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1 – 10 of over 3000Z.‐M. Li, K.‐W. Chai, S.P. McAlister and J. Simmons
We have implemented a two‐dimensional (2D) time‐dependent hydrodynamic model suitable for studying III‐V heterostructural semiconductor devices. This we apply in simulating a…
Abstract
We have implemented a two‐dimensional (2D) time‐dependent hydrodynamic model suitable for studying III‐V heterostructural semiconductor devices. This we apply in simulating a heterojunction metal‐semiconductor‐metal (MSM) photodetector subject to pico‐second optical pulses. The inclusion of the energy balance equation introduces an additional time delay in the response of the detector, which is comparable to the energy relaxation time.
Sadia Samar Ali, Rajbir Kaur and Jose Antonio Marmolejo Saucedo
Z.R. Hu, P.A. Mawby, M.S. Towers and K. Board
The transient thermal behaviour, based on a rigorous transient thermodynamic treatment, of a power VDMOS transistor during turn‐off is presented. The time variation of the…
Abstract
The transient thermal behaviour, based on a rigorous transient thermodynamic treatment, of a power VDMOS transistor during turn‐off is presented. The time variation of the interior lattice temperature within the device is calculated by self‐consistently solving the fully coupled Poisson's equation and transient electron continuity equation together with the transient heat flow equation. The simulation takes account of temperature dependent heat conduction and capacity and includes thermoelectric currents due to temperature gradient. To make the transient thermal simulation more robust, a new analytical expression for heat capacity is used.
Dayu Jin, Kah‐Hin Chai and Kay‐Chuan Tan
A number of new service development (NSD) tools have been proposed to facilitate NSD processes. Despite the proved values, NSD tools are not used frequently. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
A number of new service development (NSD) tools have been proposed to facilitate NSD processes. Despite the proved values, NSD tools are not used frequently. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usage pattern of NSD tools and to identify the factors that influence their adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
By integrating the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the literature on organizational adoption of innovation, a framework was developed. Empirical data from financial institutions in Singapore and Taiwan were collected. Partial least squares was used to test the model comprising both reflective and formative constructs.
Findings
The framework shows satisfactory predictive power. Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behaviour control are significantly related to behaviour intention. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are antecedents of attitude. Competitive pressure influences subjective norm. Perceived behaviour control is determined by compatibility and resource commitment.
Research limitations/implications
TPB can be applied at the firm level by treating the opinion of managers as the proxy of that of the organization. Findings are limited to the small sample size and a focus on only financial services.
Practical implications
Only a small group of NSD tools are used frequently in the firms surveyed. Service firms should pay more attention to the tools available and the factors associated with their adoption.
Originality/value
The paper identifies factors worth noticing when researchers and practitioners develop and implement NSD tools. Also, the data confirmed the appropriateness of the extension of TPB to predict organizational adoption behaviour.
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Marilyn M. Helms and Judy Nixon
The purpose of this study is to examine the use of the strategic management tool, Strengths‐Weaknesses‐Opportunities‐Threats or SWOT analysis, and to assess how the methodology…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the use of the strategic management tool, Strengths‐Weaknesses‐Opportunities‐Threats or SWOT analysis, and to assess how the methodology has been used as well as changes to the methodology. The findings both for and against SWOT analysis should lead to a balanced view of the technique as well as yield ideas for needed theory building.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the ABInform Global® database, academic peer‐reviewed articles were compiled indicating SWOT as one of the article's key index and search words.
Findings
The use of SWOT analysis continues to permeate the academic peer‐reviewed literature. Research supports SWOT analysis as a tool for planning purposes. Over the past decade, SWOT research has focused on analyzing organizations for recommended strategic actions. As a methodology for strategic positioning, SWOT analysis has been extended beyond companies to countries and industries and is used in virtually every published business case positioned for business student analysis. Additional use of SWOT is as teaching tools by consultants, trainers and educators. This paper provides a summary of the research studies and suggests paths for future research.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is limited to analyzing reports found in a selection of academic peer‐reviewed business journals. However, research implications for applying SWOT analysis provides a broad spectrum of industry analysis in North America, Europe, and Asia. Additional limitations are the need to link SWOT analysis to other strategic tools and methodologies for further theory building, since past research continues to lack quantifiable findings on the success of the SWOT analysis.
Practical implications
A fresh view of new directions and implementations for SWOT analysis, as well as other strategic planning tools that can be combined with SWOT, provides guidance for practitioners and policy makers alike.
Originality/value
The article adds value to the existing literature as the first summary of SWOT research indicating its uses and limitations. Support of its usage and place in the strategic literature is validated. The SWOT methodology is pervasive, in large part, due to its simplicity. In addition, the use of SWOT as a proven developmental, results‐oriented strategic planning tool is also extended, although further research leading to theory building is warranted and recommended.
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Chuanming Yu, Haodong Xue, Manyi Wang and Lu An
Owing to the uneven distribution of annotated corpus among different languages, it is necessary to bridge the gap between low resource languages and high resource languages. From…
Abstract
Purpose
Owing to the uneven distribution of annotated corpus among different languages, it is necessary to bridge the gap between low resource languages and high resource languages. From the perspective of entity relation extraction, this paper aims to extend the knowledge acquisition task from a single language context to a cross-lingual context, and to improve the relation extraction performance for low resource languages.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a cross-lingual adversarial relation extraction (CLARE) framework, which decomposes cross-lingual relation extraction into parallel corpus acquisition and adversarial adaptation relation extraction. Based on the proposed framework, this paper conducts extensive experiments in two tasks, i.e. the English-to-Chinese and the English-to-Arabic cross-lingual entity relation extraction.
Findings
The Macro-F1 values of the optimal models in the two tasks are 0.880 1 and 0.789 9, respectively, indicating that the proposed CLARE framework for CLARE can significantly improve the effect of low resource language entity relation extraction. The experimental results suggest that the proposed framework can effectively transfer the corpus as well as the annotated tags from English to Chinese and Arabic. This study reveals that the proposed approach is less human labour intensive and more effective in the cross-lingual entity relation extraction than the manual method. It shows that this approach has high generalizability among different languages.
Originality/value
The research results are of great significance for improving the performance of the cross-lingual knowledge acquisition. The cross-lingual transfer may greatly reduce the time and cost of the manual construction of the multi-lingual corpus. It sheds light on the knowledge acquisition and organization from the unstructured text in the era of big data.
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Antonio Carrizo Moreira, Luis Miguel D.F. Ferreira and Pedro Silva
The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) as an effective tool for decreasing failure risk in the early phase of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) as an effective tool for decreasing failure risk in the early phase of the new product development (NPD), which adds to existing literature on the application of FMEA in NPD.
Design/methodology/approach
Through the application of action research (AR) methodology, it was possible to develop a case study examining the use of FMEA to decrease NPD risk in an early phase of NPD execution.
Findings
The importance and immediate gains of identifying NPD failures support FMEA's usefulness for NPD risk decrease. Moreover, its user-friendliness, timeliness and cost advantages facilitate the introduction of FMEA in the early phase of NPD execution.
Originality/value
FMEA is a well-known method used in manufacturing companies to identify and correct failures in products, processes and systems. This article explores the lack of practice-oriented evidence on the use of FMEA in the early phase of NPD execution and provides support to its applicability and effectiveness.
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The research involved a funeral home manager who used case research within another funeral home to learn more about how to manage his own workplace. This research aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The research involved a funeral home manager who used case research within another funeral home to learn more about how to manage his own workplace. This research aims to investigate for the first time how funeral homes can strategically manage the marketing of their services to customers during emotional times in their lives.
Design/methodology/approach
The two methodologies of convergent interviewing and case research in a funeral home workplace are described in detail.
Findings
The case research revealed what strategic marketing management principles have to be emphasized in the unique context of funeral homes, and the related need to develop a hybrid strategy. The project demonstrated that a case research project can align a formal research project with the professional development of managers.
Practical implications
The paper provided the first author with a valuable learning experience of management in his industry, and provides other funeral home managers with a detailed guide to doing their strategic marketing management.
Originality/value
The authors’ contributions are the first example of case research used for workplace learning in a blend of formal academic research and workplace learning. It is also the first academically rigorous coverage of strategic marketing management workplace practices in the unique context of funeral homes; they were uncovered in interviews across a range of staff levels in a funeral home.
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Dimitrios P. Kafetzopoulos, Evangelos L. Psomas and Katerina D. Gotzamani
The purpose of this paper is to provide additional evidence of the impact of ISO 9001 effectiveness on three dimensions of a firm’s performance, namely product quality…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide additional evidence of the impact of ISO 9001 effectiveness on three dimensions of a firm’s performance, namely product quality, operational performance and business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis includes an initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA), followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), in order to investigate the relations between the constructs of the proposed model. A sample of 287 ISO 9001 certified Greek manufacturing firms is used for this purpose.
Findings
According to the study findings, ISO 9001 effectiveness directly contributes to product quality and operational performance. Although it has no direct impact on manufacturing firms’ business performance, it has an indirect impact through the moderator of operational performance.
Research limitations/implications
The sample of the responding manufacturing companies is limited to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from one country (Greece). In addition, the effects of the internal business environment and endogenous business factors have not been assessed through the present study.
Practical implications
The study offers clear implications for managers who focus on elements that will increase the ISO 9001 effectiveness and desire to choose strategies, allocate resources and improve their firm’s performance.
Originality/value
The present study contributes to the literature gap aiming at examining the degree to which ISO 9001 effectiveness influences the performance of certified firms. The concept of “ISO 9001 effectiveness” is introduced as the extent to which its prescribed quality objectives are met.
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Erlantz Allur, Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria and Martí Casadesús
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the motivation to adopt International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001 on both the internalization of the standard…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of the motivation to adopt International Standards Organization (ISO) 9001 on both the internalization of the standard, namely the active day-to-day use of its main underlying practices, and the benefits obtained from its adoption. Similarly, the influence of the internalization on the benefits derived from ISO 9001 is analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal survey was carried out on a sample of 110 Spanish organizations that adopted the standard in its early phase of dissemination. These organizations were surveyed in 1999 and, 12 years later, in 2011.
Findings
The results show that, contrary to the results of previous research work, early adopters driven by internal motives experience neither higher levels of internalization of ISO 9001 nor higher benefits from adoption of the standard. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence that in the long run a higher level of internalization leads to greater benefits from the adoption of ISO 9001.
Originality/value
The adoption of ISO 9001 is a dynamic process in which certificating organizations play an important role.
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