Yanjie Liu, Meng Xu and Yumei Cao
Wafer transfer robots play a significant role in IC manufacturing industry and the end effector is an important component of the robots. The purpose of this paper is to improve…
Abstract
Purpose
Wafer transfer robots play a significant role in IC manufacturing industry and the end effector is an important component of the robots. The purpose of this paper is to improve transfer efficiency of a wafer transfer robot through study of its end effector, and at the same time to reduce wafer deformation.
Design/methodology/approach
Finite element method is adopted to analyze wafer deformation. For wafer transfer robot working in vacuum, for the first time, the authors apply the research of microfiber arrays inspired by gecko to the design of robot's end effector, and present equations between robot's transit acceleration and parameters of microfiber arrays. Based on these studies, a kind of micro‐array bump is designed and fixed to a structure optimized end effector. For wafer transfer robot working in atmospheric environment, the authors have analyzed the effects of different factors on wafer deformation. The pressure distributions in absorption area and calculation formula of maximal transfer acceleration are put forward. Finally, a new kind of end effector for atmospheric robot is designed according to these studies.
Findings
The experiments results show that transfer efficiency of wafer transfer robot has been significantly improved through application of the research in this paper. Also wafer deformation under absorption force has been controlled.
Practical implications
Through experiments it can be seen that the research in this paper can be used to improve robot transfer ability and decrease wafer deformation in the production environment. Also the studies of end effector lay a solid foundation for further improvement.
Originality/value
This is the first application of the research of gecko‐inspired microfiber arrays to vacuum wafer transfer robot. This paper also carefully analyzes effects of different factors on wafer deformation through finite element method.
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Yanjie Liu, Yumei Cao, Lining Sun and Xiaofei Zheng
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the accurate and steady control on trajectory tracking for wafer transfer robot, suppress the vibration and reduce the contour error.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the accurate and steady control on trajectory tracking for wafer transfer robot, suppress the vibration and reduce the contour error.
Design/methodology/approach
The wafer transfer robot dynamic model is modeled. Through analyzing the characteristics of wafer transfer robot, cross‐coupled synchronized control is proposed based on the contour error model in task space to improve synchronization of the joints; the shaping for the joints by input shaper in task space is applied to suppress the vibration of the end effector during trajectory tracking. Then combining the cross‐coupled synchronized control with input shaping is proposed to improve accuracy and suppress the vibration.
Findings
The combination of cross‐coupled synchronized control and input shaping control method can improve the contour accuracy and reduce the vibration simultaneously during trajectory tracking. And the control method can be used to control the trajectory of wafer transfer robot.
Research limitations/implications
The transfer station is in the center of the robot body. When the transfer station may deviate from the center of the robot body, the synchronizing performance of three axes on the same plane must be considered.
Practical implications
The proposed method can be used to solve the vibration and synchronizing performance problems on similar SCARA robots in semi‐conductor and liquid crystal display industry.
Originality/value
The proposed control method takes advantage of the cross‐coupled synchronized control and input shaping control method. This combination has improved contour accuracy and reduced vibration than applying other methods, and it has achieved better performance than using single one control method only.
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Lilei Wang, Yumei Dang, Shufeng (Simon) Xiao and Xing'an Xu
By adopting learning theory and a guanxi perspective, this study aims to investigate the effects of interpersonal guanxi (interpersonal networks or connections) and relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
By adopting learning theory and a guanxi perspective, this study aims to investigate the effects of interpersonal guanxi (interpersonal networks or connections) and relationship learning on companies’ business performance when operating in a large emerging market.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 294 sales managers and salespeople in the Chinese hotel sector, the authors empirically test the authors' arguments through a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.
Findings
The authors' findings indicate that strong interpersonal guanxi tends to generate more positive business performance. Furthermore, the authors find that relationship learning plays a mediating role in the association between interpersonal guanxi and hotel companies’ business performance in a Chinese context. Finally, the authors empirically explore the moderating effect of inter-firm dependence on the contribution of interpersonal guanxi to relationship learning. Findings demonstrate that this effect varies significantly based on inter-firm dependence, with interpersonal guanxi exhibiting a greater positive impact if such dependence is high.
Originality/value
This study enriches our understanding of interpersonal guanxi and of how companies can enhance the companies' business performance in an emerging market context.
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Neuza Ribeiro, Daniel Gomes, Gabriela Pedro Gomes, Atiat Ullah, Ana Suzete Dias Semedo and Sharda Singh
This study aims to broaden the understanding of the mechanisms through which workplace bullying might affect employees’ intention to leave the organisation, as well as the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to broaden the understanding of the mechanisms through which workplace bullying might affect employees’ intention to leave the organisation, as well as the mediating role of burnout in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample included 884 employees from different Portuguese organisations operating in the tertiary sector and industry. This study uses structural equation modelling to evaluate the hypothesised model.
Findings
The results suggest that workplace bullying causes high levels of burnout in victims and increases their turnover intentions. The results further suggest that burnout fully mediates the effect of workplace bullying on turnover intentions.
Practical implications
Organisations should work to reduce these problems in workplace environments, focusing on HRM models that prevent the precursors of workplace bullying, particularly those associated with low determination of HR practices and the emphasis on employee participation. Implementing workplace ethical guidelines as part of an annual action plan can contribute to cultivating organisational cultures that reject any form of devaluation of human worth within the organisation.
Originality/value
There is little knowledge on the mediating role of burnout in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. This study answers the call for further empirical research from those who have argued that more information is needed and contributes to the growing debate on this topic and its effects on Portuguese employees. This study seeks to fill these gaps by developing a model of workplace bullying and its consequences and exploring burnout’s potential mediating role.
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Xiangbin Yan, Yumei Li and Weiguo Fan
Getting high-quality data by removing the noisy data from the user-generated content (UGC) is the first step toward data mining and effective decision-making based on ubiquitous…
Abstract
Purpose
Getting high-quality data by removing the noisy data from the user-generated content (UGC) is the first step toward data mining and effective decision-making based on ubiquitous and unstructured social media data. This paper aims to design a framework for revoking noisy data from UGC.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors consider a classification-based framework to remove the noise from the unstructured UGC in social media community. They treat the noise as the concerned topic non-relevant messages and apply a text classification-based approach to remove the noise. They introduce a domain lexicon to help identify the concerned topic from noise and compare the performance of several classification algorithms combined with different feature selection methods.
Findings
Experimental results based on a Chinese stock forum show that 84.9 per cent of all the noise data from the UGC could be removed with little valuable information loss. The support vector machines classifier combined with information gain feature extraction model is the best choice for this system. With longer messages getting better classification performance, it has been found that the length of messages affects the system performance.
Originality/value
The proposed method could be used for preprocessing in text mining and new knowledge discovery from the big data.
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Yumei Yang, Hannah Mai Thu Hue and Sachiko Takeda
Drawing upon the framework of social exchange theory, this study investigated the influence of work-life balance, procedural justice and distributive justice on job satisfaction…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the framework of social exchange theory, this study investigated the influence of work-life balance, procedural justice and distributive justice on job satisfaction and turnover intention among Vietnamese millennials.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing a quantitative research method, the authors collected a sample of 258 millennial participants in Vietnam. Utilizing the method of multiple regression analysis, the collected data were rigorously examined.
Findings
The results showed that job satisfaction is negatively related to the turnover intention of the millennial generation in Vietnam. Distributive justice is a stronger predictor of job satisfaction than procedural justice. Of particular note, the study revealed an intriguing result: work-life balance does not have a significant influence on job satisfaction among millennials.
Practical implications
Leveraging insights from national cultural theories, the authors' findings provide some insightful explanations of what drives millennials in Vietnam to consider leaving their organizations.
Social implications
The study provides some insights for policymakers in Vietnam and other similar developing countries to reform their approach at managing the millennial generation.
Originality/value
The research addresses the existing gap in literature by delving into the underlying factors driving the propensity of Vietnamese millennials to frequently switch jobs.
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Qihui Chen, Gaoshuai Liu and Yumei Liu
The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese consumers’ level of perception of genetically modified (GM) foods and the determinants of their willingness to pay (WTP) for Fad-3…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine Chinese consumers’ level of perception of genetically modified (GM) foods and the determinants of their willingness to pay (WTP) for Fad-3 GM lamb, a newly developed GM product.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a randomized choice experiment involving 576 consumers in Beijing, the authors adopt a double-bounded contingent valuation method to estimate consumers’ WTP for Fad-3 GM lamb, as well as the causal impact of (randomized) product-information disclosure on it.
Findings
The econometric result indicates that the randomly disclosed product information describing details about Fad-3 GM lamb, the potential risks associated with the consumption of it, and the related governmental regulation policies raised consumers’ WTP by 6.2 yuan per Jin (or US$2/kilogram).
Originality/value
This paper provides new experimental evidence of the effect of product-information disclosure on consumers’ WTP for a newly developed GM food product.
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Yumei Zhang, Ming Lei, Xiangmin Lan, Xiangyang Zhang, Shenggen Fan and Ji Gao
As one of its major strategies, China has made a new plan to further expand High Standard Farmland (HSF) to all permanent basic farmland (80% of total farmland) for grain security…
Abstract
Purpose
As one of its major strategies, China has made a new plan to further expand High Standard Farmland (HSF) to all permanent basic farmland (80% of total farmland) for grain security over the next decade. Yet, what will be the impact of farmland infrastructure investment on agrifood systems? The paper aims to systematically evaluate the multiple effects (food security, economy, nutrition and environment) of expanding HSF construction under the context of the “Big Food vision” using an interdisciplinary model.
Design/methodology/approach
An interdisciplinary model – AgriFood Systems Model, which links the China CGE model to diet and carbon emission modules, is applied to assess the multiple effects of HSF construction on agrifood systems, such as food security and economic development, residents’ diet quality and carbon emissions. Several policy scenarios are designed to capture these effects of the past HSF investment based on counterfactual analysis and compare the effects of HSF future investment at the national level under the conditions of different land use policies – restricting to grain crops or allowing diversification (like vegetables, and fruit).
Findings
The investments in HSF offer a promising solution for addressing the challenges of food and nutrition security, economic development and environmental sustainability. Without HSF construction, grain production and self-sufficiency would decline significantly, while the agricultural and agrifood systems’ GDP would decrease. The future investment in the HSF construction will further increase both grain production and GDP, improve dietary quality and reduce carbon emissions. Compared with the policy of limiting HSF to planting grains, diversified planting can provide a more profitable economic return, improve dietary quality and reduce carbon emissions.
Originality/value
This study contributes to better informing the impact of land infrastructure expanding investment on the agrifood systems from multiple dimensions based on an interdisciplinary model. We suggest that the government consider applying diversified planting in the future HSF investment to meet nutritional and health demands, increase household income and reduce carbon emissions.
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This paper aims that mobile health (mHealth) applications have emerged as a key tool to support public health. However, there are only a few studies examining the influences of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims that mobile health (mHealth) applications have emerged as a key tool to support public health. However, there are only a few studies examining the influences of health-related ascribes on continuance intention to use mHealth apps and how these influences are contingent on gender in the mHealth app using context.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes the protection motivation theory as a theoretical framework to examine the ordered relationship between threat and coping appraisals and their impacts on continuance intention to use mHealth apps. In addition, this study further extends the literature on gender differences into the mHealth app's context to investigate the moderating role of gender. The suggested hypotheses are confirmed by a structural equation modeling approach and multigroup investigation employing survey data of 345 users of Spring Rain Doctor in China, a typical mHealth app.
Findings
The findings suggest that the impact of perceived disease threat on user's continuance intention is mediated entirely by coping appraisals. Furthermore, the three coping appraisals' impacts are contingent upon gender. Specifically, response efficacy is more crucial for male users in forecasting continuance intention, whereas self-efficacy and response cost have a more salient influence on continuance intention for female users.
Originality/value
This study examines the ordered influences of threat and coping appraisal, moderated by gender, on continuance intention on use mHealth apps. These findings could contribute to relevant theoretical and practical implications.
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Shiwei Xu, Yumei Zhang, Xinshen Diao and Kevin Z. Chen
The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium (DCGE) model to analyze economy‐wide impacts of different types of public spending in China. A…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic computable general equilibrium (DCGE) model to analyze economy‐wide impacts of different types of public spending in China. A particular focus is placed on their impacts on food economy.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, DCGE model is developed to analyze economy‐wide impacts of different types of public spending in China. The effects of increased agricultural subsidies, agricultural R&D, and irrigation are simulated by using China DCGE model.
Findings
The results show that public spending has significant impact on food production, price, and trade. The increased public spending on agricultural R&D, irrigation, and agricultural subsidy also has modest impacts on other sectors such as industry, service, and GDP growth.
Originality/value
The paper constructs the China dynamic CGE model and analyzes economy‐wide impacts of different types of public spending in China, especially for the food economy.