Lijuan Shi, Zuoning Jia, Huize Sun, Mingshu Tian and Liquan Chen
This paper aims to study the affecting factors on bird nesting on electronic railway catenary lines and the impact of bird nesting events on railway operation.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the affecting factors on bird nesting on electronic railway catenary lines and the impact of bird nesting events on railway operation.
Design/methodology/approach
First, with one year’s bird nest events in the form of unstructured natural language collected from Shanghai Railway Bureau, the records were structured with the help of python software tool. Second, the method of root cause analysis (RCA) was used to identify all the possible influencing factors which are inclined to affect the probability of bird nesting. Third, the possible factors then were classified into two categories to meet subsequent analysis separately, category one was outside factors (i.e. geographic conditions related factors), the other was inside factors (i.e. railway related factors).
Findings
It was observed that factors of city population, geographic position affect nesting observably. Then it was demonstrated that both location and nesting on equipment part have no correlation with delay, while railway type had a significant but low correlation with delay.
Originality/value
This paper discloses the principle of impacts of nest events on railway operation.
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Ana Junça Silva and Rosa Rodrigues
This study relied on the job demands and resource model to understand employees’ turnover intentions. Recent studies have consistently lent support for the significant association…
Abstract
Purpose
This study relied on the job demands and resource model to understand employees’ turnover intentions. Recent studies have consistently lent support for the significant association between role ambiguity and turnover intentions; however, only a handful of studies focused on examining the potential mediators in this association. The authors argued that role ambiguity positively influences turnover intentions through affective mechanisms: job involvement and satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the model, a large sample of working adults participated (N = 505).
Findings
Structural equation modeling results showed that role ambiguity, job involvement and job satisfaction were significantly associated with turnover intentions. Moreover, a serial mediation was found among the variables: employees with low levels of role ambiguity tended to report higher job involvement, which further increased their satisfaction with the job and subsequently decreased their turnover intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The cross-sectional design is a limitation.
Practical implications
Practical suggestions regarding how organizations can reduce employee turnover are discussed.
Originality/value
The findings provide support for theory-driven interventions to address developing the intention to stay at work among working adults.
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Xiaofang Ma, Wenming Wang, Gaoguang Zhou and Jun Chen
This study aims to take advantage of the unprecedented anti-corruption campaign launched in China in December 2012 and examine the effect of improved public governance on…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to take advantage of the unprecedented anti-corruption campaign launched in China in December 2012 and examine the effect of improved public governance on tunneling.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a sample of Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange listed companies from 2010 to 2014 and conduct regression analyses to investigate the effect of improved public governance attributed to the anti-corruption campaign on tunneling.
Findings
This study finds that the level of tunneling decreased significantly after the anti-corruption campaign, suggesting that increased public governance effectively curbs tunneling. Cross-sectional results show that this mitigating effect is more pronounced for non-SOE firms, especially non-SOE firms with political connections, firms audited by non-Big 8 auditors, firms with a large divergence between control rights and cash flow rights and firms located in areas with lower marketization.
Practical implications
This study highlights the importance of anti-corruption initiatives in improving public governance and in turn reducing tunneling. This study provides important implications for many other emerging economies to improve public governance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the role of public governance in constraining corporate agency problems and advances the understanding of the economic consequences of China's anti-corruption campaign in the context of tunneling.
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Ying Xu, Jianyu Zhang, Rui Chi and Guangkuan Deng
Chatbots are increasingly used in online retail settings and are becoming a powerful tool for brands to engage customers. However, consumers’ satisfaction with these chatbots is…
Abstract
Purpose
Chatbots are increasingly used in online retail settings and are becoming a powerful tool for brands to engage customers. However, consumers’ satisfaction with these chatbots is mixed. Thus, this paper aims to investigate how using a social- versus task-oriented anthropomorphic communication style can improve customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore the link between the anthropomorphic communication style use and customer perceptions/customer satisfaction in online customer service interactions. Two experiment scenarios were developed to test these links.
Findings
Overall, using a social-oriented communication style boosts customer satisfaction. Warmth perception of the chatbot mediates this effect, while chatbot’s anthropomorphised role (servant versus partner) moderates this effect.
Originality/value
This paper enriches the bilateral communication literature by extending the investigation on communication style effects to chatbot service interactions and revealing the psychological process driving the impacts. It also adds to the existing literature on chatbots as a customer service and contributes to the prominent topic examining how consumers react to artificial intelligence that is used to establish and maintain a relationship with them. Additionally, the authors also make contribution to the warmth and competence literature by demonstrating that customers can interpret social cues in chatbot service interactions mainly based on the warmth dimension. Thus, the authors further add to the growing chatbot humanness perception literature and respond to the calls for investigating more anthropomorphic design cues to enhance chatbot humanness. Finally, the authors also provide a way to help reconcile seemingly conflicting prior findings.
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Rui Wang, Shunjie Zhang, Shengqiang Liu, Weidong Liu and Ao Ding
The purpose is using generative adversarial network (GAN) to solve the problem of sample augmentation in the case of imbalanced bearing fault data sets and improving residual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is using generative adversarial network (GAN) to solve the problem of sample augmentation in the case of imbalanced bearing fault data sets and improving residual network is used to improve the diagnostic accuracy of the bearing fault intelligent diagnosis model in the environment of high signal noise.
Design/methodology/approach
A bearing vibration data generation model based on conditional GAN (CGAN) framework is proposed. The method generates data based on the adversarial mechanism of GANs and uses a small number of real samples to generate data, thereby effectively expanding imbalanced data sets. Combined with the data augmentation method based on CGAN, a fault diagnosis model of rolling bearing under the condition of data imbalance based on CGAN and improved residual network with attention mechanism is proposed.
Findings
The method proposed in this paper is verified by the western reserve data set and the truck bearing test bench data set, proving that the CGAN-based data generation method can form a high-quality augmented data set, while the CGAN-based and improved residual with attention mechanism. The diagnostic model of the network has better diagnostic accuracy under low signal-to-noise ratio samples.
Originality/value
A bearing vibration data generation model based on CGAN framework is proposed. The method generates data based on the adversarial mechanism of GAN and uses a small number of real samples to generate data, thereby effectively expanding imbalanced data sets. Combined with the data augmentation method based on CGAN, a fault diagnosis model of rolling bearing under the condition of data imbalance based on CGAN and improved residual network with attention mechanism is proposed.
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The article aims to investigate the effects of ownership and capital structure on postacquisition operating performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The article aims to investigate the effects of ownership and capital structure on postacquisition operating performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The article extends the ongoing literature from an operating loss perspective and provides empirical evidence on the probability of acquirers’ operating loss in relation to ownership and capital structure. The operating performance of publicly listed manufacturing firms in China was tracked up to five years since the completion of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during 2003–2014.
Findings
The empirical results show that, in a five-year postacquisition period, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are more likely to experience operating loss than non-SOEs. The likelihood of the operating loss is negatively associated with ownership concentration, implying that concentrated ownership may serve as an effective corporate governance mechanism in the emerging economy and improve postacquisition performance. The rise in leverage increases the likelihood of postacquisition operating loss, indicating that the costs of debt may outweigh the benefits.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the literature on ownership, debt governance and post-M&A performance from an emerging economy perspective.
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Huijuan Zhou, Rui Wang, Dongyang Weng, Ruoyu Wang and Yaoqin Qiao
The interruption event will seriously affect the normal operation of urban rail transit lines,causing a large number of passengers to be stranded in the station and even making…
Abstract
Purpose
The interruption event will seriously affect the normal operation of urban rail transit lines,causing a large number of passengers to be stranded in the station and even making the train stranded in the interval between stations. This study aims to reduce the impact of interrupt events and improve service levels.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this issue, this paper considers the constraints of train operation safety, capacity and dynamic passenger flow demand. It proposes a method for adjusting small loops during interruption events and constructs a train operation adjustment model with the objective of minimizing the total passenger waiting time. This model enables the rapid development of train operation plans in interruption scenarios, coordinating train scheduling and line resources to minimize passenger travel time and mitigate the impact of interruptions. Regarding the proposed train operation adjustment model, an improved genetic algorithm (GA) is designed to solve it.
Findings
The model and algorithm are applied to a case study of interruption events on Beijing Subway Line 5. The results indicate that after solving the constructed model, the train departure intervals can be maintained between 1.5 min and 3 min. This ensures both the safety of train operations on the line and a good match with passengers’ travel demands, effectively reducing the total passenger waiting time and improving the service level of the urban rail transit system during interruptions. Compared to the GA algorithm, the algorithm proposed in this paper demonstrates faster convergence speed and better computational results.
Originality/value
This study explicitly outlines the adjustment method of using short-turn operation during operational interruptions, with train departure times and station stop times as decision variables. It takes into full consideration safety constraints on train operations, train capacity constraints and dynamic passenger demand. It has constructed a train schedule optimization model with the goal of minimizing the total waiting time for all passengers in the system.
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Managerial discourses tend to portray work-related mobility practices in a positive light, presenting mobility assignments as a place of stimulus and differentiation. A conception…
Abstract
Purpose
Managerial discourses tend to portray work-related mobility practices in a positive light, presenting mobility assignments as a place of stimulus and differentiation. A conception of mobility as an opportunity, may contrast, in specific economies and business settings, with lived personal experiences. This article reports the results of a three-year study, aimed to question how multinational companies (MNCs) located in a small and developing European economy (Portugal) are building talent pools for expatriate assignments. Interaction effects, as proposed by the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, are considered as lens to understand the interplay of company expatriate policies, willingness profiles and psychological contracts of expatriates. By using a Portuguese sample, the study examines whether prior findings in mature economies and consolidated MNCs can be generalized to less developed international business settings.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-year study, encompassing 24 expatriate cases observed in five multinational firms born or located in Portugal. Two techniques of empirical data collection were used: statistical sources and documental analysis and in-depth interviews. A total of 37 interviews were conducted, both in-person and remotely, of which 13 were with company managers and representatives, and 24 with expatriates (as defined and referred like this by the companies under study).
Findings
Heterogeneous company policies, ranging from juvenile, functionalist to more dynamic and flow-based approaches, are presented as qualifying resources of willingness levels and psychological contracts of expatriates. Observed interaction effects between policies, willingness and psychological contracts, empirically mirrored in three profiles (conformist, protean and disrupted expatriates) suggest that incentive effects (emanating from company policies) and job demand-resource balance, factored as terms of social and economic trade, are non-linear and asymmetric, influencing firm propensity to succeed while using international work to support company expansion goals. As job resources, expatriate policies are presented as operating as pull or push factors: functionalist HR approaches seem to act as push factors generating more conformist or compelled willingness profiles.
Research limitations/implications
Generalization of study's outcomes has limitations. Future studies are encouraged to use comparative and longitudinal research designs. Furthermore, future research should include business expatriates with entry-level positions, and increase the number of interviewees, as results can also be considered as limited by sample size.
Practical implications
It is suggested that further strategic work is needed to present expatriation development value, formally screen and consider willingness level as selection criteria, and enlarge the pool (from internal to external) of candidates, in peripheral economic settings such as Portugal. A shift to more dynamic and job resource-dense policies are suggested as beneficial, as pathway to optimize social and economic value from expatriation assignments and work experiences.
Originality/value
By putting the interplay between macro and micro-level processes into perspective, the study provides empirical evidence on how company expatriate policies have come to promote unforeseen differentiation of employee willingness and psychological contracts at the heart of MNCs. This is particularly relevant in developing economies such as Portugal, challenging the need to build talent pools for international work assignments. Empirical data illustrating company policies interactive effects with different willingness profiles and psychological contracts of expatriates is provided.