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This paper aims to present the design and implementation of VirSense, a novel six-DOF haptic interface system, with an emphasis on its gravity compensation and fixed-base motors.

In this paper, the design and manufacture of the VirSense robot and its comparison with the existing haptic devices are presented. The kinematic analysis of the robot, design of the components, and manufacturing of the robot are explained as well.

The proposed system is employed to generate a Virtual Sense (VirSense) with fixed-base motors and a spring compensation system for counterbalancing the torques generated by the weight of the links. The fixed bases of the motors reduce the system's effective mass and inertia, which is an important factor in haptic interface systems. A novel cabling system is used to transmit the motor torques to the end-effector. The spring-based gravity compensation system causes more reduction in the effective mass and inertia.

This paper provides the details of the VirSense haptic device, its gravity compensation system, and a novel cabling power transmission.

This study aims to examine the role of organisational democracy (OD) in facilitating the knowledge sharing (KS) process within companies, thus considering the effect of different OD principles.

The authors used data collected through a questionnaire on a sample of 254 employees at private universities and colleges to test the relationship between OD and KS. Data were analysed using the structural equation modelling technique.

Overall, OD has a direct and significant effect on facilitating KS in organisations. Also, the results showed that there are different degrees and intensities among the individual principles (sub-concepts) of OD and KS.

The findings highlight the important role of democracy in an organisation to enhance the organisational climate and employees’ behaviours, thus leading to higher KS outcomes. Also, results, provide an opportunity for managers to consider enhancing democracy in an organisation for improving internal collaboration effectiveness in KS.

This paper sheds light and adds new knowledge to embryonic studies that are directed towards the integration of democracy within the main concept of knowledge management (KM). This emphasises the need to use and stimulate OD and its principles for improving the effectiveness of KM practices with specific attention to KS.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the contextual factors that influence entrepreneurial intention to start the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Iran and to investigate why some manufacturing sector entrepreneurs achieve growth objectives while others do not.

In-depth semistructured interviews of 25 participants were used to investigate the contextual factors of entrepreneurship intention. On the basis of the data collected, a thematic content analysis has been carried out.

A set of contextual and cultural factors has been highlighted by the analysis. Data analysis led to the extraction of three main themes: external, internal and personal factors that were found to be significant determinants of entrepreneurship intention. In relation to the effect of these factors on their entrepreneurial behaviors, it emerged that there were the major barriers to entrepreneurial intentions including lack of resources, financial challenges and economic situation, which affected how they made strategic decisions about their plans. Moreover, the findings show that the key dimensions of organizational structure, public policies, social media, education and soft skills development are vital features and being influential in entrepreneurship.

The study has industry-specific, size-specific and region-specific limitations. The qualitative research approach affects the generalizable character of the results.

The research findings have important implications for practicing entrepreneurs, start-ups and policymakers. The manuscript suggests a transition to a more collaborative approach from experts and practitioners in the field through policymakers to tackling the underlying determinants of entrepreneurship intention in Iran as a motive to economic growth. This research is significant since its findings should help regulators and investors better understand the opportunities and threats among manufacturing SMEs. This study implies a step forward in research into the entrepreneurship intention and SMEs literature, since the results differ from the evidence found for large companies in developing countries such as Iran. There is also a great contribution toward the debate regarding the need to consider the context and the type of firm in enterprise development studies.

This is the first empirical study conducted in Iran that explores three key elements of entrepreneurship intention interactively in Iran through qualitative research analysis. The research study fills a literature gap on the determinants of manufacturing SMEs’ functions. This manuscript explores the contextual factors that influence on entrepreneurial behavior in a conflict country context, using a thematic analysis for in-depth results. A new approach to evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities was used. The advantage of this empirical strategy is that it takes into account in more detail the content observations and experiences with the industry-specific insights. It also gives more description about the contingent nature of practice. Moreover, this qualitative research acknowledged the areas of conflict and contradiction around entrepreneurship phenomena among SMEs.