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The proliferation of social networking sites (SNSs) has drawn attention to different parties in realising their goals. Advertisers utilise SNSs to promote new products and services; politics optimise SNSs to gather support from the public, while ordinary users use SNSs as a unique platform to practice self-disclosure, develop networks, and sustain relationships. This study explores how social anxiety affects self-disclosure on SNSs and well-being. It also examines the moderating effects of two contextual factors, namely, online disinhibition and psychological stress. Two hundred and thirty-four valid responses were collected via an online survey. A positive relationship between social anxiety and self-disclosure, and self-disclosure and well-being was found. Furthermore, a positive moderation effect among social anxiety, online disinhibition, and self-disclosure was revealed. This research contributes to the development of social networking literature. It also enhances the understanding of disclosure patterns on SNSs among socially anxious individuals, thereby providing important insights for practitioners, educators, and clinicians.

The increasing consciousness of environmental protection has fostered the development of environmental management systems (EMS). ISO 14001 is an international standard that provides guidance for the establishment and monitoring of EMS implementation. Investigates the development of environmentally‐friendly construction operations based on a recent study in Hong Kong. Contributes to identifying the elements and processes of EMS implementation, and explaining the procedural guideline of a seven‐step EMS approach in managing construction practice. Incorporating the compliance requirements of ISO 14001, the approach addresses the policy, the implementation and monitoring, and continuous improvement of construction operations. The tangible and intangible benefits of the approach are also discussed with reference to the experiences of the Housing Department in Hong Kong. The approach may also be useful for construction practitioners to manage the EMS processes and assess their environmental performance towards continuous improvement.

As a remedy to usually voluminous, complicated and not easily readable construction contracts, smart contracts can be considered as an effective and alternative solution. However, the construction industry is merely known as a frontrunner for fast adoption of recent technological advancements. Numerous administrative risks challenge construction companies to implement smart contracts. To highlight this issue, this study aims to assess the administrative risks of smart contract adoption in construction projects.

A literature survey is conducted to specify administrative risks of smart contracts followed by a pilot study to ensure that the framework is suitable to the research question. The criteria weights are calculated through the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process method, followed by a sensitivity analysis based on degree of fuzziness, which supports the robustness of the developed hierarchy and stability of the results. Then, a focus group discussion (FGD) is performed to discuss the mitigation strategies for the top-level risks in each risk category.

The final framework consists of 27 sub-criteria, which are categorized under five main criteria, namely, contractual, cultural, managerial, planning and relational. The findings show that (1) regulation change, (2) lack of a driving force, (3) works not accounted in planning, (4) shortcomings of current legal arrangements and (5) lack of dispute resolution mechanism are the top five risks challenging the adoption of smart contracts in construction projects. Risk mitigation strategies based on FGD show that improvements for the semi-automated smart contract drafting are considered more practicable compared to full automation.

The literature is limited in terms of the adoption of smart contracts, while the topic is receiving more attention recently. To support easy prevalence of smart contracts, this study attempts the most challenging aspects of smart contract adoption.

Nowadays, designing and manufacturing of environmental friendly products has become an integral part of business strategy. Increasing consciousness of environmental protection has fostered the development of environmental management systems (EMS). In this paper, the critical decision criteria, sub‐criteria and benefits of ISO 14001 EMS were studied using an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach. An empirical study was performed to investigate the relative weights and priorities of these criteria and benefits. An AHP decision model of EMS adoption was established, and a set of decision criteria, sub‐criteria and benefits of ISO 14001 EMS was examined. By consolidating the acquired judgements of executives and consultants from a number of ISO 14001 registered organizations, this paper demonstrates that the AHP decision model can be developed to help organizations study the ISO 14001 EMS adoption problem. The decision criteria and benefits of the adoption can be assessed in an analytical way.

The purpose of this paper is to present a hierarchy decision model for assessing the priority of safety management elements in manufacturing enterprises with reference to three major industries (i.e. textile and clothing, electronics, and printing and publishing) in Hong Kong. The identification of core decision criteria and safety management elements were addressed with respect to the effective implementation of safety management systems (SMS) in manufacturing enterprises.

Empirical data were acquired via a conduct of personal interviews with evaluators (i.e. safety personnel, experts and professionals) in industry. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, a list of seven decision criteria and 13 safety management elements were identified and their relative importance were evaluated.

It was found that the top three criteria for SMS implementation were “client requirement” “insurance company requirement” and “employee requirement”. Both “safety organisation” and “safety policy” were the most important safe management elements. Besides, evaluators put greater concerns on “safe person” elements than “safe place” elements. Incorporating the AHP findings, a self‐regulatory approach to implementing safety management elements was proposed.

The hierarchy decision model would enable manufacturing enterprises to focus their resources on the critical elements at a time, to improve the effectiveness of SMS implementation. Future study could validate the applicability of the model and the self‐regulatory approach in large enterprises and small to medium‐sized enterprises, separately and collectively.

Using the AHP methodology, safety personnel could evaluate the relative importance of decision criteria and safety management elements with respect to the corporate goals, resources and constraints of their respective organisations.

The hierarchy decision model presented would enable manufacturing enterprises to determine the relative importance of decision criteria and safety management elements and to establish viable strategies for SMS implementation.

Considering that users’ information privacy concerns may affect the development of e-commerce, the purpose of this paper is to explore what drives internet users’ willingness to provide personal information; further, the paper examines how extrinsic rewards moderate the relationship between users’ information privacy concerns and willingness to provide personal information.

Data collected from 345 valid internet users in the context of electronic commerce were analyzed using the partial least squares approach.

The result showed that agreeableness, risk-taking propensity and experience of privacy invasion were three main antecedents of information privacy concerns among the seven individual factors. Additionally, information privacy concerns did not significantly affect users’ willingness to provide personal information in the privacy calculation mechanism; however, extrinsic rewards directly affected users’ disclosure intention. The authors found that extrinsic rewards had not moderated the relationship between users’ information privacy concerns and their willingness to provide personal information.

This study is an exploratory effort to develop and validate a model for explaining why internet users were willing to provide personal information. The results of this study are helpful to researchers in developing theories of information privacy concerns and to practitioners in promoting internet users’ willingness to provide personal information in an e-commerce context.

In a properly wetted joining system, with tin/lead solder as the filler and copper as the base metals, a layer of intermetallic compounds is usually found at the interface of these two metals. This layer, mainly copper and tin, has profound effects on the joint’s properties and reliability. Optical microscopy or scanning electron microscopy micrographs are traditionally used for analysing the type and thickness of these compounds. An alternative analytical approach is presented. By using scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis, the elemental constituents across the interface can be plotted. More detailed and precise information about the compound distribution can thus be deduced. The studies reported concentrate on infra‐red reflowed joints. Unlike conventional wave‐soldered joints, only Cu₆Sn₅ was found in these. The growth of intermetallic compounds at different aging temperatures, and with solder paste exposed to atmosphere for different times, was also studied.

Purpose – Despite an abundance of literature on the effects of copyright infringement on music consumption, empirical evidence remains ambiguous. The aim of this chapter is to quantify the effect of copyright infringement on recorded music purchases and live music attendance for Spanish frequent music consumers, and to measure its effect on participation for all music consumers.

Design/methodology approach – We rely on survey data for the Spanish population as our main information source and use propensity score matching to estimate the average effect of copyright infringement on music consumption. In order to do so, the methodology aims at estimating the difference between actual outcomes (record purchases or attendance to live concerts) for copyright infringers and the (counterfactual) outcome would they had not been infringers.

Findings – Two findings stand out. First, and with regards to recorded music consumption, we find a net positive effect of copyright infringement on full album purchases although a nonsignificant one for tracks. Second, there is a positive and significant effect on live attendance, which is consistent with an indirect appropriation effect across products. These results are robust when participation is considered, but some interesting differences arise between recorded music purchasers and live concerts attenders.

Originality/value – First, the use of a counterfactual control group provides an additional approach to the assessment of copyright infringement. Second, within the same framework we investigate the effects of copyright infringement on recorded and live music, an approach that sheds some light on the degree of complementarity between both markets.

Despite its popularity, business process management (BPM) is not unequivocally defined, but obtains different forms with varying specifications. This paper presents a critical overview of BPM, as it appears within four dominant management paradigms: total quality management, standardized management systems, business process reengineering and Six Sigma. The purpose of this paper is to explore BPM specifications and compare the BPM implementation potential under each paradigm.

This is based on the analysis of a large number of highly cited scholarly publications. In order to identify the nature of BPM within each paradigm, a common framework for comparison is first established and then, for each paradigm, BPM is analyzed according to the main parameters of this framework.

Many differences among various BPM forms are paradigm driven. So, the approach adopted by each paradigm (i.e. individual-process or systemic approach) affects the scope and role of BPM. The principles of each paradigm directly affect the attributes assigned to BPM. Despite of important differences, the structure of BPM within all paradigms conforms to the stages of the classical BPM lifecycle. However, each paradigm assigns different weights to each stage and also displays different levels of BPM implementability.

The paper presents a first systematic comparison of BPM specifications for the dominant management paradigms primarily deployed. It thus explains why many attributes originating from the paradigms have crept into the general BPM specifications. This work can be considered as a step toward defining the core attributes of a paradigm-independent BPM model, thus enhancing its application scope as an invaluable management tool.

Big Data can be utilised for efficient use of resources and to provide better services to the resident in order to enhance the delivery of urban services and create sustainable build environment. However, the adoption of Big Data faces many challenges at the implementation level. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges towards the efficient application of Big Data in smart cities development and analyse the inter-relationships.

The 14 Big Data challenges are identified through the literature review and validated with the expert’s feedback. After that the inter-relationships among the identified challenges are developed using an integrated approach of fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modelling (fuzzy-ISM) and fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (fuzzy-DEMATEL).

Evaluation of interrelationships among the challenges suggests that diverse population in smart cities and lack of infrastructure are the significant challenges that impede the integration of Big Data in the development of smart cities.

This study will enable practitioners, policy planners involved in smart city projects in tackling the challenges in an optimised manner for the hindrance free and accelerated development of smart cities.

This research is an initial effort to develop an interpretive structural model of Big Data challenges for smart cities development which gives a clearer picture of how the identified challenges interact with each other.