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Three types of industrial buyer-seller relational process models are available: joining theory, stage theory, and state theory. However, historically, these models have developed based on the knowledge and cultural context of the Western world. Several researchers note that national culture may have an impact on international industrial buyer-seller relationships. Including culture in the models is highly important, especially as the business environment is increasingly more global and different countries have different business cultures. The goal of this paper is to define the most suitable industrial buyer-seller relational process models for describing relationships in various contexts. The paper includes a through literature review and a single case study in order to reach this objective. A new state theory model evolved during the research. It consists of two beginning states: searching and starting; four purely middles states: constant/static, decline, growth, and troubled; and a purely end state: termination. The state of dormant/inert is both a middle state and an end state, that is, when the relational actors are not in contact does not mean that the relationship has ended, but instead, for example, new legislation may have been implemented, which requires the actors to evaluate their relationship and its future. A relationship goes through the two beginning states in the order mentioned above, but after that, any state may occur.

This study aims to explore the switching behaviour of short video (SV) users and its influencing factors and promote the sustainable development of SV platforms (SVPs) and the marketing strategy formulation of library and information institutions.

Using the qualitative research method of semi-structured interviews and grounded theory, this study conducts an exploratory study on the user switching phenomenon of an SVP. The authors encoded the interview text at three levels, extracted the factors influencing user switching behaviour on an SVP and constructed the corresponding theoretical model.

This study identifies the following major internal and external factors influencing user switching behaviour of SVP: platform quality, social environment, individual characteristics and use needs. It also elaborates on the impact of these internal and external factors on user switching behaviour.

This study explored the factors influencing SV user switching behaviour and constructed corresponding theoretical models, enriching research in information technology and social media switching. In practice, this study helped the existing SVPs and library and information institutions establish a corresponding early warning mechanism to prevent the loss of existing users and attract new users.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how cultural value in materialism affects corporate supply of trade credits.

Using a sample of 14,710 firm-year observations of Chinese listed firms from 1998 to 2012, the authors examine the influence of regional materialism on accounts receivable.

The authors find that listed firms within more materialistic tend to extend less trade credit to their customers, in particular in long-term categories of trade credit. Such negative effects can be significantly mitigated by state control, suggesting the effects are more pronounced in privately controlled listed firms. The negative effects of materialism still hold after controlling for other regional factors, such as trust, GDP per capita or institutional development.

The authors show materialism as a cultural construct varies across Chinese regions, and it could have important impact on corporate supply of trade credits, besides the previous found effects on consumer use of credit.

This paper expands the literature about the influence of materialism on economic decision making from the individual level to the corporate level.

Social information is crucial to credit ratings and can improve the accuracy of the traditional credit assessment model. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) and social capital theory (SCT), this research explores the relationships between corporate social activities, network centrality and corporate credit behavior.

The authors used social network analysis (SNA) and regression analysis to analyze the data collected from 14,544 enterprises on the Alibaba platform.

The results indicate that among the four types of social activities, the number of corporate questions and posts shows a positive relationship with credit behavior; while the number of corporate comments has negative relationship with credit behavior. Further, degree and betweenness centralities mediate the relationship between the number of corporate questions, posts and comments with credit behavior.

This study contributes to the literature on non-financial factors (soft information) by exploring the social behavioral factors related to corporate credit. In addition, this study offers a new theoretical lens and reasonable explanations for investigating the relationship between corporate social activities, network centrality and credit behavior from the perspective of the resource-based view, while most studies are predictive and methodological. Moreover, this study provides new insights for platforms to evaluate enterprise credit and for managers to improve credit behavior.

The overall goal of this chapter is twofold. First, the authors aim to identify indigenous phenomena that influence employee turnover and retention in the Chinese context. Second, the authors link these phenomena to the contextualization of job embeddedness theory. To achieve the goal, the authors begin by introducing three macro-level forces (i.e., political, economic, and cultural forces) in China that help scholars analyze contextual issues in turnover studies. The authors then provide findings in the literature research on employee retention studies published in Chinese academic journals. Next, the authors discuss six indigenous phenomena (i.e., hukou, community in China, migrant workers, state-owned companies, family benefit prioritization, and guanxi) under the three macro-level forces and offer exploratory propositions illustrating how these phenomena contribute to understanding employee retention in China. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how contextualized turnover studies shall be conducted in China.

As manufacturing technology has developed, digital models from advanced measuring devices have been widely used in manufacturing sectors. To speed up the production cycle and reduce extra errors introduced in surface reconstruction processes, directly machining digital models in the polygonal stereolithographyformat has been considered as an effective approach in rapid digital manufacturing. In machining processes, Cutter Location (CL) data for numerical control (NC) machining is generated usually from an offset model. This model is created by offsetting each vertex of the original model along its vertex vector. However, this method has the drawback of overcut to the offset model. The purpose of this paper is to solve the overcut problem through an error compensation algorithm to the vertex offset model.

Based on the analysis of the vertex offset method and the offset model generated, the authors developed and implemented an error compensation method to correct the offset models and generated the accurate CL data for the subsequent machining process. This error compensation method is verified through three polygonal models and the tool paths generated were used for a real part machining.

Based on the analysis of the vertex offset method and the offset model generated, the authors developed an error compensation method to correct the offset models and generated the accurate CL data for the subsequent machining process. The developed error compensation algorithm can effectively solve the overcut drawback of the vertex offset method.

The error compensation method to the vertex offset model is used for generating the CL data with the using of a ball-end cutter.

On the study of CL data generation for a STL model, most of the current studies are focused on the determination of the offset vectors of the vertexes. The offset distance is usually fixed to the radius of the cutter used. Thus, the overcut problem to the offset model is inevitable and has not been much studied. The authors propose an effective approach to compensate the insufficient distance of the offset vertex and solve the overcut problem.

The directly tool paths generation from a STL model can reduce the error of surface reconstruction and speed up the machining progress.

The authors investigate the overcut problem occurred in vertex offset for CL data generation and present a new error compensation algorithm for generating the CL data that can effectively solve the overcut problem.

This study aims to explore the factors influencing intentions to use library social media marketing accounts from users’ perspectives to help libraries use social media to provide targeted information services to users to meet their information needs.

This study is based on the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behaviour and uses WeChat as an example to build the model of factors influencing intentions to use library social media marketing accounts. It takes college students as the research object, performing empirical research through questionnaire surveys and structural equation modeling.

The results show that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control have a significant positive impact on library social media marketing – attitude exerts the most significant effect while the impact of perceived usefulness is nonsignificant. Notably, attitude completely mediates perceived usefulness and use intention, while perceived usefulness partially mediates perceived ease of use and attitude. However, birthplace plays a negative moderating role between attitudes and use intention.

This study integrates the theory of planned behaviour and technology acceptance model, discusses the factors influencing intentions to use library social media marketing accounts from the users’ perspectives and proposes strategies and methods for the optimization of library social media marketing. The study helps enhance the effects of library social media marketing by improving the comprehension of current circumstances and influencing factors relevant to this issue.

This study examines the effects of incentive compensation and guanxi, a type of informal personal relationship between people, on the objectivity of Chinese internal auditors. Given that the objectivity of internal auditors is essential for promoting financial reporting quality, it is important to investigate the effectiveness of internal audit functions, especially in emerging markets where the corporate governance mechanisms designed to promote objectivity are less mature.

The research employs a 2 × 2 between participants experiment with 116 graduate accounting student participants.

After controlling for internal auditors’ ethicality, we find that close-guanxi between management and internal auditors and incentive compensation in the form of bonuses based upon meeting earnings targets both have the capacity to impair the objectivity of Chinese internal auditors. Participants were more tolerant of management’s attempts to manage earnings when there was close guanxi or bonus compensation. Further, compensation structure only influenced internal auditors’ support of management when guanxi was distant, but when there was close guanxi between internal auditors and management, internal auditors were unlikely to challenge management regardless of the compensation structure.

To remanufacture a disused part, a hybrid process needs to be taken in part production. Therefore, a reasonable machining route is necessary to be developed for the hybrid process. This paper aims to develop a novel process planning algorithm for additive and subtractive manufacturing (ASM) system to achieve this purpose.

First, a skeleton of the model is generated by using thinning algorithm. Then, the skeleton tree is constructed based on topological structure and shape feature. Further, a feature matching algorithm is developed for recognizing the different features between the initial model and the final model based on the skeleton tree. Finally, a reasonable hybrid machining route of the ASM system is generated in consideration of the machining method of each different sub-feature.

This paper proposes a hybrid process planning algorithm for the ASM system. Further, it generates new process planning insights on the hybrid process service provider market.

The proposed process planning algorithm enables engineers to obtain a proper hybrid machining route before product fabrication. And thereby, it extends the machining capability of the hybrid process to manufacture some parts accurately and efficiently.

This study addresses one gap in the hybrid process literature. It develops the first hybrid process planning strategy for remanufacturing of disused parts based on skeleton tree matching, which generates a more proper hybrid machining route than the currently available hybrid strategy studies. Also, this study provides technical support for the ASM system to repair damaged parts.

Remanufacturing of worn blades with various defects normally requires processes such as scanning, regenerating a geometrical reference model, additive manufacturing (AM) through laser cladding, adaptive machining and polishing and quality inspection. Unlike the manufacturing process of a new part, the most difficult problem for remanufacturing such a complex surface part is that the reference model adaptive to the worn part is no longer available or useful. The worn parts may suffer from geometrical deformation, distortion and other defects because of the effects of harsh operating conditions, thereby making their original computer aided design (CAD) models inadequate for the repair process. This paper aims to regenerate the geometric models for the worn parts, which is a key issue for implementing AM to build up the parts and adaptive machining to reform the parts. Unlike straight blades with similar cross sections, the tip geometry of the worn tip of a twist blade needs to be regenerated by a different method.

This paper proposes a surface extension algorithm for the reconstruction of a twist blade tip through the extremum parameterization of a B-spline basis function. Based on the cross sections of the scanned worn blade model, the given control points and knot vectors are firstly reconstructed into a B-spline curve D. After the extremum of each control point is calculated by extremum parameterization of a B-spline basis function, the unknown control points are calculated by substituting the extremum into the curve D. Once all control points are determined, the B-spline surface of the worn blade tip can be regenerated. Finally, the extension algorithm is implemented and validated with several examples.

The proposed algorithm was implemented and verified through the exampled blades. Through the extension algorithm, the tip geometry of the worn tip of a twist blade can be regenerated. This method solved a key problem for the repair of a twist blade tip. It provides an appropriate reference model for repairing worn blade tips through AM to build up the blade tip and adaptive machining/polishing processes to reform the blade geometry.

The extension errors for different repair models are compared and analyzed. The authors found that there are several factors affecting the accuracy of the regenerated model. When the cross-section interval and the extension length are set properly, the restoration accuracy for the blade tip can be improved, which is acceptable for the repairing.

The lack of a reference geometric model for worn blades is a significant problem when implementing blade repair through AM and adaptive machining processes. Because the geometric reference model is unavailable for the repair process, reconstruction of the geometry of a worn blade tip is the first crucial step. The authors proposed a surface extension algorithm for the reconstruction of a twist blade tip. Through the implementation of the proposed algorithm, the blade tip model can be regenerated.

Remanufacturing of worn blades with various defects is highly demeaned for the aerospace enterprises considering sustainable development. Unlike straight blades, repair of twist blades encountered a very difficult problem because the geometric reference model is unavailable for the repair processes. This paper proposed a different method to generate the reference model for the repair of a twist blade tip. With this model, repair of twist blades can be implemented through AM to build up the blade tip and adaptive machining to subtract the extra material.

The authors proposed a surface extension algorithm to reconstruct the geometric model for repair of twist blades.