moderation analyses showed that the relationship between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting varied between FSEs who experienced the pandemic and those who did not; the relationship was stronger for the postpandemic than the prepandemic sample. There was a positive relationship between work engagement and job crafting; it was weaker for the postpandemic sample.

The deleterious effect of customer incivility exacerbated after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the authors did not explore why the pandemic aggravated the negative effect. The mechanism underlying the moderating effect of the pandemic and the effect of more diverse types of incivility should be explored in future research.

It is critical to provide FSEs with instrumental and emotional support to cope with the crisis brought on by the pandemic. Service organizations must monitor customers’ uncivil behaviors to identify their causes and develop interventions to improve service quality. Furthermore, service organizations are advised to enhance the coping capabilities of FSEs by using diverse interventions, such as emotion regulation training, debriefing sessions, short breaks and job crafting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to reveal the moderating effect of the pandemic on the relationships between customer incivility, work engagement and job crafting, using pre- and postpandemic samples. This study offers necessary insights to improve FSEs’ engagement at work and enhance their job crafting in the new service marketplace.

Claims that, in Singapore, there is intense competition among local banks, hence increasing emphasis is being placed on offering a high quality customer service. Investigates how customers choose which banks to use, taking into account factors such as non‐verbal communication (including behavioural/interpersonal communication and environmental – deriving meaning from one’s surroundings); convenience; reputation; supply of information; and cosmetic factors such as the bank’s stationery. Uses a verbal questionnaire survey to examine the effect non‐verbal communication has on bank patrons’ attitudes. Evaluates banks’ businesslike approach, competency, friendliness, warmness, environment, electronic tellers, location and queueing. Makes a number of recommendations on how banks can improve their image and the service they offer.

This paper aims to explore what factors influence the possibility of internal and external risk propagation in R&D networks and investigate how government intervention moderates the associations between the influencing factors and risk propagation.

The authors divided government intervention into directive and facilitative intervention and adopted an empirical research approach in this study. They collected 228 questionnaires from managers and R&D personnel participating in R&D projects in Shanghai and Jiangsu province through e-mail and in person. The data were used to carry out multiple regression analysis to test hypotheses.

The results show that the probability and consequence of risks positively affect the possibility of internal and external risk propagation; risk perception and transformation ability negatively influence the possibility of internal and external risk propagation; both directive and facilitative intervention weaken the relationship between the probability of risks and internal risk propagation when they are high than low the association between transformation ability and internal risk propagation is weaker when directive intervention is high than low, whereas facilitative intervention presents the insignificant moderation effect on the relationships between risk perception ability and internal and external risk propagation.

This study provides a distinctive theoretical perspective for risk conduction theory, government intervention theory and risk management. It also offered managers and the government a clear understanding of how to reduce or avoid risk propagation by leveraging directive and facilitative government intervention.

This paper aims to explore principal drivers affecting prices in the Australian housing market, aiming to detect the presence of housing bubbles within it. The data set analyzed covers the past two decades, thereby including the period of the most recent housing boom between 2012 and 2015.

The paper describes the application of combined enhanced rigorous econometric frameworks, such as ordinary least square (OLS), Granger causality and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) framework, to provide an in-depth understanding of house price dynamics and bubbles in Australia.

The empirical results presented reveal that Australian house prices are driven primarily by four key factors: mortgage interest rates, consumer sentiment, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 stock market index and unemployment rates. It finds that these four key drivers have long-term equilibrium in relation to house prices, and any short-term disequilibrium always self-corrects over the long term because of economic forces. The existence of long-term equilibrium in the housing market suggests it is unlikely to be in a bubble (Diba and Grossman, 1988; Flood and Hodrick, 1986).

The foremost contribution of this paper is that it is the first rigorous study of housing bubbles in Australia at the national level. Additionally, the data set renders the study of particular interest because it incorporates an analysis of the most recent housing boom (2012-2015). The policy implications from the study arise from the discussion of how best to balance monetary policy, fiscal policy and macroeconomic policy to optimize the steady and stable growth of the Australian housing market, and from its reconsideration of affordability schemes and related policies designed to incentivize construction and the involvement of complementary industries associated with property.

This study aims to analyze the transmission characteristics of a long-period grating (LPG) fabricated on plastic optical fibers (POFs) and its refractive index (RI) sensing.

The geometric optic method is used to analyze the factors affecting the transmission characteristics of an LPG on POFs. The RI sensing performances of unbent LPGs and U-bent LPGs fabricated on POFs with different diameters are evaluated experimentally.

This study shows that the transmission loss caused by LPG strongly depends on the structural parameters of LPG and the environmental RI. For the unbent LPG, the highest RI sensitivity of 1,015%/RI unit (RIU) was obtained in the RI range of 1.33–1.45. For the U-bent LPG without cladding, the highest RI sensitivities of 1,007 and 559%/RIU are obtained in the RI ranges of 1.33–1.40 and 1.40–1.45, respectively.

A geometric optic method is used to analyze the transmission characteristics for an LPG on POFs, and the RI sensing of the LPGs are studied experimentally. The results show the LPG has a good RI sensing performances and is with the features of low-cost, simple structure and easy fabrication.