Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management: An Empirical Investigation

Two important streams of the literature have examined intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management (KM). Surprisingly, they have developed in parallel, without any empirical research on the relationship between them. This article empirically examines how IC and KM affect each other, and also investigates their consequences, viewing three intermediate consequences (dynamic capabilities, efficiency, and innovativeness) to mediate their effects on firm performance. In addition, this article examines the effects of the organization's culture on IC and KM. To address these issues, a comprehensive model is developed and tested using a combination of survey and secondary data of 533 companies in Taiwan. The results support the theoretical model. Major findings include the following: IC affects KM and dynamic capabilities; KM facilitates innovation but not dynamic capabilities or IC; a learning culture facilitates IC and innovation but not KM; firm performance depends on efficiency and innovation, but not directly on dynamic capabilities; and efficiency does not depend on any of the other constructs in the study. The article's implications for research and practice are examined.     

The paths embedding of the arrangement graphs with prescribed vertices in given position

Let n and k be positive integers with n?k≥2. The arrangement graph A _n,k is recognized as an attractive interconnection networks. Let x, y, and z be three different vertices of A _n,k . Let l be any integer with $d_{A_{n,k}}(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{y}) \le l \le \frac{n!}{(n-k)!}-1-d_{A_{n,k}}(\mathbf{y},\mathbf{z})$ . We shall prove the following existance properties of Hamiltonian path: (1)?for n?k≥3 or (n,k)=(3,1), there exists a Hamiltonian path R(x,y,z;l) from x to z such that d _R(x,y,z;l)(x,y)=l; (2) for n?k=2 and n≥5, there exists a Hamiltonian path R(x,y,z;l) except for the case that x, y, and z are adjacent to each other.     

Testing process capability based on Cpm in the presence of random measurement errors

Process capability indices have been widely used in the manufacturing industry providing numerical measures on process performance. The index C_p provides measures on process precision (or product consistency). The index C_pm, sometimes called the Taguchi index, meditates on process centring ability and process loss. Most research work related to C_p and C_pm assumes no gauge measurement errors. This assumption insufficiently reflects real situations even with highly advanced measuring instruments. Conclusions drawn from process capability analysis are therefore unreliable and misleading. In this paper, we conduct sensitivity investigation on process capability C_p and C_pm in the presence of gauge measurement errors. Due to the randomness of variations in the data, we consider capability testing for C_p and C_pm to obtain lower confidence bounds and critical values for true process capability when gauge measurement errors are unavoidable. The results show that the estimator with sample data contaminated by the measurement errors severely underestimates the true capability, resulting in imperceptible smaller test power. To obtain the true process capability, adjusted confidence bounds and critical values are presented to practitioners for their factory applications.     

On the maximum number of fault-free mutually independent Hamiltonian cycles in the faulty hypercube

Hsieh and Yu (2007) first claimed that an injured n-dimensional hypercube Q _n contains (n?1?f)-mutually independent fault-free Hamiltonian cycles, where f≤n?2 denotes the total number of permanent edge-faults in Q _n for n≥4, and edge-faults can occur everywhere at random. Later, Kueng et al. (2009a) presented a formal proof to validate Hsieh and Yu’s argument. This paper aims to improve this mentioned result by showing that up to (n?f)-mutually independent fault-free Hamiltonian cycles can be embedded under the same condition. Let F denote the set of f faulty edges. If all faulty edges happen to be incident with an identical vertex s, i.e., the minimum degree of the survival graph Q _n ?F is equal to n?f, then Q _n ?F contains at most (n?f)-mutually independent Hamiltonian cycles starting from s. From such a point of view, the presented result is optimal. Thus, not only does our improvement increase the number of mutually independent fault-free Hamiltonian cycles by one, but also the optimality can be achieved.     

Accounting Performance and Capacity Investment Decisions: Evidence from California Hospitals

Capacity decisions involve trade‐offs between the cost of capacity and the opportunity costs of lost sales. Accounting researchers posit that accounting performance provides sufficient information about these trade‐offs and thus can be used to formulate simple rules to assist capacity decisions. Empirical research has not examined the role of accounting information in capacity investment decisions at the department level in a multiproduct firm in the presence of social costs. Empirical analyses using department‐level data from California hospitals for the period 1998–2005 show that hospitals are more likely to make capacity investments in departments with high accounting performance. However, in the presence of demand variability, the association between accounting performance and capacity investment is attenuated because of the resulting increase in noise in accounting performance measures. Thus, the weight on accounting performance as a decision tool for capital investments reduces when there is demand variability. Another factor that reduces the weight on accounting performance is capacity utilization. Higher capacity utilization can lead to turning away or rerouting of patients to other hospitals and negatively impacts reputation and quality of care, which increases the hospital's social costs. Hence, hospitals do not require high accounting performance before investing in a department with high capacity utilization. This empirical evidence of the role of accounting performance in capacity investment decisions fills a gap in the capacity investment literature and furthers our understanding of the interactions between accounting performance and the operational determinants of firms’ capacity investment behavior.     

Inference on constant stress accelerated life tests for log-location-scale lifetime distributions with type-I hybrid censoring

In this paper, we consider a constant stress accelerated life test terminated by a hybrid Type-I censoring at the first stress level. The model is based on a general log-location-scale lifetime distribution with mean life being a linear function of stress and with constant scale. We obtain the maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) and the approximate maximum likelihood estimators (AMLE) of the model parameters. Approximate confidence intervals, likelihood ratio tests and two bootstrap methods are used to construct confidence intervals for the unknown parameters of the Weibull and lognormal distributions using the MLEs. Finally, a simulation study and two illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the performance of the developed inferential methods.     

A Restricted Subset Selection Rule for Selecting at Least One of the t Best Normal Populations in Terms of Their Means When Their Common Variance is Known,Case II

Consider k( ? 2) normal populations with unknown means μ₁, …, μ_k, and a common known variance σ². Let μ_[1] ? ??? ? μ_[k] denote the ordered μ_i.The populations associated with the t(1 ? t ? k ? 1) largest means are called the t best populations. Hsu and Panchapakesan (2004) proposed and investigated a procedure R_HPfor selecting a non empty subset of the k populations whose size is at most m(1 ? m ? k ? t) so that at least one of the t best populations is included in the selected subset with a minimum guaranteed probability P* whenever μ_{[k ? t + 1]} ? μ_{[k ? t]} ? δ*, where P*?and?δ* are specified in advance of the experiment. This probability requirement is known as the indifference-zone probability requirement. In the present article, we investigate the same procedure R_HP for the same goal as before but when k ? t < m ? k ? 1 so that at least one of the t best populations is included in the selected subset with a minimum guaranteed probability P* whatever be the configuration of the unknown μ_i. The probability requirement in this latter case is termed the subset selection probability requirement. Santner (1976) proposed and investigated a different procedure (R_S) based on samples of size n from each of the populations, considering both cases, 1 ? m ? k ? t and k ? t < m ? k. The special case of t = 1 was earlier studied by Gupta and Santner (1973) and Hsu and Panchapakesan (2002) for their respective procedures.     

Maximum Chi-Square Generally Weighted Moving Average Control Chart for Monitoring Process Mean and Variability

In this article, we propose a new control chart called the maximum chi-square generally weighted moving average (MCSGWMA) control chart. This control chart can effectively combine two generally weighted moving average (GWMA) control charts into a single one and can detect both increases as well as decreases in the process mean and/or variability simultaneously. The average run length (ARL) characteristics of the MCSGWMA and maximum exponentially weighted moving average (MaxEWMA) charts are evaluated by performing computer simulations. The comparison of the ARLs shows that the MCSGWMA control chart performs better than the MaxEWMA control chart.     

Shelf-life and its estimation in drug stability studies

One important property of any drug product is its stability over time. Drug stability studies are routinely carried out in the pharmaceutical industry in order to measure the degradation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient of a drug product. One important study objective is to estimate the shelf-life of the drug; the estimated shelf-life is required by the US Food and Drug Administration to be printed on the package label of the drug. This involves a suitable definition of the true shelf-life and the construction of an appropriate estimate of the true shelf-life. In this paper, the true shelf-life T_β is defined as the time point at which 100β% of all the individual dosage units (e.g. tablets) of the drug have the active ingredient content no less than the lowest acceptable limit L, where β and L are prespecified constants. The value of T_β depends on the parameters of the assumed degradation model of the active ingredient content and so is unknown. A lower confidence bound T?_β for T_β is then provided and used as the estimated shelf-life of the drug.