Wenchao Duan, Yiqiang Yang, Wenhong Liu, Zhiqiang Zhang and Jianzhong Cui
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the solute segregation behavior in the molten and solidified regions during direct chill (DC) casting of a large-size magnesium alloy slab…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reveal the solute segregation behavior in the molten and solidified regions during direct chill (DC) casting of a large-size magnesium alloy slab under no magnetic field (NMF), harmonic magnetic field (HMF), pulsed magnetic field (PMF) and two types of out-of-phase pulsed magnetic field (OPMF).
Design/methodology/approach
A 3-D multiphysical coupling mathematical model is used to evaluate the corresponding physical fields. The coupling issue is addressed using the method of separating step and result inheritance.
Findings
The results suggest that the solute deficiency tends to occur in the central part, while the solute-enriched area appears near the fillet in the molten and solidified regions. Applying magnetic field could greatly homogenize the solute field in the two-phase region. The variance of relative segregation level in the solidified cross-section under NMF is 38.1%, while it is 21.9%, 18.6%, 16.4% and 12.4% under OPMF2 (the current phase in the upper coil is ahead of the lower coil), HMF, PMF and OPMF1 (the current phase in the upper coil lags behind the lower coil), respectively, indicating that OPMF1 is more effective to reduce the macrosegregation level.
Originality/value
There are few reports on the solute segregation degree in rectangle slab under magnetic field, especially for magnesium alloy slab. This paper can act a reference to make clear the solute transport behavior and help reduce the macrosegregation level during DC casting.
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Wenchao Duan, Siqi Yin, Wenhong Liu, Jian Yang, Qingfeng Zhu, Lei Bao, Ping Wang, Jianzhong Cui and Zhiqiang Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of pulsed magnetic field (PMF) with different duty cycles on the melt flow and heat transfer behaviors during direct-chill…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of pulsed magnetic field (PMF) with different duty cycles on the melt flow and heat transfer behaviors during direct-chill (DC) casting of large-size magnesium alloy billet and find the appropriate range of duty cycle.
Design/methodology/approach
A transient two-dimensional mathematical model coupled electromagnetic field, flow field and thermal field, is conducted to study the melt flow and temperature field under PMF and compared with that under the harmonic magnetic field.
Findings
The results reveal that melt vibration and fluctuation are generated due to the instantaneous impact of repeated thrust and pull effects of Lorentz force under PMF. The peak of Lorentz force decreases greatly with the increasing duty cycle, but the melt fluctuation region is expanded with higher duty cycle, which accelerates the interior melt velocity and reduces the temperature gradient at the liquid-solid interface. However, PMF with overly high duty cycle has adverse effect on the melt convection and limited influence on the interior melt. A duty cycle of 20% to 50% is a reasonable range.
Practical implications
This paper can provide guiding significance for the setting of duty cycle parameters on DC casting under PMF.
Originality/value
There are few reports on the effect of PMF parameters during DC casting with applying PMF, especially for duty cycle, a parameter unique to PMF. The findings will be helpful for applying the external field of PMF on DC casting.
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Yapu Zhao, Wenhong Zhang, Depeng Liu, Fenghua Bao and Longwei Tian
Given the importance of frontline employees in implementing the service strategy, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether service-orientated human resource management…
Abstract
Purpose
Given the importance of frontline employees in implementing the service strategy, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether service-orientated human resource management (SHRM) practices are important organizational antecedents to help manufacturing firms gain the benefit of the service strategy. Furthermore, the paper also explores whether SHRM practices promote manufacturing firms’ performance through demand-side search.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs survey methodology to examine a research model that explores whether and how SHRM practices influence manufacturing firms’ performance through demand-side search. Data from 151 high-tech manufacturing firms in a science park of China are analyzed to test the research model.
Findings
This study finds that SHRM practices can enhance manufacturing firms’ performance, and demand-side search plays a mediating role in this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Depending on a single science park in China to provide cross-sectional subjective data for the core variables and the choice of firms limits the capacity to generalize the findings.
Practical implications
These findings suggest that during transition to service business model, manufacturing firms should design supported organizational systems, especially SHRM practices, and commit to demand-side search as an efficient means to gain the benefit of the service strategy.
Originality/value
The study highlights the crucial role of SHRM practices in the implementation of the service strategy, as well as the mediating role of demand-side search. These results provide some new insights to explain the inconsistent findings in the servitization literature.
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Yapu Zhao, Dong Liu, Wenhong Zhang and Silei Chen
This paper aims to investigate how top management service commitment (TSC) affects two dimensions of new product development (NPD), speed and product innovativeness, and to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how top management service commitment (TSC) affects two dimensions of new product development (NPD), speed and product innovativeness, and to examine how dysfunctional competition moderates the effects in emerging economies.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 151 high-tech manufacturing firms in China. In one firm, two different top managers were surveyed to reduce the common method variance. The authors used the seemingly unrelated regression approach to test the hypotheses.
Findings
First, TSC negatively influences product innovativeness, an effect that dysfunctional competition attenuates. Second, despite not being significantly positive as hypothesized, the direct effect of TSC on NPD speed remains positive when dysfunctional competition is high rather than low. Third, the findings reveal that product innovativeness increases firm performance, but NPD speed shows no similar effect.
Practical implications
First, top managers should pay attention to the synergistic effect between industrial services and product businesses. Second, manufacturing firms in developing countries need to implement servitization when facing unlawful competitive behaviors.
Originality/value
In literature, the effect of industrial services on NPD is unclear. The present study enriches literature by connecting servitization with NPD and by focusing on the importance of top managers to the implementation of servitization. In addition, the authors extend the servitization literature to emerging economies and thereby provide significant insights into this context.
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Wenhong Zhang, Yapu Zhao, Longwei Tian and Dong Liu
The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary-spanning demand-side search (BSDSS) fuels radical technological innovations as well as how innovation appropriability moderates this relationship. In particular, based on Teece’s (1986) argument regarding the appropriability of innovation, the authors divide factors to influence innovation appropriability into two types: external institution related and internal capability related.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a survey methodology. Specifically, the authors collected a sample composed of 150 high-tech manufacturing Chinese firms.
Findings
Results show that BSDSS has a positive effect on radical technological innovations. Further, the authors find that dysfunctional competition and political ties negatively moderate the main effect, whereas firms’ legal and IPRs protection capabilities positively moderate the main effect.
Research limitations/implications
One major limitation is that the findings are based on data derived from Chinese firms, which may limit the generalization of the findings.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that firms competing Chinese market, both Chinese and foreign firms, should actively leverage BSDSS to boost radical technological innovations. Chinese firms should pay attention to the negative roles of appropriability hazards originating from external institutional environment. Foreign firms in Chinese market should be cautious on potential dysfunctional competition from local competitors, such as imitation and intelligence property violation, and enhance appropriability through building internal capabilities, such as legal and IPRs capabilities.
Originality/value
The study highlights the crucial roles of BSDSS in radical technological innovations, as well as the moderating roles of innovation appropriability. These results provide new insights into the drivers of radical technological innovations.
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Zijing Ye, Huan Li and Wenhong Wei
Path planning is an important part of UAV mission planning. The main purpose of this paper is to overcome the shortcomings of the standard particle swarm optimization (PSO) such…
Abstract
Purpose
Path planning is an important part of UAV mission planning. The main purpose of this paper is to overcome the shortcomings of the standard particle swarm optimization (PSO) such as easy to fall into the local optimum, so that the improved PSO applied to the UAV path planning can enable the UAV to plan a better quality path.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, the adaptation function is formulated by comprehensively considering the performance constraints of the flight target as well as the UAV itself. Secondly, the standard PSO is improved, and the improved particle swarm optimization with multi-strategy fusion (MFIPSO) is proposed. The method introduces class sigmoid inertia weight, adaptively adjusts the learning factors and at the same time incorporates K-means clustering ideas and introduces the Cauchy perturbation factor. Finally, MFIPSO is applied to UAV path planning.
Findings
Simulation experiments are conducted in simple and complex scenarios, respectively, and the quality of the path is measured by the fitness value and straight line rate, and the experimental results show that MFIPSO enables the UAV to plan a path with better quality.
Originality/value
Aiming at the standard PSO is prone to problems such as premature convergence, MFIPSO is proposed, which introduces class sigmoid inertia weight and adaptively adjusts the learning factor, balancing the global search ability and local convergence ability of the algorithm. The idea of K-means clustering algorithm is also incorporated to reduce the complexity of the algorithm while maintaining the diversity of particle swarm. In addition, the Cauchy perturbation is used to avoid the algorithm from falling into local optimum. Finally, the adaptability function is formulated by comprehensively considering the performance constraints of the flight target as well as the UAV itself, which improves the accuracy of the evaluation model.
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Wenhong Wei, Yong Qin and Zhaoquan Cai
The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-objective differential evolution algorithm named as MOMR-DE to resolve multicast routing problem. In mobile ad hoc network (MANET)…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a multi-objective differential evolution algorithm named as MOMR-DE to resolve multicast routing problem. In mobile ad hoc network (MANET), multicast routing is a non-deterministic polynomial -complete problem that deals with the various objectives and constraints. Quality of service (QoS) in the multicast routing problem mainly depends on cost, delay, jitter and bandwidth. So the cost, delay, jitter and bandwidth are always considered as multi-objective for designing multicast routing protocols. However, mobile node battery energy is finite and the network lifetime depends on node battery energy. If the battery power consumption is high in any one of the nodes, the chances of network’s life reduction due to path breaks are also more. On the other hand, node’s battery energy had to be consumed to guarantee high-level QoS in multicast routing to transmit correct data anywhere and at any time. Hence, the network lifetime should be considered as one objective of the multi-objective in the multicast routing problem.
Design/methodology/approach
Recently, many metaheuristic algorithms formulate the multicast routing problem as a single-objective problem, although it obviously is a multi-objective optimization problem. In the MOMR-DE, the network lifetime, cost, delay, jitter and bandwidth are considered as five objectives. Furthermore, three QoS constraints which are maximum allowed delay, maximum allowed jitter and minimum requested bandwidth are included. In addition, we modify the crossover and mutation operators to build the shortest-path multicast tree to maximize network lifetime and bandwidth, minimize cost, delay and jitter.
Findings
Two sets of experiments are conducted and compared with other algorithms for these problems. The simulation results show that our proposed method is capable of achieving faster convergence and is more preferable for multicast routing in MANET.
Originality/value
In MANET, most metaheuristic algorithms formulate the multicast routing problem as a single-objective problem. However, this paper proposes a multi-objective differential evolution algorithm to resolve multicast routing problem, and the proposed algorithm is capable of achieving faster convergence and more preferable for multicast routing.
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Beilei Dang, Wenhong Zhang, Silei Chen, Taiwen Feng and Yapu Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of demand-side search in service strategy of manufacturing firms. In particular, this study examines whether…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of demand-side search in service strategy of manufacturing firms. In particular, this study examines whether service-oriented human resource management (HRM) practices promote demand-side search by enhancing firms’ market capability as well as how top management service commitment and service organizing moderates this relationship in manufacturing firms.
Design/methodology/approach
To test this research model, this study obtains survey data from two distinct informants of 279 manufacturing firms in China. Data were collected applying a standard questionnaire in a five-point Likert scale. The hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression analysis and partial least squares.
Findings
Results show that service-oriented HRM practices can promote demand-side search by enhancing firms’ market capability. Furthermore, it is found that top management service commitment negatively moderates the relationship between service-orientated HRM practices and demand-side search, while service organizing positively moderates this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Depending on cross-sectional subjective data for the core variables and the choice of Chinese manufacturing firms limit the capacity to generalize the findings.
Practical implications
This research suggests that service-oriented HRM practices are important drivers of demand-side search activities and to take advantage of service-oriented HRM practices, firms should commit to market capability development. In addition, it is better to match service-oriented HRM practices with other service-oriented organizational parameters such as top management service commitment and service organizing.
Originality/value
The study highlights the crucial role of service-oriented HRM practices in demand-side search, the mediating role of market capability and the moderating role of other service-oriented organizational parameters such as top management service commitment and service organizing. This study advances research on knowledge search, servitization and strategic HRM.
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Syed Mudasser Abbas, Zhiqiang Liu and Muhammad Khushnood
This study aims at investigating how hybrid intelligence might enhance employee engagement in breakthrough innovation. Specifically, it empirically examines the mediating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at investigating how hybrid intelligence might enhance employee engagement in breakthrough innovation. Specifically, it empirically examines the mediating role of self-extinction and moderating role of social intelligence.
Design/methodology/approach
This study, using the lens of socio-technical system (STS) theory, collected data from 317 employees through cross-sectional survey. The hypotheses were tested using MPlus 8.3 by applying Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).
Findings
The results support the proposed model, suggesting that hybrid intelligence fosters employees' breakthrough innovation engagement and such a relationship is fully mediated by self-extinction. Besides, the findings provide support for the positive moderating impact of social intelligence on such indirect relationships in a way that high social intelligence will further strengthen the relationship.
Originality/value
As a pioneering contribution, the study uncovers the social mechanism that underlies hybrid intelligence–breakthrough innovation engagement relationship via self-extinction. The research suggests managers leveraging employees' social intelligence for playing a critical role in countering the negative impact of self-extinction by enhancing the employees' engagement in the breakthrough innovation process.
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Wenhong Zhou, Linxu Dai, Yujie Zhang and Chuanling Wen
In this study, specific measures adopted by the social media platforms in China supporting personal information management are investigated via surveys targeting such platforms…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, specific measures adopted by the social media platforms in China supporting personal information management are investigated via surveys targeting such platforms. The purpose of this paper is to find out how social media platforms understand information management, and from which aspects and through what specific methods they provide support for information management, which contributes to understanding the issues and strategies associated with personal information management on social media.
Design/methodology/approach
The dimensions and specific contents of the current platform support provided for information management are clearly defined by performing qualitative text analysis based on the content obtained from 11 platform policies published by five representative Chinese social media platforms.
Findings
How social media platforms support personal information management on creation, collection, utilisation, sharing, storage, protection, removal and modification is identified. By analysing the status quo of support provided by the Chinese social media platform, some issues are proposed for discussion. Improved normative management is required to address the coexistence of multivalued information and management risks. However, the user rights are limited because the platform policies tend to be more focused on the perspective of the social media platform. Furthermore, the platform policy contents regarding information management are incomplete, and the applicability of these policies should be improved.
Originality/value
This study seeks to contribute to personal information management on social media from the perspective of platform support. The perspective from the platforms as the service providers supporting information management also helps identify information management challenges and potential strategies. Furthermore, combining with the personal information management perspective, this study provides a background understanding of information management under a social collaborative framework for platforms, authorities, users and memory institutions.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0249