Lei Wang

As the essence of livestream e-commerce is social commerce, building a livestream brand community and attracting brand followers are the key aspects to achieving sustained revenue. For many companies, inviting celebrities has become a shortcut to attract new followers. Considering the unsustainability and high cost of the celebrity host mode, some companies switched to using their own branded broadcasters to attract followers. However, as branded broadcasters lack a fan base, choosing the suitable broadcaster type has become a challenge in livestream e-commerce. The motivation of consumers to follow brand livestream accounts is mainly to obtain potential value by embedding them in social networks. Therefore, based on motive theory, this research explores how different broadcaster types affect consumer’s intention to follow a livestream brand community. Results from the analysis of secondary data from livestream platforms and two laboratory experiments reveal that celebrities contribute more to consumer’s intention to follow than branded broadcasters, and utilitarian products can strengthen the effect of branded broadcasters on attracting potential followers. Moreover, branded broadcasters can promote consumer’s intention to follow a livestream brand community by satisfying consumer’s need for informational value during utilitarian product evaluation. This research analyzes the differential effects of different types of broadcasters on livestream brand community building. The findings can deepen the understanding of the consumer’s behavior of following brand livestream communities and provide companies with suggestions on broadcaster selection in livestream e-commerce.

Background As the global population continues to age, home-based care has gained increasing popularity as a way to address the growing need for long-term care among older adults. At the same time, healthcare and social care providers working in home care settings are experiencing a rise in ethical conflicts. This qualitative meta-synthesis aims to explore the ethical conflicts experienced by healthcare and social care providers in home-based care, offering insights and guidance for resolving moral dilemmas in this setting. Methods Qualitative systematic review utilizing meta-ethnography. A systematic search was conducted across four databases (Web of Science, Embase, MEDLINE, and CINAHL) from their inception through April 2025. Two reviewers independently screened articles against the eligibility criteria, appraised them using the JBI critical appraisal tools, and extracted qualitative data in duplicate. 16 studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed using thematic synthesis. Results The sixteen included studies were synthesized into three main themes and seven subthemes. The three main themes were Paternalism versus Respect for Autonomy, Blurred Boundaries, and Shortcomings of the Health System. Conclusion Our findings reveal that healthcare and social care providers experience diverse forms of moral conflict during home care; these experiences jeopardize their physical and mental well-being and urgently call for targeted support and intervention.

Familiarity and green image influencing travelers’ green hotel patronage have often been overlooked in previous research. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of the two dimensions of familiarity and the two dimensions of image with the overall image, satisfaction, and loyalty. The theoretical research model used in this study was based on the stimulus–organism–response framework. The research design for this study employed a quantitative approach using a purposive sampling method involving 488 student responses. The tests of the proposed hypotheses were conducted using SPSS and AMOS. The results of the study showed that experiential familiarity and informational familiarity positively influenced cognitive image and affective image, respectively, while cognitive image had a positive influence on the affective image. In addition, cognitive and affective images have a positive influence on the overall image, and the overall image is shown to have a positive impact on satisfaction and loyalty. Finally, satisfaction was found to have a positive influence on loyalty, while satisfaction plays a partial meditation role in the relationship between overall image and loyalty.

The value–attitude–behavior and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) appear to provide limited explanation for consumer green purchase behavior. This study aims to examine the relationship between pro-environmental value, consumption value, and TPB toward green car purchasing intention among the young Chinese generation. A total of 541 student responses were collected, and the results showed that altruistic value positively influenced subjective norm (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), but negatively influenced green purchase attitude (GPA). Biospheric value positively influenced GPA and PBC. Function value and emotional value positively influenced GPA, respectively, and emotional value fully mediated the relationship between function value and GPA. Furthermore, GPA, SN, PBC positively influenced intention toward green car purchasing behavior, respectively, and SN mediated the relationship between GPA and intention. This study shows how pro-environmental value and consumption value can influence components of TPB in green car purchase intention.

Specific to the NCSs where sensor signals can be processed centrally, a collaborative design scheme of dynamic game scheduling and advanced control theory was proposed in the present study. Firstly, by using the Jordan standard state space equation of the research object, the three elements of state noncooperative game were built, and the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium solution were verified. In addition, the iterative equation of the scheduling matrix was derived by complying with the designed utility function. Secondly, refer to the number of restricted states the order of sliding mode was determined. And based on it, the corresponding sliding surface was designed. Subsequently, the quadratic optimization theory was adopted to regulate the control value following the implementation of the scheduling strategy to ensure that the control quality was further enhanced in the limited network service. Lastly, a TrueTime simulation example is established to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

This paper addresses the sliding mode control problem for a class of networked control systems with long time delay and consecutive packet dropout. A new modeling method is proposed, through which time delay and packet dropout are modeled in a unified model described by one Markov chain. To avoid the chattering problem of classic reaching law, a new chattering-free reaching law is proposed. Then with a focus on the problem that controller-actuator channel network condition cannot be foreseen by the controller, a new compensation strategy is proposed, which can effectively compensate for the effect of time delay and packet dropout in controller-actuator channel. Finally, a simulation example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

China befand sich zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts in einer historischen Umbruchphase, die nahezu alle Bereiche in der Gesellschaft betraf. Der Wandel beschleunigte sich in dem goldenen Zeitalter der nationalen chinesischen Industrie zwischen 1914-1922. Während die alte soziale Ausgewogenheit aus dem Gleichgewicht kam, bildeten sich neue Sozialstrukturen und -gefälle infolge der fortschreitenden Industrialisierung und Urbanisierung. Das Land war mit einer neuen Herausforderung konfrontiert: der Dekonstruktion des alten Systems, der Reorganisation und dem Wiederaufbau einer neuen Gesellschaft.

Parallel zu der Reformbewegung war China gespalten zwischen der Herrschaft der Militärs im Norden und der von Sun Yat-sen geleiteten Nationalen Revolution im Süden. Keiner von den Machthabern hatte Interesse daran, die Verbreitung der Bildung zu fördern. Paradoxerweise ermöglichte diese Periode eine Reform, denn weder die Warlords noch die Nationalisten konnten die Lage des Landes im Griff behalten. Doch ohne die Unterstützung der Politik stieß die Bildungsreform auf finanzielle Schwierigkeiten und dann doch auch zunehmend auf gewalttätige Unterdrückung.

Like Dewey, also Guo Bingwen believed that education was the key to reorganizing society. In his opinion, Confucianism was responsible for China’s backwardness because under its influence the innovative spirit of the Chinese scholars was strongly suppressed, so that the system of the classical civil servant examination was completely alienated from social progress and human life (cf. Guo Bingwen 1915, 35, 64). Guo took Dewey’s democratic education as a standard and criticized the elite formation of a small class in the early Republic period, which led to a two-class society: Higher education as a tool for for the training of loyal civil servants was promoted by the government for securing its power.. At the same time, the education of broad sections of the population was neglected (cf. ibid., 63).

At the beginning of the 20th century Chinese intellectuals who had studied abroad returned to their homeland to fight for a new future for the country by help of the modern knowledge they had learned. They began to understand that a fundamental educational reform was necessary in order to achieve the profound enlightenment of broad sections of the population. Lu Xun’s appeal: “Save the children” in his novel “A Madman´s Diary” (Lu Xun 1983b) provided the leitmotif of this social movement: The people’s ways of thinking and behaving must be changed, so that they can become members of a newly organized society.

Parallel to the reform movement, China was divided between the rule of the military in the north and the National Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen in the south. None of those in power had any interest in promoting the spread of education. Paradoxically, this period made reform possible, for neither the warlords nor the nationalists were able to control the country’s situation. But without political support, educational reform encountered financial difficulties and then increasingly violent oppression.

The general population - especially the farmers living in villages - could not yet understand the necessity of general education. For most farmers, education and schooling were still a way to enter the privileged elite of the civil service and played no role in their daily lives. They had no confidence in the ideas and methods of the new schools. The new school system, the modern didactics and the new curriculum had great difficulties to gain a foothold especially in the countryside. There the traditional schools (Sishu) asserted themselves with the “backward” traditional teaching methods, the “dead” language (traditional characters) and Confucian classics as teaching material. Sishu schools were not officially recognized by the Ministry of Education in the context of the new Ren-Xu school system, but they were popular with farmers.

Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts kehrten die chinesischen Intellektuellen, die im Ausland studiert hatten, in ihre Heimat zurück, um mit dem gelernten modernen Wissen eine neue Zukunft für das Land zu erstreiten. Sie begannen zu begreifen, dass eine grundlegende Bildungsreform notwendig war, um die tiefgreifende Aufklärung breiter Bevölkerungsschichten erreichen zu können. Der Aufruf von Lu Xun: „Rettet die Kinder!“ in seinem Roman „Tagebuch eines Verrückten“ (Lu Xun 1983b) zeichnete das Leitmotiv dieser gesellschaftlichen Bewegung: Die Denk- und Verhaltensweise der Menschen müssen geändert werden, damit sie zu Mitgliedern einer neu organisierten Gesellschaft werden können.

Wie Dewey glaubte Guo Bingwen, dass Bildung der Schlüssel für die Reorganisation der Gesellschaft sei. Der Konfuzianismus sei seiner Ansicht nach für den Rückstand Chinas verantwortlich, weil unter dessen Einfluss der innovative Geist der chinesischen Gelehrten stark unterdrückt wurde, so dass das System der klassischen Beamtenprüfung völlig vom sozialen Fortschritt und menschlichem Leben entfremdet war (vgl. Guo Bingwen 1915, 35, 64). Guo nahm Deweys demokratische Erziehung als Standard und kritisiert die Elitebildung einer kleinen Schicht in der Zeit der frühen Republik, die zu einer Zweiklassen- Gesellschaft führte: Die Hochschulbildung wird von der Regierung als Instrument zur Sicherung ihrer Macht gefördert, um loyale Beamte auszubilden.