R. Shankar, P. Vijayaraghavan and T. Narendran
Customer support assumes strategic importance in India for branded IT‐hardware products. An authorized service center and a stream of specialized service centers undertake field…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer support assumes strategic importance in India for branded IT‐hardware products. An authorized service center and a stream of specialized service centers undertake field services and represent a sale‐territory's support network. “Time constrained” service men have to deliver customized service meeting a promised time‐standard. The stochastic demand for support services severely mars the customer response resulting in poor service quality. A manufacturer has to address the following decisions under these conditions: what is the ideal staffing level in a territory considering restricted server availability? What will be the impact of changing the staffing levels on customer service level? This study develops an analytical model to address these decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study identifies the variables underlying stochastic service demand through a field survey and determines the demand distribution. Applying stochastic principles the study derives relation between field staffing level and customer response considering server time constraint. Study performs statistical analysis to validate this model with real time data on variables collected from the field survey.
Findings
The outcomes of analysis reveal the following findings: this model can be applied in service systems where a time constrained server has to deliver expected level of performance (research implication); and increasing field staffing levels obscures the significant difference between the customer waiting times under very high levels of uncertain demand (practical implication).
Originality/value
The study derives relation between the staffing levels and customer waiting time considering uncertain demand with restricted working hour conditions.
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Xinyu Liu, Kun Ma, Ke Ji, Zhenxiang Chen and Bo Yang
Propaganda is a prevalent technique used in social media to intentionally express opinions or actions with the aim of manipulating or deceiving users. Existing methods for…
Abstract
Purpose
Propaganda is a prevalent technique used in social media to intentionally express opinions or actions with the aim of manipulating or deceiving users. Existing methods for propaganda detection primarily focus on capturing language features within its content. However, these methods tend to overlook the information presented within the external news environment from which propaganda news originated and spread. This news environment reflects recent mainstream media opinions and public attention and contains language characteristics of non-propaganda news. Therefore, the authors have proposed a graph-based multi-information integration network with an external news environment (abbreviated as G-MINE) for propaganda detection.
Design/methodology/approach
G-MINE is proposed to comprise four parts: textual information extraction module, external news environment perception module, multi-information integration module and classifier. Specifically, the external news environment perception module and multi-information integration module extract and integrate the popularity and novelty into the textual information and capture the high-order complementary information between them.
Findings
G-MINE achieves state-of-the-art performance on both the TSHP-17, Qprop and the PTC data sets, with an accuracy of 98.24%, 90.59% and 97.44%, respectively.
Originality/value
An external news environment perception module is proposed to capture the popularity and novelty information, and a multi-information integration module is proposed to effectively fuse them with the textual information.
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Walid El Hamad, Lee Moerman and Sanja Pupovac
This paper aims to use rhetorical theory to understand how actors mobilise persuasive communication to justify the arguments for and against transfer pricing and tax management…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to use rhetorical theory to understand how actors mobilise persuasive communication to justify the arguments for and against transfer pricing and tax management schemes in an international context. The strategic adoption of transfer pricing by transnational corporations is controversial since it affects wealth transfers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a micro-rhetorical analysis of submissions to a recent government Inquiry in Australia based on Aristotle's appeals of logos, ethos and pathos. The arguments used by Chevron Australia, and its protagonist civil society organisation, the Tax Justice Network highlight the vexed nature of tax management schemes.
Findings
Transfer pricing (TP) is more than a mere technical practice, as it involves wealth transfers initiated by powerful economic players. From a neoliberal justification of fair markets and shareholder wealth maximisation, the moral ambiguity is attenuated because it is accepted as a normative social ideal.
Originality/value
Prior studies on TP and tax schemes are primarily theoretical and conceptual. This paper adopts a rhetorical approach which provides important insights into the communication devices used to legitimate taken-for-granted ideas about corporate actions.
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Philipp Pohlenz, Annika Felix, Sarah Berndt and Markus Seyfried
This paper aims to investigate student subgroups’ responses to the coercive digitalisation of teaching and learning processes during the pandemic. Respective variance is discussed…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate student subgroups’ responses to the coercive digitalisation of teaching and learning processes during the pandemic. Respective variance is discussed in terms of digital inequality and is interpreted as a need to individualise teaching and learning and quality assurance practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses data from surveys (N = 955) on student perceptions of the introduction of emergency digitalisation – an important aspect of higher education. The authors perform latent class analyses to identify student subgroups. The students were asked to rate digital learning processes and their overall learning experiences.
Findings
The identified student subgroups are proponents, pragmatics and sceptics of digitalised teaching and learning processes. These subgroups have different preferences with regard to teaching and learning modes of delivery, which implies the relevance of individualised educational services and respective quality assurance practices to reflections on improvement needs.
Research limitations/implications
The data are from a single, typical German university; therefore, the scope of the results may be limited. However, this study enriches future research on the traits of student subgroups and students’ coping strategies in an ever-changing learning environment.
Practical implications
The findings may help individualise universities’ counselling services to enhance overall teaching performance and quality assurance practices in a digitalised environment.
Originality/value
The findings provide insights into students’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on teaching and learning. This paper enriches the research on student heterogeneity and relates this to development needs of quality assurance practice.
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Valdemilson de Assis Alves de Araujo, Isabel Cristina Scafuto, Fernando Ribeiro Serra, Leonardo Vils and Flavio Bizarrias
This study aimed to investigate the effects of internal stickiness (IS) on the success of projects through the perception of managers involved in projects.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate the effects of internal stickiness (IS) on the success of projects through the perception of managers involved in projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected 253 valid responses from project managers, using a validated IS scale and project success scale. The results were analyzed using nonparametric correlation due to the nature of the data.
Findings
The dimensions of success are interrelated, and IS, considering the barriers to knowledge transfer, is negatively related to all of these dimensions. This confirms the importance of the behavior of the individual and the team, rather than only formal processes to avoid IS and positively impact the success of projects.
Practical implications
The tacit and behavioral component of knowledge management needs to be further explored in practice. Project management activities need to pay greater attention to knowledge development, knowledge transfer and learning between those involved in the project and within a company.
Originality/value
The study provides a better understanding of knowledge transfer barriers, represented by the IS construct, to the success of projects. The success of projects depends on the relationship with teams that include members of organizational sectors not related to the existence of permanent project management teams. The relationship contributes to the successful transfer of knowledge between the recipient and the source of knowledge according to the recipient's needs.
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Raquel Rodríguez-García, Roberto Centeno and Álvaro Rodrigo
In this paper, we address the need to study automatic propaganda detection to establish a course of action when faced with such a complex task. Although many isolated tasks have…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, we address the need to study automatic propaganda detection to establish a course of action when faced with such a complex task. Although many isolated tasks have been proposed, a roadmap on how to best approach a new task from the perspective of text formality or the leverage of existing resources has not been explored yet.
Design/methodology/approach
We present a comprehensive study using several datasets on textual propaganda and different techniques to tackle it. We explore diverse collections with varied characteristics and analyze methodologies, from classic machine learning algorithms, to multi-task learning to utilize the available data in such models.
Findings
Our results show that transformer-based approaches are the best option with high-quality collections, and emotionally enriched inputs improve the results for Twitter content. Additionally, MTL achieves the best results in two of the five scenarios we analyzed. Notably, in one of the scenarios, the model achieves an F1 score of 0.78, significantly surpassing the transformer baseline model’s F1 score of 0.68.
Research limitations/implications
After finding a positive impact when leveraging propaganda’s emotional content, we propose further research into exploiting other complex dimensions, such as moral issues or logical reasoning.
Originality/value
Based on our findings, we provide a roadmap for tackling propaganda-related tasks, depending on the types of training data available and the task to solve. This includes the application of MTL, which has yet to be fully exploited in propaganda detection.
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Ferhat Ceritbinmez and Ali Günen
This study aims to comparatively analyze the cut parts obtained as a result of cutting the Ni-based Inconel 625 alloy, which is widely used in the aerospace industry, with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to comparatively analyze the cut parts obtained as a result of cutting the Ni-based Inconel 625 alloy, which is widely used in the aerospace industry, with the wire electro-discharge machining (WEDM) and abrasive water jet machining (AWJM) methods in terms of macro- and microanalyses.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, calipers, Mitutoyo SJ-210, Nikon SMZ 745 T, scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray were used to determine kerf, surface roughness and macro- and microanalyses.
Findings
Considering the applications in the turbine industry, it has been determined that the WEDM method is suitable to meet the standards for the machinability of Inconel 625 alloy. In contrast, the AWJM method does not meet the standards. Namely, while the kerf angle was formed because the hole entrance diameters of the holes obtained with AWJM were larger than the hole exit diameters, the equalization of the hole entry and exit dimensions, thanks to the perpendicularity and tension sensitivity of the wire electrode used in the holes drilled with WEDM ensured that the kerf angle was not formed.
Originality/value
It is known that the surface roughness of the parts used in the turbine industry is accepted at Ra = 0.8 µm. In this study, the average roughness value obtained from the successful drilling of Inconel 625 alloy with the WEDM method was 0.799 µm, and the kerf angle was obtained as zero. In the cuts made with the AWJM method, thermal effects such as debris, microcracks and melted materials were not observed; an average surface roughness of 2.293 µm and a kerf of 0.976° were obtained.
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Sajjad Beigmoradi and Mehrdad Vahdati
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a vibratory bed, as an assistant agent, on the improvement of the drag finishing process. The dynamics and kinematic of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a vibratory bed, as an assistant agent, on the improvement of the drag finishing process. The dynamics and kinematic of the process were surveyed in microscale for different frequencies and amplitudes and the results were compared to the basic process.
Design/methodology/approach
The discrete element tool was used to find out the effect of the vibratory bed on the drag finishing process. To this end, the Hertz-Mindlin model was used to investigate the contact of abrasive particles and workpiece. At the first stage, the numerical model was validated with the experimental results, and then the effect of different parameters on the finishing process was evaluated and compared with the basic case.
Findings
The chosen numerical model was in good agreement with the results measured in the previous literature. Moreover, the results show that not only vibrated bed enhances the contacts of abrasive particles to the workpiece, but it also increases the uniformity of the finished surface.
Originality/value
In comparison to the experiments, the discrete element technique consumes lower cost and time to estimate the optimum conditions of the finishing process, as well as it provides a good understanding of this phenomenon on the micro-scale.
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The purpose of this paper is to synthesise, characterise and study polymerisation kinetics of novel 4‐nonylphenylmethacrylate (NPMA) polymer.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesise, characterise and study polymerisation kinetics of novel 4‐nonylphenylmethacrylate (NPMA) polymer.
Design/methodology/approach
New methacrylic monomer, 4‐NPMA with a pendant nonylphenyl group was synthesised and characterised using various characterisation techniques. The free radical polymerisation kinetics study was done with the help of differential scanning calorimetry data.
Findings
The average heat of polymerisation (ΔHp) was found to be 685.43 J/g. Activation energy (Ea) of 95.86 kJ mol−1 and frequency factor of (A) 3.4 × 104 min−1 was obtained using Kissinger method. The thermogravimetric analysis of the polymer in nitrogen reveals that it possesses very good thermal stability in comparison to alkyl methacrylates due to presence of pendant nonylphenyl group.
Research limitations/implications
New methacrylic monomer, 4‐NPMA was synthesised by reacting nonylphenol dissolved in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) with methacryloyl chloride in the presence of triethylamine as a base. Polymerisation of 4‐NPMA was carried out in MEK using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as initiator under nitrogen atmosphere. The kinetics study of NPMA monomer with 1.1 wt% BPO was reported for evaluation of kinetic parameters by employing the Kissinger equation.
Practical implications
This is a simple and easy method of modification of methacrylate ester with phenyl groups to obtain a polymer of enhanced properties.
Originality/value
This is a novel method for enhancing the thermal as well as surface adhesion properties of methacrylate polymers which finds several applications in surface coatings and adhesives.