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Article
Publication date: 23 May 2023

Yunmiao Gui, Huihui Zhai, Feng Dong and Zhi Liu

This paper aims to investigate how user expectations affect value-added service (VAS) investment and pricing decisions of two-sided platforms. It draws on the information…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how user expectations affect value-added service (VAS) investment and pricing decisions of two-sided platforms. It draws on the information asymmetry theory and offers suggestions on how platform operators can manage user expectations.

Design/methodology/approach

According to the game theory, this study considers three user expectations (responsive, passive and wary). By framing the Hotelling duopoly model and comparing the VAS investment, price and platform profits, the optimal platform decision is analyzed and discussed.

Findings

The conclusions demonstrate that the monopolistic two-sided platform obtains more profits from the informed users with responsive expectations than uninformed users with passive or wary expectations. The marginal investment cost and cross-network externalities are two key factors that determine the platform's VAS investment and pricing strategies of passive or wary users. Furthermore, considering the expectation preferences, i.e. the uniformed users hold wary expectations with more information and hold passive expectations with less or no information, the results suggest that the proportion of wary users to all uninformed users increases the platform's VAS investment, profits and the price of informed users, and increase (decrease) the price of uninformed users when the cross-network externalities of informed users are relatively small (larger).

Practical implications

These results can provide insightful enlightenment into how platform operators utilize bilateral users' expectations and information level to guide their VAS investment and pricing decisions.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first to explore the impact of three user expectations and the heterogeneity of preferences in informing users' passive or wary expectations, based on different levels of information on the decision-making of two-sided platforms regarding VAS.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 53 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 November 2023

Ziyu Zhou, Haizhou Fan and Zhiying Liu

1. Explore the important role of sole actual controller in the innovation decision of the firm and the different effects of the ownership of sole actual controller on innovation;…

Abstract

Purpose

1. Explore the important role of sole actual controller in the innovation decision of the firm and the different effects of the ownership of sole actual controller on innovation; 2. Explore whether the role played by sole actual controllers varies in different types of firms; 3. Explore the important role of cooperative culture in the internal governance of firms and whether sole actual controller firms feel a rejection effect on cooperative culture.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collect data on Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021 to analyze the role of the sole actual controller on innovation investment, as well as the moderating effect of cooperative culture in corporate annual reports using natural language processing.

Findings

The authors find that sole actual controllers promote corporate innovation investment and that concentrated equity inhibits corporate innovation investment, while dispersed equity concentration promotes it. In addition, cooperative culture has a nonlinear moderating effect on the relationship between SACs and innovation.

Research limitations/implications

On the one hand, this study focuses chiefly on the decision-making behavior of top managers, such as the SACs and shareholders, and does not account for the role of bottom-level employees or professional R&D teams in innovation. On the other hand, although this study discusses the moderating role of corporate cooperative culture, it is limited to internal cooperative culture; cooperative culture should also consider external cooperation, such as cooperation between companies or between companies and universities.

Practical implications

First, companies should actively implement the SAC model and scientifically select a truly compassionate and visionary SAC as the dominant person in the company. Second, the Chinese government needs to standardize the identification of actual controllers, who should not be a shareholder of the company. Third, policymakers should promote the reform of the mixed system of enterprises, optimize the shareholding structure of firms, make executives an important part of corporate governance. Fourth, cooperation culture is a good start, though firms should avoid letting it become a “double-edged sword” of the management mode of the SAC.

Originality/value

First, existing studies do not address the impact of SACs on innovation from the perspective of SACs, who have most influence the firm's decision-making. Focusing on the SAC's decision-making style has sufficient practical implications for future corporate innovation planning. This study used the natural language processing (NLP) module in ChatGPT to analyze the culture of cooperation in corporate annual reports. Currently, corporate culture is an obstacle to the study of corporate governance because of its obscurity and difficulty of quantification. The authors adopted a PSM (propensity score matching) approach to eliminate the endogeneity of the data, which makes the results more scientific.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2022

O.A. Elhefnawy and A.A. Elabd

The purpose of this study is to prepare Polystyrene grafted with Zeolite Y (Zeosty) for Uranyl ion [U(VI)] adsorption from aqueous solution. The adsorption mechanism has been…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to prepare Polystyrene grafted with Zeolite Y (Zeosty) for Uranyl ion [U(VI)] adsorption from aqueous solution. The adsorption mechanism has been explained by studying kinetic, isothermal and thermodynamic models.

Design/methodology/approach

Polystyrene was grafted with Zeosty by a simple hydrothermal technique. Zeosty was characterized by different techniques such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray and Infrared spectroscopy to confirm its structure and its molecular composition. Zeosty was used for U(VI) adsorption from an aqueous solution in a series of batch experiments. The effects of pH, contact time, initial U(VI) concentration and temperature on the adsorption process were investigated.

Findings

The results showed that the adsorption of U(VI) on the prepared reached equilibrium at pH 6 with a removal efficiency of 98.9%. Adsorption kinetics and isotherms models are studied on the experimental data to estimate the mechanism of the adsorption reaction was chemisorption and homogenous reaction. The activity of Zeosty increased at high temperatures, resulting in the adsorption capacity increase. Thermodynamic parameters ΔGo, ΔHo and ΔSo indicate that the adsorption processes are spontaneous and endothermic. Zeosty has an effective surface and could be considered a valuable adsorbent for U(VI) removal from aqueous waste. A comparison study proves that the new adsorbent has high effective behavior in the adsorption process, and it is considered a new reliable adsorbent for U(VI) removal from wastewater.

Originality/value

This study is complementary to the previous study using the same technique to prove that the effective fine particle adsorbents need solid support to enhance their absorption capacities.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. 52 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

Keywords

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