Search results

A cross-platform paradigm (computing model), which combines the graphical user interface of MATLAB and parallel Fortran programming, for fluid-film lubrication analysis is proposed. The purpose of this paper is to take the advantages of effective multithreaded computing of OpenMP and MATLAB’s user-friendly interface and real-time display capability.

A validation of computing performance of MATLAB and Fortran coding for solving two simple sliders by iterative solution methods is conducted. The online display of the particles’ search process is incorporated in the MATLAB coding, and the execution of the air foil bearing optimum design is conducted by using OpenMP multithreaded computing in the background. The optimization analysis is conducted by particle swarm optimization method for an air foil bearing design.

It is found that the MATLAB programs require prolonged execution times than those by using Fortran computing in iterative methods. The execution time of the air foil bearing optimum design is significantly minimized by using the OpenMP computing. As a result, the cross-platform paradigm can provide a useful graphical user interface. And very little code rewritting of the original numerical models is required, which is usually optimized for either serial or parallel computing.

Iterative methods are commonly applied in fluid-film lubrication analyses. In this study, iterative methods are used as the solution methods, which may not be an effective way to compute in the MATLAB’s setting.

In this study, a cross-platform paradigm consisting of a standalone MATLAB and Fortran codes is proposed. The approach combines the best of the two paradigms and each coding can be modified or maintained independently for different applications.

In response to the users of financial statements’ need for better communication value from audit reports, auditors are required to expand the format and content of their reports. This paper aims to investigate the heterogeneity of key audit matters (KAM) for big4 audit firms.

Using a pool of 273 year-observations from the Omani capital market for the period 2016–2019, a quantile regression approach is adopted to achieve this purpose because it can provide a broader picture of this heterogeneity.

The results indicate that all types of big4 audit firms are associated with lower numbers of KAM. However, each big4 audit firm reports these KAM differently. Also, the results indicate heterogeneity in the number of KAM among the partners of each firm. Specifically, partners in some big4 audit firms show a significant association with fewer KAM while others are insignificant. Some partners of Ernst and Young show a positive association with a higher number of KAM. Overall, the results confirm the heterogeneity among auditors in styling their KAM disclosure.

There are crucial implications for various policymakers. This paper is the first to analyse KAM aspects at the partner level and use quantile regression to detect the effect of audit firms on KAM.

Focusing on social network services (SNS), the purpose of this paper is to propose a research model to investigate individuals’ SNS usage facilitators and inhibitors from the perspective of individuals’ media system dependency (MSD) and privacy concerns.

The research model will be tested with data collected from online users of Facebook. The survey yielded a total of 403 responses for the data analysis which was conducted by measurement and structural models.

The findings indicate that SNSs members strive for understanding, orientation, and play dependencies which facilitate their satisfaction and social presence, and subsequently fosters their continuance intention toward the SNS. In addition, the members’ privacy concerns decrease satisfaction and social presence online.

First, this study has contributed to the authors’ understanding of an individual’s SNS facilitators and inhibitors from the theoretical perspective (i.e. MSD theory and privacy concerns). Second, satisfaction is a strong antecedent of continuance intention and would dilute the effect of social presence on an individual’s SNS continuance intention.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to analyse the diffusion of an innovative policy or service and the factors influencing it through an explorative study of the diffusion of the Bookstart program in Taiwan; and second, to provide an analytical framework for further study of this program.

The study is both empirical and theoretical. It uses data from existing studies and also agencies involved in Bookstart to explain the diffusion of the program. It then draws on theories of policy diffusion and the initial findings of this study to develop an analytical framework for the further study of the diffusion of the Bookstart program.

The Bookstart program, which is designed to promote reading habits for children 0 to 3 years old and to strengthen parent‐children relations, was originally initiated in the UK. It was first introduced into Taiwan in Taichung County in 2003. The paper shows how the program spread throughout Taiwan and indicates the role of the key players in the diffusion, including charitable institutions, local politicians and leaders, local authority agencies, and the Ministry of Education. The paper posits an analytical framework identifying factors which may help to promote or facilitate the diffusion. In this respect, the paper draws on the theoretical literature and also initial evidence from the research so far undertaken. This will guide the research in the next stage of the study.

This explorative study provides an example of the nature, process and direction of the diffusion of a policy or service innovation, and suggests the possible factors promoting or facilitating it, as identified in the initial findings of the research and in the relevant theoretical literature.

This research aimed to examine the role of cloud infrastructure capabilities of tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism supply chain, increasing the online consumption value of tourists.

This study uses stratified random sampling. A value model was formulated, and the study distributed 2,000 surveys; 412 valid responses were received and analyzed using the structural equation modeling approach.

The cloud-based architecture provides tourism SMEs a competitive advantage in the dynamic tourism market and the ability to develop next-generation system capabilities while providing tourism SMEs with a new application foundation to adapt to the ever-changing tourism market.

For tourism SEMs, the cloud allows adjusting strategies and procedures for tourism supply chain management; this agility enables tourism SMEs to anticipate changes in the travel market and respond to changing consumer demands in the tourism industry.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how brand-specific transformational leadership (TFL) and transactional leadership (TRL) enhance employee-based brand equity (EBBE) by influencing employees’ perceived brand value congruence (EPBVC).

This study employed hierarchical linear modeling and chose moderating variables that are primarily related to the working environment: person–job fit (PJF) and person–group fit (PGF). The sample included managers and employees of the largest domestic bank in Taiwan.

Questionnaires were distributed to banking staff in the service industry. The results imply that both brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL require the mediation of PJF and PGF to influence EBBE, which then influences brand equity. Without these mediators, brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL have no effects on EBBE.

Compared to the results from other studies, these results imply a unique discovery that both brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL require the mediation of PJF and PGF to influence EPBVC, which in turn influences EBBE. Without these mediators, brand-specific TFL and brand-specific TRL do not have any effects.

This paper aims to propose an open service access (OSA) service capability server (SCS) architecture that supports the network capabilities to the Application Server (AS).

Based on this architecture, the service capability feature (SCF) provides the OSA Application programming interface functions by implementing the SCF service logic module and callback module. The SCF uses the XML communication module to interact with service capability (SC), which is the bearer to realize services by implementing the SC service logic module. The SC service logic interacts with mobile core network through the session initiation protocol (SIP)‐based session control module and the SIP Callback module.

The push to talk over cellular service is used to illustrate how the proposed OSA SCS interacts with the AS and the mobile core network elements.

In the design, when implementing a new service (i.e. to create a new SCS), one only needs to create the Callback module and the Service Logic modules, and other SC/SCF modules can be reused.

Through this modulized SCS design, the OSA service deployment can be speeded up.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the complex relationships between common bond attachment, common identity attachment, self-esteem and virtual community citizenship behavior (VCCB). This study identifies two broad categories of VCCB: citizenship behaviors directed toward benefitting other individuals (VCCBI) and citizenship behaviors directed toward benefitting the virtual community (VCCBC).

The authors apply partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses, using a sample of 388 valid responses.

The results indicate that common bond attachment and common identity attachment have a significant effect on self-esteem, which, in turn, has a significant effect on VCCBI and VCCBC. The results also indicate that common bond attachment has a significant effect on VCCBI, and that common identity attachment has a significant effect on VCCBC.

This study contributes to a better understanding of VCCBs through common identity and common-bond theory, social identity theory and the stimulus-organism-response framework.

In the process of undertaking overseas construction projects, relational governance has become indispensable for project stakeholders. This study examines how relational governance influences contractors' adaptability to foreign situations and whether such associations are positively moderated by international environmental complexity.

A crosssectional survey methodology was applied to collect primary data through questionnaires sent to domestic contractors in China and South Korea (hereafter Korea). Multiple regression analysis was used to test the effects of four dimensions of relational governance on contractor adaptability. Thereafter, the Chinese and Korean subsamples were tested separately through moderated regression analysis to explore differences in the influence of relational governance on adaptability.

The results showed that quality communication, favor exchange and establishing an emotional relationship significantly and positively affected a contractor’s adaptability. However, there were significant differences between the Chinese and Korean international contractors in terms of the moderating effects of international environment complexity.

East Asian engagement in international development is not limited to China and Korea alone, and the study should be replicated using large representative samples from more countries, such as Japan, to gain a fuller understanding of the influence of relational governance.

The results have great significance for the managers of international contractors in East Asian countries and contribute to the research on relational governance and contractor adaptability.