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1 – 10 of 67Youzhi Zhang, Zhengkang Lin, Xiaojun You, Xingping Huang, Jinhua Ye and Haibin Wu
This paper aims to report a flexible position-sensitive sensor that can be applied as large-area electronic skin over the stiff media.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to report a flexible position-sensitive sensor that can be applied as large-area electronic skin over the stiff media.
Design/methodology/approach
The sensor uses a whole piezoresistive film as a touch sensing area. By alternately constructing two uniform electric fields with orthogonal directions in the piezoresistive film, the local changes in conductivity caused by touch can be projected to the boundary along the equipotential line under the constraint of electric field. Based on the change of boundary potential in the two uniform electric fields, it can be easy to determine the position of the contact area in the piezoresistive film.
Findings
Experiment results show the proposed tactile sensor is capable of detecting the contact position and classifying the contact force in real-time based on the changes of the potential differences on the boundary of the sensor.
Practical implications
The application example of using the sensor sample as a controller in shooting game is presented in this paper. It shows that the sensor has excellent touch sensing performance.
Originality/value
In this paper, a position-sensitive electronic skin is proposed. The experiment results show that the sensor has great application prospects in the field of interactive tactile sensing.
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Ziming Liu, Rui Hu and Xiaojun Bi
The prevalence of digital reading and the widespread use of social media among young people demands systematic exploration of the effects of social media addiction on students'…
Abstract
Purpose
The prevalence of digital reading and the widespread use of social media among young people demands systematic exploration of the effects of social media addiction on students' reading practice. This paper aims to explore the effects of social media addiction on reading preferences, in-depth reading and sustained attention.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey and analysis methods are employed.
Findings
For many, social media provides an ideal platform of connection and expression; however, prolonged social media use holds the danger of becoming a behavioral addiction that threatens to undermine one's reading practice. Social media use tends to have a more significant impact on leisure reading than on academic reading. Obsessive engagement with social media hurts reading concentration and in-depth reading. While a majority (70.4%) of those surveyed believed that chronic social media use carries more harm than good on their learning, only half (50.1%) agreed or strongly agreed that today's students are too indulged in social media and need forceful control of it.
Originality/value
Implications of the effects of social media on reading practice are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. It is likely that social media will continue to be seductive, attracting new generations of young people. Future research should explore prevention strategies.
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Fun at workplace is considered an important initiative to build co-working communities, and this study aims to study its role in promoting the innovative behaviour of co-workers…
Abstract
Purpose
Fun at workplace is considered an important initiative to build co-working communities, and this study aims to study its role in promoting the innovative behaviour of co-workers [members of co-working spaces (CWS)] and the mechanism of its influence.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the theory of social exchange and resource conservation, the authors conducted a qualitative study to explore the four dimensions of workplace fun and a quantitative study to empirically analyse the relationship between community embeddedness, organisational embeddedness, workplace fun and creativity of co-workers, taking K-space as an example.
Findings
Workplace fun is positively correlated with co-workers' creativity. Community embeddedness plays a complete mediating role between workplace fun and organisational embeddedness. Community embeddedness and organisational embeddedness play a chain-mediating role between workplace fun and creativity.
Originality/value
This study explores the process and impact of fun on employee creativity in a shared office environment by clarifying the composition of fun in CWS workplaces and the transmission mechanism of fun through informal community embeddedness and formal organisational embeddedness, expanding the research perspective on the factors influencing employee creativity in the new office model and enriching the research findings on the impact of fun at work on job performance.
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Xuebing Dong, Yaping Chang, Shichang Liang and Xiaojun Fan
The purpose of this paper is to examine the synergistic effects of online multimedia by categorizing it into online broadcast media (OBM) and online interactive media (OIM).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the synergistic effects of online multimedia by categorizing it into online broadcast media (OBM) and online interactive media (OIM).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an online experiment method to manipulate the online message stimuli level (online media synergy and online single media repetition).
Findings
The results revealed that participants exposed to message stimuli of online media synergy reported greater source credibility, cognitive responses (brand credibility and positive thoughts about the brand), attitude toward the brand and purchase intention. In online multimedia, source credibility influences attitude toward the brand through brand credibility and positive thoughts about the brand; in online single media repetition, source credibility influences attitude toward the brand through only brand credibility.
Research limitations/implications
In addition, the relationship between online media synergy and marketing outcomes might be moderated by consumers’ goals and thought patterns, and future research could further explore the moderating effects of these variables.
Practical implications
This study contributes to media synergy research, assists marketing planners in their understanding of the importance of online media synergy and serves as a reference for marketing planners considering an integrated online marketing plan.
Originality/value
The current study investigated how the synergy of OBM and OIM influences message persuasiveness for consumers (cognitive responses, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention).
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Xiaojun Zhan, Wei Yang, Yirong Guo and Wenhao Luo
Nurses' work engagement is critical for the service quality of the hospital. Thus, investigation on the influencing factors of nurses' work engagement has become an important…
Abstract
Purpose
Nurses' work engagement is critical for the service quality of the hospital. Thus, investigation on the influencing factors of nurses' work engagement has become an important issue. This study addresses this issue by exploring the effect of daily family-to-work conflict (FWC) on next-day work engagement among Chinese nurses.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical model was tested using 555 experience sampling data from 61 nurses collected for 10 workdays in China.
Findings
Nurses' daily FWC is associated with their next-day ego depletion. Moreover, increased ego depletion ultimately reduces their next-day work engagement. In addition, a between-individual factor of frequency of perceived patient gratitude mitigates the effect of FWC on ego depletion and the indirect effect on work engagement via ego depletion.
Originality/value
This study is important to the management of health-care organizations as it carries significant implications for theory and practice toward understanding the influence of FWC among nurses. On the one hand, the authors apply the job demands-resources (JD-R) model as the overarching theoretical framework, which contributes to the authors’ understanding of how FWC impairs work engagement. On the other hand, the authors extend extant theoretical models of FWC by identifying the frequency of perceived patient gratitude as an important contextual factor that counteracts the negative effects of FWC among nurses. Moreover, organizations could encourage patients to express their gratitude to nurses by providing more channels, such as thank-you notes, to offer nurses some support for overcoming the destructive effect of FWC.
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Haiyan Qian, Allan Walker and Xiaojun Li
The purpose of this paper is to develop a preliminary model of instructional leadership in the Chinese educational context and explore the ways in which Chinese school principals…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a preliminary model of instructional leadership in the Chinese educational context and explore the ways in which Chinese school principals locate their instructional-leadership practices in response to traditional expectations and the requirements of recent reforms.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth interviews were conducted with 22 selected primary school principals in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. A qualitative analysis was conducted to categorize the major leadership practices enacted by these principals.
Findings
An initial model of instructional leadership in China with six major dimensions is constructed. The paper also illustrates and elaborates on three dimensions with the greatest context-specific meanings for Chinese principals.
Originality/value
The paper explores the ways in which Chinese principals enact their instructional leadership in a context in which “the west wind meets the east wind”; that is, when they are required to accommodate both imported reform initiatives and traditional expectations. The paper contributes to the sparse existing research on principals’ instructional leadership in non-western cultural and social contexts.
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XiaoJun Yuan, Aslihan Gizem Korkmaz and Haigang Zhou
In China, having a home before getting married is viewed as being a crucial indicator of the sincerity of romance. Despite recent increases in housing costs, men who have their…
Abstract
Purpose
In China, having a home before getting married is viewed as being a crucial indicator of the sincerity of romance. Despite recent increases in housing costs, men who have their homes ready for marriage stand out in the marriage market. This study aims to explore the association between readiness to marry, marriage age and the home that men purchase prior to marriage using the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, the first countrywide follow-up survey with the theme of labor force.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors suggest new standards for determining the marital residence. In addition, contrary to the existing literature, which focuses on “Sheng Nu” (women who do not marry by the traditional marriage age in China), the authors focus on “Sheng Nan” (men who do not marry by the traditional marriage age in China).
Findings
The results show that men who own a house before marriage are reluctant to get married. The authors document robust evidence that the preexistence of the marital house decreases the willingness to marry and postpones the marriage date, regardless of location and time.
Originality/value
The authors document robust evidence that the preexistence of the marital house decreases the willingness to marry and postpones the marriage date, regardless of location and time.
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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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Xuebing Dong, Yaping Chang and Xiaojun Fan
Marketers recognize that the internet is crucial in the lives of consumers; thus, they invest money on online advertisements. Using multiple online media primarily influences the…
Abstract
Purpose
Marketers recognize that the internet is crucial in the lives of consumers; thus, they invest money on online advertisements. Using multiple online media primarily influences the message acceptance of consumers. The synergistic effect of online multimedia relies on form, content, and sources of information, and time. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
A model that reflects the influence of the characteristics of online multimedia on message response through message acceptance is established based on theories of information persuasion, encoding variability, and multiple-source assumption. Based on a survey of 411 online media users, the study applies partial least-squares regression to test the research model.
Findings
The results show that variety of forms, complementary of contents, diversity of sources, and time interval influence message response via message strength. Complementary of contents and diversity of sources affect message response via perceived credibility. Synergy type moderates the relationship between variety of forms and perceived credibility and between diversity of sources and perceived credibility.
Research limitations/implications
The current study mainly tests the effect of these characteristics on message response and the moderating effect of synergy type. Future research can examine the effect of these characteristics on information seeking and consumption behavior and the moderating effect of the cognitive mode of consumers.
Practical implications
This study provides insight into the characteristics of synergy and contributes to the literature on integrated marketing communication. The results provide guidance for practitioners to effectively plan online multimedia practices.
Originality/value
This study explored the influence of the characteristics of online media synergy on message response through message acceptance. The study also discussed the moderating effect of the type of online multimedia synergy.
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Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan and Nicholas J. Belkin
People often engage in different information-seeking strategies (ISSs) within a single information-seeking episode. A critical concern for the design of information retrieval (IR…
Abstract
Purpose
People often engage in different information-seeking strategies (ISSs) within a single information-seeking episode. A critical concern for the design of information retrieval (IR) systems is how to provide support for these different behaviors in a manner which searchers can easily understand, navigate and use, as they move from one ISS to another. The purpose of this paper is to describe a dialogue structure that was implemented in an experimental IR system, in order to address this concern.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a user-centered experiment to evaluate the IR systems. Participants were asked to search for information on two different task types, with four different topics per task, in both the experimental system and a baseline system emulating state-of-the-art IR systems. The authors report here the results related explicitly to the use of the experimental system's dialogue structure.
Findings
For one of the task types, most participants followed the search steps as predicted in the dialogue structures, and those who did so completed the task in fewer moves. For the other task type, predicted order of moves was often not followed, but participants again used fewer moves when following the predicted order. Results demonstrate that the dialogue structures the authors designed indeed support effective human information behavior patterns in a variety of ways, and that searchers can effectively use a system which changes to support different ISSs.
Originality/value
This study shows that it is both possible and beneficial, to design an IR system which can support multiple ISSs, and that such a system can be understood and used successfully.
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