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The purpose of this paper is to propose robust optimization models addressing the container slot allocation problem with minimum quantity commitment (MQC) under uncertain demand, which is faced by international companies export to USA.

A novel robust optimization approach handling linear programming (LP) with right-hand-side uncertainty is developed by incorporating new parameters: uncertainty level, infeasibility tolerance and reliability level. Two types of uncertainty, namely, bounded uncertainty and symmetric uncertainty are considered, respectively.

The present work finds that the expected revenue increases as the uncertainty level and the MQC decrease, as well as the infeasibility tolerance and the reliability level increase, no matter which type of uncertainty is considered.

Typically, the capacity constraints in a container shipping model should include two major restrictions: (1) number of slots and (2) total weight of loaded and empty containers. However, this study only addresses the first restriction for simplicity. It is recommended that future research explore the optimal solutions with additional restriction (2).

This paper fills a theoretical and practical gap for the problem of slot allocation with MQC in container liner revenue management. Deterministic and tractable mixed integer LP is formulated to derive robust solutions which immunes to demand uncertainty. Illustrative examples are presented to test the proposed models. The present work provides practical and solid advice and examples which demonstrates the application of the proposed robust optimization approach for logistics managers.

The purpose of the paper is to better measure the risks and volatility of the Bitcoin market by using the proposed novel risk measurement model.

The joint regression analysis of value at risk (VaR) and expected shortfall (ES) can effectively overcome the non-elicitability problem of ES to better measure the risks and volatility of financial markets. And because of the incomparable advantages of the long- and short-term memory (LSTM) model in processing non-linear time series, the paper embeds LSTM into the joint regression combined forecasting framework of VaR and ES, constructs a joint regression combined forecasting model based on LSTM for jointly measuring VaR and ES, i.e. the LSTM-joint-combined (LSTM-J-C) model, and uses it to investigate the risks of the Bitcoin market.

Empirical results show that the proposed LSTM-J-C model can improve forecasting performance of VaR and ES in the Bitcoin market more effectively compared with the historical simulation, the GARCH model and the joint regression combined forecasting model.

The proposed LSTM-J-C model can provide theoretical support and practical guidance to cryptocurrency market investors, policy makers and regulatory agencies for measuring and controlling cryptocurrency market risks.

A novel risk measurement model, namely LSTM-J-C model, is proposed to jointly estimate VaR and ES of Bitcoin. On the other hand, the proposed LSTM-J-C model provides risk managers more accurate forecasts of volatility in the Bitcoin market.

Sina Weibo and Twitter are the top microblogging platforms with billions of users. Accordingly, these two platforms could be used to understand the public mood. In this paper, the authors want to discuss how to generate and compare the public mood on Sina Weibo and Twitter. The predictive power of the public mood toward commodity markets is discussed, and the authors want to solve the problem that how to choose between Sina Weibo and Twitter when predicting crude oil prices.

An enhanced latent Dirichlet allocation model considering term weights is implemented to generate topics from Sina Weibo and Twitter. Granger causality test and a long short-term memory neural network model are used to demonstrate that the public mood on Sina Weibo and Twitter is correlated with commodity contracts.

By comparing the topics and the public mood on Sina Weibo and Twitter, the authors find significant differences in user behavior on these two websites. Besides, the authors demonstrate that public mood on Sina Weibo and Twitter is correlated with crude oil contract prices in Shanghai International Energy Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange, respectively.

Two sentiment analysis methods for Chinese (Sina Weibo) and English (Twitter) posts are introduced, which can be reused for other semantic analysis tasks. Besides, the authors present a prediction model for the practical participants in the commodity markets and introduce a method to choose between Sina Weibo and Twitter for certain prediction tasks.

As a new communication paradigm, social networking sites (SNS) have boosted information diffusion and viral marketing. Prior researchers have identified various factors affecting information dissemination on SNS. However, they often focus on limited factors and there is a lack of an integrated theoretical framework that explains aspects of relevant factors. Besides, the research on the impacts of relationships on individual retweeting behavior is still controversial. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework to systematically investigate the determinants of individual dissemination behavior on SNS based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Moreover, the authors also examine the relative importance of those relevant factors.

The authors randomly selected 1,250 members of Twitter and crawled posts published by each member since he/she created the Twitter account using Twitter API. The authors processed the data to create panel data and tested hypotheses with the panel logit model.

Factors both on the central route and on the peripheral route of ELM have positive impacts on individual dissemination behavior. Among them, information receiver-related factor and relationships-related factors are the most influential. Contrastingly, source-related factors are the least influential. Furthermore, the authors find that social tie strength mediates almost 50 percent of the effect of value homophily on individual dissemination behavior.

The authors are the first to directly apply ELM to examine individual dissemination behavior on SNS. By integrating factors into the two information processing routes, They incorporate relevant factors into the model and systematically analyze their impacts on individual retweeting behavior on SNS. The research offers at least one explanation for the contradictory findings about the effect of homophily on individual sharing behavior in previous research. The authors propose new variables that gauge topical relevance and interpersonal value homophily on SNS.

This study attempts to contribute to the knowledge of how service climate improves customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry based on evidence from mainland China. It considers different dimensions of service climate separately, including customer orientation, managerial support and work facilitation, and introduces an important mediator – employee commitment – to examine the relationship between service climate and customer satisfaction.

A theoretical framework is proposed to suggest links among the three dimensions of service climate, employee commitment and customer satisfaction. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from employees in the hospitality industry of China. The constructs were measured by using established scales. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the theoretical hypotheses.

Empirical results indicate that different dimensions of service climate have different effects on customer satisfaction. For instance, customer orientation, as one dimension of service climate, has a direct and positive influence on customer satisfaction, while two other dimensions of service climate, managerial support and work facilitation, have indirect positive influence on customer satisfaction, through improving employee commitment.

The results indicate that managers should create customer orientation in hotels, including clarifying the value of providing customers with high quality service, and developing a system of emphasizing the importance of customer feedback. Meanwhile, managers need to pay attention to two neglected components of service climate, managerial support and work facilitation, rather than focusing on physical infrastructure only.

This paper makes an important empirical contribution by treating various dimensions of service climate separately, and exploring their relationships with customer satisfaction by introducing a mediator, employee commitment. The results indicate that various dimensions of service climate play different roles in improving customer satisfaction. This study contributes to the theories of service climate and customer satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of civil disobedience (CD) movements in Hong Kong in the context of the notion of civil society (CS).

The paper begins by rigorously defining the notion of CD, as well as the concept of CS and tracing its development in Hong Kong over the past several decades. By using a model of CS typology, which combines the variables of state control and a society’s quest for autonomy (SQA), the paper aims to outline the historical development of CD movements in Hong Kong. It also discusses the recent evolution of CS and its relationship with CD movements, particularly focusing on their development since Leung Chun-ying became the Chief Executive in 2012. Finally, by using five cases of CD witnessed in the past several decades, the relationship between the development of CS and the emergence of CD in Hong Kong has been outlined.

Four implications can be concluded: first, CD cannot emerge when the state and society are isolated. Second, the level of SC and the scale of CD are positively related. Third, as an historical trend, the development of SQA is generally in linear progress; SQA starts from a low level (e.g. interest-based and welfare-based aims) and moves upwards to campaign for higher goals of civil and political autonomy. If the lower level of SQA is not satisfied, it can lead to larger scale CD in future. Fourth, the CD movement would be largest in scale when the state-society relationship confrontational and when major cleavages can be found within CS itself.

This paper serves to enrich knowledge in the fields of politics and sociology.

Since the launch of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2003, Hong Kong cinema is believed to have confronted drastic changes. Hong Kong cinema is described to be dying, lacking creative space and losing local distinctiveness. A decade later, the rise of Hong Kong – China coproduction cinema under CEPA has been normalized and changed the once pessimism in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Hong Kong cinema adjusted its production and creation in the first 10 years of CEPA.

Beginning with a review of the overall development, three paradigmatic cases are examined for reflecting upon what the major industrial and commercial concerns on the Hong Kong – China coproduction model are, and how such a coproduction model is not developed as smooth as what the Hong Kong filmmakers expected.

Collectively, this paper singles out the difficulties in operation and the limit of transnationality that occur in the Chinese context for the development of Hong Kong cinema under the Hong Kong – China coproduction model.

This is the author’s research in his five-year study of Hong Kong cinema and it contributes a lot to the field of cinema studies with relevant industrial and policy concern.