Mohammad Islam Biswas, Md. Shamim Talukder and Atikur Rahman Khan
Firms have already begun integrating artificial intelligence (AI) as a replacement for conventional performance management systems owing to its technological superiority. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms have already begun integrating artificial intelligence (AI) as a replacement for conventional performance management systems owing to its technological superiority. This transition has sparked a growing interest in determining how employees perceive and respond to performance feedback provided by AI as opposed to human supervisors.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 x 2 between-subject experimental design was employed that was manipulated into four experimental conditions: AI algorithms, AI data, highly experienced human supervisors and low-experience human supervisor conditions. A one-way ANOVA and Welch t-test were used to analyze data.
Findings
Our findings revealed that with a predefined fixed formula employed for performance feedback, employees exhibited higher levels of trust in AI algorithms, had greater performance expectations and showed stronger intentions to seek performance feedback from AI algorithms than highly experienced human supervisors. Conversely, when performance feedback was provided by human supervisors, even those with less experience, in a discretionary manner, employees' perceptions were higher compared to similar feedback provided by AI data. Moreover, additional analysis findings indicated that combined AI-human performance feedback led to higher levels of employees' perceptions compared to performance feedback solely by AI or humans.
Practical implications
The findings of our study advocate the incorporation of AI in performance management systems and the implementation of AI-human combined feedback approaches as a potential strategy to alleviate the negative perception of employees, thereby increasing firms' return on AI investment.
Originality/value
Our study represents one of the initial endeavors exploring the integration of AI in performance management systems and AI-human collaboration in providing performance feedback to employees.
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Ijaz Ur Rehman, Faisal Shahzad, Muhammad Abdullah Hanif, Ameena Arshad and Bruno S. Sergi
This study aims to empirically examine the influence of financial constraints on firm carbon emissions. In addition to the role of financial constraints in firm-level carbon…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to empirically examine the influence of financial constraints on firm carbon emissions. In addition to the role of financial constraints in firm-level carbon emissions, this study also examines this influence in the presence of governance, environmental orientation and firm-level attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using pooled ordinary least square, this study examines the impact of financial constraints on firm-level carbon emissions using a panel of 1,536 US firm-year observations from 2008 to 2019. This study also used two-step generalized method of moment–based dynamic panel data and two-stage least square approaches to address potential endogeneity. The results are robust to endogeneity and collinearity issues.
Findings
The results suggest that financial constraints enhance the carbon emissions of the firms. The economic significance of financial constraints on carbon emissions is more pronounced for the firms that do not report environment-related expenditure investment and those that are highly leveraged. The authors further document that firms with a nondiverse gender board signify a statistically significant impact of financial constraints on carbon emissions. These results are also economically significant, as one standard deviation increase in financial constraints is associated with a 3.340% increase in carbon emissions at the firm level.
Research limitations/implications
Some implicit and explicit factors like corporate emissions policy and culture may condition the relationship of financial constraints with carbon emissions. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to consider these factors for future research. In addition, it is beneficial to identify the thresholds and/or quantiles at which financial constraints may significantly make a difference in enhancing carbon emissions.
Practical implications
The findings offer policy implications for investment in stakeholder engagement for capital acquisitions, thereby effectively enforcing environmental innovation and leading to a reduction in carbon emissions.
Originality/value
This study integrated governance and environment-oriented variables in the model to empirically examine the role of financial constraints on the carbon emissions of the firms in the USA over and above what has already been documented in the earlier literature.
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Tan Tan, Grant Mills, Xiaolin Ma and Eleni Papadonikolaki
Off-Site Construction (OSC) has received much government and public attention during and after COVID. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an initiative discussed widely to…
Abstract
Purpose
Off-Site Construction (OSC) has received much government and public attention during and after COVID. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an initiative discussed widely to promote OSC implementation. Although many policy promotions have been published, there are many challenges to implementing BIM and OSC in real life and questions of whether they really offer value to healthcare design professionals. This research aims to investigate BIM and OSC to understand their commonalities and differences of challenges by collecting empirical evidence from China’s healthcare construction.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory research adopted a mixed method with a questionnaire survey and interviews. A total of 261 questionnaires were received (with 183 valid), followed by 31 semi-structured interviews.
Findings
This research reveals that although both OSC and BIM face similar adoption challenges and suspicious attitudes in real-life projects, their challenges’ connotations and reasons are different. OSC faces scepticism for its customisation costs and technical constraints, while BIM is seen as limited in utility and complex to integrate. Highlighting these as socio-technical challenges, the research advocates for an integrated framework to effectively implement OSC and BIM, addressing both technical and collaborative needs in healthcare construction.
Originality/value
This research examines OSC and BIM within the context of healthcare construction, a focus that is relatively underexplored. The research provides a juxtaposition of the perceived and practical challenges of adopting these technologies, revealing a gap between the industry’s expectations and the current capabilities of OSC and BIM, thereby contributing to the development of modern methods of design in healthcare.
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Yang Li, Yaochen Qin, Liqun Ma and Ziwu Pan
The ecological environment of the Loess Plateau, China, is extremely fragile under the context of global warming. Over the past two decades, the vegetation of the Loess Plateau…
Abstract
Purpose
The ecological environment of the Loess Plateau, China, is extremely fragile under the context of global warming. Over the past two decades, the vegetation of the Loess Plateau has undergone great changes. This paper aims to clarify the response mechanisms of vegetation to climate change, to provide support for the restoration and environmental treatment of vegetation on the Loess Plateau.
Design/methodology/approach
The Savitsky–Golay (S-G) filtering algorithm was used to reconstruct time series of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) 13A2 data. Combined with trend analysis and partial correlation analysis, the influence of climate change on the phenology and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) during the growing season was described.
Findings
The S-G filtering algorithm is suitable for EVI reconstruction of the Loess Plateau. The date of start of growing season was found to gradually later along the Southeast–Northwest direction, whereas the date of the end of the growing season showed the opposite pattern and the length of the growing season gradually shortened. Vegetation EVI values decreased gradually from Southeast to Northwest. Vegetation changed significantly and showed clear differentiation according to different topographic factors. Vegetation correlated positively with precipitation from April to July and with temperature from August to November.
Originality/value
This study provides technical support for ecological environmental assessment, restoration of regional vegetation coverage and environmental governance of the Loess Plateau over the past two decades. It also provides theoretical support for the prediction model of vegetation phenology changes based on remote sensing data.
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Wei Li, Xiaoxuan Yang, Peng Wang, Zefeng Wen and Jian Han
This study aims to investigate the cause of high-order wheel polygonization in a plateau high-speed electric multiple unit (EMU) train.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the cause of high-order wheel polygonization in a plateau high-speed electric multiple unit (EMU) train.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of field tests were conducted to measure the vibration accelerations of the axle box and bogie when the wheels of the EMU train passed through tracks with normal rail roughness after re-profiling. Additionally, the dynamic characteristics of the track, wheelset and bogie were also measured. These measurements provided insights into the mechanisms that lead to wheel polygonization.
Findings
The results of the field tests indicate that wheel polygonal wear in the EMU train primarily exhibits 14–16 and 25–27 harmonic orders. The passing frequencies of wheel polygonization were approximately 283–323 Hz and 505–545 Hz, which closely match the dominated frequencies of axle box and bogie vibrations. These findings suggest that the fixed-frequency vibrations originate from the natural modes of the wheelset and bogie, which can be excited by wheel/rail irregularities.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights into the mechanisms of high-order wheel polygonization in plateau high-speed EMU trains. Futher, the results indicate that operating the EMU train on mixed lines at variable speeds could potentially mitigate high-order polygonal wear, providing practical value for improving the safety, performance and maintenance efficiency of high-speed EMU trains.
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Xanat Vargas Meza, Zhexin Zhang and Yoichi Ochiai
This study explores previous research related to textile management technologies, detecting gaps and opportunities for textiles made by Ainu people. We also propose an approach to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores previous research related to textile management technologies, detecting gaps and opportunities for textiles made by Ainu people. We also propose an approach to digitally read Ainu textile patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
We employed indigenous and pluriversal design frameworks to evaluate textile pattern technologies. They were operationalised as Indigenous/local researchers involved in the investigation, multi-sensoriality of analysed items, prosperity for everyone involved, communal property of data, biological awareness, social complexity awareness and sensitivity of the analysed method if the items change.
Findings
Textile pattern technology researchers have mostly used neural networks and clustering methods. They have addressed social aspects since the 2000s. Investigations into the generation of textiles based in Poland constantly reflected the most pluriversal characteristics. Regarding Ainu textile research, most investigations have cited Indigenous sources. Two gaps emerged: the concentration of research datasets and results in enterprises or scholars and the focus on the formal characteristics of Ainu patterns in technical papers and contextual characteristics in ethnographic papers.
Research limitations/implications
Heritage management is increasingly employing technological tools that should consider the sustainability of handmade/artisanal goods. As most investigations on textile patterns are conducted by the industry, their benefits are limited for heritage conservation.
Practical implications
Therefore, we suggest digital experts work together with ethnography and Indigenous experts, proposing a method for digital reading of Ainu textile patterns that incorporates pluriversal aspects into heritage conservation.
Originality/value
Pluriversal design is a set of onthologies proposed with Indigenous, mestizo and minorities from the Americas that is currently being diffused in the rest of the world, highly compatible with the analysis of Indigenous heritage.
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Yongqin Wang and Xin Gao
This paper studies the political economy of the endogenous urban–rural divide in two dimensions: labor market and provision of public goods.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper studies the political economy of the endogenous urban–rural divide in two dimensions: labor market and provision of public goods.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper gives a dual-sector model endogenously depending on the consumption of public goods (club goods), the number of rural–urban migrants and the tax rate (transfer payments).
Findings
According to the research findings in this paper, the constraints on the participation of rural residents portray the rural residents' bargaining power, and in the game between the urban elites and the rural residents, tax rates depend on the preferences of the urban elites and the constraints urban elites and the rural residents jointly face. Therefore, the urban elites have to set tax rates deviating from the most preferred ones. The model in this paper can explain a series of empirical findings and yield new theoretical findings for empirical testing.
Originality/value
Significantly, the paper finds that the increase in agricultural productivity will lead to industrialization, accompanied by the disintegration of the dual-sector model. However, though the increase in industrial productivity can accelerate industrialization, it will further expand the urban–rural divide.
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Cheng-Wei Lin, Wan-Chi Jackie Hsu and Hui-Ju Su
The shipper selects a suitable shipping route and plans for a voyage in order to import and export cargo on the basis of published sailing schedules. The reliability of the…
Abstract
The shipper selects a suitable shipping route and plans for a voyage in order to import and export cargo on the basis of published sailing schedules. The reliability of the sailing schedule will influence the shipper’s logistics expense, which means that the logistics costs will depend on the reliability of schedules published by container shipping companies. Therefore, it is important to consider factors which can cause delays would for container ships sailing on sea routes. The reliability of published sailing schedules can be affected by a number of different factors. This study adopts the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method to estimate the importance of the delaying factors in a sailing schedule. In addition, the consistent fuzzy preference relations (CFPR) method is applied to identify the subjective importance (weights) of the delaying factors. The entropy weight method combined with the actual performance of the container shipping company are both used when estimating the objective importance (weights) of the delaying factors. According to the analysis results, the criteria can be divided into four quadrants with different management implications, which indicate that instructions for chase strategy, sailing schedule control, fleet allocation, transship operation arrangement and planning for ports in routes are often ignored by container shipping companies. Container shipping companies should consider adjusting their operational strategies, which would greatly improve their operational performance.
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Xingwen Wu, Zhenxian Zhang, Wubin Cai, Ningrui Yang, Xuesong Jin, Ping Wang, Zefeng Wen, Maoru Chi, Shuling Liang and Yunhua Huang
This review aims to give a critical view of the wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue in railway bogie.
Abstract
Purpose
This review aims to give a critical view of the wheel/rail high frequency vibration-induced vibration fatigue in railway bogie.
Design/methodology/approach
Vibration fatigue of railway bogie arising from the wheel/rail high frequency vibration has become the main concern of railway operators. Previous reviews usually focused on the formation mechanism of wheel/rail high frequency vibration. This paper thus gives a critical review of the vibration fatigue of railway bogie owing to the short-pitch irregularities-induced high frequency vibration, including a brief introduction of short-pitch irregularities, associated high frequency vibration in railway bogie, typical vibration fatigue failure cases of railway bogie and methodologies used for the assessment of vibration fatigue and research gaps.
Findings
The results showed that the resulting excitation frequencies of short-pitch irregularity vary substantially due to different track types and formation mechanisms. The axle box-mounted components are much more vulnerable to vibration fatigue compared with other components. The wheel polygonal wear and rail corrugation-induced high frequency vibration is the main driving force of fatigue failure, and the fatigue crack usually initiates from the defect of the weld seam. Vibration spectrum for attachments of railway bogie defined in the standard underestimates the vibration level arising from the short-pitch irregularities. The current investigations on vibration fatigue mainly focus on the methods to improve the accuracy of fatigue damage assessment, and a systematical design method for vibration fatigue remains a huge gap to improve the survival probability when the rail vehicle is subjected to vibration fatigue.
Originality/value
The research can facilitate the development of a new methodology to improve the fatigue life of railway vehicles when subjected to wheel/rail high frequency vibration.
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Chao Liang and Bai Liu
This study aims to investigate the environmental effects of climate financial fragmentation in the form of emerging multilateral institutions.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the environmental effects of climate financial fragmentation in the form of emerging multilateral institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
Among the countries that have economic relations with China, those involved in climate finance cooperation are taken as the experimental group, and those not involved in other areas are taken as a control group. Using system generalized method of moments regression, the difference-in-differences method is used to test the environmental effects of climate finance cooperation of emerging multilateral institutions. In this way, this study explores the financial and trade mechanisms of cooperation among emerging multilateral institutions.
Findings
The results of this empirical study show that the cooperation of emerging multilateral institutions has a positive impact on the environment. Research results further reveal the financial and trade mechanisms of climate finance cooperation projects. When the invested countries are more likely to obtain international capital, environmental effects will be greater. However, trade intimacy could inhibit the improved environmental effects.
Originality/value
This research is one of the few studies to test the environmental effects of climate financial fragmentation empirically. This study provides a better understanding of the multilateral cooperation of emerging economic entities and China’s climate finance policy, thus providing evidence for the collaborative governance of global climate finance.