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Currently, conjugated nonlinear optical (NLO) materials suffer from the drawbacks of complex manufacturing process and high cost. To further study the NLO materials with cost-effective, it is necessary to prepare new NLO materials with satisfactory performance.

Pyrene derivatives with good third-order NLO properties were synthesized by combining pyrene compounds with TCNE, TCNQ, F4-TCNQ and other molecular systems by clicking chemical method.

The pyrene derivatives were characterized by ultraviolet spectrum and Z-scan. The charge-transfer of the D-p-A structures plays a key role in the absorption peak shifts. And the third-order nonlinear absorption of the products revealed good third-order NLO susceptibilities.

The synthesis technology of pyrene derivatives is not mature enough and is in the preliminary exploration stage. So, the authors produced a relatively small number of samples and did not conduct a very comprehensive test.

This novel pyrene derivative is suggestive and can promote the exploration and development of the third-order nonlinear materials.

Four new pyrene derivatives were synthesized by selecting new molecular systems. Because of its good chemical properties and stable properties, it can be a reference for the development of third-order nonlinear materials in the future.

This study aims to deal with actor engagement practices and identifies different roles in actor engagement (AE), using the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) literature and the pivotal concept of value co-creation within the frame of engagement platforms.

The context of this research is an online health community, provided by a pharmaceutical firm, which moderates the interaction between its members. The authors use a grounded theory approach with the methodology of netnography. These research are based on the approaches of ethnography and is a suitable qualitative method for analyzing human behavior in certain situations.

The results indicate that customers and/or actors operate as resource integrators in the perspective of S-D logic. Independent social and economic actors adopt both the roles of service providers and service beneficiaries in a reciprocal manner. Value co-creation in online communities based on practices, which actually define the respective role. Three main engagement practices are identified: information-, advising- and empathy-practices.

The findings point to the importance of the dynamic and interactive concept of actor engagement and present a clearer understanding of customer, who act both in provider- and beneficiary-roles. However, it becomes evident that a customer orientation should address the actor playing a beneficiary-role, who uses (or selects) the value proposition, and not actors who play the role of financial resources provider.

In recent years, the construct of AE, and, in particular, customer engagement have been established both in theory and in practice. However, there are few empirical research publications so far, that try to explain engagement practices in online communities, especially in the healthcare sector.

This paper analyzes how German municipalities organize their purchasing activities. It aims to identify patterns in the structure of the purchasing function and to study how the size of the municipality influences the design of its purchasing organization. Therefore, an analytical framework based on contingency and organization theory is developed and results of an empirical study are presented. The results indicate that German municipalities use a medium level of centralization and specialization in organizing their purchasing activities, but that the purchasing process is highly formalized and represented on high hierarchical levels in many cases. As to the relationship between the size of a municipality and the structure of its purchasing function, the study indicates that size, measured by the number of inhabitants, the number of employees and purchasing volume influences the structural variables in various ways.

This paper aims to synthesise and evaluate the properties of a novel smart material consisting of a metal-free organic black pigment with a unique chromophore for bifunctional applications in optoelectronics.

A robust and highly efficient organic reaction, namely, a double [2 + 2] cycloaddition, was deployed to transform a rod-like structure for charge-transfer applications to a strongly conjugated light-absorbing molecule for both optical and electronic applications.

The synthesis and characterisation of an air-stable metal-free black pigment is reported, which contains an unconventional donor–acceptor panchromatic chromophore with an absorption window spanning 600 nm; the compound was synthetically converted from an organic semiconducting molecular rod and retains strong charge-transfer properties. The chromophore comprises tetracyanoquinodimethane adduct on either side of a dithienothiophenyl core, capped with hexyl thiophenes that ensure solubility in common organic solvents. Its propensity to form excellent thin films on different substrates such as glass and paper, with a total opacity in organic solvent, gives it the potential for wide-ranging applications in organic optoelectronics.

The synthetic chemistry and fundamental properties are investigated in the present study, with more detailed treatments and analysis to be soon developed. One leading smart material is presented, with further derivatives under investigation.

The work presented shows the possibility of converting structures from one application to another with relative ease, but how they retain properties for both, using well-known and facile conditions.

The structures are novel and an enhanced air-stable organic panchromatic chromophore is reported for processing in common organic solvents.

Knowledge often is the fundament for strategic competitive advantage. Thus, it is highly relevant to understand better how knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next in family businesses. The purpose of this paper is to link the competitive advantage realisation in family businesses to the success of transferring strategically valuable knowledge in different business environments to the next generation.

Building on the contingency model of family business succession (Royer et al., 2008) knowledge transfer in family businesses from different cultures is investigated in this paper. From a resource-oriented and transaction cost inspired perspective two family businesses with a similar industry background from China and Europe are compared regarding knowledge transfer in the context of family firm succession taking into account the respective transaction atmosphere.

Different successions for two long-lived family firms are illustrated in a systematic fashion: based on the theoretical elements suggested both cases are described to get insights into the usefulness of the theoretical reasoning developed. On the basis of these, the cases are compared with each other and conclusions for both cases are drawn. Implications for theory and practice as well as avenues for future research are sketched.

The focus of the current study is to gain more insight into long-lived family businesses by comparing two cases over a period of more than 200 years with regard to strategically relevant resources as well as the underlying transaction atmospheres. Implications for family firms depending on the resource types and transaction atmosphere are discussed.

One of the most important challenges of our society is to cope with the transition of our society into a more and more digital one. Thus, the political and governmental system has to face and adapt to those transitions as well. This chapter focuses on the social media communication of the British, German and French national governments. The goal of this chapter is to compare the social media communication of these three countries in 2015 within each other as well as to draw a comparison between the results of two predecessor studies in 2011 and 2014. A new special focus of this chapter will be on the interactive discourse between society/citizens and governments.

According to Kolm (1998, p. 3), social ethics addresses the question ‘what should be done in society?’ The topic of justice constitutes a very large part of social ethics although other virtues are also important. Kolm distinguishes between macro-justice and micro-justice. For the former, Kolm proposes ‘a combination of the three rationales of rights and duties about capacities: process-freedom, partial income equalisation by efficient means, and the satisfaction of basic needs and the alleviation of deep suffering’. Sen (1992, pp. ix, 21–22, 150) argues that ‘a common characteristic of virtually all the approaches to the ethics of social arrangements that have stood the test of time is to want equality of something – something that has an important place in the particular theory’. For example, even libertarian thinkers such as Nozick who are perceived as being anti-egalitarian place importance on people having liberty and hence that equality of liberties is important. Sen's own capability approach ‘has something to offer both to the evaluation of well-being and to the assessment of freedom’.

This paper examines the depth, erudition, and rigor of contemporary research on knowledge management as a causal factor that influences the ultimate outcome of multinational corporation (MNC) expansion, bounded by the confines of information and communication technology (ICT) competences identified as behavioral, business, and technological. Through discussion highlighting the dominant knowledge management (KM) research themes within the milieu of the global firm, readers will gain definitive and practical insight into relevant topics that may be used to stimulate development of growth strategies for the firm.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the family dynamics factors and gender roles influencing the functioning of copreneurial business practices, to propose a conceptual framework based on these factors/roles.

For this purpose, a qualitative approach was adopted, through the analysis of seven businesses created by copreneurial couples in an emerging economy – Brazil. Data were obtained from an open interview with each member of the selected couples who are in charge of firm management.

The empirical evidence obtained shows that the most important factors for successful copreneurial family businesses are professionalization, dividing the couple’s tasks and business management. Trust, communication, flexibility and common goals are other essential relational-based factors for the good functioning of this type of family business and stability in the personal relationship.

It is clear that professionalization and the separation of positions and functions are fundamental for a balance between business management and the couple’s marital life. When couples are in harmony and considering factors such as trust, communication and flexibility (relational-based factors), the firm’s life-cycle and business success become real and more effective.

From the family dynamics factors and gender roles, this study focused on one of the most important and integrated family firm relationships, copreneurial couples. As there is little research on the heterogeneity of family firms runs specifically by copreneurial couples, this study is particularly important and innovative in the context of a developing economy, such as Brazil. Based on empirical evidence, this study was proposed an integrative and holistic framework that shows the functioning of copreneurial businesses practices.