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The purpose of this study is to assess the SERVQUAL instrument reliability and validity and apply the SERVQUAL instrument in China's mobile communication setting.

A mail survey was conducted at a major mobile communications company in mainland China. Instrument reliability and validity were examined. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted.

The adapted SERVQUAL instrument is a valid and valuable tool to measure service quality. Service convenience is an important additional dimension of service quality in China's mobile communications setting. The dimension of “empathy” may need revision.

Future research involves assessment of the service convenience dimension and examination of the relative importance of SERVQUAL dimensions in other settings.

SERVQUAL is a valid instrument to measure service quality in China's mobile communications setting. Providing convenience to customers also is critical for service quality improvement. Improvements to some SERVQUAL dimensions may be more beneficial than improvements to others.

This is a pioneer study of the SERVQUAL scale in China's mobile communications setting. This study provides useful insights and guidance for managers to measure and improve service quality.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the microstructural evolution and hydrolytic stability of poly(phenylborosiloxane) (PPhBS) to further use and develop the oligomers as heat-resistant modifiers.

PPhBS was synthesized by direct co-condensation of boric acid (BA) and phenyltriethoxysilane (PTEOS). The structural evolution of PPhBS at high temperature was investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) and 29Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In addition, the change in the morphology of the PPhBS powder was examined to demonstrate the evolution of the chemical bonds, and the hydrolytic stability of PPhBS was investigated by a combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, measurement of the mass loss in water and FTIR spectroscopy.

The results revealed that a cross-linking network was gradually formed with increasing temperature through the condensation of the residual hydroxyl groups in PPhBS, and the Si-OH and B-OH bonds remained even at a high temperature of 450°C. Furthermore, heat treatment improved the hydrolytic stability of the oligomer. The hydrolysis of the B-O-B bonds in PPhBS was reversible, whereas the Si-O-Si and Si-O-B bonds were highly resistant to hydrolysis.

The prepared PPhBS can be used as a heat-resistant modifier in adhesives, sealants, coatings and composite matrices.

Investigation of the structural evolution of a polyborosiloxane at high temperature by DRIFTS is a novel approach that avoided interference from moisture in the air. The insoluble mass fraction and the FTIR spectrum of PPhBS washed with water were used to investigate the hydrolytic stability of PPhBS.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the heat resistance and heat-resistant oxygen aging of 4-nitrophthalonitrile-etherified cardanol-phenol-formaldehyde (PPCF) to further use and develop the resin as the matrix resin of high-temperature resistant adhesives and coatings.

PPCF resin was synthesized by 4-nitrophthalonitrile and cardanol-phenol-formaldehyde (PCF). The structures of PPCF and PCF were investigated by Fourier transform infrared, differential scanning calorimetry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance. In addition, the heat resistance and processability of PPCF and PCF resins were studied by dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques and rheological studies.

The results reveal that PPCF forms a cross-linked network at a lower temperature. PPCF resin has excellent resistance under thermal aging in an air atmosphere and that it still had a certain residual weight after aging at 500°C for 2 h, whereas the PCF resin is completely decomposed.

4-Nitrophthalonitrile was introduced into PCF resin, and XRD and SEM were used to investigate the high temperature residual carbon rate and heat-resistant oxygen aging properties of PPCF and PCF resins.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of greenwashing behaviour of one brand on purchase intention of green products from other brands. Further, this study tests the mediating role of greenwashing perception of the entire industry and the moderating role of brand attitudes towards other brands in the industry for the above-mentioned relationship.

A sample of 377 participants was utilised in three studies. The study analysed the data using SPSS 18.0 to test the research hypotheses.

The study suggests that greenwashing behaviour of one brand negatively affects consumers’ purchase intention of the green products from other brands in the industry. It is also indicated that the greenwashing perception of the entire industry partially mediates the relationship between greenwashing behaviour of a brand and purchase intention of green products from other brands. In addition, the study shows that the relationship between greenwashing perception of the entire industry and purchase intention of the green products from other brands is negatively moderated by brand attitudes towards other brands in the industry.

This study provides useful insights for the managers that firms can learn the way to alleviate greenwashing spillover effect through the brand attitudes to enhance green purchasing behaviour.

The study is perhaps the first one to study the existence of the spillover effect of brands’greenwashing behaviour. The study also reveals the influencing mechanism of greenwashing spillover effect of a brand.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of fairness concern on the optimal pricing, carbon emission reduction (CER), green marketing efforts (GME) and utility of supply chain members in a two-echelon low-carbon supply chain composed of one manufacturer and one retailer. First, three basic models that consider the manufacturer’s different attitudes toward the retailer’s fairness concern are constructed. The optimal decisions of these models are obtained. Second, these optimal solutions are compared, and the effects of some key parameters including fairness concern on the optimal decisions and utility are examined for the three models. Furthermore, the manufacturer may misestimate the retailer’s fairness concern; therefore, an extended model is proposed.

The authors adopt the manufacturer-led Stackelberg game theoretic framework, where the manufacturer decides the wholesale price and CER level and, then, the retailer determines the retail price and GME.

The results show that fairness concern has a negative impact on the wholesale price, the level of CER and GME, and fairness concern are not always beneficial for maximizing utility, although it is related to whether the manufacturer pays attention to the retailer’s fairness concern. The manufacturer will gain more utility when considering the fairness concern of retailers than non-consideration. Overestimating or underestimating the fairness concern of the retailers does not lead to benefits for the manufacturer.

This study has the following two limitations that need to be addressed in future research. First, the authors only consider the fairness concern of a single retailer but not peer-induced fairness among multiple competing retailers, which can be taken into account in future studies. Second, the demand function is linearly related to price, CER and GME. Because of the uncertainty of market information, the uncertainty demand function can be further considered.

This paper simultaneously considers the factors CER, GME and fairness concern. The utility function of the retailer is established according to taking the Nash bargaining solution as a fairness reference point, and four different models are constructed and compared.

The purpose of this paper is to examine China's approach to circular economy (CE) and investigate how the foreign concept of CE has been turned into a national strategy for implementation in production, circulation and consumption. This study aims to highlight the Chinese characteristics in the implementation of CE from central to local levels including the “trial and test” by pilot schemes and the role of local governments in CE transformation of industrial parks and in building CE cities. Based on what has been achieved, this paper aims to identify the gaps to be filled in the next stage of CE implementation.

This paper engages in critical analysis of state policies, plans, laws and regulations and case studies of Suzhou New District and Shanghai city in the building CE-oriented industrial park and CE city, respectively.

China has taken a top-down approach to CE characterised by strong government involvement in both policy and plan making and implementation at local levels. The government’s financial investment and administrative assistance proved to be crucial in the early stage of CE implementation to close the loop at industrial parks and in cities. In comparison, participation by enterprises and individuals is still weak and limited, which should be the focus of the next stage of CE implementation.

There is an absence of legal literature that studies circular economy in China. This paper fills the gap by examining the development of CE law and policy as well as CE implementation at local levels from industrial parks to cities.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach for robust control of an autonomous quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in automatic take-off, hovering and landing mission and also to improve the stabilizing performance of the quadrotor with inherent time-varying disturbance.

First, the dynamic model of the aerial vehicle is mathematically formulated. Then, a combination of a nonlinear backstepping scheme with the intelligent fuzzy system as a new key idea to generate a robust controller is designed for the stabilization and altitude tracking of the vehicle. For the problem of determining the backstepping control parameters, a new heuristic algorithm, namely, Gravitational Search Algorithm has been used.

The control law design utilizes the backstepping control methodology that uses Lyapunov function which can guarantee the stability of the nominal model system, whereas the intelligent system is used as a compensator to attenuate the effects caused by external disturbances. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme can achieve favorable control performances for automatic take-off, hovering and landing mission of quadrotor UAV even in the presence of unknown perturbations.

This paper propose a new robust control design approach which incorporates the backstepping control with fuzzy system for quadrotor UAV with inherent time-varying disturbance. The originality of this work relies on the technique to compensate the disturbances acting on the quadrotor UAV. In this new approach, the fuzzy system is introduced as an auxiliary control effort to compensate the effect of disturbances. Because the proposed control technique has the capability of robustness against disturbance, thus, it is also suitable to be applied for a broad class of uncertain nonlinear systems.