Search results

Social media influencers (SMIs) have become vital components of interactive marketing to promote beauty-endorsed products. However, there are three major research gaps in the literature on influencer marketing. This research aimed to fill these gaps by integrating the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model with theories of source credibility and parasocial interaction (PSI).

A qualitative method was used to gain a deep understanding of the Korean beauty field in YouTube influencer marketing.

The data showed that YouTube influencer marketing is an ongoing PSI process that conforms to the extended SOR model. This model was based on four concepts: stimulus, which was the SMIs’ source credibility; organism, which was the followers’ perceptions of homophily/relevance to the SMIs in PSIs; response, which was the desire to imitate and engage in impulse buying behavior, and management, which was the parasocial trust friendship and/or relationship.

This study expands the new concept into the existing SOR model and releases an insight into ongoing PSIs in YouTube influencer marketing.

Given the contradictory findings of standardization/adaptation of marketing strategy in explaining export performance in the extant research, this study aims to examine the contingent effects of managerial ties and born global orientation in the standardized advertising-export performance conceptualization.

The study used two-respondent method in the survey research by a sample of 155 exporting firms operating in the industrial marketing based in Australia and New Zealand and applied hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that standardized advertising has a significant effect on export performance and this relationship is positively moderated by business ties. Such effect is particularly enhanced for born global firms (than nonborn global firms). However, political ties negatively influence the impact of standardized advertising on performance and such effect is stronger for born global firms.

A broader perspective of contingent variables should be included to examine the underlying relationship between standardized advertising and export performance in capturing the dynamism in international marketing contexts, such as institutional frameworks or sociocultural environments in host countries.

Standardized advertising is critical for born global firms’ export performance as it can increase efficiency and speed up internationalization processes. Such positive impact of standardized advertising on export performance is further enhanced if born global firms allocate resources to develop strong business ties with host country partners instead of building political ties with host country governments, because smooth business networking can facilitate standardized advertising on industrial marketing, yet justifiable political relations require intricate negotiations that often prolong internationalization progress.

This study incorporates managerial ties and born global orientation as contingent factors in fixing the theoretic interlock between standardization advertising strategy and export firm performance.

The purpose of this paper was to prepare a ternary hierarchical rough particle to accelerate the anti-corrosive design for coastal concrete infrastructures.

A kind of micro-nano hydrophobic ternary microparticles was fabricated from SiO₂/halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and recycled concrete powders (RCPs), which was then mixed with sodium silicate and silane to form an inorganic slurry. The slurry was further sprayed on the concrete surface to construct a superhydrophobic coating (SHC). Transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mappings demonstrate that the nano-sized SiO₂ has been grafted on the sub-micron HNTs and then further adhered to the surface of micro-sized RCP, forming a kind of superhydrophobic particles (SiO₂/HNTs@RCP) featured of abundant micro-nano hierarchical structures.

The SHC surface presents excellent superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle >156°. Electrochemical tests indicate that the corrosion rate of mild steel rebar in coated concrete reduces three-order magnitudes relative to the uncoated one in 3.5% NaCl solution. Water uptake and chloride ion (Cl^-) diffusion tests show that the SHC exhibits high H₂O and Cl^- ions barrier properties thanks to the pore-sealing and water-repellence properties of SiO₂/HNTs@RCP particles. Furthermore, the SHC possesses considerable mechanical durability and outstanding self-cleaning ability.

SHC inhibits water uptake, Cl^- diffusion and rebar corrosion of concrete, which will promote the sustainable application of concrete waste in anti-corrosive concrete projects.

Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have become a new tendency in flow simulation, because of their self-advantage of integrating both physical and monitored information of fields in solving the Navier–Stokes equation and its variants. In view of the strengths of PINN, this study aims to investigate the impact of spatially embedded data distribution on the flow field results around the train in the crosswind environment reconstructed by PINN.

PINN can integrate data residuals with physical residuals into the loss function to train its parameters, allowing it to approximate the solution of the governing equations. In addition, with the aid of labelled training data, PINN can also incorporate the real site information of the flow field in model training. In light of this, the PINN model is adopted to reconstruct a two-dimensional time-averaged flow field around a train under crosswinds in the spatial domain with the aid of sparse flow field data, and the prediction results are compared with the reference results obtained from numerical modelling.

The prediction results from PINN results demonstrated a low discrepancy with those obtained from numerical simulations. The results of this study indicate that a threshold of the spatial embedded data density exists, in both the near wall and far wall areas on the train’s leeward side, as well as the near train surface area. In other words, a negative effect on the PINN reconstruction accuracy will emerge if the spatial embedded data density exceeds or slips below the threshold. Also, the optimum arrangement of the spatial embedded data in reconstructing the flow field of the train in crosswinds is obtained in this work.

In this work, a strategy of reconstructing the time-averaged flow field of the train under crosswind conditions is proposed based on the physics-informed data-driven method, which enhances the scope of neural network applications. In addition, for the flow field reconstruction, the effect of spatial embedded data arrangement in PINN is compared to improve its accuracy.

This study aimed to explore the spatial accessibility dynamics of urban parks and their driving forces from 1901 to 2010 in terms of the dynamic relationships between spatial morphology and road networks, taking Nanjing City as an example.

This study mapped and examined the spatiotemporal distribution of urban parks and road networks in four time points at Nanjing: the 1910s, 1930s, 1960s and 2010s, using the analysis methodology of spatial design network analysis, kernel density estimation and buffer analysis. Two approaches of spatial overlaying and data analysis were adopted to investigate the accessibility dynamics. The spatial overlaying compared the parks' layout and the road networks' core, subcore and noncore accessible areas; the data analysis clarified the average data on the city-wide and local scales of the road networks within the park buffer zone.

The analysis of the changing relationships between urban parks and the spatial morphology of road networks showed that the accessibility of urban parks has generally improved. This was influenced by six main factors: planning implementation, political policies, natural resources, historical heritage and cultural and economic levels.

The results provide a reference for achieving spatial equity, improving urban park accessibility and supporting sustainable urban park planning.

An increasing number of studies have explored the spatial accessibility of urban parks through the relationships between their spatial distribution and road networks. However, few studies have investigated the dynamic changes in accessibility over time. Discussing parks' accessibility over relatively long-time scales has practical, innovative and theoretical values; because it can reveal correlational laws and internal influences not apparent in short term and provide reference and implications for parks' spatial equity.

This study aims to explore the mechanism of boundary-spanning search on firm’s innovation performance under environmental dynamics from the perspective of strategic knowledge integration.

A survey was conducted among Chinese firm managers and R&D personnel, resulting in the collection of 315 valid samples. Hierarchical regression analysis was mainly adopted to demonstrate the hypothesized relationships, while the Sobel test and bootstrap method were used to further validate the mediating effects.

The results demonstrate that boundary-spanning search in different dimensions is a critical factor in the improvement of firm innovation performance (FIP). Two types of strategic knowledge integration are the main factors causing FIP and mediate the influence of boundary-spanning search on FIP. Furthermore, environmental dynamics moderate the relationship among boundary-spanning search, strategic knowledge integration and FIP.

Managers need to strengthen the boundary-spanning search for market and technical knowledge, which will promote firm innovative performance. Managers also need to implement strategic knowledge integration, which specifically includes using planned strategic knowledge integration to compensate for knowledge deficiencies, thereby achieving predetermined objectives; and using emergent strategic knowledge integration to update their understanding of internal and external environments, and to reset strategic objectives. In dynamic environments, managers should emphasize strategic knowledge management activities more.

From a strategic management perspective, this study categorizes strategic knowledge integration into planned and emergent forms. By applying the logic of knowledge acquisition, integration and creation, it explores how boundary-spanning search affects FIP through strategic knowledge integration as the intermediary and the boundary conditions of environmental dynamics. This not only provides a deeper understanding of the nature and effects of boundary-spanning research but also enhances the theory of strategic knowledge management.

Integrating project scheduling and material ordering problems is vital in realistically estimating project cost and duration. Also, the quality level of materials is important as one of the key project success factors.

In this paper, a three-objective mathematical model is presented for green project scheduling with materials ordering problems considering rental resources. The first objective is to minimize the total cost of the project site and logistics. The second objective is to minimize the environmental impacts of producing materials and the third objective is to maximize the total quality of materials. Since costs trigger several challenges in projects, cost constraints are considered in this model for the first time and also the cost of delay in supplying of materials by the suppliers has been deducted from the project costs. Subsequently, the model was implemented in a real case and solved by the Lagrangian Relaxation algorithm as an exact method on GAMS software for model validation.

Based on sensitivity analysis of some parameters, the findings indicate that the cost constraint and lead time have considerable effects on the project duration. Also, integrating project scheduling and material ordering improves the robustness of the project schedule.

The primary contributions of the present research can be stated as follows: considering the cost constraints in the project scheduling with material ordering problem, incorporating the rental resources and taking the quality levels of materials as well as the environmental impacts into account.

This study aims to present a new rapid enhancement digital elevation model (DEM) framework using Google Earth Engine (GEE), machine learning, weighted interpolation and spatial interpolation techniques with ground control points (GCPs), where high-resolution DEMs are crucial spatial data that find extensive use in many analyses and applications.

First, rapid-DEM imports Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data and Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery from a user-defined time and area of interest into GEE. Second, SRTM with the feature attributes from Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery is generated and used as input data in support vector machine classification algorithm. Third, the inverse probability weighted interpolation (IPWI) approach uses 12 fixed GCPs as additional input data to assign the probability to each pixel of the image and generate corrected SRTM elevations. Fourth, gridding the enhanced DEM consists of regular points (E, N and H), and the contour interval is 5 m. Finally, densification of enhanced DEM data with GCPs is obtained using global positioning system technique through spatial interpolations such as Kriging, inverse distance weighted, modified Shepard’s method and triangulation with linear interpolation techniques.

The results were compared to a 1-m vertically accurate reference DEM (RD) obtained by image matching with Worldview-1 stereo satellite images. The results of this study demonstrated that the root mean square error (RMSE) of the original SRTM DEM was 5.95 m. On the other hand, the RMSE of the estimated elevations by the IPWI approach has been improved to 2.01 m, and the generated DEM by Kriging technique was 1.85 m, with a reduction of 68.91%.

A comparison with the RD demonstrates significant SRTM improvements. The suggested method clearly reduces the elevation error of the original SRTM DEM.

The study aimed to test the validity and reliability of the Polish version of the identity leadership inventory (ILI) proposed by Steffens, Haslam, Reicher et al. (2014) and to confirm the relationship between identity leadership and various job-related outcomes (i.e., trust in leaders, job satisfaction, work engagement and turnover intentions) among employees from Poland-based organizations. Identity leadership appears to be a universal construct (van Dick, Ciampa, & Liang, 2018) but no one has studied it in Poland so far.

The sample consisted of 1078 employees collected in two independent subsamples from different organizations located in Northern and Central Poland. We evaluated the ILI’s factorial structure using confirmatory factor analysis.

The results confirm that the 15-item Polish version of the ILI has a four-dimensional structure with factors representing prototypicality, advancement, entrepreneurship and impresarioship. It showed satisfactory reliability. The identity leadership inventory-short form (four items) also showed a good fit with the data. As expected, the relationships between identity leadership and important work-related outcomes (general level of job satisfaction, work engagement, trust toward the leader and turnover intentions) were also significant.

Despite the cultural specifics of Polish organizations, the research results were generally very similar to those in other countries, confirming the universality of the ILI as shown in the Global Identity Leadership Development project (GILD, see van Dick, Ciampa, & Liang, 2018; van Dick et al., 2021).

The Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is a significant energy consumer in built environments, and the building energy consumption could be minimised by optimising HVAC controls. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the applicability of Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) air conditioning systems for optimising the indoor comfort of buildings in Sri Lanka.

To address the research aim, the quantitative approach following the survey research strategy was deployed. Data collected through questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistical tools, including Mean Rating (MR), Relative Important Index (RII) and Standard Deviation (SD).

The findings revealed that VRF systems are popularly used in Sri Lankan apartment buildings. Furthermore, energy efficiency and comfort were recognised as the most significant top-ranked benefits, while ventilation issues and initial cost were recognised as significant challenges. Moreover, the allocation of trained technicians and provision of proper ventilation through a Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS) were highlighted as applicable mitigation strategies for the identified challenges in VRFs.

The study recommends VRF systems as a suitable technology to ensure energy efficiency, reduce GHG emissions and achieve climate performance within the built environment. The opportunities for adopting VRF systems for developing countries could be explored based on the research findings. The identified challenges would assist the design engineers and facilities professionals to devise suitable strategies to mitigate issues of VRF systems in developing countries.

This research provides empirical proof of the energy efficiency and comfort aspects of VRFs. The study has explored and recommended VRF technology as a beneficial application to overcome the persistent energy crisis in developing countries.