Search results

The purpose of this study is to develop the scale of the metaverse experience and examine the effect of the metaverse experience on consumer happiness in luxury brands.

A survey was distributed to metaverse users from general participants in the Republic of Korea. To reach this goal, the domain of the metaverse experience is defined, items are created through qualitative interviews, the initial scale is refined and then the scale is tested. A total of 262 valid responses were used for exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and 238 data were used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The hypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) and SmartPLS 3.0.

The results showed that the metaverse experience comprises three sub-constructs, namely fantasies, feelings and fun. Also, the metaverse experience affects consumer happiness positively in luxury brands.

This study investigates consumer experience in the metaverse environment. The authors examined the metaverse experience based on the experiential aspects of the consumption of luxury brands and develop the scale development of the metaverse experience. Furthermore, the relationship between metaverse experiences and consumer happiness provides a new perspective in studying metaverse marketing strategy and customer service creation.

By building and examining an integral model, the principal objectives of this research are to systematically explore how indirect and direct network externalities lead to user loyalty toward WeChat through the mediating effect of perceived gratifications.

The data were collected through an online survey of 688 young people in Mainland China. To empirically assess the conceptual model, zero-order correlation analyses and structural equation modeling were carried out utilizing web-based data.

Path analysis results demonstrate that indirect network externalities and direct network externalities exert a significant impact on users' hedonic gratifications and utilitarian gratifications. Moreover, the study discovers the significant mediating influences of utilitarian gratifications on the association between indirect network externalities and user loyalty.

Theoretically, this article may extend the scope of diverse studies on the association between network externalities and perceived gratifications and offer fresh insights into how mobile social media could actually improve user loyalty through enhancing perceived values among younger generation. Practically, this research assists mobile social media practitioners in retaining users and gaining competitive advantages over rival applications.

Although the extraordinary growth of WeChat has successfully become the dominant media by which individuals develop interpersonal network and contact with others, the roles of perceived gratifications between network externalities and user loyalty toward WeChat have not yet been investigated in depth. These obtained outcomes not only enrich the existing literature regarding the relationship between network externalities and affective response, but also offer fresh insights to mobile social media designers, marketers and users.

Introduction: One of the main goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to represent gender equality due to its essential role in sustainable progress. At the same time, the balance between women and men in management is explicitly mentioned as a desideratum, given that more women in leadership roles positively impact business performance and sustainability.

Purpose: The study investigates the dynamic relationship between gender inequalities in management positions and sustainable competitiveness. Our contribution is twofold: we examine this interrelationship and its causality.

Methodology: We used panel data of 350 observations for 2012–2021, and we employ a Vector Auto-Regression model and Granger causality method to examine the relationship between the gender gap in management and sustainable competitiveness. The panel VAR for analysing the impulse response function was enriched using Monte Carlo simulations with 5% and 95%.

Findings: The results highlighted that a bidirectional causality between the gender gap in management and sustainable competitiveness is manifested in the European countries. Our results are similar to other studies found in the literature, with gender equality and sustainability positively associated. As an element of originality, our study demonstrates that gender equality in management contributes to sustainable performance, and, on the other hand, a more competitive and sustainable environment contributes to eliminating the gap between men and women in management.

This study aims to investigate the two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic flow and heat transfer of a fractional Maxwell nanofluid between inclined cylinders with variable thickness. Considering the cylindrical coordinate system, the constitutive relation of the fractional viscoelastic fluid and the fractional dual-phase-lag (DPL) heat conduction model, the boundary layer governing equations are first formulated and derived.

The newly developed finite difference scheme combined with the L1 algorithm is used to numerically solve nonlinear fractional differential equations. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by a numerical example.

Based on numerical analysis, the effects of parameters on velocity and temperature are revealed. Specifically, the velocity decreases with the increase of the fractional derivative parameter α owing to memory characteristics. The temperature increase with the increase of fractional derivative parameter ß due to a decrease in thermal resistance. From a physical perspective, the phase lag of the heat flux vector and temperature gradients τ_q and τ_T exhibit opposite trends to the temperature. The ratio τ_T/τ_q plays an important role in controlling different heat conduction behaviors. Increasing the inclination angle θ, the types and volume fractions of nanoparticles Φ can increase velocity and temperature, respectively.

Fractional Maxwell nanofluid flows from a fixed-thickness pipe to an inclined variable-thickness pipe, and the fractional DPL heat conduction model based on materials is considered, which provides a basis for the safe and efficient transportation of high-viscosity and condensable fluids in industrial production.

Auxetic sandwich structures are gaining attention because of the negative Poisson’s ratio effect offered by these structures. Re-entrant core was one configuration of the auxetic structures. There is a growing concern about the design and behavior of re-entrant cores in aerospace, marine and protection applications. Several researchers proposed various designs of re-entrant core sandwiches with various materials. The purpose of this study is to review the most recent advances in re-entrant core sandwich structures. This review serves as a guide for researchers conducting further research in this wide field of study.

The re-entrant core sandwich structures were reviewed in terms of their design improvements, impact and quasi-static crushing responses. Several design improvements were reviewed including 2D cell, 3D cell, gradient, hierarchical and hybrid configurations. Some common applications of the re-entrant core sandwiches were given at the end of this paper with suggestions for future developments in this field.

Generally, the re-entrant configuration showed improved energy absorption and impact response among auxetic structures. The main manufacturing method for re-entrant core manufacturing was additive manufacturing. The negative Poisson’s ratio effect of the re-entrant core provided a wide area of research.

Generally, re-entrant cores were mentioned in the review articles as part of other auxetic structures. However, in this review, the focus was solely made on the re-entrant core sandwiches with their mechanics.

Improving the diversity of recommendation information has become one of the latest research hotspots to solve information cocoons. Aiming to achieve both high accuracy and diversity of recommender system, a hybrid method has been proposed in this paper. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned method.

This paper integrates latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model and locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithm to design topic recommendation system. To measure the effectiveness of the method, this paper builds three-level categories of journal paper abstracts on the Web of Science platform as experimental data.

(1) The results illustrate that the diversity of recommended items has been significantly enhanced by leveraging hashing function to overcome information cocoons. (2) Integrating topic model and hashing algorithm, the diversity of recommender systems could be achieved without losing the accuracy of recommender systems in a certain degree of refined topic levels.

The hybrid recommendation algorithm developed in this paper can overcome the dilemma of high accuracy and low diversity. The method could ameliorate the recommendation in business and service industries to address the problems of information overload and information cocoons.

The aim of this study is to ascertain the fundamental characteristics that influence the theme park experience during the period following the pandemic, using the experiencescape framework.

To obtain electronic word-of-mouth data, this research leverages Google Maps reviews and uses diverse Python libraries for computational and natural language processing-based analyses.

In the context of theme parks during a pandemic, visitors tend to convey favorable attitudes and engage in discourse pertaining to six primary themes or subjects, i.e. health and safety protocols, ride and queue management, sanitation measures, promotional pricing, family-oriented amenities and exciting escapades.

This study highlights the continued relevance of the experiencescape framework during the COVID-19 pandemic and the dynamic nature of its five dimensions. Furthermore, it underscores the intricate interplay between these dimensions and advocates for a comprehensive approach to experiencescape management.

The research addresses a notable gap in existing literature by examining the pandemic’s impact on theme park experiences, using natural language processing techniques for insights gleaned from online reviews. In doing so, this study contributes a more profound and nuanced comprehension of the theme park experience in the post-COVID era.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the metaverse platform in a social context to better understand the future of this tool in tourism cities and how this can help to improve the well-being of residents in both digital and physical scenarios.

In this paper, the current and probable developments in the metaverse, and its use in tourism cities and companies have been investigated. Moreover, this study develops, collects and examines the main metaverse definitions by expert authors and organizations as a methodology to ensure the transparency and credibility of the metaverse analysis.

Findings suggest that the fusion of the metaverse and tourism cities must create residents’ services and experiences in the new MetaTourPolis to help interact and connect citizens with the city’s institutions and companies, as well as make tourism cities more attractive, innovative, environmentally friendly and healthier places to live. Metaverse will bring new changes for residents and tourists, in fact, this virtual platform is already changing and improving the residents’ quality of life and people with disabilities in tourism cities. For instance, the metaverse platform has been implemented in Seoul, Santa Monica and Dubai MetaTourPolis to interact with their residents, including people with disabilities, to resolve bureaucratic and administrative problems, avoiding this group and the rest of the residents travelling by bus or car to the city’s institutions. In addition, several metaverse applications based on softbot tutors or metaverse virtual social centres have been developed to improve blind and impaired people, and elderly people’ quality of life, respectively.

A new concept called “MetaTourPolis” has been included to stage the relationship between tourism cities and the metaverse platform, where the fusion of metaverse and the new tourism polis of the 21st century will be at the service of citizens, tourists and companies, to create more sustainable, efficient, quantitative and environmental tourism cities.