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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) impacts firm performance, by changing the information processing ability of a firm.

It takes the firm as information processing unit to coordinate production in an industry with two‐stage production and demand uncertainty. ICT is assumed to improve the information processing ability. It models that, conditional on the structure of markets described by level of uncertainty, a firm with information processing ability comes into being endogenously from market‐coordinated production, with profit generated.

It is argued that the profit of the firm depends on both the structure of markets, and the firm's information processing ability. The improving information processing ability increases firm profitability as long as market‐coordinated production persists elsewhere. However, when the improving information processing ability enables enough firms to compete with no market‐coordinated production left, it decreases profitability of all firms. Finally, case studies on the wholesale and retail industry and the finance and insurance industry of ten OECD countries presents consistent evidence that ICT does not necessarily bring better performance.

This paper is an innovation based on several streams of literature to model a firm with the consideration of specialization, demand uncertainty, and information processing ability. It thus provides a different perspective on how ICT contributes to firm performance. It theoretically and empirically shows that such contributions are conditional on market structure of a certain industry.

Exploring the intrinsic connection between the ecological environment and the digital economy and empirically testing how the level of digital economic development affects the ecological environment. Using the entropy weighting method to analyze the weights of the indicators in the digital economic development level and ecological environment system to explore the factors that have the greatest impact on the ecological environment in the indicator system of the digital economic development level so as to deepen the theoretical understanding of the relationship between the level of development of the digital economy and the ecological environment. Explore the regional heterogeneity of the level of development of the digital economy to promote the healthy development of China’s ecological environment proving the difference in the level of development of the digital economy in the east west and central regions of China and the difference in the effect on the ecological environment.

Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2021 this paper fits the index system of digital economy development level with three factors. A digital infrastructure digital industry and digital application combines environmental pollution and energy consumption to construct ecological environment indicators and explored the impact of digital economy development level on the ecological environment by using the entropy weight method and the random effect model.

The findings indicate that the degree of digital economic development has a positive and significant impact on promoting the healthy development of the ecological environment, in which the digital industry has the greatest impact on the ecological environment. Meanwhile, the improvement of industrial structure also has a positive effect on the improvement of the ecological environment, whereas the level of human capital inhibits the healthy development of the ecological environment, and the governmental support fails to effectively and significantly promote the improvement of the ecological environment. Furthermore, the empirical research indicates that the level of digital economy development has obvious regional heterogeneity on the healthy development of the ecological environment: the eastern and central regions have a significant effect, while the western region has a less significant effect.

Although domestic and foreign scholars and experts have conducted sufficient studies on the ecological environment and the development level of digital economy respectively, there are few studies on the empirical analysis of the positive significance and regional heterogeneity of the impact of the development level of digital economy on the ecological environment, which can be supplemented and referred to in this study. At the same time, it also provides intellectual support for our country to achieve high-quality development of digital economy and efficient governance of ecological environment.

The advent of e-commerce has prompted the proliferation of digital platforms for virtual products. This reinforces the importance of the contract design problem between the virtual product supplier (he) and the digital platform retailer (she). The purpose of this paper is to investigate a principal-agent problem in a virtual product supply chain, in which the retailer’s sales-effort investment level to sell the virtual product is unobservable to the supplier, and the market demand is unknown to both parties.

In this study, the supplier designs two kinds of contracts (wholesale price contract and two-part tariff contract) to maximize his profit, while the retailer determines her sales-effort investment level and the virtual product’s retail price. The results of two different types of contracts are compared to explore in depth the effect of contract choices on the participants’ profits.

The authors show that the comparative results of the optimal wholesale prices, retail prices and sales-effort investment levels between these two kinds of contracts all rely on the retailer’s risk-averse degree. Specifically, both the supplier and the whole supply chain prefer the two-part tariff contract rather than the wholesale price contract, the retailer should do opposite when she is low risk-averse, whereas there is no distinction for the retailer’s utilities between these two kinds of contracts when she is more risk-averse.

The value of the research rests on the use of principal-agent theory in the contracts of virtual products considering the retailer’s sales-effort and risk-aversion degree. The research will serve as a guide for the virtual products’ supplier and the platform retailer in decision-making processes.

Drawing on affective events theory (AET), this study aims to investigate how and when leader voice solicitation affects employees’ innovative behavior. Specifically, this study proposes that leader voice solicitation evokes employees’ feelings of pride, which subsequently motivate employees’ innovative behavior. Moreover, collectivism orientation plays a moderating role in this process.

This study collected 251 supervisor–subordinate dyadic data in two phases and employed structural equational modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses.

The results revealed that employees’ feelings of pride mediate the positive relationship between leader voice solicitation and employees’ innovative behavior. Collectivism orientation intensifies the mediated relationship.

This study extends the potential outcome variables of leader voice solicitation. Moreover, it introduces a novel theoretical perspective to explore the impact of leader voice solicitation on employees. Importantly, this study examines the mediating effect of pride and the moderating effect of collectivism orientation, deepening the understanding of how and when leader voice solicitation affects innovative behavior.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of aluminum addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy.

Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn-xAl (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 Wt.%) alloys were prepared by the conventional gravity casting technology, and then microstructures, phase composition and mechanical properties were investigated by material characterization method, systematically.

Results show that the as-cast microstructure of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy mainly consists of a-Mg matrix as well as Mg₁₂REZn (18 R LPSO structure), and island-like Mg₃(RE, Zn) phase is distributed at the grain boundary. The addition of a small amount of Al (0.5 Wt.%) can decrease the content of island-like Mg₃(RE, Zn) phase, but significantly increase the content of long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) structure, resulting in the improvement of both tensile strength and elongation of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy. However, the addition of excessive Al will consume Re element and decrease the amount of LPSO structure, leading to the decrease of tensile properties. When the content of Al is 0.5 Wt.%, the tensile strength and elongation are 225 MPa and 9.0% of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy, which are 14% and 29% higher than that of Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy, respectively.

Adding aluminum to Mg-8Gd-4Y-1Zn alloy strengthens its mechanical properties. And the effect of Al content on the alloy strengthening. The formation mechanism of LPSO structure with different aluminum content was revealed.

The safe operation of the metro power transformer directly relates to the safety and efficiency of the entire metro system. Through voiceprint technology, the sounds emitted by the transformer can be monitored in real-time, thereby achieving real-time monitoring of the transformer’s operational status. However, the environment surrounding power transformers is filled with various interfering sounds that intertwine with both the normal operational voiceprints and faulty voiceprints of the transformer, severely impacting the accuracy and reliability of voiceprint identification. Therefore, effective preprocessing steps are required to identify and separate the sound signals of transformer operation, which is a prerequisite for subsequent analysis.

This paper proposes an Adaptive Threshold Repeating Pattern Extraction Technique (REPET) algorithm to separate and denoise the transformer operation sound signals. By analyzing the Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) amplitude spectrum, the algorithm identifies and utilizes the repeating periodic structures within the signal to automatically adjust the threshold, effectively distinguishing and extracting stable background signals from transient foreground events. The REPET algorithm first calculates the autocorrelation matrix of the signal to determine the repeating period, then constructs a repeating segment model. Through comparison with the amplitude spectrum of the original signal, repeating patterns are extracted and a soft time-frequency mask is generated.

After adaptive thresholding processing, the target signal is separated. Experiments conducted on mixed sounds to separate background sounds from foreground sounds using this algorithm and comparing the results with those obtained using the FastICA algorithm demonstrate that the Adaptive Threshold REPET method achieves good separation effects.

A REPET method with adaptive threshold is proposed, which adopts the dynamic threshold adjustment mechanism, adaptively calculates the threshold for blind source separation and improves the adaptability and robustness of the algorithm to the statistical characteristics of the signal. It also lays the foundation for transformer fault detection based on acoustic fingerprinting.

This study explores how paternalistic leadership (PL) influences Chinese expatriates' work engagement in a cross-cultural context, and examines how expatriates' cross-cultural adaptability sets a boundary condition for this relationship.

Data were collected from two-wave surveys of 82 supervisors and 318 Chinese expatriate teachers from 57 Confucius Institutes in 18 countries. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Benevolent and moral leadership as job resources are negatively related to work–family conflict (WFC), whereas the job demand of authoritarian leadership positively relates to WFC. Further, WFC mediates the effect of PL styles on Chinese expatriates' work engagement. Cross-cultural adaptability moderates the negative relationship between WFC and work engagement, and the indirect effect of PL styles on work engagement through WFC.

Organizations should consider WFC an important intervening mechanism linking PL and Chinese expatriates' work engagement. Cross-cultural organizations can mitigate the negative impact of WFC on work engagement by enhancing expatriates' cross-cultural adaptability.

This study is the first to examine the PL–work engagement relationship via a work–family interface, which contributes to integrating leadership and work–family outcomes. It enriches research on the JD-R model by showing that job resources and job demands affect employee outcomes through the mediation of stressors. Furthermore, this study identifies a new personal resource by examining cross-cultural adaptability's moderating role.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the characteristics of TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs). Because these NPs stick together easily and are difficult to distribute evenly, they cannot be used extensively in lubricating oils. Altering TiO₂ was recommended as an alternate way for making NPs simpler to disperse.

Through dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP)-assisted ball mill diagnostics and modeling of molecular dynamics, TiO₂@PEG-400 NPs were produced using the DBDP-assisted ball mill. The NPs’ microstructure was examined using FESEM, TEM, XRD, FT-IR and TG-DSC. Using the CFT-1 reciprocating friction tester, the tribological properties of TiO₂@PEG-400 NPs as base oil additives were studied. EDS and XPS were used to examine the surface wear of the friction pair.

Tribological properties of the modified NPs are vastly superior to those of the original NPs, and the lipophilicity value of TiO₂ NPs was improved by 200%. It was determined through tribological testing that TiO₂@PEG-400’s exceptional performance might be attributable to a chemical reaction film made up of TiO₂, Fe₂O₃, iron oxide and other organic chemicals.

This work describes an approach for preventing the aggregation of TiO₂ NPs by coating their surface with PEG-400. In addition, the prepared NPs can enhance the tribological performance of lubricating oil. This low-cost, high-performance lubricant additive has tremendous promise for usage in marine engines to minimize operating costs while preserving navigational safety.

This paper aims to introduce a novel algorithm to solve initial/boundary value problems of high-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and high-order system of ordinary differential equations (SODEs).

The proposed method is based on Hermite polynomials and extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm. The Hermite polynomials are chosen as basis function of hidden neurons. The approximate solution and its derivatives are expressed by utilizing Hermite network. The model function is designed to automatically meet the initial or boundary conditions. The network parameters are obtained by solving a system of linear equations using the ELM algorithm.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a variety of differential equations are selected and their numerical solutions are obtained by utilizing the Hermite extreme learning machine (H-ELM) algorithm. Experiments on the common and random data sets indicate that the H-ELM model achieves much higher accuracy, lower complexity but stronger generalization ability than existed methods. The proposed H-ELM algorithm could be a good tool to solve higher order linear ODEs and higher order linear SODEs.

The H-ELM algorithm is developed for solving higher order linear ODEs and higher order linear SODEs; this method has higher numerical accuracy and stronger superiority compared with other existing methods.

Existing research has generally viewed that temporal leadership has positive impacts on employees but ignores its potential drawbacks. This study aims to develop a model to explore its possible negative impacts on employees, drawing upon social information processing theory.

This study conducts a multi-wave and multisource survey to test the model, and the authors test the hypotheses with multi-level analysis using Mplus 7.4 and R package for Monte Carlo.

Results suggest that temporal leadership induces employee work alienation, thus leading to employee silence. Furthermore, shared temporal cognitions moderate both the relationship between temporal leadership and work alienation and the indirect effect of temporal leadership on employee silence via work alienation.

Taken together, this study reveals the potential dark side of temporal leadership and provides a more comprehensive and dialectical research perspective for temporal leadership literature.