Search results

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework which takes into account the perceived risk (PR) and the perceived benefits (PB) of using mobile payment systems (MPS) in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.

The study proposes a conceptual framework incorporating the uncertainties/risks associated with MPS like perceived technology uncertainty (PTU), perceived regulatory uncertainty (PRU), perceived service intangibility (PSI) and perceived information asymmetry (PIA), along with the benefits of using MPS such as trust, mobility, health consciousness (HC) and fear of Coronavirus (FOC). A survey comprising 1,253 participants was conducted in India. The proposed model was empirically examined through partial least square structural equation modelling.

The outcomes of the study revealed a significant positive influence of PTU, PRU, PIA and PSI on PR. On the other hand, HC and FOC were identified as the major antecedents having a significant positive influence on PB. Both PR and PB had a significant influence on the intention to adopt MPS, but the influence of PB was greater than the influence of PR.

The enablers and inhibitors play a crucial role in understanding the intention to adopt MPS. HC and fear of acquiring Coronavirus can be aggressively marketed by the government and service providers as a strategy to maintain social distancing. Government should address the regulatory concerns associated with the usage of MPS so as to alleviate any negative perception among the general public.

The current study is a novel attempt to understand the intention to adopt MPS in India as precautionary health behaviour to curb the transmission of Coronavirus pandemic. The study uses two constructs, HC and FOC, to better understand the behaviour of the people and explain the intention to adopt MPS during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite extensive study into various aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the effect on consumer behaviour is less explored. A growing amount of research is concerned with the phenomenon that CSR has a minor effect on actual purchases although CSR practices enhance consumers’ purchase intentions. This is documented as the CSR-consumption paradox and is yet to be resolved. The purpose of this paper is to further understand this paradox.

Questionnaires were administered face-to-face to consumers in Birmingham. These questionnaires concern consumer behaviour in relation to CSR practices of 21 popular apparel companies in the UK.

Results suggest that consumers’ pro-social priority is significantly related to pro-social consumption and that consumers’ awareness of CSR practices is insignificantly associated with their purchase behaviour. The pro-social consumption does not differ significantly among different demographic groups.

To explore the external motivational factors in consumers’ decision making will be a potential research direction in future.

The empirical results provide implications for UK apparel marketers and policy makers to engage and motivate socially responsible consumers so as to reap strategic rewards for their CSR efforts.

This paper contributes to the knowledge of socially responsible consumption and how it is affected by CSR.

This study aimed to develop an integrative model that comprehensively explores the antecedents of pro-environmental intentions in young people. The study follows customer value theory (CVT) and the theoretical framework of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).

Data was obtained from a field survey of two secondary schools in Hong Kong. A total of 279 young people (age range: 10–12 years old; 53.8% males) were recruited to complete the survey. Smart-PLS 3 was used to test the research model with partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings provided empirical evidence that the perceived values of children regarding environmentalism play an essential role in developing pro-environmental attitudes and behavioural intentions, such as recycling intention and conservation intention. The results support the utility of TPB for its adoption of attitude and behavioural intention as key components of the model. The use of CVT showed that three dimensions of young people’s perceived values, namely, emotional value, functional value and relational value, predict a pro-environmental attitude, while attitude predicts recycling intention and conservation intention.

This study offers crucial insight for schools and the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region government, who are focussed on spurring the perceived values, attitudes and behavioural intentions of young people towards environmentalism. This study shows that young people’s emotional values, functional values and relational values are important for transforming pro-environmental attitudes into behavioural intentions in young people.

This study measured the impact of young people’s perceived values on pro-environmental intentions. Few studies address how perceived values affect young people’s pro-environmental behaviour. This study integrates CVT and TPB to explore the source of young people’s pro-environmental intentions.

The paper aims to investigate the friction and wear properties of three surface-modified piston rings matched with a chromium-plated cylinder liner.

Samples were taken from the chromium-plated cylinder liner, Cr-Al2O3 ring, CrN ring and Mo ring. Tribo-tests were conducted on a reciprocating sliding tribometer under fully formulated engine oils. Friction coefficients and wear depths of three friction pairs were tested. Surface morphologies of cylinder liners and piston rings before and after test were analyzed.

Experimental results show that in the Cr-Al2O3 piston ring, scuffing occurred easily when matched with the chromium-plated cylinder liner; compared with the Mo ring, the CrN ring could decrease the wear depth of the piston ring from 2.7 to 0.2 μm, and the wear depth of cylinder liner remained; however, the friction coefficient increased from 0.113 to 0.123. The tribological performances of three surface-modified piston rings were significantly different when they matched with chromium-plated cylinder liner.

Chromium-plated cylinder liner and the three kinds of surface-modified piston rings have excellent friction and wear properties, respectively. However, according to the systematic characteristics of internal combustion (IC) engine tribology, only the appropriate cylinder liner–piston ring can improve the tribological performance of the IC engine. This paper reports the tribological performance of three surface-modified piston rings matched with a chromium-plated cylinder liner. The results can be used as reference for the design of high-power-density diesel engine.

This study examines how informal business networks achieve marketing goals in socially uncertain contexts. Drawing from multiple historical sources, Shangbangs, a type of business network that thrived in pre-1949 China, are analyzed.

The Critical Historical Research Method (CHRM) undergirds a study of Shangbangs’ historicity (i.e. their socio-historically embedded multiplicity, including organizational forms, activities and connotations.

As informal regional, professional, project-based, special-product-based or mixed marketing networks, Shangbangs relied on “flexible specialization” and coupled multiple business needs to market goods and services, business organizations, specific social values and, when necessary, to debrand business rivals.

This analysis extends theories about marketing networks by probing their subtypes, diverse marketing activities, multipronged channels and relationship building with social entities (including underground societies, business associations and guilds) in response to pre-1949 China’s market uncertainties. Substantiating an alternative approach to “flexible specialization” and marketing innovations within the pre-1949 Chinese economy shows how a parallel theoretical framework can complement western-based marketing theories.

This first comprehensive analysis of Shangbangs, an innovative historical Chinese marketing network outside the conventional market-corporate dichotomy, can inform theory building for marketing strategy-making and management conditioned by social contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a robotic boring system for intersection holes in aircraft assembly. The system is designed to improve the boring quality and position accuracy of the intersection holes.

To improve the boring quality of intersection holes, a robot posture optimization model is established. The target of the model is to maximize the robot stiffness and the variate is location of the robot on the guideway. The model is solved by the iterative IKP algorithm based on the Jacobian matrix. To improve the position accuracy of intersection holes, a robot positioning accuracy compensation method is introduced. In the method, a laser tracker is used to measure the actual position and orientation of the boring bar. Combined with the desired position and orientation, the error can be obtained and compensated.

In practical case of the robotic boring system, the robot stiffness is effectively improved and the surface roughness of intersection holes achieves a grade of Ra0.8. Besides, the robot end achieves a position accuracy of 0.05 mm and an orientation accuracy of 0.05°.

The robotic boring system has been applied successfully in one of the aircraft assembly projects in northwest China.

The robotic boring system can be applied for machining intersection holes in an aircraft assembly. With the robot posture optimization method and accuracy compensation method, the boring quality and position accuracy of the intersection holes can be guaranteed.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel force sensing jig for robot-assisted drilling used to drill holes for the fastening of floating nut plates in aircraft assembly.

The paper describes the drill jig, which consists of a parallel gripper, peg-in-hole pins and a back-plate with a recess where a Polydimethylsiloxane cone is placed on top of a force sensor. As the jig approaches the part, the force sensor registers the applied force until it reaches steady state, which indicates full contact between the jig and the part. The peg-in-hole pins then lock into a pre-existing hole, which provides a mechanical reference, and the support plate provides back support during drilling.

Positional accuracy and the repeatability of the system were successfully placed within the specification for accuracy and repeatability (0.1 mm tolerance and 0.2 mm tolerance, respectively).

The drill jig can be integrated into existing robot drilling solutions and modified for specific applications. The integration of the force sensor provides data for engineers to monitor and analyze forces during drilling. The design of the force sensing drill jig is particularly suited to industrial prototype robot drilling end-effectors for small and medium manufacturers.

The key novelties of this drilling jig are in the compact assembly, modular design and inclusion of force sensing and back support features.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of structural changes in hog production manure management practices.

The data used in this study are obtained from a large-scale nationwide hog producers’ survey in rural China conducted by the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2010. A descriptive analysis between hog manure management and its main determinants was conducted. Based on the collected data, an econometric model on the determinants of hog manure management was constructed and used for analysis.

The results of this study suggest that the scale of hog production has an important impact on the pattern of hog manure management. Moreover, the results from descriptive statistics and multivariate estimation suggest that smaller hog producers are more likely to apply hog manure to their own lands, while larger hog producers are more likely to sell the manure or find other ways to dispose of it.

This study contributes to the existing literature by examining the impact of structural changes in hog production on hog manure management and the environment.

Researchers continue to address the concept of self-disclosure because it is foundational for helping social networking sites (SNS) function and thrive. Nevertheless, the authors' literature review indicates that uncertainty remains around the underlying mechanisms and factors involved in the self-disclosure process. The purpose of this research is to better understand the self-disclosure process from the lens of dual-process theory (DPT). The authors consider both the controlled factors (i.e. self-presentation and reciprocity) and an automatic factor (i.e. social influence to use an SNS) involved in self-disclosure and broaden The authors proposed a model to include the interactive facets of enjoyment.

The proposed model was empirically validated by conducting a survey among users of WeChat Moments in China.

As hypothesized, this research confirms that enjoyment and automatic processing (i.e. social influence to use an SNS) are complementary in the SNS self-disclosure process and enjoyment negatively moderates the positive relationship between controlled factor (i.e. self-presentation) and self-disclosure.

Theoretically, this study offers a new perspective on explaining SNS self-disclosure by adopting DPT. Specifically, this study contributes to the extant SNS research by applying DPT to examine how the controlled factors and the automatic factor shape self-disclosure processes and how enjoyment influences vary across these processes – enriching knowledge about SNS self-disclosure behaviors. Practically, the authors provide important design guidelines to practitioners concerning devising mechanisms to foster more automatic-enjoyable value-added functions to improve SNS users' participation and engagement.

This study aims to examine the relative effectiveness of functional and financial remedies in influencing customers' negative coping responses in the event of a data breach. It also uncovers the different mediating roles played by customers' feelings of anger and fear in the process of data breach recovery. This study thus differs from the literature, which has primarily focused on the impact of financial compensation and apologies for service failures in face-to-face environments.

Two scenario-based experiments were conducted to empirically validate the model. The authors received 302 copies of the questionnaire, of which 269 were valid.

This study finds that functional remedies are more effective than financial remedies when sensitive information has been compromised, but there is no significant difference between the effectiveness of the two remedies when nonsensitive information has been compromised. In addition, functional remedies influence negative coping behaviors directly and indirectly; the indirect effect is achieved through the reduction of fear and anger. Contrary to the authors' expectation, financial remedies do not have a direct effect on negative coping behaviors; they can indirectly affect negative coping behaviors by reducing anger but do not affect negative coping behaviors by reducing fear.

This study provides key insights into how to manage customer reactions in the event of a data breach, suggesting the use of carefully designed recovery strategies. Companies must attend to customers' specific emotional responses to manage their negative coping behaviors.

This study extends the limited literature on data breach recovery actions by investigating the different effectiveness of functional and financial remedies in the event of a data breach. It also uncovers how functional and financial recovery strategies affect customers' negative coping behaviors by revealing the different mediating effects of fear and anger.