Ethical fashion supply chain operations: product development and moral hazards

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is critical. As a part of CSR, fashion companies have to decide whether to be ethical or not during the product development process. Motivated by real-world practices, we conduct a gametheoretic modeling analysis and derive the firms’ optimal decisions (including ethical operations (ETO) adoption, pricing, and product greenness level) in fashion product development. We identify a key moderating factor which governs how an increase of basic market demand significantly affects the optimal product greenness level and how an increase of basic production cost influences the optimal retail price. Furthermore, we find that there is a threshold that plays a critical role in determining whether the optimal retail price and product greenness level are higher or lower with the adoption of ETO. We prove that when the fixed payment from the retailer to the manufacturer under the ETO case is set to be sufficiently small, the retailer prefers to adopt ETO and requests the manufacturer to follow. We propose three practical measures (including the use of technologies) to help encourage the supply chain members to invest in ETO willingly. We finally consider the probable occurrence of moral hazard problems and explore the managerial implications.</p

Leasing, trade-in for new, or the mixed of both: an analysis of new recycling modes driven by industry 4.0 technologies

The circular economy has become a promising solution to electronic product reuse . The advanced technology of Industry 4.0 drives the recycling platform (RP) to carry out a variety of new business modes, which are important ways to realise a circular economy. In this article, we consider a monopolistic RP under trade-in for new mode, leasing mode, or their mixed mode, respectively. We develop a discrete-time game with infinite periods and use the Markov decision and Bellman equation to obtain the consumer’s perfect equilibria consumption strategies . By comparing different modes under RP’s profits, consumer surplus, and environment impact perspectives, we find that when the durability of leased refurbished product exceeds that of the resold refurbished ones, the mixed mode is better than the trade-in for new mode, which can achieve more platform profits, more consumer surplus, and less environment impact. By considering the three perspectives together, the mixed mode is not always better than the other two modes. The mixed mode is optimal only when the durability of leased refurbished one is relatively high. We also conduct extensive numerical research, show optimal service mode under three perspectives, and extend the effects of different qualities of recycled used products on optimal mode.</p

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness

Spin-Paramagnet Communication between Nitroxide Radical and Metallofullerene

The paramagnetic metallofullerenes wrapped lanthanide metals have many special properties and potential applications, especially as a single-molecule magnet. Herein, we report a spin probe of nitroxide radical for the magnetic dysprosium metallofullerenes. The nitroxide radical was connected to dysprosium metallofullerene though a cycloaddition reaction. Two kinds of dysprosium metallofullerene, DySc2N@C80 and Dy2ScN@C80 with different characters of molecule magnet, were selected. By means of analyzing electronic spin resonance spectra of nitroxide radical, the spin-paramagnet interactions between nitroxide and dysprosium metallofullerenes were investigated

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness

Microfluidic Assembly of Microblocks into Interlocked Structures for Enhanced Strength and Toughness

Compared with monolithic materials, topologically interlocked materials (TIMs) exhibit higher toughness based on their enhanced crack deflection and deformation tolerance. Importantly, by reducing the block size of TIMs, their structural strength can also be improved due to the reduced flexural span. However, the assembly of microscale blocks remains a huge challenge due to the inadequacy of nanoscale self-assembly or macroscale pick-and-place operations. In this work, octahedral microblocks are fabricated and constructed into interlocked structures with different patterns through microfluidic channels with variable cross sections. The pattern of the interlocked panel is demonstrated to affect its strength and toughness. The failure strength and energy absorption of assembled panels significantly exceed that of their monolithic counterpart by ∼33% and ∼19.1 folds, respectively. Generally, the presented microfluidic method provides a unique technique for the assembly of interlocked architecture, which facilitates the design and fabrication of TIMs with highly improved strength and toughness