Wilfred V. Huang

Entrepreneurship in China: Characteristics, Attributes, and Family Forces Shaping the Emerging Private Sector

This study profiles new Mainland Chinese entrepreneurs and their enterprises as well as explores the cultural and family forces shaping small- and medium-size enterprise development. The study uncovers entrepreneurial motives, demographic attributes, and the type of businesses being established. Family and enterprise relationships relating to financial investment and employment are also presented. The majority of enterprises were found to be closely held small businesses focused on the retail and technology sectors. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs are motivated by the need for independent-based achievement and continuous learning around a family focus. Family played an active role in enterprise formation and development in China. Entrepreneurs were found to rely on family members both to establish and develop their enterprises. The majority of the entrepreneurs surveyed employed at least one family member on a full-time basis. Entrepreneurs were also found to use family finances as the primary source of start-up capital.

A study of B2B e-market in China: E-commerce process perspective

In China, B2B electronic markets are still in their early stages of development. The lack of basic business infrastructures has delayed the development of e-markets. The intervention and support of government and IT firms was needed to provide technical support and services to e-markets. We developed a conceptual model to aid in evaluating value creation strategy in B2B e-market; it can also be used to determine the complexity of such activities in Chinese B2B e-markets. Based on a case study of two Chinese e-markets, a process-oriented approach was found to be more suitable in modeling the value creation and therefore was selected. The model addressed two major factors: the transaction process and controlling complexity. The crucial value creation activities and strategies in the four phases of the transaction process are identified, and the controlling complexity of these activities is evaluated in the model. Our results offer an approach for studying the dynamic structure of e-commerce processes while focusing on the special issues of e-market development in China.

A decision support system for robot selection

Abstract This paper presents a decision support robot selection system which applies the fuzzy set method to this multicriteria decision making problem. The objective robot attributes are evaluated via marginal value functions while the subjective robot attributes are evaluated via fuzzy set membership function. Data from both evaluations are finally processed such that a fuzzy set decision vector is obtained. Viewpoints of several members of a decision making body are integrated. Sensitivity analysis has shown that final choices can be varied when the weight assignments are changed.

Simulation analysis with group screening

Abstract Simulation of systems involve a number of factors or variables which act and interact to produce an output. When these factors are small in number the experimenter can control them effectively to obtain an optimal output, but when the number of factors increases then efforts to control all the factors effectively also increases and leads to wastage of resources and away from optimality. Very often in a system where a number of factors are involved only a few of them actively involve in producing the output. Therefore it is the interest of the researcher to detect those active factors, and experimental design is frequently applied. The detecting process is called as screening. Screening can done by factorial designs such as 2K (full factorial design) or by 2k-p (fractional factorial design). Even by the fractional factorial method, one might still need to run too many experiments. It is desired to accomplish the screening process in as few number of runs as possible using random balance design, super saturated design or group-screening. Of these methods group-screening has been identified by researchers such as Mauro, Smith, etc. as the most efficient tool. In this research we study the usage of group-screening method as a simulation analysis tool while improving the method from earlier researches. Performance and results are studied and provided in form of response surface figures and tables.

Family contributions to entrepreneurial development in Lebanon

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to profile the characteristics, attributes and growth orientations of Lebanese entrepreneurs, including the relationships, roles, and contributions that family and culture make and play in the development of private small and medium‐sized enterprises.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a sample of 112 entrepreneurs, psychographic motives, demographic attributes, and business activities are revealed. A series of 112 in‐depth personal interviews was conducted over a 12 month period between May 2006 and 2007. The entrepreneurial profile questionnaire (EPQ) was utilized as a data collection instrument. The EPQ was designed to survey the effect of individual, societal, and environmental factors on entrepreneurship and family business development by collecting a combination of demographic information and extensive detail related to characteristics and orientations.Findings – The findings suggest that entrepreneurs are motivated by the need for independence and flexibi...

Virtual manufacturing information system using JAVA and JDBC

Abstract The programming language -- Java, from Sun Microsystems, promises to transform the internet into a medium of secure on-line and real-time business transactions, that are independent of operating systems. Also, with the development of Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) API, it is possible to create secure, three-tier, virtual database systems. This paper deals with the implementation of a three-tier database system, using Java and JDBC, and Creation of an innovative, intelligent “interactive ordering system” on the Internet. It goes a step further to prove the flexibility of the system, by using different database engines at different nodes.

Relocation-promotion problem with Euclidean distance

Abstract The model that we propose is called the relocation-promotion problem. It consists of relocation, which will alter the current demand (distance sensitive), and promotion, which will attract new demand into the market (price sensitive). Properties, algorithms and computational experience are reported.

A new scheduling method for manufacturing systems

Abstract In this paper, we present a new method for scheduling jobs with due dates on sequential and parallel machines. The jobs have different levels of importance (weights) and various processing times, and some of the jobs must follow certain sequences on the machines. The objective is to minimize the total weighted tardiness of the schedule. The new approach is based on Lagrange relaxation and it is a near-optimal approach. For the problem tested, the result is within 1% of the optima with reasonable CPU time. Furthermore, the method provides job interaction information which can be used to reconfigure the schedule to accommodate dynamic changes, and also to schedule new jobs. These capabilities have enormous value for researchers and practitioners alike, and would result in considerable direct and indirect savings.

e-Health in China: An evaluation

China welcomes e-health service as it is developing globally, but like many other nations it encounters both opportunities and challenges. The rapid development of e-commerce and the wide application of ICT have accelerated their uses in healthcare service. Therefore, the assessment of e-health is becoming more important. We analyze the current situation in China and assess its goals of realizing e-health and the challenges of developing e-health.

Understanding the B2B E-Market in China

This paper seeks to develop a conceptual model that is inherently suitable for analyzing the complexity of B2B e-market and transaction performance in China. The case study of CCEC.com provides an insight on how one excellent B2B e-market has executed a successful strategy utilizing the existing source within the current business climate of China. The data from the case research illustrate e-commerce strategies and crucial business activities. Further, the B2B E-Market Model is proposed for studying the critical strategy component of value creation in e-markets of China. The Model involves with two variables: the e-commerce process and the controlling complexity. Building on process insight, the e-commerce process can be modelled by separating main business activities into four phases designed to exploit value creation opportunity. Controlling complexity refers to supervising and controlling the transactional processes for security, trust and efficient transaction environment. The Model illustrates the relationship between the business components required to support the e-commerce processes with the value creation factor and the controlling complexity. Using the model in comparisons of B2B e-markets in USA and in China, we find unique characteristics in transactional processes - the information, negotiation, payment and delivery phases. It offers an effective approach to studying dynamic structure of transactional process and a high performance e-commerce strategy.