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This paper aims to study the motivations for purchasing protective products.

Empirical microeconomic research.

The results show that comparing with ordinary families, families vulnerable to environmental conditions, including prepregnant, pregnant and postpartum families, are not intended to consume more protective products. Among the above three types of families, postpartum families consume the most, followed by pregnant families, and prepregnancy families consume the least. The results also showed that a higher level of economic development, more prevalent Internet access and higher levels of education also increase the consumption of protective products.

New dataset and new empirical results.

The purpose of this study aims to modify a self-mixing laser mouse as an extremely cost-effective displacement sensor to measure the mechanical oscillation of a commercial shaker and a nano-positioning stage.

This kind of laser mouse, mostly consisting of a pair of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers, two photodiodes and an integrated signal processing unit, is capable of directly giving the x-axis and y-axis components of the measured vibrating displacement. Based on the laser self-mixing interference, the velocity of the object is coded into the Doppler frequency shift of the feedback light, which allows accurate determination of the vibration of the object.

A commercial shaker has been used to provide standard harmonic oscillation to test the displacement sensor. Within a vibrating frequency range of 110 Hz, the experimental results show that the micrometer scale resolution has been achieved at the velocity of up to 2 m/s, which is much improved compared with the image-based optical mouse. Furthermore, the measurements of the two dimensional displacement of a nano-positioning stage are performed as well. The minimum measurable velocity limit for this sensor has been discussed in detail, and the relative measurement error can be greatly reduced by appropriate selection of the modulation frequency of the triangular injection current.

These results demonstrate the feasibility of this device for the industrial vibration sensing applications.

This research aims to contribute to the transformative service research (TSR) literature by examining how customer participation in the service process influences their service experience and eudaimonic well-being, as moderated by customer empowerment and social support.

In the contexts of wedding (n = 623) and tourism services (n = 520), two surveys were conducted to test the hypotheses using mediation and moderation analyses.

Customer participation had a positive effect on their well-being, as mediated by service experience. These effects were moderated by customer empowerment and social support. Specifically, customer empowerment negatively moderated the relationship between customer participation and their service experience for both services. In addition, the moderating effect of social support on the relationship between customer participation and service experience was positive for the wedding service but negative for the tourism service.

The findings imply that firms should encourage customer participation to enhance their service experience and well-being. In addition, the firm could judiciously empower customers by adapting to the level of customer participation. Furthermore, depending on the complexity of the service required to produce the expected service outcomes, the firm may encourage the customers to engage their social network for support.

This research uses the service ecosystem perspective to examine the roles of the customer, the firm and the customer's social network in shaping their service experience and well-being for two common and important mental stimulus services, enriching the authors’ understanding on the role mental stimulus services play in enhancing consumers' eudaimonic well-being.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of executives’ overseas education and work experience on enterprise digital as executives’ overseas background is critical to the development of enterprises. It also explored the mediating role of enterprise digital transformation on the relationship between executives’ overseas background and enterprise growth.

Chinese A-share companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges for the period 2018–2020 were analyzed using regression analysis and bootstrapping to verify hypothesized relationships.

Executives’ overseas study and work experience both enhanced enterprise digital transformation significantly, thus improving enterprise growth. The level of employee education moderated the mediating role proposed in the theoretical model. Moreover, the promoting effect of executives’ overseas background on enterprise digital transformation was more significant for non-state-owned enterprises and those in eastern China.

The findings provide reference for the formulation and optimization of companies’ human resource structure and have implications on the improvement of enterprise digital transformation and enterprise growth.

This study explored the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation at the microlevel of corporate human capital, thereby providing microlevel empirical evidence for research on the factors influencing enterprise digital transformation. Its findings shed light on the mechanism and context under which executives with overseas backgrounds may enhance enterprise digital transformation and growth.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the optoelectronic properties of the multichannel ZnO UV photodetectors.

ZnO nanowires were assembled by dielectrophoresis for the UV photodetectors. Different ZnO channels were adjusted by different alternating current voltages and investigated for UV optoelectronic properties.

The number of the ZnO channels increases with the enhancing alternating current voltage. Optimum performance of the UV photodetectors is obtained with more channels.

Dielectrophoresis is a promising method for controllable assembly of multichannel ZnO photodetectors. ZnO photodetectors with more channels demonstrate a good response to 380-nm UV light, which shows great potential application in UV photodetector.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new model which combines the non-equidistant GM(1,1) model with GCHM_WBO (generalized contra-harmonic mean (GCHM); weakening buffer operator (WBO)). The authors use the model to solve the deadlock that for a large number of non-equidistant corrosion rate, it is difficult to establish a reasonable prediction model and improve the prediction accuracy.

This research consists of three parts: non-equidistant GM(1,1) model, GCHM_WBO operator, and the optimization of morphing parameter (contained in GCHM, control the intensity of the weakening operator). The methodology is explained as follows. First, the authors built a non-equidistant GM(1,1) model with GCHM_WBO weakened data, of which morphing parameter was randomly selected. Next, the authors calculated the error between prediction data of model and the real data, and adjusted the morphing parameter according to the error and property of GCHM. Then, the authors generated a new non-equidistant GM(1,1) based on new morphing parameter, and repeated the previous step until the termination condition was satisfied. Finally, the model with appropriate morphing parameter was used to implement the prediction of new data.

This paper finds a property of GCHM, which is a monotonic increasing function of morphing parameter in some specific conditions. Based on the property and the fixed point axiom of WBO, an algorithm was designed to search an appropriate morphing parameter. The appropriate morphing parameter was implemented for the purpose of improving the accuracy of the model. The model was applied to predict the corrosion rate of six steels at Guangzhou experimental station. The results showed that the proposed method can get more accuracy in prediction capability compared to the models with the original data and AWBO weakened data. The method is applicable to long-term forecasts in case of data scarcity.

Corrosion will cause huge economic loss to a country; therefore, it is important to judge the remaining useful life of a material or equipment; the foundation for judgement of which is the prediction of material corrosion rate. However, the prediction of corrosion rate is very difficult because of corrosion data’s features, such as small sample size, non-equidistant, etc. The proposed method can be used to implement long-term forecast of corrosion data with only one sample and non-equidistant samples.

This paper presented a model which combines the non-equidistant GM(1,1) model with GCHM_WBO to handle the problem of long-term forecasting of corrosion data. In the modelling process, the proposed morphing parameter searched through algorithm can improve the prediction accuracy of the model. Therefore, the model can provide effective and reliable result when data are of a small sample size and non-equidistant.

Social media influencers (SMIs) play an increasingly important role in influencing youth and their shopping behaviours in digital marketing. Research has examined various but fragmented SMIs, which cause inconsistency in empirical results. This research seeks to categorise the most popular SMIs in luxury fashion and examine their distinctive effects on Gen Z consumption in China.

The authors categorise SMIs into four groups based on two dimensions, i.e. network interactivity vs social connectedness. Drawing on the social network theory, the authors develop the research model. A sample of 400 survey data is collected and analysed using the PLS-SEM technique.

The empirical results suggest that among the four popular SMIs groups, the effects of celebrities, opinion leaders and friends and peers on luxury fashion consumption of Gen Z are statistically significant while that of advertisers are insignificant; that friends and peers have the most substantial effect among the others.

The study contributes to understanding SMIs and consumer behaviour in digital emerging markets. By categorising SMIs, this study reconciles inconsistencies in the concept. This study contributes to a better understanding of SMIs and their roles in the digital marketing of luxury fashion consumption.

This study aims to examine farmers' decision to use smartphone agricultural applications (SAAs) and how SAAs adoption impact their land transfer behaviors in terms of the current land transfer-in area (LTA) and the future willingness to renew land transfer-in after it expires (WTR).

This study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between farmers' use of SAAs and land transfer choice, using a field survey data of 752 rural farm households in 2020 from Sichuan province of China. The endogenous switching models are employed to address potential self-selection bias associated with voluntary SAAs use and to quantitatively examine the impacts of SAAs use on land transfer choice.

The empirical results reveal that SAAs significantly improves the probability of transfer-in of more land by 39.10%. We find SAAs use has heterogeneous impacts on land transfer-in choice in the groups of agricultural technology, extension service, marketing and credit. Besides, we also find that SAAs use exerts highly positive and significant impact on farmers with less land area transfer-in. Moreover, SAAs can increase the probability of farmers' willingness to renew the land transfer-in by 30%.

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to explore the quantitative relationship between the use of SAAs and farm households' land transfer choice. The findings of this work can provide policy-related insights to help government promote the development of digital applications in the agricultural sector.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the mechanisms through which Chinese National Science Parks' (NSPs) services facilitate returnee entrepreneurs' (REs) acquisition of resources for their new ventures. Resource acquisition is crucial for new ventures, but it inevitably leads to significant costs increase. Although the NSPs offer various services to REs to reduce these costs, they still struggle to find the right mix of services.

From the transaction cost's perspective, an exploratory multiple-case study was conducted with data collected from six NSPs in China.

The results reveal that four types of NSP services (mentoring and training, social event, promotion of REs and accreditation of resource holders (RHs)) have both individual and joint effects on reducing REs' resource acquisition costs. Specifically, the “accreditation of RHs” service directly helps REs reduce search costs. The combination of “accreditation of RHs”, “promotion of REs” and “social event” services help REs and RHs to establish guanxi. Further, guanxi, working along with the “mentoring and training” service, helps REs to reduce contracting, monitoring and enforcement costs.

This study is among the first to explore the matching mechanisms between science parks’ services and entrepreneurs' cost reduction. This helps reconcile the inconsistent findings on science parks' effect by explaining why some NSPs are able to provide strong support to REs while others are less successful. In addition, the findings are useful for NSPs to develop the right mix of tailored services for REs. Finally, REs will find this study useful to evaluate which NSP is a more suitable location for their new ventures.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of information sharing (IS) on the link between supply chain integration (SCI) practices (internal, customer and supplier) and internal process performance (IPP) by using selected agribusiness firms from an emerging economy, Ghana.

To determine the effect of IS on the nexus between SCI practices and IPP, a research framework was developed and tested using data amassed from 156 agribusiness firms for the study. The data set was assessed and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling.

The outcomes revealed that both INI and CI positively and significantly influenced IS. However, the results disclosed that SI has no significant positive effect on IS among the Ghanaian agribusiness firms. The findings of the study further discovered that IS fully mediates the relationship between INI, CI and IPP, whereas SI has a direct interaction with IPP.

This study contributes to the existing supply chain management research by empirically authenticating IS as the mediator between SCI practices and IPP. From the viewpoint of a developing economy, this paper identifies the significant connection that exists between SCI practices, IS and IPP. The outcomes recommend that IS is a core driving facilitator to reinforce the correlation between SCI practices and IPP.