Search results

Mixed products, while presenting new business opportunities, raise considerable concerns among managers and researchers. However, whether mixed products (functionally vs culturally) trigger positive or negative consumer reactions is controversial. Hereby, the present research seeks to resolve the conflicting effects by examining the moderating role of service provider type (humanoid service robot vs human employee) in the impact of mixed products on consumer reactions.

Two studies were conducted to explore the effect of mixed products on consumer reactions. Specifically, study 1 was developed to examine the interplay of mixed products and service provider type in shaping consumers' product attitudes and purchase intentions under an offline shopping scenario; study 2 further provided evidence for the mediating roles of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment in the above processes under an online-shopping context.

The convergent findings of two studies conclude that, when served by a humanoid service robot (vs human employee), consumers exhibit more positive attitudes and higher purchase intentions toward functionally (vs culturally) mixed products. Furthermore, such effect is driven by the perceived usefulness (vs perceived enjoyment) when served by humanoid robot (vs human employee).

First, this is one of the first studies to conceptualize mixed products as the two-dimensional construct (i.e. functionally mixed and culturally mixed), and the findings sheds light on the mixed products literature. Second, this paper introduces service provider type as the boundary condition for the impact of mixed products on consumers' product attitudes and purchase intentions, which expands the match-up hypothesis and schema theory in service marketing. Third, the current research explores the mediating roles of perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment in the above effects, which could make significant contribution to the motivation theory.

With the improvement of consumers' health consciousness, healthy food has attracted great attention in daily consumption. Previous research into the sense of power often distinguishes it into high and low level, ignoring the impact of different construal of power on consumption behaviors. This article divides power into dual construal (responsibility vs opportunity) and aims to examine the differential impacts of the construal of power on healthy food preference.

Two pretests and three formal experiments were conducted to examine the effect of the construal of power on the consumer's healthy food preference, the mediation of self-discipline perception and the moderation of the relative strength of prevention over promotion focus (i.e. RSPPF).

Results indicate that individuals who construe power as responsibility (vs opportunity) exhibit higher self-discipline perception, which in turn leads to greater healthy food preference. However, the main effect above can be weakened among the low-power group. Moreover, the above mediating effect of self-discipline perception is stronger for individuals with higher RSPPF.

First, based on the binary-construal perspective, this study refines the classification of high power and introduces it into the antecedent research of healthy food preference. Second, this paper reveals the self-discipline perception as the inner mechanism underlying the effect of the construal of power on healthy food preference, while RSPPF as the boundary condition for this mediating mechanism. Moreover, this research also provides practical implications for healthy food enterprises that the construal of power, self-discipline perception and regulatory focus should be taken into consideration in advertising design and healthy product promotion.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate the relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior, and further test the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of resilience.

A sample of 409 first-line production workers from four manufacturing enterprises in China was collected. A moderated mediation analysis was employed to test the hypotheses and examine the relationships proposed in the research framework.

The findings indicate that emotional exhaustion could mediate the relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior. Moreover, the results from the moderated mediation analysis suggest that the mediation of emotional exhaustion is moderated by resilience such that with a higher level of resilience, the mediation effect of emotional exhaustion becomes weaker.

The participants of this study are limited to manufacturing enterprises, and thus our findings may not be equally valid for other types of industries. Meanwhile, this study is a cross-sectional research that could not explain the causal relationship between workplace ostracism and deviant behavior.

The present research can offer some managerial implications about how to avoid the occurrence of workplace ostracism and deviant behavior for organizations.

This study constructs a moderated mediation model by introducing the potential mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effect of resilience in order to reveal the mechanism through which workplace ostracism relates to deviant behavior. Our research not only integrates and enriches the ideas of the Stress-Non-Equilibrium-Compensation Approach and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Theory but could also inform future management practices for mitigating the negative consequences of workplace ostracism.

As a kind of NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, pipe routing design (PRD) is applied widely in modern industries. In the offshore oil and gas industry, a semi-submersible production platform is an important equipment for oil exploitation and production. PRD is one of the most key parts of the design of semi-submersible platform. This study aims to present an improved ant colony algorithm (IACO) to address PRD for the oil and gas treatment system when designing a semi-submersible production platform.

First, to simplify PRD problem, a novel mathematical model is built according to real constraints and rules. Then, IACO, which combines modified heuristic function, mutation mechanism and dynamical parameter mechanism, is introduced.

Based on a set of specific instances, experiments are carried out, and the experimental results show that the performance of IACO is better than that of two variants of ACO, especially in terms of the convergence speed and swarm diversity. Finally, IACO is used to solve PRD for the oil and gas treatment system of semi-submersible production platform. The simulation results, which include nine pipe paths, demonstrate the practicality and high-efficiency of IACO.

The main contribution of this study is the development of method for solving PRD of a semi-submersible production platform based on the novel mathematical model and the proposed IACO.

The purpose of this study is to prepare a robust superhydrophobic coating on concrete substrate with remarkable chemical and mechanical durability through “all-covalent” strategy.

Amino-modified silica nano/micro-particles were prepared through two synthetic steps. “All-covalent” strategy was introduced to prepare a robust superhydrophobic coating on concrete surface via a “all-in-one” dispersion and a simple spraying method. The successful construction of the products was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, water contact angles (WCA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The concrete protective properties were verified by solution immersion test, pull-off test and rapid chloride migration coefficient test. The mechanical durability was tested by falling sand impact.

Hierarchical structures combined with the low-surface-energy segments lead to typically superhydrophobic coating with a WCA of 156° and a sliding angle of 1.3°. The superhydrophobic coating prepared through “all-covalent” strategy not only improves chemical and mechanical durability but also achieves higher corrosion and wear resistance than the comparison sample prepared by physically blending strategy. More importantly, the robust superhydrophobic coating showed excellent adhesion and protective performance of concrete engineerings.

This new “all-covalent” superhydrophobic coating could be applied as a concrete protective layer with properties of self-cleaning, anti-graffiti, etc.

Introduction of both silica nanoparticles and silica microparticles to prepare a robust superhydrophobic coating on concrete surface through “all-covalent” strategy has not been systematically studied previously.

Improvement and optimization design of a two-stage vibration isolation system proposed in this paper are conducted to ensure the device of electronic work effective.

The proposed two-stage vibration isolation system of airborne equipment is optimized and parameterized based on multi-objective genetic algorithm.

The results show that compared with initial two-stage vibration isolation system, the angular vibration of the two-stage vibration isolation system becomes 3.55 × 10^-4 rad, which decreases by 89%. The linear isolation effect is improved by at least 67.7%.

The optimized two-stage vibration isolation system effectively improves the vibration reduction effect, the resonance peak is obviously improved and the reliability of the mounting bracket and the shock absorber is highly improved, which provides an analysis method for two-stage airborne equipment isolation design under complex dynamic environment.

This paper aims to reveal the current status of China university teachers’ learning content focus (LCF) and collaborative learning (CL) and empirically examine the influential effects LCF and CL play on individual pursuit of lifelong learning (LLL) by investigating the mediating role of individual psychological empowerment (PE).

Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis, are conducted.

The results of this study indicate significant direct impacts of LCF, CL and PE on university teachers’ LLL. LCF shares significant positive relationship with PE, validating the mediating role of PE between LCF and LLL. University teachers show their consciousness of learning required in professionalism and willingness to keep learning. However, the four major discrepancies: Lifelong Learning Process (LLLP) vs Lifelong Learning Behavior (LLLB), focus of professional promotion system vs that in LCF, lower levels in Self-determination and Impact (in PE) and less external partnerships, indicate the gaps between learning supports provided by university and policy designing in promoting LLL.

This study emphasizes the LLL ideology in professional development. Emphasis on university teachers’ learning within specific professional development contexts would encourage researchers to pay more attention to context-relevant factors enhancing LLL. And the four major discrepancies identified in this study deserve further investigations.

Despite previous research highlighting the consequences of facades of conformity (FOC) on attitudes, emotions and feelings, little is known about their negative effects on behaviors. This study draws on the job stress process model to examine the association between FOC and cyberloafing and explores how anxiety functions as an underlying mechanism affecting cyberloafing.

A total of 185 employees from Chinese organizations participated in a two-wave questionnaire survey.

The study found a positive relationship between FOC and cyberloafing and noted that anxiety mediates this relationship. The research also identified that performance–avoidance goal orientation moderates the relationship between FOC and anxiety, as well as the indirect effects of the FOC–cyberloafing relationship via anxiety.

The research findings demonstrate that FOC is positively associated with anxiety and cyberloafing. The disruptive nature of FOC in the workplace has been revealed. Furthermore, this study provides valuable suggestions for managers on how to reduce employee FOC and cyberloafing.

Using the job stress process model, this study investigates whether (main effect), how (a mediating mechanism) and when (boundary condition) FOC drives cyberloafing, deepening the understanding of the relationship between FOC and cyberloafing.

The overuse and scarcity of resources emphasize the importance of the circular economy. The technology facilitated by Industry 4.0 stimulates the implementation of the circular economy that aims to reduce resource use and enhance operational efficiency. This study focuses on enhancing delivery efficiency in an online-to-offline (O2O) context from an Industry 4.0 technology-facilitated personal configuration perspective, that is, comparing in-house and crowdsourced delivery efficiency in China's O2O on-demand food delivery context.

The authors collect 128,152 orders from 38 restaurants of an online restaurant chain in China. The authors adopt multiple regression analysis to examine the delivery efficiency gap between in-house and crowdsourced deliverymen and the determinants of this efficiency gap.

The findings of this study reveal that crowdsourced deliverymen exhibit higher delivery efficiency, in terms of a shorter delivery time, than in-house deliverymen. In addition, the authors find that platforms providing monetary incentives or implementing late delivery penalties enlarge this efficiency gap. Furthermore, the authors show that external factors, such as working on weekends and bad weather conditions, contribute to the narrowing of this performance efficiency.

The study's findings suggest that platforms should use advanced technologies facilitated by Industry 4.0 to optimize their personnel configuration to enhance their delivery efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The effective approaches include using financial incentives and improving working schedules.

The authors' findings contribute to the online fulfillment literature by focusing on delivery efficiency in the O2O context from the Industry 4.0 technology-facilitated personnel configuration perspective. The authors examine how internal and external factors moderate the performance efficiency between these two types of deliverymen.