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This paper aims to evaluate the available research to identify the factors contributing to the delays in road construction projects. The primary goals of this study are to determine the critical elements that cause delays in road projects, and to investigate the appropriate corrective actions suggested to lessen the delays in road projects. The study also assesses the theoretical background, methodology, limitations and future research prospects suggested in relevant research works related to causes for delays in road construction.

This study adopted systematic literature review in three steps: collecting relevant literature, descriptive analysis and content analysis. This study used keyword analysis and thematic content analysis on some relevant selected studies. NVivo 12 was used for thematic content analysis utilising description-focused coding, the text was thematically analysed, three other software: MS Excel, VOSviewer and Mendeley were also used for analysis in this study.

The findings revealed that road projects around the world experienced delays and the reasons for delays are many. After the analysis of literature, number of factors causing delays in road projects were identified, which were then divided into seven broad groups using thematic content analysis. The investigation shows that variations in design and inefficient management of project by contractor including inadequate planning and scheduling are the top two factors of delay. The most frequent suggested corrective measure to reduce delay was employing technically competent employees and contractor should conduct thorough survey on his part, rather than just accepting the survey report at face value.

This review paper is addressing the issues related to delays in road construction projects and suggests remedial measure to reduce them. The paper will be useful for researchers, industry professionals, academician and policy makers concerned with the road construction projects. The study conducted the review of selected relevant articles related to causes of delay in road construction projects for qualitative analysis. The research articles using quantitative methods and studies conducted on other types of infrastructure projects were not included; however, findings from this study may be applicable to other construction projects as well.

The findings of this paper are useful in the fields of economy, industry, academia and public policies. The paper thoroughly examined the factors causing delays in highway projects, offering insights for practitioners to identify best practices and mitigation strategies. These findings can guide investment and policy decisions for highway infrastructure projects, promoting a holistic approach to development. Additionally, this paper can help enhance research methods in studies about delays in road infrastructure projects.

The literature review in the paper used a qualitative method. The causes of road project delays, remedial action, context, methodology and theoretical foundation were all examined in this paper.

This study focuses on the self-organized cooperative consumption of platform participants on social media platform, and reveals how the brand owner cooperates with two-sided customers to achieve value co-creation.

The authors adopted a case study approach to explore how a Chinese beauty startup developed collaborative networks from 2013 to 2022, and tracked the the changes of network structure and cooperation mechanism.

The study finds that the brand owner cooperates with two-sided customers to integrate resources and establish diverse relational trust, which enhances the evolution of a heterogeneous collaborative network for value co-creation.

The study builds upon traditional dyadic actor-to-actor interactions between providers and customers, develops a novel interaction framework of actor-to-network to explain the value co-creation by collaborative networking, reveals the self-organized mechanism of cooperative consumption on social media.

Industrial Internet Platform (IIP) integrates various new information technologies and forms an ecosystem around the platform. It promotes the optimization of resource elements and the collaboration of industrial chains, driving traditional enterprises towards comprehensive Digital Transformation (DT). This research explores the mechanisms through which the Industrial Internet Platform enables the digital development of enterprises.

This study constructs an Industrial Internet Platform Ecosystem (IIPE) from an ecosystem perspective. Later, a systematic literature review was used to design a specific path for IIPE to enable enterprises' DT from the perspective of basic activities and organizational structure.

The results indicate that in IIPE there is a hierarchical structure in the enabling mechanism of IIP. Firstly, the IIPE enhances the digital capabilities of enterprises through the foundational activities of DT. Secondly, the IIPE promotes the adjustment in enterprise structure and strategic orientation for adapting to the DT.

More and more enterprises enter the IIPE and grow together in the ecosystem. As a result, the overall level of digitalization of the industry can be enhanced and all enterprises realize the expected benefits of DT.

Existing research recognized the role of IIP in enterprise management or production processes, but the DT of enterprises is not a single aspect. This research elaborates the mechanism of comprehensive DT of enterprises from the perspective of ecosystems and discovers specific paths for DT.

Traditional designs might not withstand earthquake forces adequately, potentially leading to structural damage. This paper aims to examine the impact of varying the base slab mass and the number of rubber layers in isolators on the performance of isolation systems to improve the seismic performance of buildings.

The isolated structure is modeled as a two-degree of freedom system, and its corresponding equation of motion is established. Displacement expressions for the base slab and roof are derived using the mode superposition method.

A base isolation system improves the buildings’ behavior, particularly when higher rubber layer numbers and a heavier base slab are assumed. At an excitation frequency of 8 rad/s, an increase in the rubber layer numbers from 9 to 11 led to a 30% reduction in relative displacement. At an excitation frequency of 6 rad/s, a 40% reduction in relative displacement was observed passing from a base slab mass (mb) of 7.5 tons with damping ratios of 12% and 10% in the first and second modes to a mass (mb) of 30 tons with lower damping ratios of 9.5% and 4.2%.

The high damping ratio in the isolation mode significantly increases the damping ratio of the fixed-base building. However, higher damping ratios in the first and second modes do not necessarily lead to better seismic performance. Besides, an increase in the base slab mass and the number of rubber layers enhances the dynamic response of the isolated structure by shifting its fundamental frequency away from the excitation frequency.

The emergence of live streaming commerce has injected promising impetus into rural development and attracted many rural streamers. This study aims to explore the influencing factors of rural streamers’ engagement intentions to help promote the sustainable development of rural live streaming commerce.

Grounded in the extended valence framework, this research employs a mixed-methods approach encompassing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In the qualitative phase, the authors conduct in-depth interviews with 15 rural streamers, employing data coding techniques to uncover underlying factors. Subsequently, in the quantitative phase, the authors analyze survey data from 282 rural streamers, subjecting hypotheses to validation through structural equation modeling.

The findings derived from the analysis of both interviews and questionnaires reveal that several platform qualities, including platform rural-aiding support, perceived effectiveness of dispute resolution, perceived interactivity and platform reputation, have a positive effect on trust in the platform and validate the extended valence framework in understanding rural streamers’ live streaming intention. In addition, ties with customers have a moderating effect. Specifically, the stronger the ties with customers, the stronger the positive effect of perceived benefits and the weaker the positive effect of trust in the platform on live streaming intention will be.

This study contributes to the rural live streaming commerce literature and trust research from the sellers’ perspective and provides practical implications for policymakers and live streaming platform managers on enhancing rural streamers’ participation.

A wealth of studies have identified numerous antecedents to online self-disclosure. However, the number of competing theoretical perspectives and inconsistent findings have hampered efforts to obtain a clear understanding of what truly influences online self-disclosure. To address this gap, this study draws on the antecedent-privacy concern-outcome (APCO) framework in a one-stage meta-analytical structural equation modeling (one-stage MASEM) study to test a nomological online self-disclosure model that assesses the factors affecting online self-disclosure.

Using the one-stage MASEM technique, this study conducts a meta-analysis of online self-disclosure literature that comprises 130 independent samples extracted from 110 articles reported by 53,024 individuals.

The results reveal that trust, privacy concern, privacy risk and privacy benefit are the important antecedents of online self-disclosure. Privacy concern can be influenced by general privacy concern, privacy experience and privacy control. Furthermore, moderator analysis indicates that technology type has moderating effects on the links between online self-disclosure and some of its drivers.

First, with the guidance of the APCO framework, this study provides a comprehensive framework that connects the most relevant antecedents underlying online self-disclosure using one-stage MASEM. Second, this study identifies the contextual factors that influence the effectiveness of the antecedents of online self-disclosure.

This study aimed to evaluate Algerian students' acceptance of blended learning (BL). It incorporated eight dimensions derived from the technology acceptance model (TAM) and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) models and involved validating a research tool consisting of 32 items.

Blended learning (BL) in higher education (HE) not only makes education more flexible and accessible but also enhances the overall quality of learning through diverse methods, preparing students for future digital work environments (Zhang et al., 2022). This study aimed to evaluate Algerian students' acceptance of BL. It incorporated eight dimensions derived from the TAM and UTAUT models and involved validating a research tool consisting of 32 items. The final implementation was conducted with 549 undergraduate and master’s students aged between 19 and 33. The results indicated that performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI) and facilitating conditions (FC) had a positive direct effect on behavioral intentions (BI). Moreover, BI positively affected actual acceptance (AA). Additionally, there were positive and significant indirect effects of FC on AA through the mediating variables perceived usefulness (PU), social influence (SI) on AA through BI and perceived ease of use (PEU) on AA through PU. However, EE had no significant indirect effect on AA through PU. Furthermore, gender was a significant moderating variable between SI and AA. There was no significant effect of students' residence on the relationships between PEU and PU and PEU and BI. The study offers valuable insights into educational practices and policies, concluding with practical recommendations to enhance the academic environment, informed by these study outcomes.

This study finds that the students' place of residence did not significantly moderate the relationships involving PEU. This suggests a uniform perception of BL’s ease of use among students, irrespective of their residential backgrounds. This uniformity is essential for the implementation of BL across diverse regions in Algeria, indicating that a one-size-fits-all approach to BL design might be effective.

Researchers measured the contribution of PU, PEU, PE, EE, SI, FC, BI, AA to know the direct and indirect effects among them, as well as the research populations. The questionnaire covered all the study variables, which were applied randomly at Batna 2 University.

This paper aims to highlight the factors affecting health and safety (H&S) and the SMART Technologies (ST) used to mitigate them in the construction industry through a range of selected papers to encourage readers and potential audiences to consider the need for intelligent technologies to minimize the risks of injuries, illnesses and severe harm in the construction industry.

This paper adopts a double systematic literature review (SLR) to analyse studies investigating the factors affecting H&S and the ST in the construction industry using databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct and Emerald Insight publication.

The SLR identified “fatal or focus five factors” that include objects Fall from heights (FFH) and trapped between objects; Falls, Trips and slips (FTS); Machinery/Equipment Malfunction and Moving Equipment; Pollutants: Chemicals, Airborne Dust, Asbestos; and Electrocution. The ST includes Safety Boots/SMART Glasses/SMART Helmet/SMART Vests/SMART PPE/SMART Watch, Mobile Apps, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR), Drones/Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Wearable Technology/Mobile Sensors help mitigate the risk posed by “Fatal five”. However, other factors within the scope of ST, such as Weather Conditions, Vibrations, Violence, Disease and illness, Fire and Explosion and Over Exertion, are yet to be adopted in the field.

SLR methodology limitations of not obtaining the most updated field knowledge are critical and are offset by choosing 72% of H&S and 92% of SM review literature post-2017. Limitations to capturing articles because of the restriction of database access: only English language search and journals that are not a part of the databases selected are acknowledged. However, key database search that recognizes rigorous peer-reviewed articles offset these limitations. The researcher’s Bias is acknowledged.

This paper unravels the construction H&S factors and their interlinks with ST, which would aid industry understanding and focus on mitigating associated risks. The paper highlights the Fatal five and trivial 15, which would help better understand the causes of the H&S risks. Further, the paper discusses ST’s connectivity, which would aid the organization’s overall H&S management. The practical and theoretical implications include a better understanding of all factors that affect H&S and ST available to help mitigate concerns. The operating managers could use the ST to reduce H&S risks at every construction process stage. This paper on H&S and ST and relationships can theorize that the construction industry is more likely to identify clear root causes of H&S and ST usage than previously. The theoretical implications include enhanced understanding for academics on H&S factors, ST and gaps in ST concerning H&S, which can be expanded to provide new insights into existing knowledge.

This paper highlights all factors affecting H&S and ST that help mitigate associated risks and identifies the “Fatal five” factors. The paper is the first to highlight the factors affecting H&S combined with ST in use and their interactions. The paper also identified factors within the ST scope that are yet to be explored.

This study aims to analyze online responses to gain insights into public attitudes and concerns regarding traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) among Hong Kong residents. By addressing gaps in understanding public sentiment, this study contributes to the development of effective health-care policies.

Responses were collected from Baby-Kingdom.com using Python, gathering 17,568 TCM-related comments from 2016 to 2023. Analysis involved an eight-theme codebook and sentiment and semantic network analyses with DiVoMiner.

Most responses expressed positive sentiments and attitudes toward TCM. The analysis revealed recurring topics related to conditioning and specific diseases, including gynecological problems. Clinic service quality, fair pricing and convenient locations were also highlighted.

This study examines the networked public sphere and the Theory of Planned Behavior regarding TCM, emphasizing online forums’ impact on attitudes and highlighting gaps in service access, using big data and an interdisciplinary approach.

The findings of this study from Baby-Kingdom.com emphasize the need to improve the accessibility of TCM-related discussions. An official platform for professionals is proposed, with government support for reliable information and partnerships with local universities to expand services.

This study provides valuable insights into the popularity of TCM in Hong Kong, which may encourage uptake and use of TCM services in the health-care sector in not only Hong Kong but also the Greater Bay Area, China and potentially other countries in the future.

Scholars have affirmed that a conceptualization of value co-creation in business relationships should reflect the nature and characteristics of interactional processes that occur in use. The advent of sales and marketing technologies, however, is changing the nature and dynamics of interactions. New trends in digitalization have played a significant role in emphasizing and facilitating the occurrence of business-to- business (B2B) collaborative or sharing economy. The B2B sharing economy and value co-creation are closely intertwined, as businesses harness the power of shared resources and collaboration to generate value in diverse ways. This study highlights the importance of going beyond value co-creation in studying B2B collaborative economy, unpacking the interconnected value processes that influence value co-creation. It also aims at showing the activities that characterize multiple joint value spheres among actors.

The study consists of 49 qualitative interviews with managers operating in different industries.

The paper shows that when considering digital B2B contexts, five joint value spheres in business relationships should be considered: a value co-creation, a value appropriation, a value communication, a value measurement and a value representation sphere. Each one is characterized by specific activities that are relevant from a managerial point of view.

This study highlights that value co-creation has often been over stressed when discussing business interactions, also with the advent of new technologies. Rather, this study offers a more comprehensive view of value co-creation that includes different value processes occurring in joint value spheres. These further processes are relevant because failure and success in business relationships within the B2B sharing economy are often dependent from activities outside the value co-creation process, which strongly affect it. Such knowledge will also open up new research venues and opportunities to better contribute to the practice of value management in business relationships.