The relationship between enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation and intellectual capital under the moderating effect of organizational learning capability

<p>Although Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems alone are not the source of competitive advantage, they may do this indirectly through enhancing or supplementing the organization’s other strategic resources. Studies on ERP have not explicitly examined the interactions of ERP systems with other organizational capabilities to determine how investment in ERP systems can be leveraged into the creation of strategic resources of organizations. Further, ERP systems are large and complex, and the degree to which they are implemented throughout an organization can vary – this is described as the ERP scope. The scope of ERP implementation is believed to influence the degree of its effects on an organization. Relying on the literature on ERP effects, business value of information technology (IT) and the notion that organizations are learning systems which utilize their knowledge to create value and to accumulate further knowledge, this study examines the influence of the scope of ERP implementation on a strategic resource of organizations, namely intellectual capital, under the moderating effect of organizational learning capability. This study develops a research model to show the influence of the three dimensions of ERP implementation scope (breadth, depth, and magnitude) on intellectual capital and simultaneously the influence of organizational learning capability on these base relationships. The hypothesized relationships among variables are evaluated by a data set of 226 responses collected from manufacturing firms in Vietnam. With the support of SmartPLS version 2.0, the structural equation model is evaluated using the techniques of multiple regression analysis, and the moderation effects are analyzed using group comparison and product term approaches. The findings provide support for the hypotheses. The three dimensions of ERP implementation show a positive impact on intellectual capital. Organizational learning capability more or less moderates the relationship between ERP implementation scope and intellectual capital. As a result of the group comparison approach for moderation analysis, firms with a low level of learning capability are likely to have no effect of ERP implementation on intellectual capital. However, in the group with a high level of learning capability the breadth and magnitude of ERP implementation have a positive effect on intellectual capital. By using the product term approach, only the magnitude of ERP implementation shows an interaction effect with organizational learning capability on intellectual capital. The breadth and depth of ERP implementation appear to have minimal interaction with organizational learning capability. The results inform the literature on the business value of IT by demonstrating that an ERP system can become a strategic asset as its implementation has a positive effect on intellectual capital especially with the presence of a firm’s learning capability. Additionally, the research reveals another ERP effect (e.g. the effect on the intellectual capital of organizations) that complements the understanding of ERP effects that have been identified in prior studies. The findings practically contribute to managerial knowledge by showing that ERP implementation should not be considered in isolation, but rather organizations should build a substantial level of learning capability to fully obtain the positive effect of ERP implementation on intellectual capital.</p>

The relationship between enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation and intellectual capital under the moderating effect of organizational learning capability

<p>Although Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems alone are not the source of competitive advantage, they may do this indirectly through enhancing or supplementing the organization’s other strategic resources. Studies on ERP have not explicitly examined the interactions of ERP systems with other organizational capabilities to determine how investment in ERP systems can be leveraged into the creation of strategic resources of organizations. Further, ERP systems are large and complex, and the degree to which they are implemented throughout an organization can vary – this is described as the ERP scope. The scope of ERP implementation is believed to influence the degree of its effects on an organization. Relying on the literature on ERP effects, business value of information technology (IT) and the notion that organizations are learning systems which utilize their knowledge to create value and to accumulate further knowledge, this study examines the influence of the scope of ERP implementation on a strategic resource of organizations, namely intellectual capital, under the moderating effect of organizational learning capability. This study develops a research model to show the influence of the three dimensions of ERP implementation scope (breadth, depth, and magnitude) on intellectual capital and simultaneously the influence of organizational learning capability on these base relationships. The hypothesized relationships among variables are evaluated by a data set of 226 responses collected from manufacturing firms in Vietnam. With the support of SmartPLS version 2.0, the structural equation model is evaluated using the techniques of multiple regression analysis, and the moderation effects are analyzed using group comparison and product term approaches. The findings provide support for the hypotheses. The three dimensions of ERP implementation show a positive impact on intellectual capital. Organizational learning capability more or less moderates the relationship between ERP implementation scope and intellectual capital. As a result of the group comparison approach for moderation analysis, firms with a low level of learning capability are likely to have no effect of ERP implementation on intellectual capital. However, in the group with a high level of learning capability the breadth and magnitude of ERP implementation have a positive effect on intellectual capital. By using the product term approach, only the magnitude of ERP implementation shows an interaction effect with organizational learning capability on intellectual capital. The breadth and depth of ERP implementation appear to have minimal interaction with organizational learning capability. The results inform the literature on the business value of IT by demonstrating that an ERP system can become a strategic asset as its implementation has a positive effect on intellectual capital especially with the presence of a firm’s learning capability. Additionally, the research reveals another ERP effect (e.g. the effect on the intellectual capital of organizations) that complements the understanding of ERP effects that have been identified in prior studies. The findings practically contribute to managerial knowledge by showing that ERP implementation should not be considered in isolation, but rather organizations should build a substantial level of learning capability to fully obtain the positive effect of ERP implementation on intellectual capital.</p>

Factors Affecting the Trade Dependence Relationship of Asian Countries with China: Implications for China’s Belt and Road Initiative

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (B&R) has received much doubts about its impact on Asian countries. This paper studies the B&R effect from a new perspective of the trade dependence relationship, and explores this B&R impact on the influencing factors of the degree of trade dependence. By implementing a series of grouping analyses on influencing factors, this paper analyses the impact of four national characteristics, including Asian countries’ income levels, geographical location characteristics, social development levels and intimacy with China, and finally gives a robust test by combining alternative indicators of trade dependence degree based on information entropy. The empirical results show that trade dependence degree has increased after implementing the B&R, but its downward growth rate shows that the B&R has not taken over the trade dependence. The inhibiting effects of energy exports on the degree of trade dependence deny the trade binding hypothesis due to the increasing energy of export trade. Trade openness and infrastructure development had a negative effect on the degree of trade dependence, while their cross-product term weakened their respective inhibitory effects, and even more after B&R. Meanwhile, the asymmetry of trade and FDI have a significantly positive impact on the degree of trade dependence. Moreover, grouping national characteristics will bring the promoting or inhibiting effects of these influencing factors on the degree of trade dependence. The robust test presents conclusions. This paper enriches the research content on the B&R, and the findings can provide some implications on the selection of trade partners and the sustainable development of the B&R.

Oblique-mode breakdown in hypersonic and high-enthalpy boundary layers over a blunt cone

The nonlinear analyses of the hypersonic and high-enthalpy boundary-layer transition had received little attention compared with the widely-studied linear instabilities. In this work, the oblique-mode breakdown, as one of the most available transition mechanisms, is studied using the nonlinear parabolized stability equations (NPSE) with consideration of the thermal-chemical non-equilibrium effects. The flow over a blunt cone is computed at a free-stream Mach-number of 15. The rope-like structures and the spontaneous radiation of sound waves are observed in the schlieren-like picture. It is also illustrated that the disturbances of the species mass and vibrational temperature near the wall are mainly generated by the product term of the wall-normal velocity disturbance and the mean-flow gradient. In comparison to the CPG flow, the TCNE effects destabilize the second mode and push upstream the N factor envelope. The higher growth rate of the oblique wave leads to stronger growth of the streamwise vortices and harmonic waves.

Interactions in Fixed Effects Regression Models

An interaction in a fixed effects (FE) regression is usually specified by demeaning the product term. How-ever, algebraic transformations reveal that this strategy does not yield a within-unit estimator. Instead, the standard FE interaction estimator reflects unit-level differences of the interacted variables. This property allows interactions of a time-constant variable and a time-varying variable in FE, but may yield unwanted results if both variables vary within units. In such cases, Monte Carlo experiments confirm that the standard FE estimator of z∙x is biased if x is correlated with an unobserved unit-specific moderator of z (or vice-versa). A within estimator of an interaction can be obtained by first demeaning each variable and then demeaning their product. This “double-demeaned” estimator is not subject to bias caused by unobserved effect heterogeneity. It is, however, less efficient than standard FE and only works with T &gt; 2.

Smoking Interaction with a Polygenic Risk Score for Reduced Lung Function

Importance: Risk to airflow limitation and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is influenced by combinations of cigarette smoking and genetic susceptibility, yet it remains unclear whether gene-by-smoking interactions contribute to quantitative measures of lung function. Objective: Determine whether smoking modifies the effect of a polygenic risk score's (PRS's) association with reduced lung function. Design: United Kingdom (UK) Biobank prospective cohort study. Setting: Population cohort. Participants: UK citizens of European ancestry aged 40-69 years, with genetic and spirometry data passing quality control metrics. Exposures: PRS, self-reported pack-years of smoking, ever- versus never-smoking status, and current- versus former-/never-smoking status. Main Outcomes and Measures: Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)/forced vital capacity (FVC). We tested for interactions with models including the main effects of PRS, different smoking variables, and their cross-product term(s). We also compared the effects of pack-years of smoking on FEV1/FVC for those in the highest versus lowest decile of predicted genetic risk for low lung function. Results: We included 319,730 individuals (24,915 with moderate-to-severe COPD). The PRS and pack-years were significantly associated with lower FEV1/FVC, as was the interaction term (β [interaction] = -0.0028 [95% CI: -0.0029, -0.0026]; all p < 0.0001). A stepwise increment in estimated effect sizes for these interaction terms was observed per 10 pack-years of smoking exposure (all p < 0.0001). There was evidence of significant interaction between PRS with ever/never smoking status (β [interaction] = -0.0064 [95% CI: -0.0068, -0.0060]) and current/not-current smoking (β [interaction] = -0.0091 [95% CI: -0.0097, -0.0084]). For any given level of pack-years of smoking exposure, FEV1/FVC was significantly lower for individuals in the tenth compared to the first decile of genetic risk (p < 0.0001). For every 20 pack-years of smoking, those in the top compared to the bottom decile of genetic risk showed nearly a twofold reduction in FEV1/FVC. Conclusions and Relevance: COPD is characterized by diminished lung function, and our analyses suggest there is substantial interaction between genome-wide PRS and smoking exposures. While smoking has negative effects on lung function across all genetic risk categories, effects of smoking are highest in those with higher predicted genetic risk.

Sigma-Pi Structure with Bernoulli Random Variables: Power-Law Bounds for Probability Distributions and Growth Models with Interdependent Entities

The Sigma-Pi structure investigated in this work consists of the sum of products of an increasing number of identically distributed random variables. It appears in stochastic processes with random coefficients and also in models of growth of entities such as business firms and cities. We study the Sigma-Pi structure with Bernoulli random variables and find that its probability distribution is always bounded from below by a power-law function regardless of whether the random variables are mutually independent or duplicated. In particular, we investigate the case in which the asymptotic probability distribution has always upper and lower power-law bounds with the same tail-index, which depends on the parameters of the distribution of the random variables. We illustrate the Sigma-Pi structure in the context of a simple growth model with successively born entities growing according to a stochastic proportional growth law, taking both Bernoulli, confirming the theoretical results, and half-normal random variables, for which the numerical results can be rationalized using insights from the Bernoulli case. We analyze the interdependence among entities represented by the product terms within the Sigma-Pi structure, the possible presence of memory in growth factors, and the contribution of each product term to the whole Sigma-Pi structure. We highlight the influence of the degree of interdependence among entities in the number of terms that effectively contribute to the total sum of sizes, reaching the limiting case of a single term dominating extreme values of the Sigma-Pi structure when all entities grow independently.

A control volume finite element method for the thermoelastic problem in functional graded material with one relaxation time

In this paper, a new direct vertex-centred finite volume method (CV-FEM) has been developed for the thermoelastic problem in functional graded material (FGM) based on Lord-Shulman theory. The heat conduction equation in Lord-Shulman theory is modified by considering the product term of spatial gradient of relaxation time and the heat flux rate, and it makes the present method more accurate to capture characteristics of a thermoelastic wave in inhomogeneous and FGM compared with previous methods. Some benchmark examples are used to demonstrate the capability of the present method for hyperbolic heat conduction and thermoelastic coupled problems. The effects of the ‘product-term’ on the wave propagation are studied by a heat conduction problem in inhomogeneous material and a thermoelastic problem in FGM. The FGM results show that its effect on the thermoelastic response is significant even for a linear variation of material properties.

Interaction Effects of Diabetes and Hypertension on Cardio-Cerebrovascular Diseases: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background It is still not clear whether there exsist interaction effects of diabetes and hypertension on cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. We can not ignore it in order to prevent the incidence and progress of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases considering the high prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in the world.Methods A cross-sectional study with a multistage stratified random sampling method was conducted among people aged 18 years or older in Changsha City, Hunan Province. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to analyze the association between diabetes complicated with hypertension and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. The multiplicative interaction effect was evaluated by including the product term of hypertension and diabetes in the model after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, drinking, physical exercise, and body mass index. The relative excess risk ratio (RERI), attribution percentage (AP), synergy index (SI) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by the Excel calculation table compiled by Andersson to evaluate the additive interaction effects between hypertension and diabetes on cardio-cerebrovascular diseases.Results A total of 14422 participants were recruited. The prevalence of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases in the non-diabetes and non-hypertension, diabetes, hypertension, and diabetes and hypertension combination groups was 3.7%, 12.1%, 21.2% and 31.4%, respectively. The RERI, AP and SI of diabetes combined with hypertension on cardiovascular diseases were 1.92 (95% CI: -2.67 - 6.50), 0.23 (95% CI: -0.22 - 0.68) and 1.34 (95% CI: 0.69 - 2.62), respectively.Conclusions The prevalence of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases in diabetes complicated with hypertension was higher than that in any single condition. However, no interaction effects between diabetes and hypertension were found on the prevalence of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, indicating that the high prevalence may be due to the simple superposition of the two variables.

Dynamic conditional betas and equity returns

Our study makes use of a new approach to estimate time-varyingbetas with an application of the corrected Dynamic Conditional Correlation (cDCC) model. Our empirical methodology encompasses an examination of predictive relations between equity return and different specifications of dynamic conditional beta, using cross-sectional regression analysis at both the portfolio and firm levels. Our main finding is a significant, positive relation between equity excess return and an interactive cross product term of dynamic conditional beta and market excess return ([Formula: see text]); suggesting that equity return is largely determined by an interaction effect between dynamic beta and market return.