Taining Wang and Daniel J. Henderson
A semiparametric stochastic frontier model is proposed for panel data, incorporating several flexible features. First, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production…
Abstract
A semiparametric stochastic frontier model is proposed for panel data, incorporating several flexible features. First, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production frontier is considered without log-transformation to prevent induced non-negligible estimation bias. Second, the model flexibility is improved via semiparameterization, where the technology is an unknown function of a set of environment variables. The technology function accounts for latent heterogeneity across individual units, which can be freely correlated with inputs, environment variables, and/or inefficiency determinants. Furthermore, the technology function incorporates a single-index structure to circumvent the curse of dimensionality. Third, distributional assumptions are eschewed on both stochastic noise and inefficiency for model identification. Instead, only the conditional mean of the inefficiency is assumed, which depends on related determinants with a wide range of choice, via a positive parametric function. As a result, technical efficiency is constructed without relying on an assumed distribution on composite error. The model provides flexible structures on both the production frontier and inefficiency, thereby alleviating the risk of model misspecification in production and efficiency analysis. The estimator involves a series based nonlinear least squares estimation for the unknown parameters and a kernel based local estimation for the technology function. Promising finite-sample performance is demonstrated through simulations, and the model is applied to investigate productive efficiency among OECD countries from 1970–2019.
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Zhenhan Yao, Xiaoping Zheng, Han Yuan and Jinlong Feng
Based on the error analysis, the authors proposed a new kind of high accuracy boundary element method (BEM) (HABEM), and for the large-scale problems, the fast algorithm, such as…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on the error analysis, the authors proposed a new kind of high accuracy boundary element method (BEM) (HABEM), and for the large-scale problems, the fast algorithm, such as adaptive cross approximation (ACA) with generalized minimal residual (GMRES) is introduced to develop the high performance BEM (HPBEM). It is found that for slender beams, the stress analysis using iterative solver GMRES will difficult to converge. For the analysis of slender beams and thin structures, to enhance the efficiency of GMRES solver becomes a key problem in the development of the HPBEM. The purpose of this paper is study on the preconditioning method to solve this convergence problem, and it is started from the 2D BE analysis of slender beams.
Design/methodology/approach
The conventional sparse approximate inverse (SAI) based on adjacent nodes is modified to that based on adjacent nodes along the boundary line. In addition, the authors proposed a dual node variable merging (DNVM) preprocessing for slender thin-plate beams. As benchmark problems, the pure bending of thin-plate beam and the local stress analysis (LSA) of real thin-plate cantilever beam are applied to verify the effect of these two preconditioning method.
Findings
For the LSA of real thin-plate cantilever beams, as GMRES (m) without preconditioning applied, it is difficult to converge provided the length to height ratio greater than 50. Even with the preconditioner SAI or DNVM, it is also difficult to obtain the converged results. For the slender real beams, the iteration of GMRES (m) with SAI or DNVM stopped at wrong deformation state, and the computation failed. By changing zero initial solution to the analytical displacement solution of conventional beam theory, GMRES (m) with SAI or DNVM will not be stopped at wrong deformation state, but the stress error is still difficult to converge. However, by GMRES (m) combined with both SAI and DNVM preconditioning, the computation efficiency enhanced significantly.
Originality/value
This paper presents two preconditioners: DNVM and a modified SAI based on adjacent nodes along the boundary line of slender thin-plate beam. In the LSA, by using GMRES (m) combined with both DNVM and SAI, the computation efficiency enhanced significantly. It provides a reference for the further development of the 3D HPBEM in the LSA of real beam, plate and shell structures.
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Liangjun Zhou, Jerred Junqi Wang, Xiaoying Chen, Chundong Lei, James J. Zhang and Xiao Meng
Building upon the framework of glocalization, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the development of National Basketball Association (NBA) in Chinese market, explore its…
Abstract
Purpose
Building upon the framework of glocalization, the purpose of this paper is to summarize the development of National Basketball Association (NBA) in Chinese market, explore its successful and unsuccessful places, and propose strategies of glocalization for the NBA as well as other overseas sport leagues.
Design/methodology/approach
The current case study was organized by summarizing the developmental history of NBA in China, analyzing its current promotional practices, investigating into its marketing strategies, and extrapolating practical references for other sport leagues aiming to penetrating into the Chinese marketplace.
Findings
The current case study concluded that when facing the current challenges, the NBA needs to bring authentic American cultural commodities while adding Chinese characteristics to accommodate local fans. Meanwhile, the NBA management needs to continue seeking ways to work out and through the differences in government models and cultural contexts between China and USA. In addition, this study suggested that the research framework of glocalization would be an ever intriguing inquiry needed for other sport organizations or leagues seeking expansion to overseas markets.
Originality/value
A thorough case study with the NBA that has achieved huge successes in Chinese markets will provide valuable implications for sport leagues to broaden their overseas markets.
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Jun Wang, Yunpeng Li, Bihu Wu and Yao Wang
The purpose of this paper is to study tourists’ spatial and psychological involvement reflected through tourism destination image (TDI), TDI is divided into on-site and after-trip…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study tourists’ spatial and psychological involvement reflected through tourism destination image (TDI), TDI is divided into on-site and after-trip groups and the two groups are compared in the frame of three-dimensional continuums.
Design/methodology/approach
By conducting latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) modeling to tourism user-generated content, structural topic models are established. The topics separated out from unstructured raw texts are structural themes and representations of TDI. Social network analysis (SNA) reveals the quantitative and structural differences of three-dimensional continuums of the two TDI groups.
Findings
The findings reveal that from the stage of on-site to after-trip, tourist perception of TDI shifts from psychologically to functionally-oriented, from common to unique, and from holistic to more attribute focused. Also, it is suggested that from a postmodernism perspective, TDI is never unique, fixed or universal, but has different image perceptions and feedbacks for different tourists.
Research limitations/implications
With the assistance of social sensing, a panoramic view of TDI could be established. Targeted and precision destination marketing and image promotion could be applied out to each individual tourist.
Originality/value
Combining with the perspectives of the tourist-destination space system and the tourism involvement theory, this research proposes a TDI transformation model and an explanation of the internal mechanism. The originality of research also lies in the methodological innovation of social sensing data and the LDA topic model.
研究目的
本研究针对旅游目的地形象(TDI)及其体现出的游客空间和心理涉入, 将旅游目的地形象划分为在场形象和游后形象, 并将二者在TDI三维连续体(Three-dimensional continuums)框架下进行比较。
研究方法
本研究应用内容分析法, 通过对旅游用户生成内容(tourism UGC)进行LDA(Latent Dirichlet Allocation)建模, 从非结构化的原始文本中建立起结构化的语义主题模型, 并且应用社会网络分析(Social Network Analysis), 从定量和结构化的角度揭示了游中与游后目的地形象的差异。
研究发现
研究发现, 从游中到游后, 游客的目的地形象感知经历了从心理到功能、从一般到特殊、从整体到属性的转变。同时, 基于后现代主义的视角, 旅游目的地形象并不是唯一的、固定的或放之四海而皆准的, 而是在不同的游客感知中有不同的形象和体现。
研究应用
应用社会感知(Social Sensing)理论可以全面解析旅游目的地形象。同时可以针对特定游客采取精准定点的旅游目的地营销和形象推广手段。
研究价值
本研究从旅游目的地空间系统和旅游涉入理论视角出发, 提出了旅游目的地形象转变的模型和其内在机制解释, 在方法上创新性地使用了社会感知数据和LDA主题模型。
关键词
关键词 旅游目的地形象, 在场形象, 游后形象, 旅游用户生成内容 (tourism UGC), LDA(Latent Dirichlet Allocation)建模, 社会感知
Propósito
Para estudiar el grado de participación espacial y psicológica de los turistas reflejado en la imagen del destino turístico (TDI), el TDI se divide en grupo en el sitio y grupo posterior al viaje, y los dos grupos se comparan en el marco del continuo tridimensional.
Diseño/Metodología
Al modelar la posible asignación de Dirichlet (LDA) del contenido generado por el usuario turístico (UGC), se estableció un modelo de tema estructural. El tema que está separado del texto original no estructurado es el tema estructurado y la representación de TDI. El análisis de redes sociales reveló diferencias en el número y la estructura de los continuos tridimensionales de los dos grupos de TDI.
Resultados
Los resultados de la encuesta muestran que, desde la escena hasta los viajes, la percepción de los turistas de TDI cambia de orientación psicológica a funcional, de lo ordinario a lo único, y de una atención general a más. Además, se sugiere que desde una perspectiva posmoderna, TDI nunca es único, fijo o universal, sino que tiene diferentes percepciones de imagen y comentarios para diferentes visitantes.
Implicaciones practicas
Con la ayuda de la detección social, se podría establecer una vista panorámica de TDI. El marketing de destino y la promoción de imágenes dirigidos y precisos podrían aplicarse a cada turista individual.
Originalidad/valor
Combinando con las perspectivas del sistema espacial de destino turístico y la teoría de la participación turística, esta investigación propone un modelo de transformación TDI y la explicación del mecanismo interno. La originalidad de la investigación también radica en la innovación metodológica de los datos de detección social y el modelo de tema LDA.
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Yao-Fen Wang and Chung-Jen Wang
The purpose of this paper is to first integrate incorporated commitment, self-identity, and moral responsibility with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict the green…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to first integrate incorporated commitment, self-identity, and moral responsibility with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict the green food and beverage (GFB) behaviours in protecting food environment. Moreover, this study also identified the key influential factors of green behaviours and analysed the mediation effects of commitment in this extended TPB model.
Design/methodology/approach
The structural equation modelling based on 793 college students was used to verified the goodness-of-fit and direct effects of the extended TPB model of GFBs, and bootstrap method was also used to examine the indirect effects.
Findings
The results of this study revealed commitment, perceived behavioural control (PBC), and perceived knowledge of GFBs were the most influential factors of GFBs. Furthermore, this study also verify that PBC influences civic behaviour pertaining to GFBs, and commitment mediated the effects of subjective social norms between PBC and GFBs.
Originality/value
This study provided value for GFBs that prompting people to exhibit civic behaviour pertaining and commitment to GFBs as well as ensuring environmentally sustainable development of GFBs.
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Xinmei Wang, Yao Wang and Xinzhong Wang
Specimen thickness has great influences on the creep behavior of single crystal Ni-based superalloys when it is less than 3.0 mm, which is known as thickness debit effect…
Abstract
Purpose
Specimen thickness has great influences on the creep behavior of single crystal Ni-based superalloys when it is less than 3.0 mm, which is known as thickness debit effect. Experiments have detected that oxidation can influence the microstructure of the Ni-based superalloys. Here, a model is proposed to bring in both the oxidation effect and void caused damage to account for the thickness debit effect. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The model uses the simple Norton type creep relation to describe the creep rate evolution. The damage evolution caused by void is taken to be stress controlled. The load baring area changes are calculated with the consideration of oxidation and void evolutions.
Findings
Simulations on specimens with different thickness from 3.0 to 0.3 mm are carried out. The results show that the present model can reproduce the decrease of the creep strength with the decreases of the specimen thickness. The damage plays a major role in the creep behavior of the thick specimen. Both the damage and the oxidation are important for the thin specimen which should be paid attention to during the calculation of the creep response of the thin-wall turbine blade.
Originality/value
A model is proposed to account for the thickness debit effect on the creep behavior of Ni-based superalloys. Both oxidation influence and void caused damage are introduced. The simulation results show the capability of the model to reproduce the thickness debit effect.
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Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur, Yao-Chin Wang, Chyong-Ru Liu and Wen-Shiung Huang
The purpose of this paper is to propose the mechanism of festival attachment and examine how it serves as a significant predictor of place attachment and place loyalty.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose the mechanism of festival attachment and examine how it serves as a significant predictor of place attachment and place loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Through on-site survey with convenience sampling, 465 visitors were surveyed at the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, which is one of the most famous Taiwanese festivals. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the proposed research model.
Findings
Empirical results of this study reveal that “hedonism” is the most important antecedent for improving festival attachment, followed by novelty seeking, attractions and cultural exploration. Festival attachment exerts positive effects on place attachment, which then increases place loyalty. Moreover, place attachment partially mediates the relationship between festival attachment and place loyalty.
Originality/value
By hosting festivals, festival managers can induce festival attachment in visitors and then transfer the attachment with festivals into the host place. The findings of this study demonstrate the major role of festivals in promoting local tourism.
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Qingqing Wu, Xianguan Zhao, Lihua Zhou, Yao Wang and Yudi Yang
With the rapid development of internet technology, open online social networks provide a broader platform for information spreading. While dissemination of information provides…
Abstract
Purpose
With the rapid development of internet technology, open online social networks provide a broader platform for information spreading. While dissemination of information provides convenience for life, it also brings many problems such as security risks and public opinion orientation. Various negative, malicious and false information spread across regions, which seriously affect social harmony and national security. Therefore, this paper aims to minimize negative information such as online rumors that has attracted extensive attention. The most existing algorithms for blocking rumors have prevented the spread of rumors to some extent, but these algorithms are designed based on entire social networks, mainly focusing on the microstructure of the network, i.e. the pairwise relationship or similarity between nodes. The blocking effect of these algorithms may be unsatisfactory in some networks because of the sparse data in the microstructure.
Design/methodology/approach
An algorithm for minimizing the influence of dynamic rumor based on community structure is proposed in this paper. The algorithm first divides the network into communities, and integrates the influence of each node within communities and rumor influence probability to measure the influence of each node in the entire network, and then selects key nodes and bridge nodes in communities as blocked nodes. After that, a dynamic blocking strategy is adopted to improve the blocking effect of rumors.
Findings
Community structure is one of the most prominent features of networks. It reveals the organizational structure and functional components of a network from a mesoscopic level. The utilization of community structure can provide effective and rich information to solve the problem of data sparsity in the microstructure, thus effectively improve the blocking effect. Extensive experiments on two real-world data sets have validated that the proposed algorithm has superior performance than the baseline algorithms.
Originality/value
As an important research direction of social network analysis, rumor minimization has a profound effect on the harmony and stability of society and the development of social media. However, because the rumor spread has the characteristics of multiple propagation paths, fast propagation speed, wide propagation area and time-varying, it is a huge challenge to improve the effectiveness of the rumor blocking algorithm.
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Jingyu Cao, Jiusheng Bao, Yan Yin, Wang Yao, Tonggang Liu and Ting Cao
To avoid braking accidents caused by excessive wear of brake pad, this study aims to achieve online prediction of brake pad wear life (BPWL).
Abstract
Purpose
To avoid braking accidents caused by excessive wear of brake pad, this study aims to achieve online prediction of brake pad wear life (BPWL).
Design/methodology/approach
A simulated braking test bench for automobile disc brake was used. The correlation and mechanism between the three braking condition parameters of initial braking speed, braking pressure and initial braking temperature and the tribological performance were analyzed. The different artificial neural network (ANN) models of wear loss were discussed. Genetic algorithm was used to optimize the ANN model. The structure scheme of the online prediction system of BPWL was discussed and completed.
Findings
The results showed that the braking conditions were positively correlated with the wear loss, but negatively correlated with the friction coefficient. The prediction accuracy of back propagation (BP) ANN model was higher. The model was optimized by genetic algorithm, and the average deviation of prediction results was 4.67%. By constructing the online monitoring system of automobile braking conditions, the online prediction of BPWL based on the ANN model could be realized.
Originality/value
The research results not only have important theoretical significance for the study of BPWL but also have practical value for guiding the maintenance and replacement of automobile brake pads and avoiding the occurrence of braking accidents.
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Ruiying Cai, Yao-Chin Wang and Tingting (Christina) Zhang
Through a theoretical lens of psychological ownership, this study aims to investigate how technology mindfulness may stimulate metaverse tourism users’ feelings of individual…
Abstract
Purpose
Through a theoretical lens of psychological ownership, this study aims to investigate how technology mindfulness may stimulate metaverse tourism users’ feelings of individual psychological ownership, aesthetic value and conversational value, which in turn fosters intention to engage in prosocial behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a scenario-based survey that allowed U.S.-based participants to create their own avatars and imagine using their avatars to explore heritage sites in the metaverse. Structural equality modeling was applied for data analysis.
Findings
The results from 357 valid responses indicate that technology mindfulness arouses tourists’ individual psychological ownership, aesthetic value, conversational value and prosocial behavioral intentions. The moderating role of biospheric value orientation on willingness to donate and intention to volunteer is investigated.
Research limitations/implications
The research sheds light on the significance of technology mindfulness, conversational value and psychological ownership perspectives in the metaverse, which have been previously overlooked. The authors used a scenario-based survey for mental stimulation due to current metaverse technology limitations.
Practical implications
The study is one of the first to explore the possibility of encouraging prosocial behaviors using metaverse-facilitated technology. The research offers guidelines to engage hospitality and tourism customers in the metaverse that can blend their virtual experiences into the real world.
Originality/value
This study represents one of the pioneering efforts to gain an in-depth understanding of the application of metaverse in triggering prosocial behavior toward heritage sites, explained via a technology mindfulness-driven model with a psychological ownership perspective.