Wendy Wang, Leslie Albert and Qin Sun
In light of the increasing popularity of telecommuting, this study investigates how telecommuters' organizational commitment may be linked to psychological and physical isolation…
Abstract
Purpose
In light of the increasing popularity of telecommuting, this study investigates how telecommuters' organizational commitment may be linked to psychological and physical isolation. Psychological isolation refers to feelings of emotional unfulfillment when one lacks meaningful connections, support, and interactions with others, while physical isolation refers to physical separation from others.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was used to collect data from 446 employees who telecommute one or more days per week.
Findings
The results of this study indicate that telecommuters' affective commitment is negatively associated with psychological isolation, whereas their continuance commitment is positively correlated with both psychological and physical isolation. These findings imply that telecommuters may remain with their employers due to perceived benefits, a desire to conserve resources such as time and emotional energy, or weakened marketability, rather than emotional connections to their colleagues or organizations.
Practical implications
Organizations wishing to retain and maximize the contributions of telecommuters should pursue measures that address collocated employees' negative assumptions toward telecommuters, preserve the benefits of remote work, and cultivate telecommuters' emotional connections (affective commitment) and felt obligation (normative commitment) to their organizations.
Originality/value
Through the creative integration of the need-to-belong and relational cohesion theories, this study contributes to the telecommuting and organizational commitment literature by investigating the dynamics between both psychological and physical isolation and telecommuters' organizational commitment.
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Xiaojun Yang, Ping Qin and Jintao Xu
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate farmer’s positional concerns in rural China, and how the positional concerns correlate with household expenditures on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate farmer’s positional concerns in rural China, and how the positional concerns correlate with household expenditures on visible goods.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a survey-based experiment to measure farmers’ positional concerns, and employ econometric models to examine the determinants of the degree of positional concern and how the positional concern affects household expenditures on visible goods.
Findings
The authors find that Chinese farmers have strong positional concerns for income, and high-income households are more concerned with relative position. Furthermore, there is a significant difference between males and females with respect to correlation between degree of positionality and household expenditures on visible goods. For females, there is a positive correlation between degree of positionality and household expenditures on clothes, restaurants, and mobile phones, respectively. For males, there is a positive correlation between degree of positionality and household expenditures on mobile phones.
Social implications
The government policy thus should pay attention to the positional goods, and the relevant consumption tax by increasing the prices of visible goods could be considered or suggested in the future even in the rural areas.
Originality/value
This paper provides complementary evidence on Chinese farmers’ positional concerns, and how the degree of positional concern relates to household expenditures on visible goods.
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Shu Yi, Lin Xiao, Yong Zhang, Dujuan Duan and Maksim G. Blokhin
This paper describes the organic geochemical characteristics and their roles on barium enrichment in the No. 2 Coal from Huanglong Jurassic Coalfield, China. A total of 18 bench…
Abstract
This paper describes the organic geochemical characteristics and their roles on barium enrichment in the No. 2 Coal from Huanglong Jurassic Coalfield, China. A total of 18 bench samples were taken from Huangling Mine 2. The average content of barium (3701 mg/kg) was about 23 times higher than that of common world coals. Terrestrial higher plants were the main coal-forming parent material. Relying on the parameters of OEP, Pr/Ph and so on, there is little correlation between organic geochemical characteristics and barium enrichment. Therefore, organic material has little influence on the process of coal-forming and the enrichment of barium.
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Yu Qin, Jing Qin and Chengwei Liu
This study aims to examine the evolution of spatial–temporal patterns in China’s hotel industry from 1978 to 2018.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the evolution of spatial–temporal patterns in China’s hotel industry from 1978 to 2018.
Design/methodology/approach
A database comprising over 140,000 hotels with more than 30 rooms was created. The exploratory spatial–temporal data analysis (ESTDA) method, based on space–time cube model, was used to explore and visualize the spatial–temporal pattern of hotels.
Findings
The Chinese hotel industry can be divided into two development stages, namely, a large hotel-dominant stage before 2000 and a small–medium-sized hotel-dominant stage after 2000. China’s prefecture-level cities were clustered into four tiers. The higher the tier, the earlier the city will initiate hotel development. The Chinese hotel industry has four continuous hotspots (the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim and Sichuan and Chongqing) and some temporary hotspots.
Research limitations/implications
This study lacks quantitative investigation, which could show the underlying mechanism of the evolution of the Chinese hotel industry.
Originality/value
This study is the first to investigate China’s hotel evolution over 40 years by applying big data and the ESTDA method. The systematic and evolutionary exploration will enable hotel researchers to understand the spatial–temporal nature of hotel distribution better. Introducing the ESTDA method into tourism and hotel research also provides an additional tool to researchers. Hotel investors and operators, city and tourism planners and market regulators can learn from the evolution of location patterns to make better where and when decisions.
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Meng Wang and Miguel Baptista Nunes
This study aims to present a meta-analysis of the use of serious educational games in museums. The analysis is based on a critical literature review that maps educational roles of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to present a meta-analysis of the use of serious educational games in museums. The analysis is based on a critical literature review that maps educational roles of museums against serious educational games used in support of those roles. The meta-analysis focuses on the specific context of informal learning in museums.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design presented in this study is based on a meta-analysis research design that consists of a critical literature review, a multi-matrix representation of findings of the literature review and a conceptual visualization of the multidisciplinary area of the usage of serious games in support of educational roles in museums.
Findings
Clear and detailed categorizations of educational roles and serious games types for informal learning are presented. These are followed by matching these educational roles with published reports of the use of serious games within museums. The study concludes with observations and a conceptual map of the design of serious games for museums.
Originality/value
This study presents the first meta-analysis of research in this emergent multidisciplinary field. It will help serious game designers, museum educators and educational practitioners to make decisions regarding the choice of game type, customization and content design to support informal learning in the specific context of museum educational activities.
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Mohammadali Zolfagharian, Roberto Saldivar and Qin Sun
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism pertain to first-generation immigrants, who often identify with two or more countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism pertain to first-generation immigrants, who often identify with two or more countries.
Design/methodology/approach
After a pretest to validate the modified consumer ethnocentrism scale, the main study used a series of scenario-based experiments and compiled data from 419 members of four distinct first-generation immigrant communities.
Findings
Non-ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of economically advanced countries. Ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of their home and host countries relative to foreign products, regardless of the economic standing of foreign countries. When home and host countries represent significantly different degrees of economic advancement, both ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric immigrants favor the products of the more advanced country.
Research limitations/implications
Apart from the individual effects of country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism, the interplay between the two effects can yield important insights. There are other ways to operationalize multicultural identity beyond studying first-generation immigrants. Researchers should go beyond nationality and incorporate other forces of cultural diversity.
Practical implications
For both ethnocentric and non-ethnocentric immigrants, the product that benefits from both effects is the most preferred, and the product that benefits from neither of the two effects is the least preferred. Where the product benefits from one but not the other effect, the two effects hold roughly equal power for ethnocentric consumers, but COO dominates CE for non-ethnocentric consumers.
Originality/value
The paper presents a critical evaluation and extension of the respective literatures investigating familiar constructs in multicultural settings.
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Kuncheng Zhang, Shi-Zheng Tian, Yong Wu, Jiale Wu, Na Liu and Donghai Wang
This research establishes an evaluation index system and calculation method for the China's maritime power construction index (CMPCI). It has conducted practical tests on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This research establishes an evaluation index system and calculation method for the China's maritime power construction index (CMPCI). It has conducted practical tests on the progress of China's maritime power construction since the 12th–13th Five-Year Plans. This paper conducts a phased study on the construction of China's maritime power based on the CMPCI evaluation results; it expands the relevant achievements in the research field of quantitative research in China's maritime power construction. The verification results are consistent with the actual situation.
Design/methodology/approach
Fully reflect the guiding role of national marine policies in the new development stage, guide the transformation of China's marine management model. The CMPCI is a quantitative evaluation of the overall development level of China's maritime power construction over a certain period of time. The CMPCI in this article aims to comprehensively reflect the changes in the construction of China's maritime power, strives to cover various fields it encompasses. This study focuses on objective statistical data analysis, supplemented by multisource data, to objectively and fairly measure the level of CMPCI.
Findings
Originality/value
It fully reflects the highlights of marine science and technology, social democracy and strategic emerging industries. This research dynamically quantifies the trajectory of China's maritime power construction, synthetic reflecting the country's macroeconomic policy guiding function. Guiding the transformation of the marine resources utilization, marine economy development, marine scientific research and marine rights and interests maintenance and effectively serving the decision-making needs of the government.
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Ziming Zeng, Shouqiang Sun, Tingting Li, Jie Yin and Yueyan Shen
The purpose of this paper is to build a mobile visual search service system for the protection of Dunhuang cultural heritage in the smart library. A novel mobile visual search…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build a mobile visual search service system for the protection of Dunhuang cultural heritage in the smart library. A novel mobile visual search model for Dunhuang murals is proposed to help users acquire rich knowledge and services conveniently.
Design/methodology/approach
First, local and global features of images are extracted, and the visual dictionary is generated by the k-means clustering. Second, the mobile visual search model based on the bag-of-words (BOW) and multiple semantic associations is constructed. Third, the mobile visual search service system of the smart library is designed in the cloud environment. Furthermore, Dunhuang mural images are collected to verify this model.
Findings
The findings reveal that the BOW_SIFT_HSV_MSA model has better search performance for Dunhuang mural images when the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) and the hue, saturation and value (HSV) are used to extract local and global features of the images. Compared with different methods, this model is the most effective way to search images with the semantic association in the topic, time and space dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
Dunhuang mural image set is a part of the vast resources stored in the smart library, and the fine-grained semantic labels could be applied to meet diverse search needs.
Originality/value
The mobile visual search service system is constructed to provide users with Dunhuang cultural services in the smart library. A novel mobile visual search model based on BOW and multiple semantic associations is proposed. This study can also provide references for the protection and utilization of other cultural heritages.
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Haijian Li, Zhufei Huang, Lingqiao Qin, Shuo Zheng and Yanfang Yang
The purpose of this study is to effectively optimize vehicle lane-changing behavior and alleviate traffic congestion in ramp area through the study of vehicle lane-changing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to effectively optimize vehicle lane-changing behavior and alleviate traffic congestion in ramp area through the study of vehicle lane-changing behaviors in upstream segment of ramp areas.
Design/methodology/approach
In the upstream segment of ramp areas under a connected vehicle environment, different strategies of vehicle group lane-changing behaviors are modeled to obtain the best group lane-changing strategy. The traffic capacity of roads can be improved by controlling group lane-changing behavior and continuously optimizing lane-changing strategy through connected vehicle technologies. This paper constructs vehicle group lane-changing strategies in upstream segment of ramp areas under a connected vehicle environment. The proposed strategies are simulated by VISSIM.
Findings
The results show that different lane-changing strategies are modeled through vehicle group in the upstream segment of ramp areas, which can greatly reduce the delay of ramp areas.
Originality/value
The simulation results verify the validity and rationality of the corresponding vehicle group lane-changing behavior model strategies, effectively standardize the driver's lane-changing behavior, and improve road safety and capacity.
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Min Qin and Mengmeng Liu
Despite widespread use of virtual streamers, academic research on this subject remains limited. This study aims to explore the mechanisms by which consumer perceptions of virtual…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite widespread use of virtual streamers, academic research on this subject remains limited. This study aims to explore the mechanisms by which consumer perceptions of virtual streamers influence consumer purchase intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
We used partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze validated online survey data from 414 consumers watching virtual streamers.
Findings
Consumer perceptions of virtual streamers (perceived competence, perceived interaction quality and perceived warmth) promote the establishment of transactional psychological contract and relational psychological contract between consumers and virtual streamers, which further affects consumers’ purchase intention.
Originality/value
This study enriches the research on virtual streamers, facilitates their adoption and introduces the psychological contract into a new research context by revealing the formation of the psychological contract from the perspective of virtual streamers. Moreover, this study provides a new understanding of the relationship between disembodied artificial intelligence and consumers.