Nana Wan and Xiaozhi Wu
Due to rapid product obsolescence, there is a significant decline in the market prices, which causes that the sale season is often divided into two periods. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to rapid product obsolescence, there is a significant decline in the market prices, which causes that the sale season is often divided into two periods. This paper aims to consider a class of two-period supply contracts that offer the retailer the ordering flexibility in response to the market changes. This paper analyzes the two-period ordering and coordination problem with option contracts.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors incorporate call, put and bidirectional option contracts into the two-period ordering model. By applying stochastic dynamic programming, the authors derive the retailer’s optimal ordering policies for two periods. By benchmarking the case without option contracts, they highlight the advantage of option contracts. Through the mutual comparisons, the authors also explore the impacts of different option contracts. On this basis, the authors explore the conditions on which two-period supply contracts containing options can coordinate the supply chain.
Findings
This study shows that the retailer is always better off with option contracts. In addition, the effectiveness of different option contracts depends on the option contract parameters. When the parameters are the same for different option contracts, bidirectional option contracts are superior to call and put ones; otherwise, bidirectional option contracts might be superior or inferior to call and put ones. If designed properly, two-period supply contracts containing options can coordinate the two-period supply chain.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to highlight the value of option contracts as well as explore the role of different option contracts on the two-period procurement problem. The insights derived from our analysis can provide a good way on how to help the retailer work more efficiently in a two-period setting.
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Xiaozhi Ma, Albert P.C. Chan, Hengqin Wu, Feng Xiong and Na Dong
Although various concepts and techniques are introduced to the built environment to achieve a substantially efficient building production, the effective application of these…
Abstract
Purpose
Although various concepts and techniques are introduced to the built environment to achieve a substantially efficient building production, the effective application of these methods in projects is of immense significance to the field of building construction. Among these initiatives, lean construction and building information modelling (BIM) are mainstream endeavours that share many common principles to improve the productivity of the built environment. This study aims to explore and explain how BIM-based integrated data management (IDM) facilitates the achievement of leanness in a built environment project.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is conducted through an ethnographic-action research that relies on the design-science approach and case study through a collaborative research project. As participants of the project, the researchers of this study cooperate with the practitioners to design the project approach and production workflows. Research data and evidence are obtained via participative observation, including direct observation, results of activities, unstructured meetings and self-analysis.
Findings
In this study, the project and production perspectives clarify the building design and production process, as well as analyse how BIM facilitates the achievement of leanness in building design and construction. BIM-based frameworks for IDM have been developed to handle miscellaneous information and data, as well as enhance multidisciplinary collaboration throughout the project life cycle. The role of the integrated BIM model as an information hub between the building design and building construction has been identified.
Research/limitations implications
The project and production views of building and construction are used in this study because the research purpose is to link the BIM-based IDM to lean construction. Although this mixed approach can slightly undermine the theoretical foundation of this study, a substantially comprehensive understanding can be gained as well.
Practical implications
This study provides a new perspective to understand how BIM-based IDM contributes to lean construction.
Originality/value
This study provides new insights into IDM in a built environment project with project and production views and presents BIM-based frameworks for IDM to achieve lean construction through the BIM process.
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Davinder Kaur and Rajpreet Kaur
This paper aims to answer two research questions: first, to study the factors that directly and indirectly influence the intentions of job-seekers and second, to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to answer two research questions: first, to study the factors that directly and indirectly influence the intentions of job-seekers and second, to examine the moderating role of gender differences in e-recruitment adoption through the application of technology acceptance model (TAM) in India.
Design/methodology/approach
A convenience sampling technique was used to collect online data via GoogleDocs through various online channels such as social media, LinkedIn and email. The final data was collected from 364 final-year graduates and postgraduate students to confirm the impact of female and male differences, measurement invariance in composite models (MICOM) and multi-group analysis (MGA).
Findings
The results indicated that perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) have a direct impact on attitude (AT), whereas PU influenced behavioral intentions (BI) of job-seekers, but PEOU did not. AT directly leads to the BI. The outcomes of mediation analysis show that AT partially mediates the relationships between PU to BI and PEOU to BI. Further, the findings of MICOM and MGA showed that gender significantly moderates all the relationships between the constructs except for the influence of AT on BI.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the current literature, revealing that the original TAM model is still pertinent and effective in prevailing periods in emerging markets. The significance of PEOU and PU on AT and BI implies that job-seekers will strongly adopt e-recruitment when it is user-friendly and assist them to accomplish their tasks easily and efficiently. Moreover, gender has a vital moderating influence in e-recruitment adoption. In the case of females, the effect of PEOU is stronger, and for males, PU has a substantial impact on adoption.
Practical implications
Developers and recruiters should provide significant information related to salary, location and job profile on e-recruitment to enhance the adoption rate of online recruitment. Further, the usefulness of e-recruitment systems was more significant for males compared to females, whereas female job-seekers prefer the e-recruitment system, which is easy to use and operate.
Originality/value
This research fills a gap in the literature by examining the essential factors affecting the BI of job-seekers as well as empirically testing the impact of gender differences to adopt TAM for e-recruitment – an under-explored subject in developing countries like India.
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Chuanmin Mi, Lin Xiao, Sifeng Liu and Xiaoyan Ruan
With respect to the multiple-attribute decision-making problem with subjective preference for a certain attribute whose weight-value range have been given over other attributes…
Abstract
Purpose
With respect to the multiple-attribute decision-making problem with subjective preference for a certain attribute whose weight-value range have been given over other attributes whose weight values are unknown, a method based on the mean value of the grey number is proposed to analyse the decision-making problem. This method is used to choose a supply-chain partner under the condition that the decision makers have a preference for a certain attribute of various alternatives. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the middle value of the preferred attribute’s weight-value range is supposed to be its weight value according to the content of the mean value of the grey number. Second, to reflect the decision maker’s subjective preference information, an improved optimisation model that requests the minimum deviation between the actual and expected numerical value of each attribute is constructed to assess the attributes’ weights. Third, the correlated degree and the correlation matrix, which are determined by the weight values of all attributes, are used to rank all the alternatives.
Findings
This paper provides a method for making a decision when decision makers have a preference for a certain attribute from an array of various alternatives, and the range of the certain attribute’s weight value is given but the weight value of the other attributes is unknown. When applied to supply-chain partner selection, this method proves feasible and effective.
Practical implications
This method is feasible and effective when applied to supply-chain partner selection, and can be applied to other kinds of decision-making problems. This means it has significant theoretical importance and extensive practical value.
Originality/value
Based on the mean value of the grey number, an optimisation model is built to determine the importance degree of each attribute, then the correlated degree of each alternative is combined to rank all the alternatives. This method can suit the decision makers’ subjective preference for a certain attribute well.
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This paper aims to explore the relationship between ethical self-fashioning and citizenship practices in the ongoing revival of “Chinese Traditional Culture” pursued in tandem by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the relationship between ethical self-fashioning and citizenship practices in the ongoing revival of “Chinese Traditional Culture” pursued in tandem by the party-state and by private actors in present-day China.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting an anthropological approach, the author draws from three sets of resources: (1) research literature on China’s political history and key texts of early Chinese thought, (2) contemporary state discourses on citizen formation, and (3) participant observation notes and interviews with organizers and followers of the Wu-Wei School (a pseudonym). The author conducts a textual analysis of primary and secondary literature and a critical discourse analysis of the ethnographic data and examines emerging themes.
Findings
Firstly, the author identifies a crucial dimension in the historical and cultural roots of Chinese citizenship practices: an enduring conception that binds individual ethical self-improvement with socio-political flourishing. Secondly, examining contemporary state discourses on “citizen quality” and “reviving China’s outstanding traditional culture”, the author showcases how party-state authorities call on individuals to self-reform for national rejuvenation. Thirdly, the author investigates how members of the Wu-Wei School construe their individual pursuits of ethical self-improvement as significant for societal progress.
Originality/value
Based on these findings, the author demonstrates the ways in which autochthonous conceptions of Chinese citizenship give a central place to private acts of self-fashioning. The author argues that the entanglement between individual ethics and citizenship practices constitutes a crucial but largely understudied dimension of Chinese citizenship.