Yu Zhu, Jun Yang, Hongwei Zhang, Wenmin Zhu, Jie Wang and Zelin Zhou
Marking and inspecting are key steps in hull structure construction. However, currently most marking and inspecting operations are still carried out manually, which leads to low…
Abstract
Purpose
Marking and inspecting are key steps in hull structure construction. However, currently most marking and inspecting operations are still carried out manually, which leads to low assembly efficiency and quality. This paper aims to solve these problems through the application of digital technology: the optical projection and machine vision.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the assembly process model of hull construction is established in 3D design environment. Second, the process information is presented to workers in a virtual form through optical projector, which provides accurate guidance for the manual operation. On this basis, the workers can complete welding and assembly operations readily. Finally, the machine vision method is used to check the assembly results, which can decrease the subjective errors.
Findings
A rapid and accurate assembly positioning for hull structure construction is realized based on optical projection, which can avoid the pollution caused by the marking machine and the error caused by human.
Originality/value
This paper combines the advantages of optical projection and machine vision to the field of shipbuilding. The shortcomings of the traditional marking and inspection methods is effectively solved, which may provide a new way for enhancing the assembly efficiency and quality.
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Zelin Tong, Huilin Liu, Diyi Liu and Ling Zhou
This study aims to explore how brands’ degree of internationalization influences consumers’ attitudes toward brands’ engagement in cross-border philanthropy by taking legitimacy…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how brands’ degree of internationalization influences consumers’ attitudes toward brands’ engagement in cross-border philanthropy by taking legitimacy as a mediating mechanism. The authors further investigate the moderating role of cause acuteness in this effect to identify practical strategies for managers.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested via laboratory experiments. In brief, Study 1 investigates the relationship between a brand’s degree of internationalization and perceived legitimacy for corporate cross-border philanthropy and the impact of internationalization on consumers’ brand evaluations of such philanthropy. Study 2 addresses the moderating role of cause acuteness.
Findings
The authors discover that companies with a high (vs low) degree of internationalization gained more legitimacy, and thus better brand evaluations, upon engaging in corporate cross-border philanthropy. This effect reverses when the causes are related to sudden disasters rather than ongoing tragedies.
Practical implications
This study provides valuable guidance for marketers seeking to leverage cross-border philanthropy to enhance consumers’ brand attitudes. Specifically, brands’ degree of internationalization should be consistent when performing cross-border philanthropy. Otherwise, brands will struggle to gain legitimacy and will earn less favorable consumer evaluations.
Originality/value
This work enriches the literature on corporate social responsibility in the domain of cross-border philanthropy and elucidates consumers’ attitudes toward this type of philanthropy in a corporate context. This study also meaningfully contributes to research on brands’ internationalization and legitimacy.
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Zelin Tong, Tingting Li, Wenting Feng, Yuanyuan Zhou and Ling Zhou
This study aims to investigate the impact of cross-border charitable activities on host- and home-country consumers based on the social identity theory.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of cross-border charitable activities on host- and home-country consumers based on the social identity theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an extensive literature review and two experimental designs, this study establishes the research framework and hypothesises the relationships between the constructs.
Findings
National power moderates the impact of cross-border charitable activities on host- and home-country consumers. In particular, compared to countries with high national power, countries with low national power undertaking cross-border charitable activities will receive more positive reactions from the host-country consumers, and, conversely, more negative reactions from the home-country consumers.
Research limitations/implications
From the consumer perspective, this study finds that brand cross-border charitable activities have different influences on consumers in different countries because of an identity transformation mechanism that exists between the “insiders” and the “outsiders”, which is different from the assumptions of western theories.
Practical implications
The findings provide insights for undertaking brand cross-border charitable activities.
Originality/value
Previous studies, which are based on social identity categorisation, assume that cross-border charitable activities have a more positive impact on home-country consumers than host-country consumers. However, this study adopts the research paradigm of social identity relationisation and draws an opposite conclusion, which not only expands the theory of local intergroup interaction, but also clarifies how brand cross-border charitable activities influence Chinese consumers.
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Jing Huang, Ruoyu Yu, Shengxiong Wen, Zelin Tong and Nan Zhou
It is unattainable that entrepreneurs engage equivalent resources in public and private morality because of the limitation of resources. This study aims to conduct experiments to…
Abstract
Purpose
It is unattainable that entrepreneurs engage equivalent resources in public and private morality because of the limitation of resources. This study aims to conduct experiments to test how entrepreneurial deviation in morality affects legitimacy perception of consumers to entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted secondary data analysis and experiment to test how entrepreneurial deviation in morality affects legitimacy perception of consumers to entrepreneurs.
Findings
The experimental results show that entrepreneurial deviation in morality negatively affects legitimacy perceptions of consumers to entrepreneurs. Specifically, when public moral is higher than private moral, consumers have negative perceptions of pragmatic legitimacy to entrepreneurs, because consumers perceive deviation behaviors disobey the norm “Li”. However, entrepreneurial private morality excels public morality, consumers have negative perceptions of social legitimacy to entrepreneurs because consumers perceive deviation behaviors disobey the norm “Qing”. Moreover, the authors examined entrepreneurial values moderate the effects of moral deviation and legitimacy perceptions.
Originality/value
This study expands the ethical marketing of entrepreneurs from the perspective of the deviation between public morality and private morality.
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Junyun Liao, Muhua Li, Haiying Wei and Zelin Tong
Recent years have witnessed the increasingly fierce competition amongst smartphone brands. Hence, smartphone firms urge to prevent current consumers from switching to maintain…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent years have witnessed the increasingly fierce competition amongst smartphone brands. Hence, smartphone firms urge to prevent current consumers from switching to maintain market position. Based on the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework, this study aims to explore the drivers of users' intentions to switch from their current smartphone brands.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on previous literature and the characteristics of the smartphone purchase, this study identified one pushing, two pulling and five mooring factors. Online questionnaires were collected to test hypotheses using the structural equation modelling approach. An additional netnography study provides further support to the hypotheses.
Findings
Results show that regret is a push factor that enhances consumers' switching intentions. Moreover, two pull factors, subjective norms and alternative attractiveness positively influence consumers' switching intentions. Finally, switching costs, emotional commitment and brand community engagement are mooring factors that negatively affect brand-switching intention, whereas consumers' variety seeking has a positive effect.
Originality/value
This study enriches the brand switching literature and offers significant implications for customer retention.
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Zelin Tong, Fang Ma, Haowen Xiao, Perry Haan and Wenting Feng
The purpose of this research is to explore how experienced scarcity affects home country consumers' attitudes toward the firm engaging in cross-border philanthropy by analyzing…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore how experienced scarcity affects home country consumers' attitudes toward the firm engaging in cross-border philanthropy by analyzing perceived distributive justice as a mediating variable. This research also investigates the moderating factor of this effect to identify practical strategies for managers.
Design/methodology/approach
This research conducted one survey (Study 1) and three experiments (Studies 2–4) by manipulating scarcity to provide robust evidence for the influence of experienced scarcity on consumer perception of the company conducting cross-border philanthropy.
Findings
This paper provides empirical insights about the significant negative effect of experienced scarcity on consumer attitudes toward the firm engaging in cross-border philanthropy. It proposes that home country consumers with high versus low experienced scarcity show lower perceived distributive justice for cross-border philanthropy, which generates less favorable attitudes toward the firm. To alleviate the negative impact of experienced scarcity on consumers' perceptions of corporate reputation, providing donation amount comparisons between home and foreign countries has a significant moderating effect.
Practical implications
This paper provides several suggestions for marketers seeking cross-border philanthropy to improve consumers' attitudes toward the firm.
Originality/value
This paper enriches the literature on corporate social responsibility in the domain of cross-border philanthropy and explains contradictory findings on consumers' attitudes toward corporate cross-border philanthropy. Moreover, this study makes meaningful contributions to the scarcity and justice literature.
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Zelin Tong, Jingdan Feng and Fang Liu
Studies have shown that negative publicity adversely affects brand trust, but exactly how brand trust can be damaged remains poorly understood. This study aims to explore how…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies have shown that negative publicity adversely affects brand trust, but exactly how brand trust can be damaged remains poorly understood. This study aims to explore how negative publicity influences image congruity and, subsequently, brand trust. In addition, the study also examined the effectiveness of two corporate strategies to repair both congruity and trust.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a valid sample of 522 Chinese consumers between the ages 20 and 50, this study adopted a quasi-experimental design involving two types of negative publicity (performance- and value-related) and two initial corporate repair strategies (compensation and public apology) intended to repair brand trust.
Findings
Negative publicity shaped brand trust through both functional congruity and self-congruity. Moreover, the type of negative publicity affected the role of image congruity in brand trust. The effectiveness of repair strategies further depended on the type of negative publicity.
Research limitations/implications
Mobile phones were an appropriate focal product for this research, but examining only one product category may limit findings’ generalizability. Negative emotions such as frustration or anger and their relationships with congruity can also be addressed in future work. Subsequent research can additionally consider more conditions to explore alternative routes of processing related to brand trust.
Practical implications
Brand trust is a vulnerable brand asset on which negative publicity can have seriously negative consequences. Marketers and brand managers should assess the extent to which negative publicity can damage image congruity and brand trust and come up with different repair strategies subsequently.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the limited and fragmented literature on consumers’ evaluations of negative information. Findings offer fresh insight into the impacts of negative publicity on image congruity and brand trust. The implications extend beyond negative publicity to other forms of negative information, such as rumors, fake news and negative word of mouth. Results also highlight the importance of adopting appropriate repair strategies to restore consumers’ trust in the event of negative publicity.
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Dalia Hussein El-Sayed, Eman Adel, Omar Elmougy, Nadeen Fawzy, Nada Hatem and Farida Elhakey
This study examines whether manipulation in attributes of corporate narrative disclosures and the use of graphical representations can bias non-professional investors' judgment…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines whether manipulation in attributes of corporate narrative disclosures and the use of graphical representations can bias non-professional investors' judgment towards firms' future performance, in an emerging market context.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct three different experiments with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, using accounting and finance senior undergraduate students to proxy for the non-professional investors.
Findings
Results show that simple (more readable) disclosures improve non-professional investors' judgment towards firms' future performance. In addition, it is found that non-professional investors are prone to a recency effect from the intentional ordering of narrative information, when using complex (less readable) narratives. However, no primacy effect is found, when using simple (more readable) disclosures. The results further provide evidence that the inclusion of graphical representations, along with the manipulated narrative disclosures, can moderate the recency effect of information order, when using less readable and complex narrative disclosures.
Research limitations/implications
The results reveal that although the content of corporate disclosures can be objective, neutral and relevant, manipulation in textual features and the use of graphical presentations, can interact to impact how non-professional investors perceive and process the disclosed information. This study provides an Egyptian evidence regarding this issue, as the majority of prior studies concentrate on developed capital markets. In addition, it contributes to prior studies evaluating the appropriateness of the Belief Adjustment Model predictions about the effect of textual presentation order on decision-making, by providing evidence from an emerging market.
Practical implications
Results attempt to increase the awareness of investors and encourage them to use multiple sources of information to avoid the probable bias that can result from management's manipulation of narratives. In addition, the study could be of interest to regulators and standard-setters, where the results reveal the need for guidelines and regulations to guide the disclosure of narrative information and the use of graphical information in corporate reports.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of two impression management strategies in narrative disclosures (readability and information order), along with the use of graphical representations, on non-professional investors' judgment in an emerging market, like Egypt.
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Management is a “hot field” in China, yet little has been written in English about the history of management in China. Contrary to contemporary management literature, the paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Management is a “hot field” in China, yet little has been written in English about the history of management in China. Contrary to contemporary management literature, the paper aims to show that Chinese entrepreneurs and managers were exposed to modern management ideas from the early twentieth century. The paper is an initial exploration of the transfer of managerial knowledge to China, especially Scientific Management, during the interwar period.
Design/methodology/approach
Draws on Chinese journal articles and books from 1910‐1930s, supplemented with archive materials and secondary sources in Chinese and English.
Findings
Chinese industrialists, officials and academics were attracted to Taylor's ideas of scientific management during the 1920s and 1930s, which were experimented with on a wider scale than is commonly realized. The interest in “new” management extended beyond industrialists and industry officials to reportage in the popular press.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should consider first how new ideas about management and organization were implemented on the shopfloor in individual Chinese enterprises, and second examine the role of social networks constituted by native place, industry ties and professional association membership in the diffusion of managerial ideas among the Chinese business elite of the period.
Originality/value
The paper shows that the transfer to China of modern management as an ideas system was not a recent phenomenon, but part of a century‐long process of transfer and adaptation of western management theory and practice.
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Depeng Zhang, Jiaxin Ma and Zhenxing He
With the appearance of additional review functionality on e-commerce platforms emotional changes in composite reviews have become more diverse. How consumers process the emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
With the appearance of additional review functionality on e-commerce platforms emotional changes in composite reviews have become more diverse. How consumers process the emotional changes in composite reviews is an important concern for companies. This study investigates the impact of explores how changes in the emotional valence and emotional intensity of composite reviews on consumers' information adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on emotion as social information theory, this study constructs a double mediation model of how the change in emotional valence of composite reviews affects consumers' adoption intention and examines the moderating effect of the dynamic change of emotional intensity. One field and three online experiments were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Consumers were more likely to adopt positive–negative composite reviews than negative–positive composite reviews. Compared to negative–positive composite reviews, positive–negative composite reviews led to higher perceived empathy and lower motivational suspicion, which, in turn, led to higher information adoption. Moreover, dynamic changes in emotional intensity played a moderating role in this effect. Interestingly, the amount of attribute difference changed the differences in perceived empathy and motivated consumer suspicion generated by the composite review when considering the reviewer’s attribute difference description.
Originality/value
The findings have important theoretical contributions that deepen business and consumer understanding of the impact of composite reviews and have practical implications for improving the management of composite reviews by businesses.