Environmental crises and resource shortage have been matters of concern worldwide particularly, as the beginning of the twenty-first century. Remanufacturing can be one of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Environmental crises and resource shortage have been matters of concern worldwide particularly, as the beginning of the twenty-first century. Remanufacturing can be one of the best approaches to promoting the development of circular economy and realizing the efficient use of resources. However, research studies indicate that the general public still remains unaware of the merits of remanufactured products. Hence, investigating main motivations of consumers to purchase remanufactured products is certainly worth exploring. The purpose of this paper is to find out consumers’ key motivations to purchase remanufactured products. A new multi-attributes decision-making method based on prospect theory (PT) is conducted.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, according to the prior literature, 12 main factors that influence consumers to purchase a remanufactured product are selected. Then, the single valued triangular neutrosophic numbers and triangular neutrosophic weighted geometric averaging operator are applied to rank them. Secondly, a multi-attribute decision-making method with PT is used to evaluate the utilities of new and remanufactured products, respectively. Based on the utilities, consumers’ preferred choice between the new and remanufactured products can be elicited.
Findings
The proposed method has been applied to a real survey. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is not only capable of recognizing the consumers’ key motivations for purchasing a remanufactured product but also able to deal with the ranking of the new and remanufactured products.
Originality/value
The contributions of this paper are threefold. Firstly, this paper attempts to explore the main motivations that encourage consumers to purchase a remanufactured product, instead of a new one. Secondly, the proposed method is established based on PT, taking consumers’ psychological behavior into consideration, which can obtain a relatively reasonable result. Thirdly, it can enrich the remanufacturing literature, serving as a guideline for consumers when purchasing a remanufactured product. In addition, this paper can help the remanufacturers make pricing and production decisions where necessary.
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Lan Luo, Limao Zhang and Qinghua He
The purpose of this study is to develop a novel hybrid approach that incorporates the structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) to investigate the impacts of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a novel hybrid approach that incorporates the structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) to investigate the impacts of the variation in project complexity on project success.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts SEM to identify and validate a correlation between project complexity variables and PS. Standardized causal coefficients estimated in SEM are used to construct an FCM model to illustrate the effect of complexity on PS with linkage direction and weights. Predictive and diagnostic analyses are performed to dynamically model the variation in project complexity on the evolution of PS.
Findings
Results indicate that (1) the hybrid SEM–FCM approach is capable of modeling the dynamic interactions between project complexity and PS; (2) information, goal and environmental complexities are negatively correlated with PS, and technological, task and organizational complexities are positively correlated with PS and (3) the recommendations of complexity management for construction projects are put forward under the guideline of success monitoring.
Originality/value
This research contributes to (1) the state of knowledge by proposing a hybrid methodology that can model the dynamic interactions between project complexity and PS and (2) the state of practice by providing a new perspective of PS evaluation to enhance the probability of success in complex construction projects.
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Jingwei Feng, Fengchun Tian, Pengfei Jia, Qinghua He, Yue Shen and Shu Fan
– The purpose of this paper is to detect wound infection by electronic nose (Enose) and to improve the performance of Enose.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to detect wound infection by electronic nose (Enose) and to improve the performance of Enose.
Design/methodology/approach
Mice are used as experimental subjects. Orthogonal signal correction (OSC) is applied to preprocess the response of Enose. Radical basis function (RBF) network is used for discrimination, and the parameters in RBF are optimized by particle swarm optimization.
Findings
OSC is very suitable for eliminating interference and improving the performance of Enose in wound infection detection.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is required to sample wound infection dataset of human beings and to demonstrate that the Enose with proper algorithms can be used to detect wound infection.
Practical implications
In this paper, Enose is used to detect wound infection, and OSC is used to improve the performance of the Enose. This widens the application area of Enose and OSC.
Originality/value
The innovative concept paves the way for the application of Enose.
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Dunjin Zhou, Yaqiong Yan, Huihong Yu, Qinghua Xia, Niannian Yang, Zhifeng Zhang, Zhaoyang Zhu, Fang Li and Jie Gong
This study aims to examine whether, in the opinion of patients selected in 13 hospitals of Hubei province, China, hospitals are smoke free. Patients were also asked whether their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether, in the opinion of patients selected in 13 hospitals of Hubei province, China, hospitals are smoke free. Patients were also asked whether their physicians had inquired about their smoking status.
Design/methodology/approach
Patients were recruited through an intercept method (i.e. stopped by the interviewer while in the hospital); data were collected through interviews, with a response rate of 96.1 percent.
Findings
Among the intercepted patients, 48.3 percent reported having seen people smoking in hospitals; 22.3 percent had seen a doctor and/or nurse smoking; 23.8 percent had smelled tobacco in hospitals; 68.4 percent reported having seen “no‐smoking” signs in hospital settings; 42.6 percent reported having been asked about smoking status in their latest visit to a doctor and 23.8 percent reported receiving tobacco cessation counseling. Compared to hospitals in large cities, patients from medium/small city hospitals reported significantly higher levels of cigarette smoking among physicians, and poorer implementation of regulations for a smoking‐free hospital, and less smoking cessation counseling by physicians.
Originality/value
Findings of this study point to the need for greater efforts to be made in promoting a smoke free environment in hospitals, as well as encouraging physicians to provide more smoking cessation counseling to smoking patients, particularly physicians in small and medium hospitals.
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Guocheng Xiang, Jingjing Liu and Yuxuan Yang
The modernization of China’s economy is an integral part of Chinese-style modernization. According to the principle of unifying…
Abstract
Purpose
The modernization of China’s economy is an integral part of Chinese-style modernization. According to the principle of unifying theoretical, historical and practical logic, theoretically explaining the modernization of China’s economy is both a political necessity and a higher scientific requirement.
Design/methodology/approach
Following this evolutionary line – from modes of production to the general economic development mechanism and then to patterns of economic operation and development – this paper employs the principal contradiction analysis method to offer an interpretation of China’s economic modernization from the broad Marxist political economy perspective.
Findings
In economic terms, “get organized” primarily refers to the development and mutual promotion of team-based and market-based division of labor organizations, as discussed by Karl Marx. “Get organized” (specifically the development of team-based division of labor organizations) acts as the engine of China’s economic modernization and serves as the historical logical starting point. Division of labor is the theoretical logical starting point for interpreting China’s economic modernization. The two of them are congruent, achieving the unity of theoretical and historical logic at the starting point. The development and mutual promotion of these “two types of division of labor” inherently generate the general mechanism of economic development first comprehensively discussed by Marx and Friedrich Engels, which involves the division of labor development and market expansion accumulating cyclically and reinforcing each other. This mechanism drives both the high-speed and high-quality development of China’s economic modernization.
Originality/value
The broad Marxist political economy paradigm facilitates explaining China’s economic modernization theoretically, historically and practically with unified logic. “Get organized” serves as both the engine and the realization mechanism of this modernization, with the Communist Party of China (CPC) consistently being the core force of this organizational effort.