Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms can better manage new product development (NPD) for international markets (IMs). This is not a trivial task as, for most firms, NPD still tends to be rooted in domestic operations.

This study proposes IM information (IMI) use across three stages of the NPD process (concept development, product development and commercialization) as a key driver of international NPD performance. This study also examines two antecedents of such usage: international firm experience; and international innovation culture. A conceptual framework is tested using structural equation modeling, based on data from 137 strategic business units of German firms.

The use of IMI during commercialization has a U-shaped (positive quadratic) relationship with international NPD performance, whereas curvilinear relationships in the concept and product-development stages cannot be confirmed. Having an internationally oriented innovation culture increases the level of IMI usage in all NPD process stages, while a firm’s international experience only does so in the commercialization stage. Thus, international experience does not necessarily impact access to and understanding of IMI in the early NPD stages.

This study furthers understanding of NPD phenomena in an international context. However, future studies might consider exploring the mixed patterns of IMI use and NPD performance by looking at new forms and tools of market information management. Moreover, they may uncover more drivers of IMI use and test their frameworks in different contexts.

Managers should emphasize IMI use throughout the whole NPD process, even in the traditionally more R&D-focused product-development stage. Managers should strive to establish a corporate culture that views IMs as opportunities rather than liabilities.

This is the first study both to examine the relative impact of IMI use across all distinct NPD stages simultaneously on international NPD performance and to use quadratic effects to explain the relationship.

Undergraduate students are known to be a high-risk group for mental health problems. The purpose of this paper is to constitute a repeated cross-sectional study on the trend of depression over the years and factors associated with depression among undergraduates.

Cross-sectional data from five surveys between 2013 and 2020 (N = 1,578) among the undergraduates of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, a private university in Kampar Malaysia, were combined. The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 was used to screen for depression. Cochran’s Armitage test was used to detect trend in depression. Logistic regression, random forest regression and extra gradient boosting regression were used to identify risk factors and classification.

The prevalence of depressive symptoms was found to be between 26.4% and 36.8% between the years with an average of 29.9%. There was no significant time trend in the prevalence. The risk of depressive symptoms was higher among female students, those who were dependent on family for financial support and those who were stressed.

Periodical screening for depression is warranted for the identification of students at risk for depression. Professional cognitive-behavioral therapies, peer support and consulting services should be made available to the students in need.

Depression among students had been studied widely, but the trend over years remains unexplored, especially in developing countries.

In the literature on sustainable supply chain management, the social pillar of sustainability has received relatively little attention, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the impacts of supplier development practices on suppliers’ social performance. Furthermore, the impact of suppliers’ social performance on MNCs’ social performance was investigated and corporate reputation was proposed as a potential explanation for the relationship between MNCs’ social and financial performance.

Data were obtained from a survey of 141 multinational companies (MNCs) in Malaysia which were listed in the Federation of Malaysia Manufacturers’ directory 2017. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results show that among the four proposed practices, supplier development and supplier collaboration have significant effects on suppliers’ social performance and consequently on the multi-national companies’ social performance. According to these results, multi-national companies’ corporate reputation mediates the relationship between their social and financial performance.

These results will be useful in helping managers of MNCs to realize that simply monitoring suppliers and giving them incentives are not effective ways of enhancing social responsibility among suppliers; instead, supplier development and collaboration such as technical support and training are needed.

The results extend the literature on socially responsible supplier development practices by testing empirically the impacts of four popular practices in the literature and showing that supplier monitoring and incentives have no effect.

Strategically focused AI transformation will almost certainly be more profound than the era of AI process optimization that has preceded it because it potentially changes the way the organizations operate and compete in the marketplace.

Potentially transformative strategic digitalization, although built on the AI technology to create process efficiencies that preceded it, will need leaders to adopt a new decision mindset first, and therefore is currently an aspirational initiative in progress.

Strategic digitalization shifts the focus of attention from the technical features of process digitization to the transformation of the context and of the organization itself, triggered or enabled by the advent of new technological possibilities.

Strategic digitalization has the potential to automate the decision-making in middle-management functions in order to greatly potentiate the value of their work. Contrary to the conventional organizational pyramid, strategic digitalization will likely be most effective in an hourglass form of organization, one that replaces many middle management tasks through AI and related technologies in order to create higher-value jobs for managers.

Guidelines derived from effective initiatives offer a roadmap to the ongoing experimental approach to applying AI to both organization and strategy, a transformation that will be crucial to the future success of organizations.

Accurate solar photovoltaic models (SPVM) are critical for optimizing solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity to convert sunlight into electricity. The simulation and design of PV systems rely on estimating unknown constraints from solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells. Each parameter plays a crucial task in the output properties of an SPV under actual environmental conditions. Optimizing the unknown constraints of the SPVM is not an easy task due to the nonlinear characteristics of the PV cell. This study aims to develop a novel metaheuristic algorithm, enhanced dynamic inertia particle swarm optimization (EDIPSO) algorithm with velocity clamping, to establish all the seven and five constraints of the two-diode model (TDM) and one-diode model (ODM).

In complex parameter spaces, the conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach typically leads to poor convergence because it fails to balance exploration and exploitation. The proposed approach is an EDIPSO with velocity clamping to minimize the possibility of overshooting possible solutions and improve stability. Velocity clamping is also used to prevent particle velocities from rising over specified limitations. Beginning the process with a large inertia weight to promote exploration and progressively decreasing it to improve exploitation, leading to a thorough analysis of the search space. The algorithm is implemented to investigate the accuracy of estimated constraint values of RTC-France (RTC-F) solar cell, Photo watt-PWP 201 SPV module (PWP 201 SPV), KC 200GT SPV module (KC 200 GT SPV) for ODM and TDM.

The proposed approach is used to extract the seven and five constraints of the TDM and ODM under standard test conditions for three different SPV modules. Thorough simulation and statistical analysis indicate that the EDIPSO with velocity clamping may outperform other cutting-edge optimization algorithms exclusively regarding accuracy, computational time and reliability.

An enhanced dynamic inertia PSO is suggested for determining the parameters of the TDM and ODM in SPV modules. This method specifically accounts for the recombination saturation current within the p–n junction’s depletion region, without overlooking or assuming away any parameters, thereby achieving greater accuracy. When comparing the estimated constraints of TDM and ODM for various SPVs, EDIPSO almost precisely aligns the data from the proposed model with the practical data. Thus, the proposed method for calculating the SPV model parameter may exhibit to be a feasible and efficient solution.

Hormonal contraceptives are complicated reproductive technologies – both biologically and socially. Deeply embedded in global political-economic agendas and historically underpinned by eugenic movements, hormonal contraceptives have a social life often beyond their intended or imagined uses. Because so much of the discussion around contraceptives focuses on their complex history and volatile present, there has been minimal space to talk about the future of hormonal contraceptives. In this chapter I show that while the past and present are complex, the future is even more so!

As the threat of climate change becomes more palpable, two key anxieties (re)surface. First, a fear around growing populations in the Global South (while in reality Total Fertility Rate (TFRs) are in decline) and second, that of a hormonal body out of sync in the face of environmental changes. Similar anxieties have historically mobilised draconian ‘family planning’ measures in countries (like India) in the first instance. And in the second instance, hormonal manipulations to find ‘balance’ in the body, as opposed to balancing (or coming to a reckoning with) contemporary environments with/in which the body exists.

This chapter is an attempt to bring to the fore the importance of studying hormonal contraceptives in environmentally unstable times. To imagine a space beyond coercion or ‘choice’ as variously imagined, when it comes to reproductive justice vis-à-vis hormonal contraception. I suggest that, just as contraceptives have allowed us access to conversations about both women's autonomy and reproductive control, they now allow us to unpack the limits and potentials of hormonal management via the hormonal contraceptive pill.

Taking hints from the lacunas in the field of ownership structure and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of the firms in India, especially when the moderating effect of certain corporate governance mechanism comes into play, this study aims to attempt to fulfill the gap by exploring the ownership structure of the firm (i.e. foreign ownership, institutional ownership and government ownership) and the CSR performance of the firm, when moderated by board independence of the firm. In an additional analysis, the study explores the non-linear effect of foreign ownership structure on the CSR performance in the Indian context.

The study incorporates a strongly balanced panel data set of 280 non-financial National Stock Exchange 500 listed firms for the study period of 2013–2019. The study uses both static and Arellano–Bond dynamic panel model under generalized method of moments (GMMs) framework to establish the relationship between the studied variables.

The study acknowledges a positive impact of the foreign investors in the CSR performance of Indian firms with a higher proportion of independent directors on the board. The study further finds a contrarian role of government ownership in Indian context among the sampled firms. The study also in its extended analysis finds a non-linear inverted U-shaped relationship between foreign ownership (FO) and the CSR performance, which shows that FO positively impacts the CSR performance until a threshold level of 34% after which the curve starts declining.

One of the major implications this study provides for the corporate policymakers is that the firms with a string penchant for philanthropic activities such as CSR should be concerned with attracting more foreign investors in their shareholding. Also, a higher proportion of independent directors on the board boost the engagement of the firm in CSR works.

The moderating effect of board independence in the ownership structure–CSR relationship attempted by this study is a rare attempt in a developing economy, such as India, and offers a fresh dimension to the study. Also, the non-linearity relationship between FO and the CSR performance and the threshold level providing the twofold effect of the variables is an innovative research attempt, especially in regard to a developing country like India.

In the last 10 years, India has amended its laws dealing with sexual offences against women with the changes ranging from increasing terms of imprisonment for the offence of rape to state-funded compensation schemes for women and child victims. In this regard, challenges persist for the agencies of the criminal justice system in India especially the courts to realise the vision of restorative justice as these forums have to navigate the relevant statutory provisions and binding precedents. This chapter seeks to analyse the challenges faced by courts in proper reintegration of victims and offenders of sexual offences, the institutional responses of the courts and suggests reforms to the criminal justice system in India in consonance with the principles of restorative justice acknowledged in the restorative justice movement in the international discourse.

This study aims to fabricate an electrospun scaffold by combining radish (Ra) and cerium oxide (CeO₂) into a polyurethane (PU) matrix through electrospinning and investigate its feasibility for cardiac applications.

Physicochemical properties were analysed through various characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transforms infrared transforms analysis (FTIR), contact angle measurements, thermal analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and mechanical testing. Further, blood compatibility assessments were carried out through activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) and hemolysis assay to evaluate the anticoagulant nature.

PU/Ra and PU/Ra/CeO₂ exhibited a smaller fibre diameter than PU. Ra and CeO₂ were intercalated in the polyurethane matrix which was evidenced in the infrared analysis by hydrogen bond formation. PU/Ra composite exhibited hydrophilic nature whereas PU/Ra/CeO₂ composite turned hydrophobic. Surface measurements depicted the lowered surface roughness for the PU/Ra and PU/Ra/CeO₂ compared to the pristine PU. PU/Ra and PU/Ra/CeO₂ displayed enhanced degradation rates and improved mechanical strength than the pristine PU. The blood compatibility assay showed that the PU/Ra and PU/Ra/CeO₂ had delayed blood coagulation times and rendered less toxicity against red blood cells (RBC’s) than PU.

This is the first report on the use of radish/cerium oxide in cardiac applications. The developed composite (PU/Ra and PU/Ra/CeO₂) with enhanced mechanical and anticoagulant nature will serve as an indisputable candidate for cardiac tissue regeneration.