Yaasin Abraham Mayi, Alexis Queva, Morgan Dal, Gildas Guillemot, Charlotte Metton, Clara Moriconi, Patrice Peyre and Michel Bellet
During thermal laser processes, heat transfer and fluid flow in the melt pool are primary driven by complex physical phenomena that take place at liquid/vapor interface. Hence…
Abstract
Purpose
During thermal laser processes, heat transfer and fluid flow in the melt pool are primary driven by complex physical phenomena that take place at liquid/vapor interface. Hence, the choice and setting of front description methods must be done carefully. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent front description methods may bias physical representativeness of numerical models of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process at melt pool scale.
Design/methodology/approach
Two multiphysical LPBF models are confronted: a Level-Set (LS) front capturing model based on a C++ code and a front tracking model, developed with COMSOL Multiphysics® and based on Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method. To do so, two minimal test cases of increasing complexity are defined. They are simplified to the largest degree, but they integrate multiphysics phenomena that are still relevant to LPBF process.
Findings
LS and ALE methods provide very similar descriptions of thermo-hydrodynamic phenomena that occur during LPBF, providing LS interface thickness is correctly calibrated and laser heat source is implemented with a modified continuum surface force formulation. With these calibrations, thermal predictions are identical. However, the velocity field in the LS model is systematically underestimated compared to the ALE approach, but the consequences on the predicted melt pool dimensions are minor.
Originality/value
This study fulfils the need for comprehensive methodology bases for modeling and calibrating multiphysical models of LPBF at melt pool scale. This paper also provides with reference data that may be used by any researcher willing to verify their own numerical method.
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Luiz Dal Santo and Máximo Sozzo
This introduction sets the scene for the book. It touches upon the recent growth of a literature on punishment in global peripheries within the wider punishment and society…
Abstract
This introduction sets the scene for the book. It touches upon the recent growth of a literature on punishment in global peripheries within the wider punishment and society scholarship. It then briefly develops on two topics that constitute key elements of the whole book: knowledge production and exchange and peripheral punishment. In highlighting some common aspects, trends, and features of punishment in Latin America, it prepares the ground for the specific chapter contributions that are based on local experiences of different Latin American countries. In so doing, we also acknowledge the works of scholars who have initially advanced a movement for the understanding of punishment and the criminal question our marginalised Latin American realities.
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Constantin Bratianu, Alexeis Garcia-Perez, Francesca Dal Mas and Denise Bedford
Lorenzo Massa and Fredrik Hacklin
Business model innovation (BMI) constitutes a priority for managers across industries, but it represents a notoriously difficult innovation, with several challenges, many of which…
Abstract
Business model innovation (BMI) constitutes a priority for managers across industries, but it represents a notoriously difficult innovation, with several challenges, many of which are cognitive in nature. The received literature has variously suggested that one way to overcome challenges to BMI, including cognitive ones, and support the cognitive tasks is using visual representations. Against this background, we aim at offering a contribution to the emerging line of inquiry at the nexus between business models (BMs), cognition and visual representations. Specifically, we develop a new method for visual representation of the BM in support of simplification of the cognitive effort and neutralisation of cognitive barriers. The resulting representation – a network-based representation, anchored on the activity-system perspective and offering complementarity and centrality/periphery measures – allows to visually represent an existing BM as a network (nodes and linkages) of interdependent activities and to express information related to the degree of centrality/periphery of single activities (nodes) with respect to the rest of a BM configuration. This information, we argue, is potentially very valuable in supporting the cognitive tasks involved in business model reconfiguration (BMR). We guide the reader to progressively appreciate how the development of the proposed method for visual representation is anchored to two main characteristics of BMR, namely the discovery-driven nature of BMR and the path-dependent nature of BMR. We offer initial insights on the cognitive value of such a type of representation in relationship to the simplification of the cognitive effort and the neutralisation of cognitive barriers in BMR.
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Ana Julia Dal Forno, Fernando Antonio Forcellini, Liane Mählmann Kipper and Fernando Augusto Pereira
– The purpose of this paper is to describe benchmarking to evaluate the product development process (PDP) from a lean perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe benchmarking to evaluate the product development process (PDP) from a lean perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The work was conducted by means of case studies at large companies in Brazil that develop products, based on a gap in the literature involving a lack of indicators to diagnose how lean are PDPs considering the principles and practices of the lean approach.
Findings
The results indicate in a quantitative manner that the 12 companies of the multiple case study are implementing the lean approach in their PDPs in an isolated or systematic manner through the categories – process, management, structure, people, product, client, supplier and waste.
Research limitations/implications
The large companies in the case studies are located in different positions of the supply chain and the year that the company began introducing lean manufacturing was not considered, or the maturity of each firm.
Practical implications
Based on the diagnosis, it was possible to propose a set of actions so that the PDP at each company can be structured in a lean manner, improving competitiveness.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the study is a simple, useful and reproducible method that has a set of measurable indicators and graphic representation identifying the lean product development practices, as well as a structured guide to the implementation of improvements that allow companies from different sectors to be compared at a national level and also in the international market.
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The primary purpose of this chapter is to provide insight as to why some privately held small-to-medium sized firms (SMEs) have been able to outperform their peers in terms of…
Abstract
Purpose
The primary purpose of this chapter is to provide insight as to why some privately held small-to-medium sized firms (SMEs) have been able to outperform their peers in terms of their performance defined as revenue growth, profit growth, growth in number of employees and markets. Little is known about privately held firms and what drives their performance. The second purpose is to synthesize and provide clarity to the extant literature on rapid-growth SMEs (gazelles). The third purpose is to bring a unifying theoretical lens to the literature.
Methodology
The research was conducted using elite interviews with 47 informants drawn from 21 rapid-growth, private companies. Qualitative methods were used to identify themes related to the strategies used by these firms to outperform their peers over a five-year period.
Findings
The study organizes and summarizes the extant literature on rapid-growth companies, provides support for some findings, and clarifies equivocal findings. It also suggests that early strategic choices made by the owners of private firms along with their attitudes and capabilities positioned the private firms for rapid growth. The Morgan and Hunt (1994) trust–commitment theory of relationship marketing emerged from the data as the model used most often by rapid-growth private firms and the one that best integrates the factors driving private firm performance. A modified, two-stage model appears to be warranted. The first stage focuses on respect for the value employees bring, and building their trust and commitment is an essential first step that subsequently drives the second stage of the model – building customer trust and commitment. While some of the outcomes are similar to those suggested by Morgan and Hunt, new outcomes (collaborative innovation, citizenship behaviors, sustained growth, and premium prices) also emerged as important outcomes in this study.
Practical implications
This study provides owners of private firms with insight on how to build and grow their firms in a rapid and sustainable fashion.
Originality/value
Little research has been undertaken on private firms. This study addresses this knowledge gap. The modified trust–commitment relationship marketing model that emerged from the data had not been utilized to date in the field of rapid-growth firms and it provides an integrating theory that explains the performance of rapid-growth private firms.
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Silvana Secinaro, Francesca Dal Mas, Maurizio Massaro and Davide Calandra
This paper investigates the relationship between agricultural entrepreneurship (AE) and new technologies using academic and practitioners' perspectives to understand how new…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the relationship between agricultural entrepreneurship (AE) and new technologies using academic and practitioners' perspectives to understand how new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and augmented reality can promote agri-businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a content and thematic analysis of 325 academic sources extracted from the Scopus database and 683 patents retrieved from the European Patent Office (EPO) dataset. Additionally, the research applies the Kruskal–Wallis test as a non-parametric test for evaluating differences in the main concepts discussed in the two sources.
Findings
The academic and practitioners' debate highlights a trading zone among the two streams. patents' analysis from the EPO reveals four main common themes as a new business that benefits from AI in weather predictions, new smart and intelligent ways to monitor crops, new businesses that use clouds to control plant's humidity. The analysis of Scopus's sources demonstrates theoretical approaches related to the technology acceptance model (TAM) and practical strategies in terms of entrepreneurial skills to support the agricultural sector. However, barriers among the two streams of sources exist in innovation management and scale-up entrepreneurial initiatives.
Research limitations/implications
Regarding implications, the authors aim to connect academic and practitioners' views by understanding the new potential innovation applications and the connected new research avenues. Limitations might arise from the sources used to develop our analysis.
Originality/value
The paper is novel because it investigates the issues arising from the relationship between AE and new technologies by examining original validated patents released by practitioners and approved by the EPO, rather than reviewing blogs or the financial press. This leads to a holistic understanding of the impact of tangible practices among agricultural entrepreneurs. The results support the view that new trading zones and case studies are needed to highlight and show the positive impact of technologies in this field. The authors argue that practitioners require scholars to reduce the ambiguity between AE and its expected results, leading to investments to boost new agricultural business ideas.
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Elise Zaro, Eduardo Flores, Marco Fasan, Fernando Dal-Ri Murcia and Claudio Soerger Zaro
Integrated reporting (IR) provides integrated financial and nonfinancial information about companies based on the integrated thinking principle. This study aims to investigate how…
Abstract
Purpose
Integrated reporting (IR) provides integrated financial and nonfinancial information about companies based on the integrated thinking principle. This study aims to investigate how the cost of equity relates to IR disclosure and the impact of an effective legal system on this relationship. Effective legal system (“enforcement”) represents the strength of the legal system of a country. Although voluntary initiatives are essentially not based on regulations, the authors expect that the effective legal system will influence the implementation of such.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the study’s hypotheses, linear regressions were applied using the Thomson Reuters database to analyze 20,463 firm-year observations between 2010 and 2017. The treatment group comprised companies that adopted IR; using propensity score matching, the authors defined the control group. The authors adopted a research design based on difference-in-differences to compare the cost of the capital of treatment with the control group for the periods before and after the IR adoption.
Findings
The results indicate that IR disclosure is negatively related to the cost of equity, and this negative effect is more prevalent for companies operating in high-enforcement environments.
Research limitations/implications
Cost of equity is not a directly observable variable, implying that the results are sensitive to changes in the parameters that are used to compute this term. The results can help companies looking for evidence of potential effective gains of adopting IR. They also help understand that discussions related to environment, social, and governance information are somehow incorporated by analysts and investors, and reflected in the cost of raising funds.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates how IR relates to the cost of equity considering a global sample of voluntary adopters. It also analyzes the impact of institutional factors on this relationship by using a robust method of analysis. The results support the argument that companies in a strong legal system are more likely to behave sustainably and to disclose this attitude. Additionally, they are pressured to implement proposals rather than just adopting an initiative as a label.
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Maurizio Massaro, John Dumay, Andrea Garlatti and Francesca Dal Mas
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and sustainability using practitioners’ perspectives and by developing an analysis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and sustainability using practitioners’ perspectives and by developing an analysis of comments and practices published in 1,651 blog posts in one of the leading sources of sustainability research: CSRwire.com.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 1,651 posts, containing more than 1.5 million words, published by experts in the field of sustainability are analysed using Leximancer and content analysis.
Findings
The results reveal IC and sustainability to be complex topics under active discussion by practitioners, and several links to the IC literature are identified and compared. The findings focus on the managerial practices applied by leading companies, as discussed by practitioners, that show IC and sustainability influence each other in answering a plurality of demands or logics.
Research limitations/implications
First, the authors identify the need to study the managerial practices proposed by practitioners, rather than their company reports. Second, the authors propose developing a trading zone for IC researchers and practitioners. Third, the authors reflect on the role of new communication tools, such as integrated reporting, to connect IC and sustainability. Finally, the authors conclude that the relationship between IC and sustainability could benefit from a fifth stage of IC research that considers justifications of the worth of IC and sustainability practices.
Originality/value
The paper is novel because it addresses concerns about the relationship between IC and sustainability by examining messages posted by practitioners, rather than examining company disclosures. This leads to an understanding of the impact of practices rather than the desires motivating practice. The results support the view that it is time to remove the boundaries of IC research and work towards reconciling the worth of IC to different people in different contexts. The authors argue that practitioners require scholars to reduce the ambiguity between IC and its expected results. This would open the door to a potentially productive way of understanding IC and the complexity of economic, social, and environmental value. In short, researchers should change their research questions from, “What is IC worth to investors, customers, society, and the environment?” to “Is managing IC a worthwhile endeavour?”