Xian Chen, Jakob Arnoldi and Xin Chen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how cultural value in materialism affects corporate supply of trade credits.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how cultural value in materialism affects corporate supply of trade credits.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 14,710 firm-year observations of Chinese listed firms from 1998 to 2012, the authors examine the influence of regional materialism on accounts receivable.
Findings
The authors find that listed firms within more materialistic tend to extend less trade credit to their customers, in particular in long-term categories of trade credit. Such negative effects can be significantly mitigated by state control, suggesting the effects are more pronounced in privately controlled listed firms. The negative effects of materialism still hold after controlling for other regional factors, such as trust, GDP per capita or institutional development.
Research limitations/implications
The authors show materialism as a cultural construct varies across Chinese regions, and it could have important impact on corporate supply of trade credits, besides the previous found effects on consumer use of credit.
Originality/value
This paper expands the literature about the influence of materialism on economic decision making from the individual level to the corporate level.
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Chih-Ming Chen and Xian-Xu Chen
This study aims to develop an associative text analyzer (ATA) to support users in quickly grasping and interpreting the content of large amounts of text through text association…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop an associative text analyzer (ATA) to support users in quickly grasping and interpreting the content of large amounts of text through text association recommendations, facilitating the identification of the contextual relationships between people, events, organization and locations for digital humanities. Additionally, by providing text summaries, the tool allows users to link between distant and close readings, thereby enabling more efficient exploration of related texts.
Design/methodology/approach
To verify the effectiveness of this tool in supporting exploration of historical texts, this study uses a counterbalanced design to compare the use of the digital humanities platform for Mr. Lo Chia-Lun’s Writings (DHP-LCLW) with and without the ATA to assist in exploring different aspects of text. The study investigated whether there were significant differences in effectiveness for exploring textual contexts and technological acceptance as well as used semi-structured in-depth interviews to understand the research participants’ viewpoints and experiences with the ATA.
Findings
The results of the experiment revealed that the effectiveness of text exploration using the DHP-LCLW with and without the ATA varied significantly depending on the topic of the text being explored. The DHP-LCLW with the ATA was found to be more suitable for exploring historical texts, while the DHP-LCLW without the ATA was more suitable for exploring educational texts. The DHP-LCLW with the DHP-LCLW was found to be significantly more useful in terms of perceived usefulness than the DHP-LCLW without the ATA, indicating that the research participants believed the ATA was more effective in helping them efficiently grasp the related texts and topics during text exploration.
Practical implications
The study’s practical implications lie in the development of an ATA for digital humanities, offering a valuable tool for efficiently exploring historical texts. The ATA enhances users’ ability to grasp and interpret large volumes of text, facilitating contextual relationship identification. Its practical utility is evident in the improved effectiveness of text exploration, particularly for historical content, as indicated by users’ perceived usefulness.
Originality/value
This study proposes an ATA for digital humanities, enhancing text exploration by offering association recommendations and efficient linking between distant and close readings. The study contributes by providing a specialized tool and demonstrating its perceived usefulness in facilitating efficient exploration of related texts in digital humanities.
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Yung-Hsiang Chen, Yung-Yue Chen, Qi-Xian Chen and Yi-Lin Tsai
For precisely presenting the swimming behavior of fish robots underwater and the practical implementation purpose, this paper aims to investigate a well-formulated fish robot…
Abstract
Purpose
For precisely presenting the swimming behavior of fish robots underwater and the practical implementation purpose, this paper aims to investigate a well-formulated fish robot model which integrates the nonlinear rigid body dynamics, kinematics and models of actuators.
Design/methodology/approach
This fish robot model is mainly built up by three basic parts: a balance mechanism, a four-links vibrator and a caudal fin. In the fish robot’s head, there is a balance mechanism used to control the rotations in pitch and roll directions of the fish robot by moving two movable masses. The four-links vibrator with three active joints actuated by DC motors is designed to vibrate the fish’s body. In the end of the fish robot body, a caudal fin which connects with the passive joint is developed to generate hydrodynamic thrust forces to propel the fish robot.
Findings
From the real stability tests and control verification, it is obvious that this proposed model can precisely present the swimming behavior of fish robots and possesses the potential to develop a fish-like robotic prototype.
Originality/value
A well-formulated model with dynamics of actuators is integrated for presenting the swimming behavior of carangiform locomotion type fish robots in this investigation. From the simulation results and the practical test of a real fish robot, the feasibility of this proposed model for building up real fish robots can be proven, and this proposed model is accurate enough to effectively present the swimming behavior of fish robots.
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Abstract
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This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to collect and compile the historical data of Guanfu Salt Farm, officially built by the Song Dynasty (960–1279) within modern Hong Kong territories, to reconstruct its history for the reflection of Hong Kong society of the time.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is largely based on identification and analysis of historical documents, including keyword search on electronic databases and verification with the original sources, with reference to archaeological findings when necessary.
Findings
This paper reconstructs the history of Guanfu Salt Farm based on documentary sources with reference to archaeological findings. English translation of Chinese sources is also provided when necessary.
Originality/value
There has been an absence of systematic compilation of historical data of Hong Kong during the Song Dynasty, which are limited in quantity and scattered across different sources. This paper seeks to fill the vacuum of knowledge about pre-colonial Hong Kong, with a more comprehensive reconstruction of the history of Guanfu Salt Farm.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the homoclinic breathe-wave solutions and the singular periodic solutions for (2 + 1)-dimensional generalized shallow water wave (GSWW…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the homoclinic breathe-wave solutions and the singular periodic solutions for (2 + 1)-dimensional generalized shallow water wave (GSWW) equation.
Design/methodology/approach
The Hirota bilinear method, the Lie symmetry method and the non-Lie symmetry method are applied to the (2 + 1)D GSWW equation.
Findings
A reduced (1 + 1)D potential KdV equation can be derived, and its soliton solutions are also presented.
Research limitations/implications
As a typical nonlinear evolution equation, some dynamical behaviors are also discussed.
Originality/value
These results are very useful for investigating some localized geometry structures of dynamical behaviors and enriching dynamical features of solutions for the higher dimensional systems.
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Jian Fu, Wen‐hua Chen and Qing‐xian Wu
This article proposes a chattering‐free sliding mode control scheme with unidirectional auxiliary surfaces (UAS‐SMC) for small miniature autonomous helicopters (Trex 250).
Abstract
Purpose
This article proposes a chattering‐free sliding mode control scheme with unidirectional auxiliary surfaces (UAS‐SMC) for small miniature autonomous helicopters (Trex 250).
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed UAS‐SMC scheme consists of a nested sequence of rotor dynamics, angular rate, Euler angle, velocity and position loops.
Findings
It is demonstrated that the UAS‐SMC strategy can eliminate the chattering phenomenon exhibiting in the convenient SMC method and achieve a better approaching speed.
Originality/value
The proposed control strategy is implemented on the helicopter and flight tests clearly demonstrate that a much better performance could be achieved, compared with convenient SMC schemes.
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Xiao-rong Kang and Xian Daquan
The purpose of this paper is to find out some new rational non-traveling wave solutions and to study localized structures for (2+1)-dimensional Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur (AKNS…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find out some new rational non-traveling wave solutions and to study localized structures for (2+1)-dimensional Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur (AKNS) equation.
Design/methodology/approach
Along with some special transformations, the Lie group method and the rational function method are applied to the (2+1)-dimensional AKNS equation.
Findings
Some new non-traveling wave solutions are obtained, including generalized rational solutions with two arbitrary functions of time variable.
Research limitations/implications
As a typical nonlinear evolution equation, some dynamical behaviors are also discussed.
Originality/value
With the help of the Lie group method, special transformations and the rational function method, new non-traveling wave solutions are derived for the AKNS equation by Maple software. These results are much useful for investigating some new localized structures and the interaction of waves in high-dimensional models, and enrich dynamical features of solutions for the higher dimensional systems.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine long‐term return of new China collectible stamps after their issuance and how stamp characteristics affect the return.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine long‐term return of new China collectible stamps after their issuance and how stamp characteristics affect the return.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors construct a model to analyze the determinants of stamps' long‐term return and test their hypotheses empirically in a sample of 1,201 sets of Chinese collectible stamps issued between 1949 and 2008.
Findings
The paper finds Chinese stamps provide decent returns for collectors in terms of exceeding comparable one‐year savings rates. Among factors affecting annual excess returns of Chinese stamps, variables related to usage are the most important; quantity issued has significantly negative impact on returns of early stamps, but its coefficient has weak economic implications and it is not significant for BianNian stamps issued in more recent years. In general, variables related to topic have weak influence on stamp returns, but the topics about the most significant events of China in recent years have huge impact on stamp returns; in addition, variables related to design and printing can influence stamp returns to some extent.
Research limitations/implications
Overall, the results reveal that variables related to usage are the most important determinants of long‐term stamp return.
Practical implications
There have been fierce disputes among stamp collectors about how stamp features affect returns. Nevertheless, no systematic empirical studies exist about the issue. This paper sheds light on the disputes by providing the first piece of empirical evidence.
Originality/value
Moreover, existing studies of stamps treat them as one asset, but often ignore different characteristics within the group. This paper systematically investigates the influence of stamp characteristics to stamp return, and thus fills the caveat in the literature.