Haiying Zhou, Kun Mean Hou and Christophe De Vaulx
Traditional embedded operation systems are resource consuming multitask, thus they are not adapted for smart wireless sensors. This paper presents a super‐small distributed…
Abstract
Traditional embedded operation systems are resource consuming multitask, thus they are not adapted for smart wireless sensors. This paper presents a super‐small distributed real‐time microkernel (SDREAM) dedicated to wireless sensors. SDREAM is a tuple‐based message‐driven real‐time kernel. It adopts a meta language: Kernel Modeling Language to define and describe the system primitives in abstract manner. The IPC and processes synchronization are based on the LINDA concept: the tuple model implemented by two light primitives (SND: OUT & RCV: IN). In SDREAM, tasks are classified into two categories: periodic and priority. The periodic task has the highest priority level and is responsible for capturing sensor signals or actuating control signals; the priority task has various priority levels and is suitable for time‐constraints applications. A two‐level task scheduling policy scheme, named priority‐based pre‐emptive scheduling, is used for task scheduling. SDREAM is simple and efficient. It has a flexible hardware abstraction capability that enables it to be rapidly ported into different WSN platforms and other tiny embedded devices. Currently, it has been ported and evaluated in several hardware platforms. The performance results show SDREAM requires tiny resource and is suitable and efficient for hard real‐time multitask WSN applications.
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Shi Shu, Ying Wang, Haiying Kang, Chia-Huei Wu and Pia Arenius
While researchers have discussed the association between career change to self-employment and job satisfaction, few have considered how the association is achieved. Therefore, in…
Abstract
Purpose
– While researchers have discussed the association between career change to self-employment and job satisfaction, few have considered how the association is achieved. Therefore, in this study, the authors aim to explain this relationship from the perspective of job quality. The authors build on job design theory to propose and empirically test how fluctuations in job satisfaction as associated with the transition to self-employment can be explained by changes in job quality.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors tested their propositions using a longitudinal, nationally representative database from Australia for the 2005–2019 period. The final sample included 108,384 observations from 18,755 employees.
Findings
– In line with the literature, the authors found that job incumbents experienced low job satisfaction in the years prior to their career change to self-employment and that their job satisfaction improved after the transition. More importantly, the authors found the same change pattern for job quality – measured as job autonomy and skill variety – and the statistical results demonstrated that job quality was the key determinant of job satisfaction during the process.
Practical implications
– This study advocates the importance of job quality in managing employee wellbeing and facilitating retention.
Originality/value
– The authors contribute to the literature by uncovering how job quality, represented by skill variety and job autonomy, can explain fluctuations in job satisfaction during individuals’ career change from paid employment to self-employment.
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Jiuming Chen, Haiying Kang, Ying Wang and Mingjian Zhou
Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to understand the adverse effects of customer mistreatment on employee performance and well-being by thwarting the…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to understand the adverse effects of customer mistreatment on employee performance and well-being by thwarting the satisfaction of employees' basic psychological needs. It also examines how these negative effects may be mitigated by empowerment human resource management (HRM) practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted using survey data collected in China. In Study 1, cross-sectional data from 321 telemarketing employees were analyzed to examine how customer mistreatment reduces the satisfaction of employees' basic psychological needs, harming job performance and job satisfaction. In Study 2, multiwave, multisource data were collected from 149 property agents and their supervisors to replicate the findings of Study 1 and further test empowerment HRM as a moderator of the relationship between customer mistreatment and satisfaction of needs.
Findings
The results from both studies show that customer mistreatment leads to low job performance and job satisfaction via reduced satisfaction of employees' needs for autonomy and competence but not relatedness. Moreover, the negative effect on the satisfaction of employees' needs for autonomy and competence was buffered when organizations had high empowerment HRM practices in place.
Originality/value
This study provides new insights on customer mistreatment by understanding its effects from a motivational perspective, which has not been considered in prior research. It also explores how HRM practices can help satisfy employee needs in adverse work environments induced by customer mistreatment.
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Junyun Liao, Lu Wang, Minxue Huang, Defeng Yang and Haiying Wei
In an online brand community (OBC), consumers as a group occupy a dominant position, and their horizontal interactions are pivotal for the consumer–brand relationship. However…
Abstract
Purpose
In an online brand community (OBC), consumers as a group occupy a dominant position, and their horizontal interactions are pivotal for the consumer–brand relationship. However, little is known about the effect of group characteristics on brands. To partially fill this gap, this study examines how group characteristics influence brand loyalty from the perspective of social identity theory. Specifically, by collecting data from an online survey, this paper investigates the effects of group similarity, group receptivity and group involvement on brand loyalty, the mediating role of community identification and the moderating effect of tenure in a community.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 482 brand community members were analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that group similarity, group receptivity and group involvement increase brand loyalty; furthermore, the effect is mediated by community identification. Moreover, group receptivity is more effective in fostering community identification of short-tenure members, whereas group similarity plays a more important role for long-tenure members.
Originality/value
This paper enriches the brand community literature from a group perspective and provides implications for how brand communities develop customer loyalty strategies.
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Junyun Liao, Defeng Yang, Haiying Wei and Yulang Guo
Despite the increasingly common view that online brand community (OBC) members are heterogeneous, knowledge concerning the impact of group heterogeneity on community and brand…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the increasingly common view that online brand community (OBC) members are heterogeneous, knowledge concerning the impact of group heterogeneity on community and brand level outcomes is lacking. In response and drawing from organization research, this paper aims to study the consequences of two types of group heterogeneity (i.e. visible heterogeneity and value heterogeneity) on brand community commitment and brand commitment. The moderating role of tenure in a community is also examined.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 467 members of OBCs was conducted, and structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that perceived visible heterogeneity positively affects brand community commitment, whereas perceived value heterogeneity has a negative effect on it. Brand community commitment positively relates to brand commitment; it also mediates the effect of perceived visible heterogeneity and perceived value heterogeneity on brand commitment. Further, the positive effect of visible heterogeneity on brand community commitment is stronger for short-tenure members, but the negative effect of value heterogeneity is stronger for long-tenure members.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that managers should make efforts to foster visible heterogeneity and reduce value heterogeneity. In addition, managers are advised to emphasize the characteristics that carry different appeal for members of different tenure.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first few quantitative studies to examine the influence of brand community heterogeneity on community, and especially brand level outcomes. It extends the literature on the effect of brand community on brands and adds to the emerging heterogeneity view of OBCs.
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Junyun Liao, Muhua Li, Haiying Wei and Zelin Tong
Recent years have witnessed the increasingly fierce competition amongst smartphone brands. Hence, smartphone firms urge to prevent current consumers from switching to maintain…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent years have witnessed the increasingly fierce competition amongst smartphone brands. Hence, smartphone firms urge to prevent current consumers from switching to maintain market position. Based on the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework, this study aims to explore the drivers of users' intentions to switch from their current smartphone brands.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on previous literature and the characteristics of the smartphone purchase, this study identified one pushing, two pulling and five mooring factors. Online questionnaires were collected to test hypotheses using the structural equation modelling approach. An additional netnography study provides further support to the hypotheses.
Findings
Results show that regret is a push factor that enhances consumers' switching intentions. Moreover, two pull factors, subjective norms and alternative attractiveness positively influence consumers' switching intentions. Finally, switching costs, emotional commitment and brand community engagement are mooring factors that negatively affect brand-switching intention, whereas consumers' variety seeking has a positive effect.
Originality/value
This study enriches the brand switching literature and offers significant implications for customer retention.
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Wanbin Pan, Xinyue Chen, Wei Liu, Lixian Qiao, Haiying Kuang and Wen Feng Lu
This study aims to improve the stiffness of as-printed handles by finding appropriate printing orientations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to improve the stiffness of as-printed handles by finding appropriate printing orientations.
Design/methodology/approach
First, a series of benchmark handles is designed using Taguchi method. Then, for each uniformly sampled printing orientation, every benchmark handle is sliced and undergoes stiffness evaluation (i.e. displacement and mean stress) by using finite element analysis (FEA). This generates a substantial batch of handle-orientation-stiffness samples. With the data, an effective stiffness-prediction network is developed based on the artificial neural network. Finally, using the developed network, the particle swarm optimization is adapted to determine the optimized printing orientation for each input handle, aiming to improve its stiffness.
Findings
Compared with the common slicing software, the printing orientations proposed in this study, based on FEA, result in varying degrees of improvement in stiffness for four handles. Specifically, the displacement and mean stress are reduced by 16.86% and 18.14% on average. The experiments show that the approach has the potential to effectively improve the stiffness of a handle.
Originality/value
Although the anisotropic property in mechanics is unavoidable and difficult to formally describe in 3D printing, the proposed approach can effectively characterize the relationship between the stiffness and the printing orientation for each handle. And, it also can determine an optimized printing orientation for each handle to enhance its stiffness after printing.
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Ni Wang, Haiying Pan, Yuze Feng and Sixuan Du
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the impact mechanisms and weighting factors of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices on corporate value through bibliometric…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the impact mechanisms and weighting factors of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices on corporate value through bibliometric analysis and core interpretation of existing literature, further explore whether and under what conditions ESG practices contribute to the corporate value creation, and provide an outlook on future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
Bibliometric method is used to analyze literature co-citation, burst detection and keyword co-occurrence, and literature review method is used to condense important ideas from the existing literature.
Findings
Through the review, analysis and summary of the existing literature, this paper finds that the perspectives of risk, information and strategy reflect the key pathways through which ESG practices play a role in avoiding harm and creating value for companies directly or indirectly. Macro, meso and micro factors moderate the direction and extent of the impact. Moreover, considering the relationship between ESG performance and ESG disclosure is key to understanding some contradictory findings.
Research limitations/implications
The search terms limit the articles considered, and therefore, the research framework may be incomplete. Moreover, this article is primarily aimed at the research field and lacks guidance at the practical level.
Practical implications
This paper helps the academic community to deepen its understanding of ESG, moving beyond the question of whether ESG is linked to corporate value to further understand why and under what conditions ESG practices create value for firms.
Social implications
This paper has great practical significance in motivating companies to actively participate in ESG practices.
Originality/value
The theoretical framework in this paper reveals the black box between enterprise ESG practices and value creation, and clarifies the research boundary of “the relationship between ESG practices and value creation,” contributing to the future research in this field.
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Zhuang Qian, Charles X. Wang and Haiying Yang
This research aims to empirically investigate the impacts of product and international diversification strategies on firm-level inventory performance.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to empirically investigate the impacts of product and international diversification strategies on firm-level inventory performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically examines the associations between product and international diversification strategies and inventory performance based on a sample of 64,124 observations across 7,367 US publicly traded firms between 1989 and 2019 from the COMPUSTAT Segment, Fundamental Annual and Fundamental Quarterly data files. We employ both linear and nonlinear regression models to perform our empirical analysis.
Findings
This research provides strong evidence that there exists a U-shaped relationship between unrelated product diversification and inventory level and a partially inverted U-shaped relationship between international diversification and inventory level. We also find a positive impact of related product diversification on inventory level, but there is no significant curvilinear relationship between related product diversification and inventory level.
Practical implications
Our research findings offer important insights into top management’s strategic planning for diversification strategies and operations manager’s inventory control policies to achieve the strategic fit between corporate diversification and inventory management.
Originality/value
Product and international diversification strategies not only play an essential role in the firm’s competitive advantage, but also have a significant influence on operations manager’s inventory decision. This research is among the first to systematically investigate how top management’s related product, unrelated product and international diversification strategies may have complex nonlinear impacts on inventory performance.
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Patria Laksamana, Suharyanto Suharyanto and Yohanes Ferry Cahaya
To investigate consumer continuance intention in mobile payment in the financial technology (fintech) industry.
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate consumer continuance intention in mobile payment in the financial technology (fintech) industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical study used an online survey with 673 responses from consumers, with structural equation modelling for data analysis.
Findings
The results revealed that trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk and perceived security significantly affect consumer attitude. A positive impact on consumer attitude towards consumer engagement was also exposed.
Research limitations/implications
Trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk and perceived security significantly affect consumer attitude. Hence, consumer attitude and consumer engagement have a positive influence on continuance intention.
Practical implications
The study offers guidelines for decision makers to expand long-term engagement with consumers and enable continuance use of mobile payment services.
Social implications
The findings will ultimately guide fintech firms in the implementation of a more secure macro financial system.
Originality/value
This study highlights the importance of consumer attitudes and engagement in mobile payment and extends the TAM model for more extensive technological advancements.