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1 – 10 of over 1000Jiangnan Qiu, Wenjing Gu, Zhongming Ma, Yue You, Chengjie Cai and Meihui Zhang
In the extant research on online knowledge communities (OKCs), little attention has been paid to the influence of membership fluidity on the coevolution of the social and…
Abstract
Purpose
In the extant research on online knowledge communities (OKCs), little attention has been paid to the influence of membership fluidity on the coevolution of the social and knowledge systems. This article aims to fill this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) framework, this paper constructs a simulation model to study the coevolution of these two systems under different levels of membership fluidity.
Findings
By analyzing the evolution of these systems with the vector autoregression (VAR) method, we find that social and knowledge systems become more orderly as the coevolution progresses. Furthermore, in communities with low membership fluidity, the microlevel of the social system (i.e. users) drives the coevolution, whereas in communities with high membership fluidity, the microlevel of the knowledge system (i.e. users' views) drives the coevolution.
Originality/value
This paper extends the application of the ASA framework and enriches the literature on membership fluidity of online communities and the literature on driving factors for coevolution of the social and knowledge systems in OKCs. On a practical level, our work suggests that community administrators should adopt different strategies for different membership fluidity to efficiently promote the coevolution of the social and knowledge systems in OKCs.
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Huan Chen, Dalong Ma and Ruowen Wang
This paper aims to explore Chinese entrepreneurs’ perceptions and interpretations of social media marketing (SMM) in their daily business practices.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore Chinese entrepreneurs’ perceptions and interpretations of social media marketing (SMM) in their daily business practices.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach was adopted to explore the phenomenon. Specifically, 18 in-depth interviews were conducted among Chinese entrepreneurs to obtain their experiences of and perceptions on SMM.
Findings
Findings revealed that Chinese entrepreneurs have good understandings of SMM. They believe SMM is a necessary way to interact with customers and SMM can provide flexibility and sensitivity which are important for entrepreneurial marketing and are not easy to achieve through traditional marketing activities. When they choose social media applications, they will match the purpose of marketing activity with the characteristics of the social media. They have developed the specific strategies for different social media applications. In the meantime, they are facing some challenges, such as breaking the communication clutter, measuring the results and over depending on social media.
Originality/value
Findings of the current study extend the uses and gratifications theory to the context of business-oriented media usage. In addition, findings of the study expand previous literature by enriching the theoretical understanding of the concept of entrepreneur and entrepreneurial marketing in new social and cultural contexts. Finally, findings of the current study also supplement previous research on social media advertising by uncovering rich meanings of SMM from business owners’ emic perspective.
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John Peikang Sun, Karen V. Fernandez and Catherine Frethey-Bentham
The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of virtual tipping in live game streaming from the perspective of tippers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of virtual tipping in live game streaming from the perspective of tippers.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research involved six naturalistic group interviews with 27 young adult game streaming tippers in China.
Findings
The research revealed a typology of four virtual tipping exchanges – perfunctory exchange, transactional (commodity) exchange, relational (gift) exchange and hybrid exchange. The most notable finding is hybrid exchange, a synergistic hybrid of transaction and gift-giving.
Practical implications
The authors recommend that both streamers and streaming platforms acknowledge and accommodate both transactional and relational tipping motivations. The authors also recommend platforms to recruit skillful streamers with high emotional intelligence to better convert perfunctory tippers into tippers who tip more generously.
Originality/value
The result of hybrid exchange suggests going beyond the traditional commodity vs gift dichotomy to examine the potential market-gift complementary in a single exchange in the sharing economy.
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Sadia Samar Ali, Rajbir Kaur and Jose Antonio Marmolejo Saucedo
Kai Rüdele, Matthias Wolf and Christian Ramsauer
Improving productivity and efficiency has always been crucial for industrial companies to remain competitive. In recent years, the topic of environmental impact has become…
Abstract
Purpose
Improving productivity and efficiency has always been crucial for industrial companies to remain competitive. In recent years, the topic of environmental impact has become increasingly important. Published research indicates that environmental and economic goals can enforce or rival each other. However, few papers have been published that address the interaction and integration of these two goals.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, we identify both, synergies and trade-offs based on a systematic review incorporating 66 publications issued between 1992 and 2021. We analyze, quantify and cluster examples of conjunctions of ecological and economic measures and thereby develop a framework for the combined improvement of performance and environmental compatibility.
Findings
Our findings indicate an increased significance of a combined consideration of these two dimensions of sustainability. We found that cases where enforcing synergies between economic and ecological effects were identified are by far more frequent than reports on trade-offs. For the individual categories, cost savings are uniformly considered as the most important economic aspect while, energy savings appear to be marginally more relevant than waste reduction in terms of environmental aspects.
Originality/value
No previous literature review provides a comparable graphical treatment of synergies and trade-offs between cost savings and ecological effects. For the first time, identified measures were classified in a 3 × 3 table considering type and principle.
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Atul Rawat, Sumeet Gupta and T. Joji Rao
This study aims to identify the operational and financial risks associated with the city gas distribution project in India and suggest appropriate strategies to mitigate them.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify the operational and financial risks associated with the city gas distribution project in India and suggest appropriate strategies to mitigate them.
Design/methodology/approach
This study aims to identify the operational and financial risks associated with the city gas distribution project in India and suggest appropriate strategies to mitigate them. The survey data is evaluated using factor analysis to understand the latent structure of the critical risk factors. Second, the author uses Situation, Actor and Process–Learning, Action and Performance framework to suggest the mitigation strategies for the identified operational and financial risk factors.
Findings
The research identified five critical risk factors and suggested 39 mitigation strategies to address operational and risk factors impacting CGD projects. The findings of this research will enable the CGD companies to formulate long-term strategies for their business and adopt proactive measures to mitigate the operational and financial risks causing delay and increasing project costs. This study also highlights the importance of government support in developing a conducive environment for CGD industry to thrive.
Originality/value
The CGD projects are critical for natural gas growth in India’s energy mix. The project delay leads to a rise in the total cost involved and increases the payback period for the CGD companies. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this research is first of its kind that identifies the critical operational and financial risks affecting CGD projects in India and suggests the mitigating strategies for them.
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Maurizio Faccio, Mojtaba Nedaei and Francesco Pilati
The current study aims to propose a new analytical approach by considering energy consumption (EC), maximum tardiness and completion time as the primary objective functions to…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study aims to propose a new analytical approach by considering energy consumption (EC), maximum tardiness and completion time as the primary objective functions to assess the performance of parallel, non-bottleneck and multitasking machines operating in dynamic job shops.
Design/methodology/approach
An analytical and iterative method is presented to optimize a novel dynamic job shop under technical constraints. The machine’s performance is analyzed by considering the setup energy. An optimization model from initial processing until scheduling and planning is proposed, and data sets consisting of design parameters are fed into the model.
Findings
Significant variations of EC and tardiness are observed. The minimum EC was calculated to be 141.5 hp.s when the defined decision variables were constantly increasing. Analysis of the optimum completion time has shown that among all studied methods, first come first served (FCFS), earliest due date (EDD) and shortest processing time (SPT) have resulted in the least completion time with a value of 20 s.
Originality/value
Considerable amount of energy can be dissipated when parallel, non-bottleneck and multitasking machines operate in lower-power modes. Additionally, in a dynamic job shop, adjusting the trend and arrangement of decision variables plays a crucial role in enhancing the system’s reliability. Such issues have never caught the attention of scientists for addressing the aforementioned problems. Therefore, with these underlying goals, this paper presents a new approach for evaluating and optimizing the system’s performance, considering different objective functions and technical constraints.
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Mamta Mishra, Surya Prakash Singh and M. P. Gupta
The research in competitive facility location (CFL) is quite dynamic, both from a problem formulation and an algorithmic point of view. Research direction has changed immensely…
Abstract
Purpose
The research in competitive facility location (CFL) is quite dynamic, both from a problem formulation and an algorithmic point of view. Research direction has changed immensely over the years to address various competitive challenges. This study aims to explore CFL literature to highlight these research trends, important issues and future research opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilises the Scopus database to search for related CFL models and adopts a five-step systematic approach for the review process. The five steps involve (1) Article Identification and keyword selection, (2) Selection criteria, (3) Literature review, (4) Literature analysis and (5) Research studies.
Findings
The paper presents a comprehensive review of CFL modelling efforts from 1981 to 2021 to provide a depth study of the research evolution in this area. The published articles are classified based on multiple characteristics, including the type of problem, type of competition, game-theoretical approaches, customer behaviour, decision space, type of demand, number of facilities, capacity and budget limitations. The review also highlights the popular problem areas and dedicated research in the respective domain. In addition, a second classification is also provided based on solution methods adopted to solve various CFL models and real-world case studies.
Originality/value
The paper covers 40 years of CFL literature from the perspective of the problem area, CFL characteristics and the solution approach. Additionally, it introduces characteristics such as capacity limit and budget constraint for the first time for classification purposes.
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Institutional actors are critical allies for grassroots movements, but few studies have examined their effects and variations within the non-democratic context. This chapter…
Abstract
Institutional actors are critical allies for grassroots movements, but few studies have examined their effects and variations within the non-democratic context. This chapter argues that while institutional allies are heavily constrained and unlikely to give open endorsement to grassroot activists, some institutional activists indirectly facilitate movement mobilization and favorable outcomes in the process of advancing their own political agendas. Drawing upon in-depth interviews conducted in 2008 and 2012, I illustrate this argument by examining the Anti-PX Movement – a landmark grassroots environmental movement against a chemical plant – in Xiamen, China. I find that the environmental institutional actors were constrained and divided, yet some still fostered opportunities for movement mobilization and in turn exploited the opportunity created by the protesters to pursue their policy interests, thus facilitating positive movement outcomes. As long as the claims are not politically subversive to the authoritarian rule, this type of tacit and tactical interaction between institutional activists within the state and grassroot activists on the street is conducive to promoting progressive policy changes.
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