The Optimal Pricing Strategy of a Mobile Payment Service in a Two-sided Market

Acknowledging the high penetration rate of mobile devices, mobile payment is currently a hot topic and is expected to reach the tipping point of rapid growth. For such a nascent market, how to run a successful mobile payment platform remains unanswered. Therefore, we devote this study to investigate the pricing strategy of proximity mobile payment. Mobile payment serves as a two-sided platform connecting merchants and customers. By leveraging the emergent mobile payment knowledge, we present a game-theoretic model featuring network externality. In the short run, we find the platform will have incentives to apply “divide and conquer” strategy by subsidizing customers to adopt the mobile payment service at the beginning of the business. After the ignition, the platform then becomes profitable by charging per transaction fee from the merchants. In the long run, the subsidization strategy is suggested to be applied when the bank is not taking too much processing fee and leaves sufficient market share to the mobile payment platform. In terms of contributions to practice, this study offers a step forward of method to identify this promising market for mobile payment executives, financial institutes and all others ecosystem

High-Mobility Pentacene-Based Thin-Film Transistors With a Solution-Processed Barium Titanate Insulator

Abstract—Pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) with solution-processed barium titanate (Ba1.2Ti0.8O3) as a gate insulator are demonstrated. The electrical properties of pentacene-based TFTs show a high field-effect mobility of 8.85 cm2 · V−1 · s−1, a low threshold voltage of −1.89 V, and a low subthreshold slope swing of 310 mV/decade. The chemical composition and binding energy of solution-processed barium titanate thin films are analyzed through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The matching surface energy on the surface of the barium titanate thin film is 43.12 mJ · m−2, which leads to Stranski–Krastanov mode growth, and thus, high mobility is exhibited in pentacene-based TFTs. Index Terms—Barium titanate, high field-effect mobility, high permittivity, organic thin-filmtransistor (OTFT), solution process

LOWER LIMB STABILIZATION STRATEGIES OF DART ATHLETES AT DIFFERENT LEVELS

The purpose of the study was to understand lower limb stabilization strategies during the acceleration phase of dart throwing in athletes at different levels. Multi-Axis Force Plates and 3D Motion Capture were adopted to collect data. Six male darts athletes, including three elite athletes and three sub elite athletes, throw darts to hit Bull\u27s Eye abiding the rules of the World Darts Federation. The study shows that during acceleration phase, the ground reaction force of elite athletes changes substantially, while the change of ground reaction force of sub elite athletes was relatively small. Significant difference of the change in the front foot ground reaction force (GRF) on a vertical axis is reached (p\u3c0.05). The cause may be because the elite players use greater GRF transition from rear foot and front foot than sub elite players. On the contrast, sub elite athletes are still in the stage of integration, thus lower limb movement is minimized in order to stabilize the throw

How Do Virtual Teams Work- A Social Relationship Model By SEM

Virtual teams have been brought the need for organizations to improve the performance of virtual teams. Among these key issues to be successful, social dimensions have been catching researchers and mangers’ attentions. Hence, this study derives a preliminary social relationship model from Powell et al’s (2004) virtual team framework and conduct an experiment to validate it by SEM. The results reveal: (1) Communication has a positive impact on relationship building; (2) Relationship building has a positive impact on cohesion; (3) Relationship building has a positive impact on trust; (4) cohesion and trust have positive impacts on performance

Evaluation Issues in Managing and Realizing Benefits in B2BEC/IT Investments

Organizations have invested substantial amount of financial resources in information technology (IT) over the last few decades. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the impact of IT investment evaluation processes and practices in these organizations. This study extends the Limits-to-Value model to examine the relationship between the levels of IT maturity and the adoption of IT investment evaluation and benefits realization methodologies as well as their effects on B2BEC benefits. The study has found that IT maturity has a direct positive relationship with the adoption of these evaluation methodologies. A number of issues and problems have also emerged from the analysis of the data collected. These findings will assist organizations in making better evaluation of B2BEC/IT investment