Xiuyan Shao, Hemin Jiang, Mikko Siponen, Cong Cao and Xiaohua Huang
Unauthorised file sharing (UFS) in online communities (OCs) is a major intellectual property concern. Researchers have traditionally viewed UFS as digital piracy and have…
Abstract
Purpose
Unauthorised file sharing (UFS) in online communities (OCs) is a major intellectual property concern. Researchers have traditionally viewed UFS as digital piracy and have suggested that deterrents, such as legal actions, should be in place. However, previous research has not considered the OC context and cannot explain why OC members share unauthorised files even when there is legislation against this in place. In OCs, UFS exhibits features of public goods contribution. Therefore, the authors claim that public goods contribution motivations can provide a compelling explanation for UFS in OCs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a theoretical model in which two egoistic public goods contribution motivations (namely, warm-glow giving and demand for resources) are tested alongside motivations informed by the sanctions described by deterrence theory, a theory widely used within the digital piracy perspective.
Findings
The authors find that warm glow and demand for resources are positively related to UFS in OCs; the effect of warm glow is moderated by users' attachment to OCs. Importantly, the results suggest that although sanctions significantly predict UFS, the effect of sanctions on UFS becomes insignificant in the presence of warm glow, demand for resources and attachment.
Originality/value
The study offers new insights into why users engage in UFS and highlights that public goods contribution should be taken into account in developing anti-piracy policies and practices.
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Zhi Li, Yuemeng Ge, Zegang Su and Xiaohua Huang
This study aims to analyze the basic information of visitors of the Macau Science Center to assess their leisure involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intention, along with the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the basic information of visitors of the Macau Science Center to assess their leisure involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intention, along with the interaction of these factors. Suggestions are made for museum policy modifications to improve visitor experience quality.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis methods used in this study included reliability, descriptive statistics, independent-samples t test, ANOVA, correlation analysis and regression analysis.
Findings
The results showed that there was no significant relationship between gender and satisfaction, involvement of leisure or behavioral intention; age and educational level had significant impacts on satisfaction, leisure involvement and behavioral intention; significant differences were found in terms of visitors’ point of geographic origin, namely, local residents, mainland residents and Hong Kong residents; occupation was found to have no significant impact on satisfaction, leisure involvement or behavioral intention; monthly income was found to have no significant impact on leisure involvement and behavioral intention, but did have a significant impact on satisfaction; number of visits had no significant impact; there was no significant difference in leisure involvement and behavioral intention among different types of visitors, but there was a significant difference in terms of satisfaction; and significant correlations were found between leisure involvement and behavioral intentions.
Originality/value
The value of this study is to identify problems and offer potential solutions for the improvement of the Macau Science Center by studying the leisure involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intention of museum visitors. The proposed measures can improve the visibility and quality of the science museum, attract additional visitors and improve Macau’s branding through promoting science education and tourism.
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Zaiyang Xie, Rongxin Roger Chen, William Wei, Xiaohua Yang and Qingyue Huang
1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how…
Abstract
Learning outcomes
1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how changes in the external environment could hasten such a decision.
2. Analyze how a company can leverage its internal organizational structure to share and utilize cross-departmental resources and capabilities to support new venture businesses according to the synergy effect perspective.
3. Undertake a resource-based view analysis to evaluate the external and internal resources needed for corporate new venture development.
4. Identify the best course of action for the decision-maker by comparing, contrasting, applying and evaluating the two different models of corporate new venture development in the e-commerce business: the centralized organizational model and the decentralized organizational model and evaluate the pros and cons associated with each mode in the context of Dahan’s external and internal environments.
Case overview/synopsis
Since its inception in 2003, Dahan’s traditional business in SMS (Short Message Services) and data had gained thousands of customers across China and won top rankings in the industry. Despite its achievements, Dahan encountered difficulties when it entered the new e-commerce market, as the domain knowledge about the new business was very different from the domain knowledge in its traditional business. Furthermore, the emerging B2B e-commerce industry was very different from the traditional business in that the former mainly targeted corporate clients and the latter targeted individual customers in the B2C industry. This case examined the critical decisions that Xiaofen Huang, the CEO of Dahan E-Commerce Corporation and Co-Founder of Dahan Tricom Group, had to make and external, especially Internal, resources the Dahan Group needed in developing its new venture.
Specifically, this case explored how Huang would go through the mental process to make the best possible decision to help the company not only to survive, but also thrive in the rapidly-changing and competitive digital environment: it urgently needed to finalize an organizational incubation model to support the further development of its e-commerce and future new venture activities with two options to choose from: the centralized organizational model or the decentralized organizational model. A key challenge facing Huang was to decide which option was best suited to motivate salespeople in different departments to help one another, especially in the new B2B e-commerce business and to grow that new business.
In the case, Dahan’s growth aspirations and its motivation to transform its traditional business into a new e-commerce business were discussed. Second, when external challenges were examined, how Dahan explored the B2B e-commerce business using a trial-and-error learning process was explained. Third, when internal challenges were examined, how Dahan incubated its new B2B e-commerce business and its practices for leveraging and sharing resources/capabilities, as well as cross-departmental and cross-divisional collaboration through a resource-based lens, were illustrated. Last, the most critical learning in the case presented an immediate decision-making dilemma on which organizational incubation models to choose from for further new business development, where students learn to analyze both external and internal factors and consider Dahan’s available resource and founder’s aspiration, available strategic options to derive a best possible decision to suit the stage of the company’s lifecycle and founders’ vision.
Complexity academic level
This case was designed for use in undergraduate courses on corporate innovation, new venture development, corporate innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, e-commerce and growth.
Supplementary materials
Teaching notes are available for educators only.
Subject code
CSS 11: Strategy.
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Zhenkuo Ding, Xiaoying Yang, Sheng Huang and Xiaohua Ouyang
The aim of this paper is to investigate (1) whether the different dimensions of internationalization experience have different effects on internationalization speed? (2) And how…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate (1) whether the different dimensions of internationalization experience have different effects on internationalization speed? (2) And how the degree of digitalization plays a moderating role in these relationships?
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the hypotheses on a sample of 431 Chinese listed companies export data from 2007 to 2016, using multiple regression analysis.
Findings
The international expansion experience to developed economies will accelerate the internationalization speed of MNCs, while international expansion experience to emerging economies has an inverted U-shaped relationship with internationalization speed. The digitalization degree weakens the relationship between international experience and internationalization speed, whether it is international expansion experience to developed or emerging economies.
Originality/value
By decomposing the dimensions of international experience and considering the degree of digitalization as a new moderating variable, the paper helps to clarify the debate on the relationship between international experience and speed of internationalization, thus contributing to the internationalization speed literature and the digital technology perspective. Revealing the process of international experience affecting internationalization speed has implications for MNCs to achieve high-quality and rapid internationalization.
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Xintong Zhao, Jane Greenberg, Vanessa Meschke, Eric Toberer and Xiaohua Hu
The output of academic literature has increased significantly due to digital technology, presenting researchers with a challenge across every discipline, including materials…
Abstract
Purpose
The output of academic literature has increased significantly due to digital technology, presenting researchers with a challenge across every discipline, including materials science, as it is impossible to manually read and extract knowledge from millions of published literature. The purpose of this study is to address this challenge by exploring knowledge extraction in materials science, as applied to digital scholarship. An overriding goal is to help inform readers about the status knowledge extraction in materials science.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a two-part analysis, comparing knowledge extraction methods applied materials science scholarship, across a sample of 22 articles; followed by a comparison of HIVE-4-MAT, an ontology-based knowledge extraction and MatScholar, a named entity recognition (NER) application. This paper covers contextual background, and a review of three tiers of knowledge extraction (ontology-based, NER and relation extraction), followed by the research goals and approach.
Findings
The results indicate three key needs for researchers to consider for advancing knowledge extraction: the need for materials science focused corpora; the need for researchers to define the scope of the research being pursued, and the need to understand the tradeoffs among different knowledge extraction methods. This paper also points to future material science research potential with relation extraction and increased availability of ontologies.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are very few studies examining knowledge extraction in materials science. This work makes an important contribution to this underexplored research area.
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Augustine Senanu Komla Kukah, Xiaohua Jin, Robert Osei-Kyei and Srinath Perera
This study aims to undertake a review of how carbon trading contributes to a reduction in emission of greenhouse gases (CHGs).
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to undertake a review of how carbon trading contributes to a reduction in emission of greenhouse gases (CHGs).
Design/methodology/approach
A narrative literature review approach was adopted to identify and synthesise existing literature using the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Articles were limited to the past 10 years to obtain the most current literature. The various ways in which carbon trading leads to reductions in emissions were identified and discussed.
Findings
The results showed that the main ways in which carbon trading contributes to reductions in emissions are through innovation in low-carbon technologies, restoration of ecosystems through offset money, development of renewable and clean energy and providing information on investment related to emissions.
Practical implications
The value of this study is to contribute to the built environment’s climate change mitigation agenda by identifying the role of carbon trading.
Originality/value
The output of this research identifies and contextualises the role carbon trading plays in the reduction of CHG emissions.
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Chongli Di, Xiaohua Yang, Xuejun Zhang, Jun He and Ying Mei
The purpose of this paper is to simulate and analyze accurately the multi-scale characteristics, variation periods and trends of the annual streamflow series in the Haihe River…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to simulate and analyze accurately the multi-scale characteristics, variation periods and trends of the annual streamflow series in the Haihe River Basin (HRB) using the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT).
Design/methodology/approach
The Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) approach is adopted to decompose the original signal into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) in multi-scales. The Hilbert spectrum is applied to each IMF component and the localized time-frequency-energy distribution. The monotonic residues obtained by EMD can be treated as the trend of the original sequence.
Findings
The authors apply HHT to 14 hydrological stations in the HRB. The annual streamflow series are decomposed into four IMFs and a residual component, which exhibits the multi-scale characteristics. After the Hilbert transform, the instantaneous frequency, center frequency and mean period of the IMFs are obtained. Common multi-scale periods of the 14 series exist, e.g. 3.3a, 4∼7a, 8∼10a, 11-14a, 24∼25a and 43∼45a. The residues indicate that the annual streamflow series has exhibited a decreasing trend over the past 50 years.
Research limitations/implications
The HHT method is still in its early stages of application in hydrology and needs to be further tested.
Practical implications
It is helpful for the study of the complex features of streamflow.
Social implications
This paper will contribute to the sustainable utilization of water resources.
Originality/value
This study represents the first use of the HHT method to analyze the multi-scale characteristics of the streamflow series in the HRB. This paper provides an important theoretical support for water resources management.
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Xiaobo Wang, Zhipeng Li, Wen Zhan, Jesong Tu, Xiaohua Zuo, Xiangyi Deng and Boyi Gui
This study aims to expand the reliability and special functions of lightweight materials for high-end equipment and green manufacturing, so that it is the first such research to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to expand the reliability and special functions of lightweight materials for high-end equipment and green manufacturing, so that it is the first such research to carry out nano-composite technology of nickel-coated carbon nanotubes (Ni-CNTs)-based titanium-zirconium chemical conversion on aluminum alloy substrate.
Design/methodology/approach
Corrosion behavior of various coatings was investigated using dropping corrosion test, linear polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results showed that the corrosion resistance of the nano-composite conversion coatings was significantly improved to compare with the conventional titanium-zirconium conversion coating. The morphology and microdomain characteristics of the nano-composite conversion coatings were characterized by SEM/eds/EPMA, which indicated that the CNT or Ni-CNTs addition promoting the integrity coverage of coatings in a short time.
Findings
Surface morphology of titanium-zirconium (Ti-Zr)/Ni-CNT specimens exhibited smooth, compact and little pores. The nano-composite conversion coatings are mainly composed of Al, O, C and Ti elements and contain a small amount of F and Zr elements, which illuminated that CNT or Ni-CNT addition could co-deposit with aluminum and titanium metal oxides.
Originality/value
The study of corrosion resistance of nano-composite conversion coatings and the micro-zone film-formation characteristics would be provided theoretical support for the development of basic research on surface treatment of aluminum alloys.
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Xu Tian, Fujin Yi and Xiaohua Yu
The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese farmers’ adaptation behavior in the context of the rising cost of labor in agriculture. As the cost of labor increases, farmers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese farmers’ adaptation behavior in the context of the rising cost of labor in agriculture. As the cost of labor increases, farmers will either reallocate their budget to different inputs or change the structure of agricultural production to maximize profit.
Design/methodology/approach
The Rural Fixed Point Observation data set between 2004 and 2010 is employed in the empirical analysis of this study. Both the compensated and uncompensated demand elasticities with respect to wages are estimated by adopting the translog cost function and the profit function.
Findings
The results show that labor input will drop down significantly as a response to rising wages. Land, fertilizer and intermediate inputs are net complements of labor, whereas machinery appears to be net substitute for labor. In addition, the authors also separate the expansion effect from the substitution effect and find that farmers will shift to grain production with intensive use of fertilizer and from wheat and corn to rice as a response to the rising cost of labor.
Originality/value
This study adopts the classical household model to incorporate various adaptation behaviors of farmers into one framework and decomposes the total effect of the rising cost of labor on input demand into an expansion effect and a substitution effect, which provides a better understanding of farmers’ adaptation behavior.
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Performance optimization algorithms based on node attributes are of great importance for sharding blockchain systems. Currently, existing studies on blockchain sharding algorithms…
Abstract
Purpose
Performance optimization algorithms based on node attributes are of great importance for sharding blockchain systems. Currently, existing studies on blockchain sharding algorithms consider only random selection sharding strategies. However, the random selection strategy does not perfectly utilize the performance of a node to break the bottleneck of blockchain performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a blockchain sharding algorithm called TOPSIS Optimization Sharding System (TOSS), which is based on entropy weight method, relative Euclidean distance and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). It defines a multi-attribute matrix to assess node performance and applies TOPSIS for scoring nodes. Then, an algorithm based on the TOPSIS method is proposed to calculate the performance score of each data node. In addition, an entropy weighting method is introduced to obtain the weights of each attribute to balance the impact of dimensional differences of attributes on the attribute weights. Nodes are ranked by composite scores to guide partitioning.
Findings
The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in this paper is verified by comparing it with various comparative algorithms. The experimental results show that the TOSS algorithm outperforms the comparison algorithms in terms of performance improvement for the blockchain system, and the throughput metrics are improved by about 20% in comparison.
Originality/value
This study introduces a novel approach to blockchain sharding by incorporating the entropy weight method and relative Euclidean distance TOPSIS into the sharding process. This approach allows for a more effective utilization of node performance attributes, leading to significant improvements in system throughput and overall performance, addressing the limitations of the random selection strategy commonly used in existing algorithms.