This study adopts a configurational perspective to examine how business model designs and contextual factors in transforming economies combine to create value. We investigate configurations of efficiency-centered and novelty-centered business model designs, corporate ownership, development stage, and external regulatory volatility associated with high growth in a transforming economy. Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of Chinese firms, we find five solutions associated with superior growth, suggesting that the effective configurations of business model designs vary in different contexts. Our study offers a holistic understanding of the relationship between business model designs and firm growth, and yields useful insights for business model designs for practitioners.

Ceramics are strong but brittle. According to the classical theories, ceramics are brittle mainly because dislocations are suppressed by cracks. Here, the authors report the combined elastic and plastic deformation measurements of nanoceramics, in which dislocation-mediated stiff and ductile behaviors were detected at room temperature. In the synchrotron-based deformation experiments, a marked slope change is observed in the stress–strain relationship of MgAl2O4 nanoceramics at high pressures, indicating that a deformation mechanism shift occurs in the compression and that the nanoceramics sample is elastically stiffer than its bulk counterpart. The bulk-sized MgAl2O4 shows no texturing at pressures up to 37 GPa, which is compatible with the brittle behaviors of ceramics. Surprisingly, substantial texturing is seen in nanoceramic MgAl2O4 at pressures above 4 GPa. The observed stiffening and texturing indicate that dislocation-mediated mechanisms, usually suppressed in bulk-sized ceramics at low temperature, become operative in nanoceramics. This makes nanoceramics stiff and ductile.

Diblock copolymers (BCPs) show phase separation on mesoscopic length scales and form ordered morphologies in both bulk and thin films, the latter resulting in nanostructured surfaces. Morphologies in thin films are strongly influenced by film parameters, the ratio of film thickness and bulk domain spacing. Laterally structured polymer surfaces may serve as templates for controlled assembly of nanoparticles (NPs). We investigated the BCP of poly(n-pentyl methacrylate) and poly(methyl methacrylate) which show bulk morphologies of stacked lamellae or hexagonally packed cylinders. Thin films were investigated by atomic force microscopy and grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering. For film thicknesses f well below dbulk, standing cylinder morphologies were observed in appropriate molar ratios, while film thicknesses around and larger than dbulk resulted in cylinders arranged parallel to surface. To alter and/or improve the morphology also in presence of different NPs (e.g., silica, gold), solvent vapour annealing (SVA) was applied. The BCP morphology usually remains unchanged but periodicities change depending on type and amount of incorporated NPs. It was found that silica clusters enlarge lateral distances of cylinders, whereas Au NPs reduce it. The effect of SVA is weak. The quality of morphology is slightly improved by SVA and lateral distances remain constant or are slightly reduced.

Large-area single-crystalline vanadium dioxide nanoflakes were first fabricated via a thermal reduction method in a tube furnace. The sample was characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that VO2 nanoflakes are single-crystalline with a monoclinic structure. The VO2 nanoflakes have a width of 200–300 nm, a thickness of 50–100 nm, and a length up to 1–2 μm. It is found that single-crystalline VO2 nanoflakes show a novel and complicated 5–7-step Li-storage behavior for an insertion amount of <0.6 mol lithium per mol of VO2.

The technique of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to examine the behavior of intact thermal barrier coatings (TBC) at ambient temperature. Cross-sectional morphological examination of TBC was conducted by scanning electron microscope (SEM). By correlating the SEM visual examination with EIS data, TBC was characterized non-destructively. A model of EIS alternative current (AC) equivalent circuit was proposed to establish the relationship between the EIS elemental parameters in the circuit and the microstructural characteristics of TBC. A linear relationship was found to exist between the electrical impedance of TBC topcoat and the thickness of the topcoat. The porosity of TBC top coat showed a linear relationship with the capacitance of ceramic TBC, and the pore shape in the TBC topcoat was represented by the value of the electrical impedance of the pore. The result in the study has demonstrated that EIS can be used as a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) technique for quality assurance of TBC.

High temperature behavior of air plasma sprayed (APS) thermal barrier coatings (TBC) was investigated in this study by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine cross-sectional morphology of exposed TBC. It was found that characteristic EIS spectra were obtained effectively to differentiate variant post-exposed TBC such as isothermal oxidation and cyclic oxidation. In addition, the type and length of high temperature exposure were qualitatively discernible from the EIS data. A model of an EIS alternative current (AC) equivalent circuit was proposed quantitatively to relate the EIS parameters to the morphological properties of the exposed TBC and functional relationships have been established between them. From the results, EIS has been identified capable of monitoring the microstructure of post-exposed TBC and evaluating TBC damage.