Working capital management of SMEs in COVID-19: role of managerial personality traits and overconfidence behavior.

The study intends to investigate the role of managerial personality traits on working capital management of Chinese SMEs with the mediating role of overconfidence behavior. Data from the Chinese SMEs managers is collected through a close-ended survey questionnaire using multi-stage cluster sampling and structural equation modeling is applied for empirical analysis. The results shown that extroversion, openness to experience, and agreeableness traits determines overconfidence behavior among the managers. While, conscientiousness and neuroticism traits were found insignificant with overconfidence behavior. Overconfidence behavior significantly mediated during COVID-19 between managerial personality traits (e.g., extroversion and agreeableness traits) and working capital management. Limitted time remained a major limitation in completing this study. The study extended the knowledge by investigating the working capital management practices during COVID-19 in Chinese SMEs and contributed by presenting multiple practical implications for effective working capital management.

When to use vibrotactile displays? A meta-analysis for the role of vibrotactile displays in human-computer interaction.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the benefits of unimodal tactile displays relative to other modal displays and the performance gains of adding redundant tactile displays by integrating empirical studies. BACKGROUND: Tactile displays have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their unique advantages. Synthesizing experimental data is necessary to analyze the performance benefits of tactile displays for participants and better help practitioners in utilizing them. METHOD: Five meta-analyses were conducted. Two meta-analyses compared the participants' performance between tactile and other modal displays (visual vs. tactile and auditory vs. tactile). Three meta-analyses examined the performance gains of adding redundant tactile displays based on other modal displays (visual vs. visual + tactile, auditory vs. auditory + tactile, and visual + auditory vs. visual + auditory + tactile). The related moderator variables, the types of presented information and concurrent tasks, were analyzed. RESULTS: Little evidence shows the performance difference between tactile and auditory displays. Tactile displays are more beneficial than visual displays for presenting alert information or in the situation with a visual concurrent task. The performance gains of adding redundant tactile displays to other modal displays also depend on the specific type of presented information and the concurrent task. CONCLUSION: When using tactile displays to convey information, interface designers should consider the specific type of presented information and the concurrent tasks. APPLICATIONS: The present study's findings can provide some implications for designers to utilize tactile displays when they construct and implement information displays.

Theoretical and experimental study on a compliant flipper-leg during terrestrial locomotion.

An amphibious robot with straight compliant flipper-legs can conquer various amphibious environments. The robot can rotate its flipper-legs and utilize their large deflection to walk on rough terrain, and it can oscillate the straight flipper-legs to propel itself underwater. This paper focuses on the dynamics of the compliant straight flipper-legs during terrestrial locomotion by modeling its deformation dynamically with large deflection theory and simulating it to investigate the parameters of locomotion such as trajectory, velocity, and propulsion. To validate the theoretical model of dynamic locomotion, a single-leg experimental platform is used to explore the flipper-legs in motion with various structural and kinematic parameters. Furthermore, a robotic platform mounting with four compliant flipper-legs is also developed and used to experiment with locomotion. The trajectories of the rotating axle of the compliant flipper-leg during locomotion were approximately coincidental in simulation and in experiments. The speed of locomotion and cost of transport during locomotion were explored and analyzed. The performance of different types of compliant flipper-legs during locomotion shows that varying the degrees of stiffness will have a significant effect on their locomotion. The dynamic model and analysis of the compliant flipper-leg for terrestrial locomotion facilitates the ability of amphibious robots to conquer complex environments.