Researchers have noticed that in efficiency assessment, some attributes exhibit specializations including non-discretionary, non-controllable or undesirable. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Researchers have noticed that in efficiency assessment, some attributes exhibit specializations including non-discretionary, non-controllable or undesirable. This paper aims to focus on other special factors which have target levels to achieve, i.e. the inputs (outputs) are no longer the-less-the-better (the-more-the-better).
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors further study the target variables when some attributes have multiple levels of targets. Such a situation can be found in many operational efficiency evaluations with various targets or bounded scale in inputs or outputs. They suppose that decision-making units (DMUs), reaching any target level, are identical efficient. To some extent, it is mitigation between common targets and individual targets. Using the closest target rule, the authors propose a target-level-oriented method to evaluate DMUs locally.
Findings
First, the authors found that some factors have multiple levels of targets to improve its efficiency in real world practice. Second, the proposed technique is able to deal with the multiple-levels-targets problems in data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework. Third, the decision-maker can select the improvement directions more freely than that in the traditional setting.
Originality/value
First, this is the first paper to discuss the multiple-levels-targets problems in DEA framework. Second, the proposed technique can help the decision-maker to select the best improvement strategies. Third, the technique developed in this paper can be used in many areas. For example, it can support the environmental efficiency evaluation with different standards of pollution emission.
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Yufeng Ma, Long Xia, Wenqi Shen, Mi Zhou and Weiguo Fan
The purpose of this paper is automatic classification of TV series reviews based on generic categories.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is automatic classification of TV series reviews based on generic categories.
Design/methodology/approach
What the authors mainly applied is using surrogate instead of specific roles or actors’ name in reviews to make reviews more generic. Besides, feature selection techniques and different kinds of classifiers are incorporated.
Findings
With roles’ and actors’ names replaced by generic tags, the experimental result showed that it can generalize well to agnostic TV series as compared with reviews keeping the original names.
Research limitations/implications
The model presented in this paper must be built on top of an already existed knowledge base like Baidu Encyclopedia. Such database takes lots of work.
Practical implications
Like in digital information supply chain, if reviews are part of the information to be transported or exchanged, then the model presented in this paper can help automatically identify individual review according to different requirements and help the information sharing.
Originality/value
One originality is that the authors proposed the surrogate-based approach to make reviews more generic. Besides, they also built a review data set of hot Chinese TV series, which includes eight generic category labels for each review.
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China and the United States represent the two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Studies on how US companies react to the natural environment are plentiful and show…
Abstract
China and the United States represent the two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Studies on how US companies react to the natural environment are plentiful and show that stakeholders are one of the key drivers for green decisions. However, we have limited understanding of the stakeholder pressure faced by firms in China. Drawing on stakeholder theory, this study builds from in-depth interviews with 32 businesses in China. We show that government, customers, employees, suppliers, investors, and community are stakeholders most mentioned. Interestingly, findings also seem to suggest that the perceived pressures of non-profit organizations (NGOs) differ by the form of ownership. Multinational firms often view NGOs as allies, while Chinese firms downplay them as powerless and unimportant. Although stakeholders are seen as both threat and opportunity, two-thirds of those surveyed in this study focused on opportunity as opposed to threat.
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Abdesselem Beghriche and Azeddine Bilami
Security is one of the major challenges in the design and implementation of protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In such systems, the cooperation between nodes is one of…
Abstract
Purpose
Security is one of the major challenges in the design and implementation of protocols for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). In such systems, the cooperation between nodes is one of the important principles being followed in the current research works to formulate various security protocols. Many existing works assume that mobile nodes will follow prescribed protocols without deviation. However, this is not always the case, because these networks are subjected to a variety of malicious attacks. Since there are various models of attack, trust routing scheme can guarantee security and trust of the network. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel trusted routing model for mitigating attacks in MANETs.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model incorporates the concept of trust into the MANETs and applies grey relational analysis theory combined with fuzzy sets to calculate a node’s trust level based on observations from neighbour nodes’ trust level, these trust levels are then used in the routing decision-making process.
Findings
In order to prove the applicability of the proposed solution, extensive experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed model, aiming at improving the network interaction quality, malicious node mitigation and enhancements of the system’s security.
Originality/value
The proposed solution in this paper is a new approach combining the fundamental basics of fuzzy sets with the grey theory, where establishment of trust relationships among participating nodes is critical in order to enable collaborative optimisation of system metrics. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method is useful for reducing the effects of malicious nodes and for the enhancements of system’s security.
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Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build a linear time-varying discrete Verhulst model (LTDVM), to realise the convert from continuous forms to discrete forms, and to eliminate traditional grey Verhulst model's error caused by difference equations directly jumping to differential equations.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology of the paper is by the light of discrete thoughts and countdown to the original data sequence.
Findings
The research of this model manifests that LTDVM is unbiased on the “s” sequential simulation.
Practical implications
The example analysis shows that LTDVM embodies simulation and prediction with high precision.
Originality/value
This paper is to realise the convert from continuous forms to discrete forms, and to eliminate traditional grey Verhulst model's error caused by difference equations directly jumping to differential equations. Meanwhile, the research of this model manifests that LTDVM is unbiased on the “s” sequential simulation.
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Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the mediating role of organizational entrepreneurial capability in the link between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and new venture performance, and whether entrepreneurs’ passion positively moderates this relationship in the Chinese emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected survey data from 140 Chinese new ventures. Following an empirical design, hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping analysis were applied to examine six hypotheses.
Findings
Results reveal that organizational entrepreneurial capability plays a positively mediating role in the association between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and new venture performance. Moreover, the whole mediation model is positively moderated by entrepreneurs’ passion, not only the association but also between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and organizational entrepreneurial capability.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to the static relationships between key variables using the data obtained at one point in an emerging economy, which cannot investigate the dynamic evolution between variables. More longitudinal designs or cases to track the dynamic association should be considered.
Practical implications
The findings provide useful suggestions for entrepreneurs to enhance their effectual logic and entrepreneurs’ passion to better perceive and exploit opportunities and further improve new venture performance. The results also provide guidance for other groups, such as angel investors and policymakers, regarding how to use effectuation logic as an evaluation criterion to judge whether a new venture or program has investment potential.
Originality/value
These findings enrich the effectuation theory by providing the empirical evidence of the effect of entrepreneurs’ effectuation on new venture performance in an emerging economy. They also provide deeper insights into opportunity research by uncovering the mediating role of organizational entrepreneurial capability in the relationship between entrepreneurs’ effectuation and new venture performance.
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Weixing Wang, Yixia Chen and Mingwei Lin
Based on the strong feature representation ability of the convolutional neural network (CNN), generous object detection methods in remote sensing (RS) have been proposed one after…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the strong feature representation ability of the convolutional neural network (CNN), generous object detection methods in remote sensing (RS) have been proposed one after another. However, due to the large variation in scale and the omission of relevant relationships between objects, there are still great challenges for object detection in RS. Most object detection methods fail to take the difficulties of detecting small and medium-sized objects and global context into account. Moreover, inference time and lightness are also major pain points in the field of RS.
Design/methodology/approach
To alleviate the aforementioned problems, this study proposes a novel method for object detection in RS, which is called lightweight object detection with a multi-receptive field and long-range dependency in RS images (MFLD). The multi-receptive field extraction (MRFE) and long-range dependency information extraction (LDIE) modules are put forward.
Findings
To concentrate on the variability of objects in RS, MRFE effectively expands the receptive field by a combination of atrous separable convolutions with different dilated rates. Considering the shortcomings of CNN in extracting global information, LDIE is designed to capture the relationships between objects. Extensive experiments over public datasets in RS images demonstrate that our MFLD method surpasses the state-of-the-art methods. Most of all, on the NWPU VHR-10 dataset, our MFLD method achieves 94.6% mean average precision with 4.08 M model volume.
Originality/value
This paper proposed a method called lightweight object detection with multi-receptive field and long-range dependency in RS images.
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Carmen Winkel, Laura Strachan and Siddiqua Aamir
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Saudi Arabian university students returning home after having spent time away studying internationally. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of Saudi Arabian university students returning home after having spent time away studying internationally. The investigation focused exclusively on female students who for diverse reasons were unable to complete their studies abroad.
Design/methodology/approach
A thematic analysis was applied to analyze the seven in-depth interviews conducted by the authors. By using an open coding method analytic patterns across the entire data set were identified and then analyzed.
Findings
The findings suggest that the students experienced reverse culture shock reintegrating and assimilating into their former lives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its conservative culture. This was especially surprising considering not one of the participants experienced culture shock when they first traveled to their host country – the USA, Canada or England.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to a small group of seven female undergraduates who are comparatively well educated and come from a middle and upper socioeconomic demographic. As a result, without additional research, the findings cannot be extended to groups outside of this demographic.
Practical implications
Students who have studied abroad need improved academic and social support networks when they return home, according to the findings. The authors want to raise awareness about the difficulties that students face upon their return. Teachers, counselors, and advisors need to be on the lookout for the symptomatology associated with these types of problems.
Social implications
Female Saudi students returning home after an extended period of study abroad face a variety of problems. They must fit into a restrictive, partriarchal culture in which they are not legally equal to men.
Originality/value
To date, there are no studies that shed light on reverse culture shock for students who returned to Saudi Arabia without a degree. Due to the large number of Saudi scholarship holders who study in English-speaking countries with government support, the study is the first attempt in this direction.
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Lazhar Tlili, Chelbi Anis and Mokhles Bouazizi
This paper deals with a particular type of leasing contracts according to which an equipment is leased for free with the condition for the lessee to purchase a predetermined…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper deals with a particular type of leasing contracts according to which an equipment is leased for free with the condition for the lessee to purchase a predetermined minimum quantity of consumables during each leasing period. Maintenance actions are performed by the lessor and borne by him. Imperfect preventive maintenance is carried out every t time units throughout the leasing period. Minimal repairs are performed following equipment failures. At the end of the leasing period, an overhaul which restores the equipment to “as good as new” state is performed. The equipment is leased many times during its life cycle. The purpose of this paper is to determine the values of the decision variables for the lessor, which are the preventive maintenance (PM) period and the minimum quantity of consumables to be sold to ensure profit.
Design/methodology/approach
A mathematical model is developed to express the expected maintenance cost per time unit incurred by the lessor as well as his expected profit over the equipment life cycle. The optimal PM period minimizing the maintenance cost is determined first. Then, given the corresponding minimum maintenance cost, the minimum quantity of consumables (the lessor's break-even point) to be purchased by the lessee is computed. A numerical example and a sensitivity study are presented, and the obtained results are discussed.
Findings
The outcome of this work is supposed to help the lessors determining two key values to be included in each leasing contract, namely: (1) the periodicity according to which they will commit to perform preventive maintenance actions such that their average total cost of maintenance is minimized, (2) the minimum quantity of consumables that the lessee must commit to purchasing during the leasing period. This quantity must be between the break-even point and the maximum quantity associated with the capacity of the equipment.
Practical implications
Practically, the objective of this work is first to determine the optimal strategy to be adopted by the lessor in terms of effort relating to PM and second to determine the minimum quantity of consumables that the lessee must purchase during the leasing period such as profit is insured for the lessor.
Originality/value
This type of leasing (for free) has not been addressed in the literature particularly when considering maintenance strategies.
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Wen Li, Bin Guo and Gangxiang Xu
Based on the linkage-leverage-learning (LLL) framework developed by Mathews (2006), the purpose of this paper is to examine how linking, leveraging and learning capabilities…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the linkage-leverage-learning (LLL) framework developed by Mathews (2006), the purpose of this paper is to examine how linking, leveraging and learning capabilities influence the choice of foreign-entry mode, and the way such influences are contingent on context factors in the emerging markets.
Design/methodology/approach
Contrary to a prior literature applying the LLL framework, which mainly used case studies, this paper adopts a quantitative approach and is based on a sample of 321 Chinese listed companies to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that multinational firms from emerging markets (EMFs) with stronger LLL capabilities are more likely to choose the wholly owned mode in foreign entries. In addition, the relationship between linking capability and wholly owned entry mode choice is weaker at higher levels of cultural distance between home and host country. At the same time, the relationship between learning capability and wholly owned entry mode choice is weaker at higher levels of cultural distance between home and host country, and of institutional distance between prior entries and the focal entry.
Research limitations/implications
An entry mode strategy for firms without ownership advantages and the identification of boundary conditions for applying different LLL capabilities are recommended. The generalizability of the findings from a single-country setting still needs further validation with other emerging economies.
Originality/value
This paper treats internationalization of firms from emerging countries with a different perspective. The underlying idea in this study is that internationalization is not only a process for EMFs to utilize externally accessible assets abroad, but also a process of simultaneously combining internationalization with experiential learning and capability utilization in overseas markets. In addition, the authors also contribute to the literature by providing strong empirical evidence for validating the LLL model and extending the existing entry mode studies.