This study analyzes the interaction between legitimacy, innovation, uncertainty, and electric vehicle (EV) purchase intention in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and data from 2016 to 2023, the relationships between these key variables are assessed. The results show that legitimacy has a positive impact on purchase intention, while innovation influences legitimacy but does not directly affect purchase intention. Uncertainty moderates these relationships in complex ways. The findings suggest that enhancing the perception of legitimacy is crucial to increase EV purchase intention, and strategies promoting innovation and managing uncertainty can improve market acceptance.

The SMARTER model, an innovative educational framework, is designed for blended learning environments, seamlessly integrating both online and face-to-face instructional components. Employing a flipped classroom methodology, this model ensures an equitable division between online and traditional classroom interactions, aiming to cultivate a dynamic and collaborative learning atmosphere. This research focused on developing and rigorously evaluating the SMARTER model’s validity, practicality, and effectiveness. Adopting a research and development (R&D) approach informed by the methodologies of Borg, Gall, and Gall, this study utilized a mixed-methods strategy. This encompassed a robust validation process by experts in design, content, and media, alongside an empirical analysis of the model’s application in actual educational settings. The aim was to comprehensively assess its effectiveness and practicality. The findings from this study affirm the SMARTER model’s validity, practicality, and effectiveness in improving students’ information literacy skills. Comparative analysis between a control group, taught using a traditional expository approach, and an experimental group, educated under the SMARTER model, highlighted significant improvements in the latter group. This effectiveness underscores the model’s capacity not only to efficiently deliver content but also to actively engage students in a collaborative learning process. The results advocate for the model’s potential broader adoption and adaptation across similar educational contexts. They also establish a foundation for future research aimed at exploring the SMARTER model’s scalability and adaptability across diverse instructional environments.

This article examines the overseas corporate social responsibility (CSR) patterns of Chinese international contractors (CICs). Adopting an institutional and political economy approach, a unique dataset is constructed with country-specific contents drawn from CSR-related reports and website information of 50 top CICs. This dataset provides a foundation for systematic content analysis of CICs’ overseas CSR practices, revealing that both political legitimacy-seeking and strategic competitiveness-seeking motivations drive CICs’ CSR activities abroad, characterized by the prioritization of customer and community engagement. The findings highlight the coexistence of the exogenous pressures for the national image-building purpose and the endogenous awareness of CSR strategic importance for corporate internationalization. The hybridization of political and economic rationales is presented as the defining feature of CICs’ current overseas CSR patterns, with the balance between them being determined by stakeholder type and internal business needs influenced by corporate internationalization experience.

A large number of publications devoted to a new class of materials - high-entropy alloys (HEA), is associated with their unique chemical, physical and mechanical properties both in cast materials and in various classes of coatings and refractory compounds. As a result of the research, the features of solid-soluble high-entropy alloys based on BCC and FCC phases have been revealed. These include the role of the most refractory element in the formation of the lattice parameter, the relationship of distortion with elastic deformation, and the contribution of the enthalpy of mixing to the strength and modulus of elasticity. This made it possible, on the basis of Hooke's law, to propose a formula for determining the hardness of the HEA based on the BCC and FCC phases. Based on the fact that with an increase in temperature in high-entropy alloys, the values of the modulus of elasticity, distortion and enthalpy of mixing will obey the same laws, a formula is proposed for determining the yield strength depending on the test temperature of solid-soluble HEA based on BCC and FCC phases. A formula based on the role of the most fusible metal in the alloy is proposed to calculate the melting point of solid-soluble materials.