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Despite the importance of online word-of-mouth (WOM) communication to senders, receivers and concerned companies alike, a surprisingly limited amount of research exists on the impacts of online WOM participation on the senders themselves. Motivated by an attempt to fill this significant gap in the literature, this paper aims to investigate the sender outcomes of online WOM participation.

The authors draw on insights from focus group studies and psychological theories of emotions, catharsis and regret and the signaling theory to develop a conceptual model linking the drivers and content characteristics of online WOM participation and sender outcomes.

The findings show that sender outcomes from online WOM transmission differ by the types of drivers stimulating the online sharing activity and the level of exaggeration in the senders’ self-generated contents. Specifically, online WOM triggered by emotions leads to catharsis and emotional homeostasis among the senders, while that stimulated by motivational drivers such as altruism, reciprocity, self-enhancement and belongingness leads to sender happiness. Exaggeration in self-generated WOM contents by the senders, in turn, leads to delayed outcomes of sender regret and reduced sender trust in general online WOM contents.

The most important contribution to online WOM research lies in the study of the outcomes of WOM transmission from a sender’s point of view. By drawing on our exploratory findings and psychological theories of emotions, catharsis and regret and the signaling theory, the authors develop a conceptual model linking the drivers and the exaggeration nature of online WOM participation and sender outcomes.

Managers should realize that the most fundamental way of ensuring positive consumption experiences is to listen to customer voices, including even the most negative of feedback shared privately or publicly, and use that information to improve essential customer experience aspects. The finding on the effects of online WOM exaggerations on sender regret suggests that companies and consumers alike should work on ensuring producing more accurate and complete online customer reviews. The finding on the negative effect of online WOM exaggerations on sender trust raises an important question on the meaning of high quality reviews from the company’s perspective. To pursue high quality reviews, merchants should not only aim at receiving the highest possible numeric ratings but also encourage most truthful accounts of purchase and usage experiences. In turn, online platforms such as Amazon should also factor the quality of online ratings more effectively into their product recommendation algorithms.

In further consideration of consumer welfare implications, online WOM transmissions should be more recognized as a tool for allowing consumers to cleanse their emotions associated with marketing stimuli.

Overall, the qualitative study and proposed conceptual model contribute to a more thorough and deeper understanding of individual-level sender outcomes of online WOM participation.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the cultural cognition of Chinese Zhong-yong thinking, which is deeply rooted in Chinese Confucius culture, and to examine how entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking is related to new venture performance through guanxi network, and also examine how environmental turbulence affects the influencing mechanism.

This paper follows an empirical design. Data are collected from a survey administered to entrepreneurs in new ventures of China. Regression analysis is used to test the hypothesis.

Results show that entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking is positively related to guanxi and new venture performance, and guanxi mediates the relationship between entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking and new venture performance. In addition, environmental turbulence moderates the relationship between entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking and guanxi such that the relationship is stronger under higher technological turbulence or lower market turbulence.

This research uses cross-sectional data, so causal conclusions cannot be made. In addition, more moderators should be considered.

The present study enriches the understanding of how entrepreneurs’ Zhong-yong thinking affects new ventures, which helps entrepreneur understand how to strategize according to external environment and develop what kind of cognitive style to deal with complex situation of their own venture.

This study is a pioneer in exploring non-Western cognitive style–Zhong-yong thinking in entrepreneurial context. It not only enriches the understanding of how Chinese wisdom affects organizational strategy and organizational performance but also advances the cognition research in the field of entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the shortcomings of the marked method in identifying the number of regions in binary images, and to present a new algorithm to identify the number of bars.

Identifying the number of bars automatically is widely used in the lumbering, iron, and steel industry. The marked methods need complex signing and have to scan the binary image several times. An algorithm that uses two chain lists to identify the number of bars is presented. It uses the characteristic of the chain list. When scanning the binary image, it creates two chain lists and then the number and the central position of the bar based on the relations of created chain lists can be determined.

Test results have indicated this algorithm is feasible and effective on recognizing the number of bars.

When the connected area has too many pixels in the binary images, recognizing its number needs much more time.

The paper presents a very useful approach for identifying the number of the bar, in the lumbering and steel industry.

China is a critical factor for constructing an all-round well-off society. Infrastructure construction, especially high-grade highways, in the western area is an essential component of the strategy for large-scale development of west China. It is crucial to evaluate investment projects for high-grade highways and select the best one. Testing investment projects and selecting the best one can be recognized as a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this process, decision-makers (DMs) usually face with uncertain information because of complicated decision environment or their limited knowledge.

A new Evaluation based on the Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) for PFS based on the DEMATEL is proposed: The authors offer a new score function and prove some properties for the score function. They put forward a novel Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method for PFS to analyze the relations of criteria and get criteria weights. Considering the bounded rationality of DM, the authors propose a new EDAS method for PFS based on prospect theory. They apply their proposed approach to a western city's actual case in selecting a suitable project for building a high-grade highway.

By comparison, the authors can observe that our method has some traits: (1) considering bounded rationality of DM; (2) fewer computation; (3) having the ability to obtain the relation of criteria and finding the critical factor in the decision system.

In this paper, the authors propose a new EDAS method for PFS based on the DEMATEL technique. They transform PFS into crisp numbers by their proposed new score function for PFN to make the decision process more convenient. Then, the authors use the DEMATEL method to obtain the relationship between criteria and criteria weights. Furthermore, they propose a new EDAS method for PFS based on DEMATEL to reduce the computational complexity. Finally, they apply our method to a real case and compare our method with two traditional methods.

In multi-criteria decision-making with interval grey number information, decision makers usually take a risk to rank or choose some very similar alternatives. Additionally, when evaluating only one alternative, decision makers can only obtain a specific value using traditional decision-making methods and may find it hard to cluster the alternatives to the “correct class” because these methods lack predetermined reference points. To overcome this problem, this paper aims to propose a two-stage grey decision-making method.

First, a new type of clustering method for interval grey numbers is designed by proposing a new possibility function for grey numbers. Based on this clustering method, a new grey clustering evaluation model for interval grey numbers is proposed by which decision makers can obtain the grade rating information of each alternative. Then, according to the grey clustering evaluation model, a new two-stage decision-making method is introduced to solve the problem that some alternatives are very similar by designing a grey comprehensive decision coefficient of alternatives.

The authors propose a new grey clustering evaluation model to deal with interval grey numbers. They design a new model to obtain the membership degree for the interval grey numbers and then propose a new grey clustering evaluation model, which can evaluate only one alternative by predefined grey classes. Then, by the grey comprehensive decision coefficient, a two-stage grey evaluation decision-making method is put forward to solve the problem that some alternatives are very close and hard to be distinguished.

A new grey clustering evaluation model is proposed, which can evaluate only one alternative by predefined grey classes. A two-stage grey evaluation decision-making method is given to solve the problem that some alternatives are very close and hard to be distinguished.

This paper aims to put forth a model that accounts for the effect of servant leadership on employee creativity from a social identity perspective. Specifically, this paper aims to examine team identification as the mediating mechanism by which servant leadership influence employee creativity. This paper also intends to investigate the moderating influences of horizontal and vertical collectivism on the effectiveness of servant leadership on follower team identification.

Servant leadership, team identification, collectivism (consisted of horizontal and vertical collectivism) and employee creativity were assessed in an empirical study based on a sample of 451 employees from 11 banks in China.

Drawing on social identity theory, this study found that follower team identification partially mediates the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity. In addition, results showed that horizontal collectivism moderates the relationship between servant leadership and follower team identification; the relationship was more positive when horizontal collectivism was high, rather than low; vertical collectivism also moderates the relationship between servant leadership and follower team identification; the relationship was more positive when vertical collectivism was low, rather than high. However, results of this study indicated that the moderated mediation effects of team identification on the relationship between servant leadership and employee creativity are nonsignificant.

First, this research affirmed the need to promote servant leadership in employment settings. Second, managers’ understandings of the instrumental role of servant leadership in showing interpersonal acceptance, offering encouragement and support and expressing trust would prove to be valuable because it could enhance employee creativity. Finally, the findings from this study should help managers gain a better understanding of the contextual factors.

The first contribution of the current study was to identify team identification as an important psychological process that can link servant leadership to employee creativity. Another important contribution of the current research was the identification of the boundary conditions (e.g. horizontal and vertical collectivism).

In order to discover a new adsorbent that can be used to purify dye wastewater in the textile and apparel industry, a novel type of graphene oxide/gluten composite material using an improved acid bath coagulation method was synthesized, which can remove methylene blue in an aqueous environment.

After experimentally compounding different ratios of graphene oxide and gluten, the graphene oxide/gluten composite material with 20% graphene oxide content and superlative adsorption effect was chosen. The synthesized material was characterized by different techniques such as FT-IR and SEM, indicating the microstructure of the material and the success of the composite. Various factors were considered, namely, the influence of temperature, dosage, pH and contact time. The isotherms, kinetics and thermodynamic parameters were successively discussed.

The qmax value of 214.29 mg/g of the material was higher compared to the general sorbent, thus, the graphene oxide/gluten composite material was a suitable sorbent for methylene blue removal. Overall, the graphene oxide/gluten composite material can be considered as an effectual and prospective adsorbent to remove methylene blue in the textile and apparel industrial effluent.

Graphene oxide is a potentially excellent sorbent. However, the high dispersibility of GO is detrimental to adsorption, it disperses rapidly in an aqueous solution making separation and recovery difficult. The high load capacity and recyclability of gluten as a colloid make it a suitable carrier for fixing GO. Studies on the combination of GO and GT into composite adsorption material and for the removal of dyes from dyeing wastewater have not been reported. The composite material research on GO and GT can provide new ideas for the research of these kinds of materials and contribute to its wider and convenient application in wastewater treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to purify the wastewater in the garment industry.

The preparation of the calcium alginate (CA)/activated carbon (AC) composite membrane was achieved by vacuum freeze-drying and the cross-linking reaction between sodium alginate and CaCl₂. Effective parameters in the methylene blue (MB) adsorption such as temperature, dose, contact time and pH were discussed. The adsorption properties of the composite membrane were investigated by isotherm, kinetics and thermodynamic analysis. The adsorption equilibrium data were described by the adsorption isotherm Langmuir model and the Freundlich model. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion equations were selected to evaluate the kinetics. The thermodynamic study described that the adsorption reaction was spontaneous and exothermic.

The AC/CA membrane is an efficient and powerful adsorbent to remove MB in printing and dyeing wastewater, and provides a new idea for the selection of adsorption materials for industrial printing and dyeing wastewater.

The composite membrane research on CA and AC can provide new ideas for the research of these kinds of materials.

The paper contributes to its wider and convenientapplication in wastewater treatment.

Studies on the combination of CA and AC into adsorption membranes and for the removal of dyes from printing and dyeing wastewater have not been reported. A novel composite material is provided for treatment dyeing wastewater in garment production. The composite membrane research on CA and AC can provide new ideas for the research of these kinds of materials and contribute to its wider and convenient application in wastewater treatment.

The consensus opinion helps with the achievement of fairness of the decision process, especially when the new decision makers (DMs) are added into the group decision making (GDM). This paper aims to show by constructing consensus models that when some conditions are met, the consensus level does not decrease even when new DMs are invited to join the GDM (new opinions are added to the GDM).

This paper first constructs a deviation which is the difference between each two individual opinions. The smaller these differences are, the higher consensus degree (level) of the group. Then, a consensus optimization model based on individual differences (IDCO) is constructed by minimizing the aggregated deviations. Lastly, based on the optimization model, the condition of reaching a high level of consensus when new DMs are added into the GDM is discussed.

The discussion on the properties of the IDCO indicates that once the consensus with all DMs reaching an acceptable level, the consensus deviation degree decreases as the number of DMs increases when certain conditions are met, and the consensus level does not decrease even when new DMs join the GDM.

Practically, high-level consensus needs to be reached no matter how difficult it is when the new opinions are added into the GDM. To see how this end could be achieved, this paper takes the fuzzy preference relations as particular instances to investigate the conditions of consensus under which new DMs (opinions) are added into the GDM. The rather holistic analysis leads us to such a conclusion that the authors can replace this particular kind of preference, as used in the discussion, in many other cases by, for instance, multiplicative preference relation, linguistic preference relation, etc.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a leanness assessment methodology that takes into account the interaction between lean elements for computing the systemic leanness and for assisting continuous improvement of lean implementation.

Key elements determining the leanness level were identified by reviewing the relevant literature and were structured as a framework. Graph-theoretic approach (GTA) was used as the assessment methodology for its ability to evaluate the interaction between the elements in the developed framework.

Interactions between the lean elements were configured. Application of the proposed GTA for assessing systemic leanness was demonstrated. Scenario analysis was performed and a scale was developed to assist firms in comparing their systemic leanness index.

This paper is unique in developing an assessment approach for measuring the systemic leanness. In addition, this study explains how the implementation of lean thinking (LT) in a value stream can be continuously improved by proposing a systemic leanness index that can be benchmarked. The proposed approach to measure systemic leanness can be tested across different value streams in future for extending its generalizability.

Proposed framework and leanness assessment approach presents an innovative tool for practitioners to capture the systemic aspect of LT. Proposed assessment approach supports practitioners in achieving continuous improvement in lean implementation by revealing the lean elements that need to be focused in future.

Study introduces a new perspective for LT by studying the importance of interactions between the lean elements and by incorporating them to assess the systemic leanness.