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This paper examines diverging views on the Chongqing model, the policy experiment led by Bo Xilai from 2007 to 2012 that was famous for its “red songs” and the campaign against organized crime. It has impressed both the supporters of socialist identity of China and the supporters of liberal identity and led to an intense debate concerning China’s path of development. This paper attempts to discuss and clarify to what extent the Chongqing model represented a genuine socialist experiment and the implications of the model for China’s future.

Drawing on the co-creation literature and self-determination theory, this study takes a broader organisational perspective linking employees’ motivational antecedents (corporate brand socialization, employee brand identification and impression management) and employee-based brand co-creation (EBBC), with three employee-level outcomes: sales performance, employee resilience and adaptive selling. We therefore bridge the complex nexus between employees and organisational performance.

Survey data of 313 employees across industries and different-sized business-to-business (B2B) companies in China were collected. We used AMOS 21 to carry out structural equation modelling (SEM) for testing the main hypotheses.

The results reveal that EBBC is driven by external, internal and self-related motivations and leads to an increase in the three employee performance-related outcomes. The results further indicate that employees’ social media usage exerts contrasting moderating effects for each of the three motivational antecedents: While it strengthens the effect of employee identification on EBBC, it weakens the effect of corporate brand socialization on EBBC and exerts no effect on the relationship between impression management and EBBC.

This study confirms the effectiveness of EBBC in improving performance outcomes for B2B employees, particularly sales performance, resilience and job satisfaction, all of which are crucial for employee success. On the basis of our findings, in terms of employee satisfaction and performance, and in addition to conventional strategies and incentives, B2B organisations should encourage employee co-creation activities as outlined above, since such activities tend to impact these outcomes positively.

This study features and substantiates the self-related goal initiatives in EBBC, such as developing a sense of self-promotion desires and uncovers a moderator of the relationships between motivational antecedents and EBBC. These findings highlight the managerial relevance of specific motivational and psychological pathways in building employee brand co-creation behaviours, employee outcomes and organisational performance via employee sales.

Blockchain-based traceability labels is increasingly adopted in supply chain, yet there is little empirical research to examine effectiveness from consumer perspective. Can blockchain technology motivate consumers to purchase sustainable products? Drawing on signaling theory, this paper answers this question by comparing the effect of blockchain-based traceability labels with certification-based labels on consumer purchase intention of sustainable products. We further investigate consumers’ perception of sustainability level as a mediating variable and social enterprise as a boundary condition.

This study uses three online between-subject experiments with a total of 750 participants. The proposed hypotheses are tested using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) as well as mediation analysis based on PROCESS macro.

The results suggest that (1) blockchain-based traceability labels lead to greater consumer purchase intention of sustainable products than certification-based labels; (2) such a positive effect of blockchain-based traceability labels occurs as consumers perceive a higher sustainability level; (3) however, the effect is attenuated when the company is a social enterprise.

This study contributes to the operations and supply chain management (OSCM) literature by studying the effectiveness of blockchain-based traceability labels from the overlooked yet emerging perspective of consumers. We provide a theoretical explanation and empirical evidence of how blockchain-based traceability labels influence consumer purchase intention during sustainable consumption compared with certification-based labels. We thus additionally contribute to the extant research on the intersection of blockchain and sustainability. Moreover, the incorporation of social enterprise as a moderator enriches the application of signaling theory on the context of sustainability signaling.

Recent studies on search-as-learning (SAL) have recognized the significance of identifying users' learning needs as they evolve for acquiring knowledge during the search process. In this study, the authors clarify the extent to which search behaviors reflect the learning outcome and foster the users' knowledge of Chinese art.

The authors conducted an exploratory-sequential mixed-methods approach using simulated work task situations to collect empirical data. The authors used two types of simulated learning tasks for topics related to painting and antique knowledge. A lot of 25 users participated in this evaluation of digital archives (DAs) at the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taiwan. For each set of topics, a close-ended task related to lower-level learning goals and an open-ended task related to higher-level learning goals.

The learning criteria reflect changes in the users' knowledge structure, revealing the SAL process. Furthermore, users achieved better task performance on the higher-level creative-learning task, which suggests that they met more learning criteria, exhibited a greater variety of search patterns when exploring the topics via interaction with various sources. Finally, there is a close relationship between creative-learning tasks, prior knowledge, keyword search actions and learning outcomes.

The authors discuss implications with respect to the design of DAs in practice and contributions to the body of SAL knowledge in DAs of online museums. For future reference, the authors provide implications for the development of learning measures from the perspective of user search behavior with associated learning outcomes in the context of DAs.

In a programming course, students often need tutors' assistance to complete learning activities, as they lack enough background knowledge to complete tasks. A further problem is that without individual tutoring, the knowledge gap between students increases. Therefore, the authors have proposed an instant response learning supplement tool (IRLST) to support students' learning, in order to facilitate students' independent problem-solving skills.

The authors divided the students into two groups according to their learning styles: verbal and visual. The IRLST was used to collect and analyze the information on their usage and provide supplementary resources to facilitate their learning. The proposed system also analyzed the student usage, background knowledge and exam scores to assess their academic performance.

According to the results of statistical analysis, students' learning performance improved significantly, especially low-scoring students. Moreover, as compiler messages were not recognized, students tended to identify the same problems. Thus, it is suggested that teachers not only should focus on improving the students' syntax but also strengthening their background knowledge and debugging skills.

There are two main limitations in this study: (1) as most of the students were in the visual learning group, the size of the groups was impacted, thus it was not possible to establish a control group; (2) one specific version of the IRLST system did not send reliable advice or supplementary content occasionally.

The IRLST developed in this study can be used to provide immediate supplementary resources to help students overcoming programming problems and developing problem-solving skills.

The purpose of this paper is to test bagasse extract as an effective corrosion inhibitor.

The bagasse was extracted without any toxic substance and was found to be effective for corrosion of J55 steel.

The inhibition efficiency of bagasse was more than 90 per cent in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution saturated with CO₂ for corrosion inhibition of J55 steel.

The inhibition effect of Saccharum sinense bagasse extract on the corrosion of J55 steel in 3.5 weight per cent NaCl saturated with CO₂ solution was investigated by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, polarization curve and scanning electron microscope.

It can be used as low-cost corrosion inhibitor.

It is an environment-friendly corrosion inhibitor.

This work is original and carried out in Southwest Petroleum University, China. This is not communicated anywhere else.

Studies the economic design of x^‐ control charts in a situation in which the duration time that the process remains in the in‐control state follows a general distribution which has an increasing hazard rate. In this situation, the active and persistent action for quality control is to design a process in which a preventive maintenance procedure is performed periodically. Addresses first the relationship between preventive maintenance and x^‐ control charts. A cost function which is opposed to those given by Banerjee and Rahim and by Hu is derived. The computational results indicate that the proposed model under a preventive maintenance policy has a lower expected total cost per hour than have those of Banerjee and Rahim’s and Hu’s Weibull shock models. Numerical examples also demonstrate that the model has great flexibility when applied in the situation previously mentioned. Presents the advantages of the combination of a preventive maintenance policy and x^‐ control charts and concludes that a preventive maintenance policy performed under a certain condition can be particularly instrumental in reducing the expected total cost per hour.

Develops a framework which provides a step towards better planning of production, scheming inspection and preventive maintenance. Studies the effects of an imperfect production process on the optimal production cycle time. The system is assumed to deteriorate during the production process and produce some proportion of defective items. Extends to the cases where the proportion of defective items and the cost of process restoration are not constant. Provides a comparative study of two monitoring policies where the preventive maintenance setting is used and not used in the deteriorating production process. These models are directly relevant to the management of the quality and reliability of the production process. When scheming inspection is adopted, it is shown that the optimal inspection intervals are equally spaced in the imperfect production process under the different policies, respectively. Provides a numerical example to illustrate the derivation of the optimal production cycle time in the models.

Develops the joint economic designs of • and S² control charts under four operating policies to monitor the process in a situation where the occurrence of the assignable cause follows a general distribution with an increasing hazard rate. The four operating policies can be chosen by quality controllers to cope with the specific process situation. Policy I and policy II assume that the process performs the preventive maintenance programme at equal and decreasing sampling time intervals, respectively. Policy III and policy IV in turn merely take samples using the non‐uniform and uniform sampling interval schemes without preventive maintenance. The derivation of the four models is not very difficult, so it can be used to derive another model. Offers numerical examples to compare the economic designs and the total expected costs per hour of the four models. Finds, from the computational results, policy II is the best for adoption in the design of • and S² control charts. The results also show that the proposed solution procedure is more accurate and better than Rahim et al.’s and Chung and Chen’s procedures. Concludes with remarks and some advantages of introducing the periodic preventive maintenance policy into a process.

Using typical structure of asphalt pavement in Harbin area of China, and the formula of generalized friction coefficient between base and surface layers of asphalt pavement in cold area is established.

Through structural characteristics analysis of asphalt pavement in cold area, the generalized formula of friction coefficient between base and surface layers of asphalt pavement in cold area is derived. The formula can quickly calculate the friction coefficient between layers of asphalt pavement.

Based on quantitative analysis to the contacting state between layers of asphalt pavement in cold area, the relationships between generalized friction coefficient and resilient modulus of asphalt mixtures, temperature shrinkage coefficient and temperature have been established.

The findings can enrich the description methods about the contacting state between layers of asphalt pavement, and have a certain theoretical and practical value. Through the application of the formula of generalized friction coefficient between layers, it can provide a technical basis for the asphalt pavement design, construction and maintenance in cold area.