Search results

Due to the harsh underground environment in coal mining, the surface of hydraulic support columns corrodes severely, resulting in significant economic losses. Therefore, a highly corrosion-resistant coatings is needed to extend the service life of the columns.

This study aims to compare the corrosion resistance of ST-Cr₃C₂-NiCr (sealed treatment Cr₃C₂-NiCr) coatings with industrially applied chromium plating. The corrosion failure mechanism of the coatings was investigated.

The results demonstrated that the ST-Cr₃C₂-NiCr coatings exhibited excellent corrosion resistance. After sealing treatment, the corrosion potential of Cr₃C₂-NiCr coatings was −0.215 V, and the corrosion current density of Cr₃C₂-NiCr coatings was lower than that of the plated parts.

ST-Cr₃C₂-NiCr coatings prepared by supersonic atmospheric plasma spraying could provide excellent corrosion resistance in the coal industry.

The low porosity and the presence of the NiCr phase were crucial factors contributing to the preferable corrosion resistance exhibited by the ST-Cr₃C₂-NiCr coatings. The corrosive process of the coatings involved layer-by-layer delamination of surface oxide film, sub-surface pitting, formation and degradation of sub-surface passive film, as well as severe block-like delamination.

Loyalty membership is widely used as a marketing strategy to secure customer’s loyalty in many business sectors. The purpose of this paper is to focus on loyalty membership of customer in Malaysian luxury hotels, specifically, in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by looking into the perceived value of economic, interaction and psychological needs.

Quantitative cross-sectional research was conducted to explore the feedback from customers who have loyalty membership with a luxury hotel. Surveyed data of 489 respondents were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

There is a significant positive relationship between the psychological needs and perceived value. The relationship between the perceived value and customer’s loyalty is also significant and positive. However, there is no significant relationship between the economic value and the interaction constructs with the perceived value. The perceived value functions as a mediator for the economic value, interaction and psychological needs in respect of customer’s loyalty.

Hotel management should prioritise addressing the elements of psychological needs to enhance the perceived value from the customers’ perspective. The strength of the perceived value indirectly stimulates customer’s loyalty to a hotel, followed by the interaction and economic value from the customer value perspective to ensure customer’s loyalty.

This research highlights on how customers can be secured by a luxury hotel chain through a loyalty membership strategy. The knowledge generated from this research is expected to provide insights to practitioners on how to enhance their loyalty membership marketing strategy.

Family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve is the most important and most ritualized feast for families in China. It is the time for the entire family to reunite. Families gather together to reflect their past and talk about the future. Through the lens of consumer culture theories, this study explores how Chinese consumers construct family identity.

Based on constant comparative analysis of primary data including in-depth interviews and participant observation, and secondary data including historical archives, cultural tracing, documentary reports and essays, the authors deconstruct the consumption rituals of family dinner on Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve. The authors focus on four aspects, including participants, place, time and related activities, and analyze Chinese consumers' ritual experiences.

The authors’ findings show how young consumers construct and strengthen individual self-identity, relational identity and family identity in various ways through consumption and ritual practices during Chinese Lunar New Year celebration.

The study of family dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve helps the authors understand contemporary consumer culture in three aspects. First, it helps the authors understand the relationship between consumption and culture. Second, the study shows the changes and continuities of consumption rituals. Third, the research highlights the experience of “home” among contemporary Chinese consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to build on both the theoretical work concerning the co-creation of experiences, and the need for micro-businesses to adopt a consumer-friendly orientation. The researchers examined the compatibility of vendors’ views of their visitors’ perspectives and the visitors’ own assessments of two Hong Kong night markets. Using a large sample survey with over 1,900 tourists and 120 vendors, and examining the data through mean difference testing and factor analysis, the comparability of the views was examined. Key findings were that vendors consistently overestimated the positivity of the visitors’ views. Value for money, trustworthiness of the vendors and product variety were items indicating strong differences where vendors assumed visitors perceived night markets more favorably than did the visitors themselves. The work challenges some assumptions of service design logic and speculates that the durability of night markets is at risk without better vendor understanding of the visitors’ perspectives.

The study builds on both the theoretical work concerning the co-creation of experiences, and the need for micro-businesses to adopt a consumer-friendly orientation. The researchers examined the compatibility of vendors’ views of their visitors’ perspectives and the visitors’ own assessments of two Hong Kong night markets. Using a large sample survey with over 1,900 tourists and 120 vendors and examining the data through mean difference testing and factor analysis, the comparability of the views was examined.

Key findings were that vendors consistently overestimated the positivity of the visitors’ views. Value for money, trustworthiness of the vendors and product variety were items indicating strong differences where vendors assumed visitors perceived night markets more favorably than did the visitors themselves. The work challenges some assumptions of service design logic and speculates that the durability of night markets is at risk without better vendor understanding of the visitors’ perspectives.

For the present work, it would be desirable to ascertain that the figures reported apply to other night markets in Hong Kong and China. Further, the generalizability of the results for different market types, those that offer food or cater to specific interests needs examination. The possibility exists that the general night market will fold as specific tailored options, such as craft, art, flower and homewares themed spaces replace the basic all-purpose format.

The implications from this work are that vendors may have to form new group alliances to understand and then deliver the overall atmosphere, quality of goods and service interactions prized by tourists. Vendors need to sustain their appeal and sales through maintenance of these overall night market characteristics. The vendors may be able to escape individual censure and rejection for a while due to the transient customer base, but broader destination and attraction image concerns are likely to be a longer-term force requiring attention.

The implications from this work are that vendors may have to form new group alliances to understand and then deliver the overall atmosphere, quality of goods and service interactions prized by tourists. Vendors need to sustain their appeal and sales through maintenance of these overall night market characteristics. The vendors may be able to escape individual censure and rejection for a while due to the transient customer base, but broader destination and attraction image concerns are likely to be a longer-term force requiring attention.

The broad aim of the study can be identified as the desire to examine the compatibility of vendor and tourists’ views, and the more specific aims of this broad agenda will be articulated after reviewing the core conceptual ideas driving the work.