Cheng‐Ru Wu, Chin‐Tsai Lin and Yu‐Fan Lin
The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the relationships among the flexibility enablers and to prepare a hierarchy of these enablers to know their influences over…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the relationships among the flexibility enablers and to prepare a hierarchy of these enablers to know their influences over each other in global supply chain. The framework suggests that the priority of enablers in supply chain should be determined on the basis of their driving power and dependency.
Design/methodology/approach
Various enablers used by researchers and practitioners for flexibility management of global supply chain have been identified. These enablers have been classified as strategic, operational and performance‐based enablers. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to establish mutual relationships among the flexibility enablers and to prepare a hierarchy‐based model.
Findings
It has been observed that some enablers having high‐driving power and low dependency are of strategic importance. These enablers require more attention while other enablers based on operations and performances are dependents of strategic enablers.
Practical implications
The index of enablers based on driving power and dependency provide an insight for supply chain managers to make the entire supply chain highly flexible, that would help them to respond to global uncertainties.
Originality/value
Presentation of enablers in the form of hierarchy using ISM and ranking them into various driving power and dependent categories is a good effort to make flexible global supply chain.
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Pin Luarn, Yu-Fan Lin and Yu-Ping Chiu
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how various characteristics of brand posts influence online engagement on Facebook brand pages.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how various characteristics of brand posts influence online engagement on Facebook brand pages.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used for this study were obtained from the posts of ten popular official brand pages. For the selected period between March 1 and May 1, 2014, a total of 1,030 posts were obtained and manually processed on September 1, 2014. To assign post categories to the posts created by page administrators, the authors performed manual coding, following the coding development strategy.
Findings
The results demonstrated that the media and content type of posts exert a significant effect on user online engagement. This study used liking, commenting and sharing behavior as a measure of users’ online engagement to specify the new phenomena.
Originality/value
The findings are relevant for the theory of information dissemination and provide valuable and directly applicable implications for the social media marketing of companies.
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Nowadays, more and more Chinese consumers purchase luxury goods on live streaming platforms. However, the existing literature rarely focuses on this emerging phenomenon. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Nowadays, more and more Chinese consumers purchase luxury goods on live streaming platforms. However, the existing literature rarely focuses on this emerging phenomenon. This article attempts to construct a theoretical model based on the perceived value theory to explain this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 354 online questionnaires are collected, and the partial least square structural equation model is used to analyze the model empirically.
Findings
The results show that consumers' perceived luxury values (financial value, functional value, individual value and social value) have a significant and positive effect on customer engagement, which further leads to purchase intention.
Originality/value
In view of fact that there is a big difference between luxury goods and nonluxury goods, yet the existing literature rarely distinguishes between luxury goods and nonluxury goods in the context of live streaming shopping, this article attempts to use perceived value theory to examine consumers' luxury purchase intentions in live streaming shopping and explores whether customer engagement is a mediating mechanism of perceived luxury values that influences purchase intention in live streaming.
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Xiyuan Chen, Sang Qin, Lindsay Sheehan, Zhiying Ma, Virginia Spicknall and Yu Fan
This study aims to report on the feasibility, acceptability and outcomes of a peer support program designed to promote social participation for adults with serious mental illness…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to report on the feasibility, acceptability and outcomes of a peer support program designed to promote social participation for adults with serious mental illness (SMI) in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a community-based participatory research approach to adapt and test a six-month, culturally responsive peer program with 68 participants. Peer supporters were trained and supervised in Guangzhou, China. Peer workers were hired via a competitive process and completed both classroom and field training. Study participants were offered individual and group socialization activities. Participants completed measures on recovery, quality of life, functioning and symptoms at three time points (pre-, post- and follow-up).
Findings
Nearly 90% of participants expressed satisfaction with their peer supporters and the frequency of services. Findings showed a significant increasing trend for the social relationships domain of quality of life from baseline to follow-up. Female participants reported significantly increased recovery from pre to post and increased psychological quality of life pre-follow-up as compared to their male counterparts. Supervision logs documented positive gains from participants such as increased help-seeking, improved social skills, enhanced emotion regulation and self-confidence and established routine, alongside challenges like inconsistent engagement, low service incentives and an overreliance on social workers. Peer supporters also reported concerns about their own lack of skills and in navigating relationships between participants and their family members.
Originality/value
Peer interventions have been well studied in Western countries but underexplored in China. This research addresses this gap by presenting a peer program aimed at enhancing the social participation of Chinese with SMI.
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Jianwen Yan, Kexin Zhang, Weiwei Zhu and Yu Fan
The purpose of this paper is to frame an empirical model with the priority of implementing soft critical successful factors (CSFs) of total quality management (TQM) in Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to frame an empirical model with the priority of implementing soft critical successful factors (CSFs) of total quality management (TQM) in Chinese manufacturing companies.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 23 hypotheses regarding the relationships among TQM factors and business results have been developed through literature review and are tested using the structural equation modelling (SEM). The data used in this study are collected from 228 manufacturing companies in the central area of China.
Findings
Of the 23 hypotheses, 11 were statistically significant, and according to the empirical results a conceptual framework complying to Chinese condition is constructed and discussed in the finding parts to group soft CSFs of TQM into different levels of importance.
Research limitations/implications
Researchers can use the framework to further study soft CSFs of TQM in detail, and extend it to explore their impact mechanism for a clearer and deeper understanding of the TQM.
Practical implications
The empirical framework for soft CSFs of TQM provides a new perspective for managers to implement the soft CSFs and optimise the quality management system of their manufacturing companies.
Originality/value
This research uses multiple, distinct indicators for each soft factor to test an elaborate SEM model of the relationships among them, according to the empirical results constructs a holistic framework classifying the importance level of soft CSFs of TQM, which is novel and subjected with Chinese condition and manufacturing characteristics.
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Fan Yu, Junping Qiu and Wen Lou
This paper aims to solve the disadvantages of content-based domain ontology (CBDO) and metadata-based domain ontology (MDO) and improve organization and discovery efficiency of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to solve the disadvantages of content-based domain ontology (CBDO) and metadata-based domain ontology (MDO) and improve organization and discovery efficiency of library resources by resource ontology (RO).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper constructed an RO model. Methods of informetrics are utilized to reveal semantic relationships among library resources. Methods of ontology, ontology-relational database mapping (O-R mapping) and relational database modelling are utilized to construct RO. Take author co-occurrence for example, the paper demonstrated the capability of RO model.
Findings
RO not only revealed the deep-level semantic relationships of metadata of library resources but also realized totally computer-automated processing. RO improved the efficiency of knowledge organization and discovery.
Research limitations/implications
Semantic relationships revealed by RO are limited to simple metadata, which makes it difficult to reveal fine-grained semantic relationships. Ongoing research focuses on the revelation of semantic relationships based on the title and abstract.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for utilizing methods of Informetrics to construct ontology.
Originality/value
This paper proposed a standardized process of ontology construction in library resources. It may be of potential interest for anyone who needs to effectively organize library resources.
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Eyad Buhulaiga and Arnesh Telukdarie
Multinational business deliver value via multiple sites with similar operational capacities. The age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) delivers significant opportunities…
Abstract
Purpose
Multinational business deliver value via multiple sites with similar operational capacities. The age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) delivers significant opportunities for the deployment of digital tools for business optimization. Therefore, this study aims to study the Industry 4.0 implementation for multinationals.
Design/methodology/approach
The key objective of this research is multi-site systems integration using a reproducible, modular and standardized “Cyber Physical System (CPS) as-a-Service”.
Findings
A best practice reference architecture is adopted to guide the design and delivery of a pioneering CPS multi-site deployment. The CPS deployed is a cloud-based platform adopted to enable all manufacturing areas within a multinational energy and petrochemical company. A methodology is developed to quantify the system environmental and sustainability benefits focusing on reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and energy consumption. These results demonstrate the benefits of standardization, replication and digital enablement for multinational businesses.
Originality/value
The research illustrates the ability to design a single system, reproducible for multiple sites. This research also illustrates the beneficial impact of system reuse due to reduced environmental impact from lower CO2 emissions and energy consumption. The paper assists organizations in deploying complex systems while addressing multinational systems implementation constraints and standardization.