Xina Huang, Lihui Lang, Shuili Gong and Mali Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the post-treatment processes on lattice structures of selective laser melting. Moreover, the effect of pressure during hot isostatic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the post-treatment processes on lattice structures of selective laser melting. Moreover, the effect of pressure during hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is determined.
Design/methodology/approach
Three post-treatment processes, annealing at 650°C, 920°C and HIP were adopted. The microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of selective lasering melted Ti6Al4V lattice structures after post-treatment were systematically investigated by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, electron backscattered diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and quasi-static mechanics tests.
Findings
The main findings in this paper are as below: first, the pores existing in the samples as-fabricated, annealed at 650°C and 920°C are disappeared after HIP. Second, the microstructure and compressive properties after HIP are similar to that after pure annealing at the same temperature. However, the HIPed sample had the highest number of cycles to failure. Third, the fracture mechanism of as-fabricated samples changes from mixed fracture to the micro-voids accumulation fracture after post-treatment processes.
Originality/value
HIP post-treatment can be replaced by annealing at the same temperature when the requirement for porosity and fatigue life is not very high.
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Audit hour reporting is rare internationally. Thus, to what extent shareholders have the power to influence audit effort/hour demand is a question left unanswered. This study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
Audit hour reporting is rare internationally. Thus, to what extent shareholders have the power to influence audit effort/hour demand is a question left unanswered. This study aims to use unique South Korean data to determine whether the increasing power of the largest foreign/domestic shareholders and blockholders can influence audit hour demand.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis is conducted using a sample of Korean listed firms over the 2004–2018 sample period.
Findings
The results show: as the percentage equity holding of the largest foreign shareholder and blockholder (>5%) increases, audit hour demand increases. As the shareholding of the largest domestic shareholder increases, audit hour demanded decreases. The association between audit fees/hours is not qualitatively indifferent, after controlling for the audit fee premium effect. Furthermore, the largest foreign shareholder is shown to demand increasingly higher levels of audit hours from Big4 auditors, relative to NonBig4. All results are consistent with audit demand theory.
Originality/value
Whilst previous studies offer audit fee/risk interpretations, this study extends the literature by developing a framework to explain why audit hour demands differ for specific groups. Because audit hour information is rare internationally, the study has important policy implications.
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Hyoung Joo Lim and Dafydd Mali
Firm management has an incentive to improve credit ratings to enjoy the reputational and financial benefits associated with higher credit ratings. In this study, the authors…
Abstract
Purpose
Firm management has an incentive to improve credit ratings to enjoy the reputational and financial benefits associated with higher credit ratings. In this study, the authors question whether audit effort in hours can be considered incrementally increasing with credit ratings. Based on legitimacy theory, the authors conjecture that firms with higher credit ratings will demand higher levels of audit effort to signal audit and financial quality compared to firms with higher levels of credit risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct empirical tests using a sample of Korean-listed firms using a sample period covering 2001–2015.
Findings
The results show that firms with higher credit ratings demand higher audit effort in hours compared to client firms with lower credit ratings. The authors interpret that firms with higher ratings (lower risk) demand higher levels of audit effort in hours to reduce information asymmetry and to demonstrate that financial reporting systems are robust based on audit effort signaling audit quality. The authors also interpret that firms with lower credit ratings do not have incentives to signal similar audit quality. The authors also capture the “Big4 auditor expertise” effect by demonstrating that client firms audited by nonBig4 auditors demand additional audit effort with increasing credit rating compared to Big4 clients.
Research limitations/implications
Audit effort is considered a signal of firm risk in the literature. This study’s results show evidence that audit effort is inversely related to firm risk.
Practical implications
The results show that audit hour information is informative and likely managed by firm stakeholders. Internationally, it is not possible to capture the audit demand of clients because listing audit hours on financial statements is not a rule. Given that audit hours can be considered informative, the authors believe that legislators could consider implementing a policy to mandate that audit hours be recorded on international annual reports to enhance transparency.
Originality/value
South Korea is one of few countries to list audit effort on annual reports. Therefore, the link between audit effort and credit ratings is unique in South Korea because it is one of few countries in which market participants likely monitor audit effort.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the proposed eco currency union has sufficient business cycle synchronization among its members to avoid problems such as those…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the proposed eco currency union has sufficient business cycle synchronization among its members to avoid problems such as those experienced in the last several years by countries in the eurozone. This monetary union would potentially include 18 countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo – which collectively have a GDP of over 744 billion dollars and a population of over 300 million people.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors will apply some recently created econometric tools that were developed specifically to investigate business cycle synchronization in the eurozone. These tools – denoted synchronicity and similarity – overcome some of the limitations of previous studies which have used vector autoregressions and suffered simultaneity bias as a result.
Findings
The different measures employed suggest that the potential members of the eco exhibit a very low level of synchronization. Nigeria in particular, which is heavily dependent on oil, as are some, but not all potential members, would be the largest member, and exhibits a very low level of synchronization with other prospective eco member nations. Finally, preliminary evidence from several countries which have joined the existing African currency unions does not indicate that the act of joining a currency union improves synchronization, and this result contradicts the “endogenous optimal currency area” hypothesis.
Research limitations/implications
Like previous studies on the topic, the authors rely on the available data. The number of observations is more limited than would be optimal.
Practical implications
The results would strongly caution against the creation of the eco currency union, as members appear even less ready for monetary integration than countries in the eurozone did.
Originality/value
This is the first study to apply the synchronicity and similarity tools to the prospective West African eco nations.
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Muhammad Ali, Talat Islam, Fouzia Hadi Ali, Basharat Raza and Golam Kabir
Workplace well-being has emerged as an important aspect in the field of health care. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the role of managerial coaching on nurses’…
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace well-being has emerged as an important aspect in the field of health care. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the role of managerial coaching on nurses’ well-being through psychological ownership and organizational identity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors approached 284 nurses working in both public and private hospitals (between December 2019 and February 2020) on convenience basis, and data were collected through an online questionnaire-based survey.
Findings
The data were analyzed using AMOS version 24 and structural equation modeling confirmed psychological ownership and organizational identity as explanatory variables between managerial coaching and well-being.
Research limitations/implications
The study used self-reported data using convenience sampling which may raise a question on causality. The findings suggest the management to consider the importance of managerial coaching in shaping positive workplace behaviors of employees.
Originality/value
Drawings on social exchange theory, this study extends past studies to examine the mediating roles of psychological ownership and organizational identification between managerial coaching and workplace well-being among nurses. The study has theoretical and practical implications.
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Talat Islam, Mubbsher Munawar Khan, Ishfaq Ahmed, Ahmad Usman and Muhammad Ali
This study investigates the mechanism between work-family conflict (WFC) and job dissatisfaction by considering threat to family role as a mediator and role segment enhancement as…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the mechanism between work-family conflict (WFC) and job dissatisfaction by considering threat to family role as a mediator and role segment enhancement as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from 245 male and 245 female police officers using a questionnaire-based survey method through convenience sampling.
Findings
Results revealed that threat to family role partially mediates the association between WFC and job dissatisfaction. Role segment enhancement was also noted to weaken the association between WFC and job dissatisfaction. Moreover, the study revealed that male employees are more likely to draw a boundary between their work and family domain, which was not found in their female counterparts.
Research limitations/implications
The survey for this study was conducted in a male-dominant developing country, so results may be different in developed countries. The study has theoretical and managerial implications.
Originality/value
This study adds value to the existing literature on work-family conflicts in the perspective of source attribution and boundary management. Further, to the best of researchers' knowledge, none of the previous studies have examined role segment enhancement and threat to family role among the police workforce.
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Smitkumar Savsani, Shamsher Singh and Harlal Singh Mali
Medical devices are undergoing rapid changes because of the increasing affordability of advanced technologies like additive manufacturing (AM) and three-dimensional scanning. New…
Abstract
Purpose
Medical devices are undergoing rapid changes because of the increasing affordability of advanced technologies like additive manufacturing (AM) and three-dimensional scanning. New avenues are available for providing solutions and comfort that were not previously conceivable. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the research on developing prostheses using AM to understand the opportunities and challenges in the domain. Various studies on prosthesis development using AM are investigated to explore the scope of integration of AM in prostheses development.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of key publications from the past two decades was conducted. Integration of AM and prostheses development is reviewed from the technologies, materials and functionality point of view to identify challenges, opportunities and future scope.
Findings
AM in prostheses provides superior physical and cognitive ergonomics and reduced cost and delivery time. Patient-specific, lightweight solutions for complex designs improve comfort, functionality and clinical outcomes. Compared to existing procedures and methodologies, using AM technologies in prosthetics could benefit a large population.
Originality/value
This paper helps investigate the impact of AM and related technology in the field of prosthetics and can also be viewed as a collection of relevant medical research and findings.
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Sandeep Sathe, Shahbaz Dandin, Makrand Wagale and Pankaj R. Mali
This study aims to investigate and compare the influence of various fiber types (polypropylene, steel and glass) on the workability, mechanical properties, ductility, impact…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate and compare the influence of various fiber types (polypropylene, steel and glass) on the workability, mechanical properties, ductility, impact resistance, durability and microscopic properties of geopolymer concrete (GPC) with conventional concrete (CC).
Design/methodology/approach
The CC and GPC of M40 grade were incorporated with an optimum 1% of fibers and superplasticizers were added in a ratio of 2% by weight of the geopolymer binder. The slump cone and compaction factor tests were performed to analyze the workability. To evaluate the mechanical performance of GPC, the compressive strength (CS), split tensile strength (STS), flexural strength (FS) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) tests were performed. A falling weight impact test was performed to determine the impact energy (IE) absorbed, the number of blows for initial cracking, the number of blows for complete failure and the ductility aspect.
Findings
Fibers and superplasticizers significantly improve GPC properties. The study found that fibers reduce the brittleness of concrete, improving the impact and mechanical strength compared to similar-grade CC. The steel fibers-reinforced GPC has a 15.42% higher CS than CC after three days, showing a faster CS gain. After 28 days, GPC and CC have MOE in the range of 23.9–25.5 GPa and 28.8–30.9 GPa, respectively. The ultimate IE of the GPC with fibers was found to be 5.43% to 21.17% higher than GPC without fibers.
Originality/value
The findings of the study can be used to explore different combinations of raw materials and mix designs to optimize the performance of GPC.
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Abdul Wahab Hashmi, Harlal Singh Mali and Anoj Meena
The purpose of this paper is to study the functionality of additively manufactured (AM) parts, mainly depending on their dimensional accuracy and surface finish. However, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the functionality of additively manufactured (AM) parts, mainly depending on their dimensional accuracy and surface finish. However, the products manufactured using AM usually suffer from defects like roughness or uneven surfaces. This paper discusses the various surface quality improvement techniques, including how to reduce surface defects, surface roughness and dimensional accuracy of AM parts.
Design/methodology/approach
There are many different types of popular AM methods. Unfortunately, these AM methods are susceptible to different kinds of surface defects in the product. As a result, pre- and postprocessing efforts and control of various AM process parameters are needed to improve the surface quality and reduce surface roughness.
Findings
In this paper, the various surface quality improvement methods are categorized based on the type of materials, working principles of AM and types of finishing processes. They have been divided into chemical, thermal, mechanical and hybrid-based categories.
Research limitations/implications
The review has evaluated the possibility of various surface finishing methods for enhancing the surface quality of AM parts. It has also discussed the research perspective of these methods for surface finishing of AM parts at micro- to nanolevel surface roughness and better dimensional accuracy.
Originality/value
This paper represents a comprehensive review of surface quality improvement methods for both metals and polymer-based AM parts.