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This paper aims to establish the predictive equations of height, area and volume of printed solder paste during solder paste stencil printing (SPSP) process in surface mount technology (SMT) to better understand the effect of process parameters on the printing quality.

An experiment plan is proposed based on the response surface method (RSM). Experiments with 30 different combinations of process parameters are performed using a solder paste printer. After printing, the volume, area and height of the printed SAC105 solder paste are measured by a solder paste inspection machine. Using RSM, the predictive equations associated with the printing parameters and the printing quality of the solder paste are formed.

The optimal printing parameters are 175.08 N printing pressure, 250 mm/s printing speed, 0.1 mm snap-off height and 15.7 mm/s stencil snap-off speed if the target height of solder paste is 100 µm. As the target printing area of solder paste is 1.1 mm × 1.3 mm, the optimized values of the printing parameters are 140.29 N, 100.52 mm/s, 0.63 mm and 20.25 mm/s. When both the target printing height and area are optimized together, the optimal values for the four parameters are 86.67 N, 225.76 mm/s, 0.15 mm and 1.82 mm/s.

A simple RSM-based experimental method is proposed to formulate the predictive polynomial equations for height, area and volume of printed solder paste in terms of important SPSP parameters. The predictive equation model can be applied to the actual SPSP process, allowing engineers to quickly predict the best printing parameters during parameter setting to improve production efficiency and quality.

The use of consumer credit by Chinese citizens has risen rapidly in the Internet era. The purpose of this paper is to predict a mechanism for credit consumption through Internet usage, with social comparison and materialism as mediators. Four types of Internet usage (social use, entertainment use, informational use, and online shopping) were identified to investigate whether different types of Internet usage influence credit consumption differently and whether the influencing mechanisms vary.

A structured online survey involving 558 valid responses from Chinese college students was completed, with structural equation modeling being applied to analyze the collected data.

Among the four types of Internet activities, online shopping was found to be the most significant predictor of credit consumption; results show that it influences credit consumption through two indirect pathways: materialism and a combination of social comparison and materialism. Social use was found to only affect credit consumption through materialism. In contrast, the influences of both informational use and entertainment use on credit consumption were insignificant.

By testing the concurrent mediating effects of social comparison and materialism, this study broadens our understanding of how Internet usage and credit consumption are connected. While most studies empirically test overall Internet usage and focus on direct relationships, we identify four types of Internet activities and demonstrate the mechanisms by which different types of Internet usage influence credit consumption, and how consumption varies based on Internet activity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contemporary paradigm of business leadership vis-à-vis China’s reform and transitional context.

The paper employs an evidence-based approach to explore the business leadership issues influenced by economic reform and within the context of societal transition in China. A qualitative research method was adopted based on in-depth interviews with a number of middle managers from a variety of Chinese enterprises, including state-owned, domestic-private and foreign-invested enterprises. Content analysis of several rounds of interviews added depth to the data analysis.

The findings complement existing thoughts and illustrate concepts, issues, and characteristics not yet emphasized in mainstream literature. General patterns and associated characteristics of business leadership in China, as well as specific patterns associated with different forms of enterprise ownerships, are identified.

The study makes a timely and necessary contribution that enriches context-specific understandings of business leadership against the backdrop of surrounding economic, social, and cultural changes.

The study enriches understandings of commonalities and differences in leadership across the globe, facilitating working collaboratively to achieve common goals in a global community.

The study offers new insights into business leadership by linking contextual, personal, and cognitional factors together and demonstrates some unique characteristics of leadership styles in transitional economies like China.

This paper aims to propose a review of the current open innovation paradigm to include the effects of culture in the internationalized working environment.

Focusing on interpersonal skills, the authors aim to show the current open innovation framework should be extended to include a cross-cultural lens.

In addition, cultural intelligence is a necessary core competency that can “shine a light” on the various ambiguities and uncertainties encountered in the Chinese business terrain.

Cultural intelligence will enhance open innovation alliance effectiveness.

This article provides deeper insights into the measurement of servant leadership within the Chinese culture. Servant leadership is viewed as a responsible leadership style that is beneficial to organizations by awaking, engaging and developing employees and working from a sense of service and stewardship for the world with a long-term perspective.

The paper consists of a survey study that examines the relationships between 5 servant leadership measures translated into Chinese and outcome measures using a sample of 463 participants.

The authors' results show that the five measures are very comparable. Although some differences exist, the combined conclusions from internal consistency, intercorrelations and correlations to outcome variables and factor analysis confirmed their overall commonality. A core group of 11 items is introduced as a potential scale to represent the underlying variance of all 55 items.

This study validates how the five instruments are grounded in the core aspects of servant leadership described by Robert Greenleaf, the service aspect of choosing to become a leader and the importance for a leader to give attention to the followers' personal growth, meaningful work and well-being.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the pilot implementation of an industry-specific web portal as an IT resource on textile SMEs organisational performance. Using a resource-based perspective, portal delivery functionalities, considered as non-physical IT resources, are analysed using the dimensions of portal usefulness, portal interface, and service-oriented portal functions on SMEs users’ perceived outcomes of organisational performance.

Qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to explore the research hypotheses. Data were collected using field interviews and survey from senior executives of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Taiwanese textile industry.

Results indicate that the service-oriented portal function dimension, consisting of portal maintenance service, B2B function, and cloud computing, significantly influences organisational performance. Unexpected findings, such as the negative impact of greater industry benchmark information on perceived SME performance, deserve further investigation.

The study extends the theory and knowledge on the resource-based view and its implications on e-business organisational performance of SMEs. The study also offers findings relevant to the design of portal sites for SME administrators and information service providers. Limitations of the research include a small size and the industry-specific data limiting the generalisability of the findings.

Research results practically serve as informative indicators for policy makers, information service providers, and SMEs executives to evaluate feasible elements for web portal design in traditional industry. Findings from this study may help portal service providers in designing better web portal functionalities for SMEs.

This study contributes to the IT business value literature by identifying the linkages between industry-specific portal delivery functionalities and perceived organisational performance through the examination of portal usefulness, portal interface, and service-oriented portal function for textile SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a good calculation model to accurately predict the lubrication characteristic of main bearings of diesel engine and improve the service life.

Based on the coupling of the whole flexible engine block and the flexible crankshaft reduced by the Component Mode Synthesis (CMS) method, considering mass-conserving boundary conditions, the average flow model equation and Greenwood/Tripp asperity contact theory, an elastohydrodynamic (EHD)-mixed lubrication model of the main bearings for the diesel engine is developed and researched with the finite volume method and the finite element method.

Obviously, the mixed lubrication of bearings is normal, while full hydrodynamic lubrication is transient. The results show that under the whole flexible block model, maximum oil film pressure, maximum asperity contact pressure and radial shell deformation decrease, while minimum oil film thickness increases. Oil flow over edge decreases, and so does friction loss. Therefore, coordination deformation ability of whole engine block is favorable to mean load. In the whole block model, friction contact happens on both upper shell and lower shell positions. In addition, average oil film fill ratio at the key position becomes smaller in the whole engine block model, and consequently increases the chances of cavitations erosion more. So, wearing resistance of both upper and lower shells and anti-cavitations erosion ability must be enhanced simultaneously.

Based on the coupling of the whole flexible engine block and the flexible crankshaft reduced by the CMS method, considering mass-conserving boundary conditions, the average flow model equation and Greenwood/Tripp asperity contact theory, an EHD-mixed lubrication model of the main bearings for the diesel engine is built, which can predict the lubrication of journal bearings more accurately.

Because of the various geometric descriptions of different bearing types, performance calculation of journal bearing is complicated, and is difficult in traditional model. This paper aims to simplify the calculation of the journal bearing performance, and to reduce the workload.

On the basis of previous research, a general performance calculation model of journal bearing is proposed in this paper. Eccentricity ratio and attitude angle of axis to each pad are calculated by coordinates of spindle center and each pad center by establishing the unified coordinate system. The surface deformation of journal bearing is taken into consideration, and a correction value is added to the dimensionless oil film thickness.

The performance calculation results of various fix-pad and tilting-pad journal bearings match the results of the existing references very well, revealing the validity of the model. The general model can greatly reduce programming workload, and increase adaptability to different bearings.

Geometric descriptions of both fix-pad and tilting-pad journal bearings are unified in this model, which can be applied to both standard and non-standard journal bearings with different preload ratios. In addition, due to the unification of different bearings types, this model is more conducive to performance comparison among different bearing types, and promotes the development of new structural forms for journal bearings.