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The high density of defects mainly attributed to the presence of silicon oxycarbides, residual C clusters, Si- and C-dangling bonds at or near the SiO₂/SiC interface degrades the performance of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices. In the effort of further improving the quality and enhancement of the SiC oxides thickness, post-oxidation annealed by a combination of nitric acid (HNO₃) and water (H₂O) vapor technique on thermally grown wet-oxides is introduced in this work. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A new technique of post-oxidation annealing (POA) on wet-oxidized n-type 4H-SiC in a combination of HNO₃ and H₂O vapor at various heating temperatures (70°C, 90°C and 110°C) of HNO₃ solution has been introduced in this work.

It has been revealed that the samples annealed in HNO₃ + H₂O vapour ambient by various heating temperatures of HNO₃ solution; particularly at 110°C is able to produce oxide with lower interface-state density and higher breakdown voltage as compared to wet-oxidized sample annealed in N2 ambient. The substrate properties upon oxide removal show surface roughness reduces as the heating temperature of HNO₃ solution increases, which is mainly attributed due to the significant reduction of carbon content at the SiC/SiO₂ interface by C=N passivation and CO or CO₂ out-diffusion.

Despite being as a strong oxidizing agent, vaporized HNO₃ can also be utilized as nitridation and hydrogen passivation agent in high temperature thermal oxidation ambient and these advantages were demonstrated in 4H-SiC.

From an agency perspective, the authors investigate whether family ownership and control configurations are systematically associated with a firm's choice of auditor and audit fees. Agency theory is an economic theory that purposes the existence of a contract between two parties, principals and agents. Auditor choice and audit fees by family firms provide interesting insights given the unique nature of the agency problems faced by such firms.

The authors employ Big-4 auditors (PWC, KPMG, E&Y and Deloitte) as a proxy for high quality auditor (Big N) for the auditor choice model. For the audit fee model, the dependent variable is the natural logarithm of audit fees (LnAF). The authors use two measures for family firm as explanatory variables: (1) a dummy variable (FAM_Control), which equals one if the firm is classified as a family firm and (2) FAM_Ownership, which is an indicator variable with a value of one if a firm has family members who hold CEO position, occupy board seats, or hold at least 10% of the firm's equity. Data of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2021 are used. The authors adopt the Heckman (1979) two-stage model to mitigate the potential endogeneity issue involved in the selection of Big-N auditors.

The findings suggest that compared with non-family firms, Chinese family firms have a less tendency to employ Big-4 auditors due to less severe agency problems between owners and managers. Additionally, Chinese family firms sustain higher audit fees than non-family firms. Similar to the prior literature, however, Chinese family firms audited by Big-4 auditors incur lower audit fees than family firms audited by non-Big-4 auditors in this study. In contrast to young-family firms, old-family firms are less likely to pick top-tier auditors and sustain lower audit fees. Consistent and robust results are found from endogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses.

The empirical evidence provides a unique insight, for accounting practitioners, policymakers, family owners and other capital market participants concerning the diverse effects of various family ownership and control features on selecting high-quality auditors and audit fees. This study advances the understanding, showing that a lower demand for audit quality occurs in Chinese family firms as they encounter less severe Type I agency problems. However, the more severe Type II agency problems in Chinese family firms sustain higher audit fees due to higher audit risk and greater audit effort.

This study aims to examine the direct and indirect relationship between self-congruity and destination brand loyalty (DBL) based on the conceptual linkages of cognition, affect and conation. A multiple-step, multiple mediator model is investigated to explain the indirect effect of self-congruity on DBL through perceived destination quality (PDQ) and tourist satisfaction (TS). The moderating impact of visit frequency in these relationships is also proposed and empirically evaluated.

The conceptual model and research hypotheses were assessed by applying covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM), mediating and multi-group analysis. An online survey was used to collect data from 347 domestic tourists visiting a destination in Vietnam.

The results support the link from self-congruity to PDQ, TS and then to DBL. Visit frequency was found to moderate the links between the research concepts.

Future research would benefit from considering other self-congruity components (e.g. social self-congruity and ideal social self-congruity) and moderating variables (e.g. cultural distance). This would provide insights into the relationships between self-congruity and tourist behaviors and could be based on comparisons in different destinations to achieve more wide-ranging results.

The effect of self-congruity on DBL that evolves from linking self-congruity to PDQ and TS to increase DBL was examined within a tourism destination context. This study is valuable to destination managers as it provides suggestions to improve DBL.

这项研究旨在基于认知、影响和意图的概念链路, 并检验自洽性和目的地品牌忠诚度之间的直接和间接关系。研究了一个多步骤、多媒介模型之后, 该模型通过感知的目的地质量和游客的满意度来解释自洽性对目的地品牌忠诚度的间接影响。在这些关系中, 游览频率的调节作用也被提出并通过经验评估。

应用基于协方差的SEM（CB-SEM), 中介和多群组分析对概念模型以及研究假设进行了评估。一项在线调查被用来收集来自347个游览越南目的地的国内游客的数据。

结果显示从自洽性到感知的目的地质量, 然后是游客满意度, 最后是目的地品牌忠诚度的链接。从此发现游览频率可以缓和研究概念之间的关系。

未来的研究将通过考虑其他自洽性组成的要素（例如：社会自洽性和理想的社会自洽性）以及自洽性和游客关系之间的其他调节变量（例如：文化距离）而受益, 基于在不同目的地进行比较的行为, 以获得更广泛的结果。

在旅游目的地背景下, 研究了自洽性对目的地品牌忠诚度的影响, 这种影响从链路自洽性与感知到的目的地质量和游客满意度联系起来, 从而, 提高了目的地品牌忠诚度。 这项工作对目的地管理者而言是有价值的, 因为该工作可提供有关提高目的地品牌忠诚度的建议。

关键词 自洽性, 感知的目的地质量, 游客满意度, 目的地品牌忠诚度, sem, 中介分析, 多群组分析

文章类型： 研究型论文

Vinculación de la autocongruencia, la calidad percibida y la satisfacción con la lealtad a la marca en un destino turístico: El papel moderador de la frecuencia de visita

Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar la relación directa e indirecta entre la autocongruencia y la lealtad a la marca del destino basado en los vínculos conceptuales de cognición, afecto y conación. Se investiga un modelo de múltiples pasos y múltiples mediadores para explicar el efecto indirecto de la autocongruencia en la lealtad a la marca del destino a través de la calidad percibida del destino y la satisfacción del turista. El impacto moderador de la frecuencia de visita en estas relaciones también se propone y evalúa empíricamente.

El modelo conceptual y las hipótesis de investigación se evaluaron a través de la aplicación de SEM basado en covarianza (CB-SEM), mediación y análisis multigrupo. Se utilizó una encuesta en línea para recopilar datos de 347 turistas nacionales que visitaban un destino en Vietnam.

Los resultados respaldan el vínculo entre la autocongruencia y la calidad percibida del destino, la satisfacción del turista y luego a la lealtad a la marca del destino. Se encuentra que la frecuencia de visita modera los vínculos entre los conceptos de investigación.

Las investigaciones futuras se beneficiarían de considerar otros componentes de la autocongruencia (por ejemplo, la autocongruencia social y la autocongruencia social ideal) y otras variables moderadoras (por ejemplo, la distancia cultural) entre la relación de la autocongruencia y los comportamientos del turista basado en comparación en diferentes destinos para lograr resultados más amplios.

El efecto de la autocongruencia en la lealtad a la marca del destino que evoluciona desde la vinculación de la autocongruencia con la calidad percibida del destino y la satisfacción del turista para aumentar la lealtad a la marca del destino se examina en el contexto del destino turístico. Este trabajo es valioso para los administradores del destino, ya que brinda consejos para mejorar la lealtad a la marca del destino.

Autocongruencia, Calidad percibida del destino, Satisfacción del turista, Lealtad de la marca de destino, structural equation modeling (SEM), Análisis de mediación, Análisis multigrupo

This study aims to examine the relationship between family firm characteristics and audit fees. It also examines the extent to which the family name is considered a red flag during the risk assessment of these firm characteristics.

Using an external panel data set that includes 1,252 firm-year observations of 204 private German firms with a time series from 2010–2016, regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.

This study’s results indicate that family involvement in management and the supervisory board are negatively related to audit fees, suggesting less demand and supply of audit effort due to lower Type I agency conflicts. Family ownership is found to be positively associated with audit fees due to higher Type II agency conflicts. Moreover, the negative effect of family involvement in management on audit fees becomes weaker if the firm name contains the family name, indicating that it is considered a red flag by auditors during their risk assessment.

Prior studies that examined audit fees in family firms mainly compared family firms to non-family firms. However, auditors are not likely to look at firms in a dichotomous way during their risk assessment, especially as there are numerous definitions of family firms. Instead, they will assess the underlying characteristics regarding management, ownership and governance, although a firm name containing the family name may influence this assessment. This study contributes to the literature by accounting for the heterogeneity of family firms and examining how auditors will assess this heterogeneity.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of CEO duality on the geographic diversification–firm performance relationship in the US lodging industry.

To examine the individual effect of geographic diversification and the moderating effect of CEO duality, this study adopts random effects regression. Additionally, to appropriately address the endogeneity issue, this study uses random effects regression with the instrumental variable method. The sample period spans 1990-2015 and 258 firm-year observations are included.

This study finds that geographic diversification has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. Also, the result shows a positive and significant moderating role of CEO duality, which implies that the magnitude of the impact of geographic diversification on firm performance is significantly greater when CEO duality exists.

Although it has a limitation of applying the results of this study to privately held lodging firms in other countries, US public lodging firms are encouraged to consider a corporate governance structure incorporating CEO duality to maximize the effect of geographic diversification on firm performance.

This study contributes to the hospitality literature by providing a unique dimension that the influence of geographic diversification is contingent on the adoption of CEO duality. And, the results of this study provide practical guidelines for the lodging firms’ implementation of geographic diversification.

The purpose of the research is to investigate whether corporate social responsibility awareness (pCSR), environmental concerns (EC) and consumer environmental knowledge (CK) will have an impact on sustainable purchase intention (SPI). Furthermore, this paper also contributes to surveying the mediating impact of consumer attitudes (CAs) between intention and the three factors mentioned above.

SmartPLS (version 4.0) structural equation modeling (SEM) and quantitative methods were used to analyze 457 responses from consumers. The survey sample consisted of individuals between the ages of 18 and 34, with a male-to-female ratio of 70 to 30. The study aims to examine and put into practice new directions for manufacturing firms in the fields of fashion, food and consumer products. At the same time, provide more convincing evidence about the use of these fields in the research.

The study showed a favorable link between pCSR, EC, CK and SPI through the proposed hypotheses. The research additionally showed that CAs mediate between the aforementioned variables.

The important and distinctive results of this study encourage both consumers and enterprises to make changes in their perceptions of society. Consumers should gradually change their daily lifestyle by consuming more sustainable products. As a result, this outcome will provide the impetus for manufacturing businesses to alter their operational procedures in order to support the shift from the production of products to more friendly processes, with the help of all levels of management within the business.

The Chinese housing market has witnessed rapid growth during the past decade and the significance of housing price forecasting has undoubtedly elevated, becoming an important issue to investors and policymakers. This study aims to examine neural networks (NNs) for office property price index forecasting from 10 major Chinese cities for July 2005–April 2021.

The authors aim at building simple and accurate NNs to contribute to pure technical forecasts of the Chinese office property market. To facilitate the analysis, the authors explore different model settings over algorithms, delays, hidden neurons and data-spitting ratios.

The authors reach a simple NN with three delays and three hidden neurons, which leads to stable performance of about 1.45% average relative root mean square error across the 10 cities for the training, validation and testing phases.

The results could be used on a standalone basis or combined with fundamental forecasts to form perspectives of office property price trends and conduct policy analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine leading from the middle, which is consistent with calls to distribute leadership, while expanding the direction of influence, from the normal top-down to include a bottom-up or lateral direction. The paper proposes that the position of the vice-principal enables the role incumbent to lead from the middle as a boundary spanner. The research question was what leadership from the middle looks like for vice-principals.

The study consisted of interviews of 28 vice-principals and 10 principals. A mixed case and theme-oriented strategy was adapted, with member checking with each vice-principal.

The findings indicate that in leading from the middle, vice-principals play boundary spanning roles of connecting, translating and brokering: (1) connecting between organisational levels, (2) translating between vision/direction and actualisation, (3) connecting between middle managers and (4) brokering and translating between the ministry and the school.

Leading from the middle is a nascent concept which is worth exploring, given the complexity of educational systems with multiple ecological levels, and the need for leadership to create coherence between the levels.

This study analyzed the explicitness, the salience of ethics and the transparency of messages in firms' social reports based on their significance to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication.

Drawing on institutional theory, this content analysis investigated 750 social reports from 125 firms for a ten-year period in liberal market economies (LMEs: US, UK), coordinated market economies (CMEs: Germany, Japan) and state-led market economies (SLMEs: France, South Korea).

First, firms in CMEs showed the highest level of transparency, and in all market economies, an overall trend of increase in the level of transparency was found. Second, firms in SLMEs communicated their CSR activities least explicitly. Third, firms in CMEs showed the lowest salience of ethics.

Useful theoretical as well as practical implications are provided in relation to the institutional perspective to CSR, and cross-national CSR communication.