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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the investigation of nanomechanical behavior of new types of metal alloys protective coatings. For this purpose, poly(n-butylacrylate) was synthesized via activators regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization and mixed with epoxy resins, and microcomposites.

Multi-layered coatings were applied on hot dip galvanized steel via a baker film applicator. Every layer containing the aforementioned copolymer differs in the proportion of the epoxy resin resulting in the production of a coating with a gradient from hard to soft from the substrate to the top. Nanomechanical performance is accessed via nanoindentation, providing information for structural and mechanical integrity, adhesion and resistance to wear.

The results reveal that through trajection of hardness mapping, the resistance is divided in three regions, namely, the polymer (matrix), interface (region close to/between spheres-shells) and spheres-shell regions.

The structural analysis, adhesion and mechanical integrity of the coatings are clearly demonstrated.

Semantic categorization of Web services comprises a fundamental requirement for enabling more efficient and accurate search and discovery of services in the semantic Web era. However, to efficiently deal with the growing presence of Web services, more automated mechanisms are required. This paper aims to introduce an automatic Web service categorization mechanism, by exploiting various techniques that aim to increase the overall prediction accuracy.

The paper proposes the use of Error Correcting Output Codes on top of a Logistic Model Trees-based classifier, in conjunction with a data pre-processing technique that reduces the original feature-space dimension without affecting data integrity. The proposed technique is generalized so as to adhere to all Web services with a description file. A semantic matchmaking scheme is also proposed for enabling the semantic annotation of the input and output parameters of each operation.

The proposed Web service categorization framework was tested with the OWLS-TC v4.0, as well as a synthetic data set with a systematic evaluation procedure that enables comparison with well-known approaches. After conducting exhaustive evaluation experiments, categorization efficiency in terms of accuracy, precision, recall and F-measure was measured. The presented Web service categorization framework outperformed the other benchmark techniques, which comprise different variations of it and also third-party implementations.

The proposed three-level categorization approach is a significant contribution to the Web service community, as it allows the automatic semantic categorization of all functional elements of Web services that are equipped with a service description file.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of service quality on the formation of destination brand equity through customer satisfaction at a winery, from the perspective of Chinese wine tourists.

This study utilized a survey research design. A convenience sample of 311 visitors to a major winery located in Yantai, China, was surveyed, and 265 useable questionnaires were analyzed. To analyze the data, the study used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results of the study reveal that service quality at a winery is a significant determinant of winery satisfaction among Chinese wine tourists, which in turn affects the brand equity of a wine tourism destination.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature focusing on identity-based branding in the context of wine tourism. As such, this study brings together knowledge of a place branding dimension (i.e. destination brand equity), satisfaction and tourism experience at a winery.

The results suggest that the road to favorable assessments of a wine destination brand (macro level) go through a satisfying experience at a winery (micro level). Therefore, the need to co-create the wine experience through various stakeholders' involvement is crucial for the success of wine tourism.

Extant wine studies often highlight western wine tourists' behavior and examine central behavioral constructs such as winery service quality and satisfaction. This study extends previous research by: (1) investigating the issue from Chinese wine tourists' perspective and (2) integrating the destination brand equity of a wine region to current investigations that commonly focus on the service quality of a winery and wine tourists' satisfaction.

World Heritage sites (WHS) can play an important role in promoting visitation to emerging and remote destinations. Guided by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this study aims to investigate factors that predict intentions to visit WHS.

Survey questionnaires were used to collect data from visitors (n = 519) to four Western North American WHS. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to identify three reflective models (attitude toward visiting World Heritage, perceived behavioural control and intention to visit WHS in the future), three formative models (attitude toward World Heritage designation, social influence (subjective norms) to visit World Heritage and World Heritage tourism brand equity) and a structural model.

World Heritage tourism brand equity and social influence were strong positive predictors of intentions to visit WHS in the future. Attitudes towards World Heritage designation, followed by World Heritage travel attitudes and perceived behavioural control, were progressively weaker, yet positive predictors. However, the latter two concepts’ impact was negligible.

This study addresses four deficiencies in tourism studies: TPB studies have failed to find consistent predictors of intentions to visit destinations; very few studies have attempted to verify the factors that predict visitation to WHS, despite the opportunities and costs that can arise from WHS-related tourism; few studies of tourists’ perceptions of World Heritage and related WHS travel intentions have been conducted in North America; and PLS-SEM was used to perform statistical methods not commonly used in tourism studies including formative models, importance-performance mapping and confirmatory tetrad analysis.

世界遗址（WHS）对于提高新兴和偏远地区的游览率起到重要作用。本论文以计划行为理论（TPB）为理论基础，研究游览WHS的动机因素。

本论文采用问卷采样形式，519名游览四个美国西北部WHS公园的游客为问卷样本。本论文采用偏最小二乘回归（PLS-SEM）分析数据，(a) 确立三个反应性测量模型（WHS游览态度、感知行为控制、未来WHS游览意向），(b) 确立三个形成性测量模型（WHS游览态度、WHS游览的社会影响力（主观规范）、以及WHS旅游品牌资产），以及(c) 验证一个结构模型。

世界遗产旅游品牌资产和社会影响力是未来游览WHS意向的有效动力。世界遗产目的地的态度，由世界遗产旅游态度和感知行为控制所主导，也有着对未来游览WHS意向的积极促进作用，但是作用相对较弱。然而，世界遗产旅游态度和感知行为控制并未发现对未来游览WHS意向有直接决定作用。

本论文弥补了旅游研究中的四大不足：(a) TPB研究未能找出旅游目的地游览意向的一致的决定因素; (b) 几乎没有文献试图验证WHS游览意向决定因素，尽管这将对WHS相关旅游业的机遇和成本控制有着重大意义; (c) 有关世界遗产和相关WHS旅游意向的研究还尚未在北美地区开枝散叶; (d) 本论文借用PLS-SEM方法来分析数据，包括验证形成性测量模型、重要性-绩效画图分析法、以及四分子分析法等，这在旅游文献中不常见。

品牌态度，世界遗产，旅游意向，TPB，品牌资产，品牌忠诚度

Competition in the modern, knowledge-based economy is utterly pendant on innovation, rendering it indispensable in virtually every organisation. Knowledge workers, therefore, must remain vigilant, spanning novel ways to innovate. Given the relevance of innovation orientation (IO) in knowledge work, it is imperative to possess an extensive understanding of the concept. Therefore, this study aims to develop and validate a measurement scale to gauge employees’ IO.

Considering that the instruments now in existence exhibit insufficiency for measuring knowledge workers’ IO in its entirety, the mixed-method approach used in this study draws on both qualitative and quantitative findings across various studies, to address this problem. This study has been organised into five stages: item generation, scale purification, scale refinement, nomological validation and generalizability.

This study establishes and verifies a second-order, reflective–reflective IO measure founded on multiple samples, encompassing the dimensions of creative orientation, learning orientation, first-mover orientation, trust orientation and agility orientation. The resultant IO scale serves as a robust and reliable tool that is capable of being leveraged to explain, assess and enhance IO for knowledge workers.

The rigorous methodology used in this scale development procedure serves as a benchmark for prospective scale development methodologists. From a managerial stance, this study serves managers/leaders concerning how to foster an innovation-oriented work environment to uncover employees’ hidden innovators. Organisations can leverage this study to discover, cultivate and capitalise on knowledge workers’ IO.

Although there exists an abundance of research on IO viewed from an institutional standpoint, research centred on the IO of knowledge workers is scarce. To bridge this gap, this study has developed and validated a scale for measuring knowledge workers’ IO.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attitudes of staff and students towards adopting the use of e-portfolios for the purposes of supporting the concept of personal development planning (PDP). The study compares and contrasts the views and opinions of staff and students at one UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) about whether e-portfolios can support PDP.

Adopting a case study approach, this study presents empirical data gathered from two surveys involving 460 students and 182 lecturers from one UK HEI, collected from four different campuses across the West of Scotland.

The results of the surveys showed that the framework the authors used in the research to collect information about students and staffs attitudes was effective and that further research is merited for a more extensive investigation into PDP e-portfolio usage within HEI.

The research was conducted at only one UK HEI so at this stage of the research, it is difficult to assess how generalisable the findings are.

This study provides useful empirical evidence to educators who may be considering employing e-portfolios within an educational context. For example, the views of students and staff identified in this paper can aid towards informing educators about some of the issues that might impact on using e-portfolios for supporting PDP in higher education.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work that presents survey data on both students’ and lecturers’ attitudes towards e-portfolio use to support and facilitate PDP.

Many REpresentational State Transfer (RESTful) Web services suffered from anti-patterns problem, which may diminish the sustainability of the services. The anti-patterns problem could happen in the code of the programme or the uniform resource identifiers (URIs) of RESTful Web services. This study aims to address the problem by proposing a technique and an algorithm for detecting anti-patterns in RESTful Web services. Specifically, the technique is designed based on URIs parsing process.

The study was conducted following the design science research process, which has six activities, namely, identifying problems, identifying solutions, design the solutions, demonstrate the solution, evaluation and communicate the solution. The proposed technique was embedded in an algorithm and evaluated in four phases covering the process of extracting the URIs, implementing the anti-pattern detection algorithm, detecting the anti-patterns and validating the results.

The results of the study suggested an acceptable level of accuracy for the anti-patterns detection with 82.30% of precision, 87.86% of recall and 84.93% of F-measure.

The technique and the algorithm can be used by developers of RESTful Web services to detect possible anti-pattern occurrences in the service-based systems.

The technique is personalised to detect amorphous URI and ambiguous name anti-patterns in which it scans the Web service URIs using specified rules and compares them with pre-determined syntax and corpus.

Traceability is predicted to usher in a fundamental shift in the way transactions in supply chains (SCs) are carried out. By reducing the negative aspects of trust-related issues in a SC, traceability enables improved visibility and transparency.

We advance research on traceability adoption in the perishable products supply chain by developing and validating an integrated model that combines the technology acceptance model (TAM), the technology readiness index (TRI) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). A quantitative approach was employed, collecting data through an online survey of 174 supply chain professionals in major Indian cities using a five-point Likert scale. Participants were selected via LinkedIn, each with at least two years of SCM experience. Nonresponse bias was assessed by comparing early and late respondents, revealing no significant differences. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test various research hypotheses derived from literature. Composite reliability and discriminant validity of constructs were verified before examining the relationships among the constructs within the structural model.

The study found that the TRI components of optimism and innovation did not impact perceived ease of use or perceived utility. Additionally, behavioral intention is shaped by perceived utility, attitude and perceived behavioral control.

This research provides valuable insights for managers aiming to adopt traceability in supply chains (SCs). It helps identify critical factors for effective traceability adoption, showing that perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived usefulness are pivotal in shaping practitioners’ intentions. Managers should prioritize developing intuitive, user-friendly traceability applications that demonstrate clear value in optimizing SC efficiency. The study also reveals that while practitioners are generally optimistic about traceability, they may feel indifferent or lack a sense of control over it. Therefore, companies should focus on marketing strategies that empower decision-makers, highlighting the ease of use and practical benefits of traceability. Additionally, the findings suggest that perceived behavioral control, combined with intention, can effectively predict traceability adoption. By understanding these dynamics, managers can better guide their firms in successfully implementing traceability, ensuring both technological acceptance and operational efficiency.

This research offers a novel and in-depth exploration of traceability as an emerging concept in supply chains, particularly in India, where adoption remains limited. It highlights that while SC practitioners recognize traceability’s potential, they lack practical expertise, often driven by curiosity about decentralized databases. It underscores the critical role of artificial intelligence, IoT devices and big data in ensuring precise data collection and analytics, essential for successful traceability. The research also introduces a predictive model combining TAM, TRI and TPB constructs, identifying perceived usefulness, attitude and perceived behavioral control as key factors influencing traceability adoption.

This study aims to examine the mediating effect of four antecedents of competitive advantage on the linkage of risky strategy to firm performance, measured by revenue dynamics. It considers the roots of competitive advantage to highlight different patterns and foundations of achieving superior performance. It investigates whether pursuing a risky strategy fosters revenue dynamics growth and whether different mediators are included in that relationship.

Path analysis (structural equation modeling) method is used to analyze data from 122 companies of various sizes and industries. All respondents were responsible for executing strategic management processes. The paper used the subjective perspective, which is based on the individual opinion of senior company managers and owners.

The authors find a positive relationship between risky strategy and firm performance, but no evidence of a mediating role of competitive advantage and dynamic growth in this relationship. Competitive advantage should be perceived as a set of integrated factors that can be analyzed from an aggregated perspective. Integrating all antecedents requires a holistic and systematic approach and the development of a particular mindset. Aggregated competitive advantage is related to setting dynamic growth as a priority. However, no relationship between risky strategy and achieving competitive advantage, or between implementing a risky strategy and setting dynamic growth as a priority, is observed, which was assumed to explain the revenue dynamics growth.

Secondary data should be analyzed to explore how risky strategies are manifested, and which managerial decisions are reflected in high-level risk. A multidimensional scale could be developed to check how risk shapes the constructs’ interdependence. Therefore, the dynamic capabilities approach could be further expanded.

This research offers insights into the short-term relationship between risky strategy and revenue dynamics, although competitive advantage does not mediate that relationship. Special attention should be paid to the selected antecedents of competitive advantage, as they influence dynamic growth.

This work provides insights into different antecedents of competitive advantage, which is not necessarily based on making risky decisions, and into factors that facilitate firm performance measured by revenue dynamics.