Much prior literature has discussed bioethics from a Confucian perspective in biomedical research, but little has applied Confucianism in examining ethics in social and behavioral…
Abstract
Purpose
Much prior literature has discussed bioethics from a Confucian perspective in biomedical research, but little has applied Confucianism in examining ethics in social and behavioral research involving human subjects. This paper aims to reexamine the Belmont principles in social and behavioral research from a Confucian perspective to discuss their applicability and limitations and propose implications for revising or extending them potentially in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparison is conducted on bioethics and social and behavioral research ethics. Afterward, a critical analysis is conducted on the Belmont principles of respect for persons, beneficence and justice from a Confucian perspective regarding their application in social and behavioral research.
Findings
From a Confucian perspective, the Belmont principles are necessary but may not be sufficient to cover the width and depth of ethical issues in social and behavioral research, such as those in crowd work-based research. This paper proposes that ethical guidelines for social and behavioral research may need to be updated from the Belmont principles adopting or incorporating certain Confucian ethics.
Originality/value
Social and behavioral research ethics have been relatively marginal compared to the bioethics deliberation in the existing literature. Unlike Beauchamp and Childress’s continued efforts in refining ethical guidelines for biomedical research specifically, little similar work has been done in this area since the Belmont report’s publication in 1979. This paper sheds light on building more refined and specific ethical guidelines to navigate the ever-growing numbers and diversities of nonmedical research topics, methodologies and contexts.
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Elvira Anna Graziano, Flaminia Musella and Gerardo Petroccione
The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the consumer payment behavior in Italy by correlating financial literacy with digital payment…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the consumer payment behavior in Italy by correlating financial literacy with digital payment awareness, examining media anxiety and financial security, and including a gender analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
Consumers’ attitudes toward cashless payments were investigated using an online survey conducted from November 2021 to February 2022 on a sample of 836 Italian citizens by considering the behavioral characteristics and aspects of financial literacy. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and to determine whether the model was invariant by gender.
Findings
The analysis showed that the fear of contracting COVID-19 and the level of financial literacy had a direct influence on the payment behavior of Italians, which was completely different in its weighting. Fear due to the spread of news regarding the pandemic in the media indirectly influenced consumers’ noncash attitude. The preliminary results of the gender multigroup analysis showed that cashless payment was the same in the male and female subpopulations.
Originality/value
This research is noteworthy because of its interconnected examination. It examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s payment choices, assessed their knowledge, and considered the influence of media-induced anxiety. By combining these factors, the study offered an analysis from a gender perspective, providing understanding of how financial behaviors were shaped during the pandemic.
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Zhong Du, Xiang Li and Zhi-Ping Fan
In the practice of live streaming e-commerce, the consumer demand is usually uncertain, and the inventory and prices can be decided by brand owners or streamers. To this end, this…
Abstract
Purpose
In the practice of live streaming e-commerce, the consumer demand is usually uncertain, and the inventory and prices can be decided by brand owners or streamers. To this end, this study examines the inventory and pricing decisions of the brand owner and streamer in a live streaming e-commerce supply chain under demand uncertainty.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, four scenarios are considered, i.e. the brand owner determines the inventory and price (Scenario BB), the brand owner determines the inventory and the streamer determines the price (Scenario BS), the streamer determines the inventory and the brand owner determines the price (Scenario SB), and the streamer determines the inventory and price (Scenario SS).
Findings
The results show that the inventory and prices, as well as the profits of the brand owner and streamer increase with the consumer sensitivity to streamer’s sales effort level under the four scenarios. The inventory (price) is the highest under Scenario SS (SB), while that is the lowest under Scenario BB (BS). In addition, when the sensitivity is low, the brand owner’s profit is the highest under Scenario BB, otherwise, the profit is the highest under Scenario SS. Regardless of the sensitivity, the streamer’s profit is always the highest under Scenario SS.
Originality/value
Few studies focused on the inventory and pricing decisions of brand owners and streamers in live streaming e-commerce supply chains under demand uncertainty, while this work bridges the research gap. This study can provide theoretical basis and decision support for brand owners and streamers.
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Guozhang Xu, Wanming Chen, Yongyuan Ma and Huanhuan Ma
Drawing on the tenets of institutional theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Confucianism on technology for social good, while also considering the…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the tenets of institutional theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Confucianism on technology for social good, while also considering the moderating influence of extrinsic informal institutions (foreign culture) and intrinsic formal institutions (property rights).
Design/methodology/approach
This study constructs a comprehensive database comprising 9,759 firm-year observations in China by using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2016 to 2020. Subsequently, the hypotheses are examined and confirmed, with the validity of the results being upheld even after conducting endogenous and robustness tests.
Findings
The findings of this study offer robust and consistent evidence supporting the notion that Confucianism positively affects technology for social good through both incentive effect and normative effect. Moreover, this positive influence is particularly prominent in organizations with limited exposure to foreign culture and in nonstate-owned enterprises.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the literature by fostering a deep understanding of technology for social good and Confucianism research, and further provide a nuanced picture of the role of foreign culture and property rights in the process of technology for social good in China.
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Luoxi Pu, Robert Radics, Muhammad Umar, Faith Jeremiah and Zhi Quan
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential adoption of AI-powered tools by Chinese Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers in e-commerce. It aims to understand how factors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential adoption of AI-powered tools by Chinese Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers in e-commerce. It aims to understand how factors, such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions, affect behavioral intention and user behavior towards AI-enhanced e-commerce platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework. A survey with 24 questions across six constructs was designed and distributed to Chinese Gen Z consumers aged 18–28. The research used convenience and quota sampling methods in four commercial complexes in a populous southwestern Chinese city, with 280 valid responses collected. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
It is found that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions positively influence behavioral intention to use AI-powered e-commerce tools. Surprisingly, social influence shows a negative correlation with behavioral intention, suggesting that Chinese Gen Z consumers may not be swayed by others’ opinions in adopting these technologies. Facilitating conditions and behavioral intention both significantly affect user behavior. Gender differences can be observed, particularly in the impact of effort expectancy on behavioral intention.
Originality/value
This study extends the application of the UTAUT model to the rapidly evolving e-commerce sector, focusing on AI-powered tools and the unique characteristics of Chinese Gen Z consumers. By highlighting gender differences and the specific preferences of this generation, the research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of technology acceptance in e-commerce, guiding future marketing strategies and platform development.
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Sheng Liu, Xiao Lin and Xiuying Chen
This paper aims to reveal the green governance role played by stock connect in transition economies from the perspective of corporates’ environmental violations and provides…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to reveal the green governance role played by stock connect in transition economies from the perspective of corporates’ environmental violations and provides implications for the coordination and optimization of subsequent stock market liberalization and green transformation policies in pursuit of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.
Design/methodology/approach
With the data of Chinese listed enterprises, this paper takes the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect or Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect in China as a quasi-natural experiment and applies the multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) model to identify the impact of stock market liberalization on the corporates’ environmental violations.
Findings
The findings reveal that the stock market liberalization significantly restrains the corporates’ environmental violations. These findings are robust to a series of sensitivity tests, including excluding two-way effects, adjusting the year of policy implementation, replacing the core variables, introducing the regional fixed effects and excluding the interference effect of other relevant policies during the sample period. Furthermore, the stock market liberalization is beneficial for upgrading information disclosure quality, improving internal governance capability, strengthening environmental protection incentives, and thus restrains corporates’ environmental violations. Meanwhile, heterogeneity tests show that the inhibitory effects are more significant in those grouped samples which is large scale, state-owned nature, located in eastern region, with poor evaluation performances and heavy tax burden.
Originality/value
We make two marginal contributions to the current literature. First, this paper enriches the literature on the factors influencing corporate environmental violations by focusing on how the macro-level financial policy influences the micro-level corporate environmental violations. One the one hand, prior studies mainly focused on the consequences of corporate environmental violations; however, there is still a puzzle that the effect of stock market liberalization cannot be fully justified to influence corporate environmental violations. The findings help explain this puzzle by examining that stock market liberalization can restrain corporate environmental violations. Moreover, prior studies mainly focused on corporate share price (Yunsen Chen et al., 2022), market liquidity (Han Kim and Singal, 2000), information disclosure (Liang, Lin, and Chin 2012), corporate governance (Bae and Goyal, 2010) and corporate violations (Lingyun Xiong et al., 2021), but not on corporate environmental violations. We assume that the suppression effect of stock market liberalization on corporate environmental violations can help reduce corporate environmental violations, improve corporates’ awareness of environmental compliance. Second, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the literature on stock market liberalization by investigating the restraining effect of Stock Connect on corporate environmental violations from the perspective of information channel, corporate governance channel and motivation channel, which is of practical significance. Moreover, we investigate the differences in the inhibitory effects of stock market liberalization on different enterprises' environmental violations, from firm size, property rights, enterprise assessment results, tax burden to geographical location, which is conducive to the construction of a green financial system and the promotion of sustainable economic development. Our results show that firms which are large scale, state-owned nature, located in eastern region, with poor evaluation performances and heavy tax burden tend to compliance with environmental laws. These findings emphasize the importance and benefits of Stock Connect.
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Shufeng Tang, Guoqing Zhao, Yun Zhi, Ligen Qi, Renjie Huang, Hong Chang, Shijie Guo and Xuewei Zhang
This paper aims to solve the problem of uncertain position and attitude between unstructured terrain robot and grasped target and insufficient control accuracy in extreme…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to solve the problem of uncertain position and attitude between unstructured terrain robot and grasped target and insufficient control accuracy in extreme environment, a grasping mechanism based on attraction domain relationship is proposed, which can realize autonomous positioning, capturing and grasping of robot under low control accuracy.
Design/methodology/approach
The grasping mechanism was designed, taking inspiration from fishing behavior this mechanism introduces attraction domains and flexible-elastic structures through the active and passive ends to achieve automatic positioning and capture. After the capture is completed, the grasping mechanism connects the active end and the passive end, simultaneously relying on the gravity of the target object to achieve locking and release between the robot and the target object. This paper adopts theoretical, simulation and experimental verification methods to conduct theoretical and simulation analysis on the autonomous positioning and grasping process of the mechanism, and produces grasping experimental prototypes with different positions and postures.
Findings
The experiment shows that the gripping mechanism designed in this paper can achieve automatic positioning capture and gripping of large deviation situations under low control accuracy, with a displacement deviation of up to 10 mm (about 1/6 diameter of the end of the mechanism) and an angle deviation of up to 3°. The scientific research task in the extremely high altitude environment has finally been successfully accomplished.
Originality/value
Inspired by fishing behavior, this paper proposes a positioning, capturing and grasping mechanism. The attraction area built with permanent magnets, coupled with the flexible connection, enables precise capture under low control, while the grasping mechanism can also rely on gravity to self-lock and release.
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Rui Zhang, Zehua Dong, Yanjun Zhang, Liuhu Fu and Qiaofeng Bai
This paper aims to propose a new ultrasonic detection method for stainless steel weld defects based on complex synergetic convolutional calculation to solve two problems in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a new ultrasonic detection method for stainless steel weld defects based on complex synergetic convolutional calculation to solve two problems in the ultrasonic detection of austenitic stainless steel weld defects. These include ignoring the nonlinear information of the imaginary part in the complex domain of the signal and the correlation information between the amplitude of the real part and phase of the imaginary part and subjective dependence of diagnosis model parameters.
Design/methodology/approach
An ultrasonic detection method for weld defects based on complex synergetic convolution calculation is proposed in this paper to address the above issues. By mapping low-density, 1D detection samples to a complex domain space with high representation richness, a multi-scale and multilevel complex synergetic convolution calculation model (CSCC) is designed to match and transform samples to mine amplitude changes, phase shifts, weak phase angle changes and amplitude-phase correlation features deeply from the detection signal. This study proposed an Elite Sine-Cosine Sobol Sampling Dung Beetle Optimization Algorithm, and the detection model CSCC achieves global adaptive matching of key hyperparameters in 19 dimensions. Finally, a regulative complex synergetic convolutional calculation model is constructed to achieve high-performance detection of weld defects.
Findings
Through experiments on a self-developed Taiyuan intelligent detection and information processing weld defect dataset, the results show that the method achieves a detection accuracy of 92% for five types of weld defects: cracks, porosity, slag inclusion and unfused and unwelded components, which represent an average improvement of 11% relative to comparable models. This method is also validated with the PhysioNet electrocardiogram public dataset, which achieves better detection performance relative to the other models.
Originality/value
This method provides a theoretical basis and technical reference for developing and applying intelligent, efficient and accurate ultrasonic defects detection technology.
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Wenhai Tan, Yichen Zhang, Yuhao Song, Yanbo Ma, Chao Zhao and Youfeng Zhang
Aqueous zinc-ion battery has broad application prospects in smart grid energy storage, power tools and other fields. Co3O4 is one of the ideal cathode materials for water zinc-ion…
Abstract
Purpose
Aqueous zinc-ion battery has broad application prospects in smart grid energy storage, power tools and other fields. Co3O4 is one of the ideal cathode materials for water zinc-ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacity, simple synthesis, low cost and environmental friendliness. Many studies were concentrated on the synthesis, design and doping of cathodes, but the effect of process parameters on morphology and performance was rarely reported.
Design/methodology/approach
Herein, Co3O4 cathode material based on carbon cloth (Co3O4/CC) was prepared by different temperatures hydrothermal synthesis method. The temperatures of hydrothermal reaction are 100°C, 120°C, 130°C and 140°C, respectively. The influence of temperatures on the microstructures of the cathodes and electrochemical performance of zinc ion batteries were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry curve, electrochemical charging and discharging behavior and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy test.
Findings
The results show that the Co3O4/CC material synthesized at 120°C has good performance. Co3O4/CC nanowire has a uniform distribution, regular surface and small size on carbon cloth. The zinc-ion battery has excellent rate performance and low reaction resistance. In the voltage range of 0.01–2.2 V, when the current density is 1 A/g, the specific capacity of the battery is 108.2 mAh/g for the first discharge and the specific capacity of the battery is 142.6 mAh/g after 60 charge and discharge cycles.
Originality/value
The study aims to investigate the effect of process parameters on the performance of zinc-ion batteries systematically and optimized applicable reaction temperature.
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Ge Xu, Shuyun Jiang, Chibin Zhang and Xiaohui Lin
The water-lubricated hydrodynamic herringbone groove journal bearing (HGJB) is capable of running at high speed. However, when running at a low speed, it suffers from a low…
Abstract
Purpose
The water-lubricated hydrodynamic herringbone groove journal bearing (HGJB) is capable of running at high speed. However, when running at a low speed, it suffers from a low load-carrying capacity due to the weak hydrodynamic effect. To overcome this problem, this study proposes a hybrid water-lubricated HGJB and aims to investigate its dynamic characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
A hybrid lubrication model applicable to the hybrid water-lubricated HGJB is established based on the boundary fitted coordinate system, which considers the turbulent, thermal and tilting effects, and the finite difference method is used to calculate the dynamic characteristics of the hybrid water-lubricated HGJB.
Findings
The result shows that the hybrid HGJB has larger dynamic coefficients and better system stability compared with the hydrodynamic HGJB when running at low speed. Furthermore, the stiffness of hybrid HGJB are mainly governed by the hydrodynamic effect rather than the hydrostatic effect when running at high speed.
Originality/value
The proposed hybrid water-lubricated HGJB shows excellent dynamic characteristics at either low speed or high speed; and the hybrid water-lubricated HGJB has a large load-carrying capacity when running at low speed and has a good dynamic stability when running at high speed.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-06-2024-0233/