Long Li, Zhongfu Li, Xiaodan Li and Guangdong Wu
The purpose of this paper is to provide comprehensive analysis and understanding of lean construction (LC) and to help researchers to find new gaps and research opportunities and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide comprehensive analysis and understanding of lean construction (LC) and to help researchers to find new gaps and research opportunities and develop potential collaboration chances.
Design/methodology/approach
The bibliographic data were obtained in peer-reviewed journals. The science mapping analysis and social network analysis (SNA) were used to conduct the analysis and visualization. Science mapping was performed to identify the research topics, evolution and the relationships between these topics. Also, the most influential LC-related articles in each topic were identified based on the concept of H-classics. SNA was also used to explore the collaboration status of authors and to identify the core authors in the LC field.
Findings
The results showed that topics in the LC field are consistently and continuously changing, which also reveals the fact that the lean concept system has evolved over time to a certain extent. The topics that could form the knowledge base of the LC research field in the future are related to two thematic areas: supply chain management (SCM) and planning and scheduling. SCM focuses on developing a system where supplier and client work together in coordination to deliver materials, works, equipment and labor and other resources. Moreover, prefabrication is a new hot topic, while BIM is a well-developed and isolated topic in the last five years. This result indicates that more studies need to be conducted in the future, to promote the integration of BIM and lean practices in the construction phase, as well as to explore the value of BIM in the reduction or elimination of waste and lean project delivery. As for global collaborations, LC research has been widely pursued throughout the world. The USA and the UK play the most dominant role in the international collaboration network.
Research limitations/implications
Since the analysis of data takes some time, the specific results of this paper are limited to articles published in peer-reviewed journals, which leads to a certain degree of research lag.
Practical implications
This paper provides insights (such as major journals, institutions, key scholars, the evolution of topics, highly indexed articles and the new LC trends in the last five years) for researchers in the LC field.
Originality/value
This paper gives a general review of the above-mentioned literature, including the number of LC-related articles published in each year, as well as the major journals and main contributors to the field of LC.
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Xiaodan Li, Edward M. H. Lin and Min-Teh Yu
We employ three systemic risk measures of banks, including the systemic risk index (SRISK) and marginal expected shortfall (MES) of Brownlees and Engle (2017) and the conditional…
Abstract
We employ three systemic risk measures of banks, including the systemic risk index (SRISK) and marginal expected shortfall (MES) of Brownlees and Engle (2017) and the conditional Value-at-Risk (ΔCoVaR) of Adrian and Brunnermeier (2016), to analyze bank's exposure and contribution to systemic risk in the banking system when a financial crisis occurs. We find evidence that time-varying systemic risk exists, and systemic risk exposures escalate with the interconnectedness of banks. We also find revenue diversification is another significant factor that reduces a bank's exposure to systemic risk but not for banks in Taiwan and Singapore.
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Shiqian Hu, Dan Li and Xiaodan Wang
To cope with climate change and achieve the dual carbon goal, China has actively promoted the implementation of carbon trading pilot policy, among which the power industry plays…
Abstract
Purpose
To cope with climate change and achieve the dual carbon goal, China has actively promoted the implementation of carbon trading pilot policy, among which the power industry plays an important role in China’s carbon emission reduction work. The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of carbon trading policy on the energy efficiency of power industry and achieve the comprehensive goal of carbon emission reduction, carbon peak and carbon neutralization.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper constructs the difference-in-differences model based on 2012–2019 provincial data to study the impact of carbon trading policy on energy efficiency in the power industry and its effect path. Heterogeneity analysis was conducted to compare the effects of carbon trading policy in eastern, central and western regions as well as at different levels of power structures.
Findings
Carbon trading policy can significantly improve the energy efficiency of the power industry, and the policy effect is more significant in eastern and western regions and areas with high power structure. Mechanism analysis shows that carbon trading policy mainly influences the energy efficiency of power industry by environmental protection investment, power consumption demand and industrial structure.
Originality/value
This paper uses provincial panel data to deeply study the influence of carbon trading policy on energy efficiency of the power industry and its effect path. By constructing the difference-in-differences model, this paper empirically analyzes the governance effect of carbon trading policy. Meanwhile, it controls individual and time effects to solve the endogeneity problem prevalent in previous literature.
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Xiaodan Pan, Guang Li, Martin Dresner and Benny Mantin
As ecommerce becomes more prevalent, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers such as warehouse clubs (WCs) face the challenging task of maintaining and growing their customer base…
Abstract
Purpose
As ecommerce becomes more prevalent, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers such as warehouse clubs (WCs) face the challenging task of maintaining and growing their customer base. This study aims to unravel the combined impact of retail agglomeration and ecommerce activities on consumer foot traffic (also referred to as “footprint”) at WC stores, placing an emphasis on the locational strategies adopted by WCs in this evolving retail landscape.
Design/methodology/approach
Mobile-based customer foot traffic data for Costco, a major U.S. WC chain, is sourced for our analysis. We use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify dimensions of general merchandise (GM) and narrow-range merchandise (NM) retail agglomeration. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions are used to explore how the intensity of ecommerce activities and WC locational choices within retail agglomerations impact WC foot traffic.
Findings
Our analysis highlights a notable decline in WC store visits attributable to both GM and NM ecommerce activities, with GM ecommerce presenting a more significant competitive challenge to WCs. Regarding retail agglomerations, proximity to GM clusters that include a diverse range of supercenters, department stores, and club stores, is associated with an increase in WC customer visits within their vicinity. In contrast, the influence of NM agglomerations is mixed; clusters adjacent to grocery stores lead to higher WC customer traffic compared to those focused on other specialized stores. These findings underscore the strategic importance of location in mitigating the adverse effects of ecommerce competition. Additionally, our study uncovers intricate dynamics between GM and NM retail clusters and ecommerce activities, demonstrating varied impacts on WC customer footprint.
Research limitations/implications
Access to customer footprint data illustrates the potential of this data source for retail decision making and researchers. Our analysis is limited to one chain, notably Costco.
Practical implications
Our findings underscore the need for retailers to adeptly navigate the evolving retail landscape, including the confluence between physical and digital retail environments, to secure future success. In particular, our results emphasize the benefits of locating stores within mixed retail agglomerations and underline the need to consider the broader retail landscape in location decisions.
Social implications
The rise of ecommerce in the U.S. has reshaped consumer behavior and altered local shopping districts’ communal dynamics. This change may spur policy interventions to help physical stores compete with online retailers, emphasizing the importance of retail diversity and community-centric environments to sustain communal retail interactions amidst digital advancements.
Originality/value
The paper makes use of a unique dataset to provide a first assessment of the combined effects of retail agglomeration and ecommerce activities on consumer foot traffic for WC retailers. Thus, this paper provides insights into the impacts on consumer shopping behavior from the dynamic interactions between physical retail clusters and online shopping behaviors.
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Degan Zhang, Changle Gong, Kaiwen Jiang, Xiaodan Zhang and Ting Zhang
This paper aims to put forward a kind of new method of intelligent trust engineering metrics for application of mobile ad hoc network (MANET).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to put forward a kind of new method of intelligent trust engineering metrics for application of mobile ad hoc network (MANET).
Design/methodology/approach
The new method calculates the communication trust by using the number of data packets among the nodes of MANET, predicts intelligently the trust and calculates the comprehensive trust based on the historical trust; then calculates the energy trust based on the residual energy of the nodes of MANET, calculates the direct trust based on the communication trust and energy trust. The new method calculates the recommendation trust based on the recommendation reliability; adopts the adaptive weighting to calculate the integrated direct trust by considering the direct trust with recommendation trust.
Findings
Based on the integrated direct trust and the factor of trust propagation distance, the indirect trust among the nodes of MANET is calculated. The above process can be optimized based on the dynamic machine learning presented in this study. The advantage of the new method is its intelligent ability to discover malicious nodes.
Originality/value
The advantage of the new method is its intelligent ability to discover malicious nodes which can partition the network by falsely reporting other nodes as misbehaving and proceeds to protect the network. The authors have done the experiments based on the tool kits such as NS3, QualNet, OMNET++ and MATLAB. The experimental results show that this study’s approach can effectively avoid the attacks of malicious nodes, and more conformable to the actual engineering application of MANET.
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Hongping Xing, Yu Liu and Xiaodan Sun
The smoothness of the high-speed railway (HSR) on the bridge may exceed the allowable standard when an earthquake causes vibrations for HSR bridges, which may threaten the safety…
Abstract
Purpose
The smoothness of the high-speed railway (HSR) on the bridge may exceed the allowable standard when an earthquake causes vibrations for HSR bridges, which may threaten the safety of running trains. Indeed, few studies have evaluated the exceeding probability of rail displacement exceeding the allowable standard. The purposes of this article are to provide a method for investigating the exceeding probability of the rail displacement of HSRs under seismic excitation and to calculate the exceeding probability.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to investigate the exceeding probability of the rail displacement under different seismic excitations, the workflow of analyzing the smoothness of the rail based on incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) is proposed, and the intensity measure and limit state for the exceeding probability analysis of HSRs are defined. Then a finite element model (FEM) of an assumed HSR track-bridge system is constructed, which comprises a five-span simply-supported girder bridge supporting a finite length CRTS II ballastless track. Under different seismic excitations, the seismic displacement response of the rail is calculated; the character of the rail displacement is analyzed; and the exceeding probability of the rail vertical displacement exceeding the allowable standard (2mm) is investigated.
Findings
The results show that: (1) The bridge-abutment joint position may form a step-like under seismic excitation, threatening the running safety of high-speed trains under seismic excitations, and the rail displacements at mid-span positions are bigger than that at other positions on the bridge. (2) The exceeding probability of rail displacement is up to about 44% when PGA = 0.01g, which is the level-five risk probability and can be described as 'very likely to happen'. (3) The exceeding probability of the rail at the mid-span positions is bigger than that above other positions of the bridge, and the mid-span positions of the track-bridge system above the bridge may be the most hazardous area for the running safety of trains under seismic excitation when high-speed trains run on bridges.
Originality/value
The work extends the seismic hazardous analysis of HSRs and would lead to a better understanding of the exceeding probability for the rail of HSRs under seismic excitations and better references for the alert of the HSR operation.
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Chandan Acharya, Isabel Rechberg and Xiaodan Dong
This paper aims to study the impact of the interactive effect of knowledge characteristics – tacitness, specificity and availability – and resource structure – complementarily and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the impact of the interactive effect of knowledge characteristics – tacitness, specificity and availability – and resource structure – complementarily and asymmetric – on learning race behavior among international joint venture (IJV) partners in China.
Design/methodology/approach
Preliminary in-depth interviews with three IJV managers were conducted to develop and evaluate the tentatively developed questionnaire. The finalized survey questionnaire was distributed to middle and top-level managers of IJVs, resulting in a total of 124 usable surveys. The psychometric properties of data were evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis and hypotheses were tested using a generalized linear model.
Findings
The results show that partners in IJV have low tendencies to acquire tacit and specific knowledge, but, when the resource is complementary, it stimulates the learning race. Also, when resources are asymmetric, IJV partners engage in the learning race more aggressively, particularly for highly specific knowledge. The situation reverses for highly available knowledge.
Originality/value
The findings provide important insights for both researchers and managers on knowledge characteristics and resource structure influencing learning race behavior. This insight allows firms to leverage features of knowledge and resource conditions to prevent or facilitate the learning race for either common or private interests.
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Peihua Mao, Ji Xu, Xiaodan He and Yahong Zhou
The results of this study have significant policy implications for charting a new course toward enhancing agricultural productivity among Chinese farmers.
Abstract
Purpose
The results of this study have significant policy implications for charting a new course toward enhancing agricultural productivity among Chinese farmers.
Design/methodology/approach
By establishing a rural household decision-making model based on the transfer market of farmland operation rights, this paper systematically analyzes the effects of land transfer-in and land transfer-out on the productivity (per labor income) of rural households. The authors conducted basic regression analysis and robustness tests using propensity score-matching and proxy variable approaches based on the micro survey data from rural households in 30 counties in 21 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions in 2013.
Findings
After the completion of land transfer, the total productivity of rural households transferring in lands will increase with an increase in the agricultural productivity; the total productivity of rural households transferring out land will increase due to a rise in non-agricultural productivity and the absolute total productivity of rural households not involved in land transfer will remain unchanged.
Originality/value
Unlike previous literature, this paper discusses the impacts of land transfer-in and transfer-out on total productivity, agricultural productivity and non-agricultural productivity among various rural households (i.e. those transferring in land, transferring out land or which are self-sufficient).
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As globalization promotes mobility and tourism around the world, the substitution effect of outbound tourism on domestic tourism becomes increasingly apparent. Knowing how to…
Abstract
Purpose
As globalization promotes mobility and tourism around the world, the substitution effect of outbound tourism on domestic tourism becomes increasingly apparent. Knowing how to increase customers' loyalty toward domestic tourism is an urgent and critical question for policymakers and tourism managers, especially from the perspective of customer segmentation. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how consumer expertise affects domestic tourism loyalty. This paper also provides comprehensive research for understanding differences between married and unmarried consumers in responses to the impact of expertise on loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a survey of 384 individuals. We use Partial least squares (PLS), a variance-based structural equation model, and statistical comparison to test research hypotheses.
Findings
Results suggest that consumer expertise has a “double-edged sword” effect on domestic tourism loyalty. On one hand, it increases the perceived benefit of domestic tourism and reduces consumers' motivation to switch to outbound tourism, resulting in a higher level of domestic tourism loyalty. On the other hand, consumer expertise improves consumers' switching ability and switching opportunity to travel abroad, leading to a lower level of domestic tourism loyalty. Furthermore, this paper documents that married and unmarried customers present heterogeneous attitudes in the decision process. We found that married customers are less sensitive to the impact of consumer expertise on the perceived benefit and the impact of consumer expertise on switch ability. However, married customers are more sensitive to both the impact of perceived usefulness on the switch motivation, and the impact of switch motivation, switch opportunity and switch ability on domestic tourism loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
Our findings enrich the literature on consumer expertise and loyalty. Future studies may consider examining similar relationships by utilizing multiple research methods as well as testing the research findings and mechanisms in different contexts.
Practical implications
This research provides practical guidance for cultivating and maintaining domestic tourism loyalty, such as consumer segmentation in terms of tourism knowledge and information.
Originality/value
This paper examines the relationship between consumer expertise and loyalty in the context of tourism and uncovers the mechanism behind it. More importantly, to our knowledge, this paper is the first to identify consumers' marital status as a key factor that influences the process of how consumer expertise affects domestic tourism loyalty.
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Yabao Hu, Hanning Chen, Xiaodan Liang and Jianbo Lei
Studies on titanium implants have shown that the mechanical properties of the parts are affected by the microstructure characteristic derived from the manufacturing process. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies on titanium implants have shown that the mechanical properties of the parts are affected by the microstructure characteristic derived from the manufacturing process. The properties of different orientations of specimens under the same process parameters will be different, which should be considered in the application of bone implants. This paper aims to understand the influence of microstructure on micro-hardness, wear and corrosion resistance in different orientations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors manufactured titanium parts and carried out micro-hardness, wear tests and electrochemical corrosion of different orientations under the same process conditions. Then, finally studied the evolution mechanism of the microstructure in different orientations and its influence mechanism on wear and corrosion mechanism.
Findings
The melting method makes the grains on the surface in XY orientation finer. The wear mechanism of XY orientation is abrasive wear, that of XZ and YZ orientations are adhesive wear. During corrosion, XY orientation forms a stable passivation film earlier. Compared with XZ and YZ orientations, XY orientation has higher micro-hardness, better wear and corrosion resistance.
Originality/value
In this paper, the microstructure, wear and corrosion resistance of selective laser melted parts were discussed and the differences in different orientations under the same experimental conditions were discussed. The evolution mechanism of the microstructure in different orientations and its influence mechanism on wear mechanism and corrosion mechanism was studied. The mechanical anisotropy of selective laser melted components was discussed.