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1 – 10 of 347Abstract
Purpose
Parameter identification is an important issue in structural health monitoring and damage identification for concrete dams. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel adaptive fireworks algorithm (AFWA) into inverse analysis of parameter identification.
Design/methodology/approach
Swarm intelligence algorithms and finite element analysis are integrated to identify parameters of hydraulic structures. Three swarm intelligence algorithms: AFWA, standard particle swarm optimization (SPSO) and artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) are adopted to make a comparative study. These algorithms are introduced briefly and then tested by four standard benchmark functions. Inverse analysis methods based on AFWA, SPSO and ABC are adopted to identify Young’s modulus of a concrete gravity dam and a concrete arch dam.
Findings
Numerical results show that swarm intelligence algorithms are powerful tools for parameter identification of concrete structures. The proposed AFWA-based inverse analysis algorithm for concrete dams is promising in terms of accuracy and efficiency.
Originality/value
Fireworks algorithm is applied for inverse analysis of hydraulic structures for the first time, and the problem of parameter selection in AFWA is studied.
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Xuan Huang and Fei Kang
The purpose of this study is to investigate how family ownership affects the disclosure tone of firm earnings press releases.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how family ownership affects the disclosure tone of firm earnings press releases.
Design/methodology/approach
Following prior literature, this study defines family firms as those in which members of the founding families continue to hold positions in top management, to sit on the board or to be blockholders. The disclosure tone of earnings press releases is measured by the level of optimism in firms’ earnings announcements using Loughran and McDonald’s (2011) word classifications. Multivariate analysis is performed to examine the impact of family ownership on firms’ disclosure tone. Additional analysis includes controlling for different firm-level characteristics and using alternative measures of disclosure tone.
Findings
This study documents that the disclosure tone of earnings announcements is more optimistic for family firms than for non-family firms. The result implies that family owners’ large undiversified equity position in their business results in strong incentives for them to issue more positive earnings announcements to maintain high stock performance. Further analysis reveals that the results are mainly driven by family firms with founder CEOs. The results are robust to controls for corporate governance characteristics and to alternative measures of corporate disclosure tone.
Originality/value
The findings of this study contribute to the literature that examines factors associated with the determinants of the tone in firms’ earnings announcements. In addition, this study adds to the extant literature on family firms by providing useful insight into the influence of family control on corporate voluntary disclosure.
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Xuan Huang and Fei Kang
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies’ reputation affects their selection of auditors.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies’ reputation affects their selection of auditors.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper measures company reputation using the reputation scores from Fortune’s “America’s Most Admired Companies” list. Multivariate analysis is performed to examine the impact of company reputation on public companies’ auditor choice. Robustness checks include conducting Heckman procedures and instrumental-variable two-stage least square regressions to control for self-selection bias and using alternative measures to proxy for company reputation and auditor industry expertise.
Findings
This paper finds that companies with higher reputations are more likely to hire industry-specialist auditors than their counterparts. The results suggest that because of reputation concerns, high-reputation companies have strong incentives to maintain and signal their financial reporting quality, which in turn increase their demand for audit quality.
Practical implication
This paper suggests that company reputation constitutes an important determinant of auditor selection and, therefore, has both policy and practical implications for the demand of audit services. The paper provides policy-makers and practitioners with insights into critical factors influencing companies’ complex decision process of auditor selection.
Originality/value
The findings of this paper on the empirical link between company reputation and auditor choice contribute to the auditing literature by enhancing the understanding of the effects of different company-level characteristics in financial reporting and audit planning process. This paper also adds to the growing literature on the influence of company reputation on corporate behavior by documenting the important role that company reputation plays in the managerial decision-making process.
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Xuan Huang and Fei Kang
The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between companies’ reputation and their purchase of non-audit services (NAS).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between companies’ reputation and their purchase of non-audit services (NAS).
Design/methodology/approach
This study measures company reputation using the reputation scores from Fortune’s “America’s Most Admired Companies” list. Multivariate analysis is performed to examine the association between public companies’ overall reputation and their decision of NAS purchase. Robustness checks are performed to control for self-selection bias and alternate measures are used to proxy for company reputation and NAS fees.
Findings
This study finds that high-reputation companies on average pay more NAS fees than their counterparts. The results suggest that due to less severe agency conflicts, high-reputation companies tend to purchase more NAS from their incumbent auditors to appreciate the potential benefits of the auditors’ knowledge spillovers.
Originality/value
The findings of this study on the association between company reputation and NAS fees contribute to the literature by providing additional insight on the factors influencing companies’ NAS purchases. The results of this study suggest that a unique company-level characteristic, company reputation, is significantly associated with companies’ NAS purchase, and therefore has both policy and practical implications for the demand of NAS. This study also adds to the growing literature on the influence of company reputation on corporate behavior by documenting the important role that company reputation plays in the managerial decision-making process.
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Abstract
Purpose
Despite the increasing importance of boundary-spanning behaviors in construction projects, the research on how leader anger expressions impact employees’ boundary-spanning behaviors remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the impact of leader anger expressions on employees’ boundary-spanning behaviors in construction projects while exploring the mediating effect of work hope and the moderating effect of power distance orientation through the lens of social information processing theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical data were collected from a questionnaire survey of 235 employees in construction projects, and the hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS program developed by Hayes.
Findings
This study demonstrated that leader anger expressions negatively affect employees’ work hope, and work hope mediates the relationship between leader anger expressions and employees’ boundary-spanning behaviors. Besides, the stronger the employees’ power distance orientation, the stronger the negative relationship between leader anger expressions and employees’ work hope, and the above mediating effect was also stronger.
Research limitations/implications
The use of cross-sectional data was unable to entirely infer a causal relationship between leader anger expressions and employees’ boundary-spanning behaviors. Additionally, the reliance on self-reported data inevitably introduced some common method bias.
Originality/value
Applying social information processing theory, this paper enriches the discourse on factors influencing employees’ boundary-spanning behaviors in construction projects. It also offers valuable insights for leaders in construction projects to manage their teams effectively.
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Fei Kang, Jiyu Li, Han Zhang and Ying Zhang
Despite the increasingly growing empirical research on leader humor, the critical issue of how and when leader humor affects newcomer adjustment was largely overlooked. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the increasingly growing empirical research on leader humor, the critical issue of how and when leader humor affects newcomer adjustment was largely overlooked. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between leader humor and newcomer adjustment. Based on social information processing theory, the authors identify newcomers' role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) as the mediator and suggest that newcomers' cognitive flexibility moderates the effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from a 2-wave sample of 195 newcomers. The authors utilized the PROCESS procedure developed by Hayes to assess the hypothesized moderated mediation model.
Findings
The findings showed that leader humor could boost newcomers' RBSE which, in turn, was beneficial to newcomer adjustment. Besides, newcomers' cognitive flexibility plays a moderating role in the relationship between leader humor and newcomers' RBSE.
Research limitations/implications
This study utilized a cross-sectional research design, making the design difficult to obtain causal conclusions. Moreover, the data were all based on self-reports from newcomers, which may raise a concern of common method bias.
Originality/value
This paper extends the literature on leader humor and newcomer adjustment by treating RBSE as the mediator and newcomers' cognitive flexibility as the moderator. This study is one of several empirical studies to test the link between leader humor and newcomer adjustment.
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Abstract
Purpose
Despite the growing body of empirical research on leader anger expressions, the issue of how and when leader anger expressions shape newcomers’ proactive career behavior and work alienation in the construction industry has been largely overlooked. Building upon social information processing theory, this research identifies newcomers’ organization-based self-esteem as a mediator, and suggests that newcomers’ performance goal orientation could moderate the relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire study was conducted on the construction industry in China, and the PROCESS program developed by Hayes was used to test the hypothetical model with 215 valid cases.
Findings
The results suggest that leader anger expressions are negatively associated with newcomers’ organization-based self-esteem, and organization-based self-esteem mediated the link between leader anger expressions and newcomers’ proactive career behavior and work alienation. Furthermore, the newcomers’ performance goal orientation moderates the negative impact of leader anger expressions on newcomers’ organization-based self-esteem.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, causal implications are difficult to draw. Moreover, all data we received was based on participant self-reports, which may raise concerns about common method variance.
Originality/value
In this paper, we contribute to a deeper understanding of the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions by which leader anger expressions influence newcomers’ proactive career behavior and work alienation from social information processing perspective, in addition to providing valuable insights for management of newcomers in the construction industry.
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Substantial research has examined the pivotal role of ethical leadership in generating employee outcomes. To date, though, little is known about the relationship between ethical…
Abstract
Purpose
Substantial research has examined the pivotal role of ethical leadership in generating employee outcomes. To date, though, little is known about the relationship between ethical leadership and newcomers' adjustment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this gap by examining the effect of ethical leadership on newcomers' adjustment. In doing so, the authors highlighted positive emotions of newcomers as a mediating mechanism that explains the aforementioned association.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were drawn from a two-wave sample of 271 newcomers. The hypotheses were tested by using hierarchical regression analyses and Hayes' PROCESS macro.
Findings
The results demonstrated that ethical leadership affects employees' positive emotions which, in turn, positively relates to newcomers' adjustment. Additionally, newcomers' social comparison orientation moderated the effect of ethical leadership on newcomers' positive emotions.
Research limitations/implications
The research uses a correlational research design, making it difficult to derive causal inferences from the data. Moreover, the data we obtained on the variables were all based on employees' self-reports, which might inflate the relationship between some of the variables.
Originality/value
To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study that illustrates the role of ethical leadership in enhancing both newcomers’ positive emotions and adjustment.
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Fei Kang, Ying Zhang and Han Zhang
This study aims to use the ego depletion theory to examine the impact of hindrance stressors on knowledge sharing behaviors by investigating the mediating role of ego depletion…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use the ego depletion theory to examine the impact of hindrance stressors on knowledge sharing behaviors by investigating the mediating role of ego depletion and the moderating role of self-enhancing humor.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from a two-wave sample of 226 dyads, including employees in the manufacturing industry and their direct supervisors. The hypotheses were tested by hierarchical regression analyzes and Hayes’ PROCESS macro.
Findings
The results demonstrated that employees’ self-enhancing humor style could alleviate the impact of hindrance stressors on employees’ ego depletion state and buffer the negative indirect effect of hindrance stressors on employees’ knowledge-sharing behaviors.
Research limitations/implications
Although the authors collected mediator and dependent variables from different sources, this study used a cross-sectional research design, making it difficult to draw causal conclusions. Besides, hindrance stressors, ego depletion and self-enhancing humor style were all reported by employees.
Originality/value
Through the study, the authors highlight the important role of the self-control view in explaining proactive behavior in the workplace and a great awareness of the unforeseeable consequences of ego depletion for employees.
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Keywords
Han Zhang, Ying Bi, Fei Kang and Zhong Wang
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing the behaviors of government officials during the implementation of open government data (OGD). By identifying and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing the behaviors of government officials during the implementation of open government data (OGD). By identifying and understanding the key factors that determine government officials' adoption of OGD in China, this study can create a valuable reference for other countries and their decision-making regarding government implementation of OGD.
Design/methodology/approach
This research collected data by in-depth interviews with government officials in Chinese OGD departments. Through these interviews, the authors consulted 15 administrators from departments that are responsible for the information tasks in Beijing and other cities on their opinions about OGD. The authors also interviewed senior executives from information technology (IT) companies, as well as open data policy scholars from big data alliance and research institutions.
Findings
This paper provides insights about how to promote government officials in OGD implementation, including (1) strengthen social supervision for the environment, through developing and publishing OGD technology roadmaps, then attracting the public to actively participate in the implementing of OGD; (2) establish an OGD assessment mechanism for government officials, with bonus motivations, position promotion incentives, as well as spiritual incentives via regional or sector rankings; (3) alleviate the risks of officials' OGD decisions in actual practice, using the institution construction of OGD to guide its direction and strengthen security protection.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to study how government officials' behavior can be motivated on OGD implementation.
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