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This chapter explores how the development of football fandom for the Chinese national team and local football clubs is strongly associated with societal changes. Although the performances of Chinese football teams, especially the national team, have failed to impress the world, football remains the most popular because of millions of supporters with loyalty and passion. Most studies related to fans mainly focus on the economic and political implications of spectatorship along with the rise of China. Nevertheless, few articles are available to answer the fundamental questions, such as ‘When did these supporters come out?’ and ‘What were the factors of the development of fandom?’. By going through archival records and published documents over the last decades, this chapter offers a comprehensive and historical analysis of the development of football fandom in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and deals with these unanswered questions. As such, this chapter does not intend to be the most authoritative one but is one of the rare sources to lay down the foundation for research on Chinese football fandom. Furthermore, this chapter also proves that studies on football fandom can be a useful window for observing Chinese society.

This paper aims to explore whether, how and when influencers’ value co-creation behavior in a post – influencers investing operant resources to enhance the value gained from using the product – shapes consumers’ responses toward an influencer’s recommendation. Based on value co-creation theory and consumer inference, this paper proposes that consumers infer influencers have more expertise with and more favorable attitude toward the product from value co-creation. Consequently, such behavior can foster consumer engagement and favorable attitude toward the recommended product.

The authors collected real-world data and conducted four sets of experimental studies. In the experimental studies, the presence of an influencer’s value co-creation behavior (i.e. co-creation vs. control) was manipulated to test the causal effect and mechanisms of co-creation on engagement and product attitude.

Results show that influencers’ value co-creation behavior positively affects consumers’ engagement and attitudes toward the product. These effects are driven by perceived influencer’s expertise with and favorability toward the product (Studies 1 and 2). Co-creating utilitarian value is more effective than co-creating hedonic value (Studies 3A and 3B). In addition, influencers with a larger number of followers benefit more from co-creation behavior than those with fewer followers (Study 4).

This research adds to the literature on value co-creation by investigating how, why and when influencers’ value co-creation enhances consumer responses to the post. Our investigation concretizes value co-creation behavior in the context of influencer marketing and demonstrates its signaling effect with nuanced role of value type in shaping the effect. The findings provide a novel cue that influencers can use to enhance consumer responses to their posts.

Brands should encourage influencers to focus on value-in-use co-creation when promoting their products. While emphasizing value co-creation in influencer partnership, brands should also carefully consider the type and size of influencers they collaborate with based on the nature of their products and target audience. The research findings also provide practical implications for influencers, offering guidance on how they can optimize their content creation strategies and enhance their effectiveness in influencer marketing collaborations.

This research enriches understanding of value co-creation in the context of influencer marketing and the role of content specifics in influencers’ posts. The findings provide a novel cue that influencers can use to enhance consumer responses to their posts.

This paper aims to provide a reference for the development of digital transformation from the perspective of manufacturing process links.

This paper applies canonical correlation analysis based on digital technology patents in the key links of manufacturing industries (product design, procurement, product manufacturing, warehousing and transportation, and wholesale and retail) and the related indicators of economic benefits of regions in China.

(1) The degree of digitalization of manufacturing process links is significantly correlated with economic benefits. (2) The improvement of the degree of digitalization in the “product design” link, the “warehousing and transportation” link, the “product manufacturing” link and the “wholesale and retail” link has significant impacts on the economic benefits of manufacturing industry. (3) The digital degree of the “procurement” link has no obvious influence on the economic benefits of manufacturing industry.

The research results can provide reference for the formulation and implementation of micro policies. The strategy of improving the level of digital transformation of key links of manufacturing industry is put forward to better promote both the digital transformation of manufacturing industry and economic development.

This paper innovatively studies the relationship between digitalization of manufacturing process links and economic benefits. The findings can provide theoretical and empirical support for the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry and high-quality development of economy.

Firepower conflicts usually decay the firepower plan's enforceability, thus incurring high survival risks. Previous studies have shown little attention to avoiding firepower conflicts during the weapon target assignment process. This research proposes a new constrained optimization model named Firepower Conflict Free WTA (FCFWTA) and designs a Survival Evolution (SE) strategy for Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm (AFSA) to solve the complex constrained WTA problem. In this way, commanders can get more reliable firepower assignment decision support.

A new constrained optimization model named Firepower Conflict Free WTA (FCFWTA) is constructed. FCFWTA unifies firepower decision variables for different kinds of weapons and takes the firing time point as a clue for firepower conflict checking. The objective function of FCFWTA is the weighted sum of the minimum threat value rest rate (RRTV), maximum hit efficiency (HE) and minimum latest interception time percentage (PLT). Since previous algorithms do not check and resolve intermediate results during optimization, an adapted strategy named Survival Evolution is designed. It enables making full use of the limited firepower without adjusting the coordination scenario in execution.

The proposed method offers significant advantages in two aspects. Firstly, it effectively enhances the optimization results of WTA in the absence of firepower conflicts. Evidence from Figure. 6 confirms that without the proposed method, there is a high likelihood of generating invalid outcomes. After implementing firepower conflict check and resolution, there is a substantial degradation in the objective function value. Secondly, the method excels at equitably distributing firepower among multiple targets while also enhancing the overall interception probability, irrespective of the varying complexities presented by different scenarios. This ability to maintain balance and efficiency is crucial for tackling defense-related issues.

Specifically, SE is tailored for MWMT problem under time and space constraints. This approach diverges significantly from conventional MWMT research, which typically focuses solely on ammunition quantity or firing range. Consequently, the primary objective was to verify the efficacy of this method. Test results indicated that SE does not exhibit uniform performance across different algorithms; while it significantly enhances the efficacy with PSO and AFSA, its influence is considerably diminished when applied to GA. It might be attributed to the inherent randomness associated with crossover and mutation, which can increase the likelihood of firepower conflicts, coupled with SE's reorganization of the chromosome.

The work described was original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part.

To address the shortcomings of existing academic user information needs identification methods, such as low efficiency and high subjectivity, this study aims to propose an automated method of identifying online academic user information needs.

This study’s method consists of two main parts: the first is the automatic classification of academic user information needs based on the bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model. The second is the key content extraction of academic user information needs based on the improved MDERank key phrase extraction (KPE) algorithm. Finally, the applicability and effectiveness of the method are verified by an example of identifying the information needs of academic users in the field of materials science.

Experimental results show that the BERT-based information needs classification model achieved the highest weighted average F1 score of 91.61%. The improved MDERank KPE algorithm achieves the highest F1 score of 61%. The empirical analysis results reveal that the information needs of the categories “methods,” “experimental phenomena” and “experimental materials” are relatively high in the materials science field.

This study provides a solution for automated identification of academic user information needs. It helps online academic resource platforms to better understand their users’ information needs, which in turn facilitates the platform’s academic resource organization and services.

Facilitated by image retouch tools, social media influencers can digitally enhance their self-image in product recommendation posts. This paper proposes that image enhancement may serve as a cue for the audience to assess the authenticity of the influencer (“true to oneself”), which further affects the influencer's product recommendation effectiveness (i.e. attitudes toward the post and recommended product).

Experiment 1 examines the effect of image enhancement on consumers' perceived influencer authenticity and product recommendation effectiveness. Experiment 2 considers the moderating role of post type, examining the effects in informational versus storytelling posts.

Consumers perceived an influencer to be more authentic when the image is not enhanced; in turn, consumers reported more favorable attitudes toward the post and the recommended product upon reading the post. The effects are moderated by post type: the effect of image enhancement (through perceived influencer authenticity) exists in posts using an informational message format but is attenuated for those using a storytelling message format.

This research enriches the literature on authenticity cues by documenting a novel visual cue and contributes to influencer marketing by identifying a nuanced interactive effect between image enhancement and post type on recommendation effectiveness.

In this paper, the brain potential changes caused by touching fabrics for handle evaluation were recorded by event related potential (ERP) method, compared with subjective evaluation scores and physical index of KES, explore the cognitive mechanism of the transformation of tactile sensation into neural impulses triggered by subtle mechanical stimuli such as material, texture, density and morphology in fabrics. By combining subjective evaluation of fabric tactile sensation, objective physical properties of fabrics and objective neurobiological signals, explore the neurophysiological mechanism of tactile cognition and the signal characteristics and time process of tactile information processing.

The ERP technology was first proposed by a British psychologist named Grey Walter. It is an imaging technique of noninvasive brain cognition, whose potential changes are related to the human physical and mental activities. ERP is different from electroencephalography (EEG) and evoked potentials (EP) on the fact that it cannot only record stimulated physical information which is transmitted to brain, but also response to the psychological activities which related to attention, identification, comparison, memory, judgment and cognition as well as to human’s neural physiological changes which are caused by cognitive process of the feeling by stimulation.

According to potential changes in the cerebral cortex evoked by touching four types of silk fabrics, human brain received the physical stimulation in the early stage (50 ms) of fabrics handle evaluation, and the P50 component amplitude showed negative correlation with fabric smoothness sensations. Around 200 ms after tactile stimulus onset, the amplitude of P200 component show positive correlation with the softness sensation of silk fabrics. The relationship between the amplitude of P300 and the sense of smoothness and softness need further evidence to proof.

In this paper, the brain potential changes caused by touching fabrics for handle evaluation were recorded by event related potential (ERP) method, compared with subjective evaluation scores and physical index of KES, the results shown that the maximum amplitude of P50 component evoked by fabric touching is related to the fabrics’ smoothness and roughness emotion, which means in the early stage processing of tactile sensation, the rougher fabrics could arouse more attention. In addition, the amplitude of P200 component shows positive correlation with the softness sensation of silk fabrics.

Online complaints have emerged as a pivotal avenue for customers to voice their dissatisfaction. In this context, bystanders, as third-party observers, actively engage in evaluating and judging these complaints. However, studies pertaining to bystanders in online customer complaints remain limited. Therefore, this study aims to integrate deontic justice theory and attribution theory to construct a research model of bystanders’ support for online customer complaints.

Leveraging a questionnaire and two scenario experiments, SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 were used to examine the relationship between bystanders’ moral outrage and their support for online customer complaints, the mediating role of responsibility attribution and the moderating role of experience similarity and online anonymity.

Based on the statistical analysis, the results show that bystanders’ moral outrage significantly enhances their support for online customer complaints; responsibility attribution plays a mediating role between moral outrage and bystanders’ support for online customer complaints; experience similarity and online anonymity can moderate the relationship between moral outrage and bystanders’ support for online customer complaints.

The findings of this study not only enrich the literature on online customer complaints but also provide valuable insights for companies to understand the diffusion of online complaints and effective strategies with which to address them.

This chapter describes practical lessons for leading transformational innovation in industrial firms. These lessons result from theory-building empirical research based on published studies and the authors’ personal observations. These latter are the results of interviews with over 100 senior managers. The research also discriminates between the capabilities for leading core, adjacent and transformational innovations. In practice, each form requires different leadership and skills to ensure success. In the past, firms that use this approach have been described as ambidextrous. However, this oversimplifies the situation rather than considering the continuum of innovation approaches within a firm necessary to ensure long-term sustainability. This is because firms must innovate long-term, deliver ongoing core innovation in their existing portfolio, and evolve their value propositions and business models through adjacent innovation.

Purpose: The prominence of quality education for building sustainable development is undeniable and is distinctly pointed out in 1 of the 14 sustainable development goals (SDGs). In the same context, this study intends to investigate the role of university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, student satisfaction, and perceived employability in enhancing sustainability in higher education.

Need of the Study: To evaluate how student satisfaction mediates the relationship between university commitment, perceived organisational prestige, and perceived employability with sustainable university institutes.

Methodology: An adapted questionnaire was used in this study to capture the perception of 458 management graduates selected through the purposive sampling method. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to analyse the data with the help of Smart PLS software.

Findings: The results of this study show that student satisfaction is the strongest predictor of sustainable university institutes. University commitment was found to lead to student satisfaction significantly. Furthermore, student satisfaction wasn’t found to play the role of mediator in the proposed model.

Practical Implications: This study aims to fulfil theoretical, research, and management implications for students, higher education institutes (HEIs), and policymakers. HEIs are recommended to instil university commitment, perceived organisational prestige and student satisfaction via various practices and amendments in their curriculum. Students are recommended to enhance their perceived employability to achieve career sustainability.