What factors motivate firms to improve quality management and enter customer–supplier collaborative relationships? This study investigates how the pressure to adopt the ISO 9000 or 14000 series from ...downstream customers affects customer–supplier collaborations and process improvement. Employing a survey dataset linking respondents (i.e., focal firms), their downstream customers, and their upstream suppliers in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, this study finds that the ISO requirements to the suppliers promote the development of collaborative relationships between the focal firms and their suppliers and improve process control. Regression analysis and csQCA indicate importance of analyzing combinations of the factors rather than individual factors that may affect quality control improvement.
This paper investigates the impact of trade costs (export customs clearance, subjective assessment of trade obstacles, and input inventory) on the export propensity and intensity of enterprises in ...Southeast Asia (SEA) and Latin America (LA) using World Bank's enterprise surveys. The results demonstrate that obstacles to trade do not significantly affect export intensity in exporting enterprises. An international comparison between SEA and LA shows that the unfavorable conditions that export-intensive enterprises suffer in LA discourage enterprises' integration into international production networks. Export-intensive enterprises in LA suffer from the burdens of input inventory and customs clearance for exports.
The aim of this paper is to clarify factors that promote innovation upgrading of regional SMEs and to analyze why and how policy programs implemented by local government affect their upgrading. This ...study is based on a firm-level questionnaire survey conducted in 2014 that targeted 1324 SMEs in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Innovation upgrading was classified into four stages depending on the novelty of the technology used and products; the novelty is classified according to whether they were existing or new. Measures of upgrading include the ratio of research and development (R&D) investment to sales, open innovation, sources of ideas, problem solving ability, human resource development (HRD), and business development strategies. An ordered probit model was employed. Six policy programs of Hyogo Prefectural Government were analyzed. The Manufacturing Academy was seen to be significant, and how this policy program affects upgrading through factors inside SMEs was examined by introducing cross-terms of policy programs and measures. Estimation results demonstrated that this policy program enhanced upgrading through HRD in SMEs, and it is considered that this was due to the policy programs meeting the necessity that SMEs have to develop the skills and abilities of their engineers and workers.
•The factors that enhance innovation upgrading were identified by a questionnaire.•A model of innovation upgrading is constructed and estimated by ordered probit.•Open innovation, R&D, sources of ideas, HRD, and managerial strategy were extracted.•Regional industrial policy programs that are significant for upgrading were identified.•The above policy programs contribute to upgrading through the HRD activities of SMEs.
This study explores non-R&D determinants of innovations. Following findings from innovation literature, this study focuses on customer relationships, human resource management (HRM) and top ...management characteristics as possible determinants of innovations. For empirical analyses, this study conducts a questionnaire survey in Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam in the beginning of 2017. The results of the questionnaire survey and regression analyses present that customer relationships are significantly correlated with product innovations, whereas HRM practices have significant associations with process innovations. Top management contributes to product innovations only by developing mentoring relationships with their engineers. However, top management may make a significant contribution to innovations, by playing a key role in creating customer relationships to promote knowledge transfer.
Abstract
The hemodynamic behavior following endovascular treatment of patients with peripheral arterial disease plays a significant role on the occurrence of restenosis in femoro-popliteal (FP) ...arteries. The atheroprone flow conditions that are generally accepted to promote restenosis can be calculated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses, and these results can be used to assess individualized treatment outcomes. However, the impact of endovascular therapy on the flow behaviors of FP arteries are still poorly understood, as the imaging modalities used in existing numerical works (X-ray angiography, computed tomography angiography) are unable to accurately represent the post-treatment arterial geometry due to their low resolutions. Therefore, this study proposes a new algorithm that combines intra-arterial lumen geometry obtained from high-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) images with centerlines generated from X-ray images to reconstruct the FP artery with an in-plane resolution of 10 µm. This superior accuracy allows modeling characteristic geometrical structures, such as angioplasty-induced arterial dissections, that are too small to be reconstructed with other imaging modalities. The framework is applied on the clinical data of patients treated either with only-percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) (n = 4) or PTA followed by stenting (n = 4). Based on the generated models, PTA was found to cause numerous arterial dissections, covering approximately 10% of the total surface area of the lumen, whereas no dissections were identified in the stented arteries. CFD simulations were performed to investigate the hemodynamic conditions before and after treatment. Regardless of the treatment method, the areas affected by low time-averaged wall shear stress (< 0.5 Pa) were significantly higher (
p
< 0.05) following endovascular therapy (pre-PTA: 0.95 ± 0.59 cm
2
; post-PTA: 2.10 ± 1.09cm
2
; post-stent: 3.10 ± 0.98 cm
2
). There were no statistical differences between the PTA and the stent groups. However, within the PTA group, adverse hemodynamics were mainly concentrated at regions created by arterial dissections, which may negatively impact the outcomes of a leave-nothing-behind strategy. These observations show that OCT-based numerical models have great potential to guide clinicians regarding the optimal treatment approach.
Globalization and economic integration initiatives in Southeast Asia encourage local supplier firms in Southeast Asia to enter foreign and local leading firms' supply chains and obtain new knowledge. ...However, most Southeast Asian suppliers cannot fulfill potential buyers' requirements for quality, cost, and delivery control. This study investigates whether Kaizen (Japanese style of continuous improvement) practices facilitate backward knowledge transfer to local suppliers from their buyers (i.e., knowledge transfer from a buyer to its supplier). This study also examines if a firm's buyer-transfer knowledge also promotes knowledge transfer to its supplier. Empirical analyses provide evidence of the association of Kaizen activities with backward knowledge transfer for process improvement but do not show the association with backward knowledge transfer for buyer–supplier product co-design. Backward knowledge transfer to a supplier stimulates backward knowledge transfer from the supplier to its supplier for process improvement and product co-design.
Although antiarrhythmic drugs have long been used for the suppression of various types of arrhythmias, their prior use before the onset of ventricular arrhythmia with hemodynamic collapse and the ...effect on prognosis is not well known. Data from 1004 consecutive patients with cardiovascular shock in the Japanese Circulation Society’s Shock Registry were analyzed. Eighty-four cases of ventricular arrhythmia-induced shock and ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation) were divided into the prior amiodarone or β-blockers use group (Aβ group,
n
= 27) and the non-amiodarone and non-β-blockers use group (non-Aβ group;
n
= 57) based on treatment before the onset of those arrhythmias. Clinical outcomes related to hemodynamic collapse such as OHCA (out-of-hospital cardiovascular arrest) was less in the Aβ group Aβ group, 11/26 (42%) vs. non-Aβ group, 41/56 (73%);
p
= 0.007. Similarly, syncope was less common in the Aβ group than in the non-Aβ group Aβ group 4/27 (15%) vs. non-Aβ group 27/57 (47%);
p
= 0.004. Furthermore, prior amiodarone or β-blockers use before the onset of ventricular arrhythmias was strongly associated with both survival at discharge (odds ratio 3.19; 95% confidence interval 1.06–9.67;
p
= 0.040) and neurological outcomes at discharge (odds ratio 3.96; 95% confidence interval 1.32–11.85;
p
= 0.014) based on multivariate logistic regression analysis. Prior amiodarone or β-blockers use before the onset of malignant ventricular arrhythmia and maintaining appropriate blood concentrations in advance is associated with a good survival rate and better neurological outcomes after recovery from ventricular arrhythmia with hemodynamic collapse.
Background: Hyperpolypharmacy is associated with adverse outcomes in older adults, but because literature on its association with cardiovascular (CV) outcomes after acute decompensated heart failure ...(ADHF) is sparse, we investigated the relationships among hyperpolypharmacy, medication class, and death in patients with HF.Methods and Results: We evaluated the total number of medications prescribed to 884 patients at discharge following ADHF. Patients were categorized into nonpolypharmacy (<5 medications), polypharmacy (5–9 medications), and hyperpolypharmacy (≥10 medications) groups. We examined the relationship of polypharmacy status with the 2-year mortality rate. The proportion of patients taking ≥5 medications was 91.3% (polypharmacy, 55.3%; hyperpolypharmacy, 36.0%). Patients in the hyperpolypharmacy group showed worse outcomes than patients in the other 2 groups (P=0.002). After multivariable adjustment, the total number of medications was significantly associated with an increased risk of death (hazard ratio HR per additional increase in the number of medications, 1.05; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.01–1.10; P=0.027). Although the number of non-CV medications was significantly associated with death (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02–1.13; P=0.01), the number of CV medications was not (HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.92–1.10; P=0.95).Conclusions: Hyperpolypharmacy due to non-CV medications was associated with an elevated risk of death in patients after ADHF, suggesting the importance of a regular review of the prescribed drugs including non-CV medications.
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