Search results

This paper aims to investigate the root causes of and implement the improvements for the inter layer dielectric (ILD) crack for LQFP C90FG (CMOS90 Floating Gate) wafer technology devices in copper wire bonding process.

Failure analysis was conducted including cratering, scanning electron microscopy inspection and focus ion beam cross-section analysis, which showed ILD crack. Root cause investigation of ILD crack rate sudden jumping was carried out with cause-and-effect analysis, which revealed the root cause is shallower lead frame down-set. ILD crack mechanism deep-dive on ILD crack due to shallower lead frame down-set, which revealed the mechanism is lead frame flag floating on heat insert. Further investigation and energy dispersive X-ray analysis found the Cu particles on heat insert is another factor that can result in lead frame flag floating.

Lead frame flag floating on heat insert caused by shallower lead frame down-set or foreign matter on heat insert is a critical factor of ILD crack that has never been revealed before. Weak wafer structure strength caused by thinner wafer passivation1 thickness and sharp corner at Metal Trench (compared with the benchmarking fab) are other factors that can impact ILD crack.

For ILD crack improvement in copper wire bonding, besides the obvious factors such as wafer structure and wire bonding parameters, also should take other factors into consideration including lead frame flag floating on heat insert and heat insert maintenance.

With the analysis of the causes of corruption, this study aims to investigate specific anti-corruption measures that can be implemented to reform the political system and the social climate of China.

This study examines 97 severe corruption cases of high-ranking officials in China, which occurred between 2012 and 2015. As this insinuates that both institutional and social corruption are major problems in China, the analysis delves into multiple facts of corruption, including different types, four primary underlying causes, and suggestions regarding the implementation of three significant governmental shifts that focus on investigation, prevention tactics and legal regulations.

China’s corruption is not only individual-based but also it has developed into institutional corruption and social corruption. Besides human nature and instinct, the causes of corruption can be organised into four categories, namely, social customs, social transitions, institutional designs and institutional operations. For the removed high-ranking officials, the formation of interest chains was an important underlying cause behind their corruption.

This study makes a significant contribution to the literature because this study provides a well-rounded approach to a complex issue by highlighting the significance of democracy and the rule of law as ways to regulate human behaviour to combat future corruption.

The multiple performance measures in strategic performance measurement systems should be selected to represent a set of causally linked strategic drivers and outcomes. The pattern of results thus can provide information concerning the proper execution of the strategy (i.e., the performance evaluation role) and the strength of the cause-and-effect linkages assumed by the strategy (i.e., the strategy evaluation role). Unfortunately, managers’ tendency to re-evaluate the strategy when performance falls short of target is low in practice. Possible explanations include motivational and cognitive biases. We experimentally examine two decision aids, an attribution aid, and a decomposition aid, designed to help managers ease these challenges. Study 1 shows the decision aids, individually and in combination, increase managers’ tendency to re-examine a problematic strategy. Study 2 demonstrates the effectiveness of the two decision aids, when used together, under a different pattern of results and among a sample of more experienced managers.

This paper synthesizes existing experimental research in the area of investor perceptions and offers directions for future research. Investor-related experimental research has grown substantially, especially in the last decade, as it has made valuable contributions in establishing causal links, examining underlying process measures, and examining areas with little available data. Within this review, I examine 121 papers and identify three broad categories that affect investor perceptions: information format, investor features, and disclosure credibility. Information format describes how investors are influenced by information salience, information labeling, reporting and accounting complexity, financial statement recognition, explanatory disclosures, and proposed disclosure changes. Investor features describes investors’ use of heuristics, investor preferences, and the effect of investor experience. Disclosure credibility is influenced by external and internal assurance, management credibility, disclosure characteristics, and management incentives. Using this framework, I summarize the existing research and identify areas that would benefit from additional research.

The single-supplier multi-retailer cold chain is a widely adopted type of supply chain in the real-world food industry. This paper aims to consider the problem of effectively designing and managing a single-supplier multi-retailer cold chain for fresh produce with deterministic demand to minimize the total cost, which includes cooling, loss of value and carbon emission costs.

The global stability index (GSI) method and the non-Arrhenius model are integrated to describe the behavior of food quality degradation. The power-of-two (PoT) policy is adopted in determining the coordinated replenishment policies for the suppliers and retailers, and an appropriate wholesale price structure that can achieve the coordination of the chain is presented.

The properties of the cold chain are uncovered, and an appropriate wholesale price scheme that achieves chain coordination with the optimal PoT decision is provided. In the numerical examples, different scenarios are investigated, and it is found that the cold chain parameters influence the optimal decisions in certain ways.

The PoT policy – an efficient policy to determine the replenishment strategy – has not been adopted in finding the solution of a single-supplier multi-retailer cold chain in the literature. Also, no study has compared the uncoordinated and coordinated cold chain. Moreover, in the existing literature, the wholesale price is usually a constant rather than having a coordinated scheme. This research aims to fill these research gaps.

This study examines the impact of different Balanced Scorecard (BSC) formats (table, graph without summary measure, graph with a summary measure) on various decision outcomes: performance ratings, perceived informativeness, and decision efficiency.

Using an original case developed by the researchers, a total of 135 individuals participated in the experiment and rated the performance of carwash managers in two different scenarios: one manager excelled financially but failed to meet targets for all other three BSC perspectives and the other manager had the opposite results.

The evaluators rated managerial performance significantly lower in the graph format compared to a table presentation of the BSC. Performance ratings were significantly higher for the scenario where the manager failed to meet only financial perspective targets but exceeded targets for all other nonfinancial BSC perspectives, contrary to the usual predictions based on the financial measure bias. The evaluators reported that informativeness of the BSC was highest in the table or graph without summary measure formats, and, surprisingly, adding a summary measure to the graph format significantly reduced perceived informativeness compared to the table format. Decision efficiency was better for the graph formats (with or without summary measure) than for the table format.

Ours is the first study to compare tables, graphs with and without a summary measure in the context of managerial performance evaluations and to examine their impact on ratings, informativeness, and efficiency. We developed an original case to test the boundaries of the financial measure bias.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease in infants and children. HFMD has caused millions of cases and a large epidemic worldwide. A number of studies have shown that the incidence of HFMD is closely related to various factors such as meteorological factors, environmental air pollution factors and socio-economic factors. However, there are few studies that systematically consider the impact of various factors on the incidence of HFMD. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study used grey correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) method to systematically analyse the impact of meteorological factors, health resource factors, socio-economic factors and environmental air pollution factors on the incidence of HFMD in Shenzhen.

The incidence of HFMD in Shenzhen was affected by multiple factors. Grey correlation analysis found eight influencing factors which are as follows: volume of industrial waste gas emission; the days of air quality equal to or above grade; the volume of industrial nitrogen oxide emission; precipitation; the mean air temperature; the gross domestic product; the expenditure for medical and health care; and the gross domestic product per capita. PCA found that the gross domestic product, the volume of industrial soot emission, the relative humidity, and the days of air quality equal to or above grade have a higher load value.

This study is the one of the first studies that apply the grey correlation analysis to analyse the influencing factors of HFMD in the English literature, which to some extent fills up the blank in this field.

Several tests have been conducted to determine which valuation model best fits stock price data. Given very little success, those studies suggest the need for a clear understanding of the market process of stock price determination. This paper advances the concepts of product costing and product pricing, which pertain to financial accounting valuation and the stock market price determination, respectively. This research effort presents a workable hypothesis of stock price determination.

As the cost of completing a transaction, the green merger and acquisition (M&A) premium paid on mergers can influence whether the acquisition creates value or not. However, studies linking M&A premiums to firm value have had mixed results, even fewer studies have examined the effect of green M&A premiums on bidders’ firm value. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and how green M&A premiums affect firm value in the context of China’s heavy polluters.

Using 323 deals between 2008 and 2019 among China’s heavy polluters, this paper estimates with correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis.

Green M&A premiums are negatively associated with firm value. The results are more significant when firms adopt symbolic rather than substantive corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. Robustness and endogeneity tests corroborate the findings. The negative relation is stronger when acquiring firms have low governmental subsidy and environmental regulation, when firms have overconfident management, when firms are state-owned and when green M&A occurs locally or among provinces in the same region. This study also analyzes agency cost as an intermediary in the relationship between green M&A premium and firm value, which lends support to the agency-view hypothesis.

This study provides systemic evidence that green M&A premiums damage firm value through agency cost channel and the choice of CSR strategies from the perspective of acquirers. These findings enrich the literature on both the economic consequences of green M&A premiums and the determinants of firm value and provide a plausible explanation for mixed findings on the relationship between green M&A premiums and firm value.

Given the regional heterogeneity of economic development, electricity consumption in various regions exhibits a discrepant growth pattern. The purpose of this study is to construct a grey system forecasting model with intelligent parameters for predicting provincial electricity consumption in China.

First, parameter optimization and structural expansion are simultaneously integrated into a unified grey system prediction framework, enhancing its adaptive capabilities. Second, by setting the minimum simulation percentage error as the optimization goal, the authors apply the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to search for the optimal grey generation order and background value coefficient. Third, to assess the performance across diverse power consumption systems, the authors use two electricity consumption cases and select eight other benchmark models to analyze the simulation and prediction errors. Further, the authors conduct simulations and trend predictions using data from all 31 provinces in China, analyzing and predicting the development trends in electricity consumption for each province from 2021 to 2026.

The study identifies significant heterogeneity in the development trends of electricity consumption systems among diverse provinces in China. The grey prediction model, optimized with multiple intelligent parameters, demonstrates superior adaptability and dynamic adjustment capabilities compared to traditional fixed-parameter models. Outperforming benchmark models across various evaluation indicators such as root mean square error (RMSE), average percentage error and Theil’s index, the new model establishes its robustness in predicting electricity system behavior.

Acknowledging the limitations of traditional grey prediction models in capturing diverse growth patterns under fixed-generation orders, single structures and unadjustable background values, this study proposes a fractional grey intelligent prediction model with multiple parameter optimization. By incorporating multiple parameter optimizations and structure expansion, it substantiates the model’s superiority in forecasting provincial electricity consumption.