Shengjian Zhang, Min Li, Baoyi Li, Hansen Zhao and Feng Wang
To improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys, the construction of protective coatings is necessary to extend the service life of Mg-based materials.
Abstract
Purpose
To improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys, the construction of protective coatings is necessary to extend the service life of Mg-based materials.
Design/methodology/approach
SiO2 nanoparticles modified by dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS) were added to the PP and a superhydrophobic Mg(OH)2/PP-60mSiO2 composite coating was fabricated on the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloy via the hydrothermal method and subsequently the immersion treatment.
Findings
Hydrophilic SiO2 nanoparticles become hydrophobic after modified by DTMS, showing a higher dispersibility in xylene. By incorporating modified SiO2 nanoparticles into the composite PP coating, the hydrophobicity of the layer was enhanced, resulting in a contact angle of 166.3° and a sliding angle of 3.4°. It also improved the water repellency and durability of the coating. Furthermore, the intermediate layer of Mg(OH)2 significantly strengthened the bond between the PP layer and the substrate. The Mg(OH)2/PP-60mSiO2 composite coating significantly enhances the corrosion resistance of the magnesium alloy by effectively blocking the infiltration of the corrosion anions during corrosion. The corrosion current density of the Mg(OH)2/PP-60mSiO2 composite coating is approximately 8.23 × 10–9 A·cm-2, which can achieve a magnitude three times lower than its substrate, making it a promising surface modification for the Mg alloy.
Originality/value
The composite coating effectively and durably enhances the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys.
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Cristina Calvo-Porral and Jean-Pierre Lévy-Mangin
The purpose of this paper is to address the following issue: “Does the products’ perceived quality influences the consumer behaviour in the specialty retailing setting?”
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the following issue: “Does the products’ perceived quality influences the consumer behaviour in the specialty retailing setting?”
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, the authors propose and empirically test a conceptual model on the creation of consumer satisfaction and loyalty in specialty retailing, to examine the influence of products’ quality perception and its potential moderating role. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling on a sample of 592 consumers
Findings
The findings show that the store-based attributes have different influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty, according to the quality perception of products, and suggest the moderating role of products’ perceived quality.
Practical implications
Retailing managers may use the product’s perceived quality as a segmentation variable in the specialty food retailing context.
Originality/value
The major contribution of this paper is the empirical analysis of one subjective customer-based variable in the specialty retailing setting.
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Che Khairil Izam Che Ibrahim, Sheila Belayutham, Patrick Manu and Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu
Designers have a key role to play in the Prevention through Design (PtD) practices in construction projects. Nonetheless, previous studies indicated that the issue of competencies…
Abstract
Purpose
Designers have a key role to play in the Prevention through Design (PtD) practices in construction projects. Nonetheless, previous studies indicated that the issue of competencies to perform and sustain such practices over time is of a significant concern. This study aims to explore the key attributes of designers' competencies for PtD practices in construction.
Design/methodology/approach
By using the Scopus database, a total of 86 papers related to PtD in construction published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed and analysed using the well-established systematic literature review (SLR) methodology.
Findings
The review indicates that in order to be competent in PtD implementation, designers need to be equipped with tacit and explicit knowledge, technical and soft skills and experience related to PtD. Furthermore, the review identifies attributes of these competencies. Additionally, a framework that links key PtD elements/principles with the PtD competencies is presented.
Practical implications
The findings would enable contribution to the industry by providing the necessary references for design organisations to improve their designers' PtD competencies and hence, be able to meet their responsibility under relevant occupational safety and health (OSH) legislative framework.
Originality/value
This study extends the PtD literature in the construction context by providing deeper insights into the conceptualisation of relationship between competent designers and PtD elements. The novelty also lies in the consolidation of PtD competency attributes for designers in construction that could act as a reference for any future developments related to PtD competency assessment for designers.
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Andrea Furlan and Roberto Grandinetti
Literature on spin-offs still lacks a thorough understanding of the forces governing spin-off performance. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by taking a network…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature on spin-offs still lacks a thorough understanding of the forces governing spin-off performance. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by taking a network perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper combines the literature on spin-offs with the network approach to new ventures to proposing a model showing how networking in the pre-entry phases affects a spin-off's survival and early growth.
Findings
The intensity and variety of interactions between the future entrepreneur (FE) and other individual actors has a positive impact on spin-off performance in both the incubation and the emergence phases. The degree of overlap between the network of the incubation phase and the network of the emergence phase also reinforces the effects of the intensity and variety of these interactions on performance during the emergence phase. Finally, entrepreneurial innovativeness is an antecedent of spin-off performance in that it requires different degrees of overlap between the network of the incubation phase and the network of the emergence phase.
Research limitations/implications
Being a conceptual paper, the study needs the support of empirical research. For example, samples of spin-offs achieving a high and low performance could be compared in relation to their FE's networking activity.
Originality/value
The paper creates a bridge between the inherited knowledge approach to spin-offs and the network approach to new ventures to provide a framework for explaining spin-off performance.
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Shiquan Wang, Guoyin Shang and Shuang Zhang
Concerning that limited explanation exists examining the function of corporate governance in trust processing within entrepreneurial network development, the purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Concerning that limited explanation exists examining the function of corporate governance in trust processing within entrepreneurial network development, the purpose of this paper is to explore trust evolution and the role of corporate governance in an entrepreneurial network.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper makes an innovative exploration based on the case study of NVC Lighting Holding Limited.
Findings
It proposes that in the initial period of network relationship which is based on entrepreneur’s individual social network and embodies sole social network embeddness, entrepreneurial network relies more on affective trust than contractual trust. When stepping into extending period of network relationship which reflects separate embeddedness of social and market network, however, entrepreneurial network has an equal reliance on both affective trust and contractual trust. With further development, when ushering in the phase of maturity which undergoes superimposing embeddedness of both social and market network, entrepreneur network inclines to rely more heavily on affective trust than contractual trust. During the whole process, it can be found that the reliance of entrepreneurial network on trust has the tendency to transfer from affective trust to contractual trust. Furthermore, decreasing of equity ratio of founders and strengthening of controlling right heterogeneity in the corporate governance have facilitated the transfer process and the entrepreneurs’ authority has restraining effect on the evolution of the process.
Originality/value
Through case study, this paper presents the trust evolution process in different stages of entrepreneurial network. Another important theoretic contribution of this paper is that it reveals the function of corporate governance in trust processing within entrepreneurial network development.
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Ou Wang and Simon Somogyi
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of innovation-adoption characteristics on Chinese consumers’ adoption of online food shopping. It also examines consumers’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of innovation-adoption characteristics on Chinese consumers’ adoption of online food shopping. It also examines consumers’ online purchase preferences for specific food categories and the consumer segments shopping for food online in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected through a web-based survey (n=643, in three cities: Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing). Descriptive analysis, cluster analysis, factor analysis and structural equation modeling were employed for data analysis.
Findings
Participants had strong online purchase intentions toward snack and imported food, while they had weak online purchase intentions toward fresh food products such as meat, eggs, vegetables, fish and seafood. Two consumer segments were found: online-food-conservative (42 percent) and online-food-pioneer (58 percent). Factor analysis resulted in an adjusted factorial structure of the innovation-adoption characteristics, which was considered more appropriate within the context of Chinese consumers when shopping for food online. Path analysis found that Chinese consumers’ attitudes and/or purchase intentions were positively linked to their perceived incentives and negatively associated with their perceived complexity for online food shopping.
Originality/value
This is the first study to explore consumer segments, consumption psychology (innovation-adoption characteristics) and product preferences related to online food shopping with a sample from China, the largest e-commerce country. The findings can help food producers and marketers to better understand Chinese consumers’ online food shopping behaviors in order to meet the needs of consumers and have further success in this major market.
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Feibo Shao, Audrey J. Murrell, Xiaoping Zhao, Ke Zhang and Timothy A. Hart
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) co-exist within many firms. Yet, without understanding how CSR and CSIR are related, our…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) co-exist within many firms. Yet, without understanding how CSR and CSIR are related, our knowledge of these concepts is incomplete. This study initiatively explores four relationships between prior CSR/CSIR and subsequent CSR/CSIR.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the KLD database as the source of measures on CSR and CSIR. The final sample contains 1,820 firms and 14,420 firm-year observations from 1991 to 2013. The Arellano—Bond GMM estimator is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The empirical analyses yield the following results: (1) a positive relationship between prior CSR and subsequent CSR, (2) a negative relationship between prior CSR and subsequent CSIR, (3) a positive relationship between prior CSIR and subsequent CSR and (4) a positive relationship between prior CSIR and subsequent CSIR.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides comprehensive evidence of the dynamic relationships between CSR and CSIR by incorporating multiple relationships between these variables into a single study. It also identifies key contexts that shape these relationships and identifies several promising areas of further inquiry.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine the dynamic CSR – CSIR relationships in a single study. Most previous studies investigate either CSR or CSIR; few studies have incorporated them into one study.
Dingyu Shi, Xiaofei Zhang, Libo Liu, Preben Hansen and Xuguang Li
Online health question-and-answer (Q&A) forums have developed a new business model whereby listeners (peer patients) can pay to read health information derived from consultations…
Abstract
Purpose
Online health question-and-answer (Q&A) forums have developed a new business model whereby listeners (peer patients) can pay to read health information derived from consultations between askers (focal patients) and answerers (physicians). However, research exploring the mechanism behind peer patients' purchase decisions and the specific nature of the information driving these decisions has remained limited. This study aims to develop a theoretical model for understanding how peer patients make such decisions based on limited information, i.e. the first question displayed in each focal patient-physician interaction record, considering argument quality (interrogative form and information details) and source credibility (patient experience of focal patients), including the contingent role of urgency.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was tested by text mining 1,960 consultation records from a popular Chinese online health Q&A forum on the Yilu App. These records involved interactions between focal patients and physicians and were purchased by 447,718 peer patients seeking health-related information until this research.
Findings
Patient experience embedded in focal patients' questions plays a significant role in inducing peer patients to purchase previous consultation records featuring exchanges between focal patients and physicians; in particular, increasingly detailed information is associated with a reduced probability of making a purchase. When focal patients demonstrate a high level of urgency, the effect of information details is weakened, while the interrogative form is strengthened.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its exploration of the monetization mechanism forming the trilateral relationship between askers (focal patients), answerers (physicians) and listeners (peer patients) in the business model “paying to view others' answers” in the online health Q&A forum and the moderating role of urgency in explaining the mechanism of how first questions influence peer patients' purchasing behavior.
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Matthias D. Mahlendorf, Utz Schäffer and Oliver Skiba
Participative budgeting is one of the most intensively researched budgeting variables in management accounting. Research has stalled, however. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Participative budgeting is one of the most intensively researched budgeting variables in management accounting. Research has stalled, however. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate further research by providing an overview of antecedents of participative budgeting and suggesting ways to build upon extant research.
Methodology/approach
We assess 22 studies published prior to 2011 that offer statistical insights into why organizations use participative budgeting by theorizing and modeling it as a dependent variable.
Findings
This work answers two research questions regarding why organizations use participative budgeting: (a) Which antecedents of participative budgeting have been analyzed so far? (b) Which causal-model forms are used in extant research regarding the antecedents of participative budgeting?
Originality/value
This paper provides a detailed overview of empirical studies and respective findings aiming to explain why organizations use participative budgeting. Many prior studies have measured the association between contextual antecedents and participative budgeting. However, from a theoretical perspective, objectives of employees and supervisors are often used to explain the relation. Based on our literature review, we propose that all objectives identified so far intervene in the relationship between context and use of participative budgeting and also further detail these objectives. Consequently, our review analyzes the status quo of research on why organizations use participative budgeting and adds additional suggestions of underlying causal processes that can be tested in future studies.