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The commercial sharing service (CSS) represents an emerging business model in which users pay a minor fee to rent a product for a short period of time. Fashion CSSs enable individuals to rent various garments and accessories with the goal of enhancing one’s public image while saving money. Marketers have strived to popularize fashion CSSs, but concerns related to contamination have thwarted their efforts. Based on face consciousness theory, this research examines how consumers’ desire to enhance their public image (i.e. to “gain face”) can attenuate the negative impacts of contamination concerns and thus facilitate fashion CSS usage.

Two scenario-based studies were conducted to collect data. Participants were recruited via online survey platforms in mainland China. The hypotheses were tested by partial least squares (PLS) path modeling and linear regression analysis.

The analysis results revealed a two-stage mediation model. Contamination concerns were found to inhibit consumers’ participation in fashion-sharing by increasing their perceived risk, which further decreased the perceived value of the CSS. However, consumers’ desire to gain face can mitigate the negative (direct and indirect) effects of contamination concerns on CSS usage, facilitating CSS adoption.

Our findings suggest that eliciting consumers’ desire to gain face can promote fashion CSS usage and attenuate the negative impacts of contamination concerns. Moreover, consumers are less risk-averse and less concerned about shared pieces being contaminated when they seek to enhance their face through fashion products. Practical implications for fashion marketers are discussed.

Augmented reality (AR) technology presents novel opportunities for marketers to captivate consumers, enhancing their experiences with brands. Although recent research underscores consumers' favorable responses to AR within retail contexts, there remains a paucity of studies examining the specific factors motivating these responses, i.e. reasons for, such as the appeal of entertainment, trendiness, customization, interaction and augmentation quality. Conversely, reasons against AR acceptance, such as perceived lack of realism, skepticism or perceived deception, are also underexplored.

Guided by the behavioral reasoning theory, the current study delves into consumers' personal values and beliefs, their reasons for and reasons against using AR apps and how these factors influence their engagement and relationship performance with AR apps. The data were collected from 343 AR app users to test the developed theoretical framework.

Results reveal that while perceived value compatibility does not influence reasons for using AR apps, it negatively influences reasons against using AR apps and positively influences connectedness to AR apps. Interestingly, openness to change does not significantly influence users’ connection to AR apps, and no association was found between reasons-against and connectedness to AR apps and relationship performance. However, a positive relationship was observed between users’ connectedness to AR apps and their relationship performance.

By offering these insights, this study contributes to a foundational understanding of the behavioral intricacies and dynamic interaction patterns within the rapidly emerging AR user base.

The transition from fossil fuel-based energy systems to renewable energy sources, commonly referred to as the energy transition, is essential for combating climate change. However, comprehensive studies that thoroughly examine the financial mechanisms involved in this process are lacking. Despite the availability of various financial tools, there is a notable absence of extensive research that synthesizes and categorizes these mechanisms into broad groups.

A systematic literature review is used to explore a comprehensive framework for financial mechanisms related to the energy transition and their application across six stages of the process.

The framework of financial mechanisms for energy transition encompasses these six factors: public financing mechanisms, private financing mechanisms, market-based mechanisms, innovative financing mechanisms, risk mitigation instruments and institutional support and capacity building.

This is the first study that thoroughly reviewed the financial mechanisms involved in the energy transition process.

The purpose of this study is to systematically investigate the novel phenomenon of rail corrugation on small radius curves with rail joints in mountainous city metros, characterized by the coexistence of short and long wavelengths (30–40 mm and 150–200 mm) on the low rail.

The finite element model of the wheel-rail system in the section with rail joint is constructed based on field surveys. The friction-coupled vibration characteristics of the wheel-rail system are studied from the perspective of friction self-excited vibration of the wheel-rail system and feedback vibration of the rail irregularity.

The rail corrugation with short wavelength is primarily induced by the friction self-excited vibration of wheel-rail system. In contrast, the rail corrugation with long wavelength is predominantly caused by the feedback vibration of rail joint irregularity. Additionally, the feedback vibration of corrugated irregularity accelerates the progression of corrugation depth without triggering the emergence of rail corrugation with new wavelength.

The research advances the understanding of the vibration inducement behind rail corrugation in mountainous city metros.

Key core technology is the most important weapon of the country, and breaking through the “strangled” problem is one of the real problems that China’s emerging industries and enterprises must solve. Accurately identifying the “strangled” problem will help China accelerate the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and win the battle against key core technologies.

Combined with the characteristics of key core technologies, the key core technology evaluation system was constructed from four dimensions: technology innovation, technology radiation, technology economy and technology safety. We adopt the entropy TOPSIS method to evaluate the patents, and the patents with the top 5% scores are identified as key core technology patents. Then, this study identifies key core technology “strangled” problems in three dimensions: technology value advantage, competitive advantage and quantitative advantage.

Taking the patent data of the global new generation information technology industry from 2011 to 2023 as a sample, 178 moderately “strangled” technologies and 49 severely “strangled” technologies are selected. The study results are consistent with the current situation of the new generation information technology industry’s development, and verify the feasibility and reliability of the key core technology “strangled” problem identification model.

This study uses patent data to identify key core technologies and “Strangled” in the new generation information technology industry. It can provide a reference for relevant national departments and agencies, as well as universities and enterprises.

Data-driven models are increasingly being used to predict the fatigue life of many engineering components exposed to multiaxial loading. However, owing to their high data requirements, they are cost-prohibitive and underperforming for application scenarios with limited data. Therefore, it is essential to develop an advanced model with good applicability to small-sample problems for multiaxial fatigue life assessment.

Drawing inspiration from the modeling strategy of empirical multiaxial fatigue models, a modular neural network-based model is proposed with assembly of three sub-networks in series: the first two sub-networks undergo pretraining using uniaxial fatigue data and are then connected to a third sub-network trained on a few multiaxial fatigue data. Moreover, general material properties and necessary loading parameters are used as inputs in place of explicit damage parameters, ensuring the universality of the proposed model.

Based on extensive experimental evaluations, it is demonstrated that the proposed model outperforms empirical models and conventional data-driven models in terms of prediction accuracy and data demand. It also holds good transferability across various multiaxial loading cases.

The proposed model explores a new avenue to incorporate uniaxial fatigue data into the data-driven modeling of multiaxial fatigue life, which can reduce the data requirement under the promise of maintaining good prediction accuracy.

Instrumental and emotional information influence paradoxically on people’s decision-making, and similar influences are more evident in e-commerce scenarios where physical information is limited. This study aims to construct a systematic explanatory framework for the influence of multidimensional recommendation information diversity (RID) on users' click and purchase decisions based on the social support theory (SST).

This study analyses 453,176 data from 67,079 users of a Chinese e-commerce platform, applying lasso algorithmic techniques and cross-fit partialling-out (XPO) regression for empirical analysis.

The study finds that instrumental support information diversity (ISID) and emotional support information diversity (ESID) play divergent roles, and that the effects of both on user decision-making are inconsistent with mode-flip and marginal change. Differences in users' information craving and information overload processing mechanisms for instrumental and emotional information, leading to an inverted U-shaped effect of ISID on consumption decisions, while ESID has a U-shaped effect. Additionally, supplier certification eliminates the marginal change in ESID, and products with a high information standardisation degree eliminate the marginal change in ISID.

Research results reveal the opposing roles of the two types of RID and the application boundaries of their roles, providing empirical evidence for academic research.

The purpose of this study is to explore the interfacial adhesion between superhydrophobic coatings FC-X (X = 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%) and the concrete substrate, along with the impact of FC-X on the water repellency characteristics of the concrete substrate.

One synthetic step was adopted to prepare novel F-SiO₂ NP hybrid fluororesin coating. The impact of varying mass fractions of F-SiO₂ NPs on the superhydrophobicity of FC-X was analyzed and subsequently confirmed through water contact angle (WCA) measurements. Superhydrophobic coatings were simply applied to the concrete substrate using a one-step spraying method. The interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate was analyzed using tape pasting tests and abrasion resistance measurements. The influence of FC-X on the water repellency of the concrete substrate was investigated through measurements of water absorption, impermeability and electric flux.

FC-4% exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity, with a WCA of 157.5° and a sliding angle of 2.3°. Compared to control sample, FC-X exhibits better properties, including chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

This study offers a thorough investigation into the practical implications of enhancing the durability and water repellency of concrete substrates by using superhydrophobic coatings, particularly FC-4%, which demonstrates exceptional superhydrophobicity alongside remarkable chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

Through the examination of the interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate, along with an assessment of FC-X’s impact on the water repellency of the concrete, this paper provides valuable insights into the practical application of superhydrophobic coatings in enhancing the durability and performance of concrete materials.

Due to the close connection between urban cluster and carbon emissions (CEs) but a lack of study on it of the construction industry, this paper aims to explore the relationship between the polycentric spatial structure (PSS) of the urban clusters and CEs of the construction industry (CECI).

This research uses panel data of 10 Chinese urban clusters from 2006–2021, calculates their PSSs in the aspects of economy and employment and adopts a panel regression model to explore the effect of the spatiotemporal characteristics of the PSSs on the CECI.

First, the CECI in 10 Chinese urban clusters showed a rising trend in general, and the CECI in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) was much higher than those in the rest of urban clusters. Second, both Shandong Peninsula (SP) and Guangdong-Fujian-Zhejiang (GFZ) exhibited high degrees of polycentric characteristics, while Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) showed weaker degrees. Third, the results demonstrated that the polycentric development of urban clusters did not help reduce the CECI but rather promote the CE. The polycentric index, considering the linear distance from the main center to sub center, had a more significant impact on the CECI.

Previous studies have investigated the impact of urban spatial structure (USS) on CEs; however, few of them have studied in the field of construction industry. Moreover, most research of CEs have concentrated at the national and provincial levels, with fewer studies on urban clusters. This paper contributes to this knowledge by investigating how the PSS of urban cluster influence the CECI.

Explore the impact of Party organization embedding on firm green governance.

The regression analysis method.

The findings show that Party organization embedding significantly enhances the green governance effects of firms, with this effect being more pronounced in environments with high-quality internal control. Moreover, the study reveals that Party organization embedding facilitates green governance through mechanisms such as reducing agency costs and optimizing management decisions. Agency costs have a negative transmission effect, while management decisions have a positive transmission effect, with the quality of internal control playing a crucial moderating role.

Most existing studies on firm green governance have focused on aspects such as the heterogeneity of management teams (Liu, 2019; Wu et al., 2019), executive green cognition (Fineman and Clarke, 1996; Huang and Wei, 2023), organizational structure and the involvement of controlling families (Bertrand and Schoar, 2006; Symeou et al., 2019), with limited attention to the unique role of Party organizations’ incentive and restraint mechanisms, supervisory power and management functions in firm green governance. Additionally, while scholars have examined the impact of political embedding in firms, including Party organization embedding as a specific form of political embedding, and find that it affects various aspects of business performance (Chang and Wong, 2004; Gu and Yang, 2023), governance quality (Li et al., 2020; Huang and Yang, 2024), agency costs (Qian, 2000; Wang and Ma, 2014), excessive management compensation (Chang and Wong, 2004; Chen et al., 2014), social externalities and audit needs (Faccio, 2006; Cheng, 2022), there is still insufficient discussion on how Party organization embedding promotes firm green governance. Particularly in the context of China’s unique system and using Chinese data, there is a need for more in-depth research on the impact of Party organization embedding on firm green governance. This paper addresses this research gap by empirical analysis.

Overall, this study has significant theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it enriches the literature on Party organization embedding and firm green governance, filling a gap in the intersection research of firm governance and green governance. Practically, on the one hand, this paper’s findings demonstrate that the involvement of Party organizations in firm governance plays a significant role in enhancing green governance. This supports the modernization of firm governance in China, establishes a micro-level foundation for achieving the strategic goals of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality” and offers empirically-backed insights into green transformation for policymakers. The research also provides practical policy recommendations for strengthening Party building efforts within firms and optimizing government-business relations, thereby facilitating the deep integration of Party building with business operations. On the other hand, this study highlights that the unique feature of China’s corporate governance system, Party organization embedding, can effectively enhance green governance. This offers empirical support for leveraging the strengths of China’s firm governance model and provides valuable governance strategies for firms in other countries and regions to improve their green governance practices.

This study’s social implications are significant as it highlights the broader societal benefits that arise from integrating Party organization involvement into firm governance structures, especially within the context of green governance. By improving the green governance practices of firms, Party organization embedding helps to address pressing environmental issues such as pollution, carbon emissions and resource depletion, which ultimately contributes to healthier living environments and a more sustainable society. The emphasis on green governance supports China’s national strategy for sustainable development and demonstrates a governance model that balances economic growth with environmental stewardship. Additionally, the study underscores the role of Party organizations in fostering social responsibility, equity and cohesion by ensuring that firm decision-making aligns with both economic and social welfare goals. This model of governance provides a framework that can serve as a reference for other countries and regions looking to enhance environmental protection efforts while maintaining social stability and economic progress.

This study offers original insights by exploring the distinctive role of Party organization embedding in enhancing firm green governance within the unique context of China’s political and economic systems. Unlike previous research, which has primarily focused on conventional governance structures, this paper delves into the underexplored area of how Party organizations influence firm-level green governance. By examining the direct and indirect effects of Party organization embedding, this study expands current understanding of corporate governance models that integrate political structures, providing a novel perspective on how firms can achieve both economic and environmental objectives. The findings not only contribute to the literature on green governance but also present a valuable model for emerging economies that are pursuing sustainable development. This research thus provides a meaningful addition to the dialogue on corporate governance innovation and environmental responsibility.