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The purpose of this paper is to use the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing model to evaluate the incremental performance of an eChannel addition.

Data were collected from 53 Taiwan financial services firms. In total, 33 of them introduced their online services, whereas the other 20 firms did not introduce their online services during the period under examination.

The research findings show that firm asset values increase following eChannel additions. Thus, eChannel additions enhance firm financial performance. A further analysis comparing the performance between firms with and without eChannel additions also shows that firms with eChannel additions have higher asset value growth rates, which further validates the capacity of eChannel additions to enhance financial performance.

Managers and shareholders in firms making eChannel additions are not required to be concerned regarding stock price volatility, and managers in firms without any eChannel investment could use eChannels to enhance their stock price and seize future opportunities. Using eChannel is a valid approach for firms to provide enhanced services to current customers, access new markets, and extend market coverage, thus enhancing overall financial performance. Investors could confide those firms implementing eChannel additions.

Studies investigating whether eChannel additions enhance firm financial performance are scant. No study has evaluated performance from a long-term perspective or from a volatility aspect (both are important considerations in eChannel performance evaluation). The research represents a pioneering work that empirically investigates these issues.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of fire protective materials in protecting steel section. A new indexing system is introduced, named as fire endurance index (FEI), which can be used to evaluate the performance of fire protective materials.

In this study, experiments were carried out using W4 × 13 steel section. Eight samples were prepared; one was a bare steel section without any coating material, and seven were prepared using four types of materials such as vermiculite-gypsum plaster, gypsum plaster, concrete cover and glass wool-concrete cover for fireproofing of the sections. An enclosed electric coiled furnace was used for heating the samples for a certain period. The duration of protection was determined, and the FEI of the materials was calculated. The higher the index value is, the better the performance.

The results demonstrate that the glass-wool-concrete cover offered the best performance at high temperature among the four types of materials. In the experiment with glass-wool-concrete cover, the furnace temperature reached 750°C, whereas the steel temperature reached only 100°C. The FEI of the coatings were calculated. Among the eight samples, glass wool-concrete cover also achieved the highest index value.

The experimental work was performed using a limited number of specimens. Furthermore, the robustness of the indexing system needs to be evaluated with other materials and a wide range of heating rate and temperature. This study sets the foundation for future work.

The findings of this research may contribute to a better understanding of the performance of the materials used as fire protective coatings. This might be helpful for the researchers and practitioners in their design and implementation of legislation of fire safety codes.

Understanding the performance of the fire protective coatings will help in evaluating the fire resistance capabilities of the materials to use for the structural steel members, which may protect collapses and disasters of buildings.

This paper deals with the performance of four types of materials, that can be used as fire protective coatings for structural steel members. Furthermore, the FEI explicitly indicated their performance with numerical values. In this study, the heating of the specimens was performed using a non-standard fire curve based on the concept that naturally occurring incidents of fire do not follow the standard fire curves.

The finite-time visual servoing control problem is considered for dynamic wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) with unknown control direction and external disturbance.

By using finite-time control method and switching design technique.

First, the visual servoing kinematic WMR model is developed, which can be converted to the dynamic chained-form systems by using a state and input feedback transformation. Then, for two decoupled subsystems of the chained-form systems, according to the finite-time stability control theory, a discontinuous three-step switching control strategy is proposed in the presence of uncertain control coefficients and external disturbance.

A class of discontinuous anti-interference control method has been presented for the dynamic nonholonomic systems.

This study aims to examine if the participation of live-stream influencers (LSIs) affects tipping frequency on live streaming platforms, and further investigate the mediating and moderating mechanisms.

Quasi-experiment and difference-in-differences models are used for data analysis. Propensity score matching is used to address potential unobservable endogeneity.

Real-time live streaming data reveal that LSIs’ participation significantly improves tipping frequency in live streaming rooms. Also, more users are attracted to the live streaming rooms and more users become active in participation. Additionally, the positive impact of LSIs’ participation is enhanced in the live streaming rooms with a greater number of relationship links between users.

The findings clarify the new role of influencers and reveal the mechanisms on how LSIs benefit the platforms.

The findings offer novel insights into implementing influencer marketing to interactive social media platforms, by encouraging influencer participation, user relationship building and influencer network growth.

This study highlights the value of LSIs for interactive social media platforms in terms of organic growth, revenue generation and cost reduction.

The purpose of this paper is to test an implication of the pecking order theory to explain capital structure decisions among Chinese listed companies during the 2005-2007 NTS Reform transition period.

The authors utilize direct proxies for information asymmetry based on microstructure models including Probability of the arrival of informed trades (PIN), Adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread (λ), Illiquidity ratio (ILLIQ) and liquidity ratio, and Information asymmetry index (InfoAsy) to examine their relation with firms’ debt financing.

Consistent with the prediction of Pecking Order Theory, the authors find that companies for which stock investors are challenged with more severe informational disadvantages are associated with higher degree of leverage use.

The study provides a more direct test on the positive relation between information asymmetry and financial leverage of Chinese firms. In contrast to previous findings by Chen (2004), the results suggest that capital structure choices among Chinese firms progressively conform to conventional finance theories (e.g. Pecking Order Theory) with the decline of non-tradable shares.

The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize and review the theories and methods of complex structures’ dynamic reliability. Complex structures are usually assembled from multiple components and subjected to time-varying loads of aerodynamic, structural, thermal and other physical fields; its reliability analysis is of great significance to ensure the safe operation of large-scale equipment such as aviation and machinery.

In this paper for the single-objective dynamic reliability analysis of complex structures, the calculation can be categorized into Monte Carlo (MC), outcrossing rate, envelope functions and extreme value methods. The series-parallel and expansion methods, multi-extremum surrogate models and decomposed-coordinated surrogate models are summarized for the multiobjective dynamic reliability analysis of complex structures.

The numerical complex compound function and turbine blisk are used as examples to illustrate the performance of single-objective and multiobjective dynamic reliability analysis methods. Then the future development direction of dynamic reliability analysis of complex structures is prospected.

The paper provides a useful reference for further theoretical research and engineering application.

This paper aims to propose a novel balance-assistive control strategy for hip exoskeleton robot.

A hierarchical balance assistive controller based on the virtual stiffness model of extrapolated center of mass (XCoM) is proposed and tested by exoskeleton balance assistive control experiments.

Experiment results show that the proposed controller can accelerate the swing foot chasing XCoM and enlarge the margin of stability.

As a proof of concept, this paper shows the potential for exoskeleton to actively assist human regain balance in sagittal plane when human suffers from a forward or backward disturbing force.

Developing technological capabilities to enhance innovation performance is essential for firms to respond to external changes and competition. Based on the effect of organizational structure on organizational capability development, this study assesses whether a specific R&D organizational structure design can be used to develop different technological capabilities.

Combining organizational theory and the resource-based view as an integrated view, we propose several contrasting hypotheses to show the effects of three general R&D organizational structure designs (centralized, decentralized, and hybrid) on developing exploitative and explorative capabilities. We propose R&D slack as a moderator. 82 Taiwanese listed manufacturing firms were selected. Data on the firms' annual reports and their patent applications to the Taiwan Patent Office from 2005 to 2017 were collected.

Firms’ adoption of centralized and decentralized R&D structures has a significant positive effect on developing exploitative capability and an opposite effect on developing explorative capability. A high or low R&D slack can moderate the impact of R&D organizational structure on non-routine capability development.

This study concludes that R&D organizational structure affects the development of different technological capabilities and that the effect of R&D organizational structure on the development of technological capabilities can be changed under the moderation of R&D slack, which means that the possibility of developing different technological capabilities under the same organizational structure will increase.

The top manager should consider the relationship between R&D structure design and technological capability development to manage the R&D routines to influence the generation of technological capabilities. Also, they must utilize the provision of R&D slack to modulate technological capability development.

This study reexamines the relationship between organizational structure and capability development. It shows that organizational structure can shape unique technological capabilities and that firms may be able to change structural elements through slack resources, enabling ambidexterity or dynamic capability development without organizational change.

The purpose of this paper is to explore two dimensions of leadership practices (i.e. teaching and learning and sources of power) used by two exemplary principals in mainland China against a background of education reform and to identify how broader contextual factors have shaped these two dimensions of their leadership.

An exploratory case study was used that drew upon semi‐structured interviews, observations and document analysis. Interviews were conducted with two principals, six teachers from each of the two schools and a superintendent who was the supervisor of the two principals.

The findings reveal that there are some common elements in both of the leaders' practices but also some subtle differences. Both leaders emphasise teaching and learning. One sees herself as curriculum expert; the other delegate teaching responsibilities. While both uses a top down approach, one principal uses an adversarial approach and the other a more facilitative approach.

The study used a small sample size. It explored the leaders' practices in the light of broader contextual factors rather than personal factors or gender‐based factors

Given the limited empirical research conducted on female principals in mainland China, this qualitative study provides insights into two dimensions of leadership used by two exemplary principals and explains their practices in the light of critical contextual factors such as contemporary and traditional Chinese culture and the school's organisational context.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a coupled lattice Boltzmann model for the simulation of the freezing process in unsaturated porous media.

In the developed model, the porous structure with complexity and disorder was generated by using a stochastic growth method, and then the Shan-Chen multiphase model and enthalpy-based phase change model were coupled by introducing a freezing interface force to describe the variation of phase interface. The pore size of porous media in freezing process was considered as an influential factor to phase transition temperature, and the variation of the interfacial force formed with phase change on the interface was described.

The larger porosity (0.2 and 0.8) will enlarge the unfrozen area from 42 mm to 70 mm, and the rest space of porous medium was occupied by the solid particles. The larger specific surface area (0.168 and 0.315) has a more fluctuated volume fraction distribution.

The concept of interfacial force was first introduced in the solid–liquid phase transition to describe the freezing process of frozen soil, enabling the formulation of a distribution equation based on enthalpy to depict the changes in the water film. The increased interfacial force serves to diminish ice formation and effectively absorb air during the freezing process. A greater surface area enhances the ability to counteract liquid migration.