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This study aims to clarify the relationship between the coefficient of friction (COF) and temperature of aluminum-based brake discs.

Three friction blocks with different COFs are examined by a TM-I-type reduced-scale inertial braking dynamometer. On this basis, the thermo-mechanically coupled model of friction pairs is established to study the evolution of brake disc temperature under different COFs using ADINA software.

Results indicate that the calculated disc temperature field matches the experimental well. The effect of COF on the peak temperature is magnified by the braking speed. With the COF increasing, the rise rate of instantaneous peak temperature is accelerated, and the dynamic equilibrium period and cooling-down period are observed in advance. The increase in COF promotes the area ratio of the high-temperature zone and the maximum radial temperature difference. When the COF is increased from 0.245 to 0.359 and 0.434 at 140 km/h, the area ratio of high-temperature zone increases from 12% to 44% and 49% and the maximum radial temperature difference increases from 56°C to 75°C and 83°C. The sensitiveness of the axial temperature difference to the COF is related to the braking time. The maximum axial temperature difference increases with COF in the early stages of braking, while it is hardly sensitive to the COF in the later stages of braking.

The effect of COF on the aluminum-based brake disc temperature is revealed, providing a theoretical reference for the popularization of aluminum-based brake discs and the selection of matching brake pads.

Corporate philanthropy is increasingly a vital decision-making basis for consumers to purchase and establish relationships with enterprises. However, few studies have examined corporate philanthropy from the perspective of community evolution. To address this gap, this study aims to provide a more in-depth and holistic investigation of corporate philanthropy by examining the evolution of social media brand communities caused by corporate philanthropy and the characteristics of consumer interactive behavior.

Web crawlers developed by Python were employed to collect data of ERKE from Sina Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter). A total of 2,736 posts and 7,774 comments were collected and investigated using social network and sentiment tendency analyses.

The results showed that the evolution of the social media brand community presented a prominent three-stage characteristic influenced by corporate philanthropy. The findings not only support the benefits of corporate philanthropy but also show the possible disadvantages. Besides, this study further concluded the characteristics of consumer interactive behavior in the social media brand community.

This paper addresses an attractive and practical issue related to the impact of corporate philanthropy. Moreover, this study is one of the first studies to examine the impact of corporate philanthropy in the context of the social media brand community. The findings of this study will provide a valuable reference for community operations and practitioners of brands.

Access to services for consumers with disabilities (CwD) has gained increased attention from researchers and service providers in recent years. Consequently, ensuring that services are designed and maintained in a manner that is more inclusive and accessible to CwD has become imperative. However, academic literature is fragmented and thus, this study aims to provide a state-of-the-art synthesis for further theoretical development.

This study reviews 77 relevant articles in the domain using a multidisciplinary review following the PRISMA protocol, and a thematic analysis was conducted.

The study thoroughly synthesizes the theories, contexts and methods used in the extant literature. Next, the study presents a new theoretical framework with four broader dimensions: beyond regulations, towards accessibility, value co-creation, inclusion of CwD and role of stakeholders. Furthermore, it highlights the related sub-dimensions attributed to the service design stages (planning, usage and post-usage). Based on this, the study offers critical avenues for future research using the Double Diamond framework.

The study contributes significantly to service design literature for CwD and transformative service research by developing a new consolidated theoretical framework. The findings should direct service providers towards better service designs in related fields. Socially, the study has implications for promoting accessibility and inclusion for CwD, while providing them the freedom of choice.

While there is a general belief that a defective institutional environment will lead to higher compliance risk, the current state of knowledge about how the institutional environment affects enterprises' compliance is equivocal. This study aims to explore how does the host country's institutional environment affect the compliance risk perception of international engineering contractors and how to mitigate this impact.

This study empirically tests the impact of the institutional environment from the two dimensions of the institutional environment: legal completeness reflects whether the formal regulations are clear, detailed and comprehensive and legal effectiveness reflects whether rules and policies can be implemented effectively when the proper legal codes are provided. Based on 213 questionnaire data, this study uses partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and Smart PLS software to test the hypothesis.

This study finds a negative relationship between the host country's legal completeness (LC) or legal effectiveness (LE) and a contractor's compliance risk perception. Further, the results show potential absorptive capacity (PAC) and realized absorptive capacity (RAC) of a contractor are critical for mitigating the impact of low LC in the host country, but not when LE is low.

The findings will be useful for international engineering contractors to respond to the compliance risk of the host country, both in choices of overseas investment locations and compliance capacity building.

This study reveals the impact of the host country's institutional environment on the compliance risk perception of international contractors, and provides theoretical guidance for how to alleviate the compliance barriers brought by the host country's institutional environment to international engineering contractors.

This study aims to investigate the effect of V doping on the microstructure, chemical stability, mechanical and vacuum tribological behavior of sputtered MoS₂ coatings.

The MoS₂-V coatings are fabricated via tuning V target current by magnetron sputtering technique. The structural characteristic and elemental content of the coatings are measured by field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometer, electron probe X-ray micro-analyzer, Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer. The hardness of the deposited coatings are tested by a nanoindentation technique. The vacuum tribological properties of MoS₂-V coatings are studied by a ball-on-disc tribometer.

Introducing V into the MoS₂ coatings results in a more compact microstructure. The hardness of the coatings increases with the doping of V. The MoS₂-V coating deposited at a current of 0.2 A obtains the lowest friction coefficient (0.043) under vacuum. As the amount of V doping increases, the wear rate of the coating decreases first and then increases, among which the coating deposited at a current of 0.5 A has the lowest wear rate of 2.2 × 10–6 mm³/N·m.

This work elucidates the role of V doping on the lubrication mechanism of MoS₂ coatings in a vacuum environment, and the MoS₂-V coating is expected to be applied as a solid lubricant in space environment.

Triggered by the extensive use of social media brand communities (SMBCs) in interactive marketing, this article aims to explore how brand connectedness (BC) affects consumer engagement behavior (CEB) in SMBCs.

The research model was verified with the partial least squares structural equation modeling applied to the actual data collected from the web crawling largest microblogging platform in China (Sina Weibo).

Results indicate that BC may positively influence consumer emotions (CEs), eventually leading to engagement behavior in SMBCs. In addition, gender and duration of membership act as vital moderators in the model. One of the most interesting findings is the differences between posting and commenting, although both are CEBs. BC has a more significant effect on commenting than posting, and the mediating effect of CEs between BC and posting behavior is not significant.

This research contributes to the literature on interactive marketing by examining BC in the context of SMBCs, which is under-researched in the literature but is highly pertinent to social media contexts. Moreover, we measure BC through social network analysis for the first time, which not only supports the empirical work but also expands the social network theory and social capital theory. This research also extends the body of knowledge on consumer engagement by investigating the differences between posting and commenting behaviors.

This study aims to investigate the role of social media in increasing trust, self-perceived creativity and millennial entrepreneurial satisfaction.

The empirical analysis was conducted using a sample of 385 millennial entrepreneurs that were recruited for online survey. After conducting reliability and validity tests, the data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results showed that the quality of social media information had a direct and indirect positive and significant effect on trust and satisfaction. Social media marketing activities had a direct and indirect positive and significant effect on trust and self-perceived creativity. System Quality of social media also has a significant direct influence on trust. However, there is no direct relationship to satisfaction. Finally, social media marketing activities have a significant direct effect on trust and satisfaction.

This research can contribute to marketing experts and millennial entrepreneurs in improving the quality of advertising information and the credibility of social media used to support creativity, trust and satisfaction. In addition, marketing experts and millennial entrepreneurs with online-based communities should optimize their marketing activities on social media.

This study has shown a more comprehensive model of the relationship between information quality, system quality, social media marketing activities, self-perceived creativity, trust and satisfaction. This study also reveals a significant direct and indirect effect of social media marketing activities on satisfaction.

The aim of this study is to understand the acculturation experiences of international students in order to maximize their academic and social experiences which, in turn, can facilitate the development of sustainable educational tourism in the host country.

Using a qualitative methodology and semi-structured interview techniques, 40 international postgraduate tourism students from the Global South were interviewed.

The findings in this study demonstrated that the main problems faced by these students are inadequate funds and language difficulties.

This study highlighted the fact that although the number of international students is growing all over the world, for most of the students from poorer parts of the world, being an international student is fraught with difficulties. It also demonstrated that although acculturation stress is a serious concern, lack of adequate funding assumes greater importance for students from a poor background.

This literature review aims to assess the current research on healthcare job availability and skilled professionals. The objective of this research is to identify challenges caused by the imbalance between healthcare service demand and qualified professionals and propose potential solutions and future research directions.

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method was employed as the guiding framework for conducting this review. A qualitative research design analyzed 38 peer-reviewed, evidence-based research works from 50 journal publications. Inclusion criteria focused on empirical studies, observational research and comprehensive reviews published within the last ten years. Thematic and discourse analysis categorized themes and factors explored in selected publications.

The findings highlight significant challenges in the healthcare sector regarding job availability and skilled professionals. Developed countries face understaffed healthcare facilities, resulting in increased workloads and compromised care. Developing countries experience high rates of unemployment among healthcare graduates due to limited resources and mentorship.

Improving educational infrastructure, expanding training opportunities and increasing healthcare investments are crucial for nurturing a skilled workforce. Implementing effective retention policies, fostering international collaborations and addressing socioeconomic determinants can create a sustainable job market.

The healthcare sector faces critical challenges in balancing job availability and skilled professionals. Strategic solutions are proposed to create a sustainable and equitable healthcare workforce. By implementing recommendations and conducting further research, access to quality healthcare and global public health outcomes can be improved.

Although previous studies have examined the influence of celebrity involvement in behavioural intentions, the role of celebrity dimensions such as attraction, self-expression and centrality in influencing tourists’ intention in the context of developing countries such as Tanzania remains largely unaddressed. This study, therefore, examined the relationship between celebrity involvement and domestic tourists' intentions to visit tourist attractions, attitude being the mediating variable.

A questionnaire was self-administered on a convenient sample of 279 domestic tourists in the Tanzania’s four largest regions, namely, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Arusha and Mwanza. Employing a quantitative research approach, structural equation modelling was performed to test the cause-and-effect relationships between celebrity involvement and tourists’ intentions before testing the mediating role of attitude in such a relationship. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to test the measurement models.

Attraction emerged to be the main determinant of the celebrity dimension that significantly influenced domestic tourists’ travel intentions, whereas attitude partially mediates such a relationship. Moreover, Bongo Fleva musicians, particularly Diamond Platnumz, one of the leading celebrities in this genre, were found to influence most of the respondents’ travel intentions – he posted a picture on his Instagram account of him touring the Serengeti National Park.

The study focused on domestic tourists residing in four of the Mainland Tanzania’s largest regions, hence excluding those residing on the islands of Unguja and Pemba. Due to cultural differences, including the islands not only could unleash new perspectives on celebrity involvement dimensions but also could have introduced new determinants of travel intentions.

This study offers guidance to tourism businesses on designing their marketing campaigns that they should harness celebrity’s attractive qualities effectively. The focus should be directed not only towards linking destinations with celebrities but also on stimulating positive perception of those destinations, aligning with the attitudes of their followers.

The study has set out a new perspective for researchers, practitioners and tourism businesses to refine their promotional strategies and for academicians to gain a deeper understanding of visitor behavioural intention dynamics.

This study has proposed and verified that attraction is a dominant determinant compared to self-expression and centrality in explaining tourists’ travel intentions and attitudes, which play a significant role in explaining such a relationship. Although the study employed a modified theory of planned behaviour in a celebrity involvement study, the findings have broadened the understanding and its applicability in the context of a developing country.