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1 – 10 of 29Ling Liang, Jiqing Xie, Jie Ren, Jialiang Wang and Chang Wang
Information opacity in donation crowdfunding activities has constrained the healthy development of China’s public welfare activities. Addressing the trust crisis and enhancing…
Abstract
Purpose
Information opacity in donation crowdfunding activities has constrained the healthy development of China’s public welfare activities. Addressing the trust crisis and enhancing public engagement warrants further investigation. This study aims to uncover the moderating effect of activity transparency by utilizing data from 1,029 donation crowdfunding projects on the Sina Weibo Public Welfare Social Platform. In this way, we seek to elucidate the impact of donation crowdfunding events on fundraising ability.
Design/methodology/approach
This study selects text complexity, number of supporters, creator experience, and social capital as explanatory variables; innovatively selects the number of updates of online crowdfunding activities and total reading volume as moderating variables; selects the number of shares of crowdfunding activities as a mediating variable; and constructs a moderated mediation multiple regression model for fundraising ability.
Findings
Our findings indicate that independent variables, such as text complexity, number of supporters, and social capital, can significantly affect the dependent variable, fundraising ability. However, creator experience does not influence fundraising ability. Furthermore, social interaction has a mediating effect, whereas activity transparency has a reverse moderating effect. These results indicate that social interaction can enhance the fundraising ability of donation crowdfunding events. However, with an increase in information transparency, the fundraising ability of social media decreases.
Originality/value
The originality of this research is in clarifying the internal factors affecting fundraising ability through induction, making bold assumptions, and focusing on how social media’s effective interaction and activity transparency will affect public welfare crowdfunding fundraising ability.
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Guqiang Luo, Kun Tracy Wang and Yue Wu
Using a sample of 9,898 firm-year observations from 1,821 unique Chinese listed firms over the period from 2004 to 2019, this study aims to investigate whether the market rewards…
Abstract
Purpose
Using a sample of 9,898 firm-year observations from 1,821 unique Chinese listed firms over the period from 2004 to 2019, this study aims to investigate whether the market rewards meeting or beating analyst earnings expectations (MBE).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use an event study methodology to capture market reactions to MBE.
Findings
The authors document a stock return premium for beating analyst forecasts by a wide margin. However, there is no stock return premium for firms that meet or just beat analyst forecasts, suggesting that the market is skeptical of earnings management by these firms. This market underreaction is more pronounced for firms with weak external monitoring. Further analysis shows that meeting or just beating analyst forecasts is indicative of superior future financial performance. The authors do not find firms using earnings management to meet or just beat analyst forecasts.
Research limitations/implications
The authors provide evidence of market underreaction to meeting or just beating analyst forecasts, with the market's over-skepticism of earnings management being a plausible mechanism for this phenomenon.
Practical implications
The findings of this study are informative to researchers, market participants and regulators concerned about the impact of analysts and earnings management and interested in detecting and constraining managers' earnings management.
Originality/value
The authors provide new insights into how the market reacts to MBE by showing that the market appears to focus on using meeting or just beating analyst forecasts as an indicator of earnings management, while it does not detect managed MBE. Meeting or just beating analyst forecasts is commonly used as a proxy for earnings management in the literature. However, the findings suggest that it is a noisy proxy for earnings management.
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Kun Zhang, Xiu-e Zhang and Xuejiao Xu
Hypocrisy often observed in the social responsibility practices of commercial enterprises is more likely to occur in social enterprises. However, this issue has received little…
Abstract
Purpose
Hypocrisy often observed in the social responsibility practices of commercial enterprises is more likely to occur in social enterprises. However, this issue has received little research attention. This study explores, from a consumer perspective, the formation of perceived hypocrisy and its impact on the cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
This research conducted two experiments, and data were collected from 515 subjects in China to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Behavioral inconsistency in social enterprises leads to consumers' perceived hypocrisy. The higher the perceived hypocrisy towards social enterprises, the weaker their cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises. At a lower level of inconsistency, the perceived hypocrisy of social enterprises was lower than that of commercial enterprises. Egoistic attribution to prosocial behavior moderated the negative effect of perceived hypocrisy on cognitive legitimacy. The stronger the egoistic attribution, the greater is the negative effect of perceived hypocrisy on the cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises.
Practical implications
Social entrepreneurs should be acutely aware of the harmful effects of hypocrisy on social enterprises. Social enterprises should not exaggerate their propaganda or be consistent with their words and actions.
Originality/value
This study innovatively analyzes the damage to the cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises caused by the hypocrisy that tends to occur in commercial enterprises and argues from the consumer viewpoint. These findings enrich the perspective on exploring social enterprise legitimacy.
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Satanu Ghosh and Kun Lu
The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary work on extracting band gap information of materials from academic papers. With increasing demand for renewable energy, band…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary work on extracting band gap information of materials from academic papers. With increasing demand for renewable energy, band gap information will help material scientists design and implement novel photovoltaic (PV) cells.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected 1.44 million titles and abstracts of scholarly articles related to materials science, and then filtered the collection to 11,939 articles that potentially contain relevant information about materials and their band gap values. ChemDataExtractor was extended to extract information about PV materials and their band gap information. Evaluation was performed on randomly sampled information records of 415 papers.
Findings
The findings of this study show that the current system is able to correctly extract information for 51.32% articles, with partially correct extraction for 36.62% articles and incorrect for 12.04%. The authors have also identified the errors belonging to three main categories pertaining to chemical entity identification, band gap information and interdependency resolution. Future work will focus on addressing these errors to improve the performance of the system.
Originality/value
The authors did not find any literature to date on band gap information extraction from academic text using automated methods. This work is unique and original. Band gap information is of importance to materials scientists in applications such as solar cells, light emitting diodes and laser diodes.
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Jian-Wu Bi, Ying Wang, Tian-Yu Han and Kun Zhang
The main purpose of this study is to explore the effect of three dimensions of “home feeling” – home-as-practical, home-as-social and home-as-attachment – on the online rating of…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to explore the effect of three dimensions of “home feeling” – home-as-practical, home-as-social and home-as-attachment – on the online rating of homestays and additionally considers the accommodation’s attribute performance and level of sharing.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the research aims, more than 9,738,335 items of user-generated content concerning 743,953 Airbnb listings covering 35 cities were collected as the study data. These data are analyzed through hierarchical regression.
Findings
The results show that all three dimensions of home feeling positively affect the online rating; all three dimensions negatively moderate the relationship between attribute performance and online rating; the size of the moderating effect of each dimension on the relationship between attribute performance and online rating gradually increases in the order home-as-practical, home-as-social and home-as-attachment; and as the level of sharing increases, the moderating effect of home feeling on the relationship between attribute performance and online rating diminishes.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the literatures on the role of home feeling in homestays, the online rating of homestays and the motivations of guests who choose different room types. The findings of this study can help hosts better understand the formation of online rating of homestays, make targeted improvements in rooms and services and create a home feeling for specific degrees of sharing. This in turn will help them to improve the online rating of their homestays, establish an excellent online reputation and, ultimately, increase sales.
Originality/value
This study advances knowledge by confirming three dimensions of home feeling not only have direct positive impacts on online rating but also mitigate the impact of attribute performance on online rating. This effect differs significantly in magnitude with the degree of sharing.
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Jui-Chen Peng and Kun-shan Zhang
Drawing on social exchange theory and traditional Chinese leadership theory, this research examines employees' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on social exchange theory and traditional Chinese leadership theory, this research examines employees' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a multilevel mediation model. It also examines the possibility that meaningful work mediates the relationship between perceived CSR and work engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 605 employees of 103 departments across 35 companies in Taiwan. Multilevel path models and hypotheses were tested using Mplus structural-equation modeling software.
Findings
The results show that department-level CSR perceptions were positively related to employee-level work engagement and that CSR was a mediating factor between department managers' moral leadership and employee-level work engagement. Additionally, meaningful work played a cross-level mediating role between CSR perceptions and work engagement.
Practical implications
For organizational managers, these findings imply that enterprises should practice CSR and guide their employees in its correct interpretation. They also reinforce the idea that department leaders should behave ethically, because this will encourage their employees to develop positive perceptions of the company's CSR implementation and thus to be more engaged in their work. Lastly, incorporating CSR programs into training materials and encouraging employees to actively participate in such programs' development, deployment and evaluation should help make work meaningful for employees and further enhance their engagement with it.
Originality/value
This study explains how a cross-level mechanism connects department-level moral leadership to employee-level work engagement in a Chinese cultural context.
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Shanglong Fang, Wei Xiao, Kewen Chen and Xuding Song
Resin-based friction materials are the most widely used key materials in industry for braking and transmission. However, the friction coefficient of resin-based friction materials…
Abstract
Purpose
Resin-based friction materials are the most widely used key materials in industry for braking and transmission. However, the friction coefficient of resin-based friction materials significantly decreases at temperatures above 300°C, which reduces their friction performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study combines elevated-temperature mechanical experiments with friction and wear experiments to explain the thermal degradation resistance performance and temperature recovery performance of resin-based friction materials. It also investigates the influence of friction material strength and worn morphology on the friction coefficient of materials at elevated temperature.
Findings
The experimental results show that the increase in friction coefficient of friction materials below 300°C is mainly due to the increase in worn morphology characterization parameters, and the thermal degradation phenomenon above 300°C is mainly due to the decrease of shear strength of friction film. Basalt fiber can significantly improve the thermal degradation resistance of friction materials. The friction coefficient of basalt fiber-reinforced specimens after thermal degradation reaches 0.421–0.443, which is 19–25% higher than the original. The thermal decay rate is 9.03–11.0%, which is 7.9–9.87% lower than the original. Moreover, the friction coefficient has good cooling recovery performance.
Originality/value
Revealed the thermal degradation mechanism of resin-based friction materials, verified that basalt fibers can improve the thermal degradation resistance of friction materials and provided reference for the development of new friction materials.
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İdris Tuğrul Gülenç, Mingwen Bai, Ria L. Mitchell, Iain Todd and Beverley J. Inkson
Current methods for the preparation of composite powder feedstock for selective laser melting (SLM) rely on costly nanoparticles or yield inconsistent powder morphology. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Current methods for the preparation of composite powder feedstock for selective laser melting (SLM) rely on costly nanoparticles or yield inconsistent powder morphology. This study aims to develop a cost-effective Ti6Al4V-carbon feedstock, which preserves the parent Ti6Al4V particle’s flowability, and produces in situ TiC-reinforced Ti6Al4V composites with superior traits.
Design/methodology/approach
Ti6Al4V particles were directly mixed with graphite flakes in a planetary ball mill. This composite powder feedstock was used to manufacture in situ TiC-Ti6Al4V composites using various energy densities. Relative porosity, microstructure and hardness of the composites were evaluated for different SLM processing parameters.
Findings
Homogeneously carbon-coated Ti6Al4V particles were produced by direct mixing. After SLM processing, in situ grown 100–500 nm size TiC nanoparticles were distributed within the α-martensite Ti6Al4V matrix. The formation of TiC particles refines the Ti6Al4V β grain size. Relative density varied between 96.4% and 99.5% depending on the processing parameters. Hatch distance, exposure time and point distance were all effective on relative porosity change, whereas only exposure time and point distance were effective on hardness change.
Originality/value
This work introduces a novel, cost-effective powder feedstock preparation method for SLM manufacture of Ti6Al4V-TiC composites. The in situ SLM composites achieved in this study have high relative density values, well-dispersed TiC nanoparticles and increased hardness. In addition, the feedstock preparation method can be readily adapted for various matrix and reinforcement materials in future studies.
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Kun You, Zubir Azhar and Qingyu Wang
This paper aims to explore how a shared service centre (SSC) is mobilised in a power-dominant context of a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE). Specifically, it examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how a shared service centre (SSC) is mobilised in a power-dominant context of a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE). Specifically, it examines the mobilisation of SSC within this multi-divisional SOE, the role and dynamics of actors involved and the influence of changes in the integrated information system (IIS) during the mobilisation process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study follows a qualitative case study methodology. The authors draw on actor-network theory to examine the network and translation processes constructed in mobilising SSC in the chosen SOE. The data sources of this study were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and documentary reviews.
Findings
The mobilisation of SSC is not a linear process but rather a “spiral” interplay through continuous interactions and compromises between human and non-human actors. Power gave the core actor as an orchestrator legitimacy and formality to reduce resistance and obstruction in translation for the mobilisation of SSC. The changes in IIS appear to facilitate the interaction between the heterogeneous actors.
Practical implications
This case study contributes towards understanding the mobilisation of SSC in a power-dominant context by highlighting the impact of changes in IIS and the details of the mobilisation of SSC in terms of the role played by both the individual actors and the technology.
Originality/value
This study provides a broader understanding of the interactions of the heterogeneous actors for mobilising SSC in a power-dominant context. More importantly, the study inspires future research into examining how SSC practices unfold and how the changes in IIS influence the mobilisation of SSC.
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Qiuchen Zhao, Xue Li, Junchao Hu, Yuehui Jiang, Kun Yang and Qingyuan Wang
The purpose of this paper is to determine the ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior and ultra-slow crack propagation behavior of selective laser melting (SLM) AlSi7Mg alloy under…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior and ultra-slow crack propagation behavior of selective laser melting (SLM) AlSi7Mg alloy under as-built conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
Constant amplitude and two-step variable amplitude fatigue tests were carried out using ultrasonic fatigue equipment. The fracture surface of the failure specimen was quantitatively analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Findings
The results show that the competition of surface and interior crack initiation modes leads to a duplex S–N curve. Both manufacturing defects (such as the lack of fusion) and inclusions can act as initially fatal fatigue microcracks, and the fatigue sensitivity level decreases with the location, size and type of the maximum defects.
Originality/value
The research results play a certain role in understanding the ultra-high cycle fatigue behavior of additive manufacturing aluminum alloys. It can provide reference for improving the process parameters of SLM technology.
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