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PurposeA firm's inventions provide technical information for product planning and technical support for new product development (NPD). In the knowledge-based theory, inventing is regarded as a process of knowledge combination. This paper aims to classify the firm's inventive capabilities based on the combinatorial view and investigate the effects of inventive capabilities on NPD performance.Design/methodology/approachFour types of inventive capabilities are identified concerned with the knowledge used to combine in the inventive activities. By utilizing a dataset of 572 firms from China's automotive manufacturing industry, the roles of different inventive activities in the generation of new inventions are compared. Then the effects of different inventive capabilities on NPD performance are empirically examined by using negative binomial regression analysis.FindingsThe time series for the number of patented inventions derived from different types of combinations generally exhibits a steady upward trend, and the number of patents derived from recombination is much higher. The empirical results demonstrate that the inventive capabilities associated with reused recombination and creative recombination exhibit positive effects on NPD performance, and the inventive capabilities associated with novel combination and original combination exhibit non-linear effects on NPD performance.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to NPD literature by investigating the effects of different inventive capabilities on NPD performance. This study also provides guidelines for manufacturing managers to improve NPD performance by building appropriate inventive capabilities.

PurposeThe environment in high-tech industries is highly dynamic, and after COVID-19, it has become even more unpredictable. Hence, it has become critical for firms to develop strategies to cope with a highly dynamic environment. This paper aims to analyze how the impact of the scientific collaboration networks with URIs (universities and research institutes) on firm innovation performance is contingent on technological and market dynamics.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 174 Chinese firms in the new-energy vehicle industry during 2004–2015, the authors applied a random-effects negative binomial modeling approach to model these relationships.FindingsA broad and strong scientific collaboration network promotes firm innovation network effects are contingent on technological and market dynamics. While technological dynamics strengthen the effect market dynamics weaken it due to the different purposes of collaboration for firms and URIs.Practical implicationsFirms should adjust the structure of scientific collaboration networks with URIs when facing different environments. The government should encourage firms to jointly research with diverse URIs and play an active role in stabilizing market environments.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the academic debate on university-industry scientific collaborations. Applying the temporary competitive advantage (TCA) framework, we provide nuances to the literature that studies the factors that condition the effects of networks. This study also adds to the research on firm scientific collaboration networks by measuring networks based on the coauthorship between firms and URIs.

PurposeShifting focus from innovation quantity to innovation quality becomes a priority in innovation study, business and policy. This paper aims to figure out whether and how knowledge recombination (recombinant exploration/recombinant exploitation) affects firms' innovation quality (technological value/economic value) and how these relationships are moderated by environmental turbulence (technological turbulence/market turbulence) in the context of open innovation.Design/methodology/approachA panel data set is built on 373 Chinese pharmaceutical firms' patents and new product data from 1997 to 2020. And a negative binomial regression model is applied to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe analyses indicate that (1) recombinant exploration favors technological value but hinders economic value, while (2) recombinant exploitation benefits both. Regarding environmental turbulence's moderating effects, (3) technological turbulence has opposite moderating effects on the impacts of recombinant exploration versus exploitation on technological value, whereas (4) market turbulence benefits the impacts of both on economic value.Practical implicationsThis research provides the answer to practitioners' question that “How to improve innovation quality?” That is “Think from a recombination logic, clarify your internal value preference and the external turbulence.”Originality/valueFrom an emerging perspective of innovation, this research expands the innovation quality research to a recombination logic. A multi-dimensional research framework is developed to clarify the complex relationships between knowledge recombination and innovation quality. Finally, two moderators, technological versus market turbulence, formulate more targeted implications for firms' innovation management in open innovation.

Research and development (R&D) collaboration plays a vital role in the development of new products. As both external knowledge sourcing and internal knowledge base contribute to new product develop...

This study examines the role of research and development (R&D) collaboration in the race to set standards in the Chinese automotive industry. We unravel how different properties of R&D collaboration provide firms with social capital that contributes to their involvement in formal standard setting. To test our hypotheses, we use a sample of 508 firms involved in collaborative R&D and standardization from 1987 to 2010. Our results show that firms with stronger and more efficient connections to R&D partners are more likely to set (domestic) standards. Furthermore, firms are more likely to set collaborative standards as a principal editor or non-collaborative standards when they possess stronger connections to their R&D partners. This relationship becomes more pronounced when the proportion of Chinese state-owned enterprises in the firm’s R&D network increases. These findings provide valuable insights for both managers and policymakers, as collaborative partnerships are primary strategic assets that can be leveraged for lobbying and hence, drive competitive advantage in standard competition.

This paper takes the thick and widely distributed crystal dolomite of Xixiangchi Formation, Upper Cambrian in Southeastern Sichuan basin as an example, the reservoir characteristics and main controlling factors of crystal dolomite have been analyzed systematically, and the genesis and reservoir formation mechanism of crystal dolomite have been discussed. It shows that the main reservoir rocks of crystal dolomite include powder crystalline dolomite and finely crystalline dolomites, and the intercrystal pores and dissolved intercrystal pores are the main reservoir spaces, with few dissolved vugs and fractures developed in the reservoir. The pore structure analysis shows that the throats of crystal dolomite reservoir are mainly lamellar, reflecting a good configuration between pores and throats, medium- low porosity and low permeability, representing typical porous-type reservoir. Dolomitization analysis indicates that the dolomitization occurred in the penecontemporaneous or early diagenetic stage. The degree of dolomitization decreased gradually from the top to the bottom in each sedimentary cycle, and distribution of dolomite in the study area shows that the content of dolomites decreases from the west to the east, which reflects the degree of dolomitization weakening eastward. Combined with the geochemical research of crystal dolomite, the C and O isotope data reflect the same characteristics of seawater during the late Cambrian. It indicates that the dolomitization might be related to the seepage-reflux of seawater in the early time. Recrystallization played an important role in the genesis of the crystal dolomite, because most of crystal dolomites remain residual granular texture. The intercrystal pores formed by seepage–reflux dolomitization acted as superior seepage channels for the reservoir transformation, and the recrystallization adjusted the previous pores and made them better, while the karstification was the key to the dissolved pore formation.

This study investigated the characteristics and genesis of reservoirs in the 2nd and 4th members of Sinian Dengying Formation in northern Sichuan and its surrounding areas, on the basis of outcrop, drilling cores and thin section observation and geochemical analysis. The reservoirs of 2nd member are distributed in the middle part of the stratum. The reservoir quality is controlled by supergene karst and the distribution of mound-shoal complex. The bedded elongated isolated algal framework solution-cave and the residual “grape-lace” cave, which are partially filled with multi-stage dolosparite, constituted the main reservoir space of the 2nd member. There is no asphalt distribution in the pores. The pore connectivity is poor, and the porosity and permeability of the reservoir is relatively low. The reservoirs of 4th member were distributed in the upper and top part of the stratum. The reservoir quality is controlled by burial dissolution and the distribution of mound-shoal complex. The bedded algal framework solution-pores or caves, intercrystalline pores and intercrystalline dissolved pores constituted the main reservoir space of the 4th member. It's partially filled with asphalt and quartz, without any dolosparite fillings in the pores and caves. The pore connectivity is good. Most of the 4th member reservoirs had medium-low porosity and low permeability, and, locally, medium-high porosity and medium permeability. Affected by the development of mound-shoal complex and heterogeneous dissolution, the platform margin along Ningqiang, Guangyuan, Jiange and Langzhong is the most favorable region for reservoir development. Deep buried Dengying Formation in the guangyuan and langzhong areas should be the most important hydrocarbon target for the future exploration. Key words: Sichuan Basin, northern Sichuan area, Sinian, Dengying Formation, mound-shoal complex, supergene karst, burial dissolution, reservoir

In this paper, we developed a novel hybrid fiber reinforced cementitious composites (HFRCCs) using steel fibers, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers and calcium carbonate whisker (CW) with high temperature resistance and cost-effectiveness. Mechanical and physical responses of HFRCCs after exposure to high temperature and roles of different fibers were particularly studied. The results showed that partially replacing PVA fibers by CW could reduce the deterioration of strengths and flexural toughness of HFRCCs before 600 °C because of significant nucleation effect and restraining cracking of CW. PVA fibers would melt above 200 °C and thus deteriorated the flexural and splitting tensile strengths, but less effective to compressive strengths. Steel fiber was most effective to increase the residual mechanical properties among these fibers because of its higher thermostability and strong bond with matrix. Generally, high temperature deteriorated the matrix and adversely affected the quality of fibers, which was mainly related to the different thermostability between fibers.

Social ties can help firms gain and secure resources. However, it is unclear whether social ties facilitate or inhibit firms’ decision-making on dominant design generation. Our study distinguishes the variant roles of business ties and political ties and examines how contextual factors moderate the effects of these ties. Based on archival data of 443 Chinese automotive firms embedded in standard alliances during the period 2005–2009, we find that weak business ties enhance firms’ influence on dominant design, and the positive effect of the number of business ties is even stronger when firms operate in a context with higher IRP enforcement. Moreover, the empirical results indicate that when either the IPR enforcement or the technological turbulence is high, establishing political ties is detrimental to a firm’s influence on dominant design. Our findings add new insights to the research on social capital, dominant design, and open innovation in the automotive industry. The findings also provide significant implications for managers by showing how they can utilize social ties to influence the emergence of dominant designs in an industry.

The Middle Triassic Leikoupo Formation in the northern Sichuan Basin is a new discovery sequence for strategy replacement in the gas exploration field. The carbonate paleokarst reservoirs of the Middle Triassic Leikoupo Formation in the northern Sichuan Basin provide a case study of gas exploration in carbonate paleokarst reservoirs. By conducting a comprehensive study of well drilling, drill cores, well loggings, and test data, combined with the analysis of geological background of the Sichuan Basin, it is considered that syndepositional, supergene, and burial paleokarstification can be identified in the Leikoupo Formation, and these types of karstification were vital for reservoirs formation. Syndepositional karstification controlled the formation and distribution of early reservoirs. This type of karstification was limited to high-energy grain shoals, and therefore its horizontal extent was limited by the distribution of this facies. During temporary episodes of relative sea level fall, carbonate shoals were exposed subaerially or within the fresh water lens, and significant selective dissolution occurs, forming moldic pores and intragranular dissolved pores. The reservoirs related to supergene karstification mainly occurred in the area of the buried hill containing carbonate rock at the top of the Leikoupo Formation, and are vertically limited within a depth of 70–90 m under the carbonate corrosion unconformity plane of the Leikoupo Formation. The reservoirs related to supergene karstification formed mainly in limestone breccia and vuggy limestone in surface karst zone, and the high-angle dissolved fracture and medium- and small-scale corrosion holes in vertical vadose zone, and medium and small corrosion holes, dissolved fractures, roof fracture-caves in horizontal karst zone. The karst monadnocks within karst slope are the most favorable microgeomorphic units for horizontal distribution of reservoirs. Burial karstification was related to dissolution of carbonate minerals by organic acids, and was the key factor in optimal transformation of reservoirs. Burial karstification corroded and expanded the pore system left after infilling of the earlier pore system, and mainly was to optimize the transformation the reservoir space redistribution of earlier pore system. The compact carbonate layers related to burial karstification only can be dissolved along the early cracks in the channel and formation cracked reservoirs, but development of this type of reservoir was limited. The reservoirs were influenced by syndepositional, supergene, and burial paleokarstification in the Leikoupo Formation, and carbonate paleokarst reservoirs were formed finally.

Diverse R&D alliance partnerships not only provide access to broad external knowledge but also bring considerable expenses caused by transaction costs and absorption problems. The effective utilization of external knowledge in developing new products is closely related to the internal knowledge base. This study examines how firms' knowledge base properties influence the relationship between diverse R&D alliance partnerships and NPD performance. We empirically find that increases in firms' knowledge complementarity reinforce the positive impact of diverse alliance partners on NPD performance, but increases in firms’ knowledge substitutability attenuate. These findings offer valuable managerial implications that firms should commit more seriously to their internal knowledge base so that they can achieve higher NPD performance when establishing R&D alliances with external actors.

The new product development (NPD) is crucial to firms’ survival and success. Tough decisions must be made between the binary NPD strategy (i.e. incremental NPD strategy and radical NPD strategy) to ensure that scarce resources are allocated efficiently. The inappropriate NPD strategy that does not meet the internal and external conditions may lead to resources waste and performance decline. The binary NPD strategy forecasting is helpful to guide the firms when to improve existing products and when to develop ‘really new’ products. Therefore, the primary purposes of this study are to construct an evaluating indicator system and to find the appropriate method for the binary NPD strategy forecasting. Here we obtain 1088 valid sample datasets from Chinese automotive industry, covering the period 2001–2014. The empirical results indicate that RS-MultiBoosting as a kind of hybrid ensemble machine learning (HEML) method demonstrate an outstanding forecasting performance in dealing with the small datasets by comparison with the other four ensemble machine learning (EML) methods and three individual machine learning (IML) methods. The findings can help firms to make the right business decision between incremental and radical NPD strategies so that they can avoid resources waste and improve the overall NPD performance.

Sisal is a natural material and a potential additive to reinforce composites. In this paper, sisal fiber cellulose microcrystalline (SFCM) was obtained from sisal fiber, and SFCM/unsaturated polyester (SFCM/UPR) in-situ resins were prepared via in-situ polymerization. Moreover, SFCM/UPR composites were produced with methods of rolling and molding. Effect of SFCM on dynamic mechanical properties of composites was studied. It is demonstrated that SFCM could significantly improve the dynamic mechanical properties of composites; the effect is closely related with the amount of SFCM, its dispersion in UPR matrix, and interfacial interaction. When the content of SFCM was 3 wt%, at 50°C, the storage modulus of SFCM/UPR composite was 33.22% higher than that of pure UPR. In addition, the glass transition temperature (Tg) was shifted to a higher temperature by 7.5°C, and loss modulus was decreased by 16.24%. The equilibrium value of relaxation modulus at 120 min was 30.52% higher than that of pure UPR composite. Besides, the equilibrium value of creep strain at 120 min was decreased by 41.61% compared with pure UPR composite. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, the effects of preparation methods on mechanical and tribological properties of sisal fiber cellulose microcrystalline (SFCM)/unsaturated polyester (UP) composites were studied. Compared with the pure UP composites, the SFCM/UP composites prepared by in-situ polymerization had greatly improved the mechanical and tribological properties. The impact strength, flexural strength, and flexural modulus of SFCM/UP composites with 2 wt% SFCM were 6.8 KJ/M2, 105.53 MPa, and 14.29 GPa, increased by 74.81%, 33.38%, and 7.36% in comparison with pure UP composites, respectively. Meanwhile, the volume wear rate of SFCM/UP composites at 100, 150, and 200°C decreased 50.40%, 52.39%, and 50.06%, respectively. These results suggested that the properties of SFCM/UP composites prepared by in-situ polymerization were significantly improved, which may be attributed to the strong interface interactions between SFCM and UP matrix. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this study, mesoporous materials-41 were synthesised at room temperature using a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the template agent. Then, the mesoporous materials-41/unsaturated polyester resin materials were prepared by in situ polymerisation with the mesoporous MCM-41. Then, mesoporous materials-41/unsaturated polyester resin in situ composites were prepared by roller, milling and molding processes. The effects of the mesoporous materials-41 on the mechanical and electrical properties of the mesoporous materials-41/unsaturated polyester resin composites were investigated. The results show that the mesoporous materials-41 had a diameter in the range of 4–5 nm and the pores were highly ordered. The mechanical and electrical insulation properties of composites were improved by the addition of mesoporous materials-41. For instance, the impact strength and flexural strength of composites were increased by 29·6 and 25·25% at 2 wt-% mesoporous materials-41 loading, respectively.

Big data knowledge and private knowledge are the two dominant types of knowledge that an enterprise needs for new product innovation in a big data environment. Big data knowledge can help enterprises to make decisions, trim costs and lift sales. Private knowledge is usually the core patent knowledge, which can help to enhance the quality of products. The decline in product cost and the increased quality of a new product after knowledge transfer may lead to pricing decisions with respect to an enterprise's new product. By considering the changes in product costs, market share and the profits after knowledge transfer caused by price changes to a new product, an optimisation model of price changes after knowledge transfer in the big data environment is presented. It can enable pricing decisions about new products for enterprises in the big data environment.

At present, enterprises have been developing more and more quickly in China. In order to strengthen the systems of enterprise management, manufacturing execution, equipment and so on in each link of management, many enterprises have started to use data integration to construct an Informationization management system. Based on the needs of the development of enterprises, this paper analyzes the pattern formation of data integration and its advantages and explores its role in enterprise informationization construction. Introduction In the times of informationization, informationization development is a necessary stage for every enterprise to go through in metamorphosis. In the process of enterprises’ development, it is easy to form “information island” due to failure of communication or trade restrictions, which troubles either decision-making or management for them. Latitudinally,enterprises need to receive the latest industry news for development; longitudinally, they need to summarize experience of historical development; on the whole, they need to integrate information from each subsumed department. In all, informationization is necessary, so is data integration for enterprises’ development in terms of the three above-mentioned aspects. Data Integration The so called data integration is divided into three layers in the light of its structure, i.e., data-capture layer, data management layer and data service layer, as is shown in Fig. 1 below. The data-capture layer is responsible for capturing and updating available data and then registering them as data source. The data abstraction model, namely, data-capture layer, first monitors and analyzes data from data sources in storage. As an enterprise embodies a big database, the basis of model construction relies on data collection. Therefore, it is necessary for the data extraction model to detect changes in data for adding in data at all times. The data management layer is responsible for data integration, i.e., management and maintenance on the basis of data. As the data is in a scattered state after being collected, only when they are integrated and classified will they be available for backup use. The data service layer provides useful information for decision makers pointedly and selectively. However, decision making calls for precise and accurate data. Hence, the provided information is supposed to having been analyzed in one way or another to the necessity of decision making. All the three layers are constituents of EAI(Enterprise Application Integration). They seem to perform different functions, but constitute an inter-related and indivisible whole. They are all described in XML because the language is both easy to use and has good performance. Data International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (ICCSE 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 223 extraction, transfer and loading are all components of the establishment and maintenance of database, for which several key techniques are adopted including data extraction model design. Figure 1 Layer Diagram of Data Integration System The data load design, for example, is one of the core technologies employed for data integration. At present, inverse transformation of data is carried out with the help of XML. That is, XML data is transformed into target data; it is also a process of loading data into database. In the process of data loading, target increment table is a key point as well as the source of data to be loaded.The names for the target increment table may includean extracted table name with the suffix “-dest”or flag, updatetime, etc. addingall of the fields of the corresponding target. In general, constructing data loading first requires connecting the database to the target database and then the data in the target increment table load to the target database.That is the process of data loading design, wherein the loading method employed for the target increment table as the data source can import data of similar structure without switching in the context of the database. This greatly improves the performance of data loading. Necessity of Data Integration Nowadays, informationization is becoming more and more important. In addition to capital and technology, information has become an important factor for the development enterprises. Therefore, database technology has become the hot spot of research and received as much attention as in the research both at home and abroad. But most of the concern has been focused on technology and integration framework, which has changed related methods of data integration and is of great help for enterprises to improve flexibility and collaboration capabilities. It is widely acknowledged that database has good real-time performance. But it has certain requirements for network and devices and its cost is high. If the transformation and transmission is processed through data replication, even though the data could be delayed, the access will be faster and cost will be lower. Therefore,it can be concluded that although data integration has faults, the methods for its implementation are simple. Besides,it is flexible in s data processing andhas good maintainability; thus feasible. In the meantime, it is also an "informationization revolution" necessary for enterprises to carry out to stand in the tide of information in the information age.