Li Li, Tong Huang, Chujia Pan, J.F. Pan and Wenbin Su
The purpose of this paper aims to investigate the adaptive impedance control and its optimized PSO algorithm for force tracking of a dual-arm cooperative robot. Because the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper aims to investigate the adaptive impedance control and its optimized PSO algorithm for force tracking of a dual-arm cooperative robot. Because the dual-arm robot is directly in contact with external environment, controlling the mutual force between robot and external environment is of great importance. Besides, a high compliance of the robot should be guaranteed.
Design/methodology/approach
An impedance control based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is designed to track the mutual force and achieve compliance control of the robot end.
Findings
The experimental results show that the impedance control coefficients can be automatically tuned converged by PSO algorithm.
Originality/value
The system can reach a steady state within 0.03 s with overshoot convergence, and the force fluctuation range at the steady state decreases to about ±0.08 N even under the force mutation condition.
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Kara Chan, Tommy Tse, Daisy Tam and Anqi Huang
The purpose of this paper is to explore snacking behavior and perspectives on healthy and unhealthy food choices among adolescents in Mainland China.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore snacking behavior and perspectives on healthy and unhealthy food choices among adolescents in Mainland China.
Design/methodology/approach
Four focus-group interviews were conducted. Altogether 24 participants were recruited in Changsha, a second-tier city in China, through a convenience sampling process. They were asked to report their snacking behaviors, identify whether certain snacks are healthy or unhealthy and elaborate on factors affecting food choices.
Findings
Snacking was prevalent among the participants. The most frequently consumed snacks included fruit, milk and instant noodles. Participants’ evaluations for the healthiness of foods were based on the actual nutritional values of those foods, the effects on growth and body weight and word-of-mouth. Choice of snack was driven mainly by taste, image, convenience and health consciousness.
Research limitations/implications
The finding was based on a non-probability sample. The paper also did not explore the contexts where snacks were consumed.
Practical implications
Parents can make healthy snacks more accessible at home and at schools. Educators can teach adolescents how to read food labels. Schools can increase the availability of healthy snacks on campus. Social marketers can promote healthy snacks by associating them with fun and high taste.
Originality/value
This is the first paper on snacking behaviors among adolescents conducted in a second-tier city in China using focus-group methodology.
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Jing Guo, Qinling Huang, Zhaoqian Gu, Xiaowei Yu, Xie Gao and Lihua Tang
This paper aims to analyze the effectiveness of the subject librarian literacy training and put forward suggestions for the improvement of the subject librarian literacy training…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the effectiveness of the subject librarian literacy training and put forward suggestions for the improvement of the subject librarian literacy training based on the satisfaction degree survey for the CALIS III Subject Librarian Literacy Training.
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of the satisfaction degree survey for the CALIS III Subject Librarian Literacy Training, this paper elaborates on the design of the survey, analyzes effectiveness of the training according to the survey results, and further advances suggestions for the enhancement of the subject librarian literacy training.
Findings
As an essential part of the library user service, subject services are highly demanding of subject librarians' literacy and capabilities. The subject librarians should thus own great abilities to be qualified for the innovative subject service work. Although the CALIS III Librarian Literacy Training and Qualification Certification Program, a vital executive program, has made great achievements, the training still needs to be further improved concerning the schedules, teaching atmosphere, training forms, training content, etc., to enhance the subject librarians' ability, raise the service standards and promote the fast and sound development of librarianship in China.
Originality/value
This paper offers detailed information on how to design a satisfaction degree survey for the subject librarian literacy training, analyzes the effectiveness of the librarian literacy training, and finally makes suggestions for the enhancement of the subject librarian literacy training.
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Zaiyang Xie, Rongxin Roger Chen, William Wei, Xiaohua Yang and Qingyue Huang
1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how changes in the external environment could hasten such a decision.
2. Analyze how a company can leverage its internal organizational structure to share and utilize cross-departmental resources and capabilities to support new venture businesses according to the synergy effect perspective.
3. Undertake a resource-based view analysis to evaluate the external and internal resources needed for corporate new venture development.
4. Identify the best course of action for the decision-maker by comparing, contrasting, applying and evaluating the two different models of corporate new venture development in the e-commerce business: the centralized organizational model and the decentralized organizational model and evaluate the pros and cons associated with each mode in the context of Dahan’s external and internal environments.
Case overview/synopsis
Since its inception in 2003, Dahan’s traditional business in SMS (Short Message Services) and data had gained thousands of customers across China and won top rankings in the industry. Despite its achievements, Dahan encountered difficulties when it entered the new e-commerce market, as the domain knowledge about the new business was very different from the domain knowledge in its traditional business. Furthermore, the emerging B2B e-commerce industry was very different from the traditional business in that the former mainly targeted corporate clients and the latter targeted individual customers in the B2C industry. This case examined the critical decisions that Xiaofen Huang, the CEO of Dahan E-Commerce Corporation and Co-Founder of Dahan Tricom Group, had to make and external, especially Internal, resources the Dahan Group needed in developing its new venture.
Specifically, this case explored how Huang would go through the mental process to make the best possible decision to help the company not only to survive, but also thrive in the rapidly-changing and competitive digital environment: it urgently needed to finalize an organizational incubation model to support the further development of its e-commerce and future new venture activities with two options to choose from: the centralized organizational model or the decentralized organizational model. A key challenge facing Huang was to decide which option was best suited to motivate salespeople in different departments to help one another, especially in the new B2B e-commerce business and to grow that new business.
In the case, Dahan’s growth aspirations and its motivation to transform its traditional business into a new e-commerce business were discussed. Second, when external challenges were examined, how Dahan explored the B2B e-commerce business using a trial-and-error learning process was explained. Third, when internal challenges were examined, how Dahan incubated its new B2B e-commerce business and its practices for leveraging and sharing resources/capabilities, as well as cross-departmental and cross-divisional collaboration through a resource-based lens, were illustrated. Last, the most critical learning in the case presented an immediate decision-making dilemma on which organizational incubation models to choose from for further new business development, where students learn to analyze both external and internal factors and consider Dahan’s available resource and founder’s aspiration, available strategic options to derive a best possible decision to suit the stage of the company’s lifecycle and founders’ vision.
Complexity academic level
This case was designed for use in undergraduate courses on corporate innovation, new venture development, corporate innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, e-commerce and growth.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS 11: Strategy.
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Jing Huang, Ruoyu Yu, Shengxiong Wen, Zelin Tong and Nan Zhou
It is unattainable that entrepreneurs engage equivalent resources in public and private morality because of the limitation of resources. This study aims to conduct experiments to…
Abstract
Purpose
It is unattainable that entrepreneurs engage equivalent resources in public and private morality because of the limitation of resources. This study aims to conduct experiments to test how entrepreneurial deviation in morality affects legitimacy perception of consumers to entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted secondary data analysis and experiment to test how entrepreneurial deviation in morality affects legitimacy perception of consumers to entrepreneurs.
Findings
The experimental results show that entrepreneurial deviation in morality negatively affects legitimacy perceptions of consumers to entrepreneurs. Specifically, when public moral is higher than private moral, consumers have negative perceptions of pragmatic legitimacy to entrepreneurs, because consumers perceive deviation behaviors disobey the norm “Li”. However, entrepreneurial private morality excels public morality, consumers have negative perceptions of social legitimacy to entrepreneurs because consumers perceive deviation behaviors disobey the norm “Qing”. Moreover, the authors examined entrepreneurial values moderate the effects of moral deviation and legitimacy perceptions.
Originality/value
This study expands the ethical marketing of entrepreneurs from the perspective of the deviation between public morality and private morality.
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Yi Jin, Min Huang, Haoming Lin and Jing Guo
As the virtual reference service (VRS) is becoming a standard service of the digital library, efficient collaboration among virtual reference services is also becoming more and…
Abstract
Purpose
As the virtual reference service (VRS) is becoming a standard service of the digital library, efficient collaboration among virtual reference services is also becoming more and more important for information exchange and sharing. This paper seeks to examine existing collaborative VRS systems with a view to achieving collaboration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies existing collaborative VRS (CVRS) systems and analyzes their structures, methods and functions for achieving collaboration.
Findings
Three collaborative structure models are proposed and basic collaborative methods and collaborative functions are concluded. A CVRS reference model is depicted.
Research limitations/implications
Since the study is not based on an exhaustive list of CVRS systems and technologies are always developing, the collaborative structure models, methods and functions presented in this paper are possibly not complete and may need to be adjusted and amended. There is also urgent work to be done to advance and establish related standards and protocols for CVRS.
Practical implications
The study is intended to help libraries to identify quickly the necessary elements and mechanisms for the design of a proper degree of CVRS or to develop or evaluate VRS systems.
Originality/value
This paper proposes and concludes collaborative structure models, methods, functions and a reference model of CVRS. It should prove helpful for libraries wishing to provide CVRS, as well as for further research on CVRS.
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Roya Amiri, Javad Majrouhi Sardroud and Vahid Momenaei Kermani
The site layout has a significant impact on the efficiency of construction operations. Planning an effective site layout partly involves identifying and positioning temporary…
Abstract
Purpose
The site layout has a significant impact on the efficiency of construction operations. Planning an effective site layout partly involves identifying and positioning temporary facilities such as tower cranes and areas on the jobsite for materials storage. This study proposes an approach to optimizing the type and location of the tower crane and material supply point on construction sites.
Design/methodology/approach
The problem is formulated into an integer linear programming (ILP) model considering the total cost of material transportation as the objective function and site conditions as constraints. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated by finding the optimum site layout for a numerical example. The proposed model is validated and verified using two methods.
Findings
Results indicate that the proposed model successfully identifies the type and location of the tower crane and the location of material supply point, leading to approximately 20% cost reduction compared with when such features of a site layout are decided solely based on experience and educated guesses of the construction manager.
Originality/value
The primary contribution of this study is to present a modified linear mathematical model for site layout optimization that exhibits improved performance compared with previous models. The type and location of the tower crane and the material supply point as decision variables are extracted directly from solving the proposed model. The proposed model will help enhance time and cost efficiency on construction sites.
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– This paper aims to explore the personalities of sportswear brands and their relationship to brand equity using Aaker’s methodology in the context of sportswear brands.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the personalities of sportswear brands and their relationship to brand equity using Aaker’s methodology in the context of sportswear brands.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used Aaker’s brand personality framework to empirically investigate the personality of sportswear brands and the impact of brand personality on brand equity based on data collected from 420 college students.
Findings
Results revealed that the personality of sportswear brands can be described in seven dimensions and 53 personality traits: competence, attractiveness, sincerity, innovation, activity, excitement and ruggedness. The study identified that four dimensions among all the seven personality dimensions, namely, competence, attractiveness, Sincerity and innovation, are the positive and significant contributing factors to the creation and enhancement of sportswear brand equity.
Originality/value
This study makes an important contribution to the understanding of brand personality and brand equity in the context of sportswear brands. It confirmed that consumers do associate particular brand personality dimensions with sportswear brands, and certain dimensions of brand personality have a direct impact on brand equity. The study showed that not all brand personality dimensions have the same influence in increasing the value of a sportswear brand from a consumer perspective, some dimensions being more efficient than others. The findings provide insights as to what dimensions of brand personality would deliver the best result in today’s competitive sportswear market.
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Zelin Tong, Tingting Li, Wenting Feng, Yuanyuan Zhou and Ling Zhou
This study aims to investigate the impact of cross-border charitable activities on host- and home-country consumers based on the social identity theory.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of cross-border charitable activities on host- and home-country consumers based on the social identity theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an extensive literature review and two experimental designs, this study establishes the research framework and hypothesises the relationships between the constructs.
Findings
National power moderates the impact of cross-border charitable activities on host- and home-country consumers. In particular, compared to countries with high national power, countries with low national power undertaking cross-border charitable activities will receive more positive reactions from the host-country consumers, and, conversely, more negative reactions from the home-country consumers.
Research limitations/implications
From the consumer perspective, this study finds that brand cross-border charitable activities have different influences on consumers in different countries because of an identity transformation mechanism that exists between the “insiders” and the “outsiders”, which is different from the assumptions of western theories.
Practical implications
The findings provide insights for undertaking brand cross-border charitable activities.
Originality/value
Previous studies, which are based on social identity categorisation, assume that cross-border charitable activities have a more positive impact on home-country consumers than host-country consumers. However, this study adopts the research paradigm of social identity relationisation and draws an opposite conclusion, which not only expands the theory of local intergroup interaction, but also clarifies how brand cross-border charitable activities influence Chinese consumers.