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Peel adhesion of an epoxy filleting compound and Parylene C conformal coating to plasma treated, solder mask coated substrates and the apparent contact angle of water on the treated surfaces were evaluated. No significant improvement was achieved in the case of the epoxy filleting adhesive for most solder mask coatings studied. On the other hand, Parylene C peel adhesion significantly increased after substrates were treated with air plasma and reached the level of Silane coupling agent primed substrates. This was in contrast to the decrease in Parylene adhesion to argon plasma treated substrates in comparison with the non‐treated substrates. This was related to the oxygen functionalities created on the surfaces by the air plasma versus the ablative nature of the argon plasma. No clear correlation was found between peel strength and the water contact angle in the case of the epoxy adhesive, while for the Parylene conformal coating peel strength achieved its maximum value at the middle of the contact angle range which resulted from the pretreatments applied in this study. It is concluded that air plasma is a very efficient solder mask pretreatment for Parylene conformal coating that can replace Silane primer. Also, if a calibration curve is established for each solder mask‐adhesive and solder mask‐coating system, the apparent water contact angle can serve as a convenient quality control tool for printed circuit finishing processes.

The authors examine the influence of powerful political corporate appointments on the usage of firm bribery channels. Party Secretaries within Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) may simultaneously hold top management positions, thereby endowing powerful firm-level decision rights on those appointees, hereafter referred to as powerful dual role Party Secretaries.

This study employs panel data analysis with industry and year fixed effects. The authors use a sample of 1,143 Chinese SOEs listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2004 to 2015.

The authors find that powerful dual role Party Secretaries are associated with greater bribery channel usage. Following the ongoing anticorruption campaign, SOEs with the powerful appointments significantly reduce their usage of both transparent (entertainment and travel costs) and opaque bribery (abnormal management expenses) channels. However, in general, Chinese SOEs respond to the anticorruption shock by switching from the more transparent to the opaquer bribery channel.

The authors contribute to the ongoing debate of politicians on corporate boards by examining the relatively unexplored area of government appointed top management and their influence on bribery at the firm level.

Employing the anti-corruption campaign as an exogenous political shock, this paper examines how political intervention shapes the impact of financial expert CEOs on firm investment decisions.

This paper uses a sample of 2,808 Chinese firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2003 to 2016. Panel data is used for conducting the analysis controlling for firm, industry, and year fixed effects.

The authors found that CEOs with financial expertise are sensitive to political intervention when making investment decisions. First, financial expert CEOs spend more on R&D expenditure in private-owned companies and they are associated with less R&D expenditure in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Second, financial expert CEOs are associated with higher investment expenditure in general, but they become less likely to invest more in the post-anti-corruption period. The reduction in investment expenditure due to the anti-corruption campaign is more pronounced in SOEs than in private-owned companies. Third, the anti-corruption campaign promotes R&D investment in general, but in SOEs, expert CEOs tend to be less likely to invest more on R&D after the anti-corruption shock.

This paper enriches the growing literature on the impact of political intervention and the role of the anti-corruption campaign on corporate behaviour.

This paper aims to offer fresh insight into attitudes towards casually used brands and the role of tie strength in the building of online non-brand-related network relationships amongst young consumers.

Thirteen consumers aged between 18 and 24 years took part in in-depth interviews. The interviewees were matched on gender, age, occupation, residency and social media usage.

Tie strength effects are evident in changes to brand attitudes, choice of social media platforms and in the casual use of brands to further consumer relationship building and identity creation goals.

This paper answers calls for greater understanding of the way in which network structure influences consumers’ online motivations and attitudes towards the brand.

This paper explores the importance of managers viewing brands as embedded in broader social contexts and tailoring social media communications to those broader contexts.

This paper is the first to combine tie strength with casual brand use to examine non-brand-related network effects on brand attitudes, growing and maintaining consumer relationships and building online identity.

This study examined the factors influencing willingness-to-repurchase for each class of airline service, and integrate the constructs of service quality, satisfaction and willingness-to-repurchase which were rooted on Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) model. The study focuses on the domestic and international arrival of passengers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja. Information was gathered from domestic and foreign passengers who had post-purchase experience and had used the airline's services more than once. The survey data were obtained concurrently from arrival passengers at two major international airports using an electronic questionnaire through random and purposive sampling techniques. The data was analysed using the ordinal logit model and structural equation model. From the 606 respondents, 524 responses were received but 489 responses were valid for data analysis and reporting and were obtained mostly from economy and business class passengers. The study found that the quality of seat pitch, allowance of 30 kg luggage permission, availability of online check-in 24 hours before the departing flight, quality of space for legroom between seats, and the quality of seats that can be converted into a fully flatbed are the major service factors influencing willingness-to-repurchase economy and business class tickets. Also, it was found that passengers' willingness to repurchase is influenced majorly by service quality, but not necessarily influenced by satisfaction. These results reflect the passengers' consciousness of COVID-19 because the study was conducted during the heat of COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations were suggested for airline management based on each class.

The International Electronic Components Show in Paris in November, 1983, provided the occasion for a very successful meeting of ISHM‐France which attracted 170 attendees. The following presentations were given:

The ISHM CAN‐AM Chapter recently organised a half‐day programme of paper presentations followed by a tour of a local hybrid facility. The event took place on 26 April at the Holiday Inn, Montreal (Pointe Claire), Quebec, with the theme of the papers concentrating on advances in hybrid manufacturing processes and some coverage of SMT.

Three-dimensional (3D)printed skulls for neurosurgical training are increasingly being used due to the widespread access to 3D printing technology, their low cost and accuracy, as well as limitations and ethical concerns associated with using human cadavers. However, little is known about the risks of airborne particles or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released while drilling into 3D-printed plastic models. The aim of this study is to assess the level of exposure to airborne contaminants while burr hole drilling.

3D-printed skull samples were produced using three different materials (polyethylene terephthalate glycol [PETG], white resin and Bone^STN) across three different 3D print processes (fused filament fabrication, stereolithography [SLA] and material jetting). A neurosurgeon performed extended burr hole drilling for 10 min on each sample. Spot measurements of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) were recorded, and air samples were analysed for approximately 90 VOCs.

The particulate matter for PETG was found to be below the threshold value for respirable particles. However, the particulate matter for white resin and Bone^STN was found to be above the threshold value at PM10, which could be harmful for long periods of exposure without personal protective equipment (PPE). The VOC measurements for all materials were found to be below safety thresholds, and therefore not harmful.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the safety of 3D-printed materials for burr hole surgical drilling. It recommends PETG as a safe material requiring minimal respiratory control measures, whereas resin-based materials will require safety controls to deal with airborne particles.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of outsourcing and offshoring on brand loyalty in a service recovery context. In addition, the effect that consumer ethnocentrism has on these relationships is examined.

An experiment was designed using a series of service recovery scenarios that manipulated whether the recovery effort was conducted by an in-house/outsourced or local/offshored party.

The study shows that while outsourcing service recovery within the home country has no effect on loyalty, outsourcing to an offshore location does. In addition, the effect of offshoring of loyalty is greater for consumers who hold ethnocentric tendencies.

This research suggests the need to consider the delivery channel of service recovery to recover a service failure and retain customer loyalty. The results show that outsourcing within a local country may be effective, but the risks associated with offshoring are much greater.

Despite previous attempts to understand outsourcing and offshoring in a range of service scenarios, their role in service recovery is not well understood. Similarly, the impact that ethnocentrism might have on this process is overlooked. This paper therefore responds to calls within business theory, practice and consults for further study in this under-researched area.