By calculating the information entropy of the indicator and measuring the amount of information in the data, this paper determines the weight of the indicator according to the…
Abstract
Purpose
By calculating the information entropy of the indicator and measuring the amount of information in the data, this paper determines the weight of the indicator according to the impact of the relative change of the indicator on the whole.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to study the action mechanism of circular economy development and green finance, based on the entropy method, this paper constructs a system analysis model based on event research.
Findings
Moreover, this paper uses the analytic hierarchy process to obtain subjective weights based on expert opinions and then uses the entropy method to obtain objective weights and finally combines the two. In addition, an intelligent model is constructed based on the action mechanism of circular economy development and green finance to improve the system structure.
Originality/value
Finally, this paper designs experiments to verify the performance of the system model. The research results show that the system model constructed in this paper meets the actual situation.
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Fanbo Meng, Yixuan Liu, Xiaofei Zhang and Libo Liu
Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Effectively engaging patients is critical for the sustainable development of online health communities (OHCs). Although physicians’ general knowledge-sharing, which is free to the public, represents essential resources of OHCs that have been shown to promote patient engagement, little is known about whether such knowledge-sharing can backfire when superfluous knowledge-sharing is perceived as overwhelming and anxiety-provoking. Thus, this study aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of general knowledge-sharing in OHCs by exploring the spillover effects of the depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing on patient engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The research model is established based on a knowledge-based view and the literature on knowledge-sharing in OHCs. Then the authors test the research model and associated hypotheses with objective data from a leading OHC.
Findings
Although counterintuitive, the findings revealed an inverted U-shape relationship between general knowledge-sharing (depth and breadth of knowledge-sharing) and patient engagement that is positively associated with physicians’ number of patients. Specifically, the positive effects of depth and breadth of general knowledge-sharing increase and then decrease as the quantity of general knowledge-sharing grows. In addition, physicians’ offline and online professional status negatively moderated these curvilinear relationships.
Originality/value
This study further enriches the literature on knowledge-sharing and the operations of OHCs from a novel perspective while also offering significant specific implications for OHCs practitioners.
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Peng Ouyang, Jiaming Liu and Xiaofei Zhang
Free knowledge sharing in the online health community has been widely documented. However, whether free knowledge sharing can help physicians accumulate popularity and further the…
Abstract
Purpose
Free knowledge sharing in the online health community has been widely documented. However, whether free knowledge sharing can help physicians accumulate popularity and further the accumulated popularity can help physicians attract patients remain unclear. To unveil these gaps, this study aims to examine how physicians' popularity are affected by their free knowledge sharing, how the relationship between free knowledge sharing and popularity is moderated by professional capital, and how the popularity finally impacts patients' attraction.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collect a panel dataset from Hepatitis B within an online health community platform with 10,888 observations from April 2020 to August 2020. The authors develop a model that integrates free knowledge sharing, popularity, professional capital, and patients' attraction. The hierarchical regression model is used to for examining the impact of free knowledge sharing on physicians' popularity and further investigating the impact of popularity on patients' attraction.
Findings
The authors find that the quantity of articles acted as the heuristic cue and the quality of articles acted as the systematic cue have positive effect on physicians' popularity, and this effect is strengthened by physicians' professional capital. Furthermore, physicians' popularity positively influences their patients' attraction.
Originality/value
This study reveals the aggregation of physicians' popularity and patients' attraction within online health communities and provides practical implications for managers in online health communities.
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This paper aims to examine how the official discourse of frugality evolved in China between 1979 and 2015.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how the official discourse of frugality evolved in China between 1979 and 2015.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses historical and textual analysis. It divides the Chinese official discourse on frugality between 1979 and 2015 into four periods: 1979-1992, 1993-2002, 2003-2012 and 2013-2015.
Findings
A Chinese official discourse on frugality persisted between 1979 and 2015, even though during the same period, China transformed from a socialist economy of central planning and insufficient supply to a market economy of excessive supply and weak consumer demand. The intensity of this official discourse frequently vacillated, adjusting to both economic and political conditions of the time as part of the larger political-economic contestation between competing ideas and policies.
Originality/value
There have been calls for more studies on how frugality discourses have evolved in international markets, especially in terms of how they are shaped by local historical antecedents and long-standing tensions. Through the Chinese case, this article illuminates why some traditional values persist and obtain a paradoxical co-existence with consumerist ethos in our modern society.
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Dingyu Shi, Xiaofei Zhang, Libo Liu, Preben Hansen and Xuguang Li
Online health question-and-answer (Q&A) forums have developed a new business model whereby listeners (peer patients) can pay to read health information derived from consultations…
Abstract
Purpose
Online health question-and-answer (Q&A) forums have developed a new business model whereby listeners (peer patients) can pay to read health information derived from consultations between askers (focal patients) and answerers (physicians). However, research exploring the mechanism behind peer patients' purchase decisions and the specific nature of the information driving these decisions has remained limited. This study aims to develop a theoretical model for understanding how peer patients make such decisions based on limited information, i.e. the first question displayed in each focal patient-physician interaction record, considering argument quality (interrogative form and information details) and source credibility (patient experience of focal patients), including the contingent role of urgency.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was tested by text mining 1,960 consultation records from a popular Chinese online health Q&A forum on the Yilu App. These records involved interactions between focal patients and physicians and were purchased by 447,718 peer patients seeking health-related information until this research.
Findings
Patient experience embedded in focal patients' questions plays a significant role in inducing peer patients to purchase previous consultation records featuring exchanges between focal patients and physicians; in particular, increasingly detailed information is associated with a reduced probability of making a purchase. When focal patients demonstrate a high level of urgency, the effect of information details is weakened, while the interrogative form is strengthened.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its exploration of the monetization mechanism forming the trilateral relationship between askers (focal patients), answerers (physicians) and listeners (peer patients) in the business model “paying to view others' answers” in the online health Q&A forum and the moderating role of urgency in explaining the mechanism of how first questions influence peer patients' purchasing behavior.
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Minghui Wu, Xiaofei Gao, W.X. Yan, Z. Fu, Yanzheng Zhao and Shanben Chen
The purpose of this paper is to describe a new solution for wheel‐robot's adhesion and passing‐obstacles mechanism and the optimal design of magnetic adhesion unit with finite…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a new solution for wheel‐robot's adhesion and passing‐obstacles mechanism and the optimal design of magnetic adhesion unit with finite element methods. The new mechanism makes the robot have a simpler structure, finer passing obstacles and larger payload capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
After researching literature and analyzing in detail the disadvantages and advantages of magnetic wheel and structure magnet mounted under the chassis of a robot, the structure magnet is selected as the robot's adhesion style. Then the paper introduces the robot's structure and locomotion mechanism, the design of the new mechanism and the optimization of structure parameters for magnetic adhesion unit are described in detail in this paper. The new design can lift the robot's wheel unit and change adhesion force using only a motor.
Findings
A prototype of robot has been developed and successful test results prove that the proposed technology is feasible. The climbing robot can overcome 70‐mm high obstacles and has a large enough payload capability while climbing on vertical surfaces.
Research limitations/implications
The new design reduces the number of actuators used in the robot and increases the magnetic adhesion force.
Practical implications
Thanks to the excellent passing‐obstacles and payload capabilities, the climbing robot with the new mechanism has a widely applying prospect in the field of welding and inspecting large equipment.
Originality/value
The lifting mechanism can lift the wheel unit and change magnetic adhesion force using only one motor. This makes the robot have a simple structure as well as the large payload capability.
Details
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Xuan Tai Mai, Thu Thi Trinh and Chris Ryan
Food delivery apps (FDAs) have rapidly developed due to mobile technologies, changes in modern consumption and increased online use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the…
Abstract
Purpose
Food delivery apps (FDAs) have rapidly developed due to mobile technologies, changes in modern consumption and increased online use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the platforms are struggling to build a stable customer base and make a profit. This study combined tech-driven motivators in an information system success model (ISSM) and emotional attachment operated by affect transfer theory (ATT) to explain why people might continue to use an FDA.
Design/methodology/approach
An online quantitative cross-sectional survey was carried out via the Prolific platform. Data were collected from 416 FDA users and analyzed to test the hypotheses using the partial least squares based structural equation modeling.
Findings
The study found that system quality, information quality and emotional attachment directly influence the continued use of FDA. Moreover, the results suggest that perceived social interactivity and perceived playfulness are significant antecedents of emotional attachment.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study enrich the current literature on continuance intention in online food delivery services by integrating the technology- and affective-based factors. The findings also provide various practical implications for app designers and marketers to foster an emotional bond with users, resulting in high retention rate.
Originality/value
The study proposes the integrated framework of ISSM and ATT for enhancing understanding of consumer behaviors in the post-adoption stage for FDA.
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Research on the impact of the engagement of online medical teams (OMTs) on patient evaluation, for example, satisfaction, remains insufficient. This study attempts to recognize…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on the impact of the engagement of online medical teams (OMTs) on patient evaluation, for example, satisfaction, remains insufficient. This study attempts to recognize the underlying mechanism of how OMTs’ engagement influences patient satisfaction by adopting social support as the mediator. This study also scrutinizes the moderating effects of the transactive memory system (TMS) on the link between OMTs’ engagement and social support.
Design/methodology/approach
We utilized a linear model that had fixed effects controlled at the team level for analysis. A bootstrapping approach using 5,000 samples was employed to test the mediation effect.
Findings
Our results reveal that OMTs’ engagement improves informational and emotional support, thereby promoting patient satisfaction. Specialization and credibility strengthen the impact of OMTs’ engagement on informational and emotional support. Simultaneously, coordination has an insignificant influence on the link between OMTs’ engagement and social support.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on OMTs, social support, and TMS, providing insights into patients’ perceptions of OMTs’ engagement during online team consultation. This study also generates several implications for the practice of online health communities and OMTs.
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Zhe Gao, Jun Huang, Xiaofei Yang and Ping An
This paper aims to calibrate the mounted parameters between the LIDAR and the motor in a low-cost 3D LIDAR device. It proposes the model of the aimed 3D LIDAR device and analyzes…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to calibrate the mounted parameters between the LIDAR and the motor in a low-cost 3D LIDAR device. It proposes the model of the aimed 3D LIDAR device and analyzes the influence of all mounted parameters. The study aims to find a way more accurate and simple to calibrate those mounted parameters.
Design/methodology/approach
This method minimizes the coplanarity and area of the plane scanned to estimate the mounted parameters. Within the method, the authors build different cost function for rotation parameters and translation parameters; thus, the parameter estimation problem of 4-degree-of-freedom (DOF) is decoupled into 2-DOF estimation problem, achieving the calibration of these two types of parameters.
Findings
This paper proposes a calibration method for accurately estimating the mounted parameters between a 2D LIDAR and rotating platform, which realizes the estimation of 2-DOF rotation parameters and 2-DOF translation parameters without additional hardware.
Originality/value
Unlike previous plane-based calibration techniques, the main advantage of the proposed method is that the algorithm can estimate the most and more accurate parameters with no more hardware.
Details
Keywords
Yu‐hua Cheng, Shu‐yan Jiang and Gang Luo
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new device with eddy current microscope (ECM) to test the invisible and buried subsurface flaws in metallic specimens.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new device with eddy current microscope (ECM) to test the invisible and buried subsurface flaws in metallic specimens.
Design/methodology/approach
When coil is excited by intermittent impulse signal, the eddy current effect happens among the tested metal specimen which is near the coil. Because of magnetic‐optic effect caused by eddy current magnetic field, the magnetic‐optic film changes the polarization direction of the passing linear polarization beam. The beam, containing the defects' information, can be accepted by charge‐coupled device (CCD) after being reflected through beamsplitter, and the imperceptible flaws in subsurface of mental product can be visually tested.
Findings
Integrating the eddy effect fully with Faraday's magneto‐optic (MO) effect can realize the visual non‐destructive testing for the subsurface defects.
Research limitations/implications
Manufacturing defected specimens and improving the resolving power of the MO image remain difficult and need further research. A better image processing system needs to be developed to ascertain the characters of the defects.
Practical implications
After additional experiments, this device may find practical application on the inspection of flaws under the surface of metal specimens.
Originality/value
The device presented in this paper can detect the small defects that are hardly seen by eyes at the surface and the subsurface of metal specimens, and have them detected by the CCD.