Cynthia Weiyi Cai, Rui Xue and Bi Zhou
This study reviews existing cryptocurrency research to provide answers to three puzzles in the literature. First, is cryptocurrency more like gold (i.e., a commodity) or should…
Abstract
Purpose
This study reviews existing cryptocurrency research to provide answers to three puzzles in the literature. First, is cryptocurrency more like gold (i.e., a commodity) or should it be classified as a new financial asset? Second, can we apply our knowledge of the traditional capital market to the emerging cryptocurrency market? Third, what might be the future of cryptocurrency?
Design/methodology/approach
Bibliometric analysis is used to assess 2,098 finance-related cryptocurrency publications from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database from January 2009 to April 2022. Three key research streams are identified, namely, (1) cryptocurrency features, (2) behaviour of the cryptocurrency market and (3) blockchain implications.
Findings
First, cryptocurrency should be viewed and regulated as a new asset class rather than a currency or a new commodity. While it can provide diversification benefits to the portfolio, cryptocurrency cannot work as a safe haven asset. Second, crypto markets are typically inefficient. Asset bubbles exist and are exacerbated by behavioural finance factors. Third, cryptocurrency demonstrates increasing potential as a medium of exchange and store of value.
Originality/value
Extant review papers primarily study one or two particular research topics, overlooking the interaction between topics. The few existing systematic literature reviews in this area typically have a narrow focus on trend identification. This study is the first study to provide a comprehensive review of all financial-related studies on cryptocurrency, synthesising the research findings from 2,098 publications to answer three cryptocurrency puzzles.
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Lina Syazwana Kamaruzzaman and Yingxin Goh
This paper aims to review recent reports on mechanical properties of Sn-Bi and Sn-Bi-X solders (where X is an additional alloying element), in terms of the tensile properties…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review recent reports on mechanical properties of Sn-Bi and Sn-Bi-X solders (where X is an additional alloying element), in terms of the tensile properties, hardness and shear strength. Then, the effects of alloying in Sn-Bi solder are compared in terms of the discussed mechanical properties. The fracture morphologies of tensile shear tested solders are also reviewed to correlate the microstructural changes with mechanical properties of Sn-Bi-X solder alloys.
Design/methodology/approach
A brief introduction on Sn-Bi solder and reasons to enhance the mechanical properties of Sn-Bi solder. The latest reports on Sn-Bi and Sn-Bi-X solders are combined in the form of tables and figures for each section. The presented data are discussed by comparing the testing method, technical setup, specimen dimension and alloying element weight percentage, which affect the mechanical properties of Sn-Bi solder.
Findings
The addition of alloying elements could enhance the tensile properties, hardness and/or shear strength of Sn-Bi solder for low-temperature solder application. Different weight percentage alloying elements affect differently on Sn-Bi solder mechanical properties.
Originality/value
This paper provides a compilation of latest report on tensile properties, hardness, shear strength and deformation of Sn-Bi and Sn-Bi-X solders and the latest trends and in-depth understanding of the effect of alloying elements in Sn-Bi solder mechanical properties.
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The purpose of this study is to empirically explore how firms configure centrifugal and centripetal forces in promoting breakthrough innovation (BI), thus improving their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically explore how firms configure centrifugal and centripetal forces in promoting breakthrough innovation (BI), thus improving their strategic performance (SP) in the artificial intelligence (AI) context.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies the centrifugal and centripetal forces model to a survey sample of 285 Chinese AI firms. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and propensity score matching (PSM) are integrated to explore the configurational effects of three centrifugal forces—the autonomy of technical experts, knowledge search and alliance network—and two centripetal forces—strictness of organisational institutions (SOI) and human–human–AI collaboration (HHAC)—on BI, examining whether the configurations that enhance BI can further improve SP.
Findings
The results indicate that the strictness of innovation institutions (SII) and strictness of ethical institutions (SEI) are equally important for determining SOI. Three configurations can improve BI when SOI and HHAC are the core conditions; only one of three configurations can further improve SP significantly.
Originality/value
By introducing SOI composed of equally important levels of SII and SEI and HHAC, this research is one of the few empirical studies to explore the mechanisms behind the impact of centrifugal and centripetal forces on BI and SP, which may help researchers and managers address innovation challenges in the AI context.
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Li-Chun Hsu, Wen-Hai Chih and Dah-Kwei Liou
Social media platforms established social relationship between the consumer and the brand community. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to understand how…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media platforms established social relationship between the consumer and the brand community. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to understand how dual-identification impact on the community citizenship behavior (CCB). Specifically, the authors propose perceived community-brand similarity (PCBS) influence CCB via dual-identification and brand passion (BP).
Design/methodology/approach
The research sample consists of 323 members who have used Apple product and used Apple fan page for more than one year, and structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicated that PCBS directly influenced brand identification (BI) and community identification (CI), respectively. BI directly influenced CI. CI directly influenced BP, but BI not directly influenced BP. In the mediation effects, both the dual-identification factors and BP play important mediating roles.
Practical implications
From a managerial standpoint, this research provides implications for social network sites management.
Originality/value
This research fills a void in the BI and CI are coexisting but distinct aspects of virtual communities. In addition, the mediating role of dual-identification factors and BP in the online community consumer-brand relationship has not been fully investigated.
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Ali Tarhini, Mazen El-Masri, Maged Ali and Alan Serrano
A number of studies have shown that internet banking (IB) implementation is not only determined by banks or government support, but also by perceptions and experience of IB users…
Abstract
Purpose
A number of studies have shown that internet banking (IB) implementation is not only determined by banks or government support, but also by perceptions and experience of IB users. IB studies have showed encouraging results from academics in developed countries. Yet little is known about the user adoption of IB in Lebanon. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that may hinder or facilitate the acceptance and usage of IB in Lebanon.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual framework was developed through extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) by incorporating two additional factors namely; perceived credibility (PC) and task-technology fit (TTF). A quantitative approach based on cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from 408 IB consumers. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling based on AMOS 20.0.
Findings
The results of the structural path revealed that performance expectancy (PE), social influence, PC and TTF to be significant predictors in influencing customers’ behavioural intention (BI) to use IB and explained 61 per cent of its variance, with PE was found the strongest antecedent of BI. Contrary to the UTAUT, the effect of effort expectancy on BI was insignificant. In addition, both BI and facilitating conditions were found to affect the actual usage behaviour and explained 64 per cent of its variance
Practical implications
This study would be helpful for bank managers and policy makers to explain the currently relatively low penetration rate of IB in formulating strategies to encourage the adoption and acceptance of IB by Lebanese customers, where IB is still considered an innovation.
Originality/value
This study is the first research that extend the UTAUT by incorporating two additional factors namely; PC and TTF to study the IB in the Lebanese context. This study contributes to the research on computer technology usage by looking at IB adoption and incorporation into the lives of customers via the BI to use and actual usage of IB in Lebanon.
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Mehrgan Malekpour, Mohammadbashir Sedighi, Federica Caboni, Vincenzo Basile and Ciro Troise
This research aims to fill the research gaps regarding customer preferences for digitalisation to create value for retailers and customers, as well as focus on retail change and…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to fill the research gaps regarding customer preferences for digitalisation to create value for retailers and customers, as well as focus on retail change and shopping behaviour in grocery retail stores in the emerging market.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper contributes to the research in this area by evaluating customers' and retailers' attitudes towards digital transformation in retailing through interviews. Methodologically, 200 questionnaires were gathered, and data were analysed with the partial least squared structural equation modelling method.
Findings
The findings of this study reveal that the effect of digital transformation in the retail industry will be more apparent in an emerging market.
Originality/value
The paper's originality consists in understanding the future retail structure in an emerging market. Notably, focussing on business-to-consumer businesses appears helpful in distinguishing between behavioural (buying) intention and online buying behaviour (actual usage) in an emerging market.
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Huaxiang Song, Chai Wei and Zhou Yong
The paper aims to tackle the classification of Remote Sensing Images (RSIs), which presents a significant challenge for computer algorithms due to the inherent characteristics of…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to tackle the classification of Remote Sensing Images (RSIs), which presents a significant challenge for computer algorithms due to the inherent characteristics of clustered ground objects and noisy backgrounds. Recent research typically leverages larger volume models to achieve advanced performance. However, the operating environments of remote sensing commonly cannot provide unconstrained computational and storage resources. It requires lightweight algorithms with exceptional generalization capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This study introduces an efficient knowledge distillation (KD) method to build a lightweight yet precise convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier. This method also aims to substantially decrease the training time expenses commonly linked with traditional KD techniques. This approach entails extensive alterations to both the model training framework and the distillation process, each tailored to the unique characteristics of RSIs. In particular, this study establishes a robust ensemble teacher by independently training two CNN models using a customized, efficient training algorithm. Following this, this study modifies a KD loss function to mitigate the suppression of non-target category predictions, which are essential for capturing the inter- and intra-similarity of RSIs.
Findings
This study validated the student model, termed KD-enhanced network (KDE-Net), obtained through the KD process on three benchmark RSI data sets. The KDE-Net surpasses 42 other state-of-the-art methods in the literature published from 2020 to 2023. Compared to the top-ranked method’s performance on the challenging NWPU45 data set, KDE-Net demonstrated a noticeable 0.4% increase in overall accuracy with a significant 88% reduction in parameters. Meanwhile, this study’s reformed KD framework significantly enhances the knowledge transfer speed by at least three times.
Originality/value
This study illustrates that the logit-based KD technique can effectively develop lightweight CNN classifiers for RSI classification without substantial sacrifices in computation and storage costs. Compared to neural architecture search or other methods aiming to provide lightweight solutions, this study’s KDE-Net, based on the inherent characteristics of RSIs, is currently more efficient in constructing accurate yet lightweight classifiers for RSI classification.
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Classification of remote sensing images (RSI) is a challenging task in computer vision. Recently, researchers have proposed a variety of creative methods for automatic recognition…
Abstract
Purpose
Classification of remote sensing images (RSI) is a challenging task in computer vision. Recently, researchers have proposed a variety of creative methods for automatic recognition of RSI, and feature fusion is a research hotspot for its great potential to boost performance. However, RSI has a unique imaging condition and cluttered scenes with complicated backgrounds. This larger difference from nature images has made the previous feature fusion methods present insignificant performance improvements.
Design/methodology/approach
This work proposed a two-convolutional neural network (CNN) fusion method named main and branch CNN fusion network (MBC-Net) as an improved solution for classifying RSI. In detail, the MBC-Net employs an EfficientNet-B3 as its main CNN stream and an EfficientNet-B0 as a branch, named MC-B3 and BC-B0, respectively. In particular, MBC-Net includes a long-range derivation (LRD) module, which is specially designed to learn the dependence of different features. Meanwhile, MBC-Net also uses some unique ideas to tackle the problems coming from the two-CNN fusion and the inherent nature of RSI.
Findings
Extensive experiments on three RSI sets prove that MBC-Net outperforms the other 38 state-of-the-art (STOA) methods published from 2020 to 2023, with a noticeable increase in overall accuracy (OA) values. MBC-Net not only presents a 0.7% increased OA value on the most confusing NWPU set but also has 62% fewer parameters compared to the leading approach that ranks first in the literature.
Originality/value
MBC-Net is a more effective and efficient feature fusion approach compared to other STOA methods in the literature. Given the visualizations of grad class activation mapping (Grad-CAM), it reveals that MBC-Net can learn the long-range dependence of features that a single CNN cannot. Based on the tendency stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) results, it demonstrates that the feature representation of MBC-Net is more effective than other methods. In addition, the ablation tests indicate that MBC-Net is effective and efficient for fusing features from two CNNs.
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The global higher education (HE) sector is increasingly becoming more competitive and has experienced a significant amount of transformation. Within the last 20 years changes…
Abstract
The global higher education (HE) sector is increasingly becoming more competitive and has experienced a significant amount of transformation. Within the last 20 years changes occurred within legal frameworks, governing funding schemes, quality assurance systems and apprenticeship programs for industry across a widening range of HE provisions that support the upskilling of the workforce. This chapter shows that, higher education institutions (HEIs) are constantly seeking alternative ways of developing and consolidating new financial streams (partnering with other HEIs, geographical growth and portfolio development) that allow a sustainable development while maintaining high quality standards. The chapter shows that governments and experts believe enterprise-wide risk management (EWRM) can help HEIs reduce risk but also shows that it is not widely implemented in the HE sector.
This chapter critically discusses the implementation of EWRM in the context of a private HEI case study example with the purpose of ensuring business continuity and sustainable growth, while maintaining and enhancing quality standards. The importance of EWRM is discussed and illustrated through the case study research approach where the author analyzes the importance of risk management starting from preparation to program evaluation. This case study review provides a comprehensive and detailed answer as to how adoption of EWRM has been applied through adopting an international standards approach and utilizing the improvement cycle of preparation, plan, do, check and act. The chapter aligns well with the scope of the book as it provides theoretical and practical insights related to EWRM which is very important in assisting HEI governors and leaders in developing resilient and competitive educational establishments.
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Quan Xu, Qinling Zhang, Tao Jiang, Bocheng Bao and Mo Chen
The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple chaotic circuit. The circuit can be fabricated by less discrete electronic components, within which complex dynamical behaviors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple chaotic circuit. The circuit can be fabricated by less discrete electronic components, within which complex dynamical behaviors can be generated.
Design/methodology/approach
A second-order non-autonomous inductor-free chaotic circuit is presented, which is obtained by introducing a sinusoidal voltage stimulus into the classical Wien-bridge oscillator. The proposed circuit only has two dynamic elements, and its nonlinearity is realized by the saturation characteristic of the operational amplifier in the classical Wien-bridge oscillator. After that, its dynamical behaviors are revealed by means of bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponent and phase portrait and further confirmed using the 0-1 test method. Moreover, an analog circuit using less discrete electronic components is implemented, and its experimental results are measured to verify the numerical simulations.
Findings
The equilibrium point located in a line segment varies with time evolution, which leads to the occurrence of periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic behaviors in the proposed circuit.
Originality/value
Unlike the previously published works, the significant values of the proposed circuit with simple topology are inductor-free realization and without extra nonlinearity, which make the circuit can be used as a paradigm for academic teaching and experimental illustraction for chaos.