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Book part
Publication date: 29 January 2018

Gábor Nagy, Carol M. Megehee and Arch G. Woodside

The study here responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity – why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why…

Abstract

The study here responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity – why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why heterogeneity persists, and why competitors perform differently. The present study applies complexity theory tenets and a “neo-configurational perspective” of Misangyi et al. (2016) in proposing complex antecedent conditions affecting complex outcome conditions. Rather than examining variable directional relationships using null hypotheses statistical tests, the study examines case-based conditions using somewhat precise outcome tests (SPOT). The complex outcome conditions include firms with high financial performances in declining markets and firms with low financial performances in growing markets – the study focuses on seemingly paradoxical outcomes. The study here examines firm strategies and outcomes for separate samples of cross-sectional data of manufacturing firms with headquarters in one of two nations: Finland (n = 820) and Hungary (n = 300). The study includes examining the predictive validities of the models. The study contributes conceptual advances of complex firm orientation configurations and complex firm performance capabilities configurations as mediating conditions between firmographics, firm resources, and the two final complex outcome conditions (high performance in declining markets and low performance in growing markets). The study contributes by showing how fuzzy-logic computing with words (Zadeh, 1966) advances strategic management research toward achieving requisite variety to overcome the theory-analytic mismatch pervasive currently in the discipline (Fiss, 2007, 2011) – thus, this study is a useful step toward solving the crucial problem of how to explain firm heterogeneity.

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Improving the Marriage of Modeling and Theory for Accurate Forecasts of Outcomes
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-122-7

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Article
Publication date: 15 May 2019

Xiabao Huang and Lixi Yang

Flexible job-shop scheduling is significant for different manufacturing industries nowadays. Moreover, consideration of transportation time during scheduling makes it more…

1170

Abstract

Purpose

Flexible job-shop scheduling is significant for different manufacturing industries nowadays. Moreover, consideration of transportation time during scheduling makes it more practical and useful. The purpose of this paper is to investigate multi-objective flexible job-shop scheduling problem (MOFJSP) considering transportation time.

Design/methodology/approach

A hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) approach is integrated with simulated annealing to solve the MOFJSP considering transportation time, and an external elitism memory library is employed as a knowledge library to direct GA search into the region of better performance.

Findings

The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on different MOFJSP taken from literature. Experimental results show that proposed algorithm performs better than the original GA in terms of quality of solution and distribution of the solution, especially when the number of jobs and the flexibility of the machine increase.

Originality/value

Most of existing studies have not considered the transportation time during scheduling of jobs. The transportation time is significantly desired to be included in the FJSP when the time of transportation of jobs has significant impact on the completion time of jobs. Meanwhile, GA is one of primary algorithms extensively used to address MOFJSP in literature. However, to solve the MOFJSP, the original GA has a possibility to get a premature convergence and it has a slow convergence speed. To overcome these problems, a new hybrid GA is developed in this paper.

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International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-378X

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Article
Publication date: 17 August 2010

Ling‐Huey Su and Hsiao‐Ling Tsai

The purpose of this study is to determine simultaneously the period of preventive maintenance and the sequence of each job for two parallel machines problem so that the makespan…

681

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine simultaneously the period of preventive maintenance and the sequence of each job for two parallel machines problem so that the makespan is minimized. With proper planning of preventive maintenance, a shop can avoid lack of flexibility between maintenance planning and production scheduling, and thus concentrate on production efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

This study addresses a scheduling problem, wherein each machine has to be shut down for maintenance during a maintenance interval [C, T] arranged in advance. The start time and end time of the preventive maintenance are the decision variables. A maintenance action is attended by a server who managers only one machine at a time. Three cases are studied in this paper: the unequal lengths of unavailable periods on both machines, the equal lengths of unavailable periods on both machines, and no waiting time is allowed between the two unavailable periods. Each case is solved optimally by an analytical algorithm developed in the study.

Findings

Although having exponential time complexities, all the proposed algorithms are quite efficient in solving large‐sized problems. Computational results show that it is able to generate the optimal solution for large sizes (up to 10,000 jobs) in a few minutes of computation time.

Practical implications

Most of the papers that dealt with preventive maintenance assumed that the maintenance period is known and specified. However, the flexible preventive maintenance problem, in which the start time and end time of the preventive maintenance are the decision variables, often occurs in the computer center, NC‐machine and IC‐testing machine for job scheduling and repairs arrangement.

Originality/value

The paper presents an efficient approach for each of the three cases of flexible preventive maintenance, which is relatively unexplored in the literature.

Details

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2511

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Book part
Publication date: 25 July 2023

Deepa Jain, Manoj Kumar Dash and K.S. Thakur

Free Access. Free Access

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The Sustainability of Financial Innovation in E-Payment Systems
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-884-3

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The Emerald Handbook of Multi-Stakeholder Communication
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-898-2

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Article
Publication date: 1 November 2001

C.J. Ho and F.J. Tu

Numerical simulations have been performed for three‐dimensional natural convection of water near its maximum‐density (cold water) inside rectangular enclosures with differential…

343

Abstract

Numerical simulations have been performed for three‐dimensional natural convection of water near its maximum‐density (cold water) inside rectangular enclosures with differential heating at the vertical (left and right) walls. The horizontal (top and bottom) walls and the lateral (front and rear) walls are taken as insulated. Computations are performed for the buoyancy‐driven convection of cold water with density inversion parameter θm = 0.5 in the enclosures with aspect ratio (height/width) Ay = 8 and depth ratios (depth/width) Az = 0.5, 1, and 2. The influence of the depth ratio on the onset of oscillatory convection in a cold‐water‐filled enclosure is investigated. The presence of the lateral walls tends to suppress the onset of unsteadiness in the convective flow. The main features of the oscillatory convection flow and temperature fields as well as the instability mechanism in the three‐dimensional enclosure were similar to those found in the two‐dimensional model. However, there exists a strong three‐dimensionality in the spatial distribution of the fluctuation amplitude. With the decrease of the depth ratio, the damping effect of the lateral walls becomes increasingly pronounced, leading to a reduced heat transfer rate.

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International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 11 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1993

YONGKE WU and MARCEL LACROIX

A numerical study is reported of natural convection melting of ice within a vertical cylinder. A stream function‐vorticity‐temperature formulation is employed in conjunction with…

127

Abstract

A numerical study is reported of natural convection melting of ice within a vertical cylinder. A stream function‐vorticity‐temperature formulation is employed in conjunction with body‐fitted coordinates for tracking the irregular shape of the timewise varying solid‐liquid interface. A parabolic density profile versus temperature is assumed for water. Numerical experiments are carried out for a temperature of the cylinder wall ranging from 4°C to 10°C. Results show that natural convection heat transfer involving density anomaly leads to complex flow patterns and strongly affects the time evolution of the phase front. The maximum Nusselt number at the heated cylinder wall is obtained for Tw = 4°C while the minimum is observed for Tw = 8°C.

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International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 3 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

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Article
Publication date: 21 October 2013

Denise R. Hanes

This paper synthesizes the extant geographically distributed work literature, focusing on how geographic distribution affects coordination and communication, knowledge sharing…

238

Abstract

This paper synthesizes the extant geographically distributed work literature, focusing on how geographic distribution affects coordination and communication, knowledge sharing, work design, and social identity. Geographically distributed audit arrangements, such as group audits and offshoring, are becoming increasingly prevalent in audit practice. However, little empirically is known about how working across cities, countries, and continents affects auditors, the audit process, or audit quality. To this end, the synthesis seeks to stimulate research investigating the implications of geographically distributed work arrangements in auditing, by surveying the extant literature within the management and social psychology disciplines and developing eighteen research questions for future audit research to consider. The synthesis reveals that geographically distributed audit work is likely to be very different from work performed in more traditional arrangements and therefore cannot be treated by audit researchers, practitioners, or standard setters as replications of domestic processes abroad. As a result, the synthesis focuses on building a greater understanding of the changes in day-to-day auditing, the consequences of such changes, and interventions that may moderate the challenges encountered in geographically distributed audit arrangements.

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Journal of Accounting Literature, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-4607

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Book part
Publication date: 2 January 2019

Abstract

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Language, Teaching, and Pedagogy for Refugee Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-799-7

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Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Vikas Thakur and A. Ramesh

Nowadays healthcare waste (HCW) has become a big challenge for the hospital management, especially, in developing countries like India. Like other developing countries, Indian…

1484

Abstract

Purpose

Nowadays healthcare waste (HCW) has become a big challenge for the hospital management, especially, in developing countries like India. Like other developing countries, Indian healthcare waste disposal (HCWD) industry is also fragmented, as some hospitals are having their own in-house waste treatment facilities and others are outsourcing the process to government authorized Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities. Literature also lacks the quantitative studies in selecting the HCWD strategy and, hence, the purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the factors, which affect the selection of HCWD strategy and to propose the model to select the HCWD strategy and to apply the proposed model to select the HCWD strategy in Uttarakhand, Northern State of India.

Design/methodology/approach

Grey theory-based analytic hierarchy process approach has been applied to evaluate the HCWD options and select the appropriate strategy for the healthcare facilities (HCFs).

Findings

From the literature, six criteria have been used to evaluate the HCWD strategies: “access to expertise,” “overdependence,” “transportation & risk associated,” “Government rules,” “environmental factors,” and “economic factors.” “Outsourcing” strategic option (0.61) got the higher desirability index than “in-house treatment” (0.39).

Research limitations/implications

The proposed methodology can be used by the researchers and experts in the field to evaluate the strategic options and select the appropriate strategy.

Practical implications

The HCFs and other generators of HCW can select the alternative, whether they should treat the infectious waste in-house or they should go for outsourcing.

Originality/value

In the field of HCW management, this is the first study of its kind, which helps to evaluate and select the HCWD strategies. The proposed model has been applied in Uttarakhand, Northern State of India to make the comparison between “in-house” and “outsource” strategies.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

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