bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The determinants of location choice
Authors: Lv Ping , Spigarelli Francesca 
Published: July 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of institutional distance and host country attractiveness in location determinants of Chinese Foreign investments in EU in the renewable energy sector, taking into account bilateral political and economic relations.Design/methodology/approach– A firm-level Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) database of greenfield and non-greenfield Chinese investments abroad is used. A six fixed-effects logit analysis is performed.Findings– Chinese firms tend to invest in EU countries with reduced rule of law; market affluence is an attraction factor for them, but they do not seem to be human capital asset-seekers. Countries with politically stable environment are most attractive to sales/services subsidiaries; while countries with good control of corruption, low trade barriers and encouraging foreign ownership are most attractive to manufacturing subsidiaries. A large market is the most attractive factor for R & D subsidiaries, and a rich market is the most attractive factor for manufacturing subsidiaries. Manufacturing subsidiaries are more technological asset-seekers. R & D subsidiaries are the most non-human capital asset-seekers.Research limitations/implications– The study extends the state of the art of the literature by developing a theoretical framework, grounded on the influence of host country institutional factors and on endowment of resources on the location choice of Chinese investors. Further variables should be included in the future (industrial specialization of host country, cultural distance, bilateral ties).Practical implications– Policy implications are relevant. They are related both to outward foreign direct investment attraction policies and to Europe-China cooperation dialogue. With reference to attraction policies, as Chinese green firms are technological asset-seekers, more than human capital asset-seekers, EU countries interested in partnering with Chinese investors should develop specific measures targeting encouraging technology spillover. Even R & D subsidiaries should be tempted with technology-oriented measures. With reference to Europe-China cooperation, the paper findings support suggestions for a more active European position on foreign investments in key European energy sectors.Originality/value– The paper is grounded on an improved theoretical model, tested through a unique Mofcom firm-level database. Originality lies in the fact that the authors provide a sectoral insight. The need for sectoral analysis is fundamental as Chinese industrial development and internationalization path vary extensively across industry, due to policy interventions, supportive measures and prioritized initiatives. Zhanget al.(2011, p. 229) found that – specifically – the energy sector is highly sensitive to host country institutional context, therefore Chinese foreign direct investment are more likely to be exposed to regulatory and competitive pressure compared to other industries.
The role of personalization, engagement, and trust in online communities
Authors: Kang Minjeong , Shin Dong-Hee , Gong Taeshik 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore whether brand community characteristics (perceived personalization and familiarity among members) affect brand community engagement through customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction.

Design/methodology/approach
– A survey questionnaire was distributed to members of online brand communities to test the research hypotheses.

Findings
– The findings showed that the relationships among the brand community constructs are significant. C2C interaction mediates the relations between the characteristic variables and brand community engagement. Furthermore, the findings revealed that brand community trust moderates the effects of perceived personalization on the quality of C2C interaction and on brand community engagement. It also moderates the relations between perceived familiarity among community members and each of brand community engagement and the quality of C2C interaction.

Practical implications
– Marketers should utilize a brand community’s C2C interaction for its marketing strategies. Moreover, managing brand communities by focussing on perceived personalized service and the familiarity of members can also ultimately increase community engagement by enhancing the quality of C2C communication.

Originality/value
– This study argues that firms need to manage online brand communities intuitively in order to increase members’ community engagement. To do so, they need to allocate spaces in which C2C communication can actively occur within brand communities, for example, in a discussion forum.
Contributive roles of multilevel organizational learning for the evolution of organizational ambidexterity
Authors: Yan Mengling , Yu Yan , Dong Xiaoying 
Published: July 2016

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to reveal how organizational learning at the strategic and operational levels (i.e. strategic learning and business learning, respectively) contribute to the development of organizational ambidexterity along the growth of enterprises from an evolutionary view.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted a longitudinal single case study on Huawei – a leading Chinese firm in the telecommunication industry. Data were collected from various sources including interviews, senior speeches, scholarly publications, company magazines and other documents, and was analyzed in line with the principles of grounded theory.Findings– This research reveals that the case company (Huawei) constructed organizational ambidexterity with different foci during different development stages. The organization’s ambidextrous capability evolves over time, shifting from one domain to another. Such ambidexterity development was largely beneficial from the multilevel organizational learning at both the strategic level (focussing on the whole organization and long-term goals) and operational level (focussing on local interests and short-term goals).Originality/value– This paper represents one of the earliest works to uncover the ambidexterity building process from an evolutionary approach that requires the collection of longitudinal data. Also, the paper proposes a multi-level learning framework for ambidexterity building in practice. This framework distinguishes strategic learning from business learning and projects the two types of learning into learning at four levels-individual, team, intra-organizational, and inter-organizational, which can be leveraged to guide division of labor among hierarchical levels during the progressive development of ambidexterity.
Modeling Lean implementation for manufacturing sector
Authors: Sharma Vikram , Dixit Amit Rai , Qadri Mohd. Asim 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to identify the enablers for Lean implementation in the manufacturing sector, to establish a relationship among them using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and to rank them using interpretive ranking process (IRP).

Design/methodology/approach
The research paper presents a blend of theoretical framework and practical applications. In the paper, eight enablers of Lean production are identified from literature survey and experts’ opinion. These include 5S, value stream mapping (VSM), just in time, single minute exchange of die, computer-integrated manufacturing, concurrent engineering, training and enterprise resource planning. ISM is used to obtain a structural relationship among these enablers of Lean. MICMAC analysis is used to identify the driving power and dependence of the variables. Further, IRP is used to rank the lean enablers with respect to key performance areas.

Findings
The ISM- and IRP-based models indicate that “training” is the most significant factor for the Lean implementation process in manufacturing sector. The MICMAC analysis also shows that “training” has the maximum driving power and the least dependence and hence has strong managerial significance. The management should place high priority on tackling this criterion. VSM occupies the top level in the ISM hierarchy, indicating that all other Lean enablers should act in unison to make VSM implementation a success.

Originality/value
Enablers are the building blocks for deployment of the Lean concept. To know the key enablers and relationship among them can help many organizations to develop Lean competencies. This study is perhaps among the first few that focuses on two modeling procedures based on interpretive logic, i.e. ISM and IRP. The paper provides useful insights to the Lean production implementers, consultants and researchers.
Impact of bias in the estimation of American-style options by Monte Carlo simulation
Authors: Chiralaksanakul Anukal 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of bias error resulted from using Monte Carlo simulation in evaluating the American-style option value.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop an analytical approximation formula to quantify the bias error under the assumption of conditionally independent and identically distributed samples of asset prices. The bias arises from the nested optimization and expectation calculation. The formula is then used to numerically quantify the bias and as an objective function for bias minimization for a given budget of samples.

Findings
Monte Carlo methods used in valuation of American-style options can results in bias error ranging from 2 to 10 per cent of the option value. The bias error can be reduced up to 50 per cent either by performing a better scheme for sampling or by efficiently allocating sample size.

Research limitations/implications
The running time of the proposed procedure can be improved by using a specialized algorithm to solve the sample size allocation problem instead of using a commercially available subroutine MINOS. Other sampling procedures for bias reduction may be extended and applied to this multi-stage problem.

Practical implications
The methodology can help to more accurately approximate the option value.

Originality/value
The paper provides a method to develop an analytical approximation for bias error and provide a numerical experiment to test the methodology.
A novel hybrid MCDM approach for outsourcing supplier selection
Authors: Rezaeisaray Maedeh , Ebrahimnejad Sadoullah , Khalili-Damghani Kaveh 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the criteria weights of outsourcing and their key role in ranking outsourcing suppliers.

Design/methodology/approach
A new hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approach merges three tools, namely, decision making trial and evaluation (DEMATLE), fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) and ordinal/cardinal data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. Afterwards, experts’ opinions were gathered from a Pipe and Fittings company. Finally, their opinions were incorporated in three-stage approach for outsourcing suppliers’ selection.

Findings
The findings of this study show that among the selective criteria for outsourcing, business development, focus on basic activities and order delays are the three most important criteria. Also, the proposed approach ranks suppliers to facilitate decision making for selection.

Research limitations/implications
The number of suppliers, selection criteria and the number of members of the respondents’ team have been identified as some of the limitations of the present study.

Practical implications
The study has significant and practical implications for the managers and for the organizations which have to choose top suppliers, particularly in the case of dealing with numerous and qualitative/quantitative criteria.

Originality/value
This paper proposed a new three-stage approach that incorporates outputs of previous as inputs of next stage to increasing results accuracy. Also, it showed that by incorporating results of FANP method into DEA model, key role of experts’ opinions as a qualitative and quantitative criteria can be caused by increasing flexibility of decision process.
A unique index with the explicit cost related to forecast
Authors: Sharma Sanjay 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
The present paper aims to draw an attention towards the inclusion of forecast related costs. Its main purpose is to initiate a new line of research/practice including the forecasting expenditure.

Design/methodology/approach
After a relevant review of supply chain/procurement/production planning related literature, it has been observed that the existing work lacks an explicit inclusion of the cost concerned with forecast. The increased cost of forecasting is expected to enhance the forecasting accuracy. At a higher level, product family is considered for the analysis. However, a basic unit of analysis is always a single item production/procurement situation. Therefore, this situation has been discussed analytically with the use of the fundamental equations and an explicit inclusion of forecasting cost for the first time in the relevant literature. Numerous practical applications have been discussed at strategic and operational level. A framework is also presented for future research in this area.

Findings
A specific contribution of the present paper is an approach towards a unique index for relative forecasting expenditure. The suggested index will be useful for comparison purpose. Also, it can be used as a benchmark that can be improved in future.

Practical implications
The case is explained when cycle time is invariant after discussing the other potential applications. Usefulness of the proposed methodology and the index is discussed for the business organizations operating independently or in the supply chains.

Originality/value
On the basis of the forecast, a production or procurement plan is generated in many of the industrial or business situations. In the context of supply chain/production/inventory management, focus is more on demand forecasting techniques or generation of the forecasts in the existing literature. However, the increased costs concerning forecasts are expected to provide more accurate prediction. Therefore, the originality lies in an inclusion of forecast related costs.
A causal analytic model to evaluate the impact of researchers’ individual innovativeness on their collaborative outputs
Authors: Cimenler Oguz , Reeves Kingsley A. , Skvoretz John , Oztekin Asil 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a model that tests to what extent researchers’ interactions in the early stage of their collaborative network activities affect the number of collaborative outputs (COs) produced (e.g. joint publications, joint grant proposals and joint patents).

Design/methodology/approach
Using self-reports from 100 tenured/tenure-track faculty at a US-based university, partial least squares (PLS) path models are run to test the extent to which researchers’ individual innovativeness (Iinnov) affects the number of COs they produced taking into account the tie strength (TS) of a researcher to other conversational partners. Iinnov is determined by the specific indicators obtained from researchers’ interactions in the early stage of their collaborative network activities.

Findings
The results indicate that researchers’ Iinnov positively affects the volume of their COs. Furthermore, TS negatively affects the relationship between researchers’ Iinnov and the volume of their COs, which is consistent with the famous “Strength of Weak Ties” theory.

Practical implications
By investigating the degree of impact of researchers’ Iinnov on their CO, college administration could be informed regarding the extent that the social cohesion formed by interpersonal ties affects or drives the collaboration activity that results in COs. When this paper is extended to the entire university, university administration would know the capability of the different colleges, or even the university as a whole, in transforming the ideas embedded in researchers’ networks into a productive work in a collaborative manner.

Originality/value
It is one of the foremost attempts to investigate the relationship between researchers’ Iinnov during ideation phase and their CO. Moreover, this paper contributes to the literature regarding the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge at a university context.
Standardized but flexible information exchange for networked public administrations
Authors: Folmer Erwin , Matzner Martin , Räckers Michael , Scholta Hendrik , Becker Jörg 
Published: July 2016

Purpose
Governmental institutions must cooperate with other organizations across institutional boundaries to achieve high-quality service offerings. The required cooperation may lead to complex networks, including several of the thousands of public administrations in the many federal layers of a single country. This paper aims to address the key challenge of the proper management of the information exchange between networked actors, which is generally conducted by means of forms.

Design/methodology/approach
Following the design science research paradigm, this research develops a method that assists in the design and maintenance of forms in public administrations.

Findings
Discussions in the project’s focus groups add evidence to the researchers’ expectation that the method developed in this study improves the quality of forms while reducing the effort required for their design and maintenance.

Research limitations/implications
This paper includes an evaluation of the approach based on qualitative feedback from the project’s stakeholders, although the implementation of the workflows and procedures is subject to future work that evaluates the approach in a variety of practical settings.

Practical implications
The method developed in this paper allows public administrations and legislative authorities to design and manage forms in a cooperative way. Software developers can assume the existence of information structures. The approach extends the BOMOS standardization framework to the operational level.

Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is the development of a novel method that will change how information exchange is managed in public administrations.
Cattle sharing and rental contracts in an Agrarian economy: evidence from Ethiopia
Authors: Tadesse Million A. , Holden Stein T. , Øygard Ragnar A. , McPeak John 
Published: July 2016

AbstractEmpirical evidence on the role of cattle sharing and rental contracts in agrarian economies is limited. This article is an investigation of different types of cattle sharing and rental contracts producers in rural Ethiopia adopt. It also investigates why households in rural Ethiopia rely on these contracts that are vulnerable and therefore subject to potential moral hazard problems described in earlier literature. We apply random effect probit and control function econometric methods to household panel data collected in 2005 and 2007 from two agro‐ecological zones in Ethiopia. Controlling for the endogeneity of access to livestock credit, we find that contracts are spatially fragmented and better developed where population density is high and credit and insurance markets are poorly developed. We also find that contracts help cash poor and credit constrained households to improve their herd dynamics, to get access to nonlivestock resources (land, labor and cash) and share risks that could have been difficult without the contract. We show that contracts are rational responses of residents in rural communities characterized by imperfect credit and insurance services, since households with better access to credit are less likely to rely on contracts.
Are rural and remote patients, families and caregivers needs in life‐limiting illness different from those of urban dwellers? A narrative synthesis of the evidence
Authors: Kirby Sue , Barlow Veronica , Saurman Emily , Lyle David , Passey Megan , Currow David 
Published: July 2016

AbstractThis review aimed to assess the evidence to answer the question whether palliative end‐of‐life care needs of patients and caregivers in rural and remote communities differs from those of urban dwellers. Peer‐reviewed studies from 1996 to the present dealing with the experience of rural and remote patients and caregivers at the end‐of‐life compared with that of urban people were extracted for narrative synthesis. The eight studies included showed that palliative needs of rural and remote residents are related to context. Diagnosis and treatment are less well managed in rural areas. Rural differences include: people are more accepting of death and less likely to intervene to delay death; caregivers tend to be younger and include friends as well as family and local support networks are important. Rural and remote end‐of‐life needs are shaped by reduced access and availability of services which has a negative influence on outcomes. This is counterbalanced by an acceptance of death and local support networks. Well‐designed longitudinal studies with samples comprised of rural and urban residents for comparison are required to monitor how end‐of‐life need might change with the approach of death. Clinicians, health services and policy makers need a better understanding of rural attitudes and of how rural community networks mobilise to support end‐of‐life care in their rural and remote communities.
Comparing Large Covariance Matrices under Weak Conditions on the Dependence Structure and its Application to Gene Clustering
Authors: Chang Jinyuan , Zhou Wen , Zhou Wen-Xin , Wang Lan 
Published: July 2016

Summary
Comparing large covariance matrices has important applications in modern genomics, where scientists are often interested in understanding whether relationships (e.g., dependencies or co-regulations) among a large number of genes vary between different biological states. We propose a computationally fast procedure for testing the equality of two large covariance matrices when the dimensions of the covariance matrices are much larger than the sample sizes. A distinguishing feature of the new procedure is that it imposes no structural assumptions on the unknown covariance matrices. Hence, the test is robust with respect to various complex dependence structures that frequently arise in genomics. We prove that the proposed procedure is asymptotically valid under weak moment conditions. As an interesting application, we derive a new gene clustering algorithm which shares the same nice property of avoiding restrictive structural assumptions for high-dimensional genomics data. Using an asthma gene expression dataset, we illustrate how the new test helps compare the covariance matrices of the genes across different gene sets/pathways between the disease group and the control group, and how the gene clustering algorithm provides new insights on the way gene clustering patterns differ between the two groups. The proposed methods have been implemented in an R-package HDtest and are available on CRAN.
Nonparametric Inference on Quantile Lost Lifespan
Authors: Balmert Lauren , Jeong Jong-Hyeon 
Published: July 2016

SUMMARYIn this article, the existing concept of reversed percentile residual life, or percentile inactivity time, is recast to show that it can be used for routine analysis of time-to-event data under right censoring to summarize “life lost,” which poses several advantages over the existing methods for survival analysis. An estimating equation approach is adopted to avoid estimation of the probability density function of the underlying time-to-event distribution to estimate the variance of the quantile estimator. Additionally a K-sample test statistic is proposed to test the ratio of the quantile lost lifespans. Simulation studies are performed to assess finite properties of the proposed K-sample statistic in terms of coverage probability and power. The proposed method is illustrated with a real data example from a breast cancer study.