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Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) create quasi-real social systems in which players can interact with one another, and quasi-real economic systems where players can consume and trade in-game items with virtual currency. The in-game currency price, an important indicator of a virtual economy, is highly contingent on players’ behavioral interaction in MMORPGs. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a network perspective to examine how topological characteristics of social networks in an MMORPG, namely, network externalities, density, and closure, would exert impacts on the in-game currency price.

Players’ behavioral data were collected from a popular MMORPG in China on a weekly basis for 52 weeks. With a time series analytical approach, the empirical model for the price function of in-game currency was estimated with vector autoregression.

The results show that the number of core avatars and network density are positively associated with in-game currency price, while network closure has a negative effect on in-game currency price. However, in-game currency price is found to have no significant relationship with the trade volume of the currency.

This study fills in an important research gap by investigating factors influencing the in-game currency price of MMORPGs from a network perspective, which contributes to the existing literature of network effects and advances our understanding about how players’ interaction will influence the dynamics of a virtual economy. The findings could offer useful insights for online game companies to better understand their players’ social interaction and consumption behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the influence of organizational identification (OI) on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) directed toward organization (OCB-O) and OCB directed toward individuals (OCB-I), and explore the moderating effects of turnover intention (TI) and the differences of the moderating effects of supervisors’ ratings of leader–member exchange quality (LMX-L) and subordinates’ ratings of LMX quality (LMX-S) in the process.

Based on social exchange theory, this study took administrative staff of private small and medium enterprises in China as population. A paired-samples design was used, and 437 valid paired samples were collected finally. Data analyses were conducted by using structural equation modeling.

OI indicated a positive influence on both OCB-O and OCB-I. TI showed a negative moderating effect on the positive relationship between OI and OCB-I, but no significant moderating effect on the positive relationship between OI and OCB-O. LMX-L and LMX-S were not in one same direction and showed different moderating levels. LMX-L had no significant effects on the relationship between OI and OCB-O, nor did on the relationship between OI and OCB-I. On the other hand, LMX-S strengthened both the positive relationship between OI and OCB-O, and the positive relationship between OI and OCB-I.

This study explored the relationships from social exchange perspective, found that OCB-O and OCB-I had different formation mechanisms and should be explored as distinct variables, and confirmed that it was necessary to use the paired-samples design when studying dyadic phenomena.

This paper aims to reveal the current status of China university teachers’ learning content focus (LCF) and collaborative learning (CL) and empirically examine the influential effects LCF and CL play on individual pursuit of lifelong learning (LLL) by investigating the mediating role of individual psychological empowerment (PE).

Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis, are conducted.

The results of this study indicate significant direct impacts of LCF, CL and PE on university teachers’ LLL. LCF shares significant positive relationship with PE, validating the mediating role of PE between LCF and LLL. University teachers show their consciousness of learning required in professionalism and willingness to keep learning. However, the four major discrepancies: Lifelong Learning Process (LLLP) vs Lifelong Learning Behavior (LLLB), focus of professional promotion system vs that in LCF, lower levels in Self-determination and Impact (in PE) and less external partnerships, indicate the gaps between learning supports provided by university and policy designing in promoting LLL.

This study emphasizes the LLL ideology in professional development. Emphasis on university teachers’ learning within specific professional development contexts would encourage researchers to pay more attention to context-relevant factors enhancing LLL. And the four major discrepancies identified in this study deserve further investigations.

This paper aims to examine the impact of host country corruption on foreign direct investment (FDI) from China to developing countries in Africa. With the opposing arguments that corruption is detrimental to or instrumental in FDI and mixed empirical evidence, this paper contributes to the literature by providing new evidence on the issue. Additionally, little research has been done on the impact of corruption on FDI made by developing country multinationals to developing countries. This paper fills a void in this area.

Based on the published literature, as well as China and Africa contexts, the authors develop hypotheses that host countries with low corruption receive more FDI and resource-seeking investments weaken the relationship. The annual stock of Chinese FDI in 35 African countries, host country corruption data and other control variables from 2007 to 2015 are collected. Feasible generalized least squares models are used to test the hypotheses. Additional robustness tests are also conducted.

The findings support the hypotheses. Specifically, Chinese investors make more investments in host countries with low corruption except for resource-seeking investments in resource-rich host counties. The results are statistically significant accounting for various control variables. The results of the robustness tests show that the main findings are robust.

First, this study provides new evidence on the impact of corruption on FDI. Second, this study also fills a void by examining FDI from a developing country, China to other developing countries in Africa. Finally, this study also has a practical implication for Chinese multinationals investing in Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of inventory leanness on productivity. In particular, the authors explore the moderating role of environmental complexity and the mediating role of risk taking.

In the mediated moderation analysis of the relationship among inventory leanness, risk taking, environmental complexity and productivity, the authors adopt the instrumental variable method to test the hypotheses based on data collected from 1,709 Chinese listed manufacturing firms.

The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between inventory leanness and productivity. The authors then demonstrate the role of risk taking in mediating this relationship. Furthermore, the authors find that environmental complexity not only negatively moderates the relationship between inventory leanness and productivity, but also negatively moderates the relationship between risk taking and productivity.

Managers should not be excessively pursuing inventory leanness improvements, so as not to damage the ability to increase productivity.

This paper may be the first study to empirically demonstrate the moderating effect of environmental complexity and the mediating effect of risk taking on the inverted U-shaped relationship between inventory leanness and productivity.

Water-lubricated bearings can significantly reduce the pollution to environment because the traditional oil lubricant is replaced by water in the bearings. The ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has proven to be effective and reliable for the manufacturing of water-lubricated bearings. However, limited work has been done to address the improvement of the tribological performance of the UHMWPE-based water-lubricated bearings using surface texture processing. This paper aims to investigate the effects of bar-grooved surface on the tribological performance improvement of UHMWPE-based water-lubricated bearings.

For the first time, the bar grooves were processed on the surfaces of UHMWPE-based water-lubricated bearings. The CBZ-1 friction and wear tester have been used to test the wear and friction performance of the bearing samples. The LI laser interference surface contour graph and the digital microscope have been used to measure the surface morphology of the specimens. The tribological characteristics of the tested bearings were analyzed.

With bar grooves added on the surfaces of the specimens, the friction coefficient of the specimens were lower than that of the specimens without surface texture processing; the wear quantity of the two kinds of specimens were almost the same; by using the LI laser interference surface contour graph and the digital microscope to measure the surface morphology of the specimens, the furrows of the specimens with bar grooves were narrower and shallower than that of the specimens without bar grooves.

The paper implicates that the surface texture processing using bar grooves can reduce the friction coefficient and prolong the service life of the water-lubricated bearings in practical applications.

This paper fulfills an identified need to provide important theoretical and experimental support to the design of water-lubricated bearings in practical applications.

The purpose of this paper is to research on CuO-water nanofluid Non-Darcy flow because of magnetic field. Porous cavity has circular heat source and filled with nanofluid. Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) has been used to simulate this problem.

In this research, LBM has been applied as mesoscopic approach to simulate water-based nanofluid free convection. Koo–Kleinstreuer–Li model is used to consider Brownian motion impact on nanofluid properties. Impacts of Rayleigh number, Darcy number, nanofluid volume fraction and Hartmann number on heat transfer treatment are illustrated.

It is found that temperature gradient decreases with rise of while it enhances with augment of Ha. Darcy number can enhance the convective flow.

The originality of this work is to analyze the to investigate magnetic field impact on water based CuO-H₂O nanofluid natural convection inside a porous cavity with elliptic heat source.