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The aim of this paper is to investigate the major differences between the government's role in building energy efficiency (BEE) in China and three developed countries, and to further the understanding of market expectations of the most effective government measures to encourage BEE development in China.

The approach taken was: establish a framework for a critical comparative study; compare and assess the BEE promotion measures available to governments in the USA, Canada, the UK and China; survey the BEE market expectations of building design professionals to better understand the favourable measures the Chinese Government could take to further promote BEE; and triangulate the findings of the comparative study and questionnaire survey to develop recommendations for BEE promotion in mainland China.

Economic incentives are important for BEE promotion at the current stage, but they are lacking in China. Active government interventions, such as adjusting energy pricing and implementing BEE legislation, are needed in China if BEE is to become economically viable and efficient.

Owing to limited resources, the questionnaire survey did not reach every part of China. A further study should be carried out to extend the investigation to more areas of China and to obtain wider stakeholder coverage.

The originality of this paper lies in its development of a theoretical framework to further understanding of the government's role in BEE promotion and its use of first‐hand data collected from industry to verify market expectations of that role in China.

This research aims to investigate the adoption of future technologies in earthmoving applications. The increased development in automated driving systems (ADS) has opened up significant opportunities to revolutionize mobility and to set the path for technologies, such as electrification. The research also aims to explore the impact of automation on electromobility in earthmoving applications.

This paper adopts a multi-objective simulation-based optimization approach using machine learning in earthmoving applications.

This study concludes that ADS is “conditionally” an enabler for electrification. The study highlights and explains how local and global factors affect this conclusion. In addition to that, the research explores the impact of the equipment size on the integration of future mobility technologies. The shift from “elephant to ants” in the fleet selection resulted in improved feasibility from the integration of ADS in electrification.

This research provides fundamental considerations in the assessment of the impact of autonomous driving solutions on electromobility in the construction industry.

Argues that traditional models of management control are in many respects inadequate for service operations. As the result of a case study on a company engaged in mobile telephony, a new management control model was developed based on the service management perspective. This puts the customer‐perceived process and quality in focus. The model was used as a tool to evaluate the service process in the company. As a foundation for the management control model, a service map was constructed which incorporated activities to which revenues and costs were assigned by means of activity based costing.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a conceptual comprehensive framework to analyze synergy management pitfalls in mergers and acquisitions (M & As). The framework highlights the main dimensions of synergy management, the most relevant synergy pitfalls and the ways to overcome them.

A greater recognition of synergy management literature in M & As is developed. A framework is provided integrating the compatible elements of previous broad areas of research and the main findings of studies on several topics related to synergy.

Prior literature has suggested that synergy is an important motivation of M & As, has tended to be overestimated and has been difficult to achieve. Specifically, there are three relevant synergy pitfalls: the “mirage,” a tendency to overestimate synergy potential, the “gravity hill,” the underestimation of the difficulties in synergy realization and “amnesia,” a dangerous lack of attention to the realization of synergy. An effective synergy management requires an analysis of five dimensions: the steps of the M & A process, the several values of synergy, the forbidding effects of poor synergy management, the potential causes of synergy inflation and the selection of solutions to synergy pitfalls.

The comprehensive framework suggests insights and guidelines to help managers to overcome pitfalls in synergy management. Managers will learn the following lessons: “when” pitfalls should embrace synergy management; “where” pitfalls may occur; “why” pitfalls may occur; “what” consequences can result in a value of “realized synergy” lower than the “expected synergy”; and “how” actions, tools and behaviors can overcome hidden dangers in synergy management.

The study changes the focus from a single, generic synergy trap to three more analytical, useful synergy pitfalls: the mirage, the gravity hill and the amnesia. By shedding light on synergy management pitfalls, this paper enriches M & A literature and enhance practical solutions to reduce pitfalls in synergy decision making.

This study aims to gain an understanding from parents and teachers about the types of food provision practices and venues, and the food-related policies and rules in primary schools in Australia; and investigate any differences in the presence of policies and rules based on the school location and school type.

Data were collected via two online surveys from August 2019 to March 2020. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyse quantitative responses. Respondents' written responses to food-related policies were categorised into groups.

The two most common food provision services were canteen and lunch order services (mentioned by 72 and 55% of respondents, respectively). Of the 425 respondents whose schools had a canteen (parents and teachers together), 62% reported their school implements a healthy school canteen policy. Significantly more parents compared to teachers, and more respondents from government schools compared to non-government schools stated that their school had implemented such a policy. Approximately half of the respondents (47%) stated their school had implemented other food-related policies and/or rules. These policies or rules belonged to four categories: avoiding certain foods, avoiding food sharing, avoiding food packages and promoting healthy eating.

This study shows the disparities exist in implementing food-related policies among primary schools in Australia. Nutrition promoters and policy planners should consider these results and find the best mechanisms to minimise the gaps in policy implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an effort by management of a private higher education institution in Indonesia to replace its informal, relationship‐based performance system which relied on physical discourse – overseeing operational details that focus on physical accomplishment of tasks – and personal control by the school head, with a tight budgetary control system which relied on technical efficiency and rational discourse.

The paper is an ethnographic case study of a business school – a private higher education institution in Indonesia – known by its abbreviation as Perbanas Business School (PBS), from 1999 to 2001. The researcher is part of the case being studied, and thus is a “native” who completely participates in the change process.

The paper demonstrates how a control system change that violates existing cultural norms fails to impact day‐to‐day managerial practices or decision‐making processes. Specifically, in a business school setting, replacing an informal relationship‐based control system with a technical efficiency‐based accounting control system only produces chaotic managerial practices and degrades school services. The new system alienates staff and is not accepted or institutionalized. Instead, in daily managerial processes, management continue to rely on informal and personal relationships.

The paper contributes to the accounting literature by studying the process of instituting accounting change and organizational participants' resistance to that change.

Organizational culture, reflected in values, norms of behavior and everyday practices, cannot easily be controlled or changed by chief executive officers.

This chapter explores the linkage between the careers of women over the lifespan and their experience of stress. Traditional models of career stages were developed by studying men's careers and do not fit the complexities of women's careers. Several newer models of careers have appeared in the literature but none of these models adequately address the issues women face as they juggle work responsibilities and their family lives. We discuss the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) as a means of understanding the parameters that may affect women's decision making about their careers and the relationship between these parameters and the experience of stress. Testable propositions based on this model using the Kaleidoscope Careers Self-assessment Inventory (KCSI) are included as ideas for future research. Recommendations for organizational programs and policies are also detailed.

The study this chapter reports focuses on how network theory contributes to the understanding of the internationalization process of SMEs and measures the effect of network capability on performance in international trade and has three research objectives.

The first objective of the study relates to providing new insights into the international market development activities through the application of a network perspective. The chapter reviews the international business literature to ascertain the development of thought, the research gaps, and the shortcomings. This review shows that the network perspective is a useful and popular theoretical domain that researchers can use to understand international activities, particularly of small, high technology, resource-constrained firms.

The second research objective is to gain a deeper understanding of network capability. This chapter presents a model for the impact of network capability on international performance by building on the emerging literature on the dynamic capabilities view of the firm. The model conceptualizes network capability in terms of network characteristics, network operation, and network resources. Network characteristics comprise strong and weak ties (operationalized as foreign-market entry modes), relational capability, and the level of trust between partners. Network operation focuses on network initiation, network coordination, and network learning capabilities. Network resources comprise network human-capital resources, synergy-sensitive resources (resource combinations within the network), and information sharing within the network.

The third research objective is to determine the impact of networking capability on the international performance of SMEs. The study analyzes 11 hypotheses through structural equations modeling using LISREL. The hypotheses relate to strong and weak ties, the relative strength of strong ties over weak ties, and each of the eight remaining constructs of networking capability in the study. The research conducts a cross-sectional study by using a sample of SMEs drawn from the telecommunications industry in Ireland.

The study supports the hypothesis that strong ties are more influential on international performance than weak ties. Similarly, network coordination and human-capital resources have a positive and significant association with international performance. Strong ties, weak ties, trust, network initiation, synergy-sensitive resources, relational capability, network learning, and information sharing do not have a significant association with international performance. The results of this study are strong (R2=0.63 for performance as the outcome) and provide a number of interesting insights into the relations between collaboration or networking capability and performance.

This study provides managers and policy makers with an improved understanding of the contingent effects of networks to highlight situations where networks might have limited, zero, or even negative effects on business outcomes. The study cautions against the tendency to interpret networks as universally beneficial to business development and performance outcomes.

The paper aims to examine the environmental challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in EU law that regard both illicit uses of the technology, i.e. overuse or misuse of AI and its possible underuses. The aim of the paper is to show how such regulatory efforts of legislators should be understood as a critical component of the Green Deal of the EU institutions, that is, to save our planet from impoverishment, plunder and destruction.

To illustrate the different ways in which AI can represent a game-changer for our environmental challenges, attention is drawn to a multidisciplinary approach, which includes the analysis of the initiatives on the European Green Deal; the proposals for a new legal framework on data governance and AI; principles of environmental and constitutional law; the interaction of such principles and provisions of environmental and constitutional law with AI regulations; other sources of EU law and of its Member States.

Most recent initiatives on AI, including the AI Act (AIA) of the European Commission, have insisted on a human-centric approach, whereas it seems obvious that the challenges of environmental law, including those triggered by AI, should be addressed in accordance with an ontocentric, rather than anthropocentric stance. The paper provides four recommendations for the legal consequences of this short-sighted view, including the lack of environmental concerns in the AIA.

The environmental challenges of AI suggest complementing current regulatory efforts of EU lawmakers with a new generation of eco-impact assessments; duties of care and disclosure of non-financial information; clearer parameters for the implementation of the integration principle in EU constitutional law; special policies for the risk of underusing AI for environmental purposes. Further research should examine these policies in connection with the principle of sustainability and the EU plan for a circular economy, as another crucial ingredient of the Green Deal.

The paper provides a set of concrete measures to properly tackle both illicit uses of AI and the risk of its possible underuse for environmental purposes. Such measures do not only concern the “top down” efforts of legislators but also litigation and the role of courts. Current trends of climate change litigation and the transplant of class actions into several civil law jurisdictions shed new light on the ways in which we should address the environmental challenges of AI, even before a court.

A more robust protection of people’s right to a high level of environmental protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment follows as a result of the analysis on the legal threats and opportunities brought forth by AI.

The paper explores a set of issues, often overlooked by scholars and institutions, that is nonetheless crucial for any Green Deal, such as the distinction between the human-centric approach of current proposals in the field of technological regulation and the traditional ontocentric stance of environmental law. The analysis considers for the first time the legal issues that follow this distinction in the field of AI regulation and how we should address them.