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Taoist thought is not easily penetrable for Westerners, though it has growing importance with the globalisation of Chinese commerce. The purpose of this paper is to explore some aspects of Chinese and Taoist thought, and how they can be expressed in cybernetic terms, using a knowledge cybernetics (KC) schema.

KC operates through metaphor the role of which is considered with respect to its application to the specific area of urban landscaping.

A new methodological approach is indicated that is capable of linking Western landscape theory with Taoist feng shui. The traditional approach to critical planning has been in principle enhanced through the idea of landscape canonical harmony that comes from Taoist feng shui. It is also shown that the activity phases in urban landscape design are ontologically different, and use distinct types of energy measures.

The research uses KC as a vehicle for the development of a landscaping methodology that draws on both traditional Western and Chinese Taoist approaches. It requires application to real situations to draw out its practical capacities.

This is apparently the first time that a synergy between Western and Chinese approaches to landscape design and development has been attempted that results in the proposal of a complete methodology.

The successful use of this methodology could demonstrate that Western and Chinese approaches to landscape design are relatable.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a micro historical account of the work of a key Chinese educational reformer, Tao Xingzhi (1891–1946), who transformed educational ideas from John Dewey to effect social and cultural change in 1920s–1940s China.

This paper examines English and Chinese language sources, including Tao’s poetry, to present a fresh analysis of Tao’s epistemological life history. It draws upon transnational historical approaches to chart the multidirectional circulation of progressive education philosophies around the globe. It also explores some conceptual dimensions of Chinese historical thinking and historiographical strategies.

Tao Xingzhi engaged in critical intercultural knowledge exchange in implementing educational reforms in China. He blended and critiqued Chinese and Deweyian educational philosophies to create unique educational reform, which involved reversing some of Dewey’s approaches as well as adapting others.

This paper foregrounds Tao Xingzhi’s agency in transforming some of Dewey’s ideas in the Chinese context and challenges studies that adopt an “impact-response” approach to Tao’s contribution, which suggest a one-way flow of knowledge from a “modern” West to a “traditional” China. It brings hitherto unexplored Chinese language sources to an English-speaking audience, particularly Tao’s poetry, to gain new historical insights into Tao’s educational reforms. It contributes to transnational understandings of the multidirectional flows of knowledge about Progressive educational philosophies around the world.

This paper examines the impact of state control on stock price crash risk given whether and how ownership structure affects stock price crash risk is relatively underexplored.

The sample includes 2,285 Chinese firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Panel data is used for conducting the analysis and endogeneity is addressed with instrumental variable estimation and by testing how stock price crash risk is affected when the ultimate controller changes from a private-owned company to a state-owned enterprise.

The authors find that state control is negatively associated with future stock price crash risk. The mechanism analysis shows that state control reduces stock price crash risk through the implementation of conservative corporate policies. Furthermore, the impact of state control is more pronounced with more intensive state involvement, e.g. in strategic industries and when a company's ultimate controller is a non-corporate government agency or the central government.

This paper enriches the literature on the controversy of the role of state control and the results of this study highlight the importance of the conservatism of state control on reducing stock return tail risk. The authors also add to the literature on the importance of the policy-risk sharing effect of state ownership.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how venture capital (VC) backing influences the board size and independence and how VC backing and board structure impact firm performance in China.

Using hand-collected data from 924 initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses covering the period from January 2004 to December 2012, the authors investigate the impact of VC backing on board size, board independence and firm market performance through regression analysis. A two-stage approach is also used to address the endogeneity issue.

The authors find robust evidence that VC-backed IPOs have more independent boards, after controlling for CEO and firm characteristics, and the potential endogeneity concerns. Furthermore, firms backed by VCs with management political ties (PTs) have more independent directors with industry relevant expertise than other firms. While no significant relationship is found between board independence and firm performance, the authors present some evidence that IPOs which have a larger percentage of independent directors with industry relevant expertise exhibit higher long-term stock returns, and VCs with management PTs also improve IPO long-run stock performance.

Although VC is new in China and the Chinese capital market has relative poor corporate governance and weak minority shareholder protection, the authors find support in this paper that VC backing is valuable to IPO firms in China not only through providing funding but also by providing political ties and industry experience. However, Chinese regulatory and institutional settings have strong impact on test results and they change rapidly, so the results may not apply to other period in Chinese markets.

This paper sheds lights on the influences of VC backing on corporate governance and firm performance in a transitional and emerging economy. It discovers the value of VC investors in a transitional economy as of providing political ties and industry experience. The new definition of independent directors suggested by Suchard (2009) is first used by our paper in the Chinese context.

To cope with the workforce shortages brought by population ageing, it is critical to understand the workplace micro-foundations that determine the mechanisms of older workers' early retirement intentions. Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, this study examines the spillover effect of strain-based family-to-work conflict (SFWC) on early retirement intentions, with emotional exhaustion as a mediator. Additionally, it investigates the contextual resources, HR practice flexibility, as a boundary condition for the above relationships.

The study tests the hypotheses by employing a multi-sourced matching sample of 231 workers (aged 45–65) and their 49 managers.

The results of cross-level analysis revealed that SFWC has a positive indirect relationship with early retirement intentions, through increased emotional exhaustion. The relationship between emotional exhaustion and early retirement intentions is weaker when older employees experience higher HR practice flexibility.

This study is the first to use a resources perspective to analyse early retirement mechanisms, and it examines the spillover effect of SFWC on early retirement intentions. The findings also contribute to the literature on the role of HR practice for ageing workers.

The paper aims to propose a model and a comprehensive diagnostic method of organizational health status based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

The methodology is qualitative/interpretive and uses of the concept of functional homomorphism of WR Ashby is used, establishing similarities between the way in which this ancient medicine considers the human being and their condition as healthy to transfer it to an organization that produces goods and/or services.

A healthy organization is conceived as one constituted by an association of people regulated by a set of norms based on certain purposes in a state of harmonious balance of their physical and energetic dimensions. In that the physical refers to storage functions, regulation and allocation of resources; transformation of raw materials and inputs into goods and services; waste disposal, distribution and coordination and with information systems for management control, while energy is associated with the ability to act with its management and policies.

The current paper is a first theoretical proposal, which should be enriched with practical applications that feedback its conceptual formulation, thus contributing to its validation.

A comprehensive organizational diagnostic method is made available.

The proposed method allows a comprehensive organizational diagnosis, considering the participation of all the actors that make up this type of social systems.

Although the methodological resource is old, the way it is used here is considered original, and it is also part of an original investigative process by the authors, oriented toward the search for comprehensive organizational diagnostic methods.

Pluralities of personality schemas reside across different Maruyama universes suggesting incommensurability and isolation. Schemas may migrate across Maruyama universes given appropriate means. As illustration, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) schema for personality temperament is migrated into a sociocognitive schema through the intermediary of knowledge cybernetics (KC). MBTI is a type approach that operates with polar opposites; however, conceptually there is no reason for it not to be associated with a trait space. Supposing that MBTI has traits at some horizon of meaning, then since traits are responsible for the creation of enduring states, sociocognitive explanations should be able to explain the stable states consistent with a variation of the McCrae and Costa proposition. As a result this paper aims to formulate for the first time a link between the MBTI type schema, a trait space, and a capacity for sociocultural descriptions.

The paper uses the meta‐framework of KC, part of the relevantial universe identified by Maruyama, to formulate a representation of MBTI. This also appears to be the first serious use of the Maruyama universe concept, and the first time that MBTI has been explored from a relevantial perspective. A consequence is the possible development of a more sophisticated trait theory that is capable of providing more complex information about personality.

The findings indicate that a more complex form of type theory is possible than has been provided by MBTI.

This paper is limited to the investigation of MBTI. However, it offers a generic approach that can be applied to other solitary theories like MBTI. It also postulates a trait basis for the MBTI type approach.

The paper leads to the possibility of improved explanatory power for a type theory than is currently possible.

The paper adopts for the first time a relevantial meta‐framework approach to explore a development of MBTI. It has value to those researchers who may wish to explore the potential of more complex forms of type personality theory than are currently available.

Tongue diagnosis is a standard expert technique of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Computerized tongue diagnosis promises to automate the process of tongue diagnosis yet the tongue images segmentation upon which it depends is made difficult by the fact that the tongue is non‐rigid and varies greatly in size, shape, color, and texture. This paper presents a novel medical sensor system for TCM tongue diagnosis, which makes use of hyperspectral imaging technology.

The tongue image capturing sensor device for Chinese medical is based on the theory of the pushbroom hyperspectral imager. The paper illustrates its advantages by detecting the tongue contour in the hyperspectral images.

The experiments from 1,522 clinical tongue images show the validity of the system.

In this paper, the authors propose to use hyperspectral technology for tongue diagnosis for the first time in the literature and obtain promising results.

The novel sensor for tongue image capture gives a new method for tongue imformation collection. This system gives a new approach for tongue information collection.

Investor access to timely, financial resource consent information is problematic, consequently the purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic importance of New Zealand resource consent announcements to the stock exchange.

The authors apply event study methodology and cross‐sectional rank regression using a sample of resource consent announcements from 1993 to 2007.

Evidence of excess return volatility is found both on and before resource consent announcement dates. The results show that stock market reactions to resource consent announcements are positive for news of successes and negative for news of setbacks. Uncertainty associated with resource consent announcements appears to contribute to a delayed negative market response. In contrast, price reactions to announcements of resource consent success are immediate and significantly positive only when the news is concurrently disseminated via the media.

The findings imply that resource consent announcements are newsworthy and provide valuable information to the stock market regarding future regulatory compliance costs. Media dissemination is suggested to play an important role in the price‐adjustment process for news of resource consent successes. Given the increasing prominence of environmental compliance issues, the authors suggest that more informative disclosures regarding the types of consent(s) sought, the dollar value of expected compliance costs, expected time to gain consent, project investment costs and consent conditions imposed, would better assist investors to assess the economic impact of firm capital expenditures.

This study adds evidence to the literature on the role of environmental disclosures in disseminating information and reducing information asymmetry and offers suggestions to enhance the informativeness of environmental disseminations.