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The present study is concerned with the application of a nonlinear frequency analysis approach to the detection and location of water tree degradation of power cable XLPE insulation without turning off electric power.

The use of power cable system responses to power line carrier signals are proposed to conduct the required signal analysis for damage location purpose. This technique is based on the fact that the water tree degradation in power cables can make the system behave nonlinearly. Consequently, the location of water tree degradation can be determined by detecting the position of nonlinear components in power cable systems.

A novel method has been proposed for locating water tree degradation in power cable systems; numerical simulation studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the new technique.

The proposed technique has the potential to be applied in practice to more effectively resolve the power cable damage location problem.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the Chinese leader–follower interaction model in school cases considering followers’ effect at varying social distances.

This study uses a case study approach.

First, Chinese leader–follower interactions in school cases are flexible in practice. Second, within leader–follower flexible interactions, contradictory perceptions and field-of-work consciousness foster different behavior choices between leaders and followers. Third, perceptions concerning the proximity of leaders to followers are positively influenced in relation to hierarchical distinctions and negatively influenced owing to private connections. Finally, the perceived leader distance of leaders from followers further influences the contradictory perceptions and field-of-work consciousness of leaders and followers and positively influences the degree of flexible leader–follower interaction.

This study examined a single institution; hence, results may have been influenced by school-specific features and conditions. Future research should study more organizations to explore whether their unique characteristics and contexts could affect leader–follower interactions, thus providing more generalized and universally applicable conclusions.

First, this study proposed a leader–follower flexible interaction model in school cases and the concepts of field-of-work consciousness and contradictory perceptions, exploring the active effects of followers in the leadership process to offer guidance toward better understanding the leadership process. Second, it was found that private connections between leaders and followers, as well as hierarchical differences, influenced the perceptions of both leaders and followers concerning leader distance in a Chinese context, and the influence of leader distance on leader–follower interactions was also analyzed.

This study aims to focus on the authority formation process of Chinese enterprise leaders, with the purpose of finding out how an ordinary newly established firm leader develops into a real top leader and achieves the status of legitimacy in a well-known enterprise.

Based on constructivist grounded theory, this paper investigates the formation mechanism of entrepreneurial authority in China by using the rich data of Liu Chuan-zhi’s leader activities.

In the “evolution” path of authority formation, leaders continually consolidate and improve their authority through two classes of exceptional management activities: “emergency rescue” and “promotion activities”. The successful realization of exceptional management activities benefits from a leader’s management experience accumulation and relationship maintenance with the government. In the “design” path of authority formation, leaders consolidate and improve their authority by exercising their position of power. Leaders’ legitimacy is reflected by making strategic decision and demonstrating discretion of position power. Additionally, passing on an inspiring leader’s thoughts and ideas to an organization’s members is accomplished through the construction of organization culture, institutionalization and convention.

First, the findings are based on only Liu Chuan-zhi’s case. The authors still need more cases to compare and develop the findings and seek theoretical saturation in a broader sense. Second, the qualitative analysis is based on secondary data and future research could consider the introduction of interviews, video and other types of research data.

Under the parallel paths which are “evolution” and “design”, the dynamic leader authority formation model in China is founded.

The literature regarding the effect of power on negotiation strategies remains scattered and inconsistent. This study aims to propose that the effect of power on negotiation strategies is contingent on contextual variables but also on individual differences among negotiators. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that creativity moderates the effect of power such that low-power, as compared to high-power negotiators, use more collaborative and less competitive strategies and further report lower fixed-pie perception (i.e. perception of a counterpart’s goals and interests as diametrically opposite to one’s own goals and interests) when they can be creative. Moreover, the authors hypothesize that negotiators’ age buffers the moderated effect of power.

The authors conducted two experiments and a cross-sectional field study. Participants in Studies 1 and 2 played a negotiation game in dyads. Study 1 manipulated power as status (manager vs employee), whereas Study 2 manipulated power as Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (i.e. power to exit the negotiation without a deal). Accordingly, participants in Study 2 had strong vs weak Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. In both studies, power was manipulated within dyads. Moreover, in both studies, the authors manipulated creativity (high vs low) between dyads. The chronological age of negotiators was measured in both studies and served as an additional moderator. Study 3 (preregistered) aimed to replicate the experiment results in the field.

Study 1 provided partial support for the hypothesis about collaborative strategies. Study 2 fully supported the hypothesis about the role of power and creativity on FPP and on collaboration (but not on competition). Study 3 did not support the power by creativity hypothesis. Interestingly, Studies 1 and 2 supported the power × creativity × age interaction hypothesis when predicting collaboration, while Study 3 supported the three-way interaction when predicting competition. Furthermore, Study 2 provided full support for the three-way interaction hypothesis when predicting FPP, while Study 3 provided partial support for this hypothesis. Altogether, the three studies largely replicated and complemented each other and revealed the robustness of the examined effects.

The findings of this research extend the literature on power on the one hand and negotiation and conflict management on the other and shed light on the inconsistent results regarding the role of power in collaboration and competition (De Dreu, 1995; De Dreu and Van Kleef, 2004; Overbeck and Park, 2001; Overbeck et al., 2006). Additionally, this research reconciles the inconsistent literature on creativity, conflict management and prosocial behavior (Gino and Ariely, 2012; Gino and Wiltermuth, 2014; Wilson and Thompson, 2014). Finally, the findings touch upon the aging literature as well and shed light on the role of age on conflict management (for a review, see Beitler et al., 2018) and on the interconnection between age, power and creativity.

The findings are relevant to organizations characterized by power asymmetries (e.g. employee/manager) and inform practitioners about the main determinants of collaboration-based negotiations at work.

The findings extend the literature on power on the one hand and negotiation and conflict management on the other and shed light on the inconsistent results regarding the role of power in collaboration and competition.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating the moderating role of creativity in the relationship between negotiation power and negotiation strategies. Moreover, the moderating role of participant age in such relationships has been, to date, largely uninvestigated.

While third-party food delivery continues to increase in popularity, surveys suggest nearly a quarter of deliveries suffer from service failures. With the limited research on third-party food delivery, we explore the important questions of (1) where customers place blame in the case of service failures with third-party food delivery (i.e. the platform or the restaurant) and (2) does this depend on the type of service failure? Drawing on blame attribution theory, signaling theory, and an exploratory study, we demonstrate that customers typically perceive such mishaps to be the responsibility of the restaurant rather than the delivery platform itself. We also examine the effect of visible service failure preventative actions taken by the restaurant on blame attribution and re-order intention.

We conducted two online scenario-based studies to explore customer blame attribution in the case of third-party food delivery service failure. First, an exploratory study approach (N_{Study1 = 512}) was taken to provide additional support for the hypothesis development. An experiment (N_{Study2 = 252}) was then conducted to examine the hypothesized effects.

First, the results of an exploratory study demonstrate that customers attribute service failures such as wrong items, missing items, cold food, or leaking containers to restaurants over third-party food delivery platforms. Second, the results of an experimental study suggest inclusion of an observable cue indicating preventative action, such as time-stamp information indicating when an order was received and packaged for delivery, increases customer re-order intention through the underlying mechanism of blame attribution.

We contribute to the underexplored area of third-party food delivery service failure and to our understanding of blame attribution in service failure scenarios. Further, we demonstrate a practical method to shift the blame away from restaurants for service failures that are outside of the establishment’s control.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effect that anthropomorphic framing (i.e. robot vs automatic machine) has on consumers’ responses in case of service failure. Specifically, the authors hypothesize that consumers hold an unconscious association between the word “robot” and agency and that the higher agency attributed to self-service machines framed as robots (vs automatic machines) leads, in turn, to a more positive service evaluation in case of service failure.

The authors have conducted four experimental studies to test the framework presented in this paper. In Studies 1a and 1b, the authors used an Implicit Association Test to test for the unconscious association held by consumers about robots as being intelligent machines (i.e. agency). In Studies 2 and 3, the authors tested the effect that framing technology as robots (vs automatic machines) has on consumers’ responses to service failure using two online experiments across different consumption contexts (hotel, restaurant) and using different dependent variables (service evaluation, satisfaction and word-of-mouth).

The authors show that consumers evaluate more positively a service failure involving a self-service technology framed as a robot rather than one framed as an automatic machine. They provide evidence that this effect is driven by higher perceptions of agency and that the association between technology and agency held by consumers is an unconscious one.

This paper investigates a novel driver of consumers’ perception of agency of technology, namely, how the technology is framed. Moreover, this study sheds light on consumers’ responses to technology’s service failure.

The purpose of this study is a formal experimental economics test of results found in a study designed and executed by a 12-year-old who was concerned about what she perceived to be bias in gaming applications (apps) that provided male avatar characters for no cost but required in-app purchases to access female characters. The present study was designed to test empirically whether children have a revealed preference for same-gendered characters and whether such preferences are dependent on the cost of the characters.

Children from 6 to 16 years of age were recruited to participate in a framed field economics experiment in which they would earn actual money and be given opportunities to spend it on in-game avatars they could then use to continue to play. Additionally, a survey gathered data on participants’ stated preferences and experiences playing game apps on mobile phones.

Children do prefer to play a character of the same gender; however, they are more likely to remain the default character if choosing a different character costs money. When asked to say why they picked their character, children report most often that it is based on either the characters’ appearance or gender, followed by perceived character abilities, liking the character and the cost of a character. A vast majority (90 per cent) of children felt both male and female characters should be free.

This research was limited because the experiment simulated in-app purchases but could not offer the permanence of real-world in-app purchases. Players in the experiment could not “keep” the character if they chose to pay for it. The authors adjusted for this by making the cost to change character gender much lower than it would be in the game (25 cents in the study vs approximately $10 in the app). Future research could explore ways to make in-app purchases during the study permanent for players to test if the permanence of the purchase results in greater willingness to pay to switch character gender.

This research has practical implications for video game designers. As both male and female players prefer to play with characters of the same gender, and having a cost to play a character reduces switching behavior, it is possible that having a cost for female characters reduces the popularity of the game with female players. This is especially relevant for endless running games as these games are preferred more by women than men. By making female characters free, default character and developers may increase the popularity of these games with female players.

This study adds to the body of literature about gender and video game preferences because prior studies relied solely on stated preferences about characters (using surveys and self-reported behaviors) and not on revealed preferences (observed behaviors). Additionally, this study examines character gender preferences in a casual game, while most prior studies have examine preferences in massively multiplayer online role-playing games.