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The purpose of this paper is to provide a method with convenient modelling as well as precise computation to the research of complex multi-body system, such as robot arms and solar power satellite. Classical modelling method does not always fit these two requirements.

In this paper, tensor coordinates (TC) and homogeneous tensor coordinates (HTC) method with gradient components are developed, which also have a convenient interface with classical theory.

The HTC proved its precision and effectiveness by two examples. In HTC model, equations have a more convenient form as matrix and the results coincide well with classical one.

There is no plenty detailed operations supported in mathematics yet, which may be developed in further research.

With TC/HTC method, the research work can be separated more thoroughly: a simpler modelling work is left to scientists, when more computing work is handed to the computers. It may ease scientists’ brains in multibody modelling.

The HTC method has the advantages of absolute nodal coordinate formulations, tensor and homogeneous coordinate (HC) and it may be used in multibody mechanics, or other related engineerings.

The idea of relating health, education and other social sector variables with growth and development, or trying to find any convergence among similar countries with respect to such macroeconomic indicators is the basic idea of this chapter, which explores the concept of enhancing welfare through a subjective route, specifically by way of expenditure in health care. By way of testing σ- and β-convergence of current healthcare expenditure per capita of the BRICS countries for the period 2006–2018, it has been found that these countries catch up with significant convergence. It has also been obtained through panel data analysis that such convergence is significantly explained by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, life expectancy at birth, elderly ratio, CO₂ emissions and prevalence of undernourishment, all of which are in accordance with conventional hypotheses. This chapter claims that, by way of convergence, the BRICS nations may emerge as a new economic power, and expenditure on health care is one of the major areas, among other social sector variables that will play an important role.

The traditional information phase of value engineering (VE) workshops often involves face-to-face meetings and physical site visits, which can be time-consuming, costly and impractical due to various constraints. This paper introduces a web-based platform integrating BIM and GIS to streamline this phase by systematically gathering, processing and visualizing multi-format information in a virtual environment.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to analyze the potential of BIM and GIS integration in the VE context. A three-step information structure generation method was employed to outline the information gathering needs during the VE workshops, incorporating a review of multi-source references. A framework including information gathering, processing and visualization was proposed to streamline the information phase with BIM and GIS integration as the core. Subsequently, a web-based prototype platform was developed utilizing the three-layer architecture, with the case study to demonstrate its application. A comprehensive evaluation involving black box testing, user interface testing and focus group discussion was conducted to validate the functionality, usability, potential and limitations.

The platform can support the systematic collection, processing, organization and visualization of multi-format information during the information phase, enable virtual meetings and virtual site visits and facilitate VE participants’ review, understanding and analysis of such information and the documentation of their comments and suggestions. The black box testing validated its functionality, with necessity, effectiveness and convenience confirmed by VE practitioners. Its potential was approved due to clear information structure, web-based virtual review and logical multi-format information organization.

The generalized four-category information structure and proposed three-layer framework streamline the information phase of VE practices. The developed platform allows the VE team to review multi-format information virtually, simultaneously, freely and as many times as necessary.

“Fostered idols” refer to entertainment idols and young stars-in-the-making who begin their careers as amateurs. Today, the fostered idol model has become increasingly popular in China, and fans demonstrate incredible consumption power. Despite the booming market, little is known about this phenomenon. Therefore, this study aims to explore fans’ motivations and consumption practices from the consumer’s perspective within the framework of self-determination theory.

In all 20 in-depth interviews with fostered idol fans were conducted through online phone calls. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and subsequently analysed using a grounded approach.

The results indicate that fans’ consumption practices are motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation includes sensory pleasure while extrinsic motivations are composed of a sense of being needed and a sense of success. Extrinsic motivations play a dominant role and reflect the needs of relatedness and competence. Additionally, consumption practices are found to be consistent with motivations.

The results show the crucial role of psychological satisfaction experienced by fans in the consumption of the fostered idol and highlight the importance of a relatedness- and competence-supportive environment to secure fans’ persistent consumption and loyalty.

This study focuses on fans of fostered idols that has not been explored in existing studies and offers valuable insights regarding the similarities and differences between fan consumption in China and other Asian countries. The results will inform marketing practitioners for the development of effective strategies and business decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of China's official household residential status (hukou) on perceived human resource management (HRM) practices, perceived organizational justice (POJ) and its moderation of the relationship between them.

The data for the study were collected from 775 employees in 36 companies in China. Missing data analysis was conducted in order to identify the pattern associated with personal demographic variables. A one-way between-groups MANOVA was performed to investigate hukou differences in the perceptions of HRM practices and POJ. Confirmative factor analysis was conducted on POJ's three-factor measurement model to examine the distinctiveness of the study variables.

Employees registered as agricultural, i.e. rural, hukou, who have migrated to and found employment in urban areas, perceive HRM practices and distributive and procedural justice less favourably than do non-agricultural, i.e. urban, hukou. It also finds that hukou status moderates the effect of HRM on POJ. The findings therefore are that HRM that differentiates rural hukou and urban hukou results in different impressions of their employing organizations, and that hukou status changes the strengths of the relationship between HRM and employees' perceived fairness in their organizations.

The use of the single data source is more likely to result in common method variance which may bias the strength of the relationships that this study proposed. Moreover, this study contributes to the literature with regard to the moderating effects of personal demographic variables on the relationship between organizational policies and POJ, but hukou is the only personal variable examined and therefore the generalisation of the study's findings may be limited. Future research should examine the moderating effects of other personal factors.

The moderating effect of personal demographic variables has been constantly examined in management and psychology research, but with a focus on employees' work attitudes and behaviour. For example, gender was found to moderate the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention. The extent to which personal demographic variables might moderate the relationship between organizational policies and POJ has not hitherto been examined. This study fills this void.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to measure and compare the degree of social media use (SMU) by football clubs, to assess football fans’ engagement with content posted by football clubs (FCs) and to evaluate differences in user engagement with commercial social media advertisement targeting football fans, based on the advertisements’ appeal.

This paper employs three approaches. First, it uses the corporate social media use (CSMU) model to analyse 20,954 Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter postings from 78 European FCs. Second, it develops a categorisation for social media postings and uses ANOVA and Scheffè tests to conduct a pairwise comparison. Third, it uses a fictional hedonic low-involvement product (chocolate bar) to conduct an experiment by creating a Facebook advertising campaign with three advertisements that are manipulated regarding their general appeal.

Study 1 demonstrates that individual FCs show big differences between their degree of SMU. There are, however, no differences between European leagues, social media platforms, or more/less successful FCs. The results of Study 2 indicate that social media users like, comment and share postings by FCs independently of the content of the posting. Study 3 reveals that both user engagement and reach of advertisements can be substantially increased by employing football-related appeals.

This paper helps understanding consumer engagement in social media. The results presented are relevant and helpful for a multitude of actors, including FCs and other sports clubs, companies targeting football fans and researchers interested in social media and sports marketing.

This paper aims to investigate and prepare the composite polyurea greases with excellent thermal stability and tribological properties.

In this paper, composite Ba-based (Ba, barium) tetra-polyurea lubricating greases were prepared with two different methods: mixing Ba-based gelatinizer and tetra-polyurea gelatinizer by a physical method; and introducing barium carboxylate into tetra-polyurea molecules by a chemical method. The properties of the products, such as heat stability, water resistance and friction performance, were analyzed with thermogravimetry, water-resistance test and four-ball friction test.

The results indicated that the products obtained by chemically introducing barium carboxylate into tetra-urea molecules showed better elevated temperature tribological properties, and the disadvantages of the polyurea greases with high temperature hardening were also obviously improved. The cone penetration rate at 180°C for 24 h is only 3 per cent. The friction coefficient can be decreased to 0.44 and the last non-seizure load value was increased from 560 N to 1,120 N without any other additives.

The research is significant because the prepared composite grease showed excellent performances, such as the outstanding thermal stability, water resistance and excellent extreme pressure and anti-wear properties, which may be widely applied in steel, metallurgy, bearings and other industrial fields.

Male celebrities are increasingly being chosen to endorse female cosmetic brands by marketing managers, yet this practice has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This study aims to explore the dynamics of male celebrities endorsing cosmetic brands.

The study employs the netnography approach to collect data from an online community.

The study contributes to the marketing literature by providing a conceptual framework of male celebrities endorsing cosmetic brands, highlighting the key attributes that contribute to the effectiveness of these endorsements, the evolution of relationships between fans, celebrities and brands, the features of this dynamic relationship and the influence of male celebrity endorsements on fans’ purchase decisions.

This research sheds light on an emerging trend in the marketing industry and provides valuable managerial insights for marketers seeking to effectively use male celebrity endorsements to promote female cosmetic brands.

“Idol pilgrimage tour” is a popular trend among young Chinese fans who travel for idol-related purposes, engage in interactive events and have co-created experiences at destinations. With the growing market size of fan economy, fan tourists generate significant revenue for the local. However, many destinations have not fully utilised this opportunity, and there is a lack of research on this niche form of tourism. This research was undertaken to address this research gap.

This study adopted an idol worship–motivation–co-created experience–tour satisfaction–destination loyalty framework in the context of idol pilgrimage tours. In addition, this study investigated the direct influence of idol worship on the other four constructs. Data were collected from 354 Chinese fans who had such experience through online questionnaires. The partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique was used to examine the research model.

It was demonstrated that idol worship has a direct influence on motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty and that there is a positive relationship between motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty. The results advance the brand sacralisation literature by studying worship in a tourism context and contribute to interactive marketing literature by clarifying the interactive mechanism between relationships among the idol, fans and destinations. The study suggests some practical implications for destination management organisations attempting to target tourist fans.

This is the first study introducing the concept of the idol pilgrimage tour. Empirical results of this study reveal the underlying mechanism of how idols influence fans' travel-related psychology and behaviour.

Considering the network externalities of online selling, this paper builds three different online direct selling models: manufacturer direct selling (MN model), network platform direct selling (NN model) and retailer direct selling (RN model). The optimal advertising and pricing decision and corporate profits under each selling model are investigated.

Combining the characteristics of online direct selling, this paper formulates direct selling models that are dominated by different companies as Stackelberg game models. Numerical analyses are carried out, along with the comparison of the equilibrium solutions for each model.

The authors' research shows that increasing network externalities is conducive to the development of enterprises. The network platform's profit is the lowest in the RN model and the highest in the NN one. The comparison of manufacturers' profits between the MN model and the NN model primarily depends on consumers' sensitivities for sales price and advertising promotion level. The manufacturer does not benefit from the RN model due to the lowest efficiency.

Coupled with three different online direct selling models and detailed analyses of the optimal solutions, this study has enriched the theoretical foundation of online direct selling. Moreover, this study extends the research of network externalities to the field of e-commerce, revealing the network externalities' influence on the decision-making of the e-supply chain.