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This paper explores how the existence of a second-hand market can affect remanufacturing decisions for durable goods in the presence of patent protection.

The authors construct a dynamic decision model between a durable goods original manufacturer and a durable goods remanufacturer considering the characteristics of the multi-cycle uses of new durable goods and remanufactured durable goods.

The results show that (1) the second-hand market compresses the cost space of a durable goods original manufacturer and a remanufacturer; (2) when the second-hand market exists, the optimal pricing of new durable goods is reduced, the optimal pricing of remanufactured durable goods is increased and the patent cost of each unit of durable goods increases and (3) the presence of the second-hand market will increase the original manufacturer's and remanufacturer's profits.

The research conclusion has certain reference value for the production strategy selection of each enterprise in the process of patented product remanufacturing and the government's fiscal policy formulation at each stage of the remanufacturing industry's development.

Employing the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) framework, this study examines the potential differences between two groups of hotel guests – business and leisure travelers – in terms of factors influencing their intention to purchase hotel products on Douyin (TikTok) in China.

Data gathered from 700 Chinese hotel guests was analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and multigroup analysis (MGA).

The MGA results reveal that three newly added variables – personalization, perceived interactivity and perceived creativity – significantly influence the purchase intention of leisure travelers but not business travelers. Regarding the conventional UTAUT2 variables, leisure travelers are more influenced by hedonic motivation and price value in their purchasing decisions. In contrast, performance expectancy and effort expectancy have a greater impact on the decision-making process of business travelers than their leisure counterparts.

Theoretically, this paper is among the first to explore traveler types as moderators in the purchase of hotel products on Douyin. Practically, the findings offer valuable guidance for hotel marketers aiming to leverage Douyin to promote hotel products to these two different traveler segments.

Instead of using “one-size-fits-all” strategies, hotel managers should design marketing strategies that address the diverse needs of business and leisure travelers on Douyin. By implementing this strategy, they can effectively attract target customers and, in turn, increase hotel revenue.

This study expands the UTAUT2 framework and contributes to the scarce knowledge about the differences between business and leisure travelers regarding the relative importance of factors that influence their purchase intention for hotel products on Douyin among business and leisure travelers.

This study investigates the service quality dimensions of hotel resorts in renowned beach destinations of Thailand. It also explores the relationship between review text sentiment expressed in online platforms and the satisfaction ratings provided for those reviews.

The study employs a two-step analysis approach: first, supervised and unsupervised machine learning via support vector machine (SVM) and latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) are used to identify service quality dimensions, and second, SmartPLS with PROCESS macro is applied to analyze the moderating roles of quality signals and reviewer’s experience on the relationship between sentiment and satisfaction rating. The dataset comprises 102,179 online reviews from TripAdvisor, focusing on 187 selected hotels rated from 3 to 5 stars.

Eight service quality dimensions were identified, including leisure activities, tangibles and surroundings, reliability, responsiveness, service process, food, empathy and ambience. The study underscores that the service process stands as the sole dimension exhibiting negative sentiment. Furthermore, the analysis revealed a robust positive association between sentiment of review texts and satisfaction, and reviewers’ experience and brand affiliation influenced the relationship between customer sentiment and satisfaction.

Hotel managers should focus efforts on maintaining tangible aspects while enhancing existing service quality level of other dimensions, particularly those related to intangible elements. Independent hotels might implement quality audit to ensure that service quality gaps are monitored.

This study contributes an examination of the moderating roles of quality signals and reviewer’s experience on the relationship between review sentiment and satisfaction rating in online reviews.

This paper aims to investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) services and digital finance affect the development of international tourism.

The two-way fixed effect panel regression model, spatial econometric model, panel threshold regression model and panel quantile regression model are used. Data on tourism, economic and social development in 198 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020 are analyzed.

This study finds that digital economy including ICT services and digital finance has significantly promoted the development of international tourism industry, while there is a negative spatial spillover effect. The promotion effect of international tourism increases significantly after digital innovation reaches the threshold value. International tourism is benefiting more from digital economy with the development of international tourism industry.

The development quality of international tourism industry has not been analyzed due to data limitations, and the mechanism has not been tested.

This study creatively reveals the development of international tourism industry in the digital economy era from ICT services and digital finance perspectives. This study also shows the spatial, nonlinear and asymmetric relationship between digital economy and international tourism.

Silicon-containing groups were introduced into fluoroacrylate polymer to further improve the comprehensive performance of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) for expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) bonding.

A series of silicon-containing fluorinated acrylic copolymers were synthesized through free radical solution polymerization with vinyloxy trimethylsilane, allyltrimethylsilane, 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate or 1,3,5-tris(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl) methylcyclotrisiloxane as silicon monomers, and comprehensive performance of the copolymers was evaluated based on Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), gel permeation chromatography, glass transition temperatures (T_g), differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, water contact angle, the track, 180° peel strength, and shear holding power.

Based on the FTIR and XPS results, it is confirmed that the silicon monomers were successfully introduced into the fluorinated acrylate copolymer. XPS analysis indicated that the silicon groups had the tendency to enrich on the surface of the film, thereby reducing the F content on the film surface. The glass transition temperatures (T_g) of the PSAs increased when silicon monomers were introduced, while the thermal stability declined. The contact angles of the acrylic PSA films were increased with the introduction of silicon monomers. From the perspective of bonding performance, the track, 180° peel strength and shear holding power decreased to varying degrees compared to silicon-free PSA, except significantly elevated holding power with MPS as the silicon monomer.

Silicon-containing fluorinated acrylic copolymers were synthesized, and the comprehensive performance was evaluated as PSAs of ePTFE for the first time.

This study aims to investigate the effect of powder recycling on the microstructure of plasma-sprayed Ni625-WC composite coating and to verify the feasibility of Ni625-WC powder recycling by comparing the corrosion resistance of the coatings in high-temperature and pressure CO₂ environment.

Recycling powder is an efficient way to improve the utilization rate of metal powder during plasma spraying. The plasma-sprayed Ni625-WC composite coatings with original powder (OC) and recovered powder (RC) were analytically compared by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The corrosion resistance of the Ni625-WC composite coatings was characterized in a self-designed high-temperature and pressure autoclave by an electrochemical workstation.

The results showed that there is massive M₂₃C₆ in OC and acicular M₂₃C₆ in RC. The WC particles in RC are more uniformly distributed, and the area ratios of WC particles to Inconel 625 matrix are 2.37% higher than OC. RC showed high corrosion resistance, and the recycling of Ni625-WC powder is feasible.

The feasibility of Ni625-WC powder recycling was verified from the microstructure evolution and electrochemical behavior of the coatings.

A popular production model for high-tech manufacturers is that they move most production lines abroad to produce formal products for sale and just keep a few production lines in headquarters to manufacture sample products for new product development. Under such a production model, the paper aims to develop a selection model of International Air Express (IAE) for high-tech manufacturers in airfreight of sample products using the fuzzy best-worst method (BWM).

In this paper, an assessment model based on the fuzzy BWM approach is proposed for high-tech manufacturers in selecting airfreight carriers for the shipping of sample products. Further, one high-tech electronic manufacturer in Taiwan was empirically investigated to validate the assessment model.

The result indicates that electronics manufacturer pays more attention to Promptness, Mutual trust, Freight rate and Financial status of fixed assets when selecting IAEs. Besides, FedEx is argued to be the most preferred IAE for the transportation of sample products. Based on the findings, some practical management implications were discussed.

Some literature limitations should be addressed. Initially, the adoption of the fuzzy BWM assumes independence among criteria. Nonetheless, this assumption is not yet to confirm in this study. Accordingly, this limitation leaves room for improvement in future studies. Further, in this paper, five experienced experts from the Radiant Opto-Electronics Corporation (ROEC) case were empirically surveyed. To ensure the validity of the surveying, this paper adopted an interviewing survey instead of a traditional mailed survey. However, more representative samples are still necessary to confirm the empirical results in future research.

Firstly, the proposed research model provides a systematic framework to the decision-making process, which assists high-tech manufacturers in identifying the most suitable IAEs based on multiple criteria. It has been illustrated that high-tech companies deliver their sample products requiring timely and secure means of transport. In practice, manufacturers can assess various IAEs considering some main factors, such as Operational Flexibility (OF), Partner Relationship (PR), Transportation Capability (TC) and Management, using fuzzy BWM. This process ensures the selection of IAEs aligning with their logistical needs and business priorities, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Secondly, empirical results from the ROEC case indicate that electronics manufacturer pays more attention to Promptness, Mutual trust, Freight rate and Financial status of fixed assets when selecting IAEs. Besides, FedEx is argued to be the most preferred IAE for transportation of sample products. In other words, ROEC should consider establishing long-term contracts with preferred IAEs (i.e. FedEx) to secure favorable rates and service commitments. On top of that, results not only provide practical information for manufacturers in selecting IAEs but also for IAE partners to improve their service policies.

The results not only provide practical information for high-tech manufacturers in selecting airfreight carriers but also for the airfreight carriers to improve their service quality.

This study aims to investigate the drivers of bank automation system performance expectancy compared to that of bank employees. The purpose is to shed light on the role played by consumers' cognitive schema on automation that is the perfect automation schema (PAS).

A survey was administered to about 500 Italian subjects to measure their PAS; financial knowledge, anxiety, and security; and sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables. Ordered probit regressions and an instrumental variable two-stage least squares regression are run.

The analyses reveal that cognitive schemas play a crucial role in consumer expectations in banking. Individuals with stronger PAS tend to have more positive expectations about bank automation performance compared to employee performance. Financial anxiety and knowledge positively affect bank automation performance expectancy while women, older people, and financially insecure subjects have poor expectations of automated banking systems.

This study extends the understanding of key consumer characteristics that affect bank automation performance expectancy compared to that of bank employees in services delivery in the Italian context. Moreover, it provides useful results for researchers, practitioners, banking institutions, and regulators.

This study aims to examine the relationship between managerial ability and innovation efficiency, the mediating effect of digital transformation and the moderating effect of internal control.

This study collected A-share manufacturing listed companies in China from 2008 to 2019 and analyzed the data by means of multiple regression analysis, mediating effect test, moderating effect test and heterogeneity test. Finally, the authors conducted robustness test by remeasuring key variables and adding control variables.

The empirical results show that the higher managerial ability can improve innovation efficiency, internal control has a positive moderating effect and digital transformation plays a partial mediating effect on the relationship between managerial ability and innovation efficiency. Specially, it is found that the mediating effect of digital transformation is not significant in non-state-owned firms.

This study suggests that it is necessary to focus on the managerial ability in terms of both cultivation and supervision, to further deepen the digital transformation from the aspects of firms, government and society, especially to support the digital transformation of non-state-owned firms, and to make efforts to improve the corporate governance mechanism and internal control system, so as to better comprehensively realize the improvement of enterprise innovation efficiency.

Based on the mediating effect analysis of digital transformation and the moderating effect analysis of internal control, this study explores the role of managerial ability on innovation efficiency from a new perspective, expanding the related theoretical framework and research boundaries.

This study investigates the impact of customer stability on the cost of debt and the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on the above relationship.

An empirical analysis based on the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model is conducted using China’s A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2007 to 2021.

The results indicate that customer stability significantly inhibits the cost of debt, and the higher the environmental uncertainty, the more significant the inhibitory effect of customer stability on the cost of debt. The results of heterogeneity analyses indicate that the more intense the industry competition, the higher the customer concentration or the older the average customer age, the more significant the inhibiting effect of customer stability on the cost of debt.

This study highlights the importance of customer relationship management and supply chain risk management, which have both theoretical and managerial implications. Despite its contributions, this study has limitations, such as China’s institutional context limits, which the generalisability of our results, and the sample size for this study is small because of limitations in measuring customer stability.

Existing literature has not yet reached a consistent conclusion on how customer relationships affect the cost of debt, and such studies are mainly centered around perspectives such as customer concentration and the contagion effect of supply chains. This study constructs an indicator of customer stability using detailed information on the top five customers of China’s A-share listed companies and dynamically examines the impact of customer stability on the cost of debt, which expands the research on the influencing factors of the cost of debt, the economic consequences of customer stability and the theory of customer relationship management.