Yu Mu, Bart Bossink, Tsvi Vinig and Suchuan You
Research on service innovation management of online travel agencies (OTAs) remains relatively scarce. This study aims to illuminate the detailed components of managing service…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on service innovation management of online travel agencies (OTAs) remains relatively scarce. This study aims to illuminate the detailed components of managing service innovations at OTAs.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth case study is conducted at Trip, the largest OTA in China. A coherent framework of managing service innovations at OTAs is proposed through refining an existing framework from new service development (NSD), and concerning the success factors of service innovation. Based on theoretical synthesis and empirical analysis, the NSD framework is adapted, restructured and refined for service innovation management at OTAs.
Findings
The proposed framework contains three facets and associated managerial elements: (1) resources, including stakeholders, technologies and systems; (2) contexts, including innovation strategy, structure and culture; and (3) ideation, including idea generation and idea application. Different success factors are attached to the managerial elements. The facets, managerial elements and success factors serve as the components in the framework.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides academia with an analytical framework to understand and interpret service innovation management at OTAs, which can be used as a point of departure for future research.
Practical implications
The analytical framework inspires OTA managers to adopt a structured approach in service innovation management, and policymakers to design related interventions.
Originality/value
This study offers a first step toward the investigation of service innovation management at OTAs, specifically in China. The proposed framework is potentially applicable to other industries.
研究目的
目前关于在线旅行社(OTA) 的服务创新管理的研究相对贫乏。本研究旨在阐明OTA的服务创新管理的具体元素。
研究设计/方法/途径:
本研究以携程网(中国最大的在线旅行社)为对象进行深入案例分析。通过改善已有的基于新服务开发;理论(NSD), 以及综合服务创新成功要素的理论框架从而提出一项连贯的服务创新管理理论框架。基于理论综合以及实证分析,本研究改编,整合和改善了NSD理论框架从而为在线旅行社的服务创新管理框架所适用。
研究结果:
被提议的理论框架包括三个层面以及相关管理元素:1) 资源,包括利益相关者,科技和系统;2)应用环境,包括创新战略,结构和文化;以及3)构思能力,包括概念生成,概念应用。管理元素与不同的成功要素相结合。这些层面,管理元素和成功因素作为提出框架的组成部分。
研究理论限制/启示:
本研究为学术领域提供了分析框架,从而进一步了解和诠释了在线旅行社的服务创新,从而作为今后研究的起点。
研究实践启示:
本分析框架促使在线旅社管理者在服务创新中借用更加结构化的方法,并且鼓励政策制定者来设计相关的干预措施
研究原创性/价值:
本研究提供了在中国的环境下迈向在线旅社服务创新的第一步。提议的框架对其他产业也存在潜在贡献。
Details
Keywords
Hao Liu, Yu Mu, Xinhong Fu and Yuying Liu
Fresh products' homogeneity makes it difficult for grocery stores to differentiate themselves by improving product or service quality. This study analysed grocery store loyalty…
Abstract
Purpose
Fresh products' homogeneity makes it difficult for grocery stores to differentiate themselves by improving product or service quality. This study analysed grocery store loyalty from the perspective of self-congruence and compared the relative importance of affective attachment and lifestyle matching, which acts as a mediating mechanism in influencing customer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Individuals in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Beijing and Xi'an; representative cities of China's east, south, west, north and central regions, responded to questionnaires. Altogether, 282 valid responses were obtained; structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings show that lifestyle congruence has a greater mediating effect than emotional attachment in the relationship between store-self congruence and grocery store loyalty. Furthermore, social self-congruence was the dominant dimension of store-self congruence that affects grocery store loyalty.
Research limitations/implications
The first important academic contribution of this study is the provision of knowledge on the issue of whether to focus on generating grocery store loyalty via the mediating effect of emotional attachment or lifestyle congruence. Furthermore, the empirical findings further clarify the boundary of brand attachment theory, demonstrating the limitation of this theory in explaining the mediating mechanism for self-congruence on loyalty in a context that sells low-involvement products in a collectivistic culture. Another academic contribution focuses on the examination of dominant dimensions of self-congruence.
Practical implications
This study provides a new strategy for grocery store managers to avoid the trap of homogeneous competition, namely, to clearly define consumers' social rather than personal identity. Additionally, grocery stores should focus on matching their image with target customers' lifestyles when building customer loyalty.
Social implications
This study's findings also shed light on public policy. Some implications could be increasing the layout rationality of retail commercial outlets to facilitate the interaction between grocery stores and community consumers and promoting the matching of grocery stores and consumer lifestyles. Such policies may boost grocery sales, which in turn would boost farmers' incomes.
Originality/value
Compared to previous studies, this study analysed the customer loyalty of grocery stores from the perspective of self-congruence, analysed the mechanisms by which self-congruence influences customer loyalty via the mediating effects of emotional attachment and lifestyle congruence and compared the relative significance of these two paths. Furthermore, this study clarified the relative importance of self-congruence dimensions in influencing grocery store loyalty.
Details
Keywords
Yongzhuo Gao, Zhijiang Du, Xueshan Gao, Yanyu Su, Yu Mu, Li Ning Sun and Wei Dong
This paper aims to present an open-architecture kinematic controller, which was developed for articulated robots, facing the demands of various applications and low cost on robot…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an open-architecture kinematic controller, which was developed for articulated robots, facing the demands of various applications and low cost on robot system.
Design/methodology/approach
A general approach to develop this controller is described in hardware and software design. The hardware consists of embedded boards and programable multi-axes controller (PMAC), connected with ethernet, and the software is implemented on a robot operating system with MoveIt!. The authors also developed a teach pendant running as a LAN node to provide a human–machine interface (HMI).
Findings
The proposed approach was applied to several real articulated robot systems and was proved to be effective and portable. The proposed controller was compared with several similar systems to verify its integrality and flexibility. The openness of this controller was discussed and is summarized at the end of this paper.
Practical implications
The proposed approach provided an open and low-complex solution for experimental studies in the lab and short-run production in small workshops.
Originality/value
Several contributions are made by the research. The actuation model and communication were implemented to integrate the trajectory planning module and PMAC for setting up the physical interface. Method and program interface based on kinematics was provided to generate various interpolations for trajectory planning. A teach pedant with HMI was developed for controlling and programing the robot.
Details
Keywords
Xueshan Gao, Yu Mu and Yongzhuo Gao
The purpose of this paper is to propose a method of optimal trajectory planning for robotic manipulators that applies an improved teaching-learning-based optimization (ITLBO…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a method of optimal trajectory planning for robotic manipulators that applies an improved teaching-learning-based optimization (ITLBO) algorithm.
Design/methodology/approach
The ITLBO algorithm possesses better ability to escape from the local optimum by integrating the original TLBO with variable neighborhood search. The trajectory of robotic manipulators complying with the kinematical constraints is constructed by fifth-order B-spline curves. The objective function to be minimized is execution time of the trajectory.
Findings
Experimental results with a 6-DOF robotic manipulator applied to surface polishing of metallic workpiece verify the effectiveness of the method.
Originality/value
The presented ITLBO algorithm is more efficient than the original TLBO algorithm and its variants. It can be applied to any robotic manipulators to generate time-optimal trajectories.
Details
Keywords
Japanese school teachers are facing challenges under the new curricula reform, and there is still a lack of preparation to guide them to a successful implementation. Dilemmas…
Abstract
Purpose
Japanese school teachers are facing challenges under the new curricula reform, and there is still a lack of preparation to guide them to a successful implementation. Dilemmas related to teaching English language in primary schools were seen among participant teachers in a program of professional learning. This study aims (1) to identify a feeling of anxiety and readiness to the new EFL curricula and (2) to offer a professional learning program for shifting their concerns to regain their confidence and agency as educators.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted based on qualitative research. Qualitative data was collected from 40 participating teachers in the professional learning program, and later was critically analysed.
Findings
Initial findings revealed that the majority of participants felt concerned towards teaching EFL in their school, as they are homeroom teachers, not specialist teachers in EFL. Drama pedagogy helped shifting their language anxiety and repositioning themselves within the new EFL curricular implementation, as it became evident through the reflections of the professional development workshop.
Originality/value
The study highlights current educational issues that Japanese primary school teachers are facing. Failure to fully address their feeling of anxiety underlies the Japanese school culture. Drama pedagogy, despite being quite new to educational pedagogy in Japan, was effective in allowing the participants to freely express their voices.
Details
Keywords
Yonghao Liu and Yu Mu
In recent years, there has been an impressive increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical treatment. Studies have explored many topics in the field of medical…
Abstract
In recent years, there has been an impressive increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical treatment. Studies have explored many topics in the field of medical AI; however, few of them have systematically reviewed the overall area. This chapter retrieves 532 papers on medical AI from Social Sciences Citation Index core database of the Web of Science from 2013 to 2022. Two bibliometric and network analysis tools, including CiteSpace and HistCite, are used to identify the time-and-space knowledge map, research hotspots, emerging trends and key studies of medical AI research. A co-word network of medical AI is constructed to reveal that the field focuses more on the topic of machine learning. The analysis of the burst literature on medical AI indicates the research trends in the sub-sections such as law and ethics. Furthermore, the analysis of the co-citation uncovers the key studies in the field of medical AI. The results of bibliometric analysis illustrate the current situation, past evolution, and future trends in medical AI research, and identify hotspots and future research directions.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Purpose
Amid the increasing water risks faced by firms, external investors are becoming more interested in corporate water disclosure and research on its drivers has become prominent. This paper aims to investigate the impact of water resource tax (WRT) on water disclosure and other related drivers.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the WRT policy as a quasi-natural experiment and applies the difference-in-differences method.
Findings
The results indicate that WRT policy significantly stimulates water disclosure. Improving green innovation and strengthening internal control are potential channels through which WRT works. Moreover, WRT’s effect is more pronounced in firms that face high institutional pressures and have better internal resource support.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that water-sensitive firms should disclose water information to acquire resources from external stakeholders to support their green transition. It also provides implications for governments to incorporate other external forces in shaping the direction and intensity of WRT and consider the resource constraints of small and private firms in green transformation.
Social implications
This study is of assistance in promoting water environmental protection in areas experiencing water stress and provides an opportunity for external stakeholders (external investors, nongovernmental organizations, governments, consumers, suppliers, communities and media) to advocate the water disclosure of firms with high water risks.
Originality/value
The attempt is novel in the context of considering the water regulation risks and the demands of external stakeholders. It provides new insights into the factors influencing water disclosure from the perspective of political stakeholders.
Details
Keywords
Shiquan Wang, Guoyin Shang and Shuang Zhang
Concerning that limited explanation exists examining the function of corporate governance in trust processing within entrepreneurial network development, the purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Concerning that limited explanation exists examining the function of corporate governance in trust processing within entrepreneurial network development, the purpose of this paper is to explore trust evolution and the role of corporate governance in an entrepreneurial network.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper makes an innovative exploration based on the case study of NVC Lighting Holding Limited.
Findings
It proposes that in the initial period of network relationship which is based on entrepreneur’s individual social network and embodies sole social network embeddness, entrepreneurial network relies more on affective trust than contractual trust. When stepping into extending period of network relationship which reflects separate embeddedness of social and market network, however, entrepreneurial network has an equal reliance on both affective trust and contractual trust. With further development, when ushering in the phase of maturity which undergoes superimposing embeddedness of both social and market network, entrepreneur network inclines to rely more heavily on affective trust than contractual trust. During the whole process, it can be found that the reliance of entrepreneurial network on trust has the tendency to transfer from affective trust to contractual trust. Furthermore, decreasing of equity ratio of founders and strengthening of controlling right heterogeneity in the corporate governance have facilitated the transfer process and the entrepreneurs’ authority has restraining effect on the evolution of the process.
Originality/value
Through case study, this paper presents the trust evolution process in different stages of entrepreneurial network. Another important theoretic contribution of this paper is that it reveals the function of corporate governance in trust processing within entrepreneurial network development.