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This study examines the impact of network embeddedness (NE) on innovation performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and analyses absorptive capacity as mediator and openness as moderator.

Data were collected from 209 employees of SMEs using a convenient sampling technique. Partial least squares structural equation modeling in SmartPLS was used to analyze the various constructs.

The results exhibit a positive and significant relationship in NE and absorptive capacity. Also, this study found a positive and significant relationship in absorptive capacity and innovation performance. Moreover, absorptive capacity has a positive and significant mediation role in the relationship between NE and innovation performance. Also, openness positively moderated the relationship of NE and absorptive capacity.

SMEs should try to implement the functions of NE, such as interaction with other firms in higher frequency, developing trust among all parties, clear alliance among the partners to enhance innovation performance. Similarly, SMEs should focus on absorptive capacity and openness to enrich innovation performance.

This study adds in the current literature of the chosen constructs and empirically contributes the effects in the manufacturing industry of Jiangsu Province, China.

This paper aims to investigate the friction and wear properties of Cr-Ni-Mo-V steel against 440C stainless steel under both water and water–silica mixture lubricant.

The Cr-Ni-Mo-V steel specimens were taken from a forged steel brake disc with the process of quenching at 900°C and tempering at 600°C. The tribological testing was performed using a contact configuration of ball-on-flat with a liquid cell according to the ASTM standard. Detailed examinations on the worn surface were analyzed using a scanning electron microscope.

The results indicate that the friction coefficient and friction damage of the steel sliding under water–silica mixture are higher than those under water. The friction coefficient decreases with increasing load and increases with the sliding speed for the two lubricants. The mass wear rate presents a rising trend with both sliding load and speed. The wear mechanisms of the Cr-Ni-Mo-V steel sliding under the two lubricants are oxidation wear, abrasive wear and fatigue wear.

Because of the chosen tribological testing approach, the research results could not describe the tribological performance of the brake disc accurately during actual braking process of the high-speed train. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

This study shows that the tribology behavior of the Cr-Ni-Mo-V steel with water or water–silica mixture lubrications helps the industrial firms and academicians to work on the wear of the brake disc in rainwater or wet environment.

The purpose of this paper is to put forward the lubrication model of oil bearing and enrich the design theory under the condition of mixed lubrication.

A mixed lubrication model of bilayer porous bearing is established. The effects of the working conditions on the lubrication performance and seepage behavior were analyzed.

Results show that the oil film pressure mainly occurs in the bearing convergence zone and contact pressure mainly occurs near the minimum film thickness. The oil infiltrates into the porous matrix in the contact area and precipitates out to the friction surface at the inlet of the contact area. The oil seepage velocity and dynamic pressure effect at the friction interface can be improved by reasonably matching the load and speed. With the decrease of the external load or increase of the rotating speed, the lubrication performance becomes well.

This study provides a reference for the design and application of oil bearing under harsh working conditions.

This study aims to investigate the microtopography transformation at a low-speed heavy-load interface with the lubrication of powder particles and its nonlinear friction effect on the sliding pair in contact.

Based on the universal mechanical tester (UMT) tribometer and VK shape-measuring laser microscope, comparative friction experiments were conducted with graphite powder lubrication. The friction coefficient with nonlinear fluctuations and the three-dimensional morphology of the boundary layer at the interface were observed and analyzed under different operating conditions. The effects on lubrication mechanisms and frictional nonlinearity at the sliding pair were focused on under different surface roughness and powder layer thickness conditions.

At a certain external load and sliding speed, the initial specimen surface with an appropriate initial roughness and powder thickness can store and bond the powder lubricant to form a boundary film readily. The relatively flat and firm boundary layer of powder at the microscopic interface can reduce the coefficient of friction and suppress its nonlinear fluctuation effectively. Therefore, proper surface roughness and powder layer thickness are beneficial to the graphite lubrication and stability maintenance of a friction pair.

This research is conducive to developing a deep understanding of the microtopography transformation with frictional nonlinearity at a low-speed heavy-load interface with graphite powder lubrication.

This paper aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis to evaluate the current situation of journals, examine the factors that influence their development, and establish an evaluation index system and model. The objective is to enhance the theory and methodologies used for journal evaluation and provide guidance for their positive development.

This study uses empirical data from economics journals to analyse their evaluation dimensions, methods, index system and evaluation framework. This study then assigns weights to journal data using single and combined evaluations in three dimensions: influence, communication and novelty. It calculates several evaluation metrics, including the explanation rate, information entropy value, difference coefficient and novelty degree. Finally, this study applies the concept of fuzzy mathematics to measure the final results.

The use of affiliation degree and fuzzy Borda number can synthesize ranking and score differences among evaluation methods. It combines internal objective information and improves model accuracy. The novelty of journal topics positively correlates with both the journal impact factor and social media mentions. In addition, journal communication power indicators compensate for the shortcomings of traditional citation analysis. Finally, the three-dimensional representative evaluation index serves as a reminder to academic journals to avoid the vortex of the Matthew effect.

This paper proposes a journal evaluation model comprising academic influence, communication power and novelty dimensions. It uses fuzzy Borda evaluation to address issues related to the weighing of single evaluation methods. This study also analyses the relationship of the three dimensions and offers insights for journal development in the new media era.

This paper aims to introduce corporate social responsibility into the green supply chain and analyse the impact of different decision makers’ decision-making schemes on carbon emission reduction in the supply chain.

This study uses a two-stage low-carbon supply chain composed of a manufacturer and retailer as the research object. It uses the Stackelberg game model to analyse optimal carbon emission reduction and its influence under different decision-making modes.

Increased consumer green preferences and trust can improve the manufacturing enterprises’ carbon emission reduction rate. The carbon emission reduction rate decreases with increased green innovation costs. When green technology innovation costs remain constant, the greater the market capacity, the higher the carbon emission reduction rate. Market capacity has the most significant impact on the optimal carbon emission reduction rate without considering social responsibility decisions and has the least impact on the optimal carbon emission reduction rate while fully considering the social responsibility decision. To achieve decarbonisation production, the market capacity must be small, and when green innovation costs are high, it is the optimal choice without considering social responsibility. To achieve a higher level of carbon emission reduction, when the market capacity is low and the research and development cost is high or when the market capacity is large, it is the optimal choice.

The results provide scientific policy decisions and management significance for governments and enterprises in low-carbon subsidies and supply chain management. The findings also provide a basis for future theoretical research and enterprise practice.

This paper aims to evaluate the influence of molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) concentrations (5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 Wt.%) on the microstructure and tribological property of the self-lubrication cubic boron nitride (CBN) abrasive composites.

Three point bending method and rotating sliding test are used to evaluate the flexural strength and tribological property of self-lubricating CBN abrasive composites. Microstructure, wear morphology of the ball and scratch are supported by scanning electron microscopy, optical microscope and three-dimensional confocal microscopy, etc.

The MoS₂ concentration has a significant influence on the interface microstructure between CBN abrasives and matrix alloys, and thus, affects the flexural strength of CBN abrasive composites. The grain fracture modes of CBN abrasive composites are transformed from the transgranular fracture into intergranular fracture as the MoS₂ concentrations increase. Additionally, the friction coefficient of as-sintered samples decreases with the MoS₂ concentrations. The MoS₂ concentrations of 10 Wt.% are final determined to fabricate self-lubricating composites in basis of the mechanical and lubricating property.

The ball is fabricated under vacuum sintering process. The tribological property of self-lubricating CBN abrasive composites is evaluated in terms of the friction coefficient and morphologies of the ball and scratches after rotating sliding tests.

The purpose of this study aims to develop and test a motives-mass customization (MC) capability-performance model by dividing MC capability into product-oriented MC capability and service-oriented MC capability.

This research tests the hypothesized relationships using survey data from 277 Chinese manufacturing firms.

The results indicate that instrumental, relational and moral motives all have significantly positive impacts on product-oriented and service-oriented MC capability. The authors also find that product-oriented MC capability partially mediates the impacts of relational and moral motives on operational, environmental and economic performance, while service-oriented MC capability partially mediates the impacts of instrumental, relational and moral motives on operational, market, environmental and economic performance.

This study complements the existing MC literature by describing MC capability into two dimensions: product-oriented MC capability and service-oriented MC capability.

The purpose of this paper is to fabricate and characterize osteochondral beta‐tricalcium phosphate/collagen scaffold with bio‐inspired design by ceramic stereolithography (CSL) and gel casting.

Histological analysis was applied to explore the morphological characteristics of the transitional structure between the bone and the cartilage. The acquired data were used to design biomimetic biphasic scaffolds, which include the bone phase, cartilage phase, and their transitional structure. The engineered scaffolds were fabricated from β‐TCP‐collagen by CSL and gel casting. The cartilage phase was added to the ceramic phase by gel‐casting and freeze drying.

The resulting ceramic scaffolds were composed of a bone phase with the following properties: 700‐900 μm pore size, 200‐500 μm interconnected pores size, 50‐65 percent porosity, fully interconnected, ∼12 Mpa compressive strength. A suitable binding force between cartilage phase and ceramic phase was achieved by physical locking that was created by the biomimetic transitional structure. Cellular evaluation showed satisfactory results.

This study is the first try to apply CSL to fabricate biological implants with β‐TCP and type‐I collagen. There are still some defects in the composition of the slurry and the fabrication process.

This strategy of osteochondral scaffold fabrication can be implemented to construct an osteochondral complex that is similar to native tissue.

The CSL technique is highly accurate, as well as biologically secure, when fabricating ceramic tissue engineering scaffolds and may be a promising method to construct hard tissue with delicate structures. The present strategy enhances the versatility of scaffold fabrication by RP.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a condition‐based replacement and spare provisioning policy for deteriorating systems with a number of identical units.

The deterioration of units is modeled based on discrete‐time Markov chains, which can be classified into one of a finite number of states. Then, a condition‐based replacement and spare provisioning policy is proposed for deteriorating systems with a number of identical units. This policy combines the condition‐based replacement policy and the (S, s) type inventory policy, where S is the maximum stock level and s is the reorder level. The Monte Carlo approach is utilized for evaluating the average cost rate of the system under the proposed policy. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the performance of the proposed policy, as well as the sensitivity analysis of cost parameters.

The negative influences of increasing the lead time can be reduced by optimizing the decisions of condition‐based replacement and spare order based on the proposed policy.

This policy would be applicable for jointly optimizing the spare provisioning decisions and the condition‐based maintenance of the units in deteriorating systems (e.g. a group of identical motors included in a fleet of vehicles).

The paper considers simultaneously two aspects that influence condition‐based maintenance decisions: the availability of spares and the deterioration state of units.