Bo Edvardsson, Gloria Ng, Zhi Min Choo and Robert Firth
Research suggests that service‐dominant designs are superior to goods‐dominant; but why? The purpose of this paper is to answer three questions. First, in what way is a service…
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests that service‐dominant designs are superior to goods‐dominant; but why? The purpose of this paper is to answer three questions. First, in what way is a service system based on service‐dominant logic (SDL) superior to one based on goods‐dominant logic (GDL)? Second, which characteristics of the service system facilitate the co‐creation of value‐in‐context as perceived by the customer? Third, how do customers describe the contents of these characteristics?
Design/methodology/approach
In an experiment, the authors compared two different service systems designed with different mindsets. The experiment was carried out with a group of habitual bus travellers to plan a specific journey using two online service systems by two different organizations; one exhibited a goods‐dominant mindset, and the other a service‐dominant mindset. The subjects' opinions of the two systems were gathered, and sentiment analysis was performed on the opinions to uncover the rationale behind the operational superiority of an SDL‐based system in value co‐creation.
Findings
The sentiment analysis identified three key differentiators: intangibles; operant resources; and information symmetry as the reason why an SDL‐based service system is superior to a GDL‐based system. The study also identified specific attributes linked to the key differentiators that could be built into a service system design and verified during a review of that design.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to research by: showing why an SDL based service system is superior to a GDL based one; proposing guidelines for service system design based on SDL to arrive at a favourable customer experience; and to managers by showing that customers have much to contribute in service development and realisation.
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Bo Edvardsson, Gloria Ng, Choo Zhi Min, Robert Firth and Ding Yi
Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the mechanisms and drivers of service exchange and value co‐creation. In particular, no study has compared a service system…
Abstract
Purpose
Few empirical studies have been conducted to explore the mechanisms and drivers of service exchange and value co‐creation. In particular, no study has compared a service system design informed by service‐dominant logic (SDL) with a service system design informed by goods‐dominant logic (GDL). The purpose of this paper is to address this knowledge gap. The research question is: does a service‐dominant system design result in a more favourable customer experience than a goods‐dominant service system?
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment was carried out on a group of habitual bus travellers. The subjects were asked to plan a specific journey using two online journey planning systems. Two hypotheses were tested: first, an SDL informed service system will evoke a better overall customer experience than a GDL informed service system. Second, this better customer experience arises out of seven service system design characteristics. Both objective and subjective data were gathered to compare the customers' experiences of using the two service systems.
Findings
The results show that a service‐dominant service system outperforms a goods‐dominant service system in terms of both objective and subjective criteria. Moreover, the experiment elucidates the subjects' perceived importance of the characteristics of a service‐dominant service system. Analysis of the subjects' perception of the two service systems reveals that certain characteristics set the service‐dominant service system more distinctly apart from the goods‐dominant one.
Originality/value
The paper contributes by extending the empirical foundation for service‐dominant logic, providing new knowledge on value co‐creation and design characteristics of service systems, and identifying the most important service system characteristics perceived by the customer.
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Zhen Yang, Kangning Song, Xingsheng Gu, Zhi Wang and Xiaoyi Liang
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) have been considered as primarily responsible for many serious environmental problems. Removing NO is the key task to remove NOx hazards. To clarify, NO…
Abstract
Purpose
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) have been considered as primarily responsible for many serious environmental problems. Removing NO is the key task to remove NOx hazards. To clarify, NO removal process for pitch-based spherical-activated carbons (PSACs), an online prediction and optimization technique in real-time based on support vector machine algorithm in regression (support vector regression [SVR]) is discussed. The purpose of this paper is to develop a predictor and optimizer system on selective catalytic reduction of NO (SCRN) using experimental data and data-driven SVR intelligence methods.
Design/methodology/approach
Predictor and optimizer using developed SVR have been proposed. To modify the training efficiency of SVR, the authors especially customize batch normalization and k-fold cross-validation techniques according to the unique characteristics of PSACs model.
Findings
The results present that SVR provides a property regression model since it can linkage linear and non-linear process and property relationships in few experimental data sets. Also, the integrated normalization and k-fold cross-validation show a satisfying improvement and results for SVR optimization. The predicted results of predictor and optimizer in single and double factor systems are in excellent agreement with the experimental data.
Originality/value
SCRN-PO for predicting and optimization SCRN problems is developed by data-driven methods. The outperformed SCRN-PO system is used to predict multiple-factors property parameters and obtain optimum technological parameters in real-time. Also, experiment duration is greatly shortened.
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Lisa Klous, Wouter Bergmann Tiest, Pim van Dorst, Matthijs van der Linde and Hein Daanen
The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether small holes in an impermeable patch at the wrist improve perceived comfort during exercise.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether small holes in an impermeable patch at the wrist improve perceived comfort during exercise.
Design/methodology/approach
Nine male participants participated in this study. During the experiment, participants cycled 60 W in a hot room (35°C, 30 percent relative humidity) while an impermeable 20 cm2 patch was located on the ventral side of one wrist and at the same time a patch of identical shape with 5 mm diameter holes (17.7 percent uncovered) on the other wrist. The participants could not see the patches. Participants were forced to choose which patch they perceived as more comfortable. Chest and arm skin temperature, thermal comfort, thermal sensation and wetness perception were assessed.
Findings
Participants preferred 5 mm holes over no holes (p=0.017). Chest skin temperature (p=0.018) but not arm skin temperature correlates with this preference. Thermal comfort, thermal sensation and wetness perception did not differ significantly between patches. It is concluded that patches with 5 mm holes are preferred over impermeable patches during work in the heat in particular when the torso skin is warm.
Originality/value
The wrist is a preferred location for smart wearables. Generally, wrist bands are made of air-impermeable materials leading to sensation of wetness and discomfort. This study has shown that manufacturers should consider to make small holes in their wrist bands to optimize wearing comfort.
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Na Lu, Wei Zhou and Zhi Wu Dou
Intelligent manufacturing has attracted extensive attention from national strategy, academic research and enterprises' practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Intelligent manufacturing has attracted extensive attention from national strategy, academic research and enterprises' practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of intelligent manufacturing on performance in manufacturing firms. Moreover, how intelligent manufacturing technology affects enterprise performance, this study provided a practice that can be replicated by other businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses text mining to collect the intelligence level of Chinese listed companies. It uses quantitative analysis to test the proposed model based on samples of 2,091 manufacturers.
Findings
Intelligent manufacturing has positive effect on short-term performance and long-term performance. Intelligent manufacturing can empower firms with ambidextrous capabilities, including exploit capability and explore capability. Exploit capability has positive effects on short-term performance and long-term performance. Explore capability has negative effects on short-term performance, but has positive effects on long-term performance.
Originality/value
On the theoretical side, it enriches the research framework between intelligent manufacturing and enterprise performance. This study explains the preconditions and results of ambidextrous capabilities. Moreover, based on the practice-based view (PBV), this study proposes that technologies can be used as strategies, filling a gap in the existing research on strategic management. On the practical side, how to quantify the intelligent manufacturing level of enterprises provides a certain reference. Also, this study provides an easy to imitate practice that can serve as a model for under-performing enterprises.
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Xuemei Wang, Jixiang He, Yue Ma, Hao Wang, Dehong Ma, Dongdong Zhang and Hudie Zhao
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tannase-assisted extraction of tea stem pigment from waste tea stem, after which the stability of the purified pigment was determined…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the tannase-assisted extraction of tea stem pigment from waste tea stem, after which the stability of the purified pigment was determined and analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
The extracting process was optimized using the response surface methodology (RSM) approach. Material-liquid ratio, temperature and time were chosen as variables and the absorbance as a response. The stability of the tea stem pigment at the different conditions was tested and analyzed.
Findings
The optimized extraction technology was as follows: material-liquid ratio 1:20 g/ml, temperature 50°C and time 60 min. The stability test results showed that tea stem pigment was sensitive to oxidants, but the reducing agents did not affect it. The tea stem pigment was unstable under strong acid and strong alkali and was most stable at pH 6. The light stability was poor. Tea stem pigment would form flocculent precipitation under the action of Fe2+ or Fe3+ and be relatively stable in Cu2+ and Na2+ solutions. The tea stem pigment was relatively stable at 60°C and below.
Originality/value
No comprehensive and systematic study reports have been conducted on the extraction of pigment from discarded tea stem, and researchers have not used statistical analysis to optimize the process of tannase-assisted tea stem pigment extraction using RSM. Additionally, there is a lack of special reports on the systematic study of the stability of pigment extracted from tea stem.
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Corinne Amel Zayani, Leila Ghorbel, Ikram Amous, Manel Mezghanni, André Péninou and Florence Sèdes
Generally, the user requires customized information reflecting his/her current needs and interests that are stored in his/her profile. There are many sources which may provide…
Abstract
Purpose
Generally, the user requires customized information reflecting his/her current needs and interests that are stored in his/her profile. There are many sources which may provide beneficial information to enrich the user’s interests such as his/her social network for recommendation purposes. The proposed approach rests basically on predicting the reliability of the users’ profiles which may contain conflictual interests. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This approach handles conflicts by detecting the reliability of neighbors’ profiles of a user. The authors consider that these profiles are dependent on one another as they may contain interests that are enriched from non-reliable profiles. The dependency relationship is determined between profiles, each of which contains interests that are structured based on k-means algorithm. This structure takes into consideration not only the evolutionary aspect of interests but also their semantic relationships.
Findings
The proposed approach was validated in a social-learning context as evaluations were conducted on learners who are members of Moodle e-learning system and Delicious social network. The quality of the created interest structure is assessed. Then, the result of the profile reliability is evaluated. The obtained results are satisfactory. These results could promote recommendation systems as the selection of interests that are considered of enrichment depends on the reliability of the profiles where they are stored.
Research limitations/implications
Some specific limitations are recorded. As the quality of the created interest structure would evolve in order to improve the profile reliability result. In addition, as Delicious is used as a main data source for the learner’s interest enrichment, it was necessary to obtain interests from other sources, such as e-recruitement systems.
Originality/value
This research is among the pioneer papers to combine the semantic as well as the hierarchical structure of interests and conflict resolution based on a profile reliability approach.
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Jiahao Wang, Guodong Xia, Ran Li, Dandan Ma, Wenbin Zhou and Jun Wang
This study aims to satisfy the thermal management of gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices, microchannel-cooling is designed and optimized in this…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to satisfy the thermal management of gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices, microchannel-cooling is designed and optimized in this work.
Design/methodology/approach
A numerical simulation is performed to analyze the thermal and flow characteristics of microchannels in combination with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) is used to optimize the microchannels parameters. The design variables include width and number of microchannels, and the optimization objectives are to minimize total thermal resistance and pressure drop under constant volumetric flow rate.
Findings
In optimization process, a decrease in pressure drop contributes to increase of thermal resistance leading to high junction temperature and vice versa. And the Pareto-optimal front, which is a trade-off curve between optimization objectives, is obtained by MOEA method. Finally, K-means clustering algorithm is carried out on Pareto-optimal front, and three representative points are proposed to verify the accuracy of the model.
Originality/value
Each design variable on the effect of two objectives and distribution of temperature is researched. The relationship between minimum thermal resistance and pressure drop is provided which can give some fundamental direction for microchannels design in GaN HEMT devices cooling.
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Ni Xiong and Longzheng Du
This study examines whether Confucian culture can promote enterprise total factor productivity (TFP), and it also studies how transmission mechanism works on enterprise TFP.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines whether Confucian culture can promote enterprise total factor productivity (TFP), and it also studies how transmission mechanism works on enterprise TFP.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the data of A-share listed companies on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2008 to 2019, this study measures the influence of Confucian culture on enterprise TFP by the number of Confucian academies and Confucian temples within three radius ranges of a company's registered address.
Findings
The empirical results show that Confucian culture has a positive effect on the enterprise TFP. The transmission mechanism test shows that Confucian culture can promote the TFP of Chinese enterprises through reducing agency cost, improving agency efficiency and enhancing innovation.
Practical implications
The findings in this study provide implications for policymakers, scholars and enterprises. The results show that Confucian culture can enhance the TFP of Chinese enterprises. Especially in emerging markets including China, the Confucian culture, as an informal institution, can effectively complement formal institutions, promoting enterprise TFP.
Originality/value
This study expands the literature on Confucian culture in two aspects: the influence of Confucian culture on TFP and its transmission mechanism. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to identify a link between Confucian culture and enterprise TFP.