The impact of sustainability-oriented dynamic capabilities on firm growth: investigating the green supply chain management and green political capabilities

Building on the dynamic capabilities literature and natural-resource-based view, the paper examines whether firms can attain sales growth through a range of sustainability-oriented dynamic capabilities including (1) internal green supply chain management capabilities, (2) external green supply chain management capabilities and (3) green political capabilities. Based on a dataset of 277 public US firms between 2010 and 2020, a panel quantile model of firm growth showcases that while internal green supply chain capabilities and green political capabilities affect firms' growth performance positively, external green supply chain capabilities are associated with slower growth. Importantly, the results indicate that the positive growth effects of green political capabilities are short-lived, while those of internal green supply chain capabilities are long-lived. The study contributes to the sustainability-oriented dynamic capabilities literature by showing that different capabilities have different implications for firm growth depending on the firm's base performance and the time periods under consideration

Unlocking innovation for net zero: Constraints, enablers, and firm-level transition strategies

Transition pathways for net zero encompass seemingly insurmountable innovation challenges for the scaling of less mature technological solutions such as hydrogen, materials substitution, and electrification as well as societal challenges to increase the market acceptability of these solutions. In this article, we present a conceptual framework which provides a firm-level perspective on net-zero innovation which has four unique characteristics, i.e. it is complex, systemic, urgent, and directional. The framework shows that the input, process, and output constraints that incumbent firms face in the net-zero transition can be tackled through four firm-level innovation levers – i.e. recombinative, collaborative, integrative, and socio-cognitive capabilities – which, in concert, act as enablers for firms to address these net-zero constraints. We conclude the article by outlining the framework’s main insights for firms’ innovation strategies for net zero and the policy implications. We also propose avenues for future research on net-zero innovation

Conserved mass models with stickiness and chipping

We study a chipping model in one dimensional periodic lattice with continuous mass, where a fixed fraction of the mass is chipped off from a site and distributed randomly among the departure site and its neighbours; the remaining mass sticks to the site. In the asymmetric version, the chipped off mass is distributed among the site and the right neighbour, whereas in the symmetric version the redistribution occurs among the two neighbours. The steady state mass distribution of the model is obtained using a perturbation method for both parallel and random sequential updates. In most cases, this perturbation theory provides a steady state distribution with reasonable accuracy.Comment: 17 pages, 4 eps figure

Wavelet transform based new interpolation technique for satellite image resolution enhancement

In this research paper, we propose a new interpolation technique based on the Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT) and iterative back projection (IBP) for satellite images. Firstly the low resolution image is interpolated by using bicubic interpolation and then decomposed into different subband images by SWT. Each subband is decimated to four lower low resolution images. The four low resolution images are interpolated and registered by using bicubic interpolation and IBP respectively. Inverse SWT (ISWT) is used to generate a Super-resolved output image. The proposed interpolation technique has been tested on several remote sensing images. The quantitative PSNR and SSIM results as well as the visual results show the superiority of the proposed interpolation technique over the other interpolation and image resolution enhancement techniques. For one of the images the PSNR of the proposed method has achieved 3.84dB, 2.11dB, and 1.1dB more improvements than bicubic interpolation, Irani and Peleg technique, and Wavlet Zero Padding technique respectively

Investigating the roughness effect of biofouling on propeller performance

As a result of the increasing pressure being placed on the marine industry to address ship emissions, regulations to govern the fuel efficiency and efficient operation of ships in the form of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) (IMO, 2014) and Energy Efficiency Operation Index (EEOI) (IMO, 2009a) have recently come into force. These have been introduced alongside regulations concerning specific emissions requirements (UNFCCC). Attention has therefore been turned to all aspects of ship design and operation which have impact on their efficiency. In turn, this paper focuses on the effects of biofouling on propeller surfaces highlighting the benefits of reducing biofouling. This subject was the focus of a recently completed EU-Funded FP7 Project entitled FOUL-X-SPEL (2011). This paper investigates the detrimental impacts of biofouling on the performance of a real ship propeller using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Initially, the CFD approach used in this study was validated through CFD open-water tests of a propeller. A previously-developed CFD approach for approximating the surface roughness that results from biofouling has then been applied in order to predict the effects on propeller efficiency. The roughness effects of a typical coating and different fouling conditions on the propeller performance were therefore predicted for various advance coefficients Results indicated negative effects of biofouling on the propeller efficiency and the importance of the mitigation of such effects, supporting the importance of informing the industry about the impacts such that they are able to make informed decisions regarding regular propeller maintenance and cleanin

Colour image watermarking based on wavelet and QR decomposition

In this work, a new image watermarking algorithm on colour images is proposed. The proposed algorithm divides a cover image into three colour bands of red, green and blue. Then the following tasks are done on all three channels separately. First, Each colour band is divided into patches of small sizes then the entropy of each patch is calculated. At this step a threshold is found based on the average entropy of all patches and following is applied to all patches which have entropy lower than the threshold. A wavelet representation of each patch are given by applying a discrete wavelet transform. Then Singular value decomposition, orthogonal-triangular decomposition, and a chirp z-transform are used to embed a watermark on the cover image. Several signal processing attacks are applied on watermarked images in order to robustness of the algorithm. The Proposed algorithm is compared with one conventional and two state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results show superiority of the proposed algorithm compare with other algorithm in the area of image watermarking