Generic strategies and performance: evidence from manufacturing firms

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between business-level strategy and organisational performance and to test the applicability of Porter's generic strategies in explaining differences in the performance of organisations. Design/methodology/approach – The study was focussed on manufacturing firms in the UK belonging to the electrical and mechanical engineering sectors. Data were collected through a postal survey using the survey instrument from 124 organisations and the respondents were all at CEO level. Both objective and subjective measures were used to assess performance. Non-response bias was assessed statistically and it was not found to be a major problem affecting this study. Appropriate measures were taken to ensure that common method variance (CMV) does not affect the results of this study. Statistical tests indicated that CMV problem does not affect the results of this study. Findings – The results of this study indicate that firms adopting one of the strategies, namely cost-leadership or differentiation, perform better than “stuck-in-the-middle” firms which do not have a dominant strategic orientation. The integrated strategy group has lower performance compared with cost-leaders and differentiators in terms of financial performance measures. This provides support for Porter's view that combination strategies are unlikely to be effective in organisations. However, the cost-leadership and differentiation strategies were not strongly correlated with the financial performance measures indicating the limitations of Porter's generic strategies in explaining performance heterogeneity in organisations. Originality/value – This study makes an important contribution to the literature by identifying some of the gaps in the literature through a systematic literature review and addressing those gaps.

Bit-index sort: a fast non-comparison integer sorting algorithm for permutations

This paper describes a fast integer sorting algorithm, herein referred as Bit-index sort, which is a non-comparison sorting algorithm for partial per-mutations, with linear complexity order in execution time. Bit-index sort uses a bit-array to classify input sequences of distinct integers, and exploits built-in bit functions in C compilers supported by machine hardware to retrieve the ordered output sequence. Results show that Bit-index sort outperforms in execution time to quicksort and counting sort algorithms. A parallel approach for Bit-index sort using two simultaneous threads is included, which obtains speedups up to 1.6.

Pressure-induced electrical and structural anomalies in Pb(1-x)Ca(x)TiO(3) thin films grown at various oxygen pressures by chemical solution route

Lead calcium titanate (Pb(1-x)Ca(x)TiO(3) or PCT) thin films have been thermally treated under different oxygen pressures, 10, 40 and 80 bar, by using the so-called chemical solution deposition method. The structural, morphological, dielectric and ferroelectric properties were characterized by x-ray diffraction, FT-infrared and Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and polarization-electric-field hysteresis loop measurements. By annealing at a controlled pressure of around 10 and 40 bar, well-crystallized PCT thin films were successfully prepared. For the sample submitted to 80 bar, the x-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed-infrared and Raman data indicated deviation from the tetragonal symmetry. The most interesting feature in the Raman spectra is the occurrence of intense vibrational modes at frequencies of around 747 and 820 cm(-1), whose presence depends strongly on the amount of the pyrochlore phase. In addition, the Raman spectrum indicates the presence of symmetry-breaking disorder, which would be expected for an amorphous (disorder) and mixed pyrochlore-perovskite phase. During the high-pressure annealing process, the crystallinity and the grain size of the annealed film decreased. This process effectively suppressed both the dielectric and ferroelectric behaviour. Ferroelectric hysteresis loop measurements performed on these PCT films exhibited a clear decrease in the remanent polarization with increasing oxygen pressure.

Transport coefficients, Raman spectroscopy, and computer simulation of lithium salt solutions in an ionic liquid

Lithium salt solutions of Li(CF3SO2)(2)N, LiTFSI, in a room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), 1-butyl-2,3-dimethyl-imidazolium cation, BMMI, and the (CF3SO2)(2)N-, bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide anion, [BMMI][TFSI], were prepared in different concentrations. Thermal properties, density, viscosity, ionic conductivity, and self-diffusion coefficients were determined at different temperatures for pure [BMMI][TFSI] and the lithium solutions. Raman spectroscopy measurements and computer simulations were also carried out in order to understand the microscopic origin of the observed changes in transport coefficients. Slopes of Walden plots for conductivity and fluidity, and the ratio between the actual conductivity and the Nernst-Einstein estimate for conductivity, decrease with increasing LiTFSI content. All of these studies indicated the formation of aggregates of different chemical nature, as it is corroborated by the Raman spectra. In addition, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed that the coordination of Li+ by oxygen atoms of TFSI anions changes with Li+ concentration producing a remarkable change of the RTIL structure with a concomitant reduction of diffusion coefficients of all species in the solutions.

Effects of strontium and calcium simultaneous substitution on electrical and structural properties of Pb1-x-y Ca (x) Sr (y) TiO3 thin films

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Pressure-induced electrical and structural anomalies in Pb1-xCaxTiO3 thin films grown at various oxygen pressures by chemical solution route

Lead calcium titanate (Pb1-xCaxTiO3 or PCT) thin films have been thermally treated under different oxygen pressures, 10, 40 and 80 bar, by using the so-called chemical solution deposition method. The structural, morphological, dielectric and ferroelectric properties were characterized by x-ray diffraction, FT-infrared and Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and polarization-electric-field hysteresis loop measurements. By annealing at a controlled pressure of around 10 and 40 bar, well-crystallized PCT thin films were successfully prepared. For the sample submitted to 80 bar, the x-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed-infrared and Raman data indicated deviation from the tetragonal symmetry. The most interesting feature in the Raman spectra is the occurrence of intense vibrational modes at frequencies of around 747 and 820 cm(-1), whose presence depends strongly on the amount of the pyrochlore phase. In addition, the Raman spectrum indicates the presence of symmetry-breaking disorder, which would be expected for an amorphous (disorder) and mixed pyrochlore-perovskite phase. During the high-pressure annealing process, the crystallinity and the grain size of the annealed film decreased. This process effectively suppressed both the dielectric and ferroelectric behaviour. Ferroelectric hysteresis loop measurements performed on these PCT films exhibited a clear decrease in the remanent polarization with increasing oxygen pressure.

Evaluation of the effect of the stoichiometric ratio of Ca/Cu on the electrical and microstructural properties of the CaCu3Ti4O12 polycrystalline system

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Influence of vanadium on electrical and microstructural properties of CaCu3Ti4O12/CaTiO3

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Electrical and Optical Properties of Conductive and Transparent ITO@PMMA Nanocomposites

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Electrical and mechanical effects of hyoscine butylbromide on the human stomach: a non-invasive approach

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Electrical and microstructural properties of microwave sintered SnO2-based varistors

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Interpolating EFGM for computing continuous and discontinuous electromagnetic fields

Purpose - This paper proposes an interpolating approach of the element-free Galerkin method (EFGM) coupled with a modified truncation scheme for solving Poisson's boundary value problems in domains involving material non-homogeneities. The suitability and efficiency of the proposed implementation are evaluated for a given set of test cases of electrostatic field in domains involving different material interfaces.Design/methodology/approach - the authors combined an interpolating approximation with a modified domain truncation scheme, which avoids additional techniques for enforcing the Dirichlet boundary conditions and for dealing with material interfaces usually employed in meshfree formulations.Findings - the local electric potential and field distributions were correctly described as well as the global quantities like the total potency and resistance. Since, the treatment of the material interfaces becomes practically the same for both the finite element method (FEM) and the proposed EFGM, FEM-oriented programs can, thus, be easily extended to provide EFGM approximations.Research limitations/implications - the robustness of the proposed formulation became evident from the error analyses of the local and global variables, including in the case of high-material discontinuity.Practical implications - the proposed approach has shown to be as robust as linear FEM. Thus, it becomes an attractive alternative, also because it avoids the use of additional techniques to deal with boundary/interface conditions commonly employed in meshfree formulations.Originality/value - This paper reintroduces the domain truncation in the EFGM context, but by using a set of interpolating shape functions the authors avoided the use of Lagrange multipliers as well Mathematics in Engineering high-material discontinuity.

Electrical and micro structural properties of (Zn, Nb, Fe)-doped SnO2 varistor systems

The electrical and microstructural properties of SnO2-based varistors with the addition of 0.025 and 0.050 mol% of Fe2O3 have been characterised. Electric field (E) versus current density (J) curves showed that the effect of Fe2O3 addition is to increase both the non-linear coefficient and the breakdown voltage. Variations in the potential barrier height were inferred from impedance spectroscopy (IS) analysis. Through transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the presence of precipitates of secondary phases was confirmed. Samples with precipitates displayed poor electrical properties. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.