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Drawing upon resource dependence theory, this study aims to examine how a firm’s information technology (IT) capabilities (i.e. IT integration and IT reconfiguration) influence its responses to disruptions – bridging with a current supplier and buffering with an alternative supplier. We further examine how such relationships are moderated by the firm–supplier relative dependence (i.e. firm dependence advantage and supplier dependence advantage).

Based on data from 141 match-paired surveys of firms in China, we test our model.

Our study finds that IT integration positively influences bridging and IT reconfiguration positively influences buffering. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the positive impact of IT integration on bridging is negatively influenced by the firm’s dependence (FD) advantage but positively moderated by the supplier’s dependence advantage. By contrast, the positive impact of IT reconfiguration on buffering is negatively influenced by the FD advantage.

Our study provides a more nuanced insight into the effects of IT capabilities on disruption responses and a better understanding of the buyer–supplier dependence boundary conditions under which these effects vary.

This paper aims to solve the problem of free-form tubes’ machining errors which are caused by their complex geometries and material properties.

In this paper, the authors propose a multi-view vision-based method for measuring free-form tubes. The authors apply photogrammetry theory to construct the initial model and then optimize the model using an energy function. The energy function is based on the features of the image of the tube. Solving the energy function allows to use the gray features of the images to reconstruct centerline point clouds and thus obtain the pertinent geometric parameters.

According to the experiments, the measurement process takes less than 2 min and the precision of the proposed system is 0.2 mm. The authors used simple operations to carry out the measurements, and the process is fully automatic.

This paper proposes a method for measuring free-form tubes based on multi-view vision, which has not been attempted to the best of authors’ knowledge. This method differs from traditional multi-view vision measurement methods, because it does not rely on the data of the design model of the tube. The application of the energy function also avoids the problem of matching corresponding points and thus simplifying the calculation and improving its stability.

Geometric errors are common in metallic bent tubular parts. Thus, tubes should be inspected and fixed before welding with the joints first. After welding, the relative position of the joints is also necessary to be inspected to judge whether the tube can be assembled reliably. Therefore, the inspection plays an important role in the tube’s assembly. The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-vision-based system designed to inspect the tube and the relative position of the joints.

For the tube inspection, the small cylinders are taken as the primitives to reconstruct the tube using the multi- vision-based system. Then, any geometric error in the tube can be inspected by comparing the reconstructed models and designed ones. For joints’ inspection, authors designed an adapter with marked points, by which the system can calculate the relative position of the joints.

The reconstruction idea can recognise the line and arc segments of a tube automatically and resolve the textureless deficiency of the tube’s surface. The joints’ inspection method is simple in operation, and any kinds of joints can be inspected by designing the structure of the adapters accordingly.

By experimental verification, the inspection precision of the proposed system was 0.17 mm; the inspection time was within 2 min. Thus, the system developed can inspect a tube effectively and automatically. Moreover, authors can determine how the springback of the arcs behaves, allowing in-process springback prediction and compensation, which can reduce geometric errors in the tubes given the present bending machine accuracy.

Based on the knowledge-based view, this study investigates how firms' information technology (IT) capability broadens and deepens their knowledge base, which consequently improves digital innovation. By further drawing on the institutional theory perspective, this study examines how the relationships between IT capability and knowledge base are moderated by the institutional environments in which the firm operates.

This paper uses 170 samples of Chinese firms and an empirical test conducted by the authors following a hierarchical moderated regression analysis.

The results find that IT capability positively affects knowledge breadth and knowledge depth, which consequently improves digital innovation. Furthermore, the study reveals the negative moderating effects of enforcement inefficiency on IT capability–knowledge breadth relationship, and the negative moderating effects of government support on IT capability–knowledge depth relationship.

This research is one of the earliest attempts to explore the impact of the institutional environment of emerging economies on IT capability. It also clarifies the impact of knowledge breadth and knowledge depth on digital innovation.

Building on the information processing perspective, the authors propose that both internal and external supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices play essential roles in mediating supply chain disruption orientation (SCDO) to exercise an influence on resilience. The authors also put forward analytics capability as an important moderator in the above-mediated relationship.

The authors collected 170 match-paired questionnaires from Chinese firms to test our model. The authors further interviewed some managers to supplement key quantitative results.

First, SCDO positively affects resilience via internal and external SCRM practices. Second, the mediating effects of internal and external SCRM practices are stronger when analytics capability is higher. Third, analytics capability positively moderates the positive effect of SCDO on SCRM practices. Meanwhile, it does not moderate the positive effect of SCRM practices on resilience.

Our study contributes to SCRM-related and IT-related literature by considering the content, mediating mechanisms (i.e. internal and external SCRM practices) and boundary conditions (i.e. data analytic capability) of SCDO in shaping resilience in the digital supply chain.

Our study helps remind managers that firms build disruption orientation, develop different SCRM practices and leverage analytics capability to improve resilience amid unexpected and unplanned disruptions.

Our study sheds light on the roles of both internal and external SCRM practices. Furthermore, this research helps explain how SCDO motivates resilience through SCRM practices, particularly for those firms that have higher analytics capability.

The paper aims to examine whether the daily conventional money market overnight rate influences the monthly investment rate of Islamic deposits in Malaysia. The traditional approach, which averages the high-frequency data to match the low-frequency data, results in information loss for the high-frequency data.

The paper uses the mixed data sampling (MIDAS) model to study the relationship between Islamic banking and conventional banking. The Malaysian data are used for the analysis as Malaysia has one of the most developed Islamic financial industries in the world, and it is well-known for its dual banking system.

The evidence shows that the conventional overnight rate has a positive effect on the Islamic deposit rate. The results are consistent for Islamic deposit rates with different maturities. The positive aggregate effect holds when the lag length of the daily conventional overnight rate goes up to 90 days. Additional evidence shows that the daily conventional overnight rate has a similar effect on the conventional deposit rate.

This paper documents that the relationship between Islamic banking and conventional banking is not monotonous. When high-frequency data is averaged with low-frequency data, the non-linear relationship will be masked. It highlights the importance of using high-frequency data to get a detailed picture.

Complicated tubes extensively exist in the industrial equipment. The manufacturing precision of the tubes is difficult to be ensured with bending machine. Therefore, the tubes’ 3D geometric error should be fixed according to measurement results. However, there are no convenient methods to accomplish the measurement accurately and effectively. Thus, this paper aims to propose a new tube measurement method to achieve tube's automatic measurement. The accurate measurement results can be used to fix the geometric error of the tube to achieve stress-free assembly.

Tubes’ shape can be determined by control points. First, the point clouds of the centre line by multi-stereo-vision technology are reconstructed. Then, the point clouds to the spine of the tube are thinned by moving least-squares and segmented into lines and arcs. Finally, the control points are calculated and the model is reconstructed. The authors can get the tube’s geometric dimensions from the model.

The experiment results indicate that the multi-stereo-vision technology can solve the occlusion problem and measure the complicated tubes efficiently and accurately.

The paper proposed a tube measurement method. The repeatability measuring precision was 0.12 mm, and the absolute measuring precision was within 0.78 mm. The tube spectra assessed in this paper are in the range of angles between two adjacent line segments of 3-177° and the shortest length of the line segment is greater than 5 mm, confirming that the proposed algorithm can measure various complicated tubes effectively and accurately.

As a powerful mathematical analysis tool, the local fractional calculus has attracted wide attention in the field of fractal circuits. The purpose of this paper is to derive a new ℑ-order non-differentiable (ND) R-C zero state-response circuit (ZSRC) by using the local fractional derivative on the Cantor set for the first time.

A new ℑ-order ND R-C ZSRC within the local fractional derivative on the Cantor set is derived for the first time in this work. By defining the ND lumped elements via the local fractional derivative, the ℑ-order Kirchhoff voltage laws equation is established, and the corresponding solutions in the form of the Mittag-Leffler decay defined on the Cantor sets are derived by applying the local fractional Laplace transform and inverse local fractional Laplace transform.

The characteristics of the ℑ-order R-C ZSRC on the Cantor sets are analyzed and presented through the 2-D curves. It is found that the ℑ-order R-C ZSRC becomes the classic one when ℑ = 1. The comparative results between the ℑ-order R-C ZSRC and the classic one show that the proposed method is correct and effective and is expected to shed light on the theory study of the fractal electrical systems.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper, for the first time ever, proposes the ℑ-order ND R-C ZSRC within the local fractional derivative on the Cantor sets. The results of this paper are expected to give some new enlightenment to the development of the fractal circuits.

The authors examine the interest rate pass-through in Hong Kong (HK) and Macao both in the long term and short term.

The authors use time series methodology, i.e. unit root, cointegration and error correction models.

The results show that in the post-global financial crisis (GFC) period, both the long-run and short-run interest rate pass-through from policy rates to prime rates have disappeared in Macao and are weakened significantly in Hong Kong. The long-term relationship between deposit rates and policy rates no longer exists in either market while the short-term relationship has been reduced significantly.

The results indicate that the effectiveness of monetary policy in HK and Macao has been seriously undermined in the post-GFC period. New tools are needed in both regions.

Monetary policy transmission via bank interest rates in both HK and Macao are no longer effective after the outbreak of the GFC.

Effort to stimulate the economy and/or control inflation will be hampered.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of the GFC on the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission in HK and Macao.

Manufacturing errors, which will propagate along the assembly process, are inevitable and difficult to analyze for complex products, such as aircraft. To realize the goal of precise assembly for an aircraft, with revealing the nonlinear transfer mechanism of assembly error, a set of analytical methods with response to the assembly error propagation process are developed. The purpose of this study is to solve the error problems by modeling and constructing the coordination dimension chain to control the consistency of accumulated assembly errors for different assemblies.

First, with the modeling of basic error sources, mutual interaction relationship of matting error and deformation error is analyzed, and influence matrix is formed. Second, by defining coordination datum transformation process, practical establishing error of assembly coordinate system is studied, and the position of assembly features is modified with actual relocation error considering datum changing. Third, considering the progressive assembly process, error propagation for a single assembly station and multi assembly stations is precisely modeled to gain coordination error chain for different assemblies, and the final coordination error is optimized by controlling the direction and value of accumulated error range.

Based on the proposed methodology, coordination error chain, which has a direct influence on the property of stealthy and reliability for modern aircrafts, is successfully constructed for the assembly work of the jointing between leading edge flap component and wing component at different assembly stations.

Precise assembly work at different assembly stations is completed to verify methodology’s feasibility. With analyzing the main comprised error items and some optimized solutions, benefit results for the practical engineering application showing that the maximum value of the practical flush of the profiles between the two components is only 0.681 mm, the minimum value is only 0.021 mm, and the average flush of the entire wing component is 0.358 mm, which are in accordance with theoretical calculation results and can successfully fit the assembly requirement. The potential user can be the engineers for manufacturing the complex products.