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This paper aims to examine current trends in business accreditation by describing and comparing the major international business accreditation agencies (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, European Quality Improvement System, Association of MBAs, Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs and International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education), and analyze their recent market expansion strategies (development and penetration using Ansoff model) as they compete for the schools seeking initial or continuing accreditation.

This is a comparative study of the business accreditation agencies and their competitive strategies, using publically available data such as lists of accredited schools published by the agencies as main data collection method.

Business accreditation agencies have utilized the market penetration and market development strategies to expand their market share in recent years. The key growth areas are international schools, regional teaching-oriented institutions, two-year institutions and for-profit institutions.

This study is based on publically available data published by accreditation agencies. More in-depth analysis with survey method could be utilized in future study to identify more specific strategies and their impact on business schools seeking accreditation.

Accreditation is no longer a luxury but a requirement for business schools, but they have to make an informed decision on which agency to pursue to assure an appropriate fit.

The public needs to understand the value and the requirements of accreditation. Multiple agencies provide different options to fit the missions of the different types of schools.

This study is valuable to business school stakeholders for understanding accreditation, the need for accreditation and the options they have available.

Based on the weak seismic performance and low ductility of coupled shear walls, engineered cementitious composites (ECC) is utilized to strengthen it to solve the deformation problem in tall buildings more effectively and study its mechanical properties more deeply.

The properties of reinforced concrete coupled shear wall (RCCSW) and reinforced ECC coupled shear wall (RECSW) have been studied by numerical simulation, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. The reliability of the finite element model is verified. On this basis, a detailed parameter study is carried out, including the strength and reinforcement ratio of longitudinal rebar, the placement height of ECC in the wall limb and the position of ECC connecting beams. The study indexes include failure mode and the skeleton curve.

The results suggest that the bearing capacity of RECSW is significantly affected by the ratio of longitudinal rebar. When the ratio of longitudinal rebar increases from 0.47% to 3.35%, the bearing capacity of RECSW increases from 250 kN to 303 kN, an increase of 21%. The strength of longitudinal rebar has little influence on the bearing capacity of RECSW. When the strength of the longitudinal rebar increases, the bearing capacity of RECSW increases little. The failure mode of RECSW can be improved by lowering the casting height of the ECC beam in a certain range.

In this paper, ECC is used to strengthen the coupled shear wall, and the accuracy of the finite element model is verified from the failure mode and skeleton curve. On this basis, the casting height of the ECC casting wall limb, the strength and reinforcement ratio of longitudinal rebar and the position of the ECC beam are studied in detail.

Infrastructure financialization plays a critical role in infrastructure development and urban growth around the world. However, on the one hand, the existing research on the infrastructure financialization focuses on qualitative and lacks quantitative country-specific studies. On the other hand, the spatial heterogeneity and influencing factors of infrastructure financialization are ignored. This study takes China as a typical case to identify and analyze the spatial characteristics, development process and impact factors of infrastructure financialization.

To assess the development and characteristics of infrastructure financialization in China, this study constructs an evaluation index of infrastructure financialization based on the infrastructure financialization ratio (IFR). This study then analyzes the evolution process and spatial pattern of China's infrastructure financialization through the spatial analysis method. Furthermore, this study identifies and quantitatively analyzes the influencing factors of infrastructure financialization based on the spatial Dubin model. Finally, this study offers a policy suggestion as a governance response.

The results demonstrate that infrastructure financialization effectively promotes the development of infrastructure in China. Second, there are significant spatial differences in China’s infrastructure financialization. Third, many factors affect infrastructure financialization, with government participation having the greatest impact. In addition, over-financialization of infrastructure has the potential to lead to government debt risks, which is a critical challenge the Chinese Government must address. Finally, this study suggests that infrastructure financialization requires more detailed, tailored,and place-specific policy interventions by the government.

This study not only contributes to enriching the knowledge body of global financialization theory but also helps optimize infrastructure investment and financing policies in China and provides peer reference for other developing countries.

This paper aims to discuss how acrylic resin influences the smoke generation of intumescent flame retardant coatings.

Thermal decomposition kinetics is used in this study to simulate the burning process. The thermal decomposition of acrylic resin can be identified in the intumescent coatings through the multi-peak fitting of derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curves. The dormant influence of acrylic resin, combined with the smoke density, is calculated.

Multiple peaks fitting method of DTG curves helps estimate the decomposition process of acrylic resin in flame retardant coating. Combining DTG data with the smoking curve, smoking generation of acrylic resin during the combustion could be evaluated. The decomposition conversion rate of acrylic resin is 21.13 per cent. Acrylic resin generates 34.64 per cent of the total amount of smoke produced during the combustion of intumescent flame retardant coatings.

All the other intumescent flame retardant coating systems could be studied using the same approach as that used in this work to achieve an improved understanding of the smoke generation process during combustion.

The method developed here provided a simple and practical solution to analyse the decomposition and smoking generation of acrylic resin in the coating mixtures. It also can be used to analyse any thermal decomposition process of any mixed compounds.

The analysis method to evaluate resin’s smoking generation of coating’s total generation is novel, and it could be applied in all kinds of coatings and mixtures to estimate the smoking generation of one composition.

Diversified business groups have become active players in Chinese economy in the recent years. While several studies have been conducted to examine the role of external factors such as market imperfection on firms' decisions to diversify, relatively few efforts have been made to investigate the impact of internal factors such as ownership structures on such decision. Building on agency theory, this paper attempts to examine the impacts of ownership type and ownership concentration on Chinese business groups' diversification strategies.

Year 2000 annual reports of publicly traded companies on Shenzhen Stock Exchange were used to identify business groups and collect data. Multiple regression analysis was used to conduct the data analysis.

The results indicate that compared to other ownership structures, government‐owned business groups tend to be more diversified, while ownership concentration seems to be related to lower levels of diversification. Industry membership also plays a significant role, but previous performance is not significantly related to diversification levels. Implications and future study directions are also discussed.

This study contributes to the understanding of the impact of ownership structure on companies' diversification strategies in a transitional economy such as China.

This paper aims to explore the roles different ownership structures, the joint effect of related and unrelated diversification strategies, and previous performance levels have on the restructuring strategies of such firms.

Annual reports of publicly traded firms in the two Chinese stock exchanges are used to collect data. Multiple regression and ANOVA analysis are used to examine the impact of ownership structure types, match between diversification strategies, and previous performance on the change of business scopes of the sample business groups.

Compared to other ownership types, government owned business groups tend to increase their business scope during asset restructuring, while private business groups tend to decrease their scopes through divestitures and spinoffs. Poor previous performance is also found to be negatively related to change in business scopes. The “match” between related and unrelated diversification strategies of the business groups leads to increase in business scopes, while “mismatch” between these two strategies tends to lead to decrease in business scopes.

This study provides some recommendations to managers and public policy makers in emerging economies. There is a need to monitor the changing institutional environment a firm operates in. It is up to the managers of business groups to determine the degree of market imperfections they are facing and the need to compensate with internal market mechanism and social exchange mechanism within the group structure. As China opens its door further to private ownership and foreign ownership, the pressure to increase efficiency and effectiveness along with the continuous improvement of the institutional environment will require that managers adopt strategies that can enhance the competitiveness of the firms, whether it is through further diversification or scope reduction.

This research deepens our understanding of restructuring strategies of Chinese business groups, by linking factors such as ownership structure, diversification strategies, and past performance to scope changes in these groups. It can broaden our understanding of corporate restructuring in transitional economies, such as China and India.

The purpose of this paper is to test two kinds of rare earth complexes of Lanthanum Dialkyldithiophosphate (LaDDP) and Lanthanum Dialkylphosphate (LaDP) as lubricant additives in liquid paraffin for the untreated 60Si2Mn steel and laser‐cladding Ni35A coating on 60Si2Mn steel sliding pairs which are a potential substitute for Zinc Dialkldithiophosphate (ZnDDP).

Tribological properties were evaluated by an Optimol‐SRV oscillating friction and wear test. The morphologies of the worn surfaces were observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the chemical states of several typical elements on the worn surfaces were examined by means of X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Treated laser cladding coatings of steel can improve its hardness and strength and the coated steel possess higher load‐carrying capacity than that of 60Si2Mn; The rare earth complexes of LaDDP and LaDP possess good oil‐solubility, friction‐reducing and wear resistance properties. Those rare earth complexes as additives in liquid paraffin during the friction process can form a protective film containing rare earth oxide, sulfate and sulfur‐containing compound during the friction process.

The paper presents two kinds of potentially useful, environmentally‐friendly and highly efficient substitutes for the ZnDDP additives in lubricants.

Owing to their good friction‐reducing and wear resistance properties, LaDDP and LaDP are two optimum and promising industry lubrication additives.

This work is a new application of rare earth complex as lubricant additive in liquid paraffin, which provides a new direction for designing friction pairs and lubricant additive. The tribology experiments have been carried out through the variation of experiment conditions.

This study seeks to examine the relationship between individual's cultural values of individualism, collectivism, selected personality traits and the psychological contracts they tend to form.

Surveys were used to collect data from China and US sample sets. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore the impact of selected cultural values and personality traits on individuals' tendency to form transactional contract or relational contract.

Personality characteristics of equity sensitivity and external locus of control were found to be positively related to transactional contract type for both samples, and conscientiousness was found to be positively related to relational contract, but the relationship was only found for the Chinese sample. The impact of the individualistic cultural value on the type of psychological contract one forms with the employer is uncertain, but the individualism value was found to have a mediator effect between age and transactional contract type for the Chinese sample.

The study contributes evidence that can help explain why employees who face the same job conditions and employment relationships may develop different psychological contracts with their employers. The finding on the mediating effect of individualism between age and transactional contract highlight challenges faced by managers in China's changing economy in terms of motivating and retaining young employees.

The study contributes to research on personality and psychological contracts. In the domain of personality, the study attempts to explore how personality affects organizational behavior. From the perspective of psychological contract, the paper contributes evidence that can help explain why employees who face the same job conditions and employment relationships may develop different psychological contracts with their employers.

In order to verify the feasibility of different techniques, this chapter further studies the adaptability of two massive straw biomass applications in rural areas in China.

The methods of assessing biomass power generation project with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), survey and field test of one biogas station, and game-theoretic analysis are adopted.

The following conclusions can be drawn: The air pollution costs account for more than 60% of the total environmental cost, followed by depreciation expense and maintenance fee of 18%, compared to that of biomass power generation at 0.01711 CNY/kWh. The adopted greenhouse sunlight technology of Solar Biogas Plant in Xuzhou, China, raises the inside average temperature by 11.0 °C higher than outside and keeps the pool temperature above 16 °C in winter, ensuring a gas productivity of biogas project in winter up to 0.5–0.7 m³/m³ by volume. This chapter also analyzes the information cost incurred by asymmetric information in biomass power generation via game theory method and illustrates the information structure with game results. It provides not only a foundation for the policy research in promoting straw power generation but also theoretical framework to solve the problem of straw collection.

These studies will propose solutions to relevant problems arisen in the running process.

These studies are all based on real cases, field research, and appropriate theoretical analyses, so, they can reduce the relevant costs and promote the application of relevant technologies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of three managerial ideologies on the degree of employment contract breach perceived in connection with a downsizing.

Surveys were used to collect data from southwest China. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore the impact of three managerial ideologies on the perceived employment contract breach in connection with downsizing.

Results suggest that a strong belief in the ideology of market competition reduces an individual's perception that downsizing constitutes a breach of the employment contract between employer and employee. By contrast, a belief in employee worth has the opposite effect, strengthening the believer's perception that downsizing constitutes an employment contract breach. Belief in the third ideology, the ideology of shareholder interest, appears to have no influence on whether respondents perceived downsizing as an employment contract breach.

The results are important for understanding the way employees interpret common business practices like downsizing. Given the accumulation of enough confirmatory results, findings from studies like this paper might be used to inform the practice of management, which might result in a more satisfied and better performing workforce.

This paper contributes to the literatures on organizational downsizing and business ideologies. Specifically, it investigates ideological beliefs and their effects on perceptions of downsizing in a new arena – a country that is not used to the concepts of market competition and shareholder interest, and one that has only experienced large‐scale layoffs in very recent times. The view of the western business concepts such as psychological contract within the context of traditional Chinese philosophies and value systems provides in‐depth understanding of the challenges facing today's transitional economies such as China.