Marc Wouters, Susana Morales, Sven Grollmuss and Michael Scheer
The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).
Methodology/approach
This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.
Findings
The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.
Research limitations/implications
This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.
Originality/value
This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.
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C.H. Kwong, S.P. Ng and C.W. Kan
Plasma treatment is becoming increasingly popular in enhancing the hydrophobicity of synthetic textiles. In recent years, the study of surface hydrophobisation by means of plasma…
Abstract
Plasma treatment is becoming increasingly popular in enhancing the hydrophobicity of synthetic textiles. In recent years, the study of surface hydrophobisation by means of plasma treatment, under low or atmospheric pressure, has drawn a great deal of attention. A large amount of research has reported on the possibility of applying this technique with merits that include a dry process, reduced pollution, a single step treatment, etc. In this regard, this paper reviews recent approaches on enhancing the hydrophobicity of synthetic textiles by means of plasma treatment. The basic working principle of generating plasma to enhance hydrophobicity is explained. Both low and atmospheric plasma treatments are introduced. A higher cost is usually required for low pressure plasma because of the investment on a vacuum chamber. On the other hand, carrier gas is required for atmospheric plasma treatment, which is not the case for low pressure plasma. The experimental set up and the chemicals involved in the processes are discussed. In order to enhance surface hydrophobicity, fluorocarbons are always applied, such as perfluoroalkylacrylate, perfluorodecaline and tetrafluoroethylene.
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Rohit Bhardwaj, Sunali Bindra, Tejasvita Singh and Arunaditya Sahay
The extant literature emphasizes that the perspective of bricolage is significantly augmenting the core of entrepreneurship research, and, per se, it has made considerable…
Abstract
Purpose
The extant literature emphasizes that the perspective of bricolage is significantly augmenting the core of entrepreneurship research, and, per se, it has made considerable contributions to understanding resource mobilization and organizational processes in entrepreneurial ventures. Entrepreneurial bricolage literature lacks a unified and holistic conceptual framework that could represent a coherence of diverse bricolage forms and their related capabilities in entrepreneurship. To address this issue, this study aims to develop a comprehensive typology framework of entrepreneurial bricolage based on the theoretical synthesis of the prior research.
Design/methodology/approach
By comparing and synthesizing the existing bricolage forms into a holistic and persistent typology, the authors present an integrated framework of 13 bricolage capabilities that contributes to resource acquisition and resource mobilization as well as facilitate the entrepreneurial processes of opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation in firms.
Findings
The study synthesizes a wide array of research on entrepreneurial bricolage for shaping the resource acquisition and resource mobilization processes in entrepreneurial ventures and presents a typology-based framework for further discussion and research. By mapping the existing research and relevant dimensions into a typology-based entrepreneurial bricolage framework, the study extends and contributes to the current theorizing and conceptual building.
Research limitations/implications
The study would help practitioners and researchers to recognize bricolage capabilities and the common ties among them, leading to further advances in entrepreneurship theory and practice.
Originality/value
As the body of knowledge regarding entrepreneurial bricolage has grown, so has the number of its different forms, concepts and constructs. The authors recognize that there is distinctiveness as well as overlaps among diverse forms, concepts and constructs of entrepreneurial bricolage. Further, the authors identify a new bricolage capability that has not until now been positioned in the extant frameworks.
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C.H. Kwong and S.P. Ng
Cationic dyes exhibit high exhaustion towards protein fibres, such as wool and silk, due to ionic interactions but they show little substantivity onto cellulosic and…
Abstract
Cationic dyes exhibit high exhaustion towards protein fibres, such as wool and silk, due to ionic interactions but they show little substantivity onto cellulosic and hemicellulosic fibres. In order to apply cationic dyes to mill scoured and bleached linen fibers, a new approach employing anionic agents containing a reactive monochloro-S- triazinyl group is synthesized and used to import a negative charge to the fibre surface.
Two cationic dyes show considerable substantivity towards anionic agent modified fabrics. Four different anionic agents are covalently bounded to the linen substrate to provide an electrostatic interaction with cationic dyes. The anionic agent treated fabrics are monitored for nitrogen content, and the reaction efficiency is determined as a K/S value of the dyed samples.
Different factors that affect the pretreatment and dyeing process are investigated, and an overall improvement in the effectiveness of the anionic agent on the dyeability using cationic dyes is achieved. The reaction efficiency for the four anionic agents follows the order: anionic agent III > I > II > IV > untreated fabric. The treated dyed fabrics also exhibit good fastness properties.
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Meng Zhao, Mengjiao Liu, Chang Xu and Chenxi Zhang
This study aims to provide a method for classifying travellers’ requirements to help hoteliers understand travellers’ requirements and improve hotel services. Specifically, this…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a method for classifying travellers’ requirements to help hoteliers understand travellers’ requirements and improve hotel services. Specifically, this study develops a strength-frequency Kano (SF-Kano) model to classify the requirements expressed by travellers in online reviews.
Design/methodology/approach
The strength and frequency of travellers’ requirements are determined through sentiment and statistical analyses of the 13,217 crawled online reviews. The proposed method considering the interaction between strength and frequency is proposed to classify the different travellers’ requirements.
Findings
This study identifies 13 travellers’ requirements by mining online reviews. According to the results of the improved Kano model, the six travellers’ requirements belong to one-dimensional requirements; two travellers’ requirements belong to must-be requirements; three travellers’ requirements belong to attractive requirements; two travellers’ requirements belong to indifferent requirements.
Research limitations/implications
Results of this research can guide hoteliers to address hotel service improvement strategies according to the types of travellers’ requirements. This study can also expand the analysis scope of hotel online reviews and provide a reference for hoteliers to understand travellers’ requirements.
Originality/value
By mining online reviews, this study proposes an SF-Kano model to classify travellers’ requirements by considering both the strength and frequency of requirements. This study uses the optimisation model to determine the classification thresholds. This process maximises travellers’ satisfaction at the lowest cost. The classification results of travellers’ requirements can help hoteliers gain a deeper understanding of travellers’ requirements and prioritise service improvements.
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Chung-Han Ho, Ping-Teng Chang, Kuo-Chen Hung and Kuo-Ping Lin
The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intuitionistic fuzzy seasonality regression (IFSR) with particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms to accurately forecast air…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intuitionistic fuzzy seasonality regression (IFSR) with particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms to accurately forecast air pollutions, which are typical seasonal time series data. Seasonal time series prediction is a critical topic, and some time series data contain uncertain or unpredictable factors. To handle such seasonal factors and uncertain forecasting seasonal time series data, the proposed IFSR with the PSO method effectively extends the intuitionistic fuzzy linear regression (IFLR).
Design/methodology/approach
The prediction model sets up IFLR with spreads unrestricted so as to correctly approach the trend of seasonal time series data when the decomposition method is used. PSO algorithms were simultaneously employed to select the parameters of the IFSR model. In this study, IFSR with the PSO method was first compared with fuzzy seasonality regression, providing evidence that the concept of the intuitionistic fuzzy set can improve performance in forecasting the daily concentration of carbon monoxide (CO). Furthermore, the risk management system also implemented is based on the forecasting results for decision-maker.
Findings
Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average and deep belief network were then employed as comparative models for forecasting the daily concentration of CO. The empirical results of the proposed IFSR with PSO model revealed improved performance regarding forecasting accuracy, compared with the other methods.
Originality/value
This study presents IFSR with PSO to accurately forecast air pollutions. The proposed IFSR with PSO model can efficiently provide credible values of prediction for seasonal time series data in uncertain environments.
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Yajun Wang, Xinyu Meng, Chang Xu and Meng Zhao
This paper aims to analyze high-quality papers on the research of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) for product and service quality improvement from 2009 to 2022, in order to fully…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze high-quality papers on the research of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) for product and service quality improvement from 2009 to 2022, in order to fully understand their historical progress, current situation and future development trend.
Design/Methodology/Approach
This paper adopts the bibliometrics method to analyze the relevant literature, including publishing trend and citation status, regional and discipline area distribution, and influential publications. Secondly, the VOSviewer is used for literature co-citation analysis and keyword co-occurrence analysis to obtain the basic literature and research hotspots in this research field.
Findings
Firstly, the study finds that the number of publications basically shows an increasing trend, and those publications are mainly published in tourism journals. In addition, among these papers, China has the largest number of publications, followed by the USA and South Korea. Through co-citation analysis of literature and keyword co-occurrence analysis, 22 foundational papers and six main research topics are obtained in this paper. Finally, this paper elaborates on the development trend of the research topic and future research directions in detail.
Originality/value
This is the first paper that uses bibliometrics to analyze and review relevant researches on eWOM for product and service quality improvement, which is helpful for researchers to quickly understand its development status and trend. This review also provides some future research directions and provides a reference for further research.
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Weizhuo Wang, Christopher Gan, Zhiyou Chang, David A. Cohen and Zhaohua Li
This paper aims to develop and estimate a logit model of whether homeownership could be promoted by participation in and use of the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) program, with a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop and estimate a logit model of whether homeownership could be promoted by participation in and use of the Housing Provident Fund (HPF) program, with a focus on factors that influence the use of HPF loans.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops and estimates a logit model of whether homeownership could be promoted by participation in and use of the HPF program, with a focus on factors that influence the use of HPF loans.
Findings
The results show that coefficients of marital status, educational level, age, duration of employment and employer are significantly related to the use of HPF loan for homeownership.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability.
Practical implications
The research findings provide a better understanding of homeowners’ characteristics.
Originality/value
To manage the HPF program effectively, it is important for government to have a better understanding of the underlying demand for homeownership, especially with respect to the different demographic variables and accessibility to HPF loans and the HPF.