Search results

Since its development by Tinbergen (1962), the gravity model of international trade has widely been applied to analyse the effect of various factors on trade relationships between countries. Past studies on trade gravity vary not only in the mix of model variables but also in how they have come into the analysis. This study reviews existing literature on bilateral trade with an aim to identify influential predictors such as changes of trade policy and national development strategy and highlight important yet understudied factors such as transport and logistics infrastructure, and sustainable development. To demonstrate the needs to examine these critical factors across industry sectors, the study presents the case of textiles and clothing (T&C) production and trade between China and its trading partners as an illustration. Through the literature review, it shows how the gravity model can be applied to address current issues in international trade arena such as the potential trade war between the US and China, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and other important factors shaping global T&C trade. This study offers future research directions for analysis of global trade in the T&C industry and contributes to the wider literature of international business and trade.

Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

The recent global market trend is seemed enforcing existing manufacturing organizations (as well as service sectors) to improve existing supply chain systems or to take up/adapt advanced manufacturing strategies for being competitive. The concept of the agile supply chain (ASC) has become increasingly important as a means of achieving a competitive edge in highly turbulent business environments. An ASC is a dynamic alliance of member enterprises, the formation of which is likely to introduce velocity, responsiveness, and flexibility into the manufacturing system. In ASC management, supplier/partner selection is a key strategic concern. Apart from traditional supplier/partner selection criteria; different agility-related criteria/attributes need to be taken under consideration while selecting an appropriate supplier in an ASC. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Therefore, evaluation and selection of potential supplier in an ASC have become an important multi-criteria decision making problem. Most of the evaluation criteria being subjective in nature; traditional decision-making approaches (mostly dealing with objective data) fail to solve this problem. However, fuzzy set theory appears an important mean to tackle with vague and imprecise data given by the experts. In this work, application potential of the fuzzy multi-level multi-criteria decision making (FMLMCDM) approach proposed by Chu and Velásquez (2009) and Chu and Varma (2012) has been examined and compared to that of Fuzzy-techniques for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and Fuzzy-MOORA in the context of supplier selection in ASC.

It has been observed that similar ranking order appears in FMLMCDM as well as Fuzzy-TOPSIS. In Fuzzy-MOORA, the best alternative appears same as in case of FMLMCDM as well as Fuzzy-TOPSIS; but for other alternatives ranking order differs. A comparative analysis has also been made in view of working principles of FMLMCDM, Fuzzy-TOPSIS as well as Fuzzy-MOORA.

Application feasibility of FMLMCDM approach has been verified in comparison with Fuzzy-TOPSIS and Fuzzy-MOORA in the context of agile supplier selection.

In large-scale group decision-making (LSGDM) situations, existing TODIM group decision-making methods often fail to account for the influence of social network relationships and the bounded rationality of decision-makers (DMs). To address this issue, a new TODIM-based group decision-making method is proposed that considers the current trust relationships among DMs in a large-scale trust relationship network.

This method consists of two main stages. In the first stage, the large-scale group is partitioned into several sub-clusters based on trust relationships among DMs. The dominance degree matrix of each sub-cluster is then aggregated into the large-scale group dominance degree. In the second stage, after aggregating the large-scale group dominance degree, the consensus index is calculated to identify any inconsistent sub-clusters. Feedback adjustments are made based on trust relationships until a consensus is reached. The TODIM method is then applied to calculate the corresponding ranking results. Finally, an illustrative example is applied to show the feasibility of the proposed model.

The proposed method is practical and effective which is verified by the real case study. By taking into account the trust relationships among DMs in the core process of LSGDM, it indeed has an impact on the decision outcomes. We also specifically address this issue in Chapter Five. The proposed method fully incorporates the bounded rationality of DMs, namely their tendency to accept the opinions of trusted experts, which aligns more with their psychology. The two-stage consensus model proposed in this paper effectively addresses the limitations of traditional assessment-based methods.

This study establishes a two-stage consensus model based on trust relationships among DMs, which can assist DMs in better understanding trust issues in complex decision-making, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of decisions, and providing more scientific decision support for organizations such as businesses and governments.

This paper gives a review of the finite element techniques (FE) applied in the area of material processing. The latest trends in metal forming, non‐metal forming, powder metallurgy and composite material processing are briefly discussed. The range of applications of finite elements on these subjects is extremely wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore the aim of the paper is to give FE researchers/users only an encyclopaedic view of the different possibilities that exist today in the various fields mentioned above. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on finite element applications in material processing for 1994‐1996, where 1,370 references are listed. This bibliography is an updating of the paper written by Brannberg and Mackerle which has been published in Engineering Computations, Vol. 11 No. 5, 1994, pp. 413‐55.

This study attempts to investigate how electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), consisting of (1) opinion seeking, (2) opinion giving, and (3) opinion passing, influences consumers’ purchasing intentions for tourism services on Social Networking Sites (SNSs). Two hundred and seventy three American college students participate in a self-administered survey concerning their use of SNSs and ways of making online recommendations. Based on four hierarchical regression analyses, this study finds that both opinion seeking and opinion passing significantly influence respondents’ purchasing intentions. Additionally, time spent on SNS use reveals a positive relationship with opinion seeking and opinion passing. The conclusion of the present study highlights the eWOM as a cost-effective communication tool for tourism marketing and renders practical and theoretical implications along with suggestions for future research.

This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element and boundary element parallel processing techniques from the theoretical and application points of view. Topics include: theory – domain decomposition/partitioning, load balancing, parallel solvers/algorithms, parallel mesh generation, adaptive methods, and visualization/graphics; applications – structural mechanics problems, dynamic problems, material/geometrical non‐linear problems, contact problems, fracture mechanics, field problems, coupled problems, sensitivity and optimization, and other problems; hardware and software environments – hardware environments, programming techniques, and software development and presentations. The bibliography at the end of this paper contains 850 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with presented subjects that were published between 1996 and 2002.