Search results

This paper investigated the extent to which the predictive power of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) was robust against cultural variations and to what extent its predictive power could be improved by including face-valid individual differences (i.e. perceived risk and personal innovativeness) and cultural factors (i.e. individualism and uncertainty avoidance).

Data were collected from web surveys of Chinese, American and Belgian mobile Internet users (total n = 1,068).

The authors found that the UTAUT2 model was less predictive in the country where the adoption of mobile payment service (MPS) is high (i.e. China). In contrast, the UTAUT2 model was more predictive in countries where the adoption of MPS is lower (i.e. the United States and Belgium). The authors did not find additional variance explained by individual differences. Regarding the cultural variables, the authors found that individualism moderated the effect of social influence on behavioral intention to use MPS, such that the effect was more substantial among people with individualistic cultural traits. However, the authors found no moderation effect of uncertainty avoidance.

This research contributes to existing work on technology acceptance by exploring whether it is helpful to introduce individual and cultural factors into the UTAUT2 model when predicting technology adoption in different cultures. This research further examines the moderating role of cultural factors in predicting the adoption of MPS. The authors conclude that the UTAUT2 model is generally robust and appears to capture the predictive of face-valid individual and cultural factors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of FinTech companies in SCF. The application of digital technology in supply chain activities has facilitated the evolution of supply chain finance (SCF) to a new level. However, how financial technology (FinTech) companies promote this evolution has not been thoroughly examined.

This research used the multiple-case study approach and social network analysis method to explore how FinTech companies influence SCF networks.

The results reveal that FinTech companies play the crucial role of a signaling intermediary by facilitating interactions among relevant parties, accelerating the flow of information and reducing information asymmetry arising from data smog. Moreover, FinTech companies make SCF information networks more equitable and promote the performance of SCF.

This study deepens the conversation at the nexus of signal theory and SCF and provides managerial implications for alleviating information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders to solve the difficulty and high-cost problems of obtaining financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of different infiltration heads on soil water movement using a free infiltration test for small-diameter tube outflow furrow irrigation under mulch film.

The test consisted of small-diameter tube outflow furrow irrigation under mulch film with three different infiltration heads (3, 4 and 5 cm) and furrow drip irrigation under mulch film using an infiltration head of 4 cm (CK).

During irrigation, the accumulated infiltration and migration distance of the wetting front increased with time. During the same infiltration time, both the accumulated infiltration and horizontal migration distance of the wetting front increased with the larger infiltration head, whereas the vertical migration distance of the wetting front gradually decreased. With increasing distance from the furrow center, soil moisture content declined, but the uniformity of its distribution increased as the infiltration head increased.

This study can provide scientific basis for the use of small-diameter tube outflow furrow irrigation under mulch film.

In as much as it is contested, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is also unexplored, underdiscussed, and, as a result, misunderstood. Frequently viewed through the lens of international relations and global economy, the diverse dimensions of collaboration, including business and research-industry clusters, that BRI enhances, tend to be excluded from the analysis. In a similar manner, the role of the Arab Peninsula in the grand strategy underpinning BRI and its implementation is rarely discussed. BRI is a forward-oriented initiative, an attempt to reap benefits of developments and circumstances that are only nascent. This bears two potent implications. First, as China attempts to influence the context in which it operates, it is subject to change itself; the Chinese business sector evolution attests to that. Second, some of China’s not so obvious partners of today, including those in the Arab Peninsula, are about to turn into key interlocutors of tomorrow. BRI taps into opportunities thus created. This chapter elaborates on these issues and, against this backdrop, outlines how the remaining chapters included in this volume add to this discussion.