Fuli Zhou, Xu Wang and Avinash Samvedi
Driven by motivation of quality enhancement and brand reputation promotion, automotive industries try to improve product quality and customer satisfaction by performing quality…
Abstract
Purpose
Driven by motivation of quality enhancement and brand reputation promotion, automotive industries try to improve product quality and customer satisfaction by performing quality pilot programs continuously. The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic model to select the improvement quality pilot program from competitive candidates based on dynamic customers’ feedback.
Design/methodology/approach
An extended dynamic multi-criteria decision-making method is developed by embedding dynamic triangular fuzzy weighting average operators into fuzzy VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method, and the novel evaluation indicator “ζ” is introduced to reflect prioritization performance.
Findings
The two evaluation indicators (Q and “ζ” ) assist quality managers to identify the best program with respect to multiple conflicting criteria and the best choice based on these two indexes shows high conformity. Besides, ranking sequences obtained by “ζ” can avoid the dilemma that there are several candidates with top priority calculated by comprehensive group utility value Q.
Practical implications
The dynamic MCDM method has been applied into the quality improvement procedure in Chinese domestic auto factories and contributes to highly efficient promotion.
Originality/value
Few dynamic models on pilot program selection for quality improvement based on dynamic customers’ feedback, this study deals with the dynamic promotion by an extended fuzzy VIKOR method and presents a case application.
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Fuli Zhou, Ming K. Lim, Yandong He and Saurabh Pratap
The increasingly booming e-commerce development has stimulated vehicle consumers to express individual reviews through online forum. The purpose of this paper is to probe into the…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasingly booming e-commerce development has stimulated vehicle consumers to express individual reviews through online forum. The purpose of this paper is to probe into the vehicle consumer consumption behavior and make recommendations for potential consumers from textual comments viewpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
A big data analytic-based approach is designed to discover vehicle consumer consumption behavior from online perspective. To reduce subjectivity of expert-based approaches, a parallel Naïve Bayes approach is designed to analyze the sentiment analysis, and the Saaty scale-based (SSC) scoring rule is employed to obtain specific sentimental value of attribute class, contributing to the multi-grade sentiment classification. To achieve the intelligent recommendation for potential vehicle customers, a novel SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to prioritize vehicle brand candidates from a big data analytical viewpoint.
Findings
The big data analytics argue that “cost-effectiveness” characteristic is the most important factor that vehicle consumers care, and the data mining results enable automakers to better understand consumer consumption behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The case study illustrates the effectiveness of the integrated method, contributing to much more precise operations management on marketing strategy, quality improvement and intelligent recommendation.
Originality/value
Researches of consumer consumption behavior are usually based on survey-based methods, and mostly previous studies about comments analysis focus on binary analysis. The hybrid SSC-VIKOR approach is developed to fill the gap from the big data perspective.
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Yandong He, Xu Wang, Fuli Zhou and Yun Lin
This paper aims to study the vehicle routing problem with dynamic customers considering dual service (including home delivery [HD] and customer pickup [CP]) in the last mile…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the vehicle routing problem with dynamic customers considering dual service (including home delivery [HD] and customer pickup [CP]) in the last mile delivery in which three decisions have to be made: determine routes that lie along the HD points and CP facilities; optimize routes in real time, which mode is better between simultaneous dual service (SDS, HD points and CP facilities are served simultaneously by the same vehicle); and respective dual service (RDS, HD points and CP facilities are served by different vehicles)?
Design/methodology/approach
This paper establishes a mixed integer linear programing model for the dynamic vehicle routing problem considering simultaneous dual services (DVRP-SDS). To increase the practical usefulness and solve large instances, the authors designed a two-phase matheuristic including construction-improvement heuristics to solve the deterministic model and dynamic programing to adjust routes to dynamic customers.
Findings
The computational experiments show that the CP facilities offer greater flexibility for adjusting routes to dynamic customers and that the SDS delivery system outperforms the RDS delivery system in terms of cost and number of vehicles used.
Practical implications
The results provide managerial insights for express enterprises from the perspective of operation research to make decisions.
Originality/value
This paper is among the first papers to study the DVRP-SDS. Moreover, this paper guides the managers to select better delivery mode in the last mile delivery.
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Kriti Priya Gupta, Rishi Manrai and Utkarsh Goel
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks services by Indian underbanked and unbanked population.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks services by Indian underbanked and unbanked population.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model has assimilated factors from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) along with perceived credibility. The factors of UTAUT include performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitation of conditions and social influence. Apart from testing the direct relationships of the model constructs with the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks services, the study has also explored mediating and moderating effects of certain constructs. The research model has been empirically tested using 660 responses from a field survey conducted in New Delhi – the capital city of India – by using the structured equation modeling (SEM) technique. The target respondents of the study are small businessmen and migrant laborers who are either underbanked or unbanked.
Findings
The findings of the study reveal that the model is able to explain 67.5 per cent of the variance in behavioral intention. The results indicate that all the factors are direct determinants of behavioral intention. Perceived credibility is found to be the strongest influencer of behavioral intention. The findings also indicate that perceived credibility partially mediates the relationships between “social influence and behavioral intention” and “performance expectancy and behavioral intention.” The relationship between performance expectancy and behavioral intention is also found to be moderated by facilitating conditions and effort expectancy.
Research limitations/implications
As this study is based on a convenience sample of respondents of only one city of India, this could negatively reflect on the generalizability of results across other cities. Moreover, the study has only focused on the perceptions of small businessmen and migrant laborers. This raises concerns regarding the applicability of the results for other segments of the current population that have different demographic characteristics (e.g. occupation, income, education level and technology experience). Modifying the conceptual model presented in this research to include “experience” and “age” as moderators can also be worth considering in future. Although this study has extended the UTAUT to include perceived credibility, the results of the explanatory power of the model indicate that there is still room for improvement. Therefore, including other constructs, e.g. hedonic motivation, perceived risks and trialability, could be a fruitful path forward. Future studies may also examine the factors influencing the actual use behavior of payments banks, rather than just behavioral intention.
Practical implications
The study looks forward to providing the payments banks service providers in India with suitable guidelines for effectively implementing and designing payments banks services. Specifically, the results of this study have provided clues for Indian payments banks service providers about the crucial role of perceived credibility in influencing the behavioral intention to adopt payments banks. Therefore, service providers have to initially be sure that payments banks are able to conduct financial transactions efficiently, securely and within less time, along with the availability of information required by customers to successfully use the services. Service providers should enhance customer confidence and trust by providing secure and reliable services. They should also emphasize on the positive safety measures of the payments banks during any marketing campaign rather than just creating brand awareness.
Originality/value
The study represents a substantial contribution to the existing knowledge regarding mobile payment channels in particular and technology acceptance area in general. In fact, this study presents a worthwhile direction by examining payments banks services, which, so far, have not been well evaluated in the Indian context. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an early attempt toward a holistic and integrative approach to explain adoption of payments banks in India. Although prior studies have addressed mobile banking and mobile payment adoption, the strength of this research lies in combining the UTAUT constructs with perceived credibility. This is evidenced by the high explanatory power (67.5 per cent) of the research model adopted in this study.
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Chang Liu, Lin Zhou, Lisa Höschle and Xiaohua Yu
The study uses machine learning techniques to cluster regional retail egg prices after 2000 in China. Furthermore, it combines machine learning results with econometric models to…
Abstract
Purpose
The study uses machine learning techniques to cluster regional retail egg prices after 2000 in China. Furthermore, it combines machine learning results with econometric models to study determinants of cluster affiliation. Eggs are an inexpensiv, nutritious and sustainable animal food. Contextually, China is the largest country in the world in terms of both egg production and consumption. Regional clustering can help governments to imporve the precision of price policies and help producers make better investment decisions. The results are purely driven by data.
Design/methodology/approach
The study introduces dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm which takes into account time series properties to analyze provincial egg prices in China. The results are compared with several other algorithms, such as TADPole. DTW is superior, though it is computationally expensive. After the clustering, a multinomial logit model is run to study the determinants of cluster affiliation.
Findings
The study identified three clusters. The first cluster including 12 provinces and the second cluster including 2 provinces are the main egg production provinces and their neighboring provinces in China. The third cluster is mainly egg importing regions. Clusters 1 and 2 have higher price volatility. The authors confirm that due to transaction costs, the importing areas may have less price volatility.
Practical implications
The machine learning techniques could help governments make more precise policies and help producers make better investment decisions.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to use machine learning techniques to cluster food prices. It also combines machine learning and econometric models to better study price dynamics.
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Xue-Jun Cui, Ying-Jun Zhang, Bao-Jie Dou, Xian-Guang Zeng and Xiu-Zhou Lin
This paper aims to investigate the effects of deposition time on the structure and anti-corrosion properties of a micro-arc oxidation (MAO)/Al coating on AZ31B Mg alloy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effects of deposition time on the structure and anti-corrosion properties of a micro-arc oxidation (MAO)/Al coating on AZ31B Mg alloy.
Design/methodology/approach
The study describes the fabrication of the coating via a combined process of MAO with multi-arc ion plating. The structure, composition and corrosion resistance of the coatings were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical methods.
Findings
The Al-layer is tightly deposited with a good mechanical interlock along the rough interface due to the Al diffusion. However, the Al layer reduces the anti-corrosion of MAO-coated Mg alloy because of structural defects such as droplets and cavities, which act as channels for corrosive media infiltration towards the substrate. Fortunately, the Al layer improves the substrate corrosion resistance owing to its passive behaviour, and the corrosion resistance can be enhanced with increasing deposition time. All results indicate that a buffer layer fabricated through the duplex process improves the interfacial compatibility between the hard coating and soft Mg alloys.
Originality/value
An MAO/Al duplex coating was fabricated via a combined process of MAO and physical vapour deposition. MAO/Al duplex coatings exhibit obviously passive behaviours on AZ31 Mg alloy. The structure and corrosion resistance of MAO/Al coatings were investigated.
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Stephanie Jean Tsang and Lin Zhou
Concerns regarding the implementation of interventions to address misinformation have been prominent in Hong Kong and other regions. This study aims to explore the factors that…
Abstract
Purpose
Concerns regarding the implementation of interventions to address misinformation have been prominent in Hong Kong and other regions. This study aims to explore the factors that influence public support for digital platform regulation, media literacy education and legislation in the fight against misinformation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilized data from a nationally sampled survey in Hong Kong (N = 1,654) collected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings
Perceptions of the direction in which misinformation is biased moderated the influence of the third-person perception on support for all three intervention types: digital platform regulation, media literacy education and legislation. As individuals differ in their focus on either penalizing those who spread misinformation or safeguarding themselves from potential consequences, varying strategies are favored. Media literacy education stands out as a preferred approach since it neither penalizes individuals nor restricts freedom of expression, offering a gentle form of intervention.
Practical implications
Governments may view media literacy education as a favorable intervention, as it garners support without infringing on free speech. Conversely, individuals advocating for more stringent measures, such as enforcement actions, may lean towards legislation rather than literacy education.
Originality/value
This research is unique in its simultaneous comparison and contrast of public support for three misinformation interventions. It underscores the significance of taking both third-person perceptions and perceptions of bias of misinformation into account when considering strategies to combat misinformation.
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Yingjun Zhang, Xue-Jun Cui, Yawei Shao, Yanqiu Wang, Guozhe Meng, Xiu-Zhou Lin, Dongquan Zhong and Dajian Wang
This paper aims to prepare a residual rust epoxy coating by adding different quantities of phytic acid (PA) on the surface of the rusty steel and investigate the corrosion…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to prepare a residual rust epoxy coating by adding different quantities of phytic acid (PA) on the surface of the rusty steel and investigate the corrosion protection of PA and its action mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
A residual rust epoxy coating by adding different quantities of PA was prepared on the surface of the rusty steel. The influence of PA on the corrosion resistance of epoxy-coated rusty steel was investigated by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and adhesion testing.
Findings
Results indicated that PA can substantially improve the corrosion resistance of epoxy-coated rusty steel. This improvement is due to the reaction of PA with residual rust and generation of new compounds with protection properties and increased adhesive strength effects on the coating/metal interface. The coating showed better protection performance when 2 per cent PA was added.
Originality/value
Considering the structure of the active groups, PA has strong chelating capability with many metal ions and can form stable complex compounds on the surface of a metal substrate, thereby improving corrosion resistance. In recent years, PA has been reported to be useful in the conversion of coatings or as green corrosion inhibitor. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, few studies have reported the use of PA as a rust converter or residual rust coating. The present work aims to improve the corrosion resistance of residual rust epoxy coating by adding PA.
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Yingjun Zhang, Baojie Dou, Yawei Shao, Xue-Jun Cui, Yanqiu Wang, Guozhe Meng and Xiu-Zhou Lin
This paper aim to investigate the influence of PA on the corrosion behavior of carbon steel with blast cleaned or pre-rusted treatments, and interpret the inhibition mechanism of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aim to investigate the influence of PA on the corrosion behavior of carbon steel with blast cleaned or pre-rusted treatments, and interpret the inhibition mechanism of PA on the steel with different surface treatments.
Design/methodology/approach
The influence of PA on the corrosion behavior of blast cleaned or rusty steel was investigated by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The EIS data were analyzed using the @ZsimpWin commercial software. The morphology and component of steel after immersion were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD).
Findings
EIS analysis results indicated that PA had good corrosion inhibition for blast cleaned or rusty steel. SEM, EDS, FTIR and XRD further indicated that PA had two main corrosion inhibition processes for the corrosion inhibition of blast cleaned or rusty steel: corrosion dissolution and formation of protective barrier layers.
Originality/value
Most published works focus the attention only toward the effect of corrosion inhibitor for the clean metal surfaces. However, the surface condition of metal sometimes is unsatisfactory in the practical application of corrosion inhibitor, such as existing residual rust. Some studies also have shown that several corrosion inhibitors could be applied on partially rusted substrates. These inhibitors mainly include tannins and phosphoric acid, but not PA. Therefore, the authors investigated the influence of PA on the corrosion behavior of carbon steel with blast cleaned or pre-rusted treatments in this paper.
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Supply chain risk (SCR) has increasingly attracted academic and corporate interest; however, the SCR debate in academic literature is rather limited to case- and location-specific…
Abstract
Purpose
Supply chain risk (SCR) has increasingly attracted academic and corporate interest; however, the SCR debate in academic literature is rather limited to case- and location-specific studies. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to utilize a systematic literature review (SLR) to explore the SCR research trends and gaps within the management literature.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the research objective an SLR, looking into 25 years since 1990, into supply chain risk management (SCRM) was conducted, which resulted in 114 papers.
Findings
While the SCRM literature is growing, results from the SLR identified limited organized understanding of what constitutes a holistic SCR process, and high reliance of particular categories for SCR, such as the high reliance on specific country settings (the USA and the UK); limited presence of cross competitive SCR process analysis and challenges in developing conceptual SCR frameworks.
Research limitations/implications
The SCR embeds categories of location, scope of supply chain, risk management tools, and the industry sectors involved. The search for related publications was mainly used from a wide range of coverage from accountancy to design in SCR; hence, although there is indication to specific industries, and foci of risk, this could be explored further.
Practical implications
This review of SCRM identifies various research gaps and directions for future research to develop theory and a practical understanding of SCR.
Originality/value
The current literature on SCR has been assessed based on its definition and utilization. The current paper bridges this gap by synthesizing the diverse academic journal papers into the categories based on the design continuum, relationship continuum, process continuum and economic continuum. In addition, it highlights the gaps in industry context, theoretical contribution, geographic location, and research methods applied and addresses the scope for further research.