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This study aims to examine empirically the existence of four classical and four emerging buyer–supplier relationship (BSR) types and how they differ in terms of behavioral dynamics and performance measures.

This study uses an online survey to collect data from 371 purchasing managers in the USA.

A cluster analysis statistically supports the existence of five of these eight BSR types, including strategic/bilateral partnership, market/discrete, supplier-led collaboration, captive supplier/buyer dominant and captive buyer/supplier dominant BSRs. Further, ANOVA tests show that these five BSRs differ in terms of behavioral outcomes and performance measures.

This study is based on a cross-sectional survey so it cannot examine how these BSR types may evolve over time, and it is not suitable to examine some rare types of BSRs. In addition, this study does not consider contextual factors that may moderate the influence of BSR types on the behavioral dynamics and performance measures.

Managers should consider the potential to be able to develop and enhance a strategic/bilateral relationship with their supply chain partners, which in at least some circumstances can lead to superior performance results. Similar observations can be made with respect to supplier-led and, to a lesser degree, buyer-led collaboration.

Most existing research of the BSR types is largely a product of theoretical classifications, and there is also a lack of research of their performance implications. This study fills these gaps in the literature.

Urbanization is driving the growth of China’s carbon footprint. It’s important to investigate what factors, how and to what extent, affect carbon footprints embedded in various categories of rural and urban households’ consumption.

We employ an environmental extended input-output model to assess and compare the rural-urban household carbon footprints and perform a multivariant regression analysis to identify the varying relationships of the determinants on rural and urban household carbon footprints based on the panel data of Chinese households from 2012 to 2018.

The results show evidence of urbanity density effect on direct carbon footprints and countervailing effect on indirect carbon footprints. The old dependency ratio has no significant effect on rural family emissions but has a significantly negative effect on urban direct and indirect carbon footprints. A higher child dependency ratio is associated with less rural household carbon emissions while the opposite is true for urban households. Taking advantage of recycled fuel saves direct carbon emissions and this green lifestyle benefits urban households more by saving more carbon emissions. There is a positive relationship between consumption structure ratio and direct carbon footprints while a negative relationship with indirect carbon footprints and this impact is less significant for urban households. The higher the price level of water, electricity and fuel, the lower the rural household’s direct carbon footprints. Private car ownership consistently augments household carbon footprints across rural and urban areas.

This paper provides comprehensive findings to understand the relationships between an array of determinants and China’s rural-urban carbon emissions, empowering China’s contribution to the global effort on climate mitigation.

High-ductility cementitious composites (HDCC) have an excellent crack controlled capacity and corrosion resistance capacity, which has a promising application in structure engineering under harsh environment. The purpose of this study is to explore the corrosion mechanism of steel bar in HDCC.

Intact and the pre-cracked HDCC specimens under the coupled action of different dry–wet cycles and chloride attack were designed, and intact normal concrete (NC) was also considered for comparison. Corrosion behavior of a steel bar embedded in HDCC was analyzed by an electrochemical method, a chloride permeability test and X-ray computed tomography.

Steel corrosion probability is related to the chloride permeability of the HDCC cover, and the chloride permeability resistance of HDCC is better than that of NC. Besides, crack is the key factor affecting the corrosion of steel bars, and the HDCC with narrower cracks have a lower corrosion rate. Slight pitting occurs at the crack tips. In addition, the self-healing products and corrosion products fill up the cracks in HDCC, preventing the external aggressive ions from entering and thereby decreasing the steel corrosion rate.

HDCC has a superior corrosion resistance than that of NC, effects of variable crack width on corrosion behavior of steel bar in HDCC under the coupled actions of different dry–wet cycles and chloride attack are investigated, which can provide the guide for the design application of HDCC material in structure engineering exposed to marine environment.

In this paper, the authors aim to study the optimal strategy of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) considering both consumer segmentation and upward substitution of remanufactured products in the product life cycle.

In this paper, the authors develop two remanufacturing models: the OEM remanufacturing model and the authorized remanufacturing model. Then, the authors study the impact of both green consumers' scale and the product life cycle expressed as the market growth rate on the OEM's optimal decision-making. Therefore, the authors derive the optimal solutions of the two models by using game theory.

The authors find that in the case of low market growth rate, when there only exist ordinary consumers, if the substitutability of remanufactured products produced by the OEM is below one threshold or above another threshold, the OEM can obtain higher profit in the OEM remanufacturing model, and vice versa. If the substitutability of remanufactured products produced by the OEM is below a threshold when there are both ordinary and green consumers, the OEM prefers the authorized remanufacturing model; and vice versa. Moreover, in the case of high market growth rate, the OEM prefers the OEM remanufacturing model only when the substitution-level in OEM remanufacturing model is above a threshold.

The present study fills the gap in existing researches by simultaneously discussing product life cycle and green consumers' scale. The authors provide manufacturers with a new basis for remanufacturing decisions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the antecedents and the conditions of coopetition at the inter-organizational level.

This study is based on survey research methodology and analyzes the data from 138 companies regarding the antecedents and the conditions of their coopetition.

The results indicate that the interdependence between partners (i.e. the antecedent) positively affects interfirm coopetition, and that this relationship is contingent on the joint occurrence of opportunism (a behavioral condition) and technology uncertainty (a contextual condition). Specifically, highly interdependent firms are more likely to be involved in a coopetitive relationship when both opportunism and technology uncertainty are high. Interestingly, the authors’ data also show that opportunism or technology uncertainty alone may not be adequate in moderating the interdependence–coopetition relationship.

This study contributes to the current literature in two meaningful ways. First, it empirically examines interdependence as a potential antecedent of interfirm coopetition. Second, it improves our understanding of the behavioral and contextual conditions that facilitate the formation of coopetitive relationships by examining the moderating roles of opportunisms and technology uncertainty in the relationship between interdependence and interfirm coopetition. The limitations of this study lie in its confined method of cross-sectional survey from the focal firm’s perspective. Future research may advance beyond this study through experimental and/or longitudinal research designs.

This study provides managers with two important practical insights in coopetition management. First, the findings suggest a two-step approach to help a firm assess and manage the level of coopetition in its relationship with a business partner. In addition, the findings provide a counterintuitive suggestion to managers that the joint conditions of high opportunism and high technology uncertainty indeed prime the relationship for the rise of coopetition, provided that managerial efforts are made to somewhat increase the level of interdependence in the relationship.

Despite the growing number of studies on coopetition, research still lacks knowledge about the antecedents and the conditions of inter-organizational coopetition, and this study aims to fill this gap.

This study aims to critically evaluate the competitiveness of Transformer-based models in financial forecasting, specifically in the context of stock realized volatility forecasting. It seeks to challenge and extend upon the assertions of Zeng et al. (2023) regarding the purported limitations of these models in handling temporal information in financial time series.

Employing a robust methodological framework, the study systematically compares a range of Transformer models, including first-generation and advanced iterations like Informer, Autoformer, and PatchTST, against benchmark models (HAR, NBEATSx, NHITS, and TimesNet). The evaluation encompasses 80 different stocks, four error metrics, four statistical tests, and three robustness tests designed to reflect diverse market conditions and data availability scenarios.

The research uncovers that while first-generation Transformer models, like TFT, underperform in financial forecasting, second-generation models like Informer, Autoformer, and PatchTST demonstrate remarkable efficacy, especially in scenarios characterized by limited historical data and market volatility. The study also highlights the nuanced performance of these models across different forecasting horizons and error metrics, showcasing their potential as robust tools in financial forecasting, which contradicts the findings of Zeng et al. (2023)

This paper contributes to the financial forecasting literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the applicability of Transformer-based models in this domain. It offers new insights into the capabilities of these models, especially their adaptability to different market conditions and forecasting requirements, challenging the existing skepticism created by Zeng et al. (2023) about their utility in financial forecasting.

This article discusses the reasons and discourses adopted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Hong Kong SAR Government), with Mr Tung Chee Hwa as the Chief Executive, in preparing young people to become more mature and responsible. In the Hong Kong context this means they should be willing to fulfil community obligations and opt for consultation rather than confrontation should individual or community rights be sought. Confucianism, named after Confucius (551‐479 BCE), has been and still is a vast and complicated system of philosophies, morals, rituals, and ideas, which for well over 2,000 years has informed and inspired the thinking and practice of countless people in Chinese societies and Asian countries in all important areas, including the economy and the polity (Tu, 1998a; Berthrong & Berthrong, 2000; Yao, 2002). Put simply, the goal of Confucian life is to create a peaceful world, with its ethical emphasis placed on the cultivation of the self and the promotion of harmonious and respectful relations with other people in different spheres of human activities.

We have implemented a two‐dimensional (2D) time‐dependent hydrodynamic model suitable for studying III‐V heterostructural semiconductor devices. This we apply in simulating a heterojunction metal‐semiconductor‐metal (MSM) photodetector subject to pico‐second optical pulses. The inclusion of the energy balance equation introduces an additional time delay in the response of the detector, which is comparable to the energy relaxation time.

This paper is a study of the current trends and conditions of electronic resources for Chinese studies, based on a recent survey on the Internet of 29 Chinese libraries in North America and eight Chinese libraries in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The survey discussed current electronic resources for Chinese studies, with a union list of major Chinese language databases currently used in libraries in Asia and the US. Current views on the use and development of electronic resources for Chinese studies were summarised.

The more precise decision map is important to generate better-fused image. Guided filter can preserve edge information effectively. The purpose of his study is to use guided filter to form the precise decision map and highly informatively fused image.

The dual tree complex wavelet transform is adopted to decompose the source images into high frequency and low frequency coefficients. Sum of modified Laplacian method is introduced as the focus metric in dual tree complex wavelet coefficients. The guided filter is guided by the dual tree complex wavelet coefficient when the sum of modified Laplacian is used as the input image. The output image of guided filter is used to produce the decision map to fuse dual tree complex wavelet coefficient of source images.

The sum of modified Laplacian of dual tree complex wavelet coefficient can be used as the guided image in guided filter to generate better decision map. Comparison with the other state-of-the-art methods illustrates that the proposed approach is more effective in fusing the multifocus images both visual performance and objective evaluation.

The sum of modified Laplacian of dual tree complex wavelet coefficient is introduced to be used as the guided image in guided filter to generate better decision map. This method is fast and effect to fuse the source images. Comparison with the other state-of-the-art methods illustrates that the proposed approach is more effective in fusing the multifocus images both visual performance and objective evaluation.