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Although virtual anchors have emerged as potent marketing tools, their acceptance by consumers is controversial. Specifically, the relative efficacy of selecting an all-human-like or animal-human-like virtual anchor is not well-defined. However, anthropomorphic visual cues are vital in enhancing live streaming. This study aims to analyze the disparate effects of an animal-human-like or all-human-like virtual anchor on purchase intention as well as evaluate the possible underlying influential mechanisms and boundary conditions.

In this research, three different studies were carried out to elucidate the impact of virtual anchors on purchase intention. Study 1 evaluated the core impact of an animal-human-like and all-human-like virtual anchor on purchase intention, as well as the mediating role of perceived warmth and competence. Studies 2 and 3 were then performed to investigate the moderating impacts of product type and certainty of consumer needs, respectively. Furthermore, research data for these studies was collected using the Credamo tool and analyzed via SPSS, using PROCESS for moderation and mediation analyses.

The research findings indicate that virtual anchors can trigger purchase intention, with perceived warmth and competence acting as mediating factors. Based on the utilitarian products and high certainty of consumer needs, the influence of perceived competence on purchase intention is augmented. Therefore, an all-human-like virtual anchor increases purchase intention. In contrast, the impact of perceived warmth on purchase intention is supplemented for hedonic products and low certainty of consumer needs. Thus, an animal-human-like virtual anchor increases purchase intention.

This research study evaluated consumer reactions to all-human-like and animal-human-like virtual anchors for different product types and the certainty of consumer needs to optimize the comprehension of a virtual anchor. Furthermore, the assessment of the mediating roles of perceived warmth and competence provided valuable insights into the influential mechanisms by which virtual anchors affect purchase intention. Moreover, this study provided managerial implications to guide retailers and brands on the strategic adoption of virtual anchors to enhance purchase intention based on the product type and the certainty of consumer needs.

This paper aims to provide a full introduction, new classification, comparison and investigation of the challenges as well as applications of layerless 3D printing, which is one of the industry 4.0 pioneers.

Given the significance and novelty of uniform 3D printing, more than 250 publications were collected and reviewed in an unbiased and clear manner.

As a result, the majority of uniform parts printed in polymer form are known up to this point. In a novel division for better researchers’ comprehension, uniform printing systems were classified into three categories: oxygen inhibition (OI), liquid lubrication (LL) and photon penetration (PP), and each was thoroughly investigated. Furthermore, these three approaches were evaluated in terms of printing speed, precision and accuracy, manufacturing scale and cost.

The parameters of each approach were compared independently, and then a practical comparison was conducted among these three approaches. Finally, a variety of technologies, opportunities, challenges and advantages of each significant method, as well as a future outlook for layerless rapid prototyping, are presented.

This paper aims to examine the effects of both transient and chronic loneliness on consumers’ variety-seeking (VS) behavior and to identify the various underlying mechanisms involved.

Four studies were adopted to clarify how transient and chronic loneliness affect consumers’ VS behavior.

Both transient and chronic loneliness promote consumers’ VS behavior. More importantly, the effect of transient loneliness on VS behavior is driven by perceived loss of control, whereas the effect of chronic loneliness on VS behavior is driven by need for uniqueness and sensation-seeking.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to explore the differential roles of transient and chronic loneliness on VS behavior, which may open new avenues for future research. First, future research could investigate moderators that influence the impacts of transient and chronic loneliness on VS behavior. Second, future research could examine different participant populations and use cognitive neuroscience techniques to further verify the differential roles of these two types of loneliness on VS behavior.

This research contributes to marketing practice by providing practical guidance on how to effectively design different marketing strategies to promote VS for consumers with different types of loneliness. For consumers with transient loneliness, marketers can benefit from a concerted focus on improving consumers’ sense of control. Yet, for consumers with chronic loneliness, marketing strategies that improve consumers’ need for uniqueness will be more effective.

This research contributes to the literature on loneliness and consumer behavior, which has largely overlooked the distinct roles of different types of loneliness (i.e. transient vs chronic loneliness) in influencing consumer behavior. Specifically, this paper conducted a comparative analysis of the impacts of transient and chronic loneliness on consumers’ VS behavior and proposed that transient and chronic loneliness promote consumers’ VS behavior through divergent underlying mechanisms.

This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the interdisciplinary literature on drones in last-mile delivery (LMD) to extrapolate pertinent insights from and into the logistics management field.

Rooting their analytical categories in the LMD literature, the authors performed a deductive, theory refinement SLR on 307 interdisciplinary journal articles published during 2015–2022 to integrate this emergent phenomenon into the field.

The authors derived the potentials, challenges and solutions of drone deliveries in relation to 12 LMD criteria dispersed across four stakeholder groups: senders, receivers, regulators and societies. Relationships between these criteria were also identified.

This review contributes to logistics management by offering a current, nuanced and multifaceted discussion of drones' potential to improve the LMD process together with the challenges and solutions involved.

The authors provide logistics managers with a holistic roadmap to help them make informed decisions about adopting drones in their delivery systems. Regulators and society members also gain insights into the prospects, requirements and repercussions of drone deliveries.

This is one of the first SLRs on drone applications in LMD from a logistics management perspective.

This study aims to propose a research framework grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess the new service experiences in the medical industry through examining the intention to use online-to-offline (O2O) medical platforms. It focuses on the connections between immediacy of connection, context-based affordability, reliability and perceived convenience and perceived usefulness. This study also looks at how these determinants affect users’ intentions to use O2O medical platforms, with a particular emphasis on the moderating effect of customer online reviews.

This study was a quantitative research endeavour grounded in the TAM model that analysed usage intention of O2O medical platforms. Conducted in Sarawak, within the Borneo region, a total of 251 rows of data were collected by questionnaire and underwent initial analysis using SPSS, followed by a more in-depth two-stage partial least squares structural equation model analysis conducted with SmartPLS4.

According to this study’s findings, perceived usefulness and perceived convenience are significantly impacted by the proposed predictors – immediacy of connection, context-based affordability and reliability. Furthermore, intention to use O2O medical platforms was discovered to have a positive and significant impact from perceived usefulness and perceived convenience. It is noteworthy that the association among perceived convenience and perceived usefulness – which leads to usage intention of O2O medical platforms – did not show the moderating effect of customer online reviews.

The findings suggested that context-based affordability, immediacy of connection and reliability need to be focused on by the information and communication technology developers, policymakers and medical professionals, as these variables can influence perceived convenience and usefulness, which will further impact the intention to use O2O medical platforms.

The formulated research framework holds significance in comprehending the usage intention of O2O medical platforms among consumers in Sarawak. O2O medical platforms have experienced global growth; however, limited studies were found in the Malaysian context. Hence, the objective of this study is to examine the intention to use O2O medical platforms in a relatively understudied area, specifically in Sarawak, an island located in Borneo, Malaysia.

In today’s knowledge societies, scientific research is tasked to contribute to solving crucial problems, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Epistemic inequality, both in terms of who is able to contribute, and whose voices are being heard, could hamper our ability to develop solutions that meet the needs of all.

We assembled a set of publications published from 2006 to 2019 related to three SDGs (Health/Well-Being, Climate Action, Zero Hunger) by mapping Fields of Study from Microsoft Academic Graph to SDGs. Across this set, we investigate patterns of knowledge production, investigating gender, levels of institutional resourcing and contributions by world region, as well as Open Access availability of research.

Research related to the three SDGs is primarily published by researchers from institutions situated in the global North. Well-resourced institutions contribute disproportionately to the study of the three SDGs. The share of authorships by women is rising, but still far away from equity. We find higher ranked institutions to produce more OA articles, with a declining relationship between institutional ranking and the share of OA. Finally, we find overall higher shares of OA publishing across low- and high-income countries, compared to lower and upper medium income countries.

Mapping research contributions to SDGs by leveraging the comprehensive data available from Microsoft Academic Graph adds an important perspective to the study of SDG-related research.

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of greenery on residential mobility within purpose-built student housing facilities in Northern Ghana.

This research employed a structured questionnaire and utilized an experimental block design, encompassing 124 comparative greened and non-greened student housing facilities, with a total of 995 resident participants. The impact of greenery on residential mobility was analyzed using a repeated sales model and t-test analysis.

Results revealed that residential mobility was significantly higher in non-greened student housing facilities than their greened counterparts. The study further indicated that the presence of greenery had a substantial effect on residential mobility, attributed to residents' preferences for the ecological, social and economic benefits associated with greenery, rather than merely infrastructure considerations.

Enhancing the aesthetic appeal, economic viability, safety, security and health benefits of greened student housing facilities while managing the influence of greenery on infrastructure was found to affect residential mobility. The findings suggest that improving occupancy rates in these facilities through the incorporation of greenery could yield higher rental income and better cash flows for investors involved in student housing operations.

This study highlights the ecological, social and economic advantages of greenery for residents. While the benefits of greenery in residential contexts are increasingly recognized, the specific impact of greenery on residential mobility within the Sub-Saharan African context represents a novel contribution. The application of neighborhood effects theory to the examination of greenery benefits and residential mobility in this region adds a new dimension to existing research.

This study aimed to investigate the determinants of healthy lifestyle behavior in married people. It also sought to propose an integrative model that incorporates variables from two theoretical models, namely, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM), as well as two additional variables, namely habit and body image dissatisfaction.

Questionnaires were used to gather data, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied for statistical analysis. Data were collected from 404 respondents using several assessment tools, including the Health Belief Model Scale, the Theory of Planned Behavior Scale, the Healthy Lifestyle Belief Scale, the Body Area Scale, and the Creature of Habit Scale.

The findings showed that perceived severity is the predictor of a healthy lifestyle attitude, followed by subjective norm, perceived behavior control, and healthy lifestyle attitude as the primary attendants of intention. Meanwhile, it was found that a healthy lifestyle attitude is a significant mediator in the perceived severity and healthy lifestyle intention relationship. The suggested model outperforms the original TPB and HBM models in predictive ability, proving its utility and efficacy in describing healthy lifestyle behavior.

Adding constructs in the TPB and HBM models contributed considerably to improving the understanding of healthy lifestyle behavior among married people. Governments and policymakers might utilize the findings to design and execute a new program or a sustained healthy lifestyle for married people.

Within the context of an open innovation business environment, the frequent interaction and coordination activities among heterogeneous partners have a significant impact on enterprises' business model. Nevertheless, fewer empirical research has been made to explore how to match external partners and update organizational dynamic capabilities at an ecosystem level. Therefore, this paper attempts not only to investigate the direct impact of partner match on different business model innovation (BMI) themes (efficiency-centered BMI and novelty-centered BMI) but only to shed light on the pivotal mediating role of interfirm dynamic capabilities.

This paper utilized the methodology of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to investigate the impact of diverse partner selection criteria and interfirm dynamic capabilities on two distinctive themes of BMI. More than 20 industry clusters with multiple industries were selected as representatives of the creative ecosystem, predominantly from the Yangtze River Delta region. Valid data were collected from 254 managers by both online questionnaires and offline interviews.

The findings of the study show that different partner match criteria have distinct direct impacts on BMI themes. Partner complementary and partner synergy, deriving from the “task-related criteria”, are significantly correlated with both EBMI and NBMI. Conversely, partner compatibility, deriving from “Partnering-related Criteria”, shows a positive correlation with EBMI but not NBMI. Furthermore, compare the indirect effect on EBMI, the paper’ results demonstrate interfirm dynamic capabilities as mediator can more maximize external benefits to promote NBMI.

The study findings effectively help enterprises implement different BMI themes. From a management perspective, whether pursuing EBMI or NBMI, enterprises should consciously seek partners who can provide complementary support or share mutual goals across diverse industries. This strategic approach can significantly enhance the opportunities for sustainable and innovative business development. Furthermore, to successfully accomplish NBMI, enterprises must cultivate interfirm dynamic capabilities encompassing a comprehensive range of cross-organizational innovation capacities, such as bolstering organizational learning capability, establishing interactive network platforms to enhance coordination capabilities and engaging in integrative activities to foster a collective mindset.

This paper contributes to the match theory by introducing three critical matching criteria, enabling enterprises to discern partners based on diverse organizational characteristics. Additionally, this paper broadens the scope of the dynamic capability literature by adopting a network perspective to strengthen interaction and relationship mechanisms. The authors primarily elucidate the concept of interfirm dynamic capabilities as a formative higher-order model formed by three sub-capabilities (absorptive capacity, coordination capability and collective mind). Finally, this paper combines matching theory with dynamic capacity theory to the field of BMI, which adds depth and complexity to the existing ecosystem innovation research.

The field of medical technology is constantly evolving, leading to improvements in implantation techniques that offer innovative solutions for treating bone tissue defects. The purpose of this study is to investigate the integration of nano-silica into ceramic scaffolds to enhance the mechanical strength of Hydroxyapatite structures.

Using the design of experiment methodology, 13 distinct ceramic pastes, each optimized for specific mechanical characteristics, are formulated. Rheological testing is performed to ensure suitability for 3D printing, and the pastes are evaluated using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The definitive screening design optimizer is used to determine an ideal material combination based on factors like extrudability, printability, strength and biocompatibility.

Scaffolds with the optimized HA/SiO₂ composition are fabricated and tested for compression strength, achieving 7.8 MPa.

The research endeavors detailed within this study represent a notable advancement in the augmentation of ceramic scaffold properties tailored for bone tissue engineering applications, particularly focusing on their suitability for integration within load-bearing structures. A particular emphasis is placed on the enhancement of printability, thereby facilitating streamlined fabrication processes.