Search results

Due to the unintentional or even the intentional mistakes arising from a survey, the purpose of this paper is to present a data-driven method for detecting students’ friendship network based on their daily behaviour data. Based on the detected friendship network, this paper further aims to explore how the considered network effects (i.e. friend numbers (FNs), structural holes (SHs) and friendship homophily) influence students’ GPA ranking.

The authors collected the campus smart card data of 8,917 sophomores registered in one Chinese university during one academic year, uncovered the inner relationship between the daily behaviour data with the friendship to infer the friendship network among students, and further adopted the ordered probit regression model to test the relationship between network effects with GPA rankings by controlling several influencing variables.

The data-driven approach of detecting friendship network is demonstrated to be useful and the empirical analysis illustrates that the relationship between GPA ranking and FN presents an inverted “U-shape”, richness in SHs positively affects GPA ranking, and making more friends within the same department will benefit promoting GPA ranking.

The proposed approach can be regarded as a new information technology for detecting friendship network from the real behaviour data, which is potential to be widely used in many scopes. Moreover, the findings from the designed empirical analysis also shed light on how to improve GPA rankings from the angle of network effect and further guide how many friends should be made in order to achieve the highest GPA level, which contributes to the existing literature.

This paper aims to solve the problem of information overload and reduce search costs. It proposes a social e-commerce online reputation formation model and community state-introduced model. A system dynamics trend simulation has been run to capture the relationship among the sellers, buyers, social e-commerce platforms and external environment to obtain an online reputation.

Empirical research relating to social e-commerce reputation has been used to confirm the influencing factors in social e-commerce, and a conceptual framework is developed for social e-commerce reputation formation. Thereafter, a trend simulation is generated to classify the relationship among the factors based on system dynamics. Also, the improved algorithm for community detection and a state-introduced model based on a Markov network are proposed to achieve better network partition for better online reputation management.

The empirical model captures the interaction effect of social e-commerce reputation and the state-introduced model to guide community public opinion and improve the efficiency of social e-commerce reputation formation. This helps minimize searching cost thereby improving social e-commerce reputation construction and management.

There is no appropriate online reputation system to be constructed to test the relationship proposed in the study for a field experiment. Also, deeper investigation for the nodes’ attributes in social networks should be made in future research. Besides, researchers are advised to explore measurement for the reputation of a given seller by using social media data as from Twitter or micro blogs.

Investigations that study online reputation in the social e-commerce are limited. The empirical research figured out the factors which can influence the formation of online reputation in social e-commerce. An SD model was proposed to explain the factors interaction and trend simulation was run. Also, a state-introduced model was proposed to highlight the effect of nodes’ attributes on communities’ detection to give a deeper investigation for the online reputation management.

Online charitable giving is prevalent, and how to attract individuals' attention to donate is essential for charities. Little is known about the interaction effect of empathy (donor) and vulnerability (receiver) on donate intention. To bridge this gap, this study aims to investigate whether the influence of empathy on charitable giving would be moderated by receivers' vulnerability, and if yes, what is the mechanism.

Five experiments were conducted in the context of charitable giving with 1,303 participants to test our hypotheses.

When empathetic individuals confronted high vulnerable receivers, they were less likely to donate; otherwise, they were more likely to donate when they confronted low vulnerable receivers, and this interaction effect was mediated by concern about self.

The present research identifies a novel moderator of the effect of empathy on charitable giving and elucidates the underlying mechanism of concern about self. Based on these findings, the authors provide actionable implications for charities by demonstrating the interaction effect of empathy and vulnerability on donate intention.

College support and career development are two significant challenges international students encountered during the pandemic, and these two factors have an enormous impact on the internationalization of higher education. The data for this study came from the 2020 to 2021 administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that includes over 500 international students enrolled at over 120 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. These students specifically responded to an open-ended item asking them what they think institutions should do better to assist their academic achievement and career goals. This study takes an in-depth look at international students’ qualitative responses about ways that institutions could better support their preparation for future careers. Using theories of cultural wealth and ecological systems to understand the unique experiences of international students during the pandemic offers an opportunity to help students not just in times of crisis but more holistically as they continue to pursue their higher education experiences in the United States. Ultimately, the authors provide recommendations for higher education professionals working with international students to better support their students’ career development and overall college experience.

The authors examine the Taiwanese government's budgetary responses to COVID-19, with a focus on the special budgets created for containing the virus, undertaking bailouts and providing economic stimulus. The authors assess the short-term and long-term fiscal implications of the budgetary measures and discuss how Taiwan's experiences could provide lessons for other countries for future emergencies.

The authors collect data from Taiwan's official documents and news reports and compare the special budgets proposed by the Taiwanese government during the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors discuss lessons learned from the 2008–09 special budget and possible concerns of the 2020 special budgets. In the conclusions, the authors discuss potential long-term implications for Taiwan's budgetary system as well as possible lessons for other countries based on Taiwan's experiences

The authors found that the 2008–09 special budgets focused only on economic stimulus, whereas the 2020 special budgets covered COVID-19 treatments, bailouts and economic stimulus. In 2020, the Taiwanese government devised targeted bailout plans for industries and individuals most affected by the pandemic and created the Triple Stimulus Vouchers to boost the economy. Since the special budgets were largely funded through borrowing, the authors pointed out concerns for fiscal sustainability and intergenerational equity.

COVID-19 has changed how the world functions massively. This work adds to the literature on COVID-19 by providing Taiwan's budgetary responses to the pandemic. This work also identifies ways for Taiwan to improve the existing budgetary system and discusses lessons for other countries.

Abundant oil and gas reservoirs in the deep-water are the valuable non-renewable energy sources. However, sea-water could enhance the corrosion of marine equipment such as submarine pipe trees. Various coatings, for example, polyurethane (PU) coatings are sprayed on the steel surfaces to enhance the anti-corrosion performance. Thus, to improve the anti-corrosion behavior of PU coatings in sea-water is imperative.

In this paper, the corrosion behaviors of 4130 carbon steel with and without PU coatings were discussed by electrochemical mean in sea-water. And the graphene additive in different concentrations (0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 per cent) were also studied. A series of characterized methods were introduced to identify the anti-corrosion performances of 4130 carbon steel with and without coatings, respectively.

The results showed that the anti-corrosion property of 4130 carbon steel can enhance obviously with the PU coatings. The graphene additive can further improve the anti-corrosion behaviour of PU coatings and in the concentration of 0.6 per cent the PU/graphene coatings worked best.

This is beneficial for enhancing the service life of marine equipment in an eco-friendly method.

The purpose of this paper is to present a system that analyzes trustworthiness and ranks applications to improve the search experience.

The system adopts pointwise mutual information to calculate comment semantics. It examines subjective (signed opinions, anonymous opinions and star ratings) and objective factors (download numbers, reputation ratings) before filtering, ranking and displaying). The authors invited three experts to check three categories and compared the results using Spearman and two statistics.

A high correlation between the proposed system and the expert ranking system suggests that the system can act as decision support.

First, the authors have only tested the correlation between the proposed system and an expert ranking system; user satisfaction was not evaluated. The authors plan to conduct a later survey to gather user feedback. Second, the ranking system evaluates applications using fixed weights and disregards time. Therefore, in the future, the authors plan to enable their system to weight recent records over older ones.

User discussion forums, although helpful, have drawbacks. Not all reviews are trustworthy, and forums provide no filtering mechanisms to combat information overload. The solution to this is the authors’ system that crawls a forum, filters information, analyzes the trustworthiness of each comment and ranks the application for the user.

This paper develops a formula to analyze the trustworthiness of opinions, enabling the system to act as decision support when no professional advice is available.

Contractual services are characterized by features such as termination fees, long-term commitment, and complex terms. When customers find better deals from other providers, they may want to switch, but contractual obligations prevent them from doing so. Thus, this study aims to draw upon the stimulus-organism-response paradigm and theories of emotion regulation to examine how punitive switching costs (PSCs) can evoke negative emotions (NEs) from customers and, consequently, lead to negative behavioral responses in contractual service settings.

This study collected data from 395 customers of telecommunications companies, fitness centers, tutoring firms/centers, and house leasing companies in Taiwan. We tested the hypotheses using partial least squares structural equation modeling via SmartPLS 3.0.

The results show that NEs partially mediate the relationship between PSC and customers’ switching intention and negative word-of-mouth. This study also finds alternative attractiveness (AA) and service recovery (SR) do not moderate the PSCs–NEs relationship, but AA does directly influence NEs.

First, this study contributes to the literature on switching costs by exploring how PSC exerts a detrimental impact on behavioral responses. Second, this study adds to the literature on service failures by identifying the mediating role of NEs in such a relationship.

The traction cable is paralleled with the existing traction network of electrified railway through transverse connecting line to form the scheme of long distance power supply for the traction network. This paper aims to study the scheme composition and power supply distance (PSD) of the scheme.

Based on the structure of parallel traction network (referred to as “cable traction network (CTN)”), the power supply modes (PSMs) are divided into cable + direct PSM and cable + autotransformer (AT) PSM (including Japanese mode, French mode and new mode). Taking cable + Japanese AT PSM as an example, the scheme of long distance power supply for CTN under the PSMs of co-phase and out-of-phase power supply are designed. On the basis of establishing the equivalent circuit model and the chain circuit model of CTN, taking the train working voltage as the constraint condition, and based on the power flow calculation of multiple train loads, the calculation formula and process for determining the PSD of CTN are given. The impedance and PSD of CTN under the cable + AT PSM are simulated and analyzed, and a certain line is taken as an example to compare the scheme design.

Results show that the equivalent impedance of CTN under the cable + AT PSM is smaller, and the PSD is about 2.5 times of that under the AT PSM, which can effectively increase the PSD and the flexibility of external power supply location.

The research content can effectively improve the PSD of traction power supply system and has important reference value for the engineering application of the scheme.

The paper aims to contribute to the current research on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from a historical point of view. The paper investigates why the history of the Silk Roads is important to the BRI, what is in the guiding thought underpinning China's Silk Roads narrative and how this narrative is presented transnationally, through an insightful analysis of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) view of the Silk Roads history, as well as its perception of the connections between the Silk Roads history and the BRI.

The paper sits in the interface between history, heritage and state power. The argument is framed in concepts of historical constructionism and soft power. It is based on the discourse analysis of China's official narrative of Silk Roads and a case study of the planning for the World Heritage nomination of the Maritime Silk Routes (MSR) (China section). The case study is conducted through a qualitative analysis of academic publications, media reports and programs, official speeches and documents that are available to the public in hardcopy or on the Internet.

The paper reveals the relationship between the state-endorsed Silk Roads narrative and the BRI. The paper argues that the state-backed Silk Roads narrative as well as the planning for the World Heritage nomination of the MSR (China section) is guided by the Chinese Communist Party's perception of the BRI. In this respect, the Silk Roads-associated history, heritage and memory are shaped and deployed to serve as a convenient platform for the promotion of the BRI. The Party leaders' perception of the BRI is in large part about the revival of China's past glory, its national rejuvenation and the demonstration of China's soft power.

The paper contributes to the existing literature on the BRI through its enquiries into how the CPC reconcile nationalist ambitions with notions of peace, harmony and cosmopolitanism and how CPC's view of the Silk Roads history shapes its vision of the BRI. The paper examines the role of the state in the construction and articulation of the Silk Roads-associated history, heritage and memory. It investigates how China's official interpretation of the Silk Road heritage serves China's BRI.