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Due to recent technological advances, the retail industry has changed significantly. This paper examines a novel unmanned retail mode-unattended convenience store to identify the possible operational problems and develop appropriate managerial recommendations.

A data-driven two-stage epsilon-based measure (EBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was developed to evaluate operational performance data from 33 unattended convenience stores and assess the impacts on efficiency of the internal factors, and a Tobit regression analysis was employed to examine the external environment.

It was found that the overall economic performances were relatively low and fluctuated significantly; however, the social performances were slightly higher. The out-of-stock rate was found to have a negative impact on efficiency, and regional characteristics were found to have significant effects on performance.

This study sought to identify current operational problems with unattended convenience stores to provide managerial insights. The cross-sectional assessment suggested that to achieve better performance, particular attention needed to be paid to store locations and surrounding store environments.

First, this paper establishes a novel theoretical framework to evaluate the economic and social operational performances at unattended convenience stores. Second, it contributes to research on unattended convenience stores and the unmanned retail industry and offers significant guidance on detecting operational deficiencies and improving future performances.

This paper aims to investigate the responses of laminated glass under soft body impact, including elastic impact and fracture/fragmentation consideration.

The simulation uses the combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM) which combines finite element mesh into discrete elements, enabling the accurate prediction of contact force and deformation. Material rupture is modelled with a cohesive fracture criterion, evaluating the process from continua to discontinua.

Responses of laminated glass under soft impact (both elastic and fracture) agree well with known data. Crack initiation time in laminated glass increases with the increase of the outside glass thickness. With the increase of Eprojectile, failure mode is changing from flexural to shear, and damage tends to propagate longitudinally when the contact surface increases. Results show that the FDEM is capable of modelling soft impact behaviour of laminated glass successfully.

The work is done in 2D, and it will not represent fully the 3D mechanisms.

Elastic and fracture behaviour of laminated glass under soft impact is simulated using the 2D FDEM. Limited work has been done on soft impact of laminated glass with FDEM, and special research endeavours are warranted. Benchmark examples and discussions are provided for future research.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether corporate tax avoidance behavior increases firm value in Chinese context. A large number of studies conduct their designs on the consumption that tax avoidance represents wealth transfer from government to enterprises and therefore enhances firm value. This study argues that, contrast to developed countries, tax avoidance does not necessarily add value to opaque Chinese firms relative to transparent counterparts due to higher agency costs.

Using a large sample of Chinese listed-firms data for the period 2001-2009 and fixed effects regression model, this study examines the relation between tax avoidance and firm value. A series of robustness checks are conducted to alleviate the concern of endogeneity.

The authors find that tax avoidance behavior increases agency costs and reduces firm value. The authors further find that information transparency interacts with corporate tax avoidance, moderating the relation between tax avoidance and firm value. Investors in China react negatively to corporate tax avoidance behavior, but this negative reaction could be mitigated by information transparency. The results are robust to a series of alternative treatments, including varied measures, first-order differential approach and 2SLS.

The results suggest that tax avoidance does not necessarily increase firm value, part of gains are encroached by self-serving managers. Moreover, investors in China downplay the significance of tax avoidance, although corporate information transparency could soften their negative tone.

The scholarly literature that examines the economic assimilation of migrant families has focussed on the educational and economic achievements of the children of international migrants relative to the children of native born parents. Lower relative incomes of the children of immigrants might be attributable to discrimination, while higher relative incomes could be attributable to ambitious parents who produce more ambitious children. These potential effects have been difficult to disentangle. The purpose of this paper is to control for discrimination by examining internal migration in Honduras, allowing us to isolate evidence for or against the “ambition” effect.

The paper uses the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique to ask if the children of migrants are similar or different than their parents in their attitudes toward work and economic advancement.

This study finds that migrants are relatively hard workers in the sense that they experience relatively high marginal effects on earnings from improved socio-economic characteristics, such as years of schooling. The study also finds that these migrants do not pass on this hard-work ethic to their children, who experience much smaller marginal effects from increased years of schooling and other socio-economic characteristics.

This study demonstrates that the children of migrants do not necessarily inherit the ambitious work ethic characteristic of their migrant parents. This result has important implications for studies that examine the assimilation and economic progress of migrant families, particularly those studies that use second-generation earnings as a measure of assimilation and economic progress.

The purpose of this paper is to build a model of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) performance drawing from the concept of organizational identity theory. The paper proposes that successful performance of an M&A is dependent upon two things, namely, the alignment of the organizational identities of the two merging firms and the method used to integrate them.

This is a conceptual paper based on current research and uses multiple real-world examples of M&A to elaborate the proposed model and highlight scholarly and practical implications.

The paper explains that the similarity of the identities of the merging organizations has a significant impact on the performance of the combined entity. Furthermore, the integration method used by the merged firms influences the success of the merged entity. The use of an identity approach helps unravel new variables impacting M&A performance.

A limitation of the paper is that it does not address how, over time, identity management can overcome the resistance of two merging entities. In addition to testing the proposed relationships, further research can explore these identity dynamics in unraveling an M&A performance.

This paper highlights the importance of evaluating identity as an element of an M&A due diligence. Practitioners should be aware of the dangers of signaling one identity integration strategy but using contradictory actions in implementation.

Given the importance of identity in a variety of organizational outcomes, the paper is timely in integrating the organizational identity (OI) concepts in understanding M&A performance issues.

Given the importance of identity in a variety of organizational outcomes, the paper is timely in integrating the OI concepts in understanding M&A performance issues.

The purpose of this paper is to use the viscosity of fluid to transmit power known as the hydro-viscous drive (HVD) to research the effect of two-phase flow on transmission characteristics.

In this paper, a 3D computational model of oil film between friction pair was built to study the transmission characteristics of a two-phase oil film, and the distribution contours of pressure and temperature of oil film were investigated using the computational fluid dynamics technology.

The finding of the paper suggests that the distribution law of pressure and temperature of two-phase oil film is almost linear along the radial direction. However, since the physical phenomena near the outlet of the oil film are entirely different, there exists fluctuation. Meanwhile, the volume fraction of air was obtained at different rotation speeds, and the maximum value is 10.55 percent. Compared to the single-phase oil film, the torque transferred by the oil film is not linear with the rotation speed, its value decreases gradually.

This paper’s conclusions are very important for the study of HVD and its applications, which provide a new idea to further study the mechanism of oil film transmission and its cavitation. The development of fluid viscous speed clutch is dedicated to a large industrial fan and water pump speed regulation and energy saving. With the successful application of the technology, it will have more wide applications in different fields, such as, in steel, water, petrochemical, power plant of slag pump and exhaust fan.

The purpose of this paper is to separate and purify flavonoids from glycyrrhiza by macroporous adsorption resin (MAR) mixed-bed technology.

The adsorption performance of MAR and MAR mixed bed for flavonoids was studied using ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry.

The research shows that the MAR mixed bed of LZ-50+LZ-59 with a mass ratio of LZ-50:LZ-59(m:m) = 1:1 was the optimized combination with the optimal conditions of adsorption (pH = 6, T = 45°C) and desorption (liquid ratio R = 70%, T = 50°C, pH = 8) obtained, relatively.

This paper provides a novel way to separate flavonoids from glycyrrhiza. Under the optimal conditions, the adsorption rate (F) of MAR mixed-bed LZ-50+LZ-59 to the flavonoids was 62.5 per cent/g, the desorption rate (D) was 89.23 per cent and the purity was achieved at 80 per cent.

This study aims to investigate the effects of graphite-MoS₂ composite solid lubricant on the tribological properties of copper-based bearing materials under dry conditions.

The mixture of Graphite-MoS₂ was inlaid in ZQSn6-6–3 tin bronze and ZQAl9-4 aluminum bronze matrix. These copper-embedded self-lubricating bearing materials were considered in friction pairs with 2Cr13 stainless steel, and their tribological properties were studied by using an MM200 wear test machine.

The results show that the friction coefficients and wear rates of copper-embedded self-lubricating bearing materials are lower than those of the ordinary copper-based bearing materials. The wear performance of the tin bronze inlaid self-lubricating bearing material is better than that of the aluminum bronze inlaid self-lubricating bearing material. The wear mechanism of the tin bronze bearing material is mainly adhesive wear, and that of the aluminum bronze bearing material is mainly grinding wear, oxidation wear and adhesive wear. The copper-embedded self-lubricating bearing materials had no obvious abrasion, whereas the aluminum bronze inlaid self-lubricating bearing material exhibited deep furrows and obvious abrasion under high loads.

These results are helpful for the application of copper-embedded self-lubricating bearing materials.

This study aims to evaluate the effects of the downhole environment and auxiliary rubber bellows on the contact mechanical characteristics and sealing performance of rubber-bellows mechanical seals (RBMS) in electric submersible pumps (ESPs), considering the elastic support of the rubber bellows, multi-field coupling effect and actual operating conditions.

A thermal-fluid-solid multi-field coupling numerical model for RBMS in ESPs is developed using the finite element analysis and influence coefficient method. Based on the contact mechanical characteristics of RBMS, the interactions of multiple physical fields between the sealing rings and lubricating oil are accounted for to assess the liquid lubrication state and sealing performance of RBMS in ESPs.

The findings indicate the anti-leakage effects of rubber bellows, the transition of lubrication state of the sealing end face and the evolution law of sealing performance with environmental pressure, axial compression amount and contact widths of rubber bellows.

This study innovatively proposes a multi-field numerical research method to reveal the impact of the downhole environment and rubber bellows on RBMS in ESPs. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the sealing mechanism of RBMS and optimize the sealing design for ESPs in high-pressure environments.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-10-2024-0369/