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At present, piezoelectric impedance technology has been used in the study of wood damage monitoring. However, little effort has been made in the research on the application of piezoelectric impedance system to monitor the change of wood moisture content (MC). The monitoring method of wood MC is used by piezoelectric impedance technique in this study.

One piezoceramic transducer is bonded to the surface of wood specimens. The MC of the wood specimens increases gradually from 0% to 60% with 10% increments; the mechanical impedance of the wood specimen will change, and the change in the mechanical impedance of the structure is reflected by monitoring the change in the electrical impedance of lead zirconate titanate. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between wood MC change and piezoelectric impedance change to verify the feasibility of the piezoelectric impedance method for monitoring wood MC change.

The experiment verified that the real part of impedance of the wood increased with the increase of wood MC. Besides, the damage index root mean square deviation is introduced to quantify the damage degree of wood under different MC. At the same time, the feasibility and validity of this experiment were verified from the side by finite element simulation. Finally, MC monitoring by piezoelectric impedance technique is feasible.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to apply piezoelectric ceramics to the monitoring of wood MC, which provides a theoretical basis for the follow-up study of a wide range of wood components and even wood structure MC changes.

This study aims to investigate the thermohydrodynamic (THD) and thermoelastohydrodynamic (TEHD) performance of an air-lubricated thrust bearing under different slip conditions, especially the slip length effect.

In this study, a new modified boundary slip model was established to investigate thrust bearing performance. The THD and TEHD bearing characteristic distribution was analyzed with fluid–thermal–structure interaction approach. The effect of the slip length on the bearing performance was studied using various bearing structure parameters.

The increased slip length changed the classical feature distribution of the film pressure and temperature. The sacrifice of the bearing load capacity effectively compensated for the aerodynamic thermal effect and friction torque under the slip condition. The TEHD model has a lower film pressure and load capacity than the THD model. However, it also has lower film temperature, lower friction torque and smaller Knudsen number (Kn).

The bearing THD and TEHD performances of the modified boundary slip model were compared with those of a traditional no-slip bearing. The results help to guide the selection of the bearing surface materials and processing technology of rotor and foil, so as to fully control the degree of slip and make use of it.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework analyzing the relationship of collaborative knowledge management practices (CKMP) with supply chain integration and supply chain knowledge quality.

The design of the study is based on a survey of 411 firms from eight manufacturing industries that are actively involved in inter‐firm knowledge management practices with supply chain partners. First a measurement instrument for CKMP was statistically validated with confirmatory factor analysis. Then the structural equation modeling (SEM) path analysis was used to assess the structural relationship of CKMP with supply chain knowledge quality and supply chain integration.

The study found that engagement in CKMP can lead to better integration between supply chain partners and increased organizational knowledge quality.

The study was conducted at the firm level for activities involving inter‐firm knowledge sharing. Some measurement inaccuracy might be generated with a single respondent from each organization answering questions about both supply chain management issues and knowledge management‐related issues.

By identifying collaborative knowledge generation, storage, access, dissemination and application as the major components of CKMP, this study advises organizations on how to collaborate with partner firms on sharing supply chain knowledge. CKMP's positive relationship with knowledge quality and supply chain integration provides organizations with practice‐related motivation for engaging in collaborative knowledge management and alerts them to the possibility of other potential benefits from it.

As one of the first large‐scale empirical efforts to systematically investigate collaborative knowledge management processes in a supply chain management context, this paper can be used as basis for enhanced homological understanding of this domain, by exploring antecedents and consequences of collaborative knowledge management.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a conceptual framework to analyze how inter-organizational knowledge sharing facilitates enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation.

Data were collected from a 2014 survey on 283 Chinese companies. Structural equation modeling was used to test the structural model of the framework.

The results of the study indicated that organizational preparedness (in terms of internal culture, organizational structure, availability of resources, and technological capabilities), positive benefits and costs perception, and external influences (in terms of environmental uncertainty, competitive pressure, and partner readiness) would facilitate inter-organizational knowledge sharing, which in turn, would enhance ERP implementation effectiveness.

Convenience samples from an author’s MBA classes were used in the survey, and a single respondent from each organization answering all questions for such complicated issues also posed the risk of measurement bias and inaccuracy.

The study provided evidences to practitioners about how organizations should collaborate with supply chain partners at a full scale in knowledge generation, maintenance, dissemination, and application in order to enhance their effectiveness on ERP implementation.

ERP projects are predominately observed in existing research as internal initiatives that companies take independently within their own organizational boundaries. This study represents one of the early large-scale empirical efforts to investigate ERP implementation from an inter-firm supply chain collaboration perspective. Additional contribution includes some interesting empirical evidences on the current state of ERP utilization in the Chinese market.

From the perspective of the economic theory of complementarity, the purpose of this paper is to examine how internal collaboration and external competencies would provoke and strengthen each other, and subsequently enhance organizational innovation capability.

The survey data were collected from 201 manufacturing firms and checked for common method variance, validity and reliability. Structural equation modeling was then used to test the hypothetical complementarity effect.

The results suggest that internal collaboration (as a manifestation of exploitative learning) and external competencies, which include supply network flexibility and supplier operational capabilities (as manifestation of exploratory learning), do in fact compensate for each other’s deficiencies. Complementary deployment of internal collaboration and external competencies enhances each other’s contribution to innovation capability. Practically, the study indicates that organizations should consider making concerted efforts to develop internal collaboration, supply network flexibility and supplier operational capability as a bundle.

Extensive discussions exist in the literature on exploration and exploitation being essential components of innovation and their conflicting impact on innovation efficiency and effectiveness. But how an organization should operationally develop supply chain competencies in order to maximize overall innovation capability still remains largely an unanswered question. The current study advances the research on the inter-relationships between exploration and exploitation by empirically demonstrating the complementary nature of internal collaboration and external competencies in developing sustainable innovation capabilities.

This research aims to explore the dark side of mobile applications by investigating the role of apps' technicality and app security in the mechanism of user satisfaction, app intention and customers' continuance tendency to make in-app purchases.

Drawing on attitude-behavior-context (ABC) theory, the study proposed a conceptual framework and examined the framework using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach based on data collected from app users from New Zealand.

The results reveal the correlation between user satisfaction and in-app purchase with a mediator of app continuance intention (ACI). In particular, the results show that app technicality (AT) has a positive correlation with user satisfaction as an antecedent. App security and hedonic value are positively correlated with user satisfaction.

The research has three critical research implications. First, this research advances the understanding of the dark side of mobile apps by showing how app security influences customers' in-app purchases. Secondly, this study reveals and offers empirical evidence for the mechanism between app security and user satisfaction. Finally, the study provides empirical evidence of AT as a distal antecedent for in-app purchases.

In recent years, electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) concerning travel products reflected in online review information has become an important reference for tourists to make their product purchase decisions, while for travel service providers (TSPs), monitoring and improving the e-WOM of their travel products is always an important task. Therefore, based on the online review information, how to capture e-WOM of travel products and find out specific ways to improve the e-WOM is a noteworthy research problem. The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for capturing and analyzing e-WOM toward travel products based on sentiment analysis and stochastic dominance.

Specifically, online review information of travel products is first crawled and preprocessed. Second, sentiment strengths of online review information toward travel products concerning each feature are judged. Then, the matrix of structured online review information toward travel products is formed. Further, the matrix of e-WOM comparisons between any two travel products is constructed, and e-WOM ranking concerning each travel product is determined. Finally, trade-off chart models are constructed to conduct the e-WOM improvement analyses concerning the travel products.

An empirical study based on the online review information toward six travel products crawled from the Tuniu.com website is given to illustrate the use of the proposed method.

The proposed method can not only realize the real-time e-WOM monitoring to travel products but also be useful for TSPs to improve the e-WOM of their travel products.

This study aims to find a new alternate source for biodiesel conversion. The alternate source must be easily available, and it should give more oil yield than available edible, inedible sources. To meet the fuel demand in the transportation sector with edible oil-based biodiesel causes food versus fuel crisis. In addition to this, it increases NO_x and CO₂ in the environment.

The present paper reviews the comparison of algae oil yield, fatty acid composition and its biodiesel properties’ effect on diesel engine characteristics.

Algae were the only source to fulfil fuel demand because its oil and biodiesel yield is higher than other sources. Algae can grow by capturing carbon dioxide from the environment, and its fatty acid composition is more suitable to run diesel engines.

There is an improvement in engine performance–emission tradeoff with algal biodiesel.