Search Results (5)

Online presence is fast becoming a marketing hub for contemporary businesses. Often known as digital marketing, the phenomenon offers several opportunities to businesses. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are using their online presence to launch stern competitive promotions and interact with consumers. Against the backdrop of the stern competition, digital marketing is being utilized to drive sustainable strategies for SMEs. This study leverages the theory of planned behavior to explore the impact of digital marketing adoption on the sustainable growth of SMEs in Ghana. Using a structured questionnaire and SmartPLS version 3.3 for the data analysis, 533 owners/managers of SMEs in Ghana were drawn to administer the questionnaire. Our findings suggest that, while attitudes toward digital marketing did not influence the intention to use digital marketing, perceived behavior control and subjective norms were found to affect individuals’ intentions to use digital marketing. Additionally, the results proved a direct positive link between subjective norms and actual behavioral use of digital marketing. Finally, the relationship between the actual use of digital marketing and SMEs’ sustainable growth was also proven positive, affirming that digital marketing significantly improved the sustainable growth of SMEs in developing countries. This study contributes to the multiplicity of factors that influence the behavioral tendencies of managers of firms in their quest to adopt digital platforms to enhance their sustainable growth. The study’s results serve as guidelines for prospective adopters of digital platforms as they develop their sustainability strategies. Full article

Rapid detection of the new class of hypersonic targets (HTs) presenting unknown military threats in space-based surveillance will guarantee aerospace security. This paper proposes an unsupervised subclass definition and an efficient isolation forest based on an anomalous hyperspectral feature selection (USD-EiForest) algorithm to detect the new class of never-before-seen HTs under emerging hyperspectral sample streams. First, we reveal that the hyperspectral features (HFs) of the new class of HTs have no anomaly characteristics when compared to the globally observed samples while having prominent anomaly characteristics when compared to the subclasses of observed samples. Second, an unsupervised subclass definition method adapted to HTs is utilized to classify the observed samples into several subclasses. Then, an efficient isolation forest is designed to determine whether the data stream sample in each subclass indicates anomaly features that mark the detection of the new class of hypersonic targets (DNHT). Finally, we experiment on the simulated hyperspectral HTs data sets considering the RAM-C II HT as the observed samples and the HTV-2 HT as the unknown samples. The results suggest that the performance of our proposal has competitive advantages in terms of accuracy and detection efficiency. Full article

Lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) are regarded as the most promising candidate for practical applications in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles because of their high capacity and energy density. However, the uncontrollable growth of lithium dendrite reduces its cycling ability and even causes a severe safety concern, which impedes the development of the technology. Although great efforts have been devoted to solving the lithium dendrite issue in recent years, the contradiction between the high cost of thin Li foil and the severe safety hazard of excess Li still exists. This is precisely the factor that inspired the development of anode-free lithium-metal batteries (AFLMBs). Compared to lithium-metal batteries, AFLMBs with a zero-excess Li anode possess an incredible, conceivable, and specific energy. Additionally, because the use of metal lithium is limited, the battery manufacturing will be safer and simpler, leading to a significant decrease in cost. However, comprehensive reviews on anode-free batteries are rare. Therefore, in this review, we aim to explain the essential development factors influencing the cycle life, energy density, cost, and working mechanism of anode-free batteries. We summarize different strategies to improve the cycling stability of AFLMBs, and we discuss the application of anode-free electrodes in other electrochemical energy storage systems. Moreover, it is believed that the combination of modification techniques, including electrolytes and current collectors, and the application protocols will be the most important solution for future anode-free batteries. Full article

Social media is gradually transforming diverse business ecosystems due to the limitless capabilities they offer. Given this, emerging businesses across the globe are leveraging this innovation to improve their operations. While the literature on the usage of social media by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is still emerging, the outcomes from existing research have not been coherent. Amid this, limited empirical evidence has been adduced on the affordance of the technology for the SME ecosystem in developing economies, particularly Ghana. Following this, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating the impact of social media usage on the long-term sustainability of SMEs, specifically in Ghana. Using empirical data from 424 respondents who are representatives of manufacturing SMEs in Ghana, using SmartPLS techniques, the study confirmed that, generally, social media usage does not only have a positive impact on SMEs but drastically drives their motivations towards resilience and sustainability. The results further revealed a positive and significant effect of social media usage value creation, business connections and opportunities on SMEs’ sustainability. This study contributes to knowledge of social media usage and sustainability from a developing country’s perspective. This study offers several implications for theory and practice. Full article

The current study was designed to investigate the drinking patterns and association between socio-demographic factors and adolescents’ alcohol use among high school students from China’s three metropolises, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Using a self-administered questionnaire, we conducted a cross-sectional survey among 13,811 high school students from 136 schools between May and June 2013. A two-stage stratified sampling method was used for subject selection. The prevalence of lifetime drinking was 52.5%; in addition, 38.5% of the students were past-year drinkers, while 20.1% of them had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. During the past year, 29.7% of the students reported that they drank once per month or less, and 22.0% of the students drank less than one standard drink (SD) per occasion. For the students who were not living with their mothers, as well as the students in higher socioeconomic status (SES), the adjusted odds of past and current drinking were significantly higher, compared with those who lived with both parents and low SES. Due to the high prevalence of alcohol consumption among junior and senior high school students in metropolises, attention should be paid by parents, school administrators, educational and public health agencies for making efforts collectively to reduce alcohol availability and drinking among adolescents. Full article