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Nano graphitic-carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is an emerging lubrication technology with excellent performance and significant potential for future applications. This study aims to investigate the effect of nano g-C₃N₄ as a lubricant additive on the wear performance of bearing steel disk.

Various mass fractions of g-C₃N₄ were introduced into the base oil. Combining tribological testing, rheological testing and surface analysis methods, the anti-wear properties and lubrication mechanisms were analyzed.

Transmission electron microscopy images revealed that the size of the nanoparticles of g-C₃N₄ ranges from 10 to 100 nm. Phase analysis of the g-C₃N₄ sample was conducted using X-ray diffraction. Further, 1.0% mass fraction of g-C₃N₄ in the base oil provides excellent anti-wear and friction-reducing performance. Compared to the base oil alone, it reduces the average friction coefficient by 63.8% and decreases the wear rate by 43.1%, significantly reducing the depth and width of the wear scar. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope analysis revealed that the oil sample containing nano g-C₃N₄ can form a lubricating film on the sliding surface of bearing steel after wear, which enhances the lubricating properties of the base oil.

The synergistic effect of the base oil and nanoparticles reduces friction and wear and is expected to extend the service life of bearing steel. These findings suggest that incorporating nano g-C₃N₄ as a lubricant additive offers significant potential for improving the performance of mechanical components.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-12-2024-0456/

This paper aims to examine the level of awareness and determinants of the actual adoption of fintech services. This paper further focuses on how usages of different kind of fintech services fulfills the business needs of the micro-entrepreneurs of urban slum dwellers of Uttarakhand.

The research investigated the predictive significance of actual adoption of fintech services using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and prospect theory framework. Data was collected from 80 micro-entrepreneurs of urban slum areas of Uttarakhand, using an adapted semi-structured questionnaire. For analysis of data partial least square structural equal modeling has been used.

This paper finds that different fintech services have different levels of awareness whereas payment, regulation and market provision-related fintech services have high awareness. The main drivers for adopting fintech are services trust (ST) and behavioral intention (BI). BI significantly influences fintech adoption, while ST positively impacts BI, actual usage and facilitating conditions; perceived risk, however, negatively affects ST. The widely used fintech services are payment-based fintech (unified payments interface), followed by regulatory fintech (Khatabook app). Fintech effectively serves the business needs of micro-entrepreneurs in the urban slums of Uttarakhand with innovative product solutions.

The findings of this study are valuable for various fintech providers. These results can serve as a roadmap to strengthen fintech services in the broader population, including niche market segments.

This study uniquely contributes to the literature that addresses the issues of entrepreneurs of the lower strata of society through the use of fintech services.

Social media usage has been documented to affect the psychological well-being of its users. This study aims to examine how social media overload influences cognitive fatigue among individuals in Malaysia.

This study employed a comprehensive research framework based on the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) model to examine how perceived overload affects social media cognitive fatigue through emotional exhaustion and anxiety. Survey data were gathered from 451 social media users in Malaysia, and data analysis was performed using PLS-SEM.

The findings revealed that information overload, communication overload and interruption overload are antecedents of emotional exhaustion. Communication overload, interruption overload and cognitive overload were identified as antecedents of anxiety, while emotional exhaustion and anxiety were confirmed as predictors of social media cognitive fatigue. However, pathway analysis indicated no relationship between emotional exhaustion and anxiety.

Our study contributes to the literature on media technology and media psychology by examining the psychological mechanisms (emotional exhaustion and anxiety). The findings offer implications for service providers, practitioners and social media users, as they facilitate measures and strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of social media while elevating psychological well-being.

The resource-based view (RBV) emphasises the importance of resources for firm performance. However, recent research argues that the focus on firm performance should also be based on inside-out (IO) and outside-in (OI) capabilities. Specifically, we study the importance of resources on product development (an IO) and market driving (an OI) entrepreneurial marketing capabilities on entrepreneurial firm performance in an emerging market. The study further investigates the moderating effects of marketing agility on the relationship between resources and capabilities.

The study is based on survey data of a multi-industry sample of 102 entrepreneurial firms in Pakistan.

The results show that marketing agility moderates the relationship between resource-mix flexibility on product development and market driving capabilities, but it only positively moderates the relationship between resource-mix inimitability and product development capability. Marketing driving and product development capabilities play a role as parallel mediators between resources and firm performance.

The study lies at the intersection of marketing and entrepreneurship literature by (1) providing a nuanced understanding of marketing agility as a boundary spanning factor for IO and OI entrepreneurial marketing capabilities; (2) integrating the resource types and product development from IO and market-driving from OI capabilities perspectives; (3) identifying the effects of IO and OI on firm performance providing guidance for entrepreneurs seeking improved firm performance.

The emergence of social media platforms has revolutionized how brands develop partnerships with social media influencers (SMIs). However, users are seeking more meaningful engagement with SMIs, and little is known about how brands can shift their focus from transient engagements to continued engagement that builds long-term brand–consumer relationships. Extant research has provided inconsistent findings regarding consumer engagement behavior. To address this knowledge deficit, we contribute to the consumer engagement literature by developing and testing a conceptual model that explores and explains the relationships between the factors that influence continued engagement intention (CEI), a form of behavioral intention.

A literature review was conducted to identify gaps and develop a theoretically informed conceptual model and hypotheses. Survey data from 604 Instagram SMI followers were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3.3.3 to assess the structural model relationships and conduct post hoc analysis.

The findings suggest that it is important to positively influence consumer responses to elicit CEI. Furthermore, homophily attitudes toward SMIs moderate the relationship between SMI experience and CEI.

Brands must work with SMIs to create positive SMI experiences and develop CEI. Furthermore, SMIs should focus on brands that fit their lifestyles to enhance homophily attitudes and forge CEI.

This study contributes to the literature by combining social exchange and flow theories to develop and test a holistic framework for examining CEIs regarding SMIs and brands. The findings show that creating positive SMI experiences benefits brands seeking CEI.

Based on social exchange and resource dependence theories, this research investigates how manufacturing firms’ commitment to low-carbon operations management (CLCOM) prompts manufacturing carbon performance (MCP) through low-carbon supply chain collaboration (SCC), as well as the moderating role of supply chain risk management (SCRM).

This study verifies the hypotheses employing hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping methods through an online survey of 297 Chinese manufacturers.

The results demonstrate that manufacturers’ low-carbon SCC mediates the influence of affective and continuance CLCOM on MCP. SCRM dampens the link between affective CLCOM and low-carbon SCC. Further, SCRM heightens the relationship of continuance CLCOM–low-carbon collaboration with suppliers, but does not enhance the level of continuance CLCOM–low-carbon collaboration with customers.

This research contributes to the theory and practice area by unveiling the “black-box” of the CLCOM–MCP relationship and considers SCRM’s moderating effect.

The purpose of this paper is to explore carbon emission reduction of electric vehicles from the perspective of electricity consumption.

Electric vehicles (EVs) consume large amounts of electricity, thereby generating large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, so there is an urgent need to consider whether EVs have greater potential for reducing carbon emissions than other modes of transport. In this paper, the carbon emission reduction potential (CERP) coefficients of EVs are examined under three different scenarios from an interprovincial electricity trading perspective. Scenario analysis was used to quantify the CERP of EVs in 18 provinces in China.

The results show the following: (1) The higher the proportion of general-fuel vehicles in all transportation, the higher the CERP of EVs. (2) Interprovincial power trading affects the proportion of coal power consumed in a province, and the higher the proportion of clean power in the purchased power, the lower the proportion of coal power consumed in that province. (3) The proportion of coal power in the electricity consumption of a province is correlated negatively with the CERP of EVs in that province.

This paper quantifies the CERP of EVs compared with other modes of transport and gives provinces a more intuitive understanding of the CERP of EVs. Furthermore, we derive the carbon emission shift out of each province via the electricity trading paths among provinces, analyzing the impacts of the variability between different provinces on EV carbon emissions.

As a contribution to the social ties and dynamic capabilities literature, the purpose of this study is to examine the boundary role of the industrial factors (competitive intensity, dependence on suppliers and demand uncertainty) on the relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) social ties (business ties and political ties) and firm performance.

Data were collected from 1,077 SME top-level managers in Turkiye. The proposed model is analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling in SmartPLS 4.0 software.

The results elucidate how demand uncertainty serve to moderate the influence exerted by both business and political ties upon the performance of SMEs. However, the moderating effects of competitive intensity and dependence on suppliers, although initially hypothesized, were not found to have a significant impact on the relationships.

The relevance of social ties of SMEs may depend on the industrial factor. Although both political and business ties are effective on the customer side, these ties may become irrelevant when it comes to competition and supplier relations. In competitive SME settings, where businesses are vying for similar markets, the effectiveness of ties might be questionable. In such cases, SMEs might invest in building in-house capabilities and competencies, rather than relying on their relational networks.

This study contributes to the understanding of how relational networks, which are considered as dynamic managerial capabilities, impact SMEs performance. It also fills an important gap by testing the boundary role of industrial factors on this relationship. The empirical data is collected from the Turkish context, which is also an original aspect of the study, considering most of the social ties literature has a limited focus on a few contexts. The results also indicate new areas for discussion and exploration, indicating potential avenues for further research.

This study aims to explore the impact mechanism of social support on individual health knowledge creation among users in online patient communities, guide and promote the creation of health knowledge and provide insights into managing online patient communities.

A theoretical model was constructed by integrating social impact and social support theories. Data were collected through questionnaires, and 750 valid responses were analysed using a structural equation model.

This study found the following. (1) Social support influences individual health knowledge creation through the mediating effects of creative self-efficacy and positive emotions. (2) The general rule of the strength of the influencing factors on individual health knowledge creation is that creative self-efficacy > positive emotions. (3) The general pattern of the mediating effect of attitude factors between social support and health knowledge creation is that creative self-efficacy > positive emotions. (4) The key path for social support to influence individual health knowledge creation is “social support → creative self-efficacy → health knowledge creation”. (5) The dimensions of social support in online patient communities can be divided into information, emotional, respect and network support. Individual health knowledge creation can be divided into health knowledge externalisation, combination, socialisation and internalisation.

This study expands the application scope of social influence theory and opens up the “black box” of the impact of social support on individual health knowledge creation behaviour. Simultaneously, the dimensions of social support, individual health knowledge creation and the mediating role between social support and health knowledge creation are discussed.

While the importance of supply chain learning (SCL) is widely recognized by both academia and industry, the mechanisms through which SCL is developed and its effects on environmental performance remain insufficiently understood. This study conceptualizes and empirically investigates the role of relational capital and information technology (IT) in enhancing SCL and improving environmental performance.

Drawing on socio-technical system theory (STS) and a knowledge-based view, this research employs structural equation modeling to test the proposed model, utilizing survey data collected from Chinese manufacturing companies.

The results demonstrate that relational capital with supplier and customer significantly enhances both supplier and customer learning. While IT does not directly impact supplier and customer learning, it exerts an indirect influence through its positive effect on relational capital. In other words, relational capital mediates the relationship between IT and supplier and customer learning. Additionally, this study finds that both supplier and customer learning enhance environmental performance.

This study provides actionable insights for managers, emphasizing the importance of relational capital in fostering SCL and improving environmental performance. By understanding these relationships, managers can develop more effective strategies for leveraging SCL as a tool for sustainability.

This study adds to the existing body of knowledge in supply chain management by offering a more nuanced and holistic model to explain how relational capital, IT and SCL interact to influence environmental performance, particularly within the context of Chinese manufacturing companies.