Xu Chu, Yuntao Bai and Baoying Zhu
Digital transformation (DX) is advancing in the post-pandemic era, yet regional disparities remain pronounced. This uneven distribution may be attributed to cities’ doing business…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital transformation (DX) is advancing in the post-pandemic era, yet regional disparities remain pronounced. This uneven distribution may be attributed to cities’ doing business environment. As the doing business environment comprises various components, we aim to explore how these components interact to affect local firms' DX, thereby identifying which configurations of the doing business environment contribute to firms' DX.
Design/methodology/approach
The doing business environment in our study contains seven components: public services, government, legal, innovation, market, human resources and financial services environments. We adopt a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for firms' high-level DX. The sample consists of enterprises listed on the China Science and Technology Innovation Board.
Findings
Firstly, a single doing business environment component is unnecessary for firms to produce a high- or non-high-level DX. Secondly, four configurations of the doing business environment explain firms' high-level DX of three general types: doing business environment configurations (1) dominated by the cost hypothesis, (2) synergised by the cost and resource hypotheses and (3) dominated by the resource hypothesis. Thirdly, the configurational paths generating firms’ high- or non-high-level DX are asymmetric and only one doing business environment configuration will lead to firms' non-high-level DX.
Originality/value
This study presents a ground-breaking exploration of the mechanisms driving firms' DX in terms of the city-level doing business environment and its dual functions. Additionally, we elucidate the reasons for the uneven regional distribution of DX development.
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Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to scrutinize the apparent alliance between international and local disability rights movements by contextualizing the process in which the…
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to scrutinize the apparent alliance between international and local disability rights movements by contextualizing the process in which the disability rights model is being diffused globally. It seeks to critically examine the transplantation and promotion of the international disability rights movement's rights-based model in China.
Approach: This chapter draws from 18 in-depth interviews with local and international disability rights activists through multisite ethnographic fieldwork in China in 2019.
Findings: This chapter finds that despite opening up spaces for resistance and emancipation locally, the international disability rights movement nevertheless constitutes what I call an enclave of rights that insulates the international rights model from the political, social, and economic realities on the ground. In the case of China, the authoritarian politics that define the relationship between the state and civil society, as well as the economic vulnerability of people with disabilities in the post-socialist market economy, limit, if not invalidate, the rights model espoused by the international disability rights movement.
Implications: The findings of this chapter challenge and complicate the current scholarship of the transnational disability rights movement beyond its normative claims of emancipation. They also explore potential spaces and direction for building a new transnational alliance that takes into account the local experience of disability in a rapidly globalized world.
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Bin Xie, Zhenyu Wang, Yiling Xu and Libing Cui
Emergencies have become a growing concern for organizations, which require flexibility to respond to changes in emergencies based on their contingency, dynamic evolution rapidly…
Abstract
Purpose
Emergencies have become a growing concern for organizations, which require flexibility to respond to changes in emergencies based on their contingency, dynamic evolution rapidly and other characteristics. In order to enhance the ability of engineering project organizations to cope with emergencies, this study explores the mechanism of its influence on knowledge innovation under emergencies from the perspective of bricolage theory, and provides a new perspective for the traditional preplanning-based handling of emergencies by improvising to enhance the ability and results of improvisation.
Design/methodology/approach
Firstly, a structural equation model of the relationship between bricolage and knowledge innovation was constructed by introducing improvisational behavior and serendipity as mediating and moderating variables of the relationship between bricolage and knowledge innovation based on bricolage theory; secondly, drawing on previous well-established measurement scales about bricolage, improvisational behavior, knowledge innovation and serendipity, a questionnaire survey was conducted with different types of engineering project managers and technicians in Gansu Province as the research subjects, and 238 valid questionnaires were returned; finally, validation factor analysis and correlation analysis were performed, and the hypothesized relationships were verified using AMOS 24.0 software.
Findings
The results show that bricolage positively influences improvisational behavior; improvisational behavior positively influences knowledge innovation; bricolage positively influences knowledge innovation; bricolage influences knowledge innovation through the mediating role of improvisational behavior and serendipity positively moderates the impact of resource bricolage on knowledge innovation.
Originality/value
It reveals the mechanism of knowledge innovation of engineering project organizations in response to emergencies and the innovation mechanism of the episodic nature of emergency decision-making, extends the applicable context of bricolage theory and provides a new perspective for engineering project organizations in response to emergencies.
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Pouyan Mahdavi-Roshan and Seyed Meysam Mousavi
Most projects are facing delays, and accelerating the pace of project progress is a necessity. Project managers are responsible for completing the project on time with minimum…
Abstract
Purpose
Most projects are facing delays, and accelerating the pace of project progress is a necessity. Project managers are responsible for completing the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. This study provides a trade-off between time, cost, and quality objectives to optimize project scheduling.
Design/methodology/approach
The current paper presents a new resource-constrained multi-mode time–cost–quality trade-off project scheduling model with lags under finish-to-start relations. To be more realistic, crashing and overlapping techniques are utilized. To handle uncertainty, which is a source of project complexity, interval-valued fuzzy sets are adopted on several parameters. In addition, a new hybrid solution approach is developed to cope with interval-valued fuzzy mathematical model that is based on different alpha-levels and compensatory methods. To find the compatible solution among conflicting objectives, an arithmetical average method is provided as a compensatory approach.
Findings
The interval-valued fuzzy sets approach proposed in this paper is denoted to be scalable, efficient, generalizable and practical in project environments. The results demonstrated that the crashing and overlapping techniques improve time–cost–quality trade-off project scheduling model. Also, interval-valued fuzzy sets can properly manage expressions of the uncertainty of projects which are realistic and practical. The proposed mathematical model is validated by solving a medium-sized dataset an adopted case study. In addition, with a sensitivity analysis approach, the solutions are compared and the model performance is confirmed.
Originality/value
This paper introduces a new continuous-based, resource-constrained, and multi-mode model with crashing and overlapping techniques simultaneously. In addition, a new hybrid compensatory solution approach is extended based on different alpha-levels to handle interval-valued fuzzy multi-objective mathematical model of project scheduling with influential uncertain parameters.
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Yaru Yang, Yingming Zhu and Jiazhen Du
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on company innovation, specifically centering on the quantity and quality of innovation. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on company innovation, specifically centering on the quantity and quality of innovation. The paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether the epidemic inhibits innovation and the role of digital transformation in mitigating this negative impact.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a quasi-experimental study of the COVID-19 pandemic and constructs a differential model to analyze the relationship between the epidemic and firm innovation in three dimensions: total, quantity and quality. The paper also uses a difference-in-difference-in-differences model to test whether digital transformation of firms mitigates the negative impact of the epidemic and its mechanism of action.
Findings
The results show that COVID-19 significantly reduced the overall level of firm innovation, primarily in terms of quantity rather than quality. Furthermore, this study finds that digital transformation plays a pivotal role in mitigating the pandemic’s adverse impact on innovation. By addressing financing constraints and countering demand insufficiency, digital transformation acts as a catalyst for preserving and fostering innovation during and after the pandemic.
Originality/value
This study extends the current research on the pandemic’s impact on firm innovation at the micro level. It offers valuable insights into strategies for fostering digital transformation among Chinese enterprises in the post-pandemic era.
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Zhaofang Chu, Linlin Wang and Fujun Lai
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer pressure influences green innovation in the context of Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and especially the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how customer pressure influences green innovation in the context of Chinese third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and especially the role of organizational culture in moderating this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data collected from 165 3PL providers in China, hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Customer pressure is an important driver of green innovation amongst 3PL providers. Flexibility-oriented organizational culture strengthens the effect of this driving force, while control-oriented organizational culture weakens this force. Green innovation significantly contributes to financial performance and flexibility orientation strengthens this contribution, while control orientation weakens it.
Research limitations/implications
This research examines the contingency effect of organizational culture in helping to resolve inconsistencies in the relationship between customer pressure and green innovation. Although the inconsistencies cannot be resolved completely, the research opens an avenue to explore other contingency factors or the possibility of a non-linear relationship.
Practical implications
3PL firms could undertake green innovation to satisfy customers’ environmental requirements. To develop their green innovation initiatives, managers should allow their employees greater autonomy and design (or re-design) operations procedures and regulations to be more flexible, thus enabling the diffusion of green innovation and avoiding or reducing the potential influence of control-oriented organization culture.
Originality/value
The study considers the conditional effect of organizational culture to reconcile the mixed results in the literature regarding the relationship between customer pressure and green innovation of logistics service providers.
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Li Xiong, Wanjun Yin and Xinguo Zhang
This paper is aimed at investigating a novel chemical oscillating chaotic system with different attractors at fixed parameters. The typical dynamical behavior of the new chemical…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is aimed at investigating a novel chemical oscillating chaotic system with different attractors at fixed parameters. The typical dynamical behavior of the new chemical oscillating system is discussed, and it is found that the state selection is dependent on initial values. Then, the stabilization problem of the chemical oscillating attractors is investigated analytically and numerically. Subsequently, the novel electronic circuit of the proposed chemical oscillating chaotic system are constructed, and the influences of the changes of circuit parameters on chemical oscillating chaotic attractors are investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
The different attractors of the novel chemical oscillating chaotic system are investigated by changing the initial values under fixed parameters. Moreover, the active control and adaptive control methods are presented to make the chemical oscillating chaotic systems asymptotically stable at the origin based on the Lyapunov stability theory. The influences on chemical oscillating chaotic attractors are also verified by changing the circuit parameters.
Findings
It is found that the active control method is easier to be realized by using physical components because of its less control signal and lower cost. It is also confirmed that the adaptive control method enjoys strong anti-interference ability because of its large number of selected controllers. What can be seen from the simulation results is that the chaotic circuits are extremely dependent on circuit parameters selection. Comparisons between MATLAB simulations and Multisim simulation results show that they are consistent with each other and demonstrate that changing attractors of the chemical oscillating chaotic system exist. It is conformed that circuit parameters selection can be effective to control and realize chaotic circuits.
Originality/value
The different attractors of the novel chemical oscillating chaotic system are investigated by changing the initial values under fixed parameters. The characteristic of the chemical oscillating attractor is that the basin of attraction of the three-dimensional attractor is located in the first quadrant of the eight quadrants of the three-dimensional space, and the ranges of the three variables are positive. This is because the concentrations of the three chemical substances are all positive.
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Yizhen Xu, Wynne Chin, Yide Liu and Kai He
Green supply chain management is an effective, environment-friendly business practice. Based on institutional theory and dynamic capability theory, the study examines the effect…
Abstract
Purpose
Green supply chain management is an effective, environment-friendly business practice. Based on institutional theory and dynamic capability theory, the study examines the effect of institutional pressures to implement green supply chain management (GSCM) on green innovation, by considering the mediation effects of cross-functional coopetition.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted a survey of Chinese companies and collected 1,481 responses. The effects of institutional pressures for GSCM implementation were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
This study finds that coercive pressure, normative pressure and mimetic pressure for GSCM implementation are sufficient conditions to promote green innovation. Normative and mimetic pressures have significant positive effects on cross-functional coopetition. Cross-functional coopetition not only mediates the relationship between normative pressure and mimetic pressure and green innovation but also represents a necessary condition for it to occur.
Practical implications
First, managers should comprehend environmental regulations, embrace social norms on the environment and focus on competitors' successful GSCM practices. Second, management can organize training and establish performance-based rewards for enhancing a cross-functional coopetitive mindset to effectively respond to institutional pressures. Third, companies should establish multi-functional groups and informal networking via social events to motivate interaction, knowledge sharing and creative tension to achieve green innovation.
Originality/value
This paper expands the application of institutional theory to investigate the antecedent effects of institutional pressures on cross-functional coopetition. In addition, the study deepens understanding of dynamic capability theory in analyzing dynamic processes of cross-functional coopetition based on three dimensions of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring and empirically examines its mediating effects on institutional pressures and green innovation.
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Viju Subramoniapillai and Govindharajan Thilagavathi
In recent years, oil spill pollution has become one of the main problems of environmental pollution. Recovering oil by means of sorbent materials is a very promising approach and…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, oil spill pollution has become one of the main problems of environmental pollution. Recovering oil by means of sorbent materials is a very promising approach and has acquired more attention due to its high cleanup efficiency. Compared to synthetic fibrous sorbents, the use of natural fibers in oil spill cleanups offers several advantages including environmental friendliness, degradable features and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, studies on developing sorbents using natural fibers for oil spill cleanup applications have become a research hotspot.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews the work conducted by several researchers in developing oil sorbents from fibers such as cattail, nettle, cotton, milkweed, kapok, populous seed fiber and Metaplexis japonica fiber. Some featured critical parameters influencing the oil sorption capacity of fibrous substrates are discussed. Oil sorption capacity and reusability performance of various fibers are also discussed. Recent developments in oil spill cleanups and test methods for oil sorbents are briefly covered.
Findings
The main parameters influencing the oil sorption capacity of sorbents are fiber morphological structure, fiber density (g/cc), wax (%), hollowness (%) and water contact angle. An extensive literature review showed that oil sorption capacity is highest for Metaplexis japonica fiber followed by populous seed fiber, kapok, milkweed, cotton, nettle and cattail fiber. After use, the sorbents can be buried under soil or they can also be burned so that they can be vanished from the surface without causing environmental-related issues.
Originality/value
This review paper aims to summarize research studies conducted related to various natural fibers for oil spill cleanups, fiber structural characteristics influencing oil sorption and recent developments in oil spill cleanups. This work will inspire future researchers with various knowledge backgrounds, particularly, from a sustainability perspective.