Permanently online and permanently connected: Taiwanese university students’ attachment style,mobile phone usage,and well-being

Taiwan has been the top country worldwide in terms of its adoption and use of mobile phones. This study explores the permanently online (PO) and permanently connected (PC) phenomenon in mobile phone use among Taiwanese university students. It seeks to determine whether attachment styles are a distinctive factor that influences PO and PC (POPC) behavior and leads to various levels of well-being. The results of this study provide initial evidence that Taiwanese users highly depend on their mobile phones for PC and PO activities but perceive that being permanently connected causes interpersonal stress. Although the findings showed that all styles were positively associated with PO, only the secure and anxious styles predicted PC. Regarding mobile phone activities, the avoidant attachment style was not associated with any activities, the secure attachment style was positively associated with online and voice communication as well as information-seeking activities, and the anxious attachment style was associated only with voice communication. Furthermore, attachment styles lead to various levels of interpersonal stress through PO and PC behavior. The anxious style interacts with PO on interpersonal stress. This study provides evidence that attachment style is a significant antecedent of POPC and its consequences in mobile phone usage.     

Hybrid social and news media protest events: from #MarchinMarch to #BusttheBudget in Australia

Public protest events are now both social media and news media events. They are deeply entangled, with news media actors – such as journalists or news organisations – directly participating in the protest by tweeting about the event using the protest hashtag; and social media actors sharing news items published online by professional news agencies. Protesters have always deployed tactics to engage the media and use news media agencies’ resources to amplify their reach, with the dual aim of mobilising new supporters and adding their voice to public, mediatised debate. When protest moves between a physical space and a virtual space, the interactions between protesters and media stop being asynchronous or post hoc and turn instantaneous. In this new media-protest ecosystem, traditional media are still relevant sources of information and legitimacy, yet this dynamic is increasingly underpinned by a hybrid interdependency between traditional news and social media sources. In this paper we focus on an anti-austerity government movement that arose in Australia in early 2014 and was mobilised as a series of social media driven, connective action protest events. We show that there is a complex symbiotic interdependency between the movement and the traditional media for recognition and amplification of initial protest events, but that over time as media interest wanes, the movements’ network becomes disconnected and momentum is lost. This suggests that the active role traditional media play in protest events is being underestimated in the current research agenda on connective action.     

How Japanese Families Cope with Fragile Elderly

Coping with caring for ill, fragile elderly is taxing the families in Japan, where longevity statistics predict early in the twenty-first century it will have the highest percentage of aged in the world. Interviews with 20 families revealed that although the culture mandates families care for their elderly, many are having considerable ambivalence and conflict, and caretakers suffer in the process unless they have assumed the defense of a martyr stance. Most do not seek nursing homes but are turning to government for supportive services. The trend in Japan, in spite of tradition, is for adult children to delay taking parents into their homes until they are unable to care for themselves.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： ONLINE LITERATURE IN CHINA： PRESENT SITUATION AND THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS Online Writing in the Course of Discourse Transformation： A Review of Ten Outstanding Online Novels of the Past Decade

中国当代文学阅读层面上的价值认同正在经受前所未有的挑战。特别是新世纪以来，新的写作群体、写作方式不断涌现，使固有的理论批评体系遭到撞击、被撕裂，从而导致理论批评不时出现失语现象。随着网络文学的迅猛发展，非主流文学在阅读与消费环节中的影响日益增强，这就使得上述问题转化成了新的矛盾——互相不能包容的阅读隔膜。十多年来，网络上产生了海量的小说文本，逐渐形成了二十多种类型；本文兼顾时间跨度和创作类型，遴选了十年中不同类型的十部佳作，并针对它们区别于纸质媒体的艺术审美和创作特点进行了述评。     

Leveraging the common and outsourcing the distinct: institutional difference and multinational company identity in emerging economies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the challenges of outsidership faced by multinational companies (MNCs) accessing emerging economies. The paper departs from popular conceptualisations of culture drawing instead on social identity theory as part of an institutions-based view, to explain how employing a singularities approach can allow the identification of commonalities of Indianness and Australianness that can be leveraged to ameliorate negative socially embedded business norms that pose a challenge to MNC success in emerging economies. This study shows that despite recognised formal (regulatory) and informal (cultural) differences, managers of Australian MNCs operating in India were able to innovatively identify and exploit cultural commonalties/singularities to ease cultural adjustment and mitigate intergroup conflict, allowing them to achieve an innovative institutional fit. The paper discusses how, using this approach, sole-venture MNCs can access many of the benefits provided by collaborative entry modes while preserving MNC identity. We further propose that the singularities approach can provide a valuable starting point to develop culturally appropriate competence training initiatives.     

Repurposing Materials and Waste through Online Exchanges: Overcoming the Last Hurdle

Online material and waste exchanges (OMWEs) provide online channels to repurpose by‐products, unused materials and waste from industrial and commercial facilities. Unfortunately, OMWE's also have challenges. First, sellers may have access to other disposal options and, as a result, may not fully commit to the exchange. Second, buyers can face high uncertainty about the product exchanged and the transaction being undertaken. Overcoming these challenges is the “last hurdle” to making OMWEs successful. This study investigates the factors that reduce the buyers' uncertainty and increase the sellers' commitment to the OMWE. We analyze novel transaction‐level data from an online exchange (MNExchange.org) combined with other archival public records on county‐level repurposing and disposal statistics. First, we find that regional repurposing policies and alternatives have a complementary effect on sellers' commitment toward OMWEs, resulting in increased OMWE exchanges. However, regional disposal policies and alternatives have a substitution effect on sellers' commitment, resulting in reduced exchange success. Further, greater product and transaction information reduce the buyer's uncertainty and increase exchange success. Finally, the analysis shows that users' (buyers and sellers) heavily rely on their prior experience with OMWEs. Specifically, higher familiarity between the buyer–seller pair and familiarity with the OMWE system leads to higher likelihood of exchange success. This study lays the foundation for understanding OMWEs and has important implications for developing policies and operations to increase online transactions of by‐products, materials and wastes.     

企业在线社群内容组合策略的影响研究

现代企业通过建立在线社群实现与消费者的互动,希望在向消费者提供服务的同时进行更好的营销,然而如何提供在线社群中的营销与服务内容却是一大难题.本文在营销—服务二元理论的基础上,提出了在线社群内容二元性的平衡维度与结合维度概念,并研究平衡维度与结合维度如何影响销售业绩与消费者的满意度.结合机器学习方法,本文发现,平衡维度对消费者满意度和销售绩效有提高作用,但是,结合维度对消费者满意度及企业绩效的影响呈倒U型;另外,企业员工的技能水平对内容二元性策略的效果有着显著的调节作用.研究结论对企业理解在线社群中的营销内容与服务内容之间的二元关系,以及内容提供策略的价值机制有重要的指导意义.     

农产品网购意愿影响因素及作用机理研究——基于参照效应视角的分析

以整合型科技接受和使用模型(UTAUT)和价值接受模型(VAM)为基础,通过构建参照群体、参考价格、积极在线评论与感知价值、感知风险以及购买意愿之间的关系模型,从参照效应视角实证分析了农产品网购意愿的影响因素及作用机理,并探讨了消费者农产品质量与安全意识在参照效应影响网购意愿中的调节作用.结果表明:参照效应对农产品网购意愿有显著影响;感知价值和感知风险在参照效应影响网购意愿中均发挥了中介作用,但感知价值的中介作用显著大于感知风险;消费者农产品质量与安全意识在参照效应影响网购意愿中部分地发挥了调节效应.其中,对参照群体和积极在线评论的调节效应显著,即网购过程中,消费者越是重视农产品质量与安全,参照群体的意见和积极在线评论对其网购意愿的影响就会越凸显.     

能效标识对节能产品选择的引导效用分析——基于京东家电线上销售的实证检验

搜集冰箱、洗衣机、空调三种大家电的线上销售数据,通过描述性分析、组间差异比较、多元回归分析等方式分析能效标识的市场引导效果。结果显示消费者对不同等级家电产品的选择量存在差异,但不同能效等级间消费者满意度并无明显差异,能效等级并非是影响消费者选择和满意度的显著因素。     

基于在线算法的改进指数梯度投资组合策略

弱集成算法是对专家意见进行动态加权平均的在线学习算法。近年来,机器学习和人工智能等方法被用来研究在线投资组合问题。该文从弱集成算法的在线学习及其序列决策性角度出发,设计改进的指数梯度在线投资组合策略,以弥补指数梯度在线投资组合策略不能结合交易费用进行分析的缺陷。首先根据指数梯度在线投资组合策略的更新方法构建代表投资策略的专家意见池,并以此为基础应用弱集成算法加权集成专家意见得到改进的指数梯度在线投资组合策略,证明了该策略可与最优专家策略(基准策略)相媲美。其次将交易费用引入到改进的指数梯度在线投资组合策略中,进一步给出对应的投资策略,重要的是理论上证明了该策略实现的平均累积收益与最优专家策略实现的平均累积收益之间的差值存在渐进式下界,从而提高了指数梯度在线投资组合策略的实用性。最后利用国内外股票市场的历史数据进行实证分析,说明了改进的指数梯度在线投资组合策略的可行性和有效性。