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This paper aims to present a smooth transition adaptive hybrid impedance control for compliant connector assembly.

The dynamics of the manipulator is firstly presented with linear property. The controller used in connector assembly is inspired by human operation habits in similar tasks. The hybrid impedance control is adopted to apply force in the assembly direction and provide compliance in rest directions. The reference trajectory is implemented with an adaptive controller. Event-based switching strategy is conducted for a smooth transition from unconstrained to constrained space.

The method can ensure both ideal compliance behaviour with dynamic uncertainty and a smooth transition from unconstrained to constrained space. Also, the method can ensure compliant connector assembly with a good tolerance to the target estimation error.

The method can be applied in the connector assembly by “pushing” operation. The controller devotes efforts on force tracking and smooth transition, having potential applications in contact tasks in delicate environment.

As far as the authors know, the paper is original in providing a uniform controller for improving force and position control performance in both unconstrained and constrained space with dynamic uncertainty. The proposed controller can ensure a smooth transition by only adjusting parameters.

This paper aims to estimate contact location from sparse and high-dimensional soft tactile array sensor data using the tactile image. The authors used three feature extraction methods: handcrafted features, convolutional features and autoencoder features. Subsequently, these features were mapped to contact locations through a contact location regression network. Finally, the network performance was evaluated using spherical fittings of three different radii to further determine the optimal feature extraction method.

This paper aims to estimate contact location from sparse and high-dimensional soft tactile array sensor data using the tactile image.

This research indicates that data collected by probes can be used for contact localization. Introducing a batch normalization layer after the feature extraction stage significantly enhances the model’s generalization performance. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses, the authors conclude that convolutional methods can more accurately estimate contact locations.

The paper provides both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the performance of three contact localization methods across different datasets. To address the challenge of obtaining accurate contact locations in quantitative analysis, an indirect measurement metric is proposed.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between strategic asset-seeking intent and firms’ entry strategies of foreign investment in the context of emerging market firms.

This study is based on survey data of 392 Chinese foreign direct investment projects. Structural equation modelling is used for data analysis.

With stronger strategic asset-seeking intent, emerging market multinational enterprises are likely to locate their subsidiaries in developed countries, use a wholly owned subsidiary mode and invest with greater intensity, while they do not have a clear preference in entry timing.

The strategic asset-seeking intent applies not only to emerging market firms but also to small and medium firms in general that have limited resources and a need to catch up with stronger competitors. This study therefore provides guidance to these firms.

This study contributes by investigating how the strategic asset-seeking intent affects firms’ strategies. The findings have practical implications for strategic managerial decisions that lead to sustained competitive advantage and improved firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how interpersonal relationships (IPRs) and inter-organisational relationships (IORs) interact with each other as driving forces of supply chain integration (SCI). More specifically (the) three dimensions of IPR – personal affection, personal credibility, and personal communication – are examined in regards to how they affect inter-organisational relationships during SCI.

The research employed an exploratory multiple case study approach with four New Zealand case companies selected as the empirical basis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews of managerial executives in relation to supply chain activities, which were triangulated with company archival data.

The authors found that IPRs are able to interact with IORs to influence the integration of supply chains. More specifically, IPRs influence IORs by initiating organisational relationships in the SCI context; and influences from IPR dimensions on IORs tend to be of differing magnitudes and have different evolutional paths across the whole SCI process.

This research contributes to knowledge about the roles and mechanisms through which IPRs shape and enable inter-organisational level relationships within the SCI context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of interpersonal relationships (IPRs) in service supply chain integration (SSCI) in terms of strategic alliance, information integration, and process integration.

The research employs an exploratory/investigational approach to multiple case studies and empirically investigates effects of IPRs in SSCI. The data were mainly collected through semi-structured interviews with senior management staff from four service companies and their suppliers or customers in New Zealand. Archival data from the Internet and company documentations were also applied.

The authors find that three dimensions of IPRs influence SSCI in different ways. The effect of IPRs on SSCI is indirect: personal affection acts as an initiator, and personal credibility works as a “gate-keeper” and strengthens the confidence of interactive partners, while personal communication, a facilitator, plays a more important role in SSCI than personal affection and credibility.

The research provides managers in service supply chains the awareness of the importance of IPRs, as well as the characteristics of IPRs, in order to best utilize available resources. Managers should synergize all three dimensions of IPRs’ resources: make efforts to cultivate personal affection to avoid the instinctive isolation modern technology brings; attempt to accumulate positive personal credibility profiles; focus more on the role of personal communication and retain physical contact in SSCI processes.

This study contributes to SSCI literature by extending from the inter-organizational relationships (IORs) to interpersonal level relationships to explore the inner influence mechanism. Also, it explores the role of IPRs on all three dimensions of SSCI simultaneously rather than individual dimensions independently. Finally, it contributes to resource orchestration theory (ROT) by synthesizing three dimensions of IPRs resources, and IORs resources in order to achieve capabilities of SSCI. The study develops the individual-level research in supply chain integration (SCI) to a further depth.

Previous research on supply chain integration (SCI) enablers has primarily focussed on interorganizational relationships, the purpose of this paper is to broaden the discussion to include interpersonal relationships (IPRs).

Based on a comprehensive literature review, a series of propositions are postulated and synthesized into a conceptual model of how IPRs maintain and enable SCI, which is decomposed into strategic alliance, information sharing, and process coordination.

The authors find that IPRs including personal affection, communication, and credibility, have a positive influence on SCI, and these links are mediated by interorganizational relationships including trust, commitment, and power.

The framework developed in this study provides new insights into the role of interpersonal networks in interorganizational relationships, which lead to SCI.

In order to find a way to create the artistic conception of modern landscape space, the spatial analysis of Daguanyuan is carried out from the perspective of literature in order to find out the method of creating the artistic conception of modern landscape space. Adopting the method of general to special, from theory to practice, the argument with special significance is analyzed from the most common phenomena, and this argument is applied to the method of practical cases. The results show that Daguanyuan space in literature needs the audience's ability to understand words, the perception of space in film and television needs the audience's strong memory and imaginative thinking, while the perception of Daguanyuan space in garden art needs only basic discrimination ability. After analyzing the effect of Daguanyuan space construction from the literary perspective, it is believed that the writing techniques of starting point - development - climax - ending, wanting to carry forward first and restraining first, and reserving foreshadows in literature can be used for reference in modern landscape design.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is growing steadily and Chinese multinationals (MNCs) are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. Thus, the number of papers focusing on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs has been increasing during the last years. The aim of this chapter is to carry out a review of the empirical papers dealing with Chinese MNCs published between 2002 and 2012 in high-impact international business and management journals.

This chapter reviews 43 empirical papers focusing on Chinese MNCs that were published in nine major scholarly journals between 2002 and 2012.

We report individual and institutional contributions, the theories and methods used, the research topics, and the main findings. We also discuss implications for future research.

Some previous literature reviews have dealt with research on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs. Nevertheless, none of the earlier reviews dealt specifically with empirical papers; neither did they provide an analysis of both individual and institutional contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of supply chain integration (SCI) in improving sustainability management practices (SMPs) and performance.

Based on data collected from 931 manufacturing firms in multiple countries and regions, the authors conducted a structural equation modeling analysis to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings suggest that supplier and customer integration are vital enablers for both intra- and inter-organizational SMPs. The results also reveal that both intra- and inter-organizational SMPs are significantly and positively associated with sustainability performance (i.e. economic, environmental and social performance) and function as complements to jointly enhance environmental and social performance.

This study incorporates SCI into the sustainability literature, providing a new perspective on sustainability and supply chain management research.