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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the government roles in cloud computing assimilation along two dimensions: government regulation and government support.

A research model was developed to depict the dual roles of government regulation and government support in cloud computing assimilation as well as the mediating effect of top management support (TMS). Using survey data collected from 376 Chinese firms that have already adopted cloud services, the authors tested the research model.

The impacts of both government regulation and government support on cloud computing assimilation are partially mediated by TMS. Government support exerts stronger impacts on TMS than government regulation.

This study extends the current information systems literature by highlighting the specific mechanisms through which governments influence firms’ assimilation of cloud computing.

Governments in developing countries could actively allocate funds or enact policies to effectively encourage cloud computing assimilation.

This study would complement previous findings about government regulation, and develop a more holistic understanding about the dual roles of governments in information technology innovation assimilation.

Although ontology matchers are annually proposed to address different aspects of the semantic heterogeneity problem, finding the most suitable alignment approach is still an issue. This study aims to propose a computational solution for ontology meta-matching (OMM) and a framework designed for developers to make use of alignment techniques in their applications.

The framework includes some similarity functions that can be chosen by developers and then, automatically, set weights for each function to obtain better alignments. To evaluate the framework, several simulations were performed with a data set from the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative. Simple similarity functions were used, rather than aligners known in the literature, to demonstrate that the results would be more influenced by the proposed meta-alignment approach than the functions used.

The results showed that the framework is able to adapt to different test cases. The approach achieved better results when compared with existing ontology meta-matchers.

Although approaches for OMM have been proposed, it is not easy to use them during software development. On the other hand, this work presents a framework that can be used by developers to align ontologies. New ontology matchers can be added and the framework is extensible to new methods. Moreover, this work presents a novel OMM approach modeled as a linear equation system which can be easily computed.

The purpose of this paper is to design a simple and accurate a-posteriori Lagrangian-based error estimator is developed for the class of backward differentiation formula (BDF) algorithms with variable time step size, and the adaptive time-stepping in BDF algorithms is demonstrated for efficient time-dependent simulations in fluid flow and heat transfer.

The Lagrange interpolation polynomial is used to predict the time derivative, and then the accurate primary result is obtained by the Gauss integral, which is applied to evaluate the local error. Not only the generalized formula of the proposed error estimator is presented but also the specific expression for the widely applied BDF1/2/3 is illustrated. Two essential executable MATLAB functions to implement the proposed error estimator are appended for practical applications. Then, the adaptive time-stepping is demonstrated based on the newly proposed error estimator for BDF algorithms.

The validation tests show that the newly proposed error estimator is accurate such that the effectivity index is always close to unity for both linear and nonlinear problems, and it avoids under/overestimation of the exact local error. The applications for fluid dynamics and coupled fluid flow and heat transfer problems depict the advantage of adaptive time-stepping based on the proposed error estimator for time-dependent simulations.

In contrast to existing error estimators for BDF algorithms, the present work is more accurate for the local error estimation, and it can be readily extended to practical applications in engineering with a few changes to existing codes, contributing to efficient time-dependent simulations in fluid flow and heat transfer.

Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and electrical resistance tomography (ERT) are promising techniques for multiphase flow measurement due to their high speed, low cost, non-invasive and visualization features. There are two major difficulties in image reconstruction for ECT and ERT: the “soft-field”effect, and the ill-posedness of the inverse problem, which includes two problems: under-determined problem and the solution is not stable, i.e. is very sensitive to measurement errors and noise. This paper aims to summarize and evaluate various reconstruction algorithms which have been studied and developed in the word for many years and to provide reference for further research and application.

In the past 10 years, various image reconstruction algorithms have been developed to deal with these problems, including in the field of industrial multi-phase flow measurement and biological medical diagnosis.

This paper reviews existing image reconstruction algorithms and the new algorithms proposed by the authors for electrical capacitance tomography and electrical resistance tomography in multi-phase flow measurement and biological medical diagnosis.

The authors systematically summarize and evaluate various reconstruction algorithms which have been studied and developed in the word for many years and to provide valuable reference for practical applications.

Prefabricated construction is an innovative technique for decreasing carbon emissions in the construction industry. However, as the investors of housing projects, a majority of developers are unwilling to adopt prefabricated housing in practice. To promote prefabricated housing, this study aims to develop an integrated framework of fuzzy-decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (fuzzy-DEMATEL) and system dynamics (SD) to understand the underlying influencing mechanism of developers' willingness.

Through literature review, a total of 17 influencing factors were identified. Then, the interrelationships among the factors were evaluated by 10 experienced professionals, and the impacts given and received by each factor were further analyzed through fuzzy-DEMATEL. Based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), a SD model was developed to explore the influencing mechanism.

The major cause factors were identified, including mandatory implementation policies, economic incentive policies, environmental protection policies, component standardization and developers' economic strength. This group of factors was expected to be given priority attention in the case of limited resources. On the other hand, the results indicated that economic incentive policies and mandatory implementation policies could affect the developers' willingness via perceived usefulness, while the others mainly influenced perceived ease of use.

Little research has focused on the interrelationships among the influencing factors of developers' willingness to adopt prefabricated housing. This study contributed to understanding the mechanism of developers' willingness from a systematic view and providing the priority of influencing factors. Several strategies were proposed to improve the practical implementation of prefabricated housing development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore some specific, current social phenomena in China that may influence consumers’ ethical beliefs and practices, focusing on how some top-down, social and political changes could shape consumer behavior that needs to be understood in the Chinese context.

Extensive literature was critically reviewed to explore recent macro-societal reforms in China and their impact on consumers’ (un)ethical practices.

The authors lay out how China, a government-led society, underwent a series of political reforms resulting in demographic shifts that differentiate it from its western, industrialized counterparts. The authors connect these societal changes with Chinese characteristics to consumers’ ethical evaluations, forming a new angle to understand consumer ethics in China. The authors also draw on two empirical examples to illustrate the argument.

While consumer ethics are often explained by either cultural factors or individual variations, the authors discuss how one’s ethical practice is shaped by one’s social position, which is a product of national-level public policy. The discussions have ramifications for the study of consumers’ social class and ethical practices because they take into account the elusive social positions and ambiguous social class consciousness of the Chinese population that have resulted from social mobility. The discussions may give practitioners a better understanding of the ethical rationale behind consumers’ changing lifestyles especially in the Chinese context.

This chapter reviews three main issues in the interactions between air transport and high-speed rail (HSR) in China, namely the interaction between low-cost carriers (LCCs) and HSR, HSR speed effect on airlines, and airline–HSR integration. Studies on these three aspects of airline–HSR interactions have yet been well reviewed, and our chapter aims to fill in this gap. In this chapter, we comprehensively survey literature on the topics, especially studies on Chinese markets that have recently witnessed major HSR developments (and have planned further large-scale HSR expansion in the coming years). Our review shows that, first, compared to full-service carriers, LCCs face fiercer competition from HSR. However, the expansion of HSR network in China can be better coordinated with LCC development. Second, HSR speed exerts two countervailing effects on airline demand and price (the “travel-time” effect and “safety” effect, respectively). Specifically, an HSR speed reduction can have a positive effect on airlines due to longer HSR travel time, but a negative effect on airlines due to improved perception on HSR safety. Third, airline–HSR integration can be implemented through cooperation between airlines and HSR operators and through co-location of airports and HSR stations and can have important implications for intermodal transport and social welfare.

This study investigates how food safety trust works as a critical moderator in the Chinese online fresh agricultural market based on an extended technology acceptance model.

The authors propose a research model that integrates attributes from the technology acceptance model, perceived product quality, logistics service quality, risk, and food safety trust. Structural equation modeling was applied to estimate the causal relationships using data from 851 Chinese customers.

The results indicated that perceived usefulness, product quality, and logistics service quality significantly enhance Chinese customers' intention to shop online for fresh agricultural products. Further, the positive effects increase when customer trust in food safety changes from low to high. In contrast, perceived risk reduces Chinese customers' willingness to engage in online shopping, but the negative influence is weaker for customers with high trust in food safety than for those with low trust. However, perceived ease of use plays an insignificant role in predicting online purchase intention and the impact does not vary depending on food safety trust.

This study suggests managers should consider the important moderating role of food safety trust to make effective strategies for fresh agricultural e-commerce development in China.

This paper aimed to introduce a systematic body of knowledge via a scientometric review, guiding the sustainable transition from conventional construction to prefabricated construction. The construction industry currently faces a challenge to balance sustainable development and the construction of new buildings. In this context, one of the most recent debates is prefabricated construction. As an emerging construction approach, although existing knowledge makes contributions to the implementation of prefabricated construction, there is a lack of a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the critical knowledge themes and gaps.

This study uses the scientometric analysis to review the state-of-the-art knowledge of prefabricated construction. It retrieved data from the Web of Science core collection database. CiteSpace software was used to conduct the analysis and visualization; three analysis methods identify the knowledge hotspots, knowledge domains and knowledge topics. Finally, according to integrating the hidden connections among results, a body of knowledge for prefabricated construction application can be inferred.

The results show that 120 knowledge hotspots, five critical knowledge domains and five prominent knowledge topics are vital for promoting implementation of prefabricated construction. Based on the afore analysis, a body of knowledge for prefabricated construction that can systematically cover a broad knowledge of prefabricated construction-related research and activities are integrated and proposed in this paper.

Body of knowledge systematically covers a broad knowledge of prefabricated construction applications and is vital to guide researchers and practitioners to conduct related research and activities, thereby promoting the sustainable transition to prefabricated construction implementation.

Based on the perspective of cognitive psychology, this paper takes the M&A events of Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2008 to 2015 as the research samples, and then empirically analyzes the influence of managerial overconfidence on M&A premium under the special circumstances in China and tests the moderating effect of debt capacity between managerial overconfidence and M&A premium.

This paper selects the M&A events of all A-share listed enterprises from 2008 to 2015 as the total samples. In view of the fact that the data in this paper are unbalanced panel data, so this paper uses the LR test, LR test and Hausman test to filter the mixed OLS model, fixed effect model and random effect model. Finally, using the random effect model for empirical testing reduces the endogeneity of the model.

The study shows that managerial overconfidence is positively correlated with M&A premium; at the same time, compared with the state-owned enterprises, the relationship between managerial overconfidence and M&A premium is more significant in private enterprises. Further study shows that debt capacity can strengthen the relationship between managerial overconfidence and M&A premium, to be specific, the larger the debt capacity is, the stronger the positive relationship between managerial overconfidence and M&A premium will be. Moreover, after considering the influence of agency cost and financing expense, and conducting endogenous test and robust test, this research’s conclusions remain the same.

This research also has some limitations. Some M&A announcements are incomplete, and the target has more information missing, resulting in a decrease in the number of samples, which may affect the accuracy of the conclusions. This paper does not address the research of the economic consequences of M&A, namely, the impact of managerial overconfidence and debt capacity on M&A performance. This is one of the future research directions for this paper.

The conclusions of this paper provide new theory evidence for Chinese enterprises' M&A decision-making.

First, enterprises should gradually improve corporate governance structure and governance mechanisms to guide more stakeholders to participate in corporate governance, and also they should strengthen the pre-evaluation, in-process control and post-supervision of managers' behavioral decisions to prevent irrational M&A caused by managerial overconfidence. Especially in private enterprises, this issue should be paid more attention. Second, enterprises should make full use of the debt governance function of creditors and improve the creditors' supervision mechanism for managers' decision-making behavior.

The innovation value and increment contribution of this paper may include the following aspects: the conclusions of this paper expand the research boundary of the relationship between managerial overconfidence and M&A premium, and enrich related literature about debt capacity and the influence of debt capacity on M&A decision-making, and also provide new theory evidence for Chinese enterprises' M&A decision-making. In a word, this research is a beneficial supplement and extension for existing research.