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Driven by artificial intelligence technology, chatbots have begun to play an important customer service role in the online retail environment. This study aims to explore how conversational styles improve the interaction experience between consumers and chatbots in different social crowding environments, and the moderating role of product categories is considered.

Three studies are conducted to understand the influences of conversational styles, social crowding and product categories on consumer acceptance, assessed using situational experiments and questions.

In a low social crowding environment, consumers prefer chatbots with a social-oriented (vs. task-oriented) conversational style, while in a high social crowding environment, consumers prefer a task-oriented (vs. social-oriented) conversational style, and warmth and competence mediate these effects. The moderating effect of product categories is supported.

This study expands the application of the stereotype content model to improve the interaction experience level between consumers and chatbots in online retail. The findings can provide managerial suggestions for retailers to select a chatbot's conversational style and promote a more continuous interaction between consumers and chatbots.

This study explores the impact of owner chief executive officers' (CEO) narcissism on the exporting small to medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) decision-making on the international market expansion speed after their initial entry. Specifically, the authors use the mechanism of firms' international entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) to examine how owner CEO narcissism may influence SMEs' post-entry speed of internationalization (PSI), both directly and indirectly.

To test the hypotheses, the authors draw on data from a two-wave questionnaire and on archival export data from 291 Chinese exporting SMEs in three municipalities and 17 provinces from 2019 to 2020.

The results support the theoretical predictions that owner CEO narcissism shapes exporting SMEs' decisions on PSI, both directly and indirectly, through the mediation of firm-level IEO.

The study extends emerging research on the role of CEO narcissism in the upper echelons literature into the international marketing (IM) context. It also offers new insights into what drives exporting SMEs' IM decision-making from a psychological microfoundations perspective. Furthermore, the authors theoretically establish and empirically demonstrate the key role of a firm's IEO as a mediator to complement the existing literature's focus on the direct influence of CEO narcissism on firms' internationalization decisions.

Innovativeness is crucial for industrial cluster firms to gain sustained competitive advantage. This study aims to investigate the effects of inter-firm coopetition on firm innovativeness within a cluster and examines the moderating role of institutional support.

This research adopts an empirical survey method using multi-source data from 181 industrial cluster firms. Regression is used to test the hypotheses of this study.

The results show that cooperation and constructive conflict promote firm innovativeness, while destructive conflict is detrimental to firm innovativeness. Moreover, the study also finds that cooperation interacts with both types of conflict to affect firm innovativeness, where cooperation and constructive conflict interact negatively on firm innovativeness, while cooperation and destructive conflict interact positively on firm innovativeness. In addition, institutional support weakens the effects of cooperation and destructive conflict on innovativeness, respectively, but has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between constructive conflict and innovativeness.

These findings enrich the current research on coopetition. The interaction effects of cooperation and both types of conflict on innovativeness deepen the concept of coopetition and responds to the call to further explore the interaction effects within coopetition. The moderating role of institutional support fills a gap in the empirical research on the role of institutional factors affecting coopetition on innovation and also provides valuable suggestions for firm managers and governments in industrial clusters.

It is widely known that fast-fashion retailers are struggling to keep up with consumer attention for quick responses within the fashion industry. With the advance of Internet and e-commerce, consumers prefer to purchase online. Online platform information has become an essential source for exploring consumer attention. However, there is often a mismatch between the information provided by retailers and the feedback received from consumers, leading to an imbalance between the supply side and demand side of online information. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide a unified approach to discover consumer attention from the design topic aspect by revealing the information imbalance between supply side and demand side.

To address the issue of online information imbalance and discover consumer attention, this study proposed an approach that focuses on the design topic perspective. The design topic is a collection of design elements that represent a clothing-design feature more comprehensively and accurately compared to a single design element. The proposed approach begins with generating design topics through topic modeling based on online information provided by retailers on e-commerce platforms. Two indicators, influence degree and attention degree, are then used to quantify the intensity of supply information and consumer attention related to design topics. Finally, design topic strategy diagrams are constructed to reveal information imbalance and discover consumer attention.

The experimental case demonstrates the existence of information imbalance, indicating that the intensity of supply information and consumer attention from the perspective of design topics is not uniform, although both follow the Pareto principle. The results of consumer attention distribution with heavy power-law tails are consistent with current research findings. This further demonstrates that the proposed approach is capable of discovering consumer attention in the design topic strategy diagrams.

The issue of information imbalance between retailers and consumers poses a challenge in keeping up with customer attention. The proposed approach offers a practical solution by visually identifying the symptoms of information imbalance and discovering consumer attention through design topic strategy diagrams. This approach provides fast-fashion retailers with a valuable reference to seize market opportunities, improve product design and adjust marketing or management strategies.

This study proposes a novel approach to disclose the issue of information imbalance between supply side and demand side and therefore to discover consumer attention from the perspective of design topics. In addition, guidelines for applying the proposed approach for fast-fashion marketing and management are presented.

Although supplier-initiated punishment is widely used to manage distributors’ opportunism, its spillover effect on unpunished distributors (i.e. observers) within the same distribution network remains under-researched. Specifically, this paper aims to investigate the curvilinear effect of punishment severity on an observer’s opportunism, and how such an effect is contingent on the observer’s network position.

This paper uses regression analysis with survey data gathered from 218 distributors in China’s automobile industry.

Punishment severity has an inverted U-shaped effect on the observers’ opportunism, and such effect is weakened by both the observers’ network centrality and their degree of dependence on the supplier.

The findings should encourage suppliers to focus more on the spillover effects of punishment on observers. To this end, the supplier must deliberately initiate the appropriate level of punishment severity against its distributors because an inappropriate level of punishment severity (e.g. too lenient) may unexpectedly raise the unpunished observers’ level of opportunism. Moreover, the supplier should be fully aware that observers’ specific network positions may produce varying spillover effects of the punishment.

This study enriches the literature on channel governance by revealing the curvilinear mechanism through which punishment severity influences observers’ opportunism. By applying social learning theory to channel punishment research, this study unveils both the inhibitive learning and the imitative learning forces inherent in a single punishment event, and it delineates their joint effect on an observer’s opportunism. In addition, this study outlines the observer’s vertical and horizontal relationships within the distribution network and explores their contingent roles in determining the spillover effects of punishment.

This paper examines the problem of lack of historical data and inadequate consideration of factors influencing demand in the forecasting of demand for fast fashion clothing and proposes an improved Bass model for the forecasting of such a demand and the demand for new clothing products.

From the perspective of how to solve the lack of data and improve the precision of the clothing demand forecast, this paper studies the measurement of clothing similarity and the addition of demand impact factors. Using the fuzzy clustering–rough set method, the degree of resemblance of clothing is determined, which provides a basis for the scientific utilisation of historical data of similar clothing to forecast the demand for new clothing. Besides, combining the influence of consumer preferences and seasonality on demand forecasting, an improved Bass model for a fast fashion clothing demand forecast is proposed. Finally, with a forecasting example of demand for clothing, this study also tests the validity of the method.

The objective measurement method of clothing similarity in this paper solves the problem of the difficult forecasting of demand for fast fashion clothing due to a lack of sales data at the preliminary stage of the clothing launch. The improved Bass model combines, comprehensively, consumer preferences and seasonality and enhances the forecast precision of demand for fast fashion clothing.

The paper puts forward a scientific, quantitative method for the forecasting of new clothing products using historical sales data of similar clothing, thus solving the problem of lack of sales data of the fashion.

Commercial dental porcelain powder was deposited via slurry extrusion and laser densified to fabricate dental restorations in a multi‐material laser densification (MMLD) process.

A dental porcelain slurry was made from ball milled dental porcelain powders and extruded using the MMLD system. Extruded lines and rings were laser densified under different conditions in order to study how to build fully dense porcelain layers without warping and cracking during the MMLD process.

The geometric cross section of laser densified porcelain lines were dependent on laser processing parameters. Laser densified single ring showed no warping, and multiple layer body after laser densification showed cracks in the rings. The interface microstructure suggested good bonding between multiple layers. The mechanism to achieve single porcelain ring without warping and cracking is discussed. Alternate ways to build physical tooth layer by layer are proposed.

In the MMLD process, dental porcelain slurry was extruded from a human tooth computer file and laser densified to manufacture dental restorations based on solid freeform fabrication (SFF) principles. The understanding developed will pave the way for fabricating a physical dental restoration unit in the near future.

COVID-19 has severely affected urban and rural tourism in China, which has been extensively reported in the newspapers. This paper aims to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on urban and rural tourism at each critical juncture of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the studies, measures and attitudes of various stakeholders toward urban and rural tourism and their future development.

This paper collects Chinese news reports as the research object and uses ROST Content Mining 6.0 and Gephi software to analyze and visualize the data for high-frequency words and analyzed the discourse of stakeholders within the newspaper text.

This study found that prior to February 20, 2020, the Chinese Government mainly focused on pandemic prevention. From February 21 to April 3 (before The Qingming Festival), resumption of work and production became the theme. From April 4 to May 1 (before May Day), a time-sharing reservation system was widely implemented and the differentiation between urban and rural tourism became more prominent. After May 1, rural tourism attracted greater attention.

This paper uses discourse analysis to understand the impact of COVID-19 on urban and rural tourism from the perspective of time nodes and the relationship between various stakeholders and predicts the development trends within urban and rural tourism. This paper enriches and expands tourism management knowledge in the face of major crises, providing valuable advice for managers and investors and makes suggestions for the development of urban and rural tourism.

COVID-19已严重影响了中国的城市和乡村旅游业, 报纸上对此进行了广泛报道。本文旨在探讨在COVID-19大流行的每个关键时刻对城乡旅游的影响, 以及各种利益相关者对城乡旅游及其未来发展的观点, 措施和态度。

本文以中文新闻报道为研究对象, 利用ROST Content Mining 6.0和Gephi软件对高频词数据进行分析和可视化, 分析了报纸正文中利益相关者的话语。

这项研究发现, 在2020年2月20日之前, 中国政府主要将重点放在疫情防控上。 2月21日至4月3日（清明节之前）, 复工复产成为主题。 从4月4日至5月1日（五一节之前）, 分时预约系统得到广泛实施, 城市和乡村旅游业的区别更加突出。 5月1日之后, 乡村旅游引起了更多关注。

本文通过话语分析从时间节点和各个利益相关者之间的关系的角度了解了COVID-19对城乡旅游业的影响, 并预测了城乡旅游业的发展趋势。 面对重大危机, 本文丰富和扩展了旅游管理知识, 为管理者和投资者提供了宝贵的建议, 并为城乡旅游业的发展提供了建议。

COVID-19 ha afectado gravemente al turismo urbano y rural en China, que ha sido ampliamente informado en los periódicos. Este documento tiene como objetivo discutir el impacto de COVID-19 en el turismo urbano y rural en cada coyuntura crítica de la pandemia de COVID-19, así como los puntos de vista, las medidas y las actitudes de diversos interesados en relación con el turismo urbano y rural y su desarrollo futuro.

Este documento recopiló informes de noticias chinos como objeto de investigación y utilizó el software ROST Content Mining 6.0 y Gephi para analizar y visualizar los datos de palabras de alta frecuencia y analizó el discurso de los interesados dentro del texto del periódico.

Este estudio encontró que antes del 20 de febrero de 2020, el gobierno chino se centró principalmente en la prevención de la pandemia en lugares pintorescos. Del 21 de febrero al 3 de abril (antes del Festival de Qingming), la reanudación del trabajo y la producción se convirtió en el tema. Desde el 4 de abril hasta el 1 de mayo (antes del Primero de Mayo), se implementó ampliamente un sistema de reserva de tiempo compartido y la diferenciación entre el turismo urbano y el rural se hizo más prominente. Después del 1 de mayo, el turismo rural atrajo mayor atención.

En este documento, se utiliza el análisis del discurso para comprender el impacto de COVID-19 en el turismo urbano y rural desde la perspectiva de los nodos de tiempo y la relación entre los diversos interesados y se predice las tendencias de desarrollo dentro del turismo urbano y rural. Este trabajo enriquece y amplía el conocimiento de la gestión turística frente a las grandes crisis, brindando valiosos consejos a administradores e inversores, y hace sugerencias para el desarrollo del turismo urbano y rural.

This paper aims to investigate the preparation of AlN and Al₂O₃, as well as the effect of nano-AlN and nano-Al₂O₃, on friction and wear properties of copper-steel clad plate immersed in the lubricants.

Nano-AlN or nano-Al₂O₃ (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 Wt.%) functional fluids were prepared. Their tribological properties were tested by an MRS-10A four-ball friction tester and a ball-on-plate configuration, and scanning electron microscope observed the worn surface of the plate.

An increase in nano-AlN and Al₂O₃ content enhances the extreme pressure and anti-wear performance of the lubricant. The best performance is achieved at 0.5 Wt.% of nano-AlN and 0.3 Wt.% of nano-Al₂O₃ with PB of 834 N and 883 N, a coefficient of friction (COF) of approximately 0.07 and 0.06, respectively. Furthermore, the inclusion of nano-AlN and nano-Al₂O₃ particles in the lubricant enhances its extreme pressure performance and reduces wear, leading to decreased wear spot depth. The lubricating effect of the nano-Al₂O₃ lubricant on the surface of the copper-steel composite plate is slightly superior to that of the nano-AlN lubricant, with a COF reaching 0.07. Both lubricants effectively fill and lubricate the holes on the surface of the copper-steel composite plate.

AlN and Al₂O₃ as water-based lubricants have excellent lubrication performance and can reduce the COF. It can provide some reference for the practical application of nano-water-based lubricants.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2023-0255/

This study aims to examine the impact of directors’ green experience on the disclosure of environmental information by firms. Furthermore, it investigates the mediating role of firm green culture and the moderating effect of Confucianism in this mediation process.

The selected sample for this study comprises the A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2020. The data on “directors’ green experiences,” “Confucianism” and “green culture” were manually collected and organized, while other data were obtained from China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database. After eliminating corporations with ST, *ST and missing data, a total of 29,419 samples were obtained. The hypotheses were tested using a multiple linear regression model, and statistical analysis was performed using Stata 16.0.

The findings of this study reveal that directors’ green experience positively influences firm environmental information disclosure, and firm green culture mediates this relationship. Moreover, Confucianism moderates the impact of directors’ green experience on firm environmental information disclosure, as well as the mediating role of green culture in the relationship between directors’ green experience and firm environmental information disclosure.

The disclosure of environmental information plays a significant role in promoting a firm’s environmental performance as well as its competitive advantage. While previous studies examine various factors leading to firms’ environmental information disclosure, the influence of managerial characteristics on firm environmental information disclosure has not received adequate research attention. The present study investigates the effect of directors’ green experience on environmental information disclosure, contributing to the existing literature on firms’ environmental information disclosure and managerial features. Meanwhile, it enriches the literature on firm governance and imprinting theory.