Kuo-An Tseng, Yu-Wen Lan, Hao-Chun Lu and Pin-Yu Chen
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of business strategy (BS) on intellectual capital (IC) and financial performance (FP). The impact of financial crisis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of business strategy (BS) on intellectual capital (IC) and financial performance (FP). The impact of financial crisis is also a major topic of this research.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies BS as mediator to explore the relationships between IC, BS, and FP. Partial least squares is employed to test the reliability and validity of measurements and the significance of path coefficients, and therefore to examine the hypotheses.
Findings
IC has significant impacts on BS and FP in all samples, as well as in those years before and after the financial crisis. BS has a partial significant mediating effect between IC and FP. BS has significant effects on FP in all samples and pre-financial crisis, but has not in post-financial crisis.
Research limitations/implications
IC has significant impacts on BS and FP. Moreover, the relationships of IC, BS, and FP are different during pre- and post-financial crisis. The direct effect of IC on FP is confirmed and consistent, and the indirect effect of IC on FP by BS is dependent upon the environment status.
Practical implications
Enterprises should pay attention to IC, BS, and the related changes in environment status. These help enterprises develop appropriate strategies, maintain competitive advantage, and upgrade FP.
Originality/value
This study applies BS as mediator, and explores the relationships between IC, BS, and FP. The impact of financial crisis is also discussed. The results may serve as the criteria for strategic performance management.
Details
Keywords
Many reviews on the internet are contributed their time to evaluate which are largely transparent generally; however, How are these information valuable and useful to visitors…
Abstract
Purpose
Many reviews on the internet are contributed their time to evaluate which are largely transparent generally; however, How are these information valuable and useful to visitors before making a purchasing decision? As the reason, there is a need to understand the distal path of visitors concern. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effects of both perceived useful and valuable motivations on visitors’ willingness to buy in the distal paths.
Design/methodology/approach
Web questionnaire survey.
Findings
Visitors’ confirmation was the beginning to impact the intention to buy through only one distal path, perceived value (PV) and satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
Even though the author tried his best to design and implement thoughtfully for this research, there are still some limitations. First, the results could be influenced by self-selection bias. The sample of respondents surveyed in this study consisted of young adults (58.90 percent were between the ages 21 and 25 years old), the majority of whom (54.79 percent) were students. Therefore, in the context of this study, the visitors surveyed were young and able to easily access information online. The phenomenon has been, proved by Hsu (2013), found, it still needs to explore further. Second, perceived usefulness did not have a significant impact on satisfaction which consistent with Tao et al. (2009) result. The data represent the response’ feeling for now; it needs to be explored further. Third, it would also be worthwhile to investigate any obstacles, such as believable (Cheung et al., 2012) that might reduce the intentions to buy of visitors. Finally, recommendations and promotions have also been found to influence visitors’ further purchasing behavior, such as extra buy (Tsao, 2013). These phenomena are worth investigating in future research.
Practical implications
To inspire visitors, information of reviews can be posted by offering positive or negative suggestions (e.g. good or bad experience); managers should improve their products or services from the suggestions of reviews and need to consider the distinctive influences of various aspects of reviews when promoting products and devising e-marketing strategies. Marketers should recruit and filter reviews to write positive suggestions of their own products or service. IS practitioners should post the reviews might need to provide more detailed information (e.g. the reasons of like or dislike). The posted information from reviews should be accurate, particularly aiming at visitors who are motivated by reviews’ suggestions. All proposed measures are particularly important for visitors with sufficient reviews effects. Greater transparency of reviews might be achieved by more explicit reviews information (e.g. via like or dislike statements).
Social implications
The result provides a basis to generate concrete advice for owners about reviews concern to enhance visitors’ PV. It seems sensible to pursue two strategies: first, enhance the visitors’ PV to trigger motivation forward, and second, inspire the visitors to progress smoothly in the visiting stage.
Originality/value
The results of the expectation-confirmation theory applied to reviews recommendations how important to employ for enterprises. These reviews were either directly given by experienced users or at least validated with their help to visitors. Therefore, the value is building the distal bridge between visitors and customers through online general reviews.
Details
Keywords
Linda Trinh Vo and Mary Yu Danico
Examines the demographic transformation of Orange County, Los Angeles, USA and the designation of districts known as Little Saigon and Koreatown. Contends that Orange County is…
Abstract
Examines the demographic transformation of Orange County, Los Angeles, USA and the designation of districts known as Little Saigon and Koreatown. Contends that Orange County is fifth in the USA for fastest growing Asian communities. Uses a comparative social ecology approach to show how Koreans and Vietnamese have managed to establish their ethnic communities. Finally discusses the challenges faced in sustaining their communities, given the resistance from Anglo residents for “foreigners”.
Details
Keywords
Krishna Kant Dwivedi, Achintya Kumar Pramanick, Malay Kumar Karmakar and Pradip Kumar Chatterjee
The purpose of this paper is to perform the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation with experimental validation to investigate the particle segregation effect in abrupt and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to perform the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation with experimental validation to investigate the particle segregation effect in abrupt and smooth shapes circulating fluidized bed (CFB) risers.
Design/methodology/approach
The experimental investigations were carried out in lab-scale CFB systems and the CFD simulations were performed by using commercial software BARRACUDA. Special attention was paid to investigate the gas-particle flow behavior at the top of the riser with three different superficial velocities, namely, 4, 6 and 7.7 m/s. Here, a CFD-based noble simulation approach called multi-phase particle in cell (MP-PIC) was used to investigate the effect of traditional drag models (Wen-Yu, Ergun, Wen-Yu-Ergun and Richardson-Davidson-Harrison) on particle flow characteristics in CFB riser.
Findings
Findings from the experimentations revealed that the increase in gas velocity leads to decrease the mixing index inside the riser. Moreover, the solid holdup found more in abrupt riser than smooth riser at the constant gas velocity. Despite the more experimental investigations, the findings with CFD simulations revealed that the MP-PIC approach, which was combined with different drag models could be more effective for the practical (industrial) design of CFB riser. Well agreement was found between the simulation and experimental outputs. The simulation work was compared with experimental data, which shows the good agreement (<4%).
Originality/value
The experimental and simulation study performed in this research study constitutes an easy-to-use with different drag coefficient. The proposed MP-PIC model is more effective for large particles fluidized bed, which can be helpful for further research on industrial gas-particle fluidized bed reactors. This study is expected to give throughout the analysis of CFB hydrodynamics with further exploration of overall fluidization.