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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a brand-new phenomenon in customer consumption patterns. This resulted from heightened health awareness brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic. There is a dearth of appropriate health psychology perspectives in the existing study examining the effect of COVID-19 on consumers’ use of crowdsourced logistics (CL) platforms. In order to provide unique and thorough insights into how consumer health concerns can affect consumers’ subjective views and their decisions to use CL, this study combines the health belief model and the technology acceptance model.

Five hundred valid responses from an online survey that was created and administered in Singapore were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings show that all of the suggested constructs have a favourable influence on consumers’ intentions to use CL. The suggested model also demonstrates high explanatory power, with perceived usefulness serving as the primary driver, followed by perceived ease of use and self-efficacy.

The study advances previous academic research on CL and offers guidance to CL companies and lawmakers for promoting sustainable and secured last-mile delivery.

C'est certainement un mérite de la part des experts d'avoir déduit de tels rapports «en moyenne historique», de la seule connaissance de données «locales», sans rien connaître des liens naturels existant entre plusieurs étapes individuelles, c'est‐à‐dire sans la connaissance — jusqu'ici pratiquement impossible à avoir — de séries statistiques opportunes, décrites par les nombres des étapes des touristes individuels et les effectifs correspondant à ces nombres, ainsi que de séries statistiques décrites par les nombres des journées indiquant les séjours totaux de ces touristes et les effectifs correspondants. Aujourd'hui pourtant il ne suffit plus, évidemment, d'étudier le tourisme en s'appuyant sur des valeurs moyennes ayant pour base la totalité des voyageurs, valeurs qui ont une signification représentative réduite; il faut le faire par groupes distincts de touristes du même type, groupes qui dans la multitude des touristes existent certainement sous des aspects divers.

La connaissance la plus précise des marchés touristiques et de leur interdépendance définit, aussi bien dans le cadre de l'entreprise privée que publique, la base de toute politique d'investissements et évite le suréquipement ou la surproduction.

The metal detector used as a wall scanner has become a kind of popular household instrument. It is important to possess the characteristics, including low-cost, reliability, easy repeatability and simple procedure in this device. The purpose of this paper is to found a model of differential probe applied to metal detector.

The new model consists of an emitting coil and a differential receiving coil. The emitting coil uses winding inductance to produce a magnetic field and the receiving coil senses the change of magnetic flux. All turns of the receiving coil are designed in the same plane, so it can be fabricated with signal printed circuit board. The balance of differential probe is promised by the constraint relation of the parameters, including the radius and the turns of the receiving coil and the emitting coil. A novel fine adjustment has been proposed to offset the design error that can make the model more ideal.

The differential probe can be produced easily and need not to be calibrated. In the design, the amplifier and the filter circuit is used for the output signal processing and the harmonic analysis based on Fourier transform is used to analyze the voltage signal in order to detect and distinguish the metallic object. The differential probe in the prototype, which area is π×352 (mm2), can detect the cylindrical metallic object including iron, and aluminum which thickness is 2 mm and radius is 30 mm in the distance of 120 mm.

The model of differential probe proposed in the paper is feasible and effective to apply in the hand-held metal detector.

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of:

The importance of big data in the information revolution.

The resource-based view of the firm and dynamic capabilities as they relate to big data.

The use of big data in marketing decisions.

Consumer security concerns over the storage and processing of big data.

The concept of ba was introduced in 1996 by Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboru Konno. Since then, it has played a major role in the Japanese way of knowledge creation. It now belongs to the specialized jargon of KM out of the archipelago whose approach of KM is different from the IT oriented one in the USA. The print of Japanese culture in this concept makes it not so easy to understand through Western languages using a unique word, clear, distinct and without any shadow. Therefore this paper proposes an equivalent through the formulation of strategic knowledge community. This contribution is organized in three parts. First, it strives to define the ba concept from a Japanese cultural point of view. Then, it considers some philosophical implications of the concept, and last, it presents some case studies from the Human Health Care’s program from the Eisai Company. This paper was made possible because of an investigation program about the Japanese way of knowledge creation that is supported by the French Embassy in Japan. The global results of this investigation will be available in a book this year.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a peridynamic method in predicting viscoelastic creep behaviour with recovery stage and to find the suitable numerical parameters of peridynamic method.

A rheological viscoelastic creep constitutive equation including recovery and an elastic peridynamic equation (with integral basis) are examined and used. The elasticity equation within the peridynamic equation is replaced by the viscoelastic equation. A new peridynamic method with two time parameters, i.e. numerical time and viscoelastic real time is designed. The two parameters of peridynamic method, horizon radius and number of nodes per unit volume are studied to get their optimal values. In validating this peridynamic method, comparisons are made between numerical and analytical result and between numerical and experimental data.

The new peridynamic method for viscoelastic creep behaviour is approved by the good matching in numerical-analytical data comparison with difference of < 0.1 per cent and in numerical-experimental data comparison with difference of 4-6 per cent. It can be used for further creep test which may include non-linear viscoelastic behaviour and creep rupture. From this paper, the variation of constants in Burger’s viscoelastic model is also studied and groups of constants values that can simulate solid, fluid and solid-fluid viscoelastic behaviours were obtained. In addition, the numerical peridynamic parameters were also manipulated and examined to achieve the optimal values of the parameters.

The peridynamic model of viscoelastic creep behaviour preferably should have only one time parameter. This can only be done by solving the unstable fluctuation of dynamic results, which is not discussed in this paper. Another limitation is the tertiary region and creep rupture are not included in this paper.

The viscoelastic peridynamic model in this paper can serve as an alternative for conventional numerical simulations in viscoelastic area. This model also is the initial step of developing peridynamic model of viscoelastic creep rupture properties (crack initiation, crack propagation, crack branching, etc.), where this future model has high potential in predicting failure behaviours of any components, tools or structures, and hence increase safety and reduce loss.

The application of viscoelastic creep constitutive model on peridynamic formulation, effect of peridynamic parameters manipulation on numerical result, and optimization of constants of viscoelastic model in simulating three types of viscoelastic creep behaviours.

This paper aims to analyse the conceptual bases of the related terms of “host” and “guest” in Chinese and reveal essential, though overlooked, cultural differences that relate to “hospitality” in Western and Chinese cultural contexts.

A presupposition of this conceptual investigation is that culture manifests itself linguistically. The analytic approach used here is textual analysis. Confucian classical texts are the main source of evidence for examining the conceptual commitments of the Chinese characters 主 and 客 and their corresponding practical expressions.

Cross-cultural comparison reveals asymmetries between the term “hospitality” and its Chinese translations, etymologically and culturally. This study demonstrates how the Chinese 主–客 paradigm is both hierarchal in nature and centred on the role and interests of the host. It further compares this paradigm with its Western counterpart along five different dimensions.

The specific Chinese norms for the host–guest paradigm synthesized here could prompt both academicians and operators to question the cultural attachments associated with hospitality by participants and the cultural differences in hospitality transactions and management. The cultural sensitivity modelled here is intended to facilitate harmony between a hospitality setting and the culture in which it is embedded.

This conceptual paper is the first in the Anglophone literature to explore the Chinese cultural roots of the concepts “host” and “guest”. The linguistic perspective used in this study allows the concept of “hospitality” to be studied cross-culturally and in an interdisciplinary way, addressing a blind spot in the extant hospitality literature.

The purpose of this paper is to present the extant literature relating to the social processes of innovation in built environment design teams. The paper connects the relevant and significant work in the field of social psychology and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) to derive a theoretical framework which can be used to direct further research, towards development of the behavioural facet of design management.

First, the paper establishes which aspects of social processes of innovation are already present within the AEC field and examine concepts/ideas in social psychology that are likely to be important in understanding group processes within AEC, applying three emergent themes of social climate; risk attitudes and motivation and reward. Second, the paper identifies which elements of social psychology may be used to expand, consolidate and develop our understanding and identify gaps in AEC specific knowledge.

The paper suggests that whilst the AEC literature has supplanted some key elements of social psychology, this discipline offers a further and significant theoretical resource. However, whilst some aspects of social climate and motivation/reward are well‐represented in the AEC field, these have not yet been fully explored. Furthermore, how collective attitudes to risk can influence design decision‐making is identified as having a limited presence.

This paper is the first to bring together the two disciplines of AEC and social psychology to examine the social aspects of innovative design performance in built environment teams. The paper fulfils an identified need to examine the social processes that influence innovative design performance in construction

The purpose of this qualitative, single-case study was to explore the development of Jamaica’s maritime education and training (MET) curriculum within the local education context. In this research, the story of the development and sustainability of the local MET curriculum in its 40-year journey from 1980 to present (post 2020), as communicated by various maritime stakeholders and archival documents, is chronicled.

The study utilized a qualitative orientation and was an embedded single-case study in its design. The entire local MET institution community and those legislatively and operationally allied to its sustained viability constituted the general population of this study. Non-probability sampling techniques were used to arrive at a maximum variation sample. Three sources of data were used in this study: individual interviews, focus group discussions and documents.

The Jamaican (local) MET curriculum was the brainchild of local perspicacity that was empowered by international benevolence. It was developed to satisfy market demands that existed at the time of its inception. These market requirements of the maritime industry are what impacted the development of the local MET curriculum over four decades. Several other factors led to the sustained viability of the local MET curriculum. These included the ability of the local MET curriculum to meet direct market needs and maintain its fitness for purpose.

It is the view of the researcher that the findings of this study were limited by the fact that the voices of current students and employers from the four decades of the curriculum's existence are not represented in this initial study. The perspectives from these two sources would have broadened the description presented in this study.

This research has shown that specialized higher education (HE) institutions are better served in their business when they maintain a symbiotic relationship with the industry for which they are producing graduates.

The treatment of HE as a service industry has gained traction globally. This would suggest that ‘product placement' in specialized HE is important to the growth, development and longevity of that course of study within the society in which it exists.

There is a dearth of national research on Jamaica's four-decades-old MET curriculum and the elements that lend to the sustained viability of same. This discussion of sustainability of the MET curriculum will benefit maritime educators and policymakers, who must continue to hone this curriculum so that it is fit for purpose. The study will also identify some of the elements of a sustainable, specialized HE curriculum. The elements identified herein can serve as exemplars and conceptual starting points for other contexts where the discussion of the sustainability of curriculum needs to be had.