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The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical historical analysis of the business (mis)behaviors and influencing factors that discourage enduring cooperation between principals and agents, to introduce strategies that embrace the social values, economic motivation and institutional designs historically adopted to curtail dishonest acts in international business and to inform an improved principal–agent theory that reflects principal–agent reciprocity as shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, strategic and ideological forces

The critical historical research method is used to analyze Chinese compradors and the foreign companies they served in pre-1949 China.

Business practitioners can extend orthodox principal–agent theory by scrutinizing the complex interactions between local agents and foreign companies. Instead of agents pursuing their economic interests exclusively, as posited by principal–agent theory, they also may pursue principal-shared interests (as suggested by stewardship theory) because of social norms and cultural values that can affect business-related choices and the social bonds built between principals and agents.

The behaviors of compradors and foreign companies in pre-1949 China suggest international business practices for shaping social bonds between principals and agents and foreign principals’ creative efforts to enhance shared interests with local agents.

Understanding principal–agent theory’s limitations can help international management scholars and practitioners mitigate transaction partners’ dishonest acts.

A critical historical analysis of intermediary businesspeople’s (mis)behavior in pre-1949 (1840–1949) China can inform the generalizability of principal–agent theory and contemporary business strategies for minimizing agents’ dishonest acts.

This study aims to integrate Delone and McLean’s information system success (DMISS) model with the innovation resistance model to evaluate the relationship between behavioural intention to use (BIU) and innovation resistance in the context of neo-banking. The primary objective of this study is to identify the drivers of neo-banking adoption and the barriers to its adoption and incorporate constructs such as e-trust (ETR) and personal innovativeness (PIV) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing neo-banking adoption.

A structured survey-based questionnaire was used to gather data from a diverse sample population in India. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) model was employed to further examine the adoption of neobanking services and users' intention to use neobanking services.

This study reveals a significant correlation between BIU and the uptake of neobanking services, demonstrating the value of consumers' readiness to embrace these offerings. However, resistance to usage has emerged as a major obstacle for consumers concerned about data security, technology reluctance and perceived risks associated with digital-only neobanks.

Analysing the driving and restraining factors will provide substantial information on the formation of consumers' decision-making processes in the Indian banking industry, which is undergoing rapid digital transformation. This information is of great importance to scholars, practitioners and policymakers, as it highlights the factors that may facilitate or impede the adoption of neobanking in India. The outcomes of this analysis will be of particular interest to researchers, experts and stakeholders in the field as they will provide valuable insights into the dynamics of consumer behaviour in the Indian banking sector.

This study represents an initial effort to examine BIUs and usage resistance within the rapidly developing neobanking sector in India. The findings of this study build on the existing research in this area and contribute to the ongoing discussion on the adoption of neo-banking.

Well-constructed transportation infrastructure may effectively decrease barriers to the flow of innovative human resources and inventive elements, accelerating enterprise innovation activities. This study will explore how HSR helps enterprises achieve ambidextrous innovation, including the mediating mechanism of absorbed slack resources, innovative talents, and the heterogeneous effects of management shareholding ratio and financing constraints.

Based on resource dependence theory and social network theory, this study employs a quasi-natural experiment of China’s high-speed railway and builds a multi-time point DID model to investigate its influence on enterprise ambidextrous innovation.

Results suggest that the HSR positively influences both exploitative and exploratory innovation, and the influence is more substantial on exploitative innovation. Further analysis finds two influencing channels through which HSR influences enterprise ambidextrous innovation: providing redundant resources and attracting innovative talents. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that HSR has a more significant positive effect on exploratory innovation for enterprises with high management shareholding. In the low financing constraint group, the HSR opening has a more significant impact on ambidextrous innovation.

In ambidextrous innovation, enterprises should rationalize the allocation of resources, attach importance to the innovative talent introduction, and choose differentiated paths based on intrinsic characteristics. Meanwhile, the government should actively improve the HSR routes and continuously improve the innovative environment.

This study enriches the theoretical research framework of HSR and ambidextrous innovation by identifying the channel mechanisms and boundary conditions through which HSR affects ambidextrous innovation and expands the consequences of HSR and the antecedents of ambidextrous.

In the wine industry, maintaining superior quality standards is crucial to meet the expectations of both producers and consumers. Traditional approaches to assessing wine quality involve labor-intensive processes and rely on the expertise of connoisseurs proficient in identifying taste profiles and key quality factors. In this research, we introduce an innovative and efficient approach centered on the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) signals using an electronic nose, thereby empowering nonexperts to accurately assess wine quality.

To devise an optimal algorithm for this purpose, we conducted four computational experiments, culminating in the development of a specialized deep learning network. This network seamlessly integrates 1D-convolutional and long-short-term memory layers, tailor-made for the intricate task at hand. Rigorous validation ensued, employing a leave-one-out cross-validation methodology to scrutinize the efficacy of our design.

The outcomes of these e-demonstrates were subjected to meticulous evaluation and analysis, which unequivocally demonstrate that our proposed architecture consistently attains promising recognition accuracies, ranging impressively from 87.8% to an astonishing 99.41%. All this is achieved within a remarkably brief timeframe of a mere 4 seconds. These compelling findings have far-reaching implications, promising to revolutionize the assessment and tracking of wine quality, ultimately affording substantial benefits to the wine industry and all its stakeholders, with a particular focus on the critical aspect of VOCs signal analysis.

This research has not been published anywhere else.

Key core technology is the most important weapon of the country, and breaking through the “strangled” problem is one of the real problems that China’s emerging industries and enterprises must solve. Accurately identifying the “strangled” problem will help China accelerate the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and win the battle against key core technologies.

Combined with the characteristics of key core technologies, the key core technology evaluation system was constructed from four dimensions: technology innovation, technology radiation, technology economy and technology safety. We adopt the entropy TOPSIS method to evaluate the patents, and the patents with the top 5% scores are identified as key core technology patents. Then, this study identifies key core technology “strangled” problems in three dimensions: technology value advantage, competitive advantage and quantitative advantage.

Taking the patent data of the global new generation information technology industry from 2011 to 2023 as a sample, 178 moderately “strangled” technologies and 49 severely “strangled” technologies are selected. The study results are consistent with the current situation of the new generation information technology industry’s development, and verify the feasibility and reliability of the key core technology “strangled” problem identification model.

This study uses patent data to identify key core technologies and “Strangled” in the new generation information technology industry. It can provide a reference for relevant national departments and agencies, as well as universities and enterprises.

The purpose of this study is to explore the interfacial adhesion between superhydrophobic coatings FC-X (X = 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%) and the concrete substrate, along with the impact of FC-X on the water repellency characteristics of the concrete substrate.

One synthetic step was adopted to prepare novel F-SiO₂ NP hybrid fluororesin coating. The impact of varying mass fractions of F-SiO₂ NPs on the superhydrophobicity of FC-X was analyzed and subsequently confirmed through water contact angle (WCA) measurements. Superhydrophobic coatings were simply applied to the concrete substrate using a one-step spraying method. The interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate was analyzed using tape pasting tests and abrasion resistance measurements. The influence of FC-X on the water repellency of the concrete substrate was investigated through measurements of water absorption, impermeability and electric flux.

FC-4% exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity, with a WCA of 157.5° and a sliding angle of 2.3°. Compared to control sample, FC-X exhibits better properties, including chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

This study offers a thorough investigation into the practical implications of enhancing the durability and water repellency of concrete substrates by using superhydrophobic coatings, particularly FC-4%, which demonstrates exceptional superhydrophobicity alongside remarkable chemical durability, wear resistance, adhesion strength, abrasion resistance, water resistance and impermeability.

Through the examination of the interfacial adhesion between FC-X and the concrete substrate, along with an assessment of FC-X’s impact on the water repellency of the concrete, this paper provides valuable insights into the practical application of superhydrophobic coatings in enhancing the durability and performance of concrete materials.

This paper aims to explore the influencing factors of public perceived efficacy of emergency infrastructure projects based on the triadic interactive determinism, and analyze the relationship among these factors.

Based on the triadic interactive determinism, we explored the factors influencing public perceived efficacy of emergency infrastructure project and empirically verified the relationship among these factors and perceived efficacy by using data drawn from a questionnaire survey of 491 residents near Leishenshan Hospital, Jiangxia District, Wuhan, China.

Prior experience, emotional response, personal expectation, public trust, context message and interactivity level, namely behavior, individual and environment, affect the perceived efficacy of public emergency infrastructure projects.

The results offer an insight into public perceived efficacy of emergency infrastructure project from the perspective of antecedents in a triadic reciprocal determinism, which provides a reference basis for the sustainable development of the emergency infrastructure projects. This study also suggests valuable practical implications to government departments to improve the quality of administrative decision-making effectively.

Although existing studies have found some influencing factors of public perceived efficacy in general infrastructure, there is still a lack of systematic carding and quantitative description of influencing factors of public perceived efficacy of emergency infrastructure projects. This study bridges this gap by exploring the determinants and their influencing relationship of public perceived efficacy especially for emergency infrastructure projects.

The purpose of this paper is to address two major challenges faced by robotic fish when operating in underwater environments: insufficient path planning capabilities and difficulties in avoiding dynamic obstacles. To achieve this, a method is proposed that combines the Improved Rapid Randomized Tree Star (IRRT*) with the dynamic window approach (DWA).

The RRT-connect algorithm is used to determine an initial feasible path quickly. The quality of sampling points is then improved by dividing the regions and selecting each region’s probability based on its fitness value. The fitness function and roulette wheel method are introduced for region selection. Subtarget points of the DWA algorithm are extracted from the IRRT* algorithm to achieve real-time dynamic path planning.

In various maps, the iteration count for the IRRT* algorithm decreased by 61%, 35% and 51% respectively, compared to the RRT* algorithm, whereas the iteration time was reduced by 75%, 34% and 57%, respectively. In addition, the IRRT*-DWA algorithm can successfully navigate through multiple dynamic obstacles, and the average time, path length, etc. do not change much when parameters change, and the stability is high.

A novel IRRT*-DWA algorithm is proposed, which, by refining the sampling strategy and updating sub-target points in real time, not only addresses the limitations of existing algorithms in terms of path planning efficiency in complex environments but also enhances their capability to avoid dynamic obstacles. Ultimately, experimental results indicate a high level of similarity between the actual and ideal paths.

This study aims to investigate the influence of inventors’ abilities to acquire external knowledge, provide broad and professional knowledge and patenting output (i.e. different types of inventors) on the formation of structural holes.

The authors collected 59,798 patents applied for and granted in the USA by 33 of the largest firms worldwide in the pharmaceutical industry between 1975 and 2014. A random-effects tobit model was used to test the hypotheses.

The inventors’ ability to acquire external knowledge contributes to the formation of structural holes. While inventors’ ability to provide broad knowledge positively affects the formation of structural holes, their ability to provide professional knowledge works otherwise. In addition, key inventors and industrious inventors are more likely to form structural holes than talents.

The results identify individual factors that affect the formation of structural holes and improve the understanding of structural hole theory. This study is unique in that most scholars have studied the consequences of structural hole formation rather than their antecedents. Studies on the origin of structural holes neglect the effect of inventors’ knowledge abilities and patenting output. By addressing this gap, this study contributes to a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of structural holes. The results can guide managers in managing structural holes in accordance with inventors’ knowledge abilities and patenting outputs, which optimize the allocation of network resources.

The purpose of this study is to explore how digital construction policy (DCP) drives enterprise green innovation (EGI) from an information processing theory (IPT) perspective, including the mediating mechanisms of market information accessibility and operational risk, the moderating role of intellectual property protection (IPP) and product market competition (PMC) and the heterogeneous effects of ownership, Internet development and managerial ability.

Based on the matched panel data of A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2019 and the Broadband China policy as a quasinatural experiment, this study investigates the impact of DCP on EGI by constructing a multi-time point difference-indifferences (DID) model.

Digital construction policies can significantly promote EGI. DCP works in two fundamental ways, namely by increasing market information accessibility and reducing operational risk. IPP and PMC significantly increased the contribution of digital construction policies to EGI. Heterogeneity analysis found that digital technology has a stronger promotion effect for SOEs, high-managerial-ability enterprises and enterprises in regions with low Internet development levels.

The study provides new insights about the antecedents of EGI from a DCP perspective. It also enlightens emerging economies to actualize green innovation under the digital wave.

From the perspective of IPT, this study explains the mechanism of DCP-driven EGI. It enhances understanding of the relationship between DCP and EGI.