The relationship between knowledge management, innovation and firm performance: evidence from Dutch SMEs

This article investigates the relationship between knowledge management (KM), innovation and firm performance of smaller firms (less than 100 employees), based on a panel of more than 400 Dutch firms. Regression analyses explain the variations in sales turnover growth from various measures of KM strategies. We distinguish between KM input, throughput and output (or innovation) strategies. We find that KM input strategies related to knowledge acquisition are positively related to sales turnover growth. In contrast, we do not find a relation between KM throughput and KM output (innovation) measures and firm performance. The results emphasize the importance of both knowledge absorption and knowledge creation to the success of innovative efforts in small firms. This is an updated version of Scales-paper N200322.

Libatsama awam terhadap prosedur EIA terperinci berhubung projek petrokimia di Pengerang Johor

EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) ialah suatu kajian bagi mengenalpasti, meramal dan menghuraikan kebaikan serta keburukan sesuatu cadangan projek pembangunan. Libatsama awam dalam prosedur EIA Terperinci sewajarnya perlu lebih menyeluruh dan berkesan, ini bermaksud persetujuan majoriti daripada pihak awam berhubung sesuatu projek adalah sangat penting sebelum Laporan EIA Terperinci berkenaan diluluskan. Walau bagaimanapun, masih terdapat kurang penglibatasama awam terhadap prosedur EIA Terperinci yang dijalankan oleh JAS dan memberi kesan dalam perlaksanaannya. Oleh itu, objektif pertama kajian ialah, mengkaji permasalahan komuniti di Pengerang berhubung prosedur EIA Terperinci yang dijalankan oleh JAS. Objektif kedua ialah mengenalpasti pandangan JAS terhadap prosedur dan isu penyertaan orang awam berhubung EIA Terperinci. Objektif ketiga ialah menilai pandangan persatuan bukan kerajaan yang terlibat iaitu ahli FOMCA (Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations) dan MNS (Malaysian Nature Society) berhubung sesi dialog dalam prosedur EIA Terperinci. Objektif keempat ialah membangunkan rangka kerja libatsama awam untuk projek pembangunan di Malaysia. Seramai 379 orang komuniti di Pengerang telah terpilih sebagai responden untuk menjawab borang soal selidik. Manakala seramai 70 orang responden ahli FOMCA dan 73 orang responden MNS terpilih untuk menjawab borang soal selidik. Dan borang temubual diedarkan kepada 10 orang pegawai JAS Putrajaya dan JAS Johor Bahru. Data kualitatif dianalisis menggunakan perisian QSR Nvivo11 manakala data kuantitatif dianalisis menggunakan kaedah SPSS. Hasil kajian membuktikan prosedur EIA Terperinci khusus diperingkat penglibatasama awam akan lebih berkesan sekiranya kelima-lima elemen diadaptasi melalui rangka kerja prosedur EIA Terperinci sedia ada. Lima elemen yang mendasari rangka kerja tersebut ialah penglibatan berkesan daripada pihak awam, komunikasi berkesan daripada pihak JAS, tindakan penguatkuasaan berkesan oleh JAS, kerjasama dan sokongan padu semua pihak dan pemantauan berkesan dalam tiga fasa projek EIA Terperinci. Rangka kerja ini membantu pihak JAS menyelesaikan segala permasalahan serta konflik pihak awam dan NGO yang terlibat dalam prosedur EIA Terperinci

Improving the indoor air quality (IAQ) through application of the air cleaning technologies for offices building simulated in environmental chamber

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is very important issue in residential and commercial buildings, because human spend almost 90% of their life indoor. IAQ problems effect on the health of the occupants, and lead to reduction of the efficiency and output in workplaces. The main objective of this study is to improving the (IAQ) and to reduce energy consumption in offices building, through experimental and simulation investigation. The method used in this study was by using environmental chamber to represent the real office. The results of the experimental were validated the simulation. The chamber was modified by installing two mechanical filters with low pressure drop; minimum efficiency reporting value rate 13 (MERV 13) and activated carbon filter (ACF) on the air handling unit. The IAQ parameters which include temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, air flow rate, pressure drop, CO2 concentration and particle matters PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentration for upstream and downstream were considered in this study. These variables were measured inside the chamber using IAQ devices and these data were used as an input data for simulation by using ANSYS 16.1 software. The simulation generated the air distribution via air velocity, temperature, CO2 concentration and the particle distribution in the room. The results from experiment showed good agreement for combining filters efficiency value from 86.20% to 84.60% and from 86% to 82.35% for PM 10 and PM 2.5 particle removal respectively during occupied period. The CO2 concentration decreased during the measurement period from 816 ppm to 700 ppm and the distribution was in the acceptable range compare with ASHRAE standard 55-2004 and Malaysian industry code of practice on IAQ. Also, the validation with simulation showed below 10% error ratio compare with experiment results. The significance of study is to balance between enhancing thermal comfort inside workplace and (IAQ) for occupants, leading to reduction of energy consumption

Vitamin D3-loaded electrospun cellulose acetate/polycaprolactone nanofibers: Characterization, in-vitro drug release and cytotoxicity studies

Vitamin D deficiency is nowa global health problem; despite several drug delivery systems for carrying vitaminD due to low bioavailability and loss bioactivity. Developing a new drug delivery system to deliver vitamin D3 is a strong incentive in the current study. Hence, an implantable drug delivery system (IDDS) was developed from the electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) and ε-polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous membrane, in which the core of implants consists of vitamin D3-loaded CA nanofiber (CAVD) and enclosed in a thin layer of the PCL membrane (CAVD/PCL). CA nanofibrousmat loadedwith vitaminD3 at the concentrations of 6, 12, and 20% (w/w) of vitamin D3 were produced using electrospinning. The smooth and bead-free fibers with diameters ranged from 324 to 428 nm were obtained. The fiber diameters increased with an increase in vitamin D3 content. The controlled drug release profile was observed over 30-days, which fit with the zero-order model (R2 > 0.96) in the first stage. The mechanical properties of IDDS were improved. Young's modulus and tensile strength of CAVD/PCL (dry) were161 ± 14 and 13.07 ± 2.5 MPa, respectively. CA and PCL nanofibers are non-cytotoxic based on the results of the in-vitro cytotoxicity studies. This study can further broaden in-vivo study and provide a reference for developing a new IDDS to carry vitamin D3 in the future

Critical powder loading and the rheology of nanosized cemented carbide with titanium carbide as grain growth inhibitor for injection molding

The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical powder loading of WC-Co and to study the effect of TiC powder on the rheological behavior of MIM feedstock. WC-TiC-6Co metal powder was taken as raw material. 60% (mass fraction) palm stearin and 40% low density polyethylene were employed as binders to prepare injection feedstock. Three feedstocks were prepared at different TiC % loadings of 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 (by weight). A homogeneous metal powders is formed by using ball mill mixer and mixed together with binder system by using Brabender mixer. Based on the result obtained, it was concluded that feedstock with 0.75 wt. % TiC powder show a good pseudo-plastic behavior within acceptable ranges in MIM

A modified flower pollination algorithm and carnivorous plant algorithm for solving engineering optimization problem

Optimization in an essential element in mechanical engineering and has never been an easy task. Hence, using an effective optimiser to solve these problems with high complexity is important. In this study, two metaheuristic algorithms, namely, modified flower pollination algorithm (MFPA) and carnivorous plant algorithm (CPA), were proposed. Flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is a biomimicry optimisation algorithm inspired by natural pollination. Although FPA has shown better convergence than particle swarm optimisation and genetic algorithm in the pioneering study, improving the convergence characteristic of FPA still needs more work. To speed up the convergence, modifications of: (i) employing chaos theory in the initialisation of initial population to enhance the diversity of the initial population in the search space, (ii) replacing FPA’s local search strategy with frog leaping algorithm to improve intensification, and (iii) integrating inertia weight into FPA’s global search strategy to adjust the searching ability of the global strategy, were presented. CPA, on the other hand, was developed based on the inspiration from how carnivorous plants adapt to survive in harsh environments. Both MFPA and CPA were first evaluated using twenty-five well-known benchmark functions with different characteristics and seven Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) 2017 test functions. Their convergence characteristic and computational efficiency were analysed and compared with eight widely used metaheuristic algorithms, with the superiority validated using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The applicability of MFPA and CPA were further examined on eighteen mechanical engineering design problems and two challenging real-world applications of controlling the orientation of a five-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm and moving-object tracking in a complicated environment. For the optimisation of classical benchmark functions, CPA was ranked first. It also obtained the first rank in CEC04 and CEC07 modern test functions. Both CPA and MFPA showed promising results on the mechanical engineering design problems. CPA improved over the particle swarm optimisation algorithm in terms of the best fitness value by 69.40-95.99% in the optimisation of the robotic arm. Meanwhile, MFPA demonstrated a better tracking performance in the considered case studies by at least 52.99% better fitness function evaluation and fewer number of function evaluations as compared with the competitors

Knowledge Management: Alternatif Strategi Meningkatkan Kinerja Perusahaan

The more widespread application of knowledge management embodies the recognition of the importance of intangible assets in the form knowledge. Knowledge which is managed and developed will achieve competence and expertise, which ultimately could improve the competitiveness and performance. Several empirical studies support the opinion of experts, who had certainly found out that knowledge management could improve corporate innovation. Although it does not become the only factor, empirically, knowledge management could improve corporate performances. The implementation of knowledge management is not only suitable for commercial companies and large companies; knowledge management can also be applied to non-profit organizations (NPOs) and for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Knowledge Management and Innovation on Firm Performance of United States Ship Repair

With the decreasing labor forces throughout the United States, if leadership of the ship repair industry does not incorporate knowledge sharing and innovation into their daily business practices, knowledge will be lost during employee departures and turnover of teams from project-to-project, resulting in decreasing firm performance within their organizations. This was a correlation study to determine if there was a correlation between knowledge management, innovation, and firm performance. Data were collected from 69 CEO/Presidents, Human Resource personnel, or members in leadership positions of the Virginia Ship Repair Association in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The theoretical framework for this study was the unified model of dynamic knowledge creation with the key constructs of the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization process; places of knowledge sharing, whether they are virtual, physical, or mental; and leadership. Data collection occurred through an online survey. Multiple linear regression analyses significantly predicted the dependent variable, F(2, 66) = 17.33, p = .000, R2 = .344. Increasing knowledge sharing and innovation practices provides for positive social change for the personnel of these organizations, since the skills they learn within their organizations are immediately usable in their personal endeavors in their churches, neighborhoods, and family relationships and are transferrable to those they interact with outside of their organizations

SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE’S GROWTH AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES IMPLEMENTATION

If managers of many SME do not clearly assume the necessity to modernize their organizations, they will not be able to take advantage of all its resources' potentialities, not only the technological resources, but also of the capacities and qualifications of the human resources. This article looks at how new technologies and their inherent risks have to be considered to achieve performance, to enhance productivity, and to strengthen competitiveness. The solution demands the understanding of the capacities of technologies, the possibility of exploring their benefits and the effort of acquiring an improving the management performance.Innovation management, Change management, SME’s growth, Performance management

Relationship Between Knowledge Management and Job Satisfaction Among University Librarians of the Punjab, Pakistan

With the development of knowledge as economy, knowledge become the asset for the organizations. In this context, it is very essential organizational strategy to cop up with environmental changes. order to survive and compete effectively in the global environment. Research purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between knowledge management and job satisfaction among the university librarians of the Punjab, Pakistan. For data collection process survey research method was used. On the basis of literature review, a questionnaire was designed for data collection. The analyzed data showed a good relationship of the research main constructs between satisfaction of librarians’ jobs and different aspects of knowledge management. It was evaluated that there was a good relation of knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing with job satisfaction. There is positive impact of knowledge management process on an organization and help improve efficiency and effectiveness. Beside this, job satisfaction is a important aspect for organizational success. It plays a significant role in achieving the organizational goals. The study concluded that both job satisfaction and KM draw a significant task in increasing the services availability, efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and performance of the professionals. Academic libraries and other organizations can use the findings of this study to improve their practices. This might help to increase innovation, productivity, opportunity and competitive advantages