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The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that it is necessary to consider possible “switches” when constructing dynamic models. We consider a class of differential games with switching utility functions.

We assume that the players do not have exact information about the switching moments. The problem is to compute the optimal estimate of the unknown such moment that minimizes the players’ losses in the worst case. Two scenarios are considered: (1) the players have the same estimate and (2) the players have different estimates of the switching moment. An example of an investment problem is given, and optimal controls and trajectories are calculated analytically using Pontryagin’s maximum principle.

The analysis provides a simple rule for choosing the optimal estimate. It is shown that the players’ optimal estimates are identical in both scenarios.

To date, no research has addressed the optimal estimation of uncertainty switching moments in a two-player differential game involving utility function switching. Our study offers detailed estimates of switching moments in the cooperative case. This allows players to thoroughly evaluate the performance of various estimated switching times and make well-informed conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to generate quantitative managerial insights for the improvement of the energy-saving potential and the coordinated development between economic growth and environmental protection.

A novel data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, based on the classical DEA theory, is developed from the perspective of emission reduction.

The empirical results indicate that China’s overall environmental efficiency is low and that there is huge improvement space for energy saving. Under the concerns of emission reduction, the energy-saving potential of the central region exceeds that of both the eastern and western regions. With regard to water, electricity and gas consumption, the electricity-saving potential exceeds the potential for both water saving and gas saving.

Previous studies rarely focused on the energy-saving potential, while considering environmental pollution. This paper applies a novel DEA method to evaluate the energy-saving potential of 30 Chinese provinces for 2015 with a focus on emission reduction concerns. Furthermore, both regional differences and energy type differences of the saving potential were analyzed.

The existing literature has a lack of modeling of procedural fairness concerns in the supply chain level. This paper aims to investigate how procedural fairness concerns affect channel decisions, performance and coordination.

This paper considers a supply chain consisting of one supplier and one retailer who have procedural fairness concerns in a classic Stackelberg game setting. The model is set in sales promotional environment. According to the existing literature, engagement is used to depict fair process. Some findings are made through analyzing respective decisions of the supplier and the retailer under the influence of procedural fairness concerns.

The results show that the channel efficiency can be improved when the retailer exhibits procedural fairness concerns, but if the aversion to unfair process exceeds a certain threshold, the retailer cannot benefit from it. Besides, the retailer profits more when he cares about distributional fairness, although the whole channel surplus can be improved by procedural fairness concerns.

This is the first paper to study the influences of procedural fairness concerns on supply chain decisions and channel performance. Finally, a mechanism combining a wholesale price contract with slotting allowances is proposed to coordinate the supply chain.

With the rapid development of the 3C industry, the problem of automated operation of 3C wire is becoming increasingly prominent. However, the 3C wire has high flexibility, and its deformation is difficult to model and control. How to realize the automation operation of flexible wire in 3C products is still an important issue that restricts the development of the 3C industry. Therefore, this paper designs a system that aims to improve the automation level of the 3C industry.

This paper designed a visual servo control system. Based on the perception of the flexible wire, a Jacobi matrix is used to relate the deformation of the wire to the action of the robot end; by building and optimizing the Jacobi matrix, the robot can control the flexible wire.

By using the visual servo control system, the shape and deformation of the flexible wire are perceived, and based on this, the robot can control the deformation of the flexible wire well. The experimental environment was built to evaluate the accuracy and stability of the system for controlling the deformation of the flexible wire.

An image-based visual servo system is proposed to operate the flexible wire, including the vision system, visual controller and joint velocity controller. It is a scheme suitable for flexible wire operation, which has helped to automate flexible wire-related industries. Its core is to correlate the motion of the robot end with the deformation of the flexible wire through the Jacobian matrix.

Esthetic trend changes with the development of society and cultural differences. A minimizer bra designed to make breasts appear smaller is now popular with large-breasted women in China. To conform to the requirements of modern aesthetics in China, this paper aims to investigate vital features of breast appearance that influence people’s subjective evaluation of breast size and analyze how bra design parameters affect breast shape and make breasts appear smaller.

This study used 3D scanning technology and reverse engineering software to obtain objective breast measurements in detail. A subjective evaluation experiment was conducted to evaluate the overall performance of seven minimizer bras compared to a basic comparison bra. Around 20 design parameters of 8 sample bras were identified to make a further study about the correlation between bra design features and breast shaping effect. To gain a deeper understanding of how bras interact with breast tissue, this study presented heat maps of the breast surface to visualize the deformation of breast shape.

Nine breasts' characteristics, such as the distance between bust points, breast depth, outer breast curvature and slope, etc. have been determined to be highly correlated with the visual reduction effect of breasts. In addition, for the bras in this experiment, the high-performance bra for women with large breasts tends to have a wider side panel, a wider under band, higher gore and a stronger transverse rigidity of the bra cup. According to the observation of heat maps of the breast surface, soft full-figure bras provide a wider range of compression to the breasts and effectively flatten the breasts.

This paper first aimed at the need to shape the ideal breast appearance for large-breasted women and make a further study of several hot-selling minimizer bras in China. The suggestions given in this paper help lingerie manufacturers better understand how design features of bras can affect their shaping effect and improve the wearing effect of minimizer bras for large-breasted women.

There is a resurgence in the adaptive reuse of buildings. However, there is a lack of literature that pulls all the strands of adaptive reuse together. Furthermore, despite claims that it is motivated by the 3 Es of the sustainability triangle, the authors could find no research that critiques adaptive reuse from this perspective. The purpose of this study is to review the literature to collect pertinent information in a single place and to critically examine whether adaptive reuse incorporates the 3 Es of sustainability.

The methodological approach of this study is a literature review and a critical analysis of the practice of adaptive review.

Adaptive reuse is concentrated at the environment and economic development corners of the sustainability triangle. There are positive interactions along this edge. The authors attribute this to the fact that the same actors – the private and public sectors – are located at both corners of the triangle, and they have shared interests. This is different from the wider sustainability literature, where major actors at each corner are different and tensions along each edge are resolved through mediation. In adaptive reuse, there are no actors at the equity corner of the triangle, and there are minimal attempts to address concerns along the equity–environment and equity–economic development edges of the triangle.

This study focuses on the USA.

This study suggests policy interventions that address the equity issue in adaptive reuse.

This is the first study to provide a succinct review of contemporary adaptive reuse and that places the practice within the framework of the 3 Es of sustainability.

This study aims to examine the effect of the chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics on corporate performance in private listed firms in China.

Fixed effects regressions are used to explore the connection of CEO age, tenure, political connection, duality and gender with firm performance. The final panel data sample consists of 16,010 firm-year observations from 2010 to 2020, including A-share private firms listed in the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges.

Five hypotheses are proposed, and results show that certain CEO characteristics, such as age, tenure and political connection, are positively related to corporate performance. Contrary to expectations, CEO duality and gender do not affect firm performance.

Findings present implications for future research on corporate governance and political connections of private listed firms.

The purpose of this study is to use the grounded theory to summarize the types of celebrity persona and to construct a theoretical model for celebrity persona on consumer purchase intention. Based on the study results, it provides better suggestions for merchants and live streamers and is an expansion of previous research on live-streaming e-commerce.

The grounded theory is recognized as the most scientific qualitative research method and is the ideal explorative method for generating theory. First, the participants were interviewed, and interview data were collected. Then the interview data were organized and analyzed. Finally, this paper summarizes the types of celebrity persona and constructes a theoretical model framework of celebrity persona on consumers' purchase intention.

The results show that the celebrity live streamer persona can be divided into two types: personalized persona and professional persona. Through emotional attachment, the celebrity's persona affects the consumer's purchase intentions. As well as, product type plays a moderating role between celebrity persona and consumer purchase intentions.

The contribution of this research is to start from the celebrity persona, link the celebrity persona with the consumer purchase intentions and expand the research scope of the celebrity persona. It opens the “black box” of the heterogeneity of celebrity live streamers' characteristics on consumer purchase intentions.

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the probability of default and examine the relationship between default risk and financial performance, with dynamic panel moderation of firm size.

This study utilizes a total of 1,500 firm-year observations from 2013 to 2018 using dynamic panel data approach of generalized method of moments to test the relationship between default risk and financial performance with the moderation effect of the firm size.

This study establishes the findings that default risk significantly impacts the financial performance. The relationship between distance-to-default (DD) and financial performance is positive, which means the relationship of the independent and dependent variable is inverse. Moreover, this study finds that the firm size is a significant positive moderator between DD and financial performance.

This study provides new and useful insight into the literature on the relationship between default risk and financial performance. The results of this study provide investors and businesses related to nonfinancial firms in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) with significant default risk's impact on performance. This study finds, on average, the default probability in KSE ALL indexed companies is 6.12%.

The evidence of the default risk and financial performance on samples of nonfinancial firms has been minimal; mainly, it has been limited to the banking sector. Moreover, the existing studies have only catered the direct effect of only. This study fills that gap and evaluates this relationship in nonfinancial firms. This study also helps in the evaluation of Merton model's performance in the nonfinancial firms.

The purpose of this study is to examine determinants of profitability of non-financial firms listed small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK from 2012 till 2020. It has been argued that profitability plays a key role in economic development and growth. Despite the important role that SMEs play in developed economies like UK, academic research into SMEs profitability determinants in developed countries is not extensive.

The methodologies used include dynamic panel data estimation techniques. Relationship of nine independent variables with profitability was examined. Two models are created using return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as dependent variables. Size, age, efficiency, working capital, liquidity, leverage and volatility of the firm represent firm-specific independent variables. Two macroeconomic variables, namely, gross domestic product and inflation are also used as independent variables. Data obtained from Thomson Reuters Data Stream for 93 listed SMEs companies in the UK from 2012 to 2020. Fixed effects, random effects and generalized method of moments were used in data analysis.

All variables showed significant influence on profitability, except liquidity reflecting insignificant impact on profitability in two regression models conducted for 93 firms under study. Efficiency, liquidity and leverage are the only three independent variables with similar impact on both ROA and ROE.

Identifying determinants of profitability will help stakeholders and corporate executive make sound decisions to ensure sustainability and stability at the firm level. This is particularly important given the key role played by SMEs in economic development and growth. The findings of this study would help direct financial management practices to ensure a favorable sustainable organizational performance.

This study differs from previous studies that focused mainly on developing countries; with limited research conducted on profitability of SMEs in developed economies. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine factors influencing profitability of SMEs in UK. Previous studies concentrated on service sector like insurance and hotel firms.