Search results

Public–private partnership (PPP) projects are increasingly significant in many countries. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of critical success factors (CSFs) on PPP projects and comprehensively consider the interrelations and interaction among dimensions and factors to achieve a better understanding of PPP project management.

An evaluation index system for PPP projects such as the presented case study is proposed based on a literature review and a survey. Then, interpretative structural modeling is used to transform the CSFs dimension into a multi-level hierarchical model to reflect the driven-dependency relation of each dimension; the fuzzy analytic network process model optimized by moment estimation theory is used to investigate the impact of CSFs by considering their internal impact.

Regarding the project used as the case study, the driving force and dependence for driving layer and dependent layer are determined. Moreover, in driving layer, efficient and well-structured payment mechanism is the most important CSF if considering the internship and interaction among CSFs, and efficient and well-structured payment mechanism and good governance provide most positive interaction; in dependent layer, population of beneficiaries is the most important CSF if considering the internship and interaction among CSFs, and public client’s satisfaction provides most positive interaction.

This paper developed an evaluation model to explore the interrelationships of dimensions and factors and then determine the impact of CSFs. The model propose in this paper relaxes the independence assumptions of traditional methods and is more in line with reality; besides, weighting method is optimized to obtain more objective and reasonable evaluation results. Through an empirical study, the validity of the model has been verified; therefore, the study can help project stakeholders better understand the CSFs and further improve project performance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of employee live streamers on consumers' purchase behaviors and brand image, as well as to understand the mediating roles of friendship and self-congruity.

A framework was proposed to explain the influence of employee live streamers' qualities on consumers' behaviors and brand image through the mediators of friendship and self-congruity. Primary data was collected from 225 valid survey responses in China, and the PLS-SEM analysis was employed to test the statistical significance of the hypothesized relationships.

The study found that four qualities of employee live streamers – trustworthiness, attractiveness, responsiveness and expertise – had significant effects on consumers' purchase behaviors and brand image through the mediators of self-congruity and friendship.

This research provides valuable insights into the varying roles of employee live streamers in consumers' decision-making and brand image formation. It offers a theoretical basis for scholars to understand the factors of PSI (parasocial interaction) between consumers and an employee streamer, contributing to the growing body of literature on live streaming and consumer behavior.

本研究旨在调查员工直播主对消费者购买行为和品牌形象的影响, 以及了解友谊和自我一致性在其中的中介作用。

本研究提出了一个框架, 以解释员工直播主的特质通过友谊和自我一致性的中介对消费者行为和品牌形象的影响。在中国收集了225份有效的调查问卷数据, 并采用PLS-SEM分析来测试假设关系的统计显著性。

研究发现员工直播主的四种特质 - 可信度、吸引力、反应能力和专业性 - 通过自我一致性和友谊的中介对消费者的购买行为和品牌形象产生了显著影响。

本研究深入探讨了员工直播主在消费者决策和品牌形象塑造中的不同作用, 为学者们理解消费者与员工直播主之间PSI（伪社交互动）的因素提供了理论基础, 为直播和消费者行为领域的日益增长的文献体系做出了贡献。

A chromate conversion coating was prepared on the surface of bare AA2024 aluminum alloy by direct immersion in the chromating treatment bath, and the corrosion behavior of chromated AA2024 aluminum alloy in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution was studied by electrochemical measurement and microstructural observation.

According to the polarization curve test and the scanning electron microscope observation, the corrosion evolution of chromated AA2024 in 3.5 per cent NaCl solution was divided into the following three stages: coating failure, pitting corrosion and intergranular corrosion (IGC).

In the first stage, the chromate coating degraded gradually due to the combined action of chloride anions and water molecules, resulting in the complete exposure of AA2024 substrate to 3.5 per cent NaCl solution. Subsequently, in the second stage, chloride anions adsorbed at the sites of θ phase (Al2Cu) and S phase (Al2CuMg) on the AA2024 surface preferentially, and some corrosion pits initiated at the above two sites and propagated towards the deep of crystal grains. However, the propagation of a pit terminated when the pit front arrived at the adjacent grain boundary, where the initiation of IGC occurred.

Finally, in the third stage, the corrosion proceeded along the continuous grain boundary net and penetrated the internal of AA2024 substrate, resulting in the propagation of IGC. The related corrosion mechanisms for the bare and the chromated AA2024 were also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine foreign participants’ service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention during the 2016 Shanghai International Marathon, and to gain a better understanding of the impact of service quality on their satisfaction and behavioral intention.

An English questionnaire was originally designed on the basis of the literature review of service quality, overall satisfaction and re-participation intention to assess the purpose of the study. Data were collected from 308 foreign runners including 61.7 percent (n=190) of male and 38.3 percent (n=118) of the female. Structural equation modeling was employed to check the proposed model and to test the impact of service quality on foreign participants’ overall satisfaction and behavioral intention.

A positive correlation was captured between the following: service quality and overall satisfaction (r=0.752, p<0.01), overall satisfaction and behavioral intention (r=0.876, p<0.01), and between service quality and participants’ behavioral intention (r=0.760, p<0.01). Furthermore, the service quality of Shanghai International Marathon had an indirect effect on foreign participants’ behavioral intention. The structural model fits the data well (R²=0.823).

First, the sample size was small and was just drawn from one event, which can be taken with caution in the context of the generalization of findings. Second, the results are specific to 2016 Shanghai International Marathon participants and cannot be generalized with other events in China or around the world.

The results are practical for the marathon event organizers to better understand foreign participants’ needs and improve their services. This study has a significant importance to the sports events organizers, especially the organizers of the Shanghai International Marathon in terms of a better understanding the level of their service. This study will also help the event organizers to adapt their strategies and their efforts to increase Shanghai International Marathon foreign participants’ satisfaction and intention to repurchase or to share with others.

This study contributes to the foreign participant’s satisfaction literature. In fact, many studies were carried on event spectators’ satisfaction while rare studies were carried on event participants’ satisfaction, especially marathon foreign participants’ satisfaction, and this study will supplement studies related to sport events participation. This will be convenient for sports managers and scholars to better understand the impact of service quality on participants’ satisfaction and behavioral intention in the field of sports events management. Meanwhile, the results were extremely useful to Shanghai during the process of constructing a “world-famous sports city” and “modern international metropolis”.

Little literature focus on foreign participants of Shanghai International Marathon, which is important in the process of shaping city image and building world-famous city. Are foreign participants satisfied with the Shanghai International Marathon? Which aspect of the service quality is of greater value for them? What are the influencing factors of their behavioral intention and word-of-mouth communication? What are the specific impact paths among the service quality, overall satisfaction and behavioral intention variables? To examine the objectives, the study was designed to target foreign participants’ service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention. Besides, structural equation model was applied in this study to explore the path relationship between service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intention specifically.

The purpose of this work is to reveal the mechanism of WO₄²⁻ on surface passivation for Q235 carbon steel in tungstate solution.

In Na₂WO₄ solutions with the different concentrations of WO₄²⁻, the spontaneous passivation occurred on the surface of Q235 carbon steel when the concentration of WO₄²⁻ was up to 0.13 mmol/L, which was attributed to the formations of the inner deposition film and the outer adsorption film on the Q235 surface under the action of WO₄²⁻.

The inner deposition film presented a two-layer microstructure: the inside layer was composed of Fe₂O₃ mainly, and the outside layer comprised Fe(OH)2•nH₂O, Fe(OH)3•nH₂O, FeWO₄ and Fe₂(WO₄)3.

Both FeWO₄ and Fe₂(WO₄)3 repaired the defects in the outside layer of the inner deposition film; however, the outer adsorption film played a more important role in the surface passivation than the inner deposition film did.

The aim of this work was to propose a method to prepare composite phosphate conversion coating (CPCC), including ternary phosphate conversion coating (TPCC) and binary phosphate conversion coatings (BPCC), with one-step chemical conversion and to reveal and compare the corrosion resistance between TPCC and BPCC.

In this work, a calcium–manganese–zinc (Ca–Mn–Zn) TPCC was prepared on the surface of magnesium alloy (MA) AZ91D with one-step chemical conversion method; for Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC, its microstructure was characterized with scanning electron microscope observation and scanning tunneling microscope detection, and its composition was characterized with energy dispersion spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses. Particularly, the corrosion resistance of Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC and its comparison with Ca–Mn, Ca–Zn and Mn–Zn BPCCs were clarified with electrochemical and immersion measurements.

Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC, which was composed of Ca, Mn, Zn, P and O, exhibited a mud-shaped with cracks microstructure, and the average crack width, terrain fluctuation and coating thickness were 0.61 µm, 23.78 nm and 2.47 µm, respectively. Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC provided good corrosion resistance to MA AZ91D; in NaCl solution, the total degradation of Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC consumed eight days; corrosion products with poor adhesion peeled out from Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC-coated MA AZ91D spontaneously. Besides, the corrosion resistance of Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC was better than that of Ca-Mn@BPCC, Ca-Zn@BPCC or Mn-Zn@BPCC.

The successful preparation of Ca-Mn-Zn@TPCC on MA AZ91D surface confirmed the proposed method to prepare CPCC with one-step chemical conversion was feasible; at the same time, it was further confirmed that for phosphate conversion coating, ternary coating had better corrosion resistance than binary coating did.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the mechanism of nitrite (NO_2⁻) for the surface passivation of carbon steels in acidic environments through investigating the influences of 0.01 mol/L NaNO₂ addition on the corrosion and passivation behaviors of Q235 carbon steel in acidic phosphate buffer (APB) solutions (pH 2 to 6).

The electrochemical techniques including open circle potential evolution, potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry were applied.

In APB solutions without NO_2⁻, the Q235 steel presented the electrochemical behaviors of activation (A), activation-passivation-transpassivation and self-passivation-transpassivation at pH 2 to 4, pH 5 and pH 6, respectively; the corrosion rate decreased with the up of pH value, and the surface passivation occurred in the pH 5 and pH 6 solutions only: the anodic passivation at pH 5 and the spontaneous passivation at pH 6.

In APB solutions without NO_2⁻, the corrosion rate decreased with the up of pH value, and the surface passivation occurred in the pH 5 and pH 6 solutions only: the anodic passivation at pH 5 and the spontaneous passivation at pH 6. With the addition of 0.01 mol/L NaNO₂, into APB solutions, the variation of corrosion rate showed the same rule, but the surface passivation occurred over the whole acidic pH range, including the anodic passivation at pH 2 to 4 and the spontaneous passivation at pH 5 to 6.

This chapter describes a qualitative study provides insights into of how a tertiary institution in Jamaica gave focus to faculty wellbeing and the implementations that catered to their welfare. The human resource (HR) manager was interviewed and a document analysis of the institution’s strategic plan was done. The investigation found that the institution sought to satisfy the different dimensions of faculty wellbeing. However, plans and implementations were sometimes unsuccessful because of a lack of participation and communication from faculty. Faculty members struggled to prioritize their wellbeing because of a lack of time consequent to work demands. The challenges warranted an intentional approach to allow staff more flexibility to engage in wellbeing activities, a fusion of wellbeing interventions without causing faculty to experience additional demands, and a strategic method to reinforce the importance of catering to wellbeing. Additionally, wellbeing implementations should be formalized and systemized to effectively address faculty’s wellbeing needs.

Spatial arrangement of hospital environments has been proven to have impacts on hospital users such as wayfinding, privacy and operational efficiency. Many studies examined the spatial quality of hospitals, but there is a lack of comparative research between Chinese and Australian hospitals. Hospitals in both countries have salient features that are worth to learn and can inform hospital stakeholders internationally on design decisions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare the spatial quality of hospitals from both countries using space syntax approach and field observation.

This study uses space syntax analysis and observation to provide qualitative and quantitative data. Illustrative case studies from both countries are selected for comparison. The main benchmarks involved in measuring the spatial qualities, such as step depth and visual connectivity, are analysed using Depthmap X before comparing with the results from observation.

For Chinese hospitals to be more human-centred, public space design and facility management need additional attention. Australian hospitals could learn from Hospital D on how to design highly centralised nursing stations that cope with a high patient flow. Global policy and decision-makers should consider the potential inconsistency between initial design intention and practical use.

Practical implications were made based on the results for bettering hospital environments. It is hoped that the methodology presented in this research is of significance to the enhancement of global healthcare environment research.