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Abstract‐CEDAR protocol is a distributed routing protocol oriented to Quality of Service (QoS) support in MANET, and bandwidth is the QoS parameter of interest in this protocol. However, without energy efficiency consideration, earlier node failure will occur in overloaded nodes in CEDAR, and in turn may lead to network partitioning and reduced network lifetime. The storage and processing overhead of CEDAR is fairly high because too many kinds of control packets are exchanged between nodes and too much state information needs to be maintained by core nodes. The routing algorithm depends fully on the link state information known by core nodes. But the link state information may be imprecise, which will result in route failures. In this paper, we present an improved energy efficient CEDAR protocol, and propose a new efficient method of bandwidth calculation. Simulation results show that the improved CEDAR is efficient in terms of packet delivery ratio, throughput and mean‐square error of energy.

As more women are now being appointed to senior and top management positions and invited to sit on boards of directors, they are now directly participating in strategic company decision-making. As female directors have been found to provide new ideas, increase company competitiveness, efficiency and performance and bring a greater number of external resources to a company than male directors, this paper aims to put female directors as a variable into the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and statistical models to explore the effect of female directors on operating performances. The DEA first quantified and measured the company efficiencies, after which the statistical model analyzed the correlations between the variables to specifically identify the impact of female decision makers on the operating efficiencies in state-owned and private enterprises.

A novel two-stage, meta-hybrid dynamic DEA was developed to explore Chinese cultural media company efficiencies under optimal input and output resource allocations, after which Tobit Regression was applied to determine the effect of female executives on these efficiencies.

From 2012 to 2016, the overall efficiencies in Chinese state-owned cultural media enterprises were better than in the private cultural media enterprises. The overall technology gaps (TGs) in the state-owned cultural media enterprises were better than in the private cultural media enterprises.

Previous research has tended to focus on the causal relationships between female senior executives and business performances; however, there have been few studies on the relationships between female executives and company performance from an efficiency perspective (optimal resource allocation). This paper, therefore, is the first to develop a novel two-stage, meta-hybrid dynamic DEA to examine Chinese cultural media enterprise efficiencies, and the first to apply Tobit Regression to assess the effect of female executives on those efficiencies.

This study is based on knowledge-based view to examine the relationships among buyer–supplier interaction, ambidextrous innovation and business performance. It includes competitive intensity and dysfunctional competition to clarify boundary conditions.

The ordinary least squares regression was conducted to test hypotheses. The survey data were collected from 182 Hong Kong manufacturing firms.

Buyer–supplier interaction facilitates ambidextrous innovation, namely exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation. In turn, exploitative innovation enhances business performance, whereas exploratory innovation has no influence on business performance. Competitive intensity strengthens while dysfunctional competition weakens the impact of buyer–supplier interaction on ambidextrous innovation.

This study is based on the knowing processes of knowledge-based view. It contends that business performance is derived from ambidextrous innovation, which depends on the utilization of acquired supplier knowledge and the influence of external competitive environment. The test of relationships is constrained by the single-source and cross-sectional data.

Firms should engage in buyer–supplier interaction to acquire and utilize supplier knowledge. Meanwhile, they should monitor competitive environment to seize opportunities and avoid threats.

This study builds a holistic framework for buyer–supplier interaction, which reconciles the mixed arguments by distinguishing its effects on ambidextrous innovation, and by clarifying boundary conditions in terms of competitive intensity and dysfunctional competition.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the individual effects of boundary-spanning search from suppliers (supplier-side search (SS)). It is proposed that SS contributes to innovation ambidexterity (IA) and then business performance (BP). Further, this paper includes buyer–supplier relationships (BSRs) and competitive intensity (CI) as moderators to clarify boundary conditions.

An ordinary least squares regression was employed to test hypotheses, based on 184 sets of data from Hong Kong manufacturing firms. The SPSS version of PROCESS was utilized.

The results show that IA partially mediates the relationship between SS and BP. Contingently, the direct effect is negatively moderated by BSRs and CI.

This paper confirms the partial mediating effect of IA on the relationship between SS and BP. Additional mediators, such as organizational innovation and marketing innovation, can be examined in the future.

This paper contributes to practice by suggesting that suppliers are a rewarding single source for firms to undertake boundary-spanning search. IA plays a significant role in reinforcing the effects of SS on BP and should be implemented with sustaining efforts. BSRs and CI can be detrimental and should be responded to cautiously.

This paper highlights the individual effects of SS on BP. Furthermore, the underlying process and boundary conditions are analyzed. The exploitation-exploration framework is applied throughout the entire study.

Finding an efficient way for enhancing brand reputation by using social media among customers and business partners has long been the main purpose of every business. However, due to micro and macro changes in the business field, strategies to find a way to improve brand reputation with business partners and customers have altered from transaction marketing to newer approaches such as employing a social media platform. However, not all brands make use of social media to enhance their reputation. The present study uses Apple as an example of the one of the best known brands which does not benefit from social media platforms as to the degree expected.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a modular product design system and a product development roadmap (PDR), which can help to improve modular design (MD) and product innovation capabilities, respectively. Their relationships with product newness (PN) and new product performance are also assessed.

The proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling using data from a survey of 153 manufacturers in the electronic and electrical appliance industries in China.

The findings reveal that the proposed modular product design system and PDR can improve MD and product innovation capabilities. The authors also explore the conflicting relationships of MD and product innovation capability with PN.

The findings contribute to the literature by showing that MD can constrain PN while product innovation can improve it. The study provides new empirical evidence of these relationships and has strategic implications. In addition, this study identifies two product development techniques that can improve MD and innovation capability, respectively.

The authors provide new evidence of the relationship between MD and innovation capability at product level, and confirm a side effect of pursuing both in terms of new product development. Through empirical testing, the authors first verify two product development techniques for implementing modular product design and product innovation.

This paper aims to detect the printing failures (such as warpage and collapse) in material extrusion (MEX) process effectively and timely to reduce the waste of printing time, energy and material.

The approach is designed based on the frequently observed fact that printing failures are accompanied by abnormal material phenomena occurring close to the nozzle. To effectively and timely capture the phenomena near the nozzle, a camera is delicately installed on a typical MEX printer. Then, aided by the captured phenomena (images), a smart printing failure predictor is built based on the artificial neural network (ANN). Finally, based on the predictor, the printing failures, as well as their types, can be effectively detected from the images captured by the camera in real-time.

Experiments show that printing failures can be detected timely with an accuracy of more than 98% on average. Comparisons in methodology demonstrate that this approach has advantages in real-time printing failure detection in MEX.

A novel real-time approach for failure detection is proposed based on ANN. The following characteristics make the approach have a great potential to be implemented easily and widely: (1) the scheme designed to capture the phenomena near the nozzle is simple, low-cost, and effective; and (2) the predictor can be conveniently extended to detect more types of failures by using more abnormal material phenomena that are occurring close to the nozzle.

Analyses the evolution of China’s telephone and cable systems, in terms of the public interest, discussing current bureaucratic conflicts and policy debates over convergence, and construction of an independent broadband cable network. Looks in depth at China’s problems and the different problems for its citizens with regard to poverty levels and access to the Web.

This study aims to investigate whether temperature affects the product quality of exporters and whether the effect is non-linear. More specifically, whether the impact of high temperatures differs from the impact of low temperatures, and whether different types of companies or industries are affected differently.

The paper uses detailed data covering all Chinese exporters from 2000 to 2016 to estimate the effects of temperature on the product quality of export firms. To clarify the relationship between them, the authors use a semi-parametric regression method, trying to test whether there is a non-linear relationship between temperature and the export quality of firms.

The increase in the number of high temperature days significantly reduces the quality of exported products, and this negative effect increases as the temperature rises. High temperature has the most significant negative impact on export quality for firms with low technical complexity, private firms and firms with no intermediate imports and located in historical hot cities. Product quality of both labor-intensive and capital-intensive firms will be affected by heat. High temperatures have the greatest negative impact on the export quality of newly entering products, followed by exiting products, with the least negative impact on persisting product.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the impact of temperature on the quality of economic development. The findings of this paper again show that the potential economic impacts of global warming are huge. In addition to some potentially devastating impacts in the future, global warming is already causing imperceptible impacts in the present. Public and economic agents need to fully understand the possible adverse impacts of climate change and take corresponding adaptation measures to cope with global warming.

Records the research that investigates the differences in quality management between Shanghai and Norwegian manufacturing companies. The research is based on a survey supported by the Norwegian Association for Quality Management (NFK) and the Shanghai Association for Quality Control (SAQC). The research reveals major differences between the two parties. Compared with their Norwegian counterparts, Shanghai companies place greater emphasis on quality control and statistical methods while neglecting customer satisfaction and quality assurance. The final conclusion is that, although managers appreciate the importance of quality management, quality management in Shanghai is still focused on internal quality control, which is still far from Total Quality Management (TQM). Practical implications for future improvement in Shanghai companies and foreign joint ventures in Shanghai are discussed. Future research is also discussed.