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This paper examines the innovation behavior of family-owned firms versus non-family-owned firms. The role of internal family governance and the influence of external stimuli (competition) on innovation are also considered.

The data of 20,995 family and non-family firms across 38 countries are derived from the World Bank Enterprise Survey during the period 2019–2020. Probit models are used to examine the impact of family ownership, family governance, and competition on innovation outcomes.

Family firms are more likely to make R&D investments, acquire external knowledge, engage in product innovation (including innovations that are new to the market) and process innovation, relative to non-family firms. However, a high propensity of family member involvement in top management positions can reduce innovation. Competition has a negative impact on innovation outcomes for both family and non-family firms, but it has a positive moderating effect on the innovation activities of family firms where a higher level of family member involvement in management is present.

This paper provides novel insights into family firm innovation dynamics by identifying family firms as more innovative than non-family firms for all types of indicators, debunking the idea that family firms are conservative, reluctant to change, and averse to the risks in innovation activities. However, too much family involvement in decision making may stifle some innovation activities in family firms, except in cases where the operating environment is highly competitive; this provides new insights into the ownership-management dynamic of family firms.

This paper aimed to propose a novel fused-coating-based additive manufacturing (FCAM); the study of key process parameters and mechanical tests are performed to determine the proper parameters when building metal components.

Sn63Pb37 alloy is deposited in an induction heating furnace with a fused-coating nozzle to build metal parts on a copper-clad substrate. The process parameters including nozzle pressure, nozzle and substrate temperature and nozzle gap between substrate are analyzed and found to have great influence on parts quality. The mechanical property tests between the fused-coating and casting parts are performed in horizontal and vertical directions. Also, the optical microscopy images are used to ascertain under which conditions good bonding can be achieved.

A FCAM method is proposed, and the exploration study about the manufacturing process is carried out. The critical parameters are analyzed, and microscopy images prove the suitable temperature range that requires to fabricate metal parts. The mechanical tests confirm that tensile strength of printing parts is improved by 20.4 and 11.9 per cent in horizontal and vertical direction than casting parts. The experimental results indicate that there is a close relationship between process parameters and mechanical properties.

This paper proves that FCAM provides an alternative way to quickly make functional metal parts with good quality and flexibility compared with other additive manufacturing methods. Moreover, good mechanical property is achieved than conventional casting parts.

This paper aims to study numerically the influence of the applied laser energy density and the porosity of the powder bed on the thermal behavior of the melt and the resultant instability of the liquid track.

A three-dimensional model was proposed to predict local powder melting process. The model accounts for heat transfer, melting, solidification and evaporation in granular system at particle scale. The proposed model has been proved to be a good approach for the simulation of the laser melting process.

The results shows that the applied laser energy density has a significantly influence on the shape of the molten pool and the local thermal properties. The relative low or high input laser energy density has the main negative impact on the stability of the scan track. Decreasing the porosity of the powder bed lowers the heat dissipation in the downward direction, resulting in a shallower melt pool, whereas pushing results in improvement in liquid track quality.

The randomly packed powder bed is calculated using discrete element method. The powder particle information including particle size distribution and packing density is taken into account in placement of individual particles. The effect of volumetric shrinkage and evaporation is considered in numerical model.

The purpose of this paper is to optimize the structure of plough blades in a ploughshare mixer using the discrete element method (DEM) simulations.

Using the validated DEM model, three numerical tests are conducted to determine how the mixing performance evolves as structural parameters of blades change. Results from the analysis provide basis for structure optimization of blades. The structural parameters include sweep angle of blade γ, regular axial pitch p and regular circumferential angular offset α. The parameters to evaluate mixing performance include mass flow rate and Lacey index.

The DEM results show that the mixing performance at γ of 35° is better than 15°, 25° and 45°. The mixer which has a p of less than or equal to 1.11 · b is more efficient than the mixer which has a p greater than 1.11 · b, where b is tail width of blade. The circumferential symmetric distribution of blades (α = 180°) is more beneficial to improve the mixing performance in comparison with the circumferential asymmetric distribution (α < 180°). Based on the results, an optimized mixer with a γ of 35°, a p of 0.61 · b and an α of 180° is proposed, which has a better mixing performance compared to all mixers listed.

The structural parameters of blades, including γ, p and α, are found to be critical for good mixing. From the view angle of structure optimization of plough blades, a new ploughshare mixer with a γ of 35°, a p of 0.61 · b and an α of 180° is investigated and recommended for improving mixing efficiency.

This paper aims to establish a novel three-way decisions-based grey incidence analysis clustering approach and exploit it to extract information and rules implied in panel data.

Because of taking on the spatiotemporal characteristics, panel data can well-describe and depict the systematic and dynamic of the decision objects. However, it is difficult for traditional panel data analysis methods to efficiently extract information and rules implied in panel data. To effectively deal with panel data clustering problem, according to the spatiotemporal characteristics of panel data, from the three dimensions of absolute amount level, increasing amount level and volatility level, the authors define the conception of the comprehensive distance between decision objects, and then construct a novel grey incidence analysis clustering approach for panel data and study its computing mechanism of threshold value by exploiting the thought and method of three-way decisions; finally, the authors take a case of the clustering problems on the regional high-tech industrialization in China to illustrate the validity and rationality of the proposed model.

The results show that the proposed model can objectively determine the threshold value of clustering and achieve the extraction of information and rules inherent in the data panel.

The novel model proposed in the paper can well-describe and resolve panel data clustering problem and efficiently extract information and rules implied in panel data.

The proposed model can deal with panel data clustering problem and realize the extraction of information and rules inherent in the data panel.

Traditional production management systems are often designed to support manufacturing based on a limited number of product variants. With the emerging trend of producing customized products to meet diverse customer needs, the number of product variants increases exponentially in mass customization. In a situation of assembly‐to‐order production, production planning and control involve not only product variety, but also process variety. It is imperative to synchronize product and process variety in a coherent manner.

This paper discusses integrated product and production data management for assembly‐to‐order production. An integrated BOM and routing generator is proposed for the purpose of unifying BOM and assembly‐planning data in order to accommodate a wide range of product variability and production variations.

An integrated BOM and routing generator excels in variety synchronization for assembly‐to‐order production planning.

Variety synchronization opens many opportunities for research into mass customization production. It is important to deal with not only the results of high variety production but also the causes of process variations.

The proposed methodology is applicable to manage high variety production like mass customization.

The paper proposes the variety synchronization issue in mass customization. An object‐oriented methodology is applied to manage variety of BOMs and variety of routings.

Existing earlier supplier involvement (ESI) models mostly emphasize the product development perspective with limited attention to the process development dimension. Towards this end, this paper aims at a tailored framework for semiconductor manufacturing firms by taking into account the implementation of ESI in process development as well as product development.

A number of well‐recognized propositions are examined through a case study of MIC Semiconductors Asia. Based on observations from the case study, the problems of existing frameworks are analyzed and accordingly possible solutions are explored.

The case study reveals the importance of process development in ESI implementation. It is imperative to build up on some fundamentals of the company before ESI can be carried out successfully. Also observed is that the effectiveness of a supplier selection criterion should be gauged from the performance of the suppliers. It is also found out what type of relationships with suppliers are favorable to ESI, regardless whether the length of the relationship can be translated to trust in technical capability in practice.

Examining existing ESI models through a real case study sheds light on the practical application of ESI. In particular, the semiconductor manufacturing process is emphasized in addition to the general ESI focus on product development.

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively examine the factors that influence the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) in the logistics industry in Taiwan, and to objectively identify the key factors (KFs) for successful adoption.

First, the factors were collected from a review of the literature, and then arranged in a three-layer hierarchical table. The fuzzy analytic hierarchical process (FAHP) was then used to determine the weighting of each factor, based on the opinions of various logistics professionals. The acceptable advantage concept of VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) was then used to identify the KFs.

Nine important factors were identified from the total of eighteen factors, with a total accumulative weight of 64.68 percent, and from these, four KFs were determined: meeting the demands of clients, sharing real-time information, creating advantages in overall delivery, and reducing operational errors.

The results show that the logistics industry in Taiwan should focus on the improvement of four KFs when adopting RFID. Eight practical implications of this study are also discussed in the paper.

This study used multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools to obtain the importance (weighting) of each factor and to identify the KFs that influence the adoption of RFID. The research results can serve as a reference for the logistics industry, enabling firms to better allocate their resources when adopting RFID, and thus, to achieve a good outcome at lower cost and with greater efficiency.

The purpose of this technical paper is to investigate the friction and wear behaviour of heat treated Al 6061 alloy and Al 6061 SiC‐graphite particulate reinforced hybrid composites subjected to different ageing durations.

The composites have been prepared by stir casting process with varying percentages of SiC and graphite particles. The cast 6061 alloy and its composites were subjected to solutionising treatment at a temperature of 803 K for 1 hr followed by quenching in water. The quenched samples were then subjected to artificial ageing for different durations of 4, 6, 8 hr at a temperature of 448 K. Tests were performed on heat treated Al 6061 alloy and its composites using pin‐on‐disc apparatus. Hardness measurements were also made on the specimens. The wear surfaces of the composites were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy.

During wear test of specimens the wear resistance of the hybrid composites was found to increase with increase in ageing durations. The microscopic examination of the wear surfaces shows that the base alloy and composites wear primarily because of abrasion and delamination. The hardness result shows that the hardness of the composites increased with decreasing weight percentage of graphite particles.

The content of this paper is fully research oriented and the finding from this investigation will be useful for society and also the automobile industries, especially in the making of brake drums.