External Operating Environment Research Articles

Under Performance; Why Intrapreneurial Strategies and Operating Environment Matter in Fixing Performance of Public Universities in Kenya

The Kenyan government in 2023 unveiled a new funding model aimed at promoting affordable and equal access to higher education as well as breath life to public universities that would otherwise collapse due to financial challenges. Improvements in performance is seen through intrapreneurial strategies and that is the focus of this study. The unit of analysis was 20 public universities and the unit of observation was 400 participants. A combination of descriptive and explanatory research designs was used. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data; which was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and content analysis. Multiple regression models were used to test the association between variables. The study found a statistically significant (β-0.620, p=0.000<0.05) and partially moderating influence of operating environment between intrapreneurial strategies and performance of public universities in Kenya. The study concluded that the operating environment moderates the relationship between intrapreneurial strategies and performance of public universities in Kenya. The study recommends that Vice-Chancellors of public universities should adopt innovativeness, pro-activeness, risk-taking and self-renewal intrapreneurial strategies with an awareness of the external and internal operating environment. as they have a significant and positive relationship with performance. The study also recommends that the Ministry of Education, Government of Kenya and relevant policy makers should institute reforms and organise forums that promote intrapreneurship adoption within the public universities to promote overall organisational performance.

Penegakan Hukum Terhadap Penyelenggara Jalan Rusak Yang Mengakibatkan Kecelakaan Lalu Lintas

The aim of this research is to determine law enforcement against operators of damaged roads which result in traffic accidents and to find out what are the obstacles in implementing law enforcement against operators of damaged roads which result in traffic accidents. This research uses an empirical legal research method where the researcher uses a statutory approach and a case approach and data collection is carried out using literature studies and interviews. The results of the research show: firstly, the police in the Bone Bolango Police area carry out law enforcement against drivers who maintain damaged roads that cause accidents. traffic in a preventive and repressive manner. Bone Bolango Regency Police have been carrying out repressive actions such as education and legal action; However, due to a number of obstacles experienced by the Bone Bolango Police, no legal action can be taken until the trial, which only requires making a case report. Both the internal and external operational environment of the traffic police are some of the challenges faced by the Bone Bolango Police. The Bone Bolango Police Traffic Accident Unit lacks personnel and expertise, and the officers' attitude towards drivers is less firm. One of the internal problems faced by the traffic police is this problem. Public ignorance of laws and regulations related to damaged roads and lack of community involvement in reporting damaged roads are two examples of external variables handled by the Traffic Police. Apart from that, there is ambiguity in Law Number 22 of 2009 concerning Road Transport and Traffic. The meaning of "road managers" and the difficulty of law enforcement in enforcing these regulations, especially Article 273, which emphasizes the importance of considering the potential legal consequences for "road managers" who fail to repair damaged roads immediately, which can result in traffic accidents.

State of health estimation of the lithium-ion power battery based on the principal component analysis-particle swarm optimization-back propagation neural network

State of Health (SOH) estimation of the lithium-ion power battery has become the focus of the research and it has important scientific significance for optimizing the battery energy management strategy as well as prolonging the battery life. However, the reaction mechanism of lithium-ion power battery is complex with strong nonlinear and time-varying. Meanwhile, the complex and varied external operating environment and operating conditions increase the uncertainty of the lithium-ion power battery performance decline and further increase the difficulty of SOH estimation. The SOH estimation method of the lithium-ion power battery based on the Principal Component Analysis-Particle Swarm Optimization-Back Propagation Neural Network (PCA-PSO-BPNN) is proposed in this paper. The PCA is adopted to reduce the system input dimension, the PSO is used to optimize the weights of BPNN and the optimized BPNN is applied to estimate SOH accurately. Experimental results on the lithium-ion power battery of the NASA battery aging test data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and it can reach more excellent SOH estimation results. The Mean Absolute Error is no more than 0.51%, the Root Mean Square Error is no more than 0.65% and the Maximum Absolute Error is no more than 1.86%, respectively.

Multi-physics coupling analysis of high-power IGBT module bonding wires fault considering stray inductance of main circuit

The insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) module is subjected to unbalanced electric-thermal stress for a long time due to its own turn-on and turn-off, the fluctuation of processing power and the change of external operating environment, resulting in fatigue failure. And there is a strong coupling effect between its electrical, temperature and mechanical properties. At the same time, the fatigue failure of IGBT module is also the result of multi-physical field coupling. This paper reveals the influence mechanism of main circuit stray inductance on the electric-thermal-stress coupling characteristics of high power IGBT module bonding wires fault in the context of mine-used inverter application. First, the inverter main circuit topology model considering stray inductance is constructed, and the loss value of the power chip is obtained based on extracting the busbar stray inductance and establishing the IGBT module behavior model, and the validity of the results is verified. Secondly, the package structure model of IGBT module is established and the failure analysis boundary conditions are determined, and then the joint circuit-finite element method is used to reveal the operation behavior characteristics of IGBT module under the combined action of multi-physical fields. Finally, the influence of main circuit stray inductance on the multi-physical field coupling characteristics of IGBT module and its change law are compared and analyzed under the bonding wires fault condition to study the causes of fatigue failure of IGBT module.

The effect of strategic management accounting on strategic supply chain through internal and external orientation

This paper aims to empirically examine how public sector auditing agencies have strategically positioned themselves in a changing external operating environment and policy context. Specifically, this study aims to examine the effect of strategic management accounting on strategic supply chain positioning. The mediating roles of external and internal orientations were employed as mediating variables in this study. The research was conducted in the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK) in December 2022 to January 2023 by involving a total sample of 325 respondents. The data obtained in this study were analyzed using a variance-based structural method using the Partial Least Squares path modeling method through SmartPLS software. The findings showed that there is a significant influence of strategic management accounting on strategic supply chain positioning. The findings also emphasized the mediating roles of internal orientation and external orientation in strengthening the effects of strategic management accounting on strategic supply chain positioning. The results highlighted that strategic management accounting plays an important role in helping public sector auditing agencies to strategically position themselves in auditing practices. In addition, internal orientation can also help organizations to optimize the use and the allocation of internal resources. The findings presented in this study theoretically contribute to explaining empirical evidence regarding the effect of strategic supply chain positioning in strategic management accounting activities in public sector accounting and auditing practices.

The Organisational Psychology of Ethical Military Leadership during Times of Crisis: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT This article sheds light on the positive impact of ethical leaders on their subordinates’ behaviours during times of crisis. The article focuses on the turbulent and abrupt changes taking place in military external operating environments which could negatively affect military personnel’s mental health and psychological wellbeing. Pandemics and humanitarian crises are an example of such external environmental turbulences. These environmental turbulences are explored from an organisational perspective, under which they are viewed as a form of organisational change associated with a psychological uncertainty that has a negative impact on individuals. This uncertainty must be treated wisely by military leaders in all sectors of the armed forces in order to manage resistance to change and to prevent the negative psychological consequences that could be generated by such uncertainty. This article thus analyses ethical military leadership as a means to addressing the negative psychological consequences caused by change uncertainty in difficult times. It explores the terms change, change uncertainty, and ethical leadership. Various recommendations are made in the discussion section to facilitate the organisational process of implementing ethical leadership across all organisational levels of the armed forces.

Multiple time scale state-of-charge and capacity-based equalisation strategy for lithium-ion battery pack with passive equaliser

The cycle life of a lithium-ion battery pack is much shorter than that of a single cell because of their different external operating environments and internal characteristic parameters. Equalisation management is essential for reducing the difference between battery cells, improving capacity, and prolonging the cycle life. Passive equalisation is also widely used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems because of its comparative advantages including the low cost, simple structure, and easy control. Compared with the mature development of the passive equalisation hardware circuits, the evolution of high-performance equalisation strategies is relatively backward. Along these lines, a multiple time scale state-of-charge (SOC) and capacity-based equalisation strategy for lithium-ion battery packs with passive equalisers was proposed in this work. Firstly, the minimum-capacity differential model (MCDM) consisting of a cell minimum-capacity model (CMCM) and a cell differential model (CDM) was established to improve the computational efficiency and accuracy of the dynamic behaviour of the minimum-capacity cell, as well as all the other cells in a battery pack. Secondly, the SOC and capacity of a battery pack were estimated on multiple time scales with the use of a dual extended Kalman filter and MCDM. The fast time scale based on CMCM and the slow time scale based on CDM can balance the efficiency and accuracy of the estimation algorithm. Based on the accurate estimation of both SOC and capacity, a SOC-and-capacity-based equalisation strategy was designed. Finally, a high-fidelity multicell model was used to simulate and verify the proposed equalisation strategy under the guidance of actual battery pack degradation data. The extracted experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently and accurately estimate the SOC and capacity of new and aged batteries while a high-accuracy estimation in the entire life cycle is achieved. Compared with the traditional voltage-based and SOC-based strategies, the proposed SOC-and-capacity-based strategy can reconcile the maximization of battery pack capacity, the minimization of equalisation energy consumption, and the-equalisation duration to achieve high-efficiency balancing in the entire life cycle.

A reliability review on electrical collection system of battery energy storage power station

The battery energy storage system is a flexible resource with dual characteristics of source and load. It can be widely used in renewable energy consumption, peak shaving and frequency modulation, virtual power plant, and so on. However, the safety problem of energy storage system used in power system is serious, and it should be given an attention. In addition to being affected by the external operating environment of storage system, the reliability of its internal electrical collection system also plays a decisive role in the safe operation of energy storage power station. Therefore, for the reliability problem of battery energy storage power station, this paper analyzes the collection system structure, reliability model, evaluation algorithm and index system, establishes the single state reliability model of battery module considering derating state, presents a framework of a differentiated two-layer reliability evaluation algorithm for collection system of energy storage power station. This paper’s literature investigation can provide a support for the reliability improvement of energy storage power station.

Developing contextualised literature-informed competency frameworks for middle managers in education

The role of a manager within any organisation is often complex and multifaceted. Overtime management theory has developed in an effort to appreciate these complexities and suggest frameworks from which managers should operate. However, should management and the role of a manager be considered generic? Or, instead should we appreciate the distinctions dependant on the context in which a manager is operating in? This paper focuses on education middle managers working in vocational education and training using the Further Education sector in England as a case study to investigate the role. Utilising systematic review the paper will discuss literature on management theory, competency theory and further education management. It considers a range of management theories such as scientific, human relations and open systems theory discussing how these have informed the development of competency theory and frameworks, highlighting the strengths and limitations of prior studies. Building from these studies, this paper creates a new way to develop management competency frameworks. This is illustrated by proposing a contextualised literature-informed competency framework for further education middle managers. Challenging the generic approach to management competency frameworks and providing a platform for empirical studies that develop frameworks contextualised to the external operating environment of the manager.

Participation in Poverty Governance, Market Competition and Corporate Innovation: Based on Listed Companies’ Participation in Targeted Poverty Alleviation

The construction of the national governance system and the improvement of governance capability are the cornerstone for promoting stable social and economic development, which profoundly change the corporate external operating environment and then have an effect on the reform of internal corporate governance. Innovation is the inexhaustible driving force to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises and prosper the market economy. So what effect will the corporate participation in external governance have on corporate innovation? Meanwhile, the government and the market give full play to the role of resource allocation in the process of corporate participation in governance. So is market competition an incentive for enterprises to innovate in the participation of social governance? Does the participation in governance affect corporate innovation only at the stage of innovation input?Based on the above problems and the background of listed companies’ participation in poverty alleviation, this paper explores the influence of participation in governance on corporate innovation from the two levels of macro governance and micro governance, the two perspectives of government and market, and the two dimensions of input and output, by using A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2016 to 2019 as the research sample. The empirical evidence suggests that enterprises which participate in governance will have “the pressure of governance” and generate the crowding-out effect of innovation investment to a certain extent from the perspective of investment. In other words, the poverty alleviation behavior of listed companies is significantly correlated with the intensity of innovation investment. However, greater market competition can significantly reduce the crowding-out effect and promote the incentive effect of innovation which functions as fundamental momentum. From the perspective of output, the result proves that the participation in poverty alleviation will promote the quantity and quality of corporate innovation output, as well as the efficiency of corporate innovation. The analysis of the heterogeneity of credit resources and government-business relationship shows that enterprises with harder access to credit resources and worse government-business relationship have a stronger crowding-out effect. Meanwhile, the study shows that the crowding-out effect will be significantly promoted as policy burdens increase and performance pressure of management decreases. The analysis of economic consequences finds that although the participation of enterprises in poverty governance squeezes their innovation input, it increases their innovation output, and the quantity and quality of corporate innovation output are improved. In other words, it contributes to the improvement of the innovation efficiency of enterprises.This paper is helpful to understand the innovation of enterprise entity further. It also provides some new ideas to straighten out the relationship between the government and the market as well as stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises, which has academic significance and practical value in some degree.

Are the Futures Computable? Knightian Uncertainty & Artificial Intelligence

The growing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI) tools promises to revolutionize organizing processes in the near future, transforming how firms identify, gather, analyze, and utilize information from their internal and external operating environments. The business venturing process, however, presents a unique set of challenges for AI tools since entrepreneurs often must navigate informational environments characterized by Knightian Uncertainty, defined as an unbounded set of future possibilities which cannot be measured or predicted. Because these uncertainties are by definition, unmeasurable using probabilistic tools, the presence of unmeasurable sources of Knightian Uncertainty logically raises questions about the long-term viability and relevance of AI tools to the field of entrepreneurship. In this study, we examine these questions through the lens of computational theory – namely the Church-Turing computability thesis – to examine the extent to which particular classes of AI tools are capable of addressing the unique epistemic problems intrinsic to Knightian Uncertainty in entrepreneurship. In doing so, our comprehensive analysis of the organizational implications of AI tools through the lens of modern computational theory allows us to identify the effective limits and boundary conditions of AI tools to navigate entrepreneurial environments characterized by Knightian Uncertainty. We conclude the paper with a robust future research agenda at the intersection of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship theory.

Vivoscapes: an Ecosemiotic Contribution to the Ecological Theory

Vivoscape, from Latin ‘vivo’ (living) and the English ‘scape’ (shape and form of a place) is presented as a new ecosemiotic agency that integrates the interactions between biological and ecological components of a taxon with the environment. According to this model, the interactions between species and the environment are fused into a new functional unity driven by external and internal events (vivoevents). Sensorial and relational channels are used by a taxon to sense external energy gradients, matter, information and to return actions and proactions in an external operational environment. The eco-field model is suggested as the functional ecosemiotic mechanism associated with each vivoevent.

Evaluating the influence of climate and subgrade type on the benchmarking of pavement management efficiency

ABSTRACT Previous studies have applied various benchmarking approaches to measure the performance of organisations that are responsible for maintaining the pavements under their jurisdiction. However, there is a paucity of research investigating the influence of uncontrollable ‘environmental’ factors, such as climate and subgrade type, on the efficiency of these organisations. Quantifying and evaluating the influence of such factors has been a difficult proposition, with previous attempts being qualitative and subjective. This study introduces a set of quantitative and objective indicators that reflect the relative difficulties faced by road agencies in New Zealand, in terms of climate and subgrade type, and proceeds to aggregate these environmental factors on an agency by agency basis. It then demonstrates the influence of these uncontrollable variables on the performance of the agencies through comparison to a baseline benchmarking model, using a non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis approach. The resulting efficiency differences, due to the external operating environment, underlines the significance of including these variables when benchmarking to enable a fair comparison of pavement management efficiency.

Dissecting the external operating environment of Uganda's Sugar Industry: A PESTLE analysis.

Dissecting the external operating environment of Uganda's Sugar Industry: A PESTLE analysis.

Corporate fraud as a threat to the company’s economic security

The article is devoted to the study of the organizational and methodological foundations of ensuring economic security through the mechanism of preventing corporate fraud. The influence of “white-collar” crime at the micro level on the overall economic state of the state is considered. The theoretical aspects of corporate fraud are investigated and generalized. The analysis of existing methods and techniques to assess the risk of their occurrence in a particular enterprise is carried out. The emphasis is placed on the assessment of the external operating environment, considered as a source of potential threats to the company’s security, as well as on the study of the risk of corporate fraud in relation to a particular business entity. The authors propose mechanisms to protect the economic interests of the organization from various threats from the staff, which are essential for maintaining the level of its economic security. The findings on the relationship between corporate fraud and micro-level economic security are not conclusive. This indicates the need for further scientific work on the problem, which will logically continue the problems raised in the article.

Stochastic sensitivity and dynamical complexity of newsvendor models subject to trade credit

To describe the dynamical ordering behaviour of a risk-averse newsvendor with trade credit in supply chain, two models are formulated for two scenarios based on the bounded rationality rule. Assuming the newsvendor chooses the ordering quantity by adaptively adjusting the choice of previous period, we first develop a deterministic model. Then, mathematical analysis of the model is provided, such as the stability of equilibrium points, Neimark–Sacker bifurcation and normal form. Besides, the diagrams such as bifurcation to chaos, Lyapunov exponent, attractors and time series are illustrated numerically. It is then followed by a stochastic model to reflect the unexpected random noises from external operational environment and the perturbation on the newsvendor behaviour. The sensitivity of equilibria, the confidence ellipse and the confidence band are investigated by utilising Stochastic Sensitivity Function technique. Analysis on stochastic sensitivity shows that the retailer’s dynamical ordering exhibits more complex behaviour than the deterministic counterpart.

On the Problem of Systematization of External Factors in the Restructuring of Machine-Building Enterprises

The presented study examines the role of machine-building enterprises in the national economy and the effects of development factors on their performance. Aim . The study aims to determine the degree of influence of external factors on the operation of machine-building enterprises. Tasks . The authors identify various effects of external and internal development factors of machine-building enterprises in the system of macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. Methods . This study uses general scientific methods of cognition to examine the role of machine-building enterprises in the national economy in various aspects. Some problems are solved using the methods of comparison and analysis. The information base of the study includes provisions of Russian and foreign theory of management of economic entities under market conditions; factual materials describing various aspects of operation of Russian machine-building enterprises; data from statistics agencies. Results . Machine-building enterprises are presented at three structural levels: first, as a key segment of the national economy, a foundation of modern industry and a source of innovative development of the economy as a whole; second, as a sophisticated complex consisting of twelve large integrated industries and over a hundred specialized sub-sectors; third, as a machine-building enterprise that is now a part of an integrated business structure (corporation). In modern economics, the three structural levels mentioned above correspond to three groups of scientific research in machine-building: macro -, meso-, and micro-economic. The concepts of external and internal operating environment of machine-building enterprises are substantiated. The authors note that in the restructuring of machine-building enterprises it is important to take into account the diversity and specific effects of these factors on enterprises and to neutralize negative and enhance positive external forces affecting the economic entity under restructuring. Conclusions . A comprehensive examination of machine-building enterprises as a part of the macro -, meso-, and micro-level of the national economic system makes it possible to determine the major effects of external factors on their development.

Approach to Assessing the Consequences of Emergencies in Sewer Tunnels

Abstract The paper deals with the approach to assessing the consequences of emergencies in sewer tunnels based on multicriteria analysis. A detailed analysis was performed of tendencies of research interests and areas in the world concerning the issue of the reliability of sewer networks. The main causes of deterioration of sewer tunnels resulting in the occurrence of emergencies were identified. A classification was proposed of the factors of their deterioration according to the following groups: production factors; factors of durability of materials of linear portions of a network; organizational and technological factors; operational factors; factors of the external operating environment. The main groups of consequences caused by emergencies were classified; in particular, the following groups were identified: ecological, economic, technical, social, innovative. The method was proposed for determining ranks of consequences of an emergency by means of the corresponding scale of ranks developed by the authors and the system of their determination. The main criteria and the range of their values were determined according to which an assessment is given and a rank is determined according to the emergency.

Аналіз передумов мотиваційного управління економічною безпекою підприємств машинобудівної галузі

The article is aimed at analyzing the external operational environment of machine-building enterprises in the context of economic security and identifying the prerequisites for motivational management of the economic security of enterprise. Nowadays, effective management of the economic security of enterprise is one of the established imperatives that provide for the sustainable development and protection of the enterprise’s interests in the face of the contemporary challenges. Industrial enterprises operate in conditions of constant uncertainty and variability, which contributes to the search for effective instruments to ensure the proper level of protection of economic interests of a particular economic entity and industry in general. The article analyzes some indicators of activity of enterprises of machine-building industry of Ukraine. It is concluded that, despite the reduction of indicators such as the share of the processing industry in the GDP of the country, the number of employed people in the enterprises of the industry and the number of enterprises, along with the other, equally important indicators, show growth. First of all, it’s a question of the growth of sales volumes, net profit and profitability, which indicates the existing potential of the industry to implement the motivational management of economic security, because it provides not only for satisfying interests of the owners of enterprises, but also of all elements of the economic security system. Prospects for further research in this direction are the definition of the main elements, stages and methods of implementation of motivational management of economic security at machine-building enterprises.

Corporate Growth Strategies, External Operating Environment and Firm Performance: An Empirical Survey of Large Manufacturing Firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Theoretical literature in strategic management describes performance as outcome of firm’s strategic objectives, which are developed and executed at the corporate level of management. Conceptual propositions also suggest that the external operating environment of a firm influences the relationship between its corporate strategies and performance. This paper examines the direct effect of corporate growth strategies on performance of large manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The strategies under study are market development, product development and diversification. The paper also examines the moderating effect of external operating environment on the relationship between corporate growth strategies and performance of the large manufacturing firms. The authors adopted indicators of competitive position, consumer behaviour and credit accessibility to measure external operating environment.Multistage probability sampling technique was used to select study sample of 189 firms. One hundred forty eight firms responded where primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study findings indicate that corporate growth strategies have a positive and significant impact on a firm’s performance. It also found out that external operating environment has a moderating effect on the relationship between corporate growth strategies and firm performance. The study has important implications for managers and policy makers of the manufacturing firms.