Search results

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.

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.

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.

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.

Trust is essential for business relationships within a supply chain, and information sharing provides a key means to improve the efficiency of a supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the relationship between trust and manufacturer‐supplier information sharing to determine its (positive) effect on mass customization.

The data come from 208 firms in North America and China. Structural equation modeling supports the data analysis.

The results suggest that high mutual trust can lead to free information sharing between suppliers and manufacturers, which in turn leads to improved mass customization capabilities. In addition, cultural differences have significant moderating effects on the relationship between trust and information sharing.

The study described in this paper measures mutual trust between manufacturers and suppliers and regards information sharing as the free flow of information, both to and from the manufacturer and supplier.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce a perfectly matched layer (PML) absorber, based on Berenger's split field PML, to the recently proposed low-dispersion precise integration time domain method using a fourth-order accurate finite difference scheme (PITD(4)).

The validity and effectiveness of the PITD(4) method with the inclusion of the PML is investigated through a two-dimensional (2-D) point source radiating example.

Numerical results indicate that the larger time steps remain unchanged in the procedure of the PITD(4) method with the PML, and meanwhile, the PITD(4) method employing the PML is of the same absorbability as that of the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method with the PML. In addition, it is also demonstrated that the later time reflection error of the PITD(4) method employing the PML is much lower than that of the FDTD method with the PML.

An efficient application of PML in fourth-order precise integration time domain method for the numerical solution of Maxwell's equations.

This paper aims to present a modified precise integration time domain (PITD) method for the numerical solution of 2D scalar wave equation.

The split step (SS) scheme is applied to factorize the conventional PITD calculation into two sub-steps procedures and then field components can be updated along one spatial direction only in each sub-step. The perfectly matched layer (PML) absorber is extended to this method for modeling open region problems by using the stretched coordinate approach.

It is shown that this method requires less computation time and storage space in comparison with the conventional PITD method, yet maintains the numerical stability despite using large time steps.

The WE-PITD method requires the divergence free region, which may be a limit on its usage. Hence, there is a challenge of using this technique in the 3D problems.

Based on the SS scheme, the PITD method is used to solve the scale wave equation rather than Maxwell's equations, leading to a significant reduction in the computation time and memory usage.

Kevin Au graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a BBA and earned his Ph.D. in management/international business at the University of British Columbia. He co-founded the CUHK Center for Entrepreneurship and has been an associate director. He also serves as associate director of the MBA programme. His research interests are international management, entrepreneurship, family business, social network and cross-cultural research methodology. He has published dozens of academic articles, cases and book chapters, and served on the editorial boards of several academic journals. He has provided consulting and training for the government and business corporations. His clients include the Central Policy Unit, Hong Kong Cyberport, Ove Arup and a number of business startups and family businesses in Hong Kong.

This study seeks to examine the relationships between corporate strategy, human resource management (HRM) strategy, and knowledge management (KM) strategy, as well as their interactive influence on KM effectiveness.

Samples studied are 147 Taiwanese large companies in banking, services, and manufacturing industries; responses from multiple informants are collected from each firm.

Results indicate that firms pursuing cost leadership strategy and buy‐bureaucratic HRM strategy are more likely to adopt codification KM strategy. Firms adopting differentiation strategy and make‐organic HRM strategy are associated with frequent use of personalization KM strategy.

This study finds that fit between KM strategy and both corporate as well as HRM strategy are significantly related to better KM effectiveness in terms of process outcome, learning capability, and organizational outcomes.

The paper addresses the effect friendly and friendship relationships among members of innovation teams on the performance of the teams.

The members of innovation teams may develop friendly and friendship relationships over time. In our study, we focus on the effect of the frequency of such non‐work relationships on team performance. For this research, we collected full network data on non‐work relationships in a sample of 44 innovation teams and investigate how these “friendly and friendship networks” affect the performance of innovation teams.

As result turns out that the frequency of friendly ties has positive as well as negative consequences on team performance, whereas the frequency of friendship ties positively relates to the performance.

The results indicate the importance of informal relations for the performance of innovation teams. Further, it is shown that friendly and friendship relations have different theoretical and practical implications. Future research can overcome the limitations of the presented research by concentrating on larger sample sizes and longitudinal research designs.

Building on the results of the study managers can better orchestra innovation teams focussing not only on formal but also on informal contacts. The main practical implication is to strive for friendship contacts and to avoid too strong friendly contacts.

The study adds knowledge to the research on informal relationships and performance two‐fold. First, the findings testify that friendly and friendship contacts are different and not part of the same dimension, and there is strong evidence for the importance of informal contacts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of organizational culture and human resource management (HRM) effectiveness on financial performance of a sample of Singapore‐based companies involved in mergers and acquisition activities.

The study used the method of content analysis to collect information on cultural values and HRM effectiveness, using Kabanoff's content analysis dictionary. Culture profiles were then assigned to organizations in the sample following the results from cluster analysis. Various financial ratios were used to measure organizational performance. Finally, regression analysis was performed to test various hypotheses.

The key finding of the study is that organizations with either elite or leader value profile, when complemented by human resource effectiveness, had a better financial performance as compared to organizations with meritocratic or collegial value profiles. It thus follows that, to achieve better financial results by undertaking merger and acquisition activities organizations need to have elite or leadership value profile.

This study makes a contribution to the literature by producing new empirical evidence to bear on the effect of organizational culture and human resource effectiveness on financial performance of merging acquiring organizations from a newly industrialized Asian country.

Knowledge‐based systems (KBS) and multimedia technology (MMT) have been widely used in many industries for years to solve complicated problems. The integration of KBS and MMT, which leads to intelligent multimedia, provides a powerful tool for expertise‐intensive training. Although many tasks in construction demand extensive expertise and years of experience, the use of intelligent multimedia for training on these tasks has, however, hardly been documented in the literature. Aims to demonstrate the feasibility and potential benefits of using intelligent multimedia for expertise‐intensive training in construction. By referring to a case study in strategic cost estimate for building projects, illustrates the facilities that can be offered by the integrated systems. Since strategic cost estimate for a building project at early design stages is an extremely complex task, trainees have to go through a long period of learning before they can be competent in conducting such tasks. Introduces an intelligent multimedia system as a solution to the above problem. Reveals that intelligent multimedia can be deployed to meet the challenges of accurately representing the highly complex expertise in the knowledge base, and facilitating the learning process of the trainees through the highly interactive and non‐linear access to the explicit and transparent expertise.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the application of the nascent corporate opportunity doctrine in China by comparison with its well-established English counterpart; in particular, it evaluates whether the fine balance between business integrity and business efficiency has been struck.

It is argued that the scope of application of the corporate opportunity doctrine in China should be extended, and the rules on the burden of proof should be amended. Moreover, a stricter approach should be adopted by the Chinese judiciary for the purpose of protecting the company’s interests and enhancing business integrity.

This paper mainly focuses on the corporate opportunity doctrine. It does not discuss other duties of directors in detail.

It is useful for directors in balancing business integrity and business efficiency.

It is an original piece of work which assesses the corporate opportunity doctrine by making comparison with English law.