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This paper examined the relationship between firm innovativeness and consumer trust in the sharing economy. In addition, the authors examine the mediating effect of organizational legitimacy and the moderating effect of social worth.

To examine the hypotheses, the authors collected data from 276 users of a sharing platform (Didi) in China to conduct empirical research. The “lavaan” packages in R and SPSS were used to analyze the data and test the proposed hypotheses.

The results reveal that sharing platforms' innovativeness is positively related to consumer trust, and this relationship is mediated by organizational legitimacy. Furthermore, sharing platforms' social worth moderates the relationship between firm innovativeness and organizational legitimacy as well as the indirect effect of firm innovativeness on consumer trust via organizational legitimacy.

This article proposes strategies that enable sharing platforms to increase consumer trust, which can also better promote the development of the sharing economy.

This paper contributes to the literature by focusing on the social attributes of the sharing economy. By building a more detailed model of consumer trust, this paper adds to the knowledge on the influencing mechanism of consumer trust in the sharing economy.

This study aims to examine the effect of independent directors on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) gap – a misalignment between internal and external CSR. More specifically, the authors investigate how two types of independent directors (i.e. politically connected and foreign) affect a firm’s CSR gap in China.

The authors use the fixed-effects regression model to analyze the panel dataset, which is conducted by a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms from 2008 to 2015.

The findings indicate that, on average, firms undertake more external than internal CSR actions. Importantly, the authors find that firms having politically connected independent directors on boards have a wider gap between their internal and external CSR. In contrast, firms having foreign independent directors on boards have a narrower gap between their internal and external CSR.

This study provides insights into the role of independent directors in increasing or decreasing the gap between a firm’s internal and external CSR actions, which offers important implications for policymakers and investors.

This study extends the literature on the causes of the CSR gap and deepens the theoretical understanding of the governance role of independent directors in China.

The purpose of this study is to research the effects of interrupted aging on the corrosion behavior of Al–Cu–Mg–Ag heat-resistant alloy by means of intergranular corrosion (IGC) testing, potentiodynamic polarization combined with optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy.

The results show that the IGC began on the grain boundaries and continued along the grain boundary. The corrosion resistance property of Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloy was enhanced by interrupted aging. The precipitations of the interrupted aged sample both in the grains and on the grain boundaries were fine, and the chain-like phases on the grain boundary were distributed nearly continuously.

The corrosion resistance of Al–Cu–Mg series Al alloy with equilibrium phase (Al₂Cu) is notably determined by precipitation-free zone (PFZ) as the self-corrosion potentials of (Al₂Cu), PFZ and the matrix satisfied the relation EPFZ < E_θ<EMatrix.

The connections of the PFZ on both sides of the grain boundary decreased the corrosion resistance of Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloy treated by the single aging.

This study aims to prevent the sharp decline in the load-carrying capacity of lubricating oil film under harsh conditions of abrupt changes in friction interface temperature, which is a major challenge in lubrication technology.

In this paper, we synthesized a series of silver pyrazole methylpyridine complexes containing a high metal concentration and minimal supporting organic ligands (complex 1 [Ag(LMe)]₂(BF₄)₂, complex 2 [Ag(Li-Pr)n](BF4)n and complex 3 [Ag(LMe)(NO₃)]₂). The thermal decompose behavior of as-prepared silver complex was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). Four-ball friction testers were used to evaluate the friction and wear properties of lubricating oil in the temperature ranges associated with the operation of modern heavy machinery.

The complex decomposed silver particles at high-temperature, which could fill the pits on the friction surface, change the wear form of the friction pair and reduce the roughness of the friction surface. Reduction in both friction coefficients and wear scar diameters was obtained by adding silver complexes in oil. The lubricating oil, with the additive content of 1.5 Wt.%, has the best tribological performance, moreover, the lubricating performance of the silver complexes in oil were correlated with their concentration and thermal decomposed temperatures, respectively.

As a result, a series of silver pyrazole methylpyridine complexes as oil additives can support friction and wear reduction under abrupt high-temperature conditions are intended to be a controllable backup lubricant additive.