Experimental study on the shear performance of quasi-NPR steel bolted rock joints

Quasi-NPR(negative Poisson’s ratio)steel is a new type of super bolt material with high strength,high ductility,and a micro-negative Poisson’s effect.This material overcomes the contrasting characteristics of the high strength and high ductility of steel and it has significant energy-absorbing characteristics,which is of high value in deep rock and soil support engineering.However,research on the shear resistance of quasi-NPR steel has not been carried out.To study the shear performance of quasi-NPR steel bolted rock joints,indoor shear tests of bolted rock joints under different normal stress conditions were carried out.Q235 steel and#45 steel,two representative ordinary bolt steels,were set up as a control group for comparative tests to compare and analyze the shear strength,deformation and instability mode,shear energy absorption characteristics,and bolting contribution of different types of bolts.The results show that the jointed rock masses without bolt reinforcement undergo brittle failure under shear load,while the bolted jointed rock masses show obvious ductile failure characteristics.The shear deformation ca-pacity of quasi-NPR steel is more than 3.5 times that of Q235 steel and#45 steel.No fracture occurs in the quasi-NPR steel during large shear deformation and it can provide stable shear resistance.However,the other two types of control bolts become fractured under the same conditions.Quasi-NPR steel has significant energy-absorbing characteristics under shear load and has obvious advantages in terms of absorbing the energy released by shear deformation of jointed rock masses as compared with ordinary steel.In particular,the shear force plays a major role in resisting the shear deformation of Q235 steel and#45 steel,therefore,fracture failure occurs under small bolt deformation.However,the axial force of quasi-NPR steel can be fully exerted when resisting joint shear deformation;the steel itself does not break when large shear deformation occurs,and the supporting effect of the jointed rock mass is effectively guaranteed.

Encapsulated peracetic acid as a valid broad‑spectrum antimicrobial alternative,leading to beneficial microbiota compositional changes and enhanced performance in broiler chickens

Background Antimicrobial alternatives are urgently needed,including for poultry production systems.In this study,we tested the potential broad-range antimicrobial alternative peracetic acid,delivered in feed via the hydrolysis of encapsulated precursors through a 28-day study using 375 Ross 308 broiler chickens.We tested two peracetic acid concentrations,30 and 80 mg/kg on birds housed on re-used litter,and we evaluated the impact of both levels on gut microbial communities,bacterial concentration,antimicrobial resistance genes relative abundance and growth performance when compared to control birds housed on either clean or re-used litter.Results Body weight gain and feed conversion ratio improved in peracetic acid fed birds.At d 28,birds given 30 mg/kg of peracetic acid had a decreased Firmicutes and an increased Proteobacteria abundance in the jejunum,accompanied by an increase in Bacillus,Flavonifractor and Rombustia in the caeca,and a decreased abundance of tetracycline resistance genes.Chicken given 80 mg/kg of peracetic acid had greater caecal abundance of macrolides lincosamides and streptogramins resistance genes.Growth performance on clean litter was reduced compared to reused litter,which concurred with increased caecal abundance of Blautia,decreased caecal abundance of Escherichia/Shigella,Anaerostipes and Jeotgalicoccus,and greater gene abundance of vancomycin,tetracycline,and macrolides resistance genes.Conclusions Peracetic acid could be used as a safe broad-spectrum antimicrobial alternative in broilers.Encapsulated precursors were able to reduce the bacterial concentration in the jejunum whilst promoting the proliferation of probiotic genera in the caeca,especially at the low peracetic acid concentrations tested,and improve growth performance.Moreover,our findings offer further insights on potential benefits of rearing birds on re-used litter,suggesting that the latter could be associated with better performance and reduced antimicrobial resistance risk compared to clean litter rearing.

Leveraging core capabilities and environmental dynamism for food traceability and firm performance in a food supply chain: A moderated mediation model

This paper develops a moderated mediation model in which the interactive effects of food traceability and environmental dynamism on firm performance are mediated by the core capabilities(operating capabilities and marketing capabilities)in food supply chain context, by invoking the indirect view of organizational learning theory. Our hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping methods with a sample of 216 food manufacturing firms in China, and a survey-based, two-informant design was used to collect data. The results revealed that operating and marketing capabilities fully mediate the food traceability-performance link. In addition, environmental dynamism positively moderates the food traceability-core capabilities link. Moreover, it is found that operating and marketing capabilities transform the interactive impacts of environmental dynamism and food traceability into firm performance. Our study offers a fine-grained picture of the essential food traceability-performance link by revealing for the first time that there is an interactive impacts of food traceability and environmental dynamism on firm performance via core capabilities.

Does board gender diversity affect firm performance?Empirical evidence from Standard & Poor’s 500 Information Technology Sector

The essence of this study is to investigate the influence of the board gender diversity on firms’accounting and market-based performance using a sample of Standard&Poor’s 500 companies belonging to the information technology sector over 12 years.Using the pooled ordinary least squares(OLS)method,the outcomes provide evidence for a positive influence of women on corporate boards on both measures of company performance,except for the percentage of female executives in the case of return on assets(ROA).After estimating the fixed effects and random-effects through panel data,the econometric outcomes show no statistically significant association among board gender diversity and ROA but a positive influence of the number and percentage of women on board on price-to-earnings ratio.

The Moderating Effect of Team Orientation Over the Relationship Between TMT Strategic Decision Speed and Firm Performance

Due to the fast changing competitive environment faced by organizations, companies are forced to find ways to quickly adapt to technological innovations, changing demands of customers, and strategic actions taken by competitors. The purpose of the paper is to further the relationship between top management team （TMT） strategic decision speed and firm performance, considering the team processes when making strategic decisions in the face of complex environments. Measures of TMT strategic decision speed, firm performance, team orientation, and environmental complexity were collected from 29 top management teams of Mexican companies, which represented a total of 118 questionnaires. Pearson correlations among the variables and moderated regression analyses were performed, to test the hypotheses included in the study. Results show a positive relation between environmental complexity and TMT strategic decision speed and between team orientation and speed. Furthermore, results show that there is a positive relation between TMT strategic decision speed and firm performance in the presence of team orientation. In other words, team orientation moderates the relationship between TMT strategic speed and firm performance. Among the implications for managers is that they must ensure effective team processes （e.g., building consensus, active participation, and trust among team members） when making strategic decisions in order for the firm to perform better.

Entrepreneurial Leadership, Market Orientation, and Firm Performance

This paper explores entrepreneurial leadership, market orientation, and firm performance. It sorts to ascertain through the literature whether entrepreneurial leadership has an influence on market orientation decision and firm performance. The review points to the fact that entrepreneurial leadership creates visionary scenarios which they used to assemble and mobilize a “supporting cast” of participants who become committed to the vision and the discovery of strategic value creation by influencing market orientation decision and thus enhancing firm performance. The study thus developed a process model as a result of the literature reviewed. The study concludes that, entrepreneurial leadership influences the market orientation decision of a firm with the help of the “supporting cast” and this helps the firm to increase its performance.

Research on Firm Size, Firm Performance and Internal Auditing Modes——Based on Listed Manufacturing Companies of China

This paper is based on the samples of listed manufacturing companies of China, taking the financial performance as criterion, and then does research on the firm performance with different internal auditing modes, using Cross-sectional data to analyze the distribution of internal auditing modes and the characteristics of the firm performance. The conclusion is that setting up internal auditing is good for the development of companies, but the function of internal auditing has not been widelv fulfilled.

Factors Affecting Financial Performance of Tourism Destination Firms Listed on Stock Exchanges in China

Purpose:the aim of this research is to test the effect of financial ratio on the financial performance of tourism destination firms listed on stock exchange in China.The research selected ratios:current ratio(CR)as a dimension of liquidity,total asset turnover ratio(TATR)as a dimension of asset utilization,debt ratio(DE)as a dimension of leverage,natural logarithm of total asset(LNTA)as a dimension of firm size,GDP growth rate as a dimension of economic prosperity,and effective tax rate as a dimension of effective tax.This research will use return on asset(ROA),return on sales(ROS),return on equity(ROE)and sales growth(SG)to determine the financial performance.Since stock exchange founded in China,tourism destination firm developed very fast.However tourism destination listed firms have weakness financial performance.Design/methodology/approach:the research data collected from quarterly financial report,from 2012 Q1 to 2018 Q4.The secondary data has been analyzed by multiple regression.Finding:the result indicate that CR,TATR,GDP growth rate have positive impact on financial performance.While DE has negative impact on financial performance.And LNTA has a mix result with financial performance.Originality/value:This study led to the effect of financial ratios on tourism's financial performance since past researches with this aim were difficult to identify and certain references were not specifically linked to the topic.

TMT Heterogeneity and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effect of Managerial Discretion

Now the top management team and managerial discretion play an important role in driving the firms’development.This paper built a theoretical model to explore the effect of top management team heterogeneity on firm performance,and analyze the moderating role of managerial discretion.Based on the data of 167 listed firms from Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2019,this paper constructs a multiple regression model and tested the hypothesis.The empirical results show that gender heterogeneity,tenure heterogeneity and education level heterogeneity have a negative effect on firms performance.At the same time managerial discretion can partially moderates the relationship between the heterogeneity of top management team and firm performance,in which capital intensity and the firm size play a negative moderating role,and duality play a positive moderating role.According to the research results,this paper also puts forward corresponding suggestions to improve the firm performance.

Co-alignment between Environment Risk,Capital Structure,Growth and High-tech Firm Performance

To examine whether there is a co-alignment relationship between environment risk, capital structure, growth and high-tech firm performance, the environment risk was measured from the viewpoint of environment change, the long-term debt ratio was adopted as the measure of the capital structure, and the total asset growth and sales growth were chosen to measure the growth of high-tech firms. Regression analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between environment risk, growth and performance of hightech firms measured by the return on equity and cash flow, respectively.

Environmental regulation and firms'performance:a quasi-natural experiment from China

This paper investigates whether environmental regulation affects firm's performance including productivity,wage and employment using firm-level data in 1996-2007.The identification uses Two Control Zones(TCZ)policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1998,in which tougher environmental regulations were imposed in TCZ cities but not others.By difference-indifferences estimation,we find that tougher environmental regulation leads to larger increase on both total factor productivity and wage,and firms tend to employ fewer workers under pressure of environmental protection.Heterogeneous tests show that the impacts are better for nonpollution intensive firms,non-exporters and SOEs.Finally,we find that R&D input and exiting firms among industry are the driving forces for enhancing TFP and increasing wage and unemployment.

The effects of managerial ability on firm performance and the mediating role of capital structure:evidence from Taiwan

This study utilizes mediation analysis and bootstrapping to analyze the mediating effect of capital structure on the association between managerial ability and firm performance.The dataset consists of 6384 firm-year observations from the Taiwan Residents electronics industry during 2005–2018.Our results indicate that(1)low(high)levels of debt are likely observed in firms with CEOs with high(low)ability,(2)managerial ability positively affects firm performance,and(3)capital structure mediates the positive relationship between managerial ability and firm performance.Overall,the findings may have limited generalizability due to the specific sample characteristics and provide convincing support for the importance of capital structure as a mediator in the managerial ability-firm performance nexus.Specifically,this study highlights the need for examining the effect of managerial ability on firm performance through a mediator.

The Moderating Effects of Gender Diversity on Supply Chain Practice and Firm Performance

This research investivates the moderating effects of employees gender diversity and uncertainty on the relationship between supply chain practices and the performance of the firm which have a supply chain, Current supply chain management has become a possibly valuable way of improving firm performance, Gender plays an important role in the performance of an organization, but it has not get emphasize in research so far, This study provides a conceptual justification for a proposed model that identifies the relationships between supply chain practices and firm performance and describes the moderating effect of gender diversity and uncertainty, The higher levels of supply chain practice can lead to enhance firm performance, Also, gender diversity and uncertainty has an interaction effect on this relationship.

The Impact of Electronic Supply Chain Management Usage on Firm’s Performance

This study investigates the status of e-SCM and performance among Jordanian manufacturing sector. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of trust and communication on the e-SCM usage. Moreover, the study investigates the effect of the trust and communication on the firm’s performance while the e-SCM usage is used as a mediating factor on firm’s performance. The proposed research model was validated by distributing 250 survey questionnaires to the manufacturing sector in Jordan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to analyze the results. One of the main limitations of this study was that the results could not be universal since the study was limited to Jordan. We discussed the implications of our results for research and practice.

Measuring the influences of supplier selection and supply chain tasks on firm performance among manufacturing firms in India

The primary objective of this research is to empirically probe the various aspects and variables that have been already addressed in the previous literature related to supplier selection criterion, supply effort management and firm performance. Further, this research aims to develop a measurement framework and pragmatically prove the framework through a measurement model. First, a factor structure for various constructs is made and the initial validity is determined from practicing managers and academicians. This research employs survey method and the data is collected from 358 supply chain professionals working in manufacturing firms in India. A measurement model is developed and proved with various tests of reliability and validity. Finally, three major latent constructs were formulated, namely, criterion of supplier selection, supply effort management and firm performance. The factor scores of these latent variables were used for further analysis. A six-stage approach was followed in the analysis of data. Firm performance was regressed against supplier selection criterion and supply effort management. The results indicate that the predictive variable has positive and significant effect on firm performance and they do not have any interaction and multicollinearity effects.

Supply Chain Management Practices, Competitive Advantages and Firm Performance： A Case of Small and Medium Enterprises （SMEs） in Vietnam

The perception of supply chain management （SCM） first appeared in 1982 and the very first papers on SCM were published in the mid 1980s （Houlihan, 1985）. However, this term is still fresh in Vietnam, especially the subject of SCM practices and their impacts on firm performance of small and medium enterprises （SMEs）. Therefore, the research was conducted to study the impact of supply chain management practices （SCMPs） on firm performance of SMEs through firm competitive advantages. Data were collected by surveying SMEs located in Ho Chi Minh City. The research findings showed that customer relationship （CR） and quality of information sharing （IQ） impact on firm performance at 0.01% significance level while the level of information sharing impacts on firm performance at 10% significance level, and strategic supplier partnership impacts on firm performance insignificantly. Moreover, we also found that customer relationship and quality of information sharing influence firm competitive advantage at 0.01% significance level, while strategic supplier partnership and the quality of information sharing impact on firm competitive advantage at 5% significance level. Competitive advantages impact significantly positively on firm performance at significance level of 0.001%. The findings imply that SMEs in Vietnam should manage customer relationship well and increase the level of information quality to improve competitive advantage in order to gain high performance.

HR and firm performance at companies in Turkey： Correlative analysis

Aim of this study is to discuss matters with HR and finn performance. Therefore, we used HR and firm performance questionnaire from Delaney and Huselid （1996）. HR variables include recruitment, training, compensation and promotion. Firm performance divided into organizational and market performance. Therefore, correlation analysis demonstrates that HR has positive and significant relationship with organizational performance, and HR has positive but weak relationship with market performance. Therefore, we can propose that HR is partly correlated with firm performance for those companies in sample. Therefore, since we didn＇t realize demography of companies in study, it is arguable, findings of this study can be generalized to other companies in Turkey.

Executive Compensation and Firm Performance in Japan： The Role of Keiretsu Memberships and Bank-Appointed Monitors＊

This paper examines the relations between the disciplinary role of Japanese relationship-oriented corporate governance mechanisms, such as keiretsu memberships and bank-appointed directors, and pay for performance sensitivity in Japan. Previous studies show that pay for performance sensitivity of Japanese executive compensation is positive and almost the same as in a market-oriented system like that of the United States of America （USA）. However, previous studies do not investigate how Japanese corporate governance mechanisms like financial keiretsu ties and bank-appointed directors affect pay for performance sensitivity. This paper finds that the disciplinary mechanism of keiretsu memberships and bank-appointed monitors did not function well in Japan in the 1990s.

Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR） and Firm Performance

The discourse of corporate social views of the role of the firm in a responsibility （CSR） has grown rapidly over the last decade. There are different society and disagreements as to whether wealth maximization should be the sole goal of a corporation. There is also a debate on whether CSR practices are beneficial for firms. Studies examining the performance of firms that have adopted a CSR policy within a range of sectors in various countries provide inconsistent results. Some studies show excess returns among companies adopting a CSR policy relative to the companies that do not adopt such a policy, while others do not find differences in returns. To further dispel the ambiguity on this issue, the authors explore the relationship between CSR adoption and financial performance of firms＇ shares in Israeli market, with a US market benchmark as a test of specificity. The findings reveal that no significant difference exists between the performance of firms adopting a CSR policy and firms that do not. Thus, the inclusion of investments in socially-responsible firms in an investor＇s portfolio does not appear to significantly impact the portfolio＇s performance. Managers and investors interested in investing in CSR may do so without any concern of the lower returns or performance. This study provides an additional support for the CSR School in that its findings indicate that, on the one hand, investments in firms that integrate social and environmental responsibility are just ＂as good as＂ investments in firms that do not. On the other hand, such investments can be seen as superior, since in addition to the financial returns, investors contribute to changing the face of the global environment and are creating a system for support and enforcement that ensures the existence of a better world for the children in the present and future.

Model Analysis of the Relationship Between Strategic Organization Knowledge and the Use of Information Systems in Firm Performance in Brazil

Information Technology （IT） consolidates as an essential element to support the business strategies to survive and rapidly adapts to changes in the competitive environment. This paper examines the impact of the use of information systems （IS） and strategic organization knowledge （SOK） on firm performance in 150 Brazilian companies. The study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling （PLS-SEM） and establishes models to express the relationship among the constructs examined. The study identifies that the direct influence of 1S use on performance is moderately significant. However, when mediated by orientation strategy, the total effect of IS use on firm performance is demonstrated to be highly significant. The model explains 54% of the variability of firm performance and confirms IS use as a fundamental resource to support strategic business processes.