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How to determine the appropriate contractual structure for an outsourcing relationship has been a major theme in the business process outsourcing (BPO) literature. Drawing on transaction cost economics, this study aims to examine how anticipated coordination and adaptation costs in a BPO relationship affect the choice of contract types. Specifically, this research categorizes contracts types (fixed-price, time and materials and hybrid contracts) based on levels of contract design comprehensiveness and flexibility to change.

The research setting is the BPO for a focal firm, involving a contractor. Data from 153 US companies are collected using a structured questionnaire on senior executives of functional areas of marketing, IT and finance. Hypotheses were tested using ordered probit model.

The results show that maturity is negatively associated with anticipated adaptation costs, while modularity and IT detachability are negatively related to anticipated coordination costs. Furthermore, adaptation costs have a direct impact on the choice, whereas the anticipated coordination costs do not have a significant direct impact on contract choice. The strength of adaptation costs' impact, however, is significantly reduced when coordination costs are high.

This study explicitly examines the role of anticipated coordination and adaptation costs in shaping the strategic choice of contract types in the BPO market. By differentiating the two types of anticipated transaction costs, this research enables a better understanding of the dynamics between transaction characteristics, anticipated transaction costs and contract types in complicated relationships such as BPO relationships.

The purpose of this study is to identify a typology of procurement contracts in the context of software development projects that allows firms to align design flexibility with design uncertainty at the project level. The theoretical lenses of contract theory and software engineering are used to explain why the five archetypes in the proposed typology provide gradually increasing levels of design flexibility and to develop hypotheses about the associations between design flexibility and a set of project cost dimensions.

The hypotheses are tested with objective contractual data from 270 software development contracts entered into by a leading international bank over a period of three years.

Data analysis confirms the existence of the proposed typology and shows that design flexibility is negatively associated with control and positively associated with coordination, trust, duration and price.

Although the findings are based on the contracting practices of a single, albeit sophisticated, organization, they shed light on the ability of firms to align flexibility with uncertainty at the onset of new projects by taking advantage of nuanced contractual mechanisms to produce a broader set of contractual archetypes.

This paper is the first in the outsourcing literature to analyze a nuanced contractual typology in software development projects through the perspectives of both contract theory and software engineering.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the feasibility of identifying the creep rupture of reactor cladding tubes using acoustic emission technique (AET).

The creep rupture tests were carried out by pressuring stainless steel capsules upto 6 MPa at room temperature and then heating continuously in a furnace upto rupture. The acoustic emission (AE) signals generated during the creep rupture tests were recorded using a 150 kHz resonant sensor and analysed using AE Win software.

When rupture occurs in the pressurized capsule tube representing the cladding tube, AE sensor attached to a waveguide captures the mechanical disturbance from the capsule and these data can be advantageously used to identify the creep rupture event of the cladding tube.

The creep rupture data of fuel clad tube is very important in design and for smooth operation of nuclear reactors without fuel pin failure in reactors.

AE is an advanced non-destructive evaluation technique. This technique has been successfully applied for on-line monitoring of creep rupture of the reactor cladding tube which otherwise could be detected by thermocouple readings only.

The paper seeks to understand the implications of partner opportunism for project relationships.

Based on the theoretical literature, the paper presents a conceptual model considering the perspective of the organization impacted by partner opportunism.

The model proposes that partner opportunism lowers willingness to engage by creating perception of loss. The undesirable impact of opportunism on perceived loss is less if the partner has made high relation-specific investments. Also, the negative impact of perceived loss on willingness to engage is less if the partner is difficult to substitute.

The model can be tested in the context of information technology (IT) relationships because of scope for opportunism in IT project relationships. Data can be collected through experimental vignettes.

The model contributes by investigating novel aspects of governance, behavioral consequences of opportunism and relation-specific investments in project relationships. The paper suggests that organizations can protect themselves against the ill effects of partner opportunism by enabling their stakeholders to invest substantial time and effort in the relationship and fortify relational quality and bonding.

The aim of this paper is to propose a robust robot fuzzy logic proportional-derivative (PD) controller for trajectory tracking of autonomous nonholonomic differential drive wheeled mobile robot (WMR) of the type Quanser Qbot.

Fuzzy robot control approach is used for developing a robust fuzzy PD controller for trajectory tracking of a nonholonomic differential drive WMR. The linear/angular velocity of the differential drive mobile robot are formulated such that the tracking errors between the robot’s trajectory and the reference path converge asymptotically to zero. Here, a new controller zero-order Takagy–Sugeno trajectory tracking (ZTS-TT) controller is deduced for robot’s speed regulation based on the fuzzy PD controller. The WMR used for the experimental implementation is Quanser Qbot which has two differential drive wheels; therefore, the right/left wheel velocity of the differential wheels of the robot are worked out using inverse kinematics model. The controller is implemented using MATLAB Simulink with QUARC framework, downloaded and compiled into executable (.exe) on the robot based on the WIFI TCP/IP connection.

Compared to other fuzzy proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, the proposed fuzzy PD controller was found to be robust, stable and consuming less resources on the robot. The comparative results of the proposed ZTS-TT controller and the conventional PD controller demonstrated clearly that the proposed ZTS-TT controller provides better tracking performances, flexibility, robustness and stability for the WMR.

The proposed fuzzy PD controller can be improved using hybrid techniques. The proposed approach can be developed for obstacle detection and collision avoidance in combination with trajectory tracking for use in environments with obstacles.

A robust fuzzy logic PD is developed and its performances are compared to the existing fuzzy PID controller. A ZTS-TT controller is deduced for trajectory tracking of an autonomous nonholonomic differential drive mobile robot (i.e. Quanser Qbot).

Although risks and client‐vendor relationships in IT outsourcing have been studied in prior research, there is a paucity of studies providing insights on the mitigation of client risks through the relationship. This research aims to focus on mitigation of the ex post risks of firms engaged in offshore software development (OSD). Client risks due to service provider behavior are identified first. Further, this work seeks to identify relationship variables that could reduce the impact of determinants of risk on a risk category.

This research followed a multiple case study method aiming to build insights and directions that would facilitate further research. The paper's goal of sampling was to choose cases which were likely to extend the emergent theory pertaining to risks and their mitigation through relationships.

Findings from this study show that shirking, loss of control over information assets, and service provider lock‐in are the three categories of ex post risks. A relationship management strategy ensuring reasonable profits to the vendor could mitigate shirking risk. Trustworthiness of vendors established through credibility and benevolence in prior engagements could mitigate the risk of loss of control over information assets. Further, dependence balancing through a multi‐vendor offshoring strategy and joint investments in relationship‐specific assets could mitigate the risk of service provider lock‐in.

The findings from this research provide useful insights in vendor selection and management process.

This paper adds to the growing body of literature in offshore IT outsourcing and makes two significant contributions: identification and categorization of risks due to vendor behavior and their determinants in OSD; and understanding the role of relationship dimension in mitigating such risks in OSD.

The information technology (IT) industry has grown owing to the increase in IT outsourcing prompted by the need for cost reductions in organizations. The IT industry contracts are based on pricing models, which establish the terms and conditions of payment to be made to vendors by clients. The pricing models followed in the industry are mainly Fixed Time Fixed Price (FTFP) and Time and Material (TnM) and the remaining are mostly variations of these. Using the information collected from vendors, the purpose of this paper is to draw a comparison between these pricing models to see which one is more acceptable to vendors along with researching on the reasons behind that. The outsourcing engagement is also based on a set of processes to be used during the contract time and that is known as the Outsourcing Model (OM) being used. This research also derives how pricing models, OMs and Client Vendor Relationship (CVR) being developed are related.

Hypothesis have been formulated on the basis of the literature survey conducted by the authors, subsequently questionnaire was formulated and data were collected from – a total of 500 people were targeted, out of which 70 people responded. Out of these 70 only 50 were usable responses. The respondents were at the manager and above level in different organizations classified on the basis of number of employees. Statistical tests were conducted on these data to check the reliability, prove the hypothesis and establish the mediation and moderation relationships between the pricing model, OM and CVR.

The following paper has established through statistical analysis which pricing model is more befitting to the IT service outsourcing industry and has also demonstrated the moderation and mediation relationship between pricing model, OM and CVR variables.

The major reserach limitation is that it is for only IT vendors in Indian geography. The research can be extended to different businesses and geographies.

The paper has practical implications for the IT service outsourcing industry in India and for their clients to understand the comparison between the pricing models and to study the impact of pricing and OMs on the CVRs.

The research presented is original as no similar work has been found to be published in the journals so far specifically in the Indian context.

This paper aims to present the effects of varying different operating parameters such as Start of Injection (9 to 21 deg bTDC), compression ratio (16 to 12.5), fuel injection pressure (400 to 1,400 bar) and exhaust gas recirculation (0 to 25 per cent) on the performance and emissions of the engine for constant engine speed of 1,600 rpm.

Simulation results were validated with experimental data available in the literature for baseline configuration. The effect of each parameter on the performance characteristics such as pressure and temperature, emission characteristics such as NO_x and soot are presented and discussed. Optimization has been carried out based on the regression equations developed from the simulation results to obtain the optimum set of the parameters to achieve the desired performance and emissions. Numerical simulations have been performed for the optimized set and compared with the reference engine.

Results of optimization showed that there was a simultaneous reduction in NO_x and soot while maintaining the same level of performance as that of the baseline case.

Based on the present work, it can be said that lesser emissions are achieved in terms of NO_x and soot while maintaining the same performance in terms of peak pressure.

Despite efforts to reduce environmental pollution and wasteful fossil fuel use, electric vehicles (EVs) are still rare on the road. Why is it so challenging to get widespread EV adoption? One significant factor on which it heavily depends is one's awareness and understanding of EVs. However, due to an absolute lack of knowledge on the part of the populace, this factor becomes a huge impediment to the uptake of EVs. A systematic review of the electronic database Scopus for the years 2003–2022 was carried out on ‘EV awareness and adoption of EV’ while considering the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis’ (PRISMA) standards. A three-step identification process resulted in the ultimate detection of 41 papers, which were then thoroughly examined. A conceptual framework that encompasses the three key awareness aspects that influence EV adoption is developed. To encourage greater uniformity among EV researchers, this study's conclusions serve as a foundation for operationalising upcoming research efforts within a predetermined framework. The authors must therefore be optimistic that lingering technological, legislative, cultural, behavioural and business-model barriers may be overcome over time through widespread dissemination of knowledge and awareness related to EVs, making it possible for everyone to switch to greener, more economical and more efficient transportation solutions.

To provide a framework for risk assessment of offshore IT outsourcing.

Based on review of recent literature, this paper has identified major risk categories of offshore IT outsourcing, discussed various risk factors within each category, and provided a general framework for the study of risk factors in this area.

Provides a general framework and a check‐list of the major risk factors related to offshore IT outsourcing.

Suggests further research studies in three specific directions: case‐based studies; country and region risk analysis; and strategic alliance.

Provides a very helpful guideline for practitioners in assessing various risks involved in offshore IT outsourcing.

The paper provides a synthesis and analysis of the viewpoints as reflected in the literature on various dimensions of the risks associated with offshore IT outsourcing.