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The present study has been carried out to assess the effect of constructs of service convenience on customer satisfaction of the Indian online shoppers.

The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire. Convenience sampling has been used to choose a sample (n = 260) of e-shoppers in India. Factor analyses (both EFA and CFA) have been done to validate different factors and its items. A conceptual model has been proposed to measure the effect of different factors of service convenience on customer satisfaction. Moreover, the perceived difference with respect to study variables has been measured. The path analysis through AMOS 22.0 has been done to test the hypotheses under study.

It can be concluded that the effect of access convenience, search convenience, and order convenience have significant effects on customer satisfaction. However, evaluation convenience and logistics and reverse logistics convenience have an insignificant effect on customer satisfaction. The present study has a unique contribution in the field of service convenience to e-retailing customers. Moreover, the present study indicates that gender does not moderate the effect of convenience on customer satisfaction.

This is one of the few papers that focuses solely on the effect of gender on service convenience and customer satisfaction. The findings will generate value with their originality and significant managerial implications for marketers, as well as future research directions for the researchers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of e-service quality and e-trust on customer e-satisfaction and, subsequently, on customer e-loyalty towards a website in the online shopping environment of Pakistan.

The research employed a quantitative approach and utilised structural equation modelling to investigate the relationship between e-service quality and e-trust on consumers’ e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. The data were collected from 250 individuals who actively use online shopping websites to purchase products in Pakistan.

The findings revealed that e-service quality and e-trust offered on e-commerce websites significantly impacted customer e-loyalty. However, it was found that both e-service quality and e-trust do not have a significant impact on customer e-satisfaction. In addition, the findings showed that customer e-satisfaction positively impacts e-loyalty.

Overall, these findings emphasise the importance of e-service quality, e-trust and customer e-satisfaction and their role in cultivating customer loyalty within the context of the online shopping environment in Pakistan.

This study contributes to the existing literature on online shopping in Pakistan by exploring the factors influencing consumer behaviour in this context. The findings add to the academic understanding of consumer behaviour and provide valuable insights for e-commerce businesses in Pakistan.

The principle of infinite life design currently directs fatigue resistance strategies for metro car bodies. However, this principle might not fully account for the dynamic influence of operational loads and the inevitable presence of defects. This study aims to integrate methods of service life estimation and residual life assessment, which are based on operational loads, into the existing infinite life verification framework to further ensure the operational safety of subway trains.

Operational loads and fatigue loading spectra were determined through the field test. The material test was conducted to investigate characteristics of the fracture toughness and the crack growth rate. The fatigue strength of the metro car body was first verified using the finite element method and Moore–Kommers–Japer diagrams. The service life was then estimated by applying the Miner rule and high-cycle fatigue curves in a modified form of the Basquin equation. Finally, the residual life was assessed utilizing a fracture assessment diagram and a fitted curve of crack growth rate adhered to the Paris formula.

Neither the maximum utilization factor nor the cumulative damage exceeds the threshold value of 1.0, the metro car body could meet the design life requirement of 30 years or 6.6 million km. However, three out of five fatigue key points were significantly influenced by the operational loads, which indicates that a single fatigue strength verification cannot achieve the infinite life design objective of the metro car body. For a projected design life of 30 years, the tolerance depth is 12.2 mm, which can underscore a relatively robust damage tolerance capability.

The influence of operational loads on fatigue life was presented by the discrepancy analysis between fatigue strength verification results and service life estimation results. The fracture properties of butt-welded joints were tested and used for the damage tolerance assessment. The damage tolerance life can be effectively related by a newly developed equation in this study. It can be a valuable tool to provide the theoretical guidance and technical support for the structural improvements and maintenance decisions of the metro car body.

This study investigates the factors influencing re-usage intention of online and mobile grocery shopping among young adult consumers in South Africa.

Data were collected from selected young adult participants using a stratified probability sampling strategy. Smart PLS was used to analyse the data.

The findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness (PU), peer review (PR) and attitude (ATT) positively influence continuance intention (CI).

In line with the available literature, there are few prior post-adoption studies that delineate the influence of individual characteristics on digital commerce usage activities. There is high mobile penetration as a result of positive digital commerce and mobile application usage and adoption, creating the need to investigate and better understand the drivers behind, not just adoption and usage, but continued use of digital commerce platforms and applications. Since the sample size is relatively small, further future research studies can test the same model with bigger sample sizes to assess generalisability of the results in different locations.

This study adds to the current literature by concentrating on the extent to which systems and marketing elements influence young adult customers' intention to continue using online and mobile grocery shopping platforms in South Africa.

The study adds value from a theoretical standpoint, contributing to the antecedent factors of the technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of reasoned action (TRA) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and giving marketing academics insights into what aspects drive re-use of online and mobile grocery shopping and on what should be the focus.

This study aims to explore the impact of systematic liquidity risk on the averaged cross-sectional equity return of the Indian equity market. It also examines the effects of illiquidity and decomposed illiquidity on the conditional volatility of the equity market.

The present study employs the Liquidity Adjusted Capital Asset Pricing Model (LCAPM) for pricing systematic liquidity risk using the Fama & MacBeth cross-sectional regression model in the Indian stock market from January 1, 2012, to March 31, 2021. Further, the study employed an exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (1,1) model to observe the impact of decomposed illiquidity on the equity market’s conditional volatility. The study also uses the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) model to illuminate the return-volatility-liquidity relationship.

The study’s findings indicate that the commonality between individual security liquidity and aggregate liquidity is positive, and the covariance of individual security liquidity and the market return negatively affects the expected return. The study’s outcome specifies that illiquidity time series analysis exhibits the asymmetric effect of directional change in return on illiquidity. Further, the study indicates a significant impact of illiquidity and decomposed illiquidity on conditional volatility. This suggests an asymmetric effect of illiquidity shocks on conditional volatility in the Indian stock market.

This study is one of the few studies that used the World Uncertainty Index (WUI) to measure liquidity and market risks as specified in the LCAPM. Further, the findings of the reverse impact of illiquidity and decomposed higher and lower illiquidity on conditional volatility confirm the presence of price informativeness and its immediate effects on illiquidity in the Indian stock market. The study strengthens earlier studies and offers new insights into stock market liquidity to clarify the association between liquidity and stock return for effective policy and strategy formulation that can benefit investors.

This study aims to investigate whether temperature affects the product quality of exporters and whether the effect is non-linear. More specifically, whether the impact of high temperatures differs from the impact of low temperatures, and whether different types of companies or industries are affected differently.

The paper uses detailed data covering all Chinese exporters from 2000 to 2016 to estimate the effects of temperature on the product quality of export firms. To clarify the relationship between them, the authors use a semi-parametric regression method, trying to test whether there is a non-linear relationship between temperature and the export quality of firms.

The increase in the number of high temperature days significantly reduces the quality of exported products, and this negative effect increases as the temperature rises. High temperature has the most significant negative impact on export quality for firms with low technical complexity, private firms and firms with no intermediate imports and located in historical hot cities. Product quality of both labor-intensive and capital-intensive firms will be affected by heat. High temperatures have the greatest negative impact on the export quality of newly entering products, followed by exiting products, with the least negative impact on persisting product.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the impact of temperature on the quality of economic development. The findings of this paper again show that the potential economic impacts of global warming are huge. In addition to some potentially devastating impacts in the future, global warming is already causing imperceptible impacts in the present. Public and economic agents need to fully understand the possible adverse impacts of climate change and take corresponding adaptation measures to cope with global warming.

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) on communication systems of unban rail transit can hardly be clarified because of complicated factors around railways. This paper aims to target this issue and extend experimental and theoretical analysis.

This paper take the Nanjing Dashengguan Bridge as an example, because it carries the most tracks in the world and bears three kinds of trains running through, providing a perfect complex environment. First, it investigates the three communication systems, terrestrial trunked radio, communications-based train control (CBTC) and passenger information system (PIS) that Nanjing Metro uses, and select appropriate devices accordingly. Second, it establishes a system level platform and conduct three tests to analyze their respective operating principles and performance difference under common electromagnetic environments. Third, it adopts theoretical formula to verify test results.

The experiment results and theoretical analysis mutually corroborate each other and present practical recommendations: an 8 m or more distance between two tracks will ensure no obvious EMI created by a passing train on communication systems; two certain communication systems should not share the same frequency band; interference level is more related to field strength than weathers and building materials; and CBTC DSSS waveguide mode as well as PIS LTE mode are preferred.

This research also provides a practical method of investigating EMI for other complex situations.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it intends to explore the link between internal social capital, logistics capabilities, supply chain risk management (SCRM) capabilities and supplier performance. Second, the mediating effect of logistics capabilities between internal social capital and SCRM capabilities, and that of SCRM capabilities between logistics capabilities and supplier performance are also examined.

A theoretical model developed from the extant literature was empirically validated through a cross-sectional survey of 122 respondents in 52 public healthcare facilities in Uganda. The data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The study found that internal social capital and SCRM capabilities are significant predictors of supplier performance. Internal social capital is positively and significantly related to logistics capabilities, and logistics capabilities are positively and significantly related to SCRM capabilities. The authors also found non-significant relationships between internal social capital and SCRM capabilities, and between logistics capabilities and supplier performance. Furthermore, it was revealed that logistics capabilities play a partial mediating role in the relationship between internal social capital and SCRM capabilities, while SCRM capabilities fully mediate between logistics capabilities and supplier performance.

Further to providing empirical evidence of the antecedents of supplier performance in the public healthcare in a developing economy, which has been evidently scant, this study provides initial empirical evidence of the mediating role of logistics capabilities in the relationship between internal social capital and SCRM capabilities and that of SCRM capabilities in the relationship between logistics capabilities and supplier performance. This is important for understanding the mechanism through which supplier performance can be enhanced.

This study aims to understand consumer behaviour in the context of online food delivery (OFD), especially given the mandatory lockdown imposed in some countries that have modified the behaviour of consumers. Using model goal-directed behaviour (MGB), this study was conducted to investigate consumer perceived risk on the use of OFD services.

Responses of food delivery services users were collected online throughout April 2020 to understand their risk profile and behaviour. A total of 339 responses were collected and subsequently analysed using partial least square (PLS). Both measurement and structural model were evaluated to ensure that the structural equation modelling (SEM) is valid.

The results revealed that attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), positive anticipated emotion (PAE) and negative anticipated emotion (NAE) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) significantly influenced users' desire. It was also found that PBC significantly influenced users' intention. The empirical result suggests that performance, privacy, financial, physical and the risk of contracting COVID-19 negatively influenced users' desire. In contrast, only physical and the risk of contracting COVID-19 negatively influenced users' intention to use OFD services.

These findings provide OFD service providers and scholars with significant insights into what compels urbanites to adopt OFD services amid a health pandemic. It also allows OFD companies to realign their operation in addressing these concerns and changes in consumer behaviour.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, this study provides insights for OFD providers in developing new strategies and approaches for business development and consumer retention in a post-pandemic world.

本研究擬瞭解與網上訂餐相關的消費行為；尤其當有些國家推行了改變消費者行為的強制性封鎖政策的情況下，這類研究更具意義。透過應用目標導向行為模型，本研究擬探討消費者在使用網上訂餐服務時所意識到的風險。

研究人員於 2020年4月網上收集使用訂餐服務人士的意見，以瞭解其風險狀況和行為。研究共收集了339位人士的意見，並以偏最小二乘法進行分析。測量和結構模型均加以評估，以確保結構方程模型是站得住腳的。

研究結果顯示，態度、主觀規範、預期的正面和負面情緒、以及感知的行為控制，顯著地影響了用戶的慾望。研究結果亦發現，感知的行為控制顯著地影響了用戶的意圖。研究的經驗性結果暗示了表現、私隱、金錢上的爭議、可能會導致的身體損傷和感染2019冠狀病毒病的風險，負面地影響用戶的慾望。相比之下，影響著用戶使用網上訂餐服務的意圖的因素就只有可能會導致的身體損傷和感染2019冠狀病毒病的風險。

研究的結果，為提供網上訂餐服務的營運者和研究學者提供了重要的啟示，使他們更瞭解是什麼因素會迫使都市人在與健康息息相關的大流行病期間使用網上訂餐服務。而且，提供網上訂餐服務的公司亦可藉此重新調整其營運，以能處理客戶的憂慮和應付消費行為的變化。

在大流行病肆虐的背景下，本研究為網上訂餐服務提供者給予了啟示，以便他們能在後疫情時代制定新的策略和營運方法，以拓展其業務和留住消費者。

Independent directors are important corporate decision participants and makers. Based on the Chinese cultural background, this paper interprets the listing order of independent directors as independent directors’ status, exploring their influence on the corporate research and development (R&D) behavior.

This paper studies A-share listed firms in China from 2008 to 2018 as the sample. The main method is ordinary least square (OLS) regression. We also use other methods to deal with endogenous problems, such as the firm fixed effect method, change model method, two-stage instrumental variable method, and Heckman two-stage method.

(1) Higher independent directors’ status attribute to more effective exertion of supervision and consultation function, and positively enhance the corporate R&D investment. The increase of the independent director’ status by one standard deviation will increase the R&D investment by 4.6%. (2) The above effect is more influential in firms with stronger traditional culture atmosphere, higher information opacity and higher performance volatility. (3) High-status independent directors promote R&D investment by improving the scientificity of R&D evaluation and reducing information asymmetry. (4) The enhancing effect of independent director’ status on R&D investment is positively associated with the firm’s patent output and market value.

This paper contributes to understanding the relationship between the independent directors’ status and their duty execution from an embedded cultural background perspective. The findings of the study enlighten the improvement of corporate governance efficiency and the healthy development of the capital market.