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The purpose of this paper is to examine how different types of user experience in TikTok impact purchase intention via commitment to the influencer and commitment to the platform, with customer type included to determine moderating effects. Three types of user experience are considered: information experience, entertainment experience and parasocial-relationship-based experience.

This study collected 458 valid questionnaires from TikTok users, employing the structural equation modeling approach to examine the proposed research model.

Information experience, entertainment experience and parasocial-relationship-based experience are found to critically stimulate user commitment to the influencer and commitment to the platform, in turn driving TikTok-based purchase intention. Tests incorporating customer type reveal that commitment to the influencer more strongly influences the purchase intention of repeat customers, with commitment to the platform more likely to stimulate purchase intention among potential customers.

On a theoretical level, the paper is among the first to examine TikTok-based user purchase intention with customer type as a moderator. On a practical level, the results can guide marketers to effectively promote products using TikTok and inspire TikTok managers to develop customized strategies to stimulate initial and repeat sales.

TikTok is moving to the stage of commercialization and monetization by introducing e-commerce features. Although this move should cultivate particularly fertile ground for companies to sell products, TikTok user purchase behavior has yet to receive sufficient research attention, with little currently known about their purchase motivations. The current study uncovers the significant antecedents of users' purchase intention through TikTok, and further reveals the motivational differences among potential and repeat customers.

Although the short-video-based application TikTok and its AI-enhanced technology have achieved enormous success and reshaped the user experience, few studies have focused on the user experience in the TikTok context. This study adopts a technology affordance theory lens to identify the main mechanisms contributing to the user experience in the short-video platform context while including user experience level and video length as moderating effects.

This study collected 401 valid questionnaires from TikTok users and used the structural equation modeling approach to examine the proposed research model.

Three technology affordances (perceived effortlessness, perceived recommendation accuracy, and perceived recommendation serendipity) contribute to TikTok users' optimal flow experience. Multi-group analysis results further indicate that individuals react differently to the same stimuli as their experience level increases. Finally, video length critically influences the impact of technology affordances on users' cognitive responses.

As a burgeoning industry, the mechanisms enabling short-video platforms to engage users remain unclear to practitioners and researchers. Thus, this study's technology affordance lens provides necessary insights into how TikTok's innovative and advanced technologies contribute to user flow experience from a context-dependent perspective. Furthermore, given that most existing studies have neglected possible variations in user preferences when investigating the effects of technology, this study enriches the existing literature by employing user experience level and video length as moderators.

Project-based learning is one of the most effective methods of transferring academic knowledge and skills to real-world situations in higher education. However, its effectiveness is not much investigated focusing on the students' narrative. This study aims at evaluating the students' experience and perspective on adopting project-based learning in master by research and doctoral programmes for proactive skills development.

This study evaluates the self-reflection of 10 postgraduate students and their supervisor who have participated in developing a software tool for solar photovoltaics (PV) integrated building envelope design, management and the related education.

Findings reveal that the students have effectively improved their knowledge on the subject via collaborating with the industry, self-learning/observation, peer learning, problem-solving and teamwork. Dividing the project into student-led tasks has improved the decision-making and leadership skills, risks identification, planning and time management skills. The overall experience has (1) built up confidence in students, (2) enhanced their creativity and critical thinking and (3) improved their proactive skills and context knowledge.

A clear research gap can be seen in exploring the effectiveness of project-based learning for master by research and doctoral programmes, which mainly focus on extensive research. These programmes do not necessarily focus on developing students' proactive skills, which is the main requirement if they intend to work in the construction industry. This paper addresses the above research gap by demonstrating the effectiveness of project-based learning for developing the proactive skills in a research-intensive learning environment.

The purpose of this study is to corroborate the advanced tribological properties of graphene as a lubricant additive.

Different concentrations of functionalized graphene were coated on the substrate surface. Tribological properties of the graphene lubricants were carried out by ball-on-disk tribology tests. Wear mechanism of functionalized graphene was studied by observing wear scars on the substrate surface. Finally, the wear resistance of modified graphene was calculated by calculating and analyzing the applied experimental conditions and the obtained experimental data.

The best concentration of graphene lubricant is 0.5 wt.% which shows the best tribological performance. And the coefficient of friction is 0.08. Compared with the dry friction condition, the coefficient of friction and wear rate of best graphene lubricant decreased by 80% and 82%.

The formula of graphene lubricant is independently developed and works very well. Graphene lubricant can prevent the substrate from oxidation. The thickness of the graphene lubricant is about 4-7µm. The concept of anti-wear strength was introduced in this paper. When 0.5 Vol.% graphene was added, the anti-wear strength was greatly improved from 115.3 kg·mm-2 to 657.6 kg·mm-2.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2019-0344

The purpose of this paper is to undertake research on the relationship of firm heterogeneity and innovation diffusion performance, and the role of absorptive capacity in this relationship.

Based on the diffusion of innovation theory, enterprise heterogeneity directly affects the evaluation stage (considering whether to adopt it) and the experimental stage (observing whether it is suitable for one’s own situation) of the diffusion process. Therefore, the paper uses a structural equation model to construct the influencing factors model of enterprise heterogeneity on technology diffusion. Furthermore, questionnaires were distributed to 236 enterprises with different scales, nature and location to explore the impact of heterogeneity on technology diffusion with scientific, objective and comprehensive data.

Firm heterogeneity has a positive effect on absorptive capacity and absorptive capacity has a positive effect on technological innovation diffusion performance. Thus, absorptive capacity plays an intermediary role in the effect on enterprise heterogeneity and technological innovation diffusion performance. More interestingly, the authors get some results that are not entirely consistent with the theoretical assumptions.

Firm heterogeneity plays a central role in the process of innovation diffusion. Enterprises should build internal management platforms to enhance cooperation among employees, and establish links with other enterprises for opportunities for win-win cooperation. In addition, enterprises should control the frequency of internal activities, which will undermine the enthusiasm of enterprise members to participate in technology sharing.

This paper explores the interaction between technology potential, cooperation frequency and absorptive capacity from the perspective of systems theory. The findings enrich the theory of innovation diffusion, and explore the inherent reasons why enterprise heterogeneity affects innovation diffusion. Furthermore, the theory that intra-firm cooperation promotes innovation diffusion is not always correct.

This study attempts to determine the optimal pricing and warranty strategies for remanufactured products offered by independent remanufacturers (IRs). Specifically, it takes into account price competition and warranty service competition between the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and IR, ultimately providing recommendations on the selection of warranty service modes for IRs.

This study considers two warranty modes for IRs: in-housing and outsourcing. Based on game theory, this study identifies the conditions under which the warranty service for remanufactured product is outsourced to retailers in IR-remanufacturing mode. Furthermore, this study investigates how this strategic decision affects closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) operations by comparing the two modes in terms of profit, consumer surplus (CS), quantity and overall social welfare (SW).

Firstly, the provision strategy for IRs' warranty on remanufactured products depends mainly on the retailer’s warranty cost. If retailers have lower costs for warranties, IR opts to outsource the remanufactured product warranty to the retailer. Second, when retailers offer warranties at a lower cost, IRs prefer outsourcing remanufactured product warranty to retailers. In this way, it will maximize both the remanufacturer’s and retailer’s profits while achieving the optimal total profit for the entire supply chain. However, it’s not beneficial for the OEM. Third, the IR’s preference for warranty service provision strategy is influenced by customers’ acceptance of remanufactured product, customer sensitivity toward remanufactured product warranty and economies of scale in warranty service.

The findings offer operational insights into IR decision-making in selecting warranty service provision strategies for remanufactured products.

This study is among the first to examine warranty provision strategy for IRs in CLSC.

The construction collapse is one of the most serious accidents since it has several attributes (e.g. accident type and consequence) and its occurrence involves various kinds of causal factors (e.g. human factors). The impact of causal factors on construction collapse accidents and the interrelationships among causal factors remain poorly explored. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to use association rule mining (ARM) for cause analysis of construction collapse accidents.

An accident analytic framework is developed to determine the accident attributes and causal factors, and then ARM is introduced as the method for data mining. The data are from 620 historical accident records on government websites of China from 2010 to 2020. Through the generated association rules, the impact of causal factors and the interrelationships among causal factors are explored.

Collapse accident is easily caused by human factors, material and machine condition and management factors. Furthermore, the results show a close interrelationship between many causal factors and construction scheme and organization. The earthwork collapse is greatly related to environmental condition and the scaffolding collapse is greatly related to material and machine condition.

This study found relevant knowledge about the key causes for different types of construction collapses. Besides, several suggestions are further provided for construction units to prevent construction collapse accidents.

This study uses data mining methods to extract knowledge about the causes of collapse accidents. The impact of causal factors on various types of construction collapse accidents and the interrelationships among causal factors are explained from historical accident data.

Construction fall-from-height accidents are not only caused by a single factor but also by the risk coupling between two or more factors. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the risk coupling relationships between multiple factors and identify critical factors in construction fall-from-height accidents.

A cause analysis framework was established from the perspective of human, machine, material, management and environmental factors. The definition, the classification and the process of risk coupling were proposed. The data from 824 historical accident reports from 2011 to 2021 were collected on government websites. A risk coupling analysis model was constructed to quantitatively analyze the risk coupling relationships of multiple factors based on the N-K model. The results were classified using K-means clustering analysis.

The results indicated that the greater the number of causal factors involved in risk coupling, the higher the risk coupling value and the higher the risk of accidents. However, specific risk coupling combinations occurred when the number of their coupling factors was not large. Human, machine and material factors were determined to be the critical factors when risk coupling between them tended to pose a greater risk of accidents.

This study established a cause analysis framework from five aspects and constructed a theoretical model to quantitatively analyze multi-factor coupling. Several suggestions were proposed for construction units to manage accident risks more effectively by controlling the number of factors and paying more attention to critical factors coupling and management and environmental factors.

This study aims to the preparation and tribological characteristics of graphene/triangular copper nanoplate composites (abbreviated as GN/Cu nanoplates) as grease additive and clarifies the growth mechanism and tribological mechanism of GN/Cu nanoplates by different analysis methods. In this paper, it is expected to alleviate the problems of easy aggregation and poor dispersion stability of graphene in lubricants and provide theoretical support for the application of graphene and its composites in the tribology field.

In this study, the GN/Cu nanoplates have been successfully prepared by the electrostatic self-assembly method. The structural characteristics of GN/Cu nanoplates were analyzed via transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Then the tribological properties of GN/Cu nanoplates were investigated under different loads with SRV-IV [Schwingung, Reibung, Verschleiß (German); oscillating, friction, wear (English translation)] tribotester. White-light interferometry was applied to quantify the wear loss of the disk. The element chemical state on worn surfaces was analyzed by an X-ray photoelectron spectroscope to clarify the tribological mechanism of graphene composites.

The electrostatic force between the negative charge of graphene and the positive charge of triangular copper nanoplates promotes the self-assembly of GN/Cu nanoplates. With the addition of GN/Cu nanoplates, the wear loss and average friction coefficient under the load of 200 N have been decreased by 72.6% and 18.3%, respectively. It is concluded that the combined action of graphene deposition film and the copper melting film formed on the worn surface could effectively improve the antiwear ability and friction reduction performance of the grease.

This manuscript fulfills a new approach for the preparation of GN/Cu nanoplates. At the same time, its tribological properties and mechanism as a lubricating additive were studied which provide theoretical support for the application of graphene and its composites in the tribology field.