Xiaoning Song, Jiangyan Li and Xue Xia
Notwithstanding its significance as a form of strategic human capital investment, employee training has not yielded consistent conclusions among scholars regarding its impact on…
Abstract
Purpose
Notwithstanding its significance as a form of strategic human capital investment, employee training has not yielded consistent conclusions among scholars regarding its impact on organizational performance. Some studies deem it effective, while others regard it as ineffective. We contend that distinct types of training impact various facets of firm performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, we categorize employee training as either exploitative or explorative. Specifically, we examine their impact on two aspects of organizational performance: short-term performance and long-term competence, using a quasi-experimental setting and a difference-in-differences (DID) method.
Findings
We find that exploitative training is more effective in improving firms’ short-term performance (e.g. firms’ sales revenue), while explorative training is more effective in enhancing firms’ long-term competence (e.g. firms’ innovation output).
Originality/value
The findings of this study illuminate concrete benefits of training for practitioners, suggesting that firms can strategically select employee training category to maximize returns on their investment in strategic human capital based on their strategic orientations.
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Close relationship with major customers, by curtailing opportunistic behaviors during private placements (PPs) and guaranteeing the production and sales of products after, is…
Abstract
Purpose
Close relationship with major customers, by curtailing opportunistic behaviors during private placements (PPs) and guaranteeing the production and sales of products after, is expected to facilitate the realization of PP’s strategic goals. However, major customers, on the contrary, may impair PP’s performance because of their strong bargaining power. Based on the transaction cost theory and relational contract theory, this paper aims to investigate the impact of major customers on firms’ strategic development in the context of private placements. The mechanisms of such impact are analyzed from the prospect of economies of scale, supervision and the rip-off effect by major customers. Further, the moderating role of the customer relationship investment (CRI) is considered.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of China’s non-financial A-share listed firms during 2010-2016, this paper empirically investigates the impact of customer relationships on firms’ operating performance following PPs. In the main regressions, the sales growth rate serves as the dependent variable to measure PP’s operating performance, while the customer concentration proxies for the closeness of customer relationship. This study captures the impact of customer relationships on PPs’ performance by looking at the coefficient of the interaction term of post PP dummy and customer concentration. In the additional tests, selling and management expenses along with entertainment and traveling expenditures are used to measure customer relationship investment.
Findings
Results show that major customers help improve PPs’ strategic performance. The more concentrated the customer portfolio is, the higher operating performance will be after the PPs. Such a relationship is stronger when CRI is at a higher level. However, CRI also incurs costs, which impairs the effect of major customers on net profit. Further research finds that the effect of major customers is more pronounced in situations of extensional PPs, with actively interactive customers and in non-state-owned firms. In addition, state-owned customers with strong bargaining power have impaired the role of customers in promoting PP’s operating performance.
Originality/value
This paper validates the role of customers in firms’ strategic development. The study not only contributes to the research on the economic consequences of customers but also adds to the evolving literature of factors affecting the performance of PPs. The findings of the study have important practical implications for both customer relationship management and the supervision of PPs.
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Yiming Zhao, Jin Zhang, Xue Xia and Taowen Le
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Google question-answering (QA) quality.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate Google question-answering (QA) quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the large variety and complexity of Google answer boxes in search result pages, existing evaluation criteria for both search engines and QA systems seemed unsuitable. This study developed an evaluation criteria system for the evaluation of Google QA quality by coding and analyzing search results of questions from a representative question set. The study then evaluated Google’s overall QA quality as well as QA quality across four target types and across six question types, using the newly developed criteria system. ANOVA and Tukey tests were used to compare QA quality among different target types and question types.
Findings
It was found that Google provided significantly higher-quality answers to person-related questions than to thing-related, event-related and organization-related questions. Google also provided significantly higher-quality answers to where- questions than to who-, what- and how-questions. The more specific a question is, the higher the QA quality would be.
Research limitations/implications
Suggestions for both search engine users and designers are presented to help enhance user experience and QA quality.
Originality/value
Particularly suitable for search engine QA quality analysis, the newly developed evaluation criteria system expanded and enriched assessment metrics of both search engines and QA systems.
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Hiranya Dissanayake, Hareendra Dissabandara, Roshan Ajward, Wasantha Perera, Catalin Popescu and Irina Gabriela Radulescu
This bibliometric analysis underscores the increasing importance of corporate sustainability in the post-COVID-19 era. Despite existing confusion and a dearth of studies on…
Abstract
This bibliometric analysis underscores the increasing importance of corporate sustainability in the post-COVID-19 era. Despite existing confusion and a dearth of studies on measuring corporate sustainability, the study identifies a significant methodological gap and endeavors to address it by proposing a comprehensive measure. The primary goal is to bridge this gap by conducting a bibliometric analysis on the scale of corporate sustainability, examining 126 documents spanning from 2001 to 2022. The study employs an expert opinion survey to identify and finalize dimensions and sub-dimensions of corporate sustainability, followed by a literature mapping process to formulate questionnaire items. A pilot survey is then conducted to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire. The study proposes utilizing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) index construction methodology to establish the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI). The key findings reveal that corporate sustainability comprises economic, environmental, and social sustainability. Environmental sustainability encompasses aspects such as air, water, land, biodiversity, ocean preservation, waste prevention, and environmental management. Social sustainability involves the satisfaction of various stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, customers, community, government, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and suppliers. Economic sustainability is characterized by long-term profits, cost efficiency, trade-offs, sustainable investments, and spin-offs. Rooted in stakeholder theory, the proposed scale holds theoretical significance for researchers and is pertinent to policymakers striving to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030. Additionally, it serves as a crucial tool for practitioners and companies to assess their level of corporate sustainability.
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Qiujun Lan, Haojie Ma and Gang Li
Sentiment identification of Chinese text faces many challenges, such as requiring complex preprocessing steps, preparing various word dictionaries carefully and dealing with a lot…
Abstract
Purpose
Sentiment identification of Chinese text faces many challenges, such as requiring complex preprocessing steps, preparing various word dictionaries carefully and dealing with a lot of informal expressions, which lead to high computational complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
A method based on Chinese characters instead of words is proposed. This method represents the text into a fixed length vector and introduces the chi-square statistic to measure the categorical sentiment score of a Chinese character. Based on these, the sentiment identification could be accomplished through four main steps.
Findings
Experiments on corpus with various themes indicate that the performance of proposed method is a little bit worse than existing Chinese words-based methods on most texts, but with improved performance on short and informal texts. Especially, the computation complexity of the proposed method is far better than words-based methods.
Originality/value
The proposed method exploits the property of Chinese characters being a linguistic unit with semantic information. Contrasting to word-based methods, the computational efficiency of this method is significantly improved at slight loss of accuracy. It is more sententious and cuts off the problems resulted from preparing predefined dictionaries and various data preprocessing.
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Qingli Lu, Ruisheng Sun and Yu Lu
This paper aims to propose and verify an improved cascade active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) scheme based on output redefinition for hypersonic vehicles (HSVs) with…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose and verify an improved cascade active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) scheme based on output redefinition for hypersonic vehicles (HSVs) with nonminimum phase characteristic and model uncertainties.
Design/methodology/approach
To handle the nonminimum phase characteristic, a tuning factor stabilizing internal dynamics is introduced to redefine the system output states; its effective range is determined by analyzing Byrnes–Isidori normalized form of the redefined system. The extended state observers (ESOs) are used to estimate the uncertainties, which include matched and mismatched items in the system. The controller compensates observations in real time and appends integral terms to improve robustness against the estimation errors of ESOs.
Findings
Theoretical and simulation results show that the stability of internal dynamics is guaranteed by the tuning factor and the tracking errors of external commands are globally asymptotically stable.
Practical implications
The control scheme in this paper is expected to generate a reliable way for dealing with nonminimum phase characteristic and model uncertainties of HSVs.
Originality/value
In the framework of ADRC, a concise form of redefined outputs is proposed, in which the tuning factor performs a decisive role in stabilizing the internal dynamics of HSVs. By introducing an integral term into the cascade ADRC scheme, the compensation accuracy of matched and mismatched disturbances is improved.
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Xinyi Huang, Fei Teng, Yu Xin and Liping Xu
This paper aims to study the effect of the establishment of bankruptcy courts on bond issuance market. This paper helps to predict that the introduction of bankruptcy courts in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the effect of the establishment of bankruptcy courts on bond issuance market. This paper helps to predict that the introduction of bankruptcy courts in China can mitigate price distortions caused by the implicit government guarantees and promote the development of the high-risk bond market.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper exploits the staggered introduction of bankruptcy courts across cities to implement a differences-in-differences strategy on bond issuance data. Using bonds issued in China between 2018 and 2020, the impact of bankruptcy courts on the bond issuance market can be analyzed.
Findings
This paper reveals that bond issuance credit spreads increase and is more sensitive to firm size, profitability and downside risk of issuance entity after the introduction of bankruptcy courts. It also reveals a substantive increase in bond issuance quantity and a decrease in issuer credit ratings following the establishment of bankruptcy courts. In addition, the increase of credit spreads is more prominent for publicly traded bonds, those whose issuers located in provinces with lower judicial confidence, bonds issued by SOEs and bonds with stronger government guarantees. Finally, the role of bankruptcy courts is more pronounced in regions with higher marketization.
Originality/value
This paper relates to previous studies that investigate the impact of laws and institutions on external financing. It helps provide new evidence to this literature on how improvements of efficiency and quality in bankruptcy enforcements relate to the marketization of bond issuance. The results provide further evidence on legal institutions and bond financing.
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Bogdan Fabianski and Krzysztof Zawirski
The paper is concerned about parameter adaptation of a novel, simplified and nonlinear switched reluctance motor (SRM) model. The purpose of the presented on-line procedure is to…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper is concerned about parameter adaptation of a novel, simplified and nonlinear switched reluctance motor (SRM) model. The purpose of the presented on-line procedure is to give an opportunity to set the model parameters’ values to obtain a relatively good convergence with the real control object. This is important when a reference model is used for control (e.g. optimal) or object state classification (e.g. fault detection) purposes. The more convergent the real object model is, the better operation quality may be expected.
Design/methodology/approach
In the paper, a 12/8 pole’s SRM as a control object is analyzed. The model equations were verified experimentally by comparing phase current model estimations with reference (measured) ones at different operational points. Differential equations of motor winding currents were chosen as an approximation function in the fitting (parameter adaptation) process using the Newton and Gauss–Newton methods. The structure of the adaptation system is presented along with the implementation in simulation environment.
Findings
It was confirmed in the simulation tests that Newton and Gauss–Newton methods of nonlinear model parameters’ adaptation may be used for the SRM. The introduced fitting structure is well suited for implementation in real-time, embedded systems. The proposed approximation function could be used in process as an expansion to Jacobian and Hessian matrices. The χ2 (chi2) coefficient (commonly used to measure the quality of the signal fitting) reduced to a low value during the adaptation process. Another introduced quality coefficient shows that the Newton method is slightly better in scope of the entire adaptation process time; however, it needs more computational power.
Research limitations/implications
The proposed structure and approximation function formula in the parameters’ adaptation system is appropriate for sinusoidal distribution of the motor phase inductance value along the rotor angle position. The inductance angular shape is an implication of the mechanical construction – with appropriate dimensions and materials used. In the presented case, the referenced model is a three-phase SRM in 12/8 poles configuration used as a main drive part of Maytag Neptune washing machine produced by Emerson Motors.
Practical implications
The presented method of parameter adaptation for novel, simplified and nonlinear SRM model provides an opportunity for its use in embedded, real-time control systems. The convergent motor model, after the fitting procedure (when the estimations are close to the measurements from real object), may be used for solving many well-known control challenges such as detection of initial rotor position, sensorless control, optimal control, fault-tolerant control end in fault detection (FD) systems. The reference model may be used in FD in the way of deducing signals from the difference between the estimated and measured ones.
Originality/value
The paper proposed a new system of parameter adaptation for the evaluated nonlinear, simplified 12/8 poles SRM model. The relative simplicity of the proposed model equations provides the possibility of implementing an adaptation system in an embedded system that works in a real-time regime. A Two adaptation methods – Newton and Gauss–Newton – have been compared. The obtained results shown that the Newton fitting method is better in the way of the used quality indicator, but it consumes more computational power.
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Rolling element bearings (REBs) are commonly used in rotating machinery such as pumps, motors, fans and other machineries. The REBs deteriorate over life cycle time. To know the…
Abstract
Purpose
Rolling element bearings (REBs) are commonly used in rotating machinery such as pumps, motors, fans and other machineries. The REBs deteriorate over life cycle time. To know the amount of deteriorate at any time, this paper aims to present a prognostics approach based on integrating optimize health indicator (OHI) and machine learning algorithm.
Design/methodology/approach
Proposed optimum prediction model would be used to evaluate the remaining useful life (RUL) of REBs. Initially, signal raw data are preprocessing through mother wavelet transform; after that, the primary fault features are extracted. Further, these features process to elevate the clarity of features using the random forest algorithm. Based on variable importance of features, the best representation of fault features is selected. Optimize the selected feature by adjusting weight vector using optimization techniques such as genetic algorithm (GA), sequential quadratic optimization (SQO) and multiobjective optimization (MOO). New OHIs are determined and apply to train the network. Finally, optimum predictive models are developed by integrating OHI and artificial neural network (ANN), K-mean clustering (KMC) (i.e. OHI–GA–ANN, OHI–SQO–ANN, OHI–MOO–ANN, OHI–GA–KMC, OHI–SQO–KMC and OHI–MOO–KMC).
Findings
Optimum prediction models performance are recorded and compared with the actual value. Finally, based on error term values best optimum prediction model is proposed for evaluation of RUL of REBs.
Originality/value
Proposed OHI–GA–KMC model is compared in terms of error values with previously published work. RUL predicted by OHI–GA–KMC model is smaller, giving the advantage of this method.
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Cheng Xue, Zhaowang Xia, Xingsheng Lao and Zhengqi Yang
The purpose of this study is to provide some references about applying the semi-active particle damper to enhance the stability of the pipe structure.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide some references about applying the semi-active particle damper to enhance the stability of the pipe structure.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper establishes the dynamical models of semi-active particle damper based on traditional dynamical theory and fractional-order theory, respectively. The semi-active particle damping vibration isolation system applied in a pipe structure is proposed, and its analytical solution compared with G-L numerical solution is solved by the averaging method. The quantitative relationships of fractional-order parameters (a and kp) are confirmed and their influences on the amplitude-frequency response of the vibration isolation system are analyzed. A fixed point can be obtained from the amplitude-frequency response curve, and the optimal parameter used for improving the vibration reduction effect of semi-active particle damper can be calculated based on this point. The nonlinear phenomenon caused by nonlinear oscillators is also investigated.
Findings
The results show that the nonlinear stiffness parameter p will cause the jump phenomenon while p is close to 87; with the variation of nonlinear damping parameter μ, the pitchfork bifurcation phenomenon will occur with an unstable branch after the transient response; with the change of fractional-order coefficient kp, a segmented bifurcation phenomenon will happen, where an interval that kp between 18.5 and 21.5 has no bifurcation phenomenon.
Originality/value
This study establishes a mathematical model of the typical semi-active particle damping vibration isolation system according to fractional-order theory and researches its nonlinear characteristics.