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The subject of “well-being” has attracted attention from tourism scholars, but differences and misuses in approach have meant that academic contributions and knowledge accumulation to the tourism literature remain relatively little. This paper attempts to clarify the theoretical source of subjective well-being, and critically reflect on the problems existing in the study of well-being when applied to tourism. It is suggested that subjective well-being belongs to the category of “quality of life” and has multiple philosophical foundations and theoretical sources including theories of hedonism, expectation, happiness and various itemised lists of emotions. A hybrid research method is suggested when applying the concept to tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the extent of religion in a firm’s social environment affects corporate innovation and innovation efficiency from the perspectives of religion-related risk aversion and religion-based social norms.

Using a sample of 8,601 Chinese firm-year observations from 2007 to 2012, this paper examines the relationship between religion and innovation intensity, as well as innovation efficiency. A battery of checks, that is, adopting Heckman selection model, using a province-level measure of religiosity and an alternative measure of innovation intensity, and taking the stochastic frontier analysis method to capture corporate innovation efficiency, are conducted to alleviate the concern of self-selection and to guarantee the robustness of the findings of this paper.

This paper finds strong evidence that firms registered in more religious regions, that is, regions with more Buddhist monasteries within a certain radius, undertake fewer innovation activities as measured by the ratio of R&D investment over total sales income but achieve higher innovation efficiency reflected by the value-relevance of R&D investment.

This paper complements the existing literature by suggesting that religion can serve as an informal social mechanism and performs a “less is more” effect in disciplining corporate innovation activities.

This paper aims to explore international talent mobility and identify its negative/positive factors.

Bibliometric data from Scopus are explicated to model the mobility network and providing a more comprehensive posture. In addition, by using indicators of complex network, significant features of international talent mobility are described quantitatively. After that, by introducing a kind of improved gravity model with multiple linear regression, the authors identify factors to explain international talent mobility flows.

With the analysis of international talent mobility in complex network, the overall network is not balanced. A small part of developed countries and developing countries with good emergency attract and drain a lot of talents and talents usually moving between these countries, the amount of talents leaving or entering into other countries is very limited. Furthermore, according to multiple linear regression, it is found that the share of migrants in population is the major negative factor for international talent mobility, and the factors of destination countries is more significant than original countries.

The result of this paper may support further research studies and political suggestions for cultivating, attracting and retaining scientific and technological talents in the world.

Understanding costumer requirements is a precondition for clothing design and manufacturing. A good shapewear designer should know women’s preferences for their buttock shapes before making patterns. The purpose of this paper is to figure out factors affecting the beauty of women’s buttock shapes and the effect of ethnic background to buttock shapes preference.

The approach utilized both 3D virtual models and 3D printed models to detect women’s preference for their buttock shapes. As a first stage, a two-step K-means cluster method was used to classify female buttock shapes into ten groups and these ten kinds of buttock shapes were output as 3D virtual models and printed out as 3D plastic models. In a subsequent stage, 51 Caucasians, 35 African-Americans and 49 Asians were selected to rank the models separately based on their preference and choose the factors which they thought could influence the beauty of buttock shapes. Kendall’s W coefficient was tested to help assessing the ranking results. Finally, a sample girdle was designed based on the buttock shape preferences of Asian females as an example, and was tested by a model.

Results showed some correlation between ethnicity and buttock shape preference. Both methods of presentation of the shapes were equally preferred by participants. Caucasian women preferred a full, round buttock shape, which was coordinated to other parts of the body. The attractive buttock shape as judged by Asian women was curvy, not drooping and not too big. African-American women choose buttock shapes that were very full with high buttock bumps as beautiful. A sample girdle was made based on the preferences of Asian females and it proved to perform well in creating the desired shape during the trial test.

Current research in the literature about women’s buttock beauty is based on plastic surgeons’ experiences. This study provides a novel method to analyze female’s preference for their buttock shapes; a method that can also be used for other body parts. The results can also be used as an indicator for underwear designers to improve shapewear pattern designs and for consumers to evaluate the shaping ability of shapewear.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the role of differentiated margin system in leading investors' investing behavior and then optimize investor structure in futures markets.

Using economic experimental research method, this paper designs and conducts a futures market experiment according to experimental research's basic norms, thus acquiring needed and credible empirical data.

By analyzing the experimental data, it is found that compared with situations in futures markets that implement uniform margin system, investors' (especially speculators') futures open position and the ratio of their open position and futures turnover are both significantly higher, in futures markets that implement differentiated margin system. On the other hand, differentiated margin system has no effects on hedgers' futures turnover, but significantly reduces speculators' futures turnover.

The findings suggest that compared with uniform margin system, differentiated margin system is beneficial to effectively restrict both speculators' and hedgers' speculating behavior and lead hedgers' market participation.

In order to resolve the problem of unreasonable investor structure in China's futures market, i.e. lack of hedgers and over‐speculating, China's futures market's regulators should reform the margin system and adopt differentiated margin system to lead investors' rational behavior and optimize investor structure.

This paper empirically analyzes and verifies, for the first time, the roles of differentiated margin system in affecting investors' investing behavior. The futures market experiment designed and used in this study is a pioneering and exploratory experiment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of large shareholdings from the agency problem perspective of overinvestment, and re‐test the role of board independence in the context of concentrated ownership.

Using a five‐year panel data of Chinese non‐financial listed companies between 2001 and 2005, the paper estimates both a fixed‐effects model and a random‐effects model.

The paper finds evidence of a significant non‐monotonic relationship between large shareholdings and firm level overinvestment. It also finds that state‐owned firms and firms with more independent directors experience lower level of overinvestment. However, firms with more frequent meetings experience a higher level of overinvestment.

The paper's findings indicate that concentrated ownership is not always a bad thing. The crux of the matter is how to induce large shareholders' incentive to monitor managers' opportunistic behaviors and restrict their motivation to expropriate minority shareholders.

In the context of concentrated ownership, the key to improve corporate governance is to strengthen board independence.

The paper provides useful information on non‐monotonic governance effects of large shareholdings in Chinese listed companies and overinvestment.

This paper aims to investigate the dynamics of IJV inter‐partner cooperation and examines the critical determinants of maintaining ongoing cooperative intern‐partner relationship between IJV partners.

The research is based on a dataset collected through a survey of IJVs in China. Non‐parametric statistics were used in the analyses to test a series of hypotheses.

The research finds that inter‐partner cooperation is a comprehensive process and impacted by a series of factors. Appropriate selection of local Chinese partners is critical to a cooperative relationship between IJV partners. In particular, intrinsic capabilities of local partners were found more important than their external advantageous conditions. The technology transfer coupled by the organisational learning of foreign partners also significantly facilitates a cooperative inter‐partner relationship of IJVs.

IJV inter‐partner cooperation is examined from a comprehensive perspective to reveal the dynamics of the cooperation. Critical determinants of inter‐partner cooperation are identified, enhancing our understanding of managing inter‐partner cooperation of IJVs in China.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of political stability on corruption by drawing upon a sample encompassing both developed and developing European and Asian countries.

The dataset, sourced from the Refinitiv database, spans from July 2014 to May 2022. Panel data techniques, specifically pooled estimation and dynamic panel data [generalized method of moments (GMM)] are employed. The analysis encompasses both fixed and random effects models to capture country-specific cross-sectional effects. To validate our findings, we perform a robustness test by including in the investigation four control variables, namely poverty, type of governance, economic freedom and inflation. To test heterogeneity, the dataset is further divided into two distinct subsamples based on the countries’ locations.

Empirical findings substantiate that political stability (viewed as the risk of government destabilization) has a positive and significant impact on corruption in all analyzed samples of European and Asian countries, though some differences are observed in various subsamples. When we take into account the control variables, these analysis results are robust.

This research provided a panel data analysis with GMM, while other empirical methodologies could also be used, like the difference-in-difference approach. However, our results should be validated by extending the time and the sample to a worldwide sample and using alternative measures of corruption and political stability. Moreover, our focus was on a linear and unidirectional relationship between the considered variables, but it would be interesting to test in our further research a non-linear and bidirectional correlation between them. Furthermore, we have introduced in the robustness test only four economic variables, but to consolidate our findings, we plan to include socioeconomic and demographic variables in future studies.

These outcomes imply that authorities should be aware of the necessity of implementing anti-corruption policies designed to establish effective agencies and enforcement structures for combating systemic corruption, to improve the political environment and the quality of institutions and to apply coherent economic strategies to accelerate economic growth because higher political stability and sustainable development determine a decrease in levels of corruption.

At the microeconomic level, the survival of organizations may be in danger from new types of corruption and money laundering. Therefore, in order to prevent financial harm, the top businesses worldwide should respond to instances of corruption through strengthened supervisory procedures. This calls for the creation of a mechanism inside the code of conduct where correct reporting of suspected situations of corruption would have a prompt procedure to be notified of. To avoid corruption in operational procedures, national plans and policies should be developed by government officials, executives and legislators on a national level, as well as by senior management and the board of directors on an organizational level. This might lower organizations' extra corruption-related expenses, assure economic growth and improve global welfare.

A novel feature of our research resides in its broad examination of a sizable sample of European and Asian countries regarding the nexus between corruption and political stability. The paper also investigates a less explored topic in economic literature, namely the impact of political stability on corruption. Furthermore, the study depicts policy recommendations, outlining effective and reasonable measures aimed at improving the political landscape and combating corruption.