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The lubricating fluid stored in the porous matrix will spontaneously exude to supplement the lubricating film in the damaged area, thus ensuring the long-term self-lubricating function of the porous surface. To reveal the repair mechanism of oil film, it is necessary to understand the flow characteristics of oil in micropores. The purpose of this study guides the design of micropore structure to realize the rapid exudation of oil to the porous surface and the rapid repair of the lubricating film.

In this paper, cylindrical orifice, convergent orifice and divergent orifice were studied. The numerical model of lubricating oil exudation in micropores was established. The distribution characteristics of oil pressure, velocity and three-phase contact line in the process of oil exudation were investigated. The effects of different orifice shapes and orifice structure parameters on the pinning and spreading characteristics of oil droplet were analyzed. Then the internal mechanisms of oil droplet formation and spread on the orifice surface were summarized.

The results show that during the process of oil exudation, the three-phase contact line of the oil drop is pinned once at the edge of the cylindrical and convergent orifice. Compared with the three orifice structures, the inlet pressure of the oil drop is low, and the oil velocity at the pinning point is stable in the divergent orifice. Resulting in favorable oil exudation. It is easier for oil droplet to depin by appropriately reducing the wall wetting angle, increasing the aperture or controlling the wall inclination angle. Ensure the self-healing and long-lasting lubrication film of porous oil-bearing surfaces.

The effect of pore structure on the flow behavior of lubricating fluid has always been concerned. But the mechanism by which different orifice shape affect the pinning behavior of oil droplets is not yet clear, which is crucial for understanding the self-healing mechanism of oil films on porous surfaces. It is meaningful to analyze the mechanism of oil exudation and spreading on the porous surface of oil in the special orifice, to optimize the design of the orifice structure.

Orifice shape has influence on internal flow field parameters. There is no report on the influence of orifice shape on the film formation process of oil seepage and diffusion from pores. The effects of different orifice shapes and orifice structure parameters on the characteristics of oil droplet pinning and diffusion were studied.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-04-2024-0118/

Consumers are increasingly using search-based advertising in e-Business platforms to seek their desirable products. Platforms will choose a centralized advertising mechanism (CAM) or decentralized advertising mechanism (DAM) to offer a search advertising service to lower consumer search cost, as represented by using search time length. It is important for the platform to decide how to choose advertising mechanisms, and how to determine the optimal advertising price and search time length. To address these issues, this study aims to develop a theoretical approach under each mechanism to examine the platform’s optimal search-based advertising strategy by considering search cost.

In this study, two models are developed to examine the optimal search-based advertising strategy by considering consumer search cost (i.e. search time length). By comparing the platform’s profits under two models, the optimal advertising strategy, search time length and price are explored.

It is found that when the seller’s reserve benefit is sufficiently large, the platform benefits from choosing the DAM; otherwise, the CAM is a better choice. The advertising service is usually offered with a shorter search time length accompanied by a higher charge, and a longer search time length accompanied by a lower charge. Specifically, when the seller’s reserve benefit is substantially high, a DAM that benefits both the platform and seller is a better choice. This can explain why many platforms offer advertising services with a DAM.

This paper is the first theoretical study on addressing the search-based advertising strategy, especially the choice of advertising mechanisms, in the online advertising context. It is also the first piece of analytical research that considers the effect of consumer search cost on product demand, and then examines the optimal advertising price and search cost (i.e. search time length) for online platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to study the cooperation and pricing strategies for e-commerce platforms when considering seller classification.

E-commerce platforms serve to facilitate trade and generate revenue from the participants. By classifying the sellers in the market into two types (the individual sellers vs the professional sellers), the authors examine how the interaction between the two types of sellers affects the platform’s cooperation and pricing decisions. Specifically, the authors compare two cooperation strategies for the platform: cooperating only with the professional sellers (strategy I); and cooperating with both the two types of sellers (strategy II).

When the platform attractiveness for the professional sellers is high enough, strategy II is absolutely beneficial than strategy I; whereas when the platform attractiveness for the professional sellers is low and the performance requirement of the individual sellers is relatively high, strategy I will be more beneficial.

For a platform choosing strategy II, it should make effort to differentiate between the different types of sellers by the product or service quality.

The paper is among the first to study the cooperation and pricing strategies for the e-commerce platform with seller classification.

The purpose of this study is to propose and verify a research model that investigates the mediating role of organizational commitment on the relationship between hotel employee-perceived reputation and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).

Based on the data obtained from a sample of 323 hotel employees in China, the reliability, validity and hypothesized relationships in the model were tested through structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.70.

Empirical results show that different dimensions of corporate reputation affect OCBs differently. Social responsibility reputation has both direct and indirect effects on OCBs, while there is no direct link between employee-treatment reputation and OCBs. The relationship between corporate reputation and OCBs is mediated by organizational commitment.

Hotel managers should pay more attention to employee perception of the hotel’s reputation. Reputation management is as important as reputation building. Favorable perception of hotel’s reputation contributes to positive behavioral intentions.

Most recent research has explored the relationship between corporate reputation and customer behaviors. However, few studies take employee perception of reputation into consideration. This study tried to fill this void. Also, this study contributes to the current knowledge of both the reputation literature and citizenship literature by exploring the mediation of organizational commitment on the relationship between employee-perceived reputation and citizenship behaviors through data obtained from Chinese hotels.

The purpose of this paper is to study the advance selling strategies for oligopolists when considering the product diffusion effect.

The authors consider a market that composes of two competitive sellers who are different in their reputation. The two firms sell the same product in the market over two periods (i.e. the advance selling season and the regular selling season). Due to the effect of product diffusion, the demand of each firm in the regular selling season is dependent on the two firms’ advance demands.

For the firm with lower reputation, it is beneficial to decrease the advance selling price with the diffusion effect caused by its advance demand. For the firm with higher reputation, it is also beneficial to decrease the advance selling price with the diffusion effect caused by its advance demand if the consumers’ enthusiasm for the product in regular selling season is high enough; otherwise it should not decrease his advance selling price since this practice cannot greatly increase his demand.

The obtained results can provide operational managers in reality with valuable suggestions in making advance selling decisions.

The paper is among the first to investigate the impact of product diffusion effect on a firm’s advance selling strategy in a competitive setting.

Online retailers have become gradually popular to offer consumers installment payment services in the past few years. This paper aims to study how to determine the duration and rate of installment payment services, as well as the price of products to increase online retailers’ profits.

By modeling the utility functions, the behavior of consumers for strategic choosing the payment method and payment timing is analyzed. Thus, the market segments are obtained through the comparison of the consumer’s utilities. Combined with the given assumptions, the installment payment strategies for online retailers is investigated. This paper focuses on the impact of installment payment services on consumers’ purchasing behavior and online retailers’ profits by modeling and comparative analysis. No installment payment service as a benchmark, it is demonstrated whether online retailers can obtain more profits by offering installment payment services or what are the applicable conditions for installment payments.

If the installment payment service is offered, online retailers can gain more profits and need to adopt appropriate strategies based on different market conditions. During the depression or the peak shopping season, online retailers should take the strategy of free installment rate, and moderately increasing the product price of no installment service. When market demand is stable or during non-peak season, online retailers need to set a higher installment rate and maintain the product price without installment service. Finally, online retailers should determine the maximum duration of installments they can afford based on own risk control cost and allow consumers to freely choose the length of the installment within the duration limit.

First, the authors deeply analyze consumers’ payment and purchase behavior when the online retailer offers the installment payment service. Then, it is theoretically proved why many online retailers have offered installment payment services to consumers from a profit perspective. Finally, this paper proposes the optimal duration of installments, installment rate and product price in different market environments for online retailers, to provide theoretical basis and managerial insights for the development of installment payment service in online shopping.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the corrosion resistance of the 6061-Al alloy as the battery pack material for electric vehicles, and the nano-SiC/MAO composite coating was prepared.

The corrosion resistance of coatings was evaluated by the global electrochemical test, and the local electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (LEIS) was used to study the local corrosion mechanism. The laser confocal microscope, scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) were used to characterise coatings.

Results showed that the impedance of nano-SiC/MAO coating was 1–2 times higher than MAO coating, and the main corrosion product was Al(OH)₃. LEIS results showed that the impedance of the nano-SiC/MAO coating was two times higher than the MAO coating. The defective SiC/Micro-arc oxidation coating still had high corrosion resistance compared to the MAO coating.

The physical model of the local corrosion mechanism for SiC/MAO composite coating in “cavity-fracture collapse” mode was proposed.

Aluminum alloy is susceptible to chloride ion attack in sea water, resulting in pitting damage and hence serious security risks for the related applications. To improve the corrosion resistance of Al alloy, micro-arc oxidation (MAO) technology has been developed to produce a protective dense oxide layer on top of Al alloy. However, the mechanism of MAO-induced corrosion resistance is still not fully understood, particularly on local corrosion issue. This paper aims to focus on comprehensively studying the corrosion-resistance mechanism by a series of technologies.

The corrosion behavior of samples was studied by open circuit potential (OCP), potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), electrode impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and localized electrode impedance spectroscopy (LEIS) tests in NaCl solution.

The MAO-coated Al alloy shows a more positive corrosion potential and a higher corrosion current density compared to the untreated counterpart, indicating a significantly enhanced corrosion-resistance. The study of surface morphology and structure also suggest significantly enhanced corrosion-resistance due to the MAO treatment.

Based on the results, a new corrosion model was proposed to describe the influence of MAO treatment on the corrosion process and corrosion mechanism of Al alloy, providing insights on the design of the corrosion-resistance coating for metallic alloys in marine applications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how leader humility affects the engagement of employees in creative processes, using perceived organizational support (POS) as a mediator and leader competence as a moderator.

Data were collected from a two-wave sampling of 113 dyads of leaders and subordinates in China.

A curvilinear relationship was found between leader humility and employee engagement in creative processes. Further, POS partially mediates this relationship, and leader competence positively moderates the relationship between leader humility and POS.

First, organizations should select and train leaders who show humility as a character trait and foster a supportive organizational climate. Second, managers should study the benefits of moderate and harms of superfluous humility, especially in the Chinese cultural context. Third, competent leaders are more effective as humble leaders.

Few studies have concentrated on leader humility in the eastern cultural context. The results challenge traditional views of the impact of leader humility and shed light on its mechanism and the conditions under which it promotes employee engagement in creation. This study also clarifies the nonlinear influence of leader humility, building a fine-grained theoretical framework integrating the motivation-opportunities-abilities model and Chinese Zhong-Yong theory.

Live streaming commerce has emerged as an essential strategy for vendors to effectively promote their products due to its unique content presentation and real-time interaction. This study aims to investigate the influence of viewer-streamer interaction and viewer-viewer interaction on consumer trust and the subsequent impact of trust on consumers' purchase intention within the live streaming commerce context.

A survey questionnaire was conducted to collect data, and 403 experienced live streaming users in China were recruited. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used for data analysis.

The results indicated that viewer-streamer interaction factors (i.e., personalization and responsiveness) and viewer-viewer interaction factors (i.e., co-viewer involvement and bullet-screen mutuality) significantly influence trust in streamers and co-viewers. Additionally, drawing on trust transfer theory, trust in streamers and co-viewers positively influences trust in products, while trust in co-viewers also positively influences both trust in streamers and products. Furthermore, all three forms of trust positively impact consumers' purchase intentions.

This study enriches the extant literature by investigating interaction-based trust-building mechanisms and uncovering the transfer relationships among three trust targets (streamers, co-viewers and products). Furthermore, this study provides some practical guidelines to the streamers and practitioners for promoting consumers’ trust and purchase intention in live streaming commerce.