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Esthetic trend changes with the development of society and cultural differences. A minimizer bra designed to make breasts appear smaller is now popular with large-breasted women in China. To conform to the requirements of modern aesthetics in China, this paper aims to investigate vital features of breast appearance that influence people’s subjective evaluation of breast size and analyze how bra design parameters affect breast shape and make breasts appear smaller.

This study used 3D scanning technology and reverse engineering software to obtain objective breast measurements in detail. A subjective evaluation experiment was conducted to evaluate the overall performance of seven minimizer bras compared to a basic comparison bra. Around 20 design parameters of 8 sample bras were identified to make a further study about the correlation between bra design features and breast shaping effect. To gain a deeper understanding of how bras interact with breast tissue, this study presented heat maps of the breast surface to visualize the deformation of breast shape.

Nine breasts' characteristics, such as the distance between bust points, breast depth, outer breast curvature and slope, etc. have been determined to be highly correlated with the visual reduction effect of breasts. In addition, for the bras in this experiment, the high-performance bra for women with large breasts tends to have a wider side panel, a wider under band, higher gore and a stronger transverse rigidity of the bra cup. According to the observation of heat maps of the breast surface, soft full-figure bras provide a wider range of compression to the breasts and effectively flatten the breasts.

This paper first aimed at the need to shape the ideal breast appearance for large-breasted women and make a further study of several hot-selling minimizer bras in China. The suggestions given in this paper help lingerie manufacturers better understand how design features of bras can affect their shaping effect and improve the wearing effect of minimizer bras for large-breasted women.

This study is devoted to examining the peer effects of engineering enterprises’ internationalization from the viewpoint of industry subdivision and how information and competition alter peer effects. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of peer effects is analyzed based on manager characteristics.

In this study, multiple regression analysis was conducted on a sample of 38 Chinese engineering enterprises listed in the Engineering News-Record’s top 250 international contractors over the period of 2013–2021. This study collected the paired data from the enterprise annual reports and the China Stock Market & Accounting Research database.

The results reveal that (1) there exist peer effects within the subdivided industry of the engineering field; the quality of information disclosure of peer enterprises and degree of market competition moderate the peer effects; (2) the peer effects of internationalization are more pronounced in engineering enterprises with managers who have lower ability, hold greater power or are older.

The findings of this study contribute to understanding the peer effect in the process of internationalization of engineering enterprises, and help enterprises to effectively supervise the irrational behavior of top managers, so as to develop better internationalization strategies.

The results extend peer effects to the subdivision industry of the engineering field. Furthermore, this study also enriches the relevant research on peer effects among enterprises by empirically supporting the moderating role of information and competition as well as analyzing the heterogeneity of the peer effects from the perspective of manager characteristics.

This paper aims to critique the rationalist theoretical framework of international mediation, which ignores emotions in analyzing the decision by conflict parties to pursue a negotiated settlement or continue fighting, and to present an alternative framework that integrates emotions.

The paper draws on psychology research on emotions and conflict to develop an emotionally informed framework for analyzing conflict parties’ decision-making regarding a settlement. It demonstrates the framework’s validity and value through a case study of the 2000 Camp David mediation to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

A rationalist approach to mediation does not have adequate explanatory and predictive power theoretically. In practice, it can reduce the prospect of success.

The paper highlights the necessity for mediation researchers to study the effects of emotion, draw on psychology studies on conflict and explore the emotional implications of different mediation strategies and tactics.

The framework highlights the challenge of designing and conducting mediation in a way that cultivates emotions favorable to a settlement and lessens emotions unfavorable to a settlement.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to critique the rationalist framework of international mediation studies and develop an alternative framework that integrates emotions.

The usual, simple and computationally expensive recovery payment method for a given reinsurance treaty, besides the total run-off triangle, builds a new run-off triangle, say recovery run-off triangle, for the reinsurer’s contribution and predicts the reinsurer’s contribution to the total loss reserves. This paper, without building a recovery run-off triangle, uses the available prior knowledge about a reinsurance treaty to predict the cedent’s loss reserve under five reinsurance treaties.

The authors propose a new solution to the problem of how to consider reserving issues when there is a reinsurance treaty for a portfolio of general insurance policies. Considering this when determining pricing or making capital decisions is very important.

In particular, it considers the quota share (QS) treaty, surplus (SPL) treaty, excess-of-loss (XL) treaty, largest claims reinsurance (LCR) treaty and excédent du coût moyen relatif (ECOMOR) treaty. Then, it develops a theoretical foundation for predicting the cedent’s loss reserve and evaluating such prediction using the mean square error of prediction (MSEP). The impact of such reinsurance treaties on the variability of the cedent’s loss reserve has been investigated through a simulation study.

This paper, without building a recovery run-off triangle, uses the available prior knowledge about a reinsurance treaty to predict the cedent’s loss reserve under five reinsurance treaties. In particular, it considers the QS treaty, SPL treaty, XL treaty, LCR treaty and ECOMOR treaty. Then, it develops a theoretical foundation for predicting the cedent’s loss reserve and evaluating such prediction using the MSEP. The impact of such reinsurance treaties on the variability of the cedent’s loss reserve has been investigated through a simulation study.

This chapter explores the concept of identity-conscious advising and coaching to support the development of First-Generation Black Male College Students during their undergraduate experience. Advising and coaching represent foundational practices colleges and universities use to support student success. Much like other aspects of education, institutions implement advising and coaching practices without consideration for how the identity of the student or the professional delivering the service influences student outcomes. First-Generation Black Male College Students' interactions within the college context are often framed by their visible, racial, and gender identities as opposed to their first-generation experience. First-Generation Black Male College Students experience microaggressions, discrimination, deficit perspectives, or negative stereotypes. By exploring an identity-conscious approach to relevant advising theories and coaching approaches, the chapter highlights the importance of building trusting, affirming relationships that lean into the lived experiences of First-Generation Black Male College Students without subjecting them to false, harmful stereotypes. This approach requires self-awareness on the part of educators and an understanding of the racialized dynamics that are inherent in the experience. Without addressing anti-Blackness, the impact of advising and coaching on First-Generation Black Male College Students is likely to have diminished or limited effects for this vital student population.

The concept of “Workplace Spirituality (WPS)” in the field of management has gained great interest in the last decade, especially due to its connection with profitability. There has been a rapid increase in research related to the topic. It is assumed that employees who spend a significant part of their time at work are willing to satisfy their spiritual needs at the workplace. Such unprecedented challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic have posed many difficulties for organizations to remain agile, develop and grow, and innovate to survive. At this very moment, the importance and meaning of WPS for managers appear to have increased even more. Workplace spirituality is related to motivation, belongingness, and loyalty, and the pandemic seems to have created significant issues concerning these topics with employees. Employees have been forced to work from home due to prolonged restrictions and have faced difficulties in returning to work post-pandemic. Workplace spirituality has the potential to help employees stay motivated in their work, increase their job performance, enhance job satisfaction, and improve their mental health during this difficult period. Organizations can support their employees by implementing different practices to develop workplace spirituality. In this article, approaches to satisfy the spiritual needs of employees post-pandemic, and the efforts of workplaces to meet these needs, are examined with insights from theoretical and practical life.

This paper explores the relationship between board interlocks and firm outcomes by reviewing the most recent peer-reviewed articles examining this research theme.

A systematic and bibliometric methodology of assessing 369 peer-reviewed articles from the Web of Science (WoS) database was applied. The study also leverages key R-packages litsearchr and Bibliometrix software to enhance the descriptive and thematic literature analysis to identify gaps and opportunities for new research.

This study confirms a rapid increase in articles on this thematic area, over the last decade, with increasing collaboration occurring among researchers in the United States, Europe, China, South Korea and India. Four core research clusters are identified. The first and largest cluster links interlocked directors to issues related to corporate governance and firm outcomes. The second cluster links social network theory, interlocking directorates and firm outcomes. Smaller emerging research clusters include topics related to ownership structure, board size, political connectedness and impacts on firm outcomes. The final cluster examines the influence of board interlocks on market value and firm innovation.

Interlocked directors can have both positive and negative impacts on a wide variety of firm outcomes. This study places great interest in the selection of new directors, ensuring that the selection has aligned with the needs and interests of the company and disclosures of potential competing interests are declared and considered. Equally important are the governance practices used to monitor directors' behavior and to protect the interest of shareholders and the firm. This is particularly relevant in the internal appointment of interlocked directors to critical positions, such as audit committees or instances where interlocked directors may simultaneously hold CEO or executive leadership positions in other companies.

This paper examines the board interlocks literature related to firm outcomes. Additionally, this review identifies several topics and disciplines which, if pursued, could enrich the literature and promise new avenues for future research.

External institutional policy and its impact on corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been widely discussed by researchers, but its effect still remains controversial. This study aims to use the minimum wage policy as an illustrative example to analyze its impact on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of tourist enterprises. Furthermore, the research seeks to examine the boundary conditions that influence the minimum wage’s effect on CSR.

This paper takes the data of 42 listed tourism companies from 2010 to 2020 in China as samples and uses the mixed OLS regression method and the fixed effects panel model to examine the effect of the minimum wage on CSR.

Findings show that increasing wages has a significantly negative impact on their total CSR investment. Also, low-operating-capacity enterprises and private enterprises will react more adversely when faced with increasing minimum wages. And found that the increase of minimum wage has no significant negative impact on the strategic social responsibility of tourism enterprises; however, it has a significantly negative impact on their tactical social responsibility. In addition, as far as employees’ rights and interests are concerned, the minimum wage increase has effectively increased employee salaries, but the nonsalary benefits of the employees have significantly decreased.

The contribution of this paper not only expands the research on the antecedents and boundary mechanisms of CSR but also clarifies the specific effect of the rise of the minimum wage on corporate social responsibility; it further deepens the impact of institutional policy factors on CSR, which also opens new perspectives for policy evaluation and provides a theoretical basis for government policymakers.