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The Dim Sum bond market in Hong Kong, which allows China to regulate the amount of offshore yuans that flow back into the mainland, has grown steadily since its inception in 2007 and is expected to surpass in 2013 the threshold level that would attract insurers and long-term issuers to the market. Yet, the market has not matured sufficiently relative to the yuan deposit market in Hong Kong that has grown at a much faster pace on account of trade liberalization and the use of yuans in China’s international trade settlements. Even though Hong Kong has fulfilled its role as an offshore currency center for the yuan, it is being challenged by Taiwan, Singapore, and London in terms of being the premier location for the issuance of yuan-denominated bonds outside of Mainland China.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of gamification design elements of virtual corporate social responsibility (CSR) game on customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation and the mediation effect of psychological benefit.

Three scenario simulation experiments of the between-subjects design were conducted to examine the influencing mechanism of reward mechanism of virtual CSR game on customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation.

The findings indicated that: there are significant differences between the effect of behavior-based reward and result-based reward on customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation; the psychological benefit plays a moderating role between game reward mechanism and customers’ intention to continuously participate in social value co-creation; the game narrative mode plays a moderating role in the influence of game reward mechanism on customers’ intention to continuously participate in social value co-creation; the background for game placement moderates the interactions of game narrative mode and game reward mechanism on customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation, namely there is significant interaction of gamification design elements on psychological benefit and customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation.

This research has the following limitations. First, restricted by research conditions, the game scene, as the experiment material, can only be exposed to the participants in the form of text, thus customers’ psychological benefit (especially the entertainment experience) may be affected. Second, theoretical argument and literature support were not enough when the authors put forward the research hypotheses, due to the lack of research on the application of gamification in the CSR field. Third, considering the complexity, the authors took the psychological benefit as a unidimensional variable, in this research; it may be funnier to divide it into three variables. Finally, because the game design elements form into a virtual customer environment that jointly influences customers’ psychological benefit, the method of qualitative comparative analysis can be considered in future research.

It provides insights for marketers on the planning and design of a CSR strategy. The conclusions of this research have a certain guiding significance to the formulation of CSR strategy and the practice of social value co-creation. First, enterprises can apply gamification to the design of virtual CSR projects to promote customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation. Second, on the consideration of customers’ psychological benefit, enterprises should reasonably match such game design elements as game placement background, game narrative mode and game reward mechanism, when designing a virtual CSR game, so as to promote customers continuously participating in a virtual CSR project.

Virtual CSR projects are in fact the activities that enterprise co-create social value with their stakeholders. So, the research on customers’ continuous participation in virtual CSR projects is helpful for increasing social welfare.

This study confirms the effect of reward mechanism of a virtual CSR game on customers’ continuance intention to participate in social value co-creation from the perspective of customer psychological benefit. It also provides insights for marketers on the planning and design of a CSR strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to draw on triadic reciprocal determinism and social exchange theory to examine how “induced-type” and “compulsory-type” union participation influence union commitment and job involvement, and how union participation in the west differs from that in China. It also examines whether the role of both organizational justice and employee participation climate (EPC) functions in the Chinese context.

Cross-sectional data are collected from 694 employees in 46 non-publicly owned enterprises, both Chinese and foreign, in the Pearl River Delta region of China. A multi-level moderated mediation test is used to examine the model of this research.

Union participation is positively related to organizational justice, union commitment and job involvement. In addition, organizational justice acts as the mediator among union participation, union commitment and job involvement. Specifically, the mediating role of organizational justice between union participation and union commitment, and between union participation and job involvement, is stronger in high-EPC contexts than low-EPC contexts.

Instead of examining the impacts of attitudes on union participation, as per most studies in the western context, this research examines the impacts of union participation in the Chinese context on attitudes, including union commitment and job involvement. It also reveals the role of both organizational justice and EPC in the process through which union participation influences union commitment and job involvement.

The aim of this study is to examine whether China’s exchange rate follows an equilibrium process and consequently to answer the question of whether or not China’s international competitiveness fluctuates in consistency with equilibrium.

The theoretical background of the paper relies on the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis, while the econometric methodology is mainly based on a nonlinear two-regime Threshold Autoregressive (TAR) unit root test.

The main finding is that China’s price competitiveness was not constantly following a disequilibrium process. The two-regime threshold model shows that PPP equilibrium was confirmed in periods of relatively high – compared to the estimated threshold – rate of real yuan appreciation. Moreover, it is implied that the fixed exchange rate regime cannot ensure external balance since it can neither establish equilibrium in the foreign exchange market, nor confirm that China’s international competitiveness adjustment follows an equilibrium process.

The results do not imply that China acts as a currency manipulator. However, a main policy implication of the paper is that China should continue appreciating the yuan to establish external balance.

This paper is the first which accounts for a nonlinear two-regime process toward a threshold, which is defined to be the rate of change in China’s international competitiveness. Consequently, the paper draws attention to the role of China’s international competiveness in accepting the PPP hypothesis.

This study aims to provide a response to the commentary by Yuan on the paper “Marketing or Methodology” in this issue of EJM.

Conceptual argument and statistical discussion.

The authors find that some of Yuan’s arguments are incorrect, or unclear. Further, rather than contradicting the authors’ conclusions, the material provided by Yuan in his commentary actually provides additional reasons to avoid partial least squares (PLS) in marketing research. As such, Yuan’s commentary is best understood as additional evidence speaking against the use of PLS in real-world research.

This rejoinder, coupled with Yuan’s comment, continues to support the strong implication that researchers should avoid using PLS in marketing and related research.

Marketing researchers should avoid using PLS in their work.

This rejoinder supports the earlier conclusions of “Marketing or Methodology,” with additional argumentation and evidence.

The paper aims to determine whether the type selection and parameters determination of the compensation are most important for yielding the acceptable or optimized characteristics in design of hydrostatic bearings.

This paper utilizes the equations of flow equilibrium to determine the film thickness or displacement of worktable with respect to the recess pressure.

The stiffness due to compensation of constant‐flow pump increases monotonically as recess pressure increases. Also, the paper considers which is larger than that due to orifice compensation and capillary compensation at the same recess pressure ratio.

The findings show that the usage range of recess pressure and compensation parameters can be selected to correspond to the smallest gradient in variations of worktable displacement or film thickness.

This study aims to utilize the equations of flow equilibrium to determine the variations of film thickness or worktable displacement with respect to the recess pressure for both open‐ and closed‐type hydrostatic flat bearings. The static stiffness can be not only presented directly by these variations but also determined by the differentiation of flow equilibrium equations.

The single‐action variable compensations of three types including cylindrical‐spool, conical‐spool and membrane restrictors are taken into consideration in this study. Specifically, this study presents that membrane restrictor and both spool restrictors with or without preload whilst considering initial opening.

Consequently, the usage range of recess pressure and optimal parameters of appropriate compensation type can be obtained from maximum stiffness and also according to smallest gradient in variations of worktable displacement or film thickness.

This article studies the influences of single‐action variable compensations for its design varieties. The determination of stiffness comes from the differentiating recess pressure with respect to worktable displacement. The large and small positive stiffness correspond to a negative slope in steep and plain gradient, respectively; the negative stiffness and infinite stiffness are obtained by positive gradient and zero gradient, respectively, in the variations of film thickness. The finding results can be expressed further in the relationship between the static stiffness and the static load.

This paper is the third part of a serial studies for constant and variable compensations of the closed-type hydrostatic thrust bearings which has face-to-face recesses couple. The static stiffness of closed-type hydrostatic thrust bearings can then be obtained from the differentiation of recess pressure with respect to worktable displacement. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the double-action restrictors of cylindrical-spool-type and tapered-spool-type are taken into consideration for variable compensation of hydrostatic bearings.

The static stiffness in thrust direction of hydrostatic bearing is determined by the flow continuity equations that are formulated by film flow and compensation flow for each recess, respectively. The type selection and parameter determination of the double-action spool-type restrictors can be obtained from finding results of this study for maximum stiffness in design of hydrostatic bearings.

This study reveals that the appropriate range of recess pressure ratio and design parameters of restrictors for the maximum stiffness can be obtained, the avoidance of negative stiffness is also provided.

The purpose of this paper is to study the dispersion and tribological properties of liquid paraffin with aluminum nanoparticles as additive, which are prepared by the surface‐modification method using oleic acid (OA).

The dispersion stability of aluminum nanoparticles in liquid paraffin is measured by spectrophotometry, which can be optimization by Taguchi method. The tribological properties are evaluated by using a ball‐on‐ring wear tester.

The results show that few concentrations of aluminum nanoparticles as additives in liquid paraffin have better antiwear and antifriction properties than the pure paraffin oil. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer analyses can show that the thin films on the rubbing surfaces can be formed by these aluminum nanoparticles, which not only bear the load but also separate the both interfaces, thus the wear and friction can be reduced.

Machine components and mechanism pairs rely on high‐quality lubricants to withstand high temperature and extreme pressure. Extreme pressure and antiwear additives are typically adopted to improve the tribological performance of a fluid lubricant in reducing friction and surface damage under severe conditions.

Constant flow valves have been presented in industrial applications or academic studies, which compensate pressures of bearing recesses as load fluctuates. The flow rate of constant-flow valves (CFVs) can be constant in spite of the pressure changes in recesses. However, specific condition of design parameters must be satisfied. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper utilizes analytical method to study the static characteristics of CFVs, three types belong to traditional design of CFV are reviewed afresh. Moreover, an innovative design for constant flow is presented and studied.

The review and study results reveal that appropriate relationships among design parameters for these types of CFVs.

The numerical simulation is used to investigate the influence of design parameters on the change of flow rate when pressure ratio of recess is changed.