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The purpose of this paper is to propose that online group buying is different from the traditional purchase model in that an aggregation of purchases on the internet can lead sellers to adopt various bargaining strategies. When buyers and sellers do not have the opportunity to meet face to face, consumer satisfaction is an important consideration for sellers.

This study investigates the influence of sellers’ strategies for offering bargains on consumers’ satisfaction, considering buyers’ characteristics and involvement. Data are analyzed by employing the multivariate analysis of variance.

The results demonstrate that the stage decreasing range strategy results in the highest level of consumer satisfaction with online group buying. In addition, consumers’ cognitive style, computer self-efficacy and involvement have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between incentive strategy and consumer satisfaction.

The findings show that for group buying consumers, stage decreasing range strategy reveals certain advantages, such as a short waiting time for gathering group buyers. Enterprises or online sellers that propose special offers for online group buying as part of their competitive strategy should consider the stage decreasing range strategy. Moreover, enterprises and sellers can adjust their operations according to consumers’ individual characteristics and construct good relationships in online group buying.

This study has investigated the influence of incentive strategies for offering bargains in online transactions on consumer’s satisfaction. The results of this study will provide some guidelines for managers of the e-retailing firms to maximize their abilities in terms of marketing activities.

The purpose of this paper is to get hold of the main influence factors of the investment efficiency of environmental governance and control them to improve its efficiency sensitively and employ full use of the investment of environmental governance.

The assessment index system of the investment efficiency of environmental governance is built. Its investment efficiency is assessed based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). The influence degree on the efficiency between each assessment index is calculated by the grey incidence degree analysis method to find the key influence factors. The efficiency of the investment in the environmental governance can be improved by managing and controlling the key factors.

The results prove that it is available by the data of 14 cities in Shandong Province in 2008. The key influence factors of the investment efficiency of the environmental governance are: total investment in the treatment of environmental pollution (F₁); industrial soot removal (F₃); industrial wastewater meeting discharge standards (F₂); and the volume of garbage disposal (F₉).

The method exposed in the paper can be used to solve investment efficiency problem of the environmental governance of the other provinces, or other years and even other countries.

The paper succeeds in solving investment efficiency problem of the environmental governance by DEA and grey incidence degree analysis method.

Heat transfer inside wavy fins is analyzed in this work. The paper aim to discuss this issue.

Six different types of wavy fins are considered. The fin equation for each fin type is solved using a high accurate finite difference method. Excellent agreement is obtained between the numerical solution under zero wave amplitude and the exact solution of the plain fin.

The following wavy fin types and conditions are found to produce larger heat transfer rate and its volumetric value than those for the plain fin and other wavy fins: short fins with parallel wavy profiles and large surface-wave frequency; long fins with symmetric wavy surface around the length axis, positive cross-sectional area gradient at the base, and large surface-wave frequency; and long fins with symmetric wavy profiles around the length axis, positive cross-sectional area gradient at the base, and small surface-wave frequency.

In addition, both fins with symmetric wavy surface around the width axis and parallel wavy surfaces along the width axis have same performance indicators. Also, these wavy fins possess higher fin efficiency than either that of the plain fin or those of the other types of wavy fins.

Finally, heat transfer enhancements in the studied wavy fins are increased by increases in the excess of the surface area, cross-sectional area gradient at the base, arc length and arc width relative to those of the plain fin.

The quality of information sharing is of the utmost importance for supply chains (SCs). The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of the human attitude: willingness to share, its antecedents and its role in improving information sharing quality.

Based on information sharing theory, a theoretical model and research hypotheses are developed. Data from 387 respondents were collected to test the hypotheses and model fit using structural equation modelling and mediation analysis. The impact of social-psychological factors and information technology (IT) infrastructure capability on willingness to share information and, consequently, its effect on information sharing quality were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics, PROCESS and AMOS.

The statistical analysis showed a good model fit. Trust is the most important antecedent for willingness to share, while the impacts of commitment and reciprocity are also significant. Interestingly, power is not a significant antecedent of willingness. Life satisfaction is a significant precursor to willingness to share information, whereas surprisingly overall job satisfaction does not play a significant role.

Cross-sectional data were used and the scope was limited to SCs.

Managers should be aware that trust, commitment and reciprocity with their SC partners influence the willingness to share information with varying effects. Access to proper IT capabilities increases willingness as does the life satisfaction. SC individuals who are happy with life are more willing. Interestingly, high power might get the sharer to share information albeit unwillingly.

The model provides a social-psychological understanding of the antecedents of human willingness to share information, which is crucial to sharing quality information. Overall, the social-psychological and IT factors model based on information sharing theory is statistically valid for the SC context.

This study aims to synthesize polyethylene glycol (PEG)-rosin derivatives from rosin and PEG for the production of solid soldering fluxes. The PEG-rosin derivatives would be water soluble, and the resulting solid soldering fluxes would have reasonable wetting ability when combined with a low-halide-content activator.

This paper presents a synthetic process for PEG-rosin derivatives. The reaction conditions (including catalyst type, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature and PEG type) were optimized for the synthesis of PEG-rosin derivatives. The chemical and physical properties of PEG-rosin derivatives were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry and gel permeation chromatography. The production and characteristics of water-soluble rosin fluxes (WSRFs) were studied according to the standards of the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) Committees.

WSRs were successfully synthesized from rosin and PEG using 2 per cent ZnO as a catalyst, with a 2:1 molar ratio of rosin:PEG at 250°C over 9 h. The resulting WSRs were completely soluble in water. As the PEG3000-rosin had the highest melting point (55.2°C), it was chosen for the preparation of the WSRFs. Activators such as succinic acid, glutaric acid, ethylamine hydrochloride and diethylamine hydrobromide were selected for use in the production of the fluxes. It was found that WSRF 09 and WSRF 04 gave the best performance with the lead-free Sn-0.7Cu solder alloy in terms of good solderability, low halide content (less than 1,500 ppm), high insulation resistance and low corrosion. These fluxes were applied to produce solder pastes with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu alloy and they passed the performance tests as expected for solder paste.

Further studies are necessary on large-scale production and to compare the performance of these fluxes to those from conventional water-soluble fluxes currently available in the market. Application of these fluxes on low-temperature solder alloys such as SnZn and SnBi (Ren et al., 2016) worth further study.

The classification of flux systems according to the JIS 3283 standard does not specify PEG-rosin derivatives in the flux; nevertheless, ranking of the flux systems based on the halide content and corrosion properties of activators would be useful information when selecting flux systems for electronics soldering in water-washable applications. The application of these fluxes in solder paste gave very promising results and is worth investigating into more detail, as well as field test.

Among developing countries, the Republic of China in Taiwan (hereinafter Taiwan) has been experiencing economic growth accompanied by improving income distribution. Between 1964 and 1980, the average annual growth rate of the real gross national product was 9.92 per cent (Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), 1982, p. 23). In the same period, the income ratio between the top 20 per cent and the bottom 20 per cent of families dropped from 5.33 to 4.17 and the Gini coefficient decreased from 0.36 to 0.30 (CEPD, 1982, p. 54; Directorate‐General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, 1980, (DGBAS), p. 44). To put it somewhat dif‐ferently, in 1964 the lowest fifth of households received 7.71 per cent of total personal income, and the highest fifth 41.07 per cent. But in 1980, the income share of the lowest fifth increased to 8.82 per cent while that of the highest fifth decreased to 36.80 per cent. The condition of greater equality in income distribution appears more obvious in the capital city of Taipei. In 1981, for instance, its Gini coefficient was estimated to be only 0.28 (Taipei Bureau of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, 1981, (TBBAS), P. 24).

Many waste-to-energy (WTE) plants are constructed and operated using the public-private partnership (PPP) mode in China. However, risk events of PPP WTE incineration projects sometimes occur. This study aims to clarify the relationship of risks in China's PPP WTE incineration projects and identify the key risks accordingly and risk transmission paths.

A risk list of PPP WTE incineration projects was obtained based on literature analysis. Moreover, a hybrid approach combining fuzzy sets, decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) was developed to analyze the causality of risks, explore critical risks and reveal the risk transmission paths. The quantitative analysis process was implemented in MATLAB.

The results show that government decision-making risk, government credit risk, government supervision behavior risk, legal and policy risk, revenue and cost risk and management capacity risk are the critical risks of PPP WTE incineration projects in China. These critical risks are at different levels in the risk hierarchy and often trigger other risks.

Currently, there is a lack of exploration on the interaction between the risks of PPP WTE incineration projects. This study fills this gap by examining the key risks and risk transfer pathways of PPP WTE incineration projects from the perspective of risk interactions. The findings can help the public and private sectors to systematically understand the risks in PPP WTE incineration projects, thus enabling them to identify the risks that need to be focused on when making decisions and to optimize risk prevention strategies. The proposed hybrid approach can offer methodological ideas for risk analysis of other types of PPP projects.

Consumer behaviors in internet are changing over time. The purpose of this paper is to propose and examine a research model that describes the repurchase behavior for the legal and paid music products of physical genre and online genre. The consumption value theory is used to develop the research model. Comparison of physical genre with online genre is presented. Implications and suggestions are addressed.

The research model is examined empirically. The research targeted music product consumers who had purchasing experience in the past one year. The research results are obtained, and the findings are revealed on the basis of 728 valid music product consumers.

The functional, emotional and epistemic value are the significant driving factors, though it shows a limited distinction for the two types. In comparing of the concepts of designed functional value, physical music consumers tend to have a stronger enthusiasm in music consumption. Social value and conditional value are not the predicators of repurchase satisfaction, implying that the music consumption is self-oriented for any normal amusement. The epistemic value shows significant on all levels of significance for the physical type, whereas insignificant if a = 0.01 for the type of online.

The research model is applied for the two contrariety product types, and to make a comparison, trying to understand the reasons why music fans are still willing to spend money on music products and what factors make them choose between product genres. After fluctuation and alternation of the music industry within this decade, this research provides a reference and correlated results for the future studies for the related studies, especially for the prosperous physical parallel imports items and online music.

Investigations of material parameters within the system Al, Al₂O₃, Ta, Ta₂O₅ and TaO_xN_1‐x are presented. This combination is characteristic when using Al sheet for production of substrates including electronic interconnections, vias and resistive groups. They can serve for MCMs due to the specific features of Al. The technological process includes first electrochemical oxidation of Al‐sheet as base isolation layer Al₂O₃ (50‐70μm). This process is followed by vacuum deposition of relatively thick layers of Al (2‐5μm). Each layer is then processed by lithographic methods followed by selective electro‐chemical oxidation as a help process for structuring. The development of this combined structuring method allows the simultaneous achievement of interconnections (Al) and isolation (Al₂O₃) levels with least size up to 50μm. The importance of the method consists of a vertical combination of several conductive layers of Al structured as described above, “burying” the interconnections in the insulating Al₂O₃ films. All necessary combinations and configurations of different kinds of microstrip lines are possible. The dielectric characteristics of Al₂O₃, achieved through the above mentioned method, can be changed in accordance with the parameters of the technological steps and filling of the porous structure. Thus some interesting high frequency features of microstrips are obtained. Extra advantage is the ability of combination of conductive Al layers with other types of such layers as tantalum (Ta). With Ta can be achieved other permittivity constants of the insulation layers and in combination with TaO_xN_1‐x intermediate planes of resistive groups are developed. The measurement of the stripline parameters is done by microwave technics, because the desired application of the substrates is for high‐speed digital signals in the GHz range.