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The purposes of this paper are to investigate the biotribological behaviour of Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (HXL-UHMWPE) under multi-directional motion by using a CUMT II artificial joint hip simulator and compare it with HXL-UHMWPE and conventional UHMWPE.

The biotribological behaviour of conventional, highly cross-linked and Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked UHMWPE acetabular cups counterfaced with CoCrMo alloy femoral head under multi-directional motion were investigated by using CUMT-II artificial hip joint simulator for one-million walking cycles. The test environment was at 36.5 ± 0.5°C and 25 per cent bovine serum was used as lubricant. A Paul cycle load with a peak of 784 N was applied; the motion and loading were synchronized at 1 Hz.

The wear resistance of Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked UHMWPE was significantly higher than that of highly cross-linked and conventional UHMWPE. The wear marks observed from the worn surface of UHMWPE were multi-directional, with no dominant wear direction. Only abrasion occurred on the surface of Vitamin E-blended highly cross-linked UHMWPE, while yielding and accumulated plastic flow processes occurred on the surface of conventional UHMWPE and flaking-like facture and abrasion occurred on the surface of highly cross-linked UHMWPE.

Besides the prevention of oxidative degradation, blending with Vitamin E can also reduce the incidence of fatigue crack occurred in the surface layer of HXL-UHMWPE samples. Therefore, the wear resistance of HXL-UHMWPE under multi-directional motion can be further enhanced by blending with Vitamin E.

The purpose of this paper is to present the state-of-the-art E-commerce logistics in supply chain management by investigating worldwide implementations and corresponding models together with supporting techniques via furniture industry.

Typical E-commerce logistics companies from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific are comprehensively investigated so as to get the lessons and insights from these practices.

Future technologies like Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, and Cloud Computing would be possibly adopted to enhance the E-commerce logistics in terms of system level, operational level, and decision-making level that may be real time and intelligent in the next decade.

This paper takes the furniture industry for example to illustrate the E-commerce logistics and supply chain management (LSCM). Other industries like electronic appliance industry are not considered.

Opportunities and future perspectives are summarized from practical implementations so that interested parties like E-commerce and logistics companies are able to get some guidance when they are contemplating the business.

E-commerce is booming with the development of new business models and will be continuously boosted in the near future. With large number of enterprises carrying out E-commerce, logistics has been largely influenced.

Insights and lessons from this paper are significant for academia and practitioners for considering E-commerce LSCM.

The aim of this research is to explore the influence of channel integration quality on consumer perception and response from the individual customer perspective.

This study collected 517 online questionnaires from residents in Taipei (Taiwan) and Shenzhen (China) in 2020 based on quota sampling. The empirical study employed structural equation modeling.

Based on the empirical results, the primary path indicated that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which mainly positively affected customer engagement. The secondary path showed that channel-service configuration positively affected experience quality, which positively affected customer empowerment. Furthermore, experience quality and relationship proneness are mediating variables concerning the impact of channel integration quality on customer responses.

This study had time and budget limitations; thus, 517 questionnaires were collected from Taipei and Shenzhen. If the budget allows, it would be better to collect 1,000 questionnaires in total (500 from Taipei and 500 from Shenzhen).

Retailers should realize the core of omni-channel retailing, which is no longer concentrated on the “quantity” of channels but on consumers. When omni-channel retailers integrate online and offline channels, the retailers should try to understand what consumers want and then provide similar and diverse products and services in different channels so that consumers have more choices.

The novelty of this research is the investigation of the mediation effect of channel integration quality and consumer responses on retailers and consumers, and enriching current research on omni-channel retailing from the bottom-up perspective, as well as a comprehensive study on the two types of channel integration quality and two types of consumer responses.

Circular procurement is assumed to foster innovation and influence demand for and supply of goods through criteria setting and dialogue with suppliers. However, even in countries placed at the forefront of sustainability practices such as Sweden, examples of procurement that can truly be considered to be circular are rare. This paper aims to examine circular public procurement practices in a selection of Swedish municipalities and regions through the lens of the Advocacy Coalition Framework. The authors propose a categorisation of municipalities by circular procurement uptake and identify factors that support the acceleration of the circular transition in Sweden.

Using the key informant approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with employees of seven municipalities, one region and one external procurement agency, as well as seven suppliers of various sizes. The authors also analysed procurement documents received from municipalities. Participating organisations represented a variety of Swedish local government structures and local conditions.

The authors proposed a categorisation of circular procurement uptake. Notably, beginners differ from leaders in circular procurement, most importantly by the level of flexibility policy brokers have within their organisations and by policy brokers’ ability to accommodate changes that materialise between existing organisational structures and set routines.

The fragmented uptake of circular procurement poses a challenge for local businesses interested in implementing circular business models. It also both highlights and exacerbates inequalities in access to resources between sparsely populated, rural municipalities and more urbanised areas.

Despite existing national government guidelines for the circular economy transition in Sweden, circular procurement is not fully realised at the local level. In this paper, the authors examine the Swedish experience with circular procurement and propose several steps to improve the uptake of circular procurement by the public authorities. The authors' findings concerning the role of policy brokers may well be generalised to similar socio-cultural contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction effect of innovative product category and presentation order on consumer consumer’s purchasing intention and the mediating role of perceived novelty and risk perception.

The authors examined the hypotheses in three experiment studies. In Study 1, the authors primed innovative product category and presentation order on consumer consumer’s purchasing intention. In Study 2, the authors measured the mediating role of perceived novelty and risk perception. In Study 3, they validated the moderating effect of picture and text consistency on the improvement of purchase preference.

The results reveal that RNP/INP and presentation order (from whole to part/from part to whole) could enhance consumers’ purchase intention and verify the mediating role of perceived novelty and risk perception, based on which a complete internal mechanism model is constructed. The third experiment shows the moderating effect of picture and text consistency on the improvement of purchase preference by matching the category and presentation order of innovative products.

Prior literature on the thinking mode of holistic and partial processing has been mostly applied to the cognitive field of reading and text labeling. In this study, using the holistic (local) processing thinking model and anchoring theory, eye movement experiments and situational experiments, the audience’s analysis framework of information processing mechanism is constructed. The unique phenomenon of product category and overall (local) presentation order coexisting in innovative product advertisement is considered comprehensively.