Na Fan, Liqiang Chai, Peng Wang and Jun Liang
This paper aims to study the tribocorrosion behavior of 304 stainless steel (SS) sliding against SiC and Si3N4 counterparts in artificial seawater.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the tribocorrosion behavior of 304 stainless steel (SS) sliding against SiC and Si3N4 counterparts in artificial seawater.
Design/methodology/approach
The tribocorrosion behavior of 304SS sliding against SiC and Si3N4 balls in artificial seawater has been investigated. The tests were conducted using a ball-on-disk rig equipped with an electrochemical workstation. The friction coefficient, surface morphology, wear volume and current density were determined.
Findings
When 304SS sliding against SiC ball, a smooth surface with a silica layer was formed on the top, which led to the low friction coefficient, current density and small wear volume. For 304SS-Si3N4 tribo-pair, a lot of metal debris was scattered on contact surfaces leading to high friction coefficient, current density and big wear volume.
Research limitations/implications
This research suggests that the lubrication effect of silicon-based ceramics is related to counterpart specimen in artificial seawater.
Practical implications
The results may help us to choose the appropriate ceramic ball under seawater environment.
Originality/value
The main originality of the work is to reveal the tribocorrosion behavior of 304SS sliding against SiC and Si3N4 balls, which help us to realize that the Si3N4 ball as water-lubricated ceramics could not exhibit lubrication effect when coupled with 304SS in artificial seawater.
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This study aims to explore the impact of athlete brand image on fans’ social media engagement, purchase intentions, and also examines the mediating role of emotional attachment on…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of athlete brand image on fans’ social media engagement, purchase intentions, and also examines the mediating role of emotional attachment on these relationships, as well as the moderating role of perceived price value between emotional attachment and purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
The data are based on an online survey conducted in China (N = 572). The PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation model) and regression-based estimation method (PROCESS) are employed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate a positive relationship between athletes’ athletic performance and fans’ social media engagement as well as purchase intentions. The impact of athletes’ attractive appearance and marketable lifestyle on fans’ purchase intentions is sequentially mediated by emotional attachment and social media engagement. Moreover, the mediation effect of athletes’ off-field image and purchase intentions is contingent upon fans’ perceived price value.
Research limitations/implications
Athletes and marketers could integrate and leverage both the on-field and off-field attributes to cultivate emotional connections with fans. Sports organizations and managers need to pay attention to fans’ social media engagement and provide content that increases engagement and converts into transactional behavioural intentions.
Originality/value
The study provides empirical evidence of the mediating role of emotional attachment between athlete brand image and fans’ purchase intentions. The explanatory mechanisms involving emotional attachment and social media engagement (non-transactional behavioural intentions) are anticipated to be a noteworthy addition to the traditional fan transactional behavioural intentions framework. Moreover, the research introduces and confirms perceived price value as a crucial moderating factor influencing the relationship between emotional attachment and purchase intentions.
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Na Su, Dennis Reynolds and Bixuan Sun
This study aims to identify what type of post is most effective in drawing fans to like, comment on or share it, building on the premise that hotels can only benefit when “fans” �…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify what type of post is most effective in drawing fans to like, comment on or share it, building on the premise that hotels can only benefit when “fans” – customers who “like” them – engage in discussion and interaction on Facebook.
Design/methodology/approach
In the case of the Super 8 Hotels Facebook fan page, 14 underlying factors related to themes, media, characteristics and time are identified in a content analysis of its posts. Multilevel regression is employed in the study to test the effects of these 14 factors on the number of fans who like, comment on or share a post.
Findings
Posts about hotel products and attributes diminish the attractiveness to the hotel brand’s Facebook page. The posts that include award and discount information, expressed in a humorous way or end with requests to like tend to be liked more often by fans. Furthermore, posts ending with a question are likely to get more comments, but these questions have a negative influence on the number of likes the post receives. In addition, posts with pictures or involving environment concerns are more likely to be shared by fans.
Practical implications
The paper provides hotel practitioners with implementable communication tactics to increase their appeal to consumers on Facebook.
Originality/value
The study represents a new academic area of how to communicate using social media and concludes with practical strategies for hoteliers seeking to utilize Facebook as an effective marketing tool.
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Benedict Wen-Cheun Au, Kah-Yoong Chan, Yew-Keong Sin and Zi-Neng Ng
This paper aims to develop a low-cost hot-point which can facilitate the conductivity type of N-type and P-type zinc oxide (ZnO) films. In this study, a diode was made out of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a low-cost hot-point which can facilitate the conductivity type of N-type and P-type zinc oxide (ZnO) films. In this study, a diode was made out of the N-type and P-type ZnO films, and current-voltage (I-V) characteristic measurements were conducted.
Design/methodology/approach
A low-cost hot-point probe consists of a soldering iron station, digital multimeter and a pair of probes. The setup is adopted to identify N-type and P-type ZnO films. In particular, P-type films have been deployed for the first time.
Findings
Hot-point probe setup has been successfully developed. Measurements of N-type films give a positive voltage reading, whereas P-type films give a negative voltage reading. The measured voltage dominates at 1 per cent for N-type Ga and at 15 per cent for P-type Na. I-V characteristics of the fabricated diode showed a similar trend to the conventional diode.
Research limitations/implications
N-type has been often attempted. However, P-type has rarely been attempted because of the self-compensation effect in ZnO. There is a need to verify the conductivity type of ZnO films, especially P-type, as P-type films are not stable. The hot-point probe setup serves as a quick means to verify P-type ZnO films.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ understanding, this verification tool was developed and deployed to verify the N-type and P-type ZnO films. The P-type films are coated on top of the N-type films for diode I-V measurements.
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Ruibin Geng, Xi Chen and Shichao Wang
Endorsement marketing has been widely used to generate consumer attention, interest and purchase decisions among targeted audiences. Internet celebrities who become famous on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Endorsement marketing has been widely used to generate consumer attention, interest and purchase decisions among targeted audiences. Internet celebrities who become famous on the Internet are dependent on strategic intimacy to appeal to their followers. Our study aims to examine how multiple exposures to Internet celebrity endorsements influence consumers’ click and purchase decisions in the context of influencer marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a unique and representative dataset, the authors first model consumers’ choices for clicks and purchases with two panel fixed-effect logit models linking clicks and purchases with the frequency of exposure to Internet celebrity endorsement. To further control the endogeneity produced by the intercorrelation between the click and purchase models, the authors also adopt the two-stage Heckman probit structure to jointly estimate the two models using Maximum Likelihood Estimation. Robustness checks confirm the effectiveness of the models.
Findings
The results suggest that Internet celebrity endorsement plays a significant role in bringing referral traffic to e-commerce sites but is less helpful in affecting conversion to sales. The impact of repetitive Internet celebrity endorsements on consumers’ click decisions is U-shaped, but the role of Internet celebrities as online retailers will “shape-flip” this relationship to a negative linear relation.
Originality/value
Our study is the first to investigate the repetitive exposure effect of Internet celebrity endorsement. The results show a contradictory pattern with a wear-out effect of repetition in the advertising literature. This is the first study to show how the endorsing self, which is a common business model in influencer marketing, moderates the effectiveness of influencer marketing.
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Quality management among multiple business units of a large organization is often difficult if each unit is run independently in terms on their quality standards. In this case…
Abstract
Quality management among multiple business units of a large organization is often difficult if each unit is run independently in terms on their quality standards. In this case, participants will discuss how Bukhari Group of Companies should establish a common brand image through standardized quality. Participants should also understand that common brand image for diverse products does not mean identical level of rejection or customer complaints. It should be understood that different markets have different tolerance for product failures. The participants can chalk out the measures the protagonist of the case should be able to take to effectively steer the Bhukari Group to achieve profits and excellence.
Details
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Jinchang Fan, Canjun Yang, Yanhu Chen, Hansong Wang, Zhengming Huang, Zhicheng Shou, Ping Jiang and Qianxiao Wei
This paper aims to present an underwater climbing robot for wiping off marine life from steel pipes (e.g. jackets of oil platforms). The self-adaption mechanism that consists of a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an underwater climbing robot for wiping off marine life from steel pipes (e.g. jackets of oil platforms). The self-adaption mechanism that consists of a passive roll joint and combined magnet adhesion units provides the robot with better mobility and stability.
Design/methodology/approach
Adhesion requirements are achieved by analyses of falling and slipping. The movement status on pipes is analyzed to design the passive roll joint. The optimized structure parameters of the combined magnet adhesion unit are achieved by simulations. An approximation method is established to simplify the simulations conditions, and the simulations are conducted in two steps to save time effectively.
Findings
The self-adaption mechanism has expected performance that the robot can travel on pipes in different directions with high mobility. Meanwhile, the robot can clean continuous region of underwater pipes’ surface of offshore platforms.
Practical implications
The proposed underwater robot is needed by offshore oil platforms as their jackets require to be cleaned periodically. Compared with traditional maintenance by divers, it is more efficient, economic and safety.
Originality/value
Due to the specific self-adaption mechanism, the robot has good mobility and stability in any directions on pipes with different diameters. The good performance of striping attachments from pipes makes the underwater robot be a novel solution to clean steel pipes.
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Satish Kumar, Sisira Colombage and Purnima Rao
The purpose of this paper is to study the status of studies on capital structure determinants in the past 40 years. This paper highlights the major gaps in the literature on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the status of studies on capital structure determinants in the past 40 years. This paper highlights the major gaps in the literature on determinants of capital structure and also aims to raise specific questions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The prominence of research is assessed by studying the year of publication and region, level of economic development, firm size, data collection methods, data analysis techniques and theoretical models of capital structure from the selected papers. The review is based on 167 papers published from 1972 to 2013 in various peer-reviewed journals. The relationship of determinants of capital structure is analyzed with the help of meta-analysis.
Findings
Major findings show an increase of interest in research on determinants of capital structure of the firms located in emerging markets. However, it is observed that these regions are still under-examined which provides more scope for research both empirical and survey-based studies. Majority of research studies are conducted on large-sized firms by using secondary data and regression-based models for the analysis, whereas studies on small-sized firms are very meager. As majority of the research papers are written only at the organizational level, the impact of leverage on various industries is yet to be examined. The review highlights the major determinants of capital structure and their relationship with leverage. It also reveals the dominance of pecking order theory in explaining capital structure of firms theoretically as well as statistically.
Originality/value
The paper covers a considerable period of time (1972-2013). Among very few review papers on capital structure research, to the best of authors’ knowledge; this is the first review to identify what is missing in the literature on the determinants of capital structure while offering recommendations for future studies. It also synthesize the findings of empirical studies on determinants of capital structure statistically.
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This paper believes that while implementing the gradual delay retirement age policy in China, the impact should be considered comprehensively; we should pay attention to impacts…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper believes that while implementing the gradual delay retirement age policy in China, the impact should be considered comprehensively; we should pay attention to impacts brought by the delayed retirement policy and introduce policies to deal with the impacts in a timely manner.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper aims to explore the delayed retirement’s impact on women’s labor supply and to clarify the elderly care’s role in it.
Findings
The results found that the delayed retirement has a positive effect on the women’s overall and young women’s labor supply, with a more significant promotion for young women’s labor supply. The mediation results suggest that delayed retirement promotes women’s labor supply by affecting elderly care. Therefore, we believe that while implementing the gradual delay retirement policy in China, it is important to implement it on the correct estimation basis so as to reduce the volatility in the labor market.
Originality/value
This paper may produce marginal contributions in the following two aspects: From the research perspective, we construct a model containing delayed retirement, elderly care and women’s labor supply and illustrate how the delayed retirement promotes women’s labor supply by affecting elderly care. Secondly, from the research content, this paper expands the delayed retirement on macro-employment and further explores the micro-impact on employment.
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A. Rangesh and William O'Neill
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of using a pulsed Tungsten inert gas arc to fully melt and consolidate stainless steel powder onto a stainless steel…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of using a pulsed Tungsten inert gas arc to fully melt and consolidate stainless steel powder onto a stainless steel substrate. The technology aims to bridge the gap between selective laser sintering or laser melting and wire fed weld deposition by providing good quality and better resolution at a lower cost.
Design/methodology/approach
Current settings between 5 and 30 A and frequencies between 0 and 200 Hz were used to consolidate stainless steel powder onto a substrate. Results were catalogued based on surface roughness using white light interferometery to develop a process map.
Findings
Velocity independent thresholds of current (17 A minimum) and frequency (20 Hz minimum) were found, with better quality achieved at higher pulse frequencies. The microstructure of the samples were examined showing grain sizes of ≈3 μm for equiaxed grains and up to 20 μm for the columnar grains. Vickers hardness measurements showed only a 20 point average hardness increase in the HAZ compared to the substrate.
Research limitations/implications
The study showed that although it was possible to deposit stainless steel tracks, it was not possible to reduce the track resolution to less than 400 μm at any of the process settings.
Originality/value
The research aims to investigate the use of a readily available, low cost, heat source to consolidate metal powder. The suitability of such a heat source for rapid prototyping is investigated using a variety of objective tests to provide a balanced view of its capabilities and limitations.