The unique Chinese innovation pathways: lessons from Chinese small and medium sized manufacturing firms

Many researchers equate the development of Chinese product innovation capabilities to Japanese and South Korean's development paths, that is, from imitation to innovation. Nonetheless, today many Chinese products have competed successfully in the global markets in terms of speed, cost, quality, and innovativeness. China's product innovation performance has gained the world's recognition. The performance of some industrial areas have also outperformed Japan and South Korea. This paper aims to understand and identify the unique phases of Chinese innovation. We collected empirical data from field studies and interviews with managers of ten small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Suzhou province of China. The research shows three unique Chinese innovation phases that are distinctive from the Japanese and South Korean. The results provided interesting insights into how Chinese SMEs in different industries cultivated their skills and knowledge under the three unique phases. We believe the findings contribute towards a better understanding of Chinese innovation in the context of China's evolving institutions and growing firm capabilities. Moreover, findings from this research hel

Childhood trauma in obsessive compulsive disorder: The roles of alexithymia and attachment

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the interrelationships between childhood trauma, attachment, alexithymia, and the severity of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in a cohort of participants with OCD. Rationale: There is a growing body of research linking traumatic experiences in childhood with the development of OCD. The mechanisms involved in this association are not yet clear. Methods: The sample was comprised of 82 people with OCD and 92 comparison participants. A cross-sectional design was used, utilizing internet-mediated administration of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire - revised (CTQ-R); the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale - Self-Report (Y-BOCS-SR); the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR); and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was used to determine significant paths between the constructs. Results: Results of PLS analysis supported all of the hypotheses made: there was a significant positive correlation between childhood trauma and attachment avoidance, which in turn was significantly positively associated with alexithymia. Alexithymia was significantly associated with the severity of OCD symptoms and the number of OCD symptoms. Mediational analysis showed that alexithymia significantly carried an influence from attachment avoidance to the severity of obsessions and the number of obsession symptoms. Conclusions: There is a relationship between childhood trauma and OCD, however this relationship is not direct in nature but is influenced by peoples\u27 past experiences with significant others and associated difficulties in emotional processing. © 2011 The British Psychological Society

Unpacking the indirect effects and consequences of environmental regulation

Environmental regulation and its corresponding measures and control is an important issue but have not been fully investigated. Literature on the unintended consequences of regulation control and measures appears to be sparse. Through a series of exploratory case studies in China, this paper examines the various unintended impacts of ecological civilisation (EC) regulation on firms’ operations and their related consequences to performance. Findings showed that there were interrelated themes that underpin the indirect and unintended effects of regulatory control and performance management. This exploratory study can contribute to both theory building and provide important EC policy implications by: (a) enriching the conceptual understanding of the unintended consequences of environmental regulation on firms’ behaviours and outcomes, (b) providing policy maker important insights and practical advices for regulating environmental performance

A User-Friendly Protocol for Mandibular Segmentation of CBCT Images for Superimposition and Internal Structure Analysis

Background: Since cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) technology has been widely adopted in orthodontics, multiple attempts have been made to devise techniques for mandibular segmentation and 3D superimposition. Unfortunately, as the software utilized in these methods are not specifically designed for orthodontics, complex procedures are often necessary to analyze each case. Thus, this study aimed to establish an orthodontist-friendly protocol for segmenting the mandible from CBCT images that maintains access to the internal anatomic structures. Methods: The “sculpting tool” in the Dolphin 3D Imaging software was used for segmentation. The segmented mandible images were saved as STL files for volume matching in the 3D Slicer to validate the repeatability of the current protocol and were exported as DICOM files for internal structure analysis and voxel-based superimposition. Results: The mandibles of all tested CBCT datasets were successfully segmented. The volume matching analysis showed high consistency between two independent segmentations for each mandible. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis on 20 additional CBCT mandibular segmentations further demonstrated the high consistency of the current protocol. Moreover, all of the anatomical structures for superimposition identified by the American Board of Orthodontics were found in the voxel-based superimposition, demonstrating the ability to conduct precise internal structure analyses with the segmented images. Conclusion: An efficient and precise protocol to segment the mandible while retaining access to the internal structures was developed on the basis of CBCT images. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Information and knowledge leakage in supply chain

The current world of post industrial value generation sees companies increasingly analyzing their internal operations against their external organizations to identify supply/demand fluctuations along the supply chain. Within these integrated relationships between internal and external parties in the supply chain, knowledge and information have become very important production resources. The existence and success of an increasing number of organizations strongly depend on their capabilities to utilize knowledge and information for profit generation. By managing more efficient information sharing, the volume of company confidential information passing through the supply chain increases, and this brings about more incidences of knowledge leakage and information leakage. A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2014 shows information security spending over the next 12 months would increase 60.27 % in Asia and 48.98 % in all regions. This emphasizes the importance of information privacy and therefore the necessity to study the information and knowledge leakage in integrated supply chain. The objectives of this study are to investigate the factors triggering information and knowledge leakage and create a mitigation framework to soften the impact of leakages on performance. The above objectives will be met by formulating and examining several hypotheses of a conceptualized information leakage (IL) and knowledge leakage (KL) framework. A case study derived from a structured interview is adopted as a methodology in this research. As a result, this paper contributes a novel theoretical model that characterizes information and knowledge leakage in an integrated supply chain. Therefore, it also adds new knowledge of managing information and knowledge leakage to supply chain management

Leveraging social media in new product development: organisational learning processes, mechanisms and evidence from China

Purpose The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how social media can provide important platforms to facilitate organisational learning and innovation in new product development (NPD) process. Design/methodology/approach Using a multiple case-study approach, this study assesses qualitative data collected via 56 interviews from 13 world-leading Chinese companies in the high-technology industry. Findings The study identified three distinct types of organisational learning mechanisms for firms to extract potential innovation inherent in social media. It further determined various organisational enablers that facilitate the connections between these mechanisms and NPD performance. Research limitations/implications This research contributes to the emerging literature on digital product development and organisational learning. The cases were conducted in the Chinese context, hence, the results may not be fully generalisable to other organisations, industries and countries without appropriate re-contextualisation. Practical implications The empirical evidence showcases the various mechanisms adopted by managers in different NPD phases. It identifies several technological and organisational adaptations that managers can apply to smartly scale their social presence and facilitate NPD. Originality/value Despite the exponential growth of social media use in identifying and interacting with external stakeholders, managerial practice and academic research have paid little attention to how social media can be leveraged for NPD. The value of this research comes from applying a qualitative method to gain in-depth insights into the mechanisms for leveraging social media to facilitate innovation in NPD

Leveraging Social Media in New Product Development: Organisational Learning Processes, Mechanisms and Evidence from China

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how social media can provide important platforms to facilitate organisational learning and innovation in new product development (NPD) process.Design/methodology/approach – Using a multiple case-study approach, this study assesses qualitative data collected via 56 interviews from 13 world-leading Chinese companies in the high-technology industry.Findings – The study identified three distinct types of organisational learning mechanisms for firms to extract potential innovation inherent in social media. It further determined various organisational enablers that facilitate the connections between these mechanisms and NPD performance.Research limitations/implications – This research contributes to the emerging literature on digital product development and organisational learning. The cases were conducted in the Chinese context, hence, the results may not be fully generalisable to other organisations, industries and countries without appropriate re-contextualisation.Practical implications – The empirical evidence showcases the various mechanisms adopted by managers in different NPD phases. It identifies several technological and organisational adaptations that managers can apply to smartly scale their social presence and facilitate NPD.Originality/value – Despite the exponential growth of social media use in identifying and interacting with external stakeholders, managerial practice and academic research have paid little attention to how social media can be leveraged for NPD. The value of this research comes from applying a qualitative method to gain in-depth insights into the mechanisms for leveraging social media to facilitate innovation in NPD

Value Co-creation in Sports Live Streaming Platforms: A Microfoundations Perspective

As a primarily synchronous social media form, social live streaming services offer real-time interaction between streamers and viewers, and among viewers. Users' value co-creation has become increasingly crucial for platform businesses to increase their competitive advantage. However, the previous studies using the microfoundations approach have only confirmed the employees' efforts to adopt technology as a way to achieve the firms' goals. This study explores the microfoundations of external actors' (viewers and streamers) value co-creation on sports live streaming platforms (SLSPs). Taking China Sport as a case study, this paper conducted netnography research with observations made of four live-streamed matches on the final matchday of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Grand Final 2019. In total, 16,204 real-time messages and 5,540 gifting messages were reviewed. In-depth interviews were also conducted with five streamers and 15 viewers. As a result, a typology of viewers (managers, fans, and audiences) emerged, and five viewer-streamer-viewer value co-creation activities were revealed. Furthermore, the unique value-in-use among streamers and viewers in different activities was found. This study presents a model to shows that the viewers' engagement and the value co-creation activities between viewers and streamers at a micro-level determines the value-in-use formation, which in turn, contributes to the competitive advantages for SLSPs at a macro level. This study contributes to the existing literature of engagement behaviour and value co-creation by empirically examining the role of external actors' engagement as the microfoundations of value co-creation in the context of new social technologies-SLSPs

Comparison of AR and physical experiential learning environment in supporting product innovation

This article compares how virtual and physical learning aids enhance learners’ product innovation capability, that is, design experiences and domain knowledge. The virtual aid utilises augmented reality (AR) allowing learners to experience a range of animated mechanisms using smart devices. The legacy physical aid mechanisms were made using three-dimensional printers. We studied the effects of both manipulatives on learners’ understanding of mechanical movements, for example, rack and pinion, and Geneva mechanism. To investigate learning impact of each aid, we compared the experimental results derived from two learners groups (13 participants each). This study provides a case to support product innovation education under an experiential learning environment. The outcomes showed that both aids were useful in enhancing design experiences and domain knowledge. Pre-and-post attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction motivation of both aids was found to be similar. However, distinctive differences were observed in terms of divergent search for ideation, suggesting for further research in combining both aids. We also found that learners’ learning motivation is lower in AR-based aid

A comparison of pharmacy student attainment, progression, and perceptions using team- and problem-based learning: Experiences from Wolverhampton School of Pharmacy, UK

Objective To compare pharmacy student attainment, progression, and perception of team-based (TBL) and problem-based learning (PBL) in comparison to more traditional didactic teaching methods. Design Student attainment and progression were established through comparison of examination data before and after TBL implementation and for the three teaching methodologies. Student perceptions of TBL and PBL were sought via a questionnaire and focus group. Assessment Summative examination performance was used to assess the effect of TBL implementation. Student attainment and progression increased after TBL implementation (attainment grade score: pre-TBL 7.7 vs. 11.19 post-TBL; p = 0.01 and progression: 89% vs. 92%; p = 0.574). Summative examination performance was also used to assess the effect of three teaching methodologies in the same cohort. Student attainment was higher with TBL compared with PBL (grade score: 11.19 vs. 8.73; p ≤ 0.001) and slightly but not significantly worse than those seen with traditional didactic teaching (grade score: 11.19 vs. 11.83; p = 0.355). Student progression was the highest with traditional teaching, then TBL, and finally PBL (96% vs. 92% vs. 88%; p = 0.224). Student perceptions favored TBL compared with PBL but traditional teaching methods were favored over both TBL and PBL. Conclusion The study shows that student attainment and progression were better using TBL compared with PBL, although traditional approaches to teaching saw comparable attainment and progression to TBL. Student perceptions favored traditional teaching more than TBL, which was more liked than PBL