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Built asset management processes require a long transition period to collect, edit and update asset conditions information from existing data sets. This paper aims to explore and explain whether and how digital technologies, including asset information model (AIM), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain, can enhance asset conditions assessment and lead to better asset management.

Mixed methods are applied to achieve the research objective with a focus in universities. The questionnaire aims to test whether the integration of AIM, IoT and blockchain can enhance asset condition assessment (ACA). Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to the quantitative data. The mean, median, mode, standard deviation, variance, skewness and range of the data group were calculated. Semi-structured interviews were designed to answer how the integration of AIM, IoT and blockchain can enhance the ACA. Quantitative data was analysed to define and explain the essential factors for each sub-hypothesis. Meanwhile, to strengthen the evaluation of the research hypothesis, the researcher also obtained secondary data from the literature review.

The research shows that the integration of AIM, IoT and blockchain strongly influences asset conditions assessment. The integration of AIM, IoT and blockchain can improve the asset monitoring and diagnostics through its life cycle and in different aspects, including financial, physical, functional and sustainability. Moreover, the integration of AIM, IoT and blockchain can enhance cross-functional collaboration to avoid misunderstandings, various barriers and enhance trust, communication and collaboration between the team members. Finally, costs and risk could be reduced, and performance could be increased during the ACA.

The contribution of this study indicated that the integration of AIM, IoT and blockchain application in asset assessment could increase the efficiency, accuracy, stability and flexibility of asset assessment to ensure the reliability of assets and lead to a high-efficiency working environment. More importantly, a key performance indicator for ACA based on the asset information, technology and people experience could be developed gradually.

This study can break the gap between transdisciplinary knowledge to improve the integration of people, technology (AIM, IoT and blockchain) and process value-based ACA in built asset management within universities.

The purpose of this study was to prepare carboxylated attapulgite (APT-COOH) and then be used as one of the ligands to prepare metal organic framework (MOF) hybrid materials to reduce the cost of MOF materials and improve the dispersed condition of APT. And then the materials were used to enrich anionic dye Congo red from aqueous solution.

The MOF hybrid materials were designed by means of facile reflux method rather than hydrothermal method, characterized by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer and pore structure. The dispersed degree of APT-COOH in the MOF materials was validated according to adsorption efficiency for Congo red.

Due to introduction of APT-COOH, the microenvironment of the MOF materials changed, leading to different adsorption behaviors. Compared to the MOF material without APT-COOH, the adsorption capacities of the hybridized MOF materials with different amounts of APT-COOH introduced increased by 4.58% and 15.55%, respectively, as the initial concentration of Congo red solution of 300 mg/L. Meantime, hybridized MOF materials were suitable to remove Congo red with low concentration, while the MOF material without APT-COOH was appropriate to enrich Congo red with high concentration.

The microstructure of MOF hybrid materials in detail is the further and future investigation.

This study will provide a method to reduce the cost of MOF materials and a theoretical support to treat anionic dyes from aqueous solution.

APT-COOH was prepared and used as one of the ligands to synthesize MOF material to improve the dispersed degree of APT-COOH and reduce the cost of the MOF materials. The adsorption efficiency was greatly enhanced with low concentration of Congo red solution, and the results indicated that hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interaction, and p-p conjugation were involved in the adsorption process. The prepared MOFs materials exhibited excellent adsorption efficiency, which made the present materials highly promising and potentially useful in practical application as adsorbents to enrich anionic dyes such as Congo red from aqueous solution.

With the popularity of e-commerce, shilling attack is becoming more rampant in online shopping websites. Shilling attackers publish mendacious ratings as well as reviews for promoting or suppressing target products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate group shilling, a new typed shilling attack, behavior in a real e-commerce platform (e.g. Amazon.cn).

Several behavioral features are proposed for modeling the shilling group, and thus an unsupervised ranking method based on principal component analysis (PCA) is presented for identifying shilling groups from real users on Amazon.cn.

As indicated by the behavior analysis, the proposed method has successfully identified a number of shilling groups on Amazon. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the proposed features and accuracy of the proposed unsupervised method are carefully validated.

This paper presents a set of solutions for discovering shilling groups when the ground truth labels are hard to be obtained in real environment, including candidate groups generation, behavioral features definition and unsupervised detection.

The sharing of knowledge between partners in collaborative relationships is widely accepted to be fundamental to supporting strategic decision making, particularly in relation to innovation management and business sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how the structure of collaborative relationships in business networks may determine successful knowledge sharing and thus improve decision making and business performance.

Expert interviews were conducted with participants operating in networks and business ecosystem in four different sectors in Italy and Germany, exploring the process of knowledge sharing, organisational learning and decision making within collaborative relationships. A qualitative textual analysis was used to analyse the experts’ responses.

The research found that an organisation’s network position and the network structure, as well as the governance and richness of the business ecosystem in which it operates, influence its ability to share knowledge, to innovate and therefore to compete sustainably.

The research demonstrates that innovative strategic decision making, based on access to appropriate knowledge, occurs within the context of social and business network relations operating within a broader more diverse business ecosystem. Closer dyadic or small working group ties best facilitate trust and sharing of the most valuable knowledge. Appropriate participation in and management of such structures is therefore essential to support knowledge-based decision making, and critical to sustained competitive advantage.

The research focusses on how interfirm relationships are established and maintained, how firms establish trust and facilitate knowledge sharing forming the basis of organisational learning.

This paper presents a theorization and an empirical analysis of the influences of international open innovation (IOI) on the international market success of emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises (ESMEs). An analysis of the moderating roles played by cross-cultural competencies and digital alliance capabilities in this specific context is also presented.

The study adopted a quantitative research design involving a survey of 231 ESMEs based in the UAE. The authors formulated some hypotheses and tested them by employing hierarchical regression models.

The findings revealed that IOI positively affects the international market success of ESMEs. The authors further found that both cross-cultural competencies and digital alliance capabilities moderate the relationship between IOI and international market success.

The study advances the international marketing, knowledge and innovation management literature in two ways. First, it is a pioneering study that advances both the theoretical and empirical scholarship regarding the relationship between IOI and emerging market firm international market success by employing an extended resource-based view. Second, it further highlights the role played by cross-cultural competencies and digital alliance capabilities as effective governance mechanisms that moderate the relationship between IOI and international market success.

In order to find a way to create the artistic conception of modern landscape space, the spatial analysis of Daguanyuan is carried out from the perspective of literature in order to find out the method of creating the artistic conception of modern landscape space. Adopting the method of general to special, from theory to practice, the argument with special significance is analyzed from the most common phenomena, and this argument is applied to the method of practical cases. The results show that Daguanyuan space in literature needs the audience's ability to understand words, the perception of space in film and television needs the audience's strong memory and imaginative thinking, while the perception of Daguanyuan space in garden art needs only basic discrimination ability. After analyzing the effect of Daguanyuan space construction from the literary perspective, it is believed that the writing techniques of starting point - development - climax - ending, wanting to carry forward first and restraining first, and reserving foreshadows in literature can be used for reference in modern landscape design.