Zhangxiang Zhu and Kening Yang
Virtual communities are useful sources of travel information for tourists. To better promote the sustainable development of virtual communities and provide theoretical guidance…
Abstract
Purpose
Virtual communities are useful sources of travel information for tourists. To better promote the sustainable development of virtual communities and provide theoretical guidance, this study aims to explore how the cognitive load generated by tourists in the information-seeking process facilitates the formation of their continuance intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Built on the cognitive load theory and flow theory, this study investigates the formation mechanism of virtual community users’ continuance intention to seek travel information. A total of 328 valid questionnaires were collected and used for hypothesis testing.
Findings
The results show that perceived usefulness, perceived information consistency and prior experience positively affect continuance intention. Concentration and time distortion have significant effects on continuance intention. Moreover, concentration and time distortion mediate between prior experience and continuance intention.
Originality/value
This study clarifies the formation mechanism of virtual community users’ continuance intention of travel information seeking from a new perspective. The conclusions enrich the research on consumer behavior in the information search field and provide a reference for virtual communities.
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Zhangxiang Zhu, Zihui Peng and Kening Yang
This study explores the factors that promote university teachers' switching intention from a traditional classroom to a smart classroom based on the push–pull–mooring (PPM…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the factors that promote university teachers' switching intention from a traditional classroom to a smart classroom based on the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework to enrich the theoretical research on the smart classroom and provide a reference for smart classroom promotion.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed conceptual framework was developed from a comprehensive review of the related literature. This study tested and validated the proposed framework using a partial least square structural equation model based on 269 valid questionnaires.
Findings
(1) Perceived inefficiency, inquiry-based learning, future expectation and technical self-efficacy had significant effects on switching intention, while low participation, perceived usefulness and habit had no significant effects on university teachers’ switching intention in the smart classroom. (2) In the process of decision-making, the course category significantly moderates the impact of perceived inefficiency and technical self-efficacy on switching intention, while the user experience of smart classrooms significantly moderates the impact of perceived inefficiency on switching intention.
Originality/value
This study explains university teachers' switching intention from a traditional classroom to the smart classroom, which enriches the application area of the PPM framework.
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Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American…
Abstract
Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.
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This paper focuses on how the producer inspires his cooperative research partner to reduce carbon emission, by developing a menu of incentive contracts both in research and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on how the producer inspires his cooperative research partner to reduce carbon emission, by developing a menu of incentive contracts both in research and development (R&D) stage and recycling stage.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed mechanism combines the researcher with the producer in a two-staged closed-loop system. Based on the concept that the producer takes the environmental responsibility, this paper designs a dynamically updating contract for the producer to encourage low-carbon efforts. Meanwhile, the producer offers a menu of contracts against the asymmetric information, that is, the R&D partner owns private information on his low-carbon R&D capability. According to incentive mechanism, the researcher decides whether to tell the truth and how much effort she would exert in R&D and recycling stages.
Findings
Discriminating between different types of researchers hurts the producer’s profit. But the updated screening contract can inspire researchers to tell the truth and is beneficial in reducing carbon emissions in the two stages. The results give the optimal solutions of the incentive mechanism. The low-type researcher only obtains reservation profit, whereas the high-type is given more to induce the information.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a strategy of updating the contract factors for avoiding adverse selection and moral hazard. Considering the environmental responsibility of waste products, the producer would like to encourage low-carbon designs among the R&D partners in a closed-loop supply chain.
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Qiang (Steven) Lu and Yupin Yang
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games on the residential real estate markets of the host city during the bidding, pre-Olympic and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games on the residential real estate markets of the host city during the bidding, pre-Olympic and post-Olympic periods.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a difference-in-differences model to analyze the transaction prices for all properties in New South Wales, Australia for the period from 1980 to 2007.
Findings
The paper finds that the impact on real estate markets varies across different suburbs in the host city and over time. The real estate markets of host suburbs experience substantially higher growth during the bidding and pre-Olympic periods but not during the post-Olympic period. However, the property prices in non-host suburbs in the host city increase at a higher rate during the pre- and post-Olympic periods but not during the bidding period.
Originality/value
This study offers insights into the long-term impact of the Olympic Games on host suburbs and non-host suburbs in the host city during different periods by analyzing a large longitudinal data set over a period of 27 years.
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Kene Li and Yunong Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to present the design and implementation of a zero‐initial‐velocity self‐motion scheme on a six degrees of freedom (six‐DOF) planar robot manipulator.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the design and implementation of a zero‐initial‐velocity self‐motion scheme on a six degrees of freedom (six‐DOF) planar robot manipulator.
Design/methodology/approach
In view of the existence of physical limits in an actual robot manipulator, both joint‐angle limits and joint‐velocity limits are initially incorporated into the proposed self‐motion scheme for practical purposes. The proposed self‐motion scheme is then reformulated as a quadratic program (QP) and resolved at the joint‐velocity level. By combining the zero‐initial‐velocity constraint, the resultant QP can prevent the occurrence of a large initial joint velocity. Finally, based on the conversion technique of QP to a linear variational inequality, a numerical computing algorithm is presented to solve the QP and the corresponding self‐motion scheme.
Findings
The proposed zero‐initial‐velocity self‐motion scheme eliminates the phenomenon of the abrupt and drastic increase in joint velocity at the beginning of the self‐motion task execution. Simulative and experimental results based on a practical six‐DOF planar robot manipulator further verify the realizability, effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed self‐motion scheme. Based on the simulative results, the joint angle and the joint velocity meet the joint physical constraints.
Practical implications
The paper provides effective methods for handling the physical limits, the design of zero‐initial velocity, and the conversion from joint angle and joint velocity to motor‐driving pulses. Thus, the effective and safe self‐motion control of a manipulator is realized.
Originality/value
The paper describes the design and implementation of a zero‐initial‐velocity self‐motion scheme.
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Mohamed Hajjaji, AbdErrazzak Khadmaoui and Mohamed El Bakkali
The practice of consanguinity has been culturally preferred in most Arab countries, including Morocco. This behavior leads to an increase in genetic abnormalities, such as…
Abstract
Purpose
The practice of consanguinity has been culturally preferred in most Arab countries, including Morocco. This behavior leads to an increase in genetic abnormalities, such as hypertension and diabetes. This paper examines the prevalence and determinants of first-cousin marriages and their impact on diabetes among offspring.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on 882 couples were collected through face-to-face interview via a pre-established questionnaire based on the variables selected within the objectives of this study. The authors used the multiple logistic regression modeling procedure in this study.
Findings
The results of the study indicate that the prevalence of first-cousin marriages were 15% among students’ parents. From the multiple logistic regression modeling, the authors found a significant effect of paternal and maternal grandparents’ first-cousins marriage on that of parents (aOR = 3.27 and aOR = 3.36, respectively). However, an 11-fold higher risk of first relative marriages among parents once the paternal and maternal grandparents were first-cousins and the father was illiterate (aOR = 11.01). Moreover, the authors reported a diabetes risk of more than 14 times when the effects of first-cousin maternal grandparents and parents and the hypertension among mother or her sibling were combined (aOR = 14.48) or when the effects of first-cousins maternal grandparents, first-cousin parents and mother’s age at marriage between 21 and 29 years were combined (aOR = 14.56).
Originality/value
First-cousin marriage depends on the father’s illiteracy and the consanguinity of grandparents’ factors. The cumulative effect of first-cousin marriage among grandparents, parents and a family history of hypertension among mother or her sibling increase the risk of diabetes among these mothers.
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The purpose of this paper is to review recent contributions to the theoretical and empirical literature on informational cascades.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review recent contributions to the theoretical and empirical literature on informational cascades.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reviews and synthesises the existing literature, methodologies and evidence on informational cascades.
Findings
Many financial settings foster situations where informational cascades and herding are likely. Cascades remain mainly an area of experimental research, leaving the empirical evidence inconclusive. Existing measures have limitations that do not allow for a direct test of cascading behaviour. More accurate models and methods for empirical testing of informational cascades could provide more conclusive evidence on the matter.
Practical implications
Outlined findings have implications for designing policies and regulatory requirements, as well as for the design of collective decisions processes.
Originality/value
The paper reviews and critiques existing theory; it summarises the recent laboratory and empirical evidence and identifies issues for future research. Most of other theoretical work reviews informational cascades as a subsection of herding. This paper focusses on informational cascades specifically. It distinguishes between informational cascade and herding. The paper also reviews most recent empirical evidence on cascades, presents review and synthesis of the theoretical and empirical development on information cascades up to date, and reviews the model of informational cascades with model criticism.