bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Some stylized facts of return in the foreign exchange and stock markets in Peru
Authors: Humala Alberto , Rodriguez Gabriel 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to find and describe some stylized facts for foreign exchange and stock market returns, which are explored using statistical methods.Design/methodology/approachFormal statistics for testing presence of autocorrelation, asymmetry, and other deviations from normality are applied. Dynamic correlations and different kernel estimations and approximations to the empirical distributions are also under scrutiny. Furthermore, dynamic analysis of mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis are also performed to evaluate time‐varying properties in return distributions.FindingsThe findings include: different types of non‐normality in both markets, fat tails, excess furtosis, return clustering and unconditional time‐varying moments. Identifiable volatility cycles in both forex and stock markets are associated to common macro financial uncertainty events.Originality/valueThe paper is the first work of this type in Peru.
Maintenance of subsea petroleum production systems: a case study
Authors: Markeset Tore , Moreno‐Trejo Jorge , Kumar Rajesh 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss maintenance challenges and maintenance practices for subsea petroleum production systems.Design/methodology/approachMaintenance challenges, current practices and factors that influence the maintenance and support practices were identified by a literature review and by using a case study conducted in the Norwegian oil and gas industry. The case study was based on semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews with a number of experts working in the subsea systems’ design, installation and support services in the Norwegian oil and gas industry.FindingsThe paper identifies and discusses subsea petroleum production system failures, maintenance, inspection, modification and support practices. Findings from literature are validated, and new challenges are identified and discussed.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is based on a case study in the Norwegian petroleum industry, but may be applicable in other countries as well. The subsea production systems are critical production systems, and failures may result in long downtime and costly maintenance, inspection and support services. Hence, inspection, maintenance and modification intervention support services requires careful project planning, implementation and execution, taking into account all influencing factors.Originality/valueThe identified challenges can be used by decision makers in offshore maintenance projects.
Vibration‐ and acoustic‐emissions based novelty detection of fretted bearings
Authors: McBain Jordan , Lakanen Greg , Timusk Markus 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the use of a new feature reduction technique with novelty detection on vibration and acoustic‐emission sensors monitoring bearings mounted in the test benches of automotive manufacturers.Design/methodology/approachSignals from standard accelerometers and acoustic‐emission sensors were gathered from bearings operating under steady conditions on an accessory‐drive test bench. The bearings under test were subject to a variety of faults including fretting. These signals were processed and reduced to standard feature vectors, the dimensionality of which was reduced using a new principal‐component‐like technique optimized for novelty detection. The reduced data were analyzed with a novelty detection technique called the Support Vector Data Descriptor.FindingsThe classification results from these sensors, after being reduced with the proposed feature reduction technique, are substantially improved over those achievable with only standard novelty detection; nearly zero‐percent classification error was achieved.Research limitations/implicationsThe feature reduction technique depends, in part, on the availability of the fault type in question – potentially violating the normal novelty detection assumption of limited abnormal data. This may require the manufacturer to gather real or simulated fault data prior to running tests.Practical implicationsIncipient faults may be detectable at a much earlier stage in a manufacturer's component failure analysis. Test engineers may use this technique to reliably automate the fault detection process and enable improved root‐cause analysis through the earlier identification of faults.Originality/valueThe application of the feature reduction technique will provide manufacturers and researchers with a new means of improving fault detection in machinery components.
Weibull growth modeling of laser‐sintered nylon 12
Authors: Usher John S. , Gornet Timothy J. , Starr Thomas L. 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThis paper seeks to present the results of an experiment to investigate the effect of six part orientation (XY, XZ, YX, YZ, ZY, ZX) and a wide range of energy densities on ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation of laser‐sintered nylon 12 (PA‐12) test specimens.Design/methodology/approachASTM Type 1 specimens were built on a DTM Sinterstation 2500+ and tensile tested on an Instron 5569 A. The resulting data were fit to non‐linear regression models based on the well‐known Weibull growth model to predict each response based on the total energy density used in each trial.FindingsThe resulting regression models provide excellent fits with low sum of squared errors and normally distributed residuals. The resulting material properties are highly affected by the energy density and the build orientation. However, once sufficient energy density is applied, properties tend to converge to consistent values. To achieve maximum UTS of approximately 52 MPa, it is recommended that values of energy density above 0.25 W‐s per mm3 be used. To achieve maximum elongation of approximately 15‐16 percent, it is recommended that values of energy density above 0.40 W‐s per mm3 be used when building parts in the XY, XZ, YX, YZ orientations. Parts built in the ZX orientation exhibit lower elongation values at or below 12 percent for even high values of energy density.Originality/valueThis paper extends previous work of Starr, Gornet and Usher on the relationship between material properties, part orientation and energy density by proposing the use of the Weibull growth model. Recommendations are provided to assist users in the selection of correct energy density to achieve desirable mechanical properties in each specified orientation.
Overcoming cop culture? Organizational justice and police officers’ attitudes toward the public
Authors: Myhill Andy , Bradford Ben 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test theories of organizational justice in the context of a police agency.Design/methodology/approachStructural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyze data from a survey of officers in a police force in England.FindingsThe SEM showed that organizational justice was associated with positive attitudes towards serving members of the public. This relationship was mediated by commitment to elements of community policing and, for community police officers, by general satisfaction with the organization.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that police managers committed to implementing process‐based policing policies may need to ensure their organizations also implement internal policies and practices that are procedurally fair.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to apply the well established literature on organizational justice to the context of policing, and the first to examine the impact of organizational justice on alignment with community policing and the service model.
Supervisor‐officer fit and role ambiguity
Authors: Ingram Jason R. 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to re‐examine the nature of the sergeant‐officer attitudinal relationship. Using person‐environment fit as a framework, the current study tests the influence that sergeant‐officer attitudinal congruence concerning role orientations has on officer role ambiguity.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses survey data from 765 patrol officers and 146 sergeants across five police departments. Polynomial regression, calculated values, and response surface plots were used to examine the effect of sergeant‐officer attitudinal congruence on role ambiguity.FindingsFirst, there was modest empirical evidence that the relationship between sergeant and officer views toward order maintenance and role ambiguity was nonlinear. Second, role ambiguity was lowest for officers supervised by sergeants who highly accepted order maintenance activities. Finally, role ambiguity was higher when both officers and sergeants failed to view order maintenance and law enforcement as important functions of the police role.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings highlight the need to incorporate additional research approaches that capture differences in officer and sergeant views toward police work. Such differences might impact other attitudinal outcomes or officer discretionary behaviors.Practical implicationsWhen looking at attitudinal congruence, the results show that sergeants have the capacity to attenuate or amplify officer role ambiguity. This emphasizes the need for police administrators to ensure that sergeants communicate job expectations to their subordinate officers that are in line with the department's values.Originality/valueThe study adds to the limited body of research on frontline supervision by examining the nature of the sergeant‐officer attitudinal relationship from an alternative theoretical approach.
An empirical study on critical failure factors for enterprise resource planning implementation in Indian retail sector
Authors: Garg Poonam , Garg Atul 
Published: May 2013

PurposeMany retailers in India have decided to adopt one or another enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to improve their businesses, but implementing an ERP system can be a demanding venture. ERP implementation has always been an intricate process and is one of the challenges of the retail sector. There have been many obstacles seen in implementing ERP successfully. According to Standish Group's report, around 75 per cent of the ERP projects are classified as failures. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the process of identifying, analyzing and prioritizing the failure factors of ERP implementation using cause‐effect and Pareto analysis.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were collected via a survey questionnaire/interview technique. The questionnaires were distributed to practitioners like project sponsors, project managers, implementation consultants and team members who had been involved/implementing/using ERP in retail sector.FindingsResults suggest that 9 critical failure items namely Inadequate resources, Poor User involvement, Users' resistance to change, High Attrition rate of project team members, Lack of top management commitment, Poor project management, Inadequate project team composition, Ineffective organizational change management and Unrealistic project scheduling have a high impact on ERP implementation and therefore deserve serious attention in the process of ERP implementation.Originality/valueThis paper identifies and prioritizes the critical failure factors of ERP implementation in Indian retail sector. The awareness about these critical failure items may help the decision makers in formulating a better strategy for ERP implementation in Indian retail.
Practices of knowledge intensive process management: quantitative insights
Authors: Işik Öykü , Mertens Willem , Van den Bergh Joachim 
Published: May 2013

PurposeIn contemporary businesses, the importance of knowledge workers and the knowledge intensive business processes (KIBPs) is ever increasing, yet they seem very hard to control and manage. The purpose of this paper is to grasp the specific characteristics of KIBPs and how they differ from non‐knowledge intensive business processes (non‐KIBP), also to question how organizations are using business process management (BPM) to manage and improve KIBPs. The differences in maturity and effectiveness of both types of processes are also evaluated.Design/methodology/approachData for this research were collected through an online survey. The survey was designed based on a previously conducted exploratory study with semi‐structured interviews as well as the literature. The target group was BPM practitioners and the final sample included 98 respondents. Due to non‐normality, the analyses were conducted with non‐parametric tests. The research questions were analysed using Mann‐Whitney U test and Spearman's correlations.FindingsIt was found that KIBP and non‐KIBP have clearly different characteristics, such as the level of complexity, repeatability and creativity required. Also it was found that these processes are not managed or improved differently than non‐KIBPs, and suggest that organizations need to take these differences into consideration while managing and improving these processes. Furthermore, the results suggest that applying methodologies that aim to provide operational improvements may not necessarily produce the best results for KIBPs.Originality/valueThe paper answers a call for further development of the body of knowledge on knowledge‐intensive business processes, a rapidly emerging field of interest for BPM practitioners, where a clear gap in literature exists.
Foreign multinational banking in Malaysia: trends, motives and activities
Authors: Zamberi Ahmad Syed 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to analyse and examine the factors affecting the international expansion and market entry of foreign multinational banks (MNBs) in Malaysia. While relevance of the theoretical perspectives is highlighted, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the present‐day phenomenon of emerging multinational banks.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs multi‐method approaches combining both questionnaires survey data and qualitative interviews.FindingsThe findings reveal the fact that profitability, trade financing, following the customers, diversifying the risk and pursuing new market opportunities are among important factors for the presence of foreign banks in the country.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper highlights relevance of further research on multinational banking and outlines research avenues.Practical implicationsThe paper offers important insight and practical implications for local regulators and policy makers and bankers to understand the behaviour of foreign multinational banking in emerging markets.Originality/valueThe objective of this paper is to fill in some gaps in the literature regarding this research area. The paper provides preliminary research evidence and a framework to suggest hypotheses for further research.
Impact of corporate culture on the adoption of the Lean principles
Authors: Bhasin Sanjay 
Published: May 2013

PurposeEmpirical evidence suggests corporate culture and change contribute to every Lean failure. Whilst the prevailing research implies that successful Lean implementations lead to a profitable organisation, it also points towards the low numbers of organisations fully adopting the Lean principles. The purpose of this paper is to identify the existing prevalence of culture in explaining the low numbers (less than 10 per cent) of successful British manufacturing organisations that have fully adopted the concepts of Lean and to advocate preventative actions that organisations could pursue in order to improve the UK implementation records.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology predominantly used included survey questionnaires within 68 manufacturing organisations of various sizes and at differing stages of Lean; this was coupled with seven case studies and subsequently validated by an extensive Lean audit undertaken in 20 organisations.FindingsThis research initially deciphers the prevalence of culture to Lean failures and then proceeds to recommend courses of action to facilitate higher implementation rates. The significance of culture was evident. The results reveal that a triumphant implementation requires a systematic and controlled strategy to look at the prevailing culture. Whilst Lean failures are attributable to different causes; the fundamental issues of corporate culture and change is evident.Practical implicationsAny organisation embarking upon Lean needs to unequivocally address the prevailing cultural issues. For Lean to thrive, evidently the processes, appropriate application of tools and its application across the value chain would prove futile without a conducive culture.Originality/valuePossible remedial and preventative courses of action are advocated which should facilitate successful implementations. The implementation of Lean cannot be taken nonchalantly as there is a requirement for heavy investment in terms of both time and money. Nonetheless, when an organization pursues a conducive culture, the probability of success is improved, which secures the superior levels of performance.
Improvement of claim processing cycle time through Lean Six Sigma methodology
Authors: Ashok Sarkar Shri , Ranjan Mukhopadhyay Arup , Ghosh Sadhan Kumar 
Published: May 2013

PurposeIn the service sector, reduction of cycle time is one of the key issues. Among various approaches, Lean Six Sigma became very popular as it provides the organisation the desired speed with quality. The purpose of this paper is to present a Lean Six Sigma case study for reducing cycle time in the claim settlement process in insurance or financial services.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents an application of Lean Six Sigma methodology for claim settlement cycle time reduction in the insurance sector.FindingsLean Six Sigma is found to work very well in the insurance sector for reducing process cycle time by carrying out process changes. Mixing statistical and analytical techniques helps to improve the process speed and is very well demonstrated by Lean Six Sigma approach for service organizations.Originality/valueThis paper utilizes Lean and Six Sigma approaches in process improvement and presents an application. The main idea behind this paper is to demonstrate how combining Lean concepts/techniques with Six‐Sigma methodology can speed up problem‐solving approaches. Apart from the paper's value for managers, it can also help researchers to extend this for other areas of business processes.
Bloom or bust? A global value chain approach to smallholder flower production in Kenya
Authors: Zylberberg Ezequiel 
Published: May 2013

PurposeIntegrating smallholders into high‐value global markets represents a unique opportunity to effect large‐scale poverty reduction in the countryside. The purpose of the paper is to add empirical evidence to the discussion of how to best incorporate smallholders into the formal economy sustainably and responsibly.Design/methodology/approachThe paper first builds a theoretical framework around global value chain theory and literature on smallholder inclusion and Kenya's growing horticultural sector. It then moves to explore a Kenyan smallholder‐based business model that incorporates 4,000 flower producers through an efficient and transparent intermediary. The analysis focuses on the importance of governance, upgrading and strong intermediaries for including smallholders in horticultural value chains.FindingsIn conclusion, this paper finds that although smallholder inclusion is both favorable and feasible based on theory, literature and case study analysis, it remains limited. It proposes embracing innovative smallholder‐based business models as a viable path out of poverty in countries with low labor costs, suitable climatic conditions and basic infrastructural capacities.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include a reliance on largely qualitative research methods due to gaps in available data.Practical implicationsPolicy implications include the necessity of promoting agricultural development through investments in extension services, the creation of research and development centers and improvements in the rule of law.Originality/valueThis paper is unique in its focus on business models and global value chains as mechanisms through which to include smallholders into the global economy.
Categorizing WIP inventories in the food industry
Authors: Wilson Shellyanne 
Published: May 2013

PurposeThe food and beverage industry, particularly the agro‐processing and packaging industry, plays a critical role in the economies of Latin America and Caribbean countries. To remain competitive and to increase competitiveness, companies operating in this industry must achieve operational efficiency – where one contributing factor would be the efficient management of their work‐in‐progress (WIP) inventories.Design/methodology/approachConstructs from related manufacturing management research areas such as manufacturing strategy and coordination theory, are incorporated into a conceptual framework to examine the reasons WIP are needed in food plants. The framework is used to inform the development of an audit tool, which is applied in a case study.FindingsAn audit tool is proposed, which can be used by practitioners to review the structural and infrastructural decisions that impact WIP.Research limitations/implicationsThe audit tool is applied in one case study. Further application of the tool will test its overall comprehensiveness.Practical implicationsThe audit tool can be used as part of a structured decision making process.Originality/valueThe paper brings together a number of constructs to create an audit tool that can be used in both greenfield and existing plants in the food industry.
Teacher peer coaching in American and Turkish schools
Authors: Zepeda Sally J. , Parylo Oksana , Ilgan Abdurrahman 
Published: May 2013

PurposePeer coaching has been described as an effective form of teacher professional development. Consequently, different aspects of the peer coaching process have been examined. However, no international comparative studies focusing on the differences between the applicability and adoptability of peer coaching in different educational systems were found. This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis quantitative study examined cross‐national differences in educators’ beliefs about peer coaching by comparing survey responses of American and Turkish educators.FindingsData analysis showed that both American and Turkish educators found peer coaching adoptable at a high level in their school systems. However, on the applicability level there were statistically significant differences found at all subscales of peer coaching survey showing that American participants believed that peer coaching was much more applicable than did the Turkish participants.Research limitations/implicationsWhile limited by the small sample size not representative of the overall populations in the USA and Turkey, this study contributes to the international discourse on the different types of teacher professional development by examining cross‐national differences in educators’ beliefs about peer coaching.Practical implicationsThe results of this study inform practitioners and researchers about the ways peer coaching is perceived by educators in different countries. Given the findings, school districts can examine more contextually and culturally appropriate ways inherent in the post‐observation conference to increase the effectiveness of the peer coaching process.Originality/valueThe findings of this study enrich the body of research on peer coaching, particularly focusing on the teachers’ and leaders’ beliefs and perceptions about the adoption and applicability of peer coaching as a form of teacher professional development and calls for further empirical research on teacher peer coaching in the national and international contexts.