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1 – 10 of over 3000The purpose of this paper is to explore how consumers’ trust is enhanced by e-commerce-based agribusiness companies. It also aims to shed light on the role of social commerce in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how consumers’ trust is enhanced by e-commerce-based agribusiness companies. It also aims to shed light on the role of social commerce in improving consumers’ trust.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the research purpose, an in-depth multiple case study is performed. In this study, three cases in short food supply chain (SFSC) in China are selected, and they are all e-commerce agribusiness companies. They adopted common ways to build up, maintain and reinforce consumers’ trust.
Findings
It is revealed that the companies innovatively adopted social commerce, both online and offline, to overcome the trust problems usually faced by e-commerce companies. It is also shown that offline contact with potential consumers is an important first step for agribusiness e-commerce entrepreneurs to build up trust with consumers.
Research limitations/implications
By adopting a multiple case study method, the research has limited generalizability to other types of SFSCs. Since the findings are from Chinese agribusiness e-commerce companies, the generalization to other sectors must be done with caution.
Practical implications
Some managerial implications are given as follows: first, offline contact with consumers could be realized through different channels. Taking advantage of existing social network or trying to find consumers in urban communities might be effective ways. Second, trust building with consumers is not an easy task, managers need to emphasize trust building, trust maintaining, as well as trust reinforcing with consumers. In agri-food sector, managers might need to specifically address the importance of food safety and quality so as to not lose consumer trust in one night.
Originality/value
The study has mainly two contributions: first, it has managerial implications for agribusiness e-commerce entrepreneurs, addressing the important role of social presence in building up consumer trust. Second, it contributes to social presence and social relations literature by providing new empirical evidence from e-commerce in agri-food sector and in developing countries.
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Qin Chen, Jiahua Jin and Xiangbin Yan
Since the success of online communities depend on physicians' participation, understanding factors that influence community participation and content contribution are critical for…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the success of online communities depend on physicians' participation, understanding factors that influence community participation and content contribution are critical for online health communities (OHCs). Drawing on the self-determination theory (SDT), an empirical model was proposed to explore the effects of social returns and economic returns on physicians' community participation, private content contribution and public content contribution, and the moderating effect of their online seniority. This paper aims to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data of 4,343 physicians were collected from a Chinese OHC, and ordinary least squares (OLS) and negative binomial regression models were employed to verify the proposed theoretical model.
Findings
The authors’ results indicate that both social and economic returns have a positive effect on physicians' community participation and private content contribution, and their online seniority strengthens the positive effects of economic returns on community participation and private content contribution.
Originality/value
The authors’ research extends physicians' community participation by dividing content contribution into private and public, and enhances our understanding of the determinants of physicians' participation in OHCs by exploring the effects of social and economic returns, as well as the moderating effect of online seniority. Their findings contribute to the literature on e-Health and user participation, and provide management implications for OHC managers.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0615/
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Hanan Alghamdi and Ali Selamat
With the proliferation of terrorist/extremist websites on the World Wide Web, it has become progressively more crucial to detect and analyze the content on these websites…
Abstract
Purpose
With the proliferation of terrorist/extremist websites on the World Wide Web, it has become progressively more crucial to detect and analyze the content on these websites. Accordingly, the volume of previous research focused on identifying the techniques and activities of terrorist/extremist groups, as revealed by their sites on the so-called dark web, has also grown.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a review of the techniques used to detect and process the content of terrorist/extremist sites on the dark web. Forty of the most relevant data sources were examined, and various techniques were identified among them.
Findings
Based on this review, it was found that methods of feature selection and feature extraction can be used as topic modeling with content analysis and text clustering.
Originality/value
At the end of the review, present the current state-of-the- art and certain open issues associated with Arabic dark Web content analysis.
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Qin Chen, Jiahua Jin and Xiangbin Yan
Although online health communities (OHCs) and online patient reviews can help to eliminate health information asymmetry and improve patients' health management, how patients write…
Abstract
Purpose
Although online health communities (OHCs) and online patient reviews can help to eliminate health information asymmetry and improve patients' health management, how patients write online reviews within OHCs is poorly understood. Thus, it is very necessary to determine the factors influencing patients' online review behavior in OHCs, including the emotional response and reviewing effort.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on expectation-disconfirmation theory, this study proposes a theoretical model to analyze the effects of service quality perception (i.e. outcome quality and process quality perceptions) and disconfirmation (i.e. outcome quality and process quality disconfirmations) on patients' emotional response and reviewing effort. The authors test the research model by using empirical data collected from a popular Chinese OHC and applying ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and zero-truncated negative binomial (ZTNB) regression models.
Findings
Both service quality perception and disconfirmation have a positive effect on patients' positive emotional intensity in textual reviews, and disease severity enhances these relationships of process quality. Moreover, there is an asymmetric U-shaped relationship among service quality perception, disconfirmation and reviewing effort. Patients who perceive low service quality have higher reviewing effort, while service quality disconfirmation has the opposite relationship. Specifically, patients' effort in writing textual reviews is lowest when perceived outcome quality is 3.5 (on a five-point scale), perceived process quality is 4 or outcome quality and process quality disconfirmations are −1.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine patients' online review behavior and its motivations and contributes to the literature on online reviews and service quality. In addition, the findings of this study have important management implications for service providers and OHC managers.
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Naimatullah Shah, Muhammad Shafique Kalwar and Bahadur Ali Soomro
This study aims to explore individuals’ attitudes and intentions towards mask purchase in Pakistan at an initial outbreak of COVID-19.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore individuals’ attitudes and intentions towards mask purchase in Pakistan at an initial outbreak of COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is quantitatively based on the cross-sectional data. The data are collected through a survey questionnaire. Convenience sampling strategy is used to target the individuals of Pakistan. At the first, 650 questionnaires were distributed. In return, the authors received 321 raw samples with the response rate of 53.5%. Finally, 316 useful samples are proceeded to infer the final results.
Findings
The structural equation model’s results demonstrate a positive and significant effect of fear of complication of COVID-19, knowledge about COVID-19 and health consciousness on attitudes towards the mask. Further, attitudes towards mask are found to be the robust analyst of mask purchase intention.
Research limitations/implications
The study used cross-sectional data through a single source of data collection. The findings of the survey are on the sample size of 316.
Practical implications
The study would help policymakers to formulate the strategies to make aware individuals regarding their health and COVID-19 issues. The study would provide the guidelines to the government agents of Pakistan to combat with COVID-19 through the purchase of mask. The shopkeepers would be aware to observe the intentions and attitudes of consumers towards mask.
Originality/value
The outcomes of this study offer a shred of empirical evidence for attitudes and intentions regarding the purchase of mask, particularly for developing country settings.
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Ren Hong, Du Yongjie, Cai Weiguang, Ma Xianrui, Wang Peng, Qin Beibei and Chen Mingman
With high-speed urbanization and strict requirements on energy conservation and environmental protection, eco-city has become the priority of urban development in China…
Abstract
With high-speed urbanization and strict requirements on energy conservation and environmental protection, eco-city has become the priority of urban development in China. Governments of all levels promote various eco-city planning schemes within a short term, but most schemes are characterized by randomness and subjectivity. To solve the lack of scientific pre-implementation evaluation for eco-city planning and improve eco-city construction quality, a systematic analysis is conducted in this study from three dimensions, namely, eco-city planning scheme, operating mechanism, and guarantee measures. A 3D evaluation model for eco-city planning is constructed through index selection. Schemes are ranked comprehensively with the distance measure method, and projection analysis is performed with the four-grid evaluation screen. Finally, the 3D evaluation model is applied to evaluate eco-city planning for Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Weifang. Results show that the model can be used to evaluate eco-city planning schemes effectively and comprehensively and offers targeted optimization suggestions in accordance with the evaluation results. Construction of the 3D evaluation model of eco-city planning based on the distance measure to determine the reasonability of eco-city planning reduces the institutional and social costs of eco-city planning practices.
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Junting Zhang, Mudaser Javaid, Shudi Liao, Myeongcheol Choi and Hann Earl Kim
The present study aimed to examine the relationship between humble leadership (HL) and employee adaptive performance by testing the mediating role of self-determination and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aimed to examine the relationship between humble leadership (HL) and employee adaptive performance by testing the mediating role of self-determination and the moderating role of employee attributions of HL.
Design/methodology/approach
A three-wave, two-source design was used to collect quantitative data from 301 employees and 45 direct supervisors of mainland Chinese enterprises. Testing the hypotheses was conducted through multiple regression analysis and moderated regression analysis.
Findings
Results showed that HL was positively related to employee adaptive performance. Additionally, the relationship between HL and employee adaptive performance was mediated by self-determination. Furthermore, this positive effect of HL on self-determination was minimized among employees who attribute HL to impression management motives but is insignificant for employees who attribute HL to performance improvement motives.
Originality/value
It has been widely concerned that the traditional “top-down” leadership styles are associated with employee adaptive performance; however, the role of bottom-up leadership styles on employee adaptive performance has only been sporadically examined. The present study introduced HL, a typical bottom-up leadership style and developed a moderated mediation model to investigate the potential effect of HL on employee adaptive performance. Moreover, by confirming the mediating role of self-determination, the authors further uncover how HL facilitates employees' adaptive performance. Meanwhile, the moderating role of employee attributions of HL found in this study offers new insights into the understanding of the effectiveness of HL.
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Kong Weicheng, Shen Hui, Gao Jiaxu, Wu Jie and Lu Yuling
This study aims to investigate the electrochemical corrosion performance of high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) sprayed WC–12Co coating in 3.5 Wt.% NaCl solution, which provided a…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the electrochemical corrosion performance of high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) sprayed WC–12Co coating in 3.5 Wt.% NaCl solution, which provided a guiding significance on the corrosion resistance of H13 hot work mould steel.
Design/methodology/approach
A WC–12Co coating was fabricated on H13 hot work mould steel using a HVOF, and the electrochemical corrosion behaviors of WC–12Co coating and substrate in 3.5 Wt.% NaCl solution was measured using open circuit potential (OCP), potentiodynamic polarization curve (PPC) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests.
Findings
The OCP and PPC of WC–12Co coating positively shift than those of substrate, its corrosion tendency and corrosion rate decrease to enhance its corrosion resistance. The curvature radius of capacitance curve on the WC–12Co coating is larger than that on the substrate, and the impedance and polarization resistance of WC–12Co coating increase faster than those of substrate, which reduces the corrosion process.
Originality/value
The electrochemical corrosion behaviors of WC–12Co coating and substrate in 3.5 Wt.% NaCl solution is first measured using OCP, PPC and EIS tests, which improve the electrochemical corrosion resistance of H13 hot work mould steel.
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Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to calculate the mixed‐mode stress intensity factors (SIFs) of a 3D crack meeting the interface in a bimaterial under shear loading by a hypersingular integral equation (HIE) method, And further to assess the accuracy of numerical solutions for the mixed mode SIFs along the crack front.
Design/methodology/approach
A 3D crack modeling is reduced to solving a set of HIEs. Based on the analytical solutions of the singular stress field around the crack front, a numerical method for the HIEs is proposed by a finite‐part integral method, where the displacement discontinuities of the crack surface are approximated by the product of basic density functions and polynomials. Using FORTRAN program, numerical solutions of the mixed‐mode SIFs of some examples are presented.
Findings
The numerical method is proved to be an effective construction technique. The numerical results show that this numerical technique is successful, and the solution precision is satisfied.
Research limitations/implications
This work takes further steps to improve the fundamental systems of HIE for its application in the fields of arbitrary shape crack problems. Propose several techniques for numerical implementation, which could increase the efficiency and accuracy of computation.
Practical implications
Whenever there is a structure containing the 3D crack, the analysis method described in this paper can be utilized to find the critical configurations under which the structure may be most vulnerable. In such cases, the strength predictions would be safer if the crack could be taken into account.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to apply HIE method to analyzing the mixed‐mode crack meeting the interface in 3D dissimilar materials. Numerical solutions of the mixed‐mode SIFs can give the satisfied solution precision.
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Kazuyuki Suzuki, Tomonori Hasegawa, Noriaki Kano and Yoshihisa Okamoto
The purpose of this paper is to intelligibly demonstrate the effectiveness of face mask wearing as a means to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Through understanding the benefits of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to intelligibly demonstrate the effectiveness of face mask wearing as a means to prevent COVID-19 transmission. Through understanding the benefits of wearing masks, it is hoped to facilitate the change of societal behavior and more people are willing to wear face mask.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper investigates the 50 states in the United States of America (U.S.) and Washington, D.C. that implemented the mask mandates before September 30, 2020, which are divided into four groups: (1) those implemented the statewide mask mandates before June 5, 2020 when World Health Organization (WHO) recommended mask wearing; (2) those implemented statewide mask mandates after June 5, 2020; (3) those implemented partial mandates affecting 30 percent or more of the state’s population; and (4) those implemented partial mandates affecting less than 30 percent. Simple descriptive statistics are analyzed.
Findings
For the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., the higher the mask wearing rate, the lower the number of COVID-19 cases (correlation coefficient: −0.69 (p<0.001)). For the 23 states with mobility reduction of less than 15 percent, the higher the proportion of population required to wear masks, the lower the number of cases. This can be seen from the difference in the number of cases among the four groups by ANOVA (p = 0.013).
Originality
The positive effect of wearing masks is shown based on simple descriptive statistics for intuitive and intelligible understanding, which may lead people to comprehend the importance of wearing masks, and break through their custom, culture, and norms, and wear masks.
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